Assessing the Rise of Organic Farming in the European Union: Environmental and Socio-economic Consequences

Although organic farming is considered the poster child of rural development in Europe, there is little empirical evidence assessing its success in achieving the ambitious environmental and socio-economic objectives that it is purported to assist. This paper presents empirical evidence from the growth of organic farming in Europe over the past two decades that questions the highly optimistic claims of policy makers. Although policies in support of organic impact have had an overall positive environmental impact, their social impact is ambiguous, as organic farming appears to have grown more in areas with larger average farm sizes. Additionally, contrary to what is often assumed, organic farms in Europe display larger average sizes and lower rates of labor intensity than their conventional counterparts, casting doubts on the efficacy of organic farms to allow family farmers to remain in the countryside as high-value producers. I assert that this development should be viewed as evidence of the "conventionalization" of organic farming, and suggest that policy makers take into account the transformations of the structures of production, which benefit from the support for organic farming. Treating the experience of organic farmers in the EU as a lesson for schemes paying for environmental services, I suggest that the success of organic farming should be evaluated by the numbers of participating farmers, rather than by area covered, as has been the predominant approach so far. Finally, I assert that strong agricultural cooperatives are necessary to secure a long-lasting passage of small farmers to organic methods of production. JEL Categories: Q1, Q58, O52Organic Farming, European Union, Environment

Small and as Productive : Female Headed Households and the Inverse Relationship between Land Size and Output in Kenya

Access to land and particularly its distribution has reemerged as an important part of both academic and policy discussions in the last decade, leading to the resuscitation of the debate on the relationship between size of holdings and output per land unit. Across the world, studies have suggested the existence of a decreasing relationship between land size and output per unit of land. The most-widely accepted explanation for this relationship is that households with smaller holdings tend to be labor rich relative to land, and therefore can achieve higher output through the increased application of labor. Despite the rich literature on this topic there has been little work on whether this relationship is valid for female-headed households, particularly in the case of African countries. Past African studies have found female-headed households to be smaller by close to one adult in comparison to male-headed households. Given this difference one would expect there to be a difference in the outcome of land redistribution for different types of households, ceteris paribus. Additionally, the aggregate impact in African countries could be substantial, as female-headed households comprise in several cases up to 30 percent of the rural households. In this paper we will examine empirically whether the inverse size and output relationship is different between female and male headed households in the case of Kenya, using the Kenya Integrated Household Budget and Expenditure Survey of 2006, which includes modules on agricultural holdings and agricultural output in addition to the standard demographic characteristics. By controlling for the endogeneity of crop choice and fertilizer use we are able to find that cash crop production and human capital, and not differences in household size, determines the differences in male and female headed land productivity. Hence, our study goes beyond the simple discussion of the inverse relationship between land size and output per unit and the potential impact of redistribution. Specifically we will be able to address the kind of broad rural development policies in addition to land redistribution that would allow female headed households to do at least as well as (if not better than) male headed households. JEL Categories: J16, O13, Q15Agriculture, Gender, Kenya, Africa, Crop Choice, Land Productivity

Urinary Tract Infections in Neuro-Patients

The majority of neurological diseases may have an impact on lower urinary tract function. High intravesical pressure, post-void residual and incontinence are the main consequences of this dysfunction. All the mentioned conditions are inductive factors for urinary tract infections (UTIs). In addition, the potential complications of neurogenic urinary disorders (reflux, stone formation, incomplete emptying of the bladder), and the methods of urine drainage (intermittent or indwelling catheters, urinary diversion) contribute even more to UTIs. In neuro-patients, all UTIs are considered as complicated ones and there is a different microbiology as compared to the general population. In this chapter, inductive factors for UTIs in neuro-patients will be analyzed and the potential solutions will be exposed. There is a special mention in asymptomatic bacteriuria, which is correlated to neurogenic urinary dysfunction and it is clinically total different from UTI. Asymptomatic bacteriuria should not be treated as the treatment has a negative final outcome for the patient

Re: A review of continuous vs intermittent androgen deprivation therapy: Redefining the gold standard in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. Myths, facts and new data on a ?perpetual dispute?

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Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) and Sexual Function and Dysfunction

In recent years, the coexistence of sexual dysfunction (SD) and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) has become a popular topic for researchers. Numerous clinical epidemiologic studies have been planned for this reason and have evaluated the relationship between these seemingly irrelevant urological conditions. The connection between SD and LUTS has already been acknowledged, and common pathophysiological pathways have been recognized. In this chapter was attempted to evaluate the impact on patient’s quality of life (QoL), common pathophysiological pathways and therapy aspects of this condition. SD and LUTS are common problems among the general population and affect a great percentage of urological patients. It is a subject that affects the community in social, financial, and psychological terms. In this case, research for new treatment options has been triggered as phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors established their role as the widely approved combination therapy

The Bag Semantics of Ontology-Based Data Access

Ontology-based data access (OBDA) is a popular approach for integrating and querying multiple data sources by means of a shared ontology. The ontology is linked to the sources using mappings, which assign views over the data to ontology predicates. Motivated by the need for OBDA systems supporting database-style aggregate queries, we propose a bag semantics for OBDA, where duplicate tuples in the views defined by the mappings are retained, as is the case in standard databases. We show that bag semantics makes conjunctive query answering in OBDA coNP-hard in data complexity. To regain tractability, we consider a rather general class of queries and show its rewritability to a generalisation of the relational calculus to bags

Re: A review of continuous vs intermittent androgen deprivation therapy: Redefining the gold standard in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. Myths, facts and new data on a ?perpetual dispute?

Objectives: To review the literature and present new data of continuous androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) vs intermittent androgen deprivation (IAD) as therapies for prostate cancer in terms of survival and quality of life and clarify practical issues in the use of IAD. Materials and Methods: We conducted a systematic search on Medline and Embase databases using “prostatic neoplasm” and “intermittent androgen deprivation” as search terms. We reviewed meta-analyses, randomised controlled trials, reviews, clinical trials and practise guidelines written in English from 2000 and onwards until 01/04/2013. Ten randomized controlled trials were identified. Seven of them published extensive data and results randomizing 4675 patients to IAD versus CAD. Data from the other three randomized trials were limited. Results: Over the last years studies confirmed that IAD is an effective alternative approach to hormonal deprivation providing simultaneously several potential benefits in terms of quality of life and cost effectiveness. Thus, in patients with non metastatic, advanced prostate cancer IAD could be used as standard treatment, while in metastatic prostate cancer IAD role still remains ambiguous. Conclusions: Nowadays, revaluation of the gold standard of ADT in advanced prostate cancer appears essential. Recent data established that IAD should no longer be considered as investigational, since its effectiveness has been proven, especially in patients suffering from non-metastatic advanced prostate cancer