Successful Extension Meetings and Innovative Economic Research: Grain Marketing Simulations

While grain marketing is considered a difficult challenge facing producers every year, it represents a very important component for producers to convert their bushels into dollars and ensure farm survival. Grain marketing involves both strategic behavior and knowledge of the grain market. Local and global supply and demand conditions, grain storage costs, transportation costs etc. present constantly changing risk and reward opportunities for producers. Efficient training and consistent monitoring of the market can help producers reduce risk (i.e., reduce the chance of farm failure) by making good use of pricing opportunities. Since these concepts may not necessarily be intuitive and strategic behavior can often be cognitively taxing, the University of Nebraska- Lincoln has developed an interactive grain marketing simulation game, called Marketing in a New Era (MINE) for this purpose. The first section of this article describes how the MINE simulation game can fit Extension meetings and help Specialists communicate grain marketing principles. The second section describes two example activities from the pre -harvest and post-harvest version of MINE. Screenshots from the simulation interface are included in order to portray how MINE works and why its design enhances the learning process. In the last section, a research idea is proposed that combines Experimental Economics techniques with Grain Marketing intuition, and uses MINE simulation as an experimental tool

Successful Extension Meetings and Innovative Economic Research: Grain Marketing Simulations

While grain marketing is considered a difficult challenge facing producers every year, it represents a very important component for producers to convert their bushels into dollars and ensure farm survival. Grain marketing involves both strategic behavior and knowledge of the grain market. Local and global supply and demand conditions, grain storage costs, transportation costs etc. present constantly changing risk and reward opportunities for producers. Efficient training and consistent monitoring of the market can help producers reduce risk (i.e., reduce the chance of farm failure) by making good use of pricing opportunities. Since these concepts may not necessarily be intuitive and strategic behavior can often be cognitively taxing, the University of Nebraska- Lincoln has developed an interactive grain marketing simulation game, called Marketing in a New Era (MINE) for this purpose. The first section of this article describes how the MINE simulation game can fit Extension meetings and help Specialists communicate grain marketing principles. The second section describes two example activities from the pre -harvest and post-harvest version of MINE. Screenshots from the simulation interface are included in order to portray how MINE works and why its design enhances the learning process. In the last section, a research idea is proposed that combines Experimental Economics techniques with Grain Marketing intuition, and uses MINE simulation as an experimental tool

A Unique Marketing Education Tool: The Marketing in a New Era Simulation Game

This article describes a novel grain marketing simulation game called Marketing in a New Era (MINE) that was developed for use in Extension producer meetings and other educational settings. Key benefits of MINE are that users can personalize the game\u27s marketing simulation environment by incorporating information specific to their operations or regions, users receive immediate feedback about their marketing simulation performance, and users can engage in numerous marketing simulations within a short time period

Clotting state after cardioversion of atrial fibrillation: a haemostasis index could detect the relationship with the arrhythmia duration

BACKGROUND: Fibrin D-dimer levels have been advocated as an useful clinical marker of thrombogenesis. HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesized that i) there is a hyperclotting state after the return of atrial fibrillation to sinus rhythm, ii) the measurement of plasma D-Dimer levels might be a good screening tool of this clotting status, and iii) the duration of arrhythmia influences the haemostasis measured by plasma D-Dimer levels. METHODS: Forty-two patients with atrial fibrillation undergoing cardioversion were divided into two groups: in Group A (n = 24,14 male, 56 ± 11 years) the duration of atrial fibrillation was 72 hours or more (142.7 ± 103.8 hours), in Group B (n = 18, 10 male, 61 ± 13 years) the duration of atrial fibrillation was less than 72 hours (25 ± 16 hours). Plasma fibrin D-dimer levels were measured by enzyme immunoassay before, and 36 hours after, cardioversion. The change of plasma D-dimer levels 36 hours after cardioversion was calculated as delta-D-dimer. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in demographic, clinical, and echocardiographic data, and the success of cardioversion between the two groups. Compared to the control, the baseline D-dimer levels were significantly higher in both groups. The delta D-dimer levels were significantly higher in Group A than in Group B (p < 0.005). Furthermore, plasma D-dimer levels 36 hours after cardioversion (r = 0.52, p = 0.0016) and delta-D-dimer levels (r = 0.73, p < 0.0001) showed significant correlations with the duration of atrial fibrillation. CONCLUSION: The longer duration of the atrial fibrillation episode could lead to a more prominent cardiovascular hyperclotting state after cardioversion, and the mean changes of plasma D-Dimer levels could be used as an useful clinical marker of the clotting state after atrial systole return

Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation developed during incomplete epidural anesthesia -A case report-

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained tachyarrhythmia, and occurs in organic heart disease such as rheumatic, atherosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease. In recent studies, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems have been shown to have important roles in initiating paroxysmal AF. We report here a patient who developed paroxysmal AF that might be a result of an imbalance of the sympathetic-parasympathetic systems due to epidural anesthesia, and that was potentiated by pain with inadequate analgesia. A 69-year-old woman was scheduled for operation of a right-sided ankle fracture. Twenty minutes after epidural drug injection, paroxysmal AF occurred. Even after intravenous administration of esmolol and digoxin, AF continued. After transfer to the intensive care unit, her heart rate gradually decreased and AF disappeared. During perioperative anesthetic management, the proper preoperative prevention and intraoperative treatment are needed in AF high-risk patients

Association between atrial fibrillation and <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>

The connection between atrial fibrillation (AF) and H. pylori (HP) infection is still matter of debate. We performed a systematic review and metanalysis of studies reporting the association between AF and HF. A systematic review of all available reports in literature of the incidence of HP infection in AF and comparing this incidence with subjects without AF were analysed. Risk ratio and 95% confidence interval (CI) and risk difference with standard error (SE) were the main statistics indexes. Six retrospective studies including a total of 2921 were included at the end of the selection process. Nine hundred-fifty-six patients (32.7%) were in AF, whereas 1965 (67.3%) were in normal sinus rhythm (NSR). Overall, 335 of 956 patients with AF were HP positive (35%), whereas 621 were HP negative (65%). In addition, 643 of 1965 NSR patients (32.7%) were HP positive while 1,322 were negative (67.3%; Chi-square 2.15, p = 0.21). The Cumulative Risk Ratio for AF patients for developing an HP infection was 1.19 (95% CI 1.08–1.41). In addition, a small difference risk towards AF was found (0.11 [SE = 0.04]). Moreover, neither RR nor risk difference were influenced by the geographic area at meta-regression analysis. Finally, there was a weak correlation between AF and HP (coefficient = 0.04 [95% CI −0.01–0.08]). We failed to find any significant correlation between H. pylori infection and AF and, based on our data, it seems unlikely than HP can be considered a risk factor for AF. Further larger research is warranted

The Role of Safety First Risk Preferences in Grain Marketing: A Laboratory Economic Experiment using a Grain Marketing Simulation Game

In this study, the Marketing in a New Era (MINE) grain marketing simulation game is used to carry out a context-rich economic experiment to evaluate the role of risk preferences in grain marketing decisions. The model of risk preferences that we consider is an improved Safety First decision rule model proposed by Levy and Levy (2009). We experimentally test if Safety First decision rule describes individuals’ post-harvest marketing decisions. In our experiment, we incorporate real-world features which are usually omitted in marketing studies such as: multiple storage decisions, storage cost, actual price series and multiple contract frequency. MINE plays a critical role by allowing us to observe participant’s intra-season hedging decisions. Our results indicate that Safety First matters in post-harvest marketing decisions. Specifically, individuals with strong Safety First preferences sell significantly more grain at the spot market right after harvest compared to individuals without strong Safety First preferences. This research may be of interest to those working on marketing advisory services, in developing guidelines for optimal marketing strategies that apart from market and farm characteristics should consider personal characteristics as well. Advisors: Simanti Banerjee and Cory Walter