The Mediterranean Fruit Fly: Efficient Dynamic and Static Phytosanitary Measures, Information Values, and Current Policy

A bioeconomic model is used to examine efficient dynamic and static phytosanitary policies (cold treatment periods) designed to maximize the annual present value of net monthly U.S. welfare associated with trade in commodities that serve as hosts for the Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly). Accounting for the presence of the current U.S. medfly detection and control program, efficient dynamic and static policies require less cold treatment and increase U.S. welfare 9% and 3%, respectively, relative to the current minimum 14-day treatment period. The potential value of adjusting treatment periods regularly using available information on medfly pressure abroad is shown to be nontrivial.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade,

Establishing a Baseline for Nitrogen Policy Assessment

nitrogen, nitrogen use efficiency, nitrogen management, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Economic Determinants of Invasion and Discovery of Nonindigenous Insects

Introductions of nonindigenous organisms into the United States have been linked to international trade. The individual contributions of imports, immigration, and international travel, however, are poorly understood because introduction dates are unavailable. We examine relationships between economic trends and discoveries of nonindegenous insects and use these relationships to infer the timing and determinants of introductions. We find that a few variables can explain much variation in species introductions and identifications. The most significant contributor to the introduction appears to be agricultural imports. Currently available proxies for academic effort are weak determinants of the probability that introduced species are identified.identifications, insects, introductions, invasive species, nonindegenous, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries, F18, N7, Q56,

Preliminary Assessment of Nitrous Oxide Offsets in a Cap and Trade Program

Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas that is emitted from cropland treated with nitrogen fertilizer. Reducing such emissions through nutrient management might be able to produce offsets for sale in a cap and trade program aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. We use the Nitrate Leaching and Economic Analysis Program (NLEAP) model and data from the Agricultural and Resource Management Survey to examine what changes in rate, timing, or method of application a farmer would take to produce offsets. We find that reducing the application rate is the most favored approach for producing offsets. We also find that some management choices may increase nitrate losses to water.nitrous oxide, nutrient management, cap and trade, NLEAP, greenhouse gas, Environmental Economics and Policy,

BT COTTON REFUGE POLICY

Since cotton producers do not own legal rights to kill insect populations that are susceptible to insecticides, individual producers may have no incentive to account for future, insecticide-resistance productivity losses arising from their pest-management decisions. As a result, the collective actions of producers may increase the rate of resistance development relative to the rate that maximizes social welfare. Concerns regarding insect-pest development of resistance to Bt cotton prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to establish legal limits on the proportion of total acres individual producers may plant, representing the first attempt to regulate the development of insecticide resistance and the first instance of the use of refuge as a policy instrument. Ever since Carlson and Castle first pointed out the resource characteristics of insecticide susceptibility, pest management in the presence of increasing resistance has been viewed as an exhaustible resource allocation problem, and many studies have examined efficient insecticide use in this setting. Resistance management studies found in the economics literature, however, have examined single-insect single-insecticide problems almost exclusively. The majority of genetic and entomological studies have followed suit. Since cotton producers routinely use multiple insecticides and insecticide mixtures to manage multiple insect pests, and since simulation and empirical evidence suggests that toxin mixtures can affect the rate of resistance development to component toxins, the standard model may not be well suited for the examination of refuge policies under cotton production settings. Static refuge policies that maximize the present value of profit flows attainable by producers over five- and 10-year planning horizons are examined using a deterministic, operational model that accounts for short- and long-run features of production and resistance development. The model accounts for the development of resistance in two cotton insect pests to Bt cotton and a popular conventional insecticide, and relationships between refuge policy, insecticide resistance, producer profit and producer behavior in Louisiana. The model is used to examine relationships between resistance simulation model parameters and refuge policies and comparative advantages between treated and untreated refuge policies.Agricultural and Food Policy,

The Cost of Increasing Adoption of Beneficial Nutrient-Management Practices

We estimate the cost of offsets tied to reductions in the use of nitrogen on U.S. cornfields under the proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act.offsets, nitrogen, corn, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Disparities in Health-Related Quality of Life among Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Survivors

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/sumexp22/1067/thumbnail.jp

POTENTIAL MARKET IMPACTS OF SOYBEAN RUST

Crop Production/Industries,

Evaluation of Stent and Baffle Deformation in Hybrid Comprehensive Stage II Procedure

Introduction: Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) is a Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) that leads to a single ventricle circulation (SV). The existing three-stage palliative operation leads to 50% survival rates. To reduce the morbidity and mortality rate associated with the procedure, an alternative technique called Hybrid Comprehensive Stage II (HCSII) featuring the inclusion of a stent and baffle in the left and right pulmonary arteries shown is proposed. The included stent included has the potential to become fractured as a result of oscillatory asymmetric external loads. Materials and Methods: A dynamically-scaled mock flow loop (MFL) study of HCSII shows the effects of fluid pressure on the stent and baffle to infer long term complications validated with numerical simulations. The MFL includes a patient-specific 3D printed model of the reconstructed anatomy, incorporating an intra-pulmonary baffle graft and a stent. Through the inclusion of the digital video otoscope DE500, videos of the stent and baffle are captured and post-processed to determine baffle displacement during the systolic and diastolic phases. Stent deformation is quantified using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).Experimental results are cross-validated, using finite element analysis done in Abaqus. Results and Discussion: The displacement of the baffle is tracked in three different locations throughout the cycles. Between peak systole to peak diastole, the computed baffle displacement for each tracked location, based on the processed image data, is 38, 4 and 6 pixels respectively. Conclusions: For 10 cycles, the stent and the baffle deformations are small. Results indicate the left and right pulmonary flow remain unobstructed despite cyclic deformation of the baffle, hence the likelihood of patient death due to total pulmonary obstruction following stent collapse is low

Solar and Stellar Activity: Diagnostics and Indices

We summarize the fifty-year concerted effort to place the "activity" of the Sun in the context of the stars. As a working definition of solar activity in the context of stars, we adopt those globally-observable variations on time scales below thermal time scales, of ~ 100,000 yr for the convection zone. So defined, activity is dominated by magnetic-field evolution, including the 22-year Hale cycle, the typical time it takes for the quasi-periodic reversal in which the global magnetic-field takes place. This is accompanied by sunspot variations with 11 year periods, known since the time of Schwabe, as well as faster variations due to rotation of active regions and flaring. "Diagnostics and indices" are terms given to the indirect signatures of varying magnetic- fields, including the photometric (broad-band) variations associated with the sunspot cycle, and variations of the accompanying heated plasma in higher layers of stellar atmospheres seen at special optical wavelengths, and UV and X-ray wavelengths. Our attention is also focussed on the theme of the Symposium by examining evidence for deep and extended minima of stars, and placing the 70-year long solar Maunder Minimum into a stellar context.Comment: Invited keynote paper for IAU Symposium No 286, 2012. Comparative Magnetic Minima: Characterizing quiet times in the Sun and star