Long-term cereal price changes: how important is the speculative element

The objective of this article is to provide an analysis of the relationship existing between cereal prices and several variables such as population, income, exports, the exchange rate, and speculation, by using a linear regression analysis. Specific emphasis is placed on the speculative dimension. The methodology used helps us explore the forms of relationships between the different variables, and, more specifically, it gives an insight into the extent of speculation during the recent critical time period. Our results show that speculation (defined by the long position of traders) has played a crucial role during the period June 2001 – December 2009. According to our analysis, speculation it is the most relevant independent variable that affects cereal prices. Exports, in some ways connected to the former variable, occupy second place, in term of significance. However, their impact on cereal prices is less relevant than that of biofuel production. Population growth does not have impact in a positive way on cereal prices; it acts in the opposite direction due to the change in diets, implying that population increases would tend to affect primarily other agricultural markets. Excessive volatility in food prices, as that observed in the last years is a dramatic question. From a demand point of view, consumers in developing countries and vulnerable income groups in other countries (farmers) have to be protected. More than one policy on both international markets and domestic markets have to be introduced so as to lessen food/cereal lower price volatility.cereal prices, future markets and speculation, renewable energy, agricultural demand and supply.

Rice price volatility: a dilemma for public policies in Asia and Europe?

In 2008 the world’s attention was focused on the global food crisis and, as consequence, on the global food security. By mid-2009, commodity prices have dropped sensitively, nevertheless most of them still remain at or above past trend levels. Fluctuations in prices are not rare in agricultural markets where volatility is a common characteristic. Among cereals rice has a strategic importance. It is source of nutrition for more than a half of the world population and of income for about two million of farmers. Even if it is produced and consumed everywhere, production and consumption are concentrated in Asia. Because of its strategic importance, rice is and has been subject to a host of policy interventions that have made it feature among the most distorted of all agricultural commodities. Export policies have typically been applied by net exporting countries and one of the most commonly applied policy measures, adopted by net importing countries, is the removal or reduction of import duties and taxes on food commodities. Various forms of producer support measures were introduced, including input subsidies, output price support and an easing of cropland set-aside requirements. Policies to support consumers and vulnerable groups have included: direct consumer subsidies, tax reductions, distribution from public stocks, price subsidies, public-sector salary increases and social safety net programmes. Self-targeting food-for-work programmes have been put in place by some countries. Although the EU rice trade represents only 0.4 per cent of world trade a common organisation market (COM) for rice was set-up. It is a complex system aiming at maintaining European rice production destined for domestic and external markets. This paper aims to expand the above statements. The objective is to review and compare the policies adopted in Asia and in the EU and assess their impact form the point of sustainability (in a broad sense) with the ultimate aim to advance some interpretations and suggestions in the short and long run, having in mind the variables that affect the supply, the demand and the trade. As a background, the paper first outlines the characteristics of the rice market. Through a regression analysis that could help to understand how the rice price changes. It also considers the policies adopted in Asia and in the EU, highlighting their results on prices from an economic and social point of view. This paper concludes with a number of issues to be borne in mind when interpreting the volatility or rice prices (according to the regression analysis results), the expected policy impact and distortions, and, finally, the “relatively” new strategy: move from food security to self-sufficient food security, one of the long terms goals of the Treaty of Rome (to secure availability of supplies).food security, rice market, public policies, regression analysis

Effects of past and current crop management on leaching losses, soil microbial community composition and activity

A lysimeter experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of past and current management practices on soil microbial biomass, activity and community composition. Intact monolith lysimeters were taken from sites of the same soil type that had been under long-term organic and conventional crop management. They were subjected to the same crop rotation and managed according to best organic and conventional practices. Mineral N loss was determined in leachates and soil samples taken before the experiment and after 30 months were analysed for biological soil properties, including microbial diversity. Results indicated that leaching losses were similar for all treatments and that crop was the main influence on microbial biomass composition and size, while microbial activity was determined by management history

Expanding Horticultural Training into the Prison Population

This article addresses positive and negative aspects of teaching horticulture to underserved prison populations. The southern Nevada master gardener curriculum was adapted to a concentration on job-readiness. Curriculum is only part of the challenge of working with this clientele. A number of problems and challenges arise with prison administration at all levels. We address the evolution of curriculum to meet the needs of each type of facility and institutional challenges so that the Horticultural Training Program can make a positive impact on individuals and communities

Desert Bioscape Training Influences Master Gardeners\u27 Practices

Teaching desert-appropriate horticultural techniques to Las Vegas residents may save millions of gallons of water. Master Gardener volunteers receive such instruction through the Desert Bioscape program. A survey of Master Gardeners found many of them incorporated the training into their own landscapes and some teach these principles at community classes. A majority of respondents (92%), do not teach classes, but are neighborhood resources for desert landscape information

Safe Use of Replicating Bacteria in Biological Control

Naturally occurring entomopathogenic bacteria provide an important resource for pest control. Greatest benefit will be obtained from the application of replicating bacteria which can establish in the host's environment and provide long term control. Bacteria developed for pest control are required to be safety tested and registered, yet bacteria are frequently introduced into the environment to enhance plant growth or aid soil processes without regulation. Why then, is the use of insect pathogenic bacteria treated differently? Augmentation of bacteria already present in the environment is unlikely to have any unwanted side effects as application is only changing the spatial and temporal distribution of the microbe and will have little long term effect on the total population. Users of the bacteria, however, will be exposed to the bacterium at a level higher than experienced naturally and potential adverse effects of this interaction should be addressed through Tier 1 safety testing. Non-target organisms should also be tested. If new organisms (exotic strains or modified bacteria) are to be introduced to the environment, their potential effects on the environment should be considered. The question of horizontal gene flow from applied bacteria also needs to be addressed. A better understanding of microbial ecology and Systems for tracking new strains and genes are essential to develop appropriate assessment procedures to ensure the safe utilisation of bacteria in biological control

Abnormal connectivity between the default mode and the visual system underlies the manifestation of visual hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease:A task-based fMRI study

Background: The neural substrates of visual hallucinations remain an enigma, due primarily to the difficulties associated with directly interrogating the brain during hallucinatory episodes. Aims: To delineate the functional patterns of brain network activity and connectivity underlying visual hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease. Methods: In this study, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with a behavioral task capable of eliciting visual misperceptions, a confirmed surrogate for visual hallucinations, in 35 patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. We then applied an independent component analysis to extract time series information for large-scale neuronal networks that have been previously implicated in the pathophysiology of visual hallucinations. These data were subjected to a task-based functional connectivity analysis, thus providing the first objective description of the neural activity and connectivity during visual hallucinations in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Results: Correct performance of the task was associated with increased activity in primary visual regions; however, during visual misperceptions, this same visual network became actively coupled with the default mode network (DMN). Further, the frequency of misperception errors on the task was positively correlated with the strength of connectivity between these two systems, as well as with decreased activity in the dorsal attention network (DAN), and with impaired connectivity between the DAN and the DMNs, and ventral attention networks. Finally, each of the network abnormalities identified in our analysis were significantly correlated with two independent clinical measures of hallucination severity. Conclusions: Together, these results provide evidence that visual hallucinations are due to increased engagement of the DMN with the primary visual system, and emphasize the role of dysfunctional engagement of attentional networks in the pathophysiology of hallucinations

Healing Gardens for Assisted Living: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Health Education

There is a serious lack of health promotion programs for seniors transitioning from living in their own homes to assisted living. Research has demonstrated that horticulture and gardening can benefit people who are institutionalized. Aging and horticulture specialists at the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension collaborated to create a healing garden project at Nevada\u27s first low-income assisted living facility in Las Vegas. The goal was to enhance residents\u27 quality-of life through a less traditional educational process. This process expands the scope and reach of Extension programs to a much larger and more diverse audience

Political and Economic Opening as a Post-Crisis Strategy for Japan

In economics literature, the sources of economic growth in general and in Japan in particular have been appraised either from the supply-side, with the emphasis on capital accumulation, labour, total factor productivity and – given the advent of the new growth models – on technological change, or from the demand side. The study on Japanese growth by Chenery et al. (1962) was an early demand-based study that looked at the drivers of economic growth and structural change over the period 1914-1954. Using input-output methods and taking into account the contribution of technological change11 over this long-time period, the authors found two distinct early sub-periods of economic growth: the 1914-1935 and the 1935-1954 sub-periods. The first (1914-1935) is characterised by a rise in domestic income (by 4.5 per cent per annum) with large increases in exports. The second (1935-1954) is marked by the loss of colonial supplies of raw materials and by a substantial fall in exports; this second sub-period is also marked by import substitution policies and by the rising importance of technological change. The findings for the first sub-period mirror Japan’s emergence as an economic and geostrategic power, affirming first its colonial ambitions in East-Asia through the development of its many manufacturing networks, in the region as a whole and in Korea in particular (Inkster, 2001)

In vivo transcriptome analysis provides insights into host-dependent expression of virulence factors by Yersinia entomophaga MH96, during infection of Galleria mellonella

The function of microbes can be inferred from knowledge of genes specifically expressed in natural environments. Here, we report the in vivo transcriptome of the entomopathogenic bacterium Yersinia entomophaga MH96, captured during initial, septicemic, and pre-cadaveric stages of intrahemocoelic infection in Galleria mellonella. A total of 1285 genes were significantly upregulated by MH96 during infection; 829 genes responded to in vivo conditions during at least one stage of infection, 289 responded during two stages of infection, and 167 transcripts responded throughout all three stages of infection compared to in vitro conditions at equivalent cell densities. Genes upregulated during the earliest infection stage included components of the insecticidal toxin complex Yen-TC (chi1, chi2, and yenC1), genes for rearrangement hotspot element containing protein yenC3, cytolethal distending toxin cdtAB, and vegetative insecticidal toxin vip2. Genes more highly expressed throughout the infection cycle included the putative heat-stable enterotoxin yenT and three adhesins (usher-chaperone fimbria, filamentous hemagglutinin, and an AidA-like secreted adhesin). Clustering and functional enrichment of gene expression data also revealed expression of genes encoding type III and VI secretion system-associated effectors. Together these data provide insight into the pathobiology of MH96 and serve as an important resource supporting efforts to identify novel insecticidal agents