Imputing Dairy Producers' Quota Discount Rate Using the Individual Export Milk Program in Quebec

Trade liberalization scenarios are often evaluated using sophisticated programming models that rely on a number of assumptions related to demand and supply parameters. One challenge researchers often encounter in the calibration of dairy trade liberalization models is to identify the supply response of producers under production quotas. The existence of production quotas in the Canadian dairy industry implies departures from standard marginal cost pricing. Under traditional net present value models, an assumption about the discount factors attached to production quotas must be made to infer the supply response of Canadian dairy producers following a change in the economic environment (e.g., import tariffs). The Individual Export Milk (IEM) program in Quebec generated an opportunity to estimate dairy producers’ discount factors for production quotas conditional on different assumptions about structural parameters such as producers’ risk preferences and cost efficiency.International Relations/Trade, Productivity Analysis,

A poststructural rethinking of the ethics of technology in relation to the provision of palliative home care by district nurses

Technology and its interfaces with nursing care, patients and carers, and the home are many and varied. To date, healthcare services research has generally focussed on pragmatic issues such access to and the optimization of technology, while philosophical inquiry has tended to focus on the ethics of how technology makes the home more hospital like. However, the ethical implications of the ways in which technology shapes the subjectivities of patients and carers have not been explored. In order to explore this, poststructural theory, in particular the work of Butler, Foucault, and Deleuze, is used to theorize the relationship between subjectivity and materiality as ethically mandated on producing rather than precluding the development of subjectivities in novel ways. This theoretical understanding is then utilized through a process of ‘plugged in’ as described by Jackson and Massie that aims to link empirical data, research, and philosophical inquiry. Through this process, it is suggested that power, which the empirical data demonstrate, is frequently exercised through medical discourses and restricts patients' and carers' ability to shape the material environment of the home as a place to live and be cared for in palliative stages of illness. Alternative discourses are suggested both from the empirical data as well as other research, which may offer patients and carers the possibility of reclaiming power over the home and their subjectivities. Finally, the dichotomy between the home and hospital, mediated via technology, is posited as being problematic. It is argued the dichotomy is false and should be moved away from in order to allow an ethical embrace of technology in palliative car

Quality care as ethical care:a poststructural analysis of palliative and supportive district nursing care

Quality of care is a prominent discourse in modern health-care and has previously been conceptualised in terms of ethics. In addition, the role of knowledge has been suggested as being particularly influential with regard to the nurse–patient–carer relationship. However, to date, no analyses have examined how knowledge (as an ethical concept) impinges on quality of care. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 patients with palliative and supportive care needs receiving district nursing care and thirteen of their lay carers. Poststructural discourse analysis techniques were utilised to take an ethical perspective on the current way in which quality of care is assessed and produced in health-care. It is argued that if quality of care is to be achieved, patients and carers need to be able to redistribute and redevelop the knowledge of their services in a collaborative way that goes beyond the current ways of working. Theoretical works and extant research are then used to produce tentative suggestions about how this may be achieved

Peer Instruction and Secondary School Students Achievement in Vectors

The importance of raising students competence in mathematics in a developing country such as Kenya cannot be overstated. This is because to produce professionals in areas such as engineering, medicine and accounting requires a good score in mathematics. Students that will further their studies in these areas will find that vectors is pre requisite knowledge. The purpose of this study was to document the impact of peer instruction on students achievement in vectors. The study used a modified version of the Solomon four group experimental design. Intact classes were randomly assigned to the four treatment groups in the Solomon four design. The study used both probability and non probability sampling procedures to select 479 form three learners for the study. Two achievement tests were used to collect data. The t-test and ANOVA  were used in data analysis. Results revealed that peer instruction had a marked positive impact on the students achievement in vectors than when conventional methods of instruction were used. It is therefore recommended that where there is need to substantially improve achievement in vectors peer instruction should be used. Key Words: Achievement, Peer Instruction, Learning vector

Understanding the Context for Health Behavior Change with Cognitive Work Analysis and Persuasive Design

Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) and Persuasive Design (PD) can be complementary approaches for designing behavior change systems. CWA can provide insights into persuasive context, identify ineffective behavior paths and suggest more effective behaviors. However, PD can contribute design ideas to create that behavior change. These methods, and how they can be used together, are discussed. The example of blood pressure management is used to show how new behavior change paths can be identified and encouraged

Latinx Defendants, False Convictions, and the Difficult Road to Exoneration

The National Registry of Exonerations (the Registry) reports all known exonerations in the United States since 1989. Of the more than 2,400 exonerated defendants currently in the database, 281 are classified as Latinx. In many ways, their cases resemble those of other exonerees. The same factors that produced false convictions of non-Latinx defendants-including mistaken eyewitness identification, misconduct by police and prosecutors, and perjury-were also at work in Latinx defendants' cases. There are, however, differences both in the types of crimes for which Latinx exonerees were convicted and in the ways in which they were vulnerable to the errors and misconduct that produce false convictions. Moreover, the consequences of a false conviction-though calamitous for anyone-may be more pronounced for Latinx defendants with precarious immigration status. In this Article, we present what we know about Latinx defendants who have been exonerated-the nature of the crimes, the factors that contributed to their wrongful convictions, and how their cases compare to non-Latinx exonerees. We discuss the particular ways in which Latinx defendants may be vulnerable to wrongful convictions, using case studies to explore how language barriers, racial profiling, and immigration concerns can be exploited in their cases. Finally, we consider barriers to exoneration, and how falsely convicted Latinx defendants may be particularly disadvantaged when seeking to overturn their convictions

Analyse des rituels d'athlètes belges francophones en période pré-compétitive

Les sportifs sont réputés pour accorder une attention toute particulière à des rituels supersticieux, notamment à l'approche d'une compétition. Dans cette étude, nous avons suivis 16 athlètes (course à pied). Durant le mois précédant une compétition importante, dix athlètes ont noté dans un agenda leurs faits et gestes quotidiens en relation avec celle-ci. Les agendas ont donné lieu à une analyse inductive de contenu selon les principes de la « théorie ancrée » (Strauss et Corbin, 1990). Par ailleurs, durant la dizaine de minutes précédant le départ d’une compétition, neuf coureurs ont été filmés pour être soumis ensuite à un entretien d’explicitation (Vermersch et Maurel, 1997). Leur action a été reconstruite a posteriori en respectant les principes de l’analyse globale du cours d’action (Theureau, 1992).Athletes provide a particular attention to supersticious behaviours, specifically when approaching a competition. In this study, we worked with 16 athletes (track and field). During the month before one important competition, ten wrote in a diary their daily activities and thoughts. Moreover, during the 10 minutes preceeding the competition, 9 runners have been videotaped in the perspective to participate into a explicitation interview. The data were used to reconstruct their action on the basis of the analysis of the "course of action"

Baboon endogenous virus genome: Molecular cloning and structural characterization of nondefective viral genomes from DNA of a baboon cell strain

Several heterogeneities in the baboon endogenous virus (BaEV) genomes that are present in the DNA of normal baboon tissues and the baboon cell strain BEF-3 have been described previously. To study these genomes, we cloned BaEV proviruses from BEF-3 cellular DNA into the vector Charon 4A. Of the four full-length clones isolated, one was nondefective as determined by transfection. The sequence of a portion of this clone was found to code for amino acids 61-91 in the p30 region of the gag gene. This identification allowed us to align the restriction map with the BaEV genetic map. One heterogeneity, a BamHI site 2.4 kilobases (kb) from the proviral 5' end, was located close to the gag-pol junction; another, a BamHI site 1.4 kb from the 5' end of the genome, corresponded to the gag p30 coding sequence for amino acids 32-34; and a third, a Xho I site, was near the 3' end of the pol gene. To select the nondefective BaEV genomes from BEF-3 cells, we infected permissive cells with virus produced by BEF-3 cells and also transfected BEF-3 cellular DNA into permissive cells. The BaEV genomes in the permissive recipient cultures were then analyzed by restriction enzyme analysis. These nondefective genomes were found to be heterogeneous with respect to the gag-pol BamHI site and the Xho I site, but all were found to contain the BamHI site 1.4 kb from the 5' end of the genome

Environmental changes during marl-limestone formation: evidence from the Gargasian (Middle Aptian) of La Marcouline Quarry (Cassis, SE France)

International audienceLimestone-marl alternations are usually interpreted to reflect cyclic paleoenvironmental fluctuations linked to Milankovitch-scale climate variations. However, the impact of diagenesis on lithological differentiation can be overprinted on the primary signal. In order to evaluate environmental variations during the deposition of the Gargasian hemipelagic limestone-marl alternations from the "La Marcouline" quarry (SE France), we have applied a multi-discipline approach (carbonate geochemistry, micropaleontology and mineralogy). The work uses of a method of granulometric separation of the main carbonate particles which (1) allows the characterization and quantification of the compositions of the carbonate phases of both lithologies and (2) gives access to the geochemical signatures of similar carbonate (bio-) particles in each lithology. The quantifications show that micarb constitutes a significant portion (around 40 per cent) of the sediments. Their geochemical signatures indicate that most of them were formed by fine fragmentation of nannoconid tests. Based on these interpretations, our results indicate that nannoconids are the major constituents of both the marly limestone and the marl layers and that both lithologies are similar in composition. The coccolith assemblages (mainly Watznaueria spp.) of the limestone and marl layers are similar and equally well-preserved. Changes in oxygen and carbon isotopic ratios express cyclic fertility and salinity/temperature variations in surface waters. The marls indicate higher fertility and lower salinity (or higher temperature) conditions than those denoted by the marly limestones. Although diagenesis has not altered these rhythmites no strong evidence has been found for linking classical processes such as dilution or productivity cycles to the composition of the sediments (carbonate constituents and clay mineralogy). This study demonstrates that La Marcouline succession has retained, as recorded by geochemical proxy, its primary environmental variations. Nevertheless, the homogeneity in both lithotypes of sedimentological parameters (clay mineralogy, sediment composition, ...) seems to indicate that these fluctuations did not affect the ecosystem strongly enough to cause marked differences in the composition of marls and marly-limestones