Impact of global cotton markets on rural poverty in Benin

World cotton prices have fallen by about 40 percent over the last two years, focusing attention on the effect of subsidies for cotton growers in depressing prices. This paper combines farm survey data from Benin with assumptions about the decline in farm-level prices to estimate the direct and indirect effects of cotton price reductions on rural income and poverty in Benin. The results indicate that there is a strong link between cotton prices and rural welfare in Benin. A 40 percent reduction in farm-level prices of cotton results in an increase in rural poverty of 8 percentage points in the short-run and 6-7 percentage points in the long run. Based on the estimated marginal propensity to consume tradable goods, the consumption multiplier is in the range of 3.3, meaning that one dollar of reduced spending by cotton growers results in a contraction of 3.3 dollars in overall demand. Finally, econometric analysis of the determinants of the demand for hired agricultural labor suggests that falling cotton prices will not greatly reduce labor demand since the labor intensity of cotton is similar to that of competing crops in Benin. Overall, the study highlights the link between rising subsidies for cotton growers in the U.S. and rural poverty in cotton exporting countries such as Benin.

Broad and thematic remodeling of the surfaceome and glycoproteome on isogenic cells transformed with driving proliferative oncogenes.

The cell surface proteome, the surfaceome, is the interface for engaging the extracellular space in normal and cancer cells. Here we apply quantitative proteomics of N-linked glycoproteins to reveal how a collection of some 700 surface proteins is dramatically remodeled in an isogenic breast epithelial cell line stably expressing any of six of the most prominent proliferative oncogenes, including the receptor tyrosine kinases, EGFR and HER2, and downstream signaling partners such as KRAS, BRAF, MEK, and AKT. We find that each oncogene has somewhat different surfaceomes, but the functions of these proteins are harmonized by common biological themes including up-regulation of nutrient transporters, down-regulation of adhesion molecules and tumor suppressing phosphatases, and alteration in immune modulators. Addition of a potent MEK inhibitor that blocks MAPK signaling brings each oncogene-induced surfaceome back to a common state reflecting the strong dependence of the oncogene on the MAPK pathway to propagate signaling. Cell surface protein capture is mediated by covalent tagging of surface glycans, yet current methods do not afford sequencing of intact glycopeptides. Thus, we complement the surfaceome data with whole cell glycoproteomics enabled by a recently developed technique called activated ion electron transfer dissociation (AI-ETD). We found massive oncogene-induced changes to the glycoproteome and differential increases in complex hybrid glycans, especially for KRAS and HER2 oncogenes. Overall, these studies provide a broad systems-level view of how specific driver oncogenes remodel the surfaceome and the glycoproteome in a cell autologous fashion, and suggest possible surface targets, and combinations thereof, for drug and biomarker discovery

Collaborative social learning: rewards and challenges in mainstream higher education

This paper introduces the theoretical framework and design rationale for an innovative undergraduate module entitled “Living and Working on the Web” at the University of Southampton. The module design is based on the principles of collaborative social learning and the co-construction of knowledge. At the workshop a model of best practice will be presented, featuring a ‘blog-comment-reflect-feedback’ cycle, which has derived from the synthesis of relevant literature and which will be reflected upon through an informal content analysis of the students’ blogs

Separability of Tilings

A tiling by triangles of an orientable surfaces is called kaleidoscopic if the local reflection in any edge of a triangle extends to a global isometry of the surface. Given such a global reflection the fixed point subset of the reflection consists of embedded circles (ovals) whose union is called the mirror of the reflection. The reflection is called separating if removal of the mirror disconnects the surface into two components. We consider surfaces such that the orientation preserving subgroup of the tiling group generated by the reflection is cyclic or abelian. A complete classification of those surfaces with separating reflection is obtained in the cyclic case as well as partial results for abelian, non-cyclic groups

Temperature Stressed \u3cem\u3eCaenorhabditis elegans\u3c/em\u3e Males Fail to Mate Successfully and Successful Males Produce Very Few Viable Cross Progeny

Exposure to moderate temperature stress can have profoundly negative effects on an organism’s reproductive capacity at temperatures where there are minimal or indiscernible effects on the organism as a whole. These negative effects are often more pronounced in males of the species that produce sperm. Previously we showed that few males of Caenorhabditis elegans wild type strains are able to successfully produce any cross progeny after experiencing temperature stress. However, these experiments did not assess the number of progeny from temperature stressed males. To understand if temperature stress can reduce the number of progeny a male sires, we crossed temperature stressed males of three wild type strains of C. elegans: JU1171, LKC34, and N2, to strain matched hermaphrodites of their own genetic background or to uncoordinated hermaphrodites in the N2 background. We found that significantly fewer males exposed to moderate temperature stress can successfully mate and that the small number of males in the population that do successfully mate produce significantly fewer viable cross progeny than unstressed controls. Our results suggest that exposure to moderate temperature stress significantly reduces male C. elegans chances at reproducing similar to what is seen in other organisms

Integrated Behavioral Health Training in Counselor Education: A Call to Action

The American healthcare system is beginning to adopt an integrated behavioral health model as a way to meet the ever-changing and holistic needs of patients by creating opportunities for collaboration among medical and behavioral health professionals. Professional counselors play a vital role in integrative behavioral health through their meaningful participation on interdisciplinary healthcare teams. Professional counselors are key to any interdisciplinary team because they embrace a biopsychosocial wellness perspective and have undergone clinical and academic training. However, many counseling programs do not specifically educate or train counselors in how to work in integrated care settings. As such, counselor educators must adapt to this evolving system of healthcare by providing students with didactic and experiential learning opportunities to promote competence and readiness to practice in this new wave of healthcare

Creating Competetive Advantage Using the Internet in Primary Sector Industrie

The research reported in this paper involved an investigation of the relationship between Internet strategy development and competitive advantage. Four theory-based propositions based on the work of Porter and Millar (1985) and others are examined in relation to four primary sector multinationals. These propositions examine the relationship between an industry's Internet strategy and the integration of this strategy into the industry's marketing infrastructure to support the development of competitive advantage. The study uses Porter's (1985) value system framework to examine this relationship. The authors suggest that the value system, and the leverage of information and networking technologies to reconfigure value system relationships is becoming strategically significant to these primary sector multinationals