Price elasticities, joint products, and international trade

This paper extends the basic results of Houck’s insight for derived demand elasticities for the case of joint products by allowing for the possibility of the joint and raw products being traded. Theoretical relationships between individual demands for a set of jointly-produced commodities that are traded and composite demand for the raw product from which the joint products originate are derived. It is shown that while the derived price elasticity of domestic demand retains the same form as Houck’s original formula, the relevant price elasticities of demand to include in the formula are elasticities of total demand instead of domestic demand elasticities. Using the USA soybean industry as an example, this generalised formula that takes into account trade is implemented to calculate the elasticity of total demand for USA soybeans. The usefulness of this formula for policy-makers to trace out the impacts of changes in market conditions and trade policy in the joint-products, and how it will impact the price elasticity of domestic and total demand for the raw product, is demonstrated.Demand and Price Analysis, International Relations/Trade,

Release of ATP in the ventral medulla during hypoxia in rats: role in hypoxic ventilatory response

P2X2 receptor subunits of the ATP-gated ion channels are expressed by physiologically identified respiratory neurons in the ventral respiratory column, implicating ATP in the control of respiratory activity. We now show that, during hypoxia, release of ATP in the ventrolateral medulla (VLM) plays an important role in the hypoxic ventilatory response in rats. By measuring ATP release in real time at the ventral surface of the medulla with novel amperometric biosensors, we found that hypoxia (10% O2; 5 min) induced a marked increase in the concentration of ATP (~3 µM). This ATP release occurred after the initiation of enhanced respiratory activity but coincided with the later hypoxia-induced slowing of the respiratory rhythm. ATP was also released at the ventral surface of the medulla during hypoxia in peripherally chemodenervated animals (vagi, aortic, and carotid sinus nerve sectioned). By using horizontal slices of the rat medulla, we found that, during hypoxia, ATP is produced throughout the VLM in the locations corresponding to the ventral respiratory column. Blockade of ATP receptors in the VLM (microinjection of P2 receptor antagonist pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-6-azophenyl-2',4'-disulphonic acid; 100 µM) augmented the hypoxia-induced secondary slowing of the respiratory rhythm. Our findings suggest that ATP released within the ventral respiratory column is involved in maintenance of the respiratory activity in conditions when hypoxia-induced slowing of respiration occurs. These data illustrate a new functional role for ATP-mediated purinergic signaling in the medullary mechanisms controlling respiratory activity

Transcriptional networks specifying homeostatic and inflammatory programs of gene expression in human aortic endothelial cells.

Endothelial cells (ECs) are critical determinants of vascular homeostasis and inflammation, but transcriptional mechanisms specifying their identities and functional states remain poorly understood. Here, we report a genome-wide assessment of regulatory landscapes of primary human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) under basal and activated conditions, enabling inference of transcription factor networks that direct homeostatic and pro-inflammatory programs. We demonstrate that 43% of detected enhancers are EC-specific and contain SNPs associated to cardiovascular disease and hypertension. We provide evidence that AP1, ETS, and GATA transcription factors play key roles in HAEC transcription by co-binding enhancers associated with EC-specific genes. We further demonstrate that exposure of HAECs to oxidized phospholipids or pro-inflammatory cytokines results in signal-specific alterations in enhancer landscapes and associate with coordinated binding of CEBPD, IRF1, and NFκB. Collectively, these findings identify cis-regulatory elements and corresponding trans-acting factors that contribute to EC identity and their specific responses to pro-inflammatory stimuli

The Impact of Pork Advertising on US Meat Demand in the Presence of Competing Beef Advertising and Food Safety Events

We examine the effects of domestic advertising and promotion expenditures on meat demand, extending previous efforts in several areas, including the use of more recent data, employing a complete demand system and simultaneously measuring the impacts of generic pork and beef advertising and food safety information on the demand for beef, pork, and poultry. Using the Generalized Almost Ideal Demand System (GAIDS), own- and cross- beef and pork advertising and own- and cross- beef, pork, and poultry food safety effects are measured jointly and consistently. To allow for a more complex dynamic response of advertising and food safety effects, the flexible distributed lag technique of Mitchell and Speaker (1986) is employed. The coefficients on pork advertising in the pork and poultry equations are highly significant. The coefficients on beef advertising are only statistically significantly different from zero in the poultry equation indicating the primary impact from these efforts is a cross-commodity effect. To investigate the economic significance of these effects, elasticities for price, expenditure, food safety and advertising are calculated and compared. Consistent with previous work we find the impacts of advertising and food safety effects to be economically small compared with price and expenditure effects.food safety, Generalized Almost Ideal Demand System, generic advertising, meat demand, polynomial inverse lag, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Dorsal-CA1 hippocampal neuronal ensembles encode nicotine-reward contextual associations

Natural and drug rewards increase the motivational valence of stimuli in the environment that, through Pavlovian learning mechanisms, become conditioned stimuli that directly motivate behavior in the absence of the original unconditioned stimulus. While the hippocampus has received extensive attention for its role in learning and memory processes, less is known regarding its role in drug-reward associations. We used in vivo Ca2+ imaging in freely moving mice during the formation of nicotine preference behavior to examine the role of the dorsal-CA1 region of the hippocampus in encoding contextual reward-seeking behavior. We show the development of specific neuronal ensembles whose activity encodes nicotine-reward contextual memories and that are necessary for the expression of place preference. Our findings increase our understanding of CA1 hippocampal function in general and as it relates to reward processing by identifying a critical role for CA1 neuronal ensembles in nicotine place preference

INTERACTION EFFECTS OF PROMOTION, RESEARCH, AND PRICE SUPPORT PROGRAMS FOR U.S. COTTON

Many agricultural commodities have industry-funded generic promotion and/or research ("checkoff") programs designed to improve the economic performance of producers. To determine the effectiveness of these programs, the net benefits to producers attributable to activities funded by the checkoff must be separated from those due to other factors influencing commodity markets. One such factor that is very important in many agricultural commodity markets is the effect of government programs. However, studies evaluating the returns to checkoff programs often do not explicitly discuss the impact of pre-existing distortions caused by federal farm programs. Because the distortions caused by farm programs can be quite large, this omission can lead to seriously biased estimates of the returns to the checkoff programs. In this study, we develop a model that captures the influence of two Federal programs (loan deficiency payments to farmers and subsidies to consuming mills) on the estimated returns to the Cotton Research and Promotion Program. Using an econometrically estimated model of the U.S. cotton market, we find that the program interaction effects have a large impact on checkoff program returns.Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries,

Maternal-Zygotic Epistasis and the Evolution of Genetic Diseases

Many birth defects and genetic diseases are expressed in individuals that do not carry the disease causing alleles. Genetic diseases observed in offspring can be caused by gene expression in mothers and by interactions between gene expression in mothers and offspring. It is not clear whether the underlying pattern of gene expression (maternal versus offspring) affects the incidence of genetic disease. Here we develop a 2-locus population genetic model with epistatic interactions between a maternal gene and a zygotic gene to address this question. We show that maternal effect genes that affect disease susceptibility in offspring persist longer and at higher frequencies in a population than offspring genes with the same effects. We find that specific forms of maternal-zygotic epistasis can maintain disease causing alleles at high frequencies over a range of plausible values. Our findings suggest that the strength and form of epistasis and the underlying pattern of gene expression may greatly influence the prevalence of human genetic diseases

Stress-induced reinstatement of nicotine preference requires dynorphin/kappa opioid activity in the basolateral amygdala

UNLABELLED: The dynorphin (DYN)/kappa-opioid receptor (KOR) system plays a conserved role in stress-induced reinstatement of drug seeking for prototypical substances of abuse. Due to nicotine\u27s high propensity for stress-induced relapse, we hypothesized that stress would induce reinstatement of nicotine seeking-like behavior in a KOR-dependent manner. Using a conditioned place preference (CPP) reinstatement procedure in mice, we show that both foot-shock stress and the pharmacological stressor yohimbine (2 mg/kg, i.p.) induce reinstatement of nicotine CPP in a norbinaltorphimine (norBNI, a KOR antagonist)-sensitive manner, indicating that KOR activity is necessary for stress-induced nicotine CPP reinstatement. After reinstatement testing, we visualized robust c-fos expression in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), which was reduced in mice pretreated with norBNI. We then used several distinct but complementary approaches of locally disrupting BLA KOR activity to assess the role of KORs and KOR-coupled intracellular signaling cascades on reinstatement of nicotine CPP. norBNI injected locally into the BLA prevented yohimbine-induced nicotine CPP reinstatement without affecting CPP acquisition. Similarly, selective deletion of BLA KORs in KOR conditional knock-out mice prevented foot-shock-induced CPP reinstatement. Together, these findings strongly implicate BLA KORs in stress-induced nicotine seeking-like behavior. In addition, we found that chemogenetic activation of Gαi signaling within CaMKIIα BLA neurons was sufficient to induce nicotine CPP reinstatement, identifying an anatomically specific intracellular mechanism by which stress leads to reinstatement. Considered together, our findings suggest that activation of the DYN/KOR system and Gαi signaling within the BLA is both necessary and sufficient to produce reinstatement of nicotine preference. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Considering the major impact of nicotine use on human health, understanding the mechanisms by which stress triggers reinstatement of drug-seeking behaviors is particularly pertinent to nicotine. The dynorphin (DYN)/kappa-opioid receptor (KOR) system has been implicated in stress-induced reinstatement of drug seeking for other commonly abused drugs. However, the specific role, brain region, and mechanisms that this system plays in reinstatement of nicotine seeking has not been characterized. Here, we report region-specific engagement of the DYN/KOR system and subsequent activation of inhibitory (Gi-linked) intracellular signaling pathways within the basolateral amygdala during stress-induced reinstatement of nicotine preference. We show that the DYN/KOR system is necessary to produce this behavioral state. This work may provide novel insight for the development of therapeutic approaches to prevent stress-related nicotine relapse

Toward an Understanding of the Economics of Charity: Evidence from a Field Experiment

This study develops theory and uses a door-to-door fundraising field experiment to explore the economics of charity. We approached nearly 5000 households, randomly divided into four experimental treatments, to shed light on key issues on the demand side of charitable fundraising. Empirical results are in line with our theory: in gross terms, our lottery treatments raised considerably more money than our voluntary contributions treatments. Interestingly, we find that a one standard deviation increase in female solicitor physical attractiveness is similar to that of the lottery incentive¡ªthe magnitude of the estimated difference in gifts is roughly equivalent to the treatment effect of moving from our theoretically most attractive approach (lotteries) to our least attractive approach (voluntary contributions).

Mindfulness Meditation Activates Altruism.

Clinical evidence suggests that mindfulness meditation reduces anxiety, depression, and stress, and improves emotion regulation due to modulation of activity in neural substrates linked to the regulation of emotions and social preferences. However, less was known about whether mindfulness meditation might alter pro-social behavior. Here we examined whether mindfulness meditation activates human altruism, a component of social cooperation. Using a simple donation game, which is a real-world version of the Dictator's Game, we randomly assigned 326 subjects to a mindfulness meditation online session or control and measured their willingness to donate a portion of their payment for participation as a charitable donation. Subjects who underwent the meditation treatment donated at a 2.61 times higher rate than the control (p = 0.005), after controlling for socio-demographics. We also found a larger treatment effect of meditation among those who did not go to college (p < 0.001) and those who were under 25 years of age (p < 0.001), with both subject groups contributing virtually nothing in the control condition. Our results imply high context modularity of human altruism and the development of intervention approaches including mindfulness meditation to increase social cooperation, especially among subjects with low baseline willingness to contribute