New financial instruments to help improve agricultural water management for poor farmers under conditions of risk

Financial instruments can help alleviate poverty through better agricultural water management Using examples of drought insurance, payment for environmental services and warehouse receipts, this brief paper discusses the potential roles of some new financial instruments to support agricultural water management in rainfed areas of developing countries. In so doing, we aim to raise awareness of the broader potentials for financial instruments to improve water productivity and so help achieve two goals: alleviation of poverty that is caused by the inability of individuals to manage water, and improved water productivity that is necessary to solve an emerging problem of global water scarcity. We discuss these issues in the following sequence. First we review the need to improve water productivity at both a global and individual level, highlighting the obstacles to improvement posed by uncertainty and risk. We then focus on a particular approach to pro-poor risk management using drought insurance, before examining briefly how two other financial instruments: payment for ecosystem services and warehouse receipts als

Benthic habitat mapping for living resources

Much of the development activity in Chesapeake Bay involves modification to subtidal bottoms. . .

A three-year longitudinal study of social anhedonia and comparison groups

" The present study is a three-year longitudinal reassessment of schizotypic young adults and comparison participants identified by the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (Eckblad, Chapman, Chapman, & Mishlove, 1982). Diaz, Dickerson, and Kwapil (2002) conducted a cross-sectional assessment of 78 Social Anhedonia and 68 comparison participants using a battery of interview, neurocognitive and questionnaire measures. They reported that the Social Anhedonia participants experienced elevated levels of positive and negative symptoms of schizotypy, impaired social functioning, and deficits in sustained attention and executive functioning, relative to comparison group. The present study reassessed 52 Social Anhedonia and 47 comparison participants. As hypothesized, the Social Anhedonia group continued to exhibit higher rates of schizotypic symptoms such as psychotic-like experiences, negative symptoms, and schizotypal, schizoid and paranoid symptoms, and poorer overall functioning at the three-year follow-up. A combination of interview, questionnaire and neurocognitive measures from the initial assessment incremented the prediction of schizotypic symptoms and spectrum disorders at the follow-up assessment. Furthermore, perceived stress, but not the number of significant life events, incremented the prediction of risk over-and-above the effects of social anhedonia. The results provide further support that the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale is a useful predictor of schizotypy and indicates that it is especially effective when used in conjunction with measures of clinical symptoms and neurocognition"--Abstract from author supplied metadata

Whole cell mass spectroscopy as a cytotoxicity screening method

Whole cell mass spectroscopy (WCMS) is a method that has gain popularity in the last decade. WCMS saves time by omitting extensive sample preparation for the mass spectral analysis of microorganisms. WCMS has been mainly used for profiling and identifying fungi, bacteria and mammalian cells. We utilized WCMS as an assay for differentiating in vitro liver cell toxicity. In this study we focused on HepG2 cells, a liver carcinoma cell line, for WCMS profiling of untreated cells and dosed cells with toxins. We have optimized the sampling conditions for two different mass spectrometers and to obtained accurate and sensitive profiling of the whole liver cells. To verify that we were inducing a toxic response at the time of WCMS we screened our cells with the traditional cytotoxicity assays Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) or (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) MTT. This research lays the groundwork for a technique with great applications in pharmacology, toxicology, and medicinal chemistry

Grader Bias in Cattle Markets? Evidence from Iowa

Live cattle are increasingly priced as an explicit function of U.S. Department of Agriculture yield and quality grades. Human graders visually inspect each slaughtered carcass and call grades in a matter of seconds as the carcass passes on a moving trolley. We examine whether there is systematic bias in grade calls using a sample of loads delivered to three different midwestern packing plants during 2000–2002. Overall, results indicate that indeed there is a bias, and that grading standards vary significantly across packing plants. Results also are consistent with a behavioral model where graders are more accurate when grading relatively low-quality carcasses

Musashi1 modulates cell proliferation genes in the medulloblastoma cell line Daoy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Musashi1 (Msi1) is an RNA binding protein with a central role during nervous system development and stem cell maintenance. High levels of Msi1 have been reported in several malignancies including brain tumors thereby associating Msi1 and cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used the human medulloblastoma cell line Daoy as model system in this study to knock down the expression of Msi1 and determine the effects upon soft agar growth and neurophere formation. Quantitative RT-PCR was conducted to evaluate the expression of cell proliferation, differentiation and survival genes in Msi1 depleted Daoy cells.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We observed that <it>MSI1 </it>expression was elevated in Daoy cells cultured as neurospheres compared to those grown as monolayer. These data indicated that Msi1 might be involved in regulating proliferation in cancer cells. Here we show that shRNA mediated Msi1 depletion in Daoy cells notably impaired their ability to form colonies in soft agar and to grow as neurospheres in culture. Moreover, differential expression of a group of Notch, Hedgehog and Wnt pathway related genes including <it>MYCN</it>, <it>FOS</it>, <it>NOTCH2</it>, <it>SMO</it>, <it>CDKN1A</it>, <it>CCND2</it>, <it>CCND1</it>, and <it>DKK1</it>, was also found in the Msi1 knockdown, demonstrating that Msi1 modulated the expression of a subset of cell proliferation, differentiation and survival genes in Daoy.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data suggested that Msi1 may promote cancer cell proliferation and survival as its loss seems to have a detrimental effect in the maintenance of medulloblastoma cancer cells. In this regard, Msi1 might be a positive regulator of tumor progression and a potential target for therapy.</p

City growth and community-owned land in Mexico City

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-112).Sixteen years after the promulgation of the reforms to Article 27 that regulates land tenure in Mexico, there is consensus among political authorities, public officials, private investors, and scholars that the outcomes have been completely different than were predicted. In spite of the important changes produced in the legal status, internal organization, and governmental interactions of the agrarian communities, these changes have not translated into a massive privatization of ejido lands, and the incorporation of social land into urban development is far below what was expected. Furthermore, new forms of illegal social land sales emerged as a response to the privatization initiative. In addition to the economic and legal arguments typically used to explain this phenomenon, this research identifies three key factors that also have a strong influence in the ejidos' behavior towards land privatization: the hindering effect of community participation on privatization; the permanence of a clientelistic relationship between ejidos and government; and agrarian communities' cultural attachment to land. These factors reflect the economic, political, and cultural dimensions of the ejidos, something that the ideologues did not take into account when they defined the mechanisms for land liberalization. Key words: urban expansion, Mexico City, ejidos, Article 27, informal market, regularization, clientelism.by Rodrigo Diaz.M.C.P

Double-sided microchannel patterning and through-hole production using injection molding of polypropylene

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-45).An experimental study was conducted on injection molded polypropylene parts with microchannels and through-holes. The quality of the microchannels and through-holes was observed with optical microscope and SEM images. A part-to-part variation analysis was conducted for ten parts by averaging the channel height, channel width, and hole diameter measurements obtained with an optical profilometer. The results were compared to a research study previously conducted on hot embossed and through-hole punched parts. The walls of the injection molded microchannels were observed to be smoother than the hot embossed microchannels, but ridges were detected on the outmost channels of the injection molded parts which resulted in measurement errors. The through-holes of the injection molded parts formed completely, without burrs or flash, in contrast to the through-hole punched parts where the quality of the hole varied by the substrate material. The average variance ratio of the channel height and width of the injection molded parts was 0.83% and 0.21% respectively, when the sites containing ridges (sites 1 and 4 of the top side) were not included in the calculation. The average channel height variance ratios were approximately the same for injection molding and hot embossing, while injection molding had less than half the variance ratio for the channel width. The hole diameter variance ratios of the injection molded parts averaged 0.094%, making it better than the other dimensions. No consistent expansion or shrinkage rate was observed in the injection molded parts, but the hot embossed sites primarily experienced shrinkage.by Nancy Diaz.S.B

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Regulation of Type III Secretion Gene Expression in Pseudomonas Aeruginosa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that is particularly problematic in the healthcare setting where it is a frequent cause of pneumonia, bloodstream, and urinary tract infections. An important determinant of P. aeruginosa virulence is a type III secretion system (T3SS). T3SS-dependent intoxication is a complex process that minimally requires binding of P. aeruginosa to host cells, injection of the cytotoxic effector proteins through the host cell plasma membrane, and induction of T3SS gene expression. The latter process, referred to as contact-dependent expression, involves a well-characterized regulatory cascade that activates T3SS gene expression in response to host cell contact. Although host cell contact is a primary activating signal for T3SS gene expression, the involvement of multiple membrane-bound regulatory systems indicates that additional environmental signals also play a role in controlling expression of the T3SS. These regulatory systems coordinate T3SS gene expression with many other cellular activities including motility, mucoidy, polysaccharide production, and biofilm formation. The signals to which the organism responds are poorly understood but many seem to be coupled to the metabolic state of the cell and integrated within a master circuit that assimilates informational signals from endogenous and exogenous sources. Herein we review progress toward unraveling this complex circuitry, provide analysis of the current knowledge gaps, and highlight potential areas for future studies. Complete understanding of the regulatory networks that control T3SS gene expression will maximize opportunities for the development of strategies to treat P. aeruginosa infections