Long-Term Economic Consequences of Alternative Carbon Reducing Conservation and Wetlands Reserve Programs: A BLS Analysis

Three alternative Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) scenarios and a targeted Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) scenario were analyzed using the Basic Linked System (BLS) of applied general equilibrium models to project their likely economic impacts on the agriculture sector of the United States. The programs are proposed as means of reducing carbon emissions from agriculture. The CRP scenarios each reflect different assumptions about the size of future programs and alternative uses of CRP land. Specifically, two alternative proposals--a 40 million acre CRP and a 50 million acre CRP--are compared with a baseline scenario consisting of a 17.5 million acre CRP, considered a likely outcome after current contracts expire. The results of the model give the economic impacts of the two larger CRP proposals relative to the 17.5 million acre baseline over the period 1996-2030. A 5 million acre WRP targeted to bottomland capable of supporting hardwood tree growth is run in conjunction with the baseline CRP and the results are compared with those obtained under the baseline alone. Among the impacts presented are changes in U.S. agricultural production, consumption, acres, yields, producer and consumer prices, government program costs, and net farm income for crop and livestock production. Impacts on producers, consumers, and government expenditures are presented in the summary table. Overall, the results are as one would expect. In the CRP scenarios, acreage planted and production of major crops is lower under the larger programs and producer prices are concomitantly higher. Feed grains are most significantly affected, causing feed prices to be higher under the larger CRP scenarios. Livestock production is generally lower under the larger programs, reflecting higher feed costs. Per capita consumption of most commodities changes only slightly, although consumption of grain products and most meat fall by 1 to 2.5 percent after the programs have been fully implemented. Producer net returns increase for crop producers, but are significantly lower for livestock producers. Government price support payments to crop producers fall by more than the cost of the programs. The programs lower overall net farm income and make consumers generally worse off with slightly lower consumption and higher retail prices. Similar but less dramatic results are obtained when the WRP scenario is added to the CRP baseline. The decline in overall economic welfare due to these programs will have to be balanced against the benefits of carbon emission reductions from them

Biomass as Sustainable Energy: The Potential and Economic Impacts on U.S. Agriculture

This paper addresses the economic feasibility and impacts on U.S. agriculture of establishing a biomass crops industry capable of producing 8 quads methanol or 9.4 quads ethanol by the year 2030 from grasses grown as biomass feedstocks. The results suggest that such an industry could become commercially viable and that the agricultural economy would benefit. Producers of traditional and biomass crops would benefit most. While consumers and livestock producers would be worse off as a result of higher crop prices, society would gain from reduced government payments to crop producers and from lower levels of air pollution

Book Reviews

Understanding Biblical Theology: A Comparison of Theory and PracticeEdward W. Klink III and Darian R. Lockett Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2012, 193 pp. paper, $17.99 ISBN: 978-0310-49223-8Reviewed by Ruth Anne Reese Prepositions and Theology in the Greek New TestamentMurray J. Harris Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2012, 304 pp. cloth,$42.99 ISBN: 978-0310-49392-1 Reviewed by Dale F. Walker The New Testament: A Historical and Theological IntroductionDonald Alfred Hagner Grand Rapids: Baker Academic 2012, 896 pp. cloth, $49.99 ISBN: 978-0-8010-3931-7 Reviewed by Randall Hardman Contextualization in World Missions: Mapping and Assessing Evangelical ModelsA. Scott Moreau Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications 2012, 429 pp. paper,$28.99 ISBN: 978-0-8254-3389-4 Reviewed by Robert A. Danielson The Right Church: Live Like the First ChristiansCharles E. Gutenson Nashville: Abingdon Press 2012, 194 pp. paper, $14.99ISBN: 978-1-4267-4911-7Reviewed by Brian Yeich Interfaith Dialogue in PracticeDaniel S. Brown, Jr., ed. Kansas City: Rockhurst University Press 2012, 160 pp. paper,$30.00 ISBN: 978-1-886761-32-2 Reviewed by Robert A. Danielso

Atrazine and Water Quality: An Evaluation of Restricting Atrazine Use on Corn and Sorghum to Postemergent Applications

Atrazine is the most widely used herbicide for corn and sorghum and the most commonly encountered in ground and surface water. In addition to water quality problems, atrazine poses hazards through atmospheric transport, food residues, and exposure of applications and wildlife. If atrazine use is restricted, substitute herbicides will come into wider use, increasing the likelihood of occurrence of their own sets of potentially undesirable side effects and imposing cost or efficacy penalties

Self-similar scaling and evolution in the galaxy cluster X-ray Luminosity-Temperature relation

We investigate the form and evolution of the X-ray luminosity-temperature (LT) relation of a sample of 114 galaxy clusters observed with Chandra at 0.1<z<1.3. The clusters were divided into subsamples based on their X-ray morphology or whether they host strong cool cores. We find that when the core regions are excluded, the most relaxed clusters (or those with the strongest cool cores) follow an LT relation with a slope that agrees well with simple self-similar expectations. This is supported by an analysis of the gas density profiles of the systems, which shows self-similar behaviour of the gas profiles of the relaxed clusters outside the core regions. By comparing our data with clusters in the REXCESS sample, which extends to lower masses, we find evidence that the self-similar behaviour of even the most relaxed clusters breaks at around 3.5keV. By contrast, the LT slopes of the subsamples of unrelaxed systems (or those without strong cool cores) are significantly steeper than the self-similar model, with lower mass systems appearing less luminous and higher mass systems appearing more luminous than the self-similar relation. We argue that these results are consistent with a model of non-gravitational energy input in clusters that combines central heating with entropy enhancements from merger shocks. Such enhancements could extend the impact of central energy input to larger radii in unrelaxed clusters, as suggested by our data. We also examine the evolution of the LT relation, and find that while the data appear inconsistent with simple self-similar evolution, the differences can be plausibly explained by selection bias, and thus we find no reason to rule out self-similar evolution. We show that the fraction of cool core clusters in our (non-representative) sample decreases at z>0.5 and discuss the effect of this on measurements of the evolution in the LT relation.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcom

Asteroseismology and Interferometry

Asteroseismology provides us with a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of stellar structure and evolution. Recent developments, including the first systematic studies of solar-like pulsators, have boosted the impact of this field of research within Astrophysics and have led to a significant increase in the size of the research community. In the present paper we start by reviewing the basic observational and theoretical properties of classical and solar-like pulsators and present results from some of the most recent and outstanding studies of these stars. We centre our review on those classes of pulsators for which interferometric studies are expected to provide a significant input. We discuss current limitations to asteroseismic studies, including difficulties in mode identification and in the accurate determination of global parameters of pulsating stars, and, after a brief review of those aspects of interferometry that are most relevant in this context, anticipate how interferometric observations may contribute to overcome these limitations. Moreover, we present results of recent pilot studies of pulsating stars involving both asteroseismic and interferometric constraints and look into the future, summarizing ongoing efforts concerning the development of future instruments and satellite missions which are expected to have an impact in this field of research.Comment: Version as published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review, Volume 14, Issue 3-4, pp. 217-36

Current Issues in Asteroseismology

In this contribution we briefly review some of the current issues and promises for the future by asteroseismology. We are entering a new phase in this field driven by the wealth of data that has been collected and data that will soon be available for asteroseismology across the HR Diagram. Major difficulties in the descriptions of stellar interiors that arose in the second half of the 20th century may now be in part addressed and solved (this is the expectation!) by asteroseismology with unprecedented precision. In this contribution we list some of the key open questions in stellar physics, the seismic data we expect to collect in the near future, and some techniques that will provide the tools to connect data and models.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures - to appear in Helioseismology, Asteroseismology and MHD Connections, (Eds) L. Gizon et al., Journal of Physics Conference Series, 2008 [Revision 1 - english; Revision 2 - references

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: ACT-CL J0102-4915 "El Gordo," a Massive Merging Cluster at Redshift 0.87

We present a detailed analysis from new multi-wavelength observations of the exceptional galaxy cluster ACT-CL J0102-4915 "El Gordo," likely the most massive, hottest, most X-ray luminous and brightest Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect cluster known at z>0.6. The Atacama Cosmology Telescope collaboration discovered El Gordo as the most significant SZ decrement in a sky survey area of 755 deg^2. Our VLT/FORS2 spectra of 89 member galaxies yield a cluster redshift, z=0.870, and velocity dispersion, s=1321+/-106 km/s. Our Chandra observations reveal a hot and X-ray luminous system with an integrated temperature of Tx=14.5+/-1.0 keV and 0.5-2.0 keV band luminosity of Lx=(2.19+/-0.11)x10^45 h70^-2 erg/s. We obtain several statistically consistent cluster mass estimates; using mass scaling relations with velocity dispersion, X-ray Yx, and integrated SZ, we estimate a cluster mass of M200a=(2.16+/-0.32)x10^15 M_sun/h70. The Chandra and VLT/FORS2 optical data also reveal that El Gordo is undergoing a major merger between components with a mass ratio of approximately 2 to 1. The X-ray data show significant temperature variations from a low of 6.6+/-0.7 keV at the merging low-entropy, high-metallicity, cool core to a high of 22+/-6 keV. We also see a wake in the X-ray surface brightness caused by the passage of one cluster through the other. Archival radio data at 843 MHz reveal diffuse radio emission that, if associated with the cluster, indicates the presence of an intense double radio relic, hosted by the highest redshift cluster yet. El Gordo is possibly a high-redshift analog of the famous Bullet Cluster. Such a massive cluster at this redshift is rare, although consistent with the standard L-CDM cosmology in the lower part of its allowed mass range. Massive, high-redshift mergers like El Gordo are unlikely to be reproduced in the current generation of numerical N-body cosmological simulations.Comment: Typo on metadata fixed on version 3. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal; 17 pages, 15 figures. New section 4.4 includes radio relic scienc

Visualisation and characterisation of mononuclear phagocytes in the chicken respiratory tract using CSF1R-transgenic chickens

Additional file 2. Location of B cells, T cells and follicular dendritic cells (FDC) in the lung of MacReporter chickens. The BALT region of 5 to 7 week old non-vaccination animals were analysed for B, T and FCD cells. Isotype controls were used to standardise the microscope and examine aspecific binding before acquiring images (A-B). The GC of MacReporter animals are tightly packed with Bu1-CSF1R-eGFP+ FDC cells and Bu1+CSF1R-eGFP- B cells (C) with few Bu1+ B cells found in the parabronchi (F). CD3+ T cells are disperse within and outside the GC (D) and parabronchi (G). CSF1R-eGFP+ FDC cells express Fc receptors and trap immunoglobulin by expressing IgY (E) and CSF1R-eGFP+ IgY+ FDC are rarely detected out with the GC, BALT region of the lung. GC are indicated by white dashed lines