EXPLAINING THE ADOPTION AND DISADOPTION OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: THE CASE OF COVER CROPS IN NORTHERN HONDURAS

Although technology adoption has been the subject of a great deal of economic research, that focused on the economics of adoption of low-input "sustainable" systems has been much more limited and recent. This paper attempts to explain the recent decline in the use of cover crops using in maize farming in the Department of Atlantida, Honduras. In the early 1970's, farmers in the region began rotating maize with the velvetbean (mucuna ssp.), a system learned from Guatemalan immigrants. Tohe mucuna-maize system decreased the labor required for maize farming even as it increased yields, prevented erosion, and conferred a variety of other agronomic benefits. By 1992, estimates show that the system had diffused among more than 60% of farmers in the Department. Both due to this widespread dissemination, and the fact that diffusion was largely spontaneous (unassisted by extensions and NGOs), the maize-mucuna system has become a widely acknowledged "success story" of sustainable agriculture diffusion. However, recent anecdotal evidence, confirmed by the survey research reported here, shows that by the late 1990s, use of the system had begun to decline sharply. Various hypotheses about the cause of this decline were investigated in this research, including whether the abandonment of the mucuna-maize system is attributable to a generalized decline in maize cultivation, changes in land tenure and distribution, a burgeoning cattle industry, infrastructural improvements, widespread infestations of noxious weed (rottboellia cochinchinensis), or limitations in farmer management. Modeling techniques evaluated two land-use decisions: whether to adopt mucuna-maize and the contingent decision of whether to abandon the system, once adopted. Bivariate probit analysis is used in the econometric analysis. Descriptive statistics and econometric results indicate that age, level of income from non-maize sources, the presence of rottboellia, and access to a road or highway are significantly related to the abandonment of overcropping. Meanwhile, greater dedication to maize, diversification into high value crops, greater experience with the system, and annual reseeding of mucuna are associated with continued use of the mucuna-maize rotation. The empirical results overall demonstrate that the phenomenon of maize-muchuna adoption and abandonment is a highly complex process. The results have policy implications for the "farmer to farmer" model of extension as well as the promotion of mucuna-maize as a sustainable agriculture technique. In the first case, less emphasis on diffusion and greater attention to farmer-to-farmer teaching of crop system dynamics may be important for the durability of cover crop systems. Regarding the second, cover crop species like mucuna should not be viewed as "silver bullet" solution to sustaining low-input agriculture: indeed, exclusive rotation of mucuna with maize may eliminate critical sources of plant and animal species diversity, ultimately undermining the system itself.International development, Sustainable agriculture, Adoption, Disadoption, Farmer management, Crop Production/Industries,

The use of ICT in the assessment of modern languages: the English context and European viewpoints

The ever increasing explosion of highly attractive multimedia resources on offer has boosted the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the teaching and learning of modern languages. The use of ICT to assess languages is less frequent, however, although online testing is starting to develop. This paper examines the national context for the assessment of modern foreign language proficiency in England, outlines the kinds of assessment currently available and the development of electronic forms of assessment and compares the above with the survey results of a European Union (EU) funded project on current good practice in online assessment of languages in other European countries. The findings indicate that speaking is inadequately served by online testing as tests currently focus primarily on receptive language skills. The implications for future successful online testing include the incorporation of interactive skills and effective formative feedback

How we were never autonomous: Reproduction, disability, and interdependence in Lilith’s Brood

This essay is about the dynamic tension between reproduction, autonomy, and (dis)ability in Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood. In conversation with theorists and critics of Afrofuturism who argue that technology often brings the hope of a release from the violences of the past, while having the effect only of altering the ways in which those violences function, Butler asks us how to create a future in which the Human Conflict—hierarchy and intelligence—does not structure our world, in which, for example, anti-Blackness does not scaffold our ways of living, loving, and reproducing. Lilith’s Brood seeks, in other words, to break the chain of the “more of the same.” In Lilith’s Brood, this project involves the always unfinished project of opening up, and being open to, the possibility of interdependence and to the terrifying thrill of difference—“dangerous and frightening and intriguing.” However, as the seed’s “tiny positioning movements of independent life” at the end of the trilogy indicates, this is not an endpoint, but rather a horizon, an always unfinished and always difficult project. Butler’s speculative world charts the irresolvably ambivalent tension between autonomy (humans wanting their own Akjai colony, wanting to reproduce on their own) and interdependence (Oankali reproducing with numerous mates, birthing and raising children with the whole community), between having ones own body and sharing worlds with others, between the “more of the same” and the “always already.” While honoring struggles for autonomy (and documenting not only the pleasures, but also the terrors, of interdependence), Butler uses the framework of a “new” world and an “alien” species biologically impelled to be interdependent in order to show what was always already true: we are not autonomous, we have never been autonomous

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries.

This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA's activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors

The Keck Cosmic Web Imager: a capable new integral field spectrograph for the W. M. Keck Observatory

The Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) is a new facility instrument being developed for the W. M. Keck Observatory and funded for construction by the Telescope System Instrumentation Program (TSIP) of the National Science Foundation (NSF). KCWI is a bench-mounted spectrograph for the Keck II right Nasmyth focal station, providing integral field spectroscopy over a seeing-limited field up to 20"x33" in extent. Selectable Volume Phase Holographic (VPH) gratings provide high efficiency and spectral resolution in the range of 1000 to 20000. The dual-beam design of KCWI passed a Preliminary Design Review in summer 2011. The detailed design of the KCWI blue channel (350 to 700 nm) is now nearly complete, with the red channel (530 to 1050 nm) planned for a phased implementation contingent upon additional funding. KCWI builds on the experience of the Caltech team in implementing the Cosmic Web Imager (CWI), in operation since 2009 at Palomar Observatory. KCWI adds considerable flexibility to the CWI design, and will take full advantage of the excellent seeing and dark sky above Mauna Kea with a selectable nod-and-shuffle observing mode. In this paper, models of the expected KCWI sensitivity and background subtraction capability are presented, along with a detailed description of the instrument design. The KCWI team is lead by Caltech (project management, design and implementation) in partnership with the University of California at Santa Cruz (camera optical and mechanical design) and the W. M. Keck Observatory (program oversight and observatory interfaces)

Reviews

The following publications have been reviewed by the mentioned authors;Graphics and Design by R. W. Boycott and J. Bolan, reviewed by Richard KimbellThe Practical Woodwork Book: Anthony Hontoir by John Murray, reviewed by David JonesIntroducing Art - A first book on the History and Appreciation of the Visual Arts by Donald Richardson, reviewed by John LancasterSoldering and Brazing by Tubol Cain, reviewed by  W. T. PriceSheet Metal Work by R. E. Wakefield, reviewed by W. T. PriceThe Art of Welding by W. A. Vause, reviewed by W. T. PriceWorld and Image: A Journal of Verbal/Visual Enquiry. First Issues: Vol.1, January-March 1985 by John Dixon Hunt, reviewed by John LancasterTeachers, Computers and the Classroom by I. Reid and J. Rushton, reviewed by Sean NeillDesign Courses in Britain 1986 by The Design Council, reviewed by J. BarlowGender, science and technology: Inservice handbook by Judith Whyte, reviewed by T. Dore

Blood Pressure Targets for Adults with Vasodilatory Shock:An Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis

Background: We sought to estimate whether a lower mean arterial blood pressure target,compared with a higher mean arterial blood pressure target, reduced 90-day all-causemortality among adult critically ill patients with vasodilatory shock.Methods: Individual patient data meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials identified ina systematic literature search. The main exposure was a lower mean arterial pressure targetcompared to a higher mean arterial pressure target (including usual care). The primaryoutcome was all-cause 90-day mortality. We used a Bayesian random ekects log-binomialmodel to estimate risk ratios (RR) with 95% credible intervals (Crl).Results: 3352 patients were randomized in three trials (65-Trial, SEPSISPAM trial, and theOVATION pilot trial) between 2010 and 2019 across 103 hospitals from the United Kingdom,France, and Canada. When compared to a higher mean arterial blood pressure target orusual care, the risk ratio for all-cause 90-day mortality associated with a lower bloodpressure target was 0.93 (95% CrI 0.76 – 1.07; low certainty, posterior probability of benefit87%). Results were consistent across multiple secondary and sensitivity analyses, includingadjustment for prognostically important baseline covariates and alternative modellingtechniques. Multiple approaches to evaluate heterogeneity of treatment ekect did notidentify any subgroups that may potentially benefit from higher mean arterial blood pressuretargets.Conclusion: Targeting a lower mean arterial blood pressure for vasopressor therapy incritically ill patients with vasodilatory shock possibly reduces all-cause 90-day mortality;however, uncertainty remains.Keywords: shock; intensive care unit; vasoconstrictor agents; mean arterial pressure; allcausemortality; Bayesian