Multiple Criteria Decision Making: Method Selection And Application To Three Contrasting Agricultural Case Studies

Agribusiness, farm business and agricultural-environmental decisions which varied in their characteristics were used to evaluate multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) in an agricultural context. This paper discusses differences between the case studies, strengths and weaknesses of the methods used, and the success of the MCDM process based on participants’ expectations and experiences. While MCDM can help identify the best decision, the main benefits identified in using MCDM included better understanding of their own and other’s perspectives, a means to explain the decision and a structured way to work through the decision process. Key problem areas identified included time limitations, understanding and ownership.Multiple criteria decision making, agriculture, decision making, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,

Distribution of Stream Macroalgae in Four High Arctic Drainage Basins

Eighty-three stream reaches were sampled from four drainage basins in the central portions of Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere Islands. The stream included small snowmelt tributaries, those flowing through wetlands, pond outflows, glacial meltwaters, and large trunk rivers, some of which had become braided in their lower portions. Larger channels tended to be quite turbid, and macroscopic algae were negligible in these reaches because they lack adequate light and hard substrata for attachment. The overall stream macroalgal flora was relatively small (15 species) compared to that of other regions of the North American tundra. Cyanobacteria and Chlorophyta accounted for all but one species. The most widespread species was the colonial cyanobacterium, Nostoc commune. Only Scytonema mirabile (Cyanophyta) was a new addition to the stream macroalgal flora of arctic North America. The numbers of species per stream reach ranged from 0 to 5, with a mean of 1.3. The amount of stream bottom covered by macroalgae was 0 to 75%, with an average of ca. 5%. Both species number and percent cover per reach are relatively low.On a procédé à des échantillonnages de 83 tronçons de cours d'eau situés dans quatre bassins de drainage au centre de l'île Axel Heiberg et de l'île d'Ellesmere. Les cours d'eau comprenaient de petits affluents alimentés par la fusion nivale, ceux qui traversaient des terres humides, des émissaires d'étangs, des eaux de fonte glaciaires et d'importants cours d'eau principaux, dont certains étaient devenus anastomosés en aval. Les chenaux larges avaient tendance à être relativement troubles et on ne trouvait que peu d'algues macroscopiques dans ces tronçons en raison du manque de lumière adéquat et des substrats de soutien. La flore macroalgale globale des cours d'eau était assez réduite (15 espèces) par rapport à celle d'autres régions de la toundra nord-américaine. Toutes les espèces sauf une appartenaient aux cyanobactéries et aux chlorophycées. L'espèce la plus répandue était la cyanobactérie coloniale, Nostoc commune. Seule Scytonema mirabile (cyanophycée) était une nouveauté dans la flore macroalgale de l'Arctique nord-américain. Le nombre d'espèces par cours d'eau allait de 0 à 5, avec une moyenne de 1,3. De 0 à 75 p. cent de la superficie du fond des cours d'eau était couverte par les macroalgues, avec une moyenne d'environ 5 p. cent. Le nombre d'espèces comme le pourcentage de leur couverture par tronçon étaient relativement bas

New Zealand Agribusiness Success: An Approach to exploring the role of strategy, structure and conduct on firm performance

This paper presents a framework to explore agribusiness success in New Zealand. The framework provides the basis for historical analysis. It draws on existing theory based on the structure-conduct-performance paradigm but expanded to take account of firm strategy and the analysis of value chains.Agribusiness, structure, conduct, performance, history, Agribusiness,

Diverse and complex challenges to migrant and refugee rental health: reflections of the M8 alliance expert group on migrant health

Forced migration is likely to continue to grow in the coming years due to climate change, disease outbreaks, conflict, and other factors. There are a huge number of challenges to maintaining good health, and specifically good mental health, among migrants at all stages of migration. It is vital to fully understand these diverse challenges so that we can work towards overcoming them. In 2017, as a response to the growing health challenges faced by migrants and refugees, the M8 Alliance created an expert group focussing on migrant and refugee health. The group meets annually at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, and this article is based on the discussions that took place at the third annual meeting (6-7 June 2019) and a special session on "Protecting the Mental Health of Refugees and Migrants," which took place on 27 October at the World Health Summit 2019 in Berlin. Our discussions are also supported by supplementary literature to present the diverse and complex challenges to the mental health of migrants and refugees. We conclude with some lessons learned and hope for the future

Grassland Management and Animal Product Quality

The expectations of consumers ultimately determine the specification of product quality; and grassland systems produce a wide range of animal-based products. Therefore, to provide focus, this paper deals only with food products that are destined for markets that exhibit strong discretionary choice. Quality expectations of consumers have traditionally been based on product attributes such as taste, freshness, nutritional value and appearance, but customer expectations are expanding to encompass food safety, environmental care, animal welfare and biotechnologies. Grassland forages and their management influence the intrinsic sensory properties of food. A dairy products case study is presented, indicating that pasture species and their interaction with local environmental factors, and the methods of forage conservation, can influence the chemical composition of milk, its ability to be processed into butter or cheese, and the final sensory characteristics of the product. These effects may result directly from compounds originating in the forage (e.g. carotenoids, aromatic terpenes) or indirectly through forage-related changes in animal physiology and enzyme production. Knowledge of these influences and the strict control of the determining factors are key elements in the granting of Protected Denomination of Origin (DMO) status and the benefits that accrue from marketing strategies that depend on this status. Animal feeding regimes also influence the attributes of meat. Pasture-grazed animals have harder and yellower carcass fat than grain-fed animals. The daily energy intake of pasture-grazed animals is also generally lower; therefore there is less intra-muscular marbling. In addition, glycogen levels tend to be more marginal, which can negatively interact with psychological stress to produce a greater incidence of high ultimate pH carcasses. High pH levels (\u3e 5.8) result in reduced tenderness, dark muscle and reduced shelf-life of fresh and chilled meats. Early identification of product quality variation is key to placing meat into the correct supply chain, and maximising the total value of the carcass. The positive and negative aspects of fatty acid profiles, phenol and indole compounds, and antioxidants originating from forages are discussed in respect of meat flavour and animal health. Tight planning and management protocols for both plants and animals are crucial to achieving quality raw material from grassland systems. Unlike feedlot and barn-based enterprises, variation in forage quantity and quality can severely impact on animal performance, timeliness of supply and raw product constituents. Control of a forage-based system requires the setting of performance targets and on-going monitoring. Such measures can signal when the tactical use of specialist forages, or of high-quality supplements, will be of most value in maintaining target performance and animal health. Consistently supplying products with desired attributes, attending to animal welfare expectations and caring for environmental integrity will all be required if the credibility of ‘natural’ grassland products is to be sustained in the market-place. Controlled grazing of animals will be invaluable in meeting these multiple market demands

Patterns of trophic niche divergence between invasive and native fishes in wild communities are predictable from mesocosm studies

1. Ecological theory attempts to predict how impacts for native species arise from biological invasions. A fundamental question centres on the feeding interactions of invasive and native species: whether invasion will result in increased interspecific competition, which would result in negative consequences for the competing species, or trophic niche divergence, which would facilitate the invader’s integration into the community and their coexistence with native species. 2. Here, the feeding interactions of a highly invasive fish, topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva, with three native and functionally similar fishes were studied to determine whether patterns of either niche overlap or divergence detected in mesocosm experiments were apparent between the species at larger spatial scales. Using stable isotope analysis, their feeding relationships were assessed initially in the mesocosms (1000 L) and then in small ponds (600 m2). 3. In the mesocosms, a consistent pattern of trophic niche divergence was evident between the sympatric fishes, with niches shifting further apart in isotopic space than suggested in allopatry, revealing that sharing of food resources was limited. Sympatric P. parva also had a smaller niche than their allopatric populations. 4. In eight small ponds where P. parva had coexisted for several years with at least one of the fish species used in the mesocosms, strong patterns of niche differentiation were also apparent, with P. parva always at a lower trophic position than the other fishes, as also occurred in the mesocosms. Where these fishes were sympatric within more complex fish communities in the large ponds, similar patterns were also apparent, with strong evidence of trophic niche differentiation. 5. Aspects of the ecological impacts of P. parva invasion for native communities in larger ponds were consistent with those in the mesocosm experiments. Their invasion resulted in divergence in trophic niches, partly due to their reduced niche widths when in sympatry with other species, facilitating their coexistence in invaded ecosystems. Our study highlights the utility of controlled mesocosm studies for predicting the trophic relationships that can develop from introductions of non-native species into more complex ecosystems and at larger spatial scales

Ecological consequences of indigenous and non-indigenous freshwater fish parasites.

Parasites can have considerable consequences for their freshwater fish hosts, irrespective of whether they are intermediate or final hosts. The ecological consequences of infection arise from processes including parasite manipulation, where the parasite manipulates the host to increase their chance of transmission to the next host in the lifecycle, and parasite-mediated competition, where a consequence of infection is an alteration in the symmetry of competition between hosts and their uninfected conspecifics, or with other species. Whilst there is a great deal of existing knowledge on some of these consequences, there also remain some considerable knowledge gaps. This research covered the role of parasite exposure and water temperature on infection consequences, the foraging responses of fishes to intermediate hosts of the fish parasite Pomphorhynchus laevis that has an indigenous and non-indigenous range in Great Britain, the ecological consequences of this parasite for some freshwater fishes across these ranges, the issue of ‘enemy release’ and ‘parasite acquisition’ in introduced freshwater fishes, and the ecological consequences of infection by some native parasites for native freshwater fish. When the freshwater fish chub (Squalius cephalus) was exposed to different levels of intermediate hosts (Gammarus pulex) of P. laevis under two water temperature treatments, ambient and warmed, it revealed this interaction had considerable consequences for both parasite prevalence and the infection parameters. Whilst parasite prevalence was substantially higher at the elevated temperature, where infections did develop at lower temperatures, they were associated with fewer but larger parasites resulting in significantly higher parasite burdens, indicating complex consequences for host-parasite relationships under conditions of warming. Studies into parasite manipulation have frequently used the P. laevis: G. pulex parasite-intermediate host system for investigating how infections can result in behavioural modifications to the host that then results in their elevated risk of being predated by a fish. Here, comparative behavioural functional response experiments were used to test differences in the consumption rates of three fishes exposed to either uninfected or infected G. pulex, testing the hypothesis that the consumption rate of infected G. pulex would be significantly higher. The Type II functional response curves indicated that the results of the experiments were contrary to this hypothesis, with subsequent behavioural and foraging experiments also supporting these results. These counter-intuitive outcomes were also contrary to most other studies that suggested a parasite would manipulate its intermediate host in a way that promotes its transmission to a final host and facilitating the continuation of its life cycle. The reasons for these outputs were discussed as likely to relate to different selection pressures in this host-parasite system, given this is a generalist parasite with a wide range of potential fish final hosts. This was revealed by studies on this parasite from four fish species from five rivers that demonstrated high parasite prevalence in all species studied and suggested that small-bodied fishes, such as bullhead Cottus gobio, might play important roles in the P. laevis lifecycle. These prevalences, and the pathological consequences of the P. laevis infections, were also consistent across their indigenous and non-indigenous range, suggesting parasite origin had minimal consequences on their virulence and on the susceptibility of hosts to infection. That parasite origin often has minimal ecological consequences for their ecological impacts was reinforced by work on the ‘enemy release hypothesis’ in non-native fish in England and Wales. This revealed very few non-native parasites had been introduced with their non-native fish hosts. Those that had been introduced tended to be specialist parasites with direct lifecycles that had little opportunity to be transmitted to native fishes. Instead, the acquisition of native parasites by the non-native fishes was frequently observed, leading to potential concerns these fish would act as reservoir hosts and spill-back the parasites to the native fishes. Given the low probability of parasite introduction, the ecological consequences of three native parasites with complex lifecycles were then tested on three native fishes, and revealed consistent patterns of trophic niche divergence between infected and uninfected population sub-groups. Whilst the actual mechanism underpinning this, such as parasite-mediated competition, could not be tested, these results did reveal that the consequences of infection can be far-reaching for hosts and can be measured through a variety of methodologies. In summary, the research provided some comprehensive insights into many aspects of the pathological and ecological consequences of infection for some freshwater fishes from native/ non-native and indigenous/ non-indigenous parasites. In doing so, it has raised a series of new questions and hypotheses for further investigation, with the host-parasite systems used here capable of answering these

Clinical Outcomes and Counselling Issues regarding Partial Trisomy of Terminal Xp in a Child with Developmental Delay

Female carriers of balanced translocations involving an X chromosome and an autosome offer genetic counselling challenges. This is in view of the number of possible meiotic outcomes, but also due to the impact of X chromosome-localised genes that are no longer subject to gene silencing through the X chromosome inactivation centre. We present a case where delineation of the extent of X chromosome-localised genes on the derivative autosome using molecular karyotyping offers critical information in the context of genetic counselling.