AGRICULTURAL POLICY REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: AN UNFINISHED AGENDA

The paper is divided into three sections: a discussion of the major provisions of the FAIR act of 1996 [Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996]; a review of the political forces leading up to it; and a discussion of reforms that could extend the incipient agenda that it represents.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Agricultural policy reform in the United States: an unfinished agenda

The 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act (FAIR) contained important breaks with a tradition of crop-by-crop subsidies dating back to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. Farmers with recorded base acres were given the opportunity (which nearly all accepted) to sign a seven-year `contract' with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), under which payments will be continued on the merged base acres on a declining schedule until the year 2002. FAIR is an unfinished agenda. First, the coverage of `freedom to farm' is only partial, with numerous commodities left out of the decoupling programme. Second, the largest producers will augment their already significant receipts with generous lump sum transfers from USDA. This will further reinforce the concentration of roughly 90 per cent of receipts and payments in the hands of the 100 000 to 200 000 largest producers of field crops. An alternative would be to make payments in times of low marketing receipts which recede when prices are high.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Evaluation of the Sustainable Employment in a Green US Economy (SEGUE)

The Rockefeller Foundation's Sustainable Employment in a Green US Economy(SEGUE) initiative has been a central player in green job discussions since 2009, andeven earlier through the Foundation's Campaign for American Workers. In its earliestdevelopmental stages, the initiative sought "to maximize the 'green' growth areas ofthe economy while benefiting low- and moderate-income workers" (RockefellerFoundation, 2009b). SEGUE focused on creating jobs by supporting green economicactivities. Initially, the focus was the building energy-retrofit market in the constructionindustry and, later, on water infrastructure and waste management. The demandfor workers became recognized as the bottleneck that needed to be released, in orderto realize the benefits of the green economy.To document and expand upon the learning and exploration that SEGUE has started,the Rockefeller Foundation provided a grant to the research firm, Abt Associates,Inc., in April 2012, to conduct a short-term, developmental evaluation of SEGUE. Theevaluation focused on three areas: learning for the purposes of determining SEGUE'sfuture direction, documenting SEGUE's grant and non-grant outputs for accountabilityneeds, and providing public knowledge on green jobs and evaluations in general.This report provides the results from the evaluation

Whittier Neighborhood Housing Profile.

Supported by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and prepared at the request of the Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing (MICAH)

Silence and word in Elizabeth Gaskell’s : The Life of Charlotte Brontë

Biografias são elementos importantes no desenvolvimento da fortuna crítica de um escritor. Isso fica claro no caso da autora Charlotte Brontë, cuja vida pessoal é quase tão conhecida quanto suas obras literárias. Desse modo, a presente monografia analisa a primeira biografia sobre Brontë, chamada The Life of Charlotte Brontë, escrita por Elizabeth Gaskell pouco depois da morte da autora. Essa obra foi composta a pedido do Reverendo Patrick Brontë, pai de Charlotte, e tinha a finalidade de reverter a imagem negativa que se criara devido aos elementos do estilo de Brontë que feriam uma série de preceitos vitorianos. A partir desta primeira biografia, publicada em 1857, começa a se formar a imagem mítica que até hoje envolve não apenas Charlotte Brontë, mas toda a sua família. O objetivo da pesquisa é verificar certas escolhas feitas por Gaskell sobre quais aspectos evidenciar e apresentar como verdadeiros e quais omitir ou mitigar. A metodologia utilizada é uma leitura contrastiva entre The Life of Charlotte Brontë e outra biografia mais recente, The Brontës, publicada em 1995 por Juliet Barker, a historiadora curadora da biblioteca da Brontë Society. Esta monografia se desenvolve em duas partes. A primeira apresenta as autoras envolvidas em The Life of Charlotte Brontë, a biógrafa Elizabeth Gaskell e a biografada Charlotte Brontë, em relação aos motivos que levaram à apresentação que é feita de Brontë para o público vitoriano. A segunda discute o que é dito e o que é calado na biografia, analisando as razões e estabelecendo um contraponto sobre como essas questões são vistas e compreendidas hoje em dia. Como apoio teórico sobre biografias e o papel do eu-biográfico recorro a HAMILTON (2007) e SCHMIDT (2014). Ao término da pesquisa, espero que o trabalho contribua (1) para o nosso entendimento sobre o desenvolvimento da fortuna crítica de Brontë e da formação do mito cultural que envolve a família Brontë; (2) para identificarmos as diferentes visões entre aquela época e a nossa com respeito a autoria e aos papeis de gênero; e (3) para apontar as grandes diferenças entre o que se considerava ser a função arte no século XIX e a nossa visão atual.Biographies are relevant elements in the development of an author’s critical fortune. This is clear in the case of Charlotte Brontë, whose personal life is almost as discussed as her literary works. Therefore, the present monograph analyses Brontë’s first biography, called The Life of Charlotte Brontë, written by Elizabeth Gaskell and published two years after Brontë’s death. Gaskell wrote this work by request of Reverend Patrick Brontë, Charlotte’s father. The intention was to revert the negative image that was created due to some elements of Brontë’s style, which did not fit the Victorian norms of morality. This first biography, published in 1857, is the starting point to the mystical imagery that involves not only Charlotte, but her whole family, to this day. The objective of the research is to verify certain choices made by Gaskell about aspects to enhance and present as truthful, and aspects to omit and mitigate. The methodology used was a contrastive reading of The Life of Charlotte Brontë and another recent biography, The Brontës, published in 1995 by Juliet Barker, the curate historian of the Brontë Society. This monograph is developed in two parts. The first presents both authors involved in The Life of Charlotte Brontë: the biographer, Elizabeth Gaskell, and the biographee, Charlotte Brontë, in relation to the circumstances that provoked this specific presentation of Brontë to the Victorian public. The second discusses “word” and “silence”, i.e., what is emphasized and what is omitted, analysing the reasons, and establishing a counterpoint about how some issues were viewed then, and are comprehended now. As theoretical support on biographies and the biographical-self I resort to HAMILTON (2007) and SCHMIDT (2014). In the end of this research, I hope that this work may contribute (1) to our understanding about the development of Brontë’s critical fortune and the creation of the cultural myth of the Brontë family; (2) to identify differences in the perception of some themes at that time and nowadays, especially regarding authorship and gender roles; and (3) to point out the big divergences between what was considered art’s function in the 19th Century and our current vision on the subject

The Role of the Opioid Crisis in Elder Abuse

As the opioid crisis has deepened over the past twenty years, its effect on individuals and families, including older adults, has grown. To find out how the opioid crisis might be impacting elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation in Maine, we conducted a mixed methods analysis of 2015-2018 Maine Adult Protective Services (APS) investigations to determine: 1) Did opioid-related investigations increase over time? 2) Do investigations involving opioid misuse or abuse differ from investigations that don’t involve opioids? 3) What themes or features of cases involving opioid misuse or abuse by clients and/or perpetrators emerge from the data? Key Findings: The annual number of opioid-related investigations increased 2015-2018, but the rate of increase was parallel to the general increase of elder abuse investigations over the time period. Opioid-related investigations ranged between 2.5-2.9% of all elder abuse investigations over the time period. Clients in opioid-related investigations tended to be younger than clients in non-drug-related investigations. Forty percent of clients in Opioid-related investigations were 60-69 years old compared to twenty-three percent of clients in Non-drug-related investigations. Opioid-related investigations were more likely to have three or more allegations and include an allegation of exploitation compared to Non-drug-related investigations. Common themes in the opioid-related investigations included: Clients with opioid prescriptions also exhibited signs of substance use disorder (SUD) or opioid use disorder (OUD); clients with opioid prescriptions had difficulties managing their prescriptions, including taking too much or too little, or needing to hide their medication to keep them away from family members or others.; clients with opioid prescriptions encountered barriers to obtaining the medications such as not being able to have their pharmacy deliver them, having to travel to appointments for pill counts, or being denied access to an opioid medication due to the behavior of a family member. In exploitation investigations, there were instances of the perpetrator stealing the client\u27s money or property to purchase drugs elsewhere as well as instances of stealing the client\u27s money and the client\u27s opioid prescription. Client use of opioids can put them at risk of exploitation through impaired physical and cognitive ability

Cj0596 is a periplasmic peptidyl prolyl cis-trans isomerase involved in Campylobacter jejuni motility, invasion, and colonization

Abstract Background Campylobacter jejuni is a gastrointestinal pathogen of humans, but part of the normal flora of poultry, and therefore grows well at the respective body temperatures of 37°C and 42°C. Proteomic studies on temperature regulation in C. jejuni strain 81–176 revealed the upregulation at 37°C of Cj0596, a predicted periplasmic chaperone that is similar to proteins involved in outer membrane protein folding and virulence in other bacteria. Results The cj0596 gene was highly conserved in 24 strains and species of Campylobacter, implying the importance of this gene. To study the role that Cj0596 plays in C. jejuni pathogenesis, a mutant derivative of strain 81–176 was constructed in which the cj0596 gene was precisely deleted. A revertant of this mutant was isolated by restoring the gene to its original chromosomal location using streptomycin counterselection. The cj0596 mutant strain demonstrated a slightly decreased growth rate and lower final growth yield, yet was more motile and more invasive of human intestinal epithelial cells than wild-type. In either single or mixed infections, the mutant was less able to colonize mice than 81–176. The cj0596 mutant also expressed altered levels of several proteins. Conclusion Mutation of cj0596 has an effect on phenotypes related to C. jejuni pathogenesis, probably due to its role in the proper folding of critical outer membrane proteins.</p