Fertilizer and Fuel Outlook for Fall 2005

As producers begin to review their balance sheets after harvest, many will find the squeeze of not only lower commodity prices, but substantially higher costs. This fall outlook summarizes costs for 2005 and provides insight into anticipated costs for 2006.Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Fertilizer and Fuel Outlook for Spring 2006

This report compares fertilizer and fuel prices for this spring to comparative prices for the past four years for major field crops. In addition, it provides insight into the outlook for this summer and into the prices paid index from the FAPRI's 2006 Baseline.Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A REPRESENTATIVE FARM APPROACH TO OUTREACH WITH BEGINNING FARMERS AND RANCHERS

Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, Representative Farm, Whole Farm Analysis, Risk Management, Online Decision Support, Stochastic, Baseline, Farm Management, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, Q12, Q14, D81,

Educational entrepreneurism in higher education: a comparative case study of two academic centers within one land-grant university

Dissertation advisor: Dr. Joe Donaldson.Vita.Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 16, 2010).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Ed. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2009 .This research explored the relationship of educational entrepreneurism and organizational culture in the creation and evolution of academic centers within one Midwestern land-grant university facing resource constraints. Particular attention was given to: (a) synthesizing current entrepreneurial and organizational culture and evolution theory as it relates to postsecondary education; (b) ascertaining the implications of a qualitative, comparative, case study approach to analyzing entrepreneurism and organizational culture and evolution within a university setting and (c) presenting the application of and reflection on a qualitative, comparative, case study approach to researching educational entrepreneurism and organizational culture and evolution as they relate to the creation of two, not-for-profit centers. The findings of this study indicate that these centers have utilized entrepreneurial processes within an academic and non-academic setting to serve a public interest. Primary factors supporting entrepreneurial processes in these academic centers include: (a) mission focus; (b) remaining objective to serve multiple constituents; (c) cultivating resources, both people and funding; (d) building leaders from within; (e) commitment and (f) champions. The relationship of organizational culture with these factors was found to be the key for continuous innovation.Includes bibliographical reference

FAPRI 2005 Outlook for Missouri Agriculture

Agricultural and Food Policy,

Temporal and spatial variation in distribution of fish environmental DNA in England’s largest lake

Environmental DNA offers great potential as a biodiversity monitoring tool. Previous work has demonstrated that eDNA metabarcoding provides reliable information for lake fish monitoring, but important questions remain about temporal and spatial repeatability, which is critical for understanding the ecology of eDNA and developing effective sampling strategies. Here, we carried out comprehensive spatial sampling of England's largest lake, Windermere, during summer and winter to 1) examine repeatability of the method, 2) compare eDNA results with contemporary gill-net survey data, 3) test the hypothesis of greater spatial structure of eDNA in summer compared to winter due to differences in water mixing between seasons, and 4) compare the effectiveness of shore and offshore sampling for species detection. We find broad consistency between results from three sampling events in terms of species detection and abundance, with eDNA detecting more species than established methods and being significantly correlated to rank abundance determined by long-term data. As predicted, spatial structure was much greater in the summer, reflecting less mixing of eDNA than in the winter. For example Arctic charr, a deep-water species, was only detected in deep, mid-lake samples in the summer, while littoral or benthic species such as minnow and stickleback were more frequently detected in shore samples. By contrast in winter, the eDNA of these species was more uniformly distributed. This has important implications for design of sampling campaigns, for example, deep-water species could be missed and littoral/benthic species over-represented by focusing exclusively on shoreline samples collected in the summer

Estimating age and investigating epigenetic changes related to health across multiple bottlenose dolphin populations

Funding: This study was partially funded by SERDP grants RC20-C2-1097, RC20-7188 and RC21-3091 awarded to Peter Tyack, Prescott Award NA20NMF4390132 awarded to Ashley Barratclough, and the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration, Assessment and Restoration Division. This work was also supported by the Office of Naval Research Marine Mammal Biology Program (grant N00014-22-1-2706), and the Oiled Wildlife Care Network Grant A23-1689-S002.Epigenetic age estimation has the potential to influence conservation approaches for wildlife. DNA extracted from a small skin sample can be analyzed for methylation changes, which can be related to chronological age through an epigenetic clock to obtain a DNA-based age estimate (DNAm age). For a wide range of cetacean species, skin samples can be obtained remotely using dart biopsy. We tested multiple modeling approaches (elastic net regression, random forest regression, and a hybrid of elastic net and random forest classification) using DNA methylation data from 426 skin samples from observed-age wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.), and 50 managed care dolphins, to develop an epigenetic clock. The hybrid model gave highly accurate age predictions for calf (25 yrs., n = 65), age predictions were less accurate, with MAE of 5.90 yrs. The overall MAE across all ages (n = 476) was 1.91 yrs. DNAm age has been linked to health in humans, with higher age residuals (i.e., higher DNAm age as compared to actual age) being associated with increased risk of morbidity and mortality. We compared dolphin age residuals with previously reported health scores that are predictive of one year mortality risk. Our findings suggest that analysis of DNA methylation patterns is a viable approach, not only for estimating age of dolphins, but potentially also to assess individual and population health.Peer reviewe

FAPRI 2006 U.S. and World Agricultural Outlook

The FAPRI 2006 U.S. and World Agricultural Outlook presents projections of world agricultural production, consumption, and trade under average weather patterns, existing farm policy, and policy commitments under current trade agreements and custom unions. Despite continued high energy prices, world economic growth is expected to remain strong in the coming decade, above 3% per annum. Other major drivers of the 2006 baseline include new bio-energy policies in several large countries, EU sugar policy reform, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) shocks in livestock and poultry markets, and movements in the exchange rate.Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries,

FAPRI 2005 U.S. and World Agricultural Outlook

Crop Production/Industries, Livestock Production/Industries,