Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) Program or Traditional Government Payment Programs: What Factors Matter?

Rankings of different risk management portfolios including Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE), traditional government payment programs, crop insurance and hedging in futures; and optimal choices of insurance coverage levels and hedge ratios are evaluated for a representative central Indiana corn farm, using Monte Carlo simulation and optimization of expected utilities. The changes of preference between ACRE and traditional government programs under comprehensive scenarios of price and yield risks are studied. Also, Interactions between ACRE and other risk management instruments are examined, and government costs and risk management efficiencies between ACRE and traditional government programs are compared. The results show a strong preference of ACRE for the representative central Indiana corn farm in 2009, due to high ACRE guarantee price and expected drop in corn price from 2008 level. Even if the farm faces weak dependence between farm and aggregate yield, the risk could not offset the addition value ACRE could provide for this year. Also, it is found that there are synergistic effects between ACRE and two individual crop insurance plans but antagonistic effects between ACRE and group insurance plans. ACRE is more efficient than traditional government programs in terms of expected program costs.ACRE, Farm Bill, crop insurance, willingness to pay, government expenditure, government programs, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Risk and Uncertainty,

Nitrilase 1 modulates lung tumor progression in vitro and in vivo.

Uncovering novel growth modulators for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may lead to new therapies for these patients. Previous studies suggest Nit1 suppresses chemically induced carcinogenesis of the foregut in a mouse model. In this study we aimed to determine the role of Nit1 in a transgenic mouse lung cancer model driven by a G12D Kras mutation. Nit1 knockout mice (Nit1-/-) were crossed with KrasG12D/+ mice to investigate whether a G12D Kras mutation and Nit1 inactivation interact to promote or inhibit the development of NSCLC. We found that lung tumorigenesis was suppressed in the Nit1-null background (Nit1-/-:KrasG12D/+). Micro-CT scans and gross tumor measurements demonstrated a 5-fold reduction in total tumor volumes compared to Nit1+/+KrasG12D/+ (

Evolution of the Genus Camellia Based on the Biological Interaction and the Historical Background

departmental bulletin pape

Control of CCND1 ubiquitylation by the catalytic SAGA subunit USP22 is essential for cell cycle progression through G1 in cancer cells.

Overexpression of the deubiquitylase ubiquitin-specific peptidase 22 (USP22) is a marker of aggressive cancer phenotypes like metastasis, therapy resistance, and poor survival. Functionally, this overexpression of USP22 actively contributes to tumorigenesis, as USP22 depletion blocks cancer cell cycle progression in vitro, and inhibits tumor progression in animal models of lung, breast, bladder, ovarian, and liver cancer, among others. Current models suggest that USP22 mediates these biological effects via its role in epigenetic regulation as a subunit of the Spt-Ada-Gcn5-acetyltransferase (SAGA) transcriptional cofactor complex. Challenging the dogma, we report here a nontranscriptional role for USP22 via a direct effect on the core cell cycle machinery: that is, the deubiquitylation of the G1 cyclin D1 (CCND1). Deubiquitylation by USP22 protects CCND1 from proteasome-mediated degradation and occurs separately from the canonical phosphorylation/ubiquitylation mechanism previously shown to regulate CCND1 stability. We demonstrate that control of CCND1 is a key mechanism by which USP22 mediates its known role in cell cycle progression. Finally, USP22 and CCND1 levels correlate in patient lung and colorectal cancer samples and our preclinical studies indicate that targeting USP22 in combination with CDK inhibitors may offer an approach for treating cancer patients whose tumors exhibit elevated CCND1

Spatial Metrics of Interaction between CD163-Positive Macrophages and Cancer Cells and Progression-Free Survival in Chemo-Treated Breast Cancer

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) promote progression of breast cancer and other solid malignancies via immunosuppressive, pro-angiogenic and pro-metastatic effects. Tumor-promoting TAMs tend to express M2-like macrophage markers, including CD163. Histopathological assessments suggest that the density of CD163-positive TAMs within the tumor microenvironment is associated with reduced efficacy of chemotherapy and unfavorable prognosis. However, previous analyses have required research-oriented pathologists to visually enumerate CD163+ TAMs, which is both laborious and subjective and hampers clinical implementation. Objective, operator-independent image analysis methods to quantify TAM-associated information are needed. In addition, since M2-like TAMs exert local effects on cancer cells through direct juxtacrine cell-to-cell interactions, paracrine signaling, and metabolic factors, we hypothesized that spatial metrics of adjacency of M2-like TAMs to breast cancer cells will have further information value. Immunofluorescence histo-cytometry of CD163+ TAMs was performed retrospectively on tumor microarrays of 443 cases of invasive breast cancer from patients who subsequently received adjuvant chemotherapy. An objective and automated algorithm was developed to phenotype CD163+ TAMs and calculate their density within the tumor stroma and derive several spatial metrics of interaction with cancer cells. Shorter progression-free survival was associated with a high density of CD163+ TAMs, shorter median cancer-to-CD163+ nearest neighbor distance, and a high number of either directly adjacent CD163+ TAMs (within juxtacrine proximity \u3c12 µm to cancer cells) or communicating CD163+ TAMs (within paracrine communication distance \u3c250 µm to cancer cells) after multivariable adjustment for clinical and pathological risk factors and correction for optimistic bias due to dichotomization

Lineage-Specific Restraint of Pituitary Gonadotroph Cell Adenoma Growth

Although pituitary adenomas are usually benign, unique trophic mechanisms restraining cell proliferation are unclear. As GH-secreting adenomas are associated with p53/p21-dependent senescence, we tested mechanisms constraining non-functioning pituitary adenoma growth. Thirty six gonadotroph-derived non-functioning pituitary adenomas all exhibited DNA damage, but undetectable p21 expression. However, these adenomas all expressed p16, and >90% abundantly expressed cytoplasmic clusterin associated with induction of the Cdk inhibitor p15 in 70% of gonadotroph and in 26% of somatotroph lineage adenomas (p = 0.006). Murine LβT2 and αT3 gonadotroph pituitary cells, and αGSU.PTTG transgenic mice with targeted gonadotroph cell adenomas also abundantly expressed clusterin and exhibited features of oncogene-induced senescence as evidenced by C/EBPβ and C/EBPδ induction. In turn, C/EBPs activated the clusterin promoter ∼5 fold, and elevated clusterin subsequently elicited p15 and p16 expression, acting to arrest murine gonadotroph cell proliferation. In contrast, specific clusterin suppression by RNAis enhanced gonadotroph proliferation. FOXL2, a tissue-specific gonadotroph lineage factor, also induced the clusterin promoter ∼3 fold in αT3 pituitary cells. As nine of 12 pituitary carcinomas were devoid of clusterin expression, this protein may limit proliferation of benign adenomatous pituitary cells. These results point to lineage-specific pathways restricting uncontrolled murine and human pituitary gonadotroph adenoma cell growth

The Dataset of Camellia Cultivars Names in the World

The species of the genus Camellia arise in southeast Asia, with 80 percent of the species coming from China. These include economically important C. sinensis (Tea) and C. oleifera (oil) and the decorative C. japonica, C. reticulata and C. sasanqua etc.As camellias had been cultivated for very long time, and had been developed as much popular throughout the world, a very large number of camellias had been cultivated. So far, over 23,000 cultivars, with nearly 45,000 cultivar names including synonyms, have been registered or published. In order to strengthen the system of validity by prior publication, prevent further duplication when selecting names for new cultivars, and assist in clearing up some of the confusion that still clings to a few of the old cultivar names, it is urgently needed to have a dataset to include all camellia cultivars in the long history throughout the world.The camellia cultivar Names were widely collected from books and journals and new registrations through the world, and reviewed by experts in the online working platform, the Database of International Camellia Register. After treating some important issues existed in camellia names, especially those plenty of re-used names and diacritical marks etc. in Japanese cultivars, a dataset of Camellia names was summarized from the year of 1253 to 2019 throughout the world (Table 1). So far totally 45,210 cultivar names were released by different countries, including 23,887 accepted names and 21,323 synonyms or other names. Excluding 3,944 names believed extinct, totally 19,944 cultivar names are present used. Among camellia cultivars, most of them (23,449) were for ornamental, 429 for tea, 228 for oil. Most cultivars (ca. 76.10%) were from C. japonica and its hybrids (19,050), around 5.73% cultivars were from C. sasanqua and its hybrids (1,434), and about 5.72% were from C. reticulata and its hybrids (1,432). Top five origin countries are USA (7,502 cultivars), Japan (6,592), Italy (2,833), China (2,066) and Australia (1,216). After analyzing the relationship of cultivar numbers in different years and countries, the development history of Camellia had close related with those of countries in the world. It is the most comprehensive dataset in the genus Camellia throughout the world managed by International Camellia Registration team, which will facilitate quick reference and scientific naming for breeders, and utilization of camellias through the Belt and Road Initiative

Study on the Mechanism of Gas Component Release for Biomass Pyrolysis

Biomass energy utilization can solve the contradiction between economic development and energy and environment. Biomass pyrolysis technology is not only one of the thermochemical conversion technologies, but also the necessary stage of biomass gasification, which has become a hot academic research topic. Firstly, based on the pyrolysis experimental data of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, the analytical expressions of pyrolysis gas mass yields of different biomass components varying with temperature were obtained; then, the prediction of pyrolysis products was obtained by mass component superposition method, and the correction coefficient of biomass pyrolysis gas yield model was obtained based on the comparison between the average yield of biomass pyrolysis gas and the predicted value of pyrolysis products; finally, the gas release mechanism model of biomass pyrolysis was obtained. This study provides theoretical basis and technical support for the development of biomass utilization technology