Transformation of agricultural sector of Ukrainian economics: some social and economic results

Agricultural sector of Ukrainian economics is in the period of transformations, which are accompanied by increase of negative tendencies in the social sphere: depopulation of significant territories, worsening of living conditions for rural population, increasing of mass poverty, growing unemployment, sharp income differentiation. High social losses against a background of development of large-scale commercial production, land concentration and capitalization of production are leading to increase of social tensions in society thus hampering country's exit from the crisis. Ukrainian economic science and practice of reforms hasn't been ready that social processes in the economics under reforms are complicated and inconsistent: some of them are contributing to economic increase, other vice versa are influencing in the opposite way. Currently the relevant task is development of the efficient social policy promoting structural and institutional rebuilding of economics, stimulating sustainable economic growth. In order to solve this task it's very important to bring economics out of shadow, which is based on humiliatingly low level of wages in Ukraine, prearranged by the inadequate shares of income distribution between the labor and the capital. Processes of land concentration, attraction of industrial capital and creation of large-scale integrated commercial structures in agricultural sector are strengthening shadowing of economics and increasing disproportions in such distribution. With the existence of the shadow economics nominal and real increase of salaries doesn't necessarily mean increase of standards of living for country's population. For instance, average monthly wage in Ukrainian agriculture grew 4,5 times from 1999 to 2006, but the share of wages in Gross added value (GAV) dropped almost two times. In the industry wage increase 5,3 times leaded to wage drop in by 14,3% GAV. And only in service and construction the respective ratio grew by 4,3% and 3%. In the country with the transitional economics it's impossible to improve standards of living for population by simple wage increase without simultaneous actions aimed at bringing the economics out of the shadows. The biggest threat of low standards of living of Ukrainians is that there're falling numbers of rural population and large territories are being depopulated. Identification of main trends for development of modern society and social factors of economic growth should promote identification of main directions for social and economic policy of the state during establishment of new rural way of living in Ukraine. Keywords: agricultural transformations, rural development policy, depopulation of rural territories, social factors of economic growth.agricultural transformations, rural development policy, depopulation of rural territories, social factors of economic growth., Agricultural and Food Policy,

Peculiarities of creation of extra large agricultural companies under conditions of insufficient legislative regulation in Ukraine

Agricultural transformations in Ukraine resulted in division of tracts of land and creation of large number of small private land owners. Since December 1999 these processes were developing with especially high speed after adoption of Presidential Decree "On emergency actions aimed at acceleration of reorganization of agricultural sector of economics", which has become fundamental legislative act in conducting land and agricultural reforms. During the first year after adoption of the abovementioned decree, there started development of land market, which ought to have included: private property for land, legislative protection of land rent, possibilities of free transfers of ownership rights for land from one market subject to another (purchasing and selling of land), as its components. Namely for solving this task, which is important for completion of land reform, Ukrainian Parliament has imposed moratorium that is still in force. First of all in this context, it is necessary to develop institutional background for ownership and selling of land and its main components - cadastre and register of land plots. The task of cadastre - description of physical characteristics of land plots, the register - description of their legal status. It is impossible do develop land market that is civilized and understandable for society without introduction of unified system of land registration. Incompleteness of agricultural transformation led to development of land market under conditions of insufficient legislative regulation. In Ukraine processes purchasing and selling of agricultural lands are developing spontaneously, enlargement and consolidation led to development of extra large agricultural companies that are increasingly influencing situation in agricultural sector, but also in social and economic situation in the country.Ukrainian agriculture, agricultural transformations, land market, land latifundia, state agricultural policy., Agribusiness,

Food Security and Socioeconomic Aspects of Sustainable Rural Development in Ukraine

In this paper we analyze current agriculture development trends in Ukraine. Using the results of the analysis, collected data and experts estimates we develop an integrated approach to assist decision making regarding long-term and robust agricultural policies that ensure scio-economic goals, food security and environmental safety. The proposed stochastic geographically explicit model for the analysis of robust rural development strategies adopts different criteria, among others are satisfying local demands consistent with the country-wide food production targets. The paper discusses application of the model with selected results on the level of Ukrainian oblasts

eine neue SNP-Genotypisierungsmethode

1\. TITLE PAGE, TABLE OF CONTENTS, ABBREVIATIONS 6 2\. INTRODUCTION 7 2.1. SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISM - DEFINITION AND APPLICATIONS 7 2.1.1. What are SNPs? 7 2.1.2. SNP maps 8 2.1.3. Technology development for SNP detection 9 2.2. CURRENT STATE IN THE FIELD OF SNP DETECTION 9 2.2.1. Hybridization-based methods 10 2.2.1.1. Microarrays 10 2.2.1.2. DASH 12 2.2.1.3. Homogenous assays 14 2.2.2. Enzymatic methods 17 2.2.2.1. SNP discrimination by polymerase 17 2.2.2.1.1. Allele-specific PCR 17 2.2.2.1.2. Primer extension 19 2.2.2.1.2.1. Primer extension on microarrays 19 2.2.2.1.2.2. Homogenous primer extension assays 21 2.2.2.1.2.3. Primer extension with MALDI-TOF detection 22 2.2.2.1.2.4. Pyrosequencing 23 2.2.2.2. SNP discrimination by ligase 25 2.2.2.3. Invasive cleavage 29 2.2.2.4. Site-specific cleavage 31 2.2.3. Chemical ligation 31 3\. MATERIALS AND METHODS 34 3.1. MATERIALS 34 3.1.1. Oligonucleotides 35 3.1.2. DNA samples 35 3.1.3. SNP loci 35 3.2. METHODS 35 3.2.1. Universal oligonucleotides 35 3.2.2. Design of locus-specific oligonucleotides 36 3.2.3. Preparation of detector oligonucleotides 37 3.2.4. Ligation detection reaction (LDR) - TaqMan SNP detection 38 3.2.4.1. One tube - one locus procedure 38 3.2.4.2. One tube - many loci procedure 39 3.2.4.3. Determination of minimal concentrations of DOs 39 3.2.4.4. Influence of PEG on the hybridization of DOs 39 3.2.5. Hot start Taq polymerase preparation 40 3.2.5.1. Purification of Taq polymerase. 40 3.2.5.2. Determination of Taq polymerase activity 41 3.2.5.3. Preparation of hot start Taq polymerase 42 3.2.5.4. Estimation of the efficiency of formaldehyde inactivation 42 3.2.6. Pfu DNA Ligase preparation 43 3.2.6.1. Purification of Pfu DNA ligase. 43 3.2.6.2. Estimation of Pfu DNA Ligase activity 44 3.2.7. T4 DNA Ligase preparation 44 3.2.8. Genomic DNA purification 44 3.2.8.1. Plant Genomic DNA purification using CTAB buffer 44 3.2.8.21. Plant Genomic DNA purification using homemade silica spin-columns. 45 3.2.8.3. Genomic DNA purification from saliva. 46 4\. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 48 4.1. BACKGROUND 48 4.2. LDR-TAQMAN SNP DETECTION METHOD 50 4.2.1. The structure of detector oligonucleotides 51 4.2.2. The "one tube - one locus" procedure (Figure 13) 53 4.2.3. The "one tube - many loci" procedure (Figure 14) 55 4.2.4. Discussion of the LDR-TaqMan protocol 58 4.3. LDR-TAQMAN GENOTYPING KITS 64 4.3.1. Preparation of enzymes and Detector oligonucleotides 64 4.3.1.1. Homemade Pfu DNA ligase 65 4.3.1.2. Homemade hot start Taq DNA polymerase 65 4.3.1.3. Plastic consumables 66 4.3.1.4. Plant and human genomic DNA isolation using homemade spin columns 66 4.3.1.5. Ligation-based synthesis of Detector Oligonucleotides (DOs) 66 4.3.2. Arabidopsis thaliana SNP kit 69 4.3.3. Human SNP kit 75 5\. SUMMARY 79 5.1. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG 80 6\. REFERENCES 81 7\. SUPPLEMENTS 98The LDR-TaqMan SNP genotyping method was elaborated and patented [Borodina et al., 2004; EP03019521]. The method is based on the ligation detection reaction (LDR), which is performed directly on genomic DNA. During the LDR, the biallelic state of an SNP locus is converted into the bimarker state of ligated detector oligonucleotides. The state of the markers is then determined by the 5'-nuclease assay (TaqMan) with universal fluorescent probes. The technology is sensitive, has high discrimination power, needs no locus- specific optimization and is applicable both for individual and multiplex SNP analyses. To transfer the technology to scientific partners, the following additional tasks were solved: * a method for cost-effective synthesis of long (60-120nt) oligonucleotides with block structure was developed and patented [Borodina et al., 2003; PCT/EP 2004/003921]; * a procedure for DNA isolation from plant material and saliva on home-made silica spin-columns was established [Borodina et al., 2003a]; * enzymes required for the method (thermostable Pfu DNA ligase and hot start Taq DNA polymerase) were cloned and expressed. The LDR-TaqMan method was applied for SNP genotyping of human and Arabidopsis thaliana DNA samples: * a kit for genotyping of 9 clinically important human SNPs was prepared and used for determination of allele frequencies of these SNPs in two East European populations (Ukrainians and Belorussians, 216 DNA samples) [Kozhekbaeva et al., 2004]; * a 138-loci genotyping kit for Arabidopsis thaliana accessions Columbia (Col-0) and C24 was prepared and tested in the blind genotyping of 10 plants. A comparison of the LDR-TaqMan genotyping results with those obtained by conventional methods (sequencing, RFLP, SNaPshot, Amplifluor [Rickert et al., 2004]) demonstrated the efficiency and reliability of the LDR-TaqMan procedure. Ready-to-use genotyping kits (including enzymes, buffers and sets of detector oligonucleotides) were transferred to collaborators in Golm (Germany) and Moscow (Russia).Im Rahmen der Arbeit wurde die LDR-TaqMan SNP-Genotypisierungsmethode entwickelt und patentiert [Borodina et al., 2004; EP03019521]. Die Methode basiert auf der direkt mit genomischer DNA durchgefuhrten Ligationsdetektionsreaktion (LDR). Abhangig vom allelischen Zustand des SNP Locus wird eine korrespondierende Markersequenz in das Ligationsprodukt integriert. Die Markersequenz wird im folgenden 5'-Exonukleaseassay (TaqMan) durch universelle Sonden identifiziert. Die Methode ist sensitiv, hat ein hohes Diskriminierungsvermogen, bedarf keiner lokusspezifischen Optimierung und ist in Single- als auch Multiplexanalysen anwendbar. Um die Technologie unseren wissenschaftlichen Partnern zur Verfugung zu stellen, wurden folgende Aufgaben gelost: * die kosteneffiziente Synthese langer (60 - 120nt) Oligonukleotide mit Blockstruktur [Borodina et al., 2003; PCT/EP 2004/003921]; * Entwicklung einer effektiven Methode zur DNA Isolation aus pflanzlichem Material und Speichel in Silica basierten Saulen [Borodina et al., 2003a]; * Klonierung und Expression von fur die Methode benotigten Enzymen (thermostabile Pfu DNA Ligase und HotStart-DNA Polymerase). Die LDR-TaqMan Methode wurde zur SNP-Genotypisierung von humanen und Arabidopsis thaliana Proben verwendet: * ein Genotypisierungskit fur 9 klinisch bedeutenden humanen SNPs wurde angefertigt und zur Bestimmung der Allelfhaufigkeit dieser SNPs in zwei Osteuropaischen Populationen verwendet (Ukrainer und Wei?russen - 216 DNA Proben) [Kozhekbaeva et al., 2004]; * ein 138-Loci Genotypisierungskit fur Arabidopsis thaliana der Okotypen Columbia (Col-0) und C24 wurde angefertigt und in einem Genotypisierungsversuch mit 10 Pflanzen getestet. Der Vergleich der Genotypisierungsergebnisse mit den Ergebnissen von komerziellen Produkten (Sequenzierung, PDRF, SnaPshot, Amplifluor [Rickert et al., 2004]) bestatigte die Effizienz und Zuverlassigkeit der LDR-TaqMan Methode. Daraufhin wurden gebrauchsfertige Genotypisierungskits (Enzyme, Puffer und lokusspezifische Oligonukleotide) Partnern in Golm (Deutschland) und Moskau (Russland) zur Verfugung gestellt

Determination of absorption length of CO2 and high power diode laser radiation for ordinary Portland cement and its influence on the depth of melting

The laser beam absorption lengths of CO2 and a high power diode laser (HPDL) radiation for concrete have been determined. By employing Beer-Lambert’s law the absorption lengths for concrete of CO2 and a HPDL radiation were 47022 m and 17715 m respectively. Indeed, this was borne out somewhat from a cross-sectional analysis of the melt region produced by both lasers which showed melting occurred to a greater depth when the CO2 laser was used

Fermented pheromones – a sustainable solution for plant protection from insect pests

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