Farmer participation in agri-environmental schemes : regionalisation and the role of bridging social capital

European agri-environmental schemes are being criticised for reinforcing rather than negating an opposition between agricultural production and environmental production, and for assuming instead of securing a public willingness to pay for agri-environmental change. This paper explores if a regionalisation of agri-environmental governance may contribute to overcome these criticisms. The paper empirically explores three regionalised agri-environmental schemes from Flanders, Belgium, with the use of 40 qualitative interviews with farmers and other relevant stakeholders. Building on the Bourdieusian theory of capital and the conceptual distinction between bonding and bridging social capital, the paper analyses whether and why the regionalised arrangements incited farmers to integrate environmental production in their farm management to meet other regional stakeholders’ demands for agri-environmental change. In doing so, the paper particularly focuses on the role of bridging social capital in fostering farmer participation in agri-environmental governance, which is a topic that—despite a growing scholarly recognition of the importance of social capital in mediating farmers’ environmental behaviour—has to date received scant conceptual and empirical attention. The paper reveals that farmers principally participated in the regionalised agri-environmental schemes to enhance the long-term viability of their agricultural businesses by building up more cooperative and appreciative, bridging social ties with other regional stakeholders. Notably, such participation is only likely to be substantive and lead to long-term, pro-environmental behaviour change of farmers, if farmers actually succeed in building up bridging social capital by receiving other regional stakeholders’ appreciation for their agri-environmental work. The paper ends with discussing the implications of these findings for the future design and implementation of socially and ecologically robust agri-environmental schemes

Governing animal–human relations in farming practices: a study of group housing of sows in the EU

EU pig welfare legislation required European pig farmers to shift from individual to group housing of pregnant sows by 1 January 2013. This requirement was principally designed to meet the sows’ needs for locomotion and interaction with conspecifics. This article explores how the legislation affected everyday sow–farmer interactions, which influence farm animal welfare to an important degree. We start by analysing conceptualisations of sow welfare and sow–farmer relations as implicated in the EU directive and the scientific advice that informed it. Contending that these conceptualisations largely overlook co-developments in sow housing systems and sow–farmer relations, we subsequently introduce an alternative analytical framework that builds on sociological, practice-oriented theories. We then apply this framework to analyse 19 qualitative interviews with pig farmers in Belgium on the on-farm introduction of group sow housing. In this analysis, we discern different ways in which farmers’ choices for particular group housing systems were co-constituted by and co-constitutive of everyday sow–farmer relations. We conclude by reflecting on the scientific and policy implications of these findings

Whiskey tax of 1791 and the consequent insurrection: A Wicked and happy tumult

This paper examines the development of the Whiskey Tax of 1791 and its criticality in the funding of early federal government debt and operations. By considering some of the provisions of the tax and the collection and enforcement procedures, the financial and social impacts of the Whiskey Tax are clarified. Civil disobedience in resisting the tax and the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 are explored in that context. Whether the Whiskey Tax effectively served as the first income tax is considered. Images of original record documents are included

Conserved Residues R420 and Q428 in a Cytoplasmic Loop of the Citrate/Malate Transporter CimH of Bacillus subtilis Are Accessible from the External Face of the Membrane

CimH of Bacillus subtilis is a secondary transporter for citrate and malate that belongs to the 2-hydroxycarboxylate transporter (2HCT) family. Conserved residues R143, R420, and Q428, located in putative cytoplasmic loops and R432, located at the cytoplasmic end of the C-terminal transmembrane segment XI were mutated to Cys to identify residues involved in binding of the substrates. R143C, R420C, and Q428C revealed kinetics similar to those of the wild-type transporter, while the activity of R432C was reduced by at least 2 orders of magnitude. Conservative replacement of R432 with Lys reduced the activity by 1 order of magnitude, by lowering the affinity for the substrate 10-fold. It is concluded that the arginine residue at position 432 in CimH interacts with one of the carboxylate groups of the substrates. Labeling of the R420C and Q428C mutants with thiol reagents inhibited citrate transport activity. Surprisingly, the cysteine residues in the cytoplasmic loops in both R420C and Q428C were accessible to the small, membrane-impermeable, negatively charged MTSES reagent from the external site of the membrane in a substrate protectable manner. The membrane impermeable reagents MTSET, which is positively charged, and AMdiS, which is negatively charged like MTSES but more bulky, did not inhibit R420C and Q428C. It is suggested that the access pathway is optimized for small, negatively charged substrates. Either the cytoplasmic loop containing residues R420 and Q428 is partly protruding to the outside, possibly in a reentrant loop like structure, or alternatively, a water-filled substrate translocation pathway extents to the cytoplasm-membrane interface.

Cue Reactivity in Electronic Cigarette Users with Sign-Tracking or Goal-Tracking Behaviors

Polina Krom Cue reactivity is an important predictor of addiction course and relapse. However, cue reactivity is only observed after an addiction develops. As such, it is unclear to what degree cue reactivity represents a state stemming from the addiction process versus a trait-like propensity towards developing cue-reward associations. Work in animal models has pointed to important individual differences in trait-like inclination to attribute incentive salience to reward-predictive cues that is associated with addiction-relevant behavioral and neurobiological features. These individual differences manifest as sign-tracking (ST) and goal-tracking (GT) behaviors during Pavlovian conditioning. Little research has attempted to translate ST and GT phenotypes to humans or relate them to cue reactivity in addictive disorders. The current study examined electronic cigarette (ECIG) cue reactivity in human participants as a function of a tendency to sign-track. Regular ECIG users were characterized in terms of their sign-/ goal-tracking propensity based on a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm accompanied by eye-tracking and were exposed to two different cue types: ECIG cues (e.g., devices, vape clouds) and neutral cues (water) in separate testing sessions. Our analysis focused on tendencies for sign-tracking / goal-tracking in relation to ECIG cue reactivity, measured as cue-induced cravings and neural responses captured through electroencephalography (EEG). The study found that participants with a higher gaze index, indicating a stronger tendency for sign-tracking, reported increased cravings (assessed by the Schuh-Stitzer questionnaire) in response to ECIG cues compared to neutral cues, consistent with our hypothesis. This finding was only significant in the analyses removing influential observations. Some trend-level effects also pointed to a possibility that contrary to our hypothesis participants with a greater sign-tracking propensity tended to have higher EEG amplitudes in response to neutral cues and lower amplitudes in response to ECIG cues in P300 and LPP components. It is important to note that the data collection is incomplete, and these results may change. Future research could explore alternative measures for sign- and goal-tracking tendencies and tailor ECIG cue stimuli to participants\u27 specific devices