DERIVED FEED DEMAND FOR EGYPT'S POULTRY AND EGG SECTOR TO 2010--POLICIES AND IMPLICATIONS

Egypt's derived feed demand for poultry and eggs and its dependency on world feed markets was econometrically projected to 2010. Results reveal a poultry industry as highly dependent on imports, where dependency rate will approach 100 percent for soybeans and 48 percent for yellow corn in 2010.International Relations/Trade,

How Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1) Has Affected World Poultry-Meat Trade

In 2003, outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus had a major negative impact on the global poultry industry. Initially, import demand for both uncooked and cooked poultry declined substantially, due to consumers’ fear of contracting avian influenza by eating poultry meat. Consumer fears adversely affected poultry consumption in many countries, leading to lower domestic prices, decreased production, and lower poultry meat exports. These reductions proved to be short-lived, as prices, consumption, production, and exports returned to preoutbreak levels in a relatively short time. As consumers gained confidence that poultry was safe if properly handled and cooked, world demand for cooked poultry increased. The cooked poultry share of total cooked and uncooked global exports nearly doubled from 2004 to 2006. In 2006, the world poultry industry was again under pressure due to HPAI H5N1 outbreaks, this time in Europe. By the end of the year, however, world poultry meat output had reached a new high, although, for some European countries, it was slightly below the 2005 level.highly pathogenic avian influenza, HPAI H5N1, cooked poultry meat, uncooked poultry meat, poultry exports, domestic poultry prices, export poultry prices, poultry consumption, poultry production, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries,

IMPACT OF SANITARY AND PHYTO-SANITARY AGREEMENTS ON WORLD TRADE OF POULTRY, AND POULTRY PRODUCTS

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/29/04.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade,

Modeling the Rise in Internet-based Petitions

Contemporary collective action, much of which involves social media and other Internet-based platforms, leaves a digital imprint which may be harvested to better understand the dynamics of mobilization. Petition signing is an example of collective action which has gained in popularity with rising use of social media and provides such data for the whole population of petition signatories for a given platform. This paper tracks the growth curves of all 20,000 petitions to the UK government over 18 months, analyzing the rate of growth and outreach mechanism. Previous research has suggested the importance of the first day to the ultimate success of a petition, but has not examined early growth within that day, made possible here through hourly resolution in the data. The analysis shows that the vast majority of petitions do not achieve any measure of success; over 99 percent fail to get the 10,000 signatures required for an official response and only 0.1 percent attain the 100,000 required for a parliamentary debate. We analyze the data through a multiplicative process model framework to explain the heterogeneous growth of signatures at the population level. We define and measure an average outreach factor for petitions and show that it decays very fast (reducing to 0.1% after 10 hours). After 24 hours, a petition's fate is virtually set. The findings seem to challenge conventional analyses of collective action from economics and political science, where the production function has been assumed to follow an S-shaped curve.Comment: Submitted to EPJ Data Scienc

Control Systems and Robotics Outreach to Middle-school Girls: Approach, Results, and Suggestions

We conducted a three-day outreach camp focused on control systems and robotics for 8th grade girls from economically disadvantaged families. The overall objective of the camp was motivating the young girls to consider pursuing a career in engineering and sciences. The main focus of the camp were hands-on labs using LEGO Mindstorms EV3 kit. Students learned about programming, sensors, motors and put their skills to test by creating a mobile robot that took part in three contests: car racing, line following, and parallel parking. A pre- and post-camp survey indicated that although program did not predominantly change the girls’ excitement towards careers in engineering and sciences, it increased the girls’ knowledge and excitement towards robotics and control systems. Our results indicate that short camps help kindle the interests of young girls, but are not able to sway them to take on engineering/science careers. In the latter case, we hypothesize that long-term STEM-based programs (e.g., a quarter or year-long robotics course) might be more effective.Cockrell School of Engineerin

Dietary Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Deprivation Does Not Alter Seizure Thresholds but May Prevent the Anti-seizure Effects of Injected Docosahexaenoic Acid in Rats.

Background: Brain concentrations of omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) have been reported to positively correlate with seizure thresholds in rodent seizure models. It is not known whether brain DHA depletion, achieved by chronic dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) deficiency, lowers seizure thresholds in rats. Objective: The present study tested the hypothesis that lowering brain DHA concentration with chronic dietary n-3 PUFA deprivation in rats will reduce seizure thresholds, and that compared to injected oleic acid (OA), injected DHA will raise seizure thresholds in rats maintained on n-3 PUFA adequate and deficient diets. Methods: Rats (60 days old) were surgically implanted with electrodes in the amygdala, and subsequently randomized to the AIN-93G diet containing adequate levels of n-3 PUFA derived from soybean oil or an n-3 PUFA-deficient diet derived from coconut and safflower oil. The rats were maintained on the diets for 37 weeks. Afterdischarge seizure thresholds (ADTs) were measured every 4-6 weeks by electrically stimulating the amygdala. Between weeks 35 and 37, ADTs were assessed within 1 h of subcutaneous OA or DHA injection (600 mg/kg). Seizure thresholds were also measured in a parallel group of non-implanted rats subjected to the maximal pentylenetetrazol (PTZ, 110 mg/kg) seizure test. PUFA composition was measured in the pyriform-amygdala complex of another group of non-implanted rats sacrificed at 16 and 32 weeks. Results: Dietary n-3 PUFA deprivation did not significantly alter amygdaloid seizure thresholds or latency to PTZ-induced seizures. Acute injection of OA did not alter amygdaloid ADTs of rats on the n-3 PUFA adequate or deficient diets, whereas acute injection of DHA significantly increased amygdaloid ADTs in rats on the n-3 PUFA adequate control diet as compared to rats on the n-3 PUFA deficient diet (P < 0.05). Pyriform-amygdala DHA percent composition did not significantly differ between the groups, while n-6 docosapentaenoic acid, a marker of n-3 PUFA deficiency, was significantly increased by 2.9-fold at 32 weeks. Conclusion: Chronic dietary n-3 PUFA deficiency does not alter seizure thresholds in rats, but may prevent the anti-seizure effects of DHA