7,231 research outputs found
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
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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
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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
Sovereignty and Nationalism in Contemporary Iraq through the Memory of the 1991 Uprising
As elsewhere in the world, notions of nationalism and sovereignty remain highly influential in the post-2003 Iraqi political landscape. These ideas are articulated and negotiated through historical memories, which are essential tools for political mobilization in contemporary Iraq. Due to the absence of institutional frameworks capable of facilitating investigations of recent historical events such as the Iran-Iraq War and the 1991 uprisings that would be credible and acceptable to all parts of the Iraqi population, collective memory in Iraq remains fragmented. Crucial basic facts have yet to be established. For instance, the limited finances and unstable security environment in Iraq still slow down forensic efforts to map all mass graves and identify the remains. In contemporary Iraq, debates about the Iraqi nation, sovereignty, and other matters of policy are often framed through the memory of the 1991 uprising. This sect-coded conflict was an expression of collective political will that is remembered in contemporary Iraq as part of a national struggle for sovereignty and freedom, at least among my interviewees in the southern part of Iraq, where support for the uprising was strong. More research is needed to determine whether the memory of 1991 has gained similar significance for contemporary debates in the western provinces of Iraq, and to what degree interpretations of these events vary or overlap with those discussed in this essay. Linking the memory of resistance against the BĂ thist regime with contemporary struggles is a phenomenon that has also been observed in the Kurdistan region.40 It remains to be seen whether a bridging narrative regarding Iraq's recent past will eventually evolve out of various strands of collective memory.</p
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