Produktionskosten von ökologischem Rindfleisch in ausgewählten Ländern der erweiterten Europäischen Union

The comparison of production costs in selected West and East European countries will give a first idea of possible international trade relationships in the organic beef sector. Via selection of typical farms in five countries, it can be shown that there are lower production costs in the Czech Republic. Nevertheless they are not as pronounced as it could have been expected. Differences in labour productivity are supposed to be the main reason for that. On the other hand the prices for organic beef are much higher in the West European countries, so that for East European farmers and processors a production and export incentive does exist. But for the time being, the organic processing sector is almost completely missing. The establishment of a processing sector in these countries will need time, so that reactions on West European markets at the moment are not very likely

Informationsverhalten der Konsumenten und ethische Werte ökologischer Lebensmittel

Due to globalisation and growing anonymity of trade with organic products, farmers in Europe are under pressure to lower their production standards in order to keep up with world-wide competition. On the other hand consumers increasingly criticise food products which were produced under unsatisfactory social and environmental conditions. The arising question is whether there is a demand for organic food with additional ethical values in order to create possibilities of product differentiation with respect to ethical values. This paper investigates various ethical communication arguments and the price from the consumers’ perspective by means of an Information-Display-Matrix in five European countries. It turns out that ‘regional production’ and ‘animal welfare’ are the most important ethical arguments

Profitability and policy dependency of organic farms in selected European countries

This paper provides an analysis of the impact of support payments on the profitability of organic farms in Europe under changing policy environments, using different data bases and different methodologies. The analysis shows that organic farming has proven to be a financially attractive alternative to conventional farming for many farms in Europe. Organic farming payments are important for the economic situation in most European organic farms. In the public debate on the policy framework for organic farming, the emphasis is often on specific regulations and support programmes for organic farming. However, in the EU the general framework of the Common Agricultural Policy is one of the main determinants of the relative competitiveness of organic farming. The 2003 CAP reform will generally benefit organic farms in Denmark and, partly, Germany, while in Austria, in relative terms the CAP reform has a more negative / less beneficial effect on organic than comparable conventional farms. In the new member states, incomes in typical organic farms are projected to rise significantly following accession

Automated task load detection with electroencephalography: towards passive brain–computer interfacing in robotic surgery

Automatic detection of the current task load of a surgeon in the theatre in real time could provide helpful information, to be used in supportive systems. For example, such information may enable the system to automatically support the surgeon when critical or stressful periods are detected, or to communicate to others when a surgeon is engaged in a complex maneuver and should not be disturbed. Passive brain–computer interfaces (BCI) infer changes in cognitive and affective state by monitoring and interpreting ongoing brain activity recorded via an electroencephalogram. The resulting information can then be used to automatically adapt a technological system to the human user. So far, passive BCI have mostly been investigated in laboratory settings, even though they are intended to be applied in real-world settings. In this study, a passive BCI was used to assess changes in task load of skilled surgeons performing both simple and complex surgical training tasks. Results indicate that the introduced methodology can reliably and continuously detect changes in task load in this realistic environment

The analysis of relapse-free survival curves: implications for evaluating intensive systemic adjuvant treatment regimens for breast cancer

Results of adjuvant dose intensification studies in patients with localised breast cancer have raised questions regarding the clinical usefulness of this treatment strategy. Here, we develop and fit a natural history model for the time to clinical tumour recurrence as a function of the number of involved lymph nodes, and derive plausible predictions of the effects of dose intensification under various conditions. The time to tumour recurrence is assumed to depend on the residual postoperative micrometastatic burden of tumour, the fractional reduction of residual tumour burden (RTB) by treatment, and the rate of regrowth of the RTB to a clinically detectable size. It is assumed that a proportion of micrometastatic tumours are unresponsive to adjuvant chemotherapy even at maximal dose intensity. Data fitted included the San Antonio Cancer Institute (SACI) database of untreated patients, and CALGB #9082, a study comparing a highly intensive and moderately intensity adjuvant regimen in patients with 10+ positive axillary nodes. The proportion of tumours unresponsive to maximally intensive adjuvant treatment is estimated to be 48% (29–67%). The estimated log kill for intermediate-dose therapy from CALGB #9082 was 6.5 logs, compared with 9 logs or greater for high-dose therapy. The model is consistent with a modest but nonnegligible advantage of dose intensification compared with standard therapies in patients with sensitive tumours who have 10+ positive axillary nodes, and suggests that much of this clinical benefit could be achieved using intermediate levels of treatment intensification. The model further suggests that, in patients with fewer than 10 involved axillary nodes, any advantage of treatment intensification over standard therapy would be much reduced, because in patients with smaller tumour burdens of sensitive tumour, a larger proportion of cures achievable with intensified therapy could be achieved as well with standard therapy

Consistent Pattern of Local Adaptation during an Experimental Heat Wave in a Pipefish-Trematode Host-Parasite System

Extreme climate events such as heat waves are expected to increase in frequency under global change. As one indirect effect, they can alter magnitude and direction of species interactions, for example those between hosts and parasites. We simulated a summer heat wave to investigate how a changing environment affects the interaction between the broad-nosed pipefish (Syngnathus typhle) as a host and its digenean trematode parasite (Cryptocotyle lingua). In a fully reciprocal laboratory infection experiment, pipefish from three different coastal locations were exposed to sympatric and allopatric trematode cercariae. In order to examine whether an extreme climatic event disrupts patterns of locally adapted host-parasite combinations we measured the parasite's transmission success as well as the host's adaptive and innate immune defence under control and heat wave conditions. Independent of temperature, sympatric cercariae were always more successful than allopatric ones, indicating that parasites are locally adapted to their hosts. Hosts suffered from heat stress as suggested by fewer cells of the adaptive immune system (lymphocytes) compared to the same groups that were kept at 18°C. However, the proportion of the innate immune cells (monocytes) was higher in the 18°C water. Contrary to our expectations, no interaction between host immune defence, parasite infectivity and temperature stress were found, nor did the pattern of local adaptation change due to increased water temperature. Thus, in this host-parasite interaction, the sympatric parasite keeps ahead of the coevolutionary dynamics across sites, even under increasing temperatures as expected under marine global warming

Exenatide once weekly treatment maintained improvements in glycemic control and weight loss over 2 years

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The once-weekly (QW) formulation of the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist exenatide has been demonstrated to improve A1C, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), body weight, serum lipid profiles, and blood pressure in patients with type 2 diabetes through 52 weeks of treatment. In this report, we describe the 2-year results of the open-label, open-ended extension to the DURATION-1 trial of exenatide QW for type 2 diabetes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A 2-stage protocol was used: patients received either exenatide QW (2 mg) or exenatide twice daily for 30 weeks (5 μg for the first 4 weeks and 10 μg thereafter), followed by 1.5 years of treatment with exenatide QW (2 mg), for a total of 2 years (104 weeks) of exenatide treatment. Of the 295 (intent-to-treat [ITT]) patients who entered the trial, 73% (n = 216) completed 2 years of treatment (completer population). Baseline characteristics (mean ± SE) for these patients were: A1C, 8.2 ± 0.1%; FPG, 168.4 ± 43.0 mg/dL; body weight, 101.1 ± 18.7 kg; and diabetes duration, 7 ± 5 years.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the completer population, significant improvements (LS mean ± SE [95% CI]) were maintained after 2 years of treatment in A1C (-1.71 ± 0.08% [-1.86 to -1.55%]), FPG (-40.1 ± 2.9 mg/dL [-45.7 to -34.5 mg/dL]), and body weight (-2.61 ± 0.52 kg [-3.64 to -1.58 kg]) compared with baseline. The percentages of patients who achieved an A1C of <7.0% and ≤6.5% at 2 years were 60% and 39%, respectively. A significant reduction in systolic blood pressure (SBP; -3.0 ± 1.0 mmHg [-4.9 to -1.1 mmHg]) was maintained through 2 years of treatment. Serum lipid profiles were also significantly improved, including triglycerides (geometric LS mean change from baseline, -15 ± 2.7% [-21% to -10%]), total cholesterol (-8.6 ± 2.8 mg/dL [-14.0 to -3.1 mg/dL]), and low-density lipoproteins (-4.5 ± 2.2 mg/dL [-8.9 to -0.01 mg/dL]). Changes in A1C, body weight, FPG, SBP, and lipids in the ITT population were similar to those seen in the completer population. Nausea (predominantly mild in intensity) was the most common adverse event, although the frequency and intensity of nausea decreased over time. No severe hypoglycemia was observed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Exenatide QW was well tolerated during the 2-year treatment period. This study demonstrated sustained glucose control and weight loss throughout 2 years of treatment with exenatide QW.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00308139">NCT00308139</a></p

A Generic Bio-Economic Farm Model for Environmental and Economic Assessment of Agricultural Systems

Bio-economic farm models are tools to evaluate ex-post or to assess ex-ante the impact of policy and technology change on agriculture, economics and environment. Recently, various BEFMs have been developed, often for one purpose or location, but hardly any of these models are re-used later for other purposes or locations. The Farm System Simulator (FSSIM) provides a generic framework enabling the application of BEFMs under various situations and for different purposes (generating supply response functions and detailed regional or farm type assessments). FSSIM is set up as a component-based framework with components representing farmer objectives, risk, calibration, policies, current activities, alternative activities and different types of activities (e.g., annual and perennial cropping and livestock). The generic nature of FSSIM is evaluated using five criteria by examining its applications. FSSIM has been applied for different climate zones and soil types (criterion 1) and to a range of different farm types (criterion 2) with different specializations, intensities and sizes. In most applications FSSIM has been used to assess the effects of policy changes and in two applications to assess the impact of technological innovations (criterion 3). In the various applications, different data sources, level of detail (e.g., criterion 4) and model configurations have been used. FSSIM has been linked to an economic and several biophysical models (criterion 5). The model is available for applications to other conditions and research issues, and it is open to be further tested and to be extended with new components, indicators or linkages to other models