Recent are_oapdeposits items

Glyphosate Use, Water Contamination, and Neonatal Health in the United States

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Glyphosate Use, Water Contamination, and Neonatal Health in the United States

The global seafood trade, embodied nutrients, and nutritional affordability

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Globalization of seafood markets raises concerns about nutritional insecurity, as developing countries export nutrient-dense seafood to developed countries. However, imported seafood may offset nutritional losses from exports. Developing countries import seafood with low prices relative to developed countries, raising questions of whether low-price imports provide less nutrition and contribute to nutritional insecurity. We construct a dataset connecting country-level seafood trade flows to product-specific data on nutrient concentrations to investigate how the seafood trade affects nutritional affordability. We compare nutrient density per dollar in imported seafood. Across three macronutrients and six micronutrients and using six distinct classifications of development status, we consistently find that developing countries pay lower prices for nutrition in imported seafood than developed countries. We show that the nutritional bargain for developing countries partly reflects...

Author Correction: Uniting remote sensing, crop modelling and economics for agricultural risk management

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Correction to: Nature Reviews Earth & Environmenthttps://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-020-00122-y, published online 19 January 2021. In the version of the article initially published, ref. 111 was incorrect and has now been amended to Clauss, K., Ottinger, M., Leinenkugel, P. & Kuenzer, C. Estimating rice production in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, utilizing time series of Sentinel-1 SAR data. Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf. 73, 574–585 (2018) in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

Uniting remote sensing, crop modelling and economics for agricultural risk management

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The increasing availability of satellite data at higher spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions is enabling new applications in agriculture and economic development, including agricultural insurance. Yet, effectively using satellite data in this context requires blending technical knowledge about their capabilities and limitations with an understanding of their influence on the value of risk-reduction programmes. In this Review, we discuss how approaches to estimate agricultural losses for index insurance have evolved from costly field-sampling-based campaigns towards lower-cost techniques using weather and satellite data. We identify advances in remote sensing and crop modelling for assessing agricultural conditions, but reliably and cheaply assessing production losses remains challenging in complex landscapes. We illustrate how an economic framework can be used to gauge and enhance the value of insurance based on earth-observation data, emphasizing that even as yield-estimation...

Managing for adaptive capacity in climate-ready fisheries

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Climate change is expected to increase short-run shocks and extreme events in oceanic conditions. Fishery managers are considering how to design climate-ready systems that enable fishers and fishing communities to adapt to these events without jeopardizing the long-run sustainability of the ocean ecosystem. This paper highlights a suite of potential policy options already employed by fishery managers worldwide. Although these options have been designed to address unique conditions in particular settings, it is valuable to understand whether and how they might be extrapolated to other settings to increase fishers’ adaptive capacity. We demonstrate that adaptive capacity depends on what constitutes a fishery and discuss how managers can increase adaptive capacity across internal and external margins conditional on a fishery's definition. We contribute to the literature on climate-ready fisheries by expanding the discussion on adaptive capacity to include both internal and external...

Alcohol consumption and allergic diseases: Mendelian randomization evidence from China

Wed, 5 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of allergic diseases in China has risen significantly over the past decades, affecting the quality of life for approximately 40% of the population. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to integrate survey and genomic data to explore the potential causal relationship between alcohol consumption and allergic diseases. METHOD: In collaboration with a leading genetic testing company in China, we collected data on 3,041 participants via an online survey between December 2018 and October 2019. A Mendelian Randomization (MR) design was employed in data analysis, leveraging the random allocation of genes at meiosis in humans to create instrumental variables for alcohol intake. This method was used to estimate the causal effect of alcohol consumption on the incidence of allergic diseases. RESULTS: While ordinary least-squares estimates showed a negative association between alcohol drinking and the risk of self-reported allergic diseases, MR estimates suggest that higher...

Contests for shares of an uncertain resource

Tue, 7 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The process of allocating rights to resources can be viewed as a contest: parties compete with each other for the right to claim a larger allocation. In some situations, the amount of the resource that is available to allocate may be unknown when parties are competing for shares and perhaps not realized until contestants actually attempt to claim their shares of the resource. For example, fishing quotas may be awarded based on estimated fish populations, but if there are fewer fish than anticipated, those who are last to harvest may not be able to fill their quota. We model contests of this form and test the predictions of the model using a controlled laboratory experiment. The general result, supported by both theory and experimental data, is that participants compete less intensively for shares of the resource when uncertainty regarding the size of the prize is resolved later in the process.

Universal Cash Transfers and Labor Market Outcomes

Tue, 7 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One major criticism of Universal Basic Income is that unconditional cash transfers discourage recipients from working. Evidence to date has largely relied on targeted and/or conditional transfer programs. However, it is difficult to draw conclusions from such programs because universal transfers may induce a positive demand shock by distributing cash to a large portion of the population, which may in turn offset any negative labor supply responses. We estimate the causal effects of universal cash transfers on short-run labor market activity by exploiting the timing and variation in size of a long-running unconditional and universal transfer: Alaska's Permanent Fund Dividend. We find evidence of both a positive labor demand and negative labor supply response to the transfers. Small negative effects on the number of hours worked are found for women, especially those with young children. In contrast, we find an increase in the probability of employment for males in the months following...

Commercial fisheries & local economies

Tue, 7 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Commercial fisheries are often presumed to contribute meaningfully to local economies, despite a lack of supporting empirical evidence. We address this gap by estimating local economic effects from commercial fishing activity in Alaska. Using exogenous variation in fish stocks and prices, we find that a 10% increase in a community's annual resident fishery earnings leads to a corresponding 0.7% increase in resident income. This translates to an increase of 1.54 dollars in total income for each dollar increase in fisheries earnings. Our results demonstrate the potential for local benefits from commercial fishing through direct, indirect, and induced effects into other sectors. Moreover, our findings demonstrate the importance of local resource ownership for generating benefits for local economies.

Catch More to Catch Less: Estimating Timing Choice as Dynamic Bycatch Avoidance Behavior

Tue, 7 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We model harvesters’ temporal participation behavior in a fishery with individual quotas for both a target and bycatch species. Harvesters make participation decisions given time-varying characteristics of the fishery (e.g., catch rates, price, and bycatch rates) and outside opportunities (e.g., other fisheries). A harvester’s problem is seasonally dynamic under the individual quota scheme because quota acts as an intertemporal budget constraint. We construct a theoretical model to describe how the shadow value of individual quota plays a role in a harvester’s decision and propose an empirical model that captures the dynamic effect of the seasonal quota usage. Our study finds support for the existence of dynamic bycatch avoidance: harvesters use the security provided by quota allocations to reduce harvesting around periods of high bycatch. Our policy simulation demonstrates that opening the season earlier could reduce bycatch while the main target catch is maintained due to temporal...

Economics of Marine Resources in the Global South—Meeting the Challenge of Agenda 2030

Tue, 7 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this introduction to the special issue, “Economics of Marine Resources in the Global South,” we address the current challenges for sustainable management of aquaculture and capture fisheries in developing and transitional countries. We note that the collective action problem remains a major challenge for capture fisheries in the Global South. While aquaculture has been a fast-moving food sector for half a century and provides disadvantaged people in the Global South with low-cost, high-quality protein, negative externalities remain an industry-wide challenge. We provide a background to aquaculture and fisheries economics relevant for the Global South, using the six articles contained in this issue as a point of departure to discuss six of the 10 targets that are formulated in connection with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14): conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources. Bringing together the challenges of meeting SDG 14 and...

Structural behavioral models for rights-based fisheries

Tue, 7 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rights-based management is prevalent in many fisheries, yet conventional spatiotemporal models of fishing behavior do not reflect such institutional settings. We adapt random utility maximization (RUM) models of spatiotemporal fishing behavior to capture the general equilibrium dynamics of catch-share fisheries by incorporating endogenously determined equilibrium quota prices. We demonstrate how a structural estimation strategy is capable of recovering policy-invariant behavioral parameters and predicting out-of-sample counterfactual policies. We illustrate the utility of our structural modeling approach by evaluating the efficacy of “ecosystem-based” policies, such as spatial closures, in a catch-share-managed fishery. Simulation results reveal that such policies have the potential to distort price signals in the quota market and prevent quota prices from coordinating fishing behavior in an efficient manner. Ecosystem-based policies may thus fall short of their intended objectives...

Case report: Clinical and immunohistochemical manifestations of suspected Sjogren's disease in a dog

Fri, 3 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sjogren's disease, well-described in people, is rarely identified in veterinary species. In people, Sjogren's disease is one of the most common systemic autoimmune disorders with an incidence of 0.5% in the female population. The hallmark histopathologic finding of primary Sjogren's disease is lymphomononuclear cell infiltrates aggregating as periductal infiltrate in salivary glands. Sjogren's-like disease has been reported in a domestic shorthair cat and golden retriever dog. However, both lacked positive antinuclear antibody (ANA) titers and the dog showed no clinical evidence of dry eye disease. The following case report describes the clinical and immunohistochemical findings suggestive of Sjogren's disease in a 3-year-old spayed female German shepherd cross that was presented for medically refractory absolute dry eye, xerostomia confirmed with oral atropine response tests, and bilateral mandibular salivary gland enlargement. Routine topical lacrostimulants, anti-inflammatories,...

Effect of glyceryl trinitrate and clevidipine administration on CT angiogram findings in dogs undergoing prostatic artery embolization for prostatic carcinoma

Thu, 2 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVES: The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of vasodilator administration on CT angiography (CTA) prostatic artery diameter and peak opacification in dogs with prostatic carcinoma prior to prostatic artery embolization (PAE). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective clinical trial was performed. Ten dogs with naturally occurring prostatic carcinoma and no evidence of cardiovascular disease were enrolled. Each dog underwent multiphase CTA of the prostate before and after IV vasodilator (glyceryl trinitrate [GTN] or clevidipine butyrate [clevidipine]) administration, and cardiovascular parameters were monitored. PAE was performed the following day. Prostatic arterial anatomy was characterized by CTA. Prostatic artery lumen diameter and peak opacification were measured on pre- and post-vasodilator CTA by a blinded radiologist. The percent change of these measurements was calculated and assessed for significance. RESULTS: Glyceryl trinitrate and clevidipine were...

The Economics of Drought

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Water scarcity and drought have determined the structure, location, and fate of civilizations throughout history. Drought remains an important factor in the performance of developed and developing economies, especially in the agricultural sector. While significant attention has been paid to drought as a meteorological phenomenon and on its economic impact, comparative institutional analysis of the economics of drought is limited. In this review, we focus on how economic institutions, the humanly devised constraints that shape the allocation and use of water, impact the severity and incidence of droughts. Water property rights in developed countries encourage infrastructure investments and reallocations that mitigate drought impacts, although such institutions may codify inequitable water access during drought. Developing economies rely more on informal strategies for mitigating drought and remain more vulnerable, experiencing economic losses, conflict, and violence.

Cultivating climate resilience in California agriculture: Adaptations to an increasingly volatile water future

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

California agriculture will undergo significant transformations over the next few decades in response to climate extremes, environmental regulation and policy encouraging environmental justice, and economic pressures that have long driven agricultural changes. With several local climates suited to a variety of crops, periodically abundant nearby precipitation, and public investments that facilitated abundant low-priced irrigation water, California hosts one of the most diverse and productive agroecosystems in the world. California farms supply nearly half of the high-nutrient fruit, tree nut, and vegetable production in the United States. Climate change impacts on productivity and profitability of California agriculture are increasing and forebode problems for standard agricultural practices, especially water use norms. We highlight many challenges California agriculture confronts under climate change through the direct and indirect impacts on the biophysical conditions and ecosystem...

An Effective Sanitizer for Fresh Produce Production: In Situ Plasma-Activated Water Treatment Inactivates Pathogenic Bacteria and Maintains the Quality of Cucurbit Fruit

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The effect of plasma-activated water (PAW) generated with a dielectric barrier discharge diffusor (DBDD) system on microbial load and organoleptic quality of cucamelons was investigated and compared to the established sanitizer, sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl). Pathogenic serotypes of Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, and Listeria monocytogenes were inoculated onto the surface of cucamelons (6.5 log CFU g^-1) and into the wash water (6 log CFU mL^-1). PAW treatment involved 2 min in situ with water activated at 1,500 Hz and 120 V and air as the feed gas; NaOCl treatment was a wash with 100 ppm total chlorine; control treatment was a wash with tap water. PAW treatment produced a 3-log CFU g^-1 reduction of pathogens on the cucamelon surface without negatively impacting quality or shelf life. NaOCl treatment reduced the pathogenic bacteria on the cucamelon surface by 3 to 4 log CFU g^-1; however, this treatment also reduced fruit shelf...

Water, dust, and environmental justice: The case of agricultural water diversions

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract: Water diversions for agriculture reduce ecosystem services provided by saline lakes around the world. Exposed lakebed surfaces are major sources of dust emissions that may exacerbate existing environmental inequities. This paper studies the effects of water diversions and their impacts on particulate pollution arising from reduced inflows to the Salton Sea in California via a spatially explicit particle transport model and changing lakebed exposure. We demonstrate that lakebed dust emissions increased ambient and concentrations and worsened environmental inequalities, with historically disadvantaged communities receiving a disproportionate increase in pollution. Water diversion decisions are often determined by political processes; our findings demonstrate the need for distributional analysis of such decisions to ensure equitable compensation.

Correcting attrition bias using changes-in-changes

Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Attrition is a common and potentially important threat to internal validity in treatment effect studies. We extend the changes-in-changes approach to identify the average treatment effect for respondents and the entire study population in the presence of attrition. Our method, which exploits baseline outcome data, can be applied to randomized experiments as well as quasi-experimental difference-in-difference designs. A formal comparison highlights that while widely used corrections typically impose restrictions on whether or how response depends on treatment, our proposed attrition correction exploits restrictions on the outcome model. We further show that the conditions required for our correction can accommodate a broad class of response models that depend on treatment in an arbitrary way. We illustrate the implementation of the proposed corrections in an application to a large-scale randomized experiment.

Preclinical evaluation and first-in-dog clinical trials of PBMC-expanded natural killer cells for adoptive immunotherapy in dogs with cancer

Mon, 6 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Natural killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic cells capable of recognizing heterogeneous cancer targets without prior sensitization, making them promising prospects for use in cellular immunotherapy. Companion dogs develop spontaneous cancers in the context of an intact immune system, representing a valid cancer immunotherapy model. Previously, CD5 depletion of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was used in dogs to isolate a CD5^dim-expressing NK subset prior to co-culture with an irradiated feeder line, but this can limit the yield of the final NK product. This study aimed to assess NK activation, expansion, and preliminary clinical activity in first-in-dog clinical trials using a novel system with unmanipulated PBMCs to generate our NK cell product. METHODS: Starting populations of CD5-depleted cells and PBMCs from healthy beagle donors were co-cultured for 14 days, phenotype, cytotoxicity, and cytokine secretion were measured, and samples were sequenced...

Paper Water, Wet Water, and the Recognition of Indigenous Property Rights

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Paper Water, Wet Water, and the Recognition of Indigenous Property Rights

Safer not to know? Shaping liability law and policy to incentivize adoption of predictive AI technologies in the food system

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Governments, researchers, and developers emphasize creating "trustworthy AI," defined as AI that prevents bias, ensures data privacy, and generates reliable results that perform as expected. However, in some cases problems arise not when AI is not trustworthy, technologically, but when it is. This article focuses on such problems in the food system. AI technologies facilitate the generation of masses of data that may illuminate existing food-safety and employee-safety risks. These systems may collect incidental data that could be used, or may be designed specifically, to assess and manage risks. The predictions and knowledge generated by these data and technologies may increase company liability and expense, and discourage adoption of these predictive technologies. Such problems may extend beyond the food system to other industries. Based on interviews and literature, this article discusses vulnerabilities to liability and obstacles to technology adoption that arise,...

Does survey mode matter? Comparing in-person and phone agricultural surveys in India

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Ubiquitous mobile phone ownership makes phone surveying an attractive method of low-cost data collection. We explore differences between in-person and phone survey measures of agricultural production collected for an impact evaluation in India. Phone responses have greater mean and variance, a difference that persists even within a subset of respondents that answered the same question over both modes. Treatment effect estimation remains stable across survey mode, but estimates are less precise when using phone data. These patterns are informative for cost and sample size considerations in study design and for aggregating evidence across study sites or time periods.

The economics of indigenous water claim settlements in the American West

Wed, 8 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract: The American West confronts the challenge of fulfilling indigenous claims to water within the context of increasingly scarce and variable water supplies. 170 of 226 American Indian reservations have unresolved water claims that potentially exceed the region’s hydrological capacity, generating uncertainty for tribes and off-reservation water users. To help resolve key uncertainties about dispute origins and outcomes, we construct a complete and novel dataset on Indian water settlements and reservation characteristics which we then analyze using a bargaining framework from economics. We find that rapid off-reservation population growth, water scarcity, and large anticipated water entitlements catalyze disputes. When more users are involved in the negotiations, transaction costs delay settlement, increasing water insecurity. We use our findings to predict allocations for 25 ongoing water right negotiations. These estimates help bound the uncertainty facing...

Water storage and agricultural resilience to drought: historical evidence of the capacity and institutional limits in the United States

Wed, 8 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Food systems are particularly sensitive to changing precipitation patterns. Resilience via irrigation will depend on baseline conditions, water source, and institutional constraints which have not been studied jointly. We draw on over 100 years of agricultural production and weather data across the United States to identify the extent to which access to stored water - distinguished by its source and location - affects drought resiliency. Arid regions with access to stored water avoided the 13% losses in crop value experienced in irrigated areas with more limited storage during droughts. Humid regions are also beginning to adopt irrigation, but with less aggregate impact during drought. The incomplete governance of groundwater withdrawals in many areas allow resiliency in the near-term, but potentially at the expense of future water availability. Conversely, surface water rights allow for the widespread application of irrigation water, but with less resiliency during significant...

Unconditional cash transfers and women’s labor supply in Pakistan

Mon, 6 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Unconditional cash transfers and women’s labor supply in Pakistan

On model selection criteria for climate change impact studies

Wed, 4 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Climate change impact studies inform policymakers on the estimated damages of future climate change on economic, health and other outcomes. In most studies, an annual outcome variable is observed, e.g. agricultural yield, along with a higher-frequency regressor, e.g. daily temperature. Applied researchers then face a problem of selecting a model to characterize the nonlinear relationship between the outcome and the high-frequency regressor to make a policy recommendation based on the model-implied damage function. We show that existing model selection criteria are only suitable for the policy objective if one of the models under consideration nests the true model. If all models are seen as imperfect approximations of the true nonlinear relationship, the model that performs well in the historical climate conditions is not guaranteed to perform well at the projected climate. We therefore propose a new criterion, the proximity-weighted mean squared error (PWMSE) that directly targets...

Serum levels of innate immunity cytokines are elevated in dogs with metaphyseal osteopathy (hypertrophic osteodytrophy) during active disease and remission

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Metaphyseal osteopathy (MO) (hypertrophic osteodystrophy) is a developmental disorder of unexplained etiology affecting dogs during rapid growth. Affected dogs experience relapsing episodes of lytic/sclerotic metaphyseal lesions and systemic inflammation. MO is rare in the general dog population; however, some breeds (Weimaraner, Great Dane and Irish Setter) have a much higher incidence, supporting a hereditary etiology. Autoinflammatory childhood disorders of parallel presentation such as chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis (CRMO), and deficiency of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (DIRA), involve impaired innate immunity pathways and aberrant cytokine production. Given the similarities between these diseases, we hypothesize that MO is an autoinflammatory disease mediated by cytokines involved in innate immunity. To characterize immune dysregulation in MO dogs we measured serum levels of inflammatory markers in 26 MO and 102 control dogs. MO dogs had significantly higher...

Migration and resilience during a global crisis

Wed, 2 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This study explores the relationship between migration and household resilience during a global crisis that eliminated the option to migrate. We link prior data from four populations in Bangladesh and Nepal to new phone surveys conducted during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. While earnings fell universally, pandemic-induced declines were 14%–25% greater among previously migration-dependent households and urban migrant workers, with household remittance losses far exceeding official statistics. Heightened economic exposure during the pandemic erased prior gains achieved by transnational migrants and caused fourfold greater prevalence of food insecurity among domestic subsistence migrants. Economic distress spilled over onto non-migrants in high-migration villages and labor markets. We show that migration contributed to economic contagion independent of its role in disease transmission. Losing the option to migrate differentially increased the vulnerability of migration-dependent...

Economic impact of nature-based tourism

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Protected areas (PAs) can help address biodiversity loss by promoting conservation while fostering economic development through sustainable tourism. Nature-based tourism can generate economic benefits for communities in and around PAs; however, its impacts do not lend themselves to conventional impact evaluation tools. We utilize a Monte Carlo simulation approach with econometric estimations using microdata to estimate the full economic impact of nature-based tourism on the economies surrounding three terrestrial and two marine PAs. Simulations suggest that nature-based tourism creates significant economic benefits for communities around PAs, including the poorest households, and many of these benefits are indirect, via income and production spillovers. An additional tourist increases annual real income in communities near the PAs by US$169-$2,400, significantly more than the average tourist's expenditure. Conversely, lost tourism due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic costs...

ACVIM consensus statement guidelines on diagnosing and distinguishing low‐grade neoplastic from inflammatory lymphocytic chronic enteropathies in cats

Sat, 15 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Lymphoplasmacytic enteritis (LPE) and low-grade intestinal T cell lymphoma (LGITL) are common diseases in older cats, but their diagnosis and differentiation remain challenging. OBJECTIVES: To summarize the current literature on etiopathogenesis and diagnosis of LPE and LGITL in cats and provide guidance on the differentiation between LPE and LGITL in cats. To provide statements established using evidence-based approaches or where such evidence is lacking, statements based on consensus of experts in the field. ANIMALS: None. METHODS: A panel of 6 experts in the field (2 internists, 1 radiologist, 1 anatomic pathologist, 1 clonality expert, 1 oncologist) with the support of a human medical immunologist, was formed to assess and summarize evidence in the peer-reviewed literature and complement it with consensus recommendations. RESULTS: Despite increasing interest on the topic for clinicians and pathologists, few prospective studies were available, and interpretation...

Environmental outcomes of the US Renewable Fuel Standard

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) specifies the use of biofuels in the United States and thereby guides nearly half of all global biofuel production, yet outcomes of this keystone climate and environmental regulation remain unclear. Here we combine econometric analyses, land use observations, and biophysical models to estimate the realized effects of the RFS in aggregate and down to the scale of individual agricultural fields across the United States. We find that the RFS increased corn prices by 30% and the prices of other crops by 20%, which, in turn, expanded US corn cultivation by 2.8 Mha (8.7%) and total cropland by 2.1 Mha (2.4%) in the years following policy enactment (2008 to 2016). These changes increased annual nationwide fertilizer use by 3 to 8%, increased water quality degradants by 3 to 5%, and caused enough domestic land use change emissions such that the carbon intensity of corn ethanol produced under the RFS is no less than gasoline and likely at least 24% higher....

Consumer acceptance of new plant-breeding technologies: An application to the use of gene editing in fresh table grapes

Sat, 8 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This study estimates consumers' willingness to pay for specific product (quality) and process (agronomic) attributes of table grapes, including taste, texture, external appearance, and the expected number of chemical applications, and for the breeding technology used to develop the plant. Considering varietal traits, on average our survey respondents were willing to pay the highest price premiums for specific offers of improvements in table grape taste and texture, followed by external appearance and expected number of chemical applications. Considering breeding methods, on average our respondents were willing to pay a small premium for table grapes developed using conventional breeding rather than gene editing (e.g., CRISPR). Results from a latent class model identify four different groups of consumers with distinct preferences for grape quality attributes and breeding technologies. The group of consumers most likely to reject gene editing considers both genetic engineering and...

Diagnostic yield of uroendoscopy compared to ultrasonography for evaluating lower urinary tract disorders in dogs

Tue, 4 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Cystourethroscopy and vaginoscopy (uroendoscopy) is often used in the diagnostic evaluation of dogs with lower urinary tract disorders (LUTD). OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS: To evaluate if uroendoscopy is warranted in dogs with various LUTD, the agreement between uroendoscopic and ultrasonographic diagnoses were compared. Dogs with recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTI) will have the highest diagnostic agreement between uroendoscopy and ultrasonography (US) compared to dogs presenting for other LUTD. ANIMALS: Two hundred thirty-seven dogs presenting between 2014 and 2019 with lower urinary tract signs (LUTS) that had US within 60 days preceding uroendoscopy. METHODS: Retrospective study. Dogs were categorized by primary indication for ultrasound. Pertinent uroendoscopic findings were recorded and agreements (κ analysis) between the final uroendoscopic diagnosis were compared with the final ultrasonographic diagnosis. RESULTS: Pertinent uroendoscopic findings were recorded...

Effects of Subsidies and Prohibitions on Nutrition in a Food Benefit Program: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Mon, 3 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Importance: Strategies to improve the nutritional status of those participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are of interest to policymakers. Objective: To evaluate whether the proposed policy of incentivizing the purchase of fruits and vegetables and prohibiting the purchase of less nutritious foods in a food benefit program improves the nutritional quality of participants' diets. Design, Setting, and Participants: Lower income participants (n = 279) not currently enrolled in SNAP were randomized to 1 of 4 experimental financial food benefit conditions: (1) incentive (30% financial incentive for fruits and vegetables purchased using food benefits); (2) restriction (not allowed to buy sugar sweetened beverages, sweet baked goods, or candies with food benefits); (3) incentive plus restriction (30% financial incentive on fruits and vegetables and restriction of purchase of sugar sweetened beverages, sweet baked goods, or candy with food benefits); or (4)...

The potential impact of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) restrictions on expenditures: a systematic review

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the potential impact of reducing the set of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)-eligible foods (e.g. not allowing purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages with SNAP benefits) on expenditures for restricted foods. DESIGN: The impact on food expenditures of a $US 1 reduction in available SNAP benefits can be used to estimate the impact of restrictions on SNAP-eligible foods. An electronic search of EconPapers, AgEcon Search, EconLit, WorldCat, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, PubMed and NALDC, and a snowball search were conducted to obtain a sample of studies up to March 2015 that estimate the impacts of SNAP and other income on household food expenditures. The studies were classified according to study population, study design and whether they attempted to correct for major study design biases. SETTING: Estimates were extracted from fifty-nine published and unpublished studies. SUBJECTS: US households. RESULTS: Fifty-nine studies...

U.S. agricultural university students' mental well‐being and resilience during the first wave of COVID‐19: Discordant expectations and experiences across genders

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic's first wave led to declining mental health and life satisfaction outcomes for college students, especially women. While women in undergraduate agricultural programs outperformed men academically prior to and during the pandemic, the achievement may have come at personal cost, especially for those women with fewer personal and environmental resiliency resources. Our research objective was to expand on personal, social, and environmental factors linked with lower mental health and life satisfaction scores for students in agriculture during the pandemic. We measured the influence of such factors across gender-based mental health and life satisfaction outcomes. Our data were collected from 2030 students using an on-line survey across six land-grant university college of agriculture in agriculturally as many distinct regions of the United States. We estimated OLS and Ordered Probit models of their mental health and life satisfaction...

Evaluating the quality of remote sensing products for agricultural index insurance

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Agricultural index insurance contracts increasingly use remote sensing data to estimate losses and determine indemnity payouts. Index insurance contracts inevitably make errors, failing to detect losses that occur and issuing payments when no losses occur. The quality of these contracts and the indices on which they are based, need to be evaluated to assess their fitness as insurance, and to provide a guide to choosing the index that best protects the insured. In the remote sensing literature, indices are often evaluated with generic model evaluation statistics such as R2 or Root Mean Square Error that do not directly consider the effect of errors on the quality of the insurance contract. Economic analysis suggests using measures that capture the impact of insurance on the expected economic well-being of the insured. To bridge the gap between the remote sensing and economic perspectives, we adopt a standard economic measure of expected well-being and transform it into a Relative...

Fisheries subsidies reform in China

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Subsidies are widely criticized in fisheries management for promoting global fishing capacity growth and overharvesting. Scientists worldwide have thus called for a ban on "harmful" subsidies that artificially increase fishing profits, resulting in the recent agreement among members of the World Trade Organization to eliminate such subsidies. The argument for banning harmful subsidies relies on the assumption that fishing will be unprofitable after eliminating subsidies, incentivizing some fishermen to exit and others to refrain from entering. These arguments follow from open-access governance regimes where entry has driven profits to zero. Yet many modern-day fisheries are conducted under limited-access regimes that limit capacity and maintain economic profits, even without subsidies. In these settings, subsidy removal will reduce profits but perhaps without any discernable effect on capacity. Importantly, until now, there have been no empirical studies of subsidy reductions...

Viewpoint: The future of work in agri-food

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

As countries develop, agriculture's role as domestic employer declines. But the broader agri-food system also expands, and the scope for agriculture-related job creation shifts beyond the farm. Historically, technological revolutions have shaped, and have been shaped by, these dynamics. Today, a digital revolution is taking hold. In this process of structural transformation, societies evolve from having a surplus to a shortage of domestic farm labor, typically met by foreign agricultural wage workers. Yet anti-immigration sentiments are flying high in migrant-destination countries, and agricultural trade may be similarly challenged. Robots in the fields and packing plants offer an alternative to a diminishing labor supply. COVID-19 will reinforce trends of digitization and anti-globalization (including in food trade), while slowing economic growth and structural transformation. In the world's poorest countries, particularly in Africa, labor productivity in agriculture remains...

Evaluating sustainable development policies in rural coastal economies

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Sustainable development (SD) policies targeting marine economic sectors, designed to alleviate poverty and conserve marine ecosystems, have proliferated in recent years. Many developing countries are providing poor fishing households with new fishing boats (fishing capital) that can be used further offshore as a means to improve incomes and relieve fishing pressure on nearshore fish stocks. These kinds of policies are a marine variant of traditional SD policies focused on agriculture. Here, we evaluate ex ante economic and environmental impacts of provisions of fishing and agricultural capital, with and without enforcement of fishing regulations that prohibit the use of larger vessels in nearshore habitats. Combining methods from development economics, natural resource economics, and marine ecology, we use a unique dataset and modeling framework to account for linkages between households, business sectors, markets, and local fish stocks. We show that the policies investing capital...

Acoustically Driven Microbubbles Enable Targeted Delivery of microRNA‐Loaded Nanoparticles to Spontaneous Hepatocellular Neoplasia in Canines

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Spatially localized microbubble cavitation by ultrasound offers an effective means of altering permeability of natural barriers (i.e. blood vessel and cell membrane) in favor of nanomaterials accumulation in the target site. In this study, a clinically relevant, minimally invasive ultrasound guided therapeutic approach is investigated for targeted delivery of anticancer microRNA loaded PLGA-b-PEG nanoparticles to spontaneous hepatocellular neoplasia in a canine model. Quantitative assessment of the delivered microRNAs revealed prominent and consistent increase in miRNAs levels (1.5-to 2.3-fold increase (p<0.001)) in ultrasound treated tumor regions compared to untreated control regions. Immunohistology of ultrasound treated tumor tissue presented a clear evidence for higher amount of nanoparticles extravasation from the blood vessels. A distinct pattern of cytokine expression supporting CD8+ T cells mediated "cold-to-hot" tumor transition was evident in all patients....

Clinical features and radiographic findings in cats with eosinophilic, neutrophilic, and mixed airway inflammation (2011‐2018)

Thu, 8 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Idiopathic inflammatory airway disease (IAD) in cats often is described as asthmatic (eosinophilic) or bronchitic (neutrophilic), but this designation requires collection of airway fluid and it fails to consider cats with mixed airway inflammation. OBJECTIVE: To identify clinical features that would differentiate inflammatory disease types. ANIMALS: Forty-nine cats with nonspecific airway inflammation identified by bronchoscopic bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) between 2011 and 2018 were evaluated. METHODS: This is a retrospective study. Cats were categorized by BAL differential cytology as having eosinophilic (eosinophils >20% with neutrophils <14%, or eosinophils >50%), mixed (eosinophils 20%-50% and neutrophils >14% or discordant inflammation from 2 BAL sites), or neutrophilic (neutrophils >14% and eosinophils <20%) inflammation. Type and duration of presenting complaints, signalment, body condition score, respiratory rate, CBC results, bronchoscopy,...

An integrated bioeconomic local economy-wide assessment of the environmental impacts of poverty programs

Fri, 26 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A new generation of poverty programs around the globe provides cash payments to poor and vulnerable households. Studies show that these social cash transfer programs create income and welfare benefits for poor households and the local economies where they live. However, this may come at the cost of damaging local environments if cash payments stimulate food production that conflicts with natural resource conservation. Evaluations of the economic impacts of poverty programs do not account for the welfare consequences of environmental impacts, which are potentially large for poor communities closely tied to natural resources. We use an ex-ante policy simulation tool, a bioeconomic local computable general equilibrium model parameterized with microsurvey data, to analyze the expected welfare consequences of environmental degradation caused by a cash transfer program. For a Philippine fishing community that is a net importer of fish, we show that a government cash transfer program...

Ovine Models of Congenital Heart Disease and the Consequences of Hemodynamic Alterations for Pulmonary Artery Remodeling

Wed, 24 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The natural history of pulmonary vascular disease associated with congenital heart disease (CHD) depends on associated hemodynamics. Patients exposed to increased pulmonary blood flow (PBF) and pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) develop pulmonary vascular disease more commonly than patients exposed to increased PBF alone. To investigate the effects of these differing mechanical forces on physiologic and molecular responses, we developed two models of CHD using fetal surgical techniques: 1) left pulmonary artery (LPA) ligation primarily resulting in increased PBF and 2) aortopulmonary shunt placement resulting in increased PBF and PAP. Hemodynamic, histologic, and molecular studies were performed on control, LPA, and shunt lambs as well as pulmonary artery endothelial cells (PAECs) derived from each. Physiologically, LPA, and to a greater extent shunt, lambs demonstrated an exaggerated increase in PAP in response to vasoconstricting stimuli compared with controls....

In vitro and in vivo activity of liposome‐encapsulated curcumin for naturally occurring canine cancers

Sat, 20 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Curcumin has well-established anti-cancer properties in vitro, however, its therapeutic potential has been hindered by its poor bioavailability. Lipocurc is a proprietary liposome-encapsulated curcumin formulation that enables intravenous delivery and has been shown to reach its highest concentration within lung tissue. The goal of this study was to characterize the anti-cancer and anti-angiogenic activity of Lipocurc in vitro, in addition to evaluating Lipocurc infusions in dogs with naturally occurring cancer. We therefore evaluated the effect of Lipocurc, relative to free curcumin, on the viability of canine osteosarcoma, melanoma and mammary carcinoma cell lines, as well as the ability of Lipocurc to inhibit endothelial cell viability, migration and tube formation. We also undertook a pilot clinical trial consisting of four weekly 8-hour Lipocurc infusions in 10 cancer-bearing dogs. Tumour cell proliferation was inhibited by curcumin at concentrations exceeding those achievable...

Economic impact of refugees

Thu, 4 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In 2015, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees accommodated over 15 million refugees, mostly in refugee camps in developing countries. The World Food Program provided these refugees with food aid, in cash or in kind. Refugees' impacts on host countries are controversial and little understood. This unique study analyzes the economic impacts of refugees on host-country economies within a 10-km radius of three Congolese refugee camps in Rwanda. Simulations using Monte Carlo methods reveal that cash aid to refugees creates significant positive income spillovers to host-country businesses and households. An additional adult refugee receiving cash aid increases annual real income in the local economy by $205 to $253, significantly more than the $120-$126 in aid each refugee receives. Trade between the local economy and the rest of Rwanda increases by $49 to $55. The impacts are lower for in-kind food aid, a finding relevant to development aid generally.

Genetic erosion in maize’s center of origin

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Crop genetic diversity is an indispensable resource for farmers and professional breeders responding to changing climate, pests, and diseases. Anecdotal appraisals in centers of crop origin have suggested serious threats to this diversity for over half a century. However, a nationwide inventory recently found all maize races previously described for Mexico, including some formerly considered nearly extinct. A flurry of social studies seems to confirm that farmers maintain considerable diversity. Here, we compare estimates of maize diversity from case studies over the past 15 y with nationally and regionally representative matched longitudinal data from farmers across rural Mexico. Our findings reveal an increasing bias in inferences based on case study results and widespread loss of diversity. Cross-sectional, case study data suggest that farm-level richness has increased by 0.04 y(-1) nationwide; however, direct estimates using matched longitudinal data reveal that richness dropped...

COVID‐19 through the lens of seasonal agriculture in South Asia

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

75% of the world's poor reside in rural areas where the local economy is tied to agriculture. We interpret new panel data on COVID-19 from Nepal and Bangladesh in relation to agricultural seasonality. Conditions in April–June 2020 were comparable to a typical lean season even though the pandemic arrived at harvest time. Income losses stem from both depressed local employment as well as lower migration and remittances. We also document indirect adverse health impacts on nutrition and mental health. Findings are specific to the nature of economic activity at harvest, and effective pandemic policy must evolve with the agricultural season.

Economic and social feasibility pilot of ethanol fuel for clean cooking in upland Sierra Leone

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Ninety-seven percent of Sierra Leonean households prepare food over wood or charcoal, a practice that leads to adverse health and environmental consequences. In this pilot study, we introduced ethanol cookstoves to households in Bo, Sierra Leone. We assessed their potential as an alternative to biomass fuels and the only existing improved cookstove, butane gas. Ethanol cookstoves were economically competitive with butane stoves, but could not outcompete biomass fuel (wood and charcoal). The cookstoves displayed significant benefits to women in time savings and comfort, but raised concerns around alcoholism, unequal access to technologies, and other gendered constraints in the cultural context.

Combining epidemiology and economics to assess control of a viral endemic animal disease: Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS)

Sun, 30 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is an extremely contagious disease that causes great damage to the U.S. pork industry. PRRS is not subject to official control in the U.S., but most producers adopt control strategies, including vaccination. However, the PRRS virus mutates frequently, facilitating its ability to infect even vaccinated animals. In this paper we analyze how increased vaccination on sow farms reduces PRRS losses and when vaccination is profitable. We develop a SIR model to simulate the spread of an outbreak between and within swine farms located in a region of Minnesota. Then, we estimate economic losses due to PRRS and calculate the benefits of vaccination. We find that increased vaccination of sow farms increases the private profitability of vaccination, and also transmits positive externalities to farms that do not vaccinate. Although vaccination reduces industry losses, a low to moderate vaccine efficacy implies that large PRRS losses remain,...

Evaluation of the use of a novel bioabsorbable polymer drug-eluting microsphere for transarterial embolization of hepatocellular neoplasia in dogs

Fri, 16 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In dogs with non-resectable hepatic neoplasia, treatment options are limited. The objectives of this study were to describe the use of a novel drug-eluting embolic microsphere containing paclitaxel for use during transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), to compare results of liver-specific owner questionnaires and tumor volume pre- and post-TACE, and to measure systemic paclitaxel concentration post-TACE. Client-owned dogs with non-resectable hepatic neoplasia were prospectively enrolled. All owners completed questionnaires validated for the assessment of subjective outcomes in dogs with cancer before the TACE procedure and approximately 4 weeks after the TACE procedure. A CT scan was performed before TACE and 1 month after TACE; results were compared. Blood samples were obtained at specified time points post-TACE to determine systemic paclitaxel concentrations. Seven dogs (median weight: 8.9 kg; range, 4.3-31 kg) were enrolled. TACE was successfully performed in all dogs, and...

Inhaled recombinant human IL-15 in dogs with naturally occurring pulmonary metastases from osteosarcoma or melanoma: a phase 1 study of clinical activity and correlates of response

Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

PURPOSE: Although recombinant human interleukin-15 (rhIL-15) has generated much excitement as an immunotherapeutic agent for cancer, activity in human clinical trials has been modest to date, in part due to the risks of toxicity with significant dose escalation. Since pulmonary metastases are a major site of distant failure in human and dog cancers, we sought to investigate inhaled rhIL-15 in dogs with naturally occurring lung metastases from osteosarcoma (OSA) or melanoma. We hypothesized a favorable benefit/risk profile given the concentrated delivery to the lungs with decreased systemic exposure. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We performed a phase I trial of inhaled rhIL-15 in dogs with gross pulmonary metastases using a traditional 3+3 cohort design. A starting dose of 10 µg twice daily × 14 days was used based on human, non-human primate, and murine studies. Safety, dose-limiting toxicities (DLT), and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) were the primary objectives, while response rates, progression-free...

Earth stewardship: Shaping a sustainable future through interacting policy and norm shifts

Fri, 22 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Transformation toward a sustainable future requires an earth stewardship approach to shift society from its current goal of increasing material wealth to a vision of sustaining built, natural, human, and social capital—equitably distributed across society, within and among nations. Widespread concern about earth’s current trajectory and support for actions that would foster more sustainable pathways suggests potential social tipping points in public demand for an earth stewardship vision. Here, we draw on empirical studies and theory to show that movement toward a stewardship vision can be facilitated by changes in either policy incentives or social norms. Our novel contribution is to point out that both norms and incentives must change and can do so interactively. This can be facilitated through leverage points and complementarities across policy areas, based on values, system design, and agency. Potential catalysts include novel democratic institutions and engagement of non-governmental...

Compensation incentives and heat exposure affect farm worker effort

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Farm workers are exposed to high risk of heat-related illness, especially when their jobs require working outside at a fast pace during hot days. Climate change has increased the number of days with high temperatures, and thereby the amount of time that farm workers are likely exposed to extreme heat. To better understand how high heat exposure affects farm workers, this study investigates how crop workers respond to heat exposure and estimates the effects of different pay and work arrangements on workers' responses to heat exposure. We explore, specifically, whether piece-rate arrangements increase workers' effort during periods with high heat exposure compared to workers paid by hourly wages. We use observational data from detailed measurements of localized heat exposure and individual workers' effort in the field. First, these results show workers adjust their effort in response to heat exposure when the heat exposure level changes. Second, piece-rate arrangements increase...

Governance in the Face of Extreme Events: Lessons from Evolutionary Processes for Structuring Interventions, and the Need to Go Beyond

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The increasing frequency of extreme events, exogenous and endogenous, poses challenges for our societies. The current pandemic is a case in point; but "once-in-a-century" weather events are also becoming more common, leading to erosion, wildfire and even volcanic events that change ecosystems and disturbance regimes, threaten the sustainability of our life-support systems, and challenge the robustness and resilience of societies. Dealing with extremes will require new approaches and large-scale collective action. Preemptive measures can increase general resilience, a first line of protection, while more specific reactive responses are developed. Preemptive measures also can minimize the negative effects of events that cannot be avoided. In this paper, we first explore approaches to prevention, mitigation and adaptation, drawing inspiration from how evolutionary challenges have made biological systems robust and resilient, and from the general theory of complex adaptive systems....

Unintended effects of a targeted maternal and child nutrition intervention on household expenditures, labor income, and the nutritional status of non-targeted siblings in Ghana

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

It is common for health and nutrition interventions to target specific household members and for evaluations of their effects to focus exclusively on those members. However, if a targeted intervention changes a household's utility maximization problem or influences decision-making, households might respond to the intervention in unintended ways with the potential to affect the wellbeing of non-targeted members. Using panel data from a randomized controlled nutrition trial in Ghana, we evaluate household behavioral responses to the provision of small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) to mothers and their infants to prevent undernutrition. We find that targeted supplementation with SQ-LNS had a positive effect on household expenditures on food, including some nutrient-rich food groups, as well as on non-food goods and services. We also find a positive impact on labor income, particularly among fathers. We then explore intrahousehold spillover effects on the nutritional...

Testing identifying assumptions in nonseparable panel data models

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Recent work on nonparametric identification of average partial effects (APEs) from panel data require restrictions on individual or time heterogeneity. Identifying assumptions under the “generalized first-differencing” category, such as time homogeneity (Chernozhukov et al., 2013), have testable equality restrictions on the distribution of the outcome variable. This paper proposes specification tests based on these restrictions. The bootstrap critical values for the resulting Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Cramer–von-Mises statistics are shown to be asymptotically valid and deliver good finite-sample properties in Monte Carlo simulations. An empirical application illustrates the merits of testing nonparametric identification from an empiricist's perspective.

Identifying the Economic Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The ultimate impact of climate change on human systems will depend on the natural resilience of ecosystems on which societies rely as well as on adaptation measures taken by agents, individually and collectively. No sector of the economy is more reliant on climate than agriculture. Evidence from the American settlement process suggests that societies can successfully adapt to new climatic environments. Whether and how much agriculture will manage to adapt to a changing climate remains an open question in the empirical economics literature, however. This article reviews the existing evidence on weather and/or climate impacts on agricultural outcomes from the economics literature, with a focus on methodological questions. Some key econometric issues associated with climate impact measurement are discussed. We also outline important questions that have not been adequately addressed and suggest directions for future research.

Falling living standards during the COVID-19 crisis: Quantitative evidence from nine developing countries

Mon, 1 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Despite numerous journalistic accounts, systematic quantitative evidence on economic conditions during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic remains scarce for most low- and middle-income countries, partly due to limitations of official economic statistics in environments with large informal sectors and subsistence agriculture. We assemble evidence from over 30,000 respondents in 16 original household surveys from nine countries in Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone), Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines), and Latin America (Colombia). We document declines in employment and income in all settings beginning March 2020. The share of households experiencing an income drop ranges from 8 to 87% (median, 68%). Household coping strategies and government assistance were insufficient to sustain precrisis living standards, resulting in widespread food insecurity and dire economic conditions even 3 months into the crisis. We discuss promising policy responses and speculate...

Clinicopathologic and radiographic features in 33 cats with aspiration and 26 cats with bronchopneumonia (2007‐2017)

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Aspiration pneumonia (AP) and bronchopneumonia (BP) are poorly characterized diseases in cats that share clinical similarities to inflammatory airway disease (IAD). OBJECTIVES: Describe clinicopathologic, radiographic, and microbiologic features in cats with AP and BP and compare findings to those in cats with IAD. ANIMALS: Thirty-three cats with AP and 26 with BP; 44 cats with IAD. METHODS: Retrospective case-control study. Results extracted for all cats included signalment, physical examination findings, historical details, and potential risk factors for aspiration. Diagnostic test results were summarized including CBC, bronchoalveolar (BAL) fluid analysis and microbial culture. Radiographs were reviewed in masked fashion and scored for severity. Results of BAL fluid analysis were assessed for evidence of septic inflammation. RESULTS: Cats with AP were less likely to be presented for evaluation of cough (P < .001) and more likely to be hypothermic (P = .01) than...

Terminated marketing order provided resources to California peach and nectarine growers

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Marketing orders allow farmers to collectively fund industry-wide services that may be difficult to provide through a voluntary approach. But not all farmers support collective approaches. We employed ballot data from U.S. Department of Agriculture and survey data we collected to explore why farmers in California voted to terminate the federal fresh peach and nectarine marketing orders in 2011 and the implications of this termination. Even after controlling for other factors, we found that farmers who produced more were significantly less likely to vote for continuation. We also found that detailed industry information provided via the marketing orders was significantly more important to respondents voting for continuation, and respondents with more organic production were significantly more likely to vote for continuation. These results suggest farmers may have lost important production and marketing resources due to termination of the orders, with evidence that smaller farms...

Financial effect of limiting pesticide use near schools for almonds in nine counties depends on soils and weather

Fri, 24 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Effective Jan. 1, 2018, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation enacted a regulation regarding the use of pesticides near public K-12 schools and licensed child day care centers, including a provision that bans specific types of applications, including air-blast and air-assist, during weekday school hours (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) to provide an additional safety margin for pesticide exposure beyond those provided by other regulations. We considered the financial effect on almond growers in nine counties, accounting for four-fifths of total almond production in 2014, if they had been unable to complete a standard spring disease management program on any buffer zone acreage. Results indicated that total annual losses for those counties if such a regulation had been in effect would have been $8.7 million, with per-acre losses ranging from 22% to over 50% of total operating costs, depending on the county. However, using a methodology that took into account historical weather...

Costs of cannabis testing compliance: Assessing mandatory testing in the California cannabis market

Tue, 9 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Most U.S. states that have regulated and taxed cannabis have imposed some form of mandatory safety testing requirements. In California, the country's largest and oldest legal cannabis market, mandatory testing was first enforced by state regulators in July 2018, and additional mandatory tests were introduced at the end of 2018. All cannabis must be tested and labeled as certified by a state-licensed cannabis testing laboratory before it can be legally marketed in California. Every batch that is sold by licensed retailers must be tested for more than 100 contaminants, including 66 pesticides with tolerance levels lower than the levels allowable for any other agricultural product in California. This paper estimates the costs of compliance with mandatory cannabis testing laws and regulations, using California's testing regime as a case study. We use state government data, data collected from testing laboratories, and data collected from lab equipment suppliers to run a set of Monte...

Whole genome variant association across 100 dogs identifies a frame shift mutation in DISHEVELLED 2 which contributes to Robinow-like syndrome in Bulldogs and related screw tail dog breeds