CAP Reform and the Mediterranean EU-Member States

In the previous years the Mediterranean Member States of the EU came across the Reform of the CAP and especially last year faced the second wave of the Reform for three typical Mediterranean products, namely cotton, olive oil and tobacco. In this paper a partial equilibrium model is used to simulate the impacts of decoupling, as a key point of the decided CAP Reform. The second wave of the Reform appears to be of crucial importance for the southern EU countries and although the producer's income is reduced, there are positive welfare effects.decoupling, partial equilibrium model, CAP reform, Greece, Italy, Spain, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q18, Q17, D59,

Modelling agricultural policy reforms in the Mediterranean basin - Adjustments of AGRISIM

In recent years the Mediterranean countries encounter a number of changes of the agricultural policy that could influence significantly their agricultural sector and thus their overall economy. They are faced with the ongoing trade liberalisation, the Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU), since the EU is one of the major trade partners of the Mediterranean countries and the establishment of a Free Trade Area between the EU and the Mediterranean Countries after 2010. The latest is/will be accomplished through the Euro- Mediterranean Association Agreements, was decided in the Summit of Barcelona in 1995 and is particularly up- to date after 2005, 10 years after the establishment of the Barcelona Agreement. These changes are expected above all to influence the trade flows between the EU and the Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPC) and therefore, to have impacts on the production, consumption, domestic and border prices and welfare. Aim of the paper is to discuss methodological issues connected with the modelling of policy changes in the Mediterranean basin and to provide more insights on the modification of the model AGRISIM so as to make it a suitable tool to analyse the trade flows in the Mediterranean basin.MPCs, Euro- Mediterranean Association, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Gauge Theories on Deformed Spaces

The aim of this review is to present an overview over available models and approaches to non-commutative gauge theory. Our main focus thereby is on gauge models formulated on flat Groenewold-Moyal spaces and renormalizability, but we will also review other deformations and try to point out common features. This review will by no means be complete and cover all approaches, it rather reflects a highly biased selection.Comment: v2 references added; v3 published versio

Star-forming Galactic Contrails at z=3.2 as a Source of Metal Enrichment and Ionizing Radiation

A spectroscopically detected Lyman alpha emitting halo at redshift 3.216 in the GOODS-N field is found to reside at the convergence of several Lyman alpha filaments. HST images show that some of the filaments are inhabited by galaxies. Several of the galaxies in the field have pronounced head-tail structures, which are partly aligned with each other. The blue colors of most tails suggest the presence of young stars, with the emission from at least one of the galaxies apparently dominated by high equivalent width Lyman alpha. Faint, more diffuse, and similarly elongated, apparently stellar features, can be seen over an area with a linear extent of at least 90 kpc. The region within several arcseconds of the brightest galaxy exhibits spatially extended emission by HeII, NV and various lower ionization metal lines. The gas-dynamical features present are strongly reminiscent of ram-pressure stripped galaxies, including evidence for recent star formation in the stripped contrails. Spatial gradients in the appearance of several galaxies may represent a stream of galaxies passing from a colder to a hotter intergalactic medium. The stripping of gas from the in-falling galaxies, in conjunction with the occurrence of star formation and stellar feedback in the galactic contrails suggests a mechanism for the metal enrichment of the high redshift intergalactic medium that does not depend on long-range galactic winds, at the same time opening a path for the escape of ionizing radiation from galaxies.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, submitted to MNRA

PreView: a Randomized Trial of a Multi-site Intervention in Diverse Primary Care to Increase Rates of Age-Appropriate Cancer Screening.

BackgroundWomen aged 50-70 should receive breast, cervical (until age 65), and colorectal cancer (CRC) screening; men aged 50-70 should receive CRC screening and should discuss prostate cancer screening (PSA). PreView, an interactive, individually tailored Video Doctor Plus Provider Alert Intervention, adresses all cancers for which average risk 50-70-year-old individuals are due for screening or screening discussion.MethodsWe conducted a randomized controlled trial in 6 clinical sites. Participants were randomized to PreView or a video about healthy lifestyle. Intervention group participants completed PreView before their appointment and their clinicians received a "Provider Alert." Primary outcomes were receipt of mammography, Pap tests (with or without HPV testing), CRC screening (FIT in last year or colonoscopy in last 10 years), and PSA screening discussion. Additional outcomes included breast, cervical, and CRC screening discussion.ResultsA total of 508 individuals participated, 257 in the control group and 251 in the intervention group. Screening rates were relatively high at baseline. Compared with baseline screening rates, there was no significant increase in mammography or Pap smear screening, and a nonsignificant increase (18% vs 12%) in CRC screening. Intervention participants reported a higher rate of PSA discussion than did control participants (58% vs 36%: P < 0.01). Similar increases were seen in discussions about mammography, cervical cancer, and CRC screening.ConclusionIn clinics with relatively high overall screening rates at baseline, PreView did not result in significant increases in breast, cervical, or CRC screening. PreView led to an increase in PSA screening discussion. Clinician-patient discussion of all cancer screenings significantly increased, suggesting that interventions like PreView may be most useful when discussion of the pros and cons of screening is recommended and/or with patients reluctant to undergo screening. Future research should investigate PreView's impact on those who are hesitant or reluctant to undergo screening.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02264782

Training and Union wages

This paper investigates whether unions, through imposing wage floors that lead to wage compression, increase on-the-job training. Our analysis focuses on Germany. Based on a model of unions and firm-financed training, we derive empirical implications regarding apprenticeship training intensity, layoffs, wage cuts, and wage compression in unionized and nonunionized firms. We test these implications using firm panel data matched with administrative employee data. We find support for the hypothesis that union recognition, via imposing minimum wages and wage compression, increases training in apprenticeship programs

On the Scalability of Data Reduction Techniques in Current and Upcoming HPC Systems from an Application Perspective

We implement and benchmark parallel I/O methods for the fully-manycore driven particle-in-cell code PIConGPU. Identifying throughput and overall I/O size as a major challenge for applications on today's and future HPC systems, we present a scaling law characterizing performance bottlenecks in state-of-the-art approaches for data reduction. Consequently, we propose, implement and verify multi-threaded data-transformations for the I/O library ADIOS as a feasible way to trade underutilized host-side compute potential on heterogeneous systems for reduced I/O latency.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted for DRBSD-1 in conjunction with ISC'1