Exploring Farm Business and Household Expenditure Patterns and Community Linkages

Farm operators are an integral part of some rural economies. The businesses they operate often hire seasonal and full-time employees and purchase goods and services from local farm implement dealers, input suppliers, and financial institutions. Farm household spending on food, furniture and appliances, trucks and automobiles, and a range of consumer goods also support local jobs and retail businesses in some communities. Based on the 2002 agricultural census and the 2004 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, this paper explores the linkages between farm household/ business expenditures and local communities.Farm business expenditures, farm household spending, employment, community linkage, Consumer/Household Economics, Farm Management, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Conservation Reserve Program Participation and Acreage Enrollment of Working Farms

Among Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) participants, there is a distinction between farm households using the program to ease out of farming and those using the program to augment production receipts. We find evidence that factors other than farm profitability and environmental factors may influence program participation of farmers who continue agricultural production. Program payments and farm size positively correlate with the amount of land enrolled in the CRP, and characteristics of participants in land retirement and working-lands CRP components are similar.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Phytochrome A mediates blue-light enhancement of second-positive phototropism in Arabidopsis

Hypocotyl phototropism of etiolated Arabidopsis seedlings is primarily mediated by the blue-light receptor kinase phototropin 1 (phot1). Phot1-mediated curvature to continuous unilateral blue light irradiation (0.5 µmol m-2 s-1) is enhanced by overhead pre-treatment with red light (20 µmol m-2 s-1 for 15 min) through the action of phytochrome (phyA). Here, we show that pre-treatment with blue light is equally as effective in eliciting phototropic enhancement and is dependent on phyA. Although blue pre-treatment was sufficient to activate early phot1 signalling events, phot1 autophosphorylation in vivo was not found to be saturated, as assessed by subsequently measuring phot1 kinase activity in vitro. However, enhancement effects to red and blue pre-treatment were not observed at higher intensities of phototropic stimulation (10 µmol m-2 s-1). Phototropic enhancement to red and blue pre-treatments to 0.5 µmol m-2 s-1 unilateral blue light irradiation was also lacking in transgenic Arabidopsis where PHOT1 expression was restricted to the epidermis. Together, these findings indicate that phyA-mediated effects on phot1 signalling are restricted to low intensities of phototropic stimulation and originate from tissues other than the epidermis

Chronic Care, Integrated Care & Mental Health: Moving the Needle Now

Healthcare reform is currently a hot topic in the United States, and the Chronic Care Model has frequently been cited as the foundation of recent attempts to integrate mental health and physical health care. However, challenges exist to fully integrated care that have delayed adequately meeting the multiple needs of mental health service recipients. This article highlights multiple changes that can be incorporated into mental health care now, derived from the Chronic Care Model, to better meet clients’ physical and mental health needs. These changes include focusing on population-level data and incorporating technology and multidisciplinary teams in treatment and prevention efforts

Incidence and Predictors of Adolescent's Early Sexual Debut After three Decades of HIV Interventions in Tanzania: A time to Debut Analysis.

To determine the incidence and predictors of adolescent's early sexual debut after three decades of HIV interventions in Tanzania. In a cross-section study of adolescents aged 16-19 residing in Morogoro Municipality, information on socio-demographic, parental-and-peer communication, and sexual behaviors were collected. Cox-regression analysis was used to examine predictors of time to sexual debut. A total of 316 adolescents with mean age of 17.5±0.9 were recruited. Half (48.7%) of adolescent were sexually active with mean age at sexual debut of 14.6±2.3. Of these, 57.8% had sex before their 15(th) birthday with incidence of early sexual debut of 17.4/1000 person-years at risk. Adolescent family characteristics, peer pressure, alcohol use, parental and peer communication were key predictors of early sexual debut. Parental and peer communication strategies works calling for efforts to increase its scope to reach all adolescents alongside promoting family stability and reducing adolescent alcohol consumption

Methylation age acceleration does not predict mortality in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is associated with high mortality. DNA methylation levels vary over the life course, and pre-selected combinations of methylation array probes can be used to estimate "methylation age" (mAge). mAge correlates highly with chronological age but when it differs, termed mAge acceleration, it has been previously associated with all-cause mortality. We tested the association between mAge acceleration and mortality in SCZ and controls. We selected 190 SCZ cases and 190 controls from the Sweden Schizophrenia Study. Cases were identified from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Register with ≥5 specialist treatment contacts and ≥5 antipsychotic prescriptions. Controls had no psychotic disorder or antipsychotics. Subjects were selected if they had died or survived during follow-up (2:1 oversampling). Extracted DNA was assayed on the Illumina MethylationEPIC array. mAge was regressed on age at sampling to obtain mAge acceleration. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, the association between mAge acceleration and mortality was tested. After quality control, the following were available: n = 126 SCZ died, 63 SCZ alive, 127 controls died, 62 controls alive. In the primary analyses, we did not find a significant association between mAge acceleration and SCZ mortality (adjusted p > 0.005). Sensitivity analyses excluding SCZ cases with pre-existing cancer demonstrated a significant association between the Hannum mAge acceleration and mortality (hazard ratio = 1.13, 95% confidence interval = 1.04-1.22, p = 0.005). Per our pre-specified criteria, we did not confirm our primary hypothesis that mAge acceleration would predict subsequent mortality in people with SCZ, but we cannot rule out smaller effects or effects in patient subsets

Novel Inducers of the Envelope Stress Response BaeSR in Salmonella Typhimurium: BaeR Is Critically Required for Tungstate Waste Disposal

The RpoE and CpxR regulated envelope stress responses are extremely important for SalmonellaTyphimurium to cause infection in a range of hosts. Until now the role for BaeSR in both the Salmonella Typhimurium response to stress and its contribution to infection have not been fully elucidated. Here we demonstrate stationary phase growth, iron and sodium tungstate as novel inducers of the BaeRregulon, with BaeR critically required for Salmonella resistance to sodium tungstate. We show that functional overlap between the resistance nodulation-cell division (RND) multidrug transporters, MdtA, AcrD and AcrB exists for the waste disposal of tungstate from the cell. We also point to a role for enterobactinsiderophores in the protection of enteric organisms from tungstate, akin to the scenario in nitrogen fixing bacteria. Surprisingly, BaeR is the first envelope stress response pathway investigated in S. Typhimurium that is not required for murine typhoid in either ityS or ityR mouse backgrounds. BaeR is therefore either required for survival in larger mammals such as pigs or calves, an avian host such as chickens, or survival out with the host altogether where Salmonella and related enterics must survive in soil and water