Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers Available 2010

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 has re-authorized and modified the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers program. The statute authorizes an appropriation of not more than $90 million per year for the next three fiscal years. The TAA for Farmers program helps producers of raw agricultural commodities (farmers, ranchers or fishermen) who have experienced significant declines in price or production, adjust to the changing economic environment brought on by import competition. The program provides benefits to eligible producers in the form of educational assistance, as well as up to $12,000 per producer in cash benefits to help create and implement business adjustment plans.

When "Reason" Is In the Eye of the Beholder: A Reexamination of the "Reasonable Man" Standard as Applied to Organizational Management

“Specifically, issues of race, gender, disability, status, etc. provide a new context in which to judge the reasonableness of an individual’s actions.”

Postural adjustment after an unexpected perturbation in children with haemophilia

. Children with haemophilia often bleed inside joints and muscles, which may impair postural adjustments. These postural adjustments are necessary to control postural balance during daily activities. The inability to quickly recover postural balance could elevate the risk of bleeding. To determine whether children with haemophilia have impaired postural adjustment after an unexpected perturbation compared with healthy children. Twenty children with haemophilia comprised the haemophilic group (HG), and 20 healthy, age-paired children comprised the control group (CG). Subjects stood on a force plate, and 4% of the subjects body weight was applied via a pulley system to a belt around the subjects trunks. The centre of pressure (COP) displacement was measured after the weight was unexpectedly released to produce a controlled postural perturbation followed by postural adjustment to recover balance. The subjects postural adjustments in eight subsequent intervals of 1 s (t1t8), beginning with the moment of weight removal, were compared among intervals and between groups. The applied perturbation magnitudes were the same for both groups, and no difference was observed between the groups in t1. However, the COP displacement in t2 in the HG was significantly higher than in the CG. No differences were observed between the groups in the other intervals. Within-group analysis showed that the COP was higher in t2 than in t4 (P = 0.016), t5 (P = 0.001) and t8 (P = 0.050) in the HG. No differences were observed among intervals in the CG. Children with haemophilia demonstrated differences in postural adjustment while undergoing unexpected balance perturbations when compared with healthily children.

Robust and optimal adjustment of Power System Stabilizers through Linear Matrix Inequalities

This work presents the application of Linear Matrix Inequalities to the robust and optimal adjustment of Power System Stabilizers with pre-defined structure. Results of some tests show that gain and zeros adjustments are sufficient to guarantee robust stability and performance with respect to various operating points. Making use of the flexible structure of LMI's, we propose an algorithm that minimizes the norm of the controllers gain matrix while it guarantees the damping factor specified for the closed loop system, always using a controller with flexible structure. The technique used here is the pole placement, whose objective is to place the poles of the closed loop system in a specific region of the complex plane. Results of tests with a nine-machine system are presented and discussed, in order to validate the algorithm proposed. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lumpiness, capital adjustment costs and investment dynamics

Aggregate investment in the US economy displays a hump-shaped pattern in response to shocks, and the autocorrelation of aggregate investment growth is positive for the first few quarters, turning negative for the later quarters. This paper shows that this feature of the data is the natural outcome of a two-sector consumption/investment model designed and calibrated to reproduce plant-level evidence on capita: accumulation. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Clinical correlates of social adjustment in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Background: Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) frequently show poor social adjustment, which has been associated with OCD severity. Little is known about the effects that age at symptom onset, specific OCD symptoms, and psychiatric comorbidities have on social adjustment. The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical correlates of social functioning in OCD patients. Methods: Cross-sectional study involving 815 adults with a primary DSM-IV diagnosis of OCD participating in the Brazilian Research Consortium on Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders. Patients were assessed with the Social Adjustment Scale, the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey, the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, the Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders. Clinical correlates of social adjustment were assessed with generalized linear models with gamma distribution. Results: Poor overall social functioning was associated with greater OCD severity (p = 0.02); hoarding symptoms (p = 0.004); sexual/religious obsessions (p = 0.005); current major depressive disorder (p = 0.004); current post-traumatic stress disorder (p = 0.002); and current eating disorders (p = 0.02). Poor social adjustment was also associated with impaired quality of life. Conclusions: Patients with OCD have poor social functioning in domains related to personal relationships and professional performance. Hoarding symptoms and sexual/religious obsessions seem to have the strongest negative effects on social functioning. Early age at OCD symptom onset seems to be associated with professional and academic underachievement and impairment within the family unit, whereas current psychiatric comorbidity worsen overall social functioning. In comparison with quality of life, social adjustment measures seem to provide a more comprehensive overview of the OCD-related burden. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Correlations between Subjective Well-being, Dyadic Adjustment and Marital Satisfaction in Brazilian Married People

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between the constructs subjective well-being (SWB), dyadic adjustment (DA) and marital satisfaction (MS). Participants were 106 married Brazilians, of both sexes, with a mean age of 42 (+/- 11) years. Instruments used for the sociodemographic characterization and socioeconomic classification were the Subjective Wellbeing Scale (SWBS), the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) and the Marital Satisfaction Scale (MSS). Through the analysis of correlations and of stepwise multiple regression, it was verified that all the factors of the dyadic adjustment showed correlation with the marital satisfaction. The satisfaction with life (factor of the SWBS) and dyadic satisfaction (factor of the DAS), were positively and significantly correlated (r = .20; p = .04), which reveals that people who say they are satisfied with life in different domains also do so in relation to the marital experience.

Comparison between 2.5-D and 3-D realistic models for wind field adjustment

[EN]In previous works, many authors have widely used mass consistent models for wind field simulation by the finite element method. On one hand, we have developed a 3-D mass consistent model by using tetrahedral meshes which are simultaneously adapted to complex orography and to terrain roughness length. In addition, we have included a local refinement strategy around several measurement or control points, significant contours, as for example shorelines, or numerical solution singularities. On the other hand, we have developed a 2.5-D model for simulating the wind velocity in a 3-D domain in terms of the terrain elevation, the surface temperature and the meteorological wind, which is consider as an averaged wind on vertical boundaries...

The impact of grants in the agriculture sector in Albania: a counterfactual approach

The objective of this study is to measure the impact of the national subsidy scheme on the olive and fruit sector in two regions of Albania, Shkodra and Fier. From the methodological point of view, we use a non- parametric approach based on the propensity score matching. This method overcomes problem of the missing data, by creating a counterfactual scenario. In the first step, the conditional probability to participate in the program was computed. Afterwards, different matching estimators were applied to establish whether the subsidies have affected sectors performance. One of the strengths of this study stays in the data. Cross-sectional primary data was gathered through about 250 interviews.. We have not found empirical evidence of significant effects of government aid program on production. Differences in production found between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries disappear after adjustment by the conditional probability of participating into the program. This suggests that subsidized farmers would have performed better than the subsidized households even in the absence of production grants, revealing program self-selection. On the other hand, the scheme has affected positively the farm structure increasing the area under cultivation, but yields has not increased for beneficiaries compared to non beneficiaries. These combined results shed light on the reason of the missed impact. It could be reasonable to believe that the new plantation, in particular in the case of olives, has not yet reached full production. Therefore, we have reasons to believe on positive impacts in the future. Concerning some qualitative results, the extension of area under cultivation is strongly conditioned by the small farm size. This together with a thin land market makes extremely difficult the expansion beyond farm boundaries.

Functional characterisation of in vitro synthesised G-protein coupled receptors in polymersomes

Membrane proteins play an indispensable role in physiological processes. It is, therefore, not surprising that many diseases are based on the malfunction of membrane proteins. Hence membrane proteins and especially G-protein coupled receptors(GPCRs)- the largest subfamily- have become an important drug target. Due to their high selectivity and sensitivity membrane proteins are also feasible for the detection of small quantities of substances with biosensors. Despite this widespread interest in GPCRs due to their importance as drug targets and biosensors there is still a lack of knowledge of structure, function and endogenous ligands for quiet a few of the previously identified receptors.rnBottlenecks in over-expression, purification, reconstitution and handling of membrane proteins arise due to their hydrophobic nature. Therefore the production of reasonable amounts of functional membrane proteins for structural and functional studies is still challenging. Also the limited stability of lipid based membrane systems hampers their application as platforms forrnscreening applications and biosensors.rnIn recent years the in vitro protein synthesis became a promising alternative to gain better yields for expression of membrane proteins in bio-mimetic membrane systems. These expression systems are based on cell extracts. Therefore cellular effects on protein expression are reduced. The open nature of the cell-free expression systems easily allows for the adjustment of reactionrnconditions for the protein of interest. The cell-free expression in the presence of bio-mimetic membrane systems allows the direct incorporation of the membrane proteins and therefore skips the time-consuming purification and reconstitution processes. Amphiphilic block-copolymers emerged as promising alternative for the less stable lipid-based membrane systems. They, likernlipids, form membraneous structures in aqueous solutions but exhibit increased mechanical and chemical stability.rnThe aim of this work was the generation of a GPCR-functionalised membrane system by combining both promising alternatives: in vitro synthesis and polymeric membrane systems. This novel platform should be feasible for the characterisation of the incorporated GPCR. Immunodetection of Dopamine receptor 1 and 2 expressed in diblock- and triblock-polymersomes demonstrated the successful in vitro expression of GPCRs in polymeric membranes. Antibodyrnbinding studies suggested a favoured orientation of dopamine receptors in triblockpolymersomes.rnA dopamine-replacement assay on DRD2-functionalised immobilised triblockpolymersomes confirmed functionality of the receptor in the polymersomes. The altered binding curve suggests an effect of the altered hydrophobic environment presented by the polymer membrane on protein activity.

Adulthood with Turner Syndrome: Quality of life, psychosocial adjustment and clinical management in 70 Italian women

Abstract Background: Turner syndrome (TS) is a chromosomal abnormality (total or partial absence of one of the sexual chromosomes in some or all cells of the body), which affects approximately 1:2000 female. Principal characteristics are short stature and gonadal disgenesis. Clinical management consist of Growth Hormone (GH) treatment and oestrogen replacement therapy (HRT), to induce development of secondary characteristics and to avoid the sequelae of oestrogen deficiency. Aim of the study: To assess clinical management, quality of life (QoL) and general psychosocial adjustment of women with TS. Population: 70 adult Caucasian females with TS (mean age: 27.8, ± 7.6; range 18-48 y.). Setting: Specialist service for Rare Disease care, University Hospital. Methods: Subjects were required to fill in questionnaires collecting ASR, WHOQOL, and 8 open questions. Data were compared with those of the Italian population or to those collected in a comparison group (70 healthy females, mean age: 27.9, ±7.3, range 21-48 y.). Results: Women with TS are educated as well as the Italian Population, but they have a less successful professional life. They show good QoL in general, but they appeared less satisfied in social area. They had statistically higher scores than the comparison group for depression, anxiety and withdrawal. Are less involved in a love relationship. Diagnosis communication was mostly performed by doctors or parents, satisfaction was higher when information was given by parents. Main preoccupation about TS are infertility, feeling of being different and future health problem. Conclusions: Italian people with TS were generally well adapted and have a good QoL, but lived more often with parents and show impaired sentimental and sexual life. They have higher degree of psychological distress compared to a comparison group. Psychological intervention should firstly address parents in order to encourage an open communication on diagnosis issues and on sexual education.

Patient adjustment to reduced olfactory function

To compare the importance of olfaction in daily life between patients with olfactory disorders and healthy normosmic individuals.