Harnessing Knowledge to Ensure Food Safety: Opportunities to Improve the Nation\u27s Food Safety Information Infrastructure

Those working in the food industry face an abundance of information generated by diverse institutions and individuals. Ensuring the safety of food is critically important to the public\u27s health and a challenge for policy-makers seeking to enhance the government\u27s role in this arena. Although the food industry has an inherent duty to make food safe, the effectiveness of what they do is highly dependent on the quality of the information they receive on potential hazards and good practices. In this context, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded a project under the auspices of the Food Safety Research Consortium to examine and make recommendations for improving the food safety information infrastructure (FSII). Through this initiative, a collection of food safety experts met for a series of workshops to discuss information needs around food safety. Key Findings: Establish a national FSII policy and program. Build a database for tracking research and data collection. Provide broader public access to journal articles and to complete data from research projects. Create a networking Web site. In this report, whose recommendations are based on those workshop discussions, the authors explore the constraints facing today\u27s FSII. These include the diversity of the information currently available, the plethora of information sources, and the numerous agencies and actors involved in generating data

A benchmark of light field view interpolation methods

Light field view interpolation provides a solution that reduces the prohibitive size of a dense light field. This paper examines state-ofthe-art light field view interpolation methods with a comprehensive benchmark on challenging scenarios specific for interpolation tasks. Each method is analyzed in terms of their strengths and weaknesses in handling different challenges. We find that large disparities in a scene are the main source of challenge for the light field view interpolation methods. We also find that a basic backward warping based on the depth estimation from optical flow provides comparable performance against usually complex learning-based methods

Developmental and Molecular Changes Underlying the Vernalization-Induced Transition to Flowering in Aquilegia coerulea (James)

Reproductive success in plants is dependent on many factors but the precise timing of flowering is certainly among the most crucial. Perennial plants often have a vernalization or over-wintering requirement in order to successfully flower in the spring. The shoot apical meristem undergoes drastic developmental and molecular changes as it transitions into inflorescence meristem (IM) identity, which then gives rise to floral meristems (FMs). In this study, we have examined the developmental and gene expression changes underlying the transition from the vegetative to reproductive phases in the basal eudicot Aquilegia coerulea, which has evolved a vernalization response independently relative to other established model systems. Results from both our histology and scanning electron studies demonstrate that developmental changes in the meristem occur gradually during the third and fourth weeks of vernalization. Based on RNAseq data and cluster analysis, several known flowering time loci, including AqFT and AqFL1, exhibit dramatic changes in expression during the fourth week. Further consideration of candidate gene homologs as well as unexpected loci of interest creates a framework in which we can begin to explore the genetic basis of the flowering time transition in Aquilegia

First HARPSpol discoveries of magnetic fields in massive stars

In the framework of the Magnetism in Massive Stars (MiMeS) project, a HARPSpol Large Program at the 3.6m-ESO telescope has recently started to collect high-resolution spectropolarimetric data of a large number of Southern massive OB stars in the field of the Galaxy and in many young clusters and associations. In this Letter, we report on the first discoveries of magnetic fields in two massive stars with HARPSpol - HD 130807 and HD 122451, and confirm the presence of a magnetic field at the surface of HD 105382 that was previously observed with a low spectral resolution device. The longitudinal magnetic field measurements are strongly varying for HD 130807 from $\sim$-100 G to $\sim$700 G. Those of HD 122451 and HD 105382 are less variable with values ranging from $\sim$-40 to -80 G, and from $\sim$-300 to -600 G, respectively. The discovery and confirmation of three new magnetic massive stars, including at least two He-weak stars, is an important contribution to one of the MiMeS objectives: the understanding of origin of magnetic fields in massive stars and their impacts on stellar structure and evolution.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in A&A Lette

Attributing Illness to Food

Identification and prioritization of effective food safety interventions require an understanding of the relationship between food and pathogen from farm to consumption. Critical to this cause is food attribution, the capacity to attribute cases of foodborne disease to the food vehicle or other source responsible for illness. A wide variety of food attribution approaches and data are used around the world, including the analysis of outbreak data, case-control studies, microbial subtyping and source tracking methods, and expert judgment, among others. The Food Safety Research Consortium sponsored the Food Attribution Data Workshop in October 2003 to discuss the virtues and limitations of these approaches and to identify future options for collecting food attribution data in the United States. We summarize workshop discussions and identify challenges that affect progress in this critical component of a risk-based approach to improving food safety

Addressing US Youth Violence and Central American Migration through Fortifying Children, Families, and Educators in Central America: A Collaborative Approach to the Development and Testing of a Youth Violence Preventive Intervention

Youth violence is a pressing problem in the United States (US) with multiple contributors. Some violence involving US youth can be linked to a larger global epidemic of youth violence in Latin America and in Central America, specifically. Hemispheric histories of violence fueled by a century of US resource extraction and intervention, and other factors such as internal economic and political strain, contribute to present-day migration from Central America to the US. Addressing the intricate problems of US youth violence and migration requires multi-systemic prevention programs to address youth violence in families, schools, and communities in Central America. One such example is Miles de Manos (MdM; “Thousands of Hands”). MdM is intended to target risk and protective factors related to migration from Central America to the US. It is a multi-modal, culturally-specified and community-based violence prevention intervention for elementary-school aged children, their families, and children’s teachers and school staff. Data collected during pilot trials indicate promise in terms of MdM increasing positive teacher and parent behaviors that promote prosocial behaviors and reduce problem behaviors in youth. Outcomes due to MdM for youth, parents and other caregivers, and teachers are currently being examined in a randomized controlled trial in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Addressing US Youth Violence and Central American Migration through Fortifying Children, Families, and Educators in Central America: A Collaborative Approach to the Development and Testing of a Youth Violence Preventive Intervention

15 pagesYouth violence is a pressing problem in the United States (US) with multiple contributors. Some violence involving US youth can be linked to a larger global epidemic of youth violence in Latin America and in Central America, specifically. Hemispheric histories of violence fueled by a century of US resource extraction and intervention, and other factors such as internal economic and political strain, contribute to present-day migration from Central America to the US. Addressing the intricate problems of US youth violence and migration requires multi-systemic prevention programs to address youth violence in families, schools, and communities in Central America. One such example is Miles de Manos (MdM; “Thousands of Hands”). MdM is intended to target risk and protective factors related to migration from Central America to the US. It is a multi-modal, culturally-specified and community- based violence prevention intervention for elementary-school aged children, their families, and children’s teachers and school staff. Data collected during pilot trials indicate promise in terms of MdM increasing positive teacher and parent behaviors that promote prosocial behaviors and reduce problem behaviors in youth. Outcomes due to MdM for youth, parents and other caregivers, and teachers are currently being examined in a randomized controlled trial in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Multisite spectroscopic seismic study of the beta Cep star V2052 Oph: inhibition of mixing by its magnetic field

We used extensive ground-based multisite and archival spectroscopy to derive observational constraints for a seismic modelling of the magnetic beta Cep star V2052 Ophiuchi. The line-profile variability is dominated by a radial mode (f_1=7.14846 d^{-1}) and by rotational modulation (P_rot=3.638833 d). Two non-radial low-amplitude modes (f_2=7.75603 d^{-1} and f_3=6.82308 d^{-1}) are also detected. The four periodicities that we found are the same as the ones discovered from a companion multisite photometric campaign (Handler et al. 2012) and known in the literature. Using the photometric constraints on the degrees l of the pulsation modes, we show that both f_2 and f_3 are prograde modes with (l,m)=(4,2) or (4,3). These results allowed us to deduce ranges for the mass (M \in [8.2,9.6] M_o) and central hydrogen abundance (X_c \in [0.25,0.32]) of V2052 Oph, to identify the radial orders n_1=1, n_2=-3 and n_3=-2, and to derive an equatorial rotation velocity v_eq \in [71,75] km s^{-1}. The model parameters are in full agreement with the effective temperature and surface gravity deduced from spectroscopy. Only models with no or mild core overshooting (alpha_ov \in [0,0.15] local pressure scale heights) can account for the observed properties. Such a low overshooting is opposite to our previous modelling results for the non-magnetic beta Cep star theta Oph having very similar parameters, except for a slower surface rotation rate. We discuss whether this result can be explained by the presence of a magnetic field in V2052 Oph that inhibits mixing in its interior.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures and 5 tables; accepted for publication in MNRAS on 2012 August 1

ISOGAL: A deep survey of the obscured inner Milky Way with ISO at 7 and 15 micron and with DENIS in the near-infrared

The ISOGAL project is an infrared survey of specific regions sampling the Galactic Plane selected to provide information on Galactic structure,stellar populations,stellar mass-loss and the recent star formation history of the inner disk and Bulge of the Galaxy. ISOGAL combines 7 and 15 micron ISOCAM observations - with a resolution of 6'' at worst - with DENIS IJKs data to determine the nature of the sources and theinterstellar extinction. We have observed about 16 square degrees with a sensitivity approaching 10-20mJy, detecting ~10^5 sources,mostly AGB stars,red giants and young stars. The main features of the ISOGAL survey and the observations are summarized in this paper,together with a brief discussion of data processing and quality. The primary ISOGAL products are described briefly (a full description is given in Schuller et al. 2003, astro-ph/0304309): viz. the images and theISOGAL-DENIS five-wavelength point source catalogue. The main scientific results already derived or in progress are summarized. These include astrometrically calibrated 7 and 15um images,determining structures of resolved sources; identification and properties of interstellar dark clouds; quantification of the infrared extinction law and source dereddening; analysis of red giant and (especially) AGB stellar populations in the central Bulge,determining luminosity,presence of circumstellar dust and mass--loss rate,and source classification,supplemented in some cases by ISO/CVF spectroscopy; detection of young stellar objects of diverse types,especially in the inner Bulge with information about the present and recent star formation rate; identification of foreground sources with mid-IR excess. These results are the subject of about 25 refereed papers published or in preparation.Comment: A&A in press. 19 pages,10 Ps figures; problems with figures fixe