Beef Market Outlook

Beef Business Facts: 1. The beef industry is changing rapidly 2. Competition will be tougher and margins will narrow 3. Risk is increasing 4. Approaches to marketing are changing 5. An increased percentage of beef will be sold under a brand name 6. Environmental and food safety issues will increase 7. General observation

Design of FerroElectric MEMS energy harvesting devices

Waste heat is a widely available but little used source of power. Converting a thermal gradient into electricity is conventionally done using the Seebeck effect, but devices that use this effect are naturally inefficient. An alternate approach uses microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to generate movement and time-varying temperature from a constant temperature gradient. Ferroelectric materials can harvest electricity from moving structures and temperature variations. This concept was realized using traditional silicon microprocessing techniques. A silicon on insulator (SOI) wafer was backside Deep Reactive Ion Etched (DRIE) to form a one mm2 by 7 micron thick silicon/silicon dioxide membrane. Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) was deposited on the membrane and acts as a ferroelectric material. Heating the bulk of the SOI substrate causes an increase in stress and upward deflection of the membrane. The membrane then enters into contact with a cold sink fixed above the substrate. Cooling of the membrane from contact with the cold sink causes actuation downwards of the membrane. The alternating heating and cooling of the PZT layer generates electricity from the pyroelectric effect. The actuation of the membrane generates stress on the PZT layer resulting in electricity from the piezoelectric effect

Electron beam damage of biological specimens in liquid-phase electron microscopy

Electron microscopy of native biological materials is usually hampered by sample preparation procedures such as dehydration and freezing, and by electron beam damage. Liquid phase electron microscopy (LP-EM) allows the observation of biological samples in liquid environments without conventional preparation procedures. However, electron beam damage also occurs in LP-EM, and thresholds for biological samples are not yet fully explored. In this work, the electron dose tolerance of green fluorescent protein (GFP) was analyzed in LP-EM. Protein damage was studied with increasing electron dose, using fluorescence degradation as an indication. Dc < 0.01 e-/Ų and Dc < 0.1 e-/Ų were observed for GFP on silicon nitrite in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), respectively. In TEM, the dose tolerance was increased by three orders of magnitude when GFP was encapsulated in graphene liquid cells. The dose tolerance of more complex systems was investigated by binding GFP to actin filaments in fixed SKBR3 cells, which showed Dc < 0.1 e-/Ų in TEM and ESEM. In fixed SKBR3 cells, radiation damage was also studied based on the displacement of labeled membrane proteins. At electron doses of D = (7.8 ± 0.4) ∙ 10³ e-/Ų these labels showed a displacement of 0.8%. Procedures for studying biological materials such as proteins and fixed cells in LP-EM are presented in this thesis. Strategies to study and mitigate beam damage are demonstrated.Elektronenmikroskopie nativer biologischer Materialien wird in der Regel durch Probenpräparationsverfahren wie Dehydrierung und Einfrieren sowie durch Strahlenschäden behindert. Flüssigphasen-Elektronenmikroskopie (LP-EM) ermöglicht die Beobachtung biologischer Proben in flüssiger Umgebung ohne herkömmliche Präparationsverfahren. Strahlenschäden treten allerdings auch in LP-EM auf, jedoch sind die Grenzwerte biologischer Proben noch nicht vollständig erforscht. In dieser Arbeit wurde die Dosistoleranz des grün fluoreszierenden Proteins (GFP) in LP-EM analysiert. Proteinschädigung wurde anhand abnehmender Fluoreszenz mit zunehmender Elektronendosis untersucht. Dc < 0.01 e-/Ų und Dc < 0.1 e-/Ų wurden für GFP auf Siliziumnitrit in Transmissionselektronenmikroskopie (TEM) bzw environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) gezeigt. In TEM konnte die Dosistoleranz mit dem Einschluss von GFP in Graphenflüssigzellen um drei Größenordnungen erhöht werden. Zur Untersuchung komplexerer Systemen wurde GFP an Aktinfilamente in SKBR3 Zellen gebunden, die Dc < 0.1 e-/Ų in TEM und ESEM zeigten. In fixierten SKBR3-Zellen wurden Strahlenschäden auch anhand der Verschiebung markierter Membranproteine untersucht. Bei D = (7.8 ± 0.4) ∙ 10³ e-/Ų zeigten diese eine Verschiebung von 0.8%. In dieser Arbeit werden Verfahren zur Untersuchung biologischer Materialien wie Proteinen und fixierten Zellen in LP-EM vorgestellt. Strategien zur Untersuchung und Abschwächung von Strahlenschäden werden aufgezeigt

Improving institutional memory on challenges and methods for estimation of pig herd antimicrobial exposure based on data from the Danish Veterinary Medicines Statistics Program (VetStat)

With the increasing occurrence of antimicrobial resistance, more attention has been directed towards surveillance of both human and veterinary antimicrobial use. Since the early 2000s, several research papers on Danish pig antimicrobial usage have been published, based on data from the Danish Veterinary Medicines Statistics Program (VetStat). VetStat was established in 2000, as a national database containing detailed information on purchases of veterinary medicine. This paper presents a critical set of challenges originating from static system features, which researchers must address when estimating antimicrobial exposure in Danish pig herds. Most challenges presented are followed by at least one robust solution. A set of challenges requiring awareness from the researcher, but for which no immediate solution was available, were also presented. The selection of challenges and solutions was based on a consensus by a cross-institutional group of researchers working in projects using VetStat data. No quantitative data quality evaluations were performed, as the frequency of errors and inconsistencies in a dataset will vary, depending on the period covered in the data. Instead, this paper focuses on clarifying how VetStat data may be translated to an estimation of the antimicrobial exposure at herd level, by suggesting uniform methods of extracting and editing data, in order to obtain reliable and comparable estimates on pig antimicrobial consumption for research purposes.Comment: 25 pages, including two Appendices (pages not numbered). Title page, including abstract, is on page 1. Body of text, including references, abbreviation list and disclaimers for conflict of interest and funding, are on pages 2-18. Two figures embedded in the text on pages 3 and 5. Appendix 1 starts on page 19, and Appendix 2 on page 2

Nanopartículas: Alternativas en la industria Medica y Alimentaria

La nanociencia ha permitido el desarrollo de nuevos nanomateriales con aplicaciones diversas. Sin embrago, dentro de la gran variedad de nanomateriales existentes, las nanopartículas (NPs) metálicas han atraído la atención debido a sus excelentes propiedades fisicoquímicas intrínsecas a su tamaño nanométrico. Una propiedad muy interesante de las NPs es que sus electrones libres experimentan oscilaciones coherentes colectivas (resonancia plasmónica, SPR) en presencia de radiaciones electromagnéticas, emitiendo calor. Esta propiedad denominada efecto fototérmico, las ha ubicado en la mira de la nanotecnología para diversas aplicaciones. No obstante, el singular comportamiento de las nanopartículas metálicas se encuentra esencialmente influenciado por factores intrínsecos generados por el proceso de síntesis, como son el tamaño, forma, anisotropía, ordenamiento atómico superficial, polidispersidad entre otros. En este sentido y como una alternativa a la generación de materiales nanotecnológicos eficientes en procesos puntuales, se ha sugerido una de las metodologías bottom-up más versátiles para la síntesis de nanopartículas como es el uso de micelas inversas a modo de medios de reacción confinados o nanoreactores moleculares. Las micelas inversas son sistemas organizados auto-ensamblados que se obtienen cuando se disuelve una molécula de surfactante en un solvente orgánico de baja polaridad. Las micelas inversas se han empleado como nanoreactores en diferentes reacciones químicas y biológicas, y en la síntesis de nanomateriales esta metodología se caracteriza por ser simple y reproducible, permite el control de la estructura, tamaño y forma de las partículas mostrando ser una promisoria estrategia de síntesis para el modulado de las propiedades físicas y químicas de las nanopartículas en función a su aplicación