U.S. CONSUMER ATTITUDES TOWARD FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY

This study examines consumer attitudes in the U.S. toward genetically modified food over time. Five surveys conducted by the International Food Information Council (1999 - 2001) are used to determine what factors significantly influence consumers' willingness to try food products genetically modified to reduce pesticide usage or improve taste.Consumer/Household Economics,

Treating anemia of chronic kidney disease in the primary care setting: cardiovascular outcomes and management recommendations

Anemia is an underrecognized but characteristic feature of chronic kidney disease (CKD), associated with significant cardiovascular morbidity, hospitalization, and mortality. Since their inception nearly two decades ago, erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) have revolutionized the care of patients with renal anemia, and their use has been associated with improved quality of life and reduced hospitalizations, inpatient costs, and mortality. Hemoglobin targets ≥13 g/dL have been linked with adverse events in recent randomized trials, raising concerns over the proper hemoglobin range for ESA treatment. This review appraises observational and randomized studies of the outcomes of erythropoietic treatment and offers recommendations for managing renal anemia in the primary care setting

Mammalian community structure in lowland, tropical Peru, as determined by removal trapping

Amazonian lowland rain forests are complex three-dimensional formations consisting of a variety of arboreal and terrestrial habitats. The small mammal faunas, particularly of arboreal habitats, are poorly studied, and field research generally has been limited to a few faunal inventories. We sampled the terrestrial and arboreal small mammal fauna in two floodplain forest study zones at Reserva Cuzco Amazónico, southeastern Peru, by removal trapping for 12 consecutive days in dry (June–July 1989) and rainy seasons (January–February1990). Nineteen taxa of marsupials and rodents were captured. Small mammals were more abundant in the rainy season than in the dry season, but the relative proportions of the 11 most abundant species remained stable between seasons and study zones. Most species showed no decline in capture rates through the 12-day period, indicating that either population densities were high or animals were quite mobile. The small mammal fauna exhibited strong vertical stratification; among the 11 most abundant species, four exhibited strong biases toward terrestrial and five toward above-ground captures. The distinct arboreal small mammal community is grossly underrepresented if traps are placed only at ground level

Self-reported pregnancy exposures and placental DNA methylation in the MARBLES prospective autism sibling study.

Human placenta is a fetal-derived tissue that offers a unique sample of epigenetic and environmental exposures present in utero. In the MARBLES prospective pregnancy study of high-risk younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), pregnancy and environmental factors collected by maternal interviews were examined as predictors of placental DNA methylation, including partially methylated domains (PMDs), an embryonic feature of the placental methylome. DNA methylation data from MethylC-seq analysis of 47 placentas of children clinically diagnosed at 3 years with ASD or typical development using standardized assessments were examined in relation to: child's gestational age, birth-weight, and diagnosis; maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index, smoking, education, parity, height, prenatal vitamin and folate intake; home ownership; pesticides professionally applied to lawns or gardens or inside homes, pet flea/tick pouches, collars, or soaps/shampoos used in the 3 months prior to or during pregnancy. Sequencing run, order, and coverage, and child race and sex were considered as potential confounders. Akaike information criterion was used to select the most parsimonious among candidate models. Final prediction models used sandwich estimators to produce homoscadisticity-robust estimates of the 95% confidence interval (CI) and P-values controlled the false discovery rate at 5%. The strongest, most robust associations were between pesticides professionally applied outside the home and higher average methylation over PMDs [0.45 (95% CI 0.17, 0.72), P = 0.03] and a reduced proportion of the genome in PMDs [-0.42 (95% CI - 0.67 to -0.17), P = 0.03]. Pesticide exposures could alter placental DNA methylation more than other factors

Competitive abilities of native grasses and non-native (Bothriochloa spp.) grasses

Old World Bluestems (OWB), introduced from Europe and Asia in the 1920s, recently have begun to raise concerns in the Great Plains. Despite suggestion in the late 1950s that OWB were weedy and negatively impacted biological diversity, they were widely introduced throughout the Great Plains for agricultural purposes. Anecdotal evidence suggests that OWB exhibit invasive characteristics that promote competitive exclusion of native species. The objective of our study was to quantify the competitive abilities of two OWB species (Caucasian bluestem; Bothriochloa bladhii (Retz.) S. T. Blake (= Bothriochloa caucasica (Trin.) C. E. Hubb.) and yellow bluestem; Bothriochloa ischaemum (L.) Keng) with three native grass species (big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii Vitman), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium (Michx.) Nash), and sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula (Michx.) Torr.)). A greenhouse target-neighbor study was conducted to assess both interspecific and intraspecific competition. A total of 480 pots (4.4 1) filled with native soil was used with all pair-wise combinations of species and four density treatments (six replications). Vegetative tiller height, above-and belowground biomass were measured at the end of 16 weeks. Both of the OWB significantly inhibited at least one growth parameter of the three native grass species, while most of the native species did not inhibit growth of either OWB species. Growth of B. ischaemum was enhanced when grown in association with 5. scoparium. Based upon the results of our study of OWB competitive superiority and previous research, many of the characteristics possessed by OWB are found to be in common with known invasive species. Hence, we propose that two OWB are competitively superior to three common native prairie species providing them with the ability to invade and threaten the native grasslands of the Central and Southern Great Plains

The Optimal Pace of Product Updates

Some firms (such as Intel and Medtronics) use a time–pacing strategy for new product development, introducing new generations at regular intervals. If the firm adopts a fast pace (introducing frequently) then it prematurely cannibalizes its old generation and incurs high development costs, while if it waits too long, it fails to capitalize on customer willingness–to–pay for more advanced technology. We develop a model to gain insight into which factors drive the pace. We consider the degree to which a new generation stimulates market growth, the rate at which it diffuses (its coefficients of innovation and imitation), the rate of decline in its margin over time, and the cost of new product development. The optimization problem is non–concave; however we are able to solve it numerically for a wide range of parameters because there is a finite number of possible solutions for each case. Somewhat intuitively, we find that a faster pace is associated with a higher market growth rate and faster margin decay. Not so intuitively, we find that relatively minor differences in the new product development cost function can significantly impact the optimal pace. Regarding the Bass coefficients of innovation and imitation, we find that a higher sum of these coefficients leads to a faster pace but with diminishing effects, and that for relatively higher sums the coefficients are effectively substitutes

#improveresourcesharing: Indiana Resource Sharing White Paper

This white paper calls for a series of changes to improve resource sharing in the state of Indiana. These changes include; making rare and scarcely held resources such as local history discoverable; making Indiana Evergreen’s collections discoverable and requestable by other libraries; implementing recommendations on membership in Indiana Share; adherence to best practices for resource sharing; and, recognizing that the population is mobile and that users of public libraries may also be users of academic libraries that a common brand for resource sharing be created to help users find the service at all their libraries