YOUNG CONSUMERS’ DEMAND FOR NATURAL SWEETENERS

Health conscious consumers are increasingly concerned about the caloric content and glycemic index of sweeteners added to food. Currently, the average American consumes 22 teaspoons of added sugar in processed foods per day. Young people typically consume higher amounts of sweeteners via candy, sports drinks, and soda (Smed, Jensen et al. 2007). Recently, the American Heart Association issued a statement recommending no more than six teaspoons for women and nine teaspoons for men of added sugar in processed foods per day (Winslow and Wang 2009). Of particular concern is the glycemic index of sweeteners—or how quickly sweeteners raise one’s blood sugar level after consumption. While much of recent concern about added sugar focuses on high fructose corn syrup, other industries, including the honey and beet sugar industries, are likely to be affected by these new recommendations and consumer sentiment. The objective of this research is to measure young consumers’ values of natural sweeteners’ glycemic index and to relate this information to their personal risk-preferences and relationships. This research generates needed information for policy regarding refined sugars and natural sweeteners in processed foods. Our primary hypothesis is that the value of natural sweetener alternatives with different glycemic indexes varies with consumers’ health consciousness. Further, consumers’ valuations are influenced by their own underlying health-risk assessments and social and familial relationships. We hypothesize consumers’ economic risk preferences are correlated with their demand for natural sweetener alternatives. We also hypothesize social and family relationships effect the stability of individual preferences for natural sweeteners.Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy,

Resilience amongst Australian Aboriginal youth: an ecological analysis of factors associated with psychosocial functioning in high and low family risk contexts

Abstract: We investigate whether the profile of factors protecting psychosocial functioning of high risk exposed Australian Aboriginal youth are the same as those promoting psychosocial functioning in low risk exposed youth. Data on 1,021 youth aged 12–17 years were drawn from the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey, a population representative survey of the health and well-being of Aboriginal children, their families and community contexts. A person-centered approach was used to define four groups of youth cross-classified according to level of risk exposure (high/low) and psychosocial functioning (good/poor). Multivariate logistic regression was used to model the influence of individual, family, cultural and community factors on psychosocial outcomes separately for youth in high and low family-risk contexts. Results showed that in high family risk contexts, prosocial friendship and low area-level socioeconomic status uniquely protected psychosocial functioning. However, in low family risk contexts the perception of racism increased the likelihood of poor psychosocial functioning. For youth in both high and low risk contexts, higher self-esteem and self-regulation were associated with good psychosocial functioning although the relationship was non-linear. These findings demonstrate that an empirical resilience framework of analysis can identify potent protective processes operating uniquely in contexts of high risk and is the first to describe distinct profiles of risk, protective and promotive factors within high and low risk exposed Australian Aboriginal youth

Framing Theory: A Textual Analysis of News Coverage of the Breonna Taylor Killing

During a series of life-changing events within the African American community, Breonna Taylor, who identified as a Black woman, was fatally shot in her home on March 13, 2020, by a Louisville, Kentucky police officer. Coverage from major media outlets reported that the actions taken by the police department were unorganized and reckless, leading to an international uproar. This study uses Framing Theory to examine more than 100 headlines from CNN, ABC News, MSNBC News, and Fox News related to Taylor’s killing. The headlines were analyzed through the frames of situations, choice, action, issues, and responsibility in an attempt to understand this tragedy from a communication perspective

Full of Hot Air: Heat Flow at the Medicine Lake Volcano Hot Spot, Modoc County, California

Changes in volcanic hydrothermal systems can shed light on the physical processes associated with volcanic unrest such as changes in an underlying magma body. The U.S. Geological Survey recently implemented an experimental hydrothermal monitoring network throughout the Cascade volcanic arc. Despite being ranked as the 12th highest threat among all Cascade volcanoes, Medicine Lake Volcano in northeastern California is considered under-monitored. The primary hydrothermal-monitoring site at Medicine Lake Volcano is a weak fumarole contained within a small area of heated ground, called the Hot Spot, located near the caldera rim. This study uses data from a survey conducted in August 2013 to estimate the total heat flux at the Hot Spot. Total heat flux was predicted to be 130 ± 6 W·m-2 based on an estimated 46 ± 2 W·m-2 conductive heat flux and an estimated 80 ± 16 W·m-2 advective heat flux, for a total heat flow of ˜1.1 MW for the 8,600 m2 vapor-dominated area. This flow is of a similar magnitude as those in other vapor-dominated areas in active volcanic fields and may be sourced by a deeper magma-hydrothermal system rather than local, cooling rock from the last eruption 950 ya. Results of this research add to the current body of knowledge of the Medicine Lake Volcano hydrothermal system and will serve as a baseline should changes to the hydrothermal system occur in the future

When You\u27re Done Digging

This is a work of fiction about a woman making poor decisions

Full of Hot Air: Heat Flow at the Medicine Lake Volcano Hot Spot, Modoc County, California

Changes in volcanic hydrothermal systems can shed light on the physical processes associated with volcanic unrest such as changes in an underlying magma body. The U.S. Geological Survey recently implemented an experimental hydrothermal monitoring network throughout the Cascade volcanic arc. Despite being ranked as the 12th highest threat among all Cascade volcanoes, Medicine Lake Volcano in northeastern California is considered under-monitored. The primary hydrothermal-monitoring site at Medicine Lake Volcano is a weak fumarole contained within a small area of heated ground, called the Hot Spot, located near the caldera rim. This study uses data from a survey conducted in August 2013 to estimate the total heat flux at the Hot Spot. Total heat flux was predicted to be 130 ± 6 W·m-2 based on an estimated 46 ± 2 W·m-2 conductive heat flux and an estimated 80 ± 16 W·m-2 advective heat flux, for a total heat flow of ˜1.1 MW for the 8,600 m2 vapor-dominated area. This flow is of a similar magnitude as those in other vapor-dominated areas in active volcanic fields and may be sourced by a deeper magma-hydrothermal system rather than local, cooling rock from the last eruption 950 ya. Results of this research add to the current body of knowledge of the Medicine Lake Volcano hydrothermal system and will serve as a baseline should changes to the hydrothermal system occur in the future

Yes they\u27re out there : a qualitative study on strong African American marriages

Much of the research that exists on Black marriage is usually from a deficit perspective and focuses on the decline of marriages among Black Americans. Even so, many Black families are marriage based and it is unfortunate that little research exists that focuses on understanding these families from a strength-based approach. It is important that we learn what constitutes the characteristics of strong Black marriages and families and learn how Black U.S. families differ from and are similar to Euro U.S. families. This study looked at the hows, whys, and processes of enduring and sustaining marriages in Black families. Black couples were interviewed to examine strengths and characteristics that contribute to happy, strong, long-term marriage for Black Americans. A purposive sample of Black married (or remarried) couples were interviewed to identify factors and characteristics that contribute to a strong, long-term marriage. Participants in this study were 12 heterosexual Black couples (24 participants) that were married for at least 20 years. The average length of marriage for the couples was 33 years. Participants’ ages ranged from 45 years to 75 years old. The findings revealed six salient themes discussed by participants. The first four themes were relational and marital in scope. They were: (a) the influence of children on marriage, (b) the influence of faith on marriage, (c) the sources of strength for marriage, and (d) the characteristics for a strong marriage. The final two themes were more societal in scope. They were: (e) the impact of Black community on marriage, and (f) the impact of racism on marriage. These findings highlight the strengths of strong, enduring Black marriages and families. This qualitative study provided insights and understandings from the participants’ points of view, including findings that concentrated on experiences, processes, meaning and understandings of Black persons and families

Using Renewable Energy to Increase Tribal Sovereignty: A Feasibility Study for a Biomass Energy Plant on the Cocopah Reservation

Native American reservations in the United States are often located on mineral-rich lands, making them a target for fossil fuel development in already socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. As environmentally damaging as they are, coal and oil industries can bring invaluable jobs and money to isolated reservations, causing tribes to rely on fossil fuels for mere economic survival. In these instances of corporations or the federal government exploiting Native American labor and land, tribes lose the most fundamental principle of tribal governance: tribal sovereignty. Replacing fossil fuels and securing energy independence with a stable, renewable energy source is key to reclaiming that tribal sovereignty. Biomass, a general term for any organic material used as a fuel source, is an often overlooked form of renewable energy to provide for an entire community’s needs. This paper focuses specifically on the 21 tribes in Arizona that can use elements of the local landscape, residues from economic activity like agriculture, or waste from urban areas to power a community-scale biomass plant. The feasibility study for a biomass plant on the Cocopah Reservation, a small and economically poor tribe in southwestern Arizona, determined that the tribe could supply all of its energy needs with a small, 1 MW combustion stoker boiler fed with crop residues from nearby agricultural lands. The levelized cost of electricity for this biomass plant is about $0.2–$0.3/kWh, or one-sixth of electricity rate that the tribe pays from the local utility. The plant would create revenue over its 30-year lifespan that could be fed back into other social service or economic revitalization projects for tribal members. The Cocopah would also benefit from joining with other small and politically isolated tribes to form an intertribal energy consortium that could share administrative and technical expertise in completing feasibility studies or applying for federal assistance

Si Dios quiere ...

This thesis explores issues of closeness and distance within families. By looking at how aspects of cultural identity further complicate this dynamic as well as how photography is used as a way of mapping a family character, this thesis encompasses topics ranging from Argentine artists to early daguerreotype photography. Using her own Argentine- American heritage as a subject for the photographs, the artist focuses on her grandfather\u27s apartment in Argentina, which acts as a stage, and character in her family story. Traditional modes of photographic posing are borrowed and explored in this work, not only to reference the old photographs that occupy the apartment in Argentina but also to portray a kind of photographic genealogy, connecting one family member to another by similarities in pose and style. The work as a whole acts as a new chapter in a continuing family album. It deals with the mapping of genealogy as compared to the mapping of a place like a city or the apartment. An intimate space of memory and nostalgia, the apartment has a foreign quality that dislocates viewers spatially and temporally