U.S. Consumers’ Preference and Willingness to Pay for Country-of-Origin-Labeled Beef Steak and Food Safety Enhancements

The mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) troubles beef exporters to the U.S. This study evaluates the extent that U.S. consumers are receptive to imported steak and their perception of food safety level of beef from various countries. In addition, using conjoint analysis, willingness to pay for strip loin steak from Australia, Canada and the United States is estimated along with several increasingly important food safeties and quality attributes in beef. We find that on average U.S. consumers are willing to pay significantly less for imported steaks.beef, consumer preferences, country-of-origin labeling, conjoint experiment, willingness to pay, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries,

Willingness to Pay for Imported Beef and Risk Perception: An application of Individual-Level Parameter

The controversy surrounding the Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) has attracted research attentions. A number of studies have reported consumers are willing to pay more for beef labeled with U.S. origin versus beef from unknown or other origins. Despite that, relatively little is known about what motivates consumers’ preference for origin-labeled food products (Lusk et al 2006). Using Individual-Level Parameters following a mixed logit model, we found that U.S. consumers were willing to pay significantly less for imported steak from Australia and Canada compare to U.S. steak. Further, we found that the negative willingness to pay is associated strongly with consumers’ perception of food safety on the exporting country.beef, country of origin, mixed logit, individual-level parameters, stated choice experiment, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing, Q13, Q18,

PUBLIC HEALTH STATE OF EMERGENCY: Executive Order by the Governor Declaring a Public Health State of Emergency

The Executive Order primarily functions to enumerate the Governor’s emergency powers during a Public Health State of Emergency. The Executive Order allows for the Governor to assist health and emergency management officials by deploying available resources for the mitigation and treatment of COVID-19 within Georgia

Innovative Web 2.0 Technologies to Support Struggling Readers

Most Web 2.0 technologies are either free or inexpensive, making them accessible for teachers to use for instructional purposes, especially to assist diverse students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. This article discusses the qualitative findings of a mixed-methods study that investigated how a group of candidates in a reading licensure graduate program responded to Web 2.0 technology integration when working with struggling readers, including their perceptual reaction and their implemented practice. The results from the study may help K-12 classroom teachers and teacher educators better understand how to include technologies in working with teacher candidates and assist them in designing instructional practices to support all learners

Metabolomic profiling of women with gestational diabetes mellitus and their offspring: Review of metabolomics studies.

BACKGROUND:Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) reflects an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) after pregnancy in women. Offspring born to mothers with GDM are at an elevated risk of obesity and T2D at a young age. Currently, there are lack of ways for identifying women in early pregnancy who are at risk of developing GDM. As a result, both mothers and fetus are not treated until late in the second trimester when GDM is diagnosed. The recent advance in metabolomics, a new approach of systematic investigation of the metabolites, provides an opportunity for early detection of GDM, and classifying the risk of subsequent chronic diseases among women and their offspring. METHODS:We reviewed the literatures published in the past 20 years on studies using high-throughput metabolomics technologies to investigate women with GDM and their offspring. CONCLUSIONS:Despite the inconsistent results, previous studies have identified biomarkers that involved in specific metabolite groups and several pathways, including amino acid metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis, glycerophospholipid metabolism, and fatty acid metabolism. However, most studies have small sample sizes. Further research is warranted to determine if metabolomics will result in new indicators for the diagnosis, management, and prognosis of GDM and related complications

A Care Guide for Successfully Educating Patients

Frustration over the lack of preparation for the patient at discharge is, unfortunately, all too familiar for nurses today. After the primary care provider has written the discharge order, nurses find themselves the last resource. Often, the patient will have questions about medications, diet, activity guidelines, or follow-up that were not addressed by the physician. The nurse must now provide answers. Most patients have become so overloaded with information throughout their hospital stay that there is little chance they will be able to remember all the instructions to guide their first days at home. Nurses, for the most part, do all they can possibly do to educate patients. Most realize that discharge starts with admission; however, patient education has become so routine that often nurses are doing an insufficient job as patient educators

Cardiometabolic health of Chinese older adults with diabetes living in Beijing, China.

ABSTRACT Objectives: Using the PRECEDE-PROCEED model, this study examined the presence of metabolic syndrome and modifiable cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome among Chinese adults with diabetes living in Beijing, China. Design and Sample: The cross-sectional study collected data through face-to-face interviews. The study included 73 Chinese older adults with diabetes. Their mean age was 68 years (±7.66), with a range from 52 to 90 years. Measurements: Data were collected on demographic characteristics, blood pressure (BP), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, lipid profile and fasting glucose, physical activity, diet, and health status. Results: The great majority (85%) had metabolic syndrome; 65% had hypertension; 52% had high levels of low-density lipoproteins, and 80.6% had a high level of fasting glucose. Half of the participants (51.4%) were overweight, 16.7% were obese, and 86.3% had central obesity. Age, gender, BMI, income, insurance, smoking history, physical activity, and diet explained 23% of the variance in the metabolic syndrome component, systolic blood pressure. Conclusions: The association of predisposing and enabling factors and health behavior with the metabolic syndrome needs to be further explored. Persons with diabetes should have regular health screenings to check for blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol, glucose, and triglycerides in order to decrease the risks associated with metabolic syndrome and CVD

Improving signal intensities for genes with low-expression on oligonucleotide microarrays

BACKGROUND: DNA microarrays using long oligonucleotide probes are widely used to evaluate gene expression in biological samples. These oligonucleotides are pre-synthesized and sequence-optimized to represent specific genes with minimal cross-hybridization to homologous genes. Probe length and concentration are critical factors for signal sensitivity, particularly when genes with various expression levels are being tested. We evaluated the effects of oligonucleotide probe length and concentration on signal intensity measurements of the expression levels of genes in a target sample. RESULTS: Selected genes of various expression levels in a single cell line were hybridized to oligonucleotide arrays of four lengths and four concentrations of probes to determine how these critical parameters affected the intensity of the signal representing their expression. We found that oligonucleotides of longer length significantly increased the signals of genes with low-expression in the target. High-expressing gene signals were also boosted but to a lesser degree. Increasing the probe concentration, however, did not linearly increase the signal intensity for either low- or high-expressing genes. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the longer the oligonuclotide probe the better the signal intensities of low expressing genes on oligonucleotide arrays