Cooper: Writing in Law Practice

A Review of Writing in Law Practice. By Frank E. Coope

US Household Demand for Organic Fruit

We estimate US household monthly elasticities of demand for some of the more popular organic fruits. To our knowledge, this is the first US-wide, multi-year analysis of price and income elasticities for various organic fruits. We calculate elasticities of demand for low-income, middle class, and rich income bracket households using three estimation techniques: two econometric methods and one machine learning method (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)). Demand estimates are based on Nielsen scanner data from approximately 60,000 households collected from 2011 to 2013. Generally, we find that own-price conditional and unconditional elasticities of demand for organic fruits are negative. Unconditional elasticity magnitudes tend to be largest in the representative middle-class household. Income elasticities of demand measurements are inconsistent and often statistically insignificant. This finding is consistent with the survey literature finding that many consumers buy organic food for mostly moral or ethical reasons. We run two policy experiments: a 10% subsidy of organic fruits, and a 10% tax on conventional fruits. Our hypothetical policies engender a stronger reaction among the general public than habitual buyers of organic fruit; unconditional purchase and expenditure elasticities are generally larger than conditional purchase and expenditure elasticities. Finally, we find that elasticities measured with the LASSO technique are not radically different than those measured with econometric methods. The most noticeable difference between the two analytical techniques is that LASSO is more likely to find price and income elasticities of demand that indistinguishable from zero, both substantively and statistically

Nystagmus during an acute Ménière's attack: From prodrome to recovery

OBJECTIVE: We are currently undertaking a clinical investigation to evaluate the diagnostic capability of a system for detecting periods of pathological dizziness. This article presents an analysis of the data captured during an acute attack of Ménière's disease. DESIGN: The Continuous Ambulatory Vestibular Assessment (CAVA) device is worn by patients in the community, and continuously records eye and head movement data (vestibular telemetry). STUDY SAMPLE: A 53-year-old lady with a fifteen-year history of left-sided unilateral Ménière's disease. RESULTS: The patient wore the device nearly continuously for thirty days. The data revealed a three-hour long attack of vertigo consisting of four separate phases of nystagmus. The duration, beat-direction and slow phase velocity of the nystagmus evolved through time. The first phase contained isolated nystagmus beats which preceded the patient's record of the vertigo attack onset but coincided with anticipation of an impending vertigo attack. CONCLUSIONS: CAVA provides a unique insight into the physiological parameters present during episodes of dizziness. Here, it has provided the first full example of an acute Ménière's attack, including a period of prodrome. These findings have implications for the prediction of vertigo attack onset, for the diagnosis of Ménière's disease and other diseases resulting in dizziness

Analytical characteristics of a biomarker-based risk assessment test for acute kidney injury (AKI).

BackgroundAcute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with increased mortality, morbidity, hospital length of stay, and costs. A quantitative urine test is available to assess the risk of developing AKI by measuring the concentrations of two protein biomarkers, TIMP-2 and IGFBP-7. The NephroCheck Test combines these concentrations into an AKIRisk Score. The purpose of this study is to characterize the analytical performance characteristics of the AKIRisk Score.MethodsLinearity and analytical sensitivity were evaluated by following Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) EP06-A and EP17-A, respectively. Precision was evaluated by testing clinical samples and examining the repeatability of test results. Potential interference was evaluated for endogenous and exogenous substances. Sample stability was examined at room temperature and at 2-8°C, as well as the effect of sample centrifugation temperature on test results.ResultsThe AKIRisk Score exhibits approximately 10% coefficient of variation (CV) at the recommended cutoff value of 0.3 and the limit of quantitation (LoQ) was 0.002. Only albumin, bilirubin (conjugated), and methylene blue interfered with test results, at concentrations exceeding 1250 mg/L, 72 mg/L, and 0.49 mg/L, respectively. AKIRisk Score results were stable for 6h at room temperature, 24h refrigerated, and not impacted by sample centrifugation temperature.ConclusionsOur studies demonstrate that the AKIRisk Score has robust analytical performance, good precision, minimal analytical interference, acceptable sensitivity, and excellent sample stability

A high-throughput method for the detection of homoeologous gene deletions in hexaploid wheat

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mutational inactivation of plant genes is an essential tool in gene function studies. Plants with inactivated or deleted genes may also be exploited for crop improvement if such mutations/deletions produce a desirable agronomical and/or quality phenotype. However, the use of mutational gene inactivation/deletion has been impeded in polyploid plant species by genetic redundancy, as polyploids contain multiple copies of the same genes (homoeologous genes) encoded by each of the ancestral genomes. Similar to many other crop plants, bread wheat (<it>Triticum aestivum </it>L.) is polyploid; specifically allohexaploid possessing three progenitor genomes designated as 'A', 'B', and 'D'. Recently modified TILLING protocols have been developed specifically for mutation detection in wheat. Whilst extremely powerful in detecting single nucleotide changes and small deletions, these methods are not suitable for detecting whole gene deletions. Therefore, high-throughput methods for screening of candidate homoeologous gene deletions are needed for application to wheat populations generated by the use of certain mutagenic agents (e.g. heavy ion irradiation) that frequently generate whole-gene deletions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To facilitate the screening for specific homoeologous gene deletions in hexaploid wheat, we have developed a TaqMan qPCR-based method that allows high-throughput detection of deletions in homoeologous copies of any gene of interest, provided that sufficient polymorphism (as little as a single nucleotide difference) amongst homoeologues exists for specific probe design. We used this method to identify deletions of individual <it>TaPFT1 </it>homoeologues, a wheat orthologue of the disease susceptibility and flowering regulatory gene <it>PFT1 </it>in Arabidopsis. This method was applied to wheat nullisomic-tetrasomic lines as well as other chromosomal deletion lines to locate the <it>TaPFT1 </it>gene to the long arm of chromosome 5. By screening of individual DNA samples from 4500 M2 mutant wheat lines generated by heavy ion irradiation, we detected multiple mutants with deletions of each <it>TaPFT1 </it>homoeologue, and confirmed these deletions using a CAPS method. We have subsequently designed, optimized, and applied this method for the screening of homoeologous deletions of three additional wheat genes putatively involved in plant disease resistance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We have developed a method for automated, high-throughput screening to identify deletions of individual homoeologues of a wheat gene. This method is also potentially applicable to other polyploidy plants.</p

Common Representation of Information Flows for Dynamic Coalitions

We propose a formal foundation for reasoning about access control policies within a Dynamic Coalition, defining an abstraction over existing access control models and providing mechanisms for translation of those models into information-flow domain. The abstracted information-flow domain model, called a Common Representation, can then be used for defining a way to control the evolution of Dynamic Coalitions with respect to information flow

Effect of Sedentary and Physical Activities on Children’s Food Choice

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(5): 702-712, 2017. Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern. Research has shown sedentary behavior (SB) increases children’s unhealthy food consumption, while physical activity (PA) decreases caloric intake and increases energy expenditure. The purpose of this study was to examine child snack choice following a bout of active, SB, and a mix of SB and active (SB-A). Participants included a volunteer sample of children (n=24) ranging from 9-13 years of age. A within-subjects simple experimental design was used, and children participated in three conditions: active, SB, and SB-A. After each condition, the children were asked to choose one snack from two healthy and two unhealthy options. The children were randomized into one of the six possible condition sequences (4 children per group) based on when they enrolled in the study. Data were analyzed in SPSS (v21) using the Friedman, Wilcoxon Signed-Rank, and Kruskal-Wallis tests. There was not a statistically significant difference in the overall model comparing the three conditions on snack choice (p=0.15). Overweight/obese children were significantly more likely than normal weight children to choose a healthier snack option after the active condition (p=0.02). There was no difference between boys and girls for snack choice following the active (p\u3e0.05), SB (p\u3e0.05), and SB-A (p\u3e0.05). Our overall findings suggest SB and active had no effect on children’s snack choice. Promoting PA to children who are overweight/obese could lead to decreased energy intake and increased energy expenditure combating the obesity epidemic

Modeling of Water Injection into a Vacuum

A loosely coupled two-phase vacuum water plume model has been developed. This model consists of a source flow model to describe the expansion of water vapor, and the Lagrangian equations of motion for particle trajectories. Gas/Particle interaction is modeled through the drag force induced by the relative velocities. Particles are assumed traveling along streamlines. The equations of motion are integrated to obtain particle velocity along the streamline. This model has been used to predict the mass flux in a 5 meter radius hemispherical domain resulting from the burst of a water jet of 1.5 mm in diameter, mass flow rate of 24.2 g/s, and stagnation pressure of 21.0 psia, which is the nominal Orbiter water dump condition. The result is compared with an empirical water plume model deduced from a video image of the STS-29 water dump. To further improve the model, work has begun to numerically simulate the bubble formation and bursting present in a liquid stream injected into a vacuum. The technique of smoothed particle hydrodynamics was used to formulate this simulation. A status and results of the on-going effort are presented and compared to results from the literature