INCOME ELASTICITIES FOR BEEF, PORK, AND POULTRY: CHANGES AND IMPLICATIONS

Agribusiness,

An Examination of the African American Experience of Everyday Discrimination and Symptoms of Psychological Distress

Current theoretical models suggest that the most potent and impacting discrimination experienced by African Americans in the post Jim Crow era are subtle and unconscious forms of discrimination that are experienced on a daily basis. This study investigates the relationship between perceived everyday discrimination and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Further, we examine gender as a moderator of this relationship. Data come from the 1995 Detroit Area Study data with 570 African American respondents. Results indicate that perceived discrimination is directly related to both symptoms of depression and anxiety. Gender moderates the relationship between discrimination and anxiety symptoms, but not discrimination and depressive symptoms. Overall, different patterns of relationships were apparent for men and women

Soil–Atmosphere Exchange of Nitrous Oxide, Nitric Oxide, Methane, and Carbon Dioxide in Logged and Undisturbed Forest in the Tapajos National Forest, Brazil

Selective logging is an extensive land use in the Brazilian Amazon region. The soil–atmosphere fluxes of nitrous oxide (N2O), nitric oxide (NO), methane (CH4), and carbon dioxide (CO2) are studied on two soil types (clay Oxisol and sandy loam Ultisol) over two years (2000–01) in both undisturbed forest and forest recently logged using reduced impact forest management in the Tapajos National Forest, near Santarem, Para, Brazil. In undisturbed forest, annual soil–atmosphere fluxes of N2O (mean ± standard error) were 7.9 ± 0.7 and 7.0 ± 0.6 ng N cm−2 h−1 for the Oxisol and 1.7 ± 0.1 and 1.6 ± 0.3 ng N cm−2 h−1 for the Ultisol for 2000 and 2001, respectively. The annual fluxes of NO from undisturbed forest soil in 2001 were 9.0 ± 2.8 ng N cm−2 h−1 for the Oxisol and 8.8 ± 5.0 ng N cm−2 h−1 for the Ultisol. Consumption of CH4 from the atmosphere dominated over production on undisturbed forest soils. Fluxes averaged −0.3 ± 0.2 and −0.1 ± 0.9 mg CH4 m−2 day−1 on the Oxisol and −1.0 ± 0.2 and −0.9 ± 0.3 mg CH4 m−2 day−1 on the Ultisol for years 2000 and 2001. For CO2 in 2001, the annual fluxes averaged 3.6 ± 0.4 μmol m−2 s−1 on the Oxisol and 4.9 ± 1.1 μmol m−2 s−1 on the Ultisol. We measured fluxes over one year each from two recently logged forests on the Oxisol in 2000 and on the Ultisol in 2001. Sampling in logged areas was stratified from greatest to least ground disturbance covering log decks, skid trails, tree-fall gaps, and forest matrix. Areas of strong soil compaction, especially the skid trails and logging decks, were prone to significantly greater emissions of N2O, NO, and especially CH4. In the case of CH4, estimated annual emissions from decks reached extremely high rates of 531 ± 419 and 98 ± 41 mg CH4 m−2 day−1, for Oxisol and Ultisol sites, respectively, comparable to wetland emissions in the region. We calculated excess fluxes from logged areas by subtraction of a background forest matrix or undisturbed forest flux and adjusted these fluxes for the proportional area of ground disturbance. Our calculations suggest that selective logging increases emissions of N2O and NO from 30% to 350% depending upon conditions. While undisturbed forest was a CH4 sink, logged forest tended to emit methane at moderate rates. Soil–atmosphere CO2 fluxes were only slightly affected by logging. The regional effects of logging cannot be simply extrapolated based upon one site. We studied sites where reduced impact harvest management was used while in typical conventional logging ground damage is twice as great. Even so, our results indicate that for N2O, NO, and CH4, logging disturbance may be as important for regional budgets of these gases as other extensive land-use changes in the Amazon such as the conversion of forest to cattle pasture

Mortality benefit of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors after cardiac events in patients with end-stage renal disease

Hypothesis/introduction. The risks and benefits of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) after cardiac events are unknown. We sought to determine the independent effect of ACE inhibitors (ACE-I) on long-term mortality in ESRD patients after cardiac events. Materials and methods. We analysed a prospective coronary care unit registry and identified 527 ESRD patients, 368 with complete data on medications prescribed, over eight years at a single, tertiary centre. Results. The overall mean age was 64.4±13.8 years with 54.9% men, and 59.2% African-American. A total of 143/386 (37.0%) were prescribed ACE-I during the hospital stay for cardiac reasons, including congestive heart failure (CHF) 52.8% and acute coronary syndromes (ACS) 47.2%. There were no significant differences in the rates of hypotension or arrhythmias in those who were treated with ACE-I versus those who were not. Survival analysis over three years, adjusted for known confounders, demonstrated a 37% reduction in all-cause mortality in those who received ACE-I, (p=0.0145). Conclusions. In the setting of coronary care unit admission for CHF and ACS, ESRD patients selected for ACE-I, did not have increased rates of adverse haemodynamic or arrhythmic complications. The use of ACE-I conferred an independent mortality reduction over long-term follow-up

Extremality of Gaussian quantum states

We investigate Gaussian quantum states in view of their exceptional role within the space of all continuous variables states. A general method for deriving extremality results is provided and applied to entanglement measures, secret key distillation and the classical capacity of Bosonic quantum channels. We prove that for every given covariance matrix the distillable secret key rate and the entanglement, if measured appropriately, are minimized by Gaussian states. This result leads to a clearer picture of the validity of frequently made Gaussian approximations. Moreover, it implies that Gaussian encodings are optimal for the transmission of classical information through Bosonic channels, if the capacity is additive.Comment: 4 page

Effect of Six Weeks of Oral \u3ci\u3eEchinacea purpurea\u3c/i\u3e Supplementation On Nitric Oxide Production

Echinacea purpurea, a purple coneflower plant of the compositae family (Asteraceae), is native to North America and commonly used as an herbal supplement to enhance immune function. Echinacea purpurea has been shown to stimulate macrophage activity which is a known stimulator of nitric oxide (NO) production. Echinacea purpurea supplementation (8,000 mg·d-1) in untrained (42.5 ± 1.6 mL·kg-1·min-1) males was shown to elicit a 63% increase (p \u3c 0.05) in serum erythropoietin (EPO) following two weeks of supplementation. This is supported in part by earlier findings which indicated that four weeks of Echinacea purpurea supplementation demonstrated a non-significant increase in maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max). It is plausible that Echinacea-induced EPO production may stimulate physiological responses independent of and/or in addition to erythropoiesis. There is also evidence suggesting EPO has vasculo-protective effects including the activation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). Based on these findings, a proposed non-hematological response to the Echinacea-induced increase in EPO could be enhanced NO production. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether six weeks of oral Echinacea purpurea supplementation augmented NO production as a result of an Echinacea-induced increase in EPO and/or Echinacea-induced macrophage activity

The impact of methodological and temporal variation on infarct size quantification in acute myocardial infarction with late enhancement CMR

Funding This project was funded by a grant from the MRC(UK).Peer reviewedPublisher PD