MARKETING CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH SEAFOOD COUNTERS IN GROCERY STORES

This study provides a benchmark analysis of seafood counter characteristics corresponding to the peaking of per capita seafood demand in the U.S. Logistic regression results show separate seafood counters are less likely in small stores, in rural stores, and in stores in low or medium income areas. Chain stores and stores with a significant number of non-white customers were more likely to have a seafood counter. Stores in the East South Central region were less likely, and stores in New England more likely, to have a seafood counter. The likelihood that stores will develop seafood counters was related to differences in sales volume, floor space, urban/rural location, income level of clients and regional location. Continuing innovations in marketing technology of seafood counters are likely to provide expanded marketing opportunities in the future.Marketing,

Editor\u27s Corner

From the Outgoing Managing Editor: The start of 1985 signals the transfer of the last vestiges of my former position as executive director of the Academy to Jim Macmillan, who now takes on the role of managing editor of Academy publications

Assessing the Viability of the ACT Natural Gas Distribution Network for Reuse as a Hydrogen Distribution Network

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has legislated and aims to be net zero emissions by 2045. Therefore, we need to understand now the impacts on the gas distribution network of the transition to 100% hydrogen. To assess the viability of decarbonising ACT gas networks based on the cost of reusing the ACT gas network for the safe and reliable distribution of hydrogen requires each element of the natural gas safety management system to be evaluated and where gaps in capability are identified, appropriate measures taken to ensure ongoing validity of the safety case. Evoenergy (the ACT’s gas distribution company) have constructed a Test Facility, incorporating an electrolyser, a gas supply pressure reduction and mixing skid a replica gas network and a domestic installation with gas appliances. Jointly with Australian National University (ANU) and Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) the Company has commenced a program of “bench testing”, initially with 100% hydrogen to identify gaps in the safety case specifically focusing on the materials, work practices and safety systems in the ACT

Neuromuscular Adaptations in Elderly Adults Are Task-Specific during Stepping and Obstacle Clearance Tasks.

Elderly adults have a diminished movement capacity due to physiological and neurological declines associated with advancing age. Previous research suggests that elderly adults use altered neuromuscular patterns to conduct activities of daily living (ADLs). Limited research has addressed these altered activation strategies in obstacle clearance, stair ascent and stair descent. The purpose of this study was to compare neuromuscular activation patterns in young and elderly adults during these tasks. Eleven young and 10 healthy elderly adults performed five downward stepping, upward stepping and obstacle clearance trials. Surface EMG was measured from the quadriceps, hamstrings, gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior muscles. A 2x3 (group x condition) repeated measures analysis of variance was used to determine significant differences in muscle activation intensity. An apriori alpha level was set at p\u3c0.05. The results showed that elderly adults exhibited greater activation intensity than the young adults in all movement conditions. The significant differences in muscle activation intensity in the elderly adults were limited to the musculature driving the tested movement. The findings of the current study support previous research that elderly adults perform ADLs at a greater relative intensity than young adults. Furthermore, the current study shows that the disproportionate increase in muscle activation intensity is limited to the muscles that functionally drive the required task

Exacerbation of methamphetamine-induced neurochemical deficits by melatonin

ABSTRACT Methamphetamine (METH), administered in large, repeated doses, compromises the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems as indicated by prolonged suppression of tyrosine hydroxylase and tryptophan hydroxylase activity and concurrent decreases in the content of dopamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine. Because dopamine is necessary for these dopaminergic and serotonergic deficits we postulated that dopamine and/or its reactive metabolites are responsible for these degenerative alterations. Because we previously demonstrated that in vitro reducing conditions reverse the decrease in tryptophan hydroxylase activity, we reasoned that melatonin, a purported endogenous antioxidant, may alter this response. Rats were treated with METH and/or melatonin and trytophan hydroxylase activity and 5-hydroxytryptamine content were assessed; tyrosine hydroxylase activity and dopamine content were also measured. Not only did melatonin not prevent METH-induced deficits in serotonergic and dopaminergic parameters, but coadministration of melatonin with METH actually enhanced most of the monoaminergic effects of METH. This enhancing effect could not be attributed to alteration of body temperature. Because METH abuse causes insomnia and melatonin is promoted in some countries for insomnia, the implications of the interaction between these two drugs could be clinically important. When administered in large, repeated doses, METH and its congeners, cause marked neurochemical deficits in certain dopaminergic and serotonergic nerve terminals of the brain; these include severely compromised activity of both TH Because we hypothesize that the neurochemical deficits induced by METH are attributed to oxidative stress associated with DA and/or its reactive metabolites and because melatonin is characterized as an endogenous antioxidant Materials and Methods Animals and treatments. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (Simonsen Laboratories Inc., Gilford, CA) weighing 200 to 240 g were housed (three to four per cage) in a temperature-controlled room (23°C) with a 12-hr light-dark cycle. Access to food and water was ad libitum. In the first experiment rats received injections with METH (5 or 15 mg/kg, s.c.) or vehicle (0.9% NaCl) at 6-hr intervals for a total of five administrations. Fifteen min before, and 2 hr after the METH injections, the rats received injections with melatonin (25 mg/kg, i.p., Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO) or vehicle (30% ethanol i

Calculating singlet excited states: comparison with fast time-resolved infrared spectroscopy of coumarins

In contrast to the ground state, the calculation of the infrared (IR) spectroscopy of molecular singlet excited states represents a substantial challenge. Here we use the structural IR fingerprint of the singlet excited states of a range of coumarin dyes to assess the accuracy of density functional theory based methods for the calculation of excited state IR spectroscopy. It is shown that excited state Kohn-Sham density functional theory provides a high level of accuracy and represents an alternative approach to time-dependent density functional theory for simulating the IR spectroscopy of the singlet excited states

Rapid communication A rapid and reversible change in dopamine transporters induced by methamphetamine

Abstract Because high doses of methamphetamine promote free radical formation, and striatal dopamine transporters are rapidly inactivated by oxidative events, we determined the effect of a single high dose of methamphetamine on dopamine transporter activity in striatal synaptosomes. One hour after methamphetamine administration, dopamine uptake decreased by 48%. This dramatic decline was totally reversed by 24 h after treatment. These findings suggest that methamphetamine reversibly decreases dopamine transporter activity by oxidative mechanisms

Cholinergic Input Is Required during Embryonic Development to Mediate Proper Assembly of Spinal Locomotor Circuits

SummaryRhythmic limb movements are controlled by pattern-generating neurons within the ventral spinal cord, but little is known about how these locomotor circuits are assembled during development. At early stages of embryogenesis, motor neurons are spontaneously active, releasing acetylcholine that triggers the depolarization of adjacent cells in the spinal cord. To investigate whether acetylcholine-driven activity is required for assembly of the central pattern-generating (CPG) circuit, we studied mice lacking the choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) enzyme. Our studies show that a rhythmically active spinal circuit forms in ChAT mutants, but the duration of each cycle period is elongated, and right-left and flexor-extensor coordination are abnormal. In contrast, blocking acetylcholine receptors after the locomotor network is wired does not affect right-left or flexor-extensor coordination. These findings suggest that the cholinergic neurotransmitter pathway is involved in configuring the CPG during a transient period of development

PyMVPA: A Unifying Approach to the Analysis of Neuroscientific Data

The Python programming language is steadily increasing in popularity as the language of choice for scientific computing. The ability of this scripting environment to access a huge code base in various languages, combined with its syntactical simplicity, make it the ideal tool for implementing and sharing ideas among scientists from numerous fields and with heterogeneous methodological backgrounds. The recent rise of reciprocal interest between the machine learning (ML) and neuroscience communities is an example of the desire for an inter-disciplinary transfer of computational methods that can benefit from a Python-based framework. For many years, a large fraction of both research communities have addressed, almost independently, very high-dimensional problems with almost completely non-overlapping methods. However, a number of recently published studies that applied ML methods to neuroscience research questions attracted a lot of attention from researchers from both fields, as well as the general public, and showed that this approach can provide novel and fruitful insights into the functioning of the brain. In this article we show how PyMVPA, a specialized Python framework for machine learning based data analysis, can help to facilitate this inter-disciplinary technology transfer by providing a single interface to a wide array of machine learning libraries and neural data-processing methods. We demonstrate the general applicability and power of PyMVPA via analyses of a number of neural data modalities, including fMRI, EEG, MEG, and extracellular recordings