TRACEABILITY IN THE U.S. FOOD SUPPLY: ECONOMIC THEORY AND INDUSTRY STUDIES

This investigation into the traceability baseline in the United States finds that private sector food firms have developed a substantial capacity to trace. Traceability systems are a tool to help firms manage the flow of inputs and products to improve efficiency, product differentiation, food safety, and product quality. Firms balance the private costs and benefits of traceability to determine the efficient level of traceability. In cases of market failure, where the private sector supply of traceability is not socially optimal, the private sector has developed a number of mechanisms to correct the problem, including contracting, third-party safety/quality audits, and industry-maintained standards. The best-targeted government policies for strengthening firms' incentives to invest in traceability are aimed at ensuring that unsafe of falsely advertised foods are quickly removed from the system, while allowing firms the flexibility to determine the manner. Possible policy tools include timed recall standards, increased penalties for distribution of unsafe foods, and increased foodborne-illness surveillance.traceability, tracking, traceback, tracing, recall, supply-side management, food safety, product differentiation, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization,

GABA Withdrawal Modifies Network Activity in Cultured Hippocampal Neurons

Dissociated hippocampal neurons, grown in culture for 2 to 3 weeks, tended to fire bursts of synaptic currents at fairly regular intervals, representing network activity. A brief exposure of cultured neurons to GABA caused a total suppression of the spontaneous network activity. Following a washout of GABA, the activity was no longer clustered in bursts and instead, the cells fired at a high rate tonic manner. The effect of removing GABA could be seen as long as 1 to 2 days after GABA withdrawal and is expressed as an increase in the number of active cells in a network, as well as in their firing rates. Such striking effects of GABA removal may underlie part of the GABA withdrawal syndrome seen elsewhere

Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Analysis in Section \u3cem\u3ePnigma\u3c/em\u3e of the Genus \u3cem\u3eBromus\u3c/em\u3e L.

The section Pnigma consists of about 60 species. It was shown that Eurasian species of the section with the same ploidy level have similar nuclear DNA contents (Tuna et al., 2001). A linear correlation between nuclear DNA content and ploidy level was also found (Tuna et al., 2001). Furthermore, karyotypes of Eurasian species are similar (Tuna et al., 2004a) but differ from the North American species (Tuna et al., 2004b). Yet, the genetic relationship among species within the section is poorly known (Armstrong, 1991). The objective of this study was to assess the phylogenetic relationships among species of section Pnigma by using the RAPD technique

Designing a physical activity parenting course : parental views on recruitment, content and delivery

Background Many children do not engage in sufficient levels of physical activity (PA) and spend too much time screen-viewing (SV). High levels of SV (e.g. watching TV, playing video games and surfing the internet) and low levels of PA have been associated with adverse health outcomes. Parenting courses may hold promise as an intervention medium to change children’s PA and SV. The current study was formative work conducted to design a new parenting programme to increase children’s PA and reduce their SV. Specifically, we focussed on interest in a course, desired content and delivery style, barriers and facilitators to participation and opinions on control group provision. Methods In-depth telephone interviews were conducted with thirty two parents (29 female) of 6–8 year olds. Data were analysed thematically. An anonymous online survey was also completed by 750 parents of 6–8 year old children and descriptive statistics calculated. Results Interview participants were interested in a parenting course because they wanted general parenting advice and ideas to help their children be physically active. Parents indicated that they would benefit from knowing how to quantify their child’s PA and SV levels. Parents wanted practical ideas of alternatives to SV. Most parents would be unable to attend unless childcare was provided. Schools were perceived to be a trusted source of information about parenting courses and the optimal recruitment location. In terms of delivery style, the majority of parents stated they would prefer a group-based approach that provided opportunities for peer learning and support with professional input. Survey participants reported the timing of classes and the provision of childcare were essential factors that would affect participation. In terms of designing an intervention, the most preferred control group option was the opportunity to attend the same course at a later date. Conclusions Parents are interested in PA/SV parenting courses but the provision of child care is essential for attendance. Recruitment is likely to be facilitated via trusted sources. Parents want practical advice on how to overcome barriers and suggest advice is provided in a mutually supportive group experience with expert input

Cyclic projectors and separation theorems in idempotent convex geometry

Semimodules over idempotent semirings like the max-plus or tropical semiring have much in common with convex cones. This analogy is particularly apparent in the case of subsemimodules of the n-fold cartesian product of the max-plus semiring it is known that one can separate a vector from a closed subsemimodule that does not contain it. We establish here a more general separation theorem, which applies to any finite collection of closed semimodules with a trivial intersection. In order to prove this theorem, we investigate the spectral properties of certain nonlinear operators called here idempotent cyclic projectors. These are idempotent analogues of the cyclic nearest-point projections known in convex analysis. The spectrum of idempotent cyclic projectors is characterized in terms of a suitable extension of Hilbert's projective metric. We deduce as a corollary of our main results the idempotent analogue of Helly's theorem.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

Semiring and semimodule issues in MV-algebras

In this paper we propose a semiring-theoretic approach to MV-algebras based on the connection between such algebras and idempotent semirings - such an approach naturally imposing the introduction and study of a suitable corresponding class of semimodules, called MV-semimodules. We present several results addressed toward a semiring theory for MV-algebras. In particular we show a representation of MV-algebras as a subsemiring of the endomorphism semiring of a semilattice, the construction of the Grothendieck group of a semiring and its functorial nature, and the effect of Mundici categorical equivalence between MV-algebras and lattice-ordered Abelian groups with a distinguished strong order unit upon the relationship between MV-semimodules and semimodules over idempotent semifields.Comment: This version contains some corrections to some results at the end of Section