STRUCTURAL CHANGE OR LOGICAL INCREMENTALISM? TURBULENCE IN THE GLOBAL MEAT SYSTEM

In the last ten years the global meat industry has encountered numerous critical events related to food safety and food quality. These events in turn have caused the industry to re-evaluate how the meat supply chain functions and how to service the new social attributes demanded in the market place. Issues like source-verified, non-GMO, and organic are becoming important sources of product differentiation. How should firms in the meat supply chain respond? This study uses a needs assessment approach with meat supply chain managers and direct cataloguing of retail meat cases to better understand how the US meat supply chain is reacting to the turbulence in the industry.Livestock Production/Industries,

A Selective Advantage for Conservative Viruses

In this letter we study the full semi-conservative treatment of a model for the co-evolution of a virus and an adaptive immune system. Regions of viability are calculated for both conservatively and semi-conservatively replicating viruses interacting with a realistic semi-conservatively replicating immune system. The conservative virus is found to have a selective advantage in the form of an ability to survive in regions with a wider range of mutation rates than its semi-conservative counterpart. This may help explain the existence of a rich range of viruses with conservatively replicating genomes, a trait which is found nowhere else in nature.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Ion-mediated conformational switches

Molecular switches are ubiquitous in Nature and provide the basis of many forms of transport and signalling. Single synthetic molecules that change conformation, and thus function, reversibly in a stimulus-dependent manner are of great interest not only to chemists but society in general; myriad applications exist in storage, display, sensing and medicine. Here we describe recent developments in the area of ion-mediated switching

Kinematic and tectonic significance of microstructures and crystallographic fabrics within quartz mylonites from the Assynt and Eriboll regions of the Moine thrust zone, NW Scotland

Using a combination of optical microscopy and X-ray texture goniometry, an integrated microstructural and crystallographic fabric study has been made of quartz mylonites from thrust sheets located beneath, but immediately adjacent to, the Moine thrust in the Assynt and Eriboll regions of NW Scotland. A correlation is established between shape fabric symmetry and pattern of crystallographic preferred orientation, a particularly clear relationship being observed between shape fabric variation and quartz a-axis fabrics. Coaxial strain paths dominate the internal parts of the thrust sheets and are indicated by quartz c- and a-axis fabrics which are symmetrical with respect to foliation and lineation. Non-coaxial strain paths are indicated within the more intensely deformed quartzites located near the boundaries of the sheets by asymmetrical c- and a-axis fabrics. These kinematic interpretations are supported by microstructural studies. At the Stack of Glencoul in the northern part of the Assynt region, the transition zone between these kinematic (strain path) domains is located at approximately 20 cm beneath the Moine thrust and is marked by a progression from symmetrical cross-girdle c-axis fabrics (30cm beneath the thrust), through asymmetrical cross-girdle c-axis fabrics to asymmetrical single girdle c-axis fabrics (0·5 cm beneath the thrust). Tectonic models (incorporating processes such as extensional flow, gravity spreading and tectonic loading) which may account for the presence of strain path domains within the thrust sheets are considered, and their compatibility with local thrust sheet geometries assesse

Outcomes of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in Two Rural District Hospitals, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Tuberculosis (TB) is still rampant in South Africa, and drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) forms a significant part of this burden on both the health care system and economy. A number of interventions have recently been introduced to help curb the growing epidemic of DR-TB, including increasing access to novel and repurposed drugs, decentralisation of care, and a new shorter (9-11 month) treatment regimen recently endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Significantly, this new regimen has now also become injectable-free (also known as an all-oral regimen). However, at the time of implementation in 2017, the shorter regimen was yet to be proven effective in a programmatic setting in South Africa. This is a retrospective cohort study to describe the outcomes in patients on short and long DR-TB treatment regimens, over five years, at two treatment sites in a rural setting in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the hope that elucidation of factors involved in affecting outcomes in DR-TB may direct future interventions in these two facilities, and the wider DR-TB program in South AfricaThesis (Masters) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 202

Attempted suicide in Sri Lanka –An epidemiological study of household and community factors

An individual's suicide risk is determined by personal characteristics, but is also influenced by their environment. Previous studies indicate a role of contextual effects on suicidal behaviour, but there is a dearth of quantitative evidence from Asia.Individual and community level data were collected on 165,233 people from 47,919 households in 171 communities in rural Sri Lanka. Data were collected on individual (age, sex, past suicide attempts and individual socioeconomic position (SEP)) and household (household SEP, pesticide access, alcohol use and multigenerational households) level factors. We used 3-level logit models to investigate compositional (individual) and contextual (household/community) effects.We found significant variation between households 21% (95% CI 18%, 24%) and communities 4% (95% CI 3%, 5%) in the risk of a suicide attempt. Contextual factors as measured by low household SEP (OR 2.37 95% CI 2.10, 2.67), low community SEP (OR 1.45 95% CI 1.21, 1.74), and community 'problem' alcohol use (OR 1.44 95% CI 1.19, 1.75) were associated with an increased risk of suicide attempt. Women living in households with alcohol misuse were at higher risk of attempted suicide. We observed a protective effect of living in multigenerational households (OR 0.53 95% CI 0.42, 0.65).The outcome was respondent-reported and refers to lifetime reports of attempted suicide, therefore this study might be affected by socially desirable responding.Our study finds that contextual factors are associated with an individual's risk of attempted suicide in Sri Lanka, independent of an individual's personal characteristics

Redox-dependent conformational switching of diphenylacetylenes

Herein we describe the design and synthesis of a redox-dependent single-molecule switch. Appending a ferrocene unit to a diphenylacetylene scaffold gives a redox-sensitive handle, which undergoes reversible one-electron oxidation, as demonstrated by cyclic voltammetry analysis. 1H-NMR spectroscopy of the partially oxidized switch and control compounds suggests that oxidation to the ferrocenium cation induces a change in hydrogen bonding interactions that results in a conformational switch

Critical Control Points for Profitability in the Cow-Calf Enterprise

Financial, economic, and biological data collected from cow-calf producers who participated in the Illinois and Iowa Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA) programs were used in this study. Data used were collected for the 1996 through 1999 calendar years, with each herd within year representing one observation. This resulted in a final database of 225 observations (117 from Iowa and 108 from Illinois) from commercial herds with a range in size from 20 to 373 cows. Two analyses were conducted, one utilizing financial cost of production data, the other economic cost of production data. Each observation was analyzed as the difference from the mean for that given year. The independent variable utilized in both the financial and economic models as an indicator of profit was return to unpaid labor and management per cow (RLM). Used as dependent variables were the five factors that make up total annual cow cost: feed cost, operating cost, depreciation cost, capital charge, and hired labor, all on an annual cost per cow basis. In the economic analysis, family labor was also included. Production factors evaluated as dependent variables in both models were calf weight, calf price, cull weight, cull price, weaning percentage, and calving distribution. Herd size and investment were also analyzed. All financial factors analyzed were significantly correlated to RLM (P \u3c .10) except cull weight, and cull price. All economic factors analyzed were significantly correlated to RLM (P \u3c .10) except calf weight, cull weight and cull price. Results of the financial prediction equation indicate that there are eight measurements capable of explaining over 82 percent of the farm-to-farm variation in RLM. Feed cost is the overriding factor driving RLM in both the financial and economic stepwise regression analyses. In both analyses over 50 percent of the herd-to-herd variation in RLM could be explained by feed cost. Financial feed cost is correlated (P \u3c .001) to operating cost, depreciation cost, and investment. Economic feed cost is correlated (P \u3c .001) with investment and operating cost, as well as capital charge. Operating cost, depreciation, and capital charge were all negatively correlated (P \u3c .10) to herd size, and positively correlated (P \u3c .01) to feed cost in both analyses. Operating costs were positively correlated with capital charge and investment (P \u3c .01) in both analyses. In the financial regression model, depreciation cost was the second critical factor explaining almost 9 percent of the herd-to-herd variation in RLM followed by operating cost (5 percent). Calf weight had a greater impact than calf price on RLM in both the financial and economic regression models. Calf weight was the fourth indicator of RLM in the financial model and was similar in magnitude to operating cost. Investment was not a significant variable in either regression model; however, it was highly correlated to a number of the significant cost variables including feed cost, depreciation cost, and operating cost (P \u3c .001, financial; P \u3c .10, economic). Cost factors were far more influential in driving RLM than production, reproduction, or producer controlled marketing factors. Of these cost factors, feed cost had by far the largest impact. As producers focus attention on factors that affect the profitability of the operation, feed cost is the most critical control point because it was responsible for over 50 percent of the herd-to-herd variation in profit

Is interpregnancy interval associated with cardiovascular risk factors in later life? A cohort study

Published 19 March 2014Objectives: Pregnancy represents a metabolic challenge to women; in a normal pregnancy, transient metabolic changes occur that support the needs of the growing fetus. It is possible that repeating this challenge within a relatively short amount of time may result in lasting damage to the woman's cardiovascular health. Conversely, it is also possible that a long interpregnancy interval (IPI) may reflect subfertility, which has been found to be associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). We examine the associations of short and long IPI with measures of cardiovascular health. Design: Prospective cohort. Setting: Mothers of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Participants: Women with two live births in order to control for confounding by parity. Outcome measures: Arterial distensibility, common carotid intima, adiposity, blood pressure, lipids, glucose, insulin, proinsulin, triglycerides, C reactive protein. Results: 25% (n=3451) of ALSPAC mothers had provided sufficient data to determine full reproductive history—of these, 1477 had two live births, with 54% mothers having non-missing data on all variables required for our analyses. A total of 1268 mothers with IPI (interbirth interval minus 9 months’ gestation) had CVD risk factors measured/imputed at mean age 48 years. After adjusting for confounding, we found no association of either short (≤15 months) or long (>27 months) IPI and increased levels of cardiovascular risk factors. There was some suggestion that women with long and short IPIs had a more favourable lipid profile compared with women whose IPI was 16–27 months; however, the differences were small in magnitude and imprecisely estimated. Conclusions: This study does not support the hypothesis that either long or short IPI is a risk factor for later cardiovascular health.Duleeka W Knipe, Abigail Fraser, Debbie A Lawlor, Laura D How