If You Can't Trust the Farmer, Who Can You Trust? The Effect of Certification Types on Purchases of Organic Produce

An information asymmetry exists in the market for organic produce since consumers cannot determine whether produce is organically or conventionally grown. Various methods may solve this problem including signaling, reputation, and certification. Signaling and reputation may not work well, because signals are noisy, and reputation may be difficult for a producer to establish. Certification of the farm and its growing methods shows the most promise. A survey instrument testing the efficacy of certification is presented along with empirical analysis suggesting that no notable difference existed between independent certification methods, although independent certification had significantly different effects than self-certification.Asymmetric information, Certification, Ordered probit, Organic produce, Agribusiness,

The Cell Wall Teichuronic Acid Synthetase (TUAS) Is an Enzyme Complex Located in the Cytoplasmic Membrane of Micrococcus luteus

The cell wall teichuronic acid (TUA) of Micrococcus luteus is a long-chain polysaccharide composed of disaccharide repeating units [-4-β-D-ManNAcAp-(1→6)α-D-Glcp−1-]n, which is covalently anchored to the peptidoglycan on the inner cell wall and extended to the outer surface of the cell envelope. An enzyme complex responsible for the TUA chain biosynthesis was purified and characterized. The 440kDa enzyme complex, named teichuronic acid synthetase (TUAS), is an octomer composed of two kinds of glycosyltransferases, Glucosyltransferase, and ManNAcA-transferase, which is capable of catalyzing the transfer of disaccharide glycosyl residues containing both glucose and the N-acetylmannosaminuronic acid residues. TUAS displays hydrophobic properties and is found primarily associated with the cytoplasmic membrane. The purified TUAS contains carotinoids and lipids. TUAS activity is diminished by phospholipase digestion. We propose that TUAS serves as a multitasking polysaccharide assembling station on the bacterial membrane.National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Public Health Service Grants AI-08295); American Lung Association (RG-107-N

Phonological Intervention using a Multiple Opposition Approach

The purpose of this investigation was to examine phonological restructuring when contrastive oppositions were constructed to include larger treatment sets that confronted the child with multiple sound targets selected from an entire rule set

Comparison of Two Treatment Conditions for Young Children with Speech Sound Disorders

The purpose of this study was to compare treatment outcomes between stimulus presentation conditions to children with moderate to severe SSD: a traditional paper presentation versus a computer software generated presentation. The participants were four monolingual kindergarten children with moderate to severe SSD. A multiple baseline across behaviors single subject design was employed in the study. Two non-stimulable, non-cognate sounds from two different manner categories were selected as sound targets. One sound error was treated using paper stimuli presented in a traditional paper table-top presentation (TAB condition) while the other sound error was treated using stimuli presented on the computer (CBI condition). Picture stimuli for both conditions were generated by the SCIP (Sound Contrasts in Phonology) software program. Treatment followed the paradigm described by Williams (2003). The number of treatment sessions, final treatment performance, and highest generalization performance are summarized for both treatment conditions in Table 1. Although conditions were counterbalanced, data are arranged by condition for ease of interpretation

Hormone replacement therapy for women with type 1 diabetes mellitus

Background: There is conflicting information about the impact of the menopause on glycaemic control amongst women with type 1 diabetes. Some menopausal women with type 1 diabetes are treated with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) but the effects of this treatment have, to date, not been established.Objectives: To assess the effects of HRT for women with type 1 diabetes mellitus.Search methods: We searched The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO from their inception to June 2012. The last search was run for all databases on 18 June 2012.Selection criteria: We selected randomised controlled trials or controlled clinical trials that involved peri‐ or postmenopausal women with type 1 diabetes undergoing HRT as an intervention.Data collection and analysis: Two researchers independently applied the inclusion criteria to the identified studies and assessed risk of bias. Disagreements were resolved by discussion or by intervention by a third party. Descriptive analysis was conducted for the review.Main results: Ninety‐two publications were screened. No studies met the inclusion criteria exclusively but one study that included both type 1 and type 2 diabetes participants was considered. This randomised clinical trial (RCT) compared HRT (N = 27) with placebo (N = 29) over 12 months. The outcome measures were cardiovascular risk factors, including lipid profile, glycaemic control, blood pressure and body weight. No significant differences between placebo and HTR were detected. Patient‐important outcomes like all‐cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, diabetic complications or health‐related quality of life were not investigated.Authors' conclusions: There is a lack of evidence around the use of HRT in women with type 1 diabetes. The one study that has been undertaken in this area is underpowered. More RCTs are required in the area to examine the impact of HRT on glycaemic control and cardiovascular outcomes.https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD008613.pub2pubpub

Criteria for the Selection of Classroom Films

It is the purpose of this paper to justify and describe a systematic approach to the appraisal and selection of classroom films in the light of the current literature on the problem – to formulate a set of criteria which can be used in film selection, and to compile these criteria into a form which will invite use by the classroom teacher

Probing Life Qualification through Expanded Voir Dire

The conventional wisdom is that most trials are won or lost in jury selection. If this is true, then in many capital cases, jury selection is literally a matter of life or death. Given these high stakes and Supreme Court case law setting out standards for voir dire in capital cases, one might expect a sophisticated and thoughtful process in which each side carefully considers which jurors would be best in the particular case. Instead, it turns out that voir dire in capital cases is woefully ineffective at the most elementary task--weeding out unqualified jurors. Empirical evidence reveals that many capital jurors are in fact unqualified to serve. Moreover, the ineffectiveness of the process is far from even-handed. A juror is not death-qualified if she would always vote against a death sentence, regardless of the circumstances, and a handful of the jurors who actually serve in capital cases are in fact unqualified for this reason. On the other hand, a juror is not life qualified” if she would always vote for a death sentence upon the proof of capital murder; if she is a burden shifter, a person who requires the defendant to demonstrate why she deserves to live; or because she is mitigation impaired, a person who is unwilling to consider one or more mitigating factors that the Supreme Court has said jurors must be willing to consider. In contrast to the small number of death unqualified jurors who actually serve in capital cases, far larger numbers of jurors who are not life qualified serve in capital cases. Part II of this article will summarize the law relevant to determining who is qualified to sit as a juror in a capital case, and then demonstrate the magnitude of the problem of unqualified jurors as revealed by the current empirical findings of capital juror studies. Part III then examines how and why voir dire malfunctions in capital cases, thereby allowing unqualified jurors to sentence defendants to death. Part IV will suggest several ways in which courts may help rectify the problem of the unconstitutional empanelment of jurors who are uncommonly willing to condemn a man to die

Extensive features of tight oligosaccharide binding revealed in high-resolution structures of the maltodextrin transport/chemosensory receptor

AbstractBackground: Active-transport processes perform a vital function in the life of a cell, maintaining cell homeostasis and allowing access of nutrients. Maltodextrin/maltose-binding protein (MBP; Mr = 40K) is a receptor protein which serves as an initial high-affinity binding component of the active-transport system of maltooligosaccharides in bacteria. MBP also participates in chemotaxis towards maltooligosaccharides. The interaction between MBP and specific cytoplasmic membrane proteins initiates either active transport or chemotaxis. In order to gain new understanding of the function of MBP, especially its versatility in binding different linear and cyclic oligosaccharides with similar affinities, we have undertaken high-resolution X-ray analysis of three oligosaccharide-bound structures.Results: The structures of MBP complexed with maltose, maltotriose and maltotetraose have been refined to high resolutions (1.67 to 1.8 Å). These structures provide details at the atomic level of many features of oligosaccharide binding. The structures reveal differences between buried and surface binding sites and show the importance of hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions, especially those resulting from aromatic residue stacking. Insights are provided into the structural plasticity of the protein, the binding affinity and the binding specificity with respect to α/β anomeric preference and oligosaccharide length. In addition, the structures demonstrate the different conformations that can be adopted by the oligosaccharide within the complex.Conclusions: MBP has a two-domain structure joined by a hinge-bending region which contains the substrate-binding groove. The bound maltooligosaccharides have a ribbon-like structure: the edges of the ribbon are occupied by polar hydroxyl groups and the flat surfaces are composed of nonpolar patches of the sugar ring faces. The polar groups and nonpolar patches are heavily involved in forming hydrogen bonds and van der Waals contacts, respectively, with complimentary residues in the groove. Hinge-bending between the two domains enables the participation of both domains in the binding and sequestering of the oligosaccharides. Changes in the subtle contours of the binding site allow binding of maltodextrins of varying length with similarly high affinities. The fact that the three bound structures are essentially identical ensures productive interaction with the oligomeric membrane proteins, which are distinct for transport and chemotaxis

Particle formation and interaction

A wide variety of experiments can be conducted on the Space Station that involve the physics of small particles of planetary significance. Processes of interest include nucleation and condensation of particles from a gas, aggregation of small particles into larger ones, and low velocity collisions of particles. All of these processes could be investigated with a general purpose facility on the Space Station. The microgravity environment would be necessary to perform many experiments, as they generally require that particles be suspended for periods substantially longer than are practical at 1 g. Only experiments relevant to planetary processes will be discussed in detail here, but it is important to stress that a particle facility will be useful to a wide variety of scientific disciplines, and can be used to address many scientific problems