The Effects of E. Coli 0157:H7, FMD and BSE on Japanese Retail Beef Prices: A Historical Decomposition

This study examines the time-varying Japanese price reactions to the 2001 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) discovery, the 2000 outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD), and the 1996 E. coli food po isoning events. Historical decomposition of retail-level price-series aids in explaining the behavior of beef prices in a neighborhood (period-by-period time interval) of the three events. This is based on an application of directed acyclic graphs, constructing orthogonal innovations to determine causal patterns behind contemporaneous innovations. The results show the beef safety events had different negative impacts on Japanese retail beef prices, suggesting that consumers understood and differentiated among the health risks. The results provide incentives for beef producers and retailers to proactively inform consumers about ongoing beef safety measures. Understanding consumer reaction to BSE, FMD and E. coli helps the beef industry restore consumer confidence after future food safety crises, and provides policy makers a basis for countermeasures and compensations.Japan, beef prices, BSE, FMD, E. coli, historical decomposition., Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Livestock Production/Industries, Q11, Q13,

Adaptive gain and filtering circuit for a sound reproduction system

Adaptive compressive gain and level dependent spectral shaping circuitry for a hearing aid include a microphone to produce an input signal and a plurality of channels connected to a common circuit output. Each channel has a preset frequency response. Each channel includes a filter with a preset frequency response to receive the input signal and to produce a filtered signal, a channel amplifier to amplify the filtered signal to produce a channel output signal, a threshold register to establish a channel threshold level, and a gain circuit. The gain circuit increases the gain of the channel amplifier when the channel output signal falls below the channel threshold level and decreases the gain of the channel amplifier when the channel output signal rises above the channel threshold level. A transducer produces sound in response to the signal passed by the common circuit output

Novel antibiotics from DNA adenine methyltransferase inhibitors

DNA adenine methylation plays a role in several core bacterial processes, including DNA mismatch repair, the timing of DNA replication and gene expression. The dependence of bacterial virulence on the activity of Dam, an adenine methyltransferase, makes it an attractive target for novel antibiotics. Dam from Yersinia pestis, the plague causing bacteria, was expressed and purified by nickel affinity chromatography. A plasmid containing the methylation sensitive restriction endonuclease dpnI gene was assembled. DpnI was expressed and purified by nickel affinity chromatography. A Y. pestis Dam activity assay, which relied on the sensitivity of DpnI to DNA methylation, was developed. This continuous fluorescence based assay was used to determine several kinetic parameters of the enzyme. The assay was validated for use in a high throughput 96-well format and used to screen a library of one thousand compounds for Y. pestis Dam inhibitors. Several compounds of interest were identified. These compounds were synthesised, re-tested for activity against Dam, counter- screened against the restriction endonuclease DpnI and assayed for an ability to bind DNA. A plasmid encoding Dam from the hyperthermophile Pyrococcus horikoshii was assembled. Wild type P. horikoshii Dam was expressed and purified by nickel affinity chromatography. The resultant Dam was contaminated by a product of mis-initiation of translation at an internal methionine codon. Site directed mutagenesis was undertaken to replace the problematic codon in the dam gene. Mutant P. horikoshii Dam was expressed and purified by nickel affinity chromatography. This hyperthermophilic enzyme was used in the development of a direct and continuous fluorescence based assay for Dam activity. Several kinetic parameters of P. horikoshii Dam were determined with the direct assa

Adaptive noise reduction circuit for a sound reproduction system

A noise reduction circuit for a hearing aid having an adaptive filter for producing a signal which estimates the noise components present in an input signal. The circuit includes a second filter for receiving the noise-estimating signal and modifying it as a function of a user's preference or as a function of an expected noise environment. The circuit also includes a gain control for adjusting the magnitude of the modified noise-estimating signal, thereby allowing for the adjustment of the magnitude of the circuit response. The circuit also includes a signal combiner for combining the input signal with the adjusted noise-estimating signal to produce a noise reduced output signal

Forest views: Northeast Oregon survey looks at community and environment

This brief reports on a survey conducted in fall 2011 as one component of the ongoing Communities and Forests in Oregon (CAFOR) project. The CAFOR project focuses on the people and landscapes of three counties in northeast Oregon (Baker, Union, and Wallowa), where landscapes and communities are changing in interconnected ways

Public or private religiosity: which Is protective for adolescent substance use and by what pathways?

While it is well understood that adolescent religiosity is associated with the use and abuse of licit and illicit substances, few studies have revealed the pathways through which religiosity buffers youth against involvement in such behavior. The aim of this study is to examine the complexity of the relationships between religiosity, sensation seeking, injunctive norms, and adolescent substance use. Using a national sample of adolescents (N = 18,614), negative binomial regression and path analysis were used to examine the various components of the relationship between religiosity and the use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. Results indicate that private religiosity moderates the relationship between key risk factors and substance use. Public and private religiosity were associated with tolerant injunctive substance use norms which, in turn, were associated with substance use. Implications for research and theory related to religiosity and adolescent substance use are discussed

Electronic filters, hearing aids and methods

An electronic filter for an electroacoustic system. The system has a microphone for generating an electrical output from external sounds and an electrically driven transducer for emitting sound. Some of the sound emitted by the transducer returns to the microphone means to add a feedback contribution to its electical output. The electronic filter includes a first circuit for electronic processing of the electrical output of the microphone to produce a filtered signal. An adaptive filter, interconnected with the first circuit, performs electronic processing of the filtered signal to produce an adaptive output to the first circuit to substantially offset the feedback contribution in the electrical output of the microphone, and the adaptive filter includes means for adapting only in response to polarities of signals supplied to and from the first circuit. Other electronic filters for hearing aids, public address systems and other electroacoustic systems, as well as such systems, and methods of operating them are also disclosed

Focusing on Cultural Design Features for an Indigenous Website

This paper reports on part of a user-centred study examining the design of a website for an Indigenous Australian community. It focuses on the capture of culturally relevant design features and describes the outcomes from a focus group undertaken with 12 members of the community stakeholders. Key cultural themes to emerge from the focus group were the need for visually relevant imagery, support for kinship and community, as well as fun, local language and traditional forms of music, dance and oral history. These themes were mapped into design features such as a virtual tour of the building and grounds, video messages from community members, a facility for feedback and interactive games. Many existing guidelines for cultural design were affirmed in the study, including the use of simple language, local imagery and the provision of an interaction style appropriate to the Indigenous group

Biological Field Expedition to the Ashaninka Communities of Coriteni Tarso (Rio Tambo) & Camantavishi (Rio Ene)

The expedition to the Ashaninka communities of Coriteni Tarso, Camantavishi and Shirampari in the summer of 2004 carried out a number of studies; primarily herpetological surveys but also vegetation, soil and hunting surveys. The work was carried out in little known areas where no previous systematic studies had been completed. The expedition recorded frogs and a snake not previously found in the department of Junín1. The expedition discovered at least one new species (to be registered as Cochranella parijarensis)