Commercialization of Food Consumption in Rural China

Rural households in China have traditionally consumed food mostly grown on their own farms. While they continue to rely on self-produced grains, vegetables, meats, and eggs for a large portion of their diet, rural households are now purchasing more of their food as they enter the mainstream of the Chinese economy. Cash purchases of food by rural Chinese households increased 7.4 percent per year from 1994 to 2003. Consumption has shifted from self-produced to purchased food at a rate faster than can be explained by income growth or changes in other household characteristics. The move away from self-produced food is associated with lower consumption of staple grains, the most important self produced food in rural Chinese diets. Food consumed away from home is one of the fastest growing categories of rural household expenditures, doubling in budget share from 1995 to 2001. Commercialization of food consumption is diversifying Chinese diets, broadening food markets, and creating new opportunities for retailers and product distributors.China, food, consumption, expenditures, rural, commercialization, subsistence agriculture, Engel analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Hydrogenation of Magnesium Nickel Boride for Reversible Hydrogen Storage

We report that a ternary magnesium nickel boride (MgNi_(2.5)B_2) mixed with LiH and MgH_2 can be hydrogenated reversibly forming LiBH_4 and Mg_2NiH_4 at temperatures below 300 °C. The ternary boride was prepared by sintering a mechanically milled mixture of MgB_2 and Ni precursors at 975 °C under inert atmosphere. Hydrogenation of the ternary, milled with LiH and MgH_2, was performed under 100 to 160 bar H_2 at temperatures up to 350 °C. Analysis using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, and ^(11)B magic angle spinning NMR confirmed that the ternary boride was hydrogenated forming borohydride anions. The reaction was reversible with hydrogenation kinetics that improved over three cycles. This work suggests that there may be other ternary or higher order boride phases useful for reversible hydrogen storage

β-Fluorofentanyls Are pH-Sensitive Mu Opioid Receptor Agonists

The concept recently postulated by Stein and co-workers (Science2017, 355, 966) that mu opioid receptor (MOR) agonists possessing amines with attenuated basicity show pH-dependent activity and can selectively act at damaged, low pH tissues has been additionally supported by in vitro studies reported here. We synthesized and tested analogs of fentanyl possessing one or two fluorine atoms at the beta position of the phenethylamine side chain, with additional fluorines optionally added to the benzene ring of the side chain. These compounds were synthesized in 1 to 3 steps from commercial building blocks. The novel bis-fluorinated analog RR-49 showed superior pH sensitivity, with full efficacy relative to DAMGO, but with 19-fold higher potency (IC50) in a MOR cAMP assay at pH 6.5 versus 7.4. Such compounds hold significant promise as analgesics for inflammatory pain with reduced abuse potential

ENZYMATIC DETERMINATION OF TEPP RESIDUES ON RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS

In 1966 the U.S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, since renamed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was considering the use of commercial tetraethylpyrophosphate (TEPP) for spraying problem bird roosts. Although TEPP was known to be a fast degrading organophosphate, the Bureau decided that a determination of TEPP residues on birds sprayed under simulated field conditions would be useful in reaching a decision on possible use of this material. The determination was done with an enzymatic Warburg manometric method for measuring the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), a major cause of neurotoxication. It was found that at simulated roost temperatures of 7·8°C with relative humidity of 57·60%, the AChE inhibition activity of TEPP in red·winged blackbirds diminished rapidly in the first 2 days. However, after 19 days, an indicated 2.2% (2.8% statistically possible) remained as cholinergic inhibition residues that could be hazardous to humans or nontarget species, considerably more than 99% loss in 45.2 hr at 26°C that had been previously reported. This information, among others, was used by the Bureau in deciding not to pursue the use of TEPP in spraying problem bird roosts

Once and Future Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem: Restoration Recommendations of an Expert Working Group

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) well blowout released more petroleum hydrocarbons into the marine environment than any previous U.S. oil spill (4.9 million barrels), fouling marine life, damaging deep sea and shoreline habitats and causing closures of economically valuable fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. A suite of pollutants—liquid and gaseous petroleum compounds plus chemical dispersants—poured into ecosystems that had already been stressed by overfishing, development and global climate change. Beyond the direct effects that were captured in dramatic photographs of oiled birds in the media, it is likely that there are subtle, delayed, indirect and potentially synergistic impacts of these widely dispersed, highly bioavailable and toxic hydrocarbons and chemical dispersants on marine life from pelicans to salt marsh grasses and to deep-sea animals. As tragic as the DWH blowout was, it has stimulated public interest in protecting this economically, socially and environmentally critical region. The 2010 Mabus Report, commissioned by President Barack Obama and written by the secretary of the Navy, provides a blueprint for restoring the Gulf that is bold, visionary and strategic. It is clear that we need not only to repair the damage left behind by the oil but also to go well beyond that to restore the anthropogenically stressed and declining Gulf ecosystems to prosperity-sustaining levels of historic productivity. For this report, we assembled a team of leading scientists with expertise in coastal and marine ecosystems and with experience in their restoration to identify strategies and specific actions that will revitalize and sustain the Gulf coastal economy. Because the DWH spill intervened in ecosystems that are intimately interconnected and already under stress, and will remain stressed from global climate change, we argue that restoration of the Gulf must go beyond the traditional "in-place, in-kind" restoration approach that targets specific damaged habitats or species. A sustainable restoration of the Gulf of Mexico after DWH must: 1. Recognize that ecosystem resilience has been compromised by multiple human interventions predating the DWH spill; 2. Acknowledge that significant future environmental change is inevitable and must be factored into restoration plans and actions for them to be durable; 3. Treat the Gulf as a complex and interconnected network of ecosystems from shoreline to deep sea; and 4. Recognize that human and ecosystem productivity in the Gulf are interdependent, and that human needs from and effects on the Gulf must be integral to restoration planning. With these principles in mind, the authors provide the scientific basis for a sustainable restoration program along three themes: 1. Assess and repair damage from DWH and other stresses on the Gulf; 2. Protect existing habitats and populations; and 3. Integrate sustainable human use with ecological processes in the Gulf of Mexico. Under these themes, 15 historically informed, adaptive, ecosystem-based restoration actions are presented to recover Gulf resources and rebuild the resilience of its ecosystem. The vision that guides our recommendations fundamentally imbeds the restoration actions within the context of the changing environment so as to achieve resilience of resources, human communities and the economy into the indefinite future

A model for transition of 5 '-nuclease domain of DNA polymerase I from inert to active modes

Bacteria contain DNA polymerase I (PolI), a single polypeptide chain consisting of similar to 930 residues, possessing DNA-dependent DNA polymerase, 3'-5' proofreading and 5'-3' exonuclease (also known as flap endonuclease) activities. PolI is particularly important in the processing of Okazaki fragments generated during lagging strand replication and must ultimately produce a double-stranded substrate with a nick suitable for DNA ligase to seal. PolI's activities must be highly coordinated both temporally and spatially otherwise uncontrolled 5'-nuclease activity could attack a nick and produce extended gaps leading to potentially lethal double-strand breaks. To investigate the mechanism of how PolI efficiently produces these nicks, we present theoretical studies on the dynamics of two possible scenarios or models. In one the flap DNA substrate can transit from the polymerase active site to the 5'-nuclease active site, with the relative position of the two active sites being kept fixed; while the other is that the 5'-nuclease domain can transit from the inactive mode, with the 5'-nuclease active site distant from the cleavage site on the DNA substrate, to the active mode, where the active site and substrate cleavage site are juxtaposed. The theoretical results based on the former scenario are inconsistent with the available experimental data that indicated that the majority of 5'-nucleolytic processing events are carried out by the same PolI molecule that has just extended the upstream primer terminus. By contrast, the theoretical results on the latter model, which is constructed based on available structural studies, are consistent with the experimental data. We thus conclude that the latter model rather than the former one is reasonable to describe the cooperation of the PolI's polymerase and 5'-3' exonuclease activities. Moreover, predicted results for the latter model are presented