Agricultural Cooperatives and Market Performance in Food Manufacturing

Support for the cooperative yardstick hypothesis was found using a standard structure-performance model that was extended to include a cooperative market share variable and was estimated with a large cross-section of food manufacturing markets. Market concentration and advertising intensity were positively related to price-cost margins. In addition, the aggregate market share of the one hundred largest agricultural marketing cooperatives was inversely related to price-cost margins. The magnitude of the effect was largest in the more concentrated markets. This suggests that. where cooperatives have vertically extended themselves into food processing. more competitive outcomes are found even in highly concentrated markets.Agribusiness, Marketing,

Presumed vs confirmed full code

Background Many problems exist regarding inpatient code status: advance directives are rarely completed in outpatient and inpatient settings; patients preferences regarding code status are often not elicited; physicians do not provide adequate information to allow patients to make informed decisions about code status; code status discussions are often delayed during an admission until it is too late for the patients to participate; and providers inappropriately extrapolate DNR orders to limit other treatments (such as artificial nutrition, ICU admission, etc.) Most hospitals default to \u27Full Code\u27 as the status for patients admitted, particularly in patients with whom a code status discussion cannot or has not taken place. In many cases, confirmation of \u27Full Code\u27 does not occur later when these discussions become possible. These problems can result in patients receiving care they would not wish or choose. Purpose At the University of New Mexico (UNM), an academic safety net hospital, a multidisciplinary Advance Directives Task Force formed to address these issues. An initial survey found that \u3c2% of inpatients had advance directives. The goals of the task force were to improve the above issues around code status and increase advance directive completion, in an effort to improve patient care at end of life. Description A multi-disciplinary team at the University of New Mexico met regularly for 2 years to address these concerns. Quality improvement measures included: 1) A revision of the hospital Code Status Policy including the following: a) All adult admissions will have a code status discussion, identification of a surrogate decision maker, and a code status note written b) Code status orders are written for all adult inpatients and include the options of Presumed Full Code (for patients with whom a discussion cannot take place on admission), Confirmed Full Code (after discussion takes place with patient or surrogate), or DNR (eliminating \u27partial code\u27 status orders) 2) Process Improvements included: a) Modification of existing orders and order sets in EMR b) Development of standardized templates for code status discussion and surrogate decision maker identification notes c) Revision of patient handouts about Advance Directives in literacy appropriate language d) Education for physicians about \u27how to have a code status discussion\u27 e) Hospital-wide education to all staff about these changes Conclusions As a specialty, hospital medicine needs to take a more proactive role in ensuring that patients make informed decisions and receive all and only the care they desire. To make this cultural change in our nationwide practice, we submit these standards we hope to be adopted by other institutions including the use of \u27presumed\u27 and \u27confirmed\u27 code statuses, the expectation to have code status discussions on all admissions with identification of surrogate decision maker, and to support increased education to hospitalist in engaging in these discussions.\u2

Promoting Commodities through Comic Books: A Framing Analysis of the Captain Citrus Campaign

The communication campaign starring Captain Citrus, first released in 2011, was aimed at elementary school students with the goals of encouraging health and agricultural literacy, as well as promoting the consumption of Florida orange juice. This study was designed as a qualitative, inductive framing analysis of the Captain Citrus comic book series featured in the campaign. The goal was to identify the prominent frames along with evidence of agricultural perspective and promotion throughout the series. The first two editions of the series, totaling 38 pages, were evaluated for the study. The results indicated the presence of four predominate frames: “Amazing Inside,” health, responsibility, and empowerment. A majority of the agricultural perspective and promotion was found in the form of images, followed by textual mentions, and symbolic references. It was determined that the “Amazing Inside” and health frames contributed to meeting the campaign objective to boost health literacy. The second objective, to promote agricultural literacy, was somewhat endorsed through the agricultural references, however there is an opportunity for this to be strengthened. The presence of all four frames aided in the achievement of the final goal, to promote Florida citrus through the sale of orange juice. It is recommended that further research be conducted to measure the effects of framing on the attitudes and behaviors of elementary school students before and after they are exposed to the campaign materials

Mentoring, Training, and Scholarly Productivity Experiences of Cancer-Related Health Disparities Research Trainees: Do Outcomes Differ for Underrepresented Scientists?

The study aims to explore variation in scholarly productivity outcomes by underrepresented status among a diverse sample of researchers in a community-engaged training program. We identified 141 trainees from a web-based survey of researchers in the National Cancer Institute-funded, Community Networks Program Centers (CNPCs) (2011-2016). We conducted a series of multiple logistic regression models to estimate the effect of National Institutes of Health (NIH)-defined underrepresented status on four, self-reported, scholarly productivity outcomes in the previous 5 years: number of publications (first-authored and total) and funded grants (NIH and any agency). Sixty-five percent (n = 92) indicated NIH underrepresented status. In final adjusted models, non-NIH underrepresented (vs. underrepresented) trainees reported an increased odds of having more than the median number of total publications (> 9) (OR = 3.14, 95% CI 1.21-8.65) and any grant funding (OR = 5.10, 95% CI 1.77-14.65). Reporting ≥ 1 mentors (vs. none) was also positively associated (p < 0.05) with these outcomes. The CNPC underrepresented trainees had similar success in first-authored publications and NIH funding as non-underrepresented trainees, but not total publications and grants. Examining trainees' mentoring experiences over time in relation to scholarly productivity outcomes is needed

#TransformFFA: An Analysis of Social Media Content During the 2016 National FFA Convention

The proliferation of social media has the ability to considerably impact stakeholders’ perspective of an organization’s brand. Due to this relationship, social media analysis is crucial to executing informed brand communication strategies. In October 2016, the brand communication strategies of the National FFA Organization were focused on promoting the 89th National FFA Convention. A large portion of these efforts and resources were dedicated towards the utilization of social media. This study was designed as a content analysis of the National FFA Organization’s social media presence during the dates of the convention. The goal was to identify the prominent themes of communication and the alignment of these themes with the organizational brand. Conversations on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat yielded a total of 344 posts for evaluation. The results indicated the presence of seven predominate themes: recognition, connectivity, appreciation, spirit, service, influence, and support. The researchers suggest opportunities exist for closer alignment between published social media content and the defined organizational and event brands. Specific attention should be placed on event-specific theme promotion. Renewed efforts to increase interactivity will allow for stakeholders to take part in the brand co-building process. It should be ensured that all communications are an accurate reflection of the brand’s image, connections, and reputation

Microbial community analysis of Acropora palamata mucus swabs, water and sediment samples from Hawksnest Bay, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

Colonies of the scleractinian coral Acropora palmata, listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act in 2006, have been monitored in Hawksnest Bay, within Virgin Islands National Park, St. John, from 2004 through 2010 by scientists with the US Geological Survey, National Park Service, and the University of the Virgin Islands. The focus has been on documenting the prevalence of disease, including white band, white pox (also called patchy necrosis and white patches), and unidentified diseases (Rogers et al., 2008; Muller et al., 2008). In an effort to learn more about the pathologies that might be involved with the diseases that were observed, samples were collected from apparently healthy and diseased colonies in July 2009 for analysis. Two different microbial assays were performed on Epicentre Biotechnologies DNA swabs containing A. palmata coral mucus, and on water and sediment samples collected in Hawksnest Bay. Both assays are based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of portions of the small rRNA gene (16S). The objectives were to determine 1) if known coral bacterial pathogens Serratia marcescens (Acroporid Serratiosis), Vibrio coralliilyticus (temperature-dependent bleaching, White Syndrome), Vibrio shiloi (bleaching, necrosis), and Aurantimonas coralicida (White Plague Type II) were present in any samples, and 2) if there were any differences in microbial community profiles of each healthy, unaffected or diseased coral mucus swab. In addition to coral mucus, water and sediment samples were included to show ambient microbial populations. In the first test, PCR was used to separately amplify the unique and diagnostic region of the 16S rRNA gene for each of the coral pathogens being screened. Each pathogen test was designed so that an amplified DNA fragment could be seen only if the specific pathogen was present in a sample. A positive result was indicated by bands of DNA of the appropriate size on an agarose gel, which separates DNA fragments based on the size of the molecule. DNA from pure cultures of each of the pathogens was used as a positive control for each assay

Differences in Hospital Managers’, Unit Managers’, and Health Care Workers’ Perceptions of the Safety Climate for Respiratory Protection

This article compares hospital managers’ (HM), unit managers’ (UM), and health care workers’ (HCW) perceptions of respiratory protection safety climate in acute care hospitals. The article is based on survey responses from 215 HMs, 245 UMs, and 1,105 HCWs employed by 98 acute care hospitals in six states. Ten survey questions assessed five of the key dimensions of safety climate commonly identified in the literature: managerial commitment to safety, management feedback on safety procedures, coworkers’ safety norms, worker involvement, and worker safety training. Clinically and statistically significant differences were found across the three respondent types. HCWs had less positive perceptions of management commitment, worker involvement, and safety training aspects of safety climate than HMs and UMs. UMs had more positive perceptions of management’s supervision of HCWs’ respiratory protection practices. Implications for practice improvements indicate the need for frontline HCWs’ inclusion in efforts to reduce safety climate barriers and better support effective respiratory protection programs and daily health protection practices

Molecular and Cellular Biology Animations: Development and Impact on Student Learning

Educators often struggle when teaching cellular and molecular processes because typically they have only two-dimensional tools to teach something that plays out in four dimensions. Learning research has demonstrated that visualizing processes in three dimensions aids learning, and animations are effective visualization tools for novice learners and aid with long-term memory retention. The World Wide Web Instructional Committee at North Dakota State University has used these research results as an inspiration to develop a suite of high-quality animations of molecular and cellular processes. Currently, these animations represent transcription, translation, bacterial gene expression, messenger RNA (mRNA) processing, mRNA splicing, protein transport into an organelle, the electron transport chain, and the use of a biological gradient to drive adenosine triphosphate synthesis. These animations are integrated with an educational module that consists of First Look and Advanced Look components that feature captioned stills from the animation representing the key steps in the processes at varying levels of complexity. These animation-based educational modules are available via the World Wide Web at http://vcell.ndsu.edu/animations. An in-class research experiment demonstrated that student retention of content material was significantly better when students received a lecture coupled with the animations and then used the animation as an individual study activity

Standardized Tobacco Assessment for Retail Settings (STARS): dissemination and implementation research

The Standardized Tobacco Assessment for Retail Settings (STARS) was designed to characterise the availability, placement, promotion and price of tobacco products, with items chosen for relevance to regulating the retail tobacco environment. This study describes the process to develop the STARS instrument and protocol employed by a collaboration of US government agencies, US state tobacco control programmes (TCPs), advocacy organisations, public health attorneys and researchers from the National Cancer Institute's State and Community Tobacco Control (SCTC) Research Initiative

Analyzing Media Coverage of Agricultural Health and Safety Issues

Farming, by the very nature of the occupation, is riddled with uncertainty. The risks associated with the agriculture industry are just as diverse as the industry itself. For all risks, one challenge is the development and dissemination of safety communication materials tailored for diverse audiences. Valkenburg, Semetko, and Vreese (1999) examined common frames used in news media. Their analysis pointed to four commonly used news frames: conflict, human interest, responsibility and economic consequences. The purpose of this study was to describe the agricultural and health safety issues discussed in Florida news media during the year 2016, discussing the prominence of the frames outlined by Valkenburg et al. (1999). In this study, the most prominent frame was the human interest frame, followed by responsibility, economic consequences, and conflict. Frames carry a great deal of weight in shaping individuals’ opinions, attitudes, and actions towards agriculturally based messages; therefore it is essential for agricultural communicators to understand the framing of agricultural health and safety issues. Acknowledging the frames used in the reporting of agricultural issues allows agricultural communicators to enter into informed interactions with media outlets and better prepare the resources they provide to them. These framing analyses also provide agricultural communicators with a solid foundation on which to best position and frame their messaging on behalf of the industry. Further research is recommended to examine frames from an audience perspective and to investigate the impact of human interest frames in the presentation of agricultural news articles