An American BSE Crisis: Has it affected the Value of Traceability and Country-of-Origin Certifications for US and Canadian Beef?

With a BSE incident in the United States (US) in December of 2003, questions arose about the effect of the incident on consumers in the US. The purpose of this paper is to determine if traceability systems for beef can help preserve consumer demand following the discovery of BSE. Auctions were conducted approximately 3 weeks before and after the December 2003 BSE incident in the U.S It was found that overall there was no effect on the size of the bribes needed by the BSE incidence. However, for some groups there were important changes. The results indicate that information about traceability and country of origin is valuable to consumers. They also suggest that greater uncertainty about certifications and assurances for beef existed among the participants after December 23rd than before December 23rd.BSE, Traceability, Country-of-origin, Beef market, Auctions, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Livestock Production/Industries,

Finding the Center of Mass of a Soft Spring

This article shows how to use calculus to find the center of mass position of a soft cylindrical helical spring that is suspended vertically. The spring is non-uniformly stretched by the action of gravity. A general expression for the vertical position of the center of mass is obtained.Comment: LaTeX, 7 pages, 2 figures. Minor changes to agree with published versio

Asthma in Vermont Dairy Farmers

Introduction. Although 5.4% of the Vermont population participates in agriculture as an occupation, little data exists on the prevalence of asthma in Vermont dairy farmers, due to inadequate sample sizes. Previous studies have shown dairy farmers are at risk of respiratory illness due to unique exposures intrinsic to their occupation. We conducted a study to assess the prevalence of asthma in dairy farmers in Vermont, to understand rates among this population and potential occupational risks.Methods. We distributed a paper survey modeled after previously-validated surveys, such as the BRFSS, to farmers at Vermont Farmer Bureau meetings, farmers markets, and individual farmers through Cabot Creamery. Out of 309 distributed surveys, we received 176 completed surveys for a response rate of 57%.Results. Self-reported asthma rate in dairy farmers was 21% (22% in dairy only farmers), with 90% of these cases reported as confirmed by a doctor. Of non-dairy farmers, 11% self-reported experiencing asthma. Farming activities associated with exacerbation of asthma symptoms were milking, prepping or cleaning bedding, and haying. 31% of dairy-only farmers reported symptom exacerbations due to these occupational triggers.Conclusions. The prevalence of asthma in Vermont dairy farmers is one of the highest reported rates in any Vermont occupation. Our data suggest that certain occupational exposures may increase risk of asthma and warrant further study; certain farming practices were associated with exacerbation of respiratory symptoms in farmers diagnosed with asthma. These findings and further research can assist in development of health care and preventive health measures for farmers.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1238/thumbnail.jp

Generation of Long-Lived Isomeric States via Bremsstrahlung Irradiation

A method to generate long-lived isomeric states effectively for Mossbauer applications is reported. We demonstrate that this method is better and easier to provide highly sensitive Mossbauer effect of long-lived isomers (>1ms) such as 103Rh. Excitation of (gamma,gamma) process by synchrotron radiation is painful due mainly to their limited linewidth. Instead,(gamma,gamma') process of bremsstrahlung excitation is applied to create these long-lived isomers. Isomers of 45Sc, 107Ag, 109Ag, and 103Rh have been generated from this method. Among them, 103Rh is the only one that we have obtained the gravitational effect at room temperature.Comment: ICAME 05 conference repor

WormBase 2007

WormBase (www.wormbase.org) is the major publicly available database of information about Caenorhabditis elegans, an important system for basic biological and biomedical research. Derived from the initial ACeDB database of C. elegans genetic and sequence information, WormBase now includes the genomic, anatomical and functional information about C. elegans, other Caenorhabditis species and other nematodes. As such, it is a crucial resource not only for C. elegans biologists but the larger biomedical and bioinformatics communities. Coverage of core areas of C. elegans biology will allow the biomedical community to make full use of the results of intensive molecular genetic analysis and functional genomic studies of this organism. Improved search and display tools, wider cross-species comparisons and extended ontologies are some of the features that will help scientists extend their research and take advantage of other nematode species genome sequences

Science and Film-making

The essay reviews the literature, mostly historical, on the relationship between science and film-making, with a focus on the science documentary. It then discusses the circumstances of the emergence of the wildlife making-of documentary genre. The thesis examined here is that since the early days of cinema, film-making has evolved from being subordinate to science, to being an equal partner in the production of knowledge, controlled by non-scientists

A splicing-dependent transcriptional checkpoint associated with prespliceosome formation

There is good evidence for functional interactions between splicing and transcription in eukaryotes, but how and why these processes are coupled remain unknown. Prp5 protein (Prp5p) is an RNA-stimulated adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) required for prespliceosome formation in yeast. We demonstrate through in vivo RNA labeling that, in addition to a splicing defect, the prp5-1 mutation causes a defect in the transcription of intron-containing genes. We present chromatin immunoprecipitation evidence for a transcriptional elongation defect in which RNA polymerase that is phosphorylated at Ser5 of the largest subunit’s heptad repeat accumulates over introns and that this defect requires Cus2 protein. A similar accumulation of polymerase was observed when prespliceosome formation was blocked by a mutation in U2 snRNA. These results indicate the existence of a transcriptional elongation checkpoint that is associated with prespliceosome formation during cotranscriptional spliceosome assembly. We propose a role for Cus2p as a potential checkpoint factor in transcription

Occupational Stress Among Nurse Administrators in General Hospitals in Tennessee

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of occupational stress among nurse administrators and to identify the types of strategies used by nurse administrators to deal with or manage occupational stress. The study examined the relationship between selected demographic variables, occupational stress, and strategies. The research design included five research questions along with seven null hypotheses testing the relationship between occupational stress and demographic variables--age, gender, marital status, years of professional nursing experience, years as a nurse administrator, educational attainment, and hospital bed capacity. There were seven additional hypotheses testing the relationship between the same demographic variables and three categories of coping strategies. The instrument used included the researcher-designed Demographic Questionnaire, the Health Professions Stress Inventory (HPSI), and a listing of 17 coping strategies. Nurse administrator\u27s HPSI overall mean stress score was lower than the HPSI mean stress level scores reported for nurses in previous studies. Five subscales of stressors (Stress Factors) were identified by analyzing the HPSI using Principal Components Factor Analysis. A statistical significant difference (p $\u3c$.05) was revealed for nurse administrators for: (1) overall stress level when tested by three of the demographic variables, years as a nurse administrator, educational attainment, and hospital bed capacity; (2) subscale level of stress when testing the HPSI five stress factors by marital status, years as a nurse administrator, and educational attainment. A statistical significant difference (p $\u3c$.05) for strategies used by nurse administrators was revealed with testing: (1) Avoidance strategy by demographic variables--age, number of years of professional experience, number of years as a nurse administrator, and hospital bed capacity and, (2) Active Cognitive strategy by demographic--gender. The Spearman Rho correlation coefficient procedures used to correlate the HPSI five Stress Factors with Active Cognitive, Active Behavioral, and Avoidance strategies revealed: (1) Stress Factor 1, Professional Conflicts was significantly related to Avoidance strategy (r\sb{\rm s} =.24). (2) Stress Factor 2, Lack of Recognition as a Professional, was negatively significantly correlated with Active Cognitive Strategy (r\sb{\rm s} = $-$.22). (3) Stress Factor 3, Work Overload, was significantly related to Active Cognitive strategy (r\sb{\rm s} =.23). (4) Nurse administrators overall stress was significantly related to Avoidance Strategy (r\sb{\rm s} =.28)

Analysis of Disproportionality in Discipline and the Effects of Positive Behavior Supports Within Special Education

Nationwide, school districts are required (IDEA, 2004) to implement positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) for all students receiving special education services. These PBIS are reported to reduce problem behaviors and increase prosocial behaviors when implemented with fidelity (Crone et al., 2015). With a reduction of problem behaviors an expected reduction of discipline referrals should follow along with a reduction in days spent in exclusionary discipline for students in special education. Reducing days in exclusionary discipline is desired due to a strong research base linking the practice to several negative outcomes (Marchbanks et al., 2015) along with data demonstrating these negative outcomes are disproportionally experienced by minority and disabled students (DOE, 2018). The goal of the current study was to: 1) describe the discipline practices of a school district for students in special education, and 2) analyze the effectiveness of Tier 3 PBIS in reducing exclusionary discipline for students in special education. It was hypothesized that students receiving Tier 3 PBIS and students with more accurate behavior intervention plans (BIPs) would spend fewer days in exclusionary discipline. Results demonstrated that Black and ED students were at the highest risk for receiving exclusionary discipline and that students in special education receiving any Tier 3 PBIS spent more days in exclusionary discipline than students who did not receive Tier 3 PBIS. However, students with accurate BIPs did spend fewer days in exclusionary discipline