State Implementation of the New WIC Produce Package: Opportunities and Barriers for WIC Clients to Use Their Benefits at Farmers' Markets

The new WIC fruit and vegetable package will create a $500 million market annually for produce. Even if 10% of these benefits were spent at farmers markets, it would provide a big boon for access to local food and to small farmers. This report discovers that half of the states are shutting farmers markets out of this potentially lucrative market, and looks at the reasons why

Time Evolution of the Neel State

A quasionedimentional spin chain (s=1/2) is considered as a lattice consisting of two sublattices. The attention is paid to the states which are pure spin states of the whole lattice and both sublattices, the value of the sublattices' spins being maximum. It is shown that the Neel state can be considered as a superposition of such states. The exact equation for this superposition coefficients is developed. The possibility of the Neel state to be the eigenstate of a Hamiltonian is discussed. Several model Hamiltonians are examined, the well known ones and few novel Hamiltonians being considered. The time evolution of the Neel state in different models is studied with the help of Fock-Krylov method.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to IJQC. Typos corrected. Some results adde

Moral Failure — Response to Critics

I briefly introduce Moral Failure as a book that brings together philosophical and empirical work in moral psychology to examine moral requirements that are non-negotiable and that contravene the principle that “ought implies can.” I respond to Rivera by arguing that the process of construction that imbues normative requirements with authority need not systematize or eliminate conflicts between normative requirements. My response to Schwartzman clarifies what is problematic about nonideal theorizing that limits itself to offering action-guidance. In response to Kittay, I defend my rejection of “ought implies can,” and consider the implications of the concept of unfair moral requirements

Critical Temperature Tc and Charging Energy Ec between B-B layers of Superconducting diboride materials MgB2 in 3D JJA model

The diboride materials MB2 (M = Mg, Be, Pb, etc.) are discussed on the basis of the 3D Josephson junction array (JJA) model due to Kawabata-Shenoy-Bishop, in terms of the B-B layers in the diborides analogous to the Cu-O ones in the cuprates. We propose a possibility of superconducting materials with the MgB2-type structure which exhibit higher critical temperature Tc over 39K of MgB2. We point out a role of interstitial ionic atoms (e.g., Mg in MgB2) as capacitors between the B-B layers, which reduce the charging coupling energy in JJA.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure included; to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 70, No.10 (2001

The Role of Mitochondrial ATP-Binding Cassette Transporter ABCB6 in Metabolism and Energy Balance

Abstract Obesity and the associated health risks represent a world-wide health and financial crisis. Lack of physical activity combined with excessive caloric intake are the root cause of the problem. Despite the increased advocation for healthy lifestyle choices, the trend has yet to reverse and indeed, seems to be on the rise especially among pre-teens and adolescents, a constituent that had not been previously part of the obesity epidemic. Mitochondria are the “fuel-burners” of the body and like other combustion devices, become inefficient in the context of fuel surplus. Moreover, with chronic over-feeding, the physiological mechanisms that regulate energy balance become permanently dysfunctional leading to the progression of pathologies such as Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Medical and scientific evidence confirms that mitochondria are integral to the responses necessary to adapt to over-nutrition. However, success in mitochondria-based therapies has been extremely limited in the context of metabolic diseases. Our knowledge of the regulation of mitochondrial function, dynamics, signaling, and transport processes in different tissues and organ systems is extremely limited and this knowledge gap is a serious impediment to progress toward targeting mitochondria for treatment of metabolic diseases. In this study, we successfully genetically manipulated the expression of mitochondrial transporter ABCB6. The physiological function of this transporter is unknown but non-functional mutations of this protein have been linked to several heritable human diseases. This study establishes that ABCB6 plays a role in the maintenance of energy homeostasis. Whole-body Abcb6 knockout adult male and female mice have increased body mass with no increases in food consumption. Increased body mass is due to increased adiposity. ABCB6 deficiency results in steatosis, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, and lower energy expenditure. Exposure to high-fat diet exacerbates these metabolic derangements. Genetically targeting ABCB6 expression specifically in liver results in disruption of whole-body energy metabolism as well with a loss of metabolic flexibility. Loss of hepatic ABCB6 results in fragmented mitochondria while overexpression leads to mitochondrial elongation, dysregulating dynamic mitochondrial functional responses to energy status. In this liver-specific model, hepatic metabolites are significantly altered with either ABCB6 knockdown or overexpression. Metabolites that have a profound impact on energy metabolism such as bile acids, amino acids, and phospholipids were significantly altered in this model. Interestingly, we discovered that ABCB6 expression is responsive to nutrient status and circadian patterns. ABCB6 expression is upregulated in the fasted state and rapidly downregulated in response to feeding. Also, ABCB6 expression is reduced in cases of chronic over-nutrition such as, diet and genetic mouse models of obesity as well as in clinically obese humans. These findings suggest that ABCB6 acts as a nutrient sensor and mediates a homeostatic response through dynamic mitochondrial changes in form and function

The elementary guidance counselor: An essential part of elementary education

Education is a social process. Human interaction is the single most important ingredient in education. Most human behaviors are learned. They develop as a consequence of persons interacting with their environment. The type of person we are is determined by the interactions we have with other human beings. When teaching a child, educators must interact with the total individual; this has become known as teaching the total child . Education can no longer deal singly with the teaching of subject content, as has been the practice in the past. This method has not produced adults who are prepared to meet the challenges of society. Young people need to be armed with decision-making and problem-solving· skills to function in the complex adult world. Due to the problems facing children today, some children feel like failures before they leave the elementary school