CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE OF IRRADIATED PRODUCE

Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

A local Gaussian filter and adaptive morphology as tools for completing partially discontinuous curves

This paper presents a method for extraction and analysis of curve--type structures which consist of disconnected components. Such structures are found in electron--microscopy (EM) images of metal nanograins, which are widely used in the field of nanosensor technology. The topography of metal nanograins in compound nanomaterials is crucial to nanosensor characteristics. The method of completing such templates consists of three steps. In the first step, a local Gaussian filter is used with different weights for each neighborhood. In the second step, an adaptive morphology operation is applied to detect the endpoints of curve segments and connect them. In the last step, pruning is employed to extract a curve which optimally fits the template

CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE OF IRRADIATED FOOD PRODUCTS: AN APPLE MARKETING STUDY

This study was exploratory in nature, with emphasis on initial purchases and not repeat purchases or long-term loyalties to either irradiated or non-irradiated produce. The investigation involved the actual sale of irradiated and non-irradiated apples to consumers. Limited information about the process was provided, and apples were sold at roadside stands. Prices for the irradiated apples were varied while the price for the non-irradiated apples was held constant. Of these 228 West-Central Missouri shoppers, 101 (44%) bought no irradiated apples, 86 (38%) bought only irradiated apples, and 41 (18%) bought some of both types. Results of probit regressions indicated three significant independent variables. There was an inverse relationship between the price of irradiated apples and the probability of purchasing irradiated apples. There was a positive relationship between the purchasers' educational level and the probability of purchasing irradiated apples. Predicted probabilities for belonging to categories in probit models were computed. Depending on particular equation specification, correctly placed were approximately 70 percent of the purchasers of the two categories-bought only non-irradiated apples, or bought some of both irradiated and non-irradiated apples or only irradiated apples. This study suggests that consumers may be interested in food irradiation as a possible alternative or supplement to current preservation techniques.Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Role of B cell and hematopoietic cell intrinsic actions of ERα in lupus pathogenesis

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by the presence of autoimmune B and T cells and the production of pathogenic antibodies against nuclear antigens. Lupus predominately affects women between menarche and menopause. There are both genetic and environmental risk factors which affect an individuals’ risk of developing lupus. Estrogens are a risk factor for developing lupus and are thought to contribute significantly to the initiation and progression of disease. In lupus-prone mice, genetic knockout of a receptor for estrogen, estrogen receptor alpha (ERα), causes significant attenuation of lupus. Previous studies have not identified the cell type or types which mediate the effects of ERα on lupus. Estrogen has many effects on the immune system which could contribute to the development of autoimmunity in susceptible individuals. Particularly, estrogen promotes the survival of highly autoreactive B cells. Therefore, we hypothesized that ERα expression in hematopoietic cells promotes lupus, and more specifically, that ERα in B cells promotes lupus. To test this hypothesis, we created two different murine models of lupus on the lupus-prone (NZB x NZW)F1 genetic background. To investigate the role of ERα in hematopoietic cells, we created chimeric mice with hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic cells with different ERα genotypes. Due to issues with the creation of successful chimeras, we were not able to use these mice to fully address our hypothesis. However, these studies revealed that estrogen plays a role in the success of hematopoietic reconstitution in females. To address the hypothesis that ERα expression in B cells promotes lupus, we created a (NZB x NZW)F1 model with B cell specific deletion of ERα. Although only a moderate proportion of B cells had successful deletion of ERα, this was sufficient to cause a significant attenuation of lupus. Mice with B cell specific ERα deletion had fewer activated B cells, produced fewer pathogenic autoantibodies, and had significantly prolonged survival compared to control mice. Therefore, these studies have shown that ERα expression in B cells promotes lupus in the (NZB x NZW)F1 model of lupus

The Enigma of Identifying New Cattle Tick Vaccine Antigens

Several reviews have summarised cattle tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus vaccine candidate discoveries by comparing efficacies and localisation characteristics. However, few have re-analysed all the reported proteins using modern bioinformatics tools. Bm86 was developed as a successful vaccine in the 1980s; however, global efficacies vary from 45 to 100%. Subsequent vaccines, including four published patents, were discovered by targeting enzymes important for blood digestion and/or metabolism or by targeting genes shown to disrupt tick survival following RNA interference experiments. This chapter analyses published vaccine candidates using InterPro, BLASTP, SignalP, TMHMM and PredGPI tools to confirm whether each reported protein is likely to be secreted, membrane associated or intracellular. Conversely, these proteins are considered as ‘exposed’, ‘exposed’ and ‘concealed’ or ‘concealed’, respectively. Bm86 was always described as a ‘concealed’ antigen; however, the protein has a confirmed signal peptide and GPI anchor which suggests it is anchored to the cell membrane and exposed on the surface of gut cells. It is the only tick vaccine with a GPI anchor. Secreted vaccine candidates appear to have promise and exhibit higher efficacies if delivered with an ‘intracellular’/‘concealed’ antigen. Improvements in tick genomics and bovine immunomic resources will assist to identify robust new cattle tick vaccines

Models of Galaxy Clusters with Thermal Conduction

We present a simple model of hot gas in galaxy clusters, assuming hydrostatic equilibrium and energy balance between radiative cooling and thermal conduction. For five clusters, A1795, A1835, A2199, A2390 and RXJ1347.5-1145, the model gives a good description of the observed radial profiles of electron density and temperature, provided we take the thermal conductivity $\kappa$ to be about 30% of the Spitzer conductivity. Since the required $\kappa$ is consistent with the recent theoretical estimate of Narayan & Medvedev (2001) for a turbulent magnetized plasma, we consider a conduction-based equilibrium model to be viable for these clusters. We further show that the hot gas is thermally stable because of the presence of conduction. For five other clusters, A2052, A2597, Hydra A, Ser 159-03 and 3C295, the model requires unphysically large values of $\kappa$ to fit the data. These clusters must have some additional source of heat, most likely an active galactic nucleus since all the clusters have strong radio galaxies at their centers. We suggest that thermal conduction, though not dominant in these clusters, may nevertheless play a significant role by preventing the gas from becoming thermally unstable.Comment: Published in ApJ; 22 pages, including 2 tables, 4 figures; typos corrected to match the published versio

Mental health in higher education students and non-students: evidence from a nationally representative panel study

Despite increasing policy focus on mental health provision for higher education students, it is unclear whether they have worse mental health outcomes than their non-student peers. In a nationally-representative UK study spanning 2010-2019 (N = 11,519), 17-24 year olds who attended higher education had lower average psychological distress (GHQ score difference =  - 0.37, 95% CI - 0.60, - 0.08) and lower odds of case-level distress than those who did not (OR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.81, 1.02). Increases in distress between 2010 and 2019 were similar in both groups. Accessible mental health support outside higher education settings is necessary to prevent further widening of socioeconomic inequalities in mental health