Consumer Evaluation of a New Low-Fat Spread-Type Dairy Product

For many years the dairy industry has been going through transitional period whereby many marketing and structural changes have resulted. Generally speaking, these changes have been advantageous to the dairy farmer. During the past years there has been a widespread and increasing interest in profitable means of utilization of dairy by-products. Because of their unique and high nutritional value, the most logical method of disposition of these by-products is, from the standpoint of the general welfare, in human food; generally this is also the most gainful method. The high nutritional value of these products also makes them valuable in feeding calves, pigs, and poultry. This use has been justified to a great extent by the relatively high cost of other protein feeds. However, the increasing tendency has been for dairy farmers to sell whole milk rather than cream to increase their income and to use greater quantities of protein feeds not derived from milk. This situation and the possibility of future increasingly large surpluses of milk have caused the manufacturers of dairy products to consider more seriously than ever before the manufacture and sale of new products which may be made from milk by-products and surpluses. The investigation reported herein concerned general information on the feasibility of a new spread-type dairy product, background on consumer acceptance trials, and a specific consumer evaluation test on the new spread-type dairy product. It was part of a cooperative research project between the dairy science department of South Dakota State University, the American Dairy Association, and the United States Department of Agriculture

The Impact of Forensic vs. Social-Science Evidence on Judicial Decisions to Grant a Writ of Habeas Corpus

Wrongful conviction is a serious dilemma for the criminal-justice system. A joint investigation by the Better Government Association and the Center on Wrongful Convictions tracked exonerations from 1989 through 2010 and identified 85 people who were wrongfully incarcerated.1 Not only were those 85 lives unfairly affected in serious ways due to the incarceration, but the actual perpetrators continued on crime sprees that went on to include 14 murders, 11 sexual assaults, 10 kidnappings, and at least 62 other felonies.2 The reversal of false convictions is becoming more frequent.3 However, scholars have asserted that the exonerations that do occur are probably a small fraction of actual wrongful convictions. Gross and colleagues pointed out that “[o]ur legal system places great weight on the finality of criminal convictions. Courts and prosecutors are exceedingly reluctant to reverse judgments or reconsider closed cases; when they do—and it’s rare—it’s usually because of a compelling showing of error.”4 Therefore, in order for a wrongful conviction to be overturned, these cases must undergo a lengthy appeals process

A Role for Ethanol-Induced Oxidative Stress in Controlling Lineage Commitment of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Through Inhibition of Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling

The mechanisms by which chronic ethanol intake induces bone loss remain unclear. In females, the skeletal response to ethanol varies depending on physiologic status (e.g., cycling, pregnancy, or lactation). Ethanol-induced oxidative stress appears to be a key event leading to skeletal toxicity. In this study, ethanol-containing liquid diets were fed to postlactational female Sprague-Dawley rats intragastrically for 4 weeks beginning at weaning. Ethanol consumption decreased bone mineral density (BMD) compared with control animals during this period of bone rebuilding following the end of lactation. Coadministration of the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) was able to block bone loss and downregulation of the bone-formation markers alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin in serum and gene expression in bone. Real-time array analysis of total RNA isolated from bone tissue revealed that the majority of Wnt signaling components were downregulated by chronic ethanol infusion. Real-time PCR confirmed downregulated gene expression in a subset of the Wnt signaling components by ethanol. However, the Wnt antagonist DKK1 was upregulated by ethanol. The key canonical Wnt signaling molecule β-catenin protein expression was inhibited, while glycogen synthase kinase-3-β was dephosphorylated by ethanol in bone and preosteoblastic cells. These actions of ethanol were blocked by NAC. Ethanol treatment inactivated TCF/LEF gene transcription, eliminated β-catenin nuclear translocation in osteoblasts, and reciprocally suppressed osteoblastogenesis and enhanced adipogenesis. These effects of ethanol on lineage commitment of mesenchymal stem cells were eliminated by NAC pretreatment. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that ethanol inhibits bone formation through stimulation of oxidative stress to suppress Wnt signaling. © 2010 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research