RESULTS OF A FARM AND MARKET SURVEY FOR HMONG SPECIALTY CROP FARMERS IN THE MINNEAPOLIS, ST. PAUL METRO AREA

This report is part of a larger project, "Risk Management Education and Farm Management Development Program for Hmong Specialty Crop Farmers in the Minneapolis, St. Paul Metro Area," funded by the Risk Management Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture. The project was designed to assist Hmong farmers in the Twin Cities area in improving their production and management practices so they are able to increase their economic viability and reduce their exposure to risk. As part of the overall project, 62 Hmong farmers and 69 customers at farmers markets were surveyed to determine the local specialty crop production and market conditions. The findings of these 2 surveys are contained in the report. The median size of the 62 farms surveyed farms was 3 acres. Forty-two percent of those farmers responding reported total farm product sales between $3,000 and$8,999. Few farmers indicated they were familiar with crop insurance programs. Sixty-eight percent of the 19 farmers responding (or 21% of the 62 surveyed) said they were familiar with multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI). Only 12% of the 50 farmers responding had bought crop insurance in 2002. The most frequently indicated needs for future education programs were production oriented: weed control, insect control, fertilization, and pesticide safety. All of the 69 customers surveyed regularly bought some kind of vegetables or herbs. Over half of the customers bought potatoes, snap beans, peppers, sweet corn, carrots, cucumbers, basil, and winter squash. Eighty-eight percent of customers indicated they typically spend between $10 and$29 on vegetables and herbs during each visit to a farmers' market.Crop Production/Industries,

Donor Bone Marrow-Derived T Cells Inhibit GVHD Induced by Donor Lymphocyte Infusion in Established Mixed Allogeneic Hematopoietic Chimeras

Delayed administration of donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) to established mixed chimeras has been shown to achieve anti-tumor responses without graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD). Herein we show that de novo donor BM-derived T cells that are tolerant of the recipients are important in preventing GVHD in mixed chimeras receiving delayed DLI. Mixed chimeras lacking donor BM-derived T cells developed significantly more severe GVHD than those with donor BM-derived T cells after DLI, even though both groups had comparable levels of total T cells at the time of DLI. Post-DLI depletion of donor BM-derived T cells in mixed chimeras, as late as 20 days after DLI, also provoked severe GVHD. Although both CD4 and CD8 T cells contributed to the protection, the latter were significantly more effective, suggesting that inhibition of GVHD was not mainly mediated by CD4 regulatory T cells. The lack of donor BM-derived T cells was associated with markedly increased accumulation of DLI-derived alloreactive T cells in parenchymal GVHD target tissues. Thus, donor BM-derived T cells are an important factor in determining the risk of GVHD and therefore, offer a potential therapeutic target for preventing and ameliorating GVHD in the setting of delayed DLI in established mixed chimeras

Joint Association of Dietary Pattern and Physical Activity Level with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors among Chinese Men: A Cross-Sectional Study

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the joint associations of physical activity level (PAL) and dietary patterns in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among Chinese men. The study population consisted of 13 511 Chinese males aged 18–59 years from the 2002 China National Nutrition and Health Survey. Based on dietary data collected by a food frequency questionnaire, four dietary patterns were identified and labeled as “Green Water” (high consumption of rice, vegetables, seafood, pork, and poultry), “Yellow Earth” (high consumption of wheat flour products and starchy tubers), “New Affluent” (high consumption of animal sourced foods and soybean products), and “Western Adopter” (high consumption of animal sourced foods, cakes, and soft drinks). From the information collected by a 1-year physical activity questionnaire, PAL was calculated and classified into 4 categories: sedentary, low active, active, and very active. As compared with their counterparts from the New Affluent pattern, participants who followed the Green Water pattern had a lower likelihood of abdominal obesity (AO; 50.2%), hypertension (HT; 37.9%), hyperglycemia (HG; 41.5%), elevated triglyceride (ETG; 14.5%), low HDL (LHDL; 39.8%), and metabolic syndrome (MS; 51.9%). When compared to sedentary participants, the odds ratio of participants with very active PAL was 0.62 for AO, 0.85 for HT, 0.71 for HG, 0.76 for ETG, 0.74 for LHDL, and 0.58 for MS. Individuals who followed both very active PAL and the Green Water pattern had a lower likelihood of CVD risk factors (AO: 65.8%, HT: 39.1%, HG: 57.4%, ETG: 35.4%, LHDL: 56.1%, and MS: 75.0%), compared to their counterparts who followed both sedentary PAL and the New Affluent pattern. In addition, adherence to both healthy dietary pattern and very active PAL presented a remarkable potential for CVD risk factor prevention

Trellis- and network-coded modulation for decode-and-forward two-way relaying over time-varying channels

We present a bandwidth-efficient joint channel coding-modulation scheme conceived for the broadcast channel (BC) of Decode-and-forward Two-way Relaying (DF-TWR), where Trellis-coded modulation (TCM) is intrinsically amalgamated with network-coded modulation (NCM) for achieving both a channel coding gain and a high throughput. We conceive a low-complexity receiver algorithm for our joint Trellis- and Network-coded modulation (TC-NCM) scheme, which applies decoding and demodulation simultaneously, without the need to first demodulate the signal before decoding, as in the traditional solutions. As a further contribution, the TC-NCM scheme is intrinsically amalgamated with adaptive transceiver techniques. We then further investigate the performance of our near-instantaneously adaptive discrete-rate TC-NC-QAM/PSK scheme. Both simulation results and numerical analysis are presented, which are compared to the performance of traditional NCM schemes. The results show that our scheme not only increases the achievable transmission rate, but also improves the reliability, yet it is of modest complexity

Truncated-ARQ aided adaptive network coding for cooperative two-way relaying networks: cross-layer design and analysis

Network Coding (NC) constitutes a promising technique of improving the throughput of relay-aided networks. In this context, we propose a cross-layer design for both amplifyand- forward (AF-) and decode-and-forward two-way relaying (DF-TWR) based on the NC technique invoked for improving the achievable throughput under specific Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, such as the maximum affordable delay and error rate.We intrinsically amalgamate adaptive Analog Network Coding (ANC) and Network Coded Modulation (NCM) with truncated Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) operating at the different OSI layers. At the data-link layer, we design a pair of improved NC-based ARQ strategies based on the Stop-andwait and the Selective-repeat ARQ protocols. At the physical layer, adaptive ANC/NCM are invoked based on our approximate packet error ratio (PER). We demonstrate that the adaptive ANC design can be readily amalgamated with the proposed protocols. However, adaptive NC-QAM suffers from an SNR-loss, when the transmit rates of the pair of downlink (DL) channels spanning from the relay to the pair of destinations are different. Therefore we develop a novel transmission strategy for jointly selecting the optimal constellation sizes for both of the relay-to-destination links that have to be adapted to both pair of channel conditions. Finally, we analyze the attainable throughput, demonstrating that our truncated ARQ-aided adaptive ANC/NCM schemes attain considerable throughput gains over the schemes dispensing with ARQ, whilst our proposed scheme is capable of supporting bidirectional NC scenarios

Effects of probiotic Bacillus as a substitute for antibiotics on antioxidant capacity and intestinal autophagy of piglets

The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of probiotic Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (Ba) as a substitute for antibiotics on growth performance, antioxidant ability and intestinal autophagy of piglets. Ninety piglets were divided into three groups: G1 (containing 150 mg/Kg aureomycin in the diet); G2 (containing 75 mg/Kg aureomycin and 1 × 10(8) cfu/Kg Ba in the diet); G3 (containing 2 × 10(8) cfu/Kg Ba in the diet without any antibiotics). Each treatment had three replications of ten pigs per pen. Results showed that Ba replacement significantly increased the daily weight gain of piglets. Moreover, improved antioxidant status in serum and jejunum was noted in Ba-fed groups as compared with aureomycin group. Increased gene expression of antioxidant enzymes and elevated nuclear factor erythroid 2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) in jejunum was also observed in Ba-fed groups. Besides, Ba replacement significantly decreased jejunal c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) phosphorylation compared with antibiotic group. Western blotting results also revealed that replacing all antibiotics with Ba initiated autophagy in the jejunum as evidenced by increased microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 II (LC3-II) abundance. Taken together, these results indicate that replacing aureomycin with Ba can improve growth performance and antioxidant status of piglets via increasing antioxidant capacity and intestinal autophagy, suggesting a good potential for Ba as an alternative to antibiotics in feed. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13568-017-0353-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users