Food trends: Changing consumer behaviours

The food market is changing. Consumers are increasingly transitioning to what market research describes as ‘plant-forward’ or ‘plant-centric’ ways of eating. This article looks at how the prevalence of meat in consumer diets is changing and how parties across the food supply chain are evolving to meet changing consumer demand

Wilde Stein speaks to senate

After a few weeks of problems and debates, the University of Maine Student Government has been relatively quiet. They have begun to grow accustom to their new leaders and members

War Spin: How U.S. Politicians, the President and the Media Frame Foreign Intervention

In this research, I seek to explain how three different foreign policy actors, the President, key Senators, and the media frame intervention policy when determining if intervention is used for human rights versus U.S. interests. I will be looking at four different areas of turmoil (Bosnia (1992-1995), Rwanda (1994), Syria (2011-present) and Iraq (2003-2011)) to see if the Presidents, Senators, and the media framed their intervention around human rights atrocities being committed, or if they framed it around a national security dilemma

Physical validation of predictive acceleration control on a parallel hybrid electric vehicle

2022 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Previous research has been conducted towards the development of predictive control strategies for Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs). These methods have been shown to be effective in reducing fuel consumption in simulation, but no physical validation has been conducted. This is likely due to the fundamental "curses" of dynamic programming mostly the "curse of dimensionality" wherein the run-time needed to generate the optimal solution renders the method unfit as a real-time control. Predictive Acceleration Event (PAE) control combats the run-time issues associated with dynamic programming based control methods by pre-computing the optimal solutions for common Acceleration Events (AEs). This method was physically implemented on a 2019 Toyota Tacoma that was converted into a Parallel-3 (P3) HEV with limited information on the vehicle, including a reduced access to the vehicle's Controller Area Network (CAN) bus. Results from on-track testing indicate a Fuel Economy (FE) improvement in the range of 7% is possible to achieve using PAE control in the real world. To the author's knowledge this is the first time that this type of testing has ever been implemented on a vehicle in the real world

Cocaine Self-Administration: Adaptations to the Glutamatergic System and Consequences for Offspring Emotional Control

Cocaine abuse and relapse remain a major public health concern in the United States and worldwide for which there is currently no approved pharmacotherapeutic intervention. Rodent cocaine self-administration, extinction, and priming-induced reinstatement can be used to model human cocaine seeking. A growing body of evidence indicates that the transport and stabilization of calcium-permeable (CP) AMPA glutamate receptors to synapses in the accumbens, a process involving CaMKII, is associated with the reinstatement of cocaine seeking. Additional evidence indicates that the dorsal striatum contributes to aspects of cocaine addiction. Moreover, relapse to cocaine abuse has been connected to elevated levels of anxiety during withdrawal and anxiolytic agents decrease the latency for animals to self-administer cocaine. A growing body of evidence indicates that environmental information can be inherited. We have previously described a cocaine-resistance phenotype in the offspring of animals that have self-administered cocaine. The enhancement of cocaine\u27s anxiogenic effects may contribute to reduced cocaine self-administration among male cocaine-sired rats. Here, a variety of behavioral, cellular, molecular, and electrophysiological techniques are used to examine how cocaine experience directly affects the glutamatergic system in the dorsal striatum and accumbens, as well as its indirect consequences for drug-naïve offspring. Acute exposure to cocaine in drug naïve rats increased CaMKII-mediated phosphorylation of GluA1-containing AMPA receptors in the DL striatum, an effect that was not observed during cocaine priming-induced reinstatement of drug seeking. The increased phosphorylation of CaMKII and GluA1 following acute cocaine may be a compensatory mechanism in the DL striatum. Accumbens shell CP-AMPAR receptor transmission, mediated through interactions of GluA1-containing AMPARs with accessory protein SAP97, is necessary for cocaine reinstatement. Consideration of GluA1 subunit accessory proteins as potential novel targets for pharmacotherapeutic interventions in cocaine craving and addiction is warranted. Male offspring of cocaine-experienced sires exhibit baseline anxiety-like behaviors that are unaltered by subsequent cocaine exposure and dysregulation of hippocampal cellular and molecular correlates of anxiety. This identifies impairments of male offspring emotional control due to sire cocaine exposure independent of the cocaine-resistance phenotype. Collectively, these findings advance our knowledge of the direct and intergeneration effects of cocaine experience on the brain and behaviors

Integrating Technology into a Management of Human Resources Course

Information Systems has turned the Human Resource field into a sophisticated talent tracking and data-mining arena. Mastering Human Resources Information Systems has been reported as a top in demand skill for human resource employees. Universities are increasingly incorporating real-life Information Systems into their programs to produce graduates that meet industry demands. Using hands-on HRIS exercises is one initiative that could enhance student learning and produce graduates with a leg up in industry. How to integrate HRIS hands-on exercises to ensure students have the opportunity to develop this knowledge? This paper investigates using hands-on HRIS exercises in a Management of Human Resources course to enhance student learning and skills development. Data will be collected using a pre and post survey designed to measure perceived student learning and skill development. Then t-tests will be utilized to determine if differences exist after exposure to the course material and the hands-on exercises

Data Analytics in Human Resources

The Human Resource function has traditionally been viewed as the people centered division of organizations with the use of data mainly restricted to key performance indicators (KPIs) and basic metrics. However, the advent of Big Data and the increased accessibility of data analytic programs has led to an increased need for human resource professionals with data analysis skills. Human Resource departments are now using predictive analytics to improve recruiting, selection, and retention or employees. The majority of organizations see a demand for employees with data analysis skills across all functions, with the human resource division accounting for 54% of projected data analysis positions (SHRM, 2016). Human resource departments are encountering a shortage of HR professionals with at least moderate data analytics skills. The paper provides a review of the literature and provides recommendations for curriculum changes that will address this skill gap