Let\u27s Get Real: Problematizing the Use of the Real Food Calculator in Large-Scale Food Systems and Exploring Alternatives

Food is an essential part of the human existence, because of both nutritional necessity and cultural relevance. Recently, food systems have shifted from their historically local scale to an industrial, global market. In light of shifting consumer consciousness and subsequent demands, there has been an ongoing effort on the part of universities across the United States to make campus food systems more sustainable and just. In 2014, the California State University enacted a system-wide goal of spending 20 percent of campus food procurement budgets on sustainable food by 2020 as per the guiding principles of the Real Food Challenge. This research sought to examine the implementation of this policy at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and qualitative research findings reveal that the campus is struggling due to a lack of ownership, oversight, transparency, and education. Nonetheless, quantitative research findings demonstrate the Cal Poly community’s interest in making campus food procurement more sustainable. Thus, the use of the Real Food Calculator is problematized within the context of large-scale food systems. Comparative case studies are used to explore alternatives and to make suggestions for improvement moving forward

USING DATA MINING TO DETECT ANOMALOUS PRODUCER BEHAVIOR: AN ANALYSIS OF SOYBEAN PRODUCTION AND THE FEDERAL CROP INSURANCE PROGRAM

The analysis was conducted on the USDA's Risk Management Agency insurance data and NRCS Land Resource Regions from 1994 - 2001 to assist RMA in improving program integrity. The objective is to develop a data-mining algorithm that identifies anomalous producers and counties within LRRs based upon the percentage of acres harvested.Risk and Uncertainty,

In Vivo Bio-imaging Using Chlorotoxin-based Conjugates.

Surgical resection remains the primary component of cancer therapy. The precision required to successfully separate cancer tissue from normal tissue relies heavily on the surgeon's ability to delineate the tumor margins. Despite recent advances in surgical guidance and monitoring systems, intra-operative identification of these margins remains imprecise and directly influences patient prognosis. If the surgeon had improved tools to distinguish these margins, tumor progression and unacceptable morbidity could be avoided. In this article, we review the history of chlorotoxin and its tumor specificity and discuss the research currently being generated to target optical imaging agents to cancer tissue

The topology of connections between rat prefrontal, motor and sensory cortices

The connections of prefrontal cortex (PFC) were investigated in the rat brain to determine the order and location of input and output connections to motor and somatosensory cortex. Retrograde (100 nl Fluoro-Gold) and anterograde (100 nl Biotinylated Dextran Amines, BDA; Fluorescein and Texas Red) neuronanatomical tracers were injected into the subdivisions of the PFC (prelimbic, ventral orbital, ventrolateral orbital, dorsolateral orbital) and their projections studied. We found clear evidence for organized input projections from the motor and somatosensory cortices to the PFC, with distinct areas of motor and cingulate cortex projecting in an ordered arrangement to the subdivisions of PFC. As injection location of retrograde tracer was moved from medial to lateral in PFC, we observed an ordered arrangement of projections occurring in sensory-motor cortex. There was a significant effect of retrograde injection location on the position of labelled cells occurring in sensory-motor cortex (dorsoventral, anterior-posterior and mediolateral axes p < 0.001). The arrangement of output projections from PFC also displayed a significant ordered projection to sensory-motor cortex (dorsoventral p < 0.001, anterior-posterior p = 0.002 and mediolateral axes p < 0.001)

Rapid Pharmacokinetic and Biodistribution Studies Using Cholorotoxin-Conjugated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles: A Novel Non-Radioactive Method

Recent advances in nanotechnology have led to the development of biocompatible nanoparticles for in vivo molecular imaging and targeted therapy. Many nanoparticles have undesirable tissue distribution or unacceptably low serum half-lives. Pharmacokinetic (PK) and biodistribution studies can help inform decisions determining particle size, coatings, or other features early in nanoparticle development. Unfortunately, these studies are rarely done in a timely fashion because many nanotechnology labs lack the resources and expertise to synthesize radioactive nanoparticles and evaluate them in mice.To address this problem, we developed an economical, radioactivity-free method for assessing serum half-life and tissue distribution of nanoparticles in mice. Iron oxide nanoparticles coated with chitosan and polyethylene glycol that utilize chlorotoxin as a targeting molecule have a serum half-life of 7-8 hours and the particles remain stable for extended periods of time in physiologic fluids and in vivo. Nanoparticles preferentially distribute to spleen and liver, presumably due to reticuloendothelial uptake. Other organs have very low levels of nanoparticles, which is ideal for imaging most cancers in the future. No acute toxicity was attributed to the nanoparticles.We report here a simple near-infrared fluorescence based methodology to assess PK properties of nanoparticles in order to integrate pharmacokinetic data into early nanoparticle design and synthesis. The nanoparticles tested demonstrate properties that are excellent for future clinical imaging strategies and potentially suitable for targeted therapy

Thermal and electrical conductivity of iron at Earth's core conditions

The Earth acts as a gigantic heat engine driven by decay of radiogenic isotopes and slow cooling, which gives rise to plate tectonics, volcanoes, and mountain building. Another key product is the geomagnetic field, generated in the liquid iron core by a dynamo running on heat released by cooling and freezing to grow the solid inner core, and on chemical convection due to light elements expelled from the liquid on freezing. The power supplied to the geodynamo, measured by the heat-flux across the core-mantle boundary (CMB), places constraints on Earth's evolution. Estimates of CMB heat-flux depend on properties of iron mixtures under the extreme pressure and temperature conditions in the core, most critically on the thermal and electrical conductivities. These quantities remain poorly known because of inherent difficulties in experimentation and theory. Here we use density functional theory to compute these conductivities in liquid iron mixtures at core conditions from first principles- the first directly computed values that do not rely on estimates based on extrapolations. The mixtures of Fe, O, S, and Si are taken from earlier work and fit the seismologically-determined core density and inner-core boundary density jump. We find both conductivities to be 2-3 times higher than estimates in current use. The changes are so large that core thermal histories and power requirements must be reassessed. New estimates of adiabatic heat-flux give 15-16 TW at the CMB, higher than present estimates of CMB heat-flux based on mantle convection; the top of the core must be thermally stratified and any convection in the upper core driven by chemical convection against the adverse thermal buoyancy or lateral variations in CMB heat flow. Power for the geodynamo is greatly restricted and future models of mantle evolution must incorporate a high CMB heat-flux and explain recent formation of the inner core.Comment: 11 pages including supplementary information, two figures. Scheduled to appear in Nature, April 201

On the influence of a translating inner core in models of outer core convection

It has recently been proposed that the hemispheric seismic structure of the inner core can be explained by a self-sustained rigid-body translation of the inner core material, resulting in melting of the solid at the leading face and a compensating crystallisation at the trailing face. This process induces a hemispherical variation in the release of light elements and latent heat at the inner-core boundary, the two main sources of thermochemical buoyancy thought to drive convection in the outer core. However, the effect of a translating inner core on outer core convection is presently unknown. In this paper we model convection in the outer core with a nonmagnetic Boussinesq fluid in a rotating spherical shell driven by purely thermal buoyancy, incorporating the effect of a translating inner core by a time-independent spherical harmonic degree and order 1 (View the MathML sourceY11) pattern of heat-flux imposed at the inner boundary. The analysis considers Rayleigh numbers up to 10 times the critical value for onset of nonmagnetic convection, a parameter regime where the effects of the inhomogeneous boundary condition are expected to be most pronounced, and focuses on varying q∗q∗, the amplitude of the imposed boundary anomalies. The presence of inner boundary anomalies significantly affects the behaviour of the model system. Increasing q∗q∗ leads to flow patterns dominated by azimuthal jets that span large regions of the shell where radial motion is significantly inhibited. Vigorous convection becomes increasingly confined to isolated regions as q∗q∗ increases; these regions do not drift and always occur in the hemisphere subjected to a higher than average boundary heat-flux. Effects of the inner boundary anomalies are visible at the outer boundary in all inhomogeneous models considered. At low q∗q∗ the expression of inner boundary effects at the core surface is a difference in the flow speed between the two hemispheres. As q∗q∗ increases the spiralling azimuthal jets driven from the inner boundary are clearly visible at the outer boundary. Finally, our results suggest that, when the system is heated from below, a View the MathML sourceY11 heat-flux pattern imposed on the inner boundary has a greater overall influence on the spatio-temporal behaviour of the flow than the same pattern imposed at the outer boundary

Methods for Assessing Child and Family Outcomes in Early Childhood Special Education Programs

Although many concerns have been raised about methods of assessing outcomes in early childhood special education programs, professionals in the field are nevertheless faced with the need to select appropriate instruments for evaluating child and family outcomes as the result of intervention. A conference to address the current assessment needs of professionals was convened. This paper summarizes this conference, in which five prominent individuals in the field of early childhood special education gave specific recommendations for one child and one family outcome measure which would be applicable to a range of handicapped children between birth and age 5 being served in typical early intervention programs.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68510/2/10.1177_027112148600600202.pd

Evidence that breast cancer risk at the 2q35 locus is mediated through IGFBP5 regulation.

GWAS have identified a breast cancer susceptibility locus on 2q35. Here we report the fine mapping of this locus using data from 101,943 subjects from 50 case-control studies. We genotype 276 SNPs using the 'iCOGS' genotyping array and impute genotypes for a further 1,284 using 1000 Genomes Project data. All but two, strongly correlated SNPs (rs4442975 G/T and rs6721996 G/A) are excluded as candidate causal variants at odds against &gt;100:1. The best functional candidate, rs4442975, is associated with oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) disease with an odds ratio (OR) in Europeans of 0.85 (95% confidence interval=0.84-0.87; P=1.7 × 10(-43)) per t-allele. This SNP flanks a transcriptional enhancer that physically interacts with the promoter of IGFBP5 (encoding insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 5) and displays allele-specific gene expression, FOXA1 binding and chromatin looping. Evidence suggests that the g-allele confers increased breast cancer susceptibility through relative downregulation of IGFBP5, a gene with known roles in breast cell biology

Fine-mapping of the HNF1B multicancer locus identifies candidate variants that mediate endometrial cancer risk.

Common variants in the hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 homeobox B (HNF1B) gene are associated with the risk of Type II diabetes and multiple cancers. Evidence to date indicates that cancer risk may be mediated via genetic or epigenetic effects on HNF1B gene expression. We previously found single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the HNF1B locus to be associated with endometrial cancer, and now report extensive fine-mapping and in silico and laboratory analyses of this locus. Analysis of 1184 genotyped and imputed SNPs in 6608 Caucasian cases and 37 925 controls, and 895 Asian cases and 1968 controls, revealed the best signal of association for SNP rs11263763 (P = 8.4 × 10(-14), odds ratio = 0.86, 95% confidence interval = 0.82-0.89), located within HNF1B intron 1. Haplotype analysis and conditional analyses provide no evidence of further independent endometrial cancer risk variants at this locus. SNP rs11263763 genotype was associated with HNF1B mRNA expression but not with HNF1B methylation in endometrial tumor samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Genetic analyses prioritized rs11263763 and four other SNPs in high-to-moderate linkage disequilibrium as the most likely causal SNPs. Three of these SNPs map to the extended HNF1B promoter based on chromatin marks extending from the minimal promoter region. Reporter assays demonstrated that this extended region reduces activity in combination with the minimal HNF1B promoter, and that the minor alleles of rs11263763 or rs8064454 are associated with decreased HNF1B promoter activity. Our findings provide evidence for a single signal associated with endometrial cancer risk at the HNF1B locus, and that risk is likely mediated via altered HNF1B gene expression