Critiquing the Inter-Disciplinary Literature on Food Fraud

The European Horsemeat Scandal of 2013 is a recent manifestation of the problem of ‘Food fraud’. It is important from a criminological perspective because it exists at the nexus between organized crime and bad business practice and is a contemporary example of criminal-entrepreneurship. From a practical perspective it is a pernicious criminal activity perpetuated by diverse organized-crime-groups, rogue-entrepreneurs and food-industry-insiders. It is a white-collar-crime committed in the commercial arena, across an extended international food-chain. Geographic and policy boundaries make it difficult to police. Although a high level of awareness of the fraud exists globally, there is a dearth of critical academic research into the phenomenon. The extant literature is spread thinly across various disciplinary silos. This essay by two Business School Scholars and a Food Scientist, discusses the need to develop a more critical, inter-disciplinary approach to developing appropriate theoretical frameworks

Amphioxus encodes the largest known family of green fluorescent proteins, which have diversified into distinct functional classes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Green fluorescent protein (GFP) has been found in a wide range of Cnidaria, a basal group of metazoans in which it is associated with pigmentation, fluorescence, and light absorbance. A GFP has been recently discovered in the pigmentless chordate <it>Branchiostoma floridae </it>(amphioxus) that shows intense fluorescence mainly in the head region.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The amphioxus genome encodes 16 closely-related GFP-like proteins, all of which appear to be under purifying selection. We divide them into 6 clades based on protein sequence identity and show that representatives of each clade have significant differences in fluorescence intensity, extinction coefficients, and absorption profiles. Furthermore, GFPs from two clades exhibit antioxidant capacity. We therefore propose that amphioxus GFPs have diversified their functions into fluorescence, redox, and perhaps just light absorption in relation to pigmentation and/or photoprotection.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The rapid radiation of amphioxus GFP into clades with distinct functions and spectral properties reveals functional plasticity of the GFP core. The high sequence similarities between different clades provide a model system to map sequence variation to functional changes, to better understand and engineer GFP.</p

A Web-based orientation package for Co-operative Education students at College of the North Atlantic

The dissemination of information to students in today's post-secondary education system is important, yet is becoming an increasing challenge for institutions. Due to various factors, such as increases in student intake in various Co-operative Education programs at the College of the North Atlantic and reduction in staff as a result of budget cuts, the opportunities for the Co-operative Education office staff and the College's faculty to meet regularly with these large numbers of students to discuss various employment related issues have somewhat diminished. In particular, they were unable to address areas, such as employability skills, academic regulations, and resume writing and interviewing skills, in which students have traditionally experienced problems. This shortfall was the genesis for an interactive web-based orientation package that is the focus of this project report. -- The design and development of this package utilized two methodologies, namely the systems development life cycle and the design and development of interactive hypermedia systems. The systems development life cycle has three phases, namely systems analysis, detailed analysis and design, and implementation. The design and development of interactive hypermedia includes the determination of the structure, presentation, and content of a web page. -- During the first phase of the systems development life cycle, the systems analysis phase, the selection of the type of information that was to be included in the package occurred. During this activity, the Supervising Coordinator in the Co-operative Education office was the main resource utilized. After the initial required information was collected in the first phase, the detailed analysis and design phase was completed. Within this phase, the prototyping methodology was utilized, during which the web site was incrementally developed. This methodology allows a developer to start with a skeletal model of the web page that can be modified through various iterations. After each iteration, the clients were shown the most recent version of the web site, and were asked if they were satisfied with it or if they required improvements. This process continued until the clients were satisfied with the range, accuracy, and appropriateness of the content. The implementation phase, which is the last one in the systems development life cycle, took the package in its final form and made it accessible from the College's Cooperative Education web page. The final form of the orientation package contained sections on student information, prospective student information, employer information, academic regulations, frequently asked questions, and employability skills. -- From an interactive hypermedia systems perspective, there are three different elements that must be considered when designing a hypermedia product: structure, presentation and content. Structure refers to how the information is structured for optimal navigation and access. Presentation refers to how the information will appear to the user. This might include the use of graphics, audio/video, and interactive forms. The content is the most important part of any web page because it disseminates the required and relevant information. All of these elements were determined with the assistance of the Cooperative Education Coordinators. -- However, it should be noted that this package was primarily intended for student use. Therefore, it was incumbent on the designer to perform a field test which allowed randomly selected students to navigate around the web site and peruse the information it contained. Also, a questionnaire and interview process was conducted in which the students were asked to rate the web site on factors such as the overall appearance of the product, the usefulness of the product information, and the understanding of the product information. Based on the overwhelmingly positive results from these processes, no changes were considered necessary to the package. -- With the success of this endeavour, it is recommended that the use of the Internet for this type of student service opportunity be further investigated by colleges and universities. Such projects as this must be relevant and accessible, as well as appealing to the intended audience. It is also recommended that information on the various web pages be written at a level that the average student can understand

‘Using Script and textual analysis and close readings of media reports to analyse ‘So-called Food-Fraud Scandals’’

In the last four decades, the food industry in the United Kingdom has been subject to a considerable number of so-called “food-fraud scandals.” In order to better understand how to investigate and theorise these ‘scandal’ incidents in context (comprising signals-modus operandi-multiple emergent narratives), the original research recognised and critiqued how scandal incidents were framed. Eight food related incidents were scrutinised using a case study approach from published, open access evidence. A framework of incidents was developed across the stages, within and of, the modus operandi, and also to visualise how the incident itself was framed by being termed a scandal. This methodological case study addresses some of the strengths, but also the constraints and practical challenges, of the methodological approach and the methods employed within the research. The advantages and disadvantages of iterative case study research are critiqued. This case study is of value to researchers undertaking iterative, interpretivist, pragmatic studies and to help them to understand the influence and potential bias associated with their positionality

Short Promoters in Viral Vectors Drive Selective Expression in Mammalian Inhibitory Neurons, but do not Restrict Activity to Specific Inhibitory Cell-Types

Short cell-type specific promoter sequences are important for targeted gene therapy and studies of brain circuitry. We report on the ability of short promoter sequences to drive fluorescent protein expression in specific types of mammalian cortical inhibitory neurons using adeno-associated virus (AAV) and lentivirus (LV) vectors. We tested many gene regulatory sequences derived from fugu (Takifugu rubripes), mouse, human, and synthetic composite regulatory elements. All fugu compact promoters expressed in mouse cortex, with only the somatostatin (SST) and the neuropeptide Y (NPY) promoters largely restricting expression to GABAergic neurons. However these promoters did not control expression in inhibitory cells in a subtype specific manner. We also tested mammalian promoter sequences derived from genes putatively coexpressed or coregulated within three major inhibitory interneuron classes (PV, SST, VIP). In contrast to the fugu promoters, many of the mammalian sequences failed to express, and only the promoter from gene A930038C07Rik conferred restricted expression, although as in the case of the fugu sequences, this too was not inhibitory neuron subtype specific. Lastly and more promisingly, a synthetic sequence consisting of a composite regulatory element assembled with PAX6 E1.1 binding sites, NRSE and a minimal CMV promoter showed markedly restricted expression to a small subset of mostly inhibitory neurons, but whose commonalities are unknown

How the vertebrates were made: selective pruning of a double-duplicated genome

Vertebrates are the result of an ancient double duplication of the genome. A new study published in BMC Biology explores the selective retention of genes after this event, finding an extensive enrichment of signaling proteins and transcription factors. Analysis of their expression patterns, interactions and subsequent history reflect the forces that drove their evolution, and with it the evolution of vertebrate complexity

Evolution of the Chalcone Isomerase Fold from Fatty Acid-Binding to Stereospecific Enzyme

Specialized metabolic enzymes biosynthesize chemicals of ecological importance, often sharing a pedigree with primary metabolic enzymes1. However, the lineage of the enzyme chalcone isomerase (CHI) remained a quandary. In vascular plants, CHI-catalyzed conversion of chalcones to chiral (S)-flavanones is a committed step in the production of plant flavonoids, compounds that contribute to attraction, defense2, and development3. CHI operates near the diffusion limit with stereospecific control4,5. While associated primarily with plants, the CHI-fold occurs in several other eukaryotic lineages and in some bacteria. Here we report crystal structures, ligand-binding properties, and in vivo functional characterization of a non-catalytic CHI-fold family from plants. A. thaliana contains five actively transcribed CHI-fold genes, three of which additionally encode amino-terminal chloroplast-transit sequences (cTP). These three CHI-fold proteins localize to plastids, the site of de novo fatty acid (FA) biosynthesis in plant cells. Furthermore, their expression profiles correlate with those of core FA biosynthetic enzymes, with maximal expression occurring in seeds and coinciding with increased FA storage in the developing embryo. In vitro, these proteins are Fatty Acid-binding Proteins (FAP). FAP knockout A. thaliana plants exhibit elevated alpha-linolenic acid levels and marked reproductive defects, including aberrant seed formation. Notably, the FAP discovery defines the adaptive evolution of a stereospecific and catalytically ‘perfected’ enzyme6 from a non-enzymatic ancestor over a defined period of plant evolution

Bumetanide Enhances Phenobarbital Efficacy in a Rat Model of Hypoxic Neonatal Seizures

Neonatal seizures can be refractory to conventional anticonvulsants, and this may in part be due to a developmental increase in expression of the neuronal Na+-K+-2 Cl− cotransporter, NKCC1, and consequent paradoxical excitatory actions of GABAA receptors in the perinatal period. The most common cause of neonatal seizures is hypoxic encephalopathy, and here we show in an established model of neonatal hypoxia-induced seizures that the NKCC1 inhibitor, bumetanide, in combination with phenobarbital is significantly more effective than phenobarbital alone. A sensitive mass spectrometry assay revealed that bumetanide concentrations in serum and brain were dose-dependent, and the expression of NKCC1 protein transiently increased in cortex and hippocampus after hypoxic seizures. Importantly, the low doses of phenobarbital and bumetanide used in the study did not increase constitutive apoptosis, alone or in combination. Perforated patch clamp recordings from ex vivo hippocampal slices removed following seizures revealed that phenobarbital and bumetanide largely reversed seizure-induced changes in EGABA. Taken together, these data provide preclinical support for clinical trials of bumetanide in human neonates at risk for hypoxic encephalopathy and seizures