When is the ‘optimal’ time for school transition? An insight into provision in the US

Fat deposition is important to carcass value and some palatability characteristics. Carcasses with higher USDA quality grades produce more value for producers and processors in the US system and are more likely to have greater eating satisfaction. Using genomics to identify genes impacting marbling deposition provides insight into muscle biochemistry that may lead to ways to better predict fat deposition, especially marbling and thus quality grade. Hereford steers (16) were managed the same from birth through harvest after 270 days on feed. Samples were obtained for tenderness and transcriptome profiling. As expected, steaks from Choice carcasses had a lower shear force value than steaks from Select carcasses; however, steaks from Standard carcasses were not different from steaks from Choice carcasses. A significant number of differentially expressed (DE) genes was observed in the longissimus lumborum between Choice and Standard carcass RNA pools (1257 genes, p < 0.05), but not many DE genes were observed between Choice and Select RNA pools. Exploratory analysis of global muscle tissue transcriptome from Standard and Choice carcasses provided insight into muscle biochemistry, specifically the upregulation of extracellular matrix development and focal adhesion pathways and the downregulation of RNA processing and metabolism in Choice versus Standard. Additional research is needed to explore the function and timing of gene expression changes.

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Neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2: current understanding, challenge and perspective

Antibody Therapeutics ◽

10.1093/abt/tbaa028 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (4) ◽

pp. 285-299

Author(s):

Yang Huang ◽

Hui Sun ◽

Hai Yu ◽

Shaowei Li ◽

Qingbing Zheng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Neutralizing Antibodies ◽

Therapeutic Potential ◽

Therapeutic Interventions ◽

Viral Escape ◽

Global Burden ◽

Health Crisis ◽

The Us ◽

Preclinical And Clinical Studies ◽

Insight Into ◽

Rapid Emergence

Abstract The rapid emergence of Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) as a pandemic that presents an urgent human health crisis. Many SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) were developed with efficient therapeutic potential. NAbs-based therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 are being expedited to preclinical and clinical studies with two antibody drugs, LY3819253 (LY-CoV555) and REGN-COV2 (REGN10933 and REGN10987), approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization for treating COVID-19. In this review, we provide a systemic overview of SARS-CoV-2 specific or cross-reactive NAbs and discuss their structures, functions and neutralization mechanisms. We provide insight into how these NAbs specific recognize the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 or cross-react to other CoVs. We also summarize the challenges of NAbs therapeutics such as antibody-dependent enhancement and viral escape mutations. Such evidence is urgently needed to the development of antibody therapeutic interventions that are likely required to reduce the global burden of COVID-19.

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A comparative study of RFID adoption patterns in retail

International Journal of RF Technologies ◽

10.3233/rft-200280 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-20

Author(s):

Narges Kasiri ◽

G. Scott Erickson ◽

Gerd Wolfram

Keyword(s):

Comparative Study ◽

Radio Frequency ◽

Radio Frequency Identification ◽

Structural Model ◽

Slow Pace ◽

The Us ◽

Frequency Identification ◽

Insight Into ◽

Current Stage ◽

Over Time

Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been viewed as a promising technology for quite some time. Initially developed a couple of decades ago, the technology has been accompanied by predictions of imminent widespread adoption since its beginnings. A majority of retailers and other users are now using or planning to use the technology. This paper employs a combination of the technology-organization-environment (TOE) model and the 3-S (substitution, scale, structural) model to analyze the long journey of RFID adoption in retail. Top retail executives in the US and Europe were interviewed to investigate RFID adoption patterns based on differences in technological, organizational, and environmental circumstances. As the retail industry is moving into a post-adoption era, these results demonstrate the current stage of retail RFID adoption, identify factors playing important roles over time as motivators or impediments, and provide some insight into the slow pace of adoption.

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Extensive Horizontal Gene Transfer in Cheese-Associated Bacteria

10.1101/079137 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kevin S. Bonham ◽

Benjamin E. Wolfe ◽

Rachel J. Dutton

Keyword(s):

Gene Transfer ◽

Horizontal Gene Transfer ◽

Molecular Mechanisms ◽

Protein Coding ◽

Associated Bacteria ◽

The Us ◽

Selective Forces ◽

Genomic Regions ◽

Microbiome Assembly ◽

Insight Into

AbstractAcquisition of genes through horizontal gene transfer (HGT) allows microbes to rapidly gain new capabilities and adapt to new or changing environments. Identifying widespread HGT regions within multispecies microbiomes can pinpoint the molecular mechanisms that play key roles in microbiome assembly. We sought to identify horizontally transferred genes within a model microbiome, the cheese rind. Comparing 31 newly-sequenced and 134 previously sequenced bacterial isolates from cheese rinds, we identified over 200 putative horizontally transferred genomic regions containing 4,733 protein coding genes. The largest of these regions are enriched for genes involved in siderophore acquisition, and are widely distributed in cheese rinds in both Europe and the US. These results suggest that horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is prevalent in cheese rind microbiomes, and the identification of genes that are frequently transferred in a particular environment may provide insight into the selective forces shaping microbial communities.

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The image of the library through the eyes of immigrant and migrant readers

Journal of Documentation ◽

10.1108/jd-10-2020-0185 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Keren Dali

Keyword(s):

Design Methodology ◽

Immigrant Communities ◽

Content Type ◽

Migrant Communities ◽

Spanish Speaking ◽

Cultural Image ◽

Functional Image ◽

Library Users ◽

The Us ◽

Insight Into

PurposeDrawing on the survey of Spanish-speaking immigrant and migrant readers in Canada and the US, this study pursues three goals: (1) examine the image of the library held by these readers and trace the change of this image after the international migration; (2) use the study findings to revise and update the currently existing typologies of the image of the library; and (3) understand ethical and effective research practices in the studies of immigrant/migrant communities whereby researchers are external to communities in question.Design/methodology/approachThe data about immigrant/migrant readers were collected through a self-administered survey questionnaire that was available both in print and electronically, both in Spanish and English. The data analysis was guided by hermeneutic phenomenology, as explicated in the article. Theoretical examination of the image of the library relied on the earlier typology developed by V. Stelmakh.FindingsThe study elucidates perceptions of libraries and librarians in both North America and countries of origin held by Spanish-speaking immigrant/migrant readers, and highlights changes that occur in the image of the library as readers move across geographic borders. Building on the empirical data, the article develops a new typology of the image of the library. It also offers insight into ethical and effective ways of engaging with immigrant communities that should be upheld by researchers from outside the communities in question.Originality/valueIt is the first known study that systematically traces the changes in the image of the library which occur alongside geographic and sociocultural migrations. It is also the first known study that focuses specifically on readers rather than library users in general. The new typology consists of four different elements – the cultural image; the functional image; the humanistic image; and the ideological image of the library – and is accompanied by detailed definitions of each.

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It’s gotta be the shoes: Nike in the Spike-o-sphere

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474451406.003.0018 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 229-247

Author(s):

Jeff Scheible

Keyword(s):

Black Community ◽

American Culture ◽

Dominant Mode ◽

Police Brutality ◽

Spike Lee ◽

Professional Career ◽

The Us ◽

Insight Into ◽

Distinct Idea ◽

Mode Of Production

This chapter traces the history and significance of Nike shoes within the auteurist mediascape that Spike Lee has cultivated for over three decades. Lee has steadily created his own dynamic, paracinematic universe that both parallels the logic of Hollywood’s dominant mode of production and resists some of its core tenets by retaining at its centre the distinct idea of the auteur—precisely what transmedial storytelling and postmodern textuality are often viewed to have obliterated. The chapter focuses on the beginning of Lee’s professional career in the 1980s and its current moment, noting the strong affinities between these moments both in American culture and in Lee’s work, which are intimately bound up with one another. Examining Lee’s career in this way provides insight into Lee’s engagement with the problem of police brutality and the enduring injustices faced by the black community in the US.

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Clinical and economic strategies in outpatient medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic

Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine ◽

10.1136/rapm-2020-101640 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 45 (8) ◽

pp. 579-585 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

David Anthony Provenzano ◽

B Todd Sitzman ◽

Samuel Ambrose Florentino ◽

Glenn A Buterbaugh

Keyword(s):

Medical Care ◽

Clinical Care ◽

Economic Consequences ◽

Financial Indicators ◽

Medical Practices ◽

Strategic Plans ◽

Economic Strategies ◽

The Us ◽

Insight Into

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant clinical and economic consequences for medical practices of all specialties across the nation. Although the clinical implications are of the utmost importance, the economic consequences have also been serious and resulted in substantial damage to the US healthcare system, including pain practices. Outpatient pain practices have had to significantly change their clinical care pathways, including the incorporation of telemedicine. Elective medical and interventional care has been postponed. For the most part, ambulatory surgical centers have had to cease operations. As patient volumes have decreased for non-emergent elective care, the financial indicators have deteriorated. This review article will provide insight into solutions to mitigate the clinical and economic challenges induced by COVID-19. Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic will have short-term and long-term implications for all medical practices and facilities. In order to survive, medical practices will need dynamic, operational, and creative strategic plans to mitigate the disruption in medical care and pathways for successful reintegration of clinical and surgical practice.

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From Both Sides of the Atlantic: Black German Adoptee Searches in William Gage’s Geborener Deutscher (Born German)

Genealogy ◽

10.3390/genealogy2040040 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (4) ◽

pp. 40

Author(s):

Rosemarie Peña

Keyword(s):

Community Development ◽

Community Support ◽

The United States ◽

Second World War ◽

World War ◽

Small Children ◽

The Us ◽

Post War ◽

Second World ◽

Insight Into

William Gage’s Geborener Deutscher, a print newsletter distributed by traditional mail from the late 1980s until 2003, and the eponymous Internet forum Gage established in 2000 on Yahoo Groups, provide search resources and community support specifically for German born adoptees. The archived newsletters and conversations offer early insight into the search and reunion activities of many who were transnationally adopted to the United States as infants and small children in the wake of the Second World War. Among Gage’s mailing list and Yahoo Group subscribers are members of the post-war cohort of Black German Americans living in Germany and in the US. Gage’s archive provides a unique opportunity to begin to explore Black German adoptee search, reunion, and community development over nearly a two-decade span.

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De-securitization, sexual violence, and the politics of silence

European Journal of Women s Studies ◽

10.1177/1350506819889379 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 219-234

Author(s):

Sabine Hirschauer

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Sexual Violence ◽

Security Studies ◽

World War ◽

Security Issue ◽

State Identity ◽

German State ◽

The Us ◽

Discursive Representations ◽

Insight Into

Drawing on the author’s archival research in Germany and the US, empirical data about US-allied troop sexual violence during post-World War II occupied Germany suggests a complex interplay between gender, security, silence production, and state identity. Through a feminist security studies lens, this article theorizes about an unexplored, obscured form of de-securitization: the unmaking of a security issue or referent object as active silence. De-securitization as silence provides a unique insight into silence production, gender’s normativity, and security. To move beyond de-securitization’s presumed politicization, the argument identifies specific hypervisibilities and new state-self, dominant memory regimes as acts, discursive representations, processes, or incidents of de-securitization – producing and reproducing active silence and facilitating the making of a newly imagined, ‘good’ German state-self.

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Arbitrage hedging in markets for the US lean hogs and the EU live pigs

Agricultural Economics (Zemědělská ekonomika) ◽

10.17221/14/2013-agricecon ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 59 (No. 11) ◽

pp. 505-511

Author(s):

M. Ziegelbäck ◽

G. Kastner

Keyword(s):

Cointegration Analysis ◽

Monetary Benefit ◽

Price Adjustments ◽

Long Run ◽

Economic Interpretation ◽

The Us ◽

Price Differences ◽

The Relationship ◽

Insight Into ◽

The Eu

  The paper describes an attempt to gain insight into the relationship between cash and futures markets for US lean hogs and EU live pigs, and the opportunity of arbitrage hedging. In doing so, the authors use newer methods of threshold cointegration analysis for time series from 1999 until 2008. Besides the existence of a long-run equilibrium, asymmetric price adjustments can be demonstrated. This is especially the case for the EU live pigs, where price variations of the basis are higher and exhibit lower standard deviation. The results also perfectly show that cash prices follow the futures market more than the other way round. Furthermore, a grid search has revealed that the residual-based threshold in either market is near zero and therefore coherent with economic interpretation. Thus, at least theoretically, arbitrageurs in those markets are able to exploit the price differences between the two markets and reap no-risk monetary benefit. Hence, the results are in line with the statement that “speculating the basis” generates a better return.

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