Community engagement in seafood identification using DNA barcoding reveals market substitution in Canadian seafood

DNA Barcodes ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Madelaine Naaum ◽  
Robert Hanner

AbstractSeafood authenticity is a global concern. As seafood consumption increases, so does public awareness of the associated nutritional and environmental issues related to seafood mislabeling. Cases of substitution continue to be observed, even after the adoption of DNA barcoding as a regulatory tool by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States in 2011. Although media coverage of these cases has highlighted the incidence of fraud in Canada, more in-depth engagement of the public is lacking. By partnering with community members to conduct research, knowledge about the incidence and impact of seafood mislabeling can be directly communicated to consumers. In this study high school students and educators participated in a market survey using DNA barcoding to identify seafood. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency Fish List was used to determine if mislabeling had occurred. Twenty-three percent of samples surveyed were mislabeled, suggesting that the incidence of retail seafood mislabeling continues to be significant in Canada. Continued involvement of the public in market surveys will help to monitor trends in seafood mislabeling, and may help to increase awareness of potential seafood fraud.

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. Grusky ◽  
Emily Ryo

We test the popular claim that poverty and inequality were “dirty little secrets” until the media coverage of Hurricane Katrina exposed them to a wider public. If this account were on the mark, it would suggest that the absence of major antipoverty initiatives in the United States is partly attributable to public ignorance and apathy coupled with the narrowly rational decision on the part of policymakers to attend to other issues about which the public evidently cares more. Using the 2004 Maxwell Poll, we find strikingly high levels of awareness and activism on poverty and inequality issues even prior to Katrina, clearly belying the “dirty little secret” account. The follow-up Maxwell Poll, which was administered in 2005 immediately after Katrina, revealed only a slight increase in public awareness of poverty and inequality. The Katrina effect was evidently dampened because (1) the large number of preexisting poverty activists reduced the size of the residual population “at risk” for conversion to antipoverty activism, and (2) the remaining non-activists were ardently opposed to poverty activism and hence unlikely to be receptive to the liberal message coming out of Katrina.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanmaire Molina ◽  
Chhoti Sherpa ◽  
Joyee Ng ◽  
Tenzin Sonam ◽  
Nicole Stuhr

AbstractHerbal medicinal products (HMPs) have grown increasingly popular in the United States, many of them with imported raw materials and sold online. Yet due to the lack of regulation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), manufacturers of the products can substitute or add in other herbs that are not advertised on the label. In this study, as part of the Urban Barcode Research Program (UBRP), an education initiative to engage New York City high school students in science, we aimed to taxonomically authenticate single-ingredient online-sold HMPs containing non-native plants through DNA barcoding of the internal transcribed spacer 2 region (ITS2) and matK. We were able to successfully barcode 20 HMPs, but four of these did not match the expected species. It was concluded that the four HMPs advertising astragalus, epazote, ginseng, and chanca piedra were contaminated/ substituted because their ITS2 and matK DNA sequences did not match the expected taxonomy in GenBank, a government database. Our study highlights the importance of herbal pharmacovigilance in the absence of strict government regulation of herbal supplements and motivates crowd-sourced DNA barcoding to enable American consumers make informed choices and be more empowered to safeguard their health.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-49
Author(s):  
James E Johnson ◽  
Allison K Manwell ◽  
Beau F Scott

Interscholastic football has the highest participation rates among high school students in the United States.  The popularity and nostalgic connection of football is widespread, but competitive balance is often challenged due to differing characteristics of high schools.  This study utilized the theory of distributive justice and data from high school athletic associations in all 50 states and District of Columbia to consider which variables (public/private status, school population, rural/urban location, geographical region, and policies) may impact competitive balance at the state-championship level of interscholastic football.  The results confirmed that traditionally strong private schools generally located in the Midwest and Northeast win state titles at disproportionately high rates.  No other variable was as powerful or significant as the public/private variable.  The findings of the study also challenged the effectiveness of existing policies designed to curb private school success.  These results can serve pragmatic efforts to ensure competitive balance within interscholastic football.  


Author(s):  
Jafar Shabani ◽  
Najmh Sargolzaii

Introduction: The prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing at an alarming rate. They both have two-way communication with one's emotional stresses and psychological distresses. Methods: This research is a descriptive-correlation study. The sample size included 370 female high school students in Gonbad, Galikesh, Azadshahr, and Kalaleh, in the east of Golestan province (Iran) in 2018. To select the participants, 370 students with a body mass index (BMI) between 25 and 29.9 kg/m² were selected as samples, and the EQ questionnaire was handed out.. Pearson's correlation coefficient and  linear regression analyses were also employed in this study. The collected data were analyzed by    SPSS 22. Results: The results demonstrated that there is a direct, yet inverse relationship between students’ total EQ (-.465, p< 0.01), intrapersonal (-.421, p< 0.01), interpersonal (-.325, p< 0.01), adaptability (-.391, p< 0.01), stress management (-.401, p< 0.01), general mood (-.383, p< 0.01), and their overweight. however, it suggests that the higher the EQ and its subscales scores among the students increase, the less weight they own, and vice versa. Conclusion: The results of this research may not only open a new window to assist in achieving successful nutritional diet programs, providing people, but it also can pave the way for further research conducted by experts in nutrition, medicine, and psychology. The findings of this study will enhance social public awareness of the side- effects of overweight, equipping the public with some counseling to lose weight through using EQ for students suffering overweight.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-142
Author(s):  
Stephanie Couch ◽  
Audra Skukauskaite ◽  
Leigh B. Estabrooks

The lack of diversity among patent holders in the United States (1-3) is a topic that is being discussed by federal policymakers. Available data suggests that prolific patent holders and leading technology innovators are 88.3% male and nearly 94.3% Asian, Pacific Islander, or White, and half of the diversity that does exist is among those who are foreign born (3). The data shows that there is a need for greater diversity among patent holders. Few studies, however, are available to guide the work of educators creating learning opportunities to help young people from diverse backgrounds learn to invent. Educators must navigate issues that have complex sociocultural and historical dimensions (4), which shape the ideas of those surrounding them regarding who can invent, with whom, under what conditions, and for what purposes. In this paper, we report the results of an ongoing multimethod study of an invention education pro- gram that has worked with teachers and students in Grades 6 through 12 for the past 16 years. Findings stem from an analysis of end-of-year experience surveys and interview transcripts of six students (three young men and three young women) who participated in high school InvenTeams®. The data were used to investigate three topics: 1) ways high school students who have participated on an InvenTeam conceptualize the term "failure" and what it means to "learn from failure," 2) what supported and constrained the work of the three young women during their InvenTeams experience and the implications for policy makers concerned about the gender gap in patenting, and 3) ways the young men and young women took up (or didn't take up) the identity of "inventor" after working on a team that developed a working prototype of an invention during the previous school year.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089590482110199
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Freeman ◽  
Michael A. Gottfried ◽  
Jay Stratte Plasman

Recent educational policies in the United States have fostered the growth of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career-focused courses to support high school students’ persistence into these fields in college and beyond. As one key example, federal legislation has embedded new types of “applied STEM” (AS) courses into the career and technical education curriculum (CTE), which can help students persist in STEM through high school and college. Yet, little is known about the link between AS-CTE coursetaking and college STEM persistence for students with learning disabilities (LDs). Using a nationally representative data set, we found no evidence that earning more units of AS-CTE in high school influenced college enrollment patterns or major selection in non-AS STEM fields for students with LDs. That said, students with LDs who earned more units of AS-CTE in high school were more likely to seriously consider and ultimately declare AS-related STEM majors in college.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 797-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianne Suldovsky ◽  
Asheley Landrum ◽  
Natalie Jomini Stroud

In an era where expertise is increasingly critiqued, this study draws from the research on expertise and scientist stereotyping to explore who the public considers to be a scientist in the context of media coverage about climate change and genetically modified organisms. Using survey data from the United States, we find that political ideology and science knowledge affect who the US public believes is a scientist in these domains. Our results suggest important differences in the role of science media attention and science media selection in the publics “scientist” labeling. In addition, we replicate previous work and find that compared to other people who work in science, those with PhDs in Biology and Chemistry are most commonly seen as scientists.


2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-168
Author(s):  
Desmond Ang

Abstract Nearly 1,000 officer-involved killings occur each year in the United States. This article documents the large, racially disparate effects of these events on the educational and psychological well-being of Los Angeles public high school students. Exploiting hyperlocal variation in how close students live to a killing, I find that exposure to police violence leads to persistent decreases in GPA, increased incidence of emotional disturbance, and lower rates of high school completion and college enrollment. These effects are driven entirely by black and Hispanic students in response to police killings of other minorities and are largest for incidents involving unarmed individuals.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 862-868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly A. Williams ◽  
Chad T. Miller ◽  
Ward Upham

In recent years, many horticulture departments around the United States have been concerned with recruiting and retaining an adequate number of students. One potential recruitment opportunity is the horticulture Future Farmers of America (FFA) Career Development Events (CDEs). For the time period of 1999 to 2012 (14 years), 1462 students participated in the annual state-level horticulture contests, comprising floriculture and nursery/landscape CDEs, held at Kansas State University (KSU). Using the rosters from these two CDEs, we referenced the university’s student information database to determine whether the high school students who participated as FFA horticulture CDE contestants ultimately matriculated to KSU. Fifty-two percent of former FFA horticulture CDE participants were accepted to KSU and 32% matriculated. Of these, 58% enrolled in the College of Agriculture and 19% majored in horticulture. Therefore, 3.5% of total horticulture CDE participants majored in horticulture at KSU. Students who participated in more than one horticulture CDE over time were more likely to major in horticulture at KSU compared with students who competed only once. Thirty-nine percent of students who participated in both horticulture CDEs pursued a baccalaureate program in horticulture. These two student characteristics could be used as indicator data points to target recruitment of future horticulture students. Data about the high school programs that generated contest participants were also summarized. Exceling in the CDE contests was not an indicator CDE participants would pursue a baccalaureate degree in horticulture. These analyses suggest FFA CDEs have some potential to optimize student recruitment efforts.


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