Purpose
The need to assess the sustainability attributes of the United States beef industry is underscored by its importance to food security locally and globally. A life cycle assessment (LCA) of ...the US beef value chain was conducted to develop baseline information on the environmental impacts of the industry includ`ing metrics of the cradle-to-farm gate (feed production, cow-calf, and feedlot operations) and post-farm gate (packing, case-ready, retail, restaurant, and consumer) segments.
Methods
Cattle production (cradle-to-farm gate) data were obtained using the integrated farm system model (IFSM) supported with production data from the Roman L. Hruska US Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC). Primary data for the packing and case-ready phases were obtained from packers that jointly processed nearly 60% of US beef while retail and restaurant primary data represented 8 and 6%, respectively, of each sector. Consumer data were obtained from public databases and literature. The functional unit or consumer benefit (CB) was 1 kg of consumed, boneless, edible beef. The relative environmental impacts of processes along the full beef value chain were assessed using a third party validated BASF Corporation Eco-Efficiency Analysis methodology.
Results and discussion
Value chain LCA results indicated that the feed and cattle production phases were the largest contributors to most environmental impact categories. Impact metrics included water emissions (7005 L diluted water eq/CB), cumulative energy demand (1110 MJ/CB), and land use (47.4 m
2
a eq/CB). Air emissions were acidification potential (726 g SO
2
eq/CB), photochemical ozone creation potential (146.5 g C
2
H
4
eq/CB), global warming potential (48.4 kg CO
2
eq/CB), and ozone depletion potential (1686 μg CFC
11
eq/CB). The remaining metrics calculated were abiotic depletion potential (10.3 mg Ag eq/CB), consumptive water use (2558 L eq/CB), and solid waste (369 g municipal waste eq/CB). Of the relative points adding up to 1 for each impact category, the feed phase contributed 0.93 to the human toxicity potential.
Conclusions
This LCA is the first of its kind for beef and has been third party verified in accordance with ISO 14040:
2006a
and 14044:
2006b
and 14045:
2012
standards. An expanded nationwide study of beef cattle production is now being performed with region-specific cattle production data aimed at identifying region-level benchmarks and opportunities for further improvement in US beef sustainability.
A diverse research workforce is essential for catalyzing biomedical advancements, but this workforce goal is hindered by persistent sex and racial/ethnic disparities among investigators receiving ...research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In response, the NIH-funded National Research Mentoring Network implemented a Grant Writing Coaching Program (GCP) to provide diverse cohorts of early-career investigators across the United States with intensive coaching throughout the proposal development process. We evaluated the GCP's national reach and short-term impact on participants' proposal submissions and funding outcomes.
The GCP was delivered as six similar but distinct models. All models began with an in-person group session, followed by a series of coaching sessions over 4 to 12 months. Participants were surveyed at 6-, 12- and 18-months after program completion to assess proposal outcomes (submissions, awards). Self-reported data were verified and supplemented by searches of public repositories of awarded grants when available. Submission and award rates were derived from counts of participants who submitted or were awarded at least one grant proposal in a category (NIH, other federal, non-federal).
From June 2015 through March 2019, 545 investigators (67% female, 61% under-represented racial/ethnic minority, URM) from 187 different institutions participated in the GCP. Among them, 324 (59% of participants) submitted at least one grant application and 134 (41% of submitters) received funding. A total of 164 grants were awarded, the majority being from the NIH (93, 56%). Of the 74 R01 (or similar) NIH research proposals submitted by GCP participants, 16 have been funded thus far (56% to URM, 75% to women). This 22% award rate exceeded the 2016-2018 NIH success rates for new R01s.
Inter- and intra-institutional grant writing coaching groups are a feasible and effective approach to supporting the grant acquisition efforts of early-career biomedical investigators, including women and those from URM groups.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Effective mentorship is critical to the success of early stage investigators, and has been linked to enhanced mentee productivity, self-efficacy, and career satisfaction. The mission of the National ...Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) is to provide all trainees across the biomedical, behavioral, clinical, and social sciences with evidence-based mentorship and professional development programming that emphasizes the benefits and challenges of diversity, inclusivity, and culture within mentoring relationships, and more broadly the research workforce. The purpose of this paper is to describe the structure and activities of NRMN.
NRMN serves as a national training hub for mentors and mentees striving to improve their relationships by better aligning expectations, promoting professional development, maintaining effective communication, addressing equity and inclusion, assessing understanding, fostering independence, and cultivating ethical behavior. Training is offered in-person at institutions, regional training, or national meetings, as well as via synchronous and asynchronous platforms; the growing training demand is being met by a cadre of NRMN Master Facilitators. NRMN offers career stage-focused coaching models for grant writing, and other professional development programs. NRMN partners with diverse stakeholders from the NIH-sponsored Diversity Program Consortium (DPC), as well as organizations outside the DPC to work synergistically towards common diversity goals. NRMN offers a virtual portal to the Network and all NRMN program offerings for mentees and mentors across career development stages. NRMNet provides access to a wide array of mentoring experiences and resources including MyNRMN, Guided Virtual Mentorship Program, news, training calendar, videos, and workshops. National scale and sustainability are being addressed by NRMN "Coaches-in-Training" offerings for more senior researchers to implement coaching models across the nation. "Shark Tanks" provide intensive review and coaching for early career health disparities investigators, focusing on grant writing for graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and junior faculty.
Partners from diverse perspectives are building the national capacity and sparking the institutional changes necessary to truly diversify and transform the biomedical research workforce. NRMN works to leverage resources towards the goals of sustainability, scalability, and expanded reach.
•Feedlots use ionophores, antibiotics, hormonal implants and β2-adrenergic agonists.•We measured their effect on cattle behavior.•β2-adrenergic agonists increased lateral lying in feedlot ...cattle.•β2-adrenergic agonists increased pushing behavior in feedlot cattle.•Accurately measuring lateral lying behavior required continuous sampling.
There is growing interest in the animal welfare implications of growth-promoting technology used in feedlot cattle, namely hormonal implants, ionophores, antibiotics and β2-adrenergic agonists. Previous studies have focused on the effects of implants on aggression, but little work has evaluated other behavioral changes anecdotally reported with β2-adrenergic agonists, such as an increase in lateral lying, a posture seen when cattle rest. The objectives of the present experiment were to quantify the effects of these technologies on lying and agonistic behavior in the 21 days before slaughter and to examine the sampling strategy required to measure lateral lying. Angus crossbred steers were assigned to 16 pens of 10 animals each. Treatments were applied in an additive manner to represent the decisions that feedlot managers would likely make about technology use. They were: (1) control (CON; no technology application), (2) monensin and tylosin phosphate (MON), (3) MON and growth implant (trenbolone acetate and estradiol, IMP) and (4) IMP and zilpaterol hydrochloride, a β2-adrenergic agonist (fed day 24–3 before slaughter; BAA). Agonistic (pushing, displacements) and bulling behaviors were recorded on day 21, 17, 12, 7 and 3 before slaughter and lying behavior, including time and number of bouts of lateral and sternal lying, was measured on day 12, 7, and 3. These time points were chosen to overlap with the feeding period for zilpaterol. BAA cattle spent 31% more time lying laterally, compared to all other treatments (BAA: 2.4 vs. others: 1.7h/24h, SE: 0.18h/24h, P=0.020), perhaps because of changes associated with muscle growth. Continuous measurement is needed to measure lateral lying; estimates generated with instantaneous scan sampling never met all of our criteria for accuracy (R2>0.9, slope=1, intercept=0). BAA cattle engaged in more pushing and displacements than MON or CON (P≤0.05); IMP also increased pushing compared to MON or CON, but only during day 12, 7 and 3 before slaughter (IMP and BAA 12.5pushes/steer/h vs. MON and CON 6.8pushes/steer/h, SE 1.4pushes/steer/h, P=0.007). Together, these findings indicate that combined use of growth-promoting technologies tested in this experiment affected both agonistic and lying behavior.
This discussion considers the role and findings of ethnographic research within a clinical trial of supported employment for veterans with spinal cord injury. Contributing to qualitative evaluation ...research and to debates over anthropological evidence vis-à-vis clinical trials, we demonstrate how enactors of a randomized controlled trial can simultaneously attend to both the trial's evidentiary and procedural requirements and to the lived experiences and needs of patients and clinicians. Three major findings are described: (1) contextual information essential to fidelity efforts within the trial; (2) the role of human interrelationships and idiosyncratic networks in the trial's success; and (3) a mapping of the power and authority structures relevant to the staff's ability to perform the protocol. We emphasize strengths of anthropological ethnography in clinical trials that include the provision of complementary, qualitative data, the capture of otherwise unmeasured parts of the trial, and the realization of important information for the translation of the clinical findings into new settings.
Musti-Rao and Hayden (2011) defined a Behavior Specific Praise (BSP) statement as an “affirmative statement delivered by the teacher immediately following the completion of a specified academic or ...social behavior” (pg. 93). When BSP is used properly negative student behavior can decrease and student academic scores and perception of the classroom environment can increase. The purpose of this action research was to investigate the teacher use of BSP statements and their effect on student behavior, academic performance and student perception of the social/emotional classroom. This study was conducted as a single subject design performed across nine weeks. Student behavior data was collected daily along with a pre and post survey on the student perception of the social/emotional classroom environment taken before the intervention was performed and when the intervention was completed. Students collected academic data bi-weekly by recording current grades and writing a student reflection.
Oncology social workers are increasingly finding themselves diagnosed with or caring for a loved one with cancer. Self-disclosure may be useful for building a therapeutic alliance. Yet, ...practice-informed guidelines for psychosocial oncology providers do not exist.
Twenty-three psychosocial oncology providers diagnosed with and/or providing care to someone with cancer completed semi-structured interviews eliciting attitudes and utilization regarding self-disclosure.
Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Using grounded theory's constant comparative method, researchers conducted open and theoretical coding.
Participants expressed consensus in defining, and reported a range of evolving practices regarding, self-disclosure. Recommendations for responsible self-disclosure included self-awareness, ongoing assessment, supervision, and enhanced educational programming.
Therapeutic tools must evolve as core features of psychosocial oncology care. A flexible and context-specific framework for clinician self-disclosure related to personal experiences with cancer can guide oncology social work practice.
Enteric methane (CH4) emissions from cattle grazing extensive semiarid rangelands are largely unknown and represent a considerable knowledge gap for the beef cattle industry. Knowledge of baseline ...enteric CH4 emissions is beneficial for understanding the range of variability in individual animal emission production (g CH4 head hd−1 d−1) and emission intensity (g CH4 kg−1 average daily gain ADG−1). Here, we used field-based technology to determine enteric CH4 emissions from yearling steers grazing the North American shortgrass steppe in northeastern Colorado in midsummer 2022. Twenty-six animals were acclimated for 30 d (1−30 June) to the sampling equipment in the field before the measurement of emissions (1−31 July). Twelve (46%) yearling steers fully acclimated, with mean CH4 emissions ranging from 113.3 to 261.7 g hd−1 d−1 across the sampling period. Daily CH4 production values were 20% higher for steers (n = 9) from a local ranch compared with steers (n = 3) that originated from a mixed-grass prairie in south-central Nebraska (202.63 vs. 169.03 g CH4 hd−1 d−1). ADG of local steers was three times greater than their counterparts (0.54 vs. 0.18 kg hd−1 d−1), resulting in lower emission intensity (g CH4/ADG; emission intensity) from local steers compared with the naïve steers (237.6 vs. 418.5 emission intensity). In addition, we compared measured CH4 emissions with predicted emissions calculated using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tier 2 methodology; measured emissions were 31% greater than predicted for the local steers and 18% greater than steers from nonlocal steers. Results indicate that further research addressing grazing animal enteric CH4 emissions in extensive rangelands is needed. Further, efforts should be context specific for comparative efforts across rangeland ecosystems and animal origin to inform more accurate assessments of sustainability of grazing beef cattle related to greenhouse gas mitigation strategies.
Abstract The primary objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of a growth-hormone implant (Revalor-G, Merck Animal Health., Rahway, NJ, USA) and tannin supplementation (Silvafeed BX, ...Silva Team, San Michele Mondovi CN, Italy) on enteric methane (CH4) emissions and estimated nitrogen (N) excretion in grazing steers. Steers (n = 20; initial body weight IBW = 343 ± 14 kg) were acclimated to use a portable automated head-chamber system (AHCS) to measure CH4 and a SmartFeed Pro automated feeder for dietary supplementation (C-Lock Inc., Rapid City, SD, USA). After the training period, steers were randomly assigned to a 2x2 factorial arrangements of treatments, with two levels of growth-hormone implants, no-implant (NO-IMP) or implanted (IMP), and two levels of tannin supplementation, no tannin supplementation (NO-TAN) or tannin supplementation (TAN). This created four treatment groups: 1) NO-TAN and NO-IMP; 2) TAN and NO-IMP; 3) IMP and NO-TAN; and 4) TAN and IMP. Tannin was offered daily at 0.30% dry matter intake (DMI) through 0.5 kg/hd/d sweetfeed supplement (Sweetfeed Mix, AgFinity., Eaton, CO, USA) with a targeted tannin intake at 48 g/hd/d. No (P ≥ 0.05) implant x tannin interaction was detected for any dependent variable, so only the main effects of implant (NO-IMP vs. IMP) and tannin supplementation (NO-TAN vs. TAN) are discussed. Implant status did not affect (P ≥ 0.56) final body weight (FBW) or average daily gain (ADG) during the 90 d grazing period. There was no effect (P ≥ 0.15) of growth implant on CH4 production or emission intensity (EI; g CH4/kg gain). Additionally, IMP steers tended (P ≤ 0.08) to have less CH4 yield (MY; g CH4/g DMI) and higher blood urea nitrogen (BUN) than NO-IMP steers. Tannin supplementation did not impact (P ≥ 0.26) FBW or ADG. However, NO-TAN steers tended (P = 0.06) to have a greater total DMI than steers supplemented with tannin. No effect (P ≥ 0.22) of tannin supplementation was observed for CH4 production and EI. Nitrogen utilization as measured through BUN, urine N, fecal N, or fecal P was similar (P ≥ 0.12) between TAN and NO-TAN animals. The findings indicate that low-level dietary supplementation to reduce enteric emissions is difficult in grazing systems due to inconsistent animal intake and that growth implants could be used as a strategy to improve growth performance and reduce EI of steers grazing improved pasture
Abstract
Lower socioeconomic status African American older adults living with dementia and their family caregivers face unique advance care planning challenges, including achieving appropriate ...preference-consistent healthcare near the end of life. The purpose of this project within a larger multi-stakeholder study is to assess community stakeholder perspectives on the needs of African American older adults living with dementia and their family caregivers. Diverse community-based organization leaders (n=9) were interviewed and identified the following thematic needs: Reframing of Advance Care Planning, Clarification of Misinformation, and Expansion of Available Resources. Community leaders expressed strong desires to assist families with advance care planning. The use of creative, culturally-tailored, non-traditional approaches to this process offers innovative ways to promote advance care planning through community engagement. This will change the narrative on advance care planning from a cultural perspective while embracing diversity, enriching discovery, and reimaging aging in the community
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