There is broad scientific consensus that current food systems are neither sustainable nor resilient: many agricultural practices are very resource-intensive and responsible for a large share of ...global emissions and loss of biodiversity. Consequently, current systems put large pressure on planetary boundaries. According to economic theory, food prices form when there is a balance between supply and demand. Yet, due to the neglect of negative external effects, effective prices are often far from representing the ‘true costs’. Current studies show that especially animal-based foodstuff entails vast external costs that currently stay unaccounted for in market prices. Against this background, we explore how informational campaigning on agricultural externalities can contribute to consumer awareness and tolerance of this matter. Further, we investigate the socially just design of monetary incentives and their implementation potentials and challenges. This study builds on the informational campaign of a German supermarket displaying products with two price tags: one of the current market price and the other displaying the ‘true’ price, which includes several environmental externalities calculated with True Cost Accounting (TCA). Based on interpretations of a consumer survey and a number of expert interviews, in this article we approach the potentials and obstacles of TCA as a communication tool and the challenges of its factual implementation in agri-food networks. Our results show that consumers are generally interested in the topic of true food pricing and would to a certain extent be willing to pay ‘true prices’ of the inquired foods. However, insufficient transparency and unjust distribution of wealth are feared to bring about communication and social justice concerns in the implementation of TCA. When introducing TCA into current discourse, it is therefore important to develop measures that are socially cautious and backed by relevant legal framework conditions. This poses the chance to create a fair playing (‘polluter pays’) with a clear assignment of responsibilities to policy makers, and practitioners in addition to customers.
Combining the efforts of physicists, materials scientists, economists and resource-strategy researchers opens up an interdisciplinary route enabling the substitution of rare elements by more abundant ...ones, serving as a guideline for the development of novel materials.
A DASH (dietary approaches to stop hypertension) dietary pattern rich in fruits and vegetables and low-fat dairy products with increased dietary protein provided primarily from plant protein sources ...decreases blood pressure. No studies, however, have evaluated the effects of a DASH-like diet with increased dietary protein from lean beef on blood pressure and vascular health. The aim of this study was to study the effect of DASH-like diets that provided different amounts of protein from lean beef (DASH 28 g beef per day; beef in an optimal lean diet (BOLD) 113 g beef per day; beef in an optimal lean diet plus additional protein (BOLD+) 153 g beef per day) on blood pressure, endothelial function and vascular reactivity versus a healthy American diet (HAD). Using a randomized, crossover study design, 36 normotensive participants (systolic blood pressure (SBP), 116 ± 3.6 mm Hg) were fed four isocaloric diets,: HAD (33% total fat, 12% saturated fatty acids (SFA), 17% protein (PRO), 20 g beef per day), DASH (27% total fat, 6% SFA, 18% PRO, 28 g beef per day), BOLD (28% total fat, 6% SFA, 19% PRO, 113 g beef per day) and BOLD+ (28% total fat, 6% SFA, 27% PRO, 153 g beef per day), for 5 weeks. SBP decreased (P<0.05) in subjects on the BOLD+ diet (111.4 ± 1.9 mm Hg) versus HAD (115.7 ± 1.9). There were no significant effects of the DASH and BOLD diets on SBP. Augmentation index (AI) was significantly reduced in participants on the BOLD diet (-4.1%). There were no significant effects of the dietary treatments on diastolic blood pressure or endothelial function (as measured by peripheral arterial tonometry). A moderate protein DASH-like diet including lean beef decreased SBP in normotensive individuals. The inclusion of lean beef in a heart healthy diet also reduced peripheral vascular constriction.
Objective: The present study examined positive and negative aspects of relationship quality with one's spouse or partner as predictors of mortality and the role of gender in moderating this link. ...Method: Data were drawn from 2 waves, 5 years apart, of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (N = 1,734). Positive aspects of relationship quality (frequency of opening up to the partner to talk about worries and relying on the partner) and negative aspects (frequency of the partner making too many demands and criticism by the partner) were assessed. Survival/mortality status was recorded at the time of Wave 2 data collection 5 years later (1,567 alive; 167 deceased). Covariates included sociodemographic variables, relationship type, health status, and the network size of close family relationships and friendships. Results: Logistic regression analyses showed that negative relationship quality with one's spouse or partner was associated with significantly higher odds for mortality after 5 years (odds ratio OR = 1.20, 95% CI 1.03, 1.38, p < .001), after including the statistical covariates. Also, age, gender, education, self-rated health, and medication use were significantly related to mortality. Propensity score matching replicated these findings. Follow-up analyses revealed that criticism from one's spouse or partner, in particular, was linked to a higher mortality risk (OR = 1.44, 95% CI 1.10, 1.88). Gender did not moderate the relationship-quality-mortality link. Conclusions: Negative relationship quality, notably, criticism received from one's spouse or partner, heightens older adults' risk of mortality. These results suggest the value of developing interventions that target reducing expressed criticism in couple relationships.
A key component of genetic architecture is the allelic spectrum influencing trait variability. For autism spectrum disorder (herein termed autism), the nature of the allelic spectrum is uncertain. ...Individual risk-associated genes have been identified from rare variation, especially de novo mutations. From this evidence, one might conclude that rare variation dominates the allelic spectrum in autism, yet recent studies show that common variation, individually of small effect, has substantial impact en masse. At issue is how much of an impact relative to rare variation this common variation has. Using a unique epidemiological sample from Sweden, new methods that distinguish total narrow-sense heritability from that due to common variation and synthesis of results from other studies, we reach several conclusions about autism's genetic architecture: its narrow-sense heritability is ∼52.4%, with most due to common variation, and rare de novo mutations contribute substantially to individual liability, yet their contribution to variance in liability, 2.6%, is modest compared to that for heritable variation.
Few studies have examined the quality of a marital or similar relationship during the late life years as a predictor of mortality risk (Antonucci et al., 2010; Bulanda et al., 2016; Zhu & Gu, 2010) ...and these have typically focused on either relationship satisfaction or conflict. We examined both positive and negative aspects of relationship quality with one’s spouse/partner as a predictor of mortality in a sample of older adults in the US (N=1,598) who participated in two waves of a national longitudinal study of social relationships and health. Two items rated on a 3-point scale (hardly ever or never, some of the time, often) were used to measure positive (frequency with which the participant could open up to the partner if s/he needed to talk about worries and could rely on the partner) and negative (frequency with which the participant felt the partner made too many demands on him/her and criticized him/her) aspects of relationship quality. Sociodemographic and health status variables were used as covariates; we also controlled for the quality of other close relationships. Logistic regression showed that negative relationship quality was associated with significantly higher odds for mortality five years later (OR=1.24, CI95%=1.06 to 1.45; p < .001), after adjusting for all covariates. Follow-up analyses revealed that criticism from one’s partner, in particular, was linked to a higher mortality risk (OR=1.41, CI95%=1.07 to 1.87, p < .001). Couple interventions that focus on decreasing negative interactions between partners, especially criticism, and future research identifying underlying pathways are recommended.
Abstract Current crises (i.e., climate crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the resulting energy and food shortages) indicate the need for robust, and sustainable supply chains ...with regional food production and farmland to secure food supply in the European Union (EU). Recent research shows that organic food is more resilient to supply chain disruptions and price fluctuations. In this context, we examine an approach for the sustainable and resilient transformation of agri-food networks: can an adaptation of value added tax (VAT) levels work as a financial incentive to amplify resilient agricultural practices and sustainable dietary patterns? Within the setting of the amendment of the European framework directive on the use of VAT in 2022, we model the effects of adapting the current German VAT system by (1) reducing VAT on organic vegetarian food to 0% and (2) raising VAT on conventional meat and fish to 19%. Based on historical data on organic sales shares and price elasticities, we project sales shares differentiated by product group for each scenario. Then, we calculate expected tax revenues, changes in consumption patterns, and arising total external climate costs in Germany for both scenarios. Our results show that the overall consumption share of organic food would increase by 21.83% due to the modeled VAT reform compared to the status quo. Despite the VAT reduction to 0% on organic vegetarian products, the measure would yield €2.04 billion in extra tax revenues in Germany per year due to the increased taxation on conventional meat products. We find that annual environmental costs of €5.31 billion can be avoided as a result of lower external climate costs of organic and vegetarian food. Therefore, adjusting VAT rates in the food market can be a political instrument to drive organic food consumption and reduce animal livestock. This supports re-territorialization of agriculture and a more sustainable and resilient European food supply.
In survival analysis, it is often of interest to test whether or not two survival time distributions are equal, specifically in the presence of censored data. One very popular test statistic utilized ...in this testing procedure is the weighted logrank statistic. Much attention has been focused on finding flexible weight functions to use within the weighted logrank statistic, and we propose yet another. We demonstrate our weight function to be more stable than one of the most popular, which is given by Fleming and Harrington, by means of asymptotic normal tests, bootstrap tests and permutation tests performed on two datasets with a variety of characteristics.
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