PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Notre Dame research shows food-trade network vulnerable to fast spread of contaminants

2012-06-08
(Press-News.org) University of Notre Dame network physicists Mária Ercsey-Ravasz and Zoltán Toroczkai of the Interdisciplinary Center for Network Science and Applications, in collaboration with food science experts, have recently published a rigorous analysis of the international food-trade network that shows the network's vulnerability to the fast spread of contaminants as well as the correlation between known food poisoning outbreaks and the centrality of countries on the network.

Together with food science experts József Baranyi, from the Institute of Food Research in the U.K., and Zoltán Lakner, of Corvinus University in Budapest, Ercsey-Ravasz and Toroczkai recently published their results in the journal PLoS ONE.

As the world's population climbs past 7 billion, the sustainable production and distribution of food is balanced against the need to ensure its chemical and microbiological safety. The new paper maps the international agro-food trade network (IFTN) — a highly complex and heterogeneous system formed around a core group of seven countries, each trading with more than 77 percent of the world's nations. Since any two countries in the IFTN have only two degrees of separation on the network, the IFTN is capable of spreading a foodborne contaminant very efficiently. It also tends to mask the contaminant's origins once the system is compromised, since so many network paths run through the central nodes.

By 2030, food demand is expected to increase by 50 percent. Global food transport has been increasing at an exponential rate since the 1960s — faster than food production itself. As the system grows, so does pressure on regulation and surveillance organizations to track contaminants and prevent deadly outbreaks, such as the 2011 events in the U.S. (Listeria monocytogenes_) and Germany (_Escherichia coli).

While the paper does not predict an increase in food poisoning cases, it does predict significant delays with serious potential consequences in the identification of the outbreaks' sources — calling for an interdisciplinary and incentivized approach to the understanding of the IFTN that will build on its identification of the network's critical spots.

INFORMATION:

The paper, "Complexity of the International Agro-Food Trade Network and Its Impact on Food Safety," was published in PLoS ONE as part of an international research collaboration between the aforementioned institutions. Ercsey-Ravasz is currently at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj. Romania.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

VCU researchers identify changes in cholesterol metabolic pathways

2012-06-08
RICHMOND, Va. (June 7, 2012) – A new study from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine has identified molecular changes responsible for abnormal cholesterol production and metabolism in the livers of patients with a common liver condition, and these changes may explain the severity of a patient's liver disease and risks to their heart health. It is estimated that a third of Americans have a fatty liver. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is a very common liver condition. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, the more aggressive form of nonalcoholic fatty ...

Currencies Direct: Is America Losing its Manufacturing Muscle?

2012-06-08
Earlier in the week the US government confirmed economic growth in America had stalled during the first-quarter of the year, as gross domestic product (GDP) rose by just 1.9% from January through to May, reports currency exchange experts, Currencies Direct. Initially the department of commerce expected GDP to be around the 2.2% mark. However, cuts in private sector jobs were said to have stained prior optimism. According to figures published by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, US employers cut 61,887 jobs in May, the most since September 2011. ...

Identification of differential proteins in maternal serum with Down syndrome

2012-06-08
Prenatal screening for Down syndrome (DS) is still in need of improvement. Perinatal medicine experts have worked hard to find new biomarkers for screening of DS. Dr. Shi he Shao and his co-investigators, from Jiangsu University and Changzhou Woman and Children Health Hospital, report in the May 2012 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine that they have successfully identified twenty-nine differentially expressed proteins in maternal serum from pregnancies carrying DS fetuses with proteomic approaches. These differential proteins offer the possibility of improving the ...

Hanni's New Wine Fundamentals Webinars Praised, Offered in June

Hannis New Wine Fundamentals Webinars Praised, Offered in June
2012-06-08
Tim Hanni's New Wine Fundamentals Webinars, held for the first time in May, attracted international attendance and will be repeated June 19 and 23. The webinar offers an introduction to taste and other sensations, improved wine communications, and a new paradigm for understanding the physical and psychological factors in wine preferences and consumer behavior. One attendee wrote, "It altered the way I work...(Tim) is challenging us to align the 'rules' to the reality of our customers." The Webinar is a two-hour "learn and train the trainer" session ...

NASA provides satellite views of Maryland's severe weather outbreak

NASA provides satellite views of Marylands severe weather outbreak
2012-06-08
VIDEO: A cold front approaching from the west spawned severe storms along the East Coast, on June 1, 2012, including nine weak tornadoes in Maryland around sunset. From the GOES satellite... Click here for more information. On Friday, June 1, 2012 severe weather generated 9 weak tornadoes across Maryland, according to the National Weather Service. As the system that generated them approached, NASA's Aqua satellite gathered information about power behind it. NASA also created ...

ZEV Begins Delivery of the ZEV 5000 High Performance, Low Priced, Electric Motor Scooter

ZEV Begins Delivery of the ZEV 5000 High Performance, Low Priced, Electric Motor Scooter
2012-06-08
The launch of the 5000 LA might seem a bit in conflict with the ZEV image of high performance. ZEV is mostly known for its high tech, 100 mile (160 km) range / 75 - 80 mph (120 - 130 kmh) speed lithium battery powered bikes. Equally, the public has seemed to keep its focus on new and exotic battery technology. But for the vast majority of the population, their needs and use patterns could best be served by a new approach, rather than a new technology. The vast majority of the public needs a vehicle to commute to work less than 20 miles. The achieved goal of the new 5000 ...

Scientists find that rain may not always be a welcome thing to waterbirds

2012-06-08
Scientists from the Smithsonian and colleagues have found that waterbird communities can be the "canary in the coal mine" when it comes to detecting the health of urban estuary ecosystems. Their research revealed that the types of waterbirds that inhabit urban estuaries are influenced not only by urban development, but also by a far more natural process―rain. The team's findings are published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE. The scientists compared waterbird communities in estuaries of the Chesapeake Bay during 2002, a year of severe drought, to 2003, a year ...

Penn and Cornell researchers spearhead the development of new guidelines for veterinary CPR

2012-06-08
PHILADELPHIA — For nearly 50 years, the American Heart Association, with the help of researchers and physicians from across the nation, has developed and disseminated guidelines on how best to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on patients experiencing cardiac arrest. But no such evidence-based guidelines existed in the veterinary world. Perhaps as a result, while more than 20 percent of human patients who suffer cardiac arrests in the hospital survive to go home to their families, the equivalent figure for dogs and cats is less than 6 percent. Now the Reassessment ...

76 percent of patients on oral JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor plus DMARDS achieve ACR20 response at week 12

2012-06-08
Berlin, Germany, June 8 2012: Data from a Phase IIb study presented today at EULAR 2012, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism, show that 76% of patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) receiving either 4mg or 8mg of baricitinib, an oral JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor, plus stable methotrexate (MTX) achieved ACR20* response compared with 41% of placebo-treated patients (p≤0.001) at 12 weeks. The 4mg and 8mg doses of baricitinib demonstrated statistical superiority to placebo in all clinical outcomes measured, including ACR20/50/70*, DAS28**-CRP ...

Novel brain imaging technique explains why concussions affect people differently

2012-06-08
June 8, 2012 — (Bronx, NY) — Patients vary widely in their response to concussion, but scientists haven't understood why. Now, using a new technique for analyzing data from brain imaging studies, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center have found that concussion victims have unique spatial patterns of brain abnormalities that change over time. The new technique could eventually help in assessing concussion patients, predicting which head injuries are likely to have long-lasting neurological consequences, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

CMD-OPT model enables the discovery of a potent and selective RIPK2 inhibitor as preclinical candidate for the treatment of acute liver injury

Melatonin receptor 1a alleviates sleep fragmentation-aggravated testicular injury in T2DM by suppression of TAB1/TAK1 complex through FGFR1

Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals Shen-Bai-Jie-Du decoction retards colorectal tumorigenesis by regulating the TMEM131–TNF signaling pathway-mediated differentiation of immunosuppressive dendritic ce

Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B Volume 15, Issue 7 Publishes

New research expands laser technology

Targeted radiation offers promise in patients with metastasized small cell lung cancer to the brain

A high clinically translatable strategy to anti-aging using hyaluronic acid and silk fibroin co-crosslinked hydrogels as dermal regenerative fillers

Mount Sinai researchers uncover differences in how males and females change their mind when reflecting on past mistakes

CTE and normal aging are difficult to distinguish, new study finds

Molecular arms race: How the genome defends itself against internal enemies

Tiny chip speeds up antibody mapping for faster vaccine design

KTU experts reveal why cultural heritage is important for community unity

More misfolded proteins than previously known may contribute to Alzheimer’s and dementia

“Too much going on”: Autistic adults overwhelmed by non-verbal social cues

What’s driving America’s deep freezes in a warming world?

A key role of brain protein in learning and memory is deciphered by scientists

Heart attacks don’t follow a Hollywood script

Erin M. Schuman wins 2026 Nakasone Award for discovery on neural synapse function and change during formation of memories

Global ocean analysis could replace costly in-situ sound speed profiles in seafloor positioning, study finds

Power in numbers: Small group professional coaching reduces rates of physician burnout by nearly 30%

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage: A comprehensive review of CCUS-EOR

New high-temperature stable dispersed particle gel for enhanced profile control in CCUS applications

State gun laws and firearm-related homicides and suicides

Use of tobacco and cannabis following state-level cannabis legalization

Long-term obesity and biological aging in young adults

Eindhoven University of Technology and JMIR Publications announce unlimited open access publishing agreement

Orphan nuclear receptors in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease development

A technological breakthrough for ultra-fast and greener AI

Pusan National University researchers identify key barriers hindering data-driven smart manufacturing adoption

Inking heterometallic nanosheets: A scalable breakthrough for coating, electronics, and electrocatalyst applications

[Press-News.org] Notre Dame research shows food-trade network vulnerable to fast spread of contaminants