Peanut varieties with reduced Ara h 1 content indicating no reduced allergenicity

Peanut allergy is a major cause of food‐induced severe anaphylactic reactions. To date, no medical care is available to prevent and treat peanut allergy and therefore hypoallergenic peanut varieties are of considerable health political and economic interest. Major allergens that induce IgE‐responses in peanut‐sensitive patients are Ara h 1, Ara h 2 and Ara h 3/4. In order to identify hypoallergenic peanuts, commercially locally available peanut varieties were screened for their allergen content. Ara h 1‐deficient peanuts from Southeast Asia were identified by SDS‐PAGE, immunoblotting, inhibition assays and ELISA. 2‐D PAGE analyses demonstrated the different compositions of the tested extracts and revealed a number of variations of the allergen patterns of peanuts from different varieties. Mediator release experiments of these peanut extracts demonstrated similar allergenicities as compared with standard peanut extract. These results indicate that the allergenicity of peanuts with reduced Ara h 1 content might be compensated by the other allergens, and thus do not necessarily cause a reduction of allergenicity.     

When do increasing carbon taxes accelerate global warming? A note on the green paradox

The “green paradox” by Hans–Werner Sinn suggests that increasing resource taxes accelerate global warming because resource owners increase near-term extraction in fear of higher future taxation. In this note we show that this effect does only occur for the specific set of carbon taxes that increase at a rate higher than the effective discount rate of the resource owners. We calculate a critical initial value for the carbon tax that leads to a decreased cumulative consumption over the entire (infinite) time horizon. Applying our formal findings to carbon taxes for several mitigation targets, we conclude that there is a low risk of a green paradox in case the regulator implements and commits to a permanently mal-adjusted tax. This remaining risk can be avoided by emissions trading scheme as suggested by Sinn—as long as the emission caps are set appropriately and the intertemporal permit market works correctly.     

Searching for differences in race: Is there evidence for preferential detection of other-race faces?

Previous research has suggested that like animal and social fear-relevant stimuli, other-race faces (African American) are detected preferentially in visual search. Three experiments using Chinese or Indonesian faces as other-race faces yielded the opposite pattern of results: faster detection of same-race faces among other-race faces. This apparently inconsistent pattern of results was resolved by showing that Asian and African American faces are detected preferentially in tasks that have small stimulus sets and employ fixed target searches. Asian and African American other-race faces are found slower among Caucasian face backgrounds if larger stimulus sets are used in tasks with a variable mapping of stimulus to background or target. Thus, preferential detection of other-race faces was not found under task conditions in which preferential detection of animal and social fear-relevant stimuli is evident. Although consistent with the view that same-race faces are processed in more detail than other-race faces, the current findings suggest that other-race faces do not draw attention preferentially. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When danger lurks in the background: Attentional capture by animal fear-relevant distractors is specific and selectively enhanced by animal fear.

Across 2 experiments, a new experimental procedure was used to investigate attentional capture by animal fear-relevant stimuli. In Experiment 1 (N = 34), unselected participants were slower to detect a neutral target animal in the presence of a spider than a cockroach distractor and in the presence of a snake than a large lizard distractor. This result confirms that phylogenetically fear-relevant animals capture attention specifically and to a larger extent than do non-fear-relevant animals. In Experiment 2 (N = 86), detection of a neutral target animal was slowed more in the presence of a feared fear-relevant distractor (e.g., a snake for snake-fearful participants) than in presence of a not-feared fear-relevant distractor (e.g., a spider for snake-fearful participants). These results indicate preferential attentional capture that is specific to phylogenetically fear-relevant stimuli and is selectively enhanced in individuals who fear these animals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Competing for consciousness: Prolonged mask exposure reduces object substitution masking.

In object substitution masking (OSM) a sparse, temporally trailing 4-dot mask impairs target identification, even though it has different contours from, and does not spatially overlap with the target. Here, we demonstrate a previously unknown characteristic of OSM: Observers show reduced masking at prolonged (e.g., 640 ms) relative to intermediate mask durations (e.g., 240 ms). We propose that with prolonged exposure, the mask's visual representation is consolidated, which allows processing of the lingering target icon to be reinitiated, thereby improving performance. Our findings suggest that when the visual system is confronted with 2 temporally contiguous stimuli, although one may initially gain access to consciousness above the other, the “losing” stimulus is not irreversibly lost to awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of assessment type on verbal ratings of conditional stimulus valence and contingency judgments: Implications for the extinction of evaluative learning.

Recent research on causal learning found (a) that causal judgments reflect either the current predictive value of a conditional stimulus (CS) or an integration across the experimental contingencies used in the entire experiment and (b) that postexperimental judgments, rather than the CS's current predictive value, are likely to reflect this integration. In the current study, the authors examined whether verbal valence ratings were subject to similar integration. Assessments of stimulus valence and contingencies responded similarly to variations of reporting requirements, contingency reversal, and extinction, reflecting either current or integrated values. However, affective learning required more trials to reflect a contingency change than did contingency judgments. The integration of valence assessments across training and the fact that affective learning is slow to reflect contingency changes can provide an alternative interpretation for researchers' previous failures to find an effect of extinction training on verbal reports of CS valence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Von der Wirkung zur Substanz: Wirkungsbezogene Analytik als neue Untersuchungsstrategie in der Lebensmittelkontrolle

Zusammenfassung. Lebensmittel, die in den Verkehr gebracht werden, müssen sicher sein. Dieses Ziel ist in der Verordnung (EG) 178/2002 formuliert. Als nicht sicher gelten unter anderem Lebensmittel, die negative Auswirkungen auf die Gesundheit des Verbrauchers besitzen. Im Mittelpunkt des Interesses stehen damit die Auswirkungen der Lebensmittel und somit die Gesamtheit ihrer Inhaltsstoffe auf die Gesundheit des Menschen. Die Entwicklung von Methoden für die Lebensmittelkontrolle ist zur Zeit vor allem von dem Ziel gepr?gt, bestimmte ausgew?hlte Stoffe, für die in der Regel gesetzlich festgelegte Grenzwerte bzw. H?chstmengen existieren, in immer geringeren Konzentrationen nachzuweisen. W?hrend etwa 80.000 Chemikalien derzeit auf dem EU-Markt erh?ltlich sind und ein Vielfaches an Verbindungen als Neben- und Umbauprodukte in die Umwelt und damit potentiell in die Nahrungskette gelangen k?nnen, wird in der Lebensmittelüberwachung nur ein Bruchteil derartiger Verbindungen analysiert. Substanzen, die in diesem Spektrum nicht enthalten sind, bleiben – unabh?ngig von ihrem Gef?hrdungspotential – au?er Acht. In vorliegendem Artikel werden das Prinzip und die Einsatzbereiche der wirkungsbezogenen Analytik in der Lebensmittelkontrolle dargestellt. Dabei flie?en Erfahrungen aus der ?kotoxikologie ein, in der dieser Untersuchungsansatz bereits seit Jahren eine Rolle spielt. Es werden zwei sich erg?nzende Teilstrategien beschrieben, die beide eine deutliche Verbesserung des vorsorgenden Verbraucherschutzes bedeuten k?nnen und sinnvoll verknüpft werden müssen. Die erste Strategie setzt auf das Screening potentiell sch?dlicher Effekte der Gesamtextrakte durch biologische Wirkungstests; die zweite Strategie geht über die Detektion von Wirkungen hinaus und versucht die stofflichen Ursachen der gemessenen Effekte zu identifizieren. Im Sinne eines umfassenden Verbraucherschutzes – entsprechend der Verordnung (EG) Nr. 178/2002 zur Lebensmittelsicherheit – sollte vom Gesetzgeber angestrebt werden, zus?tzlich zu Grenzwerten für einzelne Kontaminanten auch Grenzwerte für bestimmte Effekte zu etablieren. Eingegangen: 27. Mai 2006