Survey of New Zealand consumer attitudes to consumption of meat and meat alternatives.

This study examined consumers' consumption, motivations, and concerns regarding meat and meat alternatives by means of an online survey of 1061 New Zealand consumers and review of literature. Outcomes of the survey indicate New Zealanders are overwhelmingly omnivorous (93%), regard taste as the most important factor in their meat purchasing decision followed by price and freshness and consider environmental impact and social responsibility of less importance. Those surveyed indicated willingness to pay 17-24% more for food safety and sustainability related meat attributes. About half of respondents lowered their meat consumption the previous year, mainly red and processed meats, due to lack of affordability and health concerns. Although those surveyed showed high awareness about meat alternatives, their consumption level of the products was very low and more prevalent for female, younger and more educated individuals. Overall, the outlook for meat consumption and meat industry in New Zealand is positive and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

Angle-resolved coherent wave mixing using a 4 fs ultra-broad bandwidth laser.

We demonstrate angle-resolved coherent (ARC) wave mixing using 4 fs light pulses derived from a laser source that spans 550-1000 nm. We believe this to be the shortest pulse duration used to date in coherent multi-dimensional spectroscopy. The marriage of this ultra-broad band, few-cycle coherent source with the ARC technique will permit new investigations of the interplay between energy transfers and quantum superposition states spanning 8200 cm-1. We applied this configuration to measurements on the photosynthetic low light (LL) complex from Rhodopseudomonas palustris in solution at ambient temperature. We observe bi-exponential population dynamics for energy transfer across 5500 cm-1 (0.65 eV), which we attribute to energy transfer from the Qx transition of bacteriochlorophylls to the B850 pigment of the complex. We believe for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, we demonstrate that ARC maps can be recorded using a single laser pulse.

Reassessment of simple cholecystostomy.

Cholecystostomy was performed on 22 patients with acute cholecystitis after partial (13) or complete (9) removal of gallbladder stones. One patient had complementary common-duct drainage. Early mortality occurred in two patients. Three patients with associated cholangitis but intraoperative reflux of cysticduct bile were all treated by cholecystostomy alone and survived. For the poor-risk patient with cholecystitis, cholecystostomy is effective. When there is associated cholangitis and documented cystic-duct patency, cholecystostomy is also sufficient. When accompanying cholangitis is associated with cystic-duct occlusion, choledochotomy and T tube drainage should be added.

Reoperation after abdominal trauma.

A five year experience with 782 patients requiring laparotomy for trauma is reviewed. Specifically, the 70 patients requiring unplanned reexploration have been studied to delineate the indications for and implications of such repeat laparotomies. The major indications for such reoperation were intraabdominal abscess (45.7 per cent), bleeding (15.5 per cent), peritonitis (12.1 per cent), and small bowel obstruction (8.6 per cent). There were 16 negative reexplorations (13.8 per cent). Overall mortality in the reexplored patients was 21.4 per cent, all victims of gunshot or blunt trauma. Mortality correlated with the number of required reexplorations, being 67 per cent in those requiring four operations. Of the 31 laparotomies performed initially for diffuse or localized intraabdominal sepsis, only 15 were highly suspected, and 13 of these by simple chest x-ray findings. If after laparotomy for repair of intraabdominal trauma a patient fails to meet the anticipated norm of convalescence, a high index of suspicion for early postoperative hemorrhage, or later sepsis, should be maintained. Such patients have far more to gain than lose by reexploration.