Measuring diet in primary school children aged 8-11 years: validation of the Child and Diet Evaluation Tool (CADET) with an emphasis on fruit and vegetable intake.

Background/Objectives:The Child And Diet Evaluation Tool (CADET) is a 24-h food diary that measures the nutrition intake of children aged 3-7 years, with a focus on fruit and vegetable consumption. Until now CADET has not been used to measure nutrient intake of children aged 8-11 years. To ensure that newly assigned portion sizes for this older age group were valid, participants were asked to complete the CADET diary (the school and home food diary) concurrently with a 1-day weighed record. Subjects/Methods:A total of 67 children with a mean age of 9.3 years (s.d.: ± 1.4, 51% girls) participated in the study. Total fruit and vegetable intake in grams and other nutrients were extracted to compare the mean intakes from the CADET diary and Weighed record using t-tests and Pearson's r correlations. Bland-Altman analysis was also conducted to assess the agreement between the two methods. Results: Correlations comparing the CADET diary to the weighed record were high for fruit, vegetables and combined fruit and vegetables (r=0.7). The results from the Bland-Altman plots revealed a mean difference of 54 g (95% confidence interval: -88, 152) for combined fruit and vegetables intake. CADET is the only tool recommended by the National Obesity Observatory that has been validated in a UK population and provides nutrient level data on children's diets. Conclusions:The results from this study conclude that CADET can provide high-quality nutrient data suitable for evaluating intervention studies now for children aged 3-11 years with a focus on fruit and vegetable intake

Dietary value for money? Investigating how the monetary value of diets in the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) relate to dietary energy density

Estimating the monetary value of individuals’ diets allows investigation into how costs relate to dietary quality. A number of studies(1–2), including one in Scotland(3), have reported a strong negative relationship between diet costs and energy density. Most studies of this type neglect to address the issue of mathematical coupling, where energy is both the numerator in the energy density variable (kJ/g) and the denominator in energy-adjusted diet cost (e.g. E/10 MJ). As a result, the findings could be reflecting a mathematical relationship(4). This study investigated how estimated diet costs of NDNS adults relate to dietary energy density using the ‘residuals’ regressionmethod to account for energy. Diet diary information from 2008–2010 was matched to an in-house database of national average (2004) food prices (the DANTE cost database) to assign a cost to each food and non-alcoholic beverage consumed. Mean daily diet costs and costs per 10 MJ were calculated for each participant. Energy density (g/kJ) was derived from foods and milk. The sample median diet cost was £2.84 per day (IQR £2.27, £3.64), or £4.05 per 10MJ (£3.45, £4.82). Values for energy density, food energy, and diet costs by quintiles of dietary energy density (1 = least energy dense) are presented in the table. Adjusted linear regression found a strong negative relationship: additional standard deviation above the diet cost expected for a given energy intake (the residual), there was an associated decrease in energy density of 0.46kJ/g (95% CI - 0.53, - 0.38, p<0.001). This is the first time individual-level diet costs have been characterized for a representative British population. These diet costs represent the inherent value of the diet, and are not comparable to UK expenditure data. The analyses confirm a diet cost-energy density link that is not due to mathematical artefact, and suggest that those consuming more energy-dense diets are achieving more kilojoules for their money

Picoliter-volume inkjet printing into planar microdevice reservoirs for low-waste, high-capacity drug loading.

Oral delivery of therapeutics is the preferred route for systemic drug administration due to ease of access and improved patient compliance. However, many therapeutics suffer from low oral bioavailability due to low pH and enzymatic conditions, poor cellular permeability, and low residence time. Microfabrication techniques have been used to create planar, asymmetric microdevices for oral drug delivery to address these limitations. The geometry of these microdevices facilitates prolonged drug exposure with unidirectional release of drug toward gastrointestinal epithelium. While these devices have significantly enhanced drug permeability in vitro and in vivo, loading drug into the micron-scale reservoirs of the devices in a low-waste, high-capacity manner remains challenging. Here, we use picoliter-volume inkjet printing to load topotecan and insulin into planar microdevices efficiently. Following a simple surface functionalization step, drug solution can be spotted into the microdevice reservoir. We show that relatively high capacities of both topotecan and insulin can be loaded into microdevices in a rapid, automated process with little to no drug waste

Maternal glucose and fatty acid kinetics and infant birth weight in obese women with type 2 diabetes

The objectives of this study were 1) to describe maternal glucose and lipid kinetics and 2) to examine the relationships with infant birth weight in obese women with pregestational type 2 diabetes during late pregnancy. Using stable isotope tracer methodology and mass spectrometry, maternal glucose and lipid kinetic rates during the basal condition were compared in three groups: lean women without diabetes (Lean, n = 25), obese women without diabetes (OB, n = 26), and obese women with pregestational type 2 diabetes (OB+DM, n = 28; total n = 79). Glucose and lipid kinetics during hyperinsulinemia were also measured in a subset of participants (n = 56). Relationships between maternal glucose and lipid kinetics during both conditions and infant birth weight were examined. Maternal endogenous glucose production (EGP) rate was higher in OB+DM than OB and Lean during hyperinsulinemia. Maternal insulin value at 50% palmitate R(a) suppression (IC50) for palmitate suppression with insulinemia was higher in OB+DM than OB and Lean. Maternal EGP per unit insulin and plasma free fatty acid concentration during hyperinsulinemia most strongly predicted infant birth weight. Our findings suggest maternal fatty acid and glucose kinetics are altered during late pregnancy and might suggest a mechanism for higher birth weight in obese women with pregestational diabetes

Fine structure and magneto-optics of exciton, trion, and charged biexciton states in single InAs quantum dots emitting at 1.3 um

We present a detailed investigation into the optical characteristics of individual InAs quantum dots (QDs) grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, with low temperature emission in the telecoms window around 1300 nm. Using micro-photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy we have identified neutral, positively charged, and negatively charged exciton and biexciton states. Temperature-dependent measurements reveal dot-charging effects due to differences in carrier diffusivity. We observe a pronounced linearly polarized splitting of the neutral exciton and biexciton lines (~250 ueV) resulting from asymmetry in the QD structure. This asymmetry also causes a mixing of the excited trion states which is manifested in the fine structure and polarization of the charged biexciton emission; from this data we obtain values for the ratio between the anisotropic and isotropic electron-hole exchange energies of (Delta1)/(Delta0)= 0.2--0.5. Magneto-PL spectroscopy has been used to investigate the diamagnetic response and Zeeman splitting of the various exciton complexes. We find a significant variation in g-factor between the exciton, the positive biexciton, and the negative biexciton; this is also attributed to anisotropy effects and the difference in lateral extent of the electron and hole wavefunctions.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Maternal iron status in early pregnancy and birth outcomes : insights from the Baby's Vascular health and Iron in Pregnancy study

Date of Acceptance: 16/03/2015 Acknowledgements N. A. A. was funded by a Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship (WT87789). H. J. M. and H. E. H. are supported by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services. N. A. B. S. is supported by Cerebra. The authors’ contributions are as follows: N. A. A. was responsible for organising the study conduct, data collection and database management, performed the statistical analysis, interpreted the results and drafted the paper. N. A. A., N. A. B. S., J. E. C., H. J. M. and D. C. G. contributed to the study concept and design, and interpretation of results. H. J. M. and H. E. H. analysed the laboratory samples. J. E. C. and D. C. G. provided advice on statistical strategy and analysis. All authors have fully participated in the reporting stage and have critically reviewed and approved the final draft of the paper. The authors declare no conflict of interestPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Associations of maternal iron intake and hemoglobin in pregnancy with offspring vascular phenotypes and adiposity at Age 10: findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children

Background: iron deficiency is common during pregnancy. Experimental animal studies suggest that it increases cardiovascular risk in the offspring.Objective: to examine the relationship between maternal pregnancy dietary and supplement iron intake and hemoglobin, with offspring’s arterial stiffness (measured by carotid-radial pulse wave velocity), endothelial function (measured by brachial artery flow mediated dilatation), blood pressure, and adiposity (measured by body mass index), test for mediation by cord ferritin, birth weight, gestational age, and child dietary iron intake, and for effect modification by maternal vitamin C intake and offspring sex.Design: prospective data from 2958 mothers and children pairs at 10 years of age enrolled in an English birth cohort, the Avon Longitudinal Study for Parents and Children (ALSPAC), was analysed.Results: 2639 (89.2%) mothers reported dietary iron intake in pregnancy below the UK reference nutrient intake of 14.8 mg/day. 1328 (44.9%) reported taking iron supplements, and 129 (4.4%) were anemic by 18 weeks gestation. No associations were observed apart from maternal iron intake from supplements with offspring systolic blood pressure (?0.8 mmHg, 99% CI ?1.7 to 0, P = 0.01 in the sample with all relevant data observed, and ?0.7 mmHg, 99% CI ?1.3 to 0, P = 0.008 in the sample with missing data imputed).Conclusion: there was no evidence of association between maternal pregnancy dietary iron intake, or maternal hemoglobin concentration (which is less likely to be biased by subjective reporting) with offspring outcomes. There was a modest inverse association between maternal iron supplement intake during pregnancy with offspring systolic blood pressure at 10 year