LINKING A TOXIC GLUCOSE METABOLITE TO GLYCEMIC AND CARDIOVASCULAR RESPONSES IN AN OMNIVORE COMPARED TO A CARNIVORE

Pet nutrition is becoming increasingly important to pet owners with more owners claiming that they are conscious of the ingredients in their pet foods. Healthy whole nutritious pet foods are important to pet owners although some of the health claims made by pet food companies do not have a scientific basis. High protein costs are a common driver for the pet food industry to formulate their foods with increased levels of carbohydrates. Cats have different nutritional requirements, and being a carnivorous species, are thought to handle high levels of ingested carbohydrates poorly. The purpose of this thesis was to determine how glycemic index values differed for various starches and diets in a carnivorous species, cats, and an omnivorous species, dogs. With this novel information, low glycemic index diets were formulated using either modified cornstarch or pulse starches (pea, lentil or faba bean) as carbohydrate sources. I aimed to provide long-term health benefits to dogs and cats through feeding low glycemic index diets that would control postprandial glycemic and insulinemic responses, plus reduce postprandial levels of the toxic glucose metabolite, methylglyoxal, and promote cardiovascular health. Two studies were designed to determine the research objectives: • Determine species metabolic differences (dog versus cat) to both low and high glycemic index carbohydrate sources, and link these to postprandial cardiovascular and methylglyoxal results; and • Compare long-term health benefits of diets formulated with pulse starch to a modified cornstarch diet in dogs versus cats, including digestibility, glycemic, insulinemic, and cardiovascular responses, and postprandial methylglyoxal levels. For the first study the glycemic index was determined for nine different starch sources and four whole formulated diets in laboratory beagles and domestic, mixed breed cats. For this first study, I related the postprandial glycemic and insulinemic responses to methylglyoxal and cardiovascular responses after single feedings in animals not previously acclimated to the test diets. The results from this study showed that pulse starches produce lower GI values in both dogs and cats when compared to common pet food ingredients such as unmodified corn, rice flour and white wheat flour, and other starch sources such as tapioca, modified cornstarch, and potato. However, in dogs only, the potato starch produced the lowest GI value. When modified cornstarch versus pulse starches (pea, lentil or faba bean) were used at a 30% inclusion rate in whole diets, glycemic responses increased in both species, likely due to formulation and processing effects. Contradictory to what was initially thought, cats can handle higher amounts of carbohydrates in their diets which is shown by the low glycemic responses and high digestibility of the pure starches and whole diets. Postprandial increases in plasma glucose were linked with increased levels of methylglyoxal in dogs. In contrast, in cats, there was no association between glycemic index and postprandial methylglyoxal changes. Interestingly methylglyoxal decreases from pre-feeding to 60 minutes postprandial were observed for most of the starches and whole diets. Contradictory to the acute study, the long-term study results showed that this link between postprandial glycemic response and methylglyoxal is not supported in dogs. The long-term study results in the cats agree with the acute study in that there was no link between postprandial methylglyoxal levels and glycemic index. The results from this study support the use of low glycemic pulse carbohydrate sources in pet food, which can now be marketed as low glycemic index food using scientific support. I also showed that cats are able to control postprandial blood glucose levels following consumption of multiple starch sources, contradictory to what has been previously reported in the literature

Assessing Undergraduate Sustainability Knowledge at California Polytechnic State University

Sustainability education has become an important focus of many higher education institutions (HEIs), with the inclusion of many sustainability-related learning objectives for undergraduate students. As sustainability is a new, rising discipline, an increasing number of HEIs have made efforts to assess their teaching and learning effectiveness. However, most assessments fall short in determining the relationship between sustainability curriculum and the impacts on leaning outcomes. Therefore, this study aims to assess the impact of academic setting, specifically of a structured sustainability curriculum, on undergraduate sustainability knowledge, as well as analyze the implications of perceived barriers and opportunities to implementing sustainability into academics. Using California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) as a case study, this research emphasizes the results from an online sustainability knowledge survey administered to honors students who take a structured sustainability knowledge curriculum and general students who are not required to take any sustainability courses, but can elect to do so. The study reveals that honors students have significantly higher sustainability knowledge scores (SKS) after taking a structured sustainability curriculum, but also reveals that those post-curriculum SKS of honors students are not significantly different from that of general students after taking 3 courses. The results further indicate that honors students that take a 3-course sustainability curriculum do not score significantly higher than those that take a 1-course sustainability curriculum. However, general students that take 3 sustainability-related courses score significantly higher than general students who take 0, or 1 to 2 sustainability-related courses. These results suggest that unlike honors students, general students need to take a minimum of 3 courses in sustainability to achieve significantly higher SKS. The findings also show that the SKS of students do not significantly differ across colleges and that the SKS of students in the general population have the potential to improve, suggesting that additional sustainability education can benefit all students. Additionally, the analysis of student perceptions reveals that students support the integration of sustainability into existing courses, which can help address the main perceived barriers of time constraints, lack of course promotion, and lack of relevance to major. Ultimately, the results suggest that university-level decision-makers should focus efforts on integrating sustainability into existing courses, increasing the opportunity for all students to take at least 3 sustainability-related courses during their undergraduate experience. Such efforts would be a first step in developing sustainability education at an HEI and would help achieve significant improvement in undergraduate student SKS

An overview of temperature issues in microwave-assisted pyrolysis

Microwave-assisted pyrolysis is a promising thermochemical technique to convert waste polymers and biomass into raw chemicals and fuels. However, this process involves several issues related to the interactions between materials and microwaves. Consequently, the control of temperature during microwave-assisted pyrolysis is a hard task both for measurement and uniformity during the overall pyrolytic run. In this review, we introduce some of the main theoretical aspects of the microwaves–materials interactions alongside the issues related to microwave pyrolytic processability of materials

State of mediterranean forests in 2013

Forest ecosystems and other wooded lands contribute significantly to rural development, poverty alleviation and food security. They are sources of wood, cork, energy, food and incomes, and important ecosystem services which are crucial for many of the region’s economic sectors. Global changes which strongly affect the Mediterranean region could lead to the loss of biodiversity, an increased risk of wildfire, the degradation of watersheds, and desertification, with serious consequences for the sustainable provision of forest goods and ecosystem services. It is therefore urgent to develop a tool for information and monitoring in order to regularly assess these changes and to communicate based on objective and reliable data with the different stakeholders involved in the management of Mediterranean forest ecosystems

L’état des forêts méditerranéennes en 2013

Les écosystèmes forestiers et autres espaces boisés méditerranéens contribuent de façon significative au développement rural, à la réduction de la pauvreté et à la sécurité alimentaire des populations des territoires méditerranéens. Ils sont à la fois sources de bois, de liège, d’énergie, de nourriture, de revenus et de multiples autres biens et services environnementaux souvent cruciaux pour de nombreux secteurs économiques de la région. Les changements qui affectent fortement le pourtour de la Méditerranée hypothèquent l’avenir des écosystèmes forestiers et autres espaces boisés, et remettent en cause la fourniture durable des multiples biens et services en faveur des populations. Il devenait donc urgent de se doter d’un outil d’information et de suivi capable de mesurer régulièrement ces changements et de communiquer avec les différents acteurs impliqués dans la gestion des écosystèmes forestiers méditerranéens

Feedback and potential uses of the "Imagine" method : A systemic and predictive analysis of sustainability -

Preoccupation with the environment has gained increasing prominence, reflected in social and political demands for general public participation in the conception ad implementation of long-term strategy for defined geographical or administrative areas. In this context, the Blue Plan has developed, tested and consolidated a method of systemic, predictive and proactive analysis "Imagine", that proposes tools for describing, evaluating and investigating the degree of sustainability of a socio-ecosystem. It is based on a participatory approach that considers local stakeholders and others involved as experts in their area

Retours d'expériences et perspectives d'utilisation de la méthode "Imagine". Analyse systémique et prospective de durabilité -

La montée en puissance des préoccupations environnementales se traduit par des demandes sociale et politique en faveur de la participation du public à la conception et la mise en uvre de stratégies territoriales de long terme. Dans ce contexte, le Plan Bleu a développé, expérimenté et consolidé une méthode d'analyse systémique et prospective territoriale, "Imagine", qui propose des outils pour décrire, évaluer et explorer le niveau de durabilité d'un éco-socio-système, à travers une approche participative considérant les acteurs locaux comme experts de leur territoire