Dietary patterns among Vietnamese and Hispanic immigrant elementary school children participating in an after school program

Immigrants in the U.S. may encounter challenges of acculturation, including dietary habits, as they adapt to new surroundings. We examined Vietnamese and Hispanic immigrant children's American food consumption patterns in a convenience sample of 63 Vietnamese and Hispanic children in grades four to six who were attending an after school program. Children indicated the number of times they consumed each of 54 different American foods in the past week using a food frequency questionnaire. We ranked each food according to frequency of consumption, compared the intake of foods to the USDA Healthy Eating Pattern, and performed dietary pattern analysis. Since the data were not normally distributed we used two nonparametric tests to evaluate statistical significance: the Kruskal-Wallis tested for significant gender and ethnicity differences and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test evaluated the food consumption of children compared with the USDA recommended amounts. We found that among USDA categories, discretionary food was most commonly consumed, followed by fruit. The sample as a whole ate significantly less than the recommended amount of grains, protein foods, and dairy, but met the recommended amount of fruit. Boys ate significantly more grains, proteins, and fruits than did girls. Dietary pattern analysis showed a very high sweet snack consumption among all children, while boys ate more fast food and fruit than girls. Foods most commonly consumed were cereal, apples, oranges, and yogurt. Ethnicity differences in food selection were not significant. The high intake of discretionary/snack foods and fruit, with low intake of grains, vegetables, protein, and dairy in our sample suggests Vietnamese and Hispanic immigrant children may benefit from programs to improve diet quality

Intrabodies Binding the Proline-Rich Domains of Mutant Huntingtin Increase Its Turnover and Reduce Neurotoxicity

Although expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) repeats are inherently toxic, causing at least nine neurodegenerative diseases, the protein context determines which neurons are affected. The polyQ expansion that causes Huntington's disease (HD) is in the first exon (HDx-1) of huntingtin (Htt). However, other parts of the protein, including the 17 N-terminal amino acids and two proline (polyP) repeat domains, regulate the toxicity of mutant Htt. The role of the P-rich domain that is flanked by the polyP domains has not been explored. Using highly specific intracellular antibodies (intrabodies), we tested various epitopes for their roles in HDx-1 toxicity, aggregation, localization, and turnover. Three domains in the P-rich region (PRR) of HDx-1 are defined by intrabodies: MW7 binds the two polyP domains, and Happ1 and Happ3, two new intrabodies, bind the unique, P-rich epitope located between the two polyP epitopes. We find that the PRR-binding intrabodies, as well as VL12.3, which binds the N-terminal 17 aa, decrease the toxicity and aggregation of HDx-1, but they do so by different mechanisms. The PRR-binding intrabodies have no effect on Htt localization, but they cause a significant increase in the turnover rate of mutant Htt, which VL12.3 does not change. In contrast, expression of VL12.3 increases nuclear Htt. We propose that the PRR of mutant Htt regulates its stability, and that compromising this pathogenic epitope by intrabody binding represents a novel therapeutic strategy for treating HD. We also note that intrabody binding represents a powerful tool for determining the function of protein epitopes in living cells

DETERMINANTS OF WHOLESALE BEEF-CUT PRICES

Key determinants of monthly wholesale prices for 12 beef cuts include the quantity of the specific cut, stickiness in prices, marketing costs, quantities of pork and chicken, and seasonality. Seasonal patterns across the respective cuts are very different. Relative to the price in December, prices at the wholesale level in other months can be as much as 6 percent lower to as much as 21 percent higher.Wholesale prices, Beef cuts, Seasonality, Demand and Price Analysis, Livestock Production/Industries,

The accuracy of miniature bead thermistors in the measurement of upper air temperature

Thesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Meteorology, January 1967."October 1966." Vita.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-235).A laboratory study was made of the errors of miniature bead thermistors of 5, 10, and 15 mils nominal diameter when used for the measurement of atmospheric temperature. Although the study was primarily concerned with the errors of the thermistors when used in Meteorological rocket soundings between about 70 km and 30 km altitude the results are also valid for other applications of these thermistors at all altitudes down to sea level. Several distinct sources of error are present, and these have each been discussed and estimates of their magnitude made from laboratory tests. In general, all errors increase rapidly above about 50 km. Certain items which had not been fully considered in previous discussions of this problem hale been shown to be highly significant. In particular it is found that the lead wires play an important part in determining thermistor response, particularly at high altitude, and that the temperature rise of the thermistor due to solar radiation is strongly dependent on the radiation absorbed by the lead wires as well as by the bead proper.by Donald C. Thompson.Sc.D

An Integrated Tourism Development Project: The Central Region of Ghana

The Republic of Ghana is located in West Africa approximately 750 kilometers north of the equator. As a country it has gone through a series of economic cycles but due to numerous coups, misguided economic policies, and the vagaries of international markets for export goods most growth has been short lived. Since 1990 economic growth has accelerated and the country is currently governed by an elected President and Parliament. One of the main economic development strategies in the last five years has been tourism

Design of Highway Embankment on Unstable Natural Slopes

Sections of the new Alexandria-Ashland (M) highway in northeastern Kentucky must be located on and through natural slopes of the Kope and Crab Orchard Formations that consist mainly of shales. Numerous highway embankment and cut slope failures have occurred In these two geologic formations In past years. The shales of these formations have very poor and undesirable engineering properties. Many stability problems encountered with the Kope and Crab Orchard shales are caused primarily by the tendency of those shales to breakdown when exposed to water and produce clays and clayey silts of relatively low shear strengths. Construction of highway embankments with, through, and on the shales of the Kope and Crab Orchard Formations has been necessary because of the vast aerial presence of these shales and the Jack of more suitable and economical alternate construction materials. In the design of the AA highway, geotechnical engineers were faced with three difficult problems. First, In forming embankments, there was a question of how the shales should be compacted and what constituted proper compaction. Second, the most difficult problem, perhaps, was the selection of appropriate shear strength parameters of the overconsolidated clays and clayey shales of the natural slope foundations and the embankments constructed of the shales. Numerous landslide studies Involving overconsolidated clays and clay shales show that use of peak strengths from triaxial tests may lead to underconservative designs while use of residual shear strengths may lead to uneconomical designs. A third factor complicating the design of shale embankments on weathered shale slopes Is the seepage of water Into the embankment. Exposure of the lower portions of the embankments composed of Kope and Crab Orchard shales to seepage and rapid-drawdown conditions created by the Ohio River make the shales susceptible to breakdown and swelling and may produce a progressive softening• and decrease In shear strengths. The design of certain sections of the AA highway passing through the Kope and Crab Orchard shales was further complicated by the fact that some natural slopes and existing highway fills having slopes of 3 horizontal to 1 vertical are failing. The design problem became one of placing new highway embankments on existing failing natural slopes. This paper presents case histories to document existing failures and discusses the treatment of the three factors -- compaction, shear strength, and seepage. A discussion of the different aspects of the geotechnical design for new fill placement is presented. Emphasis is placed on the selection and justification of design parameters for foundation and embankment materials as well as the construction procedures and compaction specification that were finally adopted

The CIV-MgII Kinematics Connection in <z>~0.7 Galaxies

We have examined Faint Object Spectrograph data from the Hubble Space Telescope Archive for CIV 1548,1550 absorption associated with 40 MgII 2796,2803 absorption-selected galaxies at 0.4 < z < 1.4. We report a strong correlation between MgII kinematics, measured in 6 km/s resolution HIRES/Keck spectra, and W_r(1548); this implies a physical connection between the processes that produce "outlying velocity" MgII clouds and high ionization galactic/halo gas. We found no trend in ionization condition, W_r(1548)/W_r(2796), with galaxy-QSO line-of-sight separation for 13 systems with confirmed associated galaxies, suggesting no obvious ionization gradient with galactocentric distance in these higher redshift galaxies. We find tentative evidence (2-sigma) that W_r(1548)/W_r(2796) is anti-correlated with galaxy color; if further data corroborate this trend, in view of the strong CIV-MgII kinematics correlation, it could imply a connection between stellar populations, star formation episodes, and the kinematics and ionization conditions of halo gas at z~1.Comment: Accepted to Astrophysical Journal Letters; 4 pages; 3 figures; emulateapj.st

Effect of Mach number on over-all performance of single-stage axial-flow compressor designed for high pressure ratio

A complete stage of an axial-flow compressor designed to produce a high pressure ratio was investigated at speeds from 110 to 130 percent of design speed (836 ft/sec). The data obtained and the results of a previous investigation of the same compressor at speeds from 50 to 100 percent of design speed were used to determine the effect of Mach number on over-all performance. The peak total-pressure ratio increased from 1.095 to 1.515 and the peak adiabatic efficiency decreased from 0.93 to 0.89 as the relative inlet Mach number increased from 0.34 to 0.77. At a relative inlet Mach number of 0.91, a total-pressure ratio of 1.635 was obtained at an adiabatic efficiency of 0.74