Nutritional Consequences of Food Insecurity in a Rural New York State County

This study of women with children in a rural county of upstate New York examined the relationships of food insecurity and income with two nutritional consequences (adiposity and fruit and vegetables consumption), and assessed whether disordered eating patterns is a mediator for the effects of food insecurity and income on these nutritional consequences. Each of 193 respondents was interviewed twice in her home. Data were collected on household food stores, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, methods of obtaining food, food program participation, household expenditures, food intake, the Radimer/Cornell hunger and food insecurity items, height, weight, frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption, and disordered eating patterns. Regression analysis was used to analyze the relationships of body mass index and an obesity classification with height, income, education, single parenthood, employment, food insecurity, disordered eating, and frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption. Regression analysis was also used to examine the relationships of disordered eating and frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption with the other variables. Lower income and unemployment were related to higher adiposity. The effects of income on adiposity were not mediated through disordered eating patterns or through fruit and vegetable consumption. Food insecurity was related to adiposity, and part of this effect of food insecurity was mediated through disordered eating. This mediating effect of disordered eating partially explained why those experiencing the least severe food insecurity were more likely to be overweight than those who were food secure, but those experiencing the most severe food insecurity were less likely to be overweight than those who were food secure. Food insecurity was related to lower fruit and vegetable consumption, but this did not translate into effects on adiposity.

Inducer dynamics full-flow, full-admission hydraulic turbine drive Interim report for tasks 1, 2, and 3

Hydrodynamical and mechanical design layout for two-speed hydraulic turbine inducer, computer simulation of pumping system and test facility performance, and study of demonstration uni

Estimating the prevalence of hunger and food insecurity: The validity of questionnaire-based measures for the identification of households

This study had three objectives: (1) to assess the validity of questionnaire-based measures in identifying households experiencing hunger and food insecurity, (2) to examine the interrelationships of different questionnaire-based measures, and (3) to examine the construction of a continuous food insecurity scale intended to differentiate three levels of food insecurity within households. A 1993 survey of 193 randomly sampled rural households with women and children living at home provided data on demographics, risk factors for food insecurity, Radimer/Cornell, CCHIP, and NHANES III hunger and food insecurity items, coping strategies, fruit and vegetable consumption, disordered eating behaviors, height, weight, dietary recall, and household food-stores inventory. This information was used to develop a definitive criterion measure for hunger and food insecurity, against which the Radimer/Cornell and CCHIP questionnaire-based measures, the NHANES III item, and the continuous food insecurity scale were tested for their specificity and sensitivity in measuring levels of food insecurity.

Simulations of Spinodal Nucleation in Systems with Elastic Interactions

Systems with long-range interactions quenched into a metastable state near the pseudospinodal exhibit nucleation that is qualitatively different than the classical nucleation observed near the coexistence curve. We have observed nucleation droplets in our Langevin simulations of a two-dimensional model of martensitic transformations and have determined that the structure of the nucleating droplet differs from the stable martensite structure. Our results, together with experimental measurements of the phonon dispersion curve, allow us to predict the nature of the droplet. These results have implications for nucleation in many solid-solid transitions and the structure of the final state

Nonlinear dynamics, rectification, and phase locking for particles on symmetrical two-dimensional periodic substrates with dc and circular ac drives

We investigate the dynamical motion of particles on a two-dimensional symmetric periodic substrate in the presence of both a dc drive along a symmetry direction of the periodic substrate and an additional circular ac drive. For large enough ac drives, the particle orbit encircles one or more potential maxima of the periodic substrate. In this case, when an additional increasing dc drive is applied in the longitudinal direction, the longitudinal velocity increases in a series of discrete steps that are integer multiples of the lattice constant of the substrate times the frequency. Fractional steps can also occur. These integer and fractional steps correspond to distinct stable dynamical orbits. A number of these phases also show a rectification in the positive or negative transverse direction where a non-zero transverse velocity occurs in the absence of a dc transverse drive. We map out the phase diagrams of the regions of rectification as a function of ac amplitude, and find a series of tongues. Most of the features, including the steps in the longitudinal velocity and the transverse rectification, can be captured with a simple toy model and by arguments from nonlinear maps. We have also investigated the effects of thermal disorder and incommensuration on the rectification phenomena, and find that for increasing disorder, the rectification regions are gradually smeared and the longitudinal velocity steps are no longer flat but show a linearly increasing velocity.Comment: 14 pages, 17 postscript figure

An Optical Study of BG Geminorum: An Ellipsoidal Binary with an Unseen Primar Star

We describe optical photometric and spectroscopic observations of the bright variable BG Geminorum. Optical photometry shows a pronounced ellipsoidal variation of the K0 I secondary, with amplitudes of ~0.5 mag at VRI and a period of 91.645 days. A deep primary eclipse is visible for wavelengths < 4400A; a shallower secondary eclipse is present at longer wavelengths. Eclipse timings and the radial velocity curve of the K0 secondary star indicate an interacting binary where a lobe-filling secondary, M_2 ~ 0.5 Msun, transfers material into a extended disk around a massive primary, M_1 ~ 4.5 Msun. The primary star is either an early B-type star or a black hole. If it did contain a black hole, BG Gem would be the longest period black hole binary known by a factor of 10, as well as the only eclipsing black hole binary system.Comment: 27 pages, includes 8 figures and 5 tables, accepted to A

Selenium Content of Feed and of Commercially Grown Turkeys

As a contribution toward the efforts of the American Feed Manufacturers Association\u27s petition to the Food and Drug Administration to permit selenium additions to animal feeds, two flocks of Large Broad White turkeys in South Dakota were monitored. Each flock v/as observed three times during the growing season and at slaughter. Feed samples were taken periodically throughout the growing period and tissue samples were taken after coding and packaging. A portion of the distal end of the pectoralis minor (breast muscle) and the liver were obtained. Selenium analyses were conducted according to the method of Olson (1969)

Silage Additives

SummaryThrough the years a number of materials have been suggested for incorporation into silage to improve the preservation of nutrients, nutritive value or palatability of the silage. In addition to being called additives, some of these materials are referred to as preservatives or conditioners. Especially during recent years, many commercial preparations have been made available to the farmer, who naturally wonders whether their use will be economically sound. Thorough testing of these materials would require that each be used at several levels, with forages at various moisture contents, under different storage conditions and with many kinds of silage. Therefore, it is highly impractical, if not impossible, to attempt thorough testing of each. However, there is sufficient understanding of the process of silage formation, the requirements for preservation of its nutrients, and the principle of action of the ingredients used in the various additives to make sound decisions as to whether they might be economically worth-while. There is, in addition to this understanding, a rather large amount of research which has been done and reported, and this in its summation justifies the use of what is already known to make judgments. In order to make an appropriate judgment, one should be able to answer certain questions, as follows:1.What happens during the process of silage formation? 2. What does the additive being considered contain and what do its ingredients do?3. What is the value of the silage and what is the cost of the additive?4. How much preservation beyond that afforded by good ensiling procedures can one logically expect from the additive?5.Can one expect to improve the feeding value of a silage by using a particular additive?The discussion that follows deals with these questions