Information on nutritional supplement labels: time for legislation?

Background: Nutritional supplements have received attention both from food manufacturers, as a means of marketing the added value to health; and from consumers, in terms of awareness, education, and improved health. To assist this process, it is important to have specific knowledge and understanding of the claims made on labels of nutritional supplement products used for general, and more specifically, for sports consumers. The industry is not regulated, and therefore the claims that are made may not always be accurate.Method: The aim was to describe the labelling and claims information on the labels of a select group of nutritional supplements, either manufactured in, or imported into South Africa. Specific predetermined categories of labelling and claims made on the containers were assessed and summarised.Results: Forty products were selected for analysis, of which 21 (53%) were locally assembled or manufactured products, and 19 (48%), international imported products. Ninety-five per cent of products contained a warning statement on the label. Eighty-five per cent of the nutritional supplement products had a disclaimer on the label. Ninety-eight per cent of the nutritional supplement product labels included some claim on the label.Conclusion: The following information, in particular, needs to be regulated and enforced as part of the labelling process, to ensure that the consumer can make an informed choice. This includes highlighting the potential for adverse events, encouraging warning statements pertaining to “exclusion of use, and “not a cure for disease states”, and alerting consumers of the potential for the presence of banned substances, based on laboratory screen methods.Keywords: nutritional, supplements, contaminants, claims, legislation, labellin

Using an inverse modelling approach to evaluate the water retention in a simple water harvesting technique

In arid and semi-arid zones, runoff harvesting techniques are often applied to increase the water retention and infiltration on steep slopes. Additionally, they act as an erosion control measure to reduce land degradation hazards. Nevertheless, few efforts were observed to quantify the water harvesting processes of these techniques and to evaluate their efficiency. In this study, a combination of detailed field measurements and modelling with the HYDRUS-2D software package was used to visualize the effect of an infiltration trench on the soil water content of a bare slope in northern Chile. Rainfall simulations were combined with high spatial and temporal resolution water content monitoring in order to construct a useful dataset for inverse modelling purposes. Initial estimates of model parameters were provided by detailed infiltration and soil water retention measurements. Four different measurement techniques were used to determine the saturated hydraulic conductivity (<I>K</I><sub>sat</sub>) independently. The tension infiltrometer measurements proved a good estimator of the <I>K</I><sub>sat</sub> value and a proxy for those measured under simulated rainfall, whereas the pressure and constant head well infiltrometer measurements showed larger variability. Six different parameter optimization functions were tested as a combination of soil-water content, water retention and cumulative infiltration data. Infiltration data alone proved insufficient to obtain high model accuracy, due to large scatter on the data set, and water content data were needed to obtain optimized effective parameter sets with small confidence intervals. Correlation between the observed soil water content and the simulated values was as high as <I>R</I><sup>2</sup>=0.93 for ten selected observation points used in the model calibration phase, with overall correlation for the 22 observation points equal to 0.85. The model results indicate that the infiltration trench has a significant effect on soil-water storage, especially at the base of the trench

Attitudes towards nutritional supplement use amongst adult gymnasium users in Johannesburg North

Background: Nutritional supplements refer to a product ingested to increase the nutritional content of a normal diet, to fill a dietary need and/or presumed deficiency. The usage and popularity of nutritional supplements, however, raises concerns from a health benefit and risk perspective. In South Africa, there is currently no adequate regulatory framework of enforcement for nutritional supplement products and undeclared constituents by the statutory body, the Medicines Control Council (MCC). Education awareness programmes by organisations that should take consumer protection and the general public health and wellness as a right, needs to be improved. Objectives: To investigate the attitudes toward nutritional supplements by adult gym users from commercial gymnasiums in the Johannesburg North region of South Africa. Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative design, using a selfadministered questionnaire was applied to 364 recruited study participants who attended commercial gymnasiums in Johannesburg North. Results: One hundred and fifty users (41%) claimed that they ‘always’ read the information about the nutritional values, benefits, and side effects of the supplements on the labels prior to use. Three hundred and three users (83%) indicated that the number of users of nutritional supplements in gymnasiums is on the increase. Two hundred and seventy-three (75%) of main information sources for nutritional supplements may be found on the internet, while 292 (80%) indicated the need for gymnasiums to provide educational programmes pertaining to nutritional supplement consumption. Conclusion: Gymnasium users are aware of the increase in nutritional supplement use in commercial gymnasiums. Many of the users were unaware of the potential mislabelling and health concerns regarding these supplements. Therefore there is a need for improved nutritional supplement education programmes and diligence at multiple levels

Enrichment of Organic Carbon in Sediment Transport by Interrill and Rill Erosion Processes

Erosion and loss of organic carbon (OC) result in degradation of the soil surface. Rill and interrill erosion processes on a silt loam soil were examined in laboratory rainfall and flume experiments. These experiments showed that rill and interrill erosion processes have contrasting impacts on enrichment of OC in transported sediment. Rill erosion was found to be nonselective, while for interrill erosion the enrichment ratio of OC, EROC, varied between 0.9 and 2.6 and was inversely related to the unit sediment discharge. At unit sediment discharge values >0.0017 kg s(-1) m(-1), the EROC remained equal to 1. The enrichment process was not influenced by raindrop impact. Enrichment of OC by "aggregate stripping" was found to be unimportant in our study. This was attributed to the low aggregate stability of the soil and the equal distribution of OC within the different soil aggregate classes

Increasing compliance with wearing a medical device in children with autism

Health professionals often recommend the use of medical devices to assess the health, monitor the well-being, or improve the quality of life of their patients. Children with autism may present challenges in these situations as their sensory peculiarities may increase refusals to wear such devices. To address this issue, we systematically replicated prior research by examining the effects of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) to increase compliance with wearing a heart rate monitor in 2 children with autism. The intervention increased compliance to 100% for both participants when an edible reinforcer was delivered every 90 s. The results indicate that DRO does not require the implementation of extinction to increase compliance with wearing a medical device. More research is needed to examine whether the reinforcement schedule can be further thinned

The effects of equine-assisted activities on the social functioning in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

Equine-assisted activities and therapies are increasing in popularity for treatment of ASD symptoms. This research evaluated effects of a 5-week programme of therapeutic riding on social functioning of children/adolescents (N = 15) with ASD. The effectiveness of the programme was evaluated using the autism spectrum quotient, the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scale and the empathising and systemising quotient. Results established that the TR intervention increased empathising and reduced maladaptive behaviours. The findings also indicated that specific adaptive behaviours like socialization and communication were not affected by the intervention. Thus, a complex picture of the effects of this intervention emerges: while TR does not change all of the child’s behaviour, it can improve specific aspects of social functioning and also reduce maladaptive ASD traits

The effect of vegetation patterns on Aeolian mass flux at regional scale: A wind tunnel study

ABSTRACT Although insight on the effect of vegetation pattern on Aeolian mass transport is essential for re-planting degraded land, only limited knowledge on this effect is available. The objective of this research was to understand the effect of vegetation design on the Aeolian mass flux inside a single land unit and at the borders among land units. A simulation of Atriplex halimus shrubs inside a wind tunnel was made, and sand redistribution was measured after the application of 200-230 seconds wind at a speed of 11 ms-1. The study showed that: 1) sediment maximum transport inside a single land unit is related to the neighboring land units and to the vegetation pattern within both the unit itself and the neighboring land units; 2) the effect of neighboring land units includes the protection effect and the ruling of sediment crossing from one land unit to the neighboring land units; 3) for the designing of re-planting of degraded land the ‘streets’ (zones of erosion areas similar to streets) effect need to be considered; and 4) in addition to the general knowledge needed on the effect of vegetation pattern on the erosion and deposition within an area, it is important to have insight on the redistribution of sediment at small scales upon the aim of the project. Key words: wind erosion; vegetation pattern; wind-blown mass transport; wind tunne