Saturated fats, dairy foods and health: a curious paradox?

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain a major cause of death and morbidity worldwide. Dietary guidelines aim to restrict the intake of saturated fatty acids (SFA) as they are regarded as an important risk factor for CVD due to their association with increased blood cholesterol. As dairy foods are major contributors of dietary SFA, there have been guidelines to reduce consumption of these foods. However, it is now generally accepted that the effects of reducing intake of SFA are dependent on what replaces them in the diet. Reduced CVD risk has been associated with replacement of SFA with cis-polyunsaturated fatty acids (cis-PUFA) and/or cis-monounsaturated fatty acids (cis-MUFA), with replacement by carbohydrate leading to no reduction or even increased CVD risk. Most studies on the effect of diet/food on CVD risk have used total cholesterol (TC) and/or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in blood as the marker(s) of risk. However, because of potentially attenuating effects of dairy foods (e.g. effect of protein on blood lipids and blood pressure; food matrix effects on fat bioavailability), a wider range of markers is needed to more fully evaluate disease risk. Nevertheless, whilst prospective evidence shows no increase in CVD risk from high dairy consumption, it is still unclear whether replacing a proportion of SFA in dairy fat with cis-MUFA will lead to reduced CVD risk. The relatively few randomised controlled trials that have examined this using TC/LDL-C as risk markers give some indications of reduced CVD risk from consumption of milk and dairy products with modified fatty acid composition, compared with those of normal milk fat composition. The results of ongoing studies will add valuable new evidence on this issue

Four Essays in the Measurement of Governance Institutions

This dissertation produces a new set of orthogonal governance measures based on expert assessment data. Chapter 1 constructs the measures using a factor model. Chapter 2 applies the measures to study comparative economic development. Chapter 3 conducts a number of robustness checks on results from the first two chapters. Chapter 4 uses Monte Carlo experiments to assess potential inaccuracy in my governance measures caused by the application of the maximum-likelihood estimator to polytomous data

Feminist Scholarship Review

Published from 1991 through 2007 at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, the Feminist Scholarship Review is a literary journal that describes women\u27s experiences around the world. FSR began as a review of feminist scholarly material, but evolved into a journal for poetry and short storie

Feminist Scholarship Review

Published from 1991 through 2007 at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, the Feminist Scholarship Review is a literary journal that describes women\u27s experiences around the world. FSR began as a review of feminist scholarly material, but evolved into a journal for poetry and short storie

The Nuffield approach to the teaching of mechanisms at key stage 3

Mechanical control has been a significant and popular aspect of technology education throughout it's recent history in England and Wales. It has had a clear place in the latest national curriculum programme of study for design and technology. The Nuffield Design and Technology Project takes a systematic approach to giving pupils the resources to design and make, together with opportunities to develop design and technology capabilities through applying these resources. In establishing the "what" of learning about mechanisms, the project has sought to identify knowledge and understanding which pupils are likely to need, and be able to apply, in the course of their designing and making. In addressing the "how", the project has developed teaching and learning approaches which engage pupils in identifying, selecting, designing, modelling and making mechanisms to fulfil a specification. This paper gives a detailed account of these approaches, and the rationale behind them

Digital Devotions: Constructing Sexual and Spiritual Identities through Queer Saint Narratives Online

This dissertation is a digitally-based ethnographic study examining narratives by and about sexual and gender minorities (SGM) around saint veneration and discourse. Online forums and blogs are an easily accessible and safe space that both SGM and their detractors are increasingly utilizing. The current study, a 2016 to 2018 assessment of websites, blogs, forums, and an online Roman Catholic support group, demonstrates that within online platforms, various authors and communities are using Christian saints to interpret and construct components of SGM religious and sexual identities and their intersections with theological, cultural, and socio-political concerns. Couched within the context of the intersecting histories of sexual and gender minorities experience and religious venerative traditions in America, this work highlights English-speaking online communities and assesses common themes and uses of saints among these sites, unpacking the ways in which they contribute to specific narratives and subjective, relational experiences. Specifically, Digital Devotions finds that communities are using saint symbolism to express their spirituality, model ideas or behaviors, or experience components of both individual subjectivity and group identity. These demarcations range from queer subjectivity and/or gender identity to religious expression and other political or cultural affiliations. Historically, hagiographies have never been written with historical accuracy or empirical plausibility as their primary concern. Now, contested saint narratives are found among communities who use them to promote heteronormative relationships and denounce queer lives but even more frequently in communities promoting queer and affirming interpretations of saints and legitimizing diverse sexual and gender identities. Examining these parallel efforts through lenses of queer studies, camp, and rhetorical and cultural analysis, the dissertation primarily contributes to the academic fields of queer studies and lived religion. Within these disciplines, new roles imagined for saints speak to the ongoing salience of subjectivity as a queer way of relating to experience and culture as well as the ongoing innovation occurring in and with Catholic traditions. These findings have speak to subversive saint narratives’ potential to reduce or perpetuate social and ecclesiastic stigma and contribute to larger social narratives in American society

A narrative review of the role of foods as dietary sources of vitamin D of ethnic minority populations with darker skin: the underestimated challenge

In recent years, vitamin D deficiency has attracted attention worldwide. Especially many ethnic minority populations are considered at high-risk of vitamin D deficiency, owing to a lesser ability to synthesis vitamin D from sunlight (ultraviolet B), due to the skin pigment melanin and/or reduced skin exposure due to coverage required by religious and cultural restrictions. Therefore, vitamin D intake from dietary sources has become increasingly important for many ethnic minority populations to achieve adequate vitamin D status compared with the majority of the population. The aim of the study was critically evaluate the vitamin D intake and vitamin D status of the ethnic minority populations with darker skin, and also vitamin D absorption from supplements and ultraviolet B. Pubmed, Embaase and Scopus were searched for articles published up to October 2018. The available evidence showed ethnic minority populations generally have a lower vitamin D status than the majority populations. The main contributory food sources for dietary vitamin D intake were different for ethnic minority populations and majority populations, due to vary dietary patterns. Future strategies to increase dietary vitamin D intake by food fortification or biofortification needs to be explored, not only for the majority population but more specifically for ethnic minority populations who are generally of lower vitamin D status

Redescription of the \u3ci\u3eAllomyia renoa\u3c/i\u3e (Milne) female and association and description of the male and larva (Trichoptera: Apataniidae)

Allomyia renoa (Milne, 1935) (Trichoptera: Apataniidae) was described from six females. The male association is verified in this paper. The original type locality information is limited: “Reno, Nev., ‘78, Morrison”. An Allomyia Banks population found at Mount Rose in Washoe County, Nevada, was compared to the A. renoa type material and found to be the conspecific. Figures, descriptions and distribution of male, female, pupal and larval A. renoa are provided

Redescription of the \u3ci\u3eAllomyia renoa\u3c/i\u3e (Milne) female and association and description of the male and larva (Trichoptera: Apataniidae)

Allomyia renoa (Milne, 1935) (Trichoptera: Apataniidae) was described from six females. The male association is verified in this paper. The original type locality information is limited: “Reno, Nev., ‘78, Morrison”. An Allomyia Banks population found at Mount Rose in Washoe County, Nevada, was compared to the A. renoa type material and found to be the conspecific. Figures, descriptions and distribution of male, female, pupal and larval A. renoa are provided