Nutrition Education in Clark County, Nevada

Over 51 million school hours are missed annually by school-aged children due to a dental problem or visit, with 117 hours missed per 100 children (NIDCR, 2002). Approximately half a million of California\u27s 7.2 million school-age children missed at least one day of school in 2007 because of dental issues such as toothaches (Pourat, & Nicholson, 2009). Independent research regarding various educational and intervention programs have been conducted in elementary schools across the country that focus on nutrition and/or physical activity, some of which have found that the programs positively impacted students’ dietary behaviors (Edwards, Mauch, & Winkelman, 2011; Muth, Chatterjee, Williams, Cross, & Flower, 2008; Tuuri et al., 2009). However, there does not appear to be literature regarding the standardization of nutrition and oral health education curricula for elementary school children. Nevertheless, there are school districts that have well structured health education curricula that cover nutrition and oral health education (California Department of Education, 2009; Central Michigan University, 2005). All of these reports are in agreement with Dietz, et al (2008) which reported that nutrition and oral hygiene education should be an integral part of keeping growing children healthy and forming good nutrition habits that will carry into adulthood

Improving the spatial distribution of modeled Arctic sea ice thickness

The spatial distribution of ice thickness/draft in the Arctic Ocean is examined using a sea ice model. A comparison of model predictions with submarine observations of sea ice draft made during cruises between 1987 and 1997 reveals that the model has the same deficiencies found in previous studies, namely ice that is too thick in the Beaufort Sea and too thin near the North Pole. We find that increasing the large scale shear strength of the sea ice leads to substantial improvements in the model's spatial distribution of sea ice thickness, and simultaneously improves the agreement between modeled and ERS-derived 1993–2001 mean winter ice thickness

Structure of a Multi-Year Pressure Ridge

Three transverse profiles across a large pressure ridge located in the Beaufort Sea are presented. The ridge sail extended 4m. above sea level and the ridge keel 13 m. below. The cross-sections of the ridge keel can be described as roughly semi-circular. This suggests that form drag coefficients for flow transverse to the long axes of multi-year ridges may be as high as 0.8. Examination of several salinity, temperature and brine-volume profiles shows that much of the ice in the ridge has a very low salinity and is quite strong. All the inter-block voids that initially existed in the ridge at the time of its formation have been completely filled with ice. These observations, coupled with icebreaking experience indicate that multi-year ridges are, indeed, significant obstacles to even the largest icebreaking ship and should be avoided if possible. A very large first year ridge with a sail height of 12.8 m. is also described. This is the largest free-floating ridge yet measured

Effect of a static non-uniform magnetic field on the surface properties of acrylic resin

INTRODUCTION: The acrylic resin is a polymeric material with several applications in different scientific and technological fields, especially in medicine and biotechnology. Its physical characteristics or their possible modifications can imply new ways of utilization and applicability. OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of a magnetic field on the surface physico-chemical properties usually implied in bacterial adhesion, especially surface hydrophobicity. METHODS: the hydrophobicity of the resin surface was determined by sessile drop contact angle measurements, using van Oss (1994) methodology. Accordingly, a substance (i) is considered hydrophobic when the variation of the free energy of interaction between two entities of substance (i) immersed in water is negative (DGiwi<0). That is to say, the two entities of substance (i) interact preferentially between them then with water. On the contrary, if DGiwi>0, substance (i) is hydrophilic. Two types of resin samples were used: hydrated and non-hydrated ones. The hydrated samples were obtained by autoclaving at 121ºC. Before contact angle measurements, the samples submitted to the magnetic field were exposed during 24 hours to a field of 500gauss generated between to parallel magnetite plates. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The principal results are summarized in Table 1. As could be expected the hydrated resin is hydrophilic, while the dehydrated is hydrophobic. However, when the hydrated resin is submitted to the magnetic field it becomes even more hydrophobic than when dehydrated. This can be explained by the effect of the magnetic field on the orientation of the water molecules of hydration. Consequently, there is an evident alteration of surface properties promoted by the magnetic field

Analysis of lead levels in deciduous teeth from children in Clark County, Nevada.

Background: Elevated blood lead levels (EBLL) are declining in the United States, although some population subgroups continue to exhibit significant health disparities. A childhood lead poisoning prevention program was recently started in Nevada, and many efforts have been made to support this program and increase the screening rates. Methods: To expand the potential pool of children screened for EBLLs, a pilot study was performed to evaluate lead concentrations in extracted deciduous teeth using Graphic Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (GFAAS), Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis. Results: Lead concentrations as determined by GFAAS and ICP-MS were found to be within normal ranges (0.585 ppm ± 0.022) and were similar to previous studies. Hispanic patients exhibited higher lead levels (0.580 ppm ± 0.032) than Black (0.478 ppm ± 0.051) patients, and were significantly higher than White (0.275 ppm ± 0.035) patients (p \u3c 0.05). Analysis of a small number of matched saliva samples, however, found no evidence for acute lead poisoning. Although limited by a small initial sample size (n=22), this pilot study provides evidence that teeth can be effectively used to reveal lead exposure in pediatric dentistry patients

A multithickness sea ice model accounting for sliding friction

A multithickness sea ice model explicitly accounting for the ridging and sliding friction contributions to sea ice stress is developed. Both ridging and sliding contributions depend on the deformation type through functions adopted from the Ukita and Moritz kinematic model of floe interaction. In contrast to most previous work, the ice strength of a uniform ice sheet of constant ice thickness is taken to be proportional to the ice thickness raised to the 3/2 power, as is revealed in discrete element simulations by Hopkins. The new multithickness sea ice model for sea ice stress has been implemented into the Los Alamos “CICE” sea ice model code and is shown to improve agreement between model predictions and observed spatial distribution of sea ice thickness in the Arctic

Circulation and water mass transformation in a model of the Chukchi Sea

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 112 (2007): C05025, doi:10.1029/2005JC003364.The circulation and water mass transformation in a regional ocean-ice model of the Chukchi Sea are discussed. The model has horizontal resolution of O(4 km), is forced by fluxes derived from daily NCEP reanalysis fields, and has seasonally varying transport, temperature, and salinity imposed at Bering Strait. Many of the observed characteristics of the mean circulation and seasonal cycle in the Chukchi Sea are reproduced. The discussion focuses on: the branching of the inflow transport into pathways following Herald Canyon, Central Channel, and the Alaskan coast; the pattern of ice melt; and the water mass transformation and formation of winter water and hypersaline water. The ice melt pattern and timing is strongly influenced by advection through Bering Strait. High frequency forcing results in a larger region of ice melt, particularly over the shoals and in the northern Chukchi Sea, compared to monthly mean forcing. In the model, the seasonal cycle of salinity in the southern and central Chukchi Sea is dominated by advection through Bering Strait, while local atmospheric forcing and brine rejection are more important north of Herald and Hanna Shoals and in Barrow Canyon. However, since the residence time in the Chukchi Sea is generally less than 1 year, interannual variability in the Bering Strait salinity will be reflected in the salinity across the Chukchi Sea and at Barrow Canyon.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs under grant 0421904

Modeling transport and fate of riverine dissolved organic carbon in the Arctic Ocean

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles 23 (2009): GB4006, doi:10.1029/2008GB003396.The spatial distribution and fate of riverine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the Arctic may be significant for the regional carbon cycle but are difficult to fully characterize using the sparse observations alone. Numerical models of the circulation and biogeochemical cycles of the region can help to interpret and extrapolate the data and may ultimately be applied in global change sensitivity studies. Here we develop and explore a regional, three-dimensional model of the Arctic Ocean in which, for the first time, we explicitly represent the sources of riverine DOC with seasonal discharge based on climatological field estimates. Through a suite of numerical experiments, we explore the distribution of DOC-like tracers with realistic riverine sources and a simple linear decay to represent remineralization through microbial degradation. The model reproduces the slope of the DOC-salinity relationship observed in the eastern and western Arctic basins when the DOC tracer lifetime is about 10 years, consistent with published inferences from field data. The new empirical parameterization of riverine DOC and the regional circulation and biogeochemical model provide new tools for application in both regional and global change studies.I.M.M. and M.J.F. are grateful to National Science Foundation for financial support

Consistent and contrasting decadal Arctic sea ice thickness predictions from a highly optimized sea ice model

[1] Decadal hindcast simulations of Arctic Ocean sea ice thickness made by a modern dynamic-thermodynamic sea ice model and forced independently by both the ERA-40 and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data sets are compared for the first time. Using comprehensive data sets of observations made between 1979 and 2001 of sea ice thickness, draft, extent, and speeds, we find that it is possible to tune model parameters to give satisfactory agreement with observed data, thereby highlighting the skill of modern sea ice models, though the parameter values chosen differ according to the model forcing used. We find a consistent decreasing trend in Arctic Ocean sea ice thickness since 1979, and a steady decline in the Eastern Arctic Ocean over the full 40-year period of comparison that accelerated after 1980, but the predictions of Western Arctic Ocean sea ice thickness between 1962 and 1980 differ substantially. The origins of differing thickness trends and variability were isolated not to parameter differences but to differences in the forcing fields applied, and in how they are applied. It is argued that uncertainty, differences and errors in sea ice model forcing sets complicate the use of models to determine the exact causes of the recently reported decline in Arctic sea ice thickness, but help in the determination of robust features if the models are tuned appropriately against observations

Sedentary behavior is associated with colorectal adenoma recurrence in men

Purpose The association between physical activity and colorectal adenoma is equivocal. This study was designed to assess the relationship between physical activity and colorectal adenoma recurrence. Methods Pooled analyses from two randomized, controlled trials included 1,730 participants who completed the Arizona Activity Frequency Questionnaire at baseline, had a colorectal adenoma removed within 6 months of study registration, and had a follow-up colonoscopy during the trial. Logistic regression modeling was employed to estimate the effect of sedentary behavior, light-intensity physical activity, and moderate-vigorous physical activity on colorectal adenoma recurrence. Results No statistically significant trends were found for any activity type and odds of colorectal adenoma recurrence in the pooled population. However, males with the highest levels of sedentary time experienced 47 % higher odds of adenoma recurrence. Compared to the lowest quartile of sedentary time, the ORs (95 % CIs) for the second, third, and fourth quartiles among men were 1.23 (0.88, 1.74), 1.41 (0.99, 2.01), and 1.47 (1.03, 2.11), respectively (p trend = 0.03). No similar association was observed for women. Conclusions This study suggests that sedentary behavior is associated with a higher risk of colorectal adenoma recurrence among men, providing evidence of detrimental effects of a sedentary lifestyle early in the carcinogenesis pathway