INFORMATIONAL EFFECTS OF NUTRIENT INTAKE DETERMINANTS ON CHOLESTEROL CONSUMPTION

Nutrient information and dietary data for a sample of U.S. household meal planners are used to estimate the direct and indirect effects of various dietary determinants on cholesterol intake. Holding sociodemographic and household characteristics constant, greater nutrition information translates to significantly lower intake of dietary cholesterol. Evidence supports the hypothesis that schooling promotes better health behavior through greater acquisition and use of health information. Blacks and Hispanics stand to benefit from nutrition education programs to increase their awareness of diet-health relationship. A low-calorie diet decreases the intake of cholesterol more than a low-fat diet.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Decreased survival of mosquito cells after stable transfection with a Drosophila ecdysteroid response element: Possible involvement of a 40 kDa DNA binding protein

Homologous transfection systems provide a useful tool for characterizing promoters and other regulatory elements from cloned genes. We have used cultured Aedes albopictus C7–10 mosquito cells to evaluate expression of 20-hydroxyecdysone-inducible genes. Although this cell line has previously been shown to synthesize components of the ecdysteroid receptor and ecdysone-inducible proteins, the well-characterized ecdysteroid response element (EcRE) from the Drosophila hsp27 promoter failed to confer a substantial 20-hydroxyecdysone mediated induction in transfected mosquito cells. Recovery of stably transformed clones was also reduced in a DNA dependent manner when the EcREs were in the sense orientation, relative to control plasmids lacking the EcREs or containing an antisense construct. Finally, when tandem EcREs were placed within the hsp70 promoter, CAT activity was detected only after prolonged enzyme incubation, suggesting that the DNA interfered with cellular metabolism. In these constructs, we noted that the promoter DNA contained several potential binding sites for the activator protein-1 (AP-1) transcription factor, one of which lay between the tandem EcREs. On southwestern blots, a 40 kDa nuclear protein from C7–10 cells bound to DNA containing AP-1 sites. A DNA affinity column was used to partially purify the 40 kDa protein, and western analysis showed that the mosquito protein cross-reacted with a heterologous antibody to JUN. Likewise, mRNA from C7–10 cells cross-hybridized with the jun cDNA from Drosophila. These results suggest that like estrogen, 20-hydroxyecdysone interfaces with AP-1 as a co-activator protein that modulates the overall hormone response

Exploring prospects of novel drugs for tuberculosis

Tuberculosis remains a disease with an enormous impact on public health worldwide. With the continuously increasing epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis, new drugs are desperately needed. However, even for the treatment of drug-sensitive tuberculosis, new drugs are required to shorten the treatment duration and thereby prevent development of drug resistance. Within the past ten years, major advances in tuberculosis drug research have been made, leading to a considerable number of antimycobacterial compounds which are now in the pipeline. Here we discuss a number of these novel promising tuberculosis drugs, as well as the discovery of two new potential drug targets for the development of novel effective drugs to curb the tuberculosis pandemic, ie, the coronin 1 and protein kinase G pathways. Protein kinase G is secreted by mycobacteria and is responsible for blocking lysosomal delivery within the macrophage. Coronin 1 is responsible for activating the phosphatase, calcineurin, and thereby preventing phagosome-lysosome fusion within the macrophage. Blocking these two pathways may lead to rapid killing of mycobacteri

USDA's Healthy Eating Index and Nutrition Information

A comprehensive model is developed to measure the extent that nutrition knowledge and diet-health awareness, among other factors, influence an individual's Healthy Eating Index (HEI), USDA's measure of overall diet quality. This is the first study that rigorously attempts to examine variation in the index across population groups by controlling for personal and household characteristics and nutrition information levels, as well as test for the endogeneity of nutrition information. Results indicate that one's level of nutrition information has an important influence on one's HEI and that nutrition information and the HEI are simultaneously determined. Other factors explaining variations in HEI's across individuals are income and education levels, race, ethnicity, and age. Evidence supports the hypothesis that higher education promotes more healthful food choices through better acquisition and use of health information.diet quality, Healthy Eating Index, nutrient demand, nutrition knowledge, health inputs, health production, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Review of techniques on growth of GaAs and related compounds

GaAs is a technologically important material owing to its interesting properties. Several applications like high speed switching, VLSI, solar cells, lasers, LED's etc. warrant the use of different fabrication techniques. This paper deals with a concise review about the various techniques used for growth of GaAs thin films. The review discusses the principles underlying each technique and reports the work done till date

SNAI transcription factors mediate epithelial--mesenchymal transition in lung fibrosis

Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal interstitial lung disease characterised by accumulation of activated (myo)fibroblasts and excessive extracellular matrix deposition. The enhanced accumulation of (myo)fibroblasts may be attributed, in part, to the process of transforming growth factor \textgreekb1 (TGF\textgreekb1)-induced epithelial--mesenchymal transition (EMT), the phenotypic switching of epithelial to fibroblast-like cells. Although alveolar epithelial type II (ATII) cells have been shown to undergo EMT, the precise mediators and mechanisms remain to be resolved. The objective of this study is to investigate the role of SNAI transcription factors in the process of EMT and in IPF.Methods: Using quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR), immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, western blotting, as well as gain- and loss-of-function studies and functional assays, the role of SNAI1 and SNAI2 in TGF\textgreekb1-induced EMT in ATII cells in vitro was assessed; and the expression of SNAI transcription factors was analysed in experimental and human IPF in vivo.Results: TGF\textgreekb1 treatment increased the expression and nuclear accumulation of SNAI1 and SNAI2, in concert with induction of EMT in ATII cells. SNAI overexpression was sufficient to induce EMT, and small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated SNAI depletion attenuated TGF\textgreekb1-induced ATII cell migration and EMT. SNAI expression was elevated in experimental and human IPF and localised to hyperplastic ATII cells in vivo.Conclusions: The results demonstrate that TGF\textgreekb1-induced EMT in ATII cells is essentially controlled by the expression and nuclear translocation of SNAI transcription factors. Increased SNAI1 and SNAI2 expression in experimental and human IPF in vivo suggests that SNAI-mediated EMT may contribute to the fibroblast pool in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Weeds enhance pollinator diversity and fruit yield in mango

Agriculture is dependent on insect pollination, yet in areas of intensive production agriculture, there is often a decline in plant and insect diversity. As native habitats and plants are replaced, often only the weeds or unwanted vegetation persist. This study compared insect diversity on mango, Mangifera indica, a tropical fruit tree dependent on insect pollination, when weeds were present in cultivation versus when they were removed mechanically. The pollinating insects on both weeds and mango trees were examined as well as fruit set and yield in both the weed-free and weedy treatment in South Florida. There were significantly more pollinators and key pollinator families on the weedy mango trees, as well as significantly greater fruit yield in the weedy treatment compared to the weed-free treatment. Utilizing weeds, especially native species, as insectary plants can help ensure sufficient pollination of mango and increase biodiversity across crop monocropping systems

Optimal configuration of microstructure in ferroelectric materials by stochastic optimization

An optimization procedure determining the ideal configuration at the microstructural level of ferroelectric (FE) materials is applied to maximize piezoelectricity. Piezoelectricity in ceramic FEs differ significantly from that of single crystals because of the presence of crystallites (grains) possessing crystallographic axes aligned imperfectly. The piezoelectric properties of a polycrystalline (ceramic) FE is inextricably related to the grain orientation distribution (texture). The set of combination of variables, known as solution space, which dictates the texture of a ceramic is unlimited and hence the choice of the optimal solution which maximizes the piezoelectricity is complicated. Thus a stochastic global optimization combined with homogenization is employed for the identification of the optimal granular configuration of the FE ceramic microstructure with optimum piezoelectric properties. The macroscopic equilibrium piezoelectric properties of polycrystalline FE is calculated using mathematical homogenization at each iteration step. The configuration of grains characterised by its orientations at each iteration is generated using a randomly selected set of orientation distribution parameters. Apparent enhancement of piezoelectric coefficient $d_{33}$ is observed in an optimally oriented BaTiO$_3$ single crystal. A configuration of crystallites, simultaneously constraining the orientation distribution of the c-axis (polar axis) while incorporating ab-plane randomness, which would multiply the overall piezoelectricity in ceramic BaTiO$_{3}$ is also identified. The orientation distribution of the c-axes is found to be a narrow Gaussian distribution centred around ${45^\circ}$. The piezoelectric coefficient in such a ceramic is found to be nearly three times as that of the single crystal.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Microbial Status of Groundwater in and Around Cuddalore Town, Tamilnadu

Water is one of the abundantly available substances in nature. The groundwater is believed to be comparatively clean and free from pollution than surface water. But prolonged discharge of domestic sewage and industrial effluents causes the groundwater to become polluted and create health problems. Coliforms might cause intestinal disorders of the inhabitants and pilgrims. Ground water samples from 15 locations have been collected from Cuddalore Town including SIPCOT industrial area. The present study deals with the analysis of total Coliform count by most probable number (MPN) method and to identify the presence of gram negative or gram positive organisms. The bacteriological quality of groundwater had crossed the upper limits prescribed by WHO. The results found that the water in all these places was found to be unfit for human consumption due to contamination. Pollution control measures and strict enforcement of its laws have been recommended

Deep levels in silicon-oxygen superlattices

This work reports on the deep levels observed in Pt/Al2O3/p-type Si metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors containing a silicon-oxygen superlattice (SL) by deep-level transient spectroscopy. It is shown that the presence of the SL gives rise to a broad band of hole traps occurring around the silicon mid gap, which is absent in reference samples with a silicon epitaxial layer. In addition, the density of states of the deep layers roughly scales with the number of SL periods for the as- deposited samples. Annealing in a forming gas atmosphere reduces the maximum concentration significantly, while the peak energy position shifts from close-to mid-gap towards the valence band edge. Based on the flat-band voltage shift of the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics it is inferred that positive charge is introduced by the oxygen atomic layers in the SL, indicating the donor nature of the underlying hole traps. In some cases, a minor peak associated with P-b dangling bond centers at the Si/SiO2 interface has been observed as well