Dietary patterns among Vietnamese and Hispanic immigrant elementary school children participating in an after school program

Immigrants in the U.S. may encounter challenges of acculturation, including dietary habits, as they adapt to new surroundings. We examined Vietnamese and Hispanic immigrant children's American food consumption patterns in a convenience sample of 63 Vietnamese and Hispanic children in grades four to six who were attending an after school program. Children indicated the number of times they consumed each of 54 different American foods in the past week using a food frequency questionnaire. We ranked each food according to frequency of consumption, compared the intake of foods to the USDA Healthy Eating Pattern, and performed dietary pattern analysis. Since the data were not normally distributed we used two nonparametric tests to evaluate statistical significance: the Kruskal-Wallis tested for significant gender and ethnicity differences and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test evaluated the food consumption of children compared with the USDA recommended amounts. We found that among USDA categories, discretionary food was most commonly consumed, followed by fruit. The sample as a whole ate significantly less than the recommended amount of grains, protein foods, and dairy, but met the recommended amount of fruit. Boys ate significantly more grains, proteins, and fruits than did girls. Dietary pattern analysis showed a very high sweet snack consumption among all children, while boys ate more fast food and fruit than girls. Foods most commonly consumed were cereal, apples, oranges, and yogurt. Ethnicity differences in food selection were not significant. The high intake of discretionary/snack foods and fruit, with low intake of grains, vegetables, protein, and dairy in our sample suggests Vietnamese and Hispanic immigrant children may benefit from programs to improve diet quality

Building reporter virus with recombinant viral proteins for analysis of resistance to antiviral compounds [abstract]

Abstract only availableIn the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that the estimated cumulative number of diagnoses of AIDS by Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was about one million, and half million people were died until 2005. This HIV as a retrovirus is composed of two copies of positive single-stranded (ss)-RNA which codes for the virus's nine genes enclosed by a conical capsid protein (p24). The ss-RNA is tightly bound to nucleocapsid proteins (p7) and several enzymes needed for the development of the virion including reverse transcriptase (RT), proteases, ribonuclease and integrase. By removing and/or replacing essential coding regions, the efficient curative means on HIV infected human beings are highly required. Moreover, the creation of the new reporter virus with recombinant RT is needed to allow direct comparison of resistance to antiviral compounds. Thus, this study used the modified plasmid, pHIV-gpt encoding the HIV-1 provirus HXB2, with the bacterial gpt gene for mycophenolic acid resistance substituted for the viral env gene (Page et al., 1990), which was replaced by a drug selection marker. In our previous study, we removed the DNA segment of RT region in pHIV-gpt, called pHIV-gpt-RT. Then, a part of pHIV-gpt-RT was amplified by using PCR with specific primers. The amplicons were digested in the restriction sites, and then this digested fragment will be cloned into one of three target plasmids, each of which contains a mutated variant of HIV-1 strain NL4-3. The pNL4-3 carries puro-cherry, tomato or GFP in the region of viral nef gene. Therefore, we can make a number of reporter viruses through the mechanism of recombination, and building the reporter viruses is still on-going work in this project. This study should be to help in understanding a gene therapy approach throughout direct comparison of resistance to antiviral compounds

A Global Map Of Species Terrestrial Habitat Types

The loss of species habitat - described as the entirety of the physical conditions, e.g. land cover and climate - is one of the primary causes of biodiversity decline globally. Knowledge about species habitats is critical to design landscape management plans and conservation prioritizations. Here, we provide a global spatial-explicit characterization of 47 terrestrial habitat types directly relevant to biodiversity conservation. These habitat types broadly follow the standard habitat classification system defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which is widely used for assessments of species extinction risk. This habitat type map was produced by intersecting currently best available data on land-cover, climate and land use from a variety of ancillary datasets. We furthermore validate this map using independently derived estimates of observed habitats from biodiversity occurrence records. Overall, these data broaden our knowledge of habitat types globally and will be highly useful for broad-scale ecological studies and a spatial guide for upcoming IUCN redlist assessments. We hope that this data will spur further development of biodiversity-relevant habitat type maps on a global scale

Evaluation of simulated O-3 production efficiency during the KORUS-AQ campaign: Implications for anthropogenic NOx emissions in Korea

We examine O3 production and its sensitivity to precursor gases and boundary layer mixing in Korea by using a 3-D global chemistry transport model and extensive observations during the KORea-US cooperative Air Quality field study in Korea, which occurred in May–June 2016. During the campaign, observed aromatic species onboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft, especially toluene, showed high mixing ratios of up to 10 ppbv, emphasizing the importance of aromatic chemistry in O3 production. To examine the role of VOCs and NOx in O3 chemistry, we first implement a detailed aromatic chemistry scheme in the model, which reduces the normalized mean bias of simulated O3 mixing ratios from –26% to –13%. Aromatic chemistry also increases the average net O3 production in Korea by 37%. Corrections of daytime PBL heights, which are overestimated in the model compared to lidar observations, increase the net O3 production rate by ~10%. In addition, increasing NOx emissions by 50% in the model shows best performance in reproducing O3 production characteristics, which implies that NOx emissions are underestimated in the current emissions inventory. Sensitivity tests show that a 30% decrease in anthropogenic NOx emissions in Korea increases the O3 production efficiency throughout the country, making rural regions ~2 times more efficient in producing O3 per NOx consumed. Simulated O3 levels overall decrease in the peninsula except for urban and other industrial areas, with the largest increase (~6 ppbv) in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA). However, with simultaneous reductions in both NOx and VOCs emissions by 30%, O3 decreases in most of the country, including the SMA. This implies the importance of concurrent emission reductions for both NOx and VOCs in order to effectively reduce O3 levels in Korea

Review of the clinical pharmacokinetics of artesunate and its active metabolite dihydroartemisinin following intravenous, intramuscular, oral or rectal administration

Artesunate (AS) is a clinically versatile artemisinin derivative utilized for the treatment of mild to severe malaria infection. Given the therapeutic significance of AS and the necessity of appropriate AS dosing, substantial research has been performed investigating the pharmacokinetics of AS and its active metabolite dihydroartemisinin (DHA). In this article, a comprehensive review is presented of AS clinical pharmacokinetics following administration of AS by the intravenous (IV), intramuscular (IM), oral or rectal routes. Intravenous AS is associated with high initial AS concentrations which subsequently decline rapidly, with typical AS half-life estimates of less than 15 minutes. AS clearance and volume estimates average 2 - 3 L/kg/hr and 0.1 - 0.3 L/kg, respectively. DHA concentrations peak within 25 minutes post-dose, and DHA is eliminated with a half-life of 30 - 60 minutes. DHA clearance and volume average between 0.5 - 1.5 L/kg/hr and 0.5 - 1.0 L/kg, respectively. Compared to IV administration, IM administration produces lower peaks, longer half-life values, and higher volumes of distribution for AS, as well as delayed peaks for DHA; other parameters are generally similar due to the high bioavailability, assessed by exposure to DHA, associated with IM AS administration (> 86%). Similarly high bioavailability of DHA (> 80%) is associated with oral administration. Following oral AS, peak AS concentrations (Cmax) are achieved within one hour, and AS is eliminated with a half-life of 20 - 45 minutes. DHA Cmax values are observed within two hours post-dose; DHA half-life values average 0.5 - 1.5 hours. AUC values reported for AS are often substantially lower than those reported for DHA following oral AS administration. Rectal AS administration yields pharmacokinetic results similar to those obtained from oral administration, with the exceptions of delayed AS Cmax and longer AS half-life. Drug interaction studies conducted with oral AS suggest that AS does not appreciably alter the pharmacokinetics of atovaquone/proguanil, chlorproguanil/dapsone, or sulphadoxine/pyrimethamine, and mefloquine and pyronaridine do not alter the pharmacokinetics of DHA. Finally, there is evidence suggesting that the pharmacokinetics of AS and/or DHA following AS administration may be altered by pregnancy and by acute malaria infection, but further investigation would be required to define those alterations precisely