Time to address the double inequality of differences in dietary intake between Scotland and England

Geographical disparities in health outcomes have been evident across the UK for decades. There is limited recent analysis on the dietary differences between Scotland and England that might go some way to explain these health differences. This study aimed to assess whether, and to what degree, aspects of diet and nutrition differ between Scottish and English populations, specifically between those with similar household incomes. Twelve years of UK food purchase data (2001-2012) were pooled and used to estimate household level consumption data for Scotland and England. Population mean food consumption and nutrient intakes were estimated, adjusting for known confounders (year, age of household reference person, age they left full-time education and income). Comparison was also made within equivalised income quintiles. Analysis showed that the foods and nutrients that should be increased in the diet (highlighted in the Scottish Dietary Goals) were lower in Scotland than England (e.g. fruit and vegetables 267g/day (99%CI 259-274g/day) vs. 298g/day (99%CI 296-301g/day), P<0.001). Likewise, foods and drinks linked with poor health outcomes were higher in Scotland. These regional inequalities in diet were even more pronounced in the lower income groups (e.g. red and processed meat consumption in the lowest income quintile was 65g/day (99% CI 61-69g/day) in Scotland vs. 58g/day (99% CI 57-60g/day) in England, P<0.001, but similar in the highest income quintile (58g/day (99%CI 54-61 g/day) vs. 59g/day (99% CI 58-60 g/day) respectively). A poorer diet in Scotland compared to England, particularly among disadvantaged groups, may contribute to differences in excess mortality between countries

Identifying dietary differences between Scotland and England:a rapid review of the literature

Rates of premature mortality have been higher in Scotland than in England since the 1970s. Given the known association of diet with chronic disease, the study objective was to identify and synthesise evidence on current and historical differences in food and nutrient intakes in Scotland and England.A rapid review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature was carried out. After an initial scoping search, Medline, CINAHL, Embase and Web of Science were searched. Relevant grey literature was also included. Inclusion criteria were: any date; measures of dietary intake; representative populations; cross-sectional or observational cohort studies; and English-language publications. Study quality was assessed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-sectional Studies. A narrative synthesis of extracted information was conducted.Fifty publications and reports were included in the review. Results indicated that children and adults in Scotland had lower intakes of vegetables and vitamins compared with those living in England. Higher intakes of salt in Scotland were also identified. Data were limited by small Scottish samples, difficulty in finding England-level data, lack of statistical testing and adjustment for key confounders.Further investigation of adequately powered and analysed surveys is required to examine more fully dietary differences between Scotland and England. This would provide greater insight into potential causes of excess mortality in Scotland compared with England and suitable policy recommendations to address these inequalities

Optimization of diarylazines as anti-HIV agents with dramatically

Non-nucleoside inhibitors of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase are reported that have ca. 100-fold greater solubility than the structurally related drugs etravirine and rilpivirine, while retaining high anti-viral activity. The solubility enhancements come from strategic placement of a morpholinylalkoxy substituent in the entrance channel of the NNRTI binding site. Compound 4d shows low-nanomolar activity similar to etravirine towards wild-type HIV-1 and key viral variants.Fil: Bollini, Mariela. University of Yale; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Cisneros, José A.. University of Yale; Estados UnidosFil: Spasov, Krasimir A.. University of Yale; Estados UnidosFil: Anderson, Karen S.. University of Yale; Estados UnidosFil: Jorgensen, William L.. University of Yale; Estados Unido

An Overview and Status of NASA's Radioisotope Power Conversion Technology NRA

NASA's Advanced Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) development program is developing next generation radioisotope power conversion technologies that will enable future missions that have requirements that can not be met by either photovoltaic systems or by current Radioisotope Power System (RPS) technology. The Advanced Power Conversion Research and Technology project of the Advanced RPS development program is funding research and technology activities through the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) 02-OSS-01, "Research Opportunities in Space Science 2002" entitled "Radioisotope Power Conversion Technology" (RPCT), August 13, 2002. The objective of the RPCT NRA is to advance the development of radioisotope power conversion technologies to provide significant improvements over the state-of-practice General Purpose Heat Source/Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator by providing significantly higher efficiency to reduce the number of radioisotope fuel modules, and increase specific power (watts/kilogram). Other Advanced RPS goals include safety, long-life, reliability, scalability, multi-mission capability, resistance to radiation, and minimal interference with the scientific payload. Ten RPCT NRA contracts were awarded in 2003 in the areas of Brayton, Stirling, thermoelectric (TE), and thermophotovoltaic (TPV) power conversion technologies. This paper will provide an overview of the RPCT NRA, and a brief summary of accomplishments over the first 18 months but focusing on advancements made over the last 6 months

A georeferenced digital image analysis of micro-topographic patterns within the Willamette Floodplain Research Natural Area, W. L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge

The present day vegetation pattern of the Willamette Valley is a result of a long past of human alteration of the landscape. Beginning with aboriginal burning of the grasslands to present day land uses, the vegetation of the valley has been affected by anthropogenic activity. Wet prairie is a vanishing habitat of the valley as both urban and agricultural development continue to alter the landscape. The W.L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge of the south-central Willamette Valley contains within its boundaries one of the last remaining examples of open wet prairie. In order to maintain the prairie community complex and associated biodiversity of the Willamette Valley Floodplain Research Natural Area, a restoration project in which controlled burning plays a significant role was initiated. As a part of the on-going research a need was felt to develop a baseline data base identifying the spatial distribution of principle features of the research area and to map the vegetationally associated mount-intermound micro-topographic pattern prevalent throughout the refuge. The purpose of this research project was to develop that baseline spatial data base and to investigate the use of digital image processing and analysis as a tool for inventorying micro-topographic features and associated open wet prairie vegetation patterns. This paper is primarily a methodological study of applying geographic techniques to an on-going biogeographical study This study had three objectives: (1) defining the location and boundaries of treatment spaces and sampling plots in a standard geographic coordinate system, (2) delineation of spaces and plots onto a scanned image creating a spatial data base and (3) classification of vegetation and associated microtopography. The aim of this study is to provide an evaluation of appropriate geographic information technology for the planning and analysis of wetland restoration and management. The objectives of this study were met with varying degrees of success. The use of Trimble's Global Positioning System, IDRISI's low-cost image processing/ Geographic Information System software and a small scale, color aerial photograph scanned to a single band, monochromatic digital image were utilized to create a suitable visual and spatial data base. Classification of the image into micro-topographic class was conducted using three strategies. Two standard supervised classification algorithms were compared using signatures generated from the original single band image. The influence of including signatures created from an additional data band based on digital richness of the original image was also examined. Information provided by the single, wide spectral space image was lacking and hampered classification of vegetationally associated micro-topographic patterns. The addition of signatures based on a created Relative Richness band did not appreciably effect classification accuracies. Regardless of classification strategy, insufficient separability of class signatures led to overall classification accuracies of +1- 70%. A high level of misclassification occurred within the intermound region resulting in overrepresentation of the mound micro-topographic pattern. The resulting thematic map was created using signatures generated from the original single band image and maximum likelihood classification routine

When one size does not fit all:Using <i>ex post</i> subjective ratings to provide parity in risk-adjusted compensation

Firms typically use a ‘one-size-fits-all’ (OSFA) compensation contract that specifies a common formulaic relation between performance and compensation (i.e., a performance bonus) for non-executive managers in similar jobs. However, a contract that is appropriate on average, may be suboptimal for individual managers if heterogeneity in the operating environment creates varying compensation risk. We use field data from a retail firm that introduced an OSFA bonus compensation plan for its store managers. The common bonus formula is based on a weighted sum of objective measures of performance and a subjective rating made by supervisors. The firm intended the supervisors’ discretionary subjective rating to evaluate performance on dimensions that are difficult to measure (e.g., store appearance). We test and find that supervisors give uniformly higher subjective ratings to managers whose objective measure of sales performance is measured with greater noise, and to managers who face higher performance target difficulty, the latter assessed both prior to (ex ante) and subsequent to (ex post) the evaluation period. These results obtain after controlling for manager ability and performance, and for alternative mechanisms to mitigate differences in compensation risk (e.g., salary changes, sales target changes, and bonus adjustments). The evidence suggests that supervisors use discretion in subjective ratings to provide manager-specific risk premiums for non-executive managers who are subject to an OSFA contract

Impairment of Nonverbal Recognition in Alzheimer Disease: A Pet O-15 Study

OBJECTIVE: To characterize deficits in nonverbal recognition memory and functional brain changes associated with these deficits in Alzheimer disease (AD). METHODS: Using O-15 PET, we studied 11 patients with AD and 17 cognitively intact elders during the combined encoding and retrieval periods of a nonverbal recognition task. Both task conditions involved recognition of line drawings of abstract shapes. In both conditions, subjects were first presented a list of shapes as study items, and then a list as test items, containing items from the study list and foils. In the titrated demand condition, the shape study list size (SLS) was adjusted prior to imaging so that each subject performed at approximately 75% recognition accuracy; difficulty during PET scanning in this condition was approximately matched across subjects. A control task was used in which SLS = 1 shape. RESULTS: During performance of the titrated demand condition, SLS averaged 4.55 (+/-1.86) shapes for patients with AD and 7.53 (+/-4.81) for healthy elderly subjects (p = 0.031). However, both groups of subjects were closely matched on performance in the titrated demand condition during PET scanning with 72.17% (+/-7.98%) correct for patients with AD and 72.25% (+/-7.03%) for elders (p = 0.979). PET results demonstrated that patients with AD showed greater mean differences between the titrated demand condition and control in areas including the left fusiform and inferior frontal regions (Brodmann areas 19 and 45). CONCLUSIONS: Relative fusiform and inferior frontal differences may reflect the Alzheimer disease (AD) patients' compensatory engagement of alternate brain regions. The strategy used by patients with AD is likely to be a general mechanism of compensation, rather than task-specific