Modeling Expert Opinions on Food Healthiness: A Nutrition Metric

Background Research over the last several decades indicates the failure of existing nutritional labels to substantially improve the healthiness of consumers' food and beverage choices. The difficulty for policy-makers is to encapsulate a wide body of scientific knowledge in a labeling scheme that is comprehensible to the average shopper. Here, we describe our method of developing a nutrition metric to fill this void. Methods We asked leading nutrition experts to rate the healthiness of 205 sample foods and beverages, and after verifying the similarity of their responses, we generated a model that calculates the expected average healthiness rating that experts would give to any other product based on its nutrient content. Results The form of the model is a linear regression that places weights on 12 nutritional components (total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, sugars, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron) to predict the average healthiness rating that experts would give to any food or beverage. We provide sample predictions for other items in our database. Conclusions Major benefits of the model include its basis in expert judgment, its straightforward application, the flexibility of transforming its output ratings to any linear scale, and its ease of interpretation. This metric serves the purpose of distilling expert knowledge into a form usable by consumers so that they are empowered to make healthier decisions.

iScience - Preservice teacher journeys through enquiry

Students begin their science teacher education with a range of experiences and understandings about the nature and practice of science and how they can support students to develop an understanding of science concepts through enquiry. Many begin their teacher education programs with limited skills in planning, conducting analysing and reporting on experiments to address scientific questions. The iScience project aims to both assist pre-service teachers to develop their skills in conducting enquiry while concurrently supporting them to develop their understanding of the issues and skills using experiments to support high school students’ understandings of science. In the two-month iScience project, the pre-service teachers mentor a small group of high school students supporting them to develop, conduct and report on a research project. These mentoring activities provide opportunities for the preservice teachers to reflect on the choices they made as teachers as well as their understanding of how to teach science through enquiry. This paper will discuss the organisation, implementation and evaluation of the iScience project within the first semester of a preservice teacher education course. A set of case studies will be used to illustrate the impact of the iScience experience on the pre-service teachers understanding of how to teach science by inquiry. Implications for pre-service teacher education and the value of using scaffolded enquiry models to support the development of enquiry skills will be discussed

Modeling Expert Opinions on Food Healthfulness: A Nutrition Metric

Research during the last several decades indicates the failure of existing nutritional labels to substantially improve the healthfulness of consumers\u27 food/beverage choices. The present study aims to fill this void by developing a nutrition metric that is more comprehensible to the average shopper. The healthfulness ratings of 205 sample foods/beverages by leading nutrition experts formed the basis for a linear regression that places weights on 12 nutritional components (ie, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, sugars, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron) to predict the average healthfulness rating that experts would give to any food/beverage. Major benefits of the model include its basis in expert judgment, its straightforward application, the flexibility of transforming its output ratings to any linear scale, and its ease of interpretation. This metric serves the purpose of distilling expert knowledge into a form usable by consumers so that they are empowered to make more healthful decisions

Multiwavelength study of Cygnus A II. X-ray inverse-Compton emission from a relic counterjet and implications for jet duty-cycles

The duty-cycle of powerful radio galaxies and quasars such as the prototype Cygnus A is poorly understood. X-ray observations of inverse-Compton scattered Cosmic Microwave Background (ICCMB) photons probe lower Lorentz-factor particles than radio observations of synchrotron emission. Comparative studies of the nearer and further lobes, separated by many 10s of kpc and thus 10s of thousands of years in light-travel time, yield additional temporal resolution in studies of the lifecycles. We have co-added all archival Chandra ACIS-I data and present a deep 200 ks image of Cygnus A. This deep image reveals the presence of X-ray emission from a counterjet i.e. a jet receding from Earth and related to a previous episode of jet activity. The non-thermal X-ray emission, we interpret as ICCMB radiation. There is an absence of any discernible X-ray emission associated with a jet flowing towards Earth. We conclude that: (1) The emission from a relic jet, indicates a previous episode of jet activity, that took place earlier than the current jet activity appearing as synchrotron radio emission. (2) The presence of X-ray emission from a relic counterjet of Cygnus A and the absence of X-ray emission associated with any relic approaching jet constrains the timescale between successive episodes of jet activity to ~10^6 years. (3) Transverse expansion of the jet causes expansion losses which shifts the energy distribution to lower energies. (4) Assuming the electrons cooled due to adiabatic expansion, the required magnetic field strength is substantially smaller than the equipartition magnetic field strength. (5) A high minimum Lorentz factor for the distribution of relativistic particles in the current jet, of a few 10^3, is ejected from the central nucleus of this active galaxy. Abridged.Comment: Accepted for publication by MNRAS, 8 pages Dates in Table 1 correcte

The Iowa Homemaker vol.29, no.2

Make Yours Distinctive Glassware, Katherine Williams, page 3 Storybook Farmhouse, Janet Sutherland, page 4 Vicky Plans For Summer Travel, Margaret Wallace, page 5 Focus on Photography, Margaret Leveson, page 6 It’s Your Dream Home, Patricia Close, page 10 What’s New, Virginia Foth, page 12 Stop That Moth!, Gretchen Hall, page 14 It’s a Track Meet, Don Hansen, page 16 Just What Is Success?, page 18 New Curriculum, Patricia Durey, page 2

Double-negative-2 B cells are the major synovial plasma cell precursor in rheumatoid arthritis

B cells are key pathogenic drivers of chronic inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). There is limited understanding of the relationship between synovial B cell subsets and pathogenic antibody secreting cells (ASCs). This knowledge is crucial for the development of more targeted B-cell depleting therapies. While CD11c+ double-negative 2 (DN2) B cells have been suggested as an ASC precursor in lupus, to date there is no proven link between the two subsets in RA. We have used both single-cell gene expression and BCR sequencing to study synovial B cells from patients with established RA, in addition to flow cytometry of circulating B cells. To better understand the differentiation patterns within the diseased tissue, a combination of RNA-based trajectory inference and clonal lineage analysis of BCR relationships were used. Both forms of analysis indicated that DN2 B cells serve as a major precursors to synovial ASCs. This study advances our understanding of B cells in RA and reveals the origin of pathogenic ASCs in the RA synovium. Given the significant role of DN2 B cells as a progenitor to pathogenic B cells in RA, it is important to conduct additional research to investigate the origins of DN2 B cells in RA and explore their potential as therapeutic targets in place of the less specific pan-B cells depletion therapies currently in use

The Iowa Homemaker vol.29, no.6

I Had a Career on the Companion, Mary Dodds Schlick, page 3 Improve Your Lighting, Katherine Williams, page 4 What’s New, Virginia Foth, page 5 Cold in Name Only, Barbara Allen, page 6 Fill Your Hopechest Free, Mary Kay Pitzer, page 7 Convening in Sweden, Janet Sutherland, page 8 Cook’s Favorite at Sigma Nu, Patricia Binder, page 10 Here’s an Idea, Barbara Short, page 14 Put Spring in a Winter Wardrobe, Margaret Wallace, page 1

iScience: a computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning project for science students in secondary and tertiary science education.

Pre-service teachers come to teacher education programs with a range of experiences and understandings about inquiry in Science. The iScience project aims to assist pre-service teachers develop their understanding of the issues and skills required to guide students through an open inquiry process. In addition, the project provides opportunities for pre-service teachers at the beginning of their teacher training to develop their skills in mentoring high school science students in an open-ended inquiry process. Wikis were used to support the interactions among the pre-service teachers and school students from several different geographical locations to enable collaboration on an open inquiry project. The impact of the project on the pre-service teachers’ understanding of how to teach science by inquiry will be discussed

The Iowa Homemaker vol.28, no.3

Memo to a Freshman, page 2 Money Planning Can Be Fun, Mary Alice Halverson, page 3 If Marriage Is in Your Future, Jo Ann Breckenridge, page 4 There’s Excitement Ahead, Katherine Williams, page 6 Activities Point Up Fun for Free Time, Margaret Edgar, page 7 Faculty Suggests Electives, Peggy Ann Krenek, page 8 All You Have To Do Is Eat, Janet Sutherland, page 9 Meet Your Counselors, Elinor Chase, page 10 Vicky, Jo Ann Breckenridge, page 12 What’s New, Peggy Ann Krenek, page 17 Testing Bureau, Barbara Allen, page 19 Keeping Up With Today, Mary West, page 2