The process of establishing implementing and maintaining a social support infant feeding programme

Objective To describe the process of establishing and implementing a social support infant feeding intervention. Design This paper outlines the initial stages of a randomised controlled trial which assessed the effectiveness of a social support intervention on a range of infant feeding outcomes. Details are presented of the processes involved in recruiting, training and supporting a group of volunteers who provided support to the study sample. Setting Camden and Islington, London, UK. Results Initial networking with local agencies and organisations provided invaluable information and contacts. Employing a dedicated volunteer co-ordinator is vitally important in the recruitment, training and support of volunteers. Providing child care and travel expenses is an essential incentive for volunteers with young children. Advertisements placed in local newspapers were the most successful means of recruiting volunteers. Appropriate training is needed to equip volunteers with the necessary knowledge and skills to provide effective support. Particular emphasis in the training focused upon developing the necessary interpersonal skills and self-confidence. The evaluation of the training programme demonstrated that it improved volunteers’ knowledge and reported confidence. The provision of ongoing support is also essential to maintain volunteers’ interest and enthusiasm. The retention of volunteers is, however, a key challenge. Conclusions The processes outlined in this paper have demonstrated the feasibility of successfully establishing, implementing and maintaining a community-based social support infant feeding programme. The experiences described provide useful insights into the practical issues that need to be addressed in setting up a social support intervention

Macrofossils and pollen representing forests of the pre-Taupo volcanic eruption (c. 1850 yr BP) era at Pureora and Benneydale, central North Island, New Zealand.

Micro- and macrofossil data from the remains of forests overwhelmed and buried at Pureora and Benneydale during the Taupo eruption (c. 1850 conventional radiocarbon yr BP) were compared. Classification of relative abundance data separated the techniques, rather than the locations, because the two primary clusters comprised pollen and litter/wood. This indicates that the pollen:litter/wood within-site comparisons (Pureora and Benneydale are 20 km apart) are not reliable. Plant macrofossils represented mainly local vegetation, while pollen assemblages represented a combination of local and regional vegetation. However, using ranked abundance and presence/absence data, both macrofossils and pollen at Pureora and Benneydale indicated conifer/broadleaved forest, of similar forest type and species composition at each site. This suggests that the forests destroyed by the eruption were typical of mid-altitude west Taupo forests, and that either data set (pollen or macrofossils) would have been adequate for regional forest interpretation. The representation of c. 1850 yr BP pollen from the known buried forest taxa was generally consistent with trends determined by modern comparisons between pollen and their source vegetation, but with a few exceptions. A pollen profile from between the Mamaku Tephra (c. 7250 yr BP) and the Taupo Ignimbrite indicated that the Benneydale forest had been markedly different in species dominance compared with the forest that was destroyed during the Taupo eruption. These differences probably reflect changes in drainage, and improvements in climate and/or soil fertility over the middle Holocene

Effectiveness of a social support intervention on infant feeding practices : randomised controlled trial

Background: To assess whether monthly home visits from trained volunteers could improve infant feeding practices at age 12 months, a randomised controlled trial was carried out in two disadvantaged inner city London boroughs. Methods: Women attending baby clinics with their infants (312) were randomised to receive monthly home visits from trained volunteers over a 9-month period (intervention group) or standard professional care only (control group). The primary outcome was vitamin C intakes from fruit. Secondary outcomes included selected macro and micro-nutrients, infant feeding habits, supine length and weight. Data were collected at baseline when infants were aged approximately 10 weeks, and subsequently when the child was 12 and 18 months old. Results: Two-hundred and twelve women (68%) completed the trial. At both follow-up points no significant differences were found between the groups for vitamin C intakes from fruit or other nutrients. At first follow-up, however, infants in the intervention group were significantly less likely to be given goats’ or soya milks, and were more likely to have three solid meals per day. At the second follow-up, intervention group children were significantly less likely to be still using a bottle. At both follow-up points, intervention group children also consumed significantly more specific fruit and vegetables. Conclusions: Home visits from trained volunteers had no significant effect on nutrient intakes but did promote some other recommended infant feeding practices

Late Holocene palynology and palaeovegetation of tephra-bearing mires at Papamoa and Waihi Beach, western Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand.

The vegetation history of two mires associated with Holocene dunes near the western Bay of Plenty coast, North Island, New Zealand, is deduced from pollen analysis of two cores. Correlation of airfall tephra layers in the peats, and radiocarbon dates, indicate that the mires at Papamoa and Waihi Beach are c. 4600 and c. 2900 conventional radiocarbon years old, respectively. Tephras used to constrain the chronology of the pollen record include Rotomahana (1886 AD), Kaharoa (700 yr B.P.), Taupo (Unit Y; 1850 yr B.P.), Whakaipo (Unit V; 2700 yr B.P.), Stent (Unit Q; 4000 yr B.P.), Hinemaiaia (Unit K; 4600 yr B.P.), and reworked Whakatane (c. 4800 yr B.P.) at Papamoa, and Kaharoa and Taupo at Waihi Beach. Peat accumulation rates at Papamoa from 4600 - 1850 yr B.P. range from 0.94 to 2.64 mm/yr (mean 1.37 mm/yr). At Waihi Beach, from 2900 yr B.P. - present day, they range from 0.11 to 0.21 mm/yr (mean 0.20 mm/yr). Peat accumulation at both sites was slowest from 1850 to 700 yr B.P., suggesting a drier overall climate during this interval. At both sites, the earliest organic sediments, which are underlain by marine or estuarine sands, yield pollen spectra indicating salt marsh or estuarine environments. Coastal vegetation communities declined at both sites, as sea level gradually fell or the coast prograded, and were eventually superseded by a low moor bog at Papamoa, and a mesotrophic swamp forest at Waihi Beach. These differences, and the marked variation in peat accumulation rates, probably reflect local hydrology and are unlikely to have been climatically controlled. The main regional vegetation during this period was mixed northern conifer-angiosperm forest. Kauri (Agathis australis) formed a minor component of these forests, but populations of this tree have apparently not expanded during the late Holocene at these sites, which are near its present southern limit. Occasional shortlived forest disturbances are detectable in these records, in particular immediately following the deposition of Taupo Tephra. However, evidence for forest clearance during the human era is blurred by the downward dislocation of modern adventi ve pollen at these sites, preventing the clear differentiation of the Polynesian and European eras

NASA Desert RATS 2011 Education Pilot Project and Classroom Activities

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) is a multi-year series of tests of hardware and operations carried out annually in the high desert of Arizona, as an analog to future exploration activities beyond low Earth orbit [1]. For the past several years, these tests have occurred in the San Francisco Volcanic Field, north of Flagstaff. For the 2011 Desert RATS season, the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) at NASA headquarters provided support to develop an education pilot project that would include student activities to parallel the Desert RATS mission planning and exploration activities in the classroom, and educator training sessions. The development of the pilot project was a joint effort between the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Directorate and the Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP), managed at Penn State University

Stratigraphy and chronology of a 15ka sequence of multi-sourced silicic tephras in a montane peat bog, eastern North Island, New Zealand.

We document the stratigraphy, composition, and chronology of a succession of 16 distal, silicic tephra layers interbedded with lateglacial and Holocene peats and muds up to c. 15 000 radiocarbon years (c. 18 000 calendar years) old at a montane site (Kaipo Bog) in eastern North Island, New Zealand. Aged from 665 +/- 15 to 14 700 +/- 95 14C yr BP, the tephras are derived from six volcanic centres in North Island, three of which are rhyolitic (Okataina, Taupo, Maroa), one peralkaline (Tuhua), and two andesitic (Tongariro, Egmont). Correlations are based on multiple criteria: field properties and stratigraphic interrelationships, ferromagnesian silicate mineral assemblages, glass-shard major element composition (from electron microprobe analysis), and radiocarbon dating. We extend the known distribution of tephras in eastern North Island and provide compositional data that add to their potential usefulness as isochronous markers. The chronostratigraphic framework established for the Kaipo sequence, based on both site-specific and independently derived tephra-based radiocarbon ages, provides the basis for fine-resolution paleoenvironmental studies at a climatically sensitive terrestrial site from the mid latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Tephras identified as especially useful paleoenvironmental markers include Rerewhakaaitu and Waiohau (lateglacial), Konini (lateglacial-early Holocene), Tuhua (middle Holocene), and Taupo and Kaharoa (late Holocene)

Multispectral images of peach related to firmness and maturity at harvest

wo multispectral maturity classifications for red soft-flesh peaches (‘Kingcrest’, ‘Rubyrich’ and ‘Richlady’ n = 260) are proposed and compared based on R (red) and R/IR (red divided by infrared) images obtained with a three CCD camera (800 nm, 675 nm and 450 nm). R/IR histograms were able to correct the effect of 3D shape on light reflectance and thus more Gaussian histograms were produced than R images. As fruits ripened, the R/IR histograms showed increasing levels of intensity. Reference measurements such as firmness and visible spectra also varied significantly as the fruit ripens, firmness decreased while reflectance at 680 nm increased (chlorophyll absorption peak)

Autistic traits modulate cortical responses to affective but not discriminative touch

The sense of touch is primarily considered a discriminative and exteroceptive sense, facilitating the detection, manipulation and exploration of objects, via an array of low threshold mechanoreceptors and fast conducting Aβ afferents. However, a class of unmyelinated, low threshold mechanoreceptors identified in the hairy skin of mammals have been proposed to constitute a second, anatomically distinct system coding the affective qualities of touch. Unlike Aβs, which increase their firing rate linearly with the velocity of a stimulus moving across their receptive field, the response of these C-tactile afferents (CTs) is described by an inverted ‘U’ curve fit, responding optimally to a skin temperature stimulus moving at between 1-10cm/s. Given the distinct velocity tuning of these fast and slow touch fibres, here we used ERPs to compare the time course of neural responses to 1st (fast) and 2nd (slow) touch systems. We identified a higher amplitude P300 in response to fast, Aβ targeted, versus slow CT-targeted, stroking touch. In contrast, we identified a previously described, Cfibre specific, ultra-late-potential (ULP) associated with CT-targeted input. Of special note as regards the function of CTs is that the amplitude of the ULP was negatively correlated with self-reported levels of autistic traits, which is consistent with the hypothesised affective and social significance of this response. Taken together these findings provide further support for distinct discriminative and affective touch systems and suggests the temporal resolution of EEG provides an as yet underutilised tool for exploring individual differences in response sensitivity to CT targeted touch

The perception of affective touch in Parkinson's disease and its relation to small fibre neuropathy.

Affective touch sensation is conducted by a sub-class of C-fibres in hairy skin known as C-Tactile (CT) afferents. CT afferents respond maximally to gentle skin stroking at velocities between 1-10 cm/sec. Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterised by markedly reduced cutaneous C-fibres. It is not known if affective touch perception is influenced by C fibre density and if affective touch is impaired in PD compared to healthy controls. We predicted that perceived pleasantness to gentle stroking in PD would correlate with C afferent density and that affective touch perception would be impaired in PD compared to healthy controls. Twenty-four PD patients and 27 control subjects rated the pleasantness of brush stroking at an optimum CT stimulation velocity (3cm/sec) and two sub-optimal velocities (0.3cm/sec & 30cm/sec). PD patients underwent quantification of C-fibre density using skin biopsies and corneal confocal microscopy. All participants rated stroking velocity of 3cm/sec as the most pleasant with significantly lower ratings for 0.3cm/sec and 30cm/sec. There was a significant positive correlation between C-fibre density and pleasantness ratings at 3cm/sec and 30cm/sec but not 0.3cm/sec. Mean pleasantness ratings were consistently higher in PD patients compared to control subjects across all three velocities. This study shows that perceived pleasantness to gentle touch correlate significantly with C-fibre density in PD. The higher perceived pleasantness in PD patients compared to controls suggests central sensitisation to peripheral inputs, which may have been enhanced by dopamine therapy. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Implementing integrated measurements of essential biodiversity variables at a national scale

Funding: the Strategic Science Investment Funding for Crown Research Institutes from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.1. There is a global need for observation systems that deliver regular, timely data on state and trends in biodiversity, but few have been implemented, and fewer still at national scales. We describe the implementation of measurement of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) on an 8 km × 8 km grid throughout New Zealand, with multiple components of biodiversity (vegetation, birds, and some introduced mammals) measured simultaneously at each sample point. 2. Between 2011 and 2017, all public land was sampled nationally (ca. 1,350 points) and some private land (ca. 500 points). Synthetic appraisals of the state of New Zealand's biodiversity, not possible previously, can be derived from the first measurement of species distribution, population abundance, and taxonomic diversity EBVs. 3. Native bird counts (all species combined) were about 2.5 times greater per sample point in natural forests and shrublands than in non‐woody ecosystems, and native bird counts exceeded those of non‐native birds across all natural forests and shrublands. 4. Non‐native plants, birds, and mammals are invasive throughout, but high‐rainfall forested regions are least invaded, and historically deforested rain shadow regions are most invaded. 5. National reporting of terrestrial biodiversity across New Zealand's public land is established and becoming normalised, in the same manner as national and international reporting of human health and education statistics. The challenge is extending coverage across all private land. Repeated measurements of these EBVs, which began in 2017, will allow defensible estimates of biodiversity trends.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe