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,

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,

A critique of laser-induced incandescence for the measurement of soot

The health and environmental risks due to airborne nanoparticles are important issues facing the citizens and governments of the industrialized countries. To assess and mitigate these risks, increasingly stringent regulations are being enacted to reduce the particulate emissions from the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels, which primarily consist of soot. Improvements to the understanding of the formation of soot nanoparticles and their impact on the health and the environment are required. This necessitates advances in the state of quantitative measurement of soot. Laser-induced incandescence (LII) is an optical diagnostic technique for the measurement of concentration and primary particle diameter of soot with high selectivity. Limitations with conventional LII were identified and a significantly enhanced technique, autocompensating LII (AC-LII), was developed employing time- resolved two-colour pyrometry, low fluence, and an absolute intensity calibration to address these limitations. AC-LII was shown to measure the soot particle temperature and automatically compensate for variations in the measurement environment that affected the peak soot particle temperature. With low fluence, AC-LII was shown to avoid soot sublimation, which impacted the measurements of concentration and size with high fluences. AC-LII was applied to flames and to combustion-generated emissions. At low ambient temperatures it was discovered that the measured concentration varied with fluence. To mitigate this issue, it was recommended that AC-LII be performed at a moderate fluence near the sublimation threshold. In order to assess the impact of distributions of the soot primary particle diameter and of aggregate size, analysis coupling experiments with a state-of-the-art numerical model of the heat transfer was performed. The results showed that AC-LII signal evaluation should begin immediately after an initial anomalous cooling period but before distribution effects become dominant. The sensitivity of AC-LII was optimized and applied to measure atmospheric black carbon concentrations. Comparison to other instruments demonstrated that AC-LII has significant advantages for the measurement of soot, and represents a major advancementin techniques for nanoparticle characterization.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective

Food stamp recipients, like other Americans, struggle with nutrition problems associated with choice of foods, as well as amounts. This series of Economic Information Bulletins compiles evidence to help answer the question of whether the Food Stamp Program can do more to improve the food choices of participants. It examines the role of affordability and price of healthful foods in influencing food choices and the likely success of any policy targeted at changing food choices through food stamp bonuses or restrictions. It also examines other approaches to changing food choices, including nutrition education and potential strategies drawn from behavioral economics literature. Meaningful improvements in the diets of food stamp recipients will likely depend on a combination of many tactics. Measuring the effect of any policy change on food choices and health outcomes remains a challenge.Food Stamp Program, food consumption, food prices, food expenditures, nutrition education, behavioral economics, food choices, diet, health, fruits and vegetables, Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, FANRP, ERS, USDA, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Australian Public and Smallpox

A national survey of 1,001 Australians found that most were concerned about a bioterrorist attack and were ill-informed about smallpox prevention and response. Since general practitioners were commonly identified as the initial point of care, they should become a focus of bioterrorism response planning in Australia

A time for self-care? Frontline health workers' strategies for managing mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Frontline healthcare workers have experienced detrimental mental health impacts during the COVID-19 pandemic including anxiety, emotional distress, stress, fatigue, and burnout. But little is known about how these healthcare professionals take care of their own mental health in the midst of considerable personal, occupational and social disruption. In this article, we use qualitative data from an Australian national survey to examine the self-care strategies frontline healthcare professionals employed to manage their mental health and wellbeing during the crisis. Findings reveal how healthcare workers sought to adjust to disruption by adopting new self-care practices and mindsets, while encountering numerous personal and professional struggles that undermined their capacity for self-care. Feeling socially connected and valued were critical dimensions of caring for self, illustrating the importance of locating self-care in the social domain. These findings, we argue, highlight the need to expand conceptions of self-care away from those that focus primarily on the individual towards approaches that situate self care as collective and relational

The complexity of mental health care for people with COPD: a qualitative study of clinicians’ perspectives

Abstract Anxiety and depression are common mental health illnesses in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, patients often decline formal mental health care with barriers identified at the patient, health provider and health system levels. Currently clinicians’ perspectives on this issue are not well understood. A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was undertaken to explore clinician perceived barriers and facilitators to acceptance of psychological care amongst people with COPD. Twenty-four Australian respiratory health professionals participated. Interview transcripts were analysed thematically. An overarching theme of ‘complexity’ was identified, which was evident across five domains: (1) physical and mental health illnesses; (2) psychosocial circumstances; (3) community views and stigma; (4) educational needs and knowledge gaps; (5) navigating the health system. Targeted patient education around psychological interventions and integration of mental health clinicians within multidisciplinary outpatient respiratory services are needed to address the current challenges

Left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex supports context-dependent prioritisation of off-task thought

When environments lack compelling goals, humans often let their minds wander to thoughts with greater personal relevance; however, we currently do not understand how this context-dependent prioritisation process operates. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) maintains goal representations in a context-dependent manner. Here, we show this region is involved in prioritising off-task thought in an analogous way. In a whole brain analysis we established that neural activity in DLPFC is high both when ‘on-task’ under demanding conditions and ‘off-task’ in a non-demanding task. Furthermore, individuals who increase off-task thought when external demands decrease, show lower correlation between neural signals linked to external tasks and lateral regions of the DMN within DLPFC, as well as less cortical grey matter in regions sensitive to these external task relevant signals. We conclude humans prioritise daydreaming when environmental demands decrease by aligning cognition with their personal goals using DLPFC

Go-stimuli proportion influences response strategy in a sustained attention to response task

The sustained attention to response task (SART) usefulness as a measure of sustained attention has been questioned. The SART may instead be a better measure of other psychological processes and could prove useful in understanding some real-world behaviours. Thirty participants completed four Go/No-Go response tasks much like the SART, with Go-stimuli proportions of .50, .65, .80 and .95. As Go-stimuli proportion increased, reaction times decreased while both commission errors and self-reported task-related thoughts increased. Performance measures were associated with task-related thoughts but not taskunrelated thoughts. Instead of faster reaction times and increased commission errors being due to absentmindedness or perceptual decoupling from the task, the results suggested participants made use of two competing response strategies, in line with a response strategy or response inhibition perspective of SART performance. Interestingly, performance measures changed in a nonlinear manner, despite the linear Go proportion increase. A threshold may exist where the prepotent motor response becomes more pronounced, leading to the disproportionate increase in response speed and commission errors. This research has implications for researchers looking to employ the SAR

Indigenous Resilience in Australia: A Scoping Review Using a Reflective Decolonizing Collective Dialogue

Contemporary definitions and understandings of resilience refer to an individual's positive adaptation to the experience of adversity. One of the challenges of this extant body of work is that the central concept of resilience is rarely questioned. Current understandings of these concepts, largely framed in Western understandings, are unquestioningly accepted, reframed for, yet not by, Indigenous peoples, and then are unchallenged when imposed on Indigenous peoples. A scoping review was conducted and reported in line with the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. The review involved the participation of local Aboriginal Research Cultural Advisory Groups who participated and approved the analysis of the findings and collaborated on the design and writing of the paper. Eight publications drew on Aboriginal constructs of resilience in examining the effectiveness of programs, processes, and practices to promote individual and/or collective resilience and well-being. Most studies emphasized the need for strategies to strengthen individual or community connection to culture to foster resilience. Six studies used culturally validated strength-based tools to measure resilience, while two relied on Western constructs. This review reveals both the distinctive colonial characteristics of adversity experienced by Aboriginal people and the range of coping strategies and protective resources that support the development of resilience within different Aboriginal communities in diverse research sites across Australia. Importantly, many studies confirm adversity is linked to the enduring legacies of colonization, continuous and cumulative transgenerational grief and loss, structural inequities, racism, and discrimination. These external factors of adversity are unique to Aboriginal populations, as are the protective factors that entail strengthening connection to culture (including language reclamation), community, ancestry and land (including management and economic development) which contribute to individual and collective resilience. These findings suggest that Aboriginal community resilience is strengthened through the collective experience of adversity, such as transgenerational grief and loss, and the resulting support structures and shared resources that are developed and maintained through cultural practices to strengthen the bonds and mutual reciprocity to participate in transformative strategies to address adversity. This review highlights that strategies such as building on community strengths, capacities, and resources is critical when strengthening resilience within Indigenous communities across Australia