Nutritional knowledge of youth academy athletes

Background: Youth athletes are under increasing pressures to excel in their chosen sport and many turn to nutritional supplements in order to enhance sports performance. However, athletes may obtain their nutritional information via illegitimate sources such as the internet, media, and other athletes, representing miscommunication between sound scientific information and anecdotal experiences. The objective of this investigation was to examine nutrition knowledge of elite youth athletes from a non-residential regional academy of sport. Methods: A previously validated two-part nutrition knowledge questionnaire (NKQ) was administered to 101 (37 male and 64 female) non-residential regional Academy of Sport elite youth athletes at an annual training camp. Part 1 of the NKQ presented demographic questions. Part 2 presented 90 sports nutrition knowledge questions in seven knowledge subcategories (1) Nutrients; (2) Dietary reference intakes (DRI); (3) Fluids/Hydration; (4) Recovery; (5) Weight gain; (6) Weight loss; and (7) Supplements. Results: The mean NKQ score of all athletes was 43.8% (± 11.4). No gender differences observed between nutritional knowledge total scores, however female athletes recorded more ‘correct’ responses than males (p = 0.02) in the Nutrients subcategory. Majority of athletes had difficulty identifying correct DRI with this subcategory featuring the lowest percentage of ‘correct’ to ‘incorrect’ responses (27.1% ± 2.3; p = 0.02). Supplements subcategory displayed much uncertainty with significantly more ‘unsure’ than ‘incorrect’ responses (42.4% ± 20.3; p < 0.05). Conclusions: In agreement with previous research, results of the current study indicate that elite youth athletes lack fundamental nutritional knowledge, specifically related to DRI and supplementation. These data provide further support of current recommendations that Academy of Sport youth athletes may benefit from integrated nutrition education conducted by qualified nutrition professionals

Relationship between mean daily energy intake and frequency of consumption of out-of-home meals in the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey.

BACKGROUND: Out-of-home meals have been characterised as delivering excessively large portions that can lead to high energy intake. Regular consumption is linked to weight gain and diet related diseases. Consumption of out-of-home meals is associated with socio-demographic and anthropometric factors, but the relationship between habitual consumption of such meals and mean daily energy intake has not been studied in both adults and children in the UK. METHODS: We analysed adult and child data from waves 1-4 of the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey using generalized linear modelling. We investigated whether individuals who report a higher habitual consumption of meals out in a restaurant or café, or takeaway meals at home had a higher mean daily energy intake, as estimated by a four-day food diary, whilst adjusting for key socio-demographic and anthropometric variables. RESULTS: Adults who ate meals out at least weekly had a higher mean daily energy intake consuming 75-104 kcal more per day than those who ate these meals rarely. The equivalent figures for takeaway meals at home were 63-87 kcal. There was no association between energy intake and frequency of consumption of meals out in children. Children who ate takeaway meals at home at least weekly consumed 55-168 kcal more per day than those who ate these meals rarely. Additionally, in children, there was an interaction with socio-economic position, where greater frequency of consumption of takeaway meals was associated with higher mean daily energy intake in those from less affluent households than those from more affluent households. CONCLUSIONS: Higher habitual consumption of out-of-home meals is associated with greater mean daily energy intake in the UK. More frequent takeaway meal consumption in adults and children is associated with greater daily energy intake and this effect is greater in children from less affluent households. Interventions seeking to reduce energy content through reformulation or reduction of portion sizes in restaurants, cafés and takeaways could potentially lead to reductions in mean daily energy intake, and may reduce inequalities in health in children

Landscape as a Model: The Importance of Geometry

In all models, but especially in those used to predict uncertain processes (e.g., climate change and nonnative species establishment), it is important to identify and remove any sources of bias that may confound results. This is critical in models designed to help support decisionmaking. The geometry used to represent virtual landscapes in spatially explicit models is a potential source of bias. The majority of spatial models use regular square geometry, although regular hexagonal landscapes have also been used. However, there are other ways in which space can be represented in spatially explicit models. For the first time, we explicitly compare the range of alternative geometries available to the modeller, and present a mechanism by which uncertainty in the representation of landscapes can be incorporated. We test how geometry can affect cell-to-cell movement across homogeneous virtual landscapes and compare regular geometries with a suite of irregular mosaics. We show that regular geometries have the potential to systematically bias the direction and distance of movement, whereas even individual instances of landscapes with irregular geometry do not. We also examine how geometry can affect the gross representation of real-world landscapes, and again show that individual instances of regular geometries will always create qualitative and quantitative errors. These can be reduced by the use of multiple randomized instances, though this still creates scale-dependent biases. In contrast, virtual landscapes formed using irregular geometries can represent complex real-world landscapes without error. We found that the potential for bias caused by regular geometries can be effectively eliminated by subdividing virtual landscapes using irregular geometry. The use of irregular geometry appears to offer spatial modellers other potential advantages, which are as yet underdeveloped. We recommend their use in all spatially explicit models, but especially for predictive models that are used in decisionmaking

Spatio-temporal models to determine association between Campylobacter cases and environment

Background: Campylobacteriosis is a major cause of gastroenteritis in the UK, and although 70% of cases are associated with food sources, the remainder are probably associated with wider environmental exposure. Methods: In order to investigate wider environmental transmission, we conducted a spatio-temporal analysis of the association of human cases of Campylobacter in the Tyne catchment with weather, climate, hydrology and land use. A hydrological model was used to predict surface-water flow in the Tyne catchment over 5 years. We analysed associations between population-adjusted Campylobacter case rate and environmental factors hypothesised to be important in disease using a two stage modelling framework. First, we investigated associations between temporal variation in case rate in relation to surface-water flow, temperature, evapotranspiration and rainfall using linear mixed-effects models. Second, we used the random effects for the first model to quantify how spatial variation in static landscape features of soil and land use impacted on the likely differences between subcatchment associations of case rate with the temporal variables.  Results: Population-adjusted Campylobacter case rates were associated with periods of high predicted surface-water flow, and during above average temperatures. Subcatchments with cattle on stagnogley soils, and to a lesser extent sheep plus cattle grazing, had higher Campylobacter case rates.  Conclusions: Areas of stagnogley soils with mixed livestock grazing may be more vulnerable to both Campylobacter spread and exposure during periods of high rainfall, with resultant increased risk of human cases of the disease

Adsorption of Amorphous Silica Nanoparticles onto Hydroxyapatite Surfaces Differentially Alters Surfaces Properties and Adhesion of Human Osteoblast Cells.

Silicon (Si) is suggested to be an important/essential nutrient for bone and connective tissue health. Silicon-substituted hydroxyapatite (Si-HA) has silicate ions incorporated into its lattice structure and was developed to improve attachment to bone and increase new bone formation. Here we investigated the direct adsorption of silicate species onto an HA coated surface as a cost effective method of incorporating silicon on to HA surfaces for improved implant osseointegration, and determined changes in surface characteristics and osteoblast cell adhesion. Plasma-sprayed HA-coated stainless steel discs were incubated in silica dispersions of different concentrations (0-42 mM Si), at neutral pH for 12 h. Adsorbed Si was confirmed by XPS analysis and quantified by ICP-OES analysis following release from the HA surface. Changes in surface characteristics were determined by AFM and measurement of surface wettability. Osteoblast cell adhesion was determined by vinculin plaque staining. Maximum Si adsorption to the HA coated disc occurred after incubation in the 6 mM silica dispersion and decreased progressively with higher silica concentrations, while no adsorption was observed with dispersions below 6 mM Si. Comparison of the Si dispersions that produced the highest and lowest Si adsorption to the HA surface, by TEM-based analysis, revealed an abundance of small amorphous nanosilica species (NSP) of ~1.5 nm in diameter in the 6 mM Si dispersion, with much fewer and larger NSP in the 42 mM Si dispersions. 29Si-NMR confirmed that the NSPs in the 6 mM silica dispersion were polymeric and similar in composition to the larger NSPs in the 42 mM Si dispersion, suggesting that the latter were aggregates of the former. Amorphous NSP adsorbed from the 6 mM dispersion on to a HA-coated disc surface increased the surface's water contact angle by 53°, whereas that adsorbed from the 42 mM dispersion decreased the contact angle by 18°, indicating increased and decreased hydrophobicity, respectively. AFM showed an increase in surface roughness of the 6 mM Si treated surface, which correlated well with an increase in number of vinculin plaques. These findings suggest that NSP of the right size (relative to charge) adsorb readily to the HA surface, changing the surface characteristics and, thus, improving osteoblast cell adhesion. This treatment provides a simple way to modify plasma-coated HA surfaces that may enable improved osseointegration of bone implants.The authors acknowledge the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council, grant number MC_US_A090_0008/Unit Programme number U1059, www. mrc.ac.uk, to RJ; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK), grant number EP/ F019823/1 (https://www.epsrc.ac.uk) to PK, DJM; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK), grant number EP/K023853/1 (https://www.epsrc.ac.uk) "Leeds EPSRC Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Research Equipment Facility (LENNF)" to APB and PK. Orthopaedic Research UK Grant "Drug Delivery of Silicon from the Furlong HA-C Hip" (www.oruk.org) to PK, RAB. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from PLOS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.014478

Advancing the Field Designing Brain Healthy Environments for Intergenerational Programs Designing Brain Healthy Environments

Intergenerational relationships are at the center of programs designe

Patterns of coral-reef finfish species disappearances inferred from fishers' knowledge in global epicentre of marine shorefish diversity

In the Philippines, very high fishing pressure coincides with the globally greatest number of shorefish species, yet no long-term fisheries data are available to explore species-level changes that may have occurred widely in the most species rich and vulnerable marine ecosystem, namely coral reefs. Through 2655 face-to-face interviews conducted between August 2012 and July 2014, we used fishers' recall of past catch rates of reef-associated finfish to infer species disappearances from catches in five marine key biodiversity areas (Lanuza Bay, Danajon Bank, Verde Island Passage, Polillo Islands and Honda Bay). We modeled temporal trends in perceived catch per unit effort (CPUE) based on fishers' reports of typical good days' catches using Generalized Linear Mixed Modelling. Fifty-nine different finfish disappeared from catches between the 1950s and 2014; 42 fish were identified to species level, two to genus, seven to family and eight to local name only. Five species occurring at all sites with the greatest number of fishers reporting zero catches were the green bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum), humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus), African pompano (Alectis ciliaris), giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus) and mangrove red snapper (Lutjanus argentimaculatus). Between the 1950s and 2014, the mean perceived CPUE of bumphead parrotfish declined by 88%, that of humphead wrasse by 82%, African pompano by 66%, giant grouper by 74% and mangrove red snapper by 64%. These declines were mainly associated with excess and uncontrolled fishing, fish life-history traits like maximum body size and socio-economic factors like access to market infrastructure and services, and overpopulation. The fishers' knowledge is indicative of extirpations where evidence for these losses was otherwise lacking. Our models provide information as basis for area-based conservation and regional resource management particularly for the more vulnerable, once common, large, yet wide-ranging reef finfish species