198 research outputs found
Nutrition in Early Childcare Programs: The Benefits and Barriers
Introduction:
1 in 5 Vermont children experience food insecurity. Inadequate nutrition threatens cognitive, social, and emotional development in the first years of life.
49.1% of Vermont children arrive at kindergarten underprepared. It has been shown that undernourished children have reduced activity levels and withdraw from their environment, removing them from critical learning opportunities and social interactions.
Supporting the provision of healthy food in early childcare programs may help address the issue of food insecurity and promote healthy childhood development.
Currently, there are no existing data on both Vermont childcare providers and parents of these children on their perceptions of the importance of providing food in early childcare programs as well as the associated benefits and barriers to do so.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1228/thumbnail.jp
Weakly dispersive modal pulse propagation in the North Pacific Ocean
Author Posting. Ā© Acoustical Society of America, 2013. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America or personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 134 (2013): 3386, doi:10.1121/1.4820882.The propagation of weakly dispersive modal pulses is investigated using data collected during the 2004 long-range ocean acoustic propagation experiment (LOAPEX). Weakly dispersive modal pulses are characterized by weak dispersion- and scattering-induced pulse broadening; such modal pulses experience minimal propagation-induced distortion and are thus well suited to communications applications. In the LOAPEX environment modes 1, 2, and 3 are approximately weakly dispersive. Using LOAPEX observations it is shown that, by extracting the energy carried by a weakly dispersive modal pulse, a transmitted communications signal can be recovered without performing channel equalization at ranges as long as 500ākm; at that range a majority of mode 1 receptions have bit error rates (BERs) less than 10%, and 6.5% of mode 1 receptions have no errors. BERs are estimated for low order modes and compared with measurements of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and modal pulse spread. Generally, it is observed that larger modal pulse spread and lower SNR result in larger BERs.This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research, Code 322, Grant Nos. N00014-06-1-0245, N00014-08-1-0195, and N00014-11-1-0194
Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Common Hospital Hand Disinfectants Against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Glycopeptide-Intermediates, S aureus, and Heterogeneous Glycopeptide-Intermediate S. aureus
Background.āThe presence of methicillināresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and glycopeptideāintermediate S. aureus (GISA) in hospitals poses a significant challenge to hospital infection control teams. The use of disinfectants for both surface and hand cleaning is an essential part of the infection control measures.
Objective.āTo evaluate the effectiveness of common hospital hand disinfectants against MRSA, GISA, and heterogeneous GISA (hGISA).
Methods.āFor methicillināsusceptible S. aureus (MSSA), MRSA, GISA, and hGISA, the levels of susceptibility to hand disinfectants and their active ingredients were determined. Suspension tests were performed on commercial handwashing products.
Results.āMinimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 2āpropanol, chlorhexidine, and hexachlorophene were similar for all phenotypes. The MICs of cetrimide and triclosan were higher for the MRSA, GISA, and hGISA strains than for the MSSA strain. The MICs for the chlorhexidineācontaining agents Hibisol and Hibiscrub (AstraZeneca) and for the propanolācontaining agent Sterillium (Medline) were 1ā2āfold lower for the MSSA strains than for the MRSA, GISA, and hGISA strains. Suspension tests showed that the GISA and hGISA strains were less susceptible to the triclosanācontaining agent Aquasept (SSL) than were the MRSA and MSSA strains, with resistance increasing with glycopeptide resistance. Products containing Betadine (Purdue) were more effective against the GISA and hGISA strains than against the MRSA and MSSA strains, especially after the strain was exposed to the product for 30 seconds.
Conclusions.āUsing the EN 1040 standard criteria for the performance of disinfectants, we determined that all agents, except 50% Aquasept for hGISA and 0.33% hexachlorophene for GISA, performed effectively. However, the GISA and hGISA strains were less susceptible to triclosanācontaining products, compared with the MRSA stains, but were more susceptible to products containing Betadine
Modal analysis of the range evolution of broadband wavefields in the North Pacific Ocean : low mode numbers
Author Posting. Ā© Acoustical Society of America, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 131 (2012): 4409-4427, doi:10.1121/1.4707431.The results of mode-processing measurements of broadband acoustic wavefields made in the fall of 2004 as part of the Long-Range Ocean Acoustic Propagation Experiment (LOAPEX) in the eastern North Pacific Ocean are reported here. Transient wavefields in the 50ā90āHz band that were recorded on a 1400ā-m long 40 element vertical array centered near the sound channel axis are analyzed. This array was designed to resolve low-order modes. The wavefields were excited by a ship-suspended source at seven ranges, between approximately 50 and 3200ākm, from the receiving array. The range evolution of broadband modal arrival patterns corresponding to fixed mode numbers (āmodal group arrivalsā) is analyzed with an emphasis on the second (variance) and third (skewness) moments. A theory of modal group time spreads is described, emphasizing complexities associated with energy scattering among low-order modes. The temporal structure of measured modal group arrivals is compared to theoretical predictions and numerical simulations. Theory, simulations, and observations generally agree. In cases where disagreement is observed, the reasons for the disagreement are discussed in terms of the underlying physical processes and data limitations.This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research, Code 322, Grant Nos. N00014-08-1-0195, N00014-06-1-0245, and N0014-11-1-0194
Bottom interacting sound at 50ākm range in a deep ocean environment
Author Posting. Ā© Acoustical Society of America, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 132 (2012): 2224-2231, doi:10.1121/1.4747617.Data collected during the 2004 Long-range Ocean Acoustic Propagation Experiment provide absolute intensities and travel times of acoustic pulses at ranges varying from 50 to 3200ākm. In this paper a subset of these data is analyzed, focusing on the effects of seafloor reflections at the shortest transmission range of approximately 50ākm. At this range bottom-reflected (BR) and surface-reflected, bottom-reflected energy interferes with refracted arrivals. For a finite vertical receiving array spanning the sound channel axis, a high mode number energy in the BR arrivals aliases into low mode numbers because of the vertical spacing between hydrophones. Therefore, knowledge of the BR paths is necessary to fully understand even low mode number processes. Acoustic modeling using the parabolic equation method shows that inclusion of range-dependent bathymetry is necessary to get an acceptable model-data fit. The bottom is modeled as a fluid layer without rigidity, without three dimensional effects, and without scattering from wavelength-scale features. Nonetheless, a good model-data fit is obtained for sub-bottom properties estimated from the data.This work was supported by the
Office of Naval Research, Code 322, Grant Nos. N00014-
10-1-0987, N00014-11-1-0194, and N00014-10-1-0510
Exploring the Roles of Spectral Detail and Intonation Contour in Speech Intelligibility:An fMRI Study
The melodic contour of speech forms an important perceptual aspect of tonal and nontonal languages and an important limiting factor on the intelligibility of speech heard through a cochlear implant. Previous work exploring the neural correlates of speech comprehension identified a left-dominant pathway in the temporal lobes supporting the extraction of an intelligible linguistic message, whereas the right anterior temporal lobe showed an overall preference for signals clearly conveying dynamic pitch information. The current study combined modulations of overall intelligibility (through vocoding and spectral inversion) with a manipulation of pitch contour (normal vs. falling) to investigate the processing of spoken sentences in functional MRI. Our overall findings replicate and extend those of Scott et al., whereas greater sentence intelligibility was predominately associated with increased activity in the left STS, the greatest response to normal sentence melody was found right superior temporal gyrus. These data suggest a spatial distinction between brain areas associated with intelligibility and those involved in the processing of dynamic pitch information in speech. By including a set of complexity-matched unintelligible conditions created by spectral inversion, this is additionally the first study reporting a fully factorial exploration of spectrotemporal complexity and spectral inversion as they relate to the neural processing of speech intelligibility. Perhaps surprisingly, there was no evidence for an interaction between the two factorsāwe discuss the implications for the processing of sound and speech in the dorsolateral temporal lobes
Adult height variants affect birth length and growth rate in children
Previous studies identified 180 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with adult height, explaining ā¼10% of the variance. The age at which these begin to affect growth is unclear. We modelled the effect of these SNPs on birth length and childhood growth. A total of 7768 participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children had data available. Individual growth trajectories from 0 to 10 years were estimated using mixed-effects linear spline models and differences in trajectories by individual SNPs and allelic score were determined. The allelic score was associated with birth length (0.026 cm increase per ātallā allele, SE = 0.003, P = 1 Ć 10ā15, equivalent to 0.017 SD). There was little evidence of association between the allelic score and early infancy growth (0ā3 months), but there was evidence of association between the allelic score and later growth. This association became stronger with each consecutive growth period, per ātallā allele per month effects were 0.015 SD (3 monthsā1 year, SE = 0.004), 0.023 SD (1ā3 years, SE = 0.003) and 0.028 SD (3ā10 years, SE = 0.003). By age 10, the mean height difference between individuals with ā¤170 versus ā„191 ātallā alleles (the top and bottom 10%) was 4.7 cm (0.8 SD), explaining ā¼5% of the variance. There was evidence of associations with specific growth periods for some SNPs (rs3791675, EFEMP1 and rs6569648, L3MBTL3) and supportive evidence for previously reported age-dependent effects of HHIP and SOCS2 SNPs. SNPs associated with adult height influence birth length and have an increasing effect on growth from late infancy through to late childhood. By age 10, they explain half the height variance (ā¼5%) of that explained in adults (ā¼10%)
Isolation and functional characterization of a lycopene Ī²-cyclase gene that controls fruit colour of papaya (Carica papaya L.)
The colour of papaya fruit flesh is determined largely by the presence of carotenoid pigments. Red-fleshed papaya fruit contain lycopene, whilst this pigment is absent from yellow-fleshed fruit. The conversion of lycopene (red) to Ī²-carotene (yellow) is catalysed by lycopene Ī²-cyclase. This present study describes the cloning and functional characterization of two different genes encoding lycopene Ī²-cyclases (lcy-Ī²1 and lcy-Ī²2) from red (Tainung) and yellow (Hybrid 1B) papaya cultivars. A mutation in the lcy-Ī²2 gene, which inactivates enzyme activity, controls lycopene production in fruit and is responsible for the difference in carotenoid production between red and yellow-fleshed papaya fruit. The expression level of both lcy-Ī²1 and lcy-Ī²2 genes is similar and low in leaves, but lcy-Ī²2 expression increases markedly in ripe fruit. Isolation of the lcy-Ī²2 gene from papaya, that is preferentially expressed in fruit and is correlated with fruit colour, will facilitate marker-assisted breeding for fruit colour in papaya and should create possibilities for metabolic engineering of carotenoid production in papaya fruit to alter both colour and nutritional properties
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