The Total Food Effect: Exploring Placebo Analogies in Diet and Food Culture

Food and medicine share an inseparable history with essential evolutionary underpinnings. In addition to nutritional, medicinal or toxic components, the tastes, colours, shapes, names and labels of foods elicit emotions, expectations, associations and conditioned responses rooted within both public consciousness and individual experience. This combination of chemical-driven bottom-up and meaning-driven top-down influences provides a fertile framework through which to explore metaphors of placebos and placebo-like effects. As reviewed, elements of placebo are widespread in food culture, appearing in numerous forms and with varying degrees of resemblance to those observed in medicine. We first adapt a model of placebo from the medical literature for application to the subject of food, diet and nutrition. Exploring the intricate interactions between drug or food, patient or consumer, and doctor or food source within different settings and contexts, we then demonstrate that the total effect of any food, meal or diet is seldom, if ever, strictly a function of nutritional composition or chemically-driven bottom-up effects. In closing, we summarize and integrate our observations relative to current understandings of placebo effects in medicine

Detoxification function of geophagy and domestication of the potato

Detoxification as the adaptive function of geophagy is demonstrated from field and historical data associating clay consumption with the domestication of potentially toxic potatoes. In vitro analyses showed that the glycoalkaloid, tomatine, was effectively adsorbed by four classes of edible clays over a range of simulated gastrointestinal conditions. These results, in conjunction with reports of geophagy by nonhuman primates, suggest geophagy as a solution to the impasse chemical deterrents pose to the process of domestication and to chemical constraints on plant exploitation by non-fireusing hominids. The inorganic component of the chemical environment deserves increased attention from chemical ecologists.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44872/1/10886_2005_Article_BF01012098.pd

Institutional factors affecting wild edible plant (WEP) harvest and consumption in semi-arid Kenya

AbstractPervasive food insecurity and poverty in much of the world drives vulnerable populations to harvest natural resources as a means of generating income and meeting other household needs. Wild edible plants (WEPs) are a particularly common and effective coping strategy used to increase socio-ecological resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa where agricultural systems are often sensitive to environmental perturbations and instability. WEPs are collected across the landscape, from agricultural areas to government-managed hilltops with varying degrees of success and legality. This multiple case study research, conducted in Eastern Province, Kenya, investigates the formal forest regulations and land tenure rights, as well as local enforcement and understanding of those rules, in order to understand their impact on the ability of vulnerable populations to use WEPs as a coping strategy. The results suggest that widespread confusion, trust issues and a strong focus on the commercialization of wild foods are limiting the possible contribution of WEPs to food security and increased socio-ecological resilience. We identify a number of policy changes and extension programs that could better support local communities relying on WEPs for subsistence purposes to improve their adaptive capacity

Hot gas ingestion characteristics and flow visualization of a vectored thrust STOVL concept

A 9.2 percent scale short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) hot gas ingestion model was designed and built by McDonnell Douglas Corporation (MCAIR) and tested in the NASA Lewis Research Center 9- by 15-Foot Low Speed Wind Tunnel (LSWT). Hot gas ingestion, the entrainment of heated engine exhaust into the inlet flow field, is a key development issue for advanced short takeoff and vertical landing aircraft. The Phase 1 test program, conducted by NASA Lewis and McDonnell Douglas Corporation, evaluated the hot ingestion phenomena and control techniques and Phase 2 test program which was conducted by NASA Lewis are both reported. The Phase 2 program was conducted at exhaust nozzles temperatures up to 1460 R and utilized a sheet laser system for flow visualization of the model flow field in and out of ground effects. Hot gas ingestion levels were measured for the several forward nozzle splay configurations and with flow control/lift improvement devices which reduced the hot gas ingestion. The model support system had four degrees of freedom, heated high pressure air for nozzle flow, and a suction system exhaust for inlet flow. The headwind (freestream) velocity for Phase 1 was varied from 8 to 90 kn, with primary data taken in the 8 to 23 kn headwind velocity range. Phase 2 headwind velocity varied from 10 to 23 kn. Results of both Phase 1 and 2 are presented. A description of the model, facility, a new model support system, and a sheet laser illumination system are also provided. Results are presented over a range of main landing gear height (model height) above the ground plane at a 10 kn headwind velocity. The results contain the compressor face pressure and temperature distortions, total pressure recovery, compressor face temperature rise, and the environmental effects of the hot gas. The environmental effects include the ground plane temperature and pressure distributions, model airframe heating, and the location of the ground flow separation. Results from the sheet laser flow visualization test are also shown

Glycoalkaloids of Solanum Series Megistacrolobum and related potato cultigens

Glycoalkaloids were used as evidence of the affinities of nine taxa of Solanum Series Megistacrolobum and related potato cultigens from western Bolivia. S. boliviense, S. sanctae-rosae and S. toralapanum contain the commertetraose sugar moiety and appear to represent a relatively wild group within the Series. S. megistacrolobum, S. sogarandinum and S. raphanifolium show anomolous glycoalkaloid profiles that probably reflect hybridization associated with human disturbance. Primitive forms of the S. [chi] ajanhuiri cultigen are indistinguishable chemicaliy from conspecific weeds that were previously classified as S. megistacrolobum. Variation in total glycoalkaloid content within Series Megistacrolobum likely reflects direct selection by humans for reduced glycoalkaloid levels during the domestication process.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25984/1/0000050.pd

Molluscicidal activity of affinin and other isobutylamides from the asteraceae

Unsaturated aliphatic isobutylamides from Asteraceae, Rutaceae and Piperaceae are potential agents to control schistosomiasis. Affinin (N-isobutyl-2,6,8-decatrienamide) from Heliopsis longipes has strong molluscicidal activity against Physa occidentalis (50 ca 100 [mu]M) and the cercariae of the fluke. The amide has also been shown to be present in Wedelia parviceps flowers.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/24159/1/0000417.pd

Transient climate simulations with the HadGEM1 climate model: Causes of past warming and future climate change

The ability of climate models to simulate large-scale temperature changes during the twentieth century when they include both anthropogenic and natural forcings and their inability to account for warming over the last 50 yr when they exclude increasing greenhouse gas concentrations has been used as evidence for an anthropogenic influence on global warming. One criticism of the models used in many of these studies is that they exclude some forcings of potential importance, notably from fossil fuel black carbon, biomass smoke, and land use changes. Herein transient simulations with a new model, the Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model version 1 (HadGEM1), are described, which include these forcings in addition to other anthropogenic and natural forcings, and a fully interactive treatment of atmospheric sulfur and its effects on clouds. These new simulations support previous work by showing that there was a significant anthropogenic influence on near-surface temperature change over the last century. They demonstrate that black carbon and land use changes are relatively unimportant for explaining global mean near-surface temperature changes. The pattern of warming in the troposphere and cooling in the stratosphere that has been observed in radiosonde data since 1958 can only be reproduced when the model includes anthropogenic forcings

Quality of Life in Partners of Young and Old Breast Cancer Survivors

Background: Partners of breast cancer survivors experience the effects of a spouse's cancer years after treatment. Partners of younger survivors (YP) may experience greater problems than partners of older survivors (OP), just as younger survivors experience greater problems than their older counterparts. Objectives: To 1) compare quality of life (QoL) in YP and OP, and 2) determine contributing factors to each group's QoL. Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected from YP (n=227) and OP (n=281) through self-report. MANOVA was used to determine differences between YP and OP on QoL while controlling for covariates. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine what contributes to each group's QoL. Results: YP reported better physical function (effect size (ES)= -0.57), lower marital satisfaction (ES=0.39), and lower overall QoL (ES=0.43) than partners of older survivors. Predictors of QoL also differed between partner groups. For YP, overall QoL was predicted by greater physical functioning, fewer depressive symptoms, higher marital satisfaction, higher parenting satisfaction, and more personal resources. R2= .47; F(5, 195)= 35.05; p<.001. For OP, overall QoL was predicted by fewer depressive symptoms, higher parenting satisfaction, higher spirituality, and greater social support from the breast cancer survivor spouse. R2= .33; F(4, 244)= 29.80; p<.001. Conclusions: OP reported greater QoL than YP. Common factors contributing to QoL between YP and OP were fewer depressive symptoms and higher parenting satisfaction. Implications for Practice: Partners of breast cancer survivors may need support coping with their spouse’s/partner’s cancer. Partners of younger survivors may require more support than partners of older survivors.This study was coordinated by the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (Robert L. Comis, MD and Mitchell D. Schnall, MD, PhD, Group Co-Chairs) and supported in part by Public Health Service Grants CA189828, CA180795, CA37403, CA35199, CA17145 and CA49883, and from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services. Its content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers K05CA175048, T32CA117865-11, and R25CA117865. Its content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health, including the National Cancer Institute or the National Institute of Nursing Research