Employed parents\u27 satisfaction with food choice coping strategies: Influence of gender and structure

This study aimed to understand parents\u27 evaluations of the way they integrated work-family demands to manage food and eating. Employed, low/moderate-income, urban, U.S., Black, White, and Latino mothers (35) and fathers (34) participated in qualitative interviews exploring work and family conditions and spillover, food roles, and food-choice coping and family-adaptive strategies. Parents expressed a range of evaluations from overall satisfaction to overall dissatisfaction as well as dissatisfaction limited to work, family life, or daily schedule. Evaluation criteria differed by gender. Mothers evaluated satisfaction on their ability to balance work and family demands through flexible home and work conditions, while striving to provide healthy meals for their families. Fathers evaluated satisfaction on their ability to achieve schedule stability and participate in family meals, while meeting expectations to contribute to food preparation. Household, and especially work structural conditions, often served as sizeable barriers to parents fulfilling valued family food roles. These relationships highlight the critical need to consider the intersecting influences of gender and social structure as influences on adults\u27 food choices and dietary intake and to address the challenges of work and family integration among low income employed parents as a way to promote family nutrition in a vulnerable population

The impact of concussion on cardiac autonomic function:a systematic review

<p><i>Primary objective</i>: To evaluate the evidence regarding the effect of concussion on cardiac autonomic function (CAF).</p> <p><i>Inclusion criteria</i>: Original research; available in English; included participants with concussion or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and a comparison group; included measures of heart rate (HR) and/or heart rate variability (HRV) as outcomes. Studies of humans (greater than 6 years old) and animals were included.</p> <p><i>Critical appraisal tools</i>: The Downs and Black (DB) criteria and Structured Effectiveness Quality Evaluation Scale (SEQES).</p> <p><i>Results</i>: Nine full-length articles and four abstracts were identified. There is conflicting evidence regarding CAF at rest following concussion. There is evidence of elevated HR and reduced HRV with low-intensity, steady-state exercise up to 10 days following concussion. There was no significant difference in HRV during isometric handgrip testing or HR while performing cognitive tasks following concussion. The validity of current literature is limited by small sample sizes, lack of female or paediatric participants, methodological heterogeneity and lack of follow-up.</p> <p><i>Conclusions</i>: While there is some evidence to suggest CAF is altered during physical activity following concussion, methodological limitations highlight the need for further research. Understanding the effect of concussion on CAF will contribute to the development of more comprehensive concussion management strategies.</p

Behavioral Contexts, Food-Choice Coping Strategies, and Dietary Quality of a Multiethnic Sample of Employed Parents

Employed parents\u27 work and family conditions provide behavioral contexts for their food choices. Relationships between employed parents\u27 food-choice coping strategies, behavioral contexts, and dietary quality were evaluated. Data on work and family conditions, sociodemographic characteristics, eating behavior, and dietary intake from two 24-hour dietary recalls were collected in a random sample cross-sectional pilot telephone survey in the fall of 2006. Black, white, and Latino employed mothers (n=25) and fathers (n=25) were recruited from a low/moderate income urban area in upstate New York. Hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward\u27s method) identified three clusters of parents differing in use of food-choice coping strategies (ie, Individualized Eating, Missing Meals, and Home Cooking). Cluster sociodemographic, work, and family characteristics were compared using χ2 and Fisher\u27s exact tests. Cluster differences in dietary quality (Healthy Eating Index 2005) were analyzed using analysis of variance. Clusters differed significantly (P≤0.05) on food-choice coping strategies, dietary quality, and behavioral contexts (ie, work schedule, marital status, partner\u27s employment, and number of children). Individualized Eating and Missing Meals clusters were characterized by nonstandard work hours, grabbing quick food instead of a meal, using convenience entrées at home, and missing meals or individualized eating. The Home Cooking cluster included considerably more married fathers with nonemployed spouses and more home-cooked family meals. Food-choice coping strategies affecting dietary quality reflect parents\u27 work and family conditions. Nutritional guidance and family policy needs to consider these important behavioral contexts for family nutrition health

The Spitzer c2d Survey of Large, Nearby, Interstellar Clouds. VIII. Serpens Observed with MIPS

We present maps of 1.5 deg^2 of the Serpens dark cloud at 24, 70, and 160 μm observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope MIPS camera. We describe the observations and briefly discuss the data processing carried out by the c2d team on these data. More than 2400 compact sources have been extracted at 24 μm, nearly 100 at 70 μm, and four at 160 μm. We estimate completeness limits for our 24 μm survey from Monte Carlo tests with artificial sources inserted into the Spitzer maps. We compare source counts, colors, and magnitudes in the Serpens cloud to two reference data sets: a 0.50 deg^2 set on a low-extinction region near the dark cloud, and a 5.3 deg^2 subset of the SWIRE ELAIS N1 data that was processed through our pipeline. These results show that there is an easily identifiable population of young stellar object candidates in the Serpens cloud that is not present in either of the reference data sets. We also show a comparison of visual extinction and cool dust emission illustrating a close correlation between the two and find that the most embedded YSO candidates are located in the areas of highest visual extinction

The Spitzer c2d survey of Large, Nearby, Interstellar Clouds. V. Chamaeleon II Observed with IRAC

We present IRAC (3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 micron) observations of the Chamaeleon II molecular cloud. The observed area covers about 1 square degree defined by $A_V >2$. Analysis of the data in the 2005 c2d catalogs reveals a small number of sources (40) with properties similar to those of young stellaror substellar objects (YSOs). The surface density of these YSO candidates is low, and contamination by background galaxies appears to be substantial, especially for sources classified as Class I or flat SED. We discuss this problem in some detail and conclude that very few of the candidate YSOs in early evolutionary stages are actually in the Cha II cloud. Using a refined set of criteria, we define a smaller, but more reliable, set of 24 YSO candidates.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, in press Ap

The Spitzer c2d Survey of Large, Nearby, Interstellar Clouds. VII. Ophiuchus Observed with MIPS

We present maps of 14.4 deg^2 of the Ophiuchus dark clouds observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS). These high-quality maps depict both numerous point sources and extended dust emission within the star-forming and non–star-forming portions of these clouds. Using PSF-fitting photometry, we detect 5779 sources at 24 μm and 81 sources at 70 μm at the 10 σ level of significance. Three hundred twenty-three candidate young stellar objects (YSOs) were identified according to their positions on the MIPS/2MASS K versus color-magnitude diagrams, as compared to 24 μm detections in the SWIRE extragalactic survey. We find that more than half of the YSO candidates, and almost all those with protostellar Class I spectral energy distributions, are confined to the known cluster and aggregates

The c2d Spitzer Spectroscopic Survey Of Ices Around Low-Mass Young Stellar Objects. I. H2O And The 5-8 Mu M Bands

To study the physical and chemical evolution of ices in solar-mass systems, a spectral survey is conducted of a sample of 41 low-luminosity YSOs (L similar to 0.1-10 L-circle dot) using 3-38 mu m Spitzer and ground-based spectra. The sample is complemented with previously published Spitzer spectra of background stars and with ISO spectra of well-studied massive YSOs (L similar to 10(5) L-circle dot). The long-known 6.0 and 6.85 mu m bands are detected toward all sources, with the Class 0-type YSOs showing the deepest bands ever observed. The 6.0 mu m band is often deeper than expected from the bending mode of pure solid H2O. The additional 5-7 mu m absorption consists of five independent components, which, by comparison to laboratory studies, must be from at least eight different carriers. Much of this absorption is due to simple species likely formed by grain surface chemistry, at abundances of 1%-30% for CH3OH, 3%-8% for NH3, 1%-5% for HCOOH, similar to 6% for H2CO, and similar to 0.3% for HCOO- relative to solid H2O. The 6.85 mu m band has one or two carriers, of which one may be less volatile than H2O. Its carrier(s) formed early in the molecular cloud evolution and do not survive in the diffuse ISM. If an NH4+- containing salt is the carrier, its abundance relative to solid H2O is similar to 7%, demonstrating the efficiency of low-temperature acid-base chemistry or cosmic-ray-induced reactions. Possible origins are discussed for enigmatic, very broad absorption between 5 and 8 mu m. Finally, the same ices are observed toward massive and low-mass YSOs, indicating that processing by internal UV radiation fields is a minor factor in their early chemical evolution.NWO SpinozaNOVAEuropean Research Training Network PLANETS HPRN-CT-2002-00308NASA Origins NAG5-13050NASA Hubble Fellowship 01201.01NASA NAS 5-26555Astronom

The Spitzer c2d Survey of Large, Nearby, Interstellar Clouds. IV. Lupus Observed with MIPS

We present maps of 7.78 square degrees of the Lupus molecular cloud complex at 24, 70, and $160\:\mu$m. They were made with the Spitzer Space Telescope's Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) instrument as part of the Spitzer Legacy Program, ``From Molecular Cores to Planet-Forming Disks'' (c2d). The maps cover three separate regions in Lupus, denoted I, III, and IV. We discuss the c2d pipeline and how our data processing differs from it. We compare source counts in the three regions with two other data sets and predicted star counts from the Wainscoat model. This comparison shows the contribution from background galaxies in Lupus I. We also create two color magnitude diagrams using the 2MASS and MIPS data. From these results, we can identify background galaxies and distinguish them from probable young stellar objects. The sources in our catalogs are classified based on their spectral energy distribution (SED) from 2MASS and Spitzer wavelengths to create a sample of young stellar object candidates. From 2MASS data, we create extinction maps for each region and note a strong corresponence between the extinction and the $160\:\mu$m emission. The masses we derived in each Lupus cloud from our extinction maps are compared to masses estimated from $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O and found to be similar to our extinction masses in some regions, but significantly different in others. Finally, based on our color-magnitude diagrams, we selected 12 of our reddest candidate young stellar objects for individual discussion. Five of the 12 appear to be newly-discovered YSOs.Comment: 15 pages, 17 figures, uses emulateapj.cls. Accepted for publication in ApJ. A version with high-quality figures can be found at http://peggysue.as.utexas.edu/SIRTF

High-Quality Draft Genome Sequences of Four Lignocellulose-Degrading Bacteria Isolated from Puerto Rican Forest Soil: Gordonia sp., Paenibacillus sp., Variovorax sp., and Vogesella sp.

Here, we report the high-quality draft genome sequences of four phylogenetically diverse lignocellulose-degrading bacteria isolated from tropical soil (Gordonia sp., Paenibacillus sp., Variovorax sp., and Vogesella sp.) to elucidate the genetic basis of their ability to degrade lignocellulose. These isolates may provide novel enzymes for biofuel production

The Spitzer c2d legacy results: Star-formation rates and efficiencies; evolution and lifetimes

The c2d Spitzer Legacy project obtained images and photometry with both IRAC and MIPS instruments for five large, nearby molecular clouds. Three of the clouds were also mapped in dust continuum emission at 1.1 mm, and optical spectroscopy has been obtained for some clouds. This paper combines information drawn from studies of individual clouds into a combined and updated statistical analysis of star-formation rates and efficiencies, numbers and lifetimes for spectral energy distribution (SED) classes, and clustering properties. Current star-formation efficiencies range from 3% to 6%; if star formation continues at current rates for 10 Myr, efficiencies could reach 15-30%. Star-formation rates and rates per unit area vary from cloud to cloud; taken together, the five clouds are producing about 260 M ☉ of stars per Myr. The star-formation surface density is more than an order of magnitude larger than would be predicted from the Kennicutt relation used in extragalactic studies, reflecting the fact that those relations apply to larger scales, where more diffuse matter is included in the gas surface density. Measured against the dense gas probed by the maps of dust continuum emission, the efficiencies are much higher, with stellar masses similar to masses of dense gas, and the current stock of dense cores would be exhausted in 1.8 Myr on average. Nonetheless, star formation is still slow compared to that expected in a free-fall time, even in the dense cores. The derived lifetime for the Class I phase is 0.54 Myr, considerably longer than some estimates. Similarly, the lifetime for the Class 0 SED class, 0.16 Myr, with the notable exception of the Ophiuchus cloud, is longer than early estimates. If photometry is corrected for estimated extinction before calculating class indicators, the lifetimes drop to 0.44 Myr for Class I and to 0.10 for Class 0. These lifetimes assume a continuous flow through the Class II phase and should be considered median lifetimes or half-lives. Star formation is highly concentrated to regions of high extinction, and the youngest objects are very strongly associated with dense cores. The great majority (90%) of young stars lie within loose clusters with at least 35 members and a stellar density of 1 M ☉ pc–3. Accretion at the sound speed from an isothermal sphere over the lifetime derived for the Class I phase could build a star of about 0.25 M ☉, given an efficiency of 0.3. Building larger mass stars by using higher mass accretion rates could be problematic, as our data confirm and aggravate the "luminosity problem" for protostars. At a given T bol, the values for L bol are mostly less than predicted by standard infall models and scatter over several orders of magnitude. These results strongly suggest that accretion is time variable, with prolonged periods of very low accretion. Based on a very simple model and this sample of sources, half the mass of a star would be accreted during only 7% of the Class I lifetime, as represented by the eight most luminous objects