Breastfeeding Promotion Research: The ES/WIC Nutrition Education Initiative and Economic Considerations

Educating low-income women about the advantages of breastfeeding their babies increases the number who breastfeed. This report summarizes the results of four projects that focused primarily on promoting breastfeeding, which is considered to be the most healthful and beneficial feeding method for most infants. Research has shown that breastfeeding improves the general health, growth, and development of infants and significantly reduces the risk of several health problems both during early life and in later years. Lower income women have been less likely to breastfeed than higher income women. One step the USDA has taken to promote breastfeeding is the ES/WIC Nutrition Education Initiative. This combines the strengths of two nutrition programs for low-income families, the Cooperative Extension System's Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program and the Food and Nutrition Service's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. This report shows that breastfeeding education before delivery increases the initiation of breastfeeding among low-income women. The results also indicate that breastfeeding support soon after delivery increases the duration of breastfeeding.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

THE ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF BREASTFEEDING: A REVIEW AND ANALYSIS

A minimum of $3.6 billion would be saved if breastfeeding were increased from current levels (64 percent in-hospital, 29 percent at 6 months) to those recommended by the U.S. Surgeon General (75 and 50 percent). This figure is likely an underestimation of the total savings because it represents cost savings from the treatment of only three childhood illnesses: otitis media, gastroenteritis, and necrotizing enterocolitis. This report reviews breastfeeding trends and previous studies that assessed the economic benefits of breastfeeding.Breastfeeding, economic benefits, otitis media, gastroenteritis, necrotizing enterocolitis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Mesoscopic Rydberg Gate based on Electromagnetically Induced Transparency

We demonstrate theoretically a parallelized C-NOT gate which allows to entangle a mesoscopic ensemble of atoms with a single control atom in a single step, with high fidelity and on a microsecond timescale. Our scheme relies on the strong and long-ranged interaction between Rydberg atoms triggering Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT). By this we can robustly implement a conditional transfer of all ensemble atoms among two logical states, depending on the state of the control atom. We outline a many body interferometer which allows a comparison of two many-body quantum states by performing a measurement of the control atom.Comment: published versio

Quantum critical behavior in strongly interacting Rydberg gases

We study the appearance of correlated many-body phenomena in an ensemble of atoms driven resonantly into a strongly interacting Rydberg state. The ground state of the Hamiltonian describing the driven system exhibits a second order quantum phase transition. We derive the critical theory for the quantum phase transition and show that it describes the properties of the driven Rydberg system in the saturated regime. We find that the suppression of Rydberg excitations known as blockade phenomena exhibits an algebraic scaling law with a universal exponent.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, published versio

Cavity-induced temperature control of a two-level system

We consider a two-level atom interacting with a single mode of the electromagnetic field in a cavity within the Jaynes-Cummings model. Initially, the atom is thermal while the cavity is in a coherent state. The atom interacts with the cavity field for a fixed time. After removing the atom from the cavity and applying a laser pulse the atom will be in a thermal state again. Depending on the interaction time with the cavity field the final temperature can be varied over a large range. We discuss how this method can be used to cool the internal degrees of freedom of atoms and create heat baths suitable for studying thermodynamics at the nanoscale

A murine model of variant late infantile ceroid lipofuscinosis recapitulates behavioral and pathological phenotypes of human disease.

Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs; also known collectively as Batten Disease) are a family of autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorders. Mutations in as many as 13 genes give rise to ∼10 variants of NCL, all with overlapping clinical symptomatology including visual impairment, motor and cognitive dysfunction, seizures, and premature death. Mutations in CLN6 result in both a variant late infantile onset neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (vLINCL) as well as an adult-onset form of the disease called Type A Kufs. CLN6 is a non-glycosylated membrane protein of unknown function localized to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In this study, we perform a detailed characterization of a naturally occurring Cln6 mutant (Cln6(nclf)) mouse line to validate its utility for translational research. We demonstrate that this Cln6(nclf) mutation leads to deficits in motor coordination, vision, memory, and learning. Pathologically, we demonstrate loss of neurons within specific subregions and lamina of the cortex that correlate to behavioral phenotypes. As in other NCL models, this model displays selective loss of GABAergic interneuron sub-populations in the cortex and the hippocampus with profound, early-onset glial activation. Finally, we demonstrate a novel deficit in memory and learning, including a dramatic reduction in dendritic spine density in the cerebral cortex, which suggests a reduction in synaptic strength following disruption in CLN6. Together, these findings highlight the behavioral and pathological similarities between the Cln6(nclf) mouse model and human NCL patients, validating this model as a reliable format for screening potential therapeutics

Genetic Mechanisms Underlying the Pathogenicity of Cold-Stressed Salmonella Enterica Serovar Typhimurium in Cultured Intestinal Epithelial Cells

Salmonella encounters various stresses in the environment and in the host during infection. The effects of cold (5 C, 48 h), peroxide (5 mM H2O2, 5 h) and acid stress (pH 4.0, 90 min) were tested on pathogenicity of Salmonella. Prior exposure of Salmonella to cold stress significantly (P \u3c 0.05) increased adhesion and invasion of cultured intestinal epithelial (Caco-2) cells. This increased Salmonella-host cell association was also correlated with significant induction of several virulence-associated genes, implying an increased potential of cold-stressed Salmonella to cause an infection. In Caco-2 cells infected with cold-stressed Salmonella, genes involved in the electron transfer chain were significantly induced, but no simultaneous significant increase in expression of antioxidant genes that neutralize the effect of superoxide radicals or reactive oxygen species was observed. Increased production of caspase 9 and caspase 3/7 was confirmed during host cell infection with cold-stressed Salmonella. Further, a prophage gene, STM2699, induced in cold-stressed Salmonella and a spectrin gene, SPTAN1, induced in Salmonella-infected intestinal epithelial cells were found to have a significant contribution in increased adhesion and invasion of cold-stressed Salmonella in epithelial cells

Metabolism as a Basis for Differential Atrazine Tolerance in Warm-Season Forage Grasses

Atrazine metabolism was studied in four warmseason forage grasses to determine if metabolism was the basis for differential atrazine tolerance among the grasses. Big bluestem and switchgrass are atrazine tolerant while indiangrass and sideoats grama are atrazine susceptible in the seedling stage. Metabolism of atrazine in big bluestem and switchgrass occurred primarily by glutathione conjugation. The major metabolic product isolated from indiangrass and sideoats grama was the N-deethylated metabolite of atrazine. Glutathione conjugation by big bluestem and switchgrass occurred at a faster rate than N-dealkylation of atrazine in indiangrass and sideoats grama. Differential tolerance to atrazine among the grasses studied was probably due to the metabolic route by which they detoxify atrazine and the rate of metabolism for that specific route. Intraspecific differences in atrazine tolerance in indiangrass were due to the amount of metabolite produced in relationship to the amount of parent atrazine remaining in the shoot tissue. The more tolerant indiangrass lines had a higher metabolite to parent atrazine ratio than susceptible lines. This study confirmed differences in seedling atrazine tolerance of four indiangrass lines observed in previous greenhouse studies. Nomenclature: Atrazine, 6- chloro -N- ethyl - N\u27 -(1- methylethyl) -1,3,5 -triazine- 2,4-diamine; big bluestem, Andropogon gerardii Vitman; switchgrass, Panicum virgatum L.; indiangrass, Sorghastrum nutans (L.) Nash; sideoats grama, Bouteloua curtipendula (Michx.) Torr