Determining the relative validity and reproducibility of a complementary food frequency questionnaire to assess nutrient intake in New Zealand infants aged 9 to 12 months : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Background: Obtaining information on dietary intake in infants is challenging but necessary to help understand the relationship between diet and growth and development. Food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) are commonly used to investigate dietary intake as they are suited for use in large population groups, can determine intake over multiple days and minimise participant and researcher burden, and associated costs. FFQs need to be specific to the population they are to be used in and validated so that their results can be interpreted with greater confidence. There are currently no simple, validated dietary assessment methods that are available to assess nutrient intake for New Zealand infants. Objective: To validate a complementary food frequency questionnaire (CFFQ) against a reference method of a four-day weighed food record (4dWFR) for assessing nutrient intakes of New Zealand infants aged 9 to 12 months. A secondary objective was to assess the reproducibility of the CFFQ by having it completed on two separate occasions, four weeks apart. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used including ninety-five infants aged 10 ± 1 months and their primary caregiver, who completed the CFFQ twice (CFFQ-1 and CFFQ-2), approximately four weeks apart (to assess reproducibility). Four days of weighed food records (4dWFR) were collected on non-consecutive days between CFFQ administrations (validity). Validity and reproducibility were assessed for intakes of energy, macronutrients and micronutrients using paired t-tests, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, cross-classification and Bland-Altman analysis. Two data sets were created, one that included milk intake (breast milk and formula) and one that excluded milk intake. The data was also adjusted for energy intake, before being reassessed for validity and reproducibility. Results: For validity, most nutrient intakes from the CFFQ were comparable to the 4dWFR (range <1% up to 27% different). The CFFQ produced significantly higher nutrient intakes for fat and saturated fat, but significantly lower nutrient intakes for carbohydrate, fibre, folate, potassium, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and vitamin C (p<0.01). Correlation coefficients ranged from r=0.18 (saturated fat) to r=0.81 (iron; mean r=0.52). Over half of participants had the same tertile classification by both the 4dWFR and the CFFQ (mean 53.9%, range 39.0% (selenium) to 67.4% (iron)). Between 2.1% (iron and calcium) and 14.7% (saturated fat) of participants (mean 7.1%) were misclassified into opposite tertiles. Most of the nutrients showed acceptable agreement between methods (κ=0.20–0.60). Saturated fat and selenium showed poor agreement (κ<0.20) and iron showed good agreement (κ>0.60). Removing milk intake weakened the correlations (range r=0.21 for vitamin E to r=0.60 for niacin, mean r=0.44) and reduced the agreement between methods (50.3% correctly classified and 9.2% grossly misclassified). Adjustment for energy intake showed comparable correlation coefficients (range r=0.24 for fibre and r=0.78 for calcium and iron, mean r=0.52) and improved the agreement between methods (56.2% correctly classified and 6.8% grossly misclassified). The CFFQ had adequate performance for reproducibility for all nutrients and energy with acceptable correlations (r≥0.20) and good cross-classification (>50% correctly classified and <10% grossly misclassified) apart from fat and saturated fat (40.9% and 47.3% correctly classified, respectively). All nutrients showed acceptable to good agreement between the CFFQ-1 and CFFQ-2 (κ>0.20). When milk intake was excluded and when the data was adjusted for energy intake, there was comparable acceptable to good correlations and cross-classification. Conclusion: Although there were some differences in absolute energy and nutrient intakes between the methods, the CFFQ appears to have acceptable validity for assessing 14 nutrients and good reproducibility for assessing 18 nutrients and energy in infants aged 9-12 months. The CFFQ could be used in future research to investigate infant nutrient intakes where using a simple tool with little participant burden is beneficial

The contribution of post-accession Polish migrants to adult social care services

In an increasingly globalised world, for many people who are using the UK adult social care services, interaction with post accession migrants as paid carers now represents an everyday encounter. This paper explores the contribution being made by post accession Polish migrants. It focuses on the role that these workers are playing in services for adults with learning disabilities in the UK. People with learning disabilities represent a service user group that continues to grow both numerically and in terms of complexity of need. Service users who rely on adult social care represent some of the most vulnerable and dependent members of society, whose needs are now largely met in community based services. This model of service delivery stands in sharp contrast to services for people with learning disabilities in Poland, where even though there is a growing shift and political commitment towards community care, most provision remains mainly orientated towards institutional care. Drawing on feminist scholarship it attempts to understand what can be learnt about care through migration discourse. The focus on social care provides opportunities for both analytical and comparative social policy analysis, while also considering the needs of adults with learning disabilities. In particular it focuses on how post accession migrants employed as care workers are key elements in the global reconfiguration of welfare systems and familial relationships. It briefly considers how the experiences and knowledge being gained by these women working in the UK could potentially impact on Polish services for people with learning disabilitie

HI and Cosmology: What We Need To Know

There are three distinct regimes in which radio observations of the redshifted 21 cm line of HI can contribute directly to cosmology in unique ways. The regimes are naturally divided by redshift, from high to low, into: inflationary physics, the Dark Ages and reionization, and galaxy evolution and Dark Energy. Each measurement presents its own set of technical, theoretical, and observational challenges, making "what we need to know" not so much an astrophysical question at this early stage as a comprehensive experimental question. A wave of new pathfinder projects are exploring the fundamental aspects of what we need to know (and what we should expect to learn in the coming years) in order to achieve the goals of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) and beyond.Comment: From AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1035, 2008, "The Evolution of Galaxies through the Neutral Hydrogen Window". 7 page

The aboriginal football ethic: Where the rules get flexible

In his highly influential history of Australian rules football, Geoffrey Blainey promoted the idea that the sport constituted a 'game of our own'. In making this claim, Blainey suggested the sport was the outcome of Anglo-Australian cultural innovations. In raising the prospect of an Aboriginal football ethic we question this assertion and ask who is really taking this indigenous sport forward today

Beyond equality: The place of Aboriginal culture in the Australian game of football

This paper provides an overview of Aboriginal interventions in the sport of Australian (Rules) Football in the period since the formation of the Australian Football League (AFL) in 1990. Recalling several pivotal events that have defined and redefined the relationship between Aboriginal people and the Australian game of football, this paper finds that the struggle to end on-field racial vilification in the 1990s attracted widespread support from the overwhelmingly non-Aboriginal public because these actions were consistent with the political principle of equality. The key actions of Nicky Winmar and Michael Long gained general appeal because they demanded that Aboriginal people be treated as though they were Anglo-Australians. In this regard, the 1990s fight against on-field racism in the AFL was a continuation of the Aboriginal struggle for rights associated with Australian citizenship. As the 1967 Commonwealth referenda on Aborigines demonstrated, most Anglo-Australians understood and supported the political principle of equality even though the promise of citizenship in substantive improvements to social and economic outcomes almost 50 years later remains largely unfulfilled. Nevertheless, in the recently concluded 2015 AFL season, Adam Goodes, the most highly decorated Aboriginal man to play the sport at the highest level, was effectively booed into retirement. Goodes became a controversial and largely disliked figure in the sport when he used the public honour of being 2014 Australian of the Year to highlight the disadvantage and historical wrongs that continue to adversely impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their communities. This paper argues that Goodes effectively sought to shift the paradigm of Aboriginal struggle beyond the sympathetic notions of racism and equal treatment to issues of historical fact that imply First Nations rights associated with cultural practice. Goodes' career initiates a new discussion about the place that Aboriginal cultures, traditions and understandings might have in the sport today. His decision to perform an Aboriginal war dance demonstrates that the new paradigm we propose is primarily about the political principle of difference, not equality

M1 and monetary policy

Monetary policy - United States ; Velocity of money ; Money supply

New deposits

Bank deposits ; Money ; Monetary policy - United States ; Money market deposit account ; Interest rates