Exploring young child feeding practices and perceptions in Tower Hamlets, with a focus on sugar World Nutrition

Introduction: The aim of this qualitative research was to gain a greater understanding of the factors that influence young child feeding perceptions and practices in families with children under the age of five years old in London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the context of rising childhood obesity levels in England. Methodology: The target group were mothers with children under five, mother in laws, service providers and carers. The participants were selected using purposeful, convenience and snowball sampling methods. Data were collected from 21 key informant interviews, 2 direct observations of health promotion sessions and 18 focus groups. The focus group discussions included 119 participants: 95 women who were mothers, 3 mother in laws and 21 service providers. A thematic analysis was used to identify four themes: knowledge not leading to changes, communication challenges, barriers to improving family healthy eating practices, and the lack of public health nutrition services. Findings: Knowledge had not led to behaviour change: Participants demonstrated high levels of knowledge on what constitutes healthy eating such as increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables their children eat while reducing sugar, salt and fat intake. Information was sought mainly from the internet, friends and family, but participants would prefer a one-to-one session with a health worker. Communication challenges: Misleading messages negatively affected food choices. Participants raised the problem of mixed messages regarding what was a healthy snack, as many food labels targeting young children carry misleading health claims such as “two of your five a day” or “organic,” despite having extremely high levels of sugar. Barriers to improving family healthy eating practices: The challenges experienced when trying to improve their children’s eating habits included the cost of healthy food options, the lack of time to buy and prepare healthy options, unhealthy treats given by family and friends, and the unhealthy takeaway food environment. Lack of public health nutrition services and support: There was a lack of clarity regarding who mothers and service providers should refer to regarding nutrition problems such as fussy eating, portion sizes, and diet diversity. Half of the early years’ service providers that were interviewed had no training on healthy eating guidelines, although training had been planned. Parents did not think the sugar tax would have a significant impact on the consumption of sugar or on childhood obesity levels

Solution of a second order difference equation using the bilinear relations of Riemann

A recently proposed technique to solve a class of second order functional difference equations arising in electromagnetic diffraction theory is further investigated by applying it to a case of intermediate complexity. The proposed approach is conceptually simple and relies on first obtaining well-defined branched solutions to a pair of associated first order difference equations. The construction of these branched expressions leads to an equation system whose solution requires relationships akin to Riemann’s bilinear relations for differentials of the first and third kinds; their derivation necessitates the application of Cauchy’s theorem on Riemann surfaces of, in this particular instance, genera one and three. Branch-free solutions of the second order difference equation are then obtained by taking appropriate linear combinations of the branched solutions of the first order equations. Analysis and computation demonstrate that the resulting expressions have the desired analytical properties and recover known solutions in the appropriate limit. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71093/2/JMAPAQ-43-3-1598-1.pd

Fractured-Aquifer Hydrogeology from Geophysical Logs: Brunswick Group and Lockatong Formation, Pennsylvania

The Brunswick Group and the underlying Lockatong Formation are composed of lithified Mesozoic sediments that constitute part of the Newark Basin in southeastern Pennsylvania. These fractured rocks form an important regional aquifer that consists of gradational sequences of shale, siltstone, and sandstone, with fluid transport occurring primarily in fractures. An extensive suite of geophysical logs was obtained in seven wells located at the borough of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, in order to better characterize the areal hydrogeologic system and provide guidelines for the refinement of numerical ground water models. Six of the seven wells are approximately 120 m deep and the seventh extends to a depth of 335 m. Temperature, fluid conductivity, and flowmeter logs are used to locate zones of fluid exchange and to quantify transmissivities. Electrical resistivity and natural gamma logs together yield detailed stratigraphic information, and digital acoustic televiewer data provide magnetically oriented images of the borehole wall from which almost 900 fractures are identified

Fractured-Aquifer Hydrogeology from Geophysical Logs: Brunswick Group and Lockatong Formation, Pennsylvania

The Brunswick Group and the underlying Lockatong Formation are composed of lithified Mesozoic sediments that constitute part of the Newark Basin in southeastern Pennsylvania. These fractured rocks form an important regional aquifer that consists of gradational sequences of shale, siltstone, and sandstone, with fluid transport occurring primarily in fractures. An extensive suite of geophysical logs was obtained in seven wells located at the borough of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, in order to better characterize the areal hydrogeologic system and provide guidelines for the refinement of numerical ground water models. Six of the seven wells are approximately 120 m deep and the seventh extends to a depth of 335 m. Temperature, fluid conductivity, and flowmeter logs are used to locate zones of fluid exchange and to quantify transmissivities. Electrical resistivity and natural gamma logs together yield detailed stratigraphic information, and digital acoustic televiewer data provide magnetically oriented images of the borehole wall from which almost 900 fractures are identified

Self-Assembly in the Growth of Precious Opal

It is proposed that primary nucleation of amorphous microspherulites of hydrated silica in natural proto-precious-opal can be followed by a long range superlattice ordering process by means of electrostatic self-assembly. Necessary conditions in the thermodynamics are a high surface charge density on microspherulite surfaces, a long Debye length and an appropriate number density of nucleation centres. A further chemical requirement is a high alkaline environmental pH from 9 to 10. It is also proposed that the characteristic concentric spherical shell-like structure of spherulites, centred on primary nuclei, are due to sequential deposition of intrinsic salts which precipitate out when the corresponding solubility limits in the liquid are successively exceeded. It can be that the better-known sedimentation of microspherulites under gravity only plays part in the final stabilization period of overall growth.Comment: 12 pages pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2009.09.04

The Relative Importance of Different Trophic Pathways for Secondary Exposure to Anticoagulant Rodenticides

Secondary exposure of predators to anticoagulant rodenticides, and in particular second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs), is a global phenomenon. The widespread and large-scale nature of this exposure has attracted considerable concern, although the consequences in terms of likelihood of poisoning of individuals and resultant impacts on populations are not well characterised. Secondary exposure of predators may as rise from once or more of: (i) eating contaminated commensal rodents subject to control (target species are typically rats and house mice); (ii) consumption of contaminated non-target small mammals (such as Peromyscus, Microtus, and Apodemus species) that encounter and feed on what are rodent-attractive baits; (iii) consumption of non-rodent vertebrate and invertebrate prey that may also incidentally encounter and eat baits. We hypothesised that predators feeding primarily on target species may be most at risk of exposure to SGARs while those predominantly taking non-mammalian prey may be at least risk. We tested this hypothesis by comparing exposure, determined from the presence and magnitude of SGAR liver residues, in red kites (Milvus milvus), which feeds extensively on rats, in barn owls (Tyto alba), kestrels (Falco tinnunculus), and tawny owls (Strix aluco) that feed widely on non-target small mammals, and in sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus) that feed predominantly on small birds. We found that the scale and magnitude of exposure was broadly consistent with our hypothesis, and that controlling for age in the analysis could be important as older birds can accumulate residues with age. However, exposure in kestrels was typically greater than that in barn owls and tawny owls, despite what is thought to be a general similarity among the species in their diets. We discuss the relative importance of trophic pathways relative to other factors that may drive secondary exposure in predators, and confirm that species that feed on rats or other target species may be at most risk of exposure and poisoning

Relative diagnostic, prognostic and economic value of stress echocardiography versus exercise electrocardiography as initial investigation for the detection of coronary artery disease in patients with new onset suspected angina.

OBJECTIVES: We hypothesised that stress echocardiography (SE), may be superior to exercise ECG (ExECG), for predicting CAD and outcome, and cost-beneficial, when performed as initial investigation in newly suspected angina. METHODS: All patients seen in 2011, with suspected angina, no history of CAD, pre-test likelihood of CAD of > 10% and who underwent SE or ExECG as first line were identified retrospectively. Cost to diagnosis was calculated by adding the cost of all tests, up to and including coronary angiography (CA), on an intention-to-treat basis. Follow-up data on cardiac death and myocardial infarction (MI) were collected, 26 months after the presentation of the last study patient. RESULTS: A total of 456 patients underwent ExECG (224 (49%) negative, 93 (20%) positive, 139 (31%) inconclusive) and 241 underwent SE (200 (83%) negative, 35 (15%) positive, 6 (2%) inconclusive) as first line. In patients subsequently undergoing CA, CAD was present in 46% (37/80) of patients with positive ExECG vs. 72% (23/32) patients with positive SE (p = 0.01). Mean cost to diagnosis was £456 for the ExECG vs. £360 for the SE group (p = 0.002). Over a mean follow-up period of 31 ± 5 months, cardiac events were 2% each in negative SE vs. negative ExECG (p = 0.9). CONCLUSIONS: SE is superior to ExECG for prediction of CAD and is cost-beneficial when used as initial test in patients with no history of CAD presenting with suspected angina