Fortified foods with Sangkap Pinoy Seal and the micronutrient intake among selected households in Punta, Sta. Ana, Manila, Philippines : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nutritional Science, Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health, Massey University

Text in English with some TagalogThis study evaluated the food fortification program (Sangkap Pinoy Seal Program-SPS) in the Philippines in terms of determining the rate of awareness, attitude and considerations and the factors associated with purchase of fortified foods with SPS among women in a poor urban area in Manila. This study also determined the contribution of SPS foods to total iron and vitamin A intake of their preschool children. A survey was conducted through personal interviews among 134 mothers who were randomly selected from all villages of Punta, Sta. Ana, Manila. Descriptive data showed that around 60% of the participants were aware of SPS foods. In general, a positive perception on SPS foods was demonstrated by the women as reflected in their comments. Majority of these comments associated SPS foods as foods accepted/recommended by the Department of Health, foods with added nutrients and nutritious and safe food to eat. Around 89% of those who were aware exhibited a positive attitude towards fortified foods. Awareness of fortified foods and foods with SPS were significant predictors of purchase of SPS foods. However, even if income was the stronger determinant of purchase than awareness, awareness still had some effect. Around 3% and 6% of the variation in purchase of SPS foods could be attributed to the effects of attitude to fortified foods and total opinion to food and health, respectively. The results of this study also showed that preference of the family and taste were major considerations in purchasing SPS foods among more than half of the sample. These findings suggest that the participants purchased SPS foods not mainly because of added nutrients. Intakes of energy and vitamin A among the respondents' preschooler children were considered adequate. However, their iron intake was found to be less adequate. A remarkable finding of this research study was the significant contributions of SPS foods to iron and vitamin A intakes of the children in achieving the RDA. There was 53% increase on the number of children whose vitamin A intake was less than 50% of the RDA if SPS foods were taken out from the diet. SPS foods contributed around 27.6% to total vitamin A intake of the children. Without, the contribution of iron from SPS foods, there was 44% decrease on the number of children whose iron intake was greater than 75% of the RDA and 100% increase on the number of children whose iron intake was less than 50% of the RDA. Hence, iron and vitamin A from SPS foods did have an impact in the nutritional status of the children. The findings of the study may provide vital information to the food fortification program and pose a challenge to nutrition educators. The results are discussed in relation to the previous literature and recommendations are presented with particular emphasis on the implications for future research. In conclusion, SPS foods may have a good potential to improve the nutritional status of the children

Reconstruction of primary vertices at the ATLAS experiment in Run 1 proton-proton collisions at the LHC

This paper presents the method and performance of primary vertex reconstruction in proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment during Run 1 of the LHC. The studies presented focus on data taken during 2012 at a centre-of-mass energy of [Formula: see text] TeV. The performance has been measured as a function of the number of interactions per bunch crossing over a wide range, from one to seventy. The measurement of the position and size of the luminous region and its use as a constraint to improve the primary vertex resolution are discussed. A longitudinal vertex position resolution of about [Formula: see text] is achieved for events with high multiplicity of reconstructed tracks. The transverse position resolution is better than [Formula: see text] and is dominated by the precision on the size of the luminous region. An analytical model is proposed to describe the primary vertex reconstruction efficiency as a function of the number of interactions per bunch crossing and of the longitudinal size of the luminous region. Agreement between the data and the predictions of this model is better than 3% up to seventy interactions per bunch crossing