Food neophobia and mealtime food consumption in 4-5 year old children.

Background: Previous research has documented a negative association between maternal report of child food neophobia and reported frequency of consumption of fruit, vegetables, and meat. This study aimed to establish whether neophobia is associated with lower intake of these food types in naturalistic mealtime situations. Methods: One hundred and nine parents of 4–5 year olds completed questionnaires which included a six-item version of the Child Food Neophobia Scale (CFNS). The children took part in a series of 3 test lunch meals at weekly intervals at school at which they were presented with: chicken, cheese, bread, cheese crackers, chocolate biscuits, grapes and tomatoes or carrot sticks. Food items served to each child were weighed before and after the meal to assess total intake of items in four categories: Fruit and vegetables, Protein foods, Starchy foods and Snack foods. Pearson Product Moment Correlations and independent t tests were performed to examine associations between scores on the CFNS and consumption during lunches. Results: Neophobia was associated with lower consumption of fruit and vegetables, protein foods and total calories, but there was no association with intake of starch or snack foods. Conclusion: These results support previous research that has suggested that neophobia impacts differentially on consumption of different food types. Specifically it appears that children who score highly on the CFNS eat less fruit, vegetables and protein foods than their less neophobic peers. Attempts to increase intake of fruit, vegetables and protein might usefully incorporate strategies known to reduce the neophobic response

Non-equilibrium electron transport in mesoscale superconducting hybrids

This thesis focusses on driven superconducting heterostructures. Both experimentally and theoretically we address the following questions: (a) how does the presence of different metallic and dielectric materials influence the electronic properties of a driven superconductor? (b) how does a non-equilibrium electron distribution arise and how does it influence the behavior of the sample? Mesoscale heterostructures offer a unique possibility to this interplay between microscopic and macroscopic behavior in a controlled environment. They are big enough for the emergence of collective macroscopic states as superconductivity or ferromagnetism. At the same time they are small compared to relevant physical length scales and therefore depend on the microscopic properties of the sample. The influence of interfaces and surfaces becomes increasingly more important and the intuitive picture in which different materials with bulk properties are connected by interfaces breaks down. Due to their small size, the samples are easily driven out of equilibrium. This leads to nonlinear behavior because collective states such as superconductivity are affected by an electronic non-equilibrium and at the same time drastically alter the thermal transport. Besides the fundamental interest, the questions asked have a direct relevance for applications. The most apparent field of use is in submillimeter photon detectors, which in many cases rely on the electrical response of a driven mesoscopic superconductor.Kavli Institute of NanoScienceApplied Science

A 2 × 2 array receiver at 1.4 THz based on HEB mixers and a Fourier phase grating local oscillator

We report on realization of a 2 × 2 NbN hot electron bolometer (HEB) array receiver using multiple local oscillator (LO) beams that are obtained from a Fourier phase grating mirror. The grating splits a 1.4 THz single beam into four uniform sub-beams. Two 50mm lenses are applied to collimate each beam in order to achieve a spacing of 12mm between them. The LO power in each beam is shown to be enough to fully pump the HEB mixer elements. The IV curves, noise temperature and IF bandwidth for each pixel is then characterized.QN/Quantum NanoscienceApplied Science