Commentary on "Food, the law and public health"

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Evaluating the ≤10:1 wholegrain criterion in identifying nutrient quality and health implications of UK breads and breakfast cereals

This article has been published in a revised form in Public Health Nutrition DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980017003718. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © 2017 The Authors. Under embargo until 26 June 2018.Objective: To evaluate the nutrient quality of breads and breakfast cereals identified using the wholegrain definition of ≤10:1 carbohydrate:fibre ratio. Design: Following a cross-sectional study design, nutritional information was systematically gathered from food labels of breads and breakfast cereals that met the ≤10:1 carbohydrate:fibre criterion. The median nutrient content was compared with the UK Food Standards Agency nutrient profiling standards and the association between carbohydrate:fibre ratio and other nutrients were analysed. Subgroup analyses were undertaken for products with and without fruit, nuts and/or seeds. Setting: Products from four major supermarket stores in the UK. Subjects: 162 breads and 266 breakfast cereals. Results: Breads which met the ≤10:1 criterion typically contained medium fat, low saturated fat, low sugar and medium sodium. Breakfast cereals typically contained medium fat, low saturated fat, high sugar and low sodium. In both groups, as the carbohydrate:fibre ratio decreased, fat content increased (bread: p=0.029, r=-0.171; breakfast cereal: p=0.033, r=-0.131) and, in breakfast cereals, as the ratio increased, sugar content increased (p<0.0005, r=0.381). Breakfast cereals with fruit, nuts and/or seeds contained, per 100 g, more energy (p=0.002), fat, saturated fat and sugar (all p<0.0005) while seeded breads had more energy, fat and saturated fat (all p<0.0005). Conclusions: Overall, breads and breakfast cereals meeting the ≤10:1 criterion have good nutritional quality, suggesting that the criterion could be useful in public health and/or food labelling. The utility of applying the 10:1 criterion to products containing fruit, nuts and/or seeds is less clear and requires further research.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Development of a medical imaging-based technology for cancer treatment

The Electrical Impedance Mammography (EIM) device is an imaging system developed at the University of Sussex for the detection of breast lesions in vivo using quadrature detection of impedance. The work describes a novel technique to integrate Ultrasound-guided Focused Ultrasound Surgery (USgFUS) with the existing EIM system. The benefits that such a system could provide include the possibility of non-invasive detection, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer all within a single device and involving no radiation. Furthermore the timescales involved would allow the process to be considered an outpatient procedure such that a patient can be diagnosed and treated on the same day using the same device. Various geometries of transducer were investigated for physical compatibility as well as the ability to target the entire specified volume, based on the dimensions of the existing system. Simulations were performed using a custom written code based on Huygen’s principle, allowing minimum surface area and power requirements to be determined and feasibility of designs to be evaluated. The use of phase differences in the excitation signals applied to individual elements was also investigated, thus the effect of steering the simulated focus could be observed, an important factor to consider when attempting to incorporate a transducer into a device with restricted dimensions. Resulting simulated pressure fields were used to obtain acoustic intensity fields, which could then be used as inputs in the Pennes Bio-Heat Transfer Equation (BHTE) allowing temperature distributions to be observed. Preliminary studies proved the feasibility of using the suggested transducer design in conjunction with the existing EIM system. Pressure fields and heating patterns were all within acceptable limits, confirming the ability of the device to effectively ablate cancerous tissue. Additionally the capability to steer the resultant focal point was validated, and a thermal dose model was implemented allowing different heating patterns to be quantitatively compared

An improved algorithm to harmonize child overweight and obesity prevalence rates

BACKGROUND: Prevalence rates of child overweight and obesity for a group of children vary depending on the BMI reference and cut-off used. Previously we developed an algorithm to convert prevalence rates based on one reference to those based on another. OBJECTIVE: To improve the algorithm by combining information on overweight and obesity prevalence. METHODS: The original algorithm assumed that prevalence according to two different cut-offs A and B differed by a constant amount dz $$dz$$ on the z-score scale. However the results showed that the z-score difference tended to be greater in the upper tail of the distribution and was better represented by b × dz $$b\times dz$$ , where b $$b$$ was a constant that varied by group. The improved algorithm uses paired prevalence rates of overweight and obesity to estimate b $$b$$ for each group. Prevalence based on cut-off A is then transformed to a z-score, adjusted up or down according to b × dz $$b\times dz$$ and back-transformed, and this predicts prevalence based on cut-off B. The algorithm's performance was tested on 228 groups of children aged 6-17 years from 20 countries. RESULTS: The revised algorithm performed much better than the original. The standard deviation (SD) of residuals, the difference between observed and predicted prevalence, was 0.8% (n = 2320 comparisons), while the SD of the difference between pairs of the original prevalence rates was 4.3%, meaning that the algorithm explained 96.7% of the baseline variance (88.2% with original algorithm). CONCLUSIONS: The improved algorithm appears to be effective at harmonizing prevalence rates of child overweight and obesity based on different references

Correction to "On normal and subnormal q-ary codes"

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Exploring an algorithm to harmonize International Obesity Task Force and World Health Organization child overweight and obesity prevalence rates

BACKGROUND: The International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) and World Health Organization (WHO) body mass index (BMI) cut-offs are widely used to assess child overweight, obesity and thinness prevalence, but the two references applied to the same children lead to different prevalence rates. OBJECTIVES: To develop an algorithm to harmonize prevalence rates based on the IOTF and WHO cut-offs, to make them comparable. METHODS: The cut-offs are defined as age-sex-specific BMI z-scores, for example, WHO +1 SD for overweight. To convert an age-sex-specific prevalence rate based on reference cut-off A to the corresponding prevalence based on reference cut-off B, first back-transform the z-score cut-offs z A and z B to age-sex-specific BMI cut-offs, then transform the BMIs to z-scores z B , A and z A , B using the opposite reference. These z-scores together define the distance between the two cut-offs as the z-score difference dz A , B = 1 2 z B - z A + z A , B - z B , A . Prevalence in the target group based on cut-off A is then transformed to a z-score, adjusted up or down according to dz A , B and back-transformed, and this predicts prevalence based on cut-off B. The algorithm's performance was tested on 74 groups of children from 14 European countries. RESULTS: The algorithm performed well. The standard deviation (SD) of the difference between pairs of prevalence rates was 6.6% (n = 604), while the residual SD, the difference between observed and predicted prevalence, was 2.3%, meaning that the algorithm explained 88% of the baseline variance. CONCLUSIONS: The algorithm goes some way to addressing the problem of harmonizing overweight and obesity prevalence rates for children aged 2-18

On two variations of identifying codes

Identifying codes have been introduced in 1998 to model fault-detection in multiprocessor systems. In this paper, we introduce two variations of identifying codes: weak codes and light codes. They correspond to fault-detection by successive rounds. We give exact bounds for those two definitions for the family of cycles

Poor choices: the limits of competitive markets in the provision of essential services to low-income consumers

A major study of the problems faced by the poor in the market for seven essential services in the UK - energy, food, housing, water, telecoms, transport, and financial services. Together these represent 60% of spending by the poorest 30% of households