Evaluation of a multi-national dietary sodium research program in Latin America

This is a summative evaluation of the project “Scaling up and Evaluating Salt Reduction Policies and Programs in Latin American Countries.” The project generated knowledge and research innovations to drive policies and programs for dietary sodium reduction. Knowledge on the sodium content of over 8300 packaged foods and 100 street, artisanal and fast foods has been generated. Quantification of the number of packaged foods that exceed regional and/or national sodium reduction target levels was established. Several innovations were created as part of this research and are available for future use including the Food Label Information Program (FLIP) interface and database

Vital Exhaustion as a Risk Factor for Adverse Cardiac Events (from the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities [ARIC] Study)

Vital exhaustion, defined as excessive fatigue, feelings of demoralization, and increased irritability, has been identified as a risk factor for incident and recurrent cardiac events, but there are no prospective studies of this association in United States samples. We examined the predictive value of vital exhaustion for incident myocardial infarction or fatal coronary heart disease (CHD) among middle-aged men and women in four US communities. Participants were 12,895 black or white men and women enrolled in the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities (ARIC) Study cohort and followed for the occurrence of cardiac morbidity and mortality from 1990 through 2002 (maximum follow-up = 13.0 years). Vital exhaustion was assessed using the 21-item Maastricht Questionnaire, and partitioned into approximate quartiles for statistical analyses. High vital exhaustion (the fourth quartile) predicted adverse cardiac events in age-, gender-, and race-center-adjusted analyses (1.69 [95% C.I: 1.40 to 2.05]) and in analyses further adjusted for educational level, body mass index, plasma low density lipoprotein-and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels, diabetes mellitus, cigarette smoking status, and pack-years of cigarette smoking (1.46 [95% C.I: 1.20 to 1.79]). The risk for adverse cardiac events increased monotonically from the first through the fourth quartile of vital exhaustion. The probabilities of adverse cardiac events over time were significantly higher in people with high vital exhaustion compared to those with low exhaustion (p = 0.002). In conclusion, vital exhaustion predicts the long-term risk for adverse cardiac events in men and women, independent of the established biomedical risk factors

Anger Proneness, Gender, and the Risk of Heart Failure

Evidence concerning the association of anger-proneness with incidence of heart failure is lacking

Scaling-up and evaluating salt reduction policies and programs in Latin American countries - final technical report -university of Toronto

This detailed report reviews activities of the University of Toronto team technical support for the “Scaling-up and evaluating salt reduction policies and programs in Latin American countries” project. It includes 15 Appendices. The specific objective was to provide technical assistance to the teams of each country on the collection, entry, processing and analysis of Latin American packaged foods for the assessment of sodium content. The University of Toronto’s Food Label Information Program (FLIP) and Latin American version (FLIPLAC) interface is an iPhone data collector application, used to capture pictures of food packages, and a web-based database management software which can translate data to Microsoft Excel

Options for managing hypoxic blackwater in river systems: case studies and framework

Hypoxic blackwater events occur when large amounts of organic material are leached into a water body (e.g., during floodplain inundation) and rapid metabolism of this carbon depletes oxygen from the water column, often with catastrophic effects on the aquatic environment. River regulation may have increased the frequency and severity of hypoxic blackwater events in lowland river systems, necessitating management intervention to mitigate the impacts of these events on aquatic biota. We examine the effectiveness of a range of mitigation interventions that have been used during large-scale hypoxic blackwater events in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia and that may be applicable in other environments at risk from hypoxic blackwater. Strategies for hypoxia mitigation include: delivery of dilution flows; enhancement of physical re-aeration rates by increasing surface turbulence; and diversion of blackwater into shallow off-channel storages. We show that the impact of dilution water delivery is determined by relative volumes and water quality and can be predicted using simple models. At the dilution water inflow point, localized oxygenated plumes may also act as refuges. Physical re-aeration strategies generally result in only a small increase in dissolved oxygen but may be beneficial for local refuge protection. Dilution and natural re-aeration processes in large, shallow lake systems can be sufficient to compensate for hypoxic inflows and water processed in off-channel lakes may be able to be returned to the river channel as dilution flows. We provide a set of predictive models (as electronic supplementary material) for estimation of the re-aeration potential of intervention activities and a framework to guide the adaptive management of future hypoxic blackwater events

The Future of the Firm: Centennial Lecture

Presented on January 21, 2009 from 6 to 7 pm in the Architecture AuditoriumModerators: Ellen Dunham-Jones ; George Heery. Speakers: Marvin Housworth (Arch 1963), Principal, KPS Group, Inc. ; Janice Wittschiebe (Arch 1978, M Arch 1980), Principal, Richard Wittschiebe Hand ; Kevin Cantley (Arch 1976; M Arch 1978), President & CEO, Cooper Carry, Inc. ; G. Niles Bolton (Arch 1968), Chairman & CEO, Niles Bolton Associates ; William H. Harrison (Arch 1971), Principal, Harrison Design Associates ; Bulent Baydar (Arch 1993, M Arch 1995) ; Cannon Reynolds (Arch 1993, M Arch 1996) ; George Heery (Arch 1951), Chairman & CEO, Brookwood Group ; David Goodman (Arch 2004, M Arch 2006) ; Susan Lineberry Barron (Arch 1997) ; Kahlillah Dotson Mosley (Arch 2004).Founders of some of Atlanta’s best firms shared the stage with a younger practitioner in their firm for a dialogue about past and future. Panel featured KPS Group/Richard Wittschiebe Hand/Cooper Carry/Niles Bolton Associates/Harrison Design Associates. Sponsored by KPS Group in honor of Marvin Housworth (Arch 1963)

Vital Exhaustion as a Risk Factor for Adverse Cardiac Events (from the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities [ARIC] Study)

Vital exhaustion, defined as excessive fatigue, feelings of demoralization, and increased irritability, has been identified as a risk factor for incident and recurrent cardiac events, but there are no prospective studies of this association in United States samples. We examined the predictive value of vital exhaustion for incident myocardial infarction or fatal coronary heart disease (CHD) among middle-aged men and women in four US communities. Participants were 12,895 black or white men and women enrolled in the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities (ARIC) Study cohort and followed for the occurrence of cardiac morbidity and mortality from 1990 through 2002 (maximum follow-up = 13.0 years). Vital exhaustion was assessed using the 21-item Maastricht Questionnaire, and partitioned into approximate quartiles for statistical analyses. High vital exhaustion (the fourth quartile) predicted adverse cardiac events in age-, gender-, and race-center-adjusted analyses (1.69 [95% C.I: 1.40 to 2.05]) and in analyses further adjusted for educational level, body mass index, plasma low density lipoprotein-and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels, diabetes mellitus, cigarette smoking status, and pack-years of cigarette smoking (1.46 [95% C.I: 1.20 to 1.79]). The risk for adverse cardiac events increased monotonically from the first through the fourth quartile of vital exhaustion. The probabilities of adverse cardiac events over time were significantly higher in people with high vital exhaustion compared to those with low exhaustion (p = 0.002). In conclusion, vital exhaustion predicts the long-term risk for adverse cardiac events in men and women, independent of the established biomedical risk factors