Assessing the variety and pricing of selected foods in socioeconomically disparate districts of Berlin, Germany

Aim: The neighbourhood environment appears to influence people’s food consumption. Access, variety and pricing of foods play a role in the socioeconomic difference of fruit and vegetable consumption. This study compared differences in the number of grocery stores, variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, and food prices in districts with different Social Indices (SI) in Berlin, Germany. Methods: The district with the lowest SIs was compared to the district with the highest SI. The number of grocery stores offering fresh produce, the variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, and prices of selected healthy and less healthy food items were assessed and compared. Results: The low SI district had more grocery stores per residents than the high SI district. Variety and prices of fruits and vegetables did not differ between the two districts, but milk and whole wheat bread were less expensive in the high SI district. For all grocery stores, selected foods with higher energy density had lower energy costs than low energy density foods. Conclusion: Health inequalities in Germany might be less influenced by access to healthy foods than in other countries, but nutrient-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables have higher energy costs than high energy dense foods

Determinants of Physical Activity and Screen Time Trajectories in 7th to 9th Grade Adolescents-A Longitudinal Study

Physical activity (PA) in youth tends to decline with increasing age, while sedentary behaviour including screen time (ST) increases. There are adolescents, however, whose PA and ST do not follow this pattern. The aim of this study is (i) to examine trajectories in PA and ST from grade 7-9 among students in Berlin, and (ii) to investigate the relationship of these trajectories with individual factors and school type. For the present analyses, changes in students' PA and ST across three time points from 7th to 9th grade were assessed via self-report questionnaires. Positive and negative trajectories were defined for both PA (positive: increasing or consistently high, negative: decreasing or consistently low) and ST (vice versa). Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify possible predictors of PA and ST trajectories. In total, 2122 students were included (50.2% girls, mean age 12.5 (standard deviation 0.7) years). Compared to grade 7, less students of grade 9 fulfilled PA and ST recommendations (PA: 9.4% vs. 13.2%; ST: 19.4% vs. 25.0%). The positive PA trajectory included 44% of all students (63% boys), while the positive ST trajectory included 21% of all students (30% boys). Being a boy was significantly associated with a positive PA trajectory, while being a girl, having a high socioeconomic status, and attending a high school, were significantly associated with a positive ST trajectory. Different PA and ST trajectories among adolescents should be taken into account when implementing prevention programs for this target group

On-sky results of the adaptive optics MACAO for the new IR-spectrograph CRIRES at VLT

The adaptive optics MACAO has been implemented in 6 focii of the VLT observatory, in three different flavors. We present in this paper the results obtained during the commissioning of the last of these units, MACAO-CRIRES. CRIRES is a high-resolution spectrograph, which efficiency will be improved by a factor two at least for point-sources observations with a NGS brighter than R=15. During the commissioning, Strehl exceeding 60% have been observed with fair seeing conditions, and a general description of the performance of this curvature adaptive optics system is done.Comment: SPIE conference 2006, Advances in adaptive optics, 12 pages, 11 figure

SINFONI - Integral Field Spectroscopy at 50 milli-arcsecond resolution with the ESO VLT

SINFONI is an adaptive optics assisted near-infrared integral field spectrometer for the ESO VLT. The Adaptive Optics Module (built by the ESO Adaptive Optics Group) is a 60-elements curvature-sensor based system, designed for operations with natural or sodium laser guide stars. The near-infrared integral field spectrometer SPIFFI (built by the Infrared Group of MPE) provides simultaneous spectroscopy of 32 x 32 spatial pixels, and a spectral resolving power of up to 3300. The adaptive optics module is in the phase of integration; the spectrometer is presently tested in the laboratory. We provide an overview of the project, with particular emphasis on the problems encountered in designing and building an adaptive optics assisted spectrometer.Comment: This paper was published in Proc. SPIE, 4841, pp. 1548-1561 (2003), and is made available as an electronic reprint with permission of SPIE. Copyright notice added to first page of articl

NA61/SHINE facility at the CERN SPS: beams and detector system

NA61/SHINE (SPS Heavy Ion and Neutrino Experiment) is a multi-purpose experimental facility to study hadron production in hadron-proton, hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. It recorded the first physics data with hadron beams in 2009 and with ion beams (secondary 7Be beams) in 2011. NA61/SHINE has greatly profited from the long development of the CERN proton and ion sources and the accelerator chain as well as the H2 beamline of the CERN North Area. The latter has recently been modified to also serve as a fragment separator as needed to produce the Be beams for NA61/SHINE. Numerous components of the NA61/SHINE set-up were inherited from its predecessors, in particular, the last one, the NA49 experiment. Important new detectors and upgrades of the legacy equipment were introduced by the NA61/SHINE Collaboration. This paper describes the state of the NA61/SHINE facility - the beams and the detector system - before the CERN Long Shutdown I, which started in March 2013

Multiplicity distribution and spectra of negatively charged hadrons in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_nn) = 130 GeV

The minimum bias multiplicity distribution and the transverse momentum and pseudorapidity distributions for central collisions have been measured for negative hadrons (h-) in Au+Au interactions at sqrt(s_nn) = 130 GeV. The multiplicity density at midrapidity for the 5% most central interactions is dNh-/deta|_{eta = 0} = 280 +- 1(stat)+- 20(syst), an increase per participant of 38% relative to ppbar collisions at the same energy. The mean transverse momentum is 0.508 +- 0.012 GeV/c and is larger than in central Pb+Pb collisions at lower energies. The scaling of the h- yield per participant is a strong function of pt. The pseudorapidity distribution is almost constant within |eta|<1.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

A small-changes approach reduces energy intake in free-living humans

Abstract Objective-America On the Move (AOM) is a national weight gain prevention initiative that promotes small lifestyle changes by increasing walking by 2000 steps/day and reducing energy intake by about 100 kcal/day. The study&apos;s intent was to determine the impact of these small changes recommendations on steps/day and energy intake. Methods-In this cross-sectional study, food and fluid intake and physical activity in 116 healthy overweight adults (BMI: 25-36 kg/m 2 ; age: 18-60y) was compared between a non-intervention and an intervention week using diet diaries and pedometers. The major outcomes were steps/day, daily caloric intake, macronutrient intake and meal size. Within subject ANOVAs were conducted to compare results between intervention and non-intervention weeks. Results-Total energy intake was lower during intervention week than non-intervention week (P &lt; .01), including macronutrient contents (all P&apos;s &lt; .01), meal size (P &lt; .01), consumption of sugar (P &lt; .01), sugared sodas (P &lt; .01) and sodium (P &lt; .01). Steps/day were higher during intervention week than non-intervention week (P &lt; .01). Conclusions- The results support previous research showing that the message to increase steps/ day results in an increase in physical activity. The results demonstrate for the first time that the message to reduce intake by 100 kcal/day does actually result in a lower intake in the short term. People seem to be able to make positive changes in diet and physical activity in response to these messages. If these small changes can be sustained, this approach could be effective in preventing further weight gain in the population

Energy Density, Portion Size, and Eating Occasions: Contributions to Increased Energy Intake in the United States, 1977–2006

Using data from three surveys, Kiyah Duffey and Barry Popkin found that changes in eating/drinking occasions and portion size consistently account for most of the change in daily total energy intake over a 30-year period

Comparison of three nudge interventions (priming, default option, and perceived variety) to promote vegetable consumption in a self-service buffet setting.

BACKGROUND: Dietary choices in out-of-home eating are key for individual as well as for public health. These dietary choices are caused by a wide array of determinants, one of which is automatic decision-making. Nudging is attracting considerable interest due to its understanding and application of heuristic biases among consumers. The aim of this study is to test and compare three nudges in promoting vegetable consumption among test persons in a food lab-based experiment. METHODS: The initial sample consisted of 88 participants recruited in Copenhagen, Denmark. Each study participant was randomly assigned to one of the three experiments: priming, default and perceived variety. The priming arm of the experiment consisted of creating a leafy environment with green plants and an odour of herbs. In the default arm of the experiment, the salad was pre-portioned into a bowl containing 200g of vegetables. The third experiment divided the pre-mixed salad into each of its components, to increase the visual variety of vegetables, yet not providing an actual increase in items. Each individual was partaking twice thus serving as her/his own control, randomly assigned to start with control or experimental setting. RESULTS: The default experiment successfully increased the energy intake from vegetables among the study participants (124 kcal vs. 90 kcal in control, p<0.01). Both the priming condition and perceived variety reduced the total energy intake among the study participants (169 kcal, p<0.01 and 124 kcal, p<0.01, respectively), mainly through a decrease in the meat-based meal component. CONCLUSIONS: Considerable progress has been made with regard to understanding the use of nudging in promoting a healthier meal composition, including increasing vegetable intake. This study suggests that the nature of a nudge-based intervention can have different effects, whether it is increasing intake of healthy components, or limiting intake of unhealthy meal components. This work has demonstrated that consumer behaviour can be influenced without restricting or providing incentives for behaviour change. The present findings have promising application to the foodservice sector