Investigating barriers and keys to success when implementing and maintaining farm to school programs: Perspectives of hourly school foodservice employees

School foodservice operations make up a large portion of the non-commercial foodservice industry. The number of Farm to school (FTS) programs has increased considerably within the school foodservice industry and provide opportunities to source ingredients locally. Due to the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, school foodservice employees are faced with the challenge of providing increased amounts of produce to students. FTS programs are being used to help meet this challenge. This study focused on identifying barriers and keys to success when using local produce from FTS programs as well as identifying and assessing differences between barriers and keys to success based on geographic location, and school lunch participation rates. Interviews and a questionnaire were used to identify barriers and keys to success. Barriers identified through interviews included appearance, shelf life, service to students, and availability. Keys to success included exposure and support, service, and employee motivation. In the questionnaire, a five point Likert-type scale (1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree) was used to assess participants\u27 agreement to statements about barriers and keys to success. The barrier items with the highest mean scores were local produce has a different appearance than non-local produce (M= 3.67), the quality of local produce is better than non-local produce (M=3.61), and local produce is less available than non-local produce (M= 3.34) . Keys to success with the highest mean scores included staff encouraging students to try local produce (M= 4.15), exposing students to local produce consistently (M= 4.08), and presenting local produce attractively to students (M= 4.08). Mean scores of agreement toward barriers and keys to success were compared to identify differences between barriers and keys to success based on geographic location and school lunch participation rates. Significant differences based on geographic location and school lunch participation rates were identified at the p\u3c.05 level. There were no significant differences identified between keys to success based on school lunch participation rates. It is important for directors to understand the specific barriers and keys to success when implementing and maintaining FTS programs. Results from this study provide information that directors can use to help hourly employees overcome barriers through training and implementation of keys to success

Hourly Employees’ PercepƟons about Farm to School Program Barriers and Keys to Success: Differences by State and Number of Meals Served

Farm to school (FTS) programs are growing in popularity among school districts and provide opportuniƟes for school nutriƟon programs to source ingredients locally. Hourly employees working with FTS programs prepare, promote, and serve local produce to students daily. However, liƩle research has focused on their percepƟons of FTS programs. A quesƟonnaire was used to assess barriers and keys to success when implemenƟng and maintaining FTS programs from perspecƟves of hourly, non‐management school foodservice employees. An examinaƟon of survey responses suggests differences exist between barriers and keys to success by geographic locaƟon and school nutriƟon program parƟcipaƟon rates

An iterative deep learning procedure for determining electron scattering cross-sections from transport coefficients

We propose improvements to the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method of determining electron scattering cross-sections from swarm data proposed by coauthors. A limitation inherent to this problem, known as the inverse swarm problem, is the non-unique nature of its solutions, particularly when there exists multiple cross-sections that each describe similar scattering processes. Considering this, prior methods leveraged existing knowledge of a particular cross-section set to reduce the solution space of the problem. To reduce the need for prior knowledge, we propose the following modifications to the ANN method. First, we propose a Multi-Branch ANN (MBANN) that assigns an independent branch of hidden layers to each cross-section output. We show that in comparison with an equivalent conventional ANN, the MBANN architecture enables an efficient and physics informed feature map of each cross-section. Additionally, we show that the MBANN solution can be improved upon by successive networks that are each trained using perturbations of the previous regression. Crucially, the method requires much less input data and fewer restrictive assumptions, and only assumes knowledge of energy loss thresholds and the number of cross-sections present

Improving Effective Surgical Delivery in Humanitarian Disasters: Lessons from Haiti

Kathryn Chu and colleagues describe the experiences of Médecins sans Frontières after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and discuss how to improve delivery of surgery in humanitarian disasters

Policies for an Ageing Workforce Work-life balance, working conditions and equal opportunities 2019

At a time of rapid population ageing, a key means of sustaining current welfare states is to extend the length of working lives. In 2050, the share of people over the age of 75 years will be the same as the share over 65 years today. And just as not all are able to work to the age of 65 now, not everyone will be able to work to the age of 75 in 2050; even if future older workers will in all likelihood be healthier and have better working aids at their disposal. Extending average working lives by 10 years, and at the same time ensuring an adequate social safety net for those unable to work into their late 60s and 70s, is a major social policy challenge for the coming decades. And because people are much more likely to work late in life if they had stable careers before reaching 60, tackling this policy challenge means pulling on many more social policy levers than just pension policy. While being keenly aware of these issues and how they relate to the overall agenda of active ageing, Commissioner Thyssen also reminds us in her Foreword that marked increases in life expectancy – both past and in the future – represent enormous social progress. The Commissioner makes the point that older people too contribute to society. And more so with lifelong learning and investment in skills

The effect of sleep restriction, with or without high-intensity interval exercise, on myofibrillar protein synthesis in healthy young men

© 2020 The Authors. The Journal of Physiology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Physiological Society. Key points: Sleep restriction has previously been associated with the loss of muscle mass in both human and animal models. The rate of myofibrillar protein synthesis (MyoPS) is a key variable in regulating skeletal muscle mass and can be increased by performing high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE), although the effect of sleep restriction on MyoPS is unknown. In the present study, we demonstrate that participants undergoing a sleep restriction protocol (five nights, with 4 h in bed each night) had lower rates of skeletal muscle MyoPS; however, rates of MyoPS were maintained at control levels by performing HIIE during this period. Our data suggest that the lower rates of MyoPS in the sleep restriction group may contribute to the detrimental effects of sleep loss on muscle mass and that HIIE may be used as an intervention to counteract these effects. Abstract: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of sleep restriction, with or without high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE), on the potential mechanisms underpinning previously-reported sleep-loss-induced reductions to muscle mass. Twenty-four healthy, young men underwent a protocol consisting of two nights of controlled baseline sleep and a five-night intervention period. Participants were allocated into one of three parallel groups, matched for age, (Formula presented.), body mass index and habitual sleep duration; a normal sleep (NS) group [8 h time in bed (TIB) each night], a sleep restriction (SR) group (4 h TIB each night), and a sleep restriction and exercise group (SR+EX, 4 h TIB each night, with three sessions of HIIE). Deuterium oxide was ingested prior to commencing the study and muscle biopsies obtained pre- and post-intervention were used to assess myofibrillar protein synthesis (MyoPS) and molecular markers of protein synthesis and degradation signalling pathways. MyoPS was lower in the SR group [fractional synthetic rate (% day–1), mean ± SD, 1.24 ± 0.21] compared to both the NS (1.53 ± 0.09) and SR+EX groups (1.61 ± 0.14) (P < 0.05). However, there were no changes in the purported regulators of protein synthesis (i.e. p-AKTser473 and p-mTORser2448) and degradation (i.e. Foxo1/3 mRNA and LC3 protein) in any group. These data suggest that MyoPS is acutely reduced by sleep restriction, although MyoPS can be maintained by performing HIIE. These findings may explain the sleep-loss-induced reductions in muscle mass previously reported and also highlight the potential therapeutic benefit of HIIE to maintain myofibrillar remodelling in this context

Brief Of Law Professors Bruce P. Frohnen, Robert P. George, Alan J. Meese, Michael P. Moreland, Nathan B. Oman, Michael Stokes Paulsen, Rodney K. Smith, Steven D. Smith, And O. Carter Snead As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners

Suppose a federal law required government officials to enter a Catholic church and use church property to distribute contraceptives and abortifacients over church’s objection. Such a law would surely burden the church’s religion, even if the government paid for the objectionable medications and compensated the church for the use of its resources. By commandeering church property, such a law would force the church to be complicit in activity to which it has serious religious objection

The effects of frequent nocturnal home hemodialysis: the Frequent Hemodialysis Network Nocturnal Trial

Prior small studies have shown multiple benefits of frequent nocturnal hemodialysis compared to conventional three times per week treatments. To study this further, we randomized 87 patients to three times per week conventional hemodialysis or to nocturnal hemodialysis six times per week, all with single-use high-flux dialyzers. The 45 patients in the frequent nocturnal arm had a 1.82-fold higher mean weekly stdKt/Vurea, a 1.74-fold higher average number of treatments per week, and a 2.45-fold higher average weekly treatment time than the 42 patients in the conventional arm. We did not find a significant effect of nocturnal hemodialysis for either of the two coprimary outcomes (death or left ventricular mass (measured by MRI) with a hazard ratio of 0.68, or of death or RAND Physical Health Composite with a hazard ratio of 0.91). Possible explanations for the left ventricular mass result include limited sample size and patient characteristics. Secondary outcomes included cognitive performance, self-reported depression, laboratory markers of nutrition, mineral metabolism and anemia, blood pressure and rates of hospitalization, and vascular access interventions. Patients in the nocturnal arm had improved control of hyperphosphatemia and hypertension, but no significant benefit among the other main secondary outcomes. There was a trend for increased vascular access events in the nocturnal arm. Thus, we were unable to demonstrate a definitive benefit of more frequent nocturnal hemodialysis for either coprimary outcome

Exercise mitigates sleep-loss-induced changes in glucose tolerance, mitochondrial function, sarcoplasmic protein synthesis, and diurnal rhythms

Objective Sleep loss has emerged as a risk factor for the development of impaired glucose tolerance. The mechanisms underpinning this observation are unknown; however, both mitochondrial dysfunction and circadian misalignment have been proposed. Because exercise improves glucose tolerance and mitochondrial function, and alters circadian rhythms, we investigated whether exercise may counteract the effects induced by inadequate sleep. Methods To minimize between-group differences of baseline characteristics, 24 healthy young males were allocated into one of the three experimental groups: a Normal Sleep (NS) group (8 h time in bed (TIB) per night, for five nights), a Sleep Restriction (SR) group (4 h TIB per night, for five nights), and a Sleep Restriction and Exercise group (SR+EX) (4 h TIB per night, for five nights and three high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) sessions). Glucose tolerance, mitochondrial respiratory function, sarcoplasmic protein synthesis (SarcPS), and diurnal measures of peripheral skin temperature were assessed pre- and post-intervention. Results We report that the SR group had reduced glucose tolerance post-intervention (mean change ± SD, P value, SR glucose AUC: 149 ± 115 A.U., P = 0.002), which was also associated with reductions in mitochondrial respiratory function (SR: -15.9 ± 12.4 pmol O2.s−1.mg−1, P = 0.001), a lower rate of SarcPS (FSR%/day SR: 1.11 ± 0.25%, P < 0.001), and reduced amplitude of diurnal rhythms. These effects were not observed when incorporating three sessions of HIIE during this period (SR+EX: glucose AUC 67 ± 57, P = 0.239, mitochondrial respiratory function: 0.6 ± 11.8 pmol O2.s−1.mg−1, P = 0.997, and SarcPS (FSR%/day): 1.77 ± 0.22%, P = 0.971). Conclusions A five-night period of sleep restriction leads to reductions in mitochondrial respiratory function, SarcPS, and amplitude of skin temperature diurnal rhythms, with a concurrent reduction in glucose tolerance. We provide novel data demonstrating that these same detrimental effects are not observed when HIIE is performed during the period of sleep restriction. These data therefore provide evidence in support of the use of HIIE as an intervention to mitigate the detrimental physiological effects of sleep loss