Fortified foods with Sangkap Pinoy Seal and the micronutrient intake among selected households in Punta, Sta. Ana, Manila, Philippines : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nutritional Science, Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health, Massey University

Text in English with some TagalogThis study evaluated the food fortification program (Sangkap Pinoy Seal Program-SPS) in the Philippines in terms of determining the rate of awareness, attitude and considerations and the factors associated with purchase of fortified foods with SPS among women in a poor urban area in Manila. This study also determined the contribution of SPS foods to total iron and vitamin A intake of their preschool children. A survey was conducted through personal interviews among 134 mothers who were randomly selected from all villages of Punta, Sta. Ana, Manila. Descriptive data showed that around 60% of the participants were aware of SPS foods. In general, a positive perception on SPS foods was demonstrated by the women as reflected in their comments. Majority of these comments associated SPS foods as foods accepted/recommended by the Department of Health, foods with added nutrients and nutritious and safe food to eat. Around 89% of those who were aware exhibited a positive attitude towards fortified foods. Awareness of fortified foods and foods with SPS were significant predictors of purchase of SPS foods. However, even if income was the stronger determinant of purchase than awareness, awareness still had some effect. Around 3% and 6% of the variation in purchase of SPS foods could be attributed to the effects of attitude to fortified foods and total opinion to food and health, respectively. The results of this study also showed that preference of the family and taste were major considerations in purchasing SPS foods among more than half of the sample. These findings suggest that the participants purchased SPS foods not mainly because of added nutrients. Intakes of energy and vitamin A among the respondents' preschooler children were considered adequate. However, their iron intake was found to be less adequate. A remarkable finding of this research study was the significant contributions of SPS foods to iron and vitamin A intakes of the children in achieving the RDA. There was 53% increase on the number of children whose vitamin A intake was less than 50% of the RDA if SPS foods were taken out from the diet. SPS foods contributed around 27.6% to total vitamin A intake of the children. Without, the contribution of iron from SPS foods, there was 44% decrease on the number of children whose iron intake was greater than 75% of the RDA and 100% increase on the number of children whose iron intake was less than 50% of the RDA. Hence, iron and vitamin A from SPS foods did have an impact in the nutritional status of the children. The findings of the study may provide vital information to the food fortification program and pose a challenge to nutrition educators. The results are discussed in relation to the previous literature and recommendations are presented with particular emphasis on the implications for future research. In conclusion, SPS foods may have a good potential to improve the nutritional status of the children

Nonlinear system identification and control using state transition algorithm

By transforming identification and control for nonlinear system into optimization problems, a novel optimization method named state transition algorithm (STA) is introduced to solve the problems. In the proposed STA, a solution to a optimization problem is considered as a state, and the updating of a solution equates to a state transition, which makes it easy to understand and convenient to implement. First, the STA is applied to identify the optimal parameters of the estimated system with previously known structure. With the accurate estimated model, an off-line PID controller is then designed optimally by using the STA as well. Experimental results have demonstrated the validity of the methodology, and comparisons to STA with other optimization algorithms have testified that STA is a promising alternative method for system identification and control due to its stronger search ability, faster convergence rate and more stable performance.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figure

Relativity in Clifford's Geometric Algebras of Space and Spacetime

Of the various formalisms developed to treat relativistic phenomena, those based on Clifford's geometric algebra are especially well adapted for clear geometric interpretations and computational efficiency. Here we study relationships between formulations of special relativity in the spacetime algebra (STA) Cl{1,3} of Minkowski space, and in the algebra of physical space (APS)Cl{3}. STA lends itself to an absolute formulation of relativity, in which paths, fields, and other physical properties have observer-independent representations. Descriptions in APS are related by a one-to-one mapping of elements from APS to the even subalgebra STA+ of STA. With this mapping, reversion in APS corresponds to hermitian conjugation in STA. The elements of STA+ are all that is needed to calculate physically measurable quantities because only they entail the observer dependence inherent in any physical measurement. As a consequence, every relativistic physical process that can be modeled in STA also has a representation in APS, and vice versa. In the presence of two or more inertial observers, two versions of APS present themselves. In the absolute version, both the mapping to STA+ and hermitian conjugation are observer dependent, and the proper basis vectors are persistent vectors that sweep out timelike planes. In the relative version, the mapping and hermitian conjugation are then the same for all observers. Relative APS gives a covariant representation of relativistic physics with spacetime multivectors represented by multiparavectors. We relate the two versions of APS as consistent models within the same algebra.Comment: 22 pages, no figure

Reports Of Conferences, Institutes, And Seminars

This quarter\u27s column offers coverage of multiple sessions from the 2016 Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER&L) Conference, held April 3–6, 2016, in Austin, Texas. Topics in serials acquisitions dominate the column, including reports on altmetrics, cost per use, demand-driven acquisitions, and scholarly communications and the use of subscriptions agents; ERMS, access, and knowledgebases are also featured