#Quail really know their camouflagewhen it comes to camouflage ground-nesting Japanese quail are experts.
That's based on new evidence published online on January 17 in Current Biology that mother quail know the patterning of their own eggs
Not only are camouflaged the eggs but the birds choose to lay their eggs on a substrate that maximizes camouflage said P. George Lovell of Abertay University
and the University of St andrews. Furthermore the maximization seems specific to individual birds. Karen Spencer also of University of St andrews and a co-author had noticed earlier that female quail lay eggs that vary a lot in appearance
and that those differences are repeatable. Some birds consistently lay eggs covered in dark spots;
others have many fewer spots or in some cases almost none at all. That pattern led the researchers to an intriguing idea:
that birds might make optimal egg-laying choices based on the special characteristics of their own eggs. To find out they gave female quail in the lab a choice between four different backgrounds on
which to lay their eggs. Those choice experiments revealed that most quail mothers lay their eggs on background colors to match the spots on their eggs.
That's an effective strategy known as disruptive coloration in which contrasting patterns on surfaces make the outline of an object harder to detect.
Birds laying eggs with little patterning instead choose lighter surfaces to match the predominant background color of their eggs.
The findings suggest that quail in the wild lower the chance that their eggs will be found
and eaten by predators through careful decision-making the researchers say. Animals make choices based upon their knowledge of the environment
and their own phenotype to maximize their ability to reproduce and survive Lovell said. In this specific case birds know what their eggs look like
and can make laying choices that will minimize predation. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Cell Press.
and food supplies as food stocks are turned to fuel and marginal lands are put under the plough to keep up with demand.
#Marginal lands are prime fuel source for alternative energymarginal lands-those unsuited for food crops--can serve as prime real estate for meeting the nation's alternative energy production goals.
Focusing on 10 Midwest states Great lakes Bioenergy researchers from MSU and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory used 20 years of data from MSU's Kellogg Biological Station
and greenhouse gas impacts of different crops including corn poplar alfalfa and old field vegetation.
and in so doing contribute to avoid the conflict between food and fuel production said Cesar Izaurralde PNNL soil scientist and University of Maryland adjunct professor.
Berger and his colleagues found greater yak densities near glaciers which often support adjacent food-rich alpine meadow habitats.
Salmonella are borne important food pathogens worldwide causing diarrhea vomiting nausea fever and abdominal pain. There are currently around 6 million cases of illness from Salmonella across the EU each year the majority
of which are linked to food items such as eggs chicken beef pork salad vegetables and dairy products. Between 1981 and 1991 the number of salmonella infections rose by 170%in the UK driven primarily by an epidemic of Salmonella enteritidis
and using the Lion Mark on eggs. The code of practice requires mandatory vaccination of all young hens destined to lay Lion eggs against Salmonella as well as traceability of hens eggs
and feed a best-before date stamped on shells and hygiene controls at packing stations.
Lion eggs now account for around 85%of the total market. Sarah O'brien Professor of Epidemiology and Zoonoses from the University's Institute of Infection and Global Health attributes a dramatic fall in the number of Salmonella cases in humans to this mass vaccination programme in poultry.
Professor O'brien said: We have seen a marked decline in the number of incidents of Salmonella infection shown by two significant studies conducted 10 years apart.
since the landing It has never been done on Mars said Mars Science Laboratory project manager Richard Cook of NASA's Jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena Calif. The drill hardware interacts energetically with Martian material we don't control.
The chosen rock is in an area where Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) and other cameras have revealed diverse unexpected features including veins nodules cross-bedded layering a lustrous pebble embedded in sandstone and possibly some holes in the ground.
John's leadership skill played a crucial role in making Curiosity a reality said Cook.
Some are sandstone with grains up to about peppercorn size. One grain has an interesting gleam
and bud-like shape that have brought it Internet buzz as a Martian flower. Other rocks nearby are siltstone with grains finer than powdered sugar.
These differ significantly from pebbly conglomerate rocks in the landing area. All of these are sedimentary rocks telling us Mars had environments actively depositing material here said MAHLI deputy principal investigator Aileen Yingst of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson Ariz.
#Fast food diet linked to asthma and eczema severity in kids, large study findseating three or more weekly servings of fast food is linked to the severity of allergic asthma eczema
and rhinitis among children in the developed world indicates a large international study published online in the respiratory journal Thorax.
The findings prompt the authors to suggest that a fast food diet may be contributing to the rise in these conditions
and if proved causal could have huge implications for public health given the popularity of these foodstuffs.
and their weekly diet. Questions focused particularly on the severity of symptoms over the preceding 12 months--including frequency
--and certain types of food already linked to protective or damaging effects on healththese included meat fish fruits and vegetables pulses cereals bread and pasta rice butter margarine nuts
potatoes milk eggs and fast food/burgers. Consumption was categorised as never; occasionally; once or twice a week;
After taking account of factors likely to influence the results the analysis showed that fast food was the only food type to show the same associations across both age groups prompting the authors to suggest that such consistency adds some weight to the possible causality of the relationship.
but a fast food diet was associated still with symptoms across all centres--except for current eczema
And this difference might have to do with the fact that children have fewer options about their food choices suggest the authors.
fast food contains high levels of saturated and trans fatty acids which are known to affect immunity while fruit is rich in antioxidants and other beneficial compounds.
If the associations between fast foods and the symptom prevalence of asthma rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema is causal then the findings have major public health significance owing to the rising consumption of fast foods globally they conclude.
and spectroscopy for analysis to examine at the atomic scale grain boundaries on a silicon wafer.
For electronics you would want to be able to make it on a wafer scale. Boundary free graphene is a key goal.
and Nanotechnology Lab and transferring the thin films to a silicon (Si02) wafer. They then used the STM at Beckman developed by Lyding for analysis led by first author Justin Koepke of Lyding's group.
Then the budworms out of food move on. And the forest gradually recovers. Kennedy says to confirm the satellite data they hiked into areas with recent known budworm outbreaks near Mount Rainier With the decline
and Nobel laureate prowess speculating that the flavonoid content of chocolate was behind the boost in brain power.
As chocolate is combined often with milk could it be the amount of milk/milk products consumed per head that fuels Nobel prize success?
therefore simply a reflection of a strong educational system or do Nobel prize winners celebrate by drinking it query the authors?
not only eat more chocolate but perhaps drink milk too: or strive for synergy with hot chocolate conclude the authors who highlight their conflicts of interest
which include a tendency to take milk with cereal and coffee and to eat chocolate
whenever the opportunity arises. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Price cap regulations for UK tobacco would raise £500 million every yearif tobacco products sold in the UK were subject to price cap regulation the system would generate around £500 million (US$750 million) for the government every year without affecting the price
Yet dietary records of Canadian infants show that at 12 months they are receiving only 11 per cent of their recommended daily allowance of Vitamin d through food such as oily fish fortified dairy products and cereals.
The program follows children from birth with the aim of preventing common nutrition problems in the early years and understanding their impact on health and disease later in life.
Research published by Dr. Maguire in the journal Pediatrics in December found that drinking two cups of cow's milk per day was enough to maintain adequate Vitamin d levels in most children.
Drinking more cow's milk could deplete iron stores in children's bodies. The study published January 14 was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the St michael's Foundation.
and nutrients said Mccutchan. Research by study co-author and former CU undergraduate Rachel Ertz showed concentrations of nitrate in the needles of small pines that survived beetle infestations were higher than those in healthy trees outside
#Diet may not impact certain health outcomes in older personseating diets high in sugar and fat may not affect the health outcomes of older adults ages 75
and up suggesting that placing people of such advanced age on overly restrictive diets to treat their excess weight
We all know that adverse dietary patterns such as a Western diet containing high amounts of fat
or a diet containing high amounts of refined sugar both of which may contribute to obesity are associated with adverse medical conditions
and health outcomes for many people but until now the health effects of these types of poor diets have not been characterized for people who live to 75 years of age and older said Pao Ying Hsao postdoctoral fellow
The team's research is part of a decades-long collaborative study between Penn State and the Geisinger Healthcare System on the effects of nutritional status and diet on the health of more than 20000 older people
At study baseline the team assessed the participants'dietary patterns by calling each of them by telephone four or five times during a 10-month period and asking them about their diets over the previous 24 hours.
The sweets and dairy pattern was characterized by the largest proportions of energy from baked goods milk sweetened coffee and tea and dairy-based desserts and the lowest intakes of poultry.
The health-conscious pattern was characterized by relatively higher intakes of pasta noodles rice whole fruit poultry nuts fish and vegetables and lower intakes of fried vegetables processed meats
and soft drinks. The Western pattern was characterized by higher intakes of bread eggs fats fried vegetables alcohol and soft drinks and the lowest intakes of milk and whole fruit.
Using outpatient electronic medical records the researchers identified whether the participants developed cardiovascular disease diabetes mellitus hypertension (high blood pressure) and metabolic syndrome during the five-year period.
The results appeared in this month's issue of the Journal of Nutrition Health and Aging.
if you live to be this old then there may be little to support the use of overly restrictive dietary prescriptions especially where food intake may already be inadequate.
However people who live on prudent diets all their lives are likely to have better health outcomes.
Terryl Hartman professor of nutrition at Penn State; and G. Craig Wood and Christopher Still of Geisinger Healthcare System.
and used for a variety of domestic activities such as food processing and cooking stone-tool manufacture
Blueberries and strawberries contain high levels of naturally occurring compounds called dietary flavonoids also found in grapes and wine blackberries eggplant and other fruits and vegetables.
what women eat every week said Eric Rimm D. Sc. senior author and Associate professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public health in Boston Mass.
This simple dietary change could have a significant impact on prevention efforts. Blueberries and strawberries were part of this analysis simply
. Thus it's possible that other foods could produce the same results researchers said. Scientists from the Harvard School of Public health in the United states and the University of East Anglia United kingdom conducted a prospective study among 93600 women ages 25 to 42 who were registered with the Nurses'Health Study II.
The women completed questionnaires about their diet every four years for 18 years. During the study 405 heart attacks occurred.
or less--even in women who otherwise ate a diet rich in other fruits and vegetables.
and head of the Department of Nutrition at Norwich Medical school of the University of East Anglia in Norwich United kingdom. The findings were independent of other risk factors such as age high blood pressure family history of heart attack
body mass exercise smoking caffeine or alcohol intake. The American Heart Association supports eating berries as part of an overall balanced diet that also includes other fruits vegetables and whole-grain products.
Eating a variety of foods is the best way to get the right amounts of nutrients.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Heart Association. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#Using lysine estimates to detect heat damage in distillers dried grains with solublesdistillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) are a good source of energy and protein in swine diets.
University of Illinois researchers have found that it is possible to assess heat damage by predicting the digestibility of lysine in DDGS.
Excessive heat causes some of the lysine in DDGS to bond with sugars and form Amadori compounds.
And therefore the digestibility of the lysine in particular is said poor animal sciences professor Hans Stein.
and his team predicted the digestibility of lysine in 21 samples of corn DDGS based on several different methods of analysis:
After making the predictions they determined ileal lysine digestibility in the 21 samples using cannulated pigs
and compared the predicted values for lysine digestibility with results obtained in the animals. Results indicated that the concentration of analyzed lysine in the sample was a good predictor of lysine digestibility (r2=0. 849)
but using the concentration of reactive lysine rather than the concentration of analyzed lysine improved the prediction accuracy (r2=0. 898).
Researchers could not accurately predict lysine digestibility using the concentration of crude protein alone. The practical outcome of this is that you can't analyze only for crude protein.
However if the concentration of lysine or furosine in a given source of DDGS is known the digestibility of lysine can be predicted fairly accurately.
and was authored co with Beob Gyun Kim and Dong Yong Kil both former members of the Stein Monogastric Nutrition Laboratory at Illinois and Yanhong Zhang of the National Corn to Ethanol
The Illinois Corn Marketing Board and the feed company Agrifirm from The netherlands provided funding for this research.
#Amino acid studies may aid battle against citrus greening diseaseamino acids in orange juice might reveal secrets to the successful attack strategy of the plant pathogen that causes citrus greening disease also known as Huanglongbing or HLB.
For a 2012 study in the Journal of Proteome Research the scientists used nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study the amino acid composition of juice from oranges grown on HLB-positive or HLB-negative trees.
and this research supports the USDA priority of promoting international food security. Breksa also noted that the profiles may reveal clues to mechanisms underlying the microbe's mostly unknown mode of attack.
But the researchers found that juice squeezed from oranges of HLB-positive trees had significantly higher concentrations of phenylalanine
The diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) preferentially feeds on economically important food crops such as rapeseed cauliflower and cabbage.
They investigated a set of genes preferentially expressed at the larval stage that contribute to odorant chemoreception food digestion and metabolic detoxification.
Remarkably it appears that the very genetic adaptations that allow DBM to detoxify the chemicals in its food plants
#Beef industry, consumers to be affected by cattle production decreases in 2013beef production in the United states is expected to decrease 4. 8 percent in 2013 the second largest year-over-year decrease in 35 years
Beef production in 2012 decreased by approximately 1. 1 percent compared to 2011 with a 3. 3 percent decrease in slaughter
However the effect on consumption of beef does not always match the change in production.
but must be adjusted for beef imports and exports. In 2013 per capita beef consumption is expected to drop 3. 5 percent less than the production decrease
because beef imports will increase and beef exports will decrease Peel said. The decrease in per capita beef consumption in 2013 should be similar to the year-over-year decrease in 2011 compared to 2010.
In 2011 domestic per capita beef consumption decreased 3. 8 percent in large part because of a sharp increase in beef exports despite a minimal decrease in beef production.
Though 2004 had a sharper production decrease per capita beef consumption that year increased nearly 2 percent because of a sharp drop in beef exports largely attributed to the first case of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy also referred to as BSE in the United states. Beef consumption may drop more sharply in 2014 with a 5
percent decrease in per capita consumption compared to the lower 2013 level Peel said. Furthermore these decreases in beef production and consumption almost certainly imply higher wholesale
and retail beef prices although other factors will impact the price response to lower supplies.
Choice boxed beef has been trapped in a narrow range between $193 and $198 per hundredweight for the past three months.
Retail beef prices were flat to slightly lower through much of 2012 but did jump sharply in November.
In 2011 a similar decrease in beef consumption resulted in a 15 percent increase in boxed beef prices
and a nearly 10 percent increase in retail prices Peel said. Total meat consumption decreased about 2 percent in 2011
and a similar 2. 1 percent decrease is expected in 2013 with both pork and broiler consumption expected to drop approximately 1. 5 percent each.
The pressure for higher boxed beef prices will increase significantly with an expected 4. 5 percent decrease in beef production in the first quarter of 2013.
Choice boxed beef should move above $200 per hundredweight in the next few weeks. Beyond that Peel believes it will be a question of how much
and how fast retailers can pass along the higher wholesale prices to consumers. It is not really a question of
whether retail prices will go up but rather a question of how much and how fast he said.
Beef demand remains the biggest unknown in the beef industry. Time will tell just how severe the squeeze will be on industry margins in 2013.
Cattle and calves represent the number one agricultural commodity produced in Oklahoma accounting for 46 percent of total agricultural cash receipts
and adding approximately $2 billion to the state economy according to National Agricultural Statistics Service data.
and spinal cord of aborted lambs and calves. The virus prefers to infect cells called neurons
when virus is transmitted from an SBV infected mother to the calves or lambs in the uterus during pregnancy.
#Foods identified as whole grain not always healthycurrent standards for classifying foods as whole grain are inconsistent
One of the most widely used industry standards the Whole Grain Stamp actually identified grain products that were higher in both sugars and calories than products without the Stamp.
The researchers urge adoption of a consistent evidence-based standard for labeling whole grain foods to help consumers
This is the first study to empirically evaluate the healthfulness of whole grain foods based on five commonly used industry and government definitions.
Given the significant prevalence of refined grains starches and sugars in modern diets identifying a unified criterion to identify higher quality carbohydrates is a key priority in public health said first author Rebecca
The study appears in the January 4 2013 advanced online edition of Public health Nutrition. The health benefits of switching from refined to whole grain foods are established well including lower risk of cardiovascular disease weight gain
and type 2 diabetes. Based on this evidence the U s. Department of agriculture's (USDA) 2010 Dietary Guidelines recommend that Americans consume at least three servings of whole grain products daily
and the new U s. national school lunch standards require that at least half of all grains be whole grain-rich.
However no single standard exists for defining any product as a whole grain. Mozaffarian and her colleagues assessed five different industry and government guidelines for whole grain products:
breads bagels English muffins cereals crackers cereal bars granola bars and chips. They collected nutrition content ingredient lists and the presence or absence of the Whole Grain Stamp on product packages from all of these products.
They found that grain products with the Whole Grain Stamp one of the most widely-used front-of-package symbols were higher in fiber
and lower in trans fats but also contained significantly more sugar and calories compared to products without the Stamp.
and lower in trans fats sugar and sodium without higher calories than products that did not meet the ratio.
Our results will help inform national discussions about product labeling school lunch programs and guidance for consumers and organizations in their attempts to select whole grain products said senior author Steven Gortmaker professor of the practice of health sociology.
Graphite fibers are also brittle while the new CNT fibers are as flexible and tough as a textile thread.
and nitrate can contaminate drinking water supplies and leads to coastal ocean problems. The hypoxic zone that forms each summer in the Gulf of mexico is a result of nitrate leaching from the tile-drained Corn belt of the midwestern United states--a likely location for biofuel production he said.
If we want to guarantee security of supply for foodstuffs and plant-based raw materials the yield per hectare will have to double by 2050 claims the German Bioeconomy Council.
The mice showed similar levels of immune response no matter which food they consumed. Dr. Michelle Epstein the lead researcher said We observed that the immune response in mice was the same no matter
The Prescott study is cited regularly by those on both sides of the GM debate as an example of either the inherent dangers of genetically modified foods or the effectiveness of pre-market studies in identifying potential risk factors.
and the role science can play in decision-making around the introduction of GMOS into the food system.
No surprise then that controlling weight needs to be about much more than just diet and exercise.
All of these programs stress education--not just for the people facing weight issues but for their families too--and long-term commitment to changed habits in addition to healthier diet and exercise practices.
or so before undergoing bariatric surgery which reduces the size of the stomach or limits its capacity to process food.
Susan and Allen Fletcher had bariatric surgery at Wake Forest Baptist after years of following diets that only worked for brief periods.
and children about the importance of moderation (such as buying and eating a single-size cup of ice cream rather than a pint
and pointing out the benefits of choosing diet sodas over sugary drinks. Tammy Stegall said she
Among the motivators for seniors Nicklas said are improving their physical abilities in grip (to carry groceries for example) strength
Wake Forest Baptist's weight-management efforts are aimed at people of all ages because of changes in behavior toward food and nutrition especially in the past 20 years.
Ard points to the proliferation of fast food and processed foods larger portion sizes agricultural policies that support production of unhealthier foods and a decline in active lifestyles as some of the reasons behind the high rates
and laborsaving devices and new food products you're going to have these things and they're going to keep coming faster and faster.
So our job is not to say'Hey we can't have any sugar-containing beverages
'Food is around to be enjoyed. We have to be able to adjust to come up with new strategies to deal with the new environment that we're in
which reacts the oily triglyceride content with alcohol using a catalyst. The team has tested now successfully this chemistry on seeds from the mahua and sal trees.
By examining the role played by the occurrence of diverse tree species for six different ecosystem services (tree growth carbon storage berry production food for wildlife occurrence of dead wood
For example high tree growth appears to be negatively related to the production of both berries and food for wildlife and to the occurrence of dead wood.
On the other hand food for wildlife was associated positively with both berry production and biological diversity in ground vegetation.
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