#Hookah bars contain elevated levels of carbon dioxide, air nicotinesmoking waterpipes or hookahs creates hazardous concentrations of indoor air pollution and poses increased risk from diminished air quality for both employees and patrons of waterpipe bars according to a new
study from the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health.
In an analysis of air quality in seven Baltimore waterpipe bars researchers found that airborne particulate matter
but other forms of tobacco products and tobacco use are common in many countries including the U s. Waterpipe cafes-also known as hookah bars-have grown in popularity in the U s. and worldwide particularly among young adults.
For their study researchers surveyed seven waterpipe cafes in Baltimore Maryland from December 2011 to August 2012.
Indoor airborne concentrations of PM2. 5 and carbon monoxide were elevated markedly in Baltimore waterpipe cafes confirming that waterpipe smoking severely affects indoor air quality.
and markedly higher than levels previously found in smoke-free bars and restaurants. Some of these measurements consistently exceeded air quality standards set by the U s. Environmental protection agency and the World health organization.
The organic-food industry has spent millions of dollars building brand awareness only to see some consumers confuse organic food with local food products said Ben Campbell a University of Connecticut extension economist and the study's lead author.
Hayk Khachatryan a UF food and resource economics assistant professor worked with Campbell and others to survey 2511 people online in the U s. and Canada in 2011 and found 17 percent thought the terms were interchangeable the study said.
By the same token he noted that locally produced food may not be the most sustainable choice
Exact figures for locally grown food are tougher to come by but recent estimates indicate sales of local products were $4. 8 billion in the U s. in 2008 according to a U s. Department of agriculture study.
One factor clouding consumers'understanding is that Canada is changing its definition of local food
and the definition of local food varies by jurisdiction in the U s. U s . and Canadian governments both mandate organic production to mean grown without synthetic pesticides among other things.
(which quadruples the current amount of publicly available rice sequence data) coincides with World Hunger Day to highlight one of the primary goals of this project--to develop resources that will aid in improving global food security especially in the poorest
and develop food crops that are of high yield and nutrition and can grow successfully in environments stressed by drought pests diseases or poor soil quality.
While rice research has advanced greatly since the completion of the first high-quality rice genome sequence in 2005 there has been limited change in breeding practices that are important for producing improved and better adapted rice strains.
Rice is the staple food for most Asian people and has increasing consumption in Africa said Dr. Li.
With decreasing resources (water and land) food security is --and will be--the most challenging issue in these countries both currently and in the future.
Dr. Jun Wang Director of BGI added to this saying that the population boom and worsening climate crisis have presented big challenges on global food shortage and safety.
#Families with preschoolers buying fewer high calorie foods and beveragesfamilies with young children are purchasing fewer high calorie drinks and processed foods
Somewhere between 2003 and 2010 the upward trend in childhood obesity started to stall leveling off around 2007 said lead study author Christopher Ford M p h. of the department of nutrition at the University of North carolina at Chapel hill.
Ford and his co-authors examined food and beverage purchase data between 2000 and 2011 from nearly 43000 U s. households with a preschool-age child.
They utilized the Nielsen Homescan Panel which comprises a representative sample of U s. households while controlling for major price changes and household income demographics and composition.
which there might have been less waste notes Ford the team identified the top 20 foods and beverages purchased per capita during that 11-year period.
They assigned household purchases into nine groups for analysis: grain-based desserts savory snacks ready-to-eat cereals sweet snacks
and candy processed meats soft drinks juice and juice drinks plain milk and sweetened milk. The researchers found the total calories from food
and beverage purchases declined significantly. Declines were noted especially in milk soft drink juice and juice drinks
and grain-based dessert purchases all of which include higher calorie solid fats and added sugars.
Per capita calories purchased per day decreased by 182 during the period. We know from previous research that 70 to 80 percent of the preschooler diet comes from stores with the rest coming from school cafeteria
and child-care centers Ford said. Hispanic households saw the smallest decrease in total calories purchased possibly due to less access to stores with bar-coded products and greater proportional spending on fruits and vegetables.
Discussions about childhood obesity often focus on the negative impacts of fast food said Meghan Slining Ph d. assistant professor of health services at Furman University.
And while these are indeed valid concerns foods and beverages purchased from supermarkets and grocery stores represent a much greater share of young children's diets.
This report suggests important improvements over the past decade in the food shopping behaviors of American families with young children.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Health Behavior News Service part of the Center for Advancing Health.
The original article was written by Stephanie Stephens. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Butterfly eyespots add detail to story of evolutiona new study of the colorful eyespots on the wings of some butterfly species is helping to address fundamental questions about evolution that are conceptually similar to the quandary Aristotle wrestled with about 330 B c
.--which came first the chicken or the egg? After consideration Aristotle decided that both the egg
and the chicken had existed always. That was not the right answer. The new Oregon State university research is providing a little more detail.
The study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B actually attempts to explain the existence of what scientists call serial homologues
or patterns in nature that are repetitive serve a function and are so important they are retained often through millions of years
and across vast numbers of species. Repeated vertebra that form a spinal column rows of teeth and groups of eyespots on butterfly wings are all examples of serial homologues.
Researchers have tracked the similarities and changes of these serial features through much time and many species but it's remained a question about how they originally evolved.
Put another way it's easier to see how one breed of chicken evolved into a different breed of chicken rather than where chickens
--or their eggs--came from to begin with. Butterfly wings are helping to answer that question. These eyespots common to the butterfly Family nymphalidae now serve many butterflies in dual roles of both predator avoidance and mate identification.
One theory of their origin is evolved that they from simpler single spots; another theory is evolved that they from a band of color
which later separated into spots. What we basically conclude is that neither of the existing theories about butterfly eyespots is correct said Jeffrey Oliver a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Integrative Biology of the OSU College of Science.
The evidence suggests that a few eyespots evolved as a group at about the same time but behaved somewhat as individual entities.
Having appeared as a result of some genetic mutation however the eyespots then had the capability to move acquire a function that had evolutionary value
#Understanding disease resistance genes in crops to secure future food productiona new understanding as to how plants defend themselves against some pathogens that cause crop diseases is proposed by researchers from the University of Hertfordshire to help scientists
Breeding agricultural crops for resistance against disease pathogens is essential in the quest to secure global food production.
However despite efforts to control them crop diseases still account for fifteen percent of the losses in the world's food production.
--i e. those foliar fungal pathogens that get into the leaf of the plant to exploit the space between its cells known as the apoplast to retrieve nutrients from the plant.
This is essential in the battle for global food security to protect the world's future food sources.
Some bacteria produce polysaccharides which can contain hundreds of sugar molecules such as glucose attached to one another.
Hassan first used the bacteria to make low-fat cheese which the nationally recognized SDSU dairy products judging team could not discern from regular high-fat cheese.
The bacteria's patent-pending application has been licensed to a multinational dairy ingredients company. But that's only the beginning.
The polysaccharide produced by this strain also improves the functionality of proteins recovered from the cheese by product whey Hassan explained.
and added to salad dressing mayonnaise or even processed meats like sausage. Its gelling properties will help make products that firm quickly
Furthermore the polysaccharide produced by this strain minimizes the negative impact of heat on milk protein during pasteurization according to Hassan.
Eating yogurt made with these bacteria may help reduce plaque and prevent tooth decay. To explore this possibility Hassan is collaborating with a researcher from University of Iowa's School of dentistry to apply for funding from the National institutes of health.
insufficient chill can result in poor bud development sporadic and uneven budbreak prolonged flowering and fruit development and nonuniform ripening.
'and'Kordia'and then explored the uniformity of bud burst and subsequent impacts on fruit maturation in both varieties.
and maximum total bud burst faster than'Kordia';'no significant differences in uniformity of bud burst were found between the two varieties.
The results demonstrated that the success of initial and total bud burst increased with time at low temperatures and under natural field conditions.
The results we obtained by matching chill accumulation to tree phenology showed that cherry-producing regions in Australia will experience sufficient chill to support the production of the variety'Sweetheart'with an increase in mean winter temperature of 1 Â
A team of investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) report that skin grafts from pigs lacking the Gal sugar molecule were as effective in covering burn-like injuries on the backs of baboons as skin taken from other
Emerald ash borer larvae feed on the cells of the tree's nutrient and water transport systems.
Eventually water and nutrients no longer flow to the tips of the branches and the tree dies.
#Science of school lunch: Pictures tell story about lunch policies, healthy consumptionin terms of ambience Charlotte Central's cafeteria is--well conjure up your own elementary school lunch experience.
There's more than one reason to run to recess. But on a recent visit to observe a group of researchers from UVM's Johnson Lab the lunch ladies were serving up something more likely to be found on a restaurant menu:
risotto with mushrooms and peas. It's the result of a host of programs by schools around Vermont to offer more tempting choices--with locally sourced ingredients
when possible including herbs and vegetables from the playground garden--and to get children to eat more healthfully.
But is it working? That's what Rachel Johnson Robert L. Bickford Jr. Green and Gold Professor of Nutrition and Food Sciences along with her research team is trying to find out.
And they aren't alone in their concern. Since Fall 2012 USDA regulations require students across the country to take a fruit
or vegetable with their lunch a good intention that might easily go to the garbage. To get answers about
what actually happens to those dressed up peas and mushrooms--or the obligatory apple next to the mac and cheese--the Johnson Lab has developed state-of-the-art digital imaging to measure consumption a method just validated by a paper published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
The researchers Johnson's army of undergraduates image children's trays when they leave the line
and then again when they're finished eating. They've already weighed and photographed a correct portion of each fruit
but much less labor-intensive means of assessing dietary intake compared to the current gold standard of individually weighing portions selected before a child can eat against plate waste.
--and we know that exposure to foods helps develop preference for those foods --so we're interested in accurately measuring
and published this spring in the Journal of Child Nutrition and Management researchers found that the fruits
and vegetables that students are choosing at lunch are processed largely versions primarily 100 percent fruit juice and high calorie entrees such as pizza and lasagna with the tomato in the sauce qualifying as a vegetable.
and sugar content they did so incrementally by reducing either fat or sugar to lower calories.
As people first became concerned about childhood obesity Johnson started looking at beverage consumption and how that impacted the overall quality of a child's diet.
Between 1940 and the 1990s she says the curve makes a big X with soft drink consumption going up
and milk consumption going down. We were one of the first to sound this alarm she says showing that
when kids don't have milk at lunch they don't come close to meeting their dietary needs
--and the beverages displacing milk add empty calories. Today with 101-peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals 12 book chapters
and her talent for translating the science into action serving among other posts as spokesperson for the American Heart Association whose nutrition committee she chairs.
Most recently Johnson worked with NBC News to develop the nutrition content for the network's new website Parent Toolkit
We've worked on education policy changes physical activity standards new regulations in schools about limiting food marketing to kids about using food for fundraisers she says.
At my kids'high school there were banks of vending machines with soft drinks and candy and snack foods all the bake sales.
Researchers at the Institute of Food Research are looking at how to turn straw from oilseed rape into biofuel.
Straw contains a mix of sugars that could be used as a source of biofuels that do not compete with food production
However the sugars are in a form that makes them inaccessible to the enzymes that release them for conversion into biofuels so pre-treatments are needed.
and his team have been looking at the steps needed to unlock the sugars tied up in the tough straw structure In particular they have looked at the pre-treatment stage focusing on steam explosion
what effects varying the pre-treatments had on the different types of sugars before and after saccharification.
Saccharification efficiency is associated also with the loss of specific sugars and subsequent formation of sugar breakdown products.
The final sugar yield was closely related to the removal of xylan a common component of plant cell walls.
The abundance of lignin a'woody'cell wall component was positively related to the amount of available sugars.
#Poor diet before pregnancy linked with preterm birthuniversity of Adelaide research has confirmed for the first time that women who eat a poor diet before they become pregnant are around 50%more likely to have a preterm birth than those on a healthy diet.
Researchers at the University of Adelaide's Robinson Research Institute investigated the dietary patterns of more than 300 South Australian women to better understand their eating habits before pregnancy.
It's the first study of its kind to assess women's diet prior to conception and its association with outcomes at birth.
The results published in The Journal of Nutrition show that women who consistently ate a diet high in protein
and sugar foods and takeaway were about 50%more likely to have a preterm birth.
In our study women who ate protein-rich foods including lean meats fish and chicken as well as fruit whole grains and vegetables had significantly lower risk of preterm birth.
On the other hand women who consumed mainly discretionary foods such as takeaway potato chips cakes biscuits and other foods high in saturated fat and sugar were more likely to have born babies preterm Dr Grieger says.
It is important to consume a healthy diet before as well as during pregnancy to support the best outcomes for the mum and baby Dr Grieger says.
Diet is an important risk factor that can be modified. It is never too late to make a positive change.
We hope our work will help promote a healthy diet before and during pregnancy. This will help to reduce the number of neonatal deaths
and improve the overall health of children she says. Dr Grieger will present her research findings at the upcoming SA Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Society for Medical Research during ASMR Medical Research Week on Wednesday 4 june.
To date it has been assumed that immunoglobulins do not play a role in the course of swine coccidiosis.
Coccidiosis is associated with extensive destruction of the gut mucosa and thus with reduced food conversion causing decreased weight gain and economic losses for farmers.
the best nectar and pollen. The angle of their dances conveys information about the direction of resources
and cost to survey such an area on foot--to monitor nectar sources for quality and quantity of production to count the number of other flower-visiting insects to account for competition
#Low-carb vegan diet may reduce heart disease risk, weightresearchers at St michael's Hospital have shown for the first time that
The diet often called Eco-Atkins is a low-carbohydrate vegan diet. Many low-carbohydrate diets have been proven to improve weight loss
but most emphasize eating animal proteins and fats which may raise cholesterol. Diets that are high in vegetable proteins
and oils may reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering bad cholesterol. We killed two birds with one stone
--or rather with one diet explained lead author Dr. David Jenkins who is director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Modification Centre of St michael's Hospital and a Nutritional Sciences professor at the University of Toronto.
We designed a diet that combined both vegan and low-carb elements to get the weight loss and cholesterol-lowering benefits of both.
The findings which were published in British Medical Journal Open compared Eco-Atkins to a high-carbohydrate low-fat diet.
The Eco-Atkins diet reduced cholesterol by 10 per cent while also helping participants lose an average of four more pounds than the high-carbohydrate low-fat diet over six months.
because study participants selected their own diets and were able to adjust to their needs
and preferences said Dr. Jenkins who is a vegan. Participants were given menu plans that outlined food items and amounts.
Rather than requiring fixed meals the menus served as a reference guide and participants were given a list of suitable food alternatives.
With an exchange list of interchangeable food items participants were better able to adapt the diet to their personal tastes
--which helped to encourage adherence to the diet. Twenty-three obese men and women completed the six-month diet.
Participants were encouraged to eat only 60 per cent of their estimated caloric requirements--the amount of calories that should be consumed daily to maintain their current weight.
Eco-Atkins participants aimed for a balance of 26 per cent of calories from carbohydrates 31 per cent from proteins and 43 per cent from fat--coming primarily vegetable oils.
Carbohydrate sources included high-fibre foods such as oats and barley and low-starch vegetables such as okra and eggplant.
Proteins came from gluten soy vegetables nuts and cereals. Predominant fat sources for the Eco-Atkins diet were nuts vegetable oils soy products and avocado.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by St michael's Hospital. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Symbiosis or capitalism? A new view of forest fungithe so-called symbiotic relationship between trees and the fungus that grow on their roots may actually work more like a capitalist market relationship between buyers
that the fungi or mycorrhizae that grow on tree roots work with trees in a symbiotic relationship that is beneficial for both the fungi and the trees providing needed nutrients to both parties.
These fungi including many edible mushrooms are particularly common in boreal forests with scarce nutrients.
when nutrients are scarce than when they are abundant in the soil. The new study led by IIASA Ecosystems Services
since each organism competes with others in trading nutrients such as carbon and nitrogen the system as a whole may function more like a capitalistic market economy than a cooperative symbiotic relationship.
which seize a lot of soil nutrients. The new theory pictures a more businesslike relationship among multiple buyers
and the plants where each individual trades carbon for nutrients or vice versa to maximize profits not unlike a capitalistic market economy says Franklin
or growing a different crop one better suited to warmer temperatures said Lobell the associate director of the Center on Food security and the Environment at Stanford.
and better access to fresh affordable food--including fruits and vegetables--than they did in past decades.
Snack food fast food automobile use time spent viewing television or looking at computer screens the ubiquity of vending machines suburban sprawl increasing portion sizes female labor force participation poverty affluence supermarket availability
Geography and the existence of so-called food deserts (neighborhoods or regions with limited access to affordable healthy food) appear to have little bearing on the obesity trend in general
because they have less access to affordable healthy foods also contradicts the data An said. The percent of disposable income spent on food fell quite a bit from 1970 to 2010 he said.
And in fact in the 1930s American people spent one-third of their disposable income on food
while today people spend less than one-tenth. So it's hard to argue that food has become more expensive in general.
The cost of fruits and vegetables has increased not over time as some have argued but has gone down more than 20 percent since 1970 the researchers report.
--but not as rapidly as the cost of junk food An said. Overall food is more accessible and affordable than ever in the United states
and this may be an important factor in the dramatic rise in obesity he said. The data on exercise and physical activity also are muddier than some people like to admit An said.
#Composting program with used coffee groundsan interdisciplinary Kansas State university research group is turning garbage into gourmet food.
The researchers are used taking coffee grounds from a campus coffee shop and using them as compost to cultivate gourmet mushrooms at the K-State Student Farm.
--or about 30 percent of the coffee shop's total waste--has been diverted from landfills. Natalie Mladenov assistant professor of civil engineering and Rhonda Janke associate professor of horticulture forestry and recreation resources are the faculty leaders of the project
The students set up a new compost receptacle at Radina's Coffeehouse and Roastery in the university's Leadership Studies Building.
Beautiful soft sword-shaped leaves with white edges and cream-colored flowers with bright orange filaments are the hallmarks of this impressive plant.
Part of a marine family known as skeleton shrimp only distantly related to the ones some humans love to dip in cocktail sauce this crustacean is the first of its genus to be reported in the northeastern Pacific.
Although its host is known not yet like other fairyflies it presumably has a life span of not more than a few days and attacks the eggs of other insects.
Dr. James A. Macklin Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Canada; Dr. Zhi-Qiang Zhang Landcare Research New zealand;
The research involved experimenting with a species of oophagous parasitoid (Trichogramma euproctidis) an insect that lays its eggs inside a host insect that will be consumed by the future larvae.
and Agri-Food Canada and published in the May issue of the journal Animal Behaviour.
and ants the gender determination of Trichogramma parasitoids is called haplodiploid that is fertilized eggs produce female offspring while unfertilized eggs produce male offspring summarizes Moiroux.
It is possible to predict whether the parasitoid will lay a son or daughter by observing the presence
A pause means the egg will be fertilized. Conversely the absence of a pause means the egg will not be fertilized.
To know whether this particular behaviour is modified by climate the researcher exposed female Trichogramma to three different temperatures:
but the eggs were fertilized not after all. There were therefore more males produced at low temperature. Increasing fitnessin insects fitness is correlated positively with the size of an individual
whether there is an effect of phenological asynchrony between parasitoids and their hosts and therefore an impact on the availability of host eggs and on pest control by their natural enemies.
#Ape ancestors teeth provide glimpse into their diets and environments: Helped apes move to Eurasia,
may have led to extinctionnewly analyzed tooth samples from the great apes of the Miocene indicate that the same dietary specialization that allowed the apes to move from Africa to Eurasia may have led to their extinction according to results published May 21 2014 in the open access journal
Their diet closely relates to the environment in which they live and each type of diet wears the teeth differently.
To better understand the apes'diet during their evolution and expansion into new habitat scientists analyzed newly-discovered wearing in the teeth of 15 upper
They combined these analyses with previously collected data for other Western Eurasian apes categorizing the wear on the teeth into one of three ape diets:
hard-object feeders (e g. hard fruits seeds) mixed food feeders (e g. fruit) and leaf feeders.
and Turkey suggested that the great ape's diet evolved from hard-shelled fruits and seeds to leaves but these findings only contained samples from the early-Middle and Late Miocene while lack data from the epoch of highest diversity
In their research the scientists found that in contrast with the diet of hard-shelled fruits
and a diet specializing in leaves did not evolve. The authors suggest that a progressive dietary diversification may have occurred due to competition
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