Dietary calcium intake and overweight: An epidemiologic view

Objective: We evaluated the relation between overweight and calcium intake in adults living in the municipality of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Methods: This was a cross-sectional population-based Study on a sample of 1459 adults that was obtained by multistage cluster sampling. Dietary intake was measured by the 24-h recall method. Poisson`s and linear regression analyses were performed to evaluate the relation between overweight and quartiles of calcium intake adjusted for energy. Results: The prevalence of overweight was 43.1% and the average adjusted calcium intake was 448.6 mg. In the linear regression. analyses, the regression coefficient for adjusted calcium was significant and negative (P = 0.019, beta(1) = -0.0001). Although evaluated by quartiles, the prevalence ratio for overweight in the first quartile of calcium intake was 1.24 (95% confidence interval 1.00-1.54) and that in the second quartile was 1.24 (95% confidence interval 1.03-1.49). Conclusion: In the present study, calcium intake showed a significant negative association with body mass index. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Agar-based films for application as polymer electrolytes

New types of polymer electrolytes based on agar have been prepared and characterized by impedance spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction measurements, UV-vis spectroscopy and scanning electronic microscopy (SEMI). The best ionic conductivity has been obtained for the samples containing a concentration of 50 wt.% of acetic acid. As a function of the temperature the ionic conductivity exhibits an Arrhenius behavior increasing from 1.1 x 10(-4) S/cm at room temperature to 9.6 x 10(-4) S/cm at 80 degrees C. All the samples showed more than 70% of transparency in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, a very homogeneous surface and a predominantly amorphous structure. All these characteristics imply that these polymer electrolytes can be applied in electrochromic devices. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.