Is proximity to a food retail store associated with diet and BMI in Glasgow, Scotland?

Background: Access to healthy food is often seen as a potentially important contributor to diet. Policy documents in many countries suggest that variations in access contribute to inequalities in diet and in health. Some studies, mostly in the USA, have found that proximity to food stores is associated with dietary patterns, body weight and socio-economic differences in diet and obesity, whilst others have found no such relationships. We aim to investigate whether proximity to food retail stores is associated with dietary patterns or Body Mass Index in Glasgow, a large city in the UK.
Methods: We mapped data from a ‘Health and Well-Being Survey’ (n = 991), and a list of food stores (n = 741) in Glasgow City, using ArcGIS, and undertook network analysis to find the distance from respondents’ home addresses to the nearest fruit and vegetable store, small general store, and supermarket.
Results: We found few statistically significant associations between proximity to food retail outlets and diet or obesity, for unadjusted or adjusted models, or when stratifying by gender, car ownership or employment.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that in urban settings in the UK the distribution of retail food stores may not be a major influence on diet and weight, possibly because most urban residents have reasonable access to food stores

An organic ionic plastic crystal electrolyte based on the triflate anion exhibiting high proton transport

A novel organic ionic plastic crystal (OIPC) electrolyte based on a quaternary ammonium cation and the triflate anion has been synthesized, which shows fast proton transport and high thermal stability in the solid state when doped with triflic acid.

Organic ionic plastic crystal electrolytes; a new class of electrolyte for high efficiency solid state dye-sensitized solar cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells are an increasingly promising alternative to conventional silicon solar cells as a method of converting solar energy to electricity and thus providing an effectively inexhaustible energy source. However, the most efficient of these devices currently utilize liquid electrolytes, which suffer from the associated problems of leakage and evaporation. Hence, significant research is currently focused on the development of solid state alternatives. Here we report a new class of solid state electrolyte for these devices, organic ionic plastic crystal electrolytes, that allow relatively rapid diffusion of the redox couple through the matrix, which is critical to the cell performance. A range of different organic ionic plastic crystal materials, utilizing different cation and anion structures, have been investigated and the conductivities, diffusion rates and photovoltaic performance of the electrolytes are reported. The best material, utilizing the dicyanamide anion, achieves efficiencies of more than 5%.

Porphyrin dye-sensitised solar cells utilising a solid-state electrolyte

We describe a porphyrin dye-sensitised solar cell utilising a solid state electrolyte containing the I¯/I₃¯ redox couple, which yields a performance of 5.3% under moderate light intensity and 4.8% at full sun.

Electrophoretic deposition of YSZ thin-film electrolyte for SOFCs utilizing electrostatic-steric stabilized suspensions obtained via high energy ball milling

This manuscript describes a facile alternative route to make thin-film yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte by liquid-phase assisted electrophoretic deposition utilizing electrostatic-steric stabilized YSZ suspension followed by sintering. Very fine YSZ particles in ball-milled suspension facilitate their sustained dispersion through electrostatic mechanism as evidenced by their higher zeta potentials. Binder addition into the ball-milled suspension is also demonstrated to contribute complementary steric hindrance effects on suspension stability. As the consequence, the film quality and sinterability improve in the sequence of film made from non ball-milled suspension, film made from ball-milled suspension and film made from ball-milled suspension with binder addition. The specific deposition mechanisms pertaining to each suspension are also postulated and discussed below. A very thin dense electrolyte layer of ∼10 μm can be achieved via electrophoretic deposition route utilizing ball-milled suspension and binder addition. This in turn, makes the electrolyte resistance a more negligible part of the overall cell resistance. Further on, we also tested the performance of SOFC utilizing as-formed 10 μm YSZ electrolyte i.e. YSZ-NiO|YSZ|LSM (La0.8Sr0.2MnO3-δ), whereby a maximum power density of ∼850 mW cm−2 at 850 °C was demonstrated.

Investigation of population heterogeneity of diet use among middle-aged Australians

The purpose of the study was to determine patterns of diet use among middle-aged Australian men and women and the relationships between these different usage patterns and demographic characteristics, health status and health habits. A cross-sectional mail survey was conducted among a random sample of 2975 people aged 40–71 years in Victoria, Australia. A total of 1031 usable questionnaires were obtained which included information about the use of diets (e.g. low-fat and low-salt) during the past 3 months along with demographic information, health status and health habits. Based on the responses about the use of thirteen diets for both sexes, latent class analysis was employed to identify the optimal number of use of diets and the assignment of participants to particular groups. Three types of diet uses were identified and provisionally named: diet use, selected diet use and non-diet use. This classification was associated with demographics, health status and health habits, and these associations differed between men and women. The findings suggest that nutrition education programmes should be tailored to the different needs of the diet use groups.

The association between habitual diet quality and the common mental disorders in community-dwelling adults : The Hordaland health study

Objective Recent evidence suggests a role for diet quality in the common mental disorders depression and anxiety. We aimed to investigate the association between diet quality, dietary patterns, and the common mental disorders in Norwegian adults.

Methods This cross-sectional study included 5731 population-based men and women aged 46 to 49 and 70 to 74 years. Habitual diet was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire, and mental health was measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

Results After adjustments for variables including age, education, income, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption, an a priori healthy diet quality score was inversely related to depression (odds ratio [OR] = 0.71, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.59–0.84) and anxiety (OR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.68–0.87) in women and to depression (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.70–0.99) in men. Women scoring higher on a healthy dietary pattern were less likely to be depressed (OR = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.57–0.82) or anxious (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.77–0.98), whereas men were more likely to be anxious (OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.03–1.38). A traditional Norwegian dietary pattern was also associated with reduced depression in women (OR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.64–0.92) and anxiety in men (OR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.61–0.96). A western-type diet was associated with increased anxiety in men (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.14–1.42) and women (OR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.17–1.43) before final adjustment for energy intake.

Conclusions In this study, those with better quality diets were less likely to be depressed, whereas a higher intake of processed and unhealthy foods was associated with increased anxiety.

Reversed sexual dimorphism and altered prey base : the effect on sooty owl (Tyto tenebricosa tenebricosa) diet

The ecology and function of many Australian predators has likely been disrupted following major changes in prey base due to declines in distribution and abundance of small mammals following European settlement. This study investigated various aspects of the dietary ecology of sooty owls (Tyto tenebricosa tenebricosa), including sexual variation as they potentially exhibit the greatest degree of reversed sexual dimorphism of any owl species worldwide. Sooty owls are highly opportunistic predators of non-volant small mammals, consuming most species known to exist in the region, so their diet fluctuates seasonally and spatially due to varying prey availability, and is particularly influenced by the breeding cycles of prey. Significant intersexual dietary differences existed with female sooty owls predominantly consuming much larger prey items than males, with dietary overlap at 0.62. The current reliance on relatively few native mammalian species is of conservation concern, especially when mammal declines are unlikely to have ceased as many threatening processes still persist in the landscape. Sooty owl conservation appears inextricably linked with small mammal conservation. Conservation efforts should be focussed towards improving prey densities and prey habitat, primarily by implementing control programs for feral predators and preventing the loss of hollow-bearing trees throughout the landscape