Fruit and vegetable consumption in older individuals in Northern Ireland: levels and patterns

Low intakes of fruit and vegetables have previously been reported in the older population of Great Britain, particularly among certain socio-demographic groups. Levels and patterns of consumption in the older population of Northern Ireland, however, remain unknown. A representative sample of 1000 members of the older population of Northern Ireland were contacted by telephone to assess average intake of all fruits and vegetables and various demographic details. Data from 426 individuals (representative of the whole population) reported a mean consumption of 4.0 (SD 1-3) and 4.1 (SD 1-3) portions of fruit and vegetables per weekday and per weekend day respectively. Regression analyses revealed greater consumption on weekdays by females (B 0.53; P

The effect of increased dietary fruit and vegetable consumption on endothelial activation, inflammation and oxidative stress in hypertensive volunteers

Background and aims

Public health campaigns recommend increased fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption as an effective means of cardiovascular risk reduction. During an 8 week randomised control trial among hypertensive volunteers, we noted significant improvements in endothelium-dependent vasodilatation with increasing FV consumption. Circulating indices of inflammation, endothelial activation and insulin resistance are often employed as alternative surrogates for systemic arterial health. The responses of several such biomarkers to our previously described FV intervention are reported here.
Methods and results

Hypertensive volunteers were recruited from medical outpatient clinics. After a common 4 week run-in period during which FV consumption was limited to 1 portion per day, participants were randomised to 1, 3 or 6 portions daily for 8 weeks. Venous blood samples for biomarker analyses were collected during the pre and post-intervention vascular assessments. A total of 117 volunteers completed the 12 week study. Intervention-related changes in circulating levels of high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), soluble intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), von Willebrand factor (vWF) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) did not differ significantly between FV groups. Similarly, there were no significant between group differences of change in homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) scores.
Conclusions

Despite mediating a significant improvement in acetylcholine induced vasodilatation, increased FV consumption did not affect a calculated measure of insulin resistance or concentrations of the circulating biomarkers measured during this study. Functional indices of arterial health such as endothelium-dependent vasomotion are likely to provide more informative cardiovascular end-points during short-term dietary intervention trials.

The costs of bearing arms and armour in the hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus

Hermit crabs use empty gastropod shells as protective armour and enlarged chelipeds as signals and weapons. However, carrying armour and arms may impose energy costs that result in increased lactate and hence potential fatigue and there may be consequent effects on general activity. We investigated whether variation in shell and cheliped size influences lactate levels in hermit crabs. Lactate was positively related to residual cheliped size for both sexes and was higher in males than females; when we controlled for body size, the former had larger chelipeds. Shell weight unexpectedly had no effect on lactate but crabs in small shells had high lactate, possibly because of reduced ability to maintain a respiratory current. The size of natural shells had no effect on activity but the addition of food odour increased locomotion. However, activity was not related to lactate. We conclude that possession of larger chelipeds than expected for body size imposes significant costs and may limit development of sexual dimorphism. (C) 2010 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Discrete Conditional Phase-type models utilising classification trees: Application to modelling health service capacities

Discrete Conditional Phase-type (DC-Ph) models consist of a process component (survival distribution) preceded by a set of related conditional discrete variables. This paper introduces a DC-Ph model where the conditional component is a classification tree. The approach is utilised for modelling health service capacities by better predicting service times, as captured by Coxian Phase-type distributions, interfaced with results from a classification tree algorithm. To illustrate the approach, a case-study within the healthcare delivery domain is given, namely that of maternity services. The classification analysis is shown to give good predictors for complications during childbirth. Based on the classification tree predictions, the duration of childbirth on the labour ward is then modelled as either a two or three-phase Coxian distribution. The resulting DC-Ph model is used to calculate the number of patients and associated bed occupancies, patient turnover, and to model the consequences of changes to risk status.

Barriers to increasing fruit and vegetable intakes in the older population of Northern Ireland: low levels of liking and low awareness of current recommendations

Objective: To investigate barriers to increasing fruit and vegetable (f + v) intakes in a large sample of the older population of Northern Ireland (NI), in relation to current intakes.

On the ability to metaphorize: Talking trees and singing tigers in the English classroom

This article reviews and discusses how metaphor as a trope has been regarded as an essential element in rhetorical approaches to reading and to writing. In addition it considers the extent to which, while metaphor-making is a fundamental cognitive capacity, a metaphorizing habit of mind may be especially pertinent to some aspects of aesthetic activity in English and it has salience also in a multimodal environment. There is exploration of how contemporary practice in the English classroom could accommodate and consolidate the ability to metaphorize.

Computer simulating a trial of a load-bearing implant: example of an intramedullary prosthesis

Computational modelling is becoming ever more important for obtaining regulatory approval for new medical devices. An accepted approach is to infer performance in a population from an analysis conducted for an idealised or ‘average’ patient; we present here a method for predicting the performance of an orthopaedic implant when released into a population—effectively simulating a clinical trial. Specifically we hypothesise that an analysis based on a method for predicting the performance in a population will lead to different conclusions than an analysis based on an idealised or ‘average’ patient. To test this hypothesis we use a finite element model of an intramedullary implant in a bone whose size and remodelling activity is different for each individual in the population. We compare the performance of a low Young’s modulus implant (View the MathML source) to one with a higher Young’s modulus (200 GPa). Cyclic loading is applied and failure is assumed when the migration of the implant relative to the bone exceeds a threshold magnitude. The analysis for an idealised of ‘average’ patient predicts that the lower modulus device survives longer whereas the analysis simulating a clinical trial predicts no statistically-significant tendency (p=0.77) for the low modulus device to perform better. It is concluded that population-based simulations of implant performance–simulating a clinical trial–present a very valuable opportunity for more realistic computational pre-clinical testing of medical devices.

Biomarkers of fruit and vegetable intake in Human intervention studies a systematic review

Observational evidence consistently shows that consumption of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables may offer protection against diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. Assessment of dietary intake is complex and prone to many sources of error. More objective biomarkers of fruit and vegetable intake are therefore of interest. The aim of this review is to examine the usefulness of the main biomarkers of fruit and vegetable intake to act as objective indicators of compliance in dietary intervention studies. A comprehensive search of the literature was conducted using six databases. Suitable papers were selected and relevant data extracted. The papers were categorized into 3 sub-groups: whole diet interventions; mixed fruit and vegetable interventions; and studies involving individual varieties of fruits or vegetables. Ninety-six studies were included in the review. Overall, the most commonly measured, and most consistently responsive, biomarkers were the carotenoids and vitamin C. Based on the results of this systematic review, it remains prudent to measure a panel of biomarkers in fruit and vegetable intervention studies. The only possible exception to this is “fruit only” intervention studies where assessment of vitamin C alone may suffice.

Topological mappings between graphs, trees and generalized trees

We present novel topological mappings between graphs, trees and generalized trees that means between structured objects with different properties. The two major contributions of this paper are, first, to clarify the relation between graphs, trees and generalized trees, a graph class recently introduced. Second, these transformations provide a unique opportunity to transform structured objects into a representation that might be beneficial for a processing, e.g., by machine learning techniques for graph classification. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.