13 research outputs found
Comparing intake estimations based on food composition data with chemical analysis in Malian women
No full textObjective: Food composition databases are essential for estimating nutrient intakes in food consumption surveys. The present study aimed to evaluate the Mali food composition database (TACAM) for assessing intakes of energy and selected nutrients at population level. Design: Weighed food records and duplicate portions of all foods consumed during one day were collected. Intakes of energy, protein, fat, available carbohydrates, dietary fibre, Ca, Fe, Zn and vitamin A were assessed by: (i) estimating the nutrient intake from weighed food records based on an adjusted TACAM (a-TACAM); and (ii) chemical analysis of the duplicate portions. Agreement between the two methods was determined using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Bland–Altman plots. Setting: Bamako, Mali. Subjects: Apparently healthy non-pregnant, non-lactating women (n 36) aged 15–36 years. Results: Correlation coefficients between estimated and analysed values ranged from 0·38 to 0·61. At population level, mean estimated and analysed nutrient intakes differed significantly for carbohydrates (203·0 v. 243·5 g/d), Fe (9·9 v. 22·8 mg/d) and vitamin A (356 v. 246 µg retinol activity equivalents). At individual level, all estimated and analysed nutrient intakes differed significantly; the differences tended to increase with higher intakes. Conclusions: The a-TACAM is sufficiently acceptable for measuring average intakes of macronutrients, Ca and Zn at population level in low-intake populations, but not for carbohydrate, vitamin A and Fe intakes, and nutrient densities
Determinants of consumer acceptance and use of personalized dietary advice : A systematic review
No full textBackground: There has been growing attention towards personalizing dietary advice to the specific lifestyle, phenotypic and genotypic properties of consumers. Consumer acceptance and advice adherence is critical for the success of services offering personalized dietary advice. However, more insight is needed in the current body of knowledge on the determinants of consumer acceptance and use of personalized dietary advice. Scope and approach: This literature review provides an overview of the current knowledge on consumer acceptance, use and effectiveness of personalized dietary advice based on the four information flow stages in personalized dietary advice: (1) information provision from consumer to formulate a personalized dietary advice, (2) personalized advice generation, (3) advice provision to the consumer, (4) advice acceptance and adherence. Key Findings and Conclusions: Results show that the extent to which each step in the cycle is considered in the reviewed studies varies strongly, with most emphasis on the advice adherence, such as changes in dietary intake. In contrast, it is less clear how consumer data is used to generate a personalized dietary advice. Based on the studies in our review, we identify aspects that play a role in the consumer acceptance of personalized dietary advice and the best design practices for creating a successful personalized advice
The socio-cultural milieux of the left in post-war Britain
No full textThis thesis examines the relationship between activist subjectivities and the shaping of Britain’s late
sixties extra-parliamentary left cultures. Based on the oral narratives of ninety men and women, it
traces the activist trajectory from child to adulthood to understand the social, psychological, and
cultural processes informing the political and personal transformation of young adults within the
new left cultures that emerged in the wake of Britain’s anti-war movement, the Vietnam Solidarity
Campaign (VSC). To this end the study charts the development of the political and cultural shifts on
the left over the decade from the early 1960s to the early 1970s. It shows how throughout this
period dialogue between inner and outer activist life occurred against a background of ongoing
realignment on the left from a fluid, eclectic cultural network around the VSC to a demarcated post-
VSC left after 1969, that saw increasing divergence between a non-aligned libertarian New Left on
the one hand and a Trotskyist far left milieu on the other.
The study seeks to claim a valid space for Britain’s left activist landscape within the political,
social and cultural framework of ‘1968’ and British post-war historiography. Privileging individual
and collective subjectivities, the thesis examines ways of belonging inside Trotskyist and non-aligned
left milieux by situating the respondents, their radical histories and activist cultures within the
changing post-war fabric. It shows that investigating individual and collective memories provides
deeper understanding of the ‘cognitive maps’ that young men and women created, as they
attempted to situate themselves as radical, global beings as well as local, gendered social citizens.
As micro-studies the individual stories reveal how the experience of social, emotional and
political maturation from child to adult intersected with a specific social and political moment – the
formation of a new and distinctive left culture that came to full fruition only in the aftermath of 1968
with the arrival of Women’s Liberation and the new personal politics. Exploring the social and
psychological impact of post-war childhood and youth, the study engages with the political and
emotional impact of Women’s Liberation on the men and women within the cultural context of the different left milieux.
Overall, the thesis questions how, from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, the variant
cultures of the milieux penetrated public and private spaces, and shaped early life experiences of
work, political activity, family, and political and personal relations in order to understand how
activism shaped social patterns and psychic being
Summative Assessment Practices of Solomon Islands Year Nine Science Teachers
No full textThe aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the perceptions, experiences, and practices of six Solomon Islands secondary science teachers, based on the types of assessment they use in their science classrooms to serve a summative purpose. The study was divided into two parts. The first part involved a baseline study which explored the teachers’ existing summative assessment practices with the intent to understand how their views and knowledge of the summative assessments influenced their practices, and to identify their professional learning needs in creating assessment tools. The second part of the study involved a small-scale professional development intervention, which aimed to enhance the science teachers’ skills and confidence in summative assessment as well as to identify the factors that influenced teachers’ development and transfer of new assessment skills to their classroom practices in the Solomon Islands context.
The study adopted a qualitative-interpretive research approach and used methods of teacher interviews, participant observation and documentary analysis to generate data related to the teachers’ existing summative assessment practices, and the new or revised processes that they adopted as a result of the professional development intervention. Various analytical procedures including thematic analysis procedures and frameworks that researchers have used previously to study teachers’ classroom practices were employed to analyse the collected data.
The findings of the baseline study indicated that the science teachers employed summative assessments to compare students’ ability through grading and reported their students’ achievements to parents and students. The unit test is the dominant form of assessment used by teachers to assess year nine students’ learning, performance and achievements in science. Examinations are administered to students at the end of each school term. An analysis of the test and examination questions indicated that teachers focused on assessing mainly low cognitive skills. Teachers’ views indicated that neither they nor the school leaders have used student achievement results in the past or present time as a basis to review and evaluate their teaching practices or plan ways they might improve student achievement and school performance.
The science teachers generally expressed varying levels of satisfaction in their conduct of assessment activities but also perceived the need for professional support in certain areas of assessment such as construction of a test using a test blueprint, grading, analysis and interpretation of student assessment results. The study also identified a range of factors that influenced the six science teachers’ classroom-based summative assessment practices. Factors that tend to have impacted positively on their summative assessment practices include; their initial teacher education experiences, knowledge and beliefs about teaching, learning and assessment, and colleagues in the school. However, the teachers also reported certain contextual factors that impacted negatively on their assessment practices. These included institutional and extracurricular responsibilities, heavy teaching loads, large class size, lack of clear assessment policy guidelines, lack of exemplary assessment resources, and national examination pressures.
Findings of the impact of professional development intervention indicated that the teachers made small to moderate changes in their summative assessment practice. Their involvement in the group activities during the professional development workshop made them become more reflective on their assessment practices and also indicated that the professional development activities enhanced their knowledge about alternative assessment strategies, and increased their confidence in carrying out summative assessments in class. However, the existing contextual factors that were identified during the baseline study continued to impede their transfer of new assessment ideas and procedures into their classroom practices
Physiological and public health basis for assessing micronutrient requirements in children and adolescents. The EURRECA network
No full textThis paper provides an overview of the current knowledge relating to the nutritional requirements and corresponding recommended nutrient intake values of children and adolescents for micronutrients and specificities related to these requirements in the course of childhood and adolescence in Europe. Aspects that can influence micronutrient requirements, such as physiological requirements and bioavailability of the nutrients in the organism, are discussed. The methodology used to obtain the data and also the main knowledge gaps regarding these concepts are emphasized. Methodological critical points in achieving the data and physiological aspects of children and adolescents are important in order to standardize the reference values for micronutrients among Europe for these stages of lif
EURRECA's General Framework to make the process of setting up micronutrient recommendations explicit and transparent
No full textEURRECA is a Network of Excellence with the objective of addressing the problem of national variations in micronutrient recommendations and working towards a framework of advice to better inform policy-makers. It became apparent that the network needed a framework that puts the process of recommendation setting in the context of science, policy and society. Although variability in recommendations originates from the scientific evidence-base used and its interpretation (e.g. health outcomes, types and methods of evaluation of evidence, quantification of risk/benefit), the background information provided in the recommendation reports does not easily facilitate the disentangling of the relative contribution of these different aspects because of lack of transparency. The present report portrays the general framework (see Figure) that has been developed by and for EURRECA in order to make the process of setting up micronutrient recommendations explicit and transparent. In explaining the link from science to policy applications, the framework distinguishes four principal components or stages (see Figure). These stages are: a) Defining the nutrient requirements: A judgement about the (best) distribution(s) of the population requirement is necessary for estimating nutrient requirements. Many assumptions need to be made about the attributes of the population group. Furthermore, several factors (consumer behaviour as well as physiology) are to be included to characterize optimal health. b) Setting the nutrient recommendations: All available evidence is needed to formulate recommendations. Incorporating different endpoints provide the basis to formulate an optimal diet in terms of (non-)nutrients and food(group)s. c) Policy options: Policy options should be formulated on how the optimal diet can be achieved. They concern the advice of scientist and/or expert committees to the policy makers. Current policy options are setting up a task force, food based dietary guidelines, general health education, educational programme for specific group(s), voluntary or mandatory fortification, labelling, supplementation (general or for specific groups), inducing voluntary action in industry, legislation on micronutrient composition in food products, fiscal change, monitoring and evaluation of intake (via food consumption surveys) and/or nutritional status. d) Policy applications: Policies and planning, usually done by government, that lead to nutritional interventions or programmes. They usually require consideration of scientific, legal, regulatory, ethical and cultural issues, economic implications, and political and social priorities. This framework illustrates three dimensions of the process of setting (micro)nutrient requirements: 1) The logical sequence of scientific thinking from setting physiological requirements for nutritional health leading to evidence-based derivation of Nutrient Intake Values. 2) In the early stages nutritional and epidemiological science is the dominant source and in the later stages evidence from consumer and social sciences as well as stakeholder influences is used in deriving the options for changing the distribution of nutrient intakes. 3) The wider socio-political context: a feedback loop between health perception, actual health and food intake exists and is directly affected by the food industry and many other stakeholders. Moreover, from the viewpoint of policymakers, there are concerns for health promotion and disease prevention because of population health indices, costs of health care, and economic interests in the agro-food sector. In conclusion: A systematic approach for development and regular review of micronutrient requirements in Europe, transparently based on scientific evidence and best practices, enables national and international authorities/bodies to use the best available information obtained through evidence-based nutrition and accomplish well-considered food policy. Funded by an EU FP6 Network of Excellence (EURRECA, grant no. FP 6–036196-2). G. T. performed part of the work under a short-term contract for WHO Europe
Nutri-RecQuest: a web-based search engine on current micronutrient recommendations
No full textBackground: The EURRECA (EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned) Network of Excellence collated current micronutrient recommendations. A user-friendly tool, Nutri-RecQuest, was developed to allow access to the collated data and to create a database source for use in other nutritional software tools. Methods: Recommendations, that is, intakes of micronutrients sufficient to meet the requirements of the majority of healthy individuals of that population, from 37 European countries/organizations and eight key non-European countries/regions comprising 29 micronutrients were entered into a database. General information on the source of the recommendations, as well scientific background information, was added. Results: A user-friendly web-based interface was developed to provide efficient search, comparison, display, print and export functions. Conclusion: Easy access to existing recommendations through the web-based tool may be valuable for bodies responsible for setting recommendations, as well as for users of recommendations including scientists, policy makers, health professionals and industry. Adding related dietary reference values such as average nutrient requirements and upper limits may extend the utility of the too
European micronutrient recommendations aligned: a general framework developed by Eurreca
No full textBackground: In Europe, micronutrient recommendations have been established by (inter)national committees of experts and are used by public health-policy decision makers to monitor and assess the adequacy of the diets of population groups. Current micronutrient recommendations are, however, heterogeneous, whereas the scientific basis for this is not obvious. Alignment of setting micronutrient recommendations is necessary to improve the transparency of the process, the objectivity and reliability of recommendations that are derived by diverse regional and (inter)national bodies. Objective: This call for alignment of micronutrient recommendations is a direct result of the current sociopolitical climate in Europe and uncovers the need for an institutional architecture. There is a need for evidence-based policy making, transparent decision making, stakeholder involvement and alignment of policies across Europe. Results: In this paper, we propose a General Framework that describes the process leading from assessing nutritional requirements to policy applications, based on evidence from science, stakeholder interests and the sociopolitical context. The framework envisions the derivation of nutrient recommendations as scientific methodology, embedded in a policy-making process that also includes consumer issues, and acknowledges the influences of the wider sociopolitical context by distinguishing the principal components of the framework: (a) defining the nutrient requirements for health, (b) setting nutrient recommendations, (c) policy options and (d) policy applications. Conclusion: The General Framework can serve as a basis for a systematic and transparent approach to the development and review of micronutrient requirements in Europe, as well as the decision making of scientific advisory bodies, policy makers and stakeholders involved in this process of assessing, developing and translating these recommendations into public health nutrition polic
Current micronutrient recommendations in Europe: towards understanding their differences and similarities
No full textBackground Nowadays most countries in Europe have established their own nutrient recommendations to assess the adequacy of dietary intakes and to plan desirable dietary intakes. As yet there is no standard approach for deriving nutrient recommendations, they may vary from country to country. This results in different national recommendations causing confusion for policy-makers, health professionals, industry, and consumers within Europe. EURRECA (EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned) is a network of excellence funded by the European Commission (EC), and established to identify and address the problem of differences between countries in micronutrient recommendations. The objective of this paper is to give an overview of the available micronutrient recommendations in Europe, and to provide information on their origin, concepts and definitions. Furthermore this paper aims to illustrate the diversity in European recommendations on vitamin A and vitamin D, and to explore differences and commonalities in approaches that could possibly explain variations observed.
Methods A questionnaire was developed to get information on the process of establishing micronutrient recommendations. These questionnaires were sent to key informants in the field of micronutrient recommendations to cover all European countries/regions. Also the latest reports on nutrient recommendations in Europe were collected. Standardisation procedures were defined to enable comparison of the recommendations. Recommendations for vitamin A and vitamin D were compared per sex at the ages 3, 9 months and 5, 10, 15, 25, 50 and 70 years. Information extracted from the questionnaires and reports was compared focusing on: (1) The concept of recommendation (recommended daily allowance (RDA), adequate intake (AI) or acceptable range), (2) The year of publication of the report (proxy for available evidence), (3) Population groups defined, (4) Other methodological issues such as selected criteria of adequacy, the type of evidence used, and assumptions made.
Results Twenty-two countries, the World Health Organization (WHO)/the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the EC have their own reports on nutrient recommendations. Thirteen countries based their micronutrient recommendations on those from other countries or organisations. Five countries, WHO/FAO and the EC defined their own recommendations. The DACH-countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) as well as the Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland) cooperated in setting recommendations. Greece and Portugal use the EC and the WHO/FAO recommendations, respectively and Slovenia adopted the recommendations from the DACH-countries. Rather than by concepts, definitions, and defined population groups, variability appears to emerge from differences in criteria for adequacy, assumptions made and type of evidence used to establish micronutrient recommendations.
Discussion The large variation in current micronutrient recommendations for population groups as illustrated for vitamin A and vitamin D strengthens the need for guidance on setting evidence based, up-to-date European recommendations. Differences in endpoints, type of evidence used to set recommendations, experts' opinions and assumptions are all likely to contribute to the identified variation. So far, background information was not sufficient transparent to disentangle the relative contribution of these different aspects. Conclusion EURRECA has an excellent opportunity to develop tools to improve transparency on the approaches used in setting micronutrient recommendations, including the selection of criteria for adequacy, weighing of evidence, and interpretation of data
Revision of Oxandra (Annonaceae)
No full textA taxonomic revision is given of the Neotropical genus Oxandra (Annonaceae). Within the genus 27 species are recognized, 4 of which are new to science. Most of the species are occurring in tropical South America, whereas a few (6) are found in Mexico and Central America and two in the West Indies (Greater and Lesser Antilles). A key to all species is provided. The treatment includes chapters about the history of the genus and morphology. All species are fully described, including full synonymy, notes on distribution and ecology, field observations (when available), vernacular names (when given), and mostly short notes about relationships of the species concerned. For each species a distribution map is made. At the end of the revision a complete list of vernacular names is included
