A Dietary Feedback System for the Delivery of Consistent Personalized Dietary Advice in the Web-Based Multicenter Food4Me Study

Background

Despite numerous healthy eating campaigns, the prevalence of diets high in saturated fatty acids, sugar, and salt and low in fiber, fruit, and vegetables remains high. With more people than ever accessing the Internet, Web-based dietary assessment instruments have the potential to promote healthier dietary behaviors via personalized dietary advice.

Objective

The objectives of this study were to develop a dietary feedback system for the delivery of consistent personalized dietary advice in a multicenter study and to examine the impact of automating the advice system.

Methods

The development of the dietary feedback system included 4 components: (1) designing a system for categorizing nutritional intakes; (2) creating a method for prioritizing 3 nutrient-related goals for subsequent targeted dietary advice; (3) constructing decision tree algorithms linking data on nutritional intake to feedback messages; and (4) developing personal feedback reports. The system was used manually by researchers to provide personalized nutrition advice based on dietary assessment to 369 participants during the Food4Me randomized controlled trial, with an automated version developed on completion of the study.

Results

Saturated fatty acid, salt, and dietary fiber were most frequently selected as nutrient-related goals across the 7 centers. Average agreement between the manual and automated systems, in selecting 3 nutrient-related goals for personalized dietary advice across the centers, was highest for nutrient-related goals 1 and 2 and lower for goal 3, averaging at 92%, 87%, and 63%, respectively. Complete agreement between the 2 systems for feedback advice message selection averaged at 87% across the centers.

Conclusions

The dietary feedback system was used to deliver personalized dietary advice within a multi-country study. Overall, there was good agreement between the manual and automated feedback systems, giving promise to the use of automated systems for personalizing dietary advice.

Trial Registration

Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01530139; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01530139 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6ht5Dgj8I)

Use of an aggregate exposure model to estimate consumer exposure to fragrance ingredients in personal care and cosmetic products

Ensuring the toxicological safety of fragrance ingredients used in personal care and cosmetic products is essential in product development and design, as well as in the regulatory compliance of the products. This requires an accurate estimation of consumer exposure which, in turn, requires an understanding of consumer habits and use of products. Where ingredients are used in multiple product types, it is important to take account of aggregate exposure in consumers using these products. This publication investigates the use of a newly developed probabilistic model, the Creme RIFM model, to estimate aggregate exposure to fragrance ingredients using the example of 2-phenylethanol (PEA). The output shown demonstrates the utility of the model in determining systemic and dermal exposure to fragrances from individual products, and aggregate exposure. The model provides valuable information not only for risk assessment, but also for risk management. It should be noted that data on the concentrations of PEA in products used in this article were obtained from limited sources and not the standard, industry wide surveys typically employed by the fragrance industry and are thus presented here to illustrate the output and utility of the newly developed model. They should not be considered an accurate representation of actual exposure to PEA.

Design and baseline characteristics of the Food4Me study: a web-based randomised controlled trial of personalised nutrition in seven European countries

Improving lifestyle behaviours has considerable potential for reducing the global burden of non-communicable diseases, promoting better health across the life-course and increasing well-being. However, realising this potential will require the development, testing and implementation of much more effective behaviour change interventions than are used conventionally. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conduct a multi-centre, web-based, proof-of-principle study of personalised nutrition (PN) to determine whether providing more personalised dietary advice leads to greater improvements in eating patterns and health outcomes compared to conventional population-based advice. A total of 5,562 volunteers were screened across seven European countries; the first 1,607 participants who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were recruited into the trial. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the following intervention groups for a 6-month period: Level 0-control group-receiving conventional, non-PN advice; Level 1-receiving PN advice based on dietary intake data alone; Level 2-receiving PN advice based on dietary intake and phenotypic data; and Level 3-receiving PN advice based on dietary intake, phenotypic and genotypic data. A total of 1,607 participants had a mean age of 39.8 years (ranging from 18 to 79 years). Of these participants, 60.9 % were women and 96.7 % were from white-European background. The mean BMI for all randomised participants was 25.5 kg m(-2), and 44.8 % of the participants had a BMI ≥ 25.0 kg m(-2). Food4Me is the first large multi-centre RCT of web-based PN. The main outcomes from the Food4Me study will be submitted for publication during 2015.

A comparison of three interventions for increasing oral reading performance: Application of the instructional hierarchy

The instructional hierarchy is a behavior-analytic model that links level of academic skill development (i.e., acquisition, fluency, generalization, adaptation) with appropriate instructional techniques. The present study used the instructional hierarchy to compare the effects of three instructional interventions (listening passage preview, subject passage preview, and taped words) on subjects' oral reading performance on word lists and passages. Subjects were 4 male students with learning disabilities who ranged in age from 8 years 10 months to 11 years 11 months. A multielement design was used to compare the effects of the three interventions to each other and to baseline. Results indicated that the listening passage preview intervention (which contained modeling, drill, and generalization components) produced the largest performance gains. The implications of these results for selecting academic interventions based on the instructional hierarchy are discussed.

Indicators of pretreatment suicidal ideation in adults with major depressive disorder

OBJECTIVE

In order to evaluate the presence of treatment emergent suicidal ideation (SI), it becomes necessary to identify those patients with SI at the onset of treatment. The purpose of this report is to identify sociodemographic and clinical features that are associated with SI in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients prior to treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.

METHOD

This multisite study enrolled 265 out-patients with non-psychotic MDD. Sociodemographic and clinical features of participants with and without SI were compared post hoc.

RESULTS

Social phobia, bulimia nervosa, number of past depressive episodes, and race were independently associated with SI by one or more SI measure.

CONCLUSION

Concurrent social phobia and bulimia nervosa may be potential risk factors for SI in patients with non-psychotic MDD. Additionally, patients with more than one past depressive episode may also be at increased risk of SI.

Cholinesterase inhibitors for behavioral disturbance in dementia

The authors review the literature from the last year examining the benefits of cholinesterase inhibitors in the treatment of behavioral disturbance in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementias. Previous review has indicated that cholinesterase inhibitors have psychotropic properties. We found more evidence to support both the benefits of cholinesterase inhibitors in behavioral disturbance, and that specific behaviors may be selectively responsive to treatment.

Calculating low-altitude trapped particle fluxes with the NASA models AP-8 and AE-8

Accessing the NASA trapped radiation models AP-8 and AE-8 with (B,L) values obtained with modern geomagnetic field models causes an unrealistic secular increase of the predicted flux over low altitude orbits. We show the secular variation of the orbit-averaged particle flux along the LDEF orbit and the mission dose, obtained using the AP-8 trapped radiation models with an epoch-dependent magnetic field. The artificially increased epoch-dependent fluxes and doses are compared to the flux and dose obtained with a consistent and more correct procedure for predicting fluxes with the NASA models. This procedure has been implemented in the radiation analysis software package UNIRAD developed and distributed by BIRA-IASB.

The effects of instructional match and content overlap on generalized reading performance

This study examined the effects of instructional match and content overlap on students' ability to generalize from passage reading instruction. Four students with mild disabilities served as participants. Using a multielement design, students were instructed with passages at two levels of text difficulty (instructionally matched vs. instructionally mismatched), and generalization was assessed with passages at two levels of similarity to those instructed (low vs. high content overlap). Results indicated that students' oral reading accuracy and fluency showed the greatest degree of generalization when instructional materials were matched to the students' skill level and assessment materials were similar to those used during instruction. Moreover, these results were maintained at 1-month follow-up. The implications of these findings for classroom reading instruction and the assessment of students' reading skills are discussed.

Apical dominance in rhizomes of quackgrass, Elytrigia repens: the effect of auxin, cytokinins, and abscisic acid

Experiments were designed to determine the impact of abscisic acid, indole-3-acetic acid, and cytokinins on dormancy of quackgrass (Elytrigia repens (L.) Nevski) rhizome axillary buds using exogenous hormone treatments and analysis of endogenous hormones. Exogenous hormone treatments were applied in solution or in lanolin paste to 5-node segments of rhizome with an apical tip intact or removed. Abscisic acid inhibited bud growth except at concentrations of 0.5 – 1 μg ∙ mL−1 when it stimulated growth: this appeared to be based on an inhibition of apical dominance rather than a stimulation of bud growth per se. Both indole-3-acetic acid and cytokinins stimulated bud growth, indole-3-acetic acid at concentrations of 0.5 – 5 μg ∙ mL−1 and cytokinins at higher concentrations (i.e., 10 – 100 μg ∙ mL−1). Indole-3-acetic acid also increased elongation of the buds, whereas abscisic acid and cytokinins did not. Levels of endogenous hormones were measured in bud samples: indole-3-acetic acid was quantified as its methyl ester by combined gas chromatography – mass spectrometry – selected ion monitoring; abscisic acid was quantified as its methyl ester by gas chromatography – electron capture; and cytokinins were quantified using a soybean callus bioassay. Hormone levels were generally higher in the most active buds of a 5-node section. Abscisic acid was also measured in buds 24 h after sheath leaf removal, a practice known to promote bud sprouting. Sheath leaf removal had no significant effect on abscisic acid levels. Key words: quackgrass, Elytrigia repens, auxins, abscisic acid, cytokinins, apical dominance.

The effects of oil spill chemicals on carbon translocation rates in Phaseolus vulgaris L

Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Black Valentine when sprayed with Corexit dispersants shows a rapid inhibition of photosynthesis. The plant retains the ability to translocate fixed carbon, and this involves mobilising previously fixed carbon in the sprayed leaf or the repartitioning of carbon from unsprayed regions of the plant towards the growing sink regions. The ability to maintain carbon translocation while photosynthesis is declining maximises the regrowth potential of the plant.

Biofeedback applications to migraine and tension headaches: a double-blinded outcome study

The efficacy of progressive relaxation, fingertip temperature training, and EMG training of the frontalis muscles was tested against chronic migraine and tension headaches in a double-blinded 3 X 2 design. All 56 subjects reported being conditioned in the course of the nine 1/2-hour training sessions. Detailed records of perceived severity and duration of the headaches were maintained by the subjects before the study and for at least 3 months after the training period. While even a conservative F revealed a diminution of perceived severity, of hours/month of headache, and of an index conceived by Budzynski, Stoyva, Adler, and Mullaney (1973), across time, at beyond the .05 level of significance, no specific treatment emerged as clearly most effective for either type of headache. Over time, however, progressive relaxation was not as good as the other procedures in reducing the number of hours/month of headache.