Top Food Sources Contributing to Vitamin D Intake and the Association of Ready-to-Eat Cereal and Breakfast Consumption Habits to Vitamin D Intake in Canadians and United States Americans

Abstract: This study aimed to determine dietary vitamin D intake of U.S. Americans and Canadians and contributions of food sources to total vitamin D intake. Total of 7‐ or 14‐d food intake data were analyzed for vitamin D by a proprietary nutrient assessment methodology that utilized food intake data from the Natl. Eating Trends^® service, portion size data from NHANES 1999–2004, and nutrient values using the Univ. of Minnesota's Nutrition Data System for Research software. Study participants were 7837 U.S. Americans and 4025 Canadians, ≥2‐y‐old males and females. The main outcome measures were total dietary vitamin D intake, percent contribution of foods to total vitamin D intake, and vitamin D intake by cereal and breakfast consumption habits. ANOVA was used to determine differences in means or proportions by age and gender and according to breakfast consumption habits. Mean vitamin D intake ranged from 152 to 220 IU/d. Less than 2% of participants in all age groups from the United States and Canada met the 2011 Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamin D from foods. Milk, meat, and fish were the top food sources for vitamin D for both Americans and Canadians. Ready‐to‐eat (RTE) cereal was a top 10 source of vitamin D for Americans but not Canadians. Vitamin D intake was higher with more frequent RTE cereal and breakfast consumption in both countries, largely attributable to greater milk intake. Practical Application: Most U.S. Americans and Canadians do not meet the 2011 Inst. of Medicine recommended daily allowance (RDA) for vitamin D for their age groups from foods. Increasing breakfast and cereal consumption may be a useful strategy to increase dietary vitamin D intake to help individuals meet the RDA for vitamin D, particularly by increasing milk intake. However, it is likely that additional food fortification or vitamin D supplementation is required to achieve the RDA.     

Post-stroke depression in primary support persons: Predicting those at risk.

Assessed the psychosocial impact of a first stroke on the primary support person of the patient. Three waves of data were gathered at 6-month intervals, beginning on average 7 weeks poststroke (Time 1). A discriminant function approach was used to identify two groups of support persons from Time 1 data: those at risk for significant long-term depression and those whose depressive symptoms did not exceed age expectations. For 6-month and 1-year follow-ups, group membership was predicted and validated with at least 74% accuracy. Support persons at risk for depression at the 6-month follow-up had higher Time 1 depression scores, were less optimistic, were more concerned about future care for the patient, had lower household incomes, and were more likely to be married to the patient. Additionally, they named fewer people in their social networks but had more face-to-face contacts with those people prior to the stroke and were less satisfied with their social contacts after the stroke. Those at risk 1 year after the first interview again had higher initial depression scores, were less optimistic, were more likely to be married to the patient, and named fewer network members for the period preceding the stroke. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear Appeals and the Formation of Active Publics

This study examines the process through which a fear appeal may transform low-involvement audiences into active publics. Cognitive and emotional responses of uninvolved viewers to a film on environmental contamination are analyzed, together with the coping strategies used to deal with the threat. The research integrates Grunig's situational theory of publics with Rogers' protection-motivation theory to expand the predictive ability of the situational theory. The data indicate that post-test public membership, cognitive activity and emotional arousal during viewing are significantly related to viewers' preferences for coping through message resistance, seeking additional information, or taking action on the film's topic. Results suggest that both cognition and affect mediate viewers' responses to a fearful message, thereby contributing to the creation of active publics who are persuaded to take action on a problem.     

Enhanced maximum curvature descriptors for finger vein verification

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Maximum Curvature Method (MCM) is one of the promising methods for finger vein verification. MCM scans the curvature of the vein image profiles within a finger...     

A new and practical influence measure for subsets of covariance matrix sample principal components with applications to high dimensional datasets

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is an important tool in multivariate analysis, in particular when faced with high dimensional data. There has been much done with regard to sensitivity analysis and the development of influence diagnostics for the eigenvector estimators that define the sample principal components. However, little, if any, has been done in this setting with regard to the sample principal components themselves. In this paper we develop a sensitivity measure for principal components associated with the covariance matrix that is very much related to the influence function (Hampel, 1974). This influence measure is based on the average squared canonical correlation and differs from the existing measures in that it assesses the influence of certain observational types on the sample principal components. We use this measure to derive an influence diagnostic that satisfies two key criteria being (i) it detects influential observations with respect to subsets of sample principal components and (ii) is efficient to calculate even in high dimensions. We use several microarray datasets to show that our measure satisfies both criteria.     

A 2-year longitudinal analysis of the relationships between violent assault and substance use in women.

Women experience alarming levels of physical and sexual assault, which may lead to escalation of substance use. Reciprocally, evidence from cross-sectional studies indicates that substance use may increase risk of assault. To date, directionality of this relationship remains unclear. This issue is addressed by the present 3-wave longitudinal study in which a national probability sample of 3,006 women were followed for 2 years. Dependent measures were obtained at each wave of the study and included questions about lifetime and new assault status, alcohol abuse, and drug use. Wave 1 use of drugs, but not abuse of alcohol, increased odds of new assault in the subsequent 2 years. Reciprocally, after a new assault, odds of both alcohol abuse and drug use were significantly increased, even among women with no previous use or assault history. For illicit drug use, findings support a vicious cycle relationship in which substance use increases risk of future assault and assault increases risk of subsequent substance use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phase I control charts for independent Bernoulli data

Phase I Shewhart p, np and runs of conforming charts are investigated. The performance of these charts are assessed using the probability of a false alarm. As with other Phase I Shewhart charts, the probability of a false alarm increases as the number, m, of samples increases for a fixed sample size, n. For a fixed value of m, the probability of at least one signal decreases as the sample size n increases. The probability of a signal for a runs of conforming chart depends on the number of samples m. Like the p and np charts, as m increases the probability of a false alarm increases. Unlike the p and np charts, the false alarm rate for a runs of conforming chart does not depend on the in‐control value of p. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.