Composition and distribution of fatty acids in triglycerides from goat infant formulas with milk fat

Most infant formulas use vegetable oils in place of milk fat to provide an overall fatty acid profile similar to that of breast milk. Vegetable oils have 5 to 20% saturated fatty acids in the sn-2 position of triglycerides unless they are modified by interesterification. Interesterification is increasingly used for the fat for infant formulas to raise the level of saturated fatty acids in the sn-2 position to 40 to 60%. The objective of this study was to verify an alternative approach to providing the appropriate fatty acid profile, including in the sn-2 position, for a goat infant formula. In this method, 55% of total fat was made from goat milk fat and 45% from a mixture of unmodified high oleic sunflower, canola, and sunflower oils in a ratio of 44:30:26. The fatty acid profile was measured by gas-liquid chromatography and the relative percentage of fatty acids in the sn-2 position of triglycerides was measured via partial deacylation with Grignard reagent using trimethylsilyl derivatives of monoacylglycerols. Mixing goat milk fat with vegetable oils produced a formula with a profile of essential fatty acids and a ratio of linoleic:α-linolenic fatty acids within the required interval of 5 to 15:1 recommended for infant formula. The proportion of palmitic acid in the sn-2 position was 31%.     

Supporting ordinal four-state classification decisions using neural networks

Many accounting and finance problems require ordinal multi-state classification decisions, (e.g., control risk, bond rating, financial distress, etc.), yet few decision support systems are available to aid decision makers in such tasks. In this study, we develop a Neural Network based decision support system (NN-DSS) to classify firms in four ordinal states of financial condition namely healthy, dividend reduction, debt default and bankrupt. The classification results of the NN-DSS model are compared with those of a Naïve model, a Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA) model, and an Ordinal Logistic Regression (OLGR) model. Four different evaluation criteria are used to compare the models, namely, simple classification accuracy, distance-weighted classification accuracy, expected cost of misclassification (ECM) and ranked probability score. Our study shows that NN-DSS models perform significantly better than the Naïve, MDA, and OLGR models on the ECM criteria, and provide better results than MDA and OLGR on other criteria, although not always significantly better. The effect of the proportion of firms of each state in the training set is also studied. A balanced training set leads to more uniform (less skewed) classification across all four states, whereas an unbalanced training set biases the classification results in favor of the state with the largest number of observations.     

Couple communication and female problem drinking: A behavioral observation study.

Couples with alcohol and relationship problems often report poor communication, yet little is known about the communication of maritally distressed couples in which the woman abuses alcohol (MDWA couples). Compared with maritally distressed couples without alcohol problems (MDNA) and couples with neither problem (NDNA), MDWA couples showed a distinctive pattern of negative communication. Similar to MDNA men, MDWA men spoke negatively to their partners but listened positively to their partners much like NDNA men. MDWA women listened negatively, much as MDNA women did, but spoke positively, like NDNA women did. The interactions of MDWA couples can be characterized as a male-demand-female-withdraw pattern, which is a gender reversal of the female-demand-male-withdraw pattern often observed in MDNA couples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability of the lipid fraction of milk‐based infant formulas during storage

A study is made of the effects of storage (time and temperature) on the lipid fraction of four milk‐based adapted infant formulas with basically the same composition, though differing in the iron salt added (lactate or sulfate) and/or the vitamin E source (α‐tocopherol or α‐tocopherol acetate). Peroxide value, hydroperoxide C₁₈ percentage and thiobarbituric acid‐reactive substance (TBARS) content were used as indicators of lipid peroxidation. Fat contents remained stable throughout storage. Peroxide values increased from the first storage month and were affected by storage time, although they exhibited irregular behavior. Storage time and temperature affected hydroperoxide percentage, which was seen to be the earliest indicator of lipid oxidation, being measurable in newly manufactured formulas. TBARS values were only affected by storage time. No statistically significant differences were found among the four infant formulas for any of the lipid oxidation indicators.     

Review of Born too soon: Pre-term birth and early development.

Reviews the book, Born too soon: Pre-term birth and early development by Susan Goldberg and Barbara A. DiVitto (1982). This book endeavours to answer why premature infants are born too early and how they differ from their full-term counterparts, particularly in respect to their developmental progress. The authors outline the current concepts of intensive care for pre-term newborns and explain the concerns that exist regarding possible adverse effects of this care when combined with other major events in the neonatal period. In this regard, the most comprehensive data explored relate to the eventual development of these infants during the first years of life. This book is well researched and thoughtfully written and brings together a range of material which is valuable. However, the authors could unintentionally confuse parents by presenting such a wide range of research opinion and clinical information. Their selected examples are fair and representative of the outcome that can be expected nowadays for an average pre-term neonate, but I would have difficulty recommending this book to parents, particularly new ones, because of the potential for their misunderstanding the volume of opinions presented. In this respect the authors have not fully achieved their aim. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective and cardiovascular effects of experimentally-induced social status.

Objective: Observational research suggests subordinate social status is associated with negative mental and physical health outcomes. However, observational studies have limitations, including confounding of social status with other factors, limited ability to infer causality, and difficulty of obtaining detailed affective and physiologic data. This study used experimental methods to test the hypothesis that subordinate social status per se causes psychological distress and cardiovascular arousal. Design: Forty-four women were randomly assigned to an induced subordinate or dominant status condition. Social status was manipulated using a procedure derived from status construction theory. Main Outcome Measures: Affective responses were assessed via self-report. Cardiovascular responses were assessed by measures of systolic and diastolic blood pressures obtained with an automated blood pressure machine. Results: Participants in the subordinate condition perceived themselves as lower in status; the reverse was true for dominant condition participants. Compared with induced dominant status, induced subordinate status produced increased negative affect and systolic blood pressure over the course of the study. Conclusion: Findings suggest social status can be experimentally manipulated and short-term induction of subordinate status can have adverse effects on affect and stress-related physiological systems. Results have implications for understanding how socioeconomic status "gets under the skin" to influence health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can skills training prevent relationship problems in at-risk couples? Four-year effects of a behavioral relationship education program.

Eighty-three couples were stratified into groups at high and low risk for relationship distress and randomized to either the Self-Regulatory Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (Self-PREP) or a control condition. As predicted, there were differential effects of Self-PREP on high-risk and low-risk couples. Because of low statistical power, results must be interpreted cautiously, but at 1-year follow-up high-risk couples in Self-PREP showed trends toward better communication than control couples. However, there was no difference in the communication of Self-PREP and control low-risk couples. High-risk couples receiving Self-PREP exhibited higher relationship satisfaction at 4 years than control couples, but in low-risk couples relationship satisfaction was higher in the control condition. High-risk couples seemed to benefit from skills-based relationship education, but low-risk couples did not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lipid stability in powdered infant formula stored at ambient temperatures

Lipid stability of standard infant formula was evaluated at ambient temperatures, namely 25, 30 and 37 °C, during 3 months. Lipids were thoroughly analysed to evaluate changes in fatty acid composition and trans fatty acid isomers, non‐volatile oxidation compounds including oxidised, dimeric and polymeric triacylglycerols, and tocopherol. No significant changes in either of the parameters examined were found in total lipids extracted from infant formula along the storage period. However, the minor free oil fractions (about 7.5% of total lipids) showed a significant increase in oxidation compounds and marked decrease in tocopherol levels during storage at all temperatures. Samples stored at 37 °C for 3 months were rancid and, accordingly, contained the highest oxidation level in the free oil fraction, whereas total lipids extracted were apparently not oxidised. Results showed the necessity of analysing separately the free oil fraction in infant formulae to obtain a clear picture of the oxidation status.     

Evolution of available lysine and lactose contents in supplemented microencapsulated fish oil infant formula powder during storage

In this work we report the evolution of available lysine, lactose and lipid hydroperoxide contents as indicators of food quality and stability of two types of infant formula powder stored at 25° and 37 °C for 12 months. The first type was supplemented with microencapsulated fish oil (MFO), made of little powder particles in a food starch‐coated matrix of caseinate and saccharose to prevent the oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA). The second type was not supplemented and was used for reference. MFO might not be stable during storage and affect negatively the quality of the formula in two ways: by oxidation of PUFA, which may also easily react with lysine upon oxidation, blocking lysine, or by hydrolysis of saccharose, producing reducing sugars and increasing the Maillard reaction. Slight changes were observed in lysine and lactose evolution. By comparing the two formulae, this study shows that the MFO material did not negatively affect the studied parameters, indicating therefore acceptable stability in the conditions tested.     

Predictors of help seeking for emotional distress among Chinese Americans: Family matters.

Using data from the Chinese American Psychiatric Epidemiological Study, the authors examined longitudinal predictors of help seeking for emotional distress in a community sample of 1,503 Chinese Americans. Specifically, they assessed the relative contribution of family relational variables (e.g., levels of family support and family conflict) in predicting help seeking for medical, mental health, and informal services. After traditional need, predisposing, and enabling factors were controlled for in hierarchical logistic regression analyses, family conflict predicted both mental health and medical service use, whereas family support was not predictive of help seeking. In addition to family conflict, mental health service use was predicted by negative life events, emotional distress, and insurance coverage. Implications of the findings for assessing and treating Asian American clients are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)