Awareness and use of MyPlate Guidelines in Making Food Choices

Background/ObjectiveOver the past decades, the USDA created several guidelines to assist the public in making healthful food choices. In June 2011, the popular pyramid symbols (Food Guide Pyramid and MyPyramid) were replaced with MyPlate – a simple and practical guideline for making healthful food choices. This study aims to 1) assess consumers’ awareness of the replacement of MyPyramid with MyPlate, and 2) determine whether MyPlate influenced people's dietary choices 4 months after the MyPlate symbol's release.MethodsFifty-one male and female participants, ages 18-34 years, with high school, associate's and bachelor's degree diplomas, were selected by convenience sampling. Participants manually completed an 11-question survey using yes/no or degree of liking rating. The relationship between participants’ backgrounds, familiarity with MyPlate and MyPyramid guidelines, and the likelihood of use and influence on food selection was compared with participants’ demographics.ResultsEighty percent of the 51 participants were familiar with MyPyramid while 59% reported they had visited the website. About 50% of the participants reported they were aware that MyPlate replaced MyPyramid; but they were unfamiliar with MyPlate guidelines. About 50% of the participants would likely visit the MyPlate website. And, over half of the participants were unsure if MyPlate would influence their food choices while 43% thought it would.SignificanceMyPlate guidelines have been available to the public since June 2011 and findings of this study show that MyPlate guidelines influenced the food choices of at least 40% of the participants. It could be inferred that public awareness and use of MyPlate guidelines will grow over time.     

CFD evaluation of hydrogen risk mitigation measures in a VVER-440/213 containment

In the PHARE project “Hydrogen Management for the VVER440/213” (HU2002/000-632-04-01), CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) calculations using GASFLOW, FLUENT and CFX were performed for the Paks NPP (Nuclear Power Plant), modelling a defined severe accident scenario which involves the release of hydrogen. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate that CFD codes can be used to model gas movement inside a containment during a severe accident. With growing experience in performing such analyses, the results encourage the use of CFD in assessing the risk of losing containment integrity as a result of hydrogen deflagrations. As an effective mitigation measure in such a situation, the implementation of catalytic recombiners is planned in the Paks NPP. In order to support these plans both unmitigated and recombiner-mitigated simulations were performed. These are described and selected results are compared. The codes CFX and FLUENT needed refinement to their models of wall and bulk steam condensation in order to be able to fully simulate the severe accident under consideration.Several CFD codes were used in parallel to model the same accident scenario in order to reduce uncertainties in the results.Previously it was considered impractical to use CFD codes to simulate a full containment subject to a severe accident extending over many hours. This was because of the expected prohibitive computing times and missing physical capabilities of the codes. This work demonstrates that, because of developments in the capabilities of CFD codes and improvements in computer power, these calculations have now become feasible.     

The philosophy behind EN15251: Indoor environmental criteria for design and calculation of energy performance of buildings

European Directive for Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) was approved in the beginning of 2003. The transition period is 3–6 years depending on the article. European Standardisation Organisation (CEN) has drafted several standards to help the member countries implementing the directive. One of these is the “indoor environmental input parameters for design and assessment of energy performance of buildings-addressing indoor air quality, thermal environment, lighting and acoustics”. The standard specifies design values of indoor environment, values to be used in energy calculations, and methods how to verify the specified indoor environment in the buildings. The standard includes methods for long-term evaluation of the indoor environment. The paper describes the philosophy and some of the principles used in the standard, and gives examples presented in the standard. A draft standard has been under the international review process and has now been finnally approved at the formal vote.     

Good clinical practice in orthokeratology.

Overnight orthokeratology is becoming more and more popular especially in the Asia-Pacific region where the treatment is primarily used for myopic control in young children. Risk of complications in contact lens wear increases during overnight wear and may further increase when the treatment is used on children. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive guideline for practitioners to improve their orthokeratology practice and minimize unnecessary or preventable complications. The fundamental requirement for starting an orthokeratology practice is to have proper education in the area and to equip the practice appropriately. Overnight trial fitting is recommended to confirm the physiological response prior to commencement of the treatment. Practitioners should provide adequate information, both oral and written, to patients before and after the commencement of treatment to avoid any legal dilemmas and to improve patients' compliance. Costs for the treatment should be transparent and provision of an emergency contact number is a must. Patients should be regularly recalled for aftercare visits and all communication with patients should be properly documented. In this paper, patient selection and the clinical procedures were discussed and a standard of practice in orthokeratology proposed. We believe that the key to providing a safe orthokeratology practice is to continually update knowledge in the field, and to practice to the highest professional standards.     

电网运行面临的几个关键问题研究

电网的快速发展和大容量发输变电设备的投运给电网运行带来了新的挑战,也给早期一些电力系统准则的相关运行规定带来了新的问题.针对电网运行方式安排,提出应以第一级电网安全稳定标准为依据,合理安排潮流极限;针对600MW机组接入电网电压等级,提出应在送端电网接入220 kV以上电压等级电网,在受端电网可接入220 kV电压等级...     

GDMO模板到IDL接口的映射关系研究

用CORBA技术构建TMN中的被管对象的接口,可以加快实现异构环境下电信网的分布式管理。通过研究TMN中的GDMO模板和CORBA中的IDL接口,可以建立二者之间的映射规则。这种映射关系可以通过两层转换来实现。第一层转换是ASN.1到IDL语言之间的转换;第二层转换则是GDMO模板到IDL接口的转换。     

基于支持公共健康导向的城市建成环境要素优化策略研究

本文以国内主要城市的城市建成环境设计导则为研究对象,筛选出63篇设计导则,利用NVivo 11软件进行文本主题分析总结城市建成环境要素框架,继而利用WELL健康社区标准作为评估参考进行文本评估分析,探讨导则中的环境要素和对应策略是否对公共健康具有支持作用。研究表明,国内城市建成环境设计导则主要关注两个类别的八大环境要素：软质要素（植物、水体、地形）,硬质要素（道路、铺装场地、建筑及园林构筑、公共艺术和景观小品、城市家具）,其中包含37个子项、241个对应指标。八个要素均能作为支持公共健康的载体,可以通过营造利于健康的物理环境、促进居民体力活动和改善居民的心理健康水平三个角度来改善场所的环境要素以促进公共健康。