Nutritionists in industry can play a key role in helping to achieve Health of the Nation targets for nutrition

Nutritionists working in food manufacturing and retailing are potentially in a more powerful position than any other professional group to contribute towards achieving the national targets for nutrition and the reduction of nutrition-related diseases, set out in The Health of the Nation (DoH, 1992) and in Scotland's Health, A Challenge to Us All (Scottish Office, 1993). The present paper sets out the details of this argument. First, a review is given of the functions and types of activities carried out by nutritionists in industry. Then a number of key practical ways in which nutritionists, through their activities and functions, can help towards achieving national targets for nutrition and nutrition-related diseases are described. Finally, suggestions are made about the knowledge, skills, and personal attributes needed by nutritionists who intend making successful careers in industry and who wish, at the same time, to contribute towards improving the health of the nation.     

Evaluation of speech in patients rehabilitated with various oral implant-supported prostheses

In the present study, speech function was assessed in edentulous patients wearing fixed or removable dental prostheses supported or not by oral implants. A total of 138 patients participated in the present research. The experimental group (n=113) was divided in 4 subgroups. Subgroup FD/FFPi comprised 22 patients with a maxillary full denture (=FD) and a mandibular fixed full prosthesis on implants (=FFPi). Subgroup FFPi/ND consisted of 27 patients with a maxillary fixed full prosthesis on implants and a natural dentition (=ND) in the mandible. Subgroup FD/ODi included 49 patients wearing a maxillary full denture and a mandibular overdenture on 2 implants (=ODi). Subgroup FFPi/FFPi comprised 15 patients having a fixed full prosthesis on implants in both jaws. The outcome of the logopedic screening of the experimental group was compared with that of a control group of subjects having a natural dentition (ND/ND; n=25). A standard clinical procedure for evaluation of speech was carried out by a speech pathologist. Besides, specific oral and prosthetic parameters were scored in all patients. It was established that one or more pronunciation difficulties occurred in 84% of the patients of the experimental group. This was significantly more than in the control group, where half the number of subjects had some speech deficiencies. No clear influence of specific oral and prosthetic parameters could be identified. From the present results, it could be concluded that in patients rehabilitated with oral implant-supported prostheses speech disorder is more frequently observed than in subjects with a natural dentition.     

Weight loss in overweight subjects following low-sucrose or sucrose-containing diets

OBJECTIVES: To compare the response by overweight individuals, counselled in a work environment, to energy-reduced diets in which the amount of sucrose-containing foods is varied. DESIGN: Two energy-reduced diets were designed as a weight-reducing programme. A low-sugar diet (LSD) providing 5% of its energy from sucrose and a sugar-containing diet (SCD) providing 10% of its energy from sucrose incorporated as sweet foods were devised. Both diets were constructed to contain about 33% of the energy from fat. The diets, designed to provide a deficit of 2.51 MJ/day (600 kcal/day) per individual, were randomly allocated to subjects in an 8 week parallel design study. SUBJECTS: Ninety-five subjects were recruited from a large service industry if they were more than 7 kg (1 stone) in weight above body mass index (BMI) 25 kg/m(2). Sixty-eight subjects completed the programme. MEASUREMENTS: Fortnightly body weight measurements were taken using calibrated scales; BMI at baseline and week 8; and nutrient intake using 2 day food record diaries at baseline and weeks 2, 4 and 8. RESULTS: Weight loss over the 8 weeks was 2.2 kg (LSD) and 3.0 kg (SCD). BMI changed from 29.2 on the LSD and 30.1 kg/m(2) SCD at baseline to 28.2 and 28.8 kg/m(2) at week 8 respectively. The actual prescribed commercially added sucrose intakes were 5% energy (LSD) or 10% energy (SCD). Reported percentage energy from fat was significantly lower on the SCD (and would seem to support the theory of an inverse relationship between fat and sugar) than on the LSD, where there was seen to be no significant reduction. There was no evidence of micronutrient dilution that could be directly attributed to the sucrose content of the diets. CONCLUSION: These results provide no justification for the exclusion of added sucrose in weight-reducing diets.     

The delayed resurgence of equatorial forests after the permian-triassic ecologic crisis

In conjunction with the Permian-Triassic ecologic crisis approximately 250 million years ago, massive dieback of coniferous vegetation resulted in a degradation of terrestrial ecosystems in Europe. A 4- to 5-million-year period of lycopsid dominance followed, and renewed proliferation of conifers did not occur before the transition between Early and Middle Triassic. We document this delayed re-establishment of equatorial forests on the basis of palynological data. The reconstructed pattern of vegetational change suggests that habitat restoration, migration, and evolutionary processes acted synergistically, setting the stage for successional replacement of lycopsid dominants by conifers within a period of approximately 0.5 million years.     

A novel approach for prediction of tacrolimus blood concentration in liver transplantation patients in the intensive care unit through support vector regression

Introduction  

Tacrolimus is an important immunosuppressive drug for organ transplantation patients. It has a narrow therapeutic range, toxic side effects, and a blood concentration with wide intra- and interindividual variability. Hence, it is of the utmost importance to monitor tacrolimus blood concentration, thereby ensuring clinical effect and avoiding toxic side effects. Prediction models for tacrolimus blood concentration can improve clinical care by optimizing monitoring of these concentrations, especially in the initial phase after transplantation during intensive care unit (ICU) stay. This is the first study in the ICU in which support vector machines, as a new data modeling technique, are investigated and tested in their prediction capabilities of tacrolimus blood concentration. Linear support vector regression (SVR) and nonlinear radial basis function (RBF) SVR are compared with multiple linear regression (MLR).     

Support vector machine versus logistic regression modeling for prediction of hospital mortality in critically ill patients with haematological malignancies

Background  

Several models for mortality prediction have been constructed for critically ill patients with haematological malignancies in recent years. These models have proven to be equally or more accurate in predicting hospital mortality in patients with haematological malignancies than ICU severity of illness scores such as the APACHE II or SAPS II [1]. The objective of this study is to compare the accuracy of predicting hospital mortality in patients with haematological malignancies admitted to the ICU between models based on multiple logistic regression (MLR) and support vector machine (SVM) based models.     

Hedonic response of sucrose likers and dislikers to other gustatory stimuli.

The majority of individuals can be classified as sweet likers or dislikers based on their hedonic (pleasure) response to sucrose solutions of varying concentrations. Our results indicate that the sweet liker/disliker distinction generalizes to sugars other than sucrose, i.e., glucose and fructose. As well, these individual hedonic response patterns are maintained even when a flavor and color are added to sucrose solutions. However, whether one is a sweet liker or disliker does not predict hedonic response to nonsweet tastes such as salt. These results indicate that the sweet liker/disliker distinction is a robust phenomenon which appears to generalize over, but is restricted to, sweet-tasting substances. The possibility that individual differences in hedonic response may predict preferences for, and intake of, complex tastes characteristic of foods encountered in the real world, is discussed.