Insects have been the subject of recent attention as a potentially environmentally sustainable and nutritious alternative to traditional protein sources. The purpose of this paper is to test the ...hypothesis that insects are nutritionally preferable to meat, using two evaluative tools that are designed to combat over- and under-nutrition.
We selected 183 datalines of publicly available data on the nutrient composition of raw cuts and offal of three commonly consumed meats (beef, pork and chicken), and six commercially available insect species, for energy and 12 relevant nutrients. We applied two nutrient profiling tools to this data: The Ofcom model, which is used in the United Kingdom, and the Nutrient Value Score (NVS), which has been used in East Africa. We compared the median nutrient profile scores of different insect species and meat types using non-parametric tests and applied Bonferroni adjustments to assess for statistical significance in differences.
Insect nutritional composition showed high diversity between species. According to the Ofcom model, no insects were significantly 'healthier' than meat products. The NVS assigned crickets, palm weevil larvae and mealworm a significantly healthier score than beef (P<0.001) and chicken (P<0.001). No insects were statistically less healthy than meat.
Insect nutritional composition is highly diverse in comparison with commonly consumed meats. The food category 'insects' contains some foods that could potentially exacerbate diet-related public health problems related to over-nutrition, but may be effective in combating under-nutrition.
The gastrointestinal tract has extensive, surgically accessible nerve connections with the central nervous system. This provides the opportunity to exploit rapidly advancing methods of nerve ...stimulation to treat gastrointestinal disorders. Bioelectric neuromodulation technology has considerably advanced in the past decade, but sacral nerve stimulation for faecal incontinence currently remains the only neuromodulation protocol in general use for a gastrointestinal disorder. Treatment of other conditions, such as IBD, obesity, nausea and gastroparesis, has had variable success. That nerves modulate inflammation in the intestine is well established, but the anti-inflammatory effects of vagal nerve stimulation have only recently been discovered, and positive effects of this approach were seen in only some patients with Crohn's disease in a single trial. Pulses of high-frequency current applied to the vagus nerve have been used to block signalling from the stomach to the brain to reduce appetite with variable outcomes. Bioelectric neuromodulation has also been investigated for postoperative ileus, gastroparesis symptoms and constipation in animal models and some clinical trials. The clinical success of this bioelectric neuromodulation therapy might be enhanced through better knowledge of the targeted nerve pathways and their physiological and pathophysiological roles, optimizing stimulation protocols and determining which patients benefit most from this therapy.
We introduce a class of interatomic potential models that can be automatically generated from data consisting of the energies and forces experienced by atoms, as derived from quantum mechanical ...calculations. The models do not have a fixed functional form and hence are capable of modeling complex potential energy landscapes. They are systematically improvable with more data. We apply the method to bulk crystals, and test it by calculating properties at high temperatures. Using the interatomic potential to generate the long molecular dynamics trajectories required for such calculations saves orders of magnitude in computational cost.
A new framework is presented for evaluating the performance of self-consistent field methods in Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT). The aims of this work are two-fold. First, we explore the ...properties of Kohn-Sham DFT as it pertains to the convergence of self-consistent field iterations. Sources of inefficiencies and instabilities are identified, and methods to mitigate these difficulties are discussed. Second, we introduce a framework to assess the relative utility of algorithms in the present context, comprising a representative benchmark suite of over fifty Kohn-Sham simulation inputs, the scf-xn suite. This provides a new tool to develop, evaluate and compare new algorithms in a fair, well-defined and transparent manner.
Background. Norovirus and rotavirus are prominent enteric viruses responsible for severe acute gastroenteritis disease burden around the world. Both viruses recognize and bind to histo-blood group ...antigens, which are expressed by the fucosyltransferase 2 (FUT2) gene. Individuals with a functional FUT2 gene are termed "secretors." FUT2 polymorphisms may influence viral binding patterns and, therefore, may influence host susceptibility to infection by these viruses. Methods. We performed a systematic review of the published literature on this topic. Data were abstracted and compiled for descriptive analyses and metaanalyses. We estimated pooled odds ratios (ORs) for infection using random-effects models. Results. We found that secretors were 9.9 times (95% confidence interval CI, 3.9–24.8) as likely to be infected with genogroup II.4 noroviruses and 2.2 times as likely to be infected with genogroup II non-4 noroviruses (95% CI, 1.2–4.2) compared with nonsecretors. Secretors were also 26.6 times more susceptible to infections from P8-type rotaviruses compared with nonsecretors (95% CI, 8.3–85.0). Conclusions. Our analyses indicate that host genetic susceptibility to norovirus and rotavirus infection may be strain specific. As strain distribution and the proportion of genetic phenotypes vary in different countries, future studies should focus on differences in susceptibility among various ethnicities. Knowledge of innate susceptibility to rotavirus and norovirus can lead to improved under-standing of both vaccine performance and individual risk of disease.
Although recognized as the leading cause of epidemic acute gastroenteritis across all age groups, norovirus has remained poorly characterized with respect to its endemic disease incidence. Use of ...different methods, including attributable proportion extrapolation, population-based surveillance, and indirect modeling, in several recent studies has considerably improved norovirus disease incidence estimates for the United States. Norovirus causes an average of 570-800 deaths, 56,000-71,000 hospitalizations, 400,000 emergency department visits, 1.7-1.9 million outpatient visits, and 19-21 million total illnesses per year. Persons >65 years of age are at greatest risk for norovirus-associated death, and children <5 years of age have the highest rates of norovirus-associated medical care visits. Endemic norovirus disease occurs year round but exhibits a pronounced winter peak and increases by ≤ 50% during years in which pandemic strains emerge. These findings support continued development and targeting of appropriate interventions, including vaccines, for norovirus disease.
Understanding genome organization requires integration of DNA sequence and three-dimensional spatial context; however, existing genome-wide methods lack either base pair sequence resolution or direct ...spatial localization. Here, we describe in situ genome sequencing (IGS), a method for simultaneously sequencing and imaging genomes within intact biological samples. We applied IGS to human fibroblasts and early mouse embryos, spatially localizing thousands of genomic loci in individual nuclei. Using these data, we characterized parent-specific changes in genome structure across embryonic stages, revealed single-cell chromatin domains in zygotes, and uncovered epigenetic memory of global chromosome positioning within individual embryos. These results demonstrate how IGS can directly connect sequence and structure across length scales from single base pairs to whole organisms.
Neonicotinoids are a class of systemic insecticides widely used on food crops globally. These pesticides may be found in "off-target" food items and persist in the environment. Despite the potential ...for extensive human exposure, there are limited studies regarding the prevalence of neonicotinoid residues in foods sold and consumed in the United States.
Residue data for seven neonicotinoid pesticides collected between 1999 and 2015 by the US Department of Agriculture's Pesticide Data Program (PDP) were collated and summarized by year across various food commodities, including fruit, vegetable, meat, dairy, grain, honey, and baby food, as well as water to qualitatively describe and examine trends in contamination frequency and residue concentrations.
The highest detection frequencies (DFs) for neonicotinoids by year on all commodities were generally below 20%. Average DFs over the entire study period, 1999-2015, for domestic and imported commodities were similar at 4.5%. For all the samples (both domestic and imported) imidacloprid was the neonicotinoid with the highest overall detection frequency at 12.0%. However, higher DFs were observed for specific food commodity-neonicotinoid combinations such as: cherries (45.9%), apples (29.5%), pears (24.1%) and strawberries (21.3%) for acetamiprid; and cauliflower (57.5%), celery (20.9%), cherries (26.3%), cilantro (30.6%), grapes (28.9%), collard greens (24.9%), kale (31.4%), lettuce (45.6%), potatoes (31.2%) and spinach (38.7%) for imidacloprid. Neonicotinoids were also detected in organic commodities, (DF < 6%). Individual commodities with at least 5% of samples testing positive for two or more neonicotinoids included apples, celery, and cherries. Generally, neonicotinoid residues on food commodities did not exceed US Environmental Protection Agency tolerance levels. Increases in detection trends for both finished and untreated water samples for imidacloprid were observed from 2004 to 2011.
Analysis of PDP data indicates that low levels of neonicotinoids are present in commonly-consumed fruits and vegetables sold in the US. Trends in detection frequencies suggest an increase in use of acetamiprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam as replacements for imidacloprid. Given these findings, more extensive surveillance of the food and water supply is warranted, as well as biomonitoring studies and assessment of cumulative daily intake in high risk groups, including pregnant women and infants.
PDF
