Seasonality Of Infant Feeding Practices In Three Brazilian Birth Cohorts, David A. González-Chica, Helen Gonçalves, Aydin Nazmi, Iná S. Santos, Aluísio J. D. Barros, Alicia Matijasevich, Cesar G. Victora

Food Science and Nutrition

Background We assessed the influence of season of birth on duration of breastfeeding and other feeding patterns in three population-based birth cohort studies in the city of Pelotas, Southern Brazil.

Methods In 1982, 1993 and 2004, all hospital-born children in the city were enrolled in three cohort studies (n =  5914, 5249 and 4287, respectively). Children and their mothers were periodically visited in the first 2 years of life, to collect information on the duration of breastfeeding and the ages at which different types of foods were introduced on a regular basis. Two independent variables were studied: month of …

An Investigation Of The Bioactivity Of Irish Seaweeds And Potential Applications As Nutraceuticals., Sabrina Cox

Doctoral

The primary goals of this research were to; identify the bioactivity of a range of edible Irish seaweeds, to examine the current technological procedures currently applied with respect to seaweed processing and in light of this information, to examine the potential of incorporating seaweeds into traditional food products in order to enhance their nutraceutical properties. Currently most Irish seaweeds are washed, dried and packaged, with little done to increase consumer appeal or interest and dried seaweed may appear inaccessible and unfamiliar to consumers. Seaweeds possess an excellent nutritional quality, such as high fibre and phytochemical content, low cholesterol and low …

Composition Of The Adult Digestive Tract Bacterial Microbiome Based On Seven Mouth Surfaces, Tonsils, Throat And Stool Samples, Nicola Segata, Susan Kinder Haake, Peter Mannon, Katherine P. Lemon, Levi Waldron, Dirk Gevers, Curtis Huttenhower, Jacques Izard

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Background: To understand the relationship between our bacterial microbiome and health, it is essential to define the microbiome in the absence of disease. The digestive tract includes diverse habitats and hosts the human body’s greatest bacterial density. We describe the bacterial community composition of ten digestive tract sites from more than 200 normal adults enrolled in the Human Microbiome Project, and metagenomically determined metabolic potentials of four representative sites.

Results: The microbiota of these diverse habitats formed four groups based on similar community compositions: buccal mucosa, keratinized gingiva, hard palate; saliva, tongue, tonsils, throat; sub- and supra-gingival plaques; …

Metabolic Reconstruction For Metagenomic Data And Its Application To The Human Microbiome, Sahar Abubucker, Nicola Segata, Johannes Goll, Alyxandria M. Schubert, Jacques Izard, Brandi L. Cantarel, Beltran Rodriguez-Mueller, Jeremy Zucker, Mathangi Thiagarajan, Bernard Henrissat, Owen White, Scott T. Scott, Barbara Methé, Patrick D. Schloss, Dirk Gever, Makedonka Mitreva, Curtis Huttenhower

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Microbial communities carry out the majority of the biochemical activity on the planet, and they play integral roles in processes including metabolism and immune homeostasis in the human microbiome. Shotgun sequencing of such communities’ metagenomes provides information complementary to organismal abundances from taxonomic markers, but the resulting data typically comprise short reads from hundreds of different organisms and are at best challenging to assemble comparably to single-organism genomes. Here, we describe an alternative approach to infer the functional and metabolic potential of a microbial community metagenome. We determined the gene families and pathways present or absent within a community, as …

Planning And Designing A Sustainable Volunteer Based Organization: The Putney Food Shelf, Annik Yvette Paul

Capstone Collection

There are many reasons why issues of food insecurity and hunger exist. Individuals, families, and households have various barriers to food security, often facing more than one at a time. Barriers include limited fixed incomes, minimum wage not equaling a livable wage, unemployment and underemployment, poverty, lack of personal transportation and/or access to public transportation, limited access to shopping areas (food deserts), and health and medical issues.

Considering the current statistics listed below, combined with the ever-increasing cost of food, more households will be struggling to meet their basic nutritional needs. Food insecurity and hunger is a problem faced by …

Virginia Brissey, Virginia Brissey, Institute Of Child Nutrition. Child Nutrition Archives.

Oral History Project (all interviews)

A Pennsylvania native, and a Navy veteran, Virginia Brissey worked as a program manager for Kids First in Arkansas.

Dsc Enthalpic Transitions During Starch Gelatinization In Excess Water, Dilute Sodium Chloride, And Dilute Sucrose Solutions, Wajira S. Ratnayake, Chika Otani, David S. Jackson

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Background: Starch phase transition characteristics were studied by pre-treating starch samples in excess water, dilute sodium chloride and dilute sucrose solutions and subjecting them to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Unmodified maize, wheat and potato starches were held at specific temperatures between 30 and 90 °C for 30 min and promptly cooled to 25 °C. Treated samples were then analyzed in situ by DSC. Results: It was found that the progression of the phase transition behavior differed among the three starches and was dependent on the solvent. It was also revealed that phase transition-related enthalpic changes started to occur at low …

San Antonio High School Food Justice Program: A Handbook And Evaluation Of Edible Education, Katherine B. Tenneson

Pitzer Senior Theses

This senior environmental studies thesis explains and analyzes edible education through a food and gardening program at a continuation high school in Claremont, California. The first chapter situates the program-specific analysis by providing background information of the edible education movement, a history of the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, California, and an explanation of why food is a powerful teaching tool. The second chapter delineates the program by describing all of its components and compiling essential resources and teaching documents. The third chapter is based on interviews with 9 of 12 involved students and 7 teachers, and thoroughly explains the outcomes …

Cholesterol Lowering Effects Of Milk With Added Phytosterols, Laura Kells Cusack

Master's Theses

Foods incorporating plant sterols (PS) reduce Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) on average approximately 10%. PS with a higher lipid solubility may promote greater reductions. We examined the cholesterol lowering effect of a novel triglyceride recrystallized phystosterol (TRP). Twenty subjects (mean ± SD; age, 56 ± 10 years; BMI, 27 ± 5) with elevated LDL (>100 mg/dL) participated in three 4-week phases; Phase I, 2% milk; Phase II, milk with 2.0 grams (g) free PS; Phase III, milk with 2.0 g TRP. Before and after each phase two fasting blood draws were obtained for determination of serum cholesterol. Between the 2% …

The Effects Of Phytosterols On Lipoprotein Particle Size, Laura J. Kunces

Master's Theses

Phytosterols (PS) have become a recent popular medication alternative for treatment of hypercholesterolemia and have proven effective. Whether PS decrease risk of cardiovascular disease through other mechanisms, such as lipoprotein particle size and inflammatory markers, remains unclear. PURPOSE: The primary aim of this study was to examine the effects of two forms of PS in milk on lipoprotein particle size, inflammatory markers and fat-soluble vitamins. METHODS: Twenty subjects (13 males, 7 females; age; 55±6.1 years, height; 169±10 cm, weight; 77.9±16.9 kg, BMI; 27.3) consumed 16oz of cow’s milk daily for 12 weeks. The three sequential four-week phases consisted of 2% …

Ars Assists In Fight Against Kudzu Bug, Jan Suszkiw, Walker Jones

Agricultural Research Magazine

Sure, this distant relative of the brown marmorated stink bug will feed voraciously on the stems of kudzu, the “Vine That Ate the South.” But Megacopta cribraria also has a taste for soybean and other legumes. In Georgia, where this native of Asia was first discovered in the United States in October 2009, there’s worry that the pest will set its sights on peanut, endangering a $2 billion crop that supplies nearly 50 percent of America’s peanuts (Georgia Peanut Commission, 2009).

Like the brown marmorated stink bug, Megacopta—also known as the “bean plataspid”—seeks shelter inside homes, buildings, and vehicles …

Flow Rate, And More, Ann Perry

Agricultural Research Magazine

At the Agricultural Research Service’s Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory in Kimberly, Idaho, agricultural engineer Brad King and research leader Dave Bjorneberg compared how irrigation from four commercial center-pivot sprinklers affected potential runoff and erosion on four south-central Idaho soils.

Though their results were inconsistent, they did observe that at the end of six irrigations, a 50-percent reduction in sprinkler flow rate reduced runoff and soil erosion 60-80 percent. They concluded that reducing sprinkler flow rate early in the growing season—before the development of a crop canopy—could help reduce irrigation runoff and soil erosion linked to center-pivot sprinkler irrigation. …

Back Matter Agricultural Research Magazine May-June 2012

Agricultural Research Magazine

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Agricultural Research Magazine

5601 Sunnyside Ave.

Beltsville, MD 20705-5129

Agricultural Research Magazine May-June 2012

Agricultural Research Magazine

Agricultural Research

150 Years of Making History

USDA's 150th Anniversary- May 15, 2012

Forum: Alternative Strategies For Keeping Animals Healthy, Cyril G. Gay

Agricultural Research Magazine

The general public needs to know more about the importance of preventing and controlling livestock diseases and the financial impact they would have on our lives and food supply if left unchecked. Part of our mission at the USDA Agricultural Research Service is to conduct research to protect the safety of our nation’s agriculture and food supply through improved disease detection, prevention, and control.

Antibiotics are recognized as one of the most important biomedical discoveries for treating infectious diseases of animals and humans. The use of antibiotics has had a major impact on increases in food-animal production and has resulted …

New Insights Into Irrigation Management, Ann Perry

Agricultural Research Magazine

Pacific Northwest potato and sugar beet farmers who irrigate their crops with sprinklers need to know a lot more than when to turn on the faucet. The region’s powdery silt loam soils don’t contain much stabilizing organic matter, and existing soil aggregates that facilitate water infiltration can be broken up during irrigation. Afterwards, the loose particles of sand, silt, and clay that remain can dry to form a solid crust that greatly limits infiltration into the soil.

This means that growers not only need to calculate how much water should be supplied during irrigation, but they also need to ensure …

Genetics And Bermudagrass: It's Not Easy Being Uniformly Green, Dennis O’Brien, Karen Harris

Agricultural Research Magazine

Golfers and golf course superintendents expect a lot from their putting greens. They want fine, lush, carpetlike surfaces that a ball will roll smoothly across. They also want a grass that tolerates frequent low mowing, has uniform color and texture, tolerates pests and cold temperatures, and offers a dense canopy that shades out weeds to minimize the need for herbicides.

Southern putting greens are made up of single cultivars of bermudagrass, but golf course superintendents have complained for years about the appearance of nonuniform plants, or “off-types,” that can throw off the green’s appearance and “playability.” The bermudagrass cultivar Tifgreen, …

New Tool Opens A Bigger Window To Insect-Plant Warfare, Dennis O’Brien, Elaine Backus

Agricultural Research Magazine

When an aphid, leafhopper, or psyllid lands on a plant to feed, it begins a process of chamical welfare. As piercing-sucking insects, they use needlelike stylets to insert saliva into plant tissues and open a pathway to ingest fluids critical to the plant’s survival. When punctured, the plant senses the attack and secretes proteins and other chemical defenses to prevent fluids from being pulled out, thus creating a stress on the plant. This warfare costs growers billions of dollars each year in lost ornamentals, vegetables, citrus, and other important agricultural crops.

Because much of the action takes place in the …

Table Of Contents May-June 2012 Agricultural Research Magazine

Agricultural Research Magazine

4 Strategies That Work: Alternatives to Antibiotics in Animal Health

8 New Insights Into Irrigation Management

10 150 Years of Making History: USDA’s 150th Anniversary, May 15, 2012

20 New Tool Opens a Bigger Window to Insect Warfare

22 ARS Assists in Fight Against Kudzu Bug

23 Genetics and Bermudagrass: It’s Not Easy Being Uniformly Green

150 Years Of Making History, Don Comis, Tara Weaver-Missick, Robert Sowers

Agricultural Research Magazine

The only thing that stands between the United States and an invasion of cattle-killing screwworms is a daily flight of airplanes flooding a 100-mile-wide section of the Isthmus of Panama with male screwworm flies raised in a laboratory and sterilized with radiation in Panama. The screwworm infestations of the past would probably come back if the releases stopped for a couple of months or so, says Dan Strickman, Agricultural Research Service national program leader for veterinary and medical entomology.

“This is a great example of agricultural research changing the history of this country, and it’s a cutting-edge example of integrated …

Analysis Of The Relationship Between Sweetener Properties And Variations In Both Functionality And Final Product Characteristics, Danielle Lynn

All Theses

Scientific research and media attention regarding possible health concerns related to high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) consumption has led to a negative consumer perception of this ingredient. Therefore, the baking industry, which commonly uses HFCS as a sweetener, needs to identify appropriate replacements. Even though invert sugar (IS) is nutritionally similar to HFCS, its use in product formulations would allow HFCS to be removed from ingredient lists. Light agave nectar (LA) and amber agave nectar (AA) are two potential replacement ingredients, with the added benefit of low glycemic indexes for products targeting the diabetic community. This study was designed to …

Development Of Methods For Assessing The Effect Of Moisture And Aging On Sliceability Of Cheese, Jess Perrie

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Sliceability is a cheese’s ability to cut cleanly into thin slices, resist breakage or fracture at slices edges, and undergo a high level of bending before breaking. Intuitively, sliceability depends on the chemistry, microstructural, and rheological properties of the casein network. Currently there is no reported scientific research investigating evaluation methods of cheese slice quality, as well as properties that influence a cheese’s ability to slice.

In this study, a method for slice quality evaluation was developed on purchased cheese and performed on commercial cheeses and experimental cheeses manufactured at three different moisture contents (40.6%, 37.0%, and 33.9%). In addition, …

The Effect Of Chlorine And Ozone In Controlling Microbes On Organically Grown Cilantro And Carrots, Adam Holtz

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This senior project investigates the relative efficacy of ozonated water and chlorinated water for the purpose of sanitizing freshly-harvested organic produce. The aim of this study was to assist the Cal Poly Organic Farm in deciding whether or not to invest in an ozone generator. The crops used for testing were grown organically in the same field. Carrots and cilantro were harvested and promptly treated with 5 ppm ozone solution or 25 ppm sodium hypochlorite solution. Carrots were sampled at 0, 7, and 14 days storage to determine microbial populations. Cilantro was similarly tested at 0, 6, and 12 days …

Biological Properties Evaluation And Chemical Profiles Of Phenolic Compounds In Muscadine Grapes (Vitis Rotundifolia), Qi You

All Dissertations

Phenolic compounds, including anthocyanins in muscadines have attracted much attention due to their diverse biological activities. With bioassays of antioxidant activities in terms of total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) total anthocyanin content (TAC), total procyanidin content (TPA), oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), ABTS radical scavenging Activity (ABTS), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and oil peroxidation inhibitory capacity of all muscadine samples, the muscadine grapes showed strong antioxidant activities. The liquid-liquid organic solvent extraction successfully separated the anthocyanins and other phenolics to different fractions. Strong linear relationship between responses of TPC, TAC and TPA versus their antioxidant activities …

Sanitation Assessment Of Food Contact Surfaces And Lethality Of Moist Heat And A Disinfectant Against Listeria Strains Inoculated On Deli Slicer Components, Sabelo Muzikayise Masuku

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The overall objectives of this study were to: evaluate the efficacy of different cleaning cloth types and cloth-disinfectant combinations in reducing food contact surface contamination to acceptable levels; determine the optimum moist heat and moist heat + sanitizer treatments that can significantly reduce the number of Listeria strains on deli slicer components; and investigate if the moist heat treatment used in this study induced the viable-but-non-culturable (VBNC) state in Listeria cells. The efficacy of wiping cloths was measured using ATP-bioluminescence and total plate count methods using four different wiping cloths and silver dihydrogen citrate sanitizer on food contact surfaces. The …

The Effect Of Natural Antioxidants On Cla Yield During The Photoisomerization Of Soy Oil Linoleic Acid, Camille Schaffner

Food Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Dietary conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is known to be effective in avoiding many obesity related diseases. Conjugated linoleic acid is a product of ruminant fermentation and 3.4g/day are needed to obtain the clinical benefits. However, it is difficult to obtain sufficient CLA to realize these benefits from a healthy diet containing dairy and beef products, without increasing levels of dietary cholesterol and saturated fat. A 20% CLA soy oil with low saturated fat and no cholesterol has been produced by the photoisomerization of linoleic acid in the triacylglyceride oil. Further increasing the CLA yields has been possible by addition of …

Effect Of Chlorogenic Acid And Neochlorogenic Acid On Human Colon Cancer Cells, Taylor Thurow

Food Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Prune consumption has been associated with a decreased risk of colon cancer, yet there has been confusion as to which chemical component(s) of the prune are responsible for its anticarcinogenic properties. Previous studies have evaluated chlorogenic acid as a chemotherapeutic agent, however only a limited amount of studies have investigated neochlorogenic acid, the predominant phenolic compound found in the prune. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects that chlorogenic acid and neochlorogenic acid have as anticarcinogenics on the human adenocarcinoma, Caco-2 cell line. The anti-colon cancer effects or chlorogenic acid and neochlorogenic acid were analyzed by experiments …

Effect Of Enzymatic Treatments On The Physiochemical Properties Of Different Corn Starches, Curtis Robert Luckett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Amylose readily reassociates to form films and crystalline structures that are resistant to digestion by amylolytic enzymes and known as resistant starch type III (RS3). This study investigated the RS3 formation and cereal coating properties from enzyme-modified corn starches with varying amylose contents, including Hylon VII (70% amylose), Hylon V (50% amylose), and common corn (25% amylose). For RS3 formation, corn starches were first gelatinized and then hydrolyzed using β-amylase to varying degrees. The resultant hydrolyzed starch was debranched with isoamylase and then exposed to 3 times of temperature cycling at 135/133/133°C for 30 min and 95°C for 24 hr …

Utilization Of Natural Green Tea And Grape Seed Extracts And Nisin To Reduce Conventional Chemical Preservatives And To Inhibit The The Growth Of Listeria Monocytogenes In Ready To Eat Low And High Fat Chicken And Turkey Hotdogs, Amara Venkata Sunil Perumalla

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ready-to-eat meat (RTE) products such as hotdogs represent a popular segment in convenience food purchases. Increased demand has led the processors to extend the shelf life by minimizing lipid oxidation and post-processing contaminants such as Listeria monocytogenes. There is a growing interest in the food processors and consumers regarding the use of natural alternatives in place of synthetic food additives to control the growth of foodborne pathogens and (or) lipid oxidation. In recent years, green tea (GTE) and grape seed extracts (GSE) are increasing choices as they have demonstrated antioxidant as well as antimicrobial properties in various food applications. …

Validation Of Thermal Processing To Control Salmonella Spp. And Clostridium Perfringens During Prime Rib Preparation From Intact And Non-Intact Meat, Maria A. Calle

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Beef prime rib is a delicacy cooked at low temperatures for long period and extended hot holding prior to consumption. Due to the potential survival and outgrowth of foodborne pathogens, this process may pose a public health risk. Considering an increase in the availability of non-intact beef, the microbial safety of the preparation of prime rib from intact and mechanically tenderized beef was evaluated.

In the first study, lethality of the prime rib (from intact and non-intact, blade tenderized beef) cooking process to Salmonella spp. was evaluated. Boneless beef rib eye was surface inoculated with a five-strain cocktail of Salmonella …