Community Culinary Workshops as a Nutrition Curriculum in a Preventive Medicine Residency Program.

Introduction: Obesity and diabetes are common diagnoses in the primary care population, especially in urban settings. Physicians providing preventive culinary and nutrition education to patients may be able to uniquely address these medical issues; however, culinary and nutrition education among medical residency programs is insufficient. Methods: We describe a pilot of a novel interactive approach to culinary and nutrition education focused on preventive medicine residents who were trained to provide culinary and nutrition skills to community members in three separate workshops. We developed and implemented a series of three culinary education workshops with 11, eight, and nine preventive medicine residents in each respective workshop. A total of 16 residents were invited to participate. A physician-chef facilitated each workshop with the residents within a community church kitchen and meeting area. We evaluated self-reported data on confidence level with culinary education and resident attitudes toward effects of culinary education on patient behaviors, as well as frequency of home-cooked meals and personal cooking competency, as indicators of resident proficiency. Results: A significant increase was noted in self-reported cooking competency after culinary workshops when evaluating change from the first workshop to the final workshop ( p = .038). Increases in home-cooking frequency and belief that lifestyle medicine impacts patient behavior were also observed but did not achieve statistical significance. Discussion: Culinary workshops are a useful tool to enhance nutrition education in a residency curriculum and may be an effective way to improve resident perceptions regarding the impact of nutrition education in the community.

Vitamin D deficiency among newborns in Amman, Jordan.

OBJECTIVE: Vitamin D deficiency is well recognized in selected Middle Eastern countries, but neonatal vitamin D status is not well studied in Jordan and other nearby countries. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Jordanian newborns and risk factors associated with low levels. METHODS: This is a prospective cohort study of newborn infants who were delivered at the Al Bashir Government Hospital in Amman, Jordan, from January 31, 2010, to January 27, 2011. Heel stick blood samples for 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels were obtained within 96 hours of birth. Maternal dress pattern, vitamin supplementation, smoke exposure during pregnancy, mode of delivery, gestational age, and birth weight were documented. RESULTS: Samples were obtained from 3,731 newborns. Median gestational age was 39 weeks, median birth weight was 3.1 kilograms, median maternal age was 27 years, and median newborn 25(OH)D level was 8.6nmol/L. A total of 3,512 newborns (94.1%) in this study were vitamin D deficient (< 50 nmol/L). Lower gestational age, maternal smoke exposure, and birth during winter months were associated with lower infant vitamin D levels, while vitamin D supplementation and time spent outside during pregnancy were associated with higher vitamin D levels. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of severely low vitamin D levels in newborn infants in Amman, Jordan, is substantial, even in newborns born during the spring and summer months. Vitamin D supplementation is needed in this population.

Solitary waves in soybean induced by localized thermal stress.

Action potentials in higher plants are believed to be the information carriers in intercellular and intracellular communication in the presence of an environmental stressor. Plant electrophysiologists have recorded long distance electrical signaling in higher plants during the last two hundred years. Reproducing the duration, speed of propagation, and the shape of the action potential is challenging. Early measurements revealed that the speed of action potential propagation in plants is extremely slow - from 0.1 mm/s to 20 cm/s, although many faster plant responses to stress have been recorded as well. We hypothesized that this discrepancy is most likely due to the artifacts of aliasing from slow registration systems. In this study, we employ real time measurements using modern data acquisition techniques to detect ultra fast action potentials in green plants induced by localized heat stress. Thermal shock or heat stress is the most common environmental stress. Based on more sophisticated measuring techniques, we show that plants transmit solitary waves and that the speed of action potential propagation in green plants is similar to the speed of action potentials in mammalians, varying from a few meters per second up to 105 m/s. Possible pathways for electrical signal propagation in vascular plants are discussed.

Electrical signaling in Aloe vera induced by localized thermal stress.

Action potentials in higher plants are theorized as the information carriers in intercellular and intracellular communication in the presence of environmental stressors. Among the most common stressors is heat shock. Under stressful conditions, the response reactions of plant tissues and organs can be local or transmitted over long distances. In this article, the speeds of propagation of thermally induced action potentials in green plants are discussed, and their speeds were found to be comparable to those occurring in various mammalian species. These rapid action potentials in green plants were recorded in real time using modern data acquisition techniques. According to our measurements, a single application of localized heat stress induces fast action potentials in Aloe vera (67 m/s). Electrical signals propagated along all leaves of the A. vera plants were studied. Possible pathways for electrical signal propagation in vascular plants are also discussed.