Multiple Influences on Cognitive Function Among Urban-Dwelling African Americans.

This study examined multiple influences on cognitive function among African Americans, including education, literacy, poverty status, substance use, depressive symptoms, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. Baseline data were analyzed from the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study. Participants were 987 African Americans (mean age 48.5 years, SD = 9.17) who completed cognitive measures assessing verbal learning and memory, nonverbal memory, working memory, verbal fluency, perceptuo-motor speed, attention, and cognitive flexibility. Using preplanned hierarchical regression, cognitive performance was regressed on the following: (1) age, sex, education, poverty status; (2) literacy; (3) cigarette smoking, illicit substance use; (4) depressive symptoms; and (5) number of CVD risk factors. Results indicated that literacy eliminated the influence of education and poverty status in select instances, but added predictive utility in others. In fully adjusted models, results showed that literacy was the most important influence on cognitive performance across all cognitive domains (p < .001); however, education and poverty status were related to attention and cognitive flexibility. Depressive symptoms and substance use were significant predictors of multiple cognitive outcomes, and CVD risk factors were not associated with cognitive performance. Overall, findings underscore the need to develop cognitive supports for individuals with low literacy, educational attainment, and income, and the importance of treating depressive symptoms and thoroughly examining the role of substance use in this population.

Resistance to adhesion formation: a comparative study of treated and untreated mesh products placed in the abdominal cavity.

BACKGROUND: New materials have been devised to prevent postoperative adhesions when placing a prosthesis in contact with abdominal contents. METHODS: Eighty rats underwent laparotomy and denudation of the serosa of the cecum and peritoneal covering of the abdominal wall. Five treated mesh products (Parietex Composite, Parietene Composite, Bard Composix E/X, Sepramesh, and Gore-Tex Dual Mesh) and one untreated mesh product (untreated Parietene) were randomly placed between the cecum and abdominal wall. A group without mesh was used as control. The animals were sacrificed at 21 days following surgery and analyzed for the presence of adhesions. RESULTS: The incidence of adhesion formation, mean adhesion area, maximum adhesion length, and strength of adhesion separation were similar between Parietex Composite, Parietene Composite, and Bard Composix E/X, and they were significantly less than with Sepramesh, untreated Parietene, and the control group. Gore-Tex Dual Mesh resulted in less adhesions, adhesion area, mean strength of separation, and work of separation than the untreated Parietene group and the control group. Sepramesh resulted in less strength and work of separation compared to the control group. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of adhesions and work and strength of adhesion separation are reduced when using a treated mesh, compared to the untreated mesh and the control group without mesh. Parietex Composite, Parietene Composite, Bard Composix E/X, and Gore-Tex Dual Mesh were superior to Sepramesh, untreated Parietene, and the control group in the prevention of adhesion formation.

Dietary obesity in nine inbred mouse strains.

The effect of 7 wk consumption of a diet containing 32.6% of kilocalories as fat [condensed milk (CM) diet] on body composition and energy intake was evaluated in nine strains of inbred mice (AKR/J, C57L/J, A/J, C3H/HeJ, DBA/2J, C57BL/6J, SJL/J, I/STN, and SWR/J). Control animals were fed a high-carbohydrate diet containing 11.6% of energy as fat (Purina Rodent Chow diet). Relative to Chow diet controls, the CM diet significantly increased carcass lipid content in six strains (AKR/J, C57L/J, A/J, C3H/HeJ, DBA/2J, and C57BL/6J), but had no or a marginal effect on adiposity in three strains of mice (SJL/J, I/STN, and SWR/J). The obesity produced by the CM diet in six strains was not due to hyperphagia. Only one of six (AKR/J) of the strains that increased adiposity on the CM diet consumed more energy than controls during the 7 wk of the experiment. The identification of inbred mouse strains that are sensitive to dietary obesity, vs. others that are resistant, provides a useful tool to pursue the metabolic and genetic basis of this trait in the mouse.

A marketing model: applications for dietetic professionals.

Traditionally, dietitians have communicated the availability of their services to the "public at large." The expectation was that the public would respond favorably to nutrition programs simply because there was a consumer need for them. Recently, however, both societal and consumer needs have changed dramatically, making old communication strategies ineffective and obsolete. The marketing discipline has provided a new model and new decision-making tools for many health professionals to use to more effectively make their services known to multiple consumer groups. This article provides one such model as applied to the dietetic profession. The model explores a definition of the business of dietetics, how to conduct an analysis of the environment, and, finally, the use of both in the choice of new target markets. Further, the model discusses the major components of developing a marketing strategy that will help the practitioner to be competitive in the marketplace. Presented are strategies for defining and re-evaluating the mission of the profession, for using future trends to identify new markets and roles for the profession, and for developing services that make the profession more competitive by better meeting the needs of the consumer.

Marketing: a survival tool for dietetic professionals in the 1990s.

There is little question among members of the profession that practitioners are faced with crucial survival issues in this decade and the next. Approaching a maturing profession with static strategies will limit the profession's future growth. Consumers want to make decisions for themselves and to be provided with options. That phenomenon could change the very fabric of "professionalism" and, in turn, if dietetic professionals fail to change their strategies, could result in an advantage for nutrition competitors vs. those professionals. Dietitians as a whole must look to such disciplines as economics, the social sciences, and marketing for answers to their survival problems. Dietitians must encourage growth and innovation in order to sustain the demand for professional services. In that endeavor, the authors argue that marketing is clearly an essential tool needed to enhance the profession and to work within the dynamics of the marketplace.

The marketing concept applied to an education program.

Dietetic education programs seeking to maintain their enrollment levels may find it necessary to adopt more sophisticated marketing strategies. This article describes the application of the marketing process to an extended degree dietetic program that serves a national audience. It also presents a strategy for initiating a marketing study and marketing orientation by analyzing its internal program data. The article discusses the specific market characteristics of the program's primary market segments, and it presents further implications for dietitians at work in health care facilities, in businesses, or in private practice.

Effects of polybrominated biphenyl on milk production, reproduction, and health problems in Holstein cows.

PBB found in relatively low levels among animals present on a cross-section of Michigan farms during the time PBB was inadvertantly added to dairy feeds had no effect upon these animals' milk production, body weight, weight gain, breeding and reproduction performance, incidence of commonly experienced health problems, calving rate, and the health of their calves. No significant differences in these vital areas could be seen between Michigan animals exposed to PBB and equivalent Wisconsin animals which had not been exposed to PBB when both groups were subjected to equivalent management practices. No pattern of gross of histopathological lesions was seen upon necropsy between test animals and control animals.

Liver fibrosis of the turkey on rapeseed products.

Sclerosis of the liver accompanied by hydropericardium of long standing was observed in turkeys fed rapeseed products for 16 weeks. Histologically, extensive increases of fibrous tissue composed predominantly of reticular fibres and centrilobular degeneration of parenchymal cells were the main pathological features. Neither prominent fatty degeneration nor the formation of pseudolobules was observed. The birds fed rapeseed products for four and 12 weeks showed continuing occurrence of multiple focal and/or solitary hepatocytic necroses preceding the process of fibrosis in the livers. Glucosinolates and their hydrolytic products were considered the most likely causative factors for the hepatocytic necrosis.

Intravascular fat globules in the heart of pigs fed rapeseed meals.

Histopathological studies were conducted on growing pigs fed a corn, soybean meal control and two experimental diets supplemented with either a high or a low glucosinolate rapeseed meal. A high incidence of intravascular large fat globules in the heart with mild interstitial oedema was observed in the boars on high glucosinolates in comparison with the boars on low glucosinolates rapeseed meal. Boars and gilts on the corn, soybean meal control diet showed no intravascular fat globules.