scholarly journals Knowledge and Consumption Habits Related with White Crowberries (Corema album L.)

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5463
Author(s):  
Aida Moreira da Moreira da Silva ◽  
Maria João Barroca ◽  
Raquel P. F. Guiné

This study investigated the knowledge and consumption habits related with white crowberries (“camarinhas” in Portuguese) among the Portuguese population. It consisted of a questionnaire survey, undertaken on a sample of 501 participants, higher than 18 years old. For the treatment of data, basic descriptive statistics were used, complemented with the Mann–Whitney U test to assess some associations between categorical variables. Moreover, a tree classification analysis was carried out using a classification and regression tree (CRT) algorithm with cross-validation and a factor analysis was also used to treat the data. The results indicated that the majority of participants know the “camarinha” berry but the level of knowledge decreases from senior adults to young adults. On the other hand, the knowledge and overall perception about their nutritive value, sensorial characteristics and health benefits are low. Regarding the consumption of crowberries, it was found that more than half of the participants did not eat them, and 31.9% ate them only around once a year, mainly fresh, being hand-harvested from the wild by the participants. Furthermore, it was observed that the Portuguese considered that the information about crowberries is scarce, which could justify that only a small part of the participants recognized this plant as vulnerable, due to loss of its habitat, mainly by human actions and owing to lack of information. To fill the gap of information observed in Portuguese people, it is hoped that the project (IDEAS4life) that supports this work could contribute to increase the knowledge about this species and also to alert for the need of preserving this endogenous plant of the Southern European Atlantic coast.

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 709
Author(s):  
Sofia G. Florença ◽  
Paula M. R. Correia ◽  
Cristina A. Costa ◽  
Raquel P. F. Guiné

This study investigated the knowledge, attitudes, consumption habits, and degree of acceptability of edible insects (EI) or derived products among Portuguese consumers. This work consisted of a questionnaire survey, undertaken on a sample of 213 participants. For the treatment of data, basic descriptive statistics were used, complemented with chi-square tests to assess some associations between categorical variables. Moreover, a tree classification analysis was carried out using a classification and regression tree (CRT) algorithm with cross-validation. The results indicated that people tend to have correct perceptions about the sustainability issues associated with the use of insects as alternative sources of protein; however, the level of knowledge and overall perception about their nutritive value is low. Regarding the consumption of EI, it was found that only a small part of the participants had already eaten them, doing it mostly abroad, by self-initiative, in a restaurant or at a party or event. Additionally, it was found that the reluctance to consume insects is higher if they are whole, but when they are transformed into ingredients used in food formulations, the level of acceptance increases. Furthermore, men have shown to have a better perception about EI, be more informed about sustainability, and have a higher level of acceptability when compared to women. As a final conclusion, it was observed that the Portuguese still show some resistance to adhere to the use of insects as replacements for meat products, but the market of insect based products can be a good alternative to overpass the neophobia associated with this type of food.


Author(s):  
Carlos Ruiz-Frutos ◽  
Mónica Ortega-Moreno ◽  
Adriano Dias ◽  
João Marcos Bernardes ◽  
Juan Jesús García-Iglesias ◽  
...  

Methods by which the population should be informed when going through a pandemic such as COVID-19 have been questioned because of its influence on the adoption of preventive measures and its effects on mental health. Non-health workers are at risk of psychological distress from exposure to contaminated people or materials or by having to stay at home and adapt their activity to telework. The objective of the study is to analyze information the public receives about COVID-19 and its influence on their level of distress. For this, 1089 questionnaires from non-health workers were collected online between 26 March and 26 April 2020 in Spain, and analysed and distributed by snowball effect. 492 participants carried out essential activities away from home, and 597 did so from home. They were surveyed about information received about COVID-19 regarding its source, time, assessment, or the beliefs expressed in it. Mental health was also measured with Goldberg’s General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The classification and regression tree (CART) method was used to design a binary tree with sample cases. It has been found that the time spent learning about COVID-19 and the level of knowledge about symptoms, pathways, prevention, treatment, or prognosis are associated with the level of distress, where 25% of participants were found to have spent more than 3 h daily on this activity. Social media and television are the most widely used sources, but they are considered to be of lower quality and usefulness than official sources. There is greater confidence in healthcare professionals than in the health system, and the main concern of those working away from home is spreading the virus to family members. It has been concluded that there is a need to enhance quality and truthful information on the Internet for non-health workers due to its accessibility, which should be constantly updated, a fact which international and national public bodies, research centers, and journal publishers have begun to understand during the current pandemic. Such quality information is needed to combat distress.


Author(s):  
Mehmet Aksoy ◽  
Başaran Karademir ◽  
İbrahim Hakkı Kadirhanoğulları

Organic Agricultural products are natural food products that are checked and certified by authorized institutions at all stages of cultivation and presented to the consumer. In this study, the knowledge and practices of soil agriculture farmers in Amasya province about Organic Agriculture production were investigated by face-to-face survey method. In the survey, the local producers were asked what Organic Agriculture is in general, their status of producing Organic Agriculture, whether they fulfill the Organic Agriculture requirements for Organic Agriculture production. The obtained data were presented numerically and proportionally. Data were also analyzed with the Decision Tree method using the CART (Classification and Regression Tree) algorithm. According to the findings, although the local farmers declared that they knew what Organic Agriculture was at a high level, it was seen that none of the producers fulfilled the requirements of Organic Agriculture in practice. According to the survey data, while the farmers reported that they received the information about Organic Agriculture from TV-radio and the internet to a large extent (58.5%), a very small percentage (11%) stated that they received training. According to this result, it has been concluded that the local farmers do not have enough information about Organic Agriculture, but the lack of information can be easily eliminated via TV-radio and the internet. As a result, it was concluded that Amasya farmers do not have sufficient information about Organic Agriculture production for now, but if appropriate training is provided, successful Organic Agriculture production output can be achieved.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Binod Balakrishnan ◽  
Heather VanDongen-Trimmer ◽  
Irene Kim ◽  
Sheila J. Hanson ◽  
Liyun Zhang ◽  
...  

<b><i>Background:</i></b> The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), used to classify the severity of traumatic brain injury (TBI), is associated with mortality and functional outcomes. However, GCS can be affected by sedation and neuromuscular blockade. GCS-Pupil (GCS-P) score, calculated as GCS minus Pupil Reactivity Score (PRS), was shown to better predict outcomes in a retrospective cohort of adult TBI patients. We evaluated the applicability of GCS-P to a large retrospective pediatric severe TBI (sTBI) cohort. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Admissions to pediatric intensive care units in the Virtual Pediatric Systems (VPS, LLC) database from 2010 to 2015 with sTBI were included. We collected GCS, PRS (number of nonreactive pupils), cardiac arrest, abusive head trauma status, illness severity scores, pediatric cerebral performance category (PCPC) score, and mortality. GCS-P was calculated as GCS minus PRS. χ<sup>2</sup> or Fisher’s exact test and Mann-Whitney U test compared categorical and continuous variables, respectively. Classification and regression tree analysis identified thresholds of GCS-P and GCS along with other independent factors which were further examined using multivariable regression analysis to identify factors independently associated with mortality and unfavorable PCPC at PICU discharge. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Among the 2,682 patients included in the study, mortality was 23%, increasing from 4.7% for PRS = 0 to 80% for PRS = 2. GCS-P identified more severely injured patients with GCS-P scores 1 and 2 who had worse outcomes. GCS-P ≤ 2 had higher odds for mortality, OR = 68.4 (95% CI = 50.6–92.4) and unfavorable PCPC, OR = 17.3 (8.1, 37.0) compared to GCS ≤ 5. GCS-P ≤ 2 also had higher specificity and positive predictive value for both mortality and unfavorable PCPC compared to GCS ≤ 5. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> GCS-P, by incorporating pupil reactivity to GCS scoring, is more strongly associated with mortality and poor functional outcome at PICU discharge in children with sTBI.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nagihan Bostanci ◽  
Konstantinos Mitsakakis ◽  
Beral Afacan ◽  
Kai Bao ◽  
Benita Johannsen ◽  
...  

AbstractOral health is important not only due to the diseases emerging in the oral cavity but also due to the direct relation to systemic health. Thus, early and accurate characterization of the oral health status is of utmost importance. There are several salivary biomarkers as candidates for gingivitis and periodontitis, which are major oral health threats, affecting the gums. These need to be verified and validated for their potential use as differentiators of health, gingivitis and periodontitis status, before they are translated to chair-side for diagnostics and personalized monitoring. We aimed to measure 10 candidates using high sensitivity ELISAs in a well-controlled cohort of 127 individuals from three groups: periodontitis (60), gingivitis (31) and healthy (36). The statistical approaches included univariate statistical tests, receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) with the corresponding Area Under the Curve (AUC) and Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis. The main outcomes were that the combination of multiple biomarker assays, rather than the use of single ones, can offer a predictive accuracy of > 90% for gingivitis versus health groups; and 100% for periodontitis versus health and periodontitis versus gingivitis groups. Furthermore, ratios of biomarkers MMP-8, MMP-9 and TIMP-1 were also proven to be powerful differentiating values compared to the single biomarkers.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 649
Author(s):  
Javier Fagundo-Rivera ◽  
Regina Allande-Cussó ◽  
Mónica Ortega-Moreno ◽  
Juan Jesús García-Iglesias ◽  
Adolfo Romero ◽  
...  

Shift work that involves circadian disruption has been highlighted as a likely carcinogenic factor for breast cancer in humans. Also, unhealthy lifestyle habits observed in night work nurses could be causally related to an increase in the incidence of estrogen-positive breast tumours in this population. Assessing baseline risk of breast cancer in nurses is essential. The objective of this study was to analyze the risk of breast cancer that nurses had in relation to their lifestyle and labour factors related to shift work. A cross-sectional descriptive study through a questionnaire about sociodemographic variables, self-perception of health, and working life was designed. The sample consisted of 966 nurses. The relationship between variables was tested. A binary logistic regression and a classification and regression tree were performed. The most significant labour variables in relation to the risk of breast cancer were the number of years worked (more than 16 years; p < 0.01; OR = 8.733, 95% CI = 2.811, 27.134) and the total years performing more than 3 nights per month (10 or more years; p < 0.05; OR = 2.294, 95% CI = 1.008, 5.220). Also, the nights worked throughout life (over 500; OR = 4.190, 95% CI = 2.118, 8.287) were significant in the analysis. Nurses who had or ever had breast cancer valued their self-perceived health more negatively (p < 0.001) and referred a lower quality of sleep (p < 0.001) than the non-cases nurses. The occupational factors derived from night work could have several impacts on nurses’ health and their family-work balance. Promoting healthy lifestyles, informing about shift work risks, and adjusting shift work schedules are critical methods to decrease the possible effects of circadian disruption in nurses.


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