There is a well-established link between F&V and health, and are an essential part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. They are rich in essential nutrients that are believed to promote good health, such as vitamins, minerals, fibre, and phytochemicals. Due to the low adherence to F&V recommendation among people across all ages, it is essential to tackle this problem - especially among children. One way to achieve this is to gain a good understanding of the relationship between F&V intake and health parameters; this will help emphasise the importance of consuming the recommend five-a-day for the whole family. In addition, the younger generation should be provided with nutritional education regarding their food choices, including snacks. The investigation in this thesis focuses on children's F&V intake and healthy snack awareness and its relationship with measured health parameters, as currently very little is known about this relationship, particularly among Scottish children. To this end, six studies were conducted and are presented here. The first and second studies examined the relationship between F&V intake and health parameters using a combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional data (n=475 and 466, respectively) from children of primary school age (5 to 12 in Aberdeenshire). Parents completed either a seven-day total food intake questionnaire - dietary record (TFIQ) or a two-day fruit and vegetable questionnaire (FVQ) on behalf of their children. Health parameters (weight, height, body fat, waist/hip circumference, blood pressure and lung function) were measured at their school. Higher F&V intake was correlated with improved health parameters when using the two-day FVQ. These are summarised as follows: lowered systolic blood pressure, some measures of lung function and reduced weight, body fat, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist to hip ratio and waist to height ratio. Of note, the health parameters did not appear correlated with F&V intake measured using the seven-day TFIQ, with the exception of a negative relationship with blood pressure when using the longitudinal data. F&V intake using two instruments (seven-day TFIQ and two-day FVQ) was compared in the third study within the same individuals (primary school children, n=51). The estimated portions of F&V using the focused (two-day) FVQ was higher than the seven-day TFIQ. It is unclear whether parents tended to overestimate their children's F&V intake using the FVQ or under-estimate it using the TFIQ. These studies led to the fourth study, which focused on identifying biomarkers of F&V intake using the new technique of metabolomics - liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS), using urine samples collected from the children. This involved correlating biomarkers in urine with children's F&V intake as measured by the FVQ. Participants included 29 primary age children, recruited as a part of the cross sectional F&V study in Chapter Two. The findings revealed 15 food/F&V biomarkers, excluding food/F&V biomarkers (n=5) that reflected children's dietary behaviour which was identified as a result of the significant correlation with children's F&V intake. The identified biomarkers which were revealed from two different approaches - stepwise regression and literature searching - are as follows: citric acid; benzoic acid; 2-Pyrrolidinone; Glycine; Alanine; N-Nitrosopyrrolidine; Isocitric acid; Isocitrate; 1-Acetoxypinoresino; Proline betaine; Adenosine; Adenine; Hippuric acid; Carnitine, and Ethanol. Children's F&V intake was correlated with three urinary metabolites (4, 427, 109) in which very few correlations (n=4, one positive and three negative correlations) were significant. These correlations that compared the identified biomarker with what was reported in the FVQ were generally poor in terms of not showing agreement with children's F&V intake. One exception was the positive correlation that was found with the urinary excretion of gamma guanidinobutyric acid, which may reflect children's fruit intake. Urinary excretion of formic acid, butanoic acid and 1-propanamine were all negatively correlated with children's F&V intake and were used as a robust biomarker of fruit and dairy products among children. With the use of the metabolomics technique, there is more precision in children's dietary profile presentation compared with relying on a single method, such as the FVQ. Metabolomics has the potential to be used as a validation/reference tool and in detecting novel biomarkers. A fifth study was carried out to explore children's perceptions of snack healthiness and snack preferences, and the relationship between these and their health parameters. Participants were children of nursery and primary age (3-12 years old, n=472). A card sorting exercise was implemented using 18 popular snack types, and basic health parameters (weight, height, body fat, waist/hip circumference), both of which were measured in the children's school. The children showed good understanding of snack healthiness based on the nutritional composition of the 18 snacks, and the findings showed that as children develop, their perception of healthiness increases. Nevertheless, the unhealthier snacks were still the most preferable type to children. A follow-up study was conducted to examine parents' (n=142) views on snack healthiness and snack preferences for their children. Participants were parents of nursery and primary school age children. An online survey was designed and implemented as a tool for data collection. Parents exhibited a good awareness of healthy snacks, however stated that their children showed more preference for unhealthy snacks. There was no statistically significant relationship between parents' knowledge of snack healthiness and their age, sex, education level, employment status and ethnicity. Although parents demonstrated that nutritional value is one of the most important goals for them in snack selection for their children, taste and peer pressure are two factors that significantly affected children's snack choice. It is still not clear why the parents' snack choices were not always the healthy choice. Overall, the findings from the above-conducted studies demonstrated that: 1) Scottish children still do not adhere to the five-a-day recommendation; 2) some aspects of children's health were correlated to their F&V intake when using a focused two-day FVQ, and expressed more F&V intake for their children when the focus was on the two-day FVQ; 3) urine metabolomics has potential for identifying biomarkers of F&V intake; 4) both children and their parents showed a good perception and knowledge of what constitutes a healthy snack - even children of nursery age were able to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy types; 5) nevertheless, children's eating habits (particularly towards snack preference) need to be improved. It is hoped that these data will aid in the production and testing of further hypotheses related to short- and long-term health in children.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-01-29Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:41:19Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 cazetta_e_dr_rcla.pdf: 968988 bytes, checksum: 4bdfab726fe1de13903afa950d3cf54e (MD5) / Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) / As características dos frutos como morfologia e química têm sido tradicionalmente explicadas como resultado da seleção dos dispersores de sementes. Mas a importância dos frugívoros em moldar as características dos frutos tem sido recentemente questionada sob diferentes perspectivas. Alguns estudos sugerem que outras interações podem simultaneamente atuar sobre a evolução das características dos frutos. Muitos organismos atuam como predadores de sementes e seus efeitos precisam ser considerados. Desta maneira, as plantas enfrentam um dilema evolutivo entre atração aos legítimos dispersores de sementes e defesa contra predadores e patógenos. Neste estudo, primeiramente nós avaliamos as características dos frutos relacionadas com atração e defesa em uma ampla amostra de frutos da Mata Atlântica, da Ilha do Cardoso, São Paulo, Brasil. Posteriormente, nós testamos como algumas características específicas influenciam o consumo pelas aves frugívoras. Nós observamos que as características morfológicas e químicas dos frutos apresentam sinal filogenético e em geral padrões independentes de co-variação. Ao contrário, as cores e os contrates dos frutos não apresentam sinal filogenético e frutos mais saturados são ricos em lipídeos e energia mas pobres em carboidratos. Portanto, nós sugerimos que o grau de saturação da cor pode indicar a qualidade nutricional dos frutos. As aves detectaram consistentemente frutos com maior contraste cromático do que o contraste acromático. Além disso, as aves frugívoras selecionam frutos ricos em lipídeos e energia e pobres em compostos secundários. Nós concluímos que a preferência das aves por determinadas características dos frutos não afeta necessariamente a evolução das mesmas, uma vez que, para isso ocorrer é necessário que as aves selecionem entre indivíduos... / Fruit characteristics such as morphology and chemistry have traditionally been explained as the result of adaptations to their seed dispersers. But the importance of frugivores in shaping fruit traits has now been questioned from a number of perspectives. Some studies suggested that other interactions simultaneously shape the evolution of fruit traits. Many organisms act as seed predators and their effects must be taken into account. Therefore, plants are faced with an evolutionary dilemma between attraction to legitimate seed dispersers and defense against seed predators and pathogens. In this study we focused on fruit traits related to attractiveness and defense. We first evaluated how fruit characteristics interact in a broad sample of Atlantic rainforest species, at Cardoso Island, São Paulo, Brazil, after accounting for phylogeny. We then evaluated specific fruit characteristics to test whether they influence consumption by birds. We found that morphological and nutritional traits showed phylogenetic signal and in general independent patterns of covariation. On the contrary, fruit color and contrast did not present phylogenetic signal and saturated fruits are rich in energy and lipids, and poor in carbohydrates. Thus we suggest that saturated fruits may indicate fruit quality. Birds consistently detected fruits with higher chromatic contrasts rather than achromatic ones. Frugivorous birds also selected lipid and energyrich fruits and fruits low defended by secondary compounds. We conclude that in spite of bird’s preferences these processes do not operate on the evolution of fruit traits, since this requires birds to differentiate between plant individual of the same and not different species. Therefore, in our study we observed that fruit traits are in general weak associate, with the exception of fruit color, that may indicate fruit adaptation to frugivores.

No description available.

In this work, I seek to model swarms of fruit flies, drosophila melanogaster, whose flights are characterized by straight flight segments interrupted by rapid turns called saccades. These flights are reminiscent of Levy-distributed random walks which are known to lead to efficient search behavior. I build two types of model for swarms of foraging fruit flies, whose behavior depends on swarm density and chemoattractant concentration, using rules inspired by experimentally observed flight patterns. First I will present a Lagrangian model where the path of each individual fly is tracked. I will also consider an Eulerian model where the fruit fly density evolves as a function of time and position in space. I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the two models and the relationship between them.

Assessing FV intake among young children is difficult and can be a time- consuming, resource-intensive, and burdensome. The aim of this study was to create a simple, self-assessment tool to estimate and detect changes in FV consumption among fourth and fifth graders. Such a tool would ease the complications and resources of other diet assessment options that are used to measure FV consumption when implementing school-based nutrition programs.The questionnaire provided a moderately valid estimate of lunchtime FV consumption, but it was inconsistent at detecting small, yet important increases in FV consumption between time points. The ability of the questionnaire to measure total FV consumption was also tested and found to be poor. In addition, having the students record what they ate on a food tracker during meals did not improve performance on the questionnaire.The tool examined in this study could provide a reasonable estimate of average lunchtime FV consumption among fourth and fifth grade children, but could not be used to detect sensitive changes in consumption during a FV intervention study. While it is difficult for children to recall dietary information, it beneficial to continue to explore the development of a self-report questionnaire that can accurately assess total FV intake in children.

Several school-based interventions aimed at increasing fruit and vegetables (FV) intake among children have demonstrated success in short-term interventions. The Fit Game is a school-based intervention aimed at encouraging children to consume increasing amounts of FV during a game, which is a narrative. Just as children are being encouraged to eat FV at school, so is it equally important for them to eat FV at home. Parents strongly influence the amount of FV children consume at home. The aim of this thesis is to examine associations between factors that influence consumption of fruits and vegetables at and away from school among children who are participating in a schoolbased intervention, which has been shown to increase fruit and vegetable consumption at school. Associations between factors of the home environment and FV intake of children at and away from school are also explored. The study population was 37 parent-child pairs who participated in the Fit Game intervention conducted at one elementary school in 2013 (n = 252). This study showed that there was an increase in FV intake of children at school during the period they played the Fit Game; however there was no change in fruit and vegetable intake away from school during that same period of time. In addition, though parents and children’s intake of FV were correlated, parents did not change their FV intake during the period of time their child participated in the Fit Game at school. There was no significance between children’s intake and the factors in the home environment including family meals, FV accessibility and availability as well as parental knowledge. This study used rigorous methods to assess dietary intake. It is, however, important that this study is replicated with a larger sample that is more diverse.

Researchers in the Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Science department and Psychology department sought to improve healthy behaviors in elementary schools such as fruit and vegetable consumption (FV) and daily physical activity (PA). We chose to use a healthy behavior program called the “FIT Game” that has successfully increased FV consumption among elementary-aged children over short periods of time. Our aim was to improve the program by lowering operating costs, adjusting its materials to target PA and see if it could maintain healthy eating improvements over a longer period of time. Our series of research shows encouraging results: short term improvements in healthy eating using the low-cost FIT Game; improvements in PA; and maintained improvements in FV consumption over longer durations. Improving healthy behaviors such as FV consumption and daily PA are important goals that can improve future health. Using the FIT Game intervention represents a low-cost and sustainable way to work toward these goals.

En el presente trabajo de investigación nos enfocaremos en probar la viabilidad de un negocio basado en la comercialización de frutas picadas envasadas por delivery, dirigido a personas que trabajan en empresas dentro del distrito de San Isidro en la ciudad de Lima. Para ello se han investigado las tendencias del entorno, tales como los hábitos de consumo de la población y la digitalización de la sociedad, la cual viene en aumento en nuestro país, con una proyección de crecimiento del e-commerce cada vez mayor. La Organización Mundial de la Salud recomienda el consumo de 400 gramos de frutas al día, el equivalente a 5 frutas; sin embargo, los limeños consumen solo 100 gramos de frutas y verduras como parte de su alimentación diaria. Teniendo en cuenta la tendencia de consumo de productos saludables y naturales, la cual está en crecimiento, es importante considerar la oportunidad de mercado en relación al bajo consumo de frutas. Así mismo, los estilos de vida cada vez más acelerados demandan ahorro de tiempo, por lo que el consumidor busca productos más prácticos. Como parte de la investigación se realizó un sondeo de mercado con la intención de validar el modelo de negocio. Para llevar este proyecto a cabo se ha desarrollado las cuatro variables del marketing mix, incorporando los resultados de la investigación realizada. Finalmente, se ha desarrollado la validación económica y financiera de manera que se demuestra la rentabilidad de la propuesta del plan de negocio. / In this research work we will focus on testing the viability of a business based on the marketing of chopped fruit by delivery, aimed at people working in companies within the district of San Isidro in the city of Lima. To this end, environmental trends have been investigated, such as the consumption habits of the population and the digitalization of society, which is increasing in our country, with a projection of growing e-commerce. The World Health Organization recommends the consumption of 400 grams of fruit per day, the equivalent of 5 fruits. However, Lima residents consume only 100 grams of fruits and vegetables as part of their daily diet. Taking into account the trend of consumption of healthy and natural products, which is growing, it is important to consider the market opportunity in relation to low fruit consumption. Similarly, accelerating lifestyles require time saving, so the consumer is looking for more practical products. As part of the investigation, a market survey was carried out with the intention of validating the business model. To carry out this project, the four marketing mix variables have been developed, incorporating the results of the research carried out. Finally, the economic and financial validation has been developed in order to demonstrate the profitability of the business plan proposal. / Trabajo de Investigación

Quantify the magnitude, sources and distribution of variation in fruit quality traits within kiwifruit populations and identify opportunities for the management of this variation. Near-infrared (NIR) grading was used as a tool for monitoring fruit quality, and measurements combined with orchard/vine information to investigate opportunities for the management of the variation in fruit quality traits with a particular focus on fruit DM. NIR enabled non-destructive assessment of the quality characteristics of individual fruit from 96 commercial orchards, comprising 550 fruit-lines, across four consecutive seasons, resulting in a dataset of measurements made on 146.7 million individual fruit. The distribution of quality traits within fruit populations and the relationships between quality traits were examined. The spatial component of variation in fruit quality was investigated to assess the potential for zonal management practices. Finally, the effects of growth temperatures on fruit quality were studied. Significant variation in fruit quality was observed between-seasons, between-orchards, and between-vines within an orchard. From comparison of CVs between quality traits, cropload was more variable than fruit weight which varied more than fruit DM, independent of the production scale considered (between-orchard or between-vine). Across a hierarchy of fruit populations (individual vine, fruit-line and orchard), the majority of fruit quality distributions demonstrated significant deviations from normality. However, departures from normality can be tolerated for estimation of the proportion of fruit with specific quality criteria. The sources of variation in fruit weight and DM populations were investigated at both a between-orchard scale and a within-orchard scale. Between-orchard variation was significant, however, the majority of variation occurred within-fruitlines, within-orchards and within seasons. The within-fruitline component of variation was investigated separately. Both between-vine and within-vine variation were significant, but within-vine variation was dominant. The focus of management should be on reducing variation occurring within-fruitlines within-orchards, which is largely attributable to variation occurring within the individual vine. Higher croploads per vine have negative consequences for fruit weight but variable effects on DM. Increasing croploads reduce both FW and DW allocations for each fruit, therefore the effect of cropload on DM is dependent on the relative reductions in FW and DW. The DW allocations to fruit are not limited by DW production, at least up to the croploads observed in this study (≤65 fruit m-2). The potential for zonal management was investigated. Variation in fruit quality characteristics between-orchards across the Te Puke growing region, and between-vines within an individual orchard area were investigated using geostatistics. A spatial component to variation was identified both between-orchard and between-vine. However, the effect of spatial variation was diluted by that of non-spatial variation and therefore, zonation between orchards or between areas within-orchards should not be where the effort in managing variation is concentrated. Orchard altitude correlated with some aspects of fruit quality. Mean fruit weight declined 0.5g and within-orchard variation in fruit weight declined 0.25 units with a 25m increase in orchard altitude. Mean fruit DM was independent of orchard altitude and within-orchard variability in DM declined 0.023 units per 25m increase in orchard altitude. Differences in orchard altitude equated with differences in growth temperatures. Warm spring and cool summer temperatures favour the growth of high DM fruit. The effects of spring temperatures on canopy development and maturation were investigated to elucidate potential physiological mechanisms for temperatures effects on fruit growth. Higher spring growth temperatures increased the rate of total leaf area development and promoted development of leaf photosynthesis. Higher spring growth temperatures favoured a more positive carbon balance, which has beneficial effects on the development of fruit quality characteristics. Post-harvest, the traditional practice of grading fruit into count sizes generally also segregates for DM, and large count size fruit will often have higher DM than small sized fruit. Between fruit populations, a positive correlation was identified between fruit DM and acidity; therefore, segregation of the inventory by DM will also segregate for acidity. High DM fruit are also more acidic with a higher, more favourable brix/acid ratio when ripe. It is recommended that fruit DM status be managed in the inventory, not by maturity area as is the current practice, but by groups of similar count sizes within maturity areas.

[Typescript] Includes bibliography.