Dietary acculturation of arab immigrants in the greater toronto area

Purpose: We explored the eating habits of Arab immigrants to determine whether they have maintained their traditional diet or have consumed a more Westernized diet since immigrating to Canada. Methods: Arab immigrants who had been in Canada for at least eight years and were currently living in the Greater Toronto Area were recruited. A sample of 24 Arab immigrants completed a mailed, self-administered questionnaire, and six participated in a focus group. The focus group discussion was transcribed verbatim and results were recorded. Latent content analysis was used to analyze, code, and categorize emerging themes. Results: Arab immigrants consumed a mixture of both Arabic and Western food and perceived their current diet to be healthier than it was before they immigrated to Canada. Factors that influenced their food choices included increased nutrition health awareness, differences in food preferences and preparation methods, and preservation of dietary practices in the new environment. Conclusions: Our findings will help dietitians who work with Arab immigrants to become more aware of factors that motivate this group's food choices, and to create nutrition programs that are more culturally sensitive.     

In situ synthesis of leucite-based feldspathic dental porcelain with minor kalsilite and Fe2O3 impurities

K-Feldspar was used as a raw material for in situ synthesis of leucite particles by solid-state reaction method. Prior to synthesis of leucite, K-Feldspar was treated by oxalic acid (C₂H₂O₄) to eliminate Fe content. The parameters affecting the structure and amount of Fe in K-Feldspar was investigated to reach an optimal leaching condition. Next, kasilite removal was studied by introducing CaF₂ to the composition of dental porcelain. To synthesis leucite, the prepared materials were heated up to 1450°C for 3 hours until fusion phenomena occurred, then cooled down to 865°C to permit the leucite crystals nucleate and grow. To find out the chemical composition of powder, XRF, EDX, and Atomic absorption spectroscopy were used. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffractometer and Scanning Electron Microscopy were employed to study the structure of mineral. Spectrophotometry was chosen to analyze whiteness index of powder after acid treatment. Differential Thermal Analysis was employed to determine the crystallization temperature. Results indicated a dramatic decrease in Fe content (0.018%wt) by employing C₂H₂O₄ as a leachant at 50°C. In addition, whiteness index of 91% was achieved through this procedure for raw feldspar. Finally, 1%wt of CaF₂ prevented formation of kalsilite.     

A comparative study on cytotoxicity and antiproliferative activities of crude extracts and fractions from Iranian wild-growing and cultivated <Emphasis Type="Italic">Agaricus</Emphasis> spp.

Little is known about anticancer capability of wild-growing mushrooms belonging to Agaricus spp. in comparison with their cultivated counterparts. The present study was done to evaluate in vitro antiproliferative effects of dichloromethane-methanol (1:1, v/v) extracts obtained from several Iranian wild strains of Agaricus spp. in comparison with the cultivated white button mushroom, A. bisporus. The wild brown A. bisporus at 500 µg/mL moderately prevented the growth of human prostate cancer (PC3) and human breast cancer (MCF-7) cell lines by 23.54 and 24.57%, respectively, while the wild strains of A. devniensis and A. gennadii at 500 µg/mL had only marginal inhibitory effects. On the contrary, the cultivated A. bisporus significantly inhibited the cell growth at concentrations as low as 125 µg/mL (p?<?0.05). Further, seven distinct fractions were determined based on thin layer chromatography analysis of the cultivated A. bisporus extract. The only active fraction was found to be eluted by petroleum ether (PE):ethyl acetate (EtOAc) (3:2 v/v) which prevented the growth of MCF-7 and PC3 by 74.00 and 63.5%, respectively at 500 µg/mL. Besides, the fraction imposed obvious cytopathic effects in both cell lines at all the tested concentrations, starting from 125 µg/mL. The findings of this study may validate that the known antioxidant potency of wild Agaricus spp. would not necessarily be correlated to their anticancer activity. This research further validated that some semi-polar antiproliferative compounds could be present in the PE/EtOAc-fraction of the cultivated white button mushroom, which warrants further investigations.     

Security Path: An Emerging Design Methodology to Protect the FPGA IPs Against Passive/Active Design Tampering

Modern FPGAs have a great market share in hardware prototyping, massive parallel systems and reconfigurable architectures. Although the field-programmability of FPGAs is an effective feature in the growth and diversity of their applications; it has caused security concerns for IPs/Designs on FPGAs. Recent researches show that a reliable mechanism is required to protect the IPs/applications on FPGAs against malicious manipulations during all stages of design lifecycle, especially when they are operating in the field. In this paper, we propose a new tamper-resistant design methodology (Security Path methodology) and a revised security-aware FPGA architecture. This methodology protects the configured design against tampering attacks in parallel with the normal operation of the circuit. When the attack is discovered, the normal data flow is obfuscated and the circuit is blocked. Experimental results show that this methodology provides near full coverage in tampering detection with overhead of 12.32 % in power, 12 % in delay and 38 % in area.     

A MATLAB program to calculate translational and rotational diffusion coefficients of a single particle

We developed a graphical user interface, MATLAB based program to calculate the translational diffusion coefficients in three dimensions for a single diffusing particle, suspended inside a fluid. When the particles are not spherical, in addition to their translational motion also a rotational freedom is considered for them and in addition to the previous translational diffusion coefficients a planar rotational diffusion coefficient can be calculated in this program. Time averaging and ensemble averaging over the particle displacements are taken to calculate the mean square displacement variations in time and so the diffusion coefficients. To monitor the random motion of non-spherical particles a reference frame is used that the particle just have translational motion in it. We call it the body frame that is just like the particle rotates about the z-axis of the lab frame.Some statistical analysis, such as velocity autocorrelation function and histogram of displacements for the particle either in the lab or body frames, are available in the program. Program also calculates theoretical values of the diffusion coefficients for particles of some basic geometrical shapes; sphere, spheroid and cylinder, when other diffusion parameters like temperature and fluid viscosity coefficient can be adjusted.

Program summary

Program title: KOJACatalogue identifier: AEHK_v1_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEHK_v1_0.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.htmlNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 48 021No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 1 310 320Distribution format: tar.gzProgramming language: MatLab (MathWorks Inc.) version 7.6 or higher. Statistics Toolbox and Curve Fitting Toolbox required.Computer: Tested on windows and linux, but generally it would work on any computer running MatLab (MathWorks Inc.). There is a bug in windows 7, if the user is not the administrator sometimes the program was not able to overwrite some internal files.Operating system: Any supporting MatLab (MathWorks Inc.) v7.6 or higher.RAM: About eight times that of loaded dataClassification: 12Nature of problem: In many areas of physics, knowing diffusion coefficients is vital and gives useful information about the physical properties of diffusive particles and the environment. In many cases a diffusive particle is not a sphere and has rotation during its movements. In these cases information about a particle's trajectory both in lab and body frame would be useful. Also some statistical analysis is needed to obtain more information about a particle's motion.Solution method: This program tries to gather all required tools to analyse raw data from the Brownian motion of a diffusing particle. Ability to switch between different methods of calculation of mean square displacement to find diffusion coefficients depends on the correlations between data points. There are three methods in the program: time average, ensemble average and their combinations. A linear fit is done to measure Diffusion Coefficient (D), the weight and fraction of data points is controllable. Given physical properties of the system, the program can calculates D theoretically for some basic geometrical shapes; sphere, spheroid and cylinder. In the case of non-spherical particles if data of rotation is available, the code can calculate trajectory and diffusion also in body frame. There are more statistical tools available in the program, such as histogram and autocorrelation function to obtain more information e.g. relaxation time to ideal diffusion motion. Code uses log–log diagram of mean square displacement (MSD) to calculate the amount of deviation from normal diffusion to sub- or super-diffusion.Running time: It is dependent on the input data, but for typical data in the order of mega bytes, it would take tens of minutes.     

Fermented dairy products: knowledge and consumption.

PURPOSE: Much has been published on the nutritional and health benefits of fermented dairy products, especially those containing probiotic microorganisms. However, consumers may not be familiar with the term "fermented dairy products," and therefore may not take full advantage of them. University students' knowledge and consumption patterns of fermented dairy products were assessed. METHODS: University students (n=223) completed a survey consisting of a section on demographics and another on knowledge and consumption patterns. RESULTS: The majority of respondents (62%) were not familiar with the term "fermented dairy products." Most respondents consumed yogourt a few times a week (40%) or a few times a month (30%). Almost all respondents (92%) were unable to identify the difference between regular and probiotic yogourt. Most respondents (93%) had not heard of acidophilus milk, but the majority (65%) would be willing to try it. Most respondents were unsure whether sour cream (65%), yogourt beverages (74%), and cheddar cheese (61%) were fermented dairy products. Sixty percent of respondents never consumed yogourt drinks. CONCLUSIONS: Education is needed about fermented dairy products, especially probiotics, and their nutritional and health benefits. Such education may increase their acceptability and consumption.     

Different behaviors of single and multi wall carbon nanotubes for studying electrochemistry and electrocatalysis of choline oxidase

This work presents a detailed comparison between single and multi wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs & MWCNTs) in an effort to understand which could be a better supporting material for studying the electrochemistry and electrocatalysis of enzymes. Choline oxidase (ChOx) was chosen as a model enzyme for evaluation of the electrodes’ performance. The enzyme was adsorbed on either SWCNT or MWCNT modified electrode, in the presence of a typical room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL), and its electron transfer and electroanalytical response toward choline was investigated. RTIL/MWCNTs/GC electrode was uniformly covered by ChOx. Besides, higher electrical conductivity, better reversibility of the ChOx redox reaction and higher electron transfer rate of the enzyme indicated more facile and rapid rate of electron transfer. On the other hand, RTIL/SWCNTs/GC electrodes showed higher amount of enzyme loading, higher enzyme–substrate affinity, lower detection limit, better sensitivity and wider linear range. Consequently, MWCNTs are preferable for kinetic study of ChOx, while SWCNTs are more convenient for biosensing applications.