Whole Grain Intakes in the Diets Of Malaysian Children and Adolescents – Findings from the MyBreakfast Study

Background

Diets rich in whole grain are associated with several health benefits. Little is known however, about whole grain consumption patterns in Malaysia. The aim of this study was to assess whole grain intakes and dietary source in Malaysian children and adolescents.

Methods

This analysis is from the MyBreakfast study, a national cross sectional study investigating eating habits among primary and secondary school children throughout Malaysia, conducted in 2013. Children (n = 5,165) and adolescents (n = 2,947) who completed two days of dietary assessment using a food record or recall respectively were included. The whole grain content of foods was estimated mainly through the use of quantitative ingredient declarations on food labels. All wholegrain foods were considered irrespective of the amount of whole grain they contained.

Results

Overall, only 25% of children and 19% of adolescents were wholegrain consumers. Mean daily intakes in the total sample were 2.3g/d (SD 5.8g/d) in children and 1.7g/d (SD 4.7g/d) in adolescents and in the consumer’s only sample, mean intakes reached 9.1g/d (SD 8.6) and 9.2g/d (SD 7.1g/d) respectively. Wheat was the main grain source of whole grain while ready to eat breakfast cereals and hot cereals were the main food contributors. Less than 3% of the children and adolescents reached the US quantitative whole grain recommendation of 48g/day.

Conclusion

Whole grain is consumed by only a minority of Malaysian children and adolescents and even among consumers, intakes are well below recommendations. Efforts are needed to firstly understand the barriers to whole grain consumption among Malaysian children in order to design effective health promotion initiatives to promote an increase in whole grain consumption.     

Molecular coevolution among cryptically simple expansion segments of eukaryotic 26S/28S rRNAs

The set of "expansion segments" of any eukaryotic 26S/28S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene is responsible for the bulk of the difference in length between the prokaryotic 23S rRNA gene and the eukaryotic 26S/28S rRNA gene. The expansion segments are also responsible for interspecific fluctuations in length during eukaryotic evolution. They show a consistent bias in base composition in any species; for example, they are AT rich in Drosophila melanogaster and GC rich in vertebrate species. Dot-matrix comparisons of sets of expansion segments reveal high similarities between members of a set within any 28S rRNA gene of a species, in contrast to the little or spurious similarity that exists between sets of expansion segments from distantly related species. Similarities among members of a set of expansion segments within any 28S rRNA gene cannot be accounted for by their base-compositional bias alone. In contrast, no significant similarity exists within a set of "core" segments (regions between expansion segments) of any 28S rRNA gene, although core segments are conserved between species. The set of expansion segments of a 26S/28S gene is coevolving as a unit in each species, at the same time as the family of 28S rRNA genes, as a whole, is undergoing continual homogenization, making all sets of expansion segments from all ribosomal DNA (rDNA) arrays in a species similar in sequence. Analysis of DNA simplicity of 26S/28S rRNA genes shows a direct correlation between significantly high relative simplicity factors (RSFs) and sequence similarity among a set of expansion segments. A similar correlation exists between RSF values, overall rDNA lengths, and the lengths of individual expansion segments. Such correlations suggest that most length fluctuations reflect the gain and loss of simple sequence motifs by slippage-like mechanisms. We discuss the molecular coevolution of expansion segments, which takes place against a background of slippage-like and unequal crossing-over mechanisms of turnover that are responsible for the accumulation of interspecific differences in rDNA sequences.      

The phylogenetic status of arthropods, as inferred from 18S rRNA sequences

Partial 18S rRNA sequences of five chelicerate arthropods plus a crustacean, myriapod, insect, chordate, echinoderm, annelid, and platyhelminth were compared. The sequence data were used to infer phylogeny by using a maximum-parsimony method, an evolutionary-distance method, and the evolutionary-parsimony method. The phylogenetic inferences generated by maximum-parsimony and distance methods support both monophyly of the Arthropoda and monophyly of the Chelicerata within the Arthropoda. These results are congruent with phylogenies based on rigorous cladistic analyses of morphological characters. Results support the inclusion of the Arthropoda within a spiralian or protostome coelomate clade that is the sister group of a deuterostome clade, refuting the hypothesis that the arthropods represent the "primitive" sister group of a protostome coelomate clade. Bootstrap analyses and consideration of all trees within 1% of the length of the most parsimonious tree suggest that relationships between the nonchelicerate arthropods and relationships within the chelicerate clade cannot be reliably inferred with the partial 18S rRNA sequence data. With the evolutionary-parsimony method, support for monophyly of the Arthropoda is found in the majority of the combinations analyzed if the coelomates are used as "outgroups." Monophyly of the Chelicerata is supported in most combinations assessed. Our analyses also indicate that the evolutionary-parsimony method, like distance and parsimony, may be biased by taxa with long branches. We suggest that a previous study's inference of the Arthropoda as paraphyletic may be the result of (a) having two few arthropod taxa available for analysis and (b) including long-branched taxa.      

Inertial vestibular coding of motion: concepts and evidence

Central processing of inertial sensory information about head attitude and motion in space is crucial for motor control. Vestibular signals are coded relative to a non-inertial system, the head, that is virtually continuously in motion. Evidence for transformation of vestibular signals from head-fixed sensory coordinates to gravity-centered coordinates have been provided by studies of the vestibulo-ocular reflex. The underlying central processing depends on otolith afferent information that needs to be resolved in terms of head translation related inertial forces and head attitude dependent pull of gravity. Theoretical solutions have been suggested, but experimental evidence is still scarce. It appears, along these lines, that gaze control systems are intimately linked to motor control of head attitude and posture.     

Fine filaments in lymphatic endothelial cells

Several and various types of cells contain fine cytoplasmic filaments closely resembling the myofilaments of muscle cells (2, 18, 23, 24). In many of these cells and especially when cultured, it has been demonstrated that some of these filaments react with heavy meromyosin (HMM) in the same way as do the actin filaments of muscle cells (3, 6 7). This suggests that these filaments may be actinoid and form part of a contractile system. As fine intracytoplasmic filaments do occur in lymphatic endothelial cells (2, 14), we undertook an electron microscope investigation of their fine structure and their reaction on incubation with HMM and EDTA. We postulated that lymphatic endothelial cells possess a contractile filamentous system to which these filaments belong.