Iron deficiency is estimated to affect over one-half the world population. Improving the nutritional quality of staple food crops through breeding for high bioavailable iron represents a sustainable and cost effective approach to alleviating iron malnutrition. Forty-nine late maturing tropical elite maize varieties were grown in a lattice design with two replications in three locations represen...

Total vitamin D levels had been commonly reported to be lowered in patients with chronic psychotic illnesses in countries from the higher latitudes. However, studies on patients with first episode psychosis (FEP) are limited. In this study we investigated serum concentrations of total and bioavailable vitamin D levels in FEP patients compared to healthy controls and the association between symp...

OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to assess the prevalence of clinical hypogonadism, based on both symptoms and biochemical available measures of testosterone deficiency, in men with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In a cross-sectional study of 355 type 2 diabetic men aged >30 years, total and bioavailable testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin, BMI, and waist circumference ...

the study aimed to come up with a list of specific macroalgae species, which could be used to biomonitor specific metal elements in the coastal waters of east africa. water extraction, edta, aqua regia extraction and optimized bcr 3-step sequential extracts were used to mimic bioavailable metals under various environmental conditions. the results indicated that ulva lactuca could be used as a ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prospective association between endogenous sex hormones and the development of type 2 diabetes in older men and women. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A standardized medical history was obtained, an oral glucose tolerance test was performed, and plasma samples for sex hormones and covariates were collected from ambulatory, community-dwelling men and women at baseline fr...

BACKGROUND Although high endogenous sex hormone levels and estrogen plus progestin (E+P) therapy are associated with increased breast cancer risk, it is unknown whether pretreatment levels of sex hormones modify E+P effect on breast cancer. METHODS We conducted a nested case-control study within the Women's Health Initiative randomized clinical trial of E+P. The trial enrolled 16608 postmenop...

Chemical methods to predict the bioavailable fraction of organic contaminants are usually validated in the literature by comparison with established bioassays. A soil spiked with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was aged over six months and subjected to butanol, cyclodextrin and tenax extractions as well as an exhaustive extraction to determine total PAH concentrations at several time po...

Caffeine intake has been associated with risk of osteoporosis, breast cancer, endometriosis, and fibrocystic breast disease and has been hypothesized to exert its effects through alteration of endogenous hormone levels. This study examined the cross-sectional association of caffeine intake with endogenous androgens, estrogens, and sex hormone-binding globulin in 728 white postmenopausal women a...

Lead (Pb) poisoning causes permanent neurologic and developmental disorders and remains an important environmental health problem for US children, despite removal of Pb from gasoline and household paints. To better understand the contribution of Pb from historical traffic and residential Pb based paint to soil Pb concentrations in Los Angeles, we analyzed 550 soil Pb samples from south central ...