Managing sales of beverages in schools to preserve profits and improve children's nutrition intake in 15 Mississippi schools.

School environments that provide consistent and reliable nutrition information promote the development of healthful eating in children. High-energy, nutrient-poor beverages offered for sale to children during the school day compete with healthful choices. The primary objective of this prospective, quasiexperimental study was to encourage children to choose more healthful beverages during the school day without adversely affecting the profits realized from vending sales.

Epifluorescence microscopy and image analysis of high-level polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon contamination in soils.

Interactions between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and soil are an important determinant of their chemical availability and transport. Laboratory examination of microscale PAH-soil interaction is limited by the availability of methods for particle-scale observation. Inverted epifluorescence microscopy, combined with digital photography and computer image analysis, was evaluated for specificity and linearity using dissolved PAHs.

Prevalence of food production systems in school foodservice.

Objective: What is the prevalence of central kitchens that use either cook-chill or cook-freeze production systems in school foodservice settings?

Design: A descriptive study using a 5-minute telephone survey during normal working hours was conducted. Questions were designed to be easily answered with minimal need to reference other documentation.

Subjects: Five hundred forty school foodservice directors, managers, and supervisors working in school districts of all sizes across the United States were randomly sampled from a national commercial directory of school districts for the study.