Healthy Stores Initiative Associated with Produce Purchasing on Navajo Nation.

Background: American Indians and Alaska Natives experience diet-related health disparities compared with non-Hispanic whites. Navajo Nation's colonial history and remote setting present unique challenges for healthy food access.

Objective: This study aims to understand the impact of the Healthy Navajo Stores Initiative (HNSI) on fruit and vegetable purchasing on Navajo Nation.

The complexities of selling fruits and vegetables in remote Navajo Nation retail outlets: perspectives from owners and managers of small stores.

Objective: Navajo Nation residents experience extreme rates of poverty, food insecurity and diet-related diseases. While many residents travel far to shop at grocery stores, there are small stores closer to home that could provide more healthy options, like fruits and vegetables (F&V). Little is known from the perspective of store owners and managers regarding the barriers and facilitators to offering F&V; the present study contributes to filling that gap.

Arguments Used in Public Comments to Support or Oppose the US Department of Agriculture's Minimum Stocking Requirements: A Content Analysis.

Background: In 2016, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Retailer Rule proposed several changes for SNAP-authorized retailers, including: requiring retailers to have at least 85% of their food sales come from items that are not cooked or heated on site before or after purchase; requiring stores to stock seven varieties of qualifying foods from four staple food groups; requiring stores to carry perishable foods in three of the four staple groups; requiring stores to carry six units of qualifying foods at all times (depth of stock); disqualifying multiple ingredient foods and accessory foods from counting toward depth of stock requirements.

Objectives: To better understand arguments used to support or oppose the USDA's proposed rule that all SNAP-authorized retailers carry more nutritious foods.

Design: We conducted a qualitative content analysis of a random sample of public comments posted to the US Federal Register (a publicly available database) in response to the USDA's proposed rule.

Healthful Nutrition of Foods in Navajo Nation Stores: Availability and Pricing.

Purpose: Low availability and affordability of healthier foods in food stores on the Navajo Nation (NN) may be a community-level risk factor for the high prevalence of obesity among the Navajo people. This study assessed the availability and pricing of foods and beverages in supermarkets and convenience stores throughout the NN.

Design: Descriptive study design using the Nutrition Environment Measurement Survey in Stores audit tool.

Nutrition-related policy and environmental strategies to prevent obesity in rural communities: a systematic review of the literature, 2002-2013.

Introduction: Residents of rural communities in the United States are at higher risk for obesity than their urban and suburban counterparts. Policy and environmental-change strategies supporting healthier dietary intake can prevent obesity and promote health equity. Evidence in support of these strategies is based largely on urban and suburban studies; little is known about use of these strategies in rural communities.

Engineering soluble proteins for structural genomics.

Structural genomics has the ambitious goal of delivering three-dimensional structural information on a genome-wide scale. Yet only a small fraction of natural proteins are suitable for structure determination because of bottlenecks such as poor expression, aggregation, and misfolding of proteins, and difficulties in solubilization and crystallization. We propose to overcome these bottlenecks by producing soluble, highly expressed proteins that are derived from and closely related to their natural homologs.