Publications by authors named "MacKay S"

Background: Public health programs and policies can positively influence food environments. In 2016, a voluntary National Healthy Food and Drink Policy was released in New Zealand to improve the healthiness of food and drinks for hospital staff and visitors. However, no resources were developed to support policy implementation.

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In this study we examined the activation of the non-canonical NFκB signalling pathway in endothelial cells. In HUVECs, LIGHT stimulated a delayed induction of serine 866/870 p100 phosphorylation linked to p52 NFκB formation. Surprisingly, the canonical ligand, IL-1β, stimulated a rapid phosphorylation or p100 which was not associated with p52 formation.

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Objective: Online 24-h dietary recall tools are commonly used in nationwide nutrition surveys to assess population diets. With a steep rise in the development of new and more advanced 24-h dietary recall tools, the decision of which tool to use for a national nutrition survey becomes increasingly challenging. Therefore, this short communication outlines the process of selecting a 24-h dietary recall tool for a national nutrition survey in New Zealand.

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Background: Rising childhood obesity rates in Asia are adding risk for the future adult burden of obesity and noncommunicable diseases. Weak policies across most Asian countries enable unrestricted marketing of obesogenic foods and beverages to children. Television is the common medium for food marketing to reach this audience.

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Background: This study conducted an exploratory content analysis of TV food advertisements on the top three most popular channels for Filipino children aged two to 17 during school and non-school days.

Methods: Data were collected by manually recording of aired advertisements from 16 non-school days (July to September 2020) and 16 school days (January to April 2021). Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were used to assess children's rates of exposure to food advertisements (mean ± SD of advertisements aired per channel per hour), the healthiness of promoted foods (as permitted (healthier) or not permitted (unhealthy) according to nutrient profiling models from the World Health Organization), and persuasive techniques used in food advertisements, including promotional characters and premium offers.

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The presence of excessive nitrate in environmental and drinking water even at low levels can pose both environmental and health hazards. Because of this, various methods for its removal have been investigated. Essential to conducting such research is a method to reliably quantify nitrate in relevant matrices.

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  • MarkerDB is a leading resource for molecular biomarker information that recently launched a significant update called MarkerDB 2.0.
  • This update features thousands of new biomarkers, improved search functionalities, and new tools for exploring biomarker panels, enhancing overall user experience.
  • MarkerDB continues to be a free and accessible platform, aimed at supporting a wide range of applications in clinical medicine and biomedical research.
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  • - The study explores the gaps in communication about malnutrition between patients and healthcare workers, noting that many patients are unaware of their malnutrition risk or diagnosis.
  • - It involved analyzing 17 qualitative studies to understand how patients and health workers interpret malnutrition terminology; five main themes emerged, indicating a lack of shared understanding.
  • - The research concludes that there's a pressing need for improved communication strategies regarding malnutrition diagnosis to enhance patient awareness and understanding.
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Introduction: Radiography departments require effective teamwork in order to deliver high standards of safe and efficient patient care. The aim of this study was to explore the features of and barriers to effective teamwork as experienced by pre-registration BSc and MSc diagnostic radiography students at university and during clinical placement.

Method: This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews and the thematic analysis approach of Braun and Clark to investigate the views of diagnostic radiography students on BSc and MSc pre-registration programmes from one university in the Northwest of England.

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Introduction: Food marketing restrictions often apply nutrient profile models (NPM) to distinguish unhealthy products that should not be advertised, however brand-only marketing remains largely unaddressed. We sought to test a threshold method for classifying packaged food, beverage, or fast-food brands as (non)permitted for marketing, based on the nutrient profile of their product-lines.

Methods: We retrieved nutrient information from the Nutritrack databases for all products sold by the top 51 packaged food, beverage and fast-food brands in New Zealand, selected by market share.

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Oceania is currently facing a substantial challenge: to provide sustainable and ethical food systems that support nutrition and health across land and water. The Nutrition Society of Australia and the Nutrition Society of New Zealand held a joint 2023 Annual Scientific Meeting on 'Nutrition and Wellbeing in Oceania' attended by 408 delegates. This was a timely conference focussing on nutrition challenges across the Pacific, emphasising the importance of nutrition across land and water, education settings, women's health and gut health.

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Background: Intake24, a web-based 24-hour dietary recall tool developed in the United Kingdom, was adapted for use in New Zealand (Intake24-NZ) through the addition of a New Zealand food list, portion size images, and food composition database. Owing to the customizations made, a thorough evaluation of the tool's usability was required. Detailed qualitative usability studies are well suited to investigate any challenges encountered while completing a web-based 24-hour recall and provide meaningful data to inform enhancements to the tool.

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is a ubiquitous bacterium and opportunistic pathogen for immunocompromised patients. Peritoneal dialysis-related peritonitis is a rare clinical presentation, with a total of 23 cases reported to date and an overall mortality rate of 17.3%.

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Titan, the largest moon of Saturn is thought to have the potential to support primordial life. The surface of Titan contains bodies of liquid hydrocarbons, and modelling suggests that an ammonia-water ocean resides deep beneath the surface, both of which have been speculated to support primordial chemistry. Here we present the first evidence that both preformed and self-organised phospholipid vesicles remain stable and can maintain concentration gradients in ammonia-water environments; a fundamental requirement for primordial chemistry and biology to originate.

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Olfaction is a fundamental sensory modality that guides animal and human behaviour. However, the underlying neural processes of human olfaction are still poorly understood at the fundamental-that is, the single-neuron-level. Here we report recordings of single-neuron activity in the piriform cortex and medial temporal lobe in awake humans performing an odour rating and identification task.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The National Healthy Food and Drink Policy, introduced in New Zealand's public hospitals in 2016, aimed to provide healthier food options for staff and visitors, with a study assessing its implementation from 1 to 5 years after its initiation.
  • - Audits conducted in 2017 and 2021 showed significant changes in the classification of food items, with an increase in green (healthy) options and a decrease in red (unhealthy) items across serviced outlets and vending machines.
  • - By 2021, green items represented 20.7% of available choices, a notable increase from 14.0% in 2017, though none of the health boards fully met the policy's ideal standards for healthy
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Sodium intake attributed to fast food is increasing globally. This research aims to develop maximum sodium reduction targets for New Zealand (NZ) fast foods and compare them with the current sodium content of products. Sodium content and serving size data were sourced from an existing database of major NZ fast-food chains.

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Our brains create new memories by capturing the 'who/what', 'where' and 'when' of everyday experiences. On a neuronal level, mechanisms facilitating a successful transfer into episodic memory are still unclear. We investigated this by measuring single neuron activity in the human medial temporal lobe during encoding of item-location associations.

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Background: In 2016, a voluntary National Healthy Food and Drink Policy was released to improve the healthiness of food and drinks for sale in New Zealand health sector organisations. The Policy aims to role model healthy eating and demonstrate commitment to health and well-being of hospital staff and visitors and the general public. This study aimed to understand the experiences of hospital food providers and public health dietitians/staff in implementing the Policy, and identify tools and resources needed to assist with the implementation.

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Background: In 2016, a voluntary National Healthy Food and Drink Policy (hereafter, "the Policy") was released to encourage public hospitals in New Zealand to provide food and drink options in line with national dietary guidelines. Five years later, eight (of 20) organisations had adopted it, with several preferring to retain or update their own institutional-level version. This study assessed staff and visitors' awareness and support for and against the Policy, and collected feedback on perceived food environment changes since implementation of the Policy.

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The inhibitory-kappaB kinases (IKKs) IKKα and IKKβ play central roles in regulating the non-canonical and canonical NF-κB signalling pathways. Whilst the proteins that transduce the signals of each pathway have been extensively characterised, the clear dissection of the functional roles of IKKα-mediated non-canonical NF-κB signalling versus IKKβ-driven canonical signalling remains to be fully elucidated. Progress has relied upon complementary molecular and pharmacological tools; however, the lack of highly potent and selective IKKα inhibitors has limited advances.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Conventional screening methods face challenges in logistics due to the need for biofluid handling and cooling, making it hard for remote areas.
  • * The 'Open SprayBot' is a robotic platform designed to automate the analysis of samples on paper, allowing easy shipping and increasing processing speed, successfully demonstrating this by quantifying a key biomarker in newborn screening.
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