Avianomics: The Beginning at the End

The research-teaching nexus is the pinnacle of academic activity. As a scientist and educator, my overall objective is to give students access to cutting-edge research and help them develop high order inquiry skills. In addition, as research and thesis writing frequently involves the development of new complex reading skills associated with comprehension and synthesis of a tremendous volume of information, along with in-depth critical analysis, evaluation, and elegant academic writing style, I decided to assign this editorial to my 2020-Biochemical Nutrition graduate students. As my students have diverse educational and cultural backgrounds and have been exposed to a variety of tech-based learning, we decided to summarize here recent advances in omics research in avian species to facilitate the discussion by asking new questions, which may help open new vistas for future investigations. By following the “scaffolded” approach, my students highlighted progress in Transcriptomics (Komp M and Bowie R), Proteomics (Tabler T and Lee T), Kinomics (Hernandez RM and Zuo B), Epigenomics (Ferver A), Metabolomics (Maynard C and Mullenix G), and Microbiomics (Teyssier JR and Bodle B). I would like to thank my students for their motivation, dedication, determination, perseverance, connection, consistency, and support. I would also like to thank AFTNS-OJ for inviting me to write this editorial and I hope by getting my students involved would promote their curiosity, help them understand complex questions, explore more sources, stimulate their independent thinking, and create research- and question-mindsets.

Influence of Nutritional Awareness on Grocery Shopping by Kuwaiti Parents in Relation to Children Nutrition

Background Caregivers, specifically parents, are ultimately responsible for the nutrition of children living in the household, in spite of the children’s preferences for food items. There have been no studies on the relationship between the nutritional knowledge level of Kuwaiti parents who grocery shop and their children’s nutrition. Therefore, this study was carried out to explore grocery shopping patterns of Kuwaiti parents in relation to their children's eating habits. Methods A questionnaire was administered by 4 of the authors through face-to-face interviews with 100 Kuwaiti parents who grocery shop for their families. The questionnaire was designed to cover three main categories: demographics, parents’ nutritional knowledge, and children’s nutrition. Subjects were interviewed at random at 6 supermarket locations. Data were analyzed utilizing a SPSS statistical package and the Chi–Square test was used to examine the association between variables at the p<0.05 level of significance. Results Demographic data of respondents showed that 92% were married, 66% were females, 61% were university graduates, and 84% allowed children to choose food items while shopping. Children’s age ranged from 2 to 18-years. Results indicated that the media was the main source of nutrition knowledge of participants. About 50% were familiar with food labels, 74% were shopping for nutrition claims and most parents (60%) were shopping for low-fat products. Analysis of data revealed several associations among demographics, nutrition knowledge of parents and nutrition of children. Conclusion This study is the first of its type to be carried out in Kuwait. It revealed several important aspects of parents’ background and awareness of nutrition as influencing factors on their grocery shopping. It is hoped that this line of research will be expanded, for the benefit of children’s health and avoidance of future nutrition-related diseases.

Combining Ability Analysis in Sweet Corn (Zea Mays Saccharrata L.) Using Line by Tester Design

Aim The purpose of this study was to investigate the different combination of testcrosses for morphological and yield relating traits and to investigate general combining ability of the inbred lines. Materials and Methods This research was conducted at The University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakistan during 2016. Line x-tester analysis was used to test general combining ability (GCA) effects of 24 S4 lines of sweet corn. Alpha lattice design with two replications and two checks was used during the experiment. Research data were recorded on various flowering, morphological and yield parameters. Results Highly significant variations were recorded among the testcrosses for the studied traits except anthesis silking interval (ASI), 100-kernel weight. Minimum days to tasseling (48-days) and silking (53.5-days) was exhibited by pop-syn-swt (9-4)×synthetic sweet. GCA effect was -2.14 for tasseling and -2.00 for silking. Maximum value (3.5-days) for ASI was recorded for Pop-synswt 1(8-3)×synthetic sweet, while GCA effect for ASI was -0.71. Lowest plant height (129.8 cm) was recorded for pop-syn-swt 1(3-3)×synthetic sweet, while GCA effect for plant height was observed to be -14.79. Maximum cob length (16.6 cm) was revealed by pop-syn-swt 1(12-2)×synthetic sweet. For cob length GCA effect of 1.01 was recorded. Maximum 100 kernel weight (31.3 g) was estimated for pop-syn-swt 1(2-1)×synthetic sweet. GCA effect of 1.85 was recorded for 100-kernel weight. Highest mean (7143.9 kg ha-1) for grain yield was recorded for pop-syn-swt 1(9-4)×synthetic sweet. GCA effect for grain yield was found to be 1370.93. Conclusion Generally a low GCA value, either positive or negative indicates that the mean of a parent does not largely vary from its offsprings. In contrast, high GCA value suggests that parent is either superior or inferior to the general mean and it has high heritability and less environmental effects. Based on the findings in this research, the above mentioned testcrosses can be included in future sweet corn breeding programs where early flowering and yield attributes is desired.

Dietary Recommendation in Diabetes Care: Carbohydrate Counting and Caloric Content of Nigerian Foods

The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is rising globally and even more in low and middle-income countries such as Nigeria. Optimal management of the disease is important to improve survival and prevent or delay its complications. Lifestyle management is a standard universal approach in optimizing the care given to diabetic patients. Dietary management is the central link in lifestyle modifications of individuals living with diabetes. Medical nutrition therapy (MNT) is a systematic therapeutic approach of assessing the nutritional needs of an individual, determining nutritional goals, counselling the clients on how to achieve the goals, prescribing and monitoring meal plans to achieve the goals. It is evidence-based, effective and highly recommended. All carers of the diabetes patient, including the health workers and the family members of the patients, need to have basic understanding of medical nutrition therapy but the efforts should be coordinated by licensed dietitians. There are evidences that adherence to prescribed calories is effective in the control of cardiovascular risk factors such as blood glucose, weight, lipid profile and blood pressure. However, prescription of calories should be based on thoughtful consideration of the nutritional needs, weight goal, personal preferences and tastes and cultural practices of individuals living with diabetes mellitus. Food pyramids give a graphical illustration on the recommended classes and servings of food. Six to eleven servings per day of carbohydrates, 3-5 servings per day of vegetables, 2-4 servings per day of fruit, 2-3 servings per day of dairy products and 2-3 servings per day of fish are the recommended proportions of the different classes of foods for an adult on an average of 2000 calories. Carbohydrate counting, taken with appropriate insulin dosing and physical activity, has been demonstrated to be effective in optimizing the glycaemic control of patients on multiple daily insulin injections. There are challenges in doing this in Nigeria due to lack of food labels. The caloric contents of common Nigerian foods are highlighted so as to help in achieving dietary goals.