Food and water consumption by adult female German cockroaches has been examined in relation to the reproductive cycle. Daily consumption was recorded for individual insects and was related to certain landmark events in each of four egg-case production cycles. It was shown that peaks of feeding and drinking occur during the egg maturation period, but are abruptly terminated at the appearance of each egg case. During the period when females carry the egg case, they feed and drink sparingly. The possible role played by feeding and especially drinking in the regulation of reproduction in this important pest species is discussed.

Sustainable agriculture encompasses economic, environmental, and social aspects of the food system. Members of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (Academy) play an important role in promoting sustainable agriculture because they work in areas where they can influence the food purchasing decisions of foodservice operations and the public.To investigate behavior of registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) toward incorporating sustainable agriculture principles into professional practice using the Theory of Planned Behavior.This cross-sectional study surveyed RDNs nationwide about their perspectives on incorporating sustainable agriculture issues into practice. The survey questions were based on a survey originally administered to Minnesota RDNs during 2002.The sample (N=626) was drawn from a randomly selected, national sample of Academy members.Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t tests, Pearson correlations, and stepwise regression.The sample was mostly white, female, and the average age was 45.4±12.2 years. Almost half of Academy RDNs (47%) reported incorporating environmental issues into their practice. All four Theory of Planned Behavior variables (intention, attitude, perceived behavior control, and subjective norm) were predictive of behavior to include sustainable agriculture issues into practice. Barriers to incorporating this topic into practice included lack of knowledge, ability, time, and employer support.This study found that most of the RDN respondents had heard of sustainable agriculture and nearly half reported including this topic in their professional practice. To integrate this topic into practice more consistently, RDNs need more knowledge, time, and employer support.

Pesticides are increasingly recognized as relevant stressors in stream ecosystems. Stream biota is exposed to pesticides with low water solubility, e.g. pyrethroid insecticides, via water, habitat, and food. However, long-term effects of simultaneous exposure pathways are unknown. In this context, we conducted a microcosm experiment with the caddisfly Anabolia nervosa exposing the larvae to the pyrethroid insecticide esfenvalerate (EFV) at 0.1 and 1.0μgL−1 via (i) water, (ii) food or a (iii) combination of water and food. Combined exposure through water and food significantly reduced emergence by 60% and significantly postponed emergence timing at the highest EFV level, whereas none of the single-phase exposures showed significant effects. Moreover, our study revealed that successfully emerged females from the highest biphasic treatment level were characterised by altered composition of storage lipids indicative of reduced energy reserves. Consequently, a realistic test scenario that represents simultaneous exposure of organisms and their food may reveal substantially increased long term effects of pyrethroids when compared with current ecological risk assessment applying only single phase exposure. We recommend that relevant concurrent exposure routes of pesticides should be considered in order to derive realistic regulatory acceptable concentrations of pesticides.

Objective: The validation of dietary assessment methods is critical in the evaluation of the relation between dietary intake and health. The aim of this study was to assess the validity of a food frequency questionnaire by comparing energy intake with energy expenditure measured with the doubly labelled water method. Design: Total energy expenditure was measured with the doubly labelled water (DLW) method during a 10 day period. Furthermore, the subjects filled in the food frequency questionnaire about 18-35 days after the DLW phase of the study was completed. Subjects: Twenty-one healthy, non-pregnant females volunteered to participate in the study; only 17 subjects completed the study. Results: The group energy intake was on average 10% lower than the energy expenditure, but the difference was not statistically significant. However, there was a wide range in reporting accuracy: seven subjects were identified as acceptable reporters, eight as under-reporters and two were identified as over-reporters. The width of the 95% confidence limits of agreement in a Bland and Altman plot for energy intake and energy expenditure varied from -5 to 3 MJ. Conclusion: The data showed that there was substantial variability in the accuracy of the food frequency questionnaire at the individual level. Furthermore, the results showed that the questionnaire was more accurate for groups than individuals.

The scarcity of grazing and water for an animal has a negative effect on household welfare and food security either by affecting livestock production directly, affecting crop or off-farm income due to labor reallocation or through its direct impact on time leisure consumption.The economic impacts of resource (grazing and water) scarcity on welfare are undermined. Thus, a better understanding that is derived from the factual evidence is required. The first objective of this paper is to explore the link between natural resource scarcity and per capita food consumption expenditure (PCFE) as proxy for welfare and food security followed by the second objective of analyzing whether this effect is uniform across all quantile groups and there is gender differential effect using distance and shadow price as resource scarcity indicators. The paper used a relatively unique data set from a randomly drawn 518 sample farmers in Northern Ethiopia. To address our first objective, we employ the IV two-stage least square estimation for welfare and probit model for food security drawing on non-separable farm household model.Our estimates show that about 48% of the households were food secure while 52% were food insecure. Our results confirmed the theoretical prediction that resource scarcity affects household PCFE and food security adversely as predicted by the downward spiral hypothesis. The results indicate that animal feed and water scarcity have an important impact on welfare and food security. As expected, in aggregate, reducing time spent searching for water per day leads to an increase in PCFE and food security. Similarly, a decrease in time wastage for searching grazing increase PCFE and food security respectively, and an increment of PCFE and food security is achieved by a reduction in crop residue transporting time per day.The gender differential analysis signals that increasing resource scarcity results in low PCFE and food security, with the male are considerably likely to have less food consumption expenditure and being food insecure more as compared to female households. The total impact of time spent searching for water, grazing, and transporting straw on per PCFE is − 0.142%, − 0.102%, and − 0.092%, respectively, and decreasing reaching time to a water, grazing, and straw source by 0.6 min will increase PCFE by 354 ETB, 254 ETB, and 229 ETB for the median household. Depending on results from the quantile regression, the effect of water and feed scarcity is not uniform across the food consumption distribution.

Females of the European beewolf, Philanthus triangulum F. (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae), embalm the provisions of their larvae, paralyzed honeybees, with a secretion from a postpharyngeal gland prior to oviposition. This food wrapping is known to delay fungus infestation of the prey. In the present study, the hypothesis that the food wrapping has an additional function, namely the prevention of prey desiccation, is tested. Water loss of paralyzed but unembalmed honeybees and embalmed honeybees is measured and the composition and quantity of their cuticular hydrocarbons analyzed by coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Water loss is significantly lower in embalmed compared with unembalmed bees. This might have important advantages for the larvae under the warm and dry conditions that prevail in some brood cells. The embalming by beewolf females increases the total amount of hydrocarbons on the surface of the bees by almost ten-fold. Moreover, the proportion of unsaturated and short-chained hydrocarbons is significantly increased. Unsaturated and short-chain hydrocarbons are usually less effective against water loss, so the increased protection against water loss appears to be mediated mainly by the thickness of the hydrocarbon layer.

Increasing water intake is often purported to reduce energy intake, and is recommended as a weight loss strategy. The few experimental studies that have been conducted to verify these claims have examined the impact of a single pre-load of water before a meal. Although correlational data indicate a relationship between hydration, energy intake, and weight status, there is very little experimental research in this area. The current studies examined the hypothesis that elevated hydration, through increased water intake, would suppress energy intake. In Experiment 1, participants (n = 49) were asked to consume either one, two, or three 500 ml bottles of water throughout the morning before a lunch buffet in the laboratory. When participants categorized as normal weight drank three bottles of water they consumed less energy at lunch, but there was no effect on participants categorized as overweight or obese. In addition, increased water intake suppressed liking of food items in all participants and hunger in females. A follow-up study (n = 45) was conducted to test if four bottles of water throughout the morning would result in a similar energy suppression in participants categorized as overweight or obese. Surprisingly, in the second experiment, there was no effect of water intake on energy intake at lunch in any of the conditions. There was, however, a similar suppression of hunger and food liking. In conclusion, increasing water intake throughout the morning only suppressed energy intake in individuals categorized as normal weight under certain circumstances, and had no effect on individuals categorized as overweight/obese.

Ad libitum (AL) feeding of rats leads to obesity and increased result variability, as well as premature morbidity and mortality. It may also alter metabolism and responses to foreign compounds. Moderate dietary restriction (DR) reduces these untoward effects without compromising the sensitivity of rodent bioassays. The diet board (DB) is a novel method for achieving moderate DR in group housing. Food pellets are firmly attached into grooves in an aspen board, and rats have to gnaw the wood in order to eat. Food is available continuously, but due to the effort involved rats eat less. This study simulated a chronic safety test to assess the long-term effects of DB feeding. A total of 146 male and female outbred Sprague-Dawley rats, nine weeks old at onset, were housed in groups of three and fed either AL or with DBs for two years. Food and water consumption were measured at six time points. The rats were weighed every one to two weeks. Body and tibial lengths and epididymal fat weight were measured at necropsy. Modified body mass index was calculated at five time points after one year of age. DB feeding reduced body weight and fat tissue moderately, more so in males. DB males ate less than AL males, but no differences were seen in the total food consumption in the females. There was no consistent difference in the within-group variations of the measured parameters. DB is a workable DR method, albeit some modification could enhance and standardize its DR effects, especially in female rats.

Many environmental stressors naturally covary, and the frequency and duration of stressors such as heat waves and droughts are increasing globally with climate change. Multiple stressors may have additive or non-additive effects on fitness-related traits, such as locomotion, reproduction, and somatic growth. Despite its importance to terrestrial animals, water availability is rarely incorporated into multiple-stressor frameworks. Water limitation often occurs concurrently with food limitation (e.g., droughts can trigger famines), and the acquisition of water and food can be linked because water is necessary for digestion and metabolism. Thus, we investigated the independent and interactive effects of water and food limitation on life-history traits using female crickets (Gryllus firmus), which exhibit a wing dimorphism mediating a life-history trade-off between flight and fecundity. Our results indicate that traits vary in their sensitivities to environmental factors and factor–factor interactions. For example, neither environmental factor affected flight musculature, only water limitation affected survival, and food and water availability non-additively (i.e., interactively) influenced body and ovary mass. Water availability had a larger effect on traits than food availability, affected more traits than food availability, and mediated the effects of food availability. Further, life-history strategy influenced the costs of multiple stressors because females investing in flight capacity exhibited greater reductions in body and ovary mass during stress relative to females lacking flight capacity. Therefore, water is important in the multiple-stressor framework, and understanding the dynamics of covarying environmental factors and life history may be critical in the context of climate change characterized by concurrent environmental stressors.