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BACKGROUND: Few studies have investigated the effects of dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet on obesity in children. The present study was conducted to examine adherence to the DASH diet in relation to obesity in children and adolescents, Isfahan, Iran. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 456 children aged 11-18 years who were selected by random cluster sampling method. Dietary intakes were assessed using a validated Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). The DASH score was constructed based on food items emphasized or minimized in the DASH diet. Anthropometric measurements were conducted based on standard protocols. General and abdominal obesity were defined based on body mass index ≥ 95th percentiles and waist: height ratio of more than 0.5, respectively. RESULTS: Higher adherence to DASH diet was inversely associated with general obesity (odds ratioT1 vs. T3 3.34, 95% confidence interval 1.28-8.75); however, after controlling for confounding factors, this association disappeared. Furthermore, higher adherence to DASH diet was negatively associated with central obesity in children, but the relation was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: We concluded that there was an inverse nonsignificant association between adherence to DASH diet and general obesity indices after adjustment for potential confounders. Further, well-designed randomized clinical trial studies are suggested to find out the effect of DASH diet on obesity obviously. &nbsp

Background: This study was aimed to compare the diagnostic accuracy and feasibility of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) with phosphor storage plate (PSP) in detection of simulated occlusal secondary caries. Materials and Methods: In this in vitro descriptive-comparative study, a total of 80 slots of class I cavities were prepared on 80 extracted human premolars. Then, 40 teeth were randomly selected out of this sample and artificial carious lesions were created on these teeth by a round diamond bur no. 1/2. All 80 teeth were restored with amalgam fillings and radiographs were taken, both with PSP system and CBCT. All images were evaluated by three calibrated observers. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was used to compare the diagnostic accuracy of two systems. SPSS (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was adopted for statistical analysis. The difference between Az value of bitewing and CBCT methods were compared by pairwise comparison method. The inter- and intra-operator agreement was assessed by kappa analysis (P < 0.05). Results: The mean A z value for bitewings and CBCT was 0.903 and 0.994, respectively. Significant differences were found between PSP and CBCT (P = 0.010). The kappa value for inter-observer agreement was 0.68 and 0.76 for PSP and CBCT, respectively. The kappa value for intra-observer agreement was 0.698 (observer 1, P = 0.000), 0.766 (observer 2, P = 0.000) and 0.716 (observer 3, P = 0.000) in PSP method, and 0.816 (observer 1, P = 0.000), 0.653 (observer 2, P = 0.000) and 0.744 (observer 3, P = 0.000) in CBCT method. Conclusion: This in vitro study, with a limited number of samples, showed that the New Tom VGI Flex CBCT system was more accurate than the PSP in detecting the simulated small secondary occlusal caries under amalgam restoration.

In response to tackling the environmental consequences of fertiliser production, biofertilisers from organic sources are strongly promoted in line with circular economy and maximising resource use. Despite the outstanding potential of bio-based fertilisers for the sustainable development of the agricultural sector, an environmental investigation of these fertilisers is required to replace synthesised fertilisers. Considering the importance of iron as a plant micronutrient and the scientific gap in the environmental assessment of relevant fertilisers, iron-based fertilisers produced in EU and US geographical zones are selected as a case study in this paper. Therefore, this study examines the environmental performance of two iron-based fertilisers (Fe-biochelate and Fe-EDDHA) by the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The LCA model has been implemented in Simapro software by the ecoinvent database and ReCipe 2016 method considering 1 kg iron content as a functional unit. The results revealed that the Fe-biochelate reduced impacts (69–82%) on all relevant categories, including global warming (69%), terrestrial ecotoxicity (82%), and fossil resource scarcity (77%) in comparison with Fe-EDDHA. Soymeal and acetic acid were the main stressors identified in Fe-biochelate production, while phenol, ethylenediamine and glyoxal were the most significant contributors to the impact categories related to Fe-EDDHA. As a result, Fe-biochelate can be considered a more eco-friendly alternative to Fe-EDDHA.

Plant biostimulants have gained great interest from the agrochemical industry and farmers because of their ability to enhance nutrient use efficiency and increase abiotic stress tolerance in crop production. However, despite the considerable potential of biostimulants for the sustainable development of the agricultural sector, the environmental evaluation of the application of biostimulants is still missing. Hence, this is the first study that focuses on the environmental assessment of the biostimulant action of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus intraradices and vegetal-derived protein hydrolysate on two greenhouse vegetable crops, spinach and zucchini squash, under different fertilization regimes. The life cycle assessment from a cradle to gate perspective, which covers all processes related to crop cultivation up to harvest, was carried out to calculate the carbon footprint of the production chain for these two crops. The results of the comparative analysis revealed that the CO2 equivalent emissions of both crops were reduced due to the biostimulant applications. In particular, the effect of the mycorrhization on the reduction of carbon emissions compared to the un-mycorrhized control was higher in zucchini plants under organic fertilization (12%) than under mineral fertilization (7%). In addition, organic fertilization increased the total carbon footprint of zucchini (52%) compared with mineral fertilization. The results also showed that an increase of nitrogen fertilization from 15 to 45 kg N ha&minus, 1 in spinach production enhanced the total CO2 emissions per ton of harvested leaves in comparison with treatments that involved the foliar applications of protein hydrolysate together with a lower nitrogen input, this increase was 4% compared to the unfertilized treatment with application of biostimulant. This study can support decision-making in terms of agronomic technique choices in line with sustainable development of vegetable crop production.