The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Study of Normal Brain Development is a landmark study in which structural and metabolic brain development and behavior are followed longitudinally from birth to young adulthood in a population-based sample of healthy children. The neuropsychological assessment protocol for children aged 6 to 18 years is described and normative data are presented for participants in that age range (N = 385). For many measures, raw score performance improved steeply from 6 to 10 years, decelerating during adolescence. Sex differences were documented for Block Design (male advantage), CVLT, Pegboard and Coding (female advantage). Household income predicted IQ and achievement, as well as externalizing problems and social competence, but not the other cognitive or behavioral measures. Performance of this healthy sample was generally better than published norms. This linked imaging-clinical/behavioral database will be an invaluable public resource for researchers for many years to come. (JINS, 2007, 13, 729–746.)This project is supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Contract N01-HD02-3343), the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health (Contract N01-MH9-0002), and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (Contracts N01-NS-9-2314, -2315, -2316, -2317, -2319 and -2320). The views stated herein do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke), or the Department of Health and Human Services, nor any other agency of the United States government.

Winter accumulation on glaciers in temperate to sub-arctic climate regimes is determined by both precipitation and snowdrifting during repeated events during any particular winter. Since glacier mass balance is calculated from the sum of winter and summer balance, and summer balance can be modeled with high accuracy, identification of the coupling between atmospheric circulation and winter balance is essential in order to fully understand the climate information hidden in the glacier mass-balance records. We have sampled snow cores from Storglaciären, Sweden, to examine identifiable chemical signatures to link these with up-wind sources in an attempt to quantify how much accumulation occurs under given atmospheric conditions. The snow samples reveal that several different chemical signatures occur but that identifying their source is not trivial, although only few but distinct sources exist. The relationship between the identified strata of a given signature is difficult to couple to recorded precipitation events because the crucial timing of deposition is lacking in our investigation. If time control on snow deposition is available, the combination of snow chemistry, meteorological and climatological data is a promising tool for evaluating the coupling between snow accumulation and atmospheric circulation.

A community-based, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial was conducted from March 2001 to March 2002 in Kilosa, a rural district of Morogoro Region in Tanzania. One hundred and fifty-eight infants were selected randomly from lists of local Maternal and Child Health Care Centres and received either processed complementary food (PCF) or unprocessed complementary food (UPCF) from age 6 to 12 months. Processing increased Zn solubility and energy density of the porridge prepared from the complementary food (CF) as determined in vitro. Phytate:Zn molar ratio of the PCF and UPCF was 25·8 and 47·5, respectively. Under the study conditions, the processing of CF did not improve Zn status as measured by hair analysis. No significant correlations were found between hair Zn values and anthropometric measurements. Our findings suggest that processing alone of cereal-based CF may be insufficient to ensure an adequate supply of Zn to improve growth and Zn status of infants. Dietary modification to tackle Zn deficiencies in similar target groups may therefore only be successful when other Zn-rich foods such as meat and fish are included.