One of the 300 semis that travel every day to and from the Daimler Chrysler plant in Marysville drives along Huron Boulevard.(Photo: Times Herald.)Buy Photo

Marysvilles Huron Boulevard could look a little different after its reconstruction begins next year, and officials hope the change will calm the roadways traffic.

The city is planning a three-phase rebuild of the roadway between M-29 andGratiot Boulevard at a cost of roughly $1.8 million. Construction is expected to start in 2018 and last two years.

The project, however, would not only reconstruct the road, as announced earlier this year, but also change its layout. Officials said the adjustment comes after the engineering firm hired to design the project surveyed the road and traffic volumes this spring.

Vehicles travel along Huron Boulevard Friday, June 2, 2017 in Marysville. The city is planning a three-phase rebuild of the roadway between M-29 and Gratiot Boulevard, reducing it from a four-lane road to one lane in each direction with a center left turn lane.(Photo: JEFFREY M. SMITH, TIMES HERALD)

Huron Boulevardis currently a four-lane road with two lanes heading each way. Barry Kreiner, Marysvilles director of public services, said after construction it will bethree lanes one travel lane in each direction and a left-turn lane down the middle. Intersections would get right-turn lanes.

Its a safety factor. Theres a lot of activity around the schools. Thats one of the main concerns, Kreiner said, pointing tothe area near Marysville High School. Its safety for kids. A lot of people come across 14thStreet and try to zip across four lanes into school parking lots. There are accidents there.

Marysville planning to rebuild Huron Blvd.

Federal funds will pay for 75 percent of the work, and with each year, a different section will be reconstructed.

City Manager Randy Fernandez said the change likely is more cost effective, but safety trumps that.

Patrick Phelan, of firm BMJ Engineers and Surveyors, previously explained the study of the roadway to the City Council. He called the new design a road diet, that would calm traffic by encouraging lower speeds.

Huron Boulevard has a traffic count of more than 4,000 vehicles a day,according to the Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments. The roadway between Gratiot and Michigan also sees an average of four crashes a year.

Vehicles travel along Huron Boulevard Friday, June 2, 2017 in Marysville. The city is planning a three-phase rebuild of the roadway between M-29 and Gratiot Boulevard, reducing it from a four-lane road to one lane in each direction with a center left turn lane.(Photo: JEFFREY M. SMITH, TIMES HERALD)

Kreiner said engineers still have to turn their designs into the state for approval. For road diets to work, he said roadways have to carry 20,000 or fewer vehicles daily.

The only thing is if youre around 15,000, they require you to do an extra study just to support what youre proposing, but were so far below, we dont have to do that, he said.

Kreiner, also a member of the Marysville school board, said the city has met with some school officials, who support the measure. He said the full board will also get the BMJ presentation at its June meeting.

Additionally, now that council members have had a chance to ask questions, Fernandez said planning commissioners will too.

They will also hear about this proposal in case they want to weigh in, he said. One action item to approve or disapprove. We dont need to get their approval, but its just us doing our due diligence to include as many partners as we can in the process.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.

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Marysville to consider 'road diet' for Huron Blvd. - Port Huron Times Herald

Black soldier fly pre-pupae meal offers a partial alternative to fishmeal use in the diets of farmed European seabass, according to a new study.

An international team of researchers in Brazil, Portugal and Spain examined the use of black soldier fly pre-pupae meal (HM) in the diets of European seabass, in place of fishmeal (FM). The group published its results in the journal of Aquaculture .

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of dietary replacement of FM by HM on growth performance, plasma metabolic profile, feed utilization, apparent digestibility, and digestive enzyme activities of European seabass juveniles, said the researchers.

The group found that levels of the pre-pupae meal could replace almost half of the fishmeal in the diet of juvenile seabass with few consequences to production, they said.

This study indicates that up to 19.5% of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) pre-pupae meal (corresponding to 22.5% of dietary protein), may successfully replace 45% FM in diets for juveniles of European seabass, without any adverse effect on growth performance, feed utilization, apparent digestibility coefficients or digestive enzyme activity, they said. Further research testing higher dietary HM inclusion levels, as well as detailed economic analysis of its incorporation in the diets, are needed to better evaluate the potential of HM inclusion rates in commercial aquafeeds.

Pressure to generate more food from aquatic sources, including aquaculture, has increased, said researchers.

Most farmed fish are raised on aquafeeds, and for carnivorous fish species, the diet often includes large levels of fishmeal and fish oil, they said. However, demand has increased the price of these feed ingredients.

Considerable efforts have been made to reduce the reliance on fishmeal and fish oil, they said. Interest has turned to sourcing sustainable supplies of animal and plant feedstuffs for aquafeed use.

Attention has focused on the use of plant protein-rich feedstuffs in practical diets for carnivorous fish, said the researchers. However, plant feedstuffs have relatively low protein content, unbalanced essential amino acid profiles, low palatability, the presence of anti-nutrients, and competition with other food-feed industry sectors.

This has encouraged work to improve the use of plant protein-based diets and for other alternative ingredients including animal feedstuffs and insect meals (IM), they said. Compared to conventional animal protein, insects have several advantages, including being reared on discarded organic by-products with low water input, high feed conversion efficiency, emission of low levels of greenhouse gases and ammonia, few animal welfare issues, and low risk of transmitting zoonotic infections, they added.

Insects offer a protein content of 60-80%; a well-balanced essential amino acid profile; and an alterable lipid and fatty acid profile, they said. The meal generated can be a good source of minerals including potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium and selenium.

Pre-pupae black soldier flies are of interest because there are already ways to mass-rear the insect for industrial production, the researchers said. They provide an average protein content of 55% dry matter and a balanced essential amino acid profile.

Although HM is considered to have a nutritional value close to that of FM, replacement of FM by HM in aquafeeds has not yet been as successful as hoped, the researchers said. Maximum dietary FM replacement level has ranged from 6 to 25%, depending of the fish species, with highest levels being attained for rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss.

In past experiments, the meal has reduced growth in channel catfish, rainbow trout and turbot when used at high levels, they said. In salmon, Salmo salar, dietary supplementation with lysine and methionine allowed dietary HM level up to a maximum of 25%, they added.

But little work has been doing exploring the use of insect meals on marine fish, they said. And those efforts have not included juvenile seabass.

In the feeding trial, juvenile seabass were given one of four diets for 62 days, said the researchers. These included a control diet with fishmeal and diets with 6.5%, 13% and 19.5% of the pre-pupae meal replacing 15%, 30% and 45% of FM.

Fish were acclimatized to the trial conditions for 15 days, then 12 groups of 10 fish were established, they said. Fecal matter was collected during the trial and fish were weighed at the end of the feeding trial.

The apparent digestibility coefficients (ADC) of the diets were calculated for dry and organic matter, protein, amino acids, lipids and energy, they said.

Blood and intestinal samples were collected at the end of the trial, the researchers said. These were checked for enzymatic activity and plasma metabolites.

At the end of the feeding period, no differences were found among fish receiving the different diets in terms of growth performance or feed use, said the researchers. The insect meal was capable of replacing up to 45% of fishmeal without negatively altering growth performance.

The fish promptly consumed all diets and no differences on voluntary feed intake were observed, indicating that HM was palatable for seabass, they said. Feed efficiency was also unaffected by dietary composition.

Plasma metabolic profiles remained similar, but plasma cholesterol was lower when HM was added to the fish diets, they said. The ADC were high for protein, lipids, dry matter, organic matter and energy and were not altered by the trial diets.

The ADC of arginine, histidine and valine were raised in HM diets compared to the fishmeal only diet, said the researchers. But, lipase activity was reduced in HM 6.5 diet when compared to both the control and HM 19.5 diet.

Source: Aquaculture

Title: Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) pre-pupae meal as a fishmeal replacement in diets for European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

DOI: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2017.04.021

Authors: Rui Magalhes, Antonio Snchez-Lpez, Renato Leal, Silvia Martnez-Llorens, Aires Oliva-Teles, Helena Peres

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European seabass production sustained when insects partially replace fishmeal in diets - FeedNavigator.com

by John McClaughry The news media are reporting the battle in Washington over the future of ObamaCare, and its proposed replacement American Health Care Act, as mainly a debate over coverage. This is understandable, but the national debate over health care policy ought to be far more broad. We need to look more closely at why, aside from accidents, people need health care.

Paul Jarris MD was Vermonts exceptionally able Health Commissioner in 2004. At a Snelling Institute conference I attended, Paul told us that 51% of Vermonters suffered chronic illnesses, and 78% of our health care dollars were spent on them. Other estimates of the contribution to health problems of personal lifestyle choices tobacco, alcohol, drugs, obesity, inactivity etc. are in the 40-50% range.

If 40-50% of our health care spending results from poor patient choices, how can we find more effective ways to influence patients to make better choices, and so reduce the enormous expenditures that they are causing?

At a health policy conference in Texas last spring I listened to a persuasive talk by John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Food Market. Much of his talk is included in his new book The Whole Foods Diet, coauthored with two MDs.

In it Mackey describes the conference that Dr. David Katz of Yale organized, with twenty one well-known advocates for various healthy diets. While differences in emphasis remained, all of the experts agreed that a healthy dietary pattern is higher in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low- or nonfat dairy, seafood, legumes and nuts; moderate in alcohol (among adults), lower in red and processed meats, and low in sugar-sweetened foods and drinks and refined grains.

Add to that regular physical activity, avoidance of tobacco, drugs, and liquor, and a positive and rewarding social environment, and you have a consensus path to lifelong health.

Mackey himself is a vegan (no meat, fish, eggs or dairy) but he stops short of promoting that plan. His recommendation is simple: eat whole foods instead of highly processed foods, and get 90% or more of your calories from plant foods.

Mackey tells how Whole Foods Market offers free weeklong wellness immersion programs to its employees.

Often these men and women started out overweight or obese, diabetic, or suffering from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, and other life threatening conditions. Many have seen dramatic results in even just one week, and have gone on to lose weight and in some cases have completely reversed their diseases.

Why does Whole Foods Market do this? Partly to illustrate the benefits of a whole foods diet along with other positive choices, and partly because Whole Foods Market wants to keep its employees healthy and control their companys health care costs.

The company is far from alone in doing this. In the 1990s Quad/Graphics in Wisconsin organized its own employee wellness subsidiary QuadMed that now manages programs in hundreds of locations. Marathon Health, headquartered in Winooski, provides onsite and near-site health centers and wellness programs for employers at over 130 locations in 40 States. Last month it won the Deane C. Davis Vermont Business of the Year Award.

Creative private sector programs like these can and do influence employees to make good health choices. For people who dont work for enlightened employers, civic and religious organizations like the Napa County (CA) Community Health Improvement Plan and the Blue Zones Project exist that work along the same lines.

Congress needs to make decisions about coverage, to be sure. Any next generation Federal health care policy ought to include income-tested support for catastrophic insurance that reduces the role of third party payments, tax equity for individual premium payers, expanded Health Savings Accounts to pay for ordinary medical expenses, preventive care and wellness programs, state-level innovation for Medicaid acute-care coverage, high risk pools to cover uninsurables, and improved price and outcome transparency to facilitate increased provider competition.

It should also recognize and support private sector health and wellness programs like Whole Foods, and effective motivational efforts that help people from grade school on to identify and avoid the poor choices that will cause them misery, and cost the taxpayers countless billions of dollars each year.

John McClaughry is vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute (www.ethanallen.org).

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McClaughry: The real health care issue is promoting wellness - Vermont Biz

Thousands of children die each year from illnesses triggered by vitamin A deficiency -- and a California nonprofit wants to change that, with help from the old-fashioned USB drive.

Vitamin Angels aims to dramatically reduce these preventable deaths -- of more than 150,000 children worldwide under the age of five each year -- by training public health workers to administer free vitamin A supplements and provide education to families.

The children at risk are typically raised in impoverished communities lacking access to a balanced diet and routine health care. Vitamin A deficiency can lead to complications like blindness in addition to death; Vitamin Angels estimates the cost of providing one child with vitamins for one year at just 25 cents.

Since 1994 the organization has reached 52 million children and mothers in 66 countries. Until now, the system was dependent on Vitamin Angels' own staff of 40 providing in-person training to local public health workers in partnership with NGO partners worldwide.

But to meet their expansion goals, Vitamin Angels realized it would have to use e-learning technology to train more workers more quickly. And with spotty internet coverage in many of the vulnerable populations the group targets, it turned to the trusty old USB drive to deliver the training.

"The goal is to go from training 1,000 field health workers every year to 6,000 or more," Howard Schiffer, founder and president of Vitamin Angels. "It's shocking how much of a difference vitamins make. Kids who get the right dose at the right time in early life are taller, stronger, even better in school."

The group worked with e-learning firm TorranceLearning to develop a system that could reach even old computers, with or without a stable internet connection.

"A USB drive is old, boring technology. It's dumb storage when now everything is cloud-based," said Megan Torrance, CEO of TorranceLearning. But Vitamin Angels' unique request "pushed us to look at USBs."

The final product, which cost Vitamin Angels $92,000, is a simple e-learning course adapted for individuals with limited computer skills. The course is available on a simple $2 to $4 USB drive that contains a Chromium web browser and web server. This allows the e-learning course to play from the USB drive no matter which computer it's plugged into.

The course itself focuses on three areas: educating health care workers about the dangers of vitamin deficiencies, teaching how to safely administer liquid vitamin A capsules safely and how to identify the most vulnerable population in each country.

Each USB drive can train one person or dozens of individuals at the same time, storing individual account information on the device to access later -- including who passed or failed the training. When internet connection is available, the USB uploads all stored data to Vitamin Angels' main learning management system.

Vitamin Angels piloted the USB drive-based training about two months ago in India, Indonesia and Nigeria, and the group plans to do more tests field tests before a worldwide roll out in 2018.

"I can't fix everything," Schiffer said,"but this is one pressing problem humanity faces where we can make a gigantic impact."

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How a simple USB drive can save lives - WBAL Baltimore

Women's Health

6 Ketogenic Recipes That Low-Carb Dieters Will Love Women's Health The ketogenic diet was developed as a treatment for epilepsy decades ago, but the super low-carb eating plan had an unintended side effect: weight loss, says Karen Ansel, R.D.N., author of Healing Superfoods for Anti-Aging: Stay Younger, Live Longer.

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6 Ketogenic Recipes That Low-Carb Dieters Will Love - Women's Health