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There are limited data on healthy dietary patterns protective against metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) development. We identified dietarypatternsamong middle-aged and older adults and investigated the associations with the incidence of MetSyn. A population-based prospective cohort studyincluded 5,251 male and female Koreans aged 40-69 years. At baseline, all individuals were free of MetSyn, other major metabolic diseases, andknown cardiovascular disease or cancer. Cases of MetSyn were ascertained over a 6-year of follow-up. Dietary patterns and theirfactor scoreswere generated by factor analysis using the data of a food frequency questionnaire. We performed pooled logistic regression analysis to estimatemultivariable-adjusted relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for associations between factor scores and MetSyn risk. Two dietarypatterns were identified; (1) a healthy dietary pattern, which included a variety of foods such as fish, seafood, vegetables, seaweed, protein foods,fruits, dairy products, and grains; and (2) an unhealthy dietary pattern, which included a limited number of food items. Aftercontrolling for confoundingfactors, factor scores for the healthy dietary pattern were inversely associated with MetSyn risk (P-value for trend < 0.05) while those for the unhealthydietary pattern had no association. Individuals in the top quintile of the healthy diet scores showed a multivariable-adjustedRR [95% CI] of 0.76[0.60-0.97] for MetSyn risk compared with those in the bottom quintile. The beneficial effects were derived from inverse associations with abdominalobesity, low HDL-cholesterol levels, and high fasting glucose levels. Our findings suggest that a variety of healthy food choices is recommendedto prevent MetSyn.

The marine benthic algal flora of Clare Island, off County Mayo, western shore of Ireland, was investigated; collections of intertidal and subtidal marine algae were made at 16 sites along the eastern and southern shores in the years 1990, 1993 and 2000–2002. The data and observations obtained were compared with the results of a similar survey conducted by Arthur Disbrowe Cotton in 1910–1911. Considering the results of the original survey and the new survey together, the marine algal flora of the island currently totals 293 species; 224 species were recorded by Cotton in the original survey, whereas 223 species were identified in the present study. Most species are common to the original and the new list and the main differences are easily explainable; the new survey used SCUBA diving, which allowed the collection of several subtidal species not collected in 1910, and Cotton reported several microscopic green and brown algae, usually difficult to recognise in the field, which were not rediscovered. The most remarkable differences consist in the current presence of some large intertidal brown algae (Bifurcaria bifurcata, Cystoseira foeniculacea and Cystoseira nodicaulis) that were not reported in the survey of 1910. Two algae, Codium fragile subsp. tomentosoides and Asparagopsis armata, were introduced in Europe after the original survey. At present, the benthic algal assemblages of Clare Island still have basically the same structure and distribution as in 1910 and, if compared with other coastal areas of Europe, the intertidal marine environment of Clare Island appears remarkably well conserved.

The name agar originated from the Malay word “Agar-agar”, the local name in the Dutch East Indies for Eucheuma muricatum (spinosum) (Tseng, 1944) which was exported to China for more than a century. For the sake of simplicity agar-agar was shortened to just agar and is now accepted universally whether in the food and other industries or as culture media. The introduction of agar in bacteriology was achieved by a German housewife, Frau Hesse, who prepared the bouillon from agar-agar for her husband's bacterial cultures. The agar-agar came from Frau Hesse's mother who lived in America which was given to her by some friends who lived in Java. Dr. Walther Hesse was so excited about the efficiency of the new medium which his wife prepared, so he relayed his findings immediately to Dr. Robert Koch who was working at the time on the tubercle bacilli. In 1882, Koch reported on the tubercle bacilli and mentioned the new culture medium (Hitchens and Leikind, 1939). Hitchens and Leikind even suggested agar should be called Frau Hesse's medium in honor of the woman who discovered it. According to Tseng (1944) the agar-agar of Frau Hesse from Java could have been carrageenan from Eucheuma.

Tseng (1944) defines agar as the dried amorphous, gelatin-like, non-nitrogenous extract from Gelidium and other red algae, a linear galactan sulfate, insoluble in cold but soluble in hot water, a 1 to 2 percent solution of which upon cooking solidifies to a firm gel at 35° to 50° and melting at 90° to 100°.

The USP XVIII defines and describes agar as the dried hydrophilic colloidal substance extracted from Gelidium cartilagenium (Linne) Gaillon (Fam. Gelidiaceae), Gracilaria confervoides (Linne) Greville (Fam. Sphaerococcaceae) and related red algae. Unground agar usually occurs in bundles consisting of thin, membranous, agglutinated strips or in cut, flaked or granulated forms. It may be weak yellowish orange, yellowish gray to pale yellow, or colorless. It is tough when damp, brittle when dry. It is colorless or has a slight odor and has a mucilaginous taste. Powdered agar is a white to a yellowish-white or pale yellow, insoluble in cold water, but soluble in boiling water. When boiled with 65 times its weight of water for 10 minutes, with constant stirring, and adjusted to a concentration of 1.5 percent, by weight, with hot water, agar forms a clear liquid which congeals at 32° to 39° to form a firm resilient gel, which does not melt below 85°. Armisen and Galatas (1987) reported a wider range of 34° to 43° for the gelling temperarature. Actually according to our observation, the gelling temperature as well as the melting temperature of a 1,5 percent concentration of agar vary according to the seaweed source, the method of preparation and the purity of the sample. The gelling temperature of the agar sols ranges from 30° to 50° and the melting temperature from 82° to 92°.

Seagrasses are important habitat-formers and ecosystem engineers that are under threat from bloom-forming seaweeds. These seaweeds have been suggested to outcompete the seagrasses, particularly when facilitated by eutrophication, causing regime shifts where green meadows and clear waters are replaced with unstable sediments, turbid waters, hypoxia, and poor habitat conditions for fishes and invertebrates. Understanding the situations under which seaweeds impact seagrasses on local patch scales can help proactive management and prevent losses at greater scales. Here, we provide a quantitative review of available published manipulative experiments (all conducted at the patch-scale), to test which attributes of seaweeds and seagrasses (e.g., their abundances, sizes, morphology, taxonomy, attachment type, or origin) influence impacts. Weighted and unweighted meta-analyses (Hedges d metric) of 59 experiments showed generally high variability in attribute-impact relationships. Our main significant findings were that (a) abundant seaweeds had stronger negative impacts on seagrasses than sparse seaweeds, (b) unattached and epiphytic seaweeds had stronger impacts than ‘rooted’ seaweeds, and (c) small seagrass species were more susceptible than larger species. Findings (a) and (c) were rather intuitive. It was more surprising that ‘rooted’ seaweeds had comparatively small impacts, particularly given that this category included the infamous invasive Caulerpa species. This result may reflect that seaweed biomass and/or shading and metabolic by-products like anoxia and sulphides could be lower for rooted seaweeds. In conclusion, our results represent simple and robust first-order generalities about seaweed impacts on seagrasses. This review also documented a limited number of primary studies. We therefore identified major knowledge gaps that need to be addressed before general predictive models on seaweed-seagrass interactions can be build, in order to effectively protect seagrass habitats from detrimental competition from seaweeds.