The strongest indication of any overall pattern is for the servings of fruit where the month of July is seen to have the highest intake compared to the month of November . However, the monthly pattern for the total servings of fruit and vegetables is the measure of interest for 5 a Day, and it was not possible with this study’s data to examine total servings across months for the sum total of either File-1 or File-2 due to the significant year-month interaction. The data do become more revealing when the three ethnic groups of interest are examined individually. For the race/ethnic groups, the significant year-month interactions persist among low-income Whites and low-income Latinos and among the low-acculturation Latinos of all incomes. However, with these sample sizes there is no evidence of significant year-month interaction for African Americans and no significant variation among months for total servings of fruit and vegetables. This is seen for African Americans of all incomes as well as low-income African Americans. The same results are found for servings of vegetables. For servings of fruit, using all African-American cases in the low-income sample , significant monthly variation is found even though the total number of servings of fruit and vegetables show no significant monthly variation. This finding makes the CDPS data from the recruited over-sample of African Americans in the later months of October and November less suspect in skewing the overall findings for African Americans when the over-sample from in these months are used in the CDPS analyses. The sample sizes used in this study are larger than the comparable sample sizes in the CDPS. This study finds no significant year-month interactions for any of the three low-income race/ethnic groups for the total servings of fruit and vegetables.
The implication in relation to the CDPS is a conclusion that there is no monthly variation and thus an undetectable seasonality effect for total servings of fruit and vegetables for low-income Whites, African Americans, and Latinos. This is also the same conclusion for all high acculturation Latinos,30 litre plant pots bulk including those who are low-income. Results for low acculturation Latinos are inconclusive. To examine seasonality for the California population in order to interpret findings relevant to CDPS, the results from the General RDD sample are used and the data are weighted in the identical fashion as the CDPS. In this analysis, significant variation is found among months for the total adult population for the total number of servings of fruit and vegetables. However, the significant variation is due to a significant difference between the month of July and the month of January . Since July is found to be not statistically different from any other month in the year and since the CDPS is not conducted in the month of January, the implication for CDPS is that the seasonality found in this study has no effect on CDPS data. It also has no effect on interpreting CDPS results across years as long as the usual months of June-September or even October constitute the period for CDPS data collection. It is concluded that seasonality is not a factor for total adult population findings for the number of fruit and vegetables, for servings of fruit, or for servings of vegetables. This is also true for Whites and for Latinos. The same conclusion effectively can be drawn for African Americans, since the significant variation among months shows large intakes of total servings and of servings of vegetables in the month of December, a month that is excluded from the CDPS data collection period.
The overall conclusion is that there are no major month-to-month seasonality effects during the usual period of data collection for the CDPS for the general population of adults, for Whites, African Americans, or Latinos, and all their low-income counterparts. This is the case for the number of servings of fruit and vegetables, for servings of fruit, and for servings of vegetables. A noteworthy caveat is that these findings suggest that the monthly patterns may be different from year to year. Since this study included only two years, there is insufficient evidence to confirm this finding. The observed differences may be due to chance events such as economic or supply circumstances occurring between November 2000 and October 2002 that may have influenced fruit and vegetable availability and consumption. A clue to this may be the observed predominate effect on the low-income samples when the largest sample sizes are used in the analysis. Interpretation of CDPS trend data since 1989 can eliminate seasonality as an explanatory factor if patterns of monthly variation from July though October are assumed to be the same from year to year.The average number of servings of fruit shows good correlation between the SF3 and the CDPS measures. This is similar to the total number of servings of fruit and vegetables. For all adults, the SF3 estimates a mean value of 2.66 servings of fruit versus 2.23 servings using the CDPS method. The average difference among the cases analyzed is 0.43 servings, a positive difference that is statistically significant at p<.001. These data for servings of fruit are shown in Exhibit 24, which also shows the direction of the difference for the SF3 as higher than the CDPS method for all adults. The positive direction of this difference is consistent and significant for each of the three race/ethnic groups measured. The strongest correlations are seen among African Americans and Whites .
Average differences are somewhat similar among these three race/ethnic groups in the range of 0.40 to 0.43 servings of fruit. The average number of servings of vegetables shows a weaker correlation than that for fruit between the SF3 and the CDPS measures. For all adults, the SF3 estimates a mean value of 2.40 servings of vegetables versus 2.46 servings using the CDPS method. The average difference among the cases analyzed is a very small -0.06 servings and is not significant. These data for servings of vegetables are shown in Exhibit 25, which also shows no difference in either direction between the SF3 and the CDPS method for all adults. This finding of no significant difference is consistent for each of the three race/ethnic groups measured. The weakest correlation for servings of vegetables, r=0.436, is seen among Latinos. This is the weakest of all correlations computed in this study. Results comparing the SF3 with the CDPS method in measuring the number of servings of total fruit and vegetables show that the SF3 correlates positively and somewhat strongly . However, the SF3 was found to overestimate the number of servings of total fruit and vegetables by a little more than one-third of a serving . Among the three race ethnic groups studied,wholesale plant containers that overestimation is only slightly higher for African Americans . Since few surveys have sample sizes that can statistically differentiate groups at a level below half a serving, the SF3 appears to be a very good approximation of the number of servings of fruit and vegetables for population estimates in relation to the CDPS method. The degree of overestimation of the number of servings of fruit for all adults is higher than that for total fruit and vegetables, however, it is still less than half a serving . This conclusion for estimating fruit intake is the same for all three race/ethnic groups studied. In estimating the number of servings of vegetables, the SF3 performed best in that there is no significant difference from estimates made using the CDPS method either for all adults or for any of the race/ethnic groups measured. The correlation is also good , although not as strong as that observed for fruit or for total fruit and vegetables. Although the point estimate for servings of vegetables in this study was not statistically different from the CDPS estimate, the lower correlation suggests the SF3 vegetable estimate will not track as well over time as the estimates for fruit alone or for total fruit and vegetables, both of which have relatively stronger correlations with the CDPS estimates. However, compared to dietary studies in general, all these correlations are still very good. In place of the CDPS method, the SF3 is a very good and potentially cost efficient way to obtain population estimates of the number of servings of fruit and vegetables. It should work well to track intake over time, but would likely produce a slightly higher estimate than that produced by the CDPS method. It is a good estimator of the number of servings of fruit. Estimates of the number of servings of vegetables, although not as strongly correlated, should not be very different than those produced using the CDPS method. Thrips are members of the order Thysanoptera. This order is subdivided into two suborders, the Terebrantia and the Tubulifera, with about 5,500 described species in nine families .
The Terebrantia consist of seven families, six of which are present in North America. All members of the Terebrantia have the following in common: the last abdominal segment is rounded or conical, females possess an ovipositor, forewings have veins and setae, fringed cilia of the forewing arise from the basal sockets, and the wing surface typically has numerous microtrichia . The Tubulifera consist of two families, but only one of them is present in North America . The Tubulifera may be distinguished from the Terebrantia by the following characteristics: both males and females have a tubular last abdominal segment, females lack an ovipositor, forewings lack veins and setae except at the base, the fringe cilia lack basal sockets, and the wing surface is bare of microtrichia . The families within the Terebrantia are separated by antennal characters, mainly the number of segments and type of sensoria on the third and fourth segments . Thrips are tiny, slender, and soft-bodied insects that are 0.5 to 5.0 mm in length. When wings are present, there are four very long and narrow wings that are fringed with long hairs. This fringe, or tassel, gives the order its name, thysano, the Greek word for tassel and ptera meaning wing. The mouthparts of thrips are unusual and of the sucking/piercing type. There are two principle structures. The first structure consists of the left mandible, which is modified into a tough, sharp, piercing organ that is hollow but lacking an aperture; the right mandible is reduced and vestigial . The second structure is composed of the paired styliform lacineae of the maxillae, which are interlocked to form a single feeding tube . These structures are contained inside the proboscis that is located opistignagthically on the ventral surface of the head. The labrum forms the front of the proboscis; the basal portions of the maxillae form the sides and the labium forms the rear . Thrips also exhibit unique metamorphosis, being neither truly hemimetabolous nor holometabolous. The first two instars have no external wings, are referred to as larvae, and are mobile but are relatively slow moving. In many cases, the wings develop internally during these two instars . In the Terebrantia, the third and fourth instars are inactive, unless disturbed, non-feeding, and some lack external wings. The third and fourth instars are referred to as the propupa, and pupa respectively, though they are not ‘true pupae’ and they are followed by the adult stage. Thrips in the suborder Tubulifera have two pupal stages following the propupal stage. Thrips range in color from translucent white or yellowish to dark brown or blackish depending on the species and life stage . The sexes of thrips are similar in appearance, though the male is often smaller and moves faster than the female. Parthenogenesis can occur in many species of thrips . When an ovipositor is present, phytophagous females ususally oviposit into plant tissue . The eggs are typically oviposited under the cuticle of new leaves, stems and fruit where the larvae feed. In many species, one female may lay as many as 250 eggs. The late second instar of many species drop to the soil or leaf litter or lodge within plant crevices to pupate. However, greenhouse thrips pupate openly on lower leaf surfaces while pupae and eggs of some gall-forming species occur on leaf surfaces but are enclosed within distorted plant tissues.