Associations of pubertal stage and body mass index with cardiometabolic risk in Hong Kong Chinese children: A cross-sectional study

Background: Puberty is associated with a clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs) during adolescence that are manifested in later life. Although anthropometric variables such as body mass index (BMI) can predict cardiometabolic risk in children and adolescents, it is not clear whether there is an interaction between pubertal stage and BMI associated with cardiometabolic risk in this age group. This paper examines the association of pubertal stage and BMI with CMRFs in Hong Kong Chinese children. Methods: A cross-sectional school-based study was conducted among 1985 (95.1%) students aged 6 to 18 years. Fasting lipid profile and plasma glucose, blood pressure, body weight, body height and waist circumference were measured. A self-reported pubertal stage questionnaire was used to assess pubertal stage of participants. Two cardiometabolic risk scores, alpha and beta, were constructed to quantify cardiometabolic risk. Cardiometabolic risk score alpha refers to the sum of z-scores of sex-specific, age-adjusted waist circumference, height-adjusted systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, triglyceride and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and minus z-score of sex-specific age-adjusted high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Cardiometabolic risk score beta includes all components of risk score alpha except waist circumference. Results: The interaction of BMI z-score (ZBMI) and pubertal stage demonstrated a significant increase in variance explained in cardiometabolic risk score alpha in boys (0.5%, p = 0.024) and girls (0.7%, p = 0.006) and in cardiometabolic risk score beta in boys (0.8%, p = 0.030) but not in girls (0.5%, p = 0.051). Conclusions: Pubertal stage has an interaction effect on the association of cardiometabolic risk by BMI in boys and may have a similar but lesser effect in girls.published_or_final_versio

A Catalog of Reference Genomes from the Human Microbiome

The human microbiome refers to the community of microorganisms including prokaryotes, viruses and microbial eukaryotes that populate the human body. The National Institutes of Health launched an initiative that focuses describing the diversity of microbial species associated with health and disease. The first phase of this initiative includes the sequencing of hundreds of microbial reference genomes, coupled to metagenomic sequencing from multiple body sites. Here we present results from an initial reference genome sequencing of 178 microbial genomes. From 547,968 predicted polypeptides that correspond to the gene complement of these strains “novel” polypeptides that had both unmasked sequence length > 100 amino acids and no BLASTP match to any non-reference entry in the nr subset were defined. This analysis resulted in a set of 30,867 polypeptides, of which 29,987 (~97%) were unique. In addition, this set of microbial genomes allows for ~ 40% of random sequences from the microbiome of the gastrointestinal tract to be associated with organisms based on the match criteria used. Insights into pan-genome analysis suggest that we are still far from saturating microbial species genetic datasets. In addition, the associated metrics and standards used by the group for quality assurance are presented

Environmental risk assessment of genetically modified plants - concepts and controversies

Background and purpose: In Europe, the EU Directive 2001/18/EC lays out the main provisions of environmental risk assessment (ERA) of genetically modified (GM) organisms that are interpreted very differently by different stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to: (a) describe the current implementation of ERA of GM plants in the EU and its scientific shortcomings, (b) present an improved ERA concept through the integration of a previously developed selection procedure for identification of non-target testing organisms into the ERA framework as laid out in the EU Directive 2001/18/EC and its supplement material (Commission Decision 2002/623/EC), (c) describe the activities to be carried out in each component of the ERA and (d) propose a hierarchical testing scheme. Lastly, we illustrate the outcomes for three different crop case examples. Main features: Implementation of the current ERA concept of GM crops in the EU is based on an interpretation of the EU regulations that focuses almost exclusively on the isolated bacteria-produced novel proteins with little consideration of the whole plant. Therefore, testing procedures for the effect assessment of GM plants on non-target organisms largely follow the ecotoxicological testing strategy developed for pesticides. This presumes that any potential adverse effect of the whole GM plant and the plant-produced novel compound can be extrapolated from testing of the isolated bacteriaproduced novel compound or can be detected in agronomic field trials. This has led to persisting scientific criticism. Results: Based on the EU ERA framework, we present an improved ERA concept that is system oriented with the GM plant at the centre and integrates a procedure for selection of testing organisms that do occur in the receiving environment. We also propose a hierarchical testing scheme from laboratory studies to field trials and we illustrate the outcomes for three different crop case examples. Conclusions and recommendations: Our proposed concept can alleviate a number of deficits identified in the current approach to ERA of GM plants. It allows the ERA to be tailored to the GM plant case and the receiving environment

A Synthesis of Global Urbanization Projections

This chapter reviews recent literature on global projections of future urbanization, covering the population, economic and physical extent perspectives. We report on several recent findings based on studies and reports on global patterns of urbanization. Specifically, we review new literature that makes projections about the spatial pattern, rate, and magnitude of urbanization change in the next 30–50 years. While projections should be viewed and utilized with caution, the chapter synthesis reports on several major findings that will have significant socioeconomic and environmental impacts including the following: By 2030, world urban population is expected to increase from the current 3.4 billion to almost 5 billion; Urban areas dominate the global economy – urban economies currently generate more than 90 % of global Gross Value Added; From 2000 to 2030, the percent increase in global urban land cover will be over 200 % whereas the global urban population will only grow by a little over 70 %. Our synthesis of recent projections suggest that between 50%–60% of the total urban land in existence in 2030 will be built in the first three decades of the 21st century. Challenges and limitations of urban dynamic projections are discussed, as well as possible innovative applications and potential pathways towards sustainable urban futures

Convergent Surface Water Distributions in U.S. Cities

Earth's surface is rapidly urbanizing, resulting in dramatic changes in the abundance, distribution and character of surface water features in urban landscapes. However, the scope and consequences of surface water redistribution at broad spatial scales are not well understood. We hypothesized that urbanization would lead to convergent surface water abundance and distribution: in other words, cities will gain or lose water such that they become more similar to each other than are their surrounding natural landscapes. Using a database of more than 1 million water bodies and 1 million km of streams, we compared the surface water of 100 US cities with their surrounding undeveloped land. We evaluated differences in areal (A WB) and numeric densities (N WB) of water bodies (lakes, wetlands, and so on), the morphological characteristics of water bodies (size), and the density (D C) of surface flow channels (that is, streams and rivers). The variance of urban A WB, N WB, and D C across the 100 MSAs decreased, by 89, 25, and 71%, respectively, compared to undeveloped land. These data show that many cities are surface water poor relative to undeveloped land; however, in drier landscapes urbanization increases the occurrence of surface water. This convergence pattern strengthened with development intensity, such that high intensity urban development had an areal water body density 98% less than undeveloped lands. Urbanization appears to drive the convergence of hydrological features across the US, such that surface water distributions of cities are more similar to each other than to their surrounding landscapes. © 2014 The Author(s)

Multidimensional treatment foster care for preschoolers: early findings of an implementation in the Netherlands

Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC) has been shown to be an evidence based alternative to residential rearing and an effective method to improve behavior and attachment of preschool foster children in the US. This preliminary study investigated an application of MTFC for preschoolers (MTFC-P) in the Netherlands focusing on behavioral outcomes in course of the intervention. To examine the following hypothesis: “the time in the MTFC-P intervention predicts a decline in problem behavior, as this is the desired outcome for children assigned to MTFC-P”, we assessed the daily occurrence of 38 problem behaviors via telephone interviews. Repeated measures revealed significant reduced problem behavior in course of the program. MTFC-P promises to be a treatment model suitable for high-risk foster children, that is transferable across centres and countries

Assessing the homogenization of urban land management with an application to US residential lawn care.

Changes in land use, land cover, and land management present some of the greatest potential global environmental challenges of the 21st century. Urbanization, one of the principal drivers of these transformations, is commonly thought to be generating land changes that are increasingly similar. An implication of this multiscale homogenization hypothesis is that the ecosystem structure and function and human behaviors associated with urbanization should be more similar in certain kinds of urbanized locations across biogeophysical gradients than across urbanization gradients in places with similar biogeophysical characteristics. This paper introduces an analytical framework for testing this hypothesis, and applies the framework to the case of residential lawn care. This set of land management behaviors are often assumed--not demonstrated--to exhibit homogeneity. Multivariate analyses are conducted on telephone survey responses from a geographically stratified random sample of homeowners (n = 9,480), equally distributed across six US metropolitan areas. Two behaviors are examined: lawn fertilizing and irrigating. Limited support for strong homogenization is found at two scales (i.e., multi- and single-city; 2 of 36 cases), but significant support is found for homogenization at only one scale (22 cases) or at neither scale (12 cases). These results suggest that US lawn care behaviors are more differentiated in practice than in theory. Thus, even if the biophysical outcomes of urbanization are homogenizing, managing the associated sustainability implications may require a multiscale, differentiated approach because the underlying social practices appear relatively varied. The analytical approach introduced here should also be productive for other facets of urban-ecological homogenization

Circumstellar disks and planets. Science cases for next-generation optical/infrared long-baseline interferometers

We present a review of the interplay between the evolution of circumstellar disks and the formation of planets, both from the perspective of theoretical models and dedicated observations. Based on this, we identify and discuss fundamental questions concerning the formation and evolution of circumstellar disks and planets which can be addressed in the near future with optical and infrared long-baseline interferometers. Furthermore, the importance of complementary observations with long-baseline (sub)millimeter interferometers and high-sensitivity infrared observatories is outlined.Comment: 83 pages; Accepted for publication in "Astronomy and Astrophysics Review"; The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co