Transcultural Diabetes Nutrition Algorithm: A Malaysian Application

Glycemic control among patients with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) in Malaysia is suboptimal, especially after the continuous worsening over the past decade. Improved glycemic control may be achieved through a comprehensive management strategy that includes medical nutrition therapy (MNT). Evidence-based recommendations for diabetes-specific therapeutic diets are available internationally. However, Asian patients with T2D, including Malaysians, have unique disease characteristics and risk factors, as well as cultural and lifestyle dissimilarities, which may render international guidelines and recommendations less applicable and/or difficult to implement. With these thoughts in mind, a transcultural Diabetes Nutrition Algorithm (tDNA) was developed by an international task force of diabetes and nutrition experts through the restructuring of international guidelines for the nutritional management of prediabetes and T2D to account for cultural differences in lifestyle, diet, and genetic factors. The initial evidence-based global tDNA template was designed for simplicity, flexibility, and cultural modification. This paper reports the Malaysian adaptation of the tDNA, which takes into account the epidemiologic, physiologic, cultural, and lifestyle factors unique to Malaysia, as well as the local guidelines recommendations

Changes in Panicum maximum Jacq. (Mombasa cv) Canopy Cover and its Relation to Forage Productivity under Leucaena Leucocephala Alley Cropping and NPK Fertilization in an Arid Agroforestry Systems in Saudi Arabia

There is an increasing need for intercropping practices in drylands to increase land-use efficiency. Canopy cover is a great tool for assessing agricultural yield, as it is an indicator of plant health and productivity. The smartphone-based application Canopeo was used to measure the canopy cover (CC) of Panicum maximum Jacq. (Mombasa cv) under mixed intercropping with Leucaena and four (4) fertilization levels (control, 200 kg, 300 kg, and 400 kg of NPK). The forage yield and CC were measured for six (6) consecutive cuttings. Forage quality (N, P, K, and protein levels) was also analyzed. The results revealed a highly positive correlation between the CC and crop yield and quality. In addition, the application of fertilizers produced higher CC, which was associated with higher yield and forage quality. The relatively low correlation between CC and yield in intercropping may be due to the high competition of the Leucaena tree.  However, the entire intercropping system was positive (with an LER of 2.7), indicating better land-use efficiency. The results indicate that intercropping in drylands would result in better land use. The application of NPK fertilizers increases crop CC, resulting in higher forage yield and quality.&nbsp

Optimization of an off-grid PV/biogas hybrid energy system for electrification: A case study in a rural area in Egypt

The increasing demand for energy in remote or rural areas, coupled with the environmental benefits and cost-effectiveness of renewable energy sources, has led to a growing interest in off-grid energy systems. This paper proposes an optimized off-grid energy system to supply energy demand for a village and a desalination reverse osmosis water plant (RO) in Shalateen, Egypt, using a combination of photovoltaic (PV) and biomass technologies. To achieve minimizing Loss of Power Supply Probability (LPSP) and Total Net Present Cost (TNPC), two decision variables are optimized using the Harmony Search algorithm implemented in MATLAB. The reliability of a designed system is met by considering the LPSP concept. The proposed system utilizes PV system as the primary energy source to power the electrical loads, with a biomass plant serving as a backup to increase system reliability and cost-effectiveness. The Demand Side Management (DSM) strategy is applied to further enhance the system\u27s cost-effectiveness. Five scenarios are studied to investigate their impact on the optimal design, the obtained results indicate that using PV/biomass generation system with DSM and LPSP is more promising

Do Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Predict Under-Five Mortality in Nigeria?

Nigerian children under 5 years of age are over 15 times more at risk of death than their counterparts in developed regions of the world; the prevalence of miscarriage, an adverse pregnancy outcome (APO), was estimated at 49%. In the present study, the relationship between APO and under-5 mortality (U5M) in Nigeria was examined to determine if APO could be used as a reliable early warning indicator for U5M. We used a cross-sectional secondary data analysis of datasets from three Nigeria demographic and health surveys: 2003, 2008, and 2013. The study population was women of reproductive age (15–49). Cochran–Mantel–Haenzel chi-square statistics and multiple logistic regression were performed to determine the association, based on maternal socioeconomic factors and access to prenatal healthcare. Results indicated a significant inverse association between APO and U5M. The children of women who have experienced any form of APO may be at lower risk of U5M than children of women who have never had any APO. The implication is that history of APO may not be a reliable early warning indicator for determining higher risk of U5M. These findings suggest further studies to explore the pathway of this association

Extensions of Weak PS-Rings

In this paper, we prove that, under mild conditions, if R is a right weak PS-ring, then so does the skew inverse power series ring R[[x−1;α,δ]], the skew generalized power series ring R[[S,ω]], and the differential inverse power series ring R[[x−1;δ]]

Review on energy storage systems in microgrids

This work was supported in part by the European Union’s H2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant 864459 (UE-19-TALENT-864459), in part by the Spanish Government (Innovation Development and Research Office-MEC) under Research Grant ENE2016-77919, “Conciliator” Project, “B2B” Project Nuevas vías hacia la gestión descentralizada de la energía de edificio PID2019-111051RB-100, and “Torres Quevedo” Grant PTQ2019-010579, and in part by the Government of the Principality of Asturias under Grant FC-GRUPIN-IDI/2018/000241, and in part by the "Severo Ochoa” Program of Predoctoral Grants for Training in Research and University Teaching under Grant PA-13-PF-BP13-138