Associations of fat mass and fat-free mass accretion in infancy with body composition and cardiometabolic risk markers at 5 years:The Ethiopian iABC birth cohort study

BackgroundAccelerated growth in early childhood is an established risk factor for later obesity and cardiometabolic disease, but the relative importance of fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM) accretion is not well understood. We aimed to study how FM and FFM at birth and their accretion during infancy were associated with body composition and cardiometabolic risk markers at 5 years.Methods and findingsHealthy children born at term were enrolled in the Infant Anthropometry and Body Composition (iABC) birth cohort between December 2008 and October 2012 at Jimma University Specialized Hospital in the city of Jimma, Ethiopia. FM and FFM were assessed using air displacement plethysmography a median of 6 times between birth and 6 months of age. In 507 children, we estimated individual FM and FFM at birth and their accretion over 0-3 and 3-6 months of age using linear-spline mixed-effects modelling. We analysed associations of FM and FFM at birth and their accretion in infancy with height, waist circumference, FM, FFM, and cardiometabolic risk markers at 5 years using multiple linear regression analysis. A total of 340 children were studied at the 5-year follow-up (mean age: 60.0 months; girls: 50.3%; mean wealth index: 45.5 out of 100; breastfeeding status at 4.5 to 6 months post-partum: 12.5% exclusive, 21.4% almost exclusive, 60.6% predominant, 5.5% partial/none). Higher FM accretion in infancy was associated with higher FM and waist circumference at 5 years. For instance, 100-g/month higher FM accretion in the periods 0-3 and 3-6 months was associated with 339 g (95% CI: 243-435 g, p ConclusionsFM accretion in early life was positively associated with markers of adiposity and lipid metabolism, but not with blood pressure and cardiometabolic markers related to glucose homeostasis. FFM accretion was primarily related to linear growth and FFM at 5 years

Higher weight and weight gain after 4 years of age rather than weight at birth are associated with adiposity, markers of glucose metabolism, and blood pressure in 5-year-old Ethiopian children

BACKGROUND: Fetal and early life growth is associated with adult risk of obesity and cardiometabolic disease. However, little is known about the relative importance of birth weight and successive periods of weight gain on markers of cardiometabolic risk in childhood in low-income populations. // OBJECTIVES: The objective was to study associations of birth weight and weight gain velocities in selected age intervals from birth to 60 mo with height, fat-free mass (FFM), and markers of adiposity and cardiometabolic risk at 60 mo. // METHODS: In a prospective cohort study of 375 Ethiopian children aged 60 mo, we estimated individual weight gain velocities in the periods between birth and 3, 6, 24, 48, and 60 mo using linear-spline mixed-effects modeling. Subsequently, we analyzed associations of birth weight, weight gain velocities, and current weight with height, FFM, and markers of adiposity and cardiometabolic risk. // RESULTS: Weight gain from 48 to 60 mo and weight at 60 mo rather than birth weight were the strongest correlates of insulin, C-peptide, HOMA-IR, blood pressure, height, FFM, waist circumference, and fat mass at 60 mo. For instance, 1 SD higher (1 SD = 50 g/mo) weight accretion from 48 to 60 mo was associated with a higher insulin of 23.3% (95% CI: 9.6%, 38.8%), C-peptide of 11.4% (2.7%, 20.8%), systolic blood pressure of 1.4 mm Hg (0.6, 2.3 mm Hg), fat mass of 0.72 kg (0.59, 0.85 kg), and FFM of 0.70 kg (0.56, 0.85 kg). Weight gain from 0 to 3 mo was positively associated with LDL cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, height, and the body composition indices, and weight gain from 24 to 48 mo was inversely associated with blood glucose. // CONCLUSIONS: In 60-mo-old Ethiopian urban children, weight gain and weight after 48 mo rather than weight at birth may represent a sensitive period for variations in markers of adiposity and glucose metabolism. The birth cohort is registered at https://www.isrctn.com/ as ISRCTN46718296

Metal ammine complexes for hydrogen storage

The hopes of using hydrogen as an energy carrier are severely dampened by the fact that there is still no safe, high-density method available for storing hydrogen. We investigate the possibility of using metal ammine complexes as a solid form of hydrogen storage. Using Mg(NH 3 ) 6 Cl 2 as the example, we show that it can store 9.1% hydrogen by weight in the form of ammonia. The storage is completely reversible, and by combining it with an ammonia decomposition catalyst, hydrogen can be delivered at temperatures below 620 K. Storing hydrogen in a safe, high-density, condensed phase is a notoriously difficult problem. 1 Storage in the form of metal hydrides has been studied for decades, 2 and most recently attention has been focused on the so-called complex hydrides based on alanates 3 or borates. properties, but most of them also suffer from problems relating to the density of hydrogen being too low, the kinetics of hydrogen release being too slow, or the regeneration of the hydride being too difficult. 5 In the present paper we explore a new way of storing hydrogen in the form of metal ammine complexes. They decompose thermally by evolving ammonia at a temperature which can be varied by changing the composition of the complex. By combining such complexes with an ammonia decomposition catalyst one obtains a very versatile hydrogen source. We consider Mg(NH 3 ) 6 Cl 2 Metal ammine complexes of the form M(NH 3 ) n X m , where M is a metal cation like Mg, Ca, Cr, Ni, and Zn, and X is an anion like Cl or SO 4 , have been know for more than a century. 9 Mg(NH 3 ) 6 Cl 2 was prepared by leading 1 bar of ammonia (Hede Nielsen, .99.9%) over anhydrous MgCl 2 (Merck, .98%) at 300 K. The purity and phase composition was verified by X-ray powder diffraction. pellet to obtain a high volumetric density. The saturated salt was then put in a small cell, where the rate of ammonia desorption from the sample could be measured quantitatively. This was done by absorbing the ammonia immediately at the outlet of the cell in a miniaturized scrubber using a small flow of distilled water. The ammonia content was then determined using an on-line conductivity cell

The New Politics of Global Tax Governance: Taking Stock a Decade After the Financial Crisis

The financial crisis of 2007–2009 is now broadly recognised as a once-in-a-generation inflection point in the history of global economic governance. It has also prompted a reconsideration of established paradigms in international political economy (IPE) scholarship. Developments in global tax governance open a window onto these ongoing changes, and in this essay we discuss four recent volumes on the topic drawn from IPE and beyond, arguing against an emphasis on institutional stability and analyses that consider taxation in isolation. In contrast, we identify unprecedented changes in tax cooperation that reflect a significant contemporary reconfiguration of the politics of global economic governance writ large. To develop these arguments, we discuss the links between global tax governance and four fundamental changes underway in IPE: the return of the state through more activist policies; the global power shift towards large emerging markets; the politics of austerity and populism; and the digitalisation of the economy