Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities 1,2 . This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity 3�6 . Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55 of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017�and more than 80 in some low- and middle-income regions�was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing�and in some countries reversal�of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories. © 2019, The Author(s)

Efeitos de planos nutricionais e de fontes de metionina sobre o desempenho, rendimento e composição de carcaças de frangos de corte Effects of nutritional plans and methionine sources on broilers performance, carcass yield, and carcass composition

Para avaliar os efeitos de dois diferentes planos nutricionais de aminoácidos sulfurados totais (AAST) e de duas fontes de metionina nas rações de frangos de corte, foi realizado um experimento com 840 frangos machos, da linhagem agRoss 308. Os tratamentos foram definidos pelos planos nutricionais de AAST (normal e reduzido) e pelas fontes de metionina (DL-metionina e metionina hidroxianáloga - MHA) usadas nas rações. O delineamento experimental foi o inteiramente ao acaso, em arranjo fatorial 2x2, (duas fontes de metionina x dois planos nutricionais de AAST). Não foram encontradas diferenças entre os tratamentos para o consumo de ração, ganho de peso, viabilidade, rendimento de carcaça, porcentagem de peito e composição das carcaças e vísceras. As aves que receberam as rações com o plano normal de AAST apresentaram melhor conversão alimentar, e as que receberam ração contendo DL-metionina tiveram menor porcentagem de gordura abdominal. Concluiu-se que a substituição da DL-metionina pela MHA não afetou o desempenho, que o plano nutricional normal melhorou a conversão alimentar dos frangos de corte e que as fontes de metionina e os planos nutricionais de AAST não influenciaram o rendimento e a composição da carcaça e vísceras de frangos de corte.To evaluate the effects of two different nutritional plans for total sulfur amino acids (TSAA), and two methionine sources in the diets of broiler chickens, an experiment was conducted with 840 male broiler line agRoss 308. The treatments were defined by nutritional plans of TSAA (normal and low) and the methionine sources (DL-methionine and methionine hydroxy-analogue - MHA) used in the diets. The experimental design was completely randomized in a factorial scheme 2X2, (two methionine sources x two levels of nutrition plans TSAA). No differences were found between treatments for ration consumption, weight gain, viability, carcass yield, and carcass composition. The broilers that received the diets with the TSAA normal level had better feed conversion, and those that received diets containing DL-methionine had lower abdominal fat percentages. It was concluded that the substitution of DL-methionine by MHA did not affect the performance of broilers, whereas the normal nutrition plan improved feed conversion of broiler chickens as well as methionine sources and TSAA nutritional plans did not influence the carcass yield and carcass composition of broiler chickens

Impact of COVID-19 on Cardiovascular Testing in the United States Versus the Rest of the World

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-U.S. institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Observation of triple J/ψ meson production in proton-proton collisions

Protons consist of three valence quarks, two up-quarks and one down-quark, held together by gluons and a sea of quark-antiquark pairs. Collectively, quarks and gluons are referred to as partons. In a proton-proton collision, typically only one parton of each proton undergoes a hard scattering – referred to as single-parton scattering – leaving the remainder of each proton only slightly disturbed. Here, we report the study of double- and triple-parton scatterings through the simultaneous production of three J/ψ mesons, which consist of a charm quark-antiquark pair, in proton-proton collisions recorded with the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. We observed this process – reconstructed through the decays of J/ψ mesons into pairs of oppositely charged muons – with a statistical significance above five standard deviations. We measured the inclusive fiducial cross-section to be 272−104+141(stat)±17(syst)fb, and compared it to theoretical expectations for triple-J/ψ meson production in single-, double- and triple-parton scattering scenarios. Assuming factorization of multiple hard-scattering probabilities in terms of single-parton scattering cross-sections, double- and triple-parton scattering are the dominant contributions for the measured process

Strategies and performance of the CMS silicon tracker alignment during LHC Run 2

The strategies for and the performance of the CMS silicon tracking system alignment during the 2015–2018 data-taking period of the LHC are described. The alignment procedures during and after data taking are explained. Alignment scenarios are also derived for use in the simulation of the detector response. Systematic effects, related to intrinsic symmetries of the alignment task or to external constraints, are discussed and illustrated for different scenarios