Responding to the Threat of Nutrition-related Non-communicable Disease

Shifts in society, demography, technology and the environment are significantly impacting the global burden of disease, with non-communicable disease (NCD) on the rise. Almost half of all deaths attributable to NCD have nutrition as the predominant risk factor (cardiovascular diseases and diabetes). This briefing provides an overview of policy options that have been or could be adopted across a number of sectors, specifically health systems, social protection, food, agriculture and nutrition, and governance. It recommends that the international development community pay greater attention to the undermining effect of NCD, and develop cross-sectoral policy responses to respond to this growing threat.UK Department for International Developmen

Editorial

The Tenth International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS-10) was held from September 5-10 at the University of California, Berkeley campus. The conference attracted 305 attendees from 26 countries who gave 144 platform presentations and presented a total of 170 posters. The conference opened with a special tribute to the late Roy Middleton, which was followed by a companion session on 'ion sourcery'. A plenary talk by Wally Broecker on his '53 years in the Radiocarbon Trenches', provided thought-provoking challenges to commonly accepted paradigms. A workshop on issues in the estimation of isotopic ratios and evaluations of activities from AMS measurements preceded the conference and a workshop on AMS in low-dose bioscience concluded it. Conference attendees had ample opportunity to sample local sights and mid-week excursions to the Napa Valley wine region and the Monterey Bay Aquarium were well attended. The social highlight of the conference was a dinner cruise on San Francisco Bay aboard the San Francisco Belle, which toured the bay on a clear evening and afforded spectacular views of the city front as well as the Bay and Golden Gate bridges. The proceedings of AMS-10 contain 140 peer-reviewed papers that detail recent developments in AMS technology and a broad range of scientific applications. The editors worked to ensure that these contributions represent original research that has not been published elsewhere. We are grateful to the many outside reviewers who provided thoughtful consideration and suggestions in their reviews of these manuscripts. The staff of the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory wishes to thank the many members of the international AMS community in allowing us to organize this conference. We are particularly grateful to the University of California's Toxic Substances Research Program, which provided key assistance with conference administration

Profiling bacterial communities associated with sediment-based aquaculture bioremediation systems under contrasting redox regimes

Deposit-feeding invertebrates are proposed bioremediators in microbial-driven sediment-based aquaculture effluent treatment systems. We elucidate the role of the sediment reduction-oxidation (redox) regime in structuring benthic bacterial communities, having direct implications for bioremediation potential and deposit-feeder nutrition. The sea cucumber Holothuria scabra was cultured on sediments under contrasting redox regimes; fully oxygenated (oxic) and redox stratified (oxic-anoxic). Taxonomically, metabolically and functionally distinct bacterial communities developed between the redox treatments with the oxic treatment supporting the greater diversity; redox regime and dissolved oxygen levels were the main environmental drivers. Oxic sediments were colonised by nitrifying bacteria with the potential to remediate nitrogenous wastes. Percolation of oxygenated water prevented the proliferation of anaerobic sulphate-reducing bacteria, which were prevalent in the oxic-anoxic sediments. At the predictive functional level, bacteria within the oxic treatment were enriched with genes associated with xenobiotics metabolism. Oxic sediments showed the greater bioremediation potential; however, the oxic-anoxic sediments supported a greater sea cucumber biomass. Overall, the results indicate that bacterial communities present in fully oxic sediments may enhance the metabolic capacity and bioremediation potential of deposit-feeder microbial systems. This study highlights the benefits of incorporating deposit-feeding invertebrates into effluent treatment systems, particularly when the sediment is oxygenated

Student Science Research Associates (SSRA) 1996 Research Journal

The following student projects are reported: SSRA water research projects, various effects on polliwogs` growth and development, effects of Willow Park Golf Course on nitrate and phosphate levels in San Leandro Creek, water quality evaluation using color infrared photography, biochemical analysis of aquatic insects, effects of miracid/calcium chloride/liquid plant food on stringless bush beans, effects of vegetable oil on bean growth, effect of river water on lima beans, effect of storm water runoff on pH and phosphate levels of Dry Creek, acid rain in Modesto, use of random amplified polymorphic DNA to study Egeria Densa, and effect of marination on formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines in cooked chicken meat

Chemical and biological systems for treating waste streams contaminated with high explosives

The removal of high explosives (HIE) from ordnance is being accomplished via washout steamout procedures. Because large volumes of waste water are generated by these processes, safe and efficient methods must be developed for their treatment. Activated carbon can be used to efficiently remove HE from aqueous waste streams, but carbon that is laden with HE constitutes a hazardous solid waste. Although conventional treatment methods (i.e., incineration, open burning) are available, they may not be in compliance with existing or future environmental regulations. New and cost-effective methods are therefore required for the elimination of this solid waste. We are developing and demonstrating coupled chemical and biological systems for the safe and economical treatment of HE-laden activated carbon. We have developed a completely engineered treatment system to accomplish this objective and have been operating a pilot treatment system at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, TX. In this system, HE- contaminated waste water is treated first by activated-carbon adsorption columns. The HE sorbed to carbon is subsequently recovered via heated solvent elution or by base hydrolysis. The HE- or hydrolysate-laden fluid is then treated using a denitrifying culture of microorganisms, which converts the HE or hydrolysate byproducts to less hazardous endproducts. With these methods, the treated carbon can either be re-used or disposed as a nonhazardous waste. This strategy, which has been shown to be effective for the regeneration of carbon and the degradation of RDX and HMX, will be applicable to other energetic chemicals sorbed to activated carbon