Exploratory survey of informal vendor-sold fast food in rural South Africa

Background: South Africa is experiencing a dramatic increase in obesity in both urban and rural areas. It is important to understand access to food better and how this influences food choice in rural environments. This study aimed to explore the nature and availability of fast foods in rural South Africa.Method: Convenience sampling was used to procure fast food samples. The study was conducted in rural northeast South Africa in four villages, part of the South African Medical Research Council and University of the Witwatersrand-Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System (HSDSS). The outcome measures were assessment of the availability of fast foods and their macronutrient composition.Results: This study highlights the availability of fast foods through informal community vendors. Of note is the limited variety of foods sold by informal vendors, of which a striking two thirds were either vetkoek or fried chips, which on average yielded 943–5 552 kJ and 11–64 g fat. Additionally, we found that rural vendors sold a local fast food item, the kota.Conclusion: Given that rural South Africa is undergoing rapid health, social, and nutrition transitions, this study signals the need for more comprehensive research to improve our understanding of the contributory role of fast food and its connection with both livelihoods and the burgeoning obesity epidemic in poorer rural areas. It is through better research and greater understanding that we can work with communities and local government to improve access to more nutrient-rich foods that are less energy dense.Keywords: fast food, vendor, rural, nutrition transition, South Afric

Interaction entre dimensions économique et institutionnelle de l’intégration régionale : l’expérience européenne.

intégration régionale, intégration économique, Union européenne, zone euro, Asean, Mercosur, Nafta, zone franc, commerce intra-regional, institutions, marchés, Pacte de stabilité et de croissance, Eurosystème.

Under- and overnutrition and evidence of metabolic disease risk in rural black South African children and adolescents

Objectives: The objective was to determine the prevalence of under- and overnutrition, as well as evidence of metabolic disease risk in rural black South African children and adolescents.Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted.Setting: The setting was the Agincourt Health and Socio-demographic Surveillance System site, Mpumalanga province.Subjects: Six hundred children were randomly selected, of whom 588 were included in the analytical sample (mean age of 11.5 years, range of 7-15 years).Outcome measures: Outcome measures were anthropometric and blood pressure assessments, Tanner pubertal staging, as well as the determination of fasting serum lipid and glucose concentrations.Results: Using age and sex-specific World Health Organization 2007  growth references, the prevalence of stunting was determined to be 6.2% in the boys, and 2.7% in the girls, while 4.1% of the boys and 4.4% of the girls were underweight. Combined overweight and obesity prevalence was higher in the girls (13.5%) than in the boys (2.7%). Girls had significantly a higher body mass index and hip circumference than the boys in the early, mid and late pubertal stages. Pre-hypertension prevalence, using either systolic or diastolic blood pressure for sex, age and height, was 15% and 10% in the girls and boys, respectively. Furthermore, impaired fasting glucose (FG) (FG . 5.6 mmol/l) was detected in 5% of the children.  High-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations less than 1 mmol/l were observed in 0.7% of the boys and in 12% of the girls, which is indicative of cardiometabolic risk.Conclusion: Stunting levels were higher in the boys than in the girls in mid to late childhood in a rural setting in South Africa, while the girls had a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity than the boys.  Pre-hypertension prevalence in the boys and girls was high. Other  metabolic risk factors, i.e. impaired FG and lipids, were also seen in this population and were associated with adiposity. The study highlights the critical need for targeted health promotion interventions to optimise child health as part of a noncommunicable disease preventative strategy

Kinetics of a mixed spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 Ising ferrimagnetic model

We present a study, within a mean-field approach, of the kinetics of a mixed ferrimagnetic model on a square lattice in which two interpenetrating square sublattices have spins that can take two values, $\sigma=\pm1/2$, alternated with spins that can take the four values, $S=\pm3/2, \pm1/2$. We use the Glauber-type stochastic dynamics to describe the time evolution of the system with a crystal-field interaction in the presence of a time-dependent oscillating external magnetic field. The nature (continuous and discontinuous) of transition is characterized by studying the thermal behaviors of average order parameters in a period. The dynamic phase transition points are obtained and the phase diagrams are presented in the reduced magnetic field amplitude $(h)$ and reduced temperature $(T)$ plane, and in the reduced temperature and interaction parameter planes, namely in the $(h, T)$ and $(d, T)$ planes, $d$ is the reduced crystal-field interaction. The phase diagrams always exhibit a tricritical point in $(h, T)$ plane, but do not exhibit in the $(d, T)$ plane for low values of $h$. The dynamic multicritical point or dynamic critical end point exist in the $(d, T)$ plane for low values of $h$. Moreover, phase diagrams contain paramagnetic $(p)$, ferromagnetic $(f)$, ferrimagnetic $(i)$ phases, two coexistence or mixed phase regions, $(f+p)$ and $(i+p)$, that strongly depend on interaction parameters.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Material

Compiling SHIM

Embedded systems demand concurrency for supporting simultaneous actions in their environment and parallel hardware. Although most concurrent programming formalisms are prone to races and non-determinism, some, such as our SHIM (software/hardware integration medium) language, avoid them by design. In particular, the behavior of SHIM programs is scheduling-independent, meaning the I/O behavior of a program is independent of scheduling policies, including the relative execution rates of concurrent processes. The SHIM project demonstrates how a scheduling-independent language simplifies the design, optimization, and verification of concurrent systems. Through examples and discussion, we describe the SHIM language and code generation techniques for both shared-memory and message-passing architectures, along with some verification algorithms

Open Problems on Central Simple Algebras

We provide a survey of past research and a list of open problems regarding central simple algebras and the Brauer group over a field, intended both for experts and for beginners.Comment: v2 has some small revisions to the text. Some items are re-numbered, compared to v

Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase Kinase Is Not Involved in Hypothalamic AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Activation by Neuroglucopenia

Hypoglycemia and neuroglucopenia stimulate AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity in the hypothalamus and this plays an important role in the counterregulatory responses, i.e. increased food intake and secretion of glucagon, corticosterone and catecholamines. Several upstream kinases that activate AMPK have been identified including Ca2+/Calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase (CaMKK), which is highly expressed in neurons. However, the involvement of CaMKK in neuroglucopenia-induced activation of AMPK in the hypothalamus has not been tested. To determine whether neuroglucopenia-induced AMPK activation is mediated by CaMKK, we tested whether STO-609 (STO), a CaMKK inhibitor, would block the effects of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG)-induced neuroglucopenia both ex vivo on brain sections and in vivo. Preincubation of rat brain sections with STO blocked KCl-induced α1 and α2-AMPK activation but did not affect AMPK activation by 2DG in the medio-basal hypothalamus. To confirm these findings in vivo, STO was pre-administrated intracerebroventricularly (ICV) in rats 30 min before 2DG ICV injection (40 µmol) to induce neuroglucopenia. 2DG-induced neuroglucopenia lead to a significant increase in glycemia and food intake compared to saline-injected control rats. ICV pre-administration of STO (5, 20 or 50 nmol) did not affect 2DG-induced hyperglycemia and food intake. Importantly, activation of hypothalamic α1 and α2-AMPK by 2DG was not affected by ICV pre-administration of STO. In conclusion, activation of hypothalamic AMPK by 2DG-induced neuroglucopenia is not mediated by CaMKK