The Nutritional Dual-Burden in Developing Countries – How is it Assessed and What Are the Health Implications?

This paper focuses on the phenomenon of the nutritional dual-burden in the developing world. Nutritional dual-burden is defined as the coexistence of under-and-over nutrition in the same population/group, the same household/family, or the same person. In this paper we aim: a) to describe the different types of nutritional dual-burden, b) to identify the anthropometric indicators generally used to classify the nutritional dual-burden, c) to focus our attention on a dual-burden group (the Maya from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico), d) to illustrate problems in the categorization of the dual-burden, and e) to suggest possible health implications. Our results show that, for our sample, the prevalence of individual dual- -burden among children is very low, but is very high among the mothers and for mother-child pairs (household dual-burden). Most importantly, the criteria used to assess the nutritional status of the individuals and of the families will play an important role in the estimated prevalence of nutritional dual-burden, and this will have practical impacts for health intervention programs

Behavioral, Environmental, Metabolic and Intergenerational Components of Early Life Undernutrition Leading to Later Obesity in Developing Nations and in Minority Groups in the USA

Nutritional transition, urbanization, and physical inactivity are primary factors responsible for the worldwide epidemic of overweight/obesity (OW/OB). However, these factors fail to explain the epidemic of OW/OB in developing countries and in recent-migrants to developed countries. Among these, OW/OB is associated with short/stunted stature and coexists with undernutrition at much higher rates than is statistically expected. Changes in metabolic pathways toward reduced fat oxidation and increased metabolism of carbohydrate may explain, in part, this phenomenon. Also, intergenerational consequences of malnutrition and poor health of the mothers may lead to impaired phenotypes in their offspring. We propose a novel methodology to assess the history of early life malnutrition by assessing the sitting height ratio of the mothers. The degree of »short leggedness« reflects undernutrition when the mother was an infant/child. Collectively, behavioral, environmental, metabolic and intergenerational components of early life undernutrition may provide a more satisfactory explanation for later life obesity

Isolation and characterization of novel chlorella vulgaris mutants with low chlorophyll and improved protein contents for food applications

Microalgae are widely used as food supplements due to their high protein content, essential fatty acids and amino acids as well as carotenoids. The addition of microalgal biomass to food products (e.g., baked confectioneries) is a common strategy to attract novel consumers. However, organoleptic factors such as color, taste and smell can be decisive for the acceptability of foods supplemented with microalgae. The aim of this work was to develop chlorophyll-deficient mutants of Chlorella vulgaris by chemically induced random mutagenesis to obtain biomass with different pigmentations for nutritional applications. Using this strategy, two C. vulgaris mutants with yellow (MT01) and white (MT02) color were successfully isolated, scaled up and characterized. The changes in color of MT01 and MT02 mutant strains were due to an 80 and 99% decrease in their chlorophyll contents, respectively, as compared to the original wild type (WT) strain. Under heterotrophic growth, MT01 showed a growth performance similar to that of the WT, reaching a concentration of 5.84 and 6.06 g L-1, respectively, whereas MT02 displayed slightly lower growth (4.59 g L-1). When grown under a light intensity of 100 μmol m-2 s-1, the pigment content in MT01 increased without compromising growth, while MT02 was not able to grow under this light intensity, a strong indication that it became light-sensitive. The yellow color of MT01 in the dark was mainly due to the presence of the xanthophyll lutein. On the other hand, phytoene was the only carotenoid detected in MT02, which is known to be colorless. Concomitantly, MT02 contained the highest protein content, reaching 48.7% of DW, a 60% increase as compared to the WT. MT01 exhibited a 30% increase when compared to that of the WT, reaching a protein content of 39.5% of DW. Taken together, the results strongly suggest that the partial abrogation of pigment biosynthesis is a factor that might promote higher protein contents in this species. Moreover, because of their higher protein and lower chlorophyll contents, the MT01 and MT02 strains are likely candidates to be feedstocks for the development of novel, innovative food supplements and foods.FCT: UIDB/04085/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Characterization of the cork oak transcriptome dynamics during acorn development

Background: Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) has a natural distribution across western Mediterranean regions and is a keystone forest tree species in these ecosystems. The fruiting phase is especially critical for its regeneration but the molecular mechanisms underlying the biochemical and physiological changes during cork oak acorn development are poorly understood. In this study, the transcriptome of the cork oak acorn, including the seed, was characterized in five stages of development, from early development to acorn maturation, to identify the dominant processes in each stage and reveal transcripts with important functions in gene expression regulation and response to water. Results: A total of 80,357 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were de novo assembled from RNA-Seq libraries representative of the several acorn developmental stages. Approximately 7.6 % of the total number of transcripts present in Q. suber transcriptome was identified as acorn specific. The analysis of expression profiles during development returned 2,285 differentially expressed (DE) transcripts, which were clustered into six groups. The stage of development corresponding to the mature acorn exhibited an expression profile markedly different from other stages. Approximately 22 % of the DE transcripts putatively code for transcription factors (TF) or transcriptional regulators, and were found almost equally distributed among the several expression profile clusters, highlighting their major roles in controlling the whole developmental process. On the other hand, carbohydrate metabolism, the biological pathway most represented during acorn development, was especially prevalent in mid to late stages as evidenced by enrichment analysis. We further show that genes related to response to water, water deprivation and transport were mostly represented during the early (S2) and the last stage (S8) of acorn development, when tolerance to water desiccation is possibly critical for acorn viability. Conclusions: To our knowledge this work represents the first report of acorn development transcriptomics in oaks. The obtained results provide novel insights into the developmental biology of cork oak acorns, highlighting transcripts putatively involved in the regulation of the gene expression program and in specific processes likely essential for adaptation. It is expected that this knowledge can be transferred to other oak species of great ecological value.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologi

Trajetórias da Educomunicação nas Políticas Públicas e a Formação de seus Profissionais

Esta obra é composta com os trabalhos apresentados no primeiro subtema, TRAJETÓRIA – Educação para a Comunicação como Política pública, nas perspectivas da Educomunicação e da Mídia-Educação, do II Congresso Internacional de Comunicação e Educação. Os artigos pretendem propiciar trocas de informações e produzir reflexões com os leitores sobre os caminhos percorridos, e ainda a percorrer, tendo como meta a expansão e a legitimação das práticas educomunicativas e/ou mídia-educativas como política pública para o atendimento à formação de crianças, adolescentes, jovens e adultos, no Brasil e no mundo

Associations between anthropometric indicators of adiposity and body fat percentage in normal weight young adults

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine the associations between various anthropometric adiposity screening indices and body fat percentage estimated by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). A total of 186 (95 male and 91 female) normal weight (body mass index [BMI] = 18.5- 24.9 kg/m2) young adults (mean age= 20.96 ± 2.03 years) were measured on body fat percentage, body height, body mass, waist and hip circumferences. Abdominal volume index, body adiposity index, BMI, body roundness index, conicity index, reciprocal ponderal index, waist to height ratio, waist to height 0.5 ratio, and waist to hip ratio were calculated accordingly. Results revealed significant gender effects in all main anthropometric measurements. Except for waist to hip ratio, results indicated significant associations between anthropometric indices and BIA in both male and female participants. BIA results were found to be largely associated with BMI and abdominal volume index in both genders. Bland- Altman analysis showed good agreements between these indices and BIA. Considerable associations and agreements highlight the potential importance and the use of several anthropometric proxies to estimate body adiposity among male and female non-overweight/obese young adults. Despite continuing discussion regarding its accuracy, BMI seems to be useful for monitoring body adiposity within this cohort

Human biology of poverty

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Annals of Human Biology on 16th March 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.3109/03014460.2016.1150158

¿Hijo de tigre, pintito? Algunos efectos intergeneracionales sobre la talla y el peso en niños mayas yucatecos

In this article we report the main results of a multidisci plinary research project that addressed the human body in terms of social and historical processes immersed in the fields of economic and political power. Our studies on the Maya population from Merida, Yucatan, carried out in the last 15 years, highlight the long-term consequences of the living conditions in which Maya people are born, grow and reproduce. The current situation is alarming because growth and nutritional status of children and adult women reflect the effects of chronic poverty. They suffer from both extremes of malnutrition: undernutrition —expressed as stunting in children and short stature in adult women— and overnutrition —expressed in high rates of overweight and obesity in adult women—. Finally, we found evidence that the poor living conditions experienced by Maya mothers and grandmothers have adverse effects on the most recent generations.Comunicamos resultados centrales de un proyecto multidisciplinario que abordó la corporeidad humana como un producto social, histórico, inmerso en un campo de ejercicio del poder. Nuestros estudios de grupos mayas en Mérida, Yucatán, realizados en los últimos quince años, evidencian las consecuencias a largo plazo de las condiciones de vida en que nacen, crecen y se reproducen. El panorama es desalentador, pues el crecimiento y estado nutricional de niños y madres adultas participantes expresan los efectos de carencias y pobreza crónicas que han sido una constante entre la población maya de Yucatán. Entre ellos coexiste la mala nutrición en dos facetas: desnutrición crónica —expresada por el desmedro, en los niños, y talla baja en las mujeres adultas— y sobrepeso muy frecuente entre mujeres adultas. Finalmente, encontramos indicios de que las pobres condiciones de vida experimentadas por madres y abuelas mayas tienen efectos adversos en las generaciones más recientes