Final report in connection with MED-ERMIS (Mediterranean Environmental Reporting Monitoring and Information System) MALTA

This report outlines the work that has been carried so far as part of the MED-ERMIS (Malta) project between November 2000 and November 2002. The Sustainability Indicators – Malta Observatory (SI-MO) was established in November 2000 to meet the requirements of the MED-ERMIS (Malta) project. The Observatory’s main remit was to conduct research and development work, and to disseminate information on Sustainability Indicators for Malta. SI-MO engaged research assistants, consultants and secretarial staff in order to assist in the execution of this project.peer-reviewe

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.Peer reviewe

Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development

A list of authors and their affiliations appears online.Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified.peer-reviewe

Improved annotation of the insect vector of citrus greening disease: Biocuration by a diverse genomics community

The Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri Kuwayama) is the insect vector of the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), the pathogen associated with citrus Huanglongbing (HLB, citrus greening). HLB threatens citrus production worldwide. Suppression or reduction of the insect vector using chemical insecticides has been the primary method to inhibit the spread of citrus greening disease. Accurate structural and functional annotation of the Asian citrus psyllid genome, as well as a clear understanding of the interactions between the insect and CLas, are required for development of new molecular-based HLB control methods. A draft assembly of the D. citri genome has been generated and annotated with automated pipelines. However, knowledge transfer from well-curated reference genomes such as that of Drosophila melanogaster to newly sequenced ones is challenging due to the complexity and diversity of insect genomes. To identify and improve gene models as potential targets for pest control, we manually curated several gene families with a focus on genes that have key functional roles in D. citri biology and CLas interactions. This community effort produced 530 manually curated gene models across developmental, physiological, RNAi regulatory and immunity-related pathways. As previously shown in the pea aphid, RNAi machinery genes putatively involved in the microRNA pathway have been specifically duplicated. A comprehensive transcriptome enabled us to identify a number of gene families that are either missing or misassembled in the draft genome. In order to develop biocuration as a training experience, we included undergraduate and graduate students from multiple institutions, as well as experienced annotators from the insect genomics research community. The resulting gene set (OGS v1.0) combines both automatically predicted and manually curated gene models.Peer reviewedBiochemistry and Molecular BiologyEntomology and Plant Patholog

Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions

Research Seminar students' problems faced at the moment of selecting a research topic and how to overcome them

"For some students it is necessary and important to do a research project during their careers to get a degree, but during this process they face different problems. One of those problems is topic selection. This thesis reports on a qualitative case study and the primary aims were to explore and analyze Research Seminar I students’ main problems to select a topic and to find out the possible solutions. This study was carried out at the language department of big public university located in central Mexico. Twelve undergraduate English Language Teaching students participated in this investigation. The instruments to gather data were questionnaires and interviews. The interview included seven open-ended questions and was carried out in Spanish. The answers of each student were recorded and transcribed to be analyzed.

A molecular tug-of-war: Global plant proteome changes during viral infection

Plant pathogenic viruses cause a number of economically important diseases in food, fuel, and fiber crops worldwide. As obligate parasites with highly reduced genomes, viruses rely heavily on their hosts for replication, assembly, intra- and intercellular movement, and attraction of vectors for dispersal. Therefore, viruses must influence or directly utilize many host proteins and processes. While many general effects of virus infection have long been known (e.g., reduction in photosynthesis, alterations in carbon metabolism and partitioning, increased expression of pathogenesis-related proteins), the precise underlying mechanisms and functions in the viral life cycle are largely a mystery. Proteomic studies, including studies of differential protein regulation during infection as well as studies of host–viral protein–protein interactions, can help shed light on the complex and varied molecular interactions between viruses and plant hosts. In this review, we summarize current literature in plant-virus proteomics and speculate on why viruses have been selected to manipulate these diverse biochemical pathways in their plant hosts

Plasmodesma 2001: On Safari through the Symplast

Plant cells need to communicate with each other to orchestrate lifelong development, to integrate physiological processes, and to coordinate pathogen defense responses. The transmission of intercellular signals is an important means of regulating all plant life processes, from fertilization to senescence. In this framework, plasmodesmata (PD)— nanopores lined by plasma membrane that bridge the cytoplasm of most plant cells to their neighbors—play a pivotal role. PD function as relay stations in a unique cellular internet for the rapid exchange of water, metabolites, and even macromolecules. Exciting progress has been made in the field of plasmodesmal research, as reported at the 4th International Plasmodesma meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, in August 2001

Model System-Guided Protein Interaction Mapping for Virus Isolated from Phloem Tissue

Phloem localization of plant viruses is advantageous for acquisition by sap-sucking vectors but hampers host–virus protein interaction studies. In this study, Potato leafroll virus (PLRV)–host protein complexes were isolated from systemically infected potato, a natural host of the virus. Comparing two different co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP) support matrices coupled to mass spectrometry (MS), we identified 44 potato proteins and one viral protein (P1) specifically associated with virus isolated from infected phloem. An additional 142 proteins interact <i>in complex</i> with virus at varying degrees of confidence. Greater than 80% of these proteins were previously found to form high confidence interactions with PLRV isolated from the model host <i>Nicotiana benthamiana</i>. Bioinformatics revealed that these proteins are enriched for functions related to plasmodesmata, organelle membrane transport, translation, and mRNA processing. Our results show that model system proteomics experiments are extremely valuable for understanding protein interactions regulating infection in recalcitrant pathogens such as phloem-limited viruses