Dietary Practices, Nutrient Adequacy, and Nutrition Status among Adolescents in Boarding High Schools in the Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania.

This research article published by Hindawi, 2020A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess dietary practices, nutrient adequacy, and nutrition status among 164 adolescents aged between 16 and 19 years in boarding secondary schools in the Kilimanjaro region. In-depth interviews and a survey guided by a semistructured and structured questionnaire, including 24-hour recall and food frequency questionnaire techniques, were used to collect information. Nutrition status was assessed using anthropometric measurements and hemoglobin levels. WHO AnthroPlus software and NutriSurvey software were used to analyze anthropometry and dietary data, respectively. Diet in boarding schools was monotonous comprising mainly of cereal-legume meal with low intake of animal sources, fruits, and vegetables. Mean intake of energy, vitamin C, iron, calcium, and zinc was 1392 kcal, 24.8 mg, 9.2 mg, 134.5 mg, and 4.3 mg, respectively, which were below the Recommended Daily Allowance. The average carbohydrate, fat, and protein intake of 471.9 g, 73.7 g, and 80.7 g, respectively, were slightly higher than the Recommended Daily Allowance in both sexes. Male had a significantly higher intake of protein and carbohydrates ( < 0.001). Female had a significantly ( < 0.001) high intake of fat compared to male adolescents. Overall, 23.1% of the adolescents were anaemic, 25% were overweight, and 6.1% were obese. Boarding secondary schools' diet is monotonous and are inadequate in key micronutrients, iron, zinc, calcium, and vitamin C. There is a coexistence of undernutrition and overnutrition among adolescents in boarding schools. Therefore, monitoring adolescents' dietary intake and nutrition status is a key in preventing adolescents' malnutrition in the short term and diet-related diseases in the long term

Does Pesticide exposure contribute to the growing burden of non - communicable diseases in Tanzania

This research article was published by Elsevier B.V., 2022Pesticide exposure is becoming a public health concern in Tanzania. This review highlights the existing information on pesticide exposure, health effects, knowledge, and awareness on pesticide handling and management and in the current pesticide regulations in Tanza- nia. There was a significant increase in pesticides importation of up to 4.5 million liters’ in 2017 and registration of 1,114 pesticides in 2018. Food, water and soil are subjected to unacceptable levels of pesticide residues. Inadequate awareness of the effects of pes- ticides among the population of Tanzania was observed. Even though there are existing regulations governing pesticides, the inadequate management of pesticide in Tanzania was identified to contribute the malpractices in pesticide usage. Persistence of the malpractice in pesticide handling has been observed which argues for immediate intervention. Limited information concerning pesticide poisoning and adverse health effects has been reported but the magnitude of the health effects is not well known. There is scarce data on the association between pesticide and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Tanzania. This review is informative to the policy, practices, and intervention towards the existing situa- tion of pesticide in Tanzania. In addition, it calls for further investigation of the absence of data on pesticide exposure and NCD

Risks of aflatoxin exposure among adolescents in boarding schools in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania

This research article published by Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2021School feeding in low-income countries is dominated by cereals and legumes, which are susceptible to aflatoxin contamination but are usually not assessed for aflatoxins. A cross sectional study was conducted to assess aflatoxin exposure among adolescents through consumption of school meals in Kilimanjaro region. Food frequency questionnaires and 24 h dietary recalls were used to collect information on food consumption. At least four samples of common food used in school meals were collected. A deterministic approach was used to estimate the dietary aflatoxin exposure. High Performance Liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to analyse presence of aflatoxin contamination. Results showed that, maize based food and beans were consumed on daily basis. The intake of maize flour and dehulled maize ranged from 17.5 to 738.2 g and 28.2 to 272 g per person per day respectively. Furthermore, consumption of beans and rice were in the range of 121.1 to 595.2 g and 15.7 to 42.2 g per person per day respectively. Total aflatoxins ranged 0.20-438.53 μg/kg (median 2.30 μg/kg). The highest contamination range (0.59-438.53 μg/kg) was in maize while the lowest (0.20-3.41 μg/kg) was found in rice. Similarly, the highest aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) concentration (35.88 μg/kg) was in dehulled maize while the lowest (0.44 μg/kg) was in rice. The highest dietary exposure to total aflatoxins and AFB1 due to consumption of maize ranged from 0.70 to 973.45 ng/kg/bodyweight (bw)/day, and from 0.05-81.06 ng/kg/bw/day, respectively. This pronounced risk of exposure to aflatoxins might have been contributed by a monotonous maize based diet in boarding schools. These findings call for institutions immediate interventions, such as the use of appropriate storage technologies, sorting, cleaning and winnowing in order to remove damaged grains, thereby reducing the risk of dietary exposure to aflatoxins. Likewise, the relevant ministries should consider food diversification and routine risk assessments of the susceptible crops throughout the value chain as a long-term intervention plan at policy level

Retrotransposons Are the Major Contributors to the Expansion of the \u3ci\u3eDrosophila ananassae\u3c/i\u3e Muller F Element

The discordance between genome size and the complexity of eukaryotes can partly be attributed to differences in repeat density. The Muller F element (∼5.2 Mb) is the smallest chromosome in Drosophila melanogaster, but it is substantially larger (\u3e18.7 Mb) in D. ananassae. To identify the major contributors to the expansion of the F element and to assess their impact, we improved the genome sequence and annotated the genes in a 1.4-Mb region of the D. ananassae F element, and a 1.7-Mb region from the D element for comparison. We find that transposons (particularly LTR and LINE retrotransposons) are major contributors to this expansion (78.6%), while Wolbachia sequences integrated into the D. ananassae genome are minor contributors (0.02%). Both D. melanogaster and D. ananassae F-element genes exhibit distinct characteristics compared to D-element genes (e.g., larger coding spans, larger introns, more coding exons, and lower codon bias), but these differences are exaggerated in D. ananassae. Compared to D. melanogaster, the codon bias observed in D. ananassae F-element genes can primarily be attributed to mutational biases instead of selection. The 5′ ends of F-element genes in both species are enriched in dimethylation of lysine 4 on histone 3 (H3K4me2), while the coding spans are enriched in H3K9me2. Despite differences in repeat density and gene characteristics, D. ananassae F-element genes show a similar range of expression levels compared to genes in euchromatic domains. This study improves our understanding of how transposons can affect genome size and how genes can function within highly repetitive domains

Comprehensive Molecular Characterization of Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer

We report a comprehensive analysis of 412 muscle-invasive bladder cancers characterized by multiple TCGA analytical platforms. Fifty-eight genes were significantly mutated, and the overall mutational load was associated with APOBEC-signature mutagenesis. Clustering by mutation signature identified a high-mutation subset with 75% 5-year survival. mRNA expression clustering refined prior clustering analyses and identified a poor-survival "neuronal" subtype in which the majority of tumors lacked small cell or neuroendocrine histology. Clustering by mRNA, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), and miRNA expression converged to identify subsets with differential epithelial-mesenchymal transition status, carcinoma in&nbsp;situ scores, histologic features, and survival. Our analyses identified 5 expression subtypes that may stratify response to different treatments

Retrotransposons Are the Major Contributors to the Expansion of the Drosophila ananassae Muller F Element.

The discordance between genome size and the complexity of eukaryotes can partly be attributed to differences in repeat density. The Muller F element (∼5.2 Mb) is the smallest chromosome in Drosophila melanogaster, but it is substantially larger (&gt;18.7 Mb) in D. ananassae To identify the major contributors to the expansion of the F element and to assess their impact, we improved the genome sequence and annotated the genes in a 1.4-Mb region of the D. ananassae F element, and a 1.7-Mb region from the D element for comparison. We find that transposons (particularly LTR and LINE retrotransposons) are major contributors to this expansion (78.6%), while Wolbachia sequences integrated into the D. ananassae genome are minor contributors (0.02%). Both D. melanogaster and D. ananassae F-element genes exhibit distinct characteristics compared to D-element genes (e.g., larger coding spans, larger introns, more coding exons, and lower codon bias), but these differences are exaggerated in D. ananassae Compared to D. melanogaster, the codon bias observed in D. ananassae F-element genes can primarily be attributed to mutational biases instead of selection. The 5' ends of F-element genes in both species are enriched in dimethylation of lysine 4 on histone 3 (H3K4me2), while the coding spans are enriched in H3K9me2. Despite differences in repeat density and gene characteristics, D. ananassae F-element genes show a similar range of expression levels compared to genes in euchromatic domains. This study improves our understanding of how transposons can affect genome size and how genes can function within highly repetitive domains

Retrotransposons Are the Major Contributors to the Expansion of the Drosophila ananassae Muller F Element

The discordance between genome size and the complexity of eukaryotes can partly be attributed to differences in repeat density. The Muller F element (∼5.2 Mb) is the smallest chromosome in Drosophila melanogaster, but it is substantially larger (>18.7 Mb) in D. ananassae. To identify the major contributors to the expansion of the F element and to assess their impact, we improved the genome sequence and annotated the genes in a 1.4-Mb region of the D. ananassae F element, and a 1.7-Mb region from the D element for comparison. We find that transposons (particularly LTR and LINE retrotransposons) are major contributors to this expansion (78.6%), while Wolbachia sequences integrated into the D. ananassae genome are minor contributors (0.02%). Both D. melanogaster and D. ananassae F-element genes exhibit distinct characteristics compared to D-element genes (e.g., larger coding spans, larger introns, more coding exons, and lower codon bias), but these differences are exaggerated in D. ananassae. Compared to D. melanogaster, the codon bias observed in D. ananassae F-element genes can primarily be attributed to mutational biases instead of selection. The 5′ ends of F-element genes in both species are enriched in dimethylation of lysine 4 on histone 3 (H3K4me2), while the coding spans are enriched in H3K9me2. Despite differences in repeat density and gene characteristics, D. ananassae F-element genes show a similar range of expression levels compared to genes in euchromatic domains. This study improves our understanding of how transposons can affect genome size and how genes can function within highly repetitive domains

\u3ci\u3eDrosophila\u3c/i\u3e Muller F Elements Maintain a Distinct Set of Genomic Properties Over 40 Million Years of Evolution

The Muller F element (4.2 Mb, ~80 protein-coding genes) is an unusual autosome of Drosophila melanogaster; it is mostly heterochromatic with a low recombination rate. To investigate how these properties impact the evolution of repeats and genes, we manually improved the sequence and annotated the genes on the D. erecta, D. mojavensis, and D. grimshawi F elements and euchromatic domains from the Muller D element. We find that F elements have greater transposon density (25–50%) than euchromatic reference regions (3–11%). Among the F elements, D. grimshawi has the lowest transposon density (particularly DINE-1: 2% vs. 11–27%). F element genes have larger coding spans, more coding exons, larger introns, and lower codon bias. Comparison of the Effective Number of Codons with the Codon Adaptation Index shows that, in contrast to the other species, codon bias in D. grimshawi F element genes can be attributed primarily to selection instead of mutational biases, suggesting that density and types of transposons affect the degree of local heterochromatin formation. F element genes have lower estimated DNA melting temperatures than D element genes, potentially facilitating transcription through heterochromatin. Most F element genes (~90%) have remained on that element, but the F element has smaller syntenic blocks than genome averages (3.4–3.6 vs. 8.4–8.8 genes per block), indicating greater rates of inversion despite lower rates of recombination. Overall, the F element has maintained characteristics that are distinct from other autosomes in the Drosophila lineage, illuminating the constraints imposed by a heterochromatic milieu