14 research outputs found

    On the origin and evolution of the material in 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

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    International audiencePrimitive objects like comets hold important information on the material that formed our solar system. Several comets have been visited by spacecraft and many more have been observed through Earth- and space-based telescopes. Still our understanding remains limited. Molecular abundances in comets have been shown to be similar to interstellar ices and thus indicate that common processes and conditions were involved in their formation. The samples returned by the Stardust mission to comet Wild 2 showed that the bulk refractory material was processed by high temperatures in the vicinity of the early sun. The recent Rosetta mission acquired a wealth of new data on the composition of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (hereafter 67P/C-G) and complemented earlier observations of other comets. The isotopic, elemental, and molecular abundances of the volatile, semi-volatile, and refractory phases brought many new insights into the origin and processing of the incorporated material. The emerging picture after Rosetta is that at least part of the volatile material was formed before the solar system and that cometary nuclei agglomerated over a wide range of heliocentric distances, different from where they are found today. Deviations from bulk solar system abundances indicate that the material was not fully homogenized at the location of comet formation, despite the radial mixing implied by the Stardust results. Post-formation evolution of the material might play an important role, which further complicates the picture. This paper discusses these major findings of the Rosetta mission with respect to the origin of the material and puts them in the context of what we know from other comets and solar system objects

    Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

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    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. © 2019, The Author(s)

    Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

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    High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries1,2. However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world3 and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health4,5. However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol�which is a marker of cardiovascular risk�changed from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95 credible interval 3.7 million�4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world. © 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited

    Uso de métodos complementares na inspeção post mortem de carcaças com suspeita de tuberculose bovina

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    O objetivo foi utilizar métodos complementares de diagnóstico (histopatológicos, bacteriológicos e moleculares), no julgamento de lesões suspeitas de tuberculose observadas durante a inspeção post mortem de rotina em abatedouros. Foi acompanhado o abate e a inspeção de 41.193 bovinos, sadios ao exame ante mortem, em sete abatedouros no estado de Mato Grosso. Carcaças de 198 (0,48%) animais apresentaram lesões, sendo 182 (92,0%) classificadas como granulomatosas ou piogranulomatosas na avaliação histopatológica. Entretanto, na baciloscopia, não foi evidenciada a presença de bacilo álcool-ácido resistente (BAAR). Mycobacterium bovis foi isolado em três (1,5%) lesões, provenientes de linfonodos retrofaringeanos de bovinos com até três anos de idade. Quando usado a PCR múltipla (m-PCR) diretamente nos fragmentos de tecido, detectou-se a presença de DNA de M. bovis em 14 (7,0%) lesões, incluindo as três amostras identificadas na análise bacteriológica. O julgamento das lesões pelo exame macroscópico concordou em 93,0% (184/198) com os resultados obtidos por meio da PCR. A fim de evitar equívocos durante a avaliação, principalmente das lesões paucibacilares, como as encontradas neste estudo, recomenda-se a utilização de testes complementares rápidos e confirmatórios. A m-PCR, associada à inspeção post mortem de rotina, demonstrou ser uma técnica promissora para a vigilância da tuberculose bovina em abatedouros, contribuindo para o sucesso do programa de erradicação da tuberculose bovina

    Chemical Signals in Plants: Jasmonates and the Role of Insect-Derived Elicitors in Responses to Herbivores

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    Temperature Tolerances of North American Freshwater Fishes Exposed to Dynamic Changes in Temperature

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