How Can Nutrition Research Better Reflect the Relationship Between Wasting and Stunting in Children? Learnings from the Wasting and Stunting Project

Childhood wasting and stunting affect large numbers of children globally. Both are important risk factors for illness and death yet, despite the fact that these conditions can share common risk factors and are often seen in the same child, they are commonly portrayed as relatively distinct manifestations of undernutrition. In 2014, the Wasting and Stunting project was launched by the Emergency Nutrition Network. Its aim was to better understand the complex relationship and associations between wasting and stunting and examine whether current separations that were apparent in approaches to policy, financing, and programs were justified or useful. Based on the project's work, this article aims to bring a wasting and stunting lens to how research is designed and financed in order for the nutrition community to better understand, prevent, and treat child undernutrition. Discussion of lessons learnt focuses on the synergy and temporal relationships between children's weight loss and linear growth faltering, the proximal and distal factors that drive diverse forms of undernutrition, and identifying and targeting people most at risk. Supporting progress in all these areas requires research collaborations across interest groups that highlight the value of research that moves beyond a focus on single forms of undernutrition, and ensures that there is equal attention given to wasting as to other forms of malnutrition, wherever it is present

How Can Nutrition Research Better Reflect the Relationship Between Wasting and Stunting in Children? : Learnings from the Wasting and Stunting Project

Childhood wasting and stunting affect large numbers of children globally. Both are important risk factors for illness and death yet, despite the fact that these conditions can share common risk factors and are often seen in the same child, they are commonly portrayed as relatively distinct manifestations of undernutrition. In 2014, the Wasting and Stunting project was launched by the Emergency Nutrition Network. Its aim was to better understand the complex relationship and associations between wasting and stunting and examine whether current separations that were apparent in approaches to policy, financing, and programs were justified or useful. Based on the project's work, this article aims to bring a wasting and stunting lens to how research is designed and financed in order for the nutrition community to better understand, prevent, and treat child undernutrition. Discussion of lessons learnt focuses on the synergy and temporal relationships between children's weight loss and linear growth faltering, the proximal and distal factors that drive diverse forms of undernutrition, and identifying and targeting people most at risk. Supporting progress in all these areas requires research collaborations across interest groups that highlight the value of research that moves beyond a focus on single forms of undernutrition, and ensures that there is equal attention given to wasting as to other forms of malnutrition, wherever it is present.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

A new empirical potential energy function for Ar₂

<p>A critical re-analysis of all available spectroscopic and virial coefficient data for Ar₂ has been used to determine an improved empirical analytic potential energy function that has been ‘tuned’ to optimise its agreement with viscosity, diffusion and thermal diffusion data, and whose short-range behaviour is in reasonably good agreement with the most recent <i>ab initio</i> calculations for this system. The recommended Morse/long-range potential function is smooth and differentiable at all distances, and incorporates both the correct theoretically predicted long-range behaviour and the correct limiting short-range functional behaviour. The resulting value of the well depth is cm⁻¹ and the associated equilibrium distance is  <i>r</i>_<i>e</i> = 3.766 (±0.002) Å, while the ⁴⁰Ar <i>s</i>-wave scattering length is −714 Å.</p

Distribution of IFN-γ, IL-4 and TNF-α protein and CD8 T cells producing IL-12p40 mRNA in human lung tuberculous granulomas

In order to examine the immune response at the site of pathology in tuberculosis, we analysed cytokines present in lung granulomas, their associations with each other and with caseous necrosis as well as the phenotype of the cellular infiltrate. Paraffin-embedded tissue from the lungs of seven patients with pulmonary tuberculosis was analysed by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization to detect interferon-γ (IFN-γ), tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) proteins and IL-12p40 mRNA. All seven patients had granulomas staining positive for IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-12p40, but only four stained positive for IL-4. Cells with the morphology of lymphocytes, macrophages and giant cells expressed TNF-α, IFN-γ and IL-4 protein. Furthermore, CD68-positive myeloid cells expressed IL-12p40 mRNA, as expected, but a subset of CD3-positive lymphocytes also expressed this mRNA. These lymphocytes producing IL-12p40 also stained positive for CD8 but not CD4. A total of 141 granulomas were scored for the presence or absence of cytokine or necrosis and two major associations were identified. The first association was between IFN-γ and IL-12, with 76% of granulomas staining positive for both cytokines. Unexpectedly, those granulomas positive for IL-4 were always positive for IFN-γ. The second association was between TNF-α and caseous necrosis, where all necrotic granulomas were TNF-α positive. This association was modulated by IL-4. Therefore, heterogeneity of cellular infiltrate and cytokine expression is observed between adjacent granulomas in the same patient