Invited commentary to the paper ‘Zinc status and its association with the health of adolescents: a review of studies in India’

We are pleased to view the article based on Dr. Rama Kawade's thesis illustrating the importance of micronutrient adequacy, especially zinc, and associated health implications in Indian adolescent girls. This brief commentary addresses three major aspects in which Kawade's work has made a significant contribution; nutrition and health issues of adolescents, rising importance of zinc in terms of deficiency problems being addressed, and development of dietary interventions to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies

Correlates of Incarceration Among Young Methamphetamine Users in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Objectives. We examined correlates of incarceration among young methamphetamine users in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2005 to 2006

Urban and rural variation in clustering of metabolic syndrome components in the Thai population: results from the fourth National Health Examination Survey 2009

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Information on the distribution of Metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its combinations by urban/rural areas in lower-middle income countries has been limited. It is not clear how the various combinations of MetS components varied by urban/rural population and if particular combinations of MetS are more common. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of MetS and combinations of MetS components according to sex and urban/rural areas from a nationally representative sample of Thai adults.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data from the fourth National Health Examination Survey of 19,256 Thai adults aged 20 years and over were analyzed. MetS was defined using the harmonized criteria of six international expert groups with Asian-specific cut-point for waist circumference.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The prevalence of MetS was 23.2% among adults aged ≥ 20 years (19.5% in men and 26.8% in women). Among men, the prevalence of MetS in urban was higher than those in rural areas (23.1% vs 17.9%, <it>P </it>< 0.05), but among women, the prevalence was higher in rural areas (27.9% vs 24.5%, <it>P </it>< 0.05). Overall, an individual component of low high density lipoprotein (HDL) and hypertriglyceridemia were more common in rural areas, while obesity, high blood pressure and hyperglycemia were more common in urban areas. The most common combination of MetS components in men was the clustering of low HDL, hypertriglyceridemia, and high blood pressure (urban: 3.4% vs. rural: 3.9%, adjusted OR 0.9, 95%CI 0.7, 1.1). Among women, the most common combination was the clustering of obesity, low HDL, and hypertriglyceridemia (urban: 3.9% vs rural: 5.9%, adjusted OR 0.8, 95%CI 0.6, 0.9), followed by the clustering of these three components with high blood pressure (urban: 3.1% vs. rural 4.5%, adjusted OR 0.8, 95%CI 0.7, 0.9).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Metabolic syndrome affects both urban and rural population with different pattern of MetS combinations. Dyslipidemia and obesity were the most common components among women in rural areas, hence, interventions to prevent and control these factors should be strengthened.</p

Low-Dissolved-Oxygen Nitrifying Systems Exploit Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria with Unusually High Yields▿

In wastewater treatment plants, nitrifying systems are usually operated with elevated levels of aeration to avoid nitrification failures. This approach contributes significantly to operational costs and the carbon footprint of nitrifying wastewater treatment processes. In this study, we tested the effect of aeration rate on nitrification by correlating ammonia oxidation rates with the structure of the ammonia-oxidizing bacterial (AOB) community and AOB abundance in four parallel continuous-flow reactors operated for 43 days. Two of the reactors were supplied with a constant airflow rate of 0.1 liter/min, while in the other two units the airflow rate was fixed at 4 liters/min. Complete nitrification was achieved in all configurations, though the dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration was only 0.5 ± 0.3 mg/liter in the low-aeration units. The data suggest that efficient performance in the low-DO units resulted from elevated AOB levels in the reactors and/or putative development of a mixotrophic AOB community. Denaturing gel electrophoresis and cloning of AOB 16S rRNA gene fragments followed by sequencing revealed that the AOB community in the low-DO systems was a subset of the community in the high-DO systems. However, in both configurations the dominant species belonged to the Nitrosomonas oligotropha lineage. Overall, the results demonstrated that complete nitrification can be achieved at low aeration in lab-scale reactors. If these findings could be extended to full-scale plants, it would be possible to minimize the operational costs and greenhouse gas emissions without risk of nitrification failure