The PLATO 2.0 mission

PLATO 2.0 has recently been selected for ESA's M3 launch opportunity (2022/24). Providing accurate key planet parameters (radius, mass, density and age) in statistical numbers, it addresses fundamental questions such as: How do planetary systems form and evolve? Are there other systems with planets like ours, including potentially habitable planets? The PLATO 2.0 instrument consists of 34 small aperture telescopes (32 with 25 s readout cadence and 2 with 2.5 s candence) providing a wide field-of-view (2232 deg 2) and a large photometric magnitude range (4-16 mag). It focusses on bright (4-11 mag) stars in wide fields to detect and characterize planets down to Earth-size by photometric transits, whose masses can then be determined by ground-based radial-velocity follow-up measurements. Asteroseismology will be performed for these bright stars to obtain highly accurate stellar parameters, including masses and ages. The combination of bright targets and asteroseismology results in high accuracy for the bulk planet parameters: 2 %, 4-10 % and 10 % for planet radii, masses and ages, respectively. The planned baseline observing strategy includes two long pointings (2-3 years) to detect and bulk characterize planets reaching into the habitable zone (HZ) of solar-like stars and an additional step-and-stare phase to cover in total about 50 % of the sky. PLATO 2.0 will observe up to 1,000,000 stars and detect and characterize hundreds of small planets, and thousands of planets in the Neptune to gas giant regime out to the HZ. It will therefore provide the first large-scale catalogue of bulk characterized planets with accurate radii, masses, mean densities and ages. This catalogue will include terrestrial planets at intermediate orbital distances, where surface temperatures are moderate. Coverage of this parameter range with statistical numbers of bulk characterized planets is unique to PLATO 2.0. The PLATO 2.0 catalogue allows us to e.g.: - complete our knowledge of planet diversity for low-mass objects, - correlate the planet mean density-orbital distance distribution with predictions from planet formation theories,- constrain the influence of planet migration and scattering on the architecture of multiple systems, and - specify how planet and system parameters change with host star characteristics, such as type, metallicity and age. The catalogue will allow us to study planets and planetary systems at different evolutionary phases. It will further provide a census for small, low-mass planets. This will serve to identify objects which retained their primordial hydrogen atmosphere and in general the typical characteristics of planets in such low-mass, low-density range. Planets detected by PLATO 2.0 will orbit bright stars and many of them will be targets for future atmosphere spectroscopy exploring their atmosphere. Furthermore, the mission has the potential to detect exomoons, planetary rings, binary and Trojan planets. The planetary science possible with PLATO 2.0 is complemented by its impact on stellar and galactic science via asteroseismology as well as light curves of all kinds of variable stars, together with observations of stellar clusters of different ages. This will allow us to improve stellar models and study stellar activity. A large number of well-known ages from red giant stars will probe the structure and evolution of our Galaxy. Asteroseismic ages of bright stars for different phases of stellar evolution allow calibrating stellar age-rotation relationships. Together with the results of ESA's Gaia mission, the results of PLATO 2.0 will provide a huge legacy to planetary, stellar and galactic science

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

AbstractOptimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. 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 &lt;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.</jats:p

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI 2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/images/research_banner_face_lab_290.jpgunderweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesity

Influence of alkali treatment on agar from Gracilariopsis longissima and Gracilaria vermiculophylla from the Gulf of California, Mexico

The effect of alkali treatment on agar yield, sulfate content, and 3,6 anhydrogalactose content from two agarophyte species (Gracilariopsis longissima and Gracilaria vermiculophylla) was analyzed. In addition, gel strength was measured in each agar extract as well as gelling and melting temperatures. Agar was extracted after pretreatment with different concentrations of NaOH (3%, 5%, 7%, and 9%). Pretreatment with alkali significantly reduced agar yield from G. longissima from 13.2% in nontreated agar (native agar) to 5.4% in 5% NaOH, whereas in G. vermiculophylla it diminished from 25.2% to 9.6% in 9% NaOH treatment. Statistically significant differences were observed for native and all alkali treatments in G. longissima, whereas in G. vermiculophylla significant differences were only found among native and high alkali treatments (7% and 9% NaOH, P < 0.05). Sulfate content from G. longissima diminished gradually with increasing alkali concentration, from high (3.9%) in native agar to low (3.1%) in 7% alkali treatment, and was negatively correlated with gel strength (r = –0.92). Sulfate content in G. vermiculophylla native agar was twice as high as that found in G. longissima (7.8%) and did not show statistically significant differences with low alkali treatments, but it did with high NaOH treatments. Higher contents of 3,6 anhydrogalactose were found with 9% NaOH treatment in G. longissima (40.9%) and G. vermiculophylla (43%), and they were significantly correlated with gel strength (r = 0.89 and r = 0.91, respectively).

Discussion Paper No. 2002/82 Capital-Account and Counter-Cyclical Prudential Regulations in Developing Countries

This paper explores the complementary use of two instruments to manage capital-account volatility in developing countries: capital-account regulations and counter-cyclical prudential regulation of domestic financial intermediaries. Capitalaccount regulations can provide useful instruments in terms of both improving debt profiles and facilitating the adoption of (possibly temporary) counter-cyclical macroeconomic policies. Prudential regulation and supervision should take into account not only the microeconomic risks, but also the macroeconomic risks associated with boom-bust cycles. It should thus introduce counter-cyclical elements into prudential regulation and supervision, together with strict rules to prevent currency mismatches and reduce maturity mismatches. These instruments should be seen as a complement to counter-cyclical macroeconomic policies and, certainly, neither of them can nullify the risks that pro-cyclical macroeconomic policies may generate

Dynamic analysis of physiological properties of Torulaspora delbrueckii in wine fermentations and its incidence on wine quality

This work examines the physiology of a new commercial strain of Torulaspora delbrueckii in the production of red wine following different combined fermentation strategies. For a detailed comparison, several yeast metabolites and the strains implantation were measured over the entire fermentation period. In all fermentations in which T. delbrueckii was involved, the ethanol concentration was reduced; some malic acid was consumed; more pyruvic acid was released, and fewer amounts of higher alcohols were produced. The sensorial properties of final wines varied widely, emphasising the structure of wine in sequential fermentations with T. delbrueckii. These wines presented the maximum overall impression and were preferred by tasters. Semi-industrial assays were carried out confirming these differences at a higher scale. No important differences were observed in volatile aroma composition between fermentations. However, differences in mouthfeel properties were observed in semi-industrial fermentations, which were correlated with an increase in the mannoprotein content of red wines fermented sequentially with T. delbrueckii

Dynamic analysis of physiological properties of Torulaspora delbrueckii in wine fermentations and its incidence on wine quality.

This work examines the physiology of a new commercial strain of Torulaspora delbrueckii in the production of red wine following different combined fermentation strategies. For a detailed comparison, several yeast metabolites and the strains implantation were measured over the entire fermentation period. In all fermentations in which T. delbrueckii was involved, the ethanol concentration was reduced; some malic acid was consumed; more pyruvic acid was released, and fewer amounts of higher alcohols were produced. The sensorial properties of final wines varied widely, emphasising the structure of wine in sequential fermentations with T. delbrueckii. These wines presented the maximum overall impression and were preferred by tasters. Semiindustrial assays were carried out confirming these differences at a higher scale. No important differences were observed in volatile aroma composition between fermentations. However, differences in mouthfeel properties were observed in semiindustrial fermentations, which were correlated with an increase in the mannoprotein content of red wines fermented sequentially with T. delbrueckii