Cooking Should Not Kill: What Works, What Doesn't and What's Next? Strategies for Clean Cookstove Adoption

Despite decades of research and implementation efforts to alleviate the burden of indoor air pollution from use of biomass burning stoves, poor communities worldwide and especially their women and children continue to pay a heavy price with their health, safety, and economic security. Much is known about the devastating consequences of biomass burning on global health and environment, but efforts to deploy improved clean burning stoves and fuels that reduce harmful emissions have not been very successful. Major barriers including unpopular designs, cost, deficient supply chain, lack of awareness of health and economic benefits, and gender dynamics in affected communities, have prevented implementation of large-scale adoption of cleaner cooking solutions in developing countries. The latest efforts for improving adoption rates are focused on market-based strategies. To be successful, these market-based strategies will need to be combined with strong community engagement efforts with an emphasis on women who are end-users of the stoves and also the most impacted by the adverse outcomes of biomass burning. Global health interventions that have engaged women's and community health workers have been successful in improving health behaviors and outcomes. We propose a Health Impact Pyramid framework that combines key stakeholder engagement with market-based strategies to overcome existing barriers and make cookstove adoption desirable and sustainable. We describe a logic model that can serves as a guide for implementing and evaluating the intervention. Applying a framework that addresses the social, cultural, economic, and environmental determinants of this global health intervention will be important if the global community is to reduce the burden of disease from biomass burning.Master of Public Healt

Application of aspen MADS-box genes to alter reproduction and development in trees

The present invention provides compositions and methods for producing a transgenic plant that exhibits altered characteristics resulting from over expression or under expression of a novel polypeptide PtM3 or its homolog PtM4. The altered characteristics resulting from over-expression include at least one of the ability to convert axillary mer- istem to floral meristem; to accelerate flowering i.e., early flowering; to increase fruit production; to increase nut production; to increase seed output; to increase branching; to increase flower production; to increase fruit yield; to increase flower yield and a combination thereof. The altered characteristics resulting from suppressed expression include at least one of complete sterility; partial sterility (sterility of only one sex of a bisexual plant); reduced pollen production; decreased flowering; increased biomass and combinations thereof. Furthermore, once the transgenic plant is sterile, additional exogenous sequences may be incorporated into the sterile plant genome, resulting in other desired plant characteristics. Related promoter, gene constructs, methods, antibodies and kits are also provided.https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/patents/1041/thumbnail.jp

Biosynthesis of ecdysteroids in Zea mays

The incubation of several radiolabelled substrates with Zea mays plants demonstrated the incorporation of radiolabels into ecdysteroid conjugates. Radiolabelled [14C]ecdysone and [14C]20-hydroxyecdysone, were biosynthesized from [2-14C]mevalonic acid (MVA) in Z. mays. These ecdysteroids can be released from their conjugates by treatment with wheat germ acid phosphatase or mild acid hydrolysis. The C-24 reduced side chain sterols, lathosterol and cholesterol were endogenously biosynthesized from [2-14C]MVA and were identified by 1H NMR. Lathosterol accounts for ca 0.5% of the total sterol composition, whereas cholesterol is present at 2.5%. However, lathosterol was consistently found to have a specific activity three to six times that of cholesterol. Incubation of [4-14C]cholesterol with Z. mays leaves also demonstrated incorporation into a 20-hydroxyecdysone conjugate. Incubation of [22,23-3H]ecdysone with Z. mays demonstrated incorporation into radiolabelled ecdysone diphosphate and ecdysone polyphosphate, which were cleaved upon acid phosphatase treatment. Z. mays biosynthesizes primarily ecdysteroid conjugates and does not appear to produce detectable levels of non-conjugated ecdysteroids. © 1995

Association between Handwashing Behavior and Infectious Diseases among Low-Income Community Children in Urban New Delhi, India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Diarrheal diseases and respiratory infections (RI) are two leading causes of childhood mortality in low and middle-income countries. Effective handwashing at critical time-points may mitigate these diseases. However, there is a lack of published data investigating this association in school-aged children in India. This study is part of a larger prospective handwashing intervention study in a low-income community in New Delhi, India examining the associations between handwashing behavior and diarrhea and RI in schoolchildren. This current study reports the findings of the baseline survey administered to 272 mother–child dyads. Children aged 8–12 years, and their mothers, were recruited from six schools. A baseline questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic data, handwash behavior, and mother-reported recent diarrhea and RI incidence among the children. Handwashing before and after preparing food, after defecation, and after cleaning dishes significantly reduced the odds of diarrhea by over 70%, and of RI by over 56%. Using a clean cloth after handwashing lowered odds of diarrhea and RI by 72% and 63% respectively. Around 60% of the participants believed that handwashing could prevent diarrhea and RI in their children. There was a low prevalence of handwashing at critical time-points and a poor perception regarding handwashing benefits. To improve handwashing behavior, hygiene promotion programs need to understand what motivates and hinders handwashing in vulnerable populations

SEP-class genes in Populus tremuloides and their likely role in reproductive survival of poplar trees

One of the most important processes to the survival of a species is its ability to reproduce. In plants, SEPALLATA-class MADS-box genes have been found to control the development of the inner whorls of flowers. However, while much is known about floral development in herbaceous plants, similar systems in woody trees remain poorly understood. Populus tremuloides (trembling aspen) is a widespread North American tree having important economic value, and its floral development differs from that of well-studied species in that the flowers have only two whorls and are truly unisexual. Sequence based analyses indicate that PTM3 (Populus tremuloides MADS-box 3), and a duplicate gene PTM4, are related to the SEPALLATA1-and 2-class of MADS-box genes. Another gene, PTM6, is related to SEP3, and each of these genes has a counterpart in the poplar genomic database along with additional members of the A, B, C, D, and E-classes of MADS-box genes. PTM3/4 and 6 are expressed in all stages of male and female aspen floral development. However, PTM3/4 is also expressed in the terminal buds, young leaves, and young stems. In situ RNA localization identified PTM3/4 and 6 transcripts predominantly in the inner, sexual whorl, within developing ovules of female flowers and anther primordia of male flowers. Tree researchers often use heterologous systems to help study tree floral development due to the long juvenile periods found in most trees. We found that the participation of PTM3/4 in floral development is supported by transgenic experiments in both P. tremuloides and heterologous systems such as tobacco and Arabidopsis. However, phenotypic artifacts were observed in the heterologous systems. Together the results suggest a role for poplar SEP-class genes in reproductive viability. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved