Performance evaluation of available strains of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fed commercial and locally-made feeds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Open Access Journal; Published online: 29 Dec 2022The performance of two strains of Nile tilapia (the Nyakabera and Lake Kivu) fed a commercial feed or either a fishmeal-based or a fishmeal-free feed formulated using local ingredients was evaluated for 99 days in Bukavu, eastern highlands of the DR Congo (Experiment 1). Strain × feed interaction was significant (p 0.05) in FBW and CF, but both performed better than the Tihange. FBW of the female GIFT-Congo Futur was significantly higher than that of the other two strains, while CF was not significantly (p > 0.05) different among strains in females

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

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.</p

A century of trends in adult human height

Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5-22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3-19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8-144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

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

Strain-enhanced electron mobility anisotropy in InxGa1-xAs/InP two-dimensional electron gases

We systematically investigated electron mobility anisotropy in compressively strained, lattice-matched, and tensilely strained InGaAs quantum wells (QWs) grown on InP (0 0 1) by using Hall-bar devices with various current-flowing directions. Anisotropy of electron mobility, the highest along the [1 (1) over bar 0] direction and the lowest along [1 1 0], is systematically observed in all QWs, and well-fitted with a sinusoidal function of the current-flowing direction angle. The mobility anisotropy is minimum in the lattice-matched case and enhanced by both compressive and tensile strains in the QWs. We consider that random piezoelectric scattering, which is enhanced by the average normal strain in the QW, has anisotropy and plays an important role for the observed results. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Enhancement of ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties in PZT thin films with heterolayered structure

This paper reports the latest experimental results of multilayered, heterolayered, and alternating heterolayered PZT thin films obtained by spin coating on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si wafers using Zr-rich (P60) and Ti-rich (P40) solutions which were prepared by sol–gel route process. The ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of the heterolayered and alternating heterolayered P60/P40 thin films were significantly improved when compared to those of multilayered thin films using just P60 or P40 for the same film thickness. The improved properties resulted from the field-induced coupling effect between the rhombohedral (Zr-rich) and tetragonal (Ti-rich) layers which induces domain switching. Namely, the values of the remnant polarization, dielectric constant and piezoelectric coefficient were 18.6 μC cm−2, 1040 and 70 pm V−1 respectively, for alternating heterolayered P60/P40 thin films, while the properties for the purely multilayered P60 and P40 thin films were 14.6 μC cm−2, 860 and 52 pm V−1, and 17.1 μC cm−2, 800 and 50 pm V−1, respectively. The enhancement of the ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of PZT thin films with increasing film thickness in this case could be explained by the existence of an interfacial layer and substrate clamping