Abstracts of the International Conference on Water in the Humid Tropics, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 4 December 2006

Water management / Rain / Ecosystems / River basins / Runoff / Models / Water availability / Reservoirs / Water quality / Sri Lanka / China / Japan / Korea / Indonesia

Capacity-building for a strong public health nutrition workforce in lowresource countries

Neglected for several decades, nutrition is now firmly on the development agenda. Important landmarks are the initiation of the Scaling Up Nutrition movement in 2010; the adoption by the World Health Assembly of the Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition in 2014; and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases for 2013–2020. Public health nutrition has to meet multiple new challenges, including the shift from the millennium development goals to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), together with growing issues such as climate change, globalization, urbanization, socioeconomic disparities, migration and wars.

22. Greening the cities with biodiversity indicators; Experience and challenges from Japanese cities with CBI

For scientists, and other stakeholders to the biodiversity monitoring systems (including AP-BON), capturing and understanding the status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services are a main focus. In the policy/science interface, communicating the complex results in comprehensible ways has been one of the key challenges. Development of indicators, maps and other visualization tools are instrumental for identification, understanding, and to support the relevant policy decisions and processes. In recent years, different cities have explored the development of such indicators in the urban context through negotiation. Development of indicators for urban ecosystems and biodiversity is illustrated. The potential challenge of application and use of such indicator in Japanese urban contexts are reviewed based on interviews and existing data. This article discusses and reviews the advantages and limitations of urban biodiversity indicators. The review focused on applying the newly developed City Biodiversity Index (CBI). It is modifying Singapore city biodiversity index adjusted as Japanese local municipalities can easily and practically use it. The data is based on research project implemented by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan (MLIT). The existing literature points out that the policy makers tend to emphasize ecosystem services for justification of their policies, while scientists tend to focus on biodiversity. Such twists are not a major problem if the status of biodiversity correlates with ecosystem services. This is true at a global or at a regional scale, but may be different at the local level. For example, the results of studies by the city of Nagoya indicate that ecosystem services correlate with the size of green or open spaces and not with the status of biodiversity. As such, applying biodiversity indicators at different scales can be a contentious issue. In addition, the integration of biodiversity relevant elements to ecological footprint maps is often discussed from the perspectives of local governments.[Book Chapter]: 22. Greening the cities with biodiversity indicators; Experience and challenges from Japanese cities with CBI, Part V. Ecosystem Service and Socioeconomic Aspects with Special Reference to Biodiversity, Integrative Observations and Assessments (Ecological Research Monographs / Asia-Pacific Biodiversity Observation Network), edited by Shin-ichi Nakano(中野 伸一), Tetsukazu Yahara(矢原 徹一), Tohru Nakashizuka(浅野 透), DOI:10.1007/978-4-431-54783-

Dietary Factors Modulate Helicobacter-associated Gastric Cancer in Rodent Models

Since its discovery in 1982, the global importance of Helicobacter pylori–induced disease, particularly in developing countries, remains high. The use of rodent models, particularly mice, and the unanticipated usefulness of the gerbil to study H. pylori pathogenesis have been used extensively to study the interactions of the host, the pathogen, and the environmental conditions influencing the outcome of persistent H. pylori infection. Dietary factors in humans are increasingly recognized as being important factors in modulating progression and severity of H. pylori–induced gastric cancer. Studies using rodent models to verify and help explain mechanisms whereby various dietary ingredients impact disease outcome should continue to be extremely productive.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (P01CA028842)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (P01CA026731)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (P30ES002109

Dietary Diversity Predicts the Adequacy of Micronutrient Intake in Pregnant Adolescent Girls and Women in Bangladesh, but Use of the 5-Group Cutoff Poorly Identifies Individuals With Inadequate Intake

Background: The Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) indicator based on a 10-food group women dietary diversity score (WDDS-10) has been validated to assess dietary quality in nonpregnant women. Little is known about its applicability in pregnant women, and specifically pregnant adolescent girls with higher nutrient requirements. Objectives: This study aimed to 1) compare the adequacy of micronutrient intakes between pregnant adolescent girls and women, 2) examine the performance of WDDS-10 in predicting the mean probability of adequacy (MPA) of 11 micronutrients, and 3) assess how well the MDD-W cutoff of 5 groups performed in pregnant adolescent girls and women. Methods: We used data from a 2015 household survey in Bangladesh (n = 600). Nutrient intakes were estimated with a multiple-pass 24-h recall and WDDS-10 was assessed through the use of a list-based method. Multiple linear regression models adjusted for geographical clustering assessed the association between WDDS-10 and MPA. Sensitivity and specificity analysis assessed the accuracy of MDD-W in correctly classifying individuals into high (MPA \u3e0.6) or low MPA. Results: Dietary intakes of pregnant adolescent girls and women were similar in energy intake, WDDS-10 (5.1 ± 1.4), MPA (0.40 ± 0.12), and micronutrient intakes. Probabilities of adequacy were ∼0.30 for riboflavin, vitamin B-12, calcium, and zinc; 0.12-0.15 for folate; 0.16-0.19 for vitamin A; and extremely low for iron at 0.01. The WDDS-10 was significantly associated with MPA in both groups and predicted MPA equally well at population level (SD of residuals 0.11 for both). Use of the 5-food groups cutoff for MDD-W to classify individuals\u27 diets into MPA \u3e0.6, however, resulted in a low correct classification (∼40%). A cutoff of 6 food groups markedly improved correct classification. Conclusions: The WDDS-10 predicted MPA equally well for pregnant adolescent girls and women at population level. The MDD-W indicator performed poorly in classifying individuals with MPA \u3e0.6