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

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities 1,2 . This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity 3�6 . Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55 of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017�and more than 80 in some low- and middle-income regions�was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing�and in some countries reversal�of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories. © 2019, The Author(s)

Characterization of rice husk for cyclone gasifier

The characterization of rice husk from local rice mills has been studied and evaluated to determine its potential utilization as a biomass fuel for a cyclone gasifier. The raw rice husk was pre-treated throughout a grinding process into smaller sizes of particles which is within a range of 0.4 to 1 mm and the sample of ground rice husk was analyzed for its fuel characteristics. The result of proximate analysis shows that the ground rice husk with size distribution within 0.4 to 1 mm contains 13.4% of fixed carbon, 62.95% of volatile matter and 18.5% of ash on dry basis. The moisture content of the sample was measured and determined as 10.4% (wet basis) and the calorific value was found to be approximately 14.8 MJ kg-1 with bulk density of 91.46 kg m-3. The result of ultimate analysis validates both ash and moisture content which are found to be 18.15 and 10.4%, respectively. Other elemental compositions determined by the ultimate analysis are carbon (37.9%), hydrogen (5.2%), nitrogen (0.14%), sulfur (0.61%) and oxygen (27.7% by difference). The study has identified that the fuel characteristics of the ground rice husk is comparable with other types of biomass and thus, making it another potential source of fuel for the cyclone gasification system

An investigation of a self-pressurized alpha V-Type stirling engine converted diesel engine

This study reports the investigation results of 194cc. alpha V-type Stirling engine converted from a four-stroke diesel engine that operated in self-pressurized mode. Tests were conducted with air as the working gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as the heat source. The engine started operating at 600 °C for hot cylinder temperature and 60 °C for cold cylinder temperature, respectively. At heat input of 1100 J/s, the engine performance was successfully tested at both no load and load conditions. For mechanical shaft power assessment, the engine approximately produced a maximum brake power of 7 W, brake thermal efficiency of 0.6% at 717 rpm speed, 811 °C hot cylinder temperature and 96 °C cold cylinder temperature. For electrical power assessment, the engine was capable of generating a maximum electrical output power of 1.7 We at 657 rpm speed, 855 °C hot cylinder temperature and 98 °C cold cylinder temperature. Despite its low engine performance, the study of alpha V-type Stirling engine is a worthwhile step towards clean and sustainable energy in mass production

Influence of prayers coping in problematic behaviors

Symptoms of social problems among adolescents nowadays are increasingly worsening and worrying all parties concerned. This is due to the lack of religious and spiritual appreciation among society. This phenomenon, if not contained, will have a negative impact on the well-being of the community, the family institution and the teenager’s character . The objective of this study is to examine the Islamic spiritual approach based on mystical concepts developed by tasawuf scholars. This study also aimed to identify the forms of personality disorders in adolescents living in Baitul Sakinah and the Silent Repetition of Prayers and Self-reflection or Introspection treatment used to overcome the problem at the centre. In addition, the study also aimed to analyze the implications of the Silent Repetition of Prayers, Self-reflection or Introspection approaches used on the trainees in Baitul Sakinah. This was a qualitative study that applied the case study design comprising interviews as well as several other methods such as document analysis and questionnaires. The instruments used were interview protocol and questionnaire. Data from interviews were analyzed using the manual and Nvivo 11 software. The manual method covered the process of transcription, reduction, coding and data display. Whereas the data from the questionnaire were analyzed descriptively using SPSS 23.0. The results showed that there were 22 types of problematic behaviors exhibited by trainees in Baitul Sakinah. This negative phenomenon requires a solution. The findings also indicated that there are several spiritual treatment approaches used in Baitul Sakinah, such Silent Repetition of Prayers and Self-reflection or Introspection. The implication is that the treatment creates awareness among the trainees and convinces them to abstain from negative elements that cause their problematic behavior. © IAEME Publication

An investigation into Malay numeral classifier acquisition through an elicited production task

The act of categorization and labeling is fundamental in human cognition and language development. By studying numeral classifier acquisition, researchers are able to examine how children learn to categorize and label objects in their environment using a constrained framework. The current study investigated the acquisition of eight shape-based numeral classifiers in Malay through an elicited production task in 140 6- to 9-year-old children. The aim was to examine the developmental patterns observed in the production of Malay shape-based numeral classifiers. Results indicated that the ability to produce the correct numeral classifiers is a relatively prolonged process that involves an interaction of a variety factors, including semantic complexity, input frequency, and the formal teaching of numeral classifiers in school