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In this experimental study, seeds of wild tree species namely Acacia nilotica, Prosopis juliflora, Albizia lebbeck, and Leucaena leucocephala were explored as potential feedstocks for anaerobic digestion and compared with cattle manure which is a commonly used feedstock. These seeds occur abundantly as waste biomass in tropical and subtropical parts of Asia, Africa, and the USA. An experimental investigation was carried out in large 300-L anaerobic digesters under semi-continuous feed mode for 90 days. The average specific methane production yield observed was 0.208 Nm3/kg volatile solids (VS) for A. nilotica, 0.227 Nm3/kg VS for P. juliflora, 0.219 Nm3/kg VS for A. lebbeck and 0.210 Nm3/kg VS for L. leucocephala which was found to be higher than cattle manure's yield of 0.146 Nm3/kg VS. Experimental analysis revealed an average methane content of more than 52% for all the seeds and a total volatile solid mass removal efficiency of 41.60% for A. nilotica, 44.19% for P. juliflora, 43.76% for A. lebbeck, and 41.41% for L. leucocephala which was higher than 29.7% for cattle manure. The experimental investigations showed that they have a higher biogas production potential than cattle manure indicating their huge scope and suitability as alternative feedstocks, and their use can also mitigate the ecological risk seeds pose by growing into invasive trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the prevalence of diabetes among the urban population in south India. Use of the oral glucose tolerance test in diabetes screening; Relationship between diabetes and obesity; Details on the classification of glucose tolerance.

Objective: Previous prospective studies on the association of white rice intake with incident diabetes have shown contradictory results but were conducted in single countries and predominantly in Asia. We report on the association of white rice with risk of diabetes in the multinational Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study., Research Design and Methods: Data on 132,373 individuals aged 35-70 years from 21 countries were analyzed. White rice consumption (cooked) was categorized as <150, ≥150 to <300, ≥300 to <450, and ≥450 g/day, based on one cup of cooked rice = 150 g. The primary outcome was incident diabetes. Hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using a multivariable Cox frailty model., Results: During a mean follow-up period of 9.5 years, 6,129 individuals without baseline diabetes developed incident diabetes. In the overall cohort, higher intake of white rice (≥450 g/day compared with <150 g/day) was associated with increased risk of diabetes (HR 1.20; 95% CI 1.02-1.40; P for trend = 0.003). However, the highest risk was seen in South Asia (HR 1.61; 95% CI 1.13-2.30; P for trend = 0.02), followed by other regions of the world (which included South East Asia, Middle East, South America, North America, Europe, and Africa) (HR 1.41; 95% CI 1.08-1.86; P for trend = 0.01), while in China there was no significant association (HR 1.04; 95% CI 0.77-1.40; P for trend = 0.38)., Conclusions: Higher consumption of white rice is associated with an increased risk of incident diabetes with the strongest association being observed in South Asia, while in other regions, a modest, nonsignificant association was seen., (© 2020 by the American Diabetes Association.)

Improving understanding of the pathogen-specific seasonality of enteric infections is critical to informing policy on the timing of preventive measures and to forecast trends in the burden of diarrhoeal disease. Data obtained from active surveillance of cohorts can capture the underlying infection status as transmission occurs in the community. The purpose of this study was to characterise rotavirus seasonality in eight different locations while adjusting for age, calendar time and within-subject clustering of episodes by applying an adapted Serfling model approach to data from a multi-site cohort study. In the Bangladesh and Peru sites, within-subject clustering was high, with more than half of infants who experienced one rotavirus infection going on to experience a second and more than 20% experiencing a third. In the five sites that are in countries that had not introduced the rotavirus vaccine, the model predicted a primary peak in prevalence during the dry season and, in three of these, a secondary peak during the rainy season. The patterns predicted by this approach are broadly congruent with several emerging hypotheses about rotavirus transmission and are consistent for both symptomatic and asymptomatic rotavirus episodes. These findings have practical implications for programme design, but caution should be exercised in deriving inferences about the underlying pathways driving these trends, particularly when extending the approach to other pathogens.

The serum immunoreactive insulin response to an oral glucose load was estimated in 15 Asian Indian and 29 European non-diabetic subjects, and in 45 Asian Indian and 72 European Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetic patients. In the non-diabetic group, basal insulin values were higher in the Asian Indians than the Europeans (16.7 +/- 3.0 vs. 6.9 +/- 0.7 mU/l, p less than 0.001), and remained higher throughout the glucose tolerance test. Total insulin response was also higher in the Asian Indians (p less than 0.001), and linear regression analysis revealed basal insulin, body mass index and race to be important predictors of insulin response. Amongst the diabetic patients, basal insulin values were again higher in the Asian Indians compared with the Europeans (18.0 +/- 5.0 vs. 11.5 +/- 0.9 mU/l, p less than 0.05). Total insulin response was also greater (p less than 0.01). Linear regression analysis revealed the basal insulin value to be the only significant predictor of insulin response. The results demonstrate higher insulin levels in Asian Indians than Europeans in both normal subjects and Type 2 diabetic subjects. The insulin response to a glucose load is also greater in the Asian Indians. In the control subjects, ethnic differences contribute to this response, whereas in the diabetic patients this is a function of the elevated basal insulin values of the Asian Indians.