Search results for "Food Security"
showing 10 items of 80 documents
Analysis of risk and prognostic factors in a population of pediatric patients hospitalized for acute malnutrition at the Chiulo hospital, Angola
2021
Abstract Background Malnutrition is a multifactorial pathology in which genetic, epigenetic, cultural, environmental, socio-economic factors interact with each other. The impact that this disease has on the health of children worldwide is dramatic. Severe acute malnutrition in particular is a disease affecting nearly 20 million preschool children worldwide, most of them in Africa and South East Asia. Objectives This work aims to investigate potential prognostic factors in the clinical evolution of acute malnutrition and potential risk factors for the development of the disease. Methods Our study was carried out at the “Hospital da Missão Catolica do Chiulo”, in Angola, where the NGO Doctors…
Designing disease-resistant crops : from basic knowledge to biotechnology
2020
Ancient records describe how plant diseases were attributed to many causes which included divine power, religious belief, and superstition. Far from these days, we now have detailed knowledge about how plant immunity is executed. Plants employ two types of sensors to perceive and defeat the litany of pathogenic organisms that attack them, whilst microbes deploy a myriad of specialized weapons to suppress immunity and promote infection. This opens a path to exploiting these insights to increase crop resistance. Here we describe novel biotechnological approaches for designing superior disease-resistant crops to fight agricultural losses in the field while reducing chemical inputs, towards a m…
A prioritised inventory of crop wild relatives and wild harvested plants of Tunisia
2022
AbstractAn inventory of crop wild relatives (CWR) and wild harvested plants (WHP) occurring in Tunisia, based on the integration of the last available floristic checklists, is presented. The taxa were prioritised according to economic value of the related crop, potential for crop improvement, threat status, endemism, inclusion in the ITPGRFA (Annex I) and average annual contributions to dietary energy (kilocalories) per capita per day by applying a scoring system based on 4 priority levels. Of a total of 2912 taxa belonging to the Tunisian Flora, 2504 CWR and/or WHP (86% of the total), from 143 families and 686 genera, were identified, 2445 of which are CWR and 847 are WHP. In detail, 1654 …
Lead contamination affects the primary productivity traits, biosynthesis of macromolecules and distribution of metal in durum wheat (Triticumdurum L.)
2021
Highlights • The growth, biosynthesis of pigments and other macromolecules appeared to be strong predictors in appraisal of Pb tolerance/susceptibility in durum wheat. • Germplasm of CBD59, CBD63 and CBD66 can be exploited for future selection and breeding programs. • The bioaccumulation of metal in grains of some cultivars of durum wheat much below than permissible limits set by FAO/WHO is of great significance owing to its implications for food safety.
Evaluation of beauvericin and enniatins in Italian cereal products and multicereal food by liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole mass sp…
2013
In this study, 48 multicereal baby foods samples including 25 of pasta and 23 of multicereal baby foods from supermarkets of Campania region (Italy) were analysed for evaluating the presence of beauvericin (BEA) and enniatins (ENs) A, A1, B, B1 and B4. Subsequently to evaluate the risk exposure of Italian population and infant population over the consumption of pasta or multicereal baby food, was, respectively, evaluated. For the above mentioned evaluation, a method developed in our laboratory by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was used. A liquid phase dispersion procedure was optimised for the simultaneous extraction of BEA and the five ENs from multicereal baby food samples…
HIV-Infected Children and Nutrition: The Friend and The Foe
2019
The impact of nutrition on HIV-infected children has been evaluated in multiple studies. Our review of the current trends of nutrition-related studies revealed that the focus has moved from simply the disease consequences of HIV to ensuring that antiretroviral therapy-treated children are well nourished to ensure growth and development. This update aims to present the state of the art regarding nutrition of HIV-infected children and the real potential for nutrition to serve as a dynamic therapy in this group. Recent World Health Organization reports indicate that the HIV/AIDS disease is curbing in incidence worldwide despite the high 1.8 million children, less than 15 years, reported in 201…
Early Warning Systems for Food Security in West Africa: Evolution, Achievements and Challenges
2010
In West Africa, early warning systems (EWSs) for food security have been widely recognized to have contributed, in the last 20 years, to an improved ability to deal with famine emergencies. Nevertheless, despite the advancements in understanding of the environmental and socio-economic dynamics and despite the improved technologies, tackling food security remains a difficult task for decision makers as demonstrated by local food crises in many countries of the region. African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis, while improving the understanding of the monsoon system, allowed us to better orient research challenges to provide EWS with improved products, effectively meeting the needs of end-us…
Land Grabbing Models in the International Scenario: the Case Study of the European Union
2015
The worldwide increase in population and consumption has produced a growing demand for food and energy in the rich and developing Countries and has intensiied the search for land on which to carry investments without transparency rules and without creating real conditions of development of local populations. The aim of this paper is to identify, through a cluster analysis, homogeneous group of investor countries and to verify if exist Land grabbing model for the EU Member States. The results show that the strategies adopted by the investors are driven by the need to achieve energy security and reduce CO2 emissions and to cope with the problems of food security in view of the exponential gro…
Bright spots as climate‐smart marine spatial planning tools for conservation and blue growth
2021
Marine spatial planning that addresses ocean climate-driven change (‘climate-smart MSP’) is a global aspiration to support economic growth, food security and ecosystem sustainability. Ocean climate change (‘CC’) modelling may become a key decision-support tool for MSP, but traditional modelling analysis and communication challenges prevent their broad uptake. We employed MSP-specific ocean climate modelling analyses to inform a real-life MSP process; addressing how nature conservation and fisheries could be adapted to CC. We found that the currently planned distribution of these activities may become unsustainable during the policy's implementation due to CC, leading to a shortfall in its s…
Cumulative climatic stressors strangles marine aquaculture: Ancillary effects of COVID 19 on Spanish mariculture
2021
9 pages, 8 figures