Sustainable Valorization of Sambucus nigra L. Berries: From Crop Biodiversity to Nutritional Value of Juice and Pomace

Improvement of dietary and ecological biodiversity, namely by exploring autochthonous varieties, is a key point to the construction of a more sustainable food system and planetary health. However, the environmental sustainability continues to face huge challenges, reflecting the importance of achieving a better understanding about the functional role of biodiversity in ecosystems. Thus, the main objective of this research is to contribute to the sustainable valorization of Sambucus nigra L. berries through a comprehensive approach to evaluate the effects of elderberry’s cultivar, harvest year, and plantation field on the physicochemical berry composition. Moreover, the nutritional value of elderberry juice and respective dried pomace was determined. This complementary information is of huge utility for the rational and, as much as possible, integral use of elderberries. The harvest year, followed by field and the interaction of harvest × field, accounted for the highest impact on the berry’s physicochemical parameters, indicating the importance of the combined impact of the macro- and mesoclimate conditions on plant metabolism. Elderberry juice and dried pomace are a good source of carbohydrates (ca. 12 and 82%, respectively) and have low amounts of fat (≤2.5%), making them low-energy foods. Dried pomace may also represent a potential alternative source of vegetal protein (ca. 6%).

Synergy Effect of Factors Characterising Village Transition Zones on Speed Reduction

There are various traffic calming measures that can be installed in village transition zones. So far, focus was placed on diversified use of pavement markings, amounts of horizontal deflection, shape of the installed chicanes or central islands, presence of gateway, etc., and their location along the transition zone. However, the combined effect of the different transition zone factors on speed reductions has been rarely studied so far. Authors put forward a hypothesis of there being some determinants, which in combination influence speed reduction. To corroborate the hypothesis on the combined impact of the transition zone features on speed reduction in the village transition zones and to validate the established relationships the authors conducted verification study in transition zones containing chicanes or central islands. To verify this hypothesis the authors studied twenty transition zones and managed to confirm the hypothesis at 95% confidence level. The authors used previously adopted binary methods, verified the previously defined factors and added a few new determinants. The contribution of this study is a further investigation of the synergy effect of various relevant factors and the findings can assist in planning new transition zones or suggest additional measures to achieve the desired speed reduction in existing transition zones.

Carotid Intima Media Thickness and Comorbid Cardiometabolic Dysfunction in Women: The SWAN Study

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) and obesity are risk factors for atherosclerosis but their combined impact is unknown. The aim of this study was to quantify the added risk of obesity on carotid artery intima media thickness (cIMT), an early indicator for atherosclerosis, beyond MetS alone. The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) is a multi-center, multi-ethnic cohort of women traversing the midlife into early late adulthood. cIMT was assessed between 2005-2007 and MetS, obesity and covariates were measured at the same time. This cross-sectional analysis is restricted to 1,433 women with a body mass index ≥18.5 kg/m2 and free of cardiovascular disease (CVD) when cIMT was measured. Mean maximum cIMT was related to obesity, MetS and their interaction using multivariable linear regression models. The average age was 60 years (standard deviation 2.7) and the prevalence of obesity and MetS were 44% and 35%, respectively. Both conditions occurred in 24% of women. After adjustment for age, race, smoking, family history of heart disease, and antilipemic medications, obese women had a 0.051mm (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.033,0.070; p<0.001) larger maximum cIMT versus women not obese and women with MetS had a 0.066mm (95%CI: 0.042,0.090; p<0.001) larger maximum cIMT versus women without MetS. There was a statistically significant antagonistic interaction between obesity and MetS; women with both had a mean cIMT of 0.972mm (95%CI: 0.955,0.989) and MetS alone a cIMT of 0.961mm (95%CI:0.938,0.983). This suggests that there is only a small risk of obesity on augmenting cIMT beyond MetS alone.

The aggregate effect of implementation strength of family planning programs on modern contraceptive use at the health systems level in rural Malawi

To explore the association between the strength of implementation of family planning (FP) programs on the use of modern contraceptives. Specifically, how strongly these programs are being implemented across a health facility’s catchment area in Malawi and the odds of a woman in that catchment area is using modern contraceptives. This information can be used to assess whether the combined impact of multiple large-scale FP programs is leading to change in the health outcomes they aim to improve. We used data from the 2017 Implementation Strength Assessment (ISA) that quantified how much of family planning programs at the health facility and community health worker levels were being implemented across every district of Malawi. We used a summary measure developed in a previous study that employs quantitative methods to combine data across FP domains and health system levels. We tested the association of this summary measure for implementation strength with household data from the 2015 Malawi Demographic Health Survey (DHS). We found that areas with stronger implementation of FP programs had higher odds of women using modern contraceptives compared with areas with weaker implementation. The association of ISA with use of modern contraception was different by education, marital status, and geography. After controlling for these factors, we found that the adjusted odds of using a modern contraceptive was three times higher in catchment areas with high implementation strength compared to those with lower strength. Metrics that summarize how strongly FP programs are being implemented were used to show a statistically significantly positive relationship between increasing implementation strength and higher rates of modern contraceptive use. Decisionmakers at the various levels of health authority can use this type of summary measure to better understand the combined impact of their diverse FP programming and inform future programmatic and policy decisions. The findings also reinforce the idea that having a well-supported and supplied cadre of community health workers supplementing FP provision at the health facility can be an important health systems mechanism, especially in rural settings and to target youth populations.