Objectives: To estimate the overall prevalence and absolute burden of overweight and obesity in the world and in various regions in 2005 and to project the global burden in 2030. Design: Pooling analysis Data Sources: We identified sex- and age-specific prevalence of overweight and obesity in representative population samples from 106 countries, which cover approximately 88% of the world population, using MEDLINE and other computerized databases, supplemented by a manual search of references from retrieved articles. Methods: Sex- and age-specific prevalence of overweight and obesity were applied to the 2005 population to estimate the numbers of overweight and obese individuals in each country, each world region and the entire world. In addition, the prevalence, with and without adjusting for secular trends, were applied to the 2030 population projections to forecast the number of overweight and obese individuals in 2030. Results: Overall, 23.2% (95% confidence interval 22.8-23.5%) of the world's adult population in 2005 was overweight (24.0% in men (23.4-24.5%) and 22.4% in women (21.9-22.9%)), and 9.8% (9.6-10.0%) was obese (7.7% in men (7.4-7.9%) and 11.9% in women (11.6-12.2%)). The estimated total numbers of overweight and obese adults in 2005 were 937 million (922-951 million) and 396 million (388-405 million), respectively. By 2030, the respective number of overweight and obese adults was projected to be 1.35 billion and 573 million individuals without adjusting for secular trends. If recent secular trends continue unabated, the absolute numbers were projected to total 2.16 billion overweight and 1.12 billion obese individuals. Conclusions: Overweight and obesity are important clinical and public health burdens worldwide. National programs for the prevention and treatment of overweight, obesity and related comorbidities and mortalities should be a public health priority.

Global burden of obesity in 2005 and projections to 2030

An apparatus for cleaning and sterilizing objects, such as pharmaceutical caps, plugs and the like includes an autoclave chamber and a cleaning device having a cleaning drum mounted for a free rotation on a frame. The frame runs on rollers and can be moved in and out of the autoclave chamber. The cleaning drum has a hollow shaft provided within the drum with spray nozzles and mounted axially in line with a hollow drive shaft passing through one sidewall of the autoclave chamber free to turn and sealed. The drum shaft and the drive shaft may be coupled together by a coupling device. The frame may be released from the drum introduced into the autoclave chamber so that it is not located during the cleaning process in the autoclave chamber and thus will not constitute an additional source of contamination.

Habituation: A model phenomenon for the study of neuronal substrates of behavior.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is broadly recognised as having the potential to play a key role in meeting climate change targets, delivering low carbon heat and power, decarbonising industry and, more recently, its ability to facilitate the net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. However, despite this broad consensus and its technical maturity, CCS has not yet been deployed on a scale commensurate with the ambitions articulated a decade ago. Thus, in this paper we review the current state-of-the-art of CO2 capture, transport, utilisation and storage from a multi-scale perspective, moving from the global to molecular scales. In light of the COP21 commitments to limit warming to less than 2 °C, we extend the remit of this study to include the key negative emissions technologies (NETs) of bioenergy with CCS (BECCS), and direct air capture (DAC). Cognisant of the non-technical barriers to deploying CCS, we reflect on recent experience from the UK's CCS commercialisation programme and consider the commercial and political barriers to the large-scale deployment of CCS. In all areas, we focus on identifying and clearly articulating the key research challenges that could usefully be addressed in the coming decade.

/pdf/carbon-capture-and-storage-ccs-the-way-forward-11rgsqyer0.pdf

Carbon capture and storage (CCS): the way forward

Each generation is confronted with new challenges and new opportunities. In a restricted system like the Earth, however, opportunities discovered and exploited by a generation can cause challenges to the subsequent ones. Fossil fuels have offered astounding opportunities during the 20th century in the rich countries of the western world, but now mankind has to face the challenges arising from fossil-fuel exploitation. The proven reserves of fossil fuels are progressively decreasing, and their continued use produces harmful effects, such as pollution that threatens human health and greenhouse gases associated with global warming. Currently the world&s growing thirst for oil amounts to almost 1000 barrels a second, which means about 2 liters a day per each person living on the Earth (Figure 1). The current global energy consumption is equivalent to 13 terawatts (TW), that is, a steady 13 trillion watts of power demand. How long can we keep running this road?

The Future of Energy Supply: Challenges and Opportunities

Over the past decade, efforts to value and protect ecosystem services have been promoted by many as the last, best hope for making conservation mainstream – attractive and commonplace worldwide. In theory, if we can help individuals and institutions to recognize the value of nature, then this should greatly increase investments in conservation, while at the same time fostering human well-being. In practice, however, we have not yet developed the scientific basis, nor the policy and finance mechanisms, for incorporating natural capital into resource- and land-use decisions on a large scale. Here, we propose a conceptual framework and sketch out a strategic plan for delivering on the promise of ecosystem services, drawing on emerging examples from Hawai‘i. We describe key advances in the science and practice of accounting for natural capital in the decisions of individuals, communities, corporations, and governments.

/pdf/ecosystem-services-in-decision-making-time-to-deliver-31luwjqqck.pdf

Ecosystem services in decision making: time to deliver

T here is a growing public health crisis that is global in scope, and it isn't another emerging infectious disease. It concerns being overweight and the adverse health consequences of obesity, which include diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. To sketch the extent of this problem, we begin with the United States, an appropriate starting point because U.S. dietary styles and food habits have been exported so widely around the world.

In 1998, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States found that 97 million U.S. adults (55% of the U.S. population) were considered obese or overweight. The Surgeon General issued a “Call to Action” on the obesity problem, but it drew a lackluster response from the responsible federal agencies, and Americans continued to consume an average of 3800 calories per person per day, or about twice the daily requirement. It is now estimated that over two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight. Last year, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni appointed an agency-wide task force to develop recommendations for coping with the epidemic, and perhaps that gives room for some encouragement.

But this is an exploding health issue in Europe as well as the United States. Nor is it limited to the developed world: Mayans in Guatemala, South Africans, aboriginal Australians, and Pacific Islanders also show patterns of emerging obesity. The World Health Organization (WHO) is deeply concerned about the issue, recognizing that nearly 1 billion adults are overweight and at least 300 million are obese. It has developed a plan that nations might use to deal with this health crisis. After more than 2 years of intensive debate among world countries, WHO formally approved a Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health in May 2004 that recommends that people limit their intake of fats, salt, and sugar. This strategy had been heavily criticized by officials of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), despite Secretary Tommy Thompson's high-profile obesity initiative that even included his own weight-loss program! The HHS critique supported an effort by the U.S. delegation to force major revisions in the WHO plan related to advertising and food pricing. An HHS official, who apparently believes that economic incentives don't matter, said that WHO should stick to “sound science.”

In this space over a year ago ( Science , 7 Feb. 2003, p. [781][1]), Marion Nestle of New York University was critical of the food industry for its political influence over U.S. food policy and for its aggressive marketing of foods that are high in energy but low in nutritional value. Every once in a while, a representative for that industry says something that is unconsciously revealing. In responding to reporters' queries about the WHO plan, a spokesperson suggested that more attention be given “to the issue of individual responsibility.” That neatly displaced a burden from manufacturers, advertisers, and government, and put it on the sufferer.

Well, behavioral modification may be the solution for some, but for others the issue may be biochemical, not behavioral. Work on the genetics of obesity and on the biochemical relations between leptin and other molecules that signal the feeding centers of the brain may bring more help to those who want to lose weight but somehow can't. In the past, the urge for weight loss has led ambitious dieters into medical perils even more serious than staying overweight. Fad diets in the 1970s featuring high-protein liquids derived largely from animal collagen caused deaths from cardiac causes among young women until they were forced off the market. Fortunately, there were, and still are, alternatives; reasonable exercise and thoughtful choices among a balanced variety of foods help. Perhaps the most provocative news from the laboratory is that calorie restriction in some organisms promotes longevity, even if started late in life.

The obesity problem demands serious action from governments because it is levying heavy costs on societies everywhere. WHO has clearly raised the bar with its endorsement of a global campaign against obesity. At the political level, the best solution surely is a ministry or department that is responsible for dietary advice, research, and food policy and is dominated by the interests of consumers rather than producers. In the United States, such responsibility is irrationally divided between the Public Health Service and the producer-oriented Department of Agriculture—an arrangement that other governments would be wise not to copy.

 [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.299.5608.781

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/304/5676/1413.full.pdf

The Obesity Epidemic

At Science , we tend to get excited about new discoveries that lift the veil a little on how things work, from cells to the universe. That puts our focus firmly on what has been added to our stock of knowledge. For this anniversary issue, we decided to shift our frame of reference, to look instead

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/309/5731/75.full.pdf

What Don't We Know?

1. The flexor musculature of the crayfish abdomen is divided into two systems: a set of tonic superficial muscles, and a complex series of massive flexor muscles that produce powerful twitches but never exhibit tonic contractions. The muscle types are histologically differentiated, and also separately innervated: the main flexors receive ten large motor axons, and the slow superficial muscles six smaller ones. 2. Fibres of the main flexor muscles studied are almost all triply innervated; each receives endings from ( a ) the ‘motor giant’ axon, ( b ) one of several specific non-giant motor axons, and ( c ) a common inhibitor. 3. Excitatory junctional potentials (e.j.p.s) due to motor giant and non-giant axons are similar and large; each may trigger secondary, active ‘spikes’, thus often producing post-junctional responses of 100 mV. or more. The responses differ in that the motor giant e.j.p. shows a dramatic decrease upon repetitive stimulation, whereas that due to non-giant motor axons exhibits some facilitation. 4. Activity in the central giant fibres drives both motor axons. The response to both, when the motor giant system is fully rested, is slightly larger than that to either alone; when activated by stimulation of the central giant fibre the junctional potentials are evoked asynchronously due to differences in central reflex time, and double spiking in the muscle fibres sometimes results. Upon repeated stimulation the response to the giant is reduced to a very low level; this is accompanied by a decrease in the tension developed in successive reflexly evoked twitches. The motor giant system thus apparently functions to provide additional tension for the first few ‘flips’ in a series of swimming movements during escape. 5. Impulses in the inhibitor axon, even at the optimal interval, reduce the amplitude of excitatory post-junctional potentials by only a small amount; their effect in shortening duration is more notable. It is postulated that the peripheral inhibitor functions to cut short excitatory depolarizations and hence to terminate lingering tension that might oppose subsequent reflex actions.

/pdf/reflex-control-of-abdominal-flexor-muscles-in-the-crayfish-ye6efd8k1u.pdf

Reflex Control of Abdominal Flexor Muscles in the Crayfish

1. A limited number of “command” interneurons mediate the release of coordinated ganglionic output to antagonistic postural muscles in the crayfish abdomen. Graded contractions of these muscles are regulated by the frequency of discharge in several motoneurons, whose own discharge is in turn controlled by the level of activity in command fibers.



2. Different command fibers having a similar effect (i.e., flexion or extension) vary in the relative effectiveness with which they excite specific motoneurons. This selectivity is responsible for different rates of tension development.



3. Command fibers connect with the postural motor system in each segment in a bilaterally symmetrical fashion. Many of the same command elements also have unilateral or reciprocal effects on other motor systems, especially on those which control the swimmerets and uropods.



4. The reciprocity between flexors and extensors is inherent in the ganglionic organization. Activation or modulation of this ganglionic center is accomplished by the command interneurons, which in turn are activated by appropriate combinations of sensory inputs. A wide variety of postural adjustments may thus be controlled by a limited number of central neurons that make complex but specific output connections.

The central nervous organization underlying control of antagonistic muscles in the crayfish. I. types of command fibers

By stimulating and recording from the same interneuron at two separate points, we have shown that coordinated output to the postural abdominal muscles of crayfish can be produced by electrical stimulation of a single cell. Several central neurons can individually initiate one type of movement(for example, flexion),each producing a unique abdominal geometry.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/154/3751/917.full.pdf

Donald Kennedy

Papers

The Obesity Epidemic

What Don't We Know?

Reflex Control of Abdominal Flexor Muscles in the Crayfish

The central nervous organization underlying control of antagonistic muscles in the crayfish. I. types of command fibers

Release of Coordinated Behavior in Crayfish by Single Central Neurons