Assessing food security performance from the One Health concept: an evaluation tool based on the Global One Health Index.

BACKGROUND: Food systems instantiate the complex interdependencies across humans, physical environments, and other organisms. Applying One Health approaches for agri-food system transformation, which adopts integrated and unifying approaches to optimize the overall health of humans, animals, plants, and environments, is crucial to enhance the sustainability of food systems. This study develops a potential assessment tool, named the global One Health index-Food Security (GOHI-FS), aiming to evaluate food security performance across countries/territories from One Health perspective and identify relevant gaps that need to be improved for sustainable food systems. METHODS: We comprehensively reviewed existing frameworks and elements of food security. The indicator framework of GOHI-FS was conceptualized following the structure-process-outcome model and confirmed by expert advisory. Publicly available data in 2020 was collected for each indicator. The weighting strategy was determined by the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process. The data for each indicator was normalized and aggregated by weighted arithmetic mean. Linear regressions were performed to evaluate the associations of GOHI-FS with health and social-economic indicators. RESULTS: The GOHI-FS includes 5 first-level indicators, 19 second-level indicators and 45 third-level indicators. There were 146 countries/territories enrolled for evaluation. The highest average score of first-level indicators was Nutrition (69.8) and the lowest was Government Support and Response (31.3). There was regional heterogeneity of GOHI-FS scores. Higher median scores with interquartile range (IQR) were shown in North America (median: 76.1, IQR: 75.5-76.7), followed by Europe and Central Asia (median: 66.9, IQR: 60.1-74.3), East Asia and the Pacific (median: 60.6, IQR: 55.5-68.7), Latin America and the Caribbean (median: 60.2, IQR: 57.8-65.0), Middle East and North Africa (median: 56.6, IQR: 52.0-62.8), South Asia (median: 51.1, IQR: 46.7-53.8), and sub-Saharan Africa (median: 41.4, IQR: 37.2-46.5). We also found significant associations between GOHI-FS and GDP per capita, socio-demographic index, health expenditure and life expectancy. CONCLUSIONS: GOHI-FS is a potential assessment tool to understand the gaps in food security across countries/territories under the One Health concept. The pilot findings suggest notable gaps for sub-Saharan Africa in numerous aspects. Broad actions are needed globally to promote government support and response for food security.

Establishment and Clinical Application of the Nomogram Related to Risk or Prognosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Review.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most prevalent primary liver malignancy, accounting for approximately 90% of all primary liver cancers, with high mortality and a poor prognosis. A large number of predictive models have been applied that integrate multiple clinical factors and biomarkers to predict the prognosis of HCC. Nomograms, as easy-to-use prognostic predictive models, are widely used to predict the probability of clinical outcomes. We searched PubMed with the keywords "hepatocellular carcinoma" and "nomogram", and 974 relative literatures were retrieved. According to the construction methodology and the real validity of the nomograms, in this study, 97 nomograms for HCC were selected in 77 publications. These 97 nomograms were established based on more than 100,000 patients, covering seven main prognostic outcomes. The research data of 56 articles are from hospital-based HCC patients, and 13 articles provided external validation results of the nomogram. In addition to AFP, tumor size, tumor number, stage, vascular invasion, age, and other common prognostic risk factors are included in the HCC-related nomogram, more and more biomarkers, including gene mRNA expression, gene polymorphisms, and gene signature, etc. were also included in the nomograms. The establishment, assessment and validation of these nomograms are also discussed in depth. This study would help clinicians construct and select appropriate nomograms to guide precise judgment and appropriate treatments.

Resource availability drives trait composition of butterfly assemblages.

How species respond to environmental change is a fundamental question in ecology and species traits can help to tackle this question. In this study, we analyze how the functional structure of species assemblages changes with selected environmental variables along an elevational gradient. In particular, we used species traits of local butterfly communities (body size, voltinism, overwintering stages, and host specificity) in a national nature reserve in China to assess the impacts of temperature, net primary productivity, and land use. Our results show that productivity, measured as NDVI, had a stronger influence on the functional community structure of butterflies than temperature. Within the butterfly assemblages, net primary productivity mainly affected body size and supported few but large species. Length of vegetation period demonstrated dominating effects on the functional structure of local butterfly assemblages. However, an observed increase in dietary generalists with longer vegetation periods contradicted expectations based on niche breadth hypothesis, that more stable conditions should favor specialists. Furthermore, the general positive impact of vegetation period on species abundances differed considerably among functional groups. Only the group containing species hibernating as egg decreased with the length of vegetation period. Our results suggest that trait associations are instructive to explain environment-herbivore relationships, that resource availability can predominantly influence the functional composition of herbivore assemblages, and that conservation priority should be given to specialist butterfly species overwintering as egg, especially in the face of global warming.

Acetone Sensing Properties and Mechanism of Rh-Loaded WO3 Nanosheets.

WO3 nanosheets was prepared by an acidification method and the Rh catalyst was dispersed on the surface of the nanosheets with a wet impregnation method. The morphology of pristine WO3 and Rh modified WO3 nanosheets and their responses to acetone gas were studied. According to oxygen adsorption combined with TPR results, the sensing and sensitization mechanism of acetone were discussed. It was found that no visible changes in nanostructures or morphologies were observed in WO3 nanosheets with Rh, however, the sensor resistance and sensor response were greatly promoted. The basic sensitization mechanism could be caused by the electronic interaction between oxidized Rh and WO3 surface.

Efficient production of (R)-o-chloromandelic acid by deracemization of o-chloromandelonitrile with a new nitrilase mined from Labrenzia aggregata.

(R)-o-Chloromandelic acid is the key precursor for the synthesis of Clopidogrel®, a best-selling cardiovascular drug. Although nitrilases are often used as an efficient tool in the production of α-hydroxy acids, there is no practical nitrilase specifically developed for (R)-o-chloromandelic acid. In this work, a new nitrilase from Labrenzia aggregata (LaN) was discovered for the first time by genomic data mining, which hydrolyzed o-chloromandelonitrile with high enantioselectivity, yielding (R)-o-chloromandelic acid in 96.5% ee. The LaN was overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3), purified, and its catalytic properties were studied. When o-chloromandelonitrile was used as the substrate, the V(max) and K(m) of LaN were 2.53 µmol min⁻¹ mg⁻¹ protein and 0.39 mM, respectively, indicating its high catalytic efficiency. In addition, a study of substrate spectrum showed that LaN prefers to hydrolyze arylacetonitriles. To relieve the substrate inhibition and to improve the productivity of LaN, a biphasic system of toluene-water (1:9, v/v) was adopted, in which o-chloromandelonitrile of 300 mM (apparent concentration, based on total volume) could be transformed by LaN in 8 h, giving an isolated yield of 94.5%. The development of LaN makes it possible to produce (R)-o-chloromandelic acid by deracemizing o-chloromandelonitrile with good ee value and high substrate concentration.