In China, urbanization strengthens the water-food-health nexus by driving dietary changes both at home and away from home (AFH). However, few studies have compared the effects of dining location on water footprint generation and/or linked such habits to the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, myocardial infarction, stroke and cancer. Here, household survey data were used to develop a multiple-component urbanization sequence, on which the diet-related water footprint was quantified and the mechanisms under the water-food-health nexus were explored. Significant dietary changes due to urbanization have occurred at home (instead of AHF), and increases or decreases in various food groups are stratified across dining locations. Log mean Divisia index decomposition shows that the diet-structure effect outweighing the intake effect dominates the water footprint changes during China's urbanization. Animal products contribute 92(94)% of the diet-structure effect on net water footprint growth at home(AFH); in contrast, vegetal foods dominate the intake effect, contributing 67(49)%. The at-home water footprint ratio of animal products to vegetal foods is highly related to the prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and asthma, and reaching statistical significance. Two urbanization components, namely housing situation and community diversity, serve as the key drivers of water-food-health nexus enhancement in urbanized China. Due to the complexity of water-food-health links, nexus thinking is needed to benefit human health and diet-related water consumption; besides, it may be reasonable to expand current dimension of food-energy-water nexus topic to include health issues.

²H/¹H ratios in animal biomass reflect isotopic input from food and water. A 10-week controlled laboratory study raised 48 mice divided in two generations (8 mothers Mus musculus and their offspring). The mice were divided into four groups based on the combination of ²H, ¹³C, ¹⁵N-enriched and non-enriched food and water. Glycine, the most common amino acid in bone collagen, carried the ²H, ¹³C, ¹⁵N-isotopic spike in food. ANOVA data analysis indicated that hydrogen in food accounted for ∼81 % of the hydrogen isotope inventory in collagen whereas drinking water hydrogen contributed ∼17 %. Air humidity contributed an unspecified amount. Additionally, we monitored ¹³C and ¹⁵N-enrichment in bone collagen and found strong linear correlations with the ²H-enrichment. The experiments with food and water indicate two biosynthetic pathways, namely (i) de novo creation of non-essential amino acids using hydrogen from water, and (ii) the integration of essential and non-essential amino acids from food. The lower rate of isotope uptake in mothers’ collagen relative to their offspring indicates incomplete bone collagen turnover after ten weeks. The variance of hydrogen stable isotope ratios within the same cohort may limit its usefulness as a single sample proxy for archaeological or palaeoenvironmental research.

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In this study, the suitability of an anaerobic biofilter (AnBF) as an efficient and low-cost wastewater treatment for safer irrigation water production for Sub-Saharan Africa was investigated. To determine the influence of different ubiquitous available materials on the treatment efficiency of the AnBF, rice husks and their pyrolysed equivalent, rice husk biochar, were used as filtration media and compared with sand as a common reference material. Raw sewage from a municipal full-scale wastewater treatment plant pretreated with an anaerobic filter (AF) was used in this experiment. The filters were operated at 22 °C room temperature with a hydraulic loading rate of 0.05 m·h−1 for 400 days. The mean organic loading rate (OLR) of the AF was 194 ± 74 and 63 ± 16 gCOD·m−3·d−1 for the AnBF. Fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) (up to 3.9 log10-units), bacteriophages (up to 2.7 log10-units), chemical oxygen demand (COD) (up to 94%) and turbidity (up to 97%) could be significantly reduced. Additionally, the essential plant nutrients nitrogen and phosphorous were not significantly affected by the water treatment. Overall, the performance of the biochar filters was significantly better than or equal to the sand and rice husk filters. By using the treated wastewater for irrigating lettuce plants in a pot experiment, the contamination with FIB was >2.5 log-units lower (for most of the plants below the detection limit of 5.6 MPN per gram fresh weight) than for plants irrigated with raw wastewater. Respective soil samples were minimally contaminated and nearly in the same range as that of tap water.

The concept of the Water–Energy–Food nexus (WEF), as documented by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), suggests that the three resources are thoroughly interrelated, shaping a complicated web of interlinkages. Perceiving the three commodities as an interdependent variable system, rather than isolated subsystems is a step towards a more holistic approach, and thus a prerequisite to introducing a sustainable scheme for better managing resources. In this work, the well-documented WEF nexus is broadened to a five-dimensional nexus, also involving land use and climate. A methodology for drawing the interrelations among the five dimensions and unreeling the complicated system of direct and indirect interlinkages is given. The intensity of interlinkages among nexus components is initially assessed through a three-point typology with interlinkage scoring corresponding to resource use in Greece. The typology is used and is further expanded to quantify successfully all interlinkages among nexus components with a proposed heuristic algorithm. Results are used to create the cross-interlinkage matrix that identifies food as the most influencing resource and water as the resource mostly influenced by other nexus elements. Results show that indirect interlinkages of multiple resources can be very significant and should not be ignored when planning nexus-coherent policy initiatives and investments in different sectors, in order to promote resource efficiency.

The concept of the Water⁻Energy⁻Food nexus (WEF), as documented by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), suggests that the three resources are thoroughly interrelated, shaping a complicated web of interlinkages. Perceiving the three commodities as an interdependent variable system, rather than isolated subsystems is a step towards a more holistic approach, and thus a prerequisite to introducing a sustainable scheme for better managing resources. In this work, the well-documented WEF nexus is broadened to a five-dimensional nexus, also involving land use and climate. A methodology for drawing the interrelations among the five dimensions and unreeling the complicated system of direct and indirect interlinkages is given. The intensity of interlinkages among nexus components is initially assessed through a three-point typology with interlinkage scoring corresponding to resource use in Greece. The typology is used and is further expanded to quantify successfully all interlinkages among nexus components with a proposed heuristic algorithm. Results are used to create the cross-interlinkage matrix that identifies food as the most influencing resource and water as the resource mostly influenced by other nexus elements. Results show that indirect interlinkages of multiple resources can be very significant and should not be ignored when planning nexus-coherent policy initiatives and investments in different sectors, in order to promote resource efficiency.

Melanin nanoparticles (MNP) were isolated from squid ink and used for the preparation of gelatin-based nanocomposite films containing various concentration of MNP (0, 0.25, 0.5, and 1.0 wt%). The MNP was a spherical form with an average diameter of about 100 nm. The MNP was compatible with the gelatin matrix to form uniform nanocomposite films. The surface color of gelatin/MNP nanocomposite films was brown with decreased transparency, but other film properties such as mechanical, water vapor barrier, and thermal stability properties increased significantly compared with the neat gelatin film. All the film properties of the gelatin/MNP nanocomposite films were dependent on the MNP concentration. Also, the gelatin/MNP nanocomposite films exhibited a high antioxidant activity which has great potential for food packaging and biomedical applications.

Water contamination by pathogenic bacteria is a global public health problem. Contamination of surface water utilized to irrigate food products, or for human consumption, causes outbreaks of foodborne and waterborne disease. Of these, those caused by diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) strains present substantial morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was, therefore, to investigate the microbiological quality of surface water and the presence of DEC strains in different water bodies. A total of 472 water samples were collected from irrigation canal, dam, river, and dike water bodies from January through December 2015 in Sinaloa, a State located in Northwestern Mexico. Our studies demonstrated that 47.0% (222/472) of samples contained thermotolerant coliforms above permissive levels whereas E. coli strains were isolated from 43.6% (206/472). Among these E. coli isolates, DEC strains were identified in 14% (29/206) of samples including in irrigation canal (26/29) and river water (3/29) collected from the northern (83%) and central area (17%). Isolated DEC strains were classified as enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) 34.4% (10/29), enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) 31.0% (9/29), diffuse adherent E. coli (DAEC) 27.5% (8/29), and enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) 6.8% (2/29). Moreover, 90% of isolated DEC strains exhibited resistance to at least one commonly prescribed antibiotic in Mexico whereas 17% were multi-drug resistant. In conclusion, the presence of DEC strains in surface water represents a potential source for human infection, and thus routine monitoring of DEC in surface water and other indirect affected areas should be considered at northwestern Mexico.

This study investigated the growth performance and blood profile of 240 cockerel chickens on varying levels of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus Jacq ex fr.) in water and feed for 12 weeks. The birds were brooded for 3 weeks and thereafter sub-divided into eight treatment groups in a 2 x 4 factorial experimental layout consisting of 2 routes of administration (water and feed) each at 4 levels of inclusion (0, 5, 10 and 15 ml/litre of water and 0, 500, 750 and 1000 ppm, respectively). Each treatment contained 30 birds with three replications of 10 birds each. Data obtained were subjected to Completely Randomized Design. Birds on 1000 ppm and 15 ml inclusion levels of oyster mushroom in feed and water, respectively had the highest (P | Este estudio investigó el rendimiento del crecimiento y el perfil sanguíneo de 240 gallos jóvenes expuestos a diferentes niveles de champiñón ostra (Pleurotus ostreatus Jacq ex fr.) en agua y piensos durante 12 semanas. Las aves fueron criadas durante 3 semanas y posteriormente subdivididas en ocho grupos de tratamiento siguiendo un diseño experimental factorial de 2 x 4 consistente en 2 vías de administración (agua y piensos) cada una a 4 niveles de inclusión (0, 5, 10 y 15 ml/litro de agua y 0 , 500, 750 y 1000 ppm, respectivamente). Cada tratamiento contenía 30 aves con tres repeticiones de 10 aves cada una. Los datos obtenidos fueron sometidos a un diseño completamente aleatorio. Las aves en 1000 ppm y 15 ml de niveles de inclusión de champiñones ostra en pienso y agua, respectivamente, tuvieron el mayor peso final (P < 0.05) y aumento de peso, y las mejores proporciones de conversión de alimento de 3,16 y 3,19, respectivamente. El PCV, HB, RBC, la proteína total y la globulina de los gallos jóvenes resultaron los más altos (P < 0.05) en la inclusión champiñón de ostra en 10 ml en un litro de agua. El colesterol total, los triglicéridos, el LDL y el VLDL fueron los más bajos (P < 0.05) en los gallos jóvenes a la inclusión de 1000 ppm de champiñón ostra en la alimentación. Los gallos jóvenes, tras la inclusión de 15 ml y 750 ppm de champiñón ostra en agua y en alimentación, respectivamente registraron el HDL más alto (49,50 mg/dL). Se concluyó que la administración de champiñones ostra en agua y piensos a 15 ml/litro y 750 ppm, respectivamente, podría adoptarse en la producción de pollos de gallo para mejorar el rendimiento del crecimiento y el perfil sanguíneo.

Estuaries are dynamic ecosystems which vary widely in loading of the contaminant methylmercury (MeHg), and in environmental factors which control MeHg exposure to the estuarine foodweb. Inputs of organic carbon and rates of primary production are important influences on MeHg loading and bioaccumulation, and are predicted to increase with changes in climate and land use pressures. To further understand these influences on MeHg levels in estuarine biota, we used a field study approach in sites across different temperature regions, and with varying organic carbon levels. In paired comparisons of sites with high vs. low organic carbon, fish had lower MeHg bioaccumulation factors (normalized to water concentrations) in high carbon sites, particularly subsites with large coastal wetlands and large variability in dissolved organic carbon levels in the water column. Across sites, MeHg level in the water column was strongly tied to dissolved organic carbon, and was the major driver of MeHg concentrations in fish and invertebrates. Higher primary productivity (chlorophyll-a) was associated with increased MeHg partitioning to suspended particulates, but not to the biota. These findings suggest that increased inputs of MeHg and loss of wetlands associated with climate change and anthropogenic land use pressure will increase MeHg concentrations in estuarine food webs.