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The aim of the present article was to study the prevalence and the heritability of the initiation of breastfeeding in the Netherlands. The study was carried out in 5,581 participants from the Netherlands Twin Register, and included female twins, their sisters and mothers. All of the participants were born between 1911 and 1991. Breastfeeding was self-reported by the participants, and its prevalence was estimated conditional on birth cohort (born before 1955, 1955–1964, 1965–1974, 1975, or later). To estimate the heritability, we conducted extended twin-family modeling using the SEM package OpenMx in R. Mothers of twins had lower prevalence to initiate breastfeeding and the prevalence of initiation of breastfeeding increased with birth cohort: among mothers of twins 66% in the oldest (pre-1955) to 74% in the youngest (post-1974) and among mothers, who were twins themselves or sisters of twins, 79% in the oldest (pre-1955) to 85% in the youngest (post-1974). When accounting for prevalence differences between mothers of twins and other women, heritability of initiation of breastfeeding was 70%. However, the familial resemblance for sister and mother-daughter pairs was clearly lower than for DZ twin pairs, but as the number of non-twin sisters was relatively low, this observation did not lead to a significant contribution of a special shared twin environment.

Ochratoxin A (OTA), a nephrotoxic compound produced by certain Aspergillus and Penicillium species, is one of the most abundant mycotoxins in food commodities. Aspergillus carbonarius is the main source of OTA in wine, grape juice and dried vine fruits. Although many studies have focused on OTA production by A. carbonarius, little is known about the genes related to OTA production and transport. We have found a transporter that belongs to the major facilitator superfamily (MfsA) which is highly expressed with a 102-fold induction in an ochratoxigenic A. carbonarius strain compared to a low OTA producer strain. The encoding mfsA gene shows similarity to the multidrug efflux transporter flu1 from Candida albicans. A high number of putative transcription factor binding sites involved in the response to stress were identified within the promoter of mfsA. Phenotypical analysis of δ. mfsA deletion mutants revealed that the loss of mfsA leads to a slight growth reduction and increased OTA production. We therefore hypothesize that MfsA could be a stress response transporter whose disruption could cause an increase in oxidative stress together with a stimulation of mycotoxin production. •A. carbonarius mfsA expression is induced over 100 fold in an OTA producing strain.•mfsA gene has been cloned and sequenced.•An A. carbonarius δmfsA null mutant has been obtained by ATMT.•The δmfsA null mutants produce more OTA than the parental strain.•The expression of mfsA is up regulated by hydrogen peroxide. ; A. Crespo-Sempere was recipient of a FPI fellowship from the Spanish Government. This research was supported by grants AGL2005-00707 and AGL2008-04828-C03-02 from the Spanish Government. ; Peer Reviewed

There are many advantages of solar photovoltaic technology in providing lighting for rural homes-scalability, minimal maintenance and well developed business models. This study seeks to study the impact of the transition from Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) to Light Emitting Diodes based lights (LED) on the solar home lighting system market. Changing the lighting fixtures from CFL to LED would lead to the requirement of smaller panels and batteries and consequently, a reduction in prices. Would this reduction significantly increase the adoption of these systems? Would the requirement for financing or government support change? To understand this changing landscape of the rural solar lighting industry, this study analyses the current products, distribution network, and operations of seven diverse solar firms operating in different parts of India. Four of these firms exclusively make LED based products - lanterns and small home lighting systems - and the rest have some LED based systems in their portfolio. There are several factors to be considered, product configuration, luminosity, price effects and service and maintenance. While the price reduction is found to be significant (about 20), affordability may still remain an issue for poorer households. LED lighting allows for the introduction of plug and play systems, and reduces institutional requirements for installation and maintenance. © 2013 International Energy Initiative.

There are no detailed studies on the nutritional and microbiological characteristics of honeyproduced in Ogun State in the Southwestern part of Nigeria. This paper investigated thesecomponents in honeys produced from different parts of this state. A total of 10 honey samples peryear were collected for the years 2008 – 2010. These were separately analyzed for their physicalproperties, nutritional and microbiological components in the laboratory. The results of thephysical properties showed that honey samples obtained from Ago-Iwoye has the lowest pH of3.48, which was significantly different from the pH values of 5.06, 5.21 and 4.06 obtained fromhoney samples from Abeokuta, Ibefun and Ilisan honey samples respectively. There wassignificant difference in moisture contents of honey samples obtained from Ogere (16.19 %), Otta(19.14 %) and Ijebu-Ode (18.21 %), while the percentage ash contents of 0.78 % obtained fromhoney samples collected from Abeokuta was not significantly different from the value of 0.75 %obtained from Ago-Iwoye honey (P ≤ 0.05). However, the value of 1.11 mg 100 g-1 forhydroxymethylfurfural obtained from Ago-Iwoye honey samples was not significantly differentfrom the value of 0.32 mg 100 g-1 in honey samples obtained from Sagamu.The value for glucose ranged from 18.42 – 30.16 g 100 g-1, while fructose sugar varied between25.42 – 38.21 g 100 g-1. Minimum protein value of 0.02 % was obtained from Ijebu-Ode honey,while the maximum of 0.51 % was obtained from honey samples from Ilisan. Results of theelemental nutrient showed that potassium was the most abundant element in honey samples withthe range value of 14.78 – 17.42 mg 100 g-1 followed by calcium, which varied from 2.13 – 11.25mg 100 g-1. However, result of microbiological properties showed that the total plate count variedfrom 0.2 – 3.4 cfu g-1, whereas total coliforms were not detected in honey samples collected fromAgo-Iwoye, Otta, Ibefun, Ife and Sagamu. Clostridium spp, Bacillus spp and yeast were also detectedat low count in all honey samples investigated.Moreover, honey samples obtained from different parts of Ogun State were found to becontaminated with Pseudomonas spp., Xanthomonas spp., Bacillus spp., E. coli and Clostridium spp,while fungi spores intercepted were Pennicillium oxalicum, Aspergilus niger, A. Flavus and Fusariumoxysporum at different levels and counts.