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Indoor air pollution is mainly caused by solid fuel use for cooking in developing countries. Many previous studies focused on its health risks on the children and in specific local area. This paper investigates household energy usage and transition for cooking in rural China and the health effects on the elderly. A national large-scale dataset CHARLS (China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study) covering 450 villages and communities is employed. Logit regressions were used to quantitatively estimate the effects, after controlling for some factors such as income, demographic, and geographical variables. The results robustly show that compared to non-solid fuels, solid fuel use significantly increases the possibility of chronic lung diseases (30%), exacerbation of chronic lung diseases (95%), seizure of heart disease (1.80 times), and decreases self-evaluated health status of the elderly (1.38 times). Thus, it is urgent to improve clean energy access for cooking in rural China.

Alcohol-related events have been proposed to be under neurochemical control. For example, the concentration of methionine enkephalin (Met-enkephalin) in brain has been inversely correlated with ethanol consumption in alcohol-preferring and alcohol-nonpreferring mice. The concentrations of Met-enkephalin are controlled in part by peptide transport system-1 (PTS-1), a brain-to-blood transport system for Met-enkephalin located at the blood-brain barrier. We examined the relationships among concentrations of Met-enkephalin, preproenkephalin (PPE) mRNA, and PTS-1 activity in mice exposed to ethanol. PTS-1 activity decreased progressively during the process of addiction and then partially recovered within hours after withdrawal of ethanol. Serotonin lost its ability to modulate PTS-1 activity in exposed mice, indicating that regulation of PTS-1 activity was affected by ethanol. Concentrations of Met-enkephalin tended to move in the opposite direction from PTS-1 activity, increasing significantly with addiction. In naive mice, PPE mRNA levels correlated with the concentrations of Met-enkephalin. However, levels of PPE mRNA remained unchanged during addiction, withdrawal, and recovery, no longer correlating with concentrations of Met-enkephalin. These results suggest that ethanol affects concentrations of Met-enkephalin in brain through post-transcriptional mechanisms and that PTS-1 activity is one of those mechanisms.

Bioethanol is an eco-friendly green fuel, owing to its production from sustainable bio-based sources. In this study, bioethanol (BE) is produced from Kappaphycus alverezii reject (KR) blended with Solid Food Waste (SFW). This bioethanol is blended with petroleum-based diesel (PBD) in the following proportions: 15%, 20% and 25% for further studies. Performance characteristics, specifically Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC), Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE), Brake Power (BP) and exhaust emissions, mainly Carbon monoxide (CO), Carbon dioxide (CO2), Smoke Opacity (SO), hydrocarbons (HC) and oxides of Nitrogen (NOX) have been investigated. The blended test fuels show better results, which is confirmed by the performance characteristics of BTE being lower than PBD. The emission report shows lesser CO (0.12%) and SO (59.6%) compared to PBD (0.14% and 67.2%), signifying the clean-burning tendency of BE blends. From the findings, PBD75: BE25 is an excellent fuel blend for improving flow properties, engine performance, and emission characteristics.

Present study describes the treatment of molasses spentwash and its use as a potential low cost substrate for production of biopolymer polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) by waste activated sludge. Fluorescence microscopy revealed the presence of PHB granules in sludge biomass which was further confirmed by fourier transform-infra-red spectroscopy (FT-IR) and (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The processing of molasses spentwash was carried out for attaining different ratios of carbon and nitrogen (C:N). Highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and PHB accumulation of 60% and 31% respectively was achieved with raw molasses spentwash containing inorganic nitrogen (C:N ratio=28) followed by COD removal of 52% and PHB accumulation of 28% for filtered molasses containing inorganic nitrogen (C:N ratio=29). PHB production yield (Y(p/s)) was highest (0.184 g g(-1) COD consumed) for deproteinized spentwash supplemented with nitrogen. In contrast, the substrate consumption and product formation were higher in case of raw spentwash. Though COD removal was lowest from deproteinized spentwash, evaluation of kinetic parameters suggested higher rates of conversion of available carbon to biomass and PHB. Thus the process provided dual benefit of conversion of two wastes viz. waste activated sludge and molasses spentwash into value-added product-PHB.

Following a heat wave in January 2014 in Adelaide, state capital of South Australia, we asked the question whether extreme heat was associated with an increase in stroke incidence. We found in the literature that the association between stroke presentation to hospital and meteorological factors has long been a topic of debate and subject to numerous studies. The literature indicated that an association between heat waves and an increase in admissions for stroke was unlikely in Australia and the United States. We suggest that it may be inappropriate to generalize this conclusion to other countries and rural areas. In view of the global climate change debate, we suggest that prospective studies be focused in developing countries and rural areas to assess the real impact of extreme heat on respective populations to better inform stroke physicians and health policy makers.

Stroke is a leading cause of death and adult disability globally. In addition to traditional risk factors, environmental risk factors have emerged over the recent past and are becoming increasingly important. The disproportionate rise of stroke incidence in low- and middle-income countries has been attributed, at least in part, to environmental factors. This narrative review provides details on the interplay between the environment and health generally and stroke specifically, covering topics including air pollution, atmospheric brown clouds, desert dust storms, giant wildfires, chemical contamination, biological aggressors, urbanization, and climate change. It also covers some beneficial environmental effects such as can be harnessed from the exposure to green spaces. It concludes with a summary of pragmatic actions that can be taken to help address some of these challenges at individual, community, and political advocacy levels.