Human EED peptide

Rice bran supplementation provides nutrients, prebiotics and phytochemicals that enhance gut immunity, reduce enteric pathogens and diarrhea, and warrants attention for improvement of environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) in children. EED is a subclinical condition associated with stunting due to impaired nutrient absorption. This study investigated the effects of rice bran supplementation on weight for age and length for age z-scores (WAZ, LAZ), EED stool biomarkers, as well as microbiota and metabolome signatures in weaning infants from 6 to 12 months old that reside in Nicaragua and Mali. Healthy infants were randomized to a control (no intervention) or a rice bran group that received daily supplementation with increasing doses at each month (1-5 g/day). Stool microbiota were characterized using 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing. Stool metabolomes were analyzed using ultra-high-performance liquid-chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry. Statistical comparisons were completed at 6, 8, and 12 months of age. Daily consumption of rice bran was safe and feasible to support changes in LAZ from 6-8 and 8-12 months of age in Nicaragua and Mali infants when compared to control. WAZ was significantly improved only for Mali infants at 8 and 12 months. Mali and Nicaraguan infants showed major differences in the overall gut microbiota and metabolome composition and structure at baseline, and thus each country cohort demonstrated distinct microbial and metabolite profile responses to rice bran supplementation when compared to control. Rice bran is a practical dietary intervention strategy that merits development in rice-growing regions that have a high prevalence of growth stunting due to malnutrition and diarrheal diseases. Rice is grown as a staple food, and the bran is used as animal feed or wasted in many low- and middle-income countries where EED and stunting is prevalent.

The EU's Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) sets a binding target for energy-savings in EU member states. The EED further requires member states to perform ex-ante evaluations of energy efficiency policies implemented to achieve these savings. However, ex-ante evaluation of energy efficiency policies is difficult as it requires detailed modelling of end-users' investment and energy demand behaviour. This paper details the Danish IntERACT modelling approach for ex-ante evaluation of energy efficiency policies directed at residential heating. IntERACT integrates the energy system model TIMES-DK into a computable general equilibrium framework. The paper explores the potential for meeting Denmark's EED-target through a policy-induced increase in households' investments in energy efficiency retrofits. The paper considers the effect of energy efficiency policies on households' investment behaviour by applying different levels of hurdle rates on households' investments in energy efficiency retrofits. The paper shows that reducing the hurdle rate from 25% to 4% could meet more than a third of Danish energy-saving requirements for the period 2021-2030. This result includes a direct rebound effect of 31%. Finally, the paper demonstrates that reducing the hurdle below 10% has a substantial negative impact on households' disposable income, making such policy less viable from a policy perspective.