No abstract

It is proven that nuts contain essential macro-and micronutrients, e.g. fatty acids, vitamins and dietary fibre (DF). Fermentation of DF by the gut microflora results in the formation of SCFA which are recognised for their chemopreventive potential, especially by influencing cell growth. However, little is known about cellular response to complex fermentation samples of nuts. Therefore, we prepared and analysed (pH, SCFA, bile acids, tocopherol, antioxidant capacity) fermentation supernatant (fs) fractions of nuts (almonds, macadamias, hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts) after in vitro fermentation and determined their effects on growth of HT29 cells as well as their genotoxic/anti-genotoxic potential. The fermented nut samples contained 2-to 3-fold higher amounts of SCFA than the faeces control, but considerable reduced levels of bile acids. While most of the investigated native nuts comprised relatively high amounts of tocopherol (a-tocopherol in almonds and hazelnuts and g-and d-tocopherol in pistachios and walnuts), rather low concentrations were found in the fs. All nut extracts and nut fs showed a strong antioxidant potential. Furthermore, all fs, except the fs pistachio, reduced growth of HT29 cells significantly. DNA damage induced by H 2 O 2 was significantly reduced by the fs of walnuts after 15 min co-incubation of HT29 cells. In conclusion, this is the first study which presents the chemopreventive effects (reduction of tumour-promoting desoxycholic acid, rise in chemopreventive SCFA, protection against oxidative stress) of different nuts after in vitro digestion and fermentation, and shows the potential importance of nuts in the prevention of colon cancer.

In the face of climate change, development and humanitarian practitioners increasingly recognize the need to anticipate and manage multiple, concurrent risks. One prominent example of this increasing focus on anticipation is the rapid growth of Forecast-based Financing (FbF), in particular within Red Cross and Red Crescent (RCRC). To evaluate how anticipatory efforts managed multiple compounding risks during the COVID-19 pandemic, we examine how 14 RCRC Societies adapted their Early Action Protocols to COVID-19. Though many National Societies successfully adapted to the onset of the additional hazard of COVID-19, we find that multi-hazard risk management can be improved by: proactively developing guidelines that enable rapid adaptation of existing plans; more flexible funding mechanisms; surge capacity to provide additional human resources; and increasing local capacity and ownership for implementation to ensure supplies, skills, and decision-making authority are available when communication or travel is restricted. These findings align with wider recommendations for improving development, humanitarian, and climate adaptation practice towards local capacity and agency. They also add urgency to broader calls for more flexible disaster financing and more practitioner-oriented investment in climate risk and multi-hazard management.

This report describes the framework of collection, management and transmission of food safety data in the Federal Republic of Germany. To adjust optimally the data governance processes to the requirements defined by the EFSA, measures had been agreed upon in order to improve the specified situation. Subsequent methodological system enhancements related to data quality are given as well as structural adjustments and the development and implementation of supporting processes. Results of the implementations of the measures mentioned above are presented, and conclusions and recommendations which will be important for the further implementation process are listed.

This document is the final report of the project OC/EFSA/DATA/2015/02: "Pilot project on the implementation of SSD2 in the frame of the electronic transmission of harmonised data collection of analytical results to EFSA". A description of the data extraction processes from the National Databases to the EFSA databases, the data transformation and validation and the used software are given. The report describes the necessary terminology mappings and transformations to implement the data into the SSD2 structure. The following domains are included: pesticide residues (under Regulation (