Anaemia is characterised by low hemoglobin (Hb) concentration. Despite being a public health concern in Ethiopia, the role of micronutrients and non-nutritional factors as a determinant of Hb concentrations has been inadequately explored. This study focused on the assessment of serum micronutrient and Hb concentrations and a range of non-nutritional factors, to evaluate their associations with the risk of anaemia among the Ethiopian population (n 2046). It also explored the mediation effect of Zn on the relation between se and Hb. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed to identify the relationship between serum micronutrients concentration, inflammation biomarkers, nutritional status, presence of parasitic infection and socio-demographic factors with Hb concentration (n 2046). Sobel–Goodman test was applied to investigate the mediation of Zn on relations between serum se and Hb. In total, 18·6 % of participants were anaemic, 5·8 % had iron deficiency (ID), 2·6 % had ID anaemia and 0·6 % had tissue ID. Younger age, household head illiteracy and low serum concentrations of ferritin, Co, Cu and folate were associated with anaemia. Serum se had an indirect effect that was mediated by Zn, with a significant effect of se on Zn (P < 0·001) and Zn on Hb (P < 0·001). The findings of this study suggest the need for designing a multi-sectorial intervention to address anaemia based on demographic group.

Exclusion of special populations (older adults; pregnant women, children, and adolescents; individuals of lower socioeconomic status and/or who live in rural communities; people from racial and ethnic minority groups; individuals from sexual or gender minority groups; and individuals with disabilities) in research is a pervasive problem, despite efforts and policy changes by the National Institutes of Health and other organizations. These populations are adversely impacted by social determinants of health (SDOH) that reduce access and ability to participate in biomedical research. In March 2020, the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute hosted the “Lifespan and Life Course Research: integrating strategies” “Un-Meeting” to discuss barriers and solutions to underrepresentation of special populations in biomedical research. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how exclusion of representative populations in research can increase health inequities. We applied findings of this meeting to perform a literature review of barriers and solutions to recruitment and retention of representative populations in research and to discuss how findings are important to research conducted during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We highlight the role of SDOH, review barriers and solutions to underrepresentation, and discuss the importance of a structural competency framework to improve research participation and retention among special populations.

Multiple micronutrient deficiencies are widespread in Ethiopia. However, the distribution of Se and Zn deficiency risks has previously shown evidence of spatially dependent variability, warranting the need to explore this aspect for wider micronutrients. Here, blood serum concentrations for Ca, Mg, Co, Cu and Mo were measured (n 3102) on samples from the Ethiopian National Micronutrient Survey. Geostatistical modelling was used to test spatial variation of these micronutrients for women of reproductive age, who represent the largest demographic group surveyed (n 1290). Median serum concentrations were 8·6 mg dl−1 for Ca, 1·9 mg dl−1 for Mg, 0·4 µg l−1 for Co, 98·8 µg dl−1 for Cu and 0·2 µg dl−1 for Mo. The prevalence of Ca, Mg and Co deficiency was 41·6 %, 29·2 % and 15·9 %, respectively; Cu and Mo deficiency prevalence was 7·6 % and 0·3 %, respectively. A higher prevalence of Ca, Cu and Mo deficiency was observed in north western, Co deficiency in central and Mg deficiency in north eastern parts of Ethiopia. Serum Ca, Mg and Mo concentrations show spatial dependencies up to 140–500 km; however, there was no evidence of spatial correlations for serum Co and Cu concentrations. These new data indicate the scale of multiple mineral micronutrient deficiency in Ethiopia and the geographical differences in the prevalence of deficiencies suggesting the need to consider targeted responses during the planning of nutrition intervention programmes.

The intrinsic oxygen fugacity of a planet profoundly influences a variety of its geochemical and geophysical aspects. Most rocky bodies in our solar system formed with oxygen fugacities approximately five orders of magnitude higher than that corresponding to a hydrogen-rich gas of solar composition. Here we derive oxygen fugacities of extrasolar rocky bodies from the elemental abundances in 15 white dwarf (WD) stars polluted by accretion of rocks. We find that the intrinsic oxygen fugacities of rocks accreted by the WDs are similar to those of terrestrial planets and asteroids in our solar system. This result suggests that at least some rocky exoplanets are geophysically and geochemically similar to Earth.

The relative abundances of the radionuclides in the solar system at the time of its birth are crucial arbiters for competing hypotheses regarding the birth environment of the Sun. The presence of short-lived radionuclides, as evidenced by their decay products in meteorites, has been used to suggest that particular, sometimes exotic, stellar sources were proximal to the Sun’s birth environment. The recent confirmation of neutron star - neutron star (NS-NS) mergers and associated kilonovae as potentially dominant sources of r-process nuclides can be tested in the case of the solar birth environment using the relative abundances of the longer-lived nuclides. Critical analysis of the 15 radionuclides and their stable partners for which abundances and production ratios are well known suggests that the Sun formed in a typical massive star-forming region (SFR). The apparent overabundances of short-lived radionuclides (e.g. 26Al, 41Ca, 36Cl) in the early solar system appears to be an artifact of a heretofore under-appreciation for the important influences of enrichment by Wolf-Rayet winds in SFRs. The long-lived nuclides (e.g. 238U, 244Pu, 247Cr, 129I) are consistent with an average time interval between production events of 108 years, seemingly too short to be the products of NS-NS mergers alone. The relative abundances of all of these nuclides can be explained by their mean decay lifetimes and an average residence time in the ISM of ∼200 Myr. This residence time evidenced by the radionuclides is consistent with the average lifetime of dust in the ISM and the timescale for converting molecular cloud mass to stars.

PbTe-PbS materials are promising for thermoelectric power generation applications. For the composition of (Pb0.95Sn0.05Te)0.92(PbS)0.08 nanostructuring from nucleation and growth and spinodal decomposition has been reported along with thermal conductivity of approximately 1.1 W/m·K at 650 K [1]. Based on temperature-dependent measurements of electrical conductivity, thermopower, and thermal conductivity, the thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, are ~1.5 at 650 K for cast ingots.

To develop larger quantities of material for device fabrication, advancement in the synthesis, processing and production of (Pb0.95Sn0.05Te)0.92(PbS)0.08 is necessary. Powder processing of samples is a well-known technique for increasing sample strength, and uniformity. In this presentation, we show sample fabrication and processing details of pulsed electric current sintering (PECS) processed (Pb0.95Sn0.05Te)0.92(PbS)0.08 materials and their thermoelectric properties along with the latest advancements in the preparation of these materials.