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It has been around two decades that the food desert concept was introduced to assess the geographic accessibility of healthy food stores in deprived urban and rural communities. Despite the contribution of this strong tool in evaluating food insecurity, the methodological aspects especially in rural areas have been less discussed in the literature. The aim of this study is to explore and compare different methodologies in identifying rural food deserts based on the related major elements. A systematic review was conducted on published English language studies that used quantitative methods to identify rural food deserts up to December 2015. Twenty studies met the criteria and were included in this study. The results from these studies indicated the four major key elements (food availability, geographic accessibility, deprivation indicator(s), and geographic unit of analysis) were used and quantified by researchers in their methodology to identify rural food deserts. We also found out that measuring food deserts involves a high degree of sensitivity, as any changes in quantifying the elements may significantly impact the final results. Thus, the advantages and disadvantages of quantifying each element is discussed in a greater detail in this study. This will help researchers to develop a better food desert methodology which produce more comprehensive and accurate results in future.

Objective: To investigate the intrinsic activity (efficacy) of aqueous leaf extract of Cymbopogon (C.) citratus against malaria, a plasmodium-mediated tropical disease. Materials and Methods: Plasmodium (P.) falciparum culture samples from 20 symptomatic adult outpatients were subjected to the antimalarial in vitro test. Parasite quantification by optical microscopy in the performance of in vitro antiplasmodial assays was employed. Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) 1640 was used as culture medium for cultivation of P. falciparum. Negative control was culture medium with the malarial parasites while treated drug was the leaf extract of C. citratus dissolved in dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) and prepared into 7 levels concentration (3.125, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, 100 and 200 mg/mL.) After culture synchronized with sorbitol 5%, micromalarial culture were divided into control and treated groups then incubated in CO2 candle jar at 370C for 72 h. Each 8 h, the percentage of parasitemia were measured giving the activity of the extract on the growth stages of P. falciparum. Parasitemia was estimated by making the thin blood smear from the erythrocytes layer and stained with Giemsa (10%) for 30 mins. Using probit analysis, the antimlarial activity of the extract was calculated by counting the fifty percent of growth inhibition 50 (IC50). Results: The extract inhibited the growth of P. falciparum on mature schizont stage. The fifty percent inhibitory concentration (IC50) of the extract was 3.9 after 32 h incubation. Conclusion: The leaf extract of C. citratus has efficacious antimalarial effect against P. falciparum in vitro.

[Background] It has been studied that the yield of 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BD) producing strains is low and does not meet the requirements of industrial production of 2,3-BD. [Objective] It was important to improve the production of 2,3-BD by Klebsiella pneumonia ZH-1 in shaking flask. [Methods] The effects of temperature, pH and rotating speed on the production of 2,3-BD were studied by single factor test and response surface method. [Results] The optimal cultivation conditions stimulating the maximal production of 2,3-BD were as follow: initial pH, 7, temperature, 37 oC and rotating speed, 140 r/min. Under this optimized conditions, the predicted maximal 2,3-BD yield was 21.54 g/L, whereas the yield of 2,3-BD can reach to 22.04 g/L after the application of response surface methodology. [Conclusion] Response surface methodology was a promising method for optimization of 2,3-BD production.