title: Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack

text: The restart of pipeline operations began at 5 p.m. on May 12, ending a six-day shutdown, although Colonial Pipeline Company warned that it could take several more days for service to return to normal. The pipeline company stated that several markets that are served by the pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the restart. The company also stated that they would move as much gasoline, diesel and jet fuel as safely possible until markets return to normal. All Colonial Pipeline systems and operations had returned to normal by May 15. After the shutdown, the average national cost rose to the highest it's been in over six years, to about an average of $3.04 a gallon on May 18. The price increase was more pronounced in the southern states, with prices rising between 9 and 16 cents in the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia. Around 10,600 gas stations were still without gas as of May 18.


title: Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack

text: In a May 19, 2021, interview with "The Wall Street Journal", Joseph Blount said why he ultimately decided to pay a $4.4 million ransom to hackers who breached the company's systems; "It was the right thing to do for the country." He also said, "I know that's a highly controversial decision".


title: Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack

text: Biden said on May 10 that though there was no evidence that the Russian government was responsible for the attack, there was evidence that the DarkSide group is in Russia, and that thus, Russian authorities "have some responsibility to deal with this". Independent cybersecurity researchers have also stated the hacking group is Russian as their malware avoids encrypting files in a system where the language is set to Russian.


title: Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack

text: In the aftermath of the attack, it was revealed at a Senate Armed Services cyber subcommittee hearing that the Department of Homeland Security was not alerted to the ransomware attack and that the Justice Department was not alerted to the ransom type or amount, prompting discussion about the numerous information silos in the government and difficulties of sharing.


title: Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack

text: Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic published a bitcoin wallet report showing $90 million in bitcoin ransom payments were made to DarkSide or DarkSide affiliates over the last year, originating from 47 distinct wallets. According to a DarkTracer release of 2226 victim organizations since May 2019, 99 organizations have been infected with the DarkSide malware – suggesting that approximately 47% of victims paid a ransom and that the average payment was $1.9 million. The DarkSide developer had received bitcoins worth $15.5 million (17%), with the remaining $74.7 million (83%) going to the various affiliates.


title: Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack

text: The U.S. Department of Justice issued a press release on June 7, 2021, stating that it had seized 63.7 Bitcoins from the original ransom payment. The value of the recovered Bitcoins was only $2.3 million, because the trading price of Bitcoin had fallen since the date of the ransom payment. Through possession of the private key of the ransom account, the FBI was able to retrieve the Bitcoin, though it did not disclose how it obtained the private key.


title: Northwest Angle

text: The Northwest Angle, known simply as the Angle by locals, and coextensive with Angle Township, is a pene-exclave of northern Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota. Except for surveying errors, it is the only place in the contiguous United States north of the 49th parallel, which forms the border between the U.S. and Canada from the Northwest Angle westward to the Strait of Georgia (between the U.S. state of Washington and the province of British Columbia). The land area of the Angle is separated from the rest of Minnesota by Lake of the Woods, but shares a land border with Canada. It is one of six non-island locations in the 48 contiguous states that are practical exclaves of the U.S. It is the northernmost township in Minnesota and contains the northernmost point in the contiguous 48 states. The unincorporated community of Angle Inlet is in the Northwest Angle.


title: Northwest Angle

text: Seventy percent of the land of the Angle is held in trust by the Red Lake Indian Reservation (Ojibwa).


title: Northwest Angle

text: Although the Angle is listed as one of several distinct regions of Minnesota, its total population was 119 at the 2010 census. The area is mostly water and the land is mostly forest.


title: Northwest Angle

text: Angle Township was designated as territory of the United States because negotiators of the initial Canada–U.S. border misunderstood the geography of the area. Benjamin Franklin and British representatives relied on the Mitchell Map of colonial American geographer John Mitchell, which did not indicate the source of the Mississippi River—thought to lie some distance to the northwest—or the true shape of Lake of the Woods, which was instead shown as roughly oval. The 1783 Treaty of Paris thus stated that the boundary between U.S. territory and the British possessions to the north would run "...through the Lake of the Woods to the northwesternmost point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi..."


title: Northwest Angle

text: But the source of the Mississippi River, Lake Itasca (then unknown to European explorers), lies almost due south of Lake of the Woods, rather than north and west of it. Additionally, the irregular actual shape of the lake made the identification of its northwest corner difficult. A survey team led by David Thompson in 1824 mapped the lake and found four possibilities, but did not conclusively declare one location.


title: Northwest Angle

text: In 1825, a German astronomer in British service, Johann Ludwig Tiarks, surveyed the lake. Tiarks identified two possibilities for the northwesternmost point on the lake, based on Thompson's maps: the Angle Inlet and Rat Portage. To determine which point was the most northwestern, he drew a line from each point in the southwest–northeast direction. If the line intersected the lake at any point, it was not the most northwestern point. Tiarks determined that the only such line that did not intersect the lake was at the edge of a pond on the Angle Inlet. A 1940 academic study documents this point as being in the vicinity of (NAD83).


title: Northwest Angle

text: In the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, the error regarding the Mississippi River was corrected by having the boundary continue due south from the northwest point of the lake, but only to the 49th parallel and then westward along it. The Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842 reaffirmed this border. However, the placement of the northwestern corner and shape of the lake meant that this north–south line cut off a section of U.S. territory to its east, now known as the Northwest Angle.


title: Northwest Angle

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, Angle Township has a total area of 596.3 square miles (1,544.5 km) of which 123.09 square miles (318.81 km) is land and 473.2 square miles (1,225.7 km) (79.36%) is water. The land includes several islands, including Oak Island, and two small capes that are below (south of) the 49th parallel north in the extreme southwest part of the township, one of which is known as Elm Point, south of the southeast corner of Manitoba, and not far from the northeast corner of Roseau County. Of the 2000 census population of 152, there were 118 living on the mainland, and 34 persons on the islands in Lake of the Woods. All of the populated islands are north of the 49th parallel.


title: Northwest Angle

text: The mainland portion of the township north of the 49th parallel has an area of . The total land area of all islands is , and the two capes total . The township has the last one-room public school in the state.


title: Northwest Angle

text: Elm Point, in Lake of the Woods County, is a small cape southwest of the Northwest Angle. It borders Canada and is, together with a similar smaller cape to the west, separated by land from the continental United States.


title: Northwest Angle

text: Because of laws restricting fishing, some residents of the Northwest Angle suggested leaving the United States and joining Canada in 1997. The following year, then-U.S. representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota proposed legislation to allow the residents of the Northwest Angle, which was part of his district, to vote on seceding from the United States and joining Canada. This angered the leaders of Red Lake Indian Reservation, which holds most of the Northwest Angle's land. The incident resulted in fishing regulations being better synchronized across these waters.


title: Northwest Angle

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 119 people, 66 households, and 37 families residing in the Angle. There were 404 housing units. The racial makeup of the township was 99.2% White (118 out of 119). Native American or Alaska Native of any race were 0.8% of the population (that is, 1 person).


title: Northwest Angle

text: Out of the 66 households, 10.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.5% were married couples living together, 0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.9% were non-families. 37.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.80, and the average family size was 2.32.


title: Northwest Angle

text: In the Angle the population is spread out, with 10.1% under the age of 18, 0.8% from 18 to 24, 10.1% from 25 to 44, 51.3% from 45 to 64, and 27.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 50 years. For every 100 females, there were 120.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 124.1 males.


title: Northwest Angle

text: The median income for a household in the township was $28,500, and the median income for a family was $31,250. Males had a median income of $28,500 versus $21,250 for females. The per capita income for the township was $13,932. About 13.3% of families and 12.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under the age of 18 or 65 and older.


title: Northwest Angle

text: According to the Köppen climate classification system, the Northwest Angle has a Warm-summer, Humid continental climate ("Dfb"). "Dfb" climates are characterized by at least one month having an average mean temperature ≤ , at least four months with an average mean temperature ≥ , all months with an average mean temperature < and no significant precipitation difference between seasons. Although most summer days are comfortably humid in the Northwest Angle, episodes of heat and high humidity can occur with heat index values > . The Northwest Angle weather station is one of the newer ones, as it only began keeping records in 1981, in contrast with nearby International Falls which has been keeping records for over a century. Since 1981, the highest air temperature was on July 5, 1988, and the highest daily average mean dew point was on 4 August 2001. Since 1981, the wettest calendar day was on June 9, 2002. During the winter months, the average annual extreme minimum air temperature is . Since 1981, the coldest air temperature was on February 2, 2002. Episodes of extreme cold and wind can occur with wind chill values under . The average annual snowfall total (Sep–May) is between and .


title: Northwest Angle

text: According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, the Northwest Angle would have a dominant vegetation type of Great Lakes Spruce/Fir ("93") with a dominant vegetation form of Northern Conifer Forest ("22"). The plant hardiness zone is 3a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of . The spring bloom typically peaks in mid-May and fall color usually peaks in late September.


title: Joe Rodon

text: Joseph Peter Rodon (born 22 October 1997) is a Welsh professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Ligue 1 club Rennes, on loan from Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, and the Wales national team.


title: Joe Rodon

text: A youth product of Swansea City, Rodon made 54 senior appearances for the club before moving to Tottenham Hotspur in October 2020. In 2022, Rodon helped Wales qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1958.


title: Joe Rodon

text: Rodon grew up in Llangyfelach, Swansea,went to Llangyfelach Primary School, and was a Swansea City season ticket holder before joining the club at the age of eight in 2005. He signed his first professional contract in July 2015 and was named on the first-team bench for the first time in January 2016 for the FA Cup tie with Oxford United. He was then named on the first-team bench in the Premier League game at the Emirates Stadium against Arsenal in October 2017. Rodon played as captain of Swansea's under-23 team in a 2–1 win over Cheltenham Town in the EFL Trophy on 15 August 2017.


title: Joe Rodon

text: On 30 January 2018, he joined League Two side Cheltenham Town on loan until the end of the 2017–18 season. Manager Gary Johnson said that "we have been keeping an eye on him for some time and he is undoubtedly a quality player".


title: Joe Rodon

text: Rodon returned to Swansea and was given his senior debut by manager Graham Potter ahead of the 2018–19 Championship season. He became a regular starter at the club and made 21 appearances the following season under new coach Steve Cooper.


title: Joe Rodon

text: Rodon signed for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur on 16 October 2020 for a fee of around £11 million on a five-year contract. Rodon made his Premier League debut for Tottenham Hotspur on 26 October 2020 after coming on as a substitute for Son Heung-min in the 93rd minute in the 1–0 win away against Burnley. He made his first start for the club in the away match against Chelsea on 29 November as Toby Alderweireld was out injured, and helped keep a clean sheet in a 0–0 draw.


title: Joe Rodon

text: On 1 August 2022, it was announced that Rodon had joined French club Rennes on a year-long loan with an option to buy.


title: Joe Rodon

text: He was named in a preliminary senior Wales squad in May 2018 for a friendly against Mexico but was left out of the final selection. He was called up for a competitive game for the first time for an September 2019 qualifier against Azerbaijan. Rodon made his debut against Azerbaijan, playing all 90 minutes in a 2–1 win In May 2021 he was selected for the Wales squad for the delayed UEFA Euro 2020 tournament. In November 2022 he was named in the Wales squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.


title: Hostinger

text: Hostinger International, Ltd is an employee-owned web hosting provider and an ICANN-accredited domain registrar. Established in 2004, the company is headquartered in Lithuania and employs more than 1,000 people. Hostinger is the parent company of 000webhost, Hosting24, Zyro, and Niagahoster.


title: Hostinger

text: In 2007, Hosting Media’s paid hosting offer was joined by a free web hosting service when the company founded 000webhost.


title: Hostinger

text: In 2021 a group of investors led by German entrepreneurs Jochen Berger and Thomas Strohe invested in Hostinger and acquired 31% of Hostinger’s shares.


title: Hostinger

text: In 2008, the company launched Hosting24, a cPanel-based web hosting brand, in the United States. The data centers were located in Asheville, North Carolina, and the United Kingdom.


title: Hostinger

text: In 2011, Arnas Stuopelis joined the company as CEO. In the same year Hosting Media rebranded to Hostinge.


title: Hostinger

text: In 2013, Hostinger launched its subsidiary Niagahoster in Indonesia. It became one of the first hosting providers to offer tier-4 data centers.


title: Hostinger

text: In 2019, Hostinger introduced a no-code, drag-and-drop website builder. Launched as a subsidiary under the name Zyro, the builder is supported by Hostinger’s hosting infrastructure and is aimed at small to medium-sized enterprises.


title: Hostinger

text: In 2021, private equity company ConHostinger acquired an approximately 31% controlling stake in Hostinger with the goal of enhancing the growth of the company.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: The Philippines has five types of climates: tropical rainforest, tropical monsoon, tropical savanna, humid subtropical and oceanic (both are in higher-altitude areas) characterized by relatively high temperature, oppressive humidity and plenty of rainfall. There are two seasons in the country, the wet season and the dry season, based upon the amount of rainfall. This is also dependent on location in the country as some areas experience rain all throughout the year (see Climate types). Based on temperature, the warmest months of the year are March through October; the winter monsoon brings cooler air from November to February. May is the warmest month, and January, the coolest.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: Weather in the Philippines is monitored and managed by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: Monsoons are large-scale sea breezes which occur when the temperature on land is significantly warmer or cooler than the temperature of the ocean. Most summer monsoons or southwest monsoons () have a dominant westerly component and a strong tendency to ascend and produce copious amounts of rain (because of the condensation of water vapor in the rising air). The intensity and duration, however, are not uniform from year to year. Winter monsoons or northeast monsoons (), by contrast, have a dominant easterly component and a strong tendency to diverge, subside and cause drought.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: The summer monsoon brings heavy rains to most of the archipelago from May to October. Annual average rainfall ranges from as much as in the mountainous east coast section of the country, to less than in some of the sheltered valleys. Monsoon rains, although hard and drenching, are not normally associated with high winds and waves.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: At least 30 percent of the annual rainfall in the northern Philippines can be traced to tropical cyclones, while the southern islands receiving less than 10 percent of their annual rainfall from tropical cyclones. The wettest known tropical cyclone to impact the archipelago was the July 1911 cyclone, when the total precipitation for Baguio was distributed over the four days as: 14th – , 15th – , 16th – , 17th – ; followed by extraordinary drought from October 1911 to May 1912, so that the annual amount of those two years were hardly noticeable.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: The Philippines sit across the typhoon belt, making dangerous storms from July through October. Climate change exacerbates the situation with typhoons in the Philippines. "Bagyo" is the Filipino term for any tropical cyclone in the Philippine Islands. From the statistics gathered by PAGASA from 1948 to 2004, around an average of 28 storms and/or typhoons per year enter the PAR (Philippine Area of Responsibility) – the designated area assigned to PAGASA to monitor during weather disturbances. Those that made landfall or crossed the Philippines, the average was nine per year. In 1993, a record 19 typhoons made landfall in the country making it the most in one year. The fewest per year were 4 during the years 1955, 1958, 1992, and 1997.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: PAGASA categorises typhoons into five types according to wind speed. Once a tropical cyclone enters the PAR, regardless of strength, it is given a local name for identification purposes by the media, government, and the general public.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: For the past ten years, the Philippines has experienced a number of extremely damaging tropical cyclones, particularly typhoons with more than of sustained winds. Because of this, the Super Typhoon (STY) category with more than maximum sustained winds was officially adopted. PAGASA revises definition of super typhoon, signal system in 2022. However, according to different stakeholders, the extensive and devastating damages caused by strong typhoons such as Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in 2013 and Typhoon Rai (Odette) in 2021 made the fourlevel warning system inadequate.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: The deadliest typhoon to impact the Philippines was Typhoon Haiyan, locally known as Yolanda, in November 2013, in which more than 6,300 people died from its storm surges and powerful winds. Over 1,000 went missing and nearly 20,000 were injured. Winds reached in one–minute sustained and may have been the strongest storm in history in terms of wind speeds as wind speeds before the 1970s were too high to record.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: Back in 1995, where Typhoon Angela, known as Rosing was an extremely catastrophic category 5 typhoon that made landfall in Catanduanes and made across Manila. Winds reached 290 km/h (180 mph) on one-minute sustain winds. Rosing took 936 lives and the most powerful typhoon that ever hit Metro Manila.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: On late December 3, 2012, Typhoon Bopha or known as Pablo made landfall on Eastern Mindanao, damage was over US$1.04 billion by winds of 280 km/h (175 mph) on one-minute sustain winds. Typhoon Bopha was the most powerful typhoon ever hit Mindanao, killing 1,067 people and 834 people were missing. Most of the damage was caused by rushing storm surges and screaming winds.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: Typhoon Megi (2010) was the strongest storm ever to make landfall in the country in terms of pressure.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: It reached wind speeds of 295 km/h (185 mph) on one-minute sustained winds, killing 67 people and costing over US$700 million in damage.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: There are four recognized climate types in the Philippines, and they are based on the distribution of rainfall "(See the Philippine Climate Map at the top)". They are described as follows:


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: The average year-round temperature measured from all the weather stations in the Philippines, except Baguio, is . Cooler days are usually felt in the month of January with temperature averaging at and the warmest days, in the month of May with a mean of . Elevation factors significantly in the variation of temperature in the Philippines. In Baguio, with an elevation of above sea level, the mean average is or cooler by about . In 1915, a one-year study was conducted by William H. Brown of the Philippine Journal of Science on top of Mount Banahaw at elevation. The mean temperature measured was , a difference of from the lowland mean temperature.


title: Climate of the Philippines

text: Relative humidity is high in the Philippines. A high amount of moisture or vapor in the air makes hot temperatures feel hotter. This quantity of moisture is due to different factors – the extraordinary evaporation from the seas that surrounds the country on all sides, to the different prevailing winds in the different seasons of the year, and finally, to the abundant rains so common in a tropical country. The first may be considered as general causes of the great humidity, which is generally observed in all the islands throughout the year. The last two may influence the different degree of humidity for the different months of the year and for the different regions of the archipelago.


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore (; born 27 June 1965) is a British historian, television presenter and author of popular history books and novels,


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: Simon Sebag Montefiore was born in London. His father was psychotherapist Stephen Eric Sebag Montefiore (1926–2014), a great-grandson of the banker Sir Joseph Sebag-Montefiore (1822-1903), the nephew and heir of the wealthy philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore considered by some "the most important Jew of the 19th century". Simon's mother was Phyllis April Jaffé, (1927–2019) from the Lithuanian branch of the Jaffe family. Her parents fled the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. They bought tickets for New York City, but were cheated, being instead dropped off at Cork, Ireland. Due to the Limerick boycott in 1904 her father Henry Jaffé left the country and moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Simon's brother is Hugh Sebag-Montefiore.


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: The Montefiore family are descended from a line of wealthy Sephardi Jews who were diplomats and bankers all over Europe and who originated from Morocco and Italy. After the Alhambra Decree was issued against the Jews in Spain of 1492, some of Montefiore's ancestors stayed in the country whilst remaining secretly Jewish. During the reign of Philip II of Spain, one of them became governor of a province of Mexico, where he and his family were denounced by a political rival and tortured by the Inquisition. Two teenaged girls were burned alive in Mexico City while a son escaped to Italy and changed his name to Montefiore.


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: Sebag Montefiore was educated at Ludgrove School and Harrow School where he was editor of the school newspaper, "The Harrovian". In the autumn of 1983 he interviewed Margaret Thatcher for "The Harrovian". He won an Exhibition to read history at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where he received his Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD).


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: Montefiore worked as a banker, a foreign affairs journalist, and a war correspondent covering the conflicts during the fall of the Soviet Union.


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: Montefiore's book "Catherine the Great & Potemkin" was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize, and the Marsh Biography Award. "" won History Book of the Year at the 2004 British Book Awards. "Young Stalin" won the "LA Times" Book Prize for Best Biography, the Costa Book Award, the Bruno Kreisky Award for Political Literature, Le Grand Prix de la Biographie Politique and was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. "Jerusalem: The Biography" was a number one non-fiction "Sunday Times" bestseller and a global bestseller and won The Jewish Book of the Year Award from the Jewish Book Council. His latest history book is "The Romanovs, 1613–1918".


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: Montefiore's debut novel "King's Parade" was published in 1991. "The Spectator" called the book "embarrassing" and "extremely silly".


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: Montefiore is also the author of the novels "One Night in Winter" and "Sashenka". "One Night in Winter" won the Political Novel of the Year Prize and was longlisted for the Orwell Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Visiting Professor of Humanities at the University of Buckingham.


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: Montefiore lives in London with his wife, the novelist Santa Montefiore, and their two children. The couple are friends of King Charles III and the Queen Consort.


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: Several of Montefiore's books are now being developed as either films or TV drama series. In February 2017, Angelina Jolie announced that she was developing "Simon Sebag Montefiore's "Catherine the Great and Potemkin"" with Universal Studios. Also in early 2017, the film studio Lionsgate Films announced it had bought Montefiore's "Jerusalem: the Biography" to make it into a long running multi episodic TV drama series which will be "character-driven, action-filled account of war, betrayal, faith, fanaticism, slaughter, persecution and co-existence in the universal holy city through the ages." Montefiore has likened it to Game of Thrones. The film scriptwriter and director Neil Jordan has been attached to the project to adapt the book for television, and he will also be acting as producer. In April 2016, 21st Century Fox announced that its animated division Blue Sky Studios, makers of the Ice Age series, had bought "Royal Rabbits of London", the children's series of books written by Montefiore and Santa Montefiore, to develop into an animated feature film. In July 2018 it was announced that the screenwriter Will Davies has been attached to the project to adapt the book for the screen. Also in July 2018, it was announced that Hat Trick Productions had taken up an option on Montefiore's novel "One Night in Winter", in order to make a TV adaption.


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: Montefiore's last non-fiction book "The Romanovs 1613–1918" (2016) was accused of containing several historical errors by Swedish historian Dick Harrison. However, it has also received many favourable reviews. Olga Grushin in the "New York Times" observed that the book is "Spellbinding ... This monumental work is an essential addition to the library of anyone interested in Russian history." Stephen Kotkin in the "Wall Street Journal" praised the book and noted that "No author writes better than Montefiore whose perceptiveness and portraiture here are frequently sublime ... a marvellous read and the last third from "fin de siecle" insanity to revolutionary cataclysm is dazzling." The historian Antony Beevor noted that the book provided "Epic history on the grandest scale". For "The Observer" John Kampfner described Montefiore's book as "Riveting ... the research is meticulous and the style is captivating".


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: Montefiore has written a Moscow Trilogy of fictional thrillers, set in Russia. These have received positive reviews. "Sashenka" (2008) was described by the "Washington Post" as "Spellbinding. "Sashenka" is a historical whodunit with the epic sweep of a Hollywood movie. Montefiore is a natural storyteller who brings his encyclopedic knowledge of Russian history to life in language that glitters like the ice of St Petersburg". The "Wall Street Journal" praised "This superb novel. "Sashenka" is unforgettable. Inspiring. Montefiore proves a matchless storyteller, his prose harrowing and precise."


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: "One Night in Winter" (2013) was described by "The Guardian" as "A gripping thriller about private life and poetic dreams in Stalin's Russia ... A gripping pageturner ... Whether its subject is power or love, a darkly enjoyable read."


title: Simon Sebag Montefiore

text: The last novel in the trilogy, "Red Sky at Noon" (2017), was called "a deeply satisfying pageturner – mythic and murderous" by "The Times" and "brilliant on multiple levels ... offering historical accuracy, a fine empathy for his characters and a story that illuminates the operatic tragedy of Stalin's Russia" by "Booklist".


title: Food desert

text: A food desert is an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food. In contrast, an area with greater access to supermarkets and vegetable shops with fresh foods may be called a food oasis. The designation considers the type and the quality of food available to the population, in addition to the accessibility of the food through the size and the proximity of the food stores.


title: Food desert

text: In 2017, the United States Department of Agriculture reported that 39.5 million people or 12.8% of the population were living in low-income and low-access areas. Of this number, 19 million people live in "food deserts," low-income census tracts that are more than one mile from a supermarket in urban or suburban areas and more than 10 miles from a supermarket in rural areas.


title: Food desert

text: Food deserts tend to be inhabited by low-income residents with inadequate access to transportation, which makes them less attractive markets for large supermarket chains. These areas lack suppliers of fresh foods, such as meats, fruits, and vegetables. Instead, available foods are likely to be processed and high in sugar and fats, which are known contributors to obesity in the United States.


title: Food desert

text: By 1973, the term "desert" was ascribed to suburban areas lacking amenities important for community development. A report by Cummins and Macintyre states that a resident of public housing in western Scotland supposedly coined the more specific phrase "food desert" in the early 1990s. The phrase was first officially used in a 1995 document from a policy working group on the Low Income Project Team of the UK's Nutrition Task Force.


title: Food desert

text: Initial research was narrowed to the impact of retail migration from the urban center. More recent studies explored the impact of food deserts in other geographic areas (such as rural and frontier) and among specific populations like minorities and the elderly. The studies addressed the relationships between the quality (access and availability) of retail food environments, the price of food, and obesity. Environmental factors can also contribute to people's eating behaviors. Research conducted with variations in methods draws a more complete perspective of "multilevel influences of the retail food environment on eating behaviors (and risk of obesity)."


title: Food desert

text: In the years since, the Food Justice Movement has remapped its advocacy by not only citing how predominately white the movement is but also by arguing that food insecurity is an issue directly related to racial inequality in the United States. The commercial flight from urban neighborhoods, for instance, is considered one of the many reasons for a lack of supermarkets in urban areas. The absence of grocery stores in urban communities can be attributed to middle-income whites moving out of the cities and into the suburbs. Subsidized by government loans, businesses also went to the suburbs. There is a racially disparate impact in how large grocery companies choose the locations of new stores, with suburban areas being often chosen over urban centers. In an attempt to open supermarkets in urban neighborhoods, many have found it difficult as the costs to maintain a grocery store is expensive as compared to the suburbs, and the city's costly ordinances inherently make it difficult to keep the stores.


title: Food desert

text: Advocates within the movement have identified that terms like "Food Desert" undermines how the intersections of race and class largely influences minority communities' inaccessibility to fresh foods. To better describe what is taking place many advocates have begun to use the term "food apartheid." The activist and community organizer Karen Washington describes the term as "[looking] at the whole food system, along with race, geography, faith, and economics." As a result, there has been a paradigm shift within the movement with community organizers encouraging members of affected neighborhoods to consider how inadequate food systems correlate with the intersectionality of race and class. The Planting Seeds Just Tour serves as an example, as it visited solution based projects to resist injustices with ecological wisdom and food justice that were run by women of color. The tour also highlighted economically viable alternatives to provide healthy food and created spaces in which community members could participate in conversations regarding sustainability.


title: Food desert

text: Researchers employ a variety of methods to assess food deserts including directories and census data, focus groups, food store assessments, food use inventories, geographic information system (GIS), interviews, questionnaires and surveys measuring consumers' food access perceptions. Differences in the definition of a food desert vary according to the following:


title: Food desert

text: The multitude of definitions, varying by country, has fueled controversy over the existence of food deserts.


title: Food desert

text: It should also be noted that because it is too costly to survey the types of foods and prices offered in every store, researchers use the availability of supermarkets and large grocery stores (including discount and supercenter stores) as a proxy for the availability of affordable nutritious food.


title: Food desert

text: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service measures distance by dividing the country into multiple 0.5 km square grids. The distance from the geographic center of each grid to the nearest grocery store gauges food accessibility for the people living in that grid. Health Canada divides areas into buffer zones, with people's homes, schools, or workplaces as the center. The Euclidean distance, another method to measure distance, is the shortest distance between the two points of interest and is measured for gaining food access data, but it is a less effective distance metric than the Manhattan Distance.


title: Food desert

text: Different factors are excluded or included that affect the scale of distance. The USDA maintains an online interactive mapping tool for the United States, the "Food Access Research Atlas," which applies four different measurement standards to identify areas of low food access, based on distance from the nearest supermarket.


title: Food desert

text: The first standard uses the original USDA food desert mapping tool "Food Desert Locator" and defines food deserts as having at least 33% or 500 people of a census tract's population in an urban area living 1 mile (10 miles for rural area) from a large grocery store or supermarket.


title: Food desert

text: The second and third standards adjust the scale of distance and factor income to define a food desert. In the US, a food desert is a low-income census tract residing at least in urban areas ( in rural areas) or away in urban areas (20 miles in rural areas) from a large grocery store. The availability of other fresh food sources like community gardens and food banks are not included in mapping and can change the number of communities that should be classified as food deserts. A 2014 geographical survey found that the average distance from a grocery store was 1.76 kilometers (1.09 miles) in Edmonton but only 1.44 kilometers (0.89 miles) when farmers' markets and community gardens were included, which makes it 0.11 miles under the latter definition for an urban food desert.


title: Food desert

text: The fourth standard takes vehicular mobility into account. In the US, a food desert has 100 households or more with no vehicle access living at least from the nearest large grocery store. For populations with vehicle access, the standard changes to 500 households or more living at least away. Travel duration and mode may be other important factors. As of 2011, public transport is not included in mapping tools.


title: Food desert

text: A food retailer is typically considered to be a healthful food provider if it sells a variety of fresh food, including fruits and vegetables. Types of fresh food retailers include the following:


title: Food desert

text: Food retailers like fast-food restaurants and convenience stores are typically not in this category as they usually offer a limited variety of foods that constitutes a healthy diet. Frequently, even if there is produce sold at convenience stores, it is of poor quality. A "healthy" bodega, as defined by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, stocks seven or more varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables and low-fat milk.


title: Food desert

text: Different countries have different dietary models and views on nutrition. The distinct national nutrition guides add to the controversy surrounding the definition of food deserts. Since a food desert is defined as an area with limited access to nutritious foods, a universal identification of them cannot be created without a global consensus on nutrition.


title: Food desert

text: Other criteria include affordability and income level. According to the USDA, researchers should "consider... [the] prices of foods faced by individuals and areas" and how "prices affect the shopping and consumption behaviors of consumers." One study maintains that estimates of how many people live in food deserts must include the cost of food in supermarkets that can be reached in relation to their income.


title: Food desert

text: For instance, in 2013, Whole Foods Market opened a store in the New Center area of Detroit, where one third of the population lives below the poverty line. Whole Foods is known for its more expensive healthy and organic foods. To attract low income residents, the Detroit store offered lower prices than other Whole Foods stores. If Whole Foods had not lowered the prices, residents would not be willing to shop there, and that area of Detroit would still be considered a food desert.


title: Food desert

text: The differences between a rural and an urban food desert are the population density of residents and their distance from the nearest supermarket. Twenty percent of rural areas in the U.S. are classified as food deserts. There are small areas within each state in the U.S. that are classified as rural food deserts, but they occur most prominently in the Midwest. Within these counties, approximately 2.4 million individuals have low access to a large supermarket. The difference in distance translates into pronounced economic and transportation differencees between rural and urban areas. Rural food deserts are mostly the result of large supermarket stores moving into areas and creating competition that makes it impossible for small businesses to survive. The competition causes many small grocers to go out of business. That makes the task of getting nutritious whole ingredients much more difficult for those who live far away from large supermarkets.


title: Food desert

text: In most cases, people who live in rural food deserts are more likely to lack a high school degree or GED, to experience increased poverty rates, and to have lower median family income. People who live in rural food deserts also tend to be older because of an exodus of young people (ages 20–29) born in such areas who decide to leave them once they can.


title: Food desert

text: Based on the 2013 "County Health Ratings" data, residents who live in rural U.S. food deserts are more likely to have poorer health than those who live in urban food deserts. People who live in rural communities have significantly lower scores in the areas of health behavior, morbidity factors, clinical care, and physical environment. Research attributes the discrepancies to a variety of factors, including limitations in infrastructure, socioeconomic differences, insurance coverage deficiencies, and a higher rate of traffic fatalities and accidents.


title: Food desert

text: A 2009 study showed that of the people polled, 64% did not have access to adequate daily amounts of vegetables, and 44.8% did not have access to adequate daily amounts of fruits. Comparatively, only 29.8% of those polled lacked access to adequate protein. The lack of access to fruits and vegetables often results in vitamin deficiencies, which eventually causes health problems for those who live within these areas. Tasked with finding a solution to the problem, research has shown that it takes individual and community actions, as well as public policy improvements, to maintain and increase the capacity of rural grocery stores to provide nutritious high-quality affordable foods and to be profitable enough to stay in business.


title: Food desert

text: Although personal factors do impact eating behavior for rural people, it is the physical and social environments that place constraints on food access, even in civically engaged communities. Food access may be improved in communities in which civic engagement is strong and local organizations join in providing solutions to help decrease barriers of food access. Some ways that communities can do so are increasing access to the normal and food safety net systems and creating informal alternatives. Some informal communal alternatives could be community food gardens and informal transportation networks. Further, existing federal programs could be boosted through greater volunteer involvement.


title: Food desert

text: A 2009 study of rural food deserts found key differences in overall health, access to food, and the social environment of rural residents when they were compared to urban dwellers. Rural residents report overall poorer health and more physical limitations, with 12% rating their health as fair or poor, compared to 9% of urban residents. They believed their current health conditions to be shaped by their eating behaviors when the future chronic disease risk was affected by the history of dietary intake. Moreover, the 57 recruited rural residents from Minnesota and Iowa in one study perceived that food quality and variety in their area were poor at times. The researchers reached the conclusion that for a community of people, food choice bound by family and household socioeconomic status remained as a personal challenge, but social and physical environments played a significant role in stressing and in shaping their dietary behaviors.


title: Food desert

text: Food deserts occur in poor urban areas with limited or no access to healthful affordable food options. Low income families are more likely to not have access to transportation so tend to be negatively affected by food deserts. An influx of people moving into such urban areas has magnified the existing problems of food access. Urban areas have been progressing in terms of certain opportunities, but the poor continue to struggle. As people move to urban areas, they have been forced to adopt new methods for cooking and acquiring food. Adults in urban areas tend to be obese, but they have malnourished and underweight children. For many people, the reason for not being able to get nutritious food is a lack of supermarkets or grocery stores When supermarkets are inaccessible, it has been shown that vegetable and fruit consumption are lower. When prices are high and there is a lack of financial assistance, many living in places with limited grocery stores find themselves in a situation of being unable to get the food that they need. Another domain to food deserts is that they also tend to be found in places that poor minority communities reside. Sometimes, the issue with urban food deserts is not the lack of food in the area but rather the lack of nutritional knowledge about food.


title: Food desert

text: According to research conducted by Tulane University in 2009, 2.3 million Americans lived more than one mile away from a supermarket and did not own a car. For those that live in urban food deserts, they often do not have access to culturally-appropriate foods. For many people who have health restrictions and food allergies, the effects of food deserts are further compounded. The time and cost it takes for people to go to the grocery store makes fast food more desirable. There is also a price variance in small grocery stores that prevents people in lower-income areas from purchasing healthier food options. Smaller grocery stores can be more expensive than the larger chains.


title: Food desert

text: The term "urban food deserts" is traditionally applied to North America and Europe, but in recent years, the term has been extended to Africa as well. It has taken time for researchers to understand Africa's urban food deserts because the conventional understanding of the term must be reevaluated to fit Africa's unconventional supermarkets. There are three categories for food deserts: ability-related, assets-related, and attitude-related. Ability-related food deserts are "anything that physically prevents access to food which a consumer otherwise has the financial resources to purchase and the mental desire to buy." An asset-related food desert involves the absence of financial assets, which prevents consumption of desirable food that is otherwise available. Attitude-related food deserts are any state of mind that prevents consumers from accessing that foods they can otherwise physically bring into their home and have the necessary assets to procure. In Cape Town, South Africa, supermarkets take up a large portion of retail space. While supermarkets are expanding in poor neighborhoods in Cape Town, their food insecurity is growing at an alarming rate. That is one of the biggest roadblocks in understanding food deserts. Based on the European or American understanding of food deserts, the fact that there is access to supermarkets by definition would mean that Cape Town does not suffer from food deserts. Africa suffers from food deserts, and there is also a direct link between climate change and the rapid growth of food deserts. While supermarkets are expanding to areas in which they once did not exist, there is still a disparity when it comes to physical access. In Cape Town, asset-related urban food deserts are the main reason for food insecurity since its people cannot afford the food that they would prefer to eat.


title: Food desert

text: Climate change plays an important role in urban food deserts because it directly affects accessibility. The main way that climate change affects food security and food deserts is by reducing the production of food. With the limited availability of a product, the price rises making it unavailable to those that cannot afford more expensive commodities. In Cape Town specifically, supermarkets rely directly on fresh produce from the nearby farm area. Climate change affect the production of food, and it can also damage capital assets that affect accessibility and utilization. Specifically in Cape Town, access to food deserts does not change their severity. With limited diversity in their diets, those who live in Cape Town are highly dependent on foods of low nutritional value and high calorific value. Using the European or American definition of food deserts would not take into account the dynamic market of other cultures and countries.


title: Food desert

text: Crime plays an important role in food deserts. If businesses cannot operate safely, they tend to either close or relocate to more stable areas. Operating a business in a high-crime area is more costly than doing so in a more stable area, as security can be a significant cost. For example, a grocery store closing in Chicago cited "repeated crime" as a major factor leading to their closing. Periods of civil unrest can accelerate the flight of businesses in areas in which the expectation of safe operation is low. The 2020 protests for racial and social justice that included riots that destroyed businesses, and Chicago then had more food deserts than before. North American urban food deserts are the result of stores closing because of unprofitability, not because of companies refraining from entering a potential market area.


title: Food desert

text: The primary criterion for a food desert is its proximity to a healthy food market. When such a market is in reach for its residents, a food desert ceases to exist, but that does not mean that residents will now choose to eat healthily. A longitudinal study of food deserts in "JAMA Internal Medicine" shows that supermarket availability is generally unrelated to fruit and vegetable recommendations and overall diet quality.


title: Food desert

text: The availability of unhealthy foods at supermarkets may affect that relationship because they tempt customers to purchase precooked foods, which tend to contain more preservatives. Supermarkets may have such an adverse effect because they put independently owned grocery stores out of business. Independently owned grocery stores have the benefit of being made of the community and so they can be more responsive to community needs. Therefore, simply providing healthier food access, according to Janne Boone-Heinonen et al., cannot eliminate food deserts, and such access must be paired with education.


title: Food desert

text: In a 2018 article in "Guernica", Karen Washington states that factors beyond physical access suggest the community should reexamine the word "food desert" itself. She believes "food apartheid" more accurately captures the circumstances surrounding access to affordable nutritious foods: "When we say "food apartheid" the real conversation can begin."


title: Food desert

text: Access to food options is not the only barrier to healthier diets and improved health outcomes. Wrigley et al. collected data before and after a food desert intervention to explore factors affecting supermarket choice and perceptions regarding healthy diet in Leeds, United Kingdom. Pretests were administered prior to a new store opening and post-tests were delivered two years after the new store had opened. The results showed that nearly half of the food desert residents began shopping at the newly built store, but only modest improvements in diet were recorded.


title: Food desert

text: A similar pilot study conducted by Cummins et al. focused on a community that was funded by the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative. It followed up after a grocery store was built in a food desert to assess the store's impact. The study found that "simply building new food retail stores may not be sufficient to promote behavior change related to diet." Studies like those show that living close to a store that is stocked with fruits and vegetables does not make a large impact on food choices.


title: Food desert

text: A separate survey also found that supermarket and grocery store availability did not generally correlate with diet quality and fresh food intake. Pearson et al. further confirmed that physical access is not the sole determinant of fruit and vegetable consumption.


title: Food desert

text: People who have nonstandard work hours, including rotating or evening shifts, may have difficulty shopping at stores that close earlier and so opt instead to shop at fast food or convenience stores, which are generally open later. Under welfare-to-work reforms enacted in 1996, female adult recipients must log 20 hours a week of "work activity" to receive SNAP benefits. If they live in a food desert and have family responsibilities, working may also limit time to travel to obtain nutritious foods as well as prepare healthful meals and exercise.


title: Food desert

text: Additional factors may include how different stores welcome different groups of people and nearness to liquor stores. Residents in a 2010 Chicago survey complained that in-store issues like poor upkeep and customer service were also impediments. Safety can also be an issue for those in high-crime areas, especially if they must walk while carrying food and maybe also with a child or children.


title: Food desert

text: A possible factor affecting obesity and other "diet-related diseases" is the proximity of fast food restaurants and convenience stores, compared to "full-access" grocery stores. Proximity to fast-food restaurants correlates with a higher BMI, and proximity to a grocery store correlates with a lower BMI, according to one study.


title: Food desert

text: A 2011 review used fifteen years of data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study to examine the fast-food consumption of more than 5,000 young American adults aged 18–30 years in different geographic environments. The study found that fast-food consumption was directly related to the proximity of fast-food restaurants among low-income participants.


title: Food desert

text: The research team concluded that "alternative policy options such as targeting specific foods or shifting food costs (subsidization or taxation)" may be complementary and necessary to promote healthy eating habits and to increase the access to large food stores in specific regions and limit the availability of fast-food restaurants and small food stores. Some cities already restrict the location of fast-food and other food retailers that do not provide healthy food.


title: Food desert

text: Fast-food restaurants are disproportionately located in low-income and minority neighborhoods and are often the closest and cheapest food options. "People living in the poorest SES areas have 2.5 times the exposure to fast-food restaurants as those living in the wealthiest areas." Multiple studies were also done in the US regarding racial/ethnic groups and the exposure to fast-food restaurants. One study in South Los Angeles, with a higher percentage of African Americans, found that there was less access to healthier stores and more access to fast food than in West Los Angeles, which has a lower African American population. Another study in New Orleans found that communities that were predominantly African American had 2.4 fast food restaurants per square mile, but predominantly-white neighborhoods had 1.5 fast food restaurants per square mile. Researchers found that fast-food companies purposely target minority neighborhoods in conducting market research to open new fast-food restaurants. Existing segregation makes it easier for fast-food companies to identify the target neighborhoods. That practice increases the concentration of fast-food restaurants in minority neighborhoods.


title: Food desert

text: The likelihood of being food insecure in the US for Latinos is 22.4%, for African Americans 26.1%, and for whites 10.5%. People who are food insecure often find themselves having to cut back more at the end of the month, when their finances or food stamps run out. Month to month, there are other special occasions that may warrant higher spending on food such as birthdays, holidays, and unplanned events. Because people who are food insecure are still fundamentally involved in society, they are faced with the other stressors of life as well as the additional frustration or guilt that comes with not being able to feed themselves or their family.


title: Food desert

text: Steven Cummins also proposed that food availability is not the problem but eating habits. Pearson et al. urge food policy to focus on the social and cultural barriers to healthy eating. For instance, New York City's public-private Healthy Bodegas Initiative has aimed to encourage bodegas to carry milk and fresh produce and residents to purchase and consume them.


title: Food desert

text: In addition to the close proximity of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores, many low-income communities contain a higher prevalence of pharmacies, compared to medium- or high-income communities. Such stores often contain a high number of snack foods, such as candy, sugary beverages, and salty snacks, which is within arm's reach of a cash register in 96% of pharmacies. While pharmacies are important in these communities, they act as yet another convenience store and so further expose low-income residents to non-nutritional food.


title: Food desert

text: Regardless of daily caloric intake, those who do not eat foods that are rich in vitamins and nutrients are susceptible to diseases related to malnutrition. Such diseases include scurvy, which results from low vitamin C levels; rickets, from low vitamin D levels; and pellagra, from insufficient nicotinic acid. Nutrient imbalances can affect a person, especially a developing child, in a multitude of ways. Studies show that malnutrition in children can cause problems with academic performance, attention span, and motivation.


title: Food desert

text: Since 2006, the United States has seen an increase in cases of obesity. There are not accessible grocery stores in many food deserts. That means that people do not have the option of eating fresh produce. Instead, they have access to cheap, fast, and easy food, which typically contains excess fats, sugars, and carbohydrates. Examples of such foods include chips, candy, and soda. Several diseases can result from consuming large amounts of these unhealthy food options, including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, and even cancer.


title: Food desert

text: Fresh produce provides the body with nutrients that help it function effectively. Vegetables are good sources of fiber; potassium; folate; iron; manganese; choline; and vitamins A, C, K, E, B6 and many more. Fruits are good sources of fiber, potassium, and vitamin C. The USDA recommends eating the whole fruit instead of fruit juice because juice itself has less fiber and added sugars. Dairy products contain nutrients such as calcium; phosphorus; riboflavin; protein; and vitamins A, D and B-12. Protein, a good source of vitamin B and lasting energy, can be found in both plant and animal products. The USDA also suggests to limit the percentage of daily calories for sugars (<10%), saturated fats (<10%) and sodium (<2,300 mg). Although small amounts of sugars, fats, and sodium are necessary for the body, they can lead to various diseases when consumed in large amounts.


title: Food desert

text: Even if they know the importance of nutrition, people may face an additional barrier, based on whether they even have the choice. Corner stores often only carry processed food, which eliminates the choice of eating fresh food. Processed food encompasses any type of food that has been modified from its original state from washing, cooking, or adding preservative or other additives. Because it is such a general category, processed foods can be broken down into four more specific groups: "unprocessed or minimally processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods (PFs), and ultra-processed foods and drinks (UPFDs)."


title: Food desert

text: The original motivation for processing foods was to preserve them so that there would be less food waste and enough food to feed the population. By canning or drying fruits and vegetables to try to preserve them, some of the nutrients are lost and oftentimes sugar is added, which makes the product less healthy than when it was fresh. Similarly, with meats that are dried, salt is added to help in preservation, but that results in the meat has a higher sodium content. The ultra-processed foods were made not to be nutrient-rich but rather to satisfy cravings with high amounts of salts or sugars, which results in people eating more than they should of food that has no nutritional value. On the other hand, processed foods may be artificially enriched with food additives to include nutrients that many people are lacking in their diets, which may, in some cases, make up to some extent for a lack of fresh food. Some nutritionists may recommend eliminating processed foods from diets, but others see it as a way to reduce food scarcity and malnutrition. In 1990, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act required nutrition facts labels on food so that people could see what and how much of something they were consuming. With that labeling, some companies listed things that were not added on the front, but they rarely added information about nutrients they added. Some scientists and nutritionists are looking into ways to create affordable processed foods that are high in essential nutrients and vitamins and also taste good so that the consumer is inclined to buy them.


title: Food desert

text: In low-income urban areas, accessibility to fast food restaurants is sometimes better than accessibility to supermarkets.


title: Food desert

text: Many areas that are food deserts have disproportionately-high numbers of liquor stores. For example, East Oakland has 4 supermarkets and 40 liquor stores. Such communities are also often predominantly populated by ethnic minorities. Both Latinos and African Americans are predisposed to disease resulting from alcohol consumption. Some alcohol-related illnesses include stroke, hypertension, diabetes, colon and GI cancer, and obesity.


title: Food desert

text: Self-care, an essential component in the management of chronic conditions but also for healthy people, is greatly influenced by food choices and dietary intake. Limited access to nutritious foods in food deserts can greatly impact one's ability to engage in healthy practices. Access, affordability, and health literacy are all social determinants of health, which are accentuated by living in a food desert. There are two main health implications for those living in food deserts: overnutrition or undernutrition. The community may be undernourished, due to no access to food stores. The community may be overnourished by a lack of affordable supermarkets with whole foods and a higher concentration of convenience stores and fast food restaurants, which offer prepackaged foods often high in sugar, fat, and salt. Food security remains a problem for many low-income families, but the greatest challenge to living in a food desert is poor diet quality. Living in a food desert contributes to a higher prevalence of chronic diseases associated with being overweight. Persons living in a food desert often face barriers to self-care, particularly in accessing resources needed to change their dietary habits.


title: Food desert

text: People tend to make food choices based on what is available in their neighborhood. Food deserts often have a high density of fast-food restaurants and corner stores that offer prepared and processed foods.


title: Food desert

text: In rural areas, food security is a major issue. Food security may imply either a complete lack of food, which contributes to undernourishment, or a lack of nutritious food, which contributes to overnourishment.


title: Food desert

text: According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), community food security "concerns the underlying social, economic, and institutional factors within a community that affect the quantity and quality of available food and its affordability or price relative to the sufficiency of financial resources available to acquire it." Rural areas tend have higher food insecurity than urban areas because food choices in rural areas are often restricted, with transportation being needed to access a major supermarket or a food supply that offers a wide, healthy variety of foods. Smaller convenience stores that do not offer as much produce.


title: Food desert

text: It is critical to look at car ownership in relation to the distance and number of stores in the area. Distance from shops influences the quality of food eaten. A vehicle or access to public transportation is often needed to go to a grocery store. When neither a car nor public transportation is available, diets are rarely healthy because fast food and convenience stores are easier to access and do not cost as much money or time. Further, those who walk to food shops typically have poorer diets, which has been attributed to having to carry shopping bags home.


title: Food desert

text: How individuals living in a food desert make decisions about healthy eating is influenced by a variety of factors. Communities with higher than state-average poverty statistics often report low access to affordable food, thus limiting their ability to maintain a healthy diet. For families living in poverty, many people work multiple jobs with rotating or evening shifts that make it difficult to find time to shop for food. Time constraints affect decision-making, and people often choose to go to a closer convenience store, rather than travel farther for fresh food. Families in urban food deserts may lack access to a car, which adds to the time needed to shop for groceries. Additionally, convenience stores and corner stores are typically open later hours than traditional grocery stores, which makes them more accessible.


title: Food desert

text: Another factor that impacts those living in a food desert is safety. High rates of crime are a barrier for those living in food deserts. If people feel unsafe in traveling farther to a grocery store, they are more likely to decide to purchase less healthy options that are closer. In that way, people prioritize their safety over fresh healthy foods.


title: Food desert

text: Proximity to fast-food restaurants also influences decisions made when choosing meals. Proximity of individuals to a fast food restaurant is correlated to having a higher BMI, and proximity to a grocery store is associated with a lower BMI. One study found that people living in the poorest areas of the country have more than twice the exposure to fast food restaurants than people living in wealthy areas. Another study used 15 years of data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study to examine the fast-food consumption of more than 5,000 young American adults aged 18–30 years in different geographic areas of the US. Proximity to fast food or a supermarket or grocery store was used to predict the type of food consumed. In low-income study participants, the type of food consumed was directly related to the proximity of fast food restaurants. These results suggest that low-income persons living in a food desert make decisions to consume fast-food based on proximity to fast-food restaurants versus distances to a grocery store.


title: Food desert

text: All of those limitations to nutritional foods have serious consequences for marginalized groups, as they are disproportionately represented in food deserts. Subsequently, dietary-related diseases continue to have a proportionately large impact in these communities, as can be seen in studies examining diabetes and lactose intolerance. There are 4.9 million non-Hispanic African Americans aged 20 years or older with diagnosed diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) national survey data. In the United States, some degree of lactose indigestion occurs in an estimated 15% (6% to 19%) of Caucasians, 53% of Mexican Americans, 62% to 100% of Native Americans, 75-80% of African Americans, and 90% of Asian Americans. Additionally, racial and ethnic minorities have a higher prevalence of diabetes than whites and a higher rate of complication post-diabetes diagnosis.


title: Food desert

text: In the long term, that can have crippling effects on the poorest Americans: "Chronic diet-related diseases can cause further financial struggles, producing expensive medical bills and making work difficult. In 2006, people with obesity paid an average of $1,429 more in medical expenses than the average American. Obesity is least prevalent among adults in the highest economic bracket."


title: Food desert

text: A 2019 study published in "The Quarterly Journal of Economics" cast doubt on the notion that exposing poor neighborhoods to healthy groceries reduces nutritional inequality. The study found "that exposing low-income households to the same products and prices available to high-income households reduces nutritional inequality by only about 10 percent, while the remaining 90 percent is driven by differences in demand." Another study found that grocery stores are more closely spaced in poor neighborhoods and that there was no relation between children's food consumption, their weight, and the type of food available near their homes. Another study suggested that adding a grocery store near one's home was associated with an average BMI decrease of 0.115, which very small compared to the excess BMI of an obese person.


title: Food desert

text: Recognition of food deserts as a major public health concern has prompted a number of initiatives to address the lack of resources available for those living in both urban and rural areas. On the larger scale, there have been national public policy initiatives.


title: Food desert

text: The United States government responded to food insecurity with several programs, one of which being the Domestic Nutrition Assistance Programs (DNAPs). Other programs include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplement Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and food pantries and emergency kitchens. However, there is still a significant lack of legislation on local and state levels to address the problem efficiently and adequately. As food insecurity has reached drastic levels, significant pressure for the government to qualify the problem as a human rights issue has proven futile.


title: Food desert

text: In 2010, the US Department of Health and Human Services, the US Department of Agriculture, and the US Department of the Treasury announced their partnership in the development of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI). Intending to expand access to healthy food options in both urban and rural communities across the country, HFFI has helped expand and develop grocery stores, corner stores, and farmers' markets by providing financial and technical assistance to communities. The creation of such resources provides nutritious food options to those living in food deserts. HFFI has awarded $195 million to community development organizations in 35 states. Between 2011 and 2015, HFFI created or supported 958 projects aimed at healthy food access.


title: Food desert

text: The HFFI has also supported the development of statewide programs across the country, in California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, the state program, the Fresh Food Financing Initiative (FFFI), provides grants and loans to healthy food retailers to create or renovate markets, including supermarkets, small stores, and farmers' markets, in low-income urban and rural areas across Pennsylvania. Because operating in underserved areas is more financially straining on retailers, the program provides subsidized financing incentives for retailers to open in areas with a high need. The Pennsylvania program's success influenced many other states to launch similar programs.


title: Food desert

text: Local and community efforts have made strides in combating a lack of access to nutritious food in food deserts. Farmers' markets provide residents with fresh fruits and vegetables. Usually in public and central areas of a community, such as a park, farmers' markets are most effective if they are easily accessible. Farmers' markets tend to be more successful in urban than rural areas due to large geographic distances in rural areas that make the markets difficult to access. The expansion of SNAP to farmers' markets also helps make nutritious foods increasingly affordable. Each year, SNAP participants spend around $70 billion in benefits. As of 2015, more than $19.4 billion were redeemed at farmers' markets. The Double Up Food Bucks program doubles what every Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) dollar spent at a farm stand is worth. This incentivizes locals to shop for fresh foods, rather than processed foods. Community gardens can play a similar role in food deserts, generating fresh produce by having residents share in the maintenance of food production.


title: Food desert

text: The Food Trust, a nonprofit organization based in Pennsylvania, has 22 farmers' markets in operation throughout Philadelphia. To increase accessibility for healthier food and fresh produce, Food Trust farmers' markets accept SNAP benefits. Customers have reported improved diets with an increase in vegetable intake as well as healthier snacking habits. Community gardens also address fresh food scarcity. The nonprofit group DC Urban Greens operates a community garden in Southeast Washington, DC, an area labeled by the US Department of Agriculture as a food desert. The garden provides fresh produce to those in the city who do not have easily-accessible grocery stores nearby. The organization also sets up farmers' markets in the city. In the food desert of North Las Vegas, a neighborhood with one of the highest levels of food insecurity, another community garden is addressing food scarcity. The community gardens can aid in education and access to new foods. Organizations such as the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network use community-building gardens to promote community around healthy food.


title: Food desert

text: Food co-operations (co-ops) are defined as being community driven produce markets. Food co-ops have become a mechanism that communities have used in response to food deserts. Since they are run by community members, these groups can have a more direct decision to sell more culturally relevant and healthier produce to the overall community. Proponents to the implementation of food co-ops argue that it offers better dietary options which can uplift the most impacted communities in food deserts. There have been efforts by urban American cities to implement food co-operations as a larger policy reform. Organizations like the West Oakland Food Collaborative have made food co-operations one of the components to their larger proposal to tackle food insecurity. There have also been efforts to integrate current federal aid to food co-operations.The Virginia Fresh Match (VFM) program worked with community efforts such as food co-ops to accept federally funded initiatives such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as a way to promote healthier eating habits.


title: Food desert

text: Limitations to food co-operations come with the emphasis of community governance and different approaches to reallocate federal funding. Given that food co-ops are community run, maintaining the market requires community members to dedicate hours to it. However, it must be noted that all members of the community can shop at food co-ops. As well, previous government policy agreements with market chains have made it difficult for repurposing these now enclosed spaces, with the discontinued Albertsons market chains being a leading example of this predicament. Cities with food deserts, such as Detroit, Michigan, have advocated instead to create policies that financially incentivize healthy markets to build their establishments in these communities. Yet, research conducted in Flint, Michigan's food desert found that it is not community access that policy reform should focus on since the implementation of healthy grocery stores will not decrease food insecurity or create healthier diets.


title: Food desert

text: Urban agriculture (UA) is another way that helps when it comes to having access to fresh food in urban cities. Urban agriculture is one of the responses combating the lack of fresh foods in communities that need fresh foods. There are communities that are turning vacant lots into a community gardens and urban areas in which they can use agriculture to grow fresh foods for the community. Urban agriculture has many benefits such as being a "local source of fresh healthy food," and bringing communities together and reducing environmental problems. An issue with urban agriculture is that in many food desert communities, the soil has been contaminated from local pollutants, which makes it harder to use plots of land as a garden to grow fresh food. For example, in Oakland, California, there has been a rise in using urban agriculture as a means to get areas that are in the middle of food deserts to grow and produce their own food.


title: Food desert

text: An entrepreneurial solution to food insecurity in food deserts is food trucks. In major urban centers such as Boston, mobile food markets travel to low-income areas with fresh produce. The trucks travel to assisted living communities, schools, workplaces, and health centers. The increased availability of online food retailers and delivery services, such as AmazonFresh and FreshDirect, can also help in food deserts by delivering food straight to residences. The ability of elderly people, disabled people, and people who live far from supermarkets to use SNAP benefits online to order groceries is a major resource. For those who lack transportation options, vehicle for hire services may be vital resources to increase access to nutritious foods in food deserts.


title: Food desert

text: Food deserts are a result of reduced access to healthy food and not enough money to afford the available food, which causes many people and especially children to not get enough nutrients their bodies require. Because there is a dominant concern of where the next meal will come from, people do not always care what they are putting in their bodies as long as it keeps them alive. There are organizations that target the lack of access to fresh foods, multiple organizations implement education within their work. The Grow Hartford Program was implemented in a school in Connecticut to have students address an issue in their community and they chose to focus on food justice. The youth involved worked on farms in the area to learn about the processes of food production and the importance and variety of vegetables. The program even led kids to start a community garden at their school. The program allowed the students to engage in hands-on learning to educate them about agriculture, food scarcity, and nutrition while helping bridge the gap of food access for some of their peers who could now bring home food from the surrounding farms or the school garden. Another example of an organization that educates community members is Oakland Food Connection, located in East Oakland where they teach children about production and consumption through lessons on urban gardening with cooking classes. This program helps educate children about their own food culture and others while also learning about nutrition.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinic acid () is a dicarboxylic acid with the chemical formula (CH)(COH). The name derives from Latin "succinum", meaning amber. In living organisms, succinic acid takes the form of an anion, succinate, which has multiple biological roles as a metabolic intermediate being converted into fumarate by the enzyme succinate dehydrogenase in complex 2 of the electron transport chain which is involved in making ATP, and as a signaling molecule reflecting the cellular metabolic state. It is marketed as food additive E363. Succinate is generated in mitochondria via the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA). Succinate can exit the mitochondrial matrix and function in the cytoplasm as well as the extracellular space, changing gene expression patterns, modulating epigenetic landscape or demonstrating hormone-like signaling. As such, succinate links cellular metabolism, especially ATP formation, to the regulation of cellular function. Dysregulation of succinate synthesis, and therefore ATP synthesis, happens in some genetic mitochondrial diseases, such as Leigh syndrome, and Melas syndrome, and degradation can lead to pathological conditions, such as malignant transformation, inflammation and tissue injury.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinic acid is a white, odorless solid with a highly acidic taste. In an aqueous solution, succinic acid readily ionizes to form its conjugate base, succinate (). As a diprotic acid, succinic acid undergoes two successive deprotonation reactions:


title: Succinic acid

text: The pK of these processes are 4.3 and 5.6, respectively. Both anions are colorless and can be isolated as the salts, e.g., Na(CH)(COH)(CO) and Na(CH)(CO). In living organisms, primarily succinate, not succinic acid, is found.


title: Succinic acid

text: Like most simple mono- and dicarboxylic acids, it is not harmful but can be an irritant to skin and eyes.


title: Succinic acid

text: Historically, succinic acid was obtained from amber by distillation and has thus been known as spirit of amber. Common industrial routes include hydrogenation of maleic acid, oxidation of 1,4-butanediol, and carbonylation of ethylene glycol. Succinate is also produced from butane via maleic anhydride. Global production is estimated at 16,000 to 30,000 tons a year, with an annual growth rate of 10%.


title: Succinic acid

text: Genetically engineered "Escherichia coli" and "Saccharomyces cerevisiae" are proposed for the commercial production via fermentation of glucose.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinic acid can be dehydrogenated to fumaric acid or be converted to diesters, such as diethylsuccinate (CHCOCHCH). This diethyl ester is a substrate in the Stobbe condensation. Dehydration of succinic acid gives succinic anhydride. Succinate can be used to derive 1,4-butanediol, maleic anhydride, succinimide, 2-pyrrolidinone and tetrahydrofuran.


title: Succinic acid

text: In 2004, succinate was placed on the US Department of Energy's list of top 12 platform chemicals from biomass.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinic acid is a precursor to some polyesters and a component of some alkyd resins. 1,4-Butanediol (BDO) can be synthesized using succinic acid as a precursor. The automotive and electronics industries heavily rely on BDO to produce connectors, insulators, wheel covers, gearshift knobs and reinforcing beams. Succinic acid also serves as the bases of certain biodegradable polymers, which are of interest in tissue engineering applications.


title: Succinic acid

text: Acylation with succinic acid is called "succination". "Oversuccination" occurs when more than one succinate adds to a substrate.


title: Succinic acid

text: As a food additive and dietary supplement, succinic acid is generally recognized as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Succinic acid is used primarily as an acidity regulator in the food and beverage industry. It is also available as a flavoring agent, contributing a somewhat sour and astringent component to umami taste. As an excipient in pharmaceutical products, it is also used to control acidity or as a counter ion. Drugs involving succinate include metoprolol succinate, sumatriptan succinate, Doxylamine succinate or solifenacin succinate.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinate is a key intermediate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, a primary metabolic pathway used to produce chemical energy in the presence of O. Succinate is generated from succinyl-CoA by the enzyme succinyl-CoA synthetase in a GTP/ATP-producing step:


title: Succinic acid

text: Catalyzed by the enzyme succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), succinate is subsequently oxidized to fumarate:


title: Succinic acid

text: SDH also participates in the mitochondrial electron transport chain, where it is known as respiratory complex II. This enzyme complex is a 4 subunit membrane-bound lipoprotein which couples the oxidation of succinate to the reduction of ubiquinone via the intermediate electron carriers FAD and three 2Fe-2S clusters. Succinate thus serves as a direct electron donor to the electron transport chain, and itself is converted into fumarate.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinate can alternatively be formed by reverse activity of SDH. Under anaerobic conditions certain bacteria such as "A. succinogenes", "A. succiniciproducens" and "M. succiniciproducens", run the TCA cycle in reverse and convert glucose to succinate through the intermediates of oxaloacetate, malate and fumarate. This pathway is exploited in metabolic engineering to net generate succinate for human use. Additionally, succinic acid produced during the fermentation of sugar provides a combination of saltiness, bitterness and acidity to fermented alcohols.


title: Succinic acid

text: Accumulation of fumarate can drive the reverse activity of SDH, thus enhancing succinate generation. Under pathological and physiological conditions, the malate-aspartate shuttle or the purine nucleotide shuttle can increase mitochondrial fumarate, which is then readily converted to succinate.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinate is also a product of the glyoxylate cycle, which converts two two-carbon acetyl units into the four-carbon succinate. The glyoxylate cycle is utilized by many bacteria, plants and fungi and allows these organisms to subsist on acetate or acetyl CoA yielding compounds. The pathway avoids the decarboxylation steps of the TCA cycle via the enzyme isocitrate lyase which cleaves isocitrate into succinate and glyoxylate. Generated succinate is then available for either energy production or biosynthesis.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinate is the re-entry point for the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) shunt into the TCA cycle, a closed cycle which synthesizes and recycles GABA. The GABA shunt serves as an alternate route to convert alpha-ketoglutarate into succinate, bypassing the TCA cycle intermediate succinyl-CoA and instead producing the intermediate GABA. Transamination and subsequent decarboxylation of alpha-ketoglutarate leads to the formation of GABA. GABA is then metabolized by GABA transaminase to succinic semialdehyde. Finally, succinic semialdehyde is oxidized by succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH) to form succinate, re-entering the TCA cycle and closing the loop. Enzymes required for the GABA shunt are expressed in neurons, glial cells, macrophages and pancreatic cells.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinate is produced and concentrated in the mitochondria and its primary biological function is that of a metabolic intermediate. All metabolic pathways that are interlinked with the TCA cycle, including the metabolism of carbohydrates, amino acids, fatty acids, cholesterol, and heme, rely on the temporary formation of succinate. The intermediate is made available for biosynthetic processes through multiple pathways, including the reductive branch of the TCA cycle or the glyoxylate cycle, which are able to drive net production of succinate. In rodents, mitochondrial concentrations are approximately ~0.5 mM while plasma concentration are only 2–20 μM.


title: Succinic acid

text: The activity of succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), which interconverts succinate into fumarate participates in mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production by directing electron flow in the electron transport chain. Under conditions of succinate accumulation, rapid oxidation of succinate by SDH can drive reverse electron transport (RET). If mitochondrial respiratory complex III is unable to accommodate excess electrons supplied by succinate oxidation, it forces electrons to flow backwards along the electron transport chain. RET at mitochondrial respiratory complex 1, the complex normally preceding SDH in the electron transport chain, leads to ROS production and creates a pro-oxidant microenvironment.


title: Succinic acid

text: In addition to its metabolic roles, succinate serves as an intracellular and extracellular signaling molecule. Extra-mitochondrial succinate alters the epigenetic landscape by inhibiting the family of 2-oxogluterate-dependent dioxygenases. Alternative, succinate can be released into the extracellular milieu and the blood stream where it is recognized by target receptors. In general, leakage from the mitochondria requires succinate overproduction or underconsumption and occurs due to reduced, reverse or completely absent activity of SDH or alternative changes in metabolic state. Mutations in SDH, hypoxia or energetic misbalance are all linked to an alteration of flux through the TCA cycle and succinate accumulation. Upon exiting the mitochondria, succinate serves as a signal of metabolic state, communicating to neighboring cells how metabolically active the originating cell population is. As such, succinate links TCA cycle dysfunction or metabolic changes to cell-cell communication and to oxidative stress-related responses.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinate requires specific transporters to move through both the mitochondrial and plasma membrane. Succinate exits the mitochondrial matrix and passes through the inner mitochondrial membrane via dicarboxylate transporters, primarily SLC25A10, a succinate-fumarate/malate transporter. In the second step of mitochondrial export, succinate readily crosses the outer mitochondrial membrane through porins, nonspecific protein channels that facilitate the diffusion of molecules less than 1.5 kDa. Transport across the plasma membrane is likely tissue specific. A key candidate transporter is INDY (I'm not dead yet), a sodium-independent anion exchanger, which moves both dicarboxylate and citrate into the bloodstream.


title: Succinic acid

text: Extracellular succinate can act as a signaling molecule with hormone-like function, targeting a variety of tissues such as blood cells, adipose tissue, immune cells, the liver, the heart, the retina and primarily the kidney. The G-protein coupled receptor, GPR91 also known as SUCNR1, serves as the detector of extracellular succinate. Arg, His, Arg, and Arg near the center of the receptor generate a positively charged binding site for succinate. The ligand specificity of GPR91 was rigorously tested using 800 pharmacologically active compounds and 200 carboxylic acid and succinate-like compounds, all of which demonstrated significantly lower binding affinity. Overall, the EC for succinate-GPR91 is in the 20–50 uM range. Depending on the cell type, GPR91 can interact with multiple G proteins, including G, G and G, and enabling a multitude of signaling outcomes.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinate signaling often occurs in response to hypoxic conditions. In the liver, succinate serves as a paracrine signal, released by anoxic hepatocytes, and targets stellate cells via GPR91. This leads to stellate cell activation and fibrogenesis. Thus, succinate is thought to play a role in liver homeostasis. In the retina, succinate accumulates in retinal ganglion cells in response to ischemic conditions. Autocrine succinate signaling promotes retinal neovascularization, triggering the activation of angiogenic factors such as endothelial growth factor (VEGF).


title: Succinic acid

text: Extracellular succinate regulates cardiomyocyte viability through GPR91 activation; long-term succinate exposure leads to pathological cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Stimulation of GPR91 triggers at least two signaling pathways in the heart: a MEK1/2 and ERK1/2 pathway that activates hypertrophic gene expression and a phospholipase C pathway which changes the pattern of Ca uptake and distribution and triggers CaM-dependent hypertrophic gene activation.


title: Succinic acid

text: SUCNR1 is highly expressed on immature dendritic cells, where succinate binding stimulates chemotaxis. Furthermore, SUCNR1 synergizes with toll-like receptors to increase the production of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF alpha and interleukin-1beta. Succinate may enhance adaptive immunity by triggering the activity of antigen-presenting cells that, in turn, activate T-cells.


title: Succinic acid

text: SUCNR1 is one of the highest expressed G protein-coupled receptors on human platelets, present at levels similar to P2Y, though the role of succinate signaling in platelet aggregation is debated. Multiple studies have demonstrated succinate-induced aggregation, but the effect has high inter-individual variability.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinate serves as a modulator of blood pressure by stimulating renin release in macula densa and juxtaglomerular apparatus cells via GPR91. Therapies targeting succinate to reduce cardiovascular risk and hypertension are currently under investigation.


title: Succinic acid

text: Accumulation of either fumarate or succinate reduces the activity of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases, including histone and DNA demethylases, prolyl hydroxylases and collagen prolyl-4-hydroxylases, through competitive inhibition. 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases require an iron cofactor to catalyze hydroxylations, desaturations and ring closures. Simultaneous to substrate oxidation, they convert 2-oxoglutarate, also known as alpha-ketoglutarate, into succinate and CO. 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases bind substrates in a sequential, ordered manner. First, 2-oxoglutarate coordinates with an Fe(II) ion bound to a conserved 2-histidinyl–1-aspartyl/glutamyl triad of residues present in the enzymatic center. Subsequently, the primary substrate enters the binding pocket and lastly dioxygen binds to the enzyme-substrate complex. Oxidative decarboxylation then generates a ferryl intermediate coordinated to succinate, which serves to oxidize the bound primary substrate. Succinate may interfere with the enzymatic process by attaching to the Fe(II) center first, prohibiting the binding of 2-oxoglutarate. Thus, via enzymatic inhibition, increased succinate load can lead to changes in transcription factor activity and genome-wide alterations in histone and DNA methylation.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinate and fumarate inhibit the TET (ten-eleven translocation) family of 5-methylcytosine DNA modifying enzymes and the JmjC domain-containing histone lysine demethylase (KDM). Pathologically elevated levels of succinate lead to hypermethylation, epigenetic silencing and changes in neuroendocrine differentiation, potentially driving cancer formation.


title: Succinic acid

text: Succinate inhibition of prolyl hydroxylases (PHDs) stabilizes the transcription factor hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)1α. PHDs hydroxylate proline in parallel to oxidatively decarboxylating 2-oxyglutarate to succinate and CO. In humans, three HIF prolyl 4-hydroxylases regulate the stability of HIFs. Hydroxylation of two prolyl residues in HIF1α facilitates ubiquitin ligation, thus marking it for proteolytic destruction by the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway. Since PHDs have an absolute requirement for molecular oxygen, this process is suppressed in hypoxia allowing HIF1α to escape destruction. High concentrations of succinate will mimic the hypoxia state by suppressing PHDs, therefore stabilizing HIF1α and inducing the transcription of HIF1-dependent genes even under normal oxygen conditions. HIF1 is known to induce transcription of more than 60 genes, including genes involved in vascularization and angiogenesis, energy metabolism, cell survival, and tumor invasion.


title: Succinic acid

text: Metabolic signaling involving succinate can be involved in inflammation via stabilization of HIF1-alpha or GPR91 signaling in innate immune cells. Through these mechanisms, succinate accumulation has been shown to regulate production of inflammatory cytokines. For dendritic cells, succinate functions as a chemoattractant and increases their antigen-presenting function via receptor stimulated cytokine production. In inflammatory macrophages, succinate-induced stability of HIF1 results in increased transcription of HIF1-dependent genes, including the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β. Other inflammatory cytokines produced by activated macrophages such as tumor necrosis factor or interleukin 6 are not directly affected by succinate and HIF1. The mechanism by which succinate accumulates in immune cells is not fully understood. Activation of inflammatory macrophages through toll-like receptors induces a metabolic shift towards glycolysis. In spite of a general downregulation of the TCA cycle under these conditions, succinate concentration is increased. However, lipopolysaccharides involved in the activation of macrophages increase glutamine and GABA transporters. Succinate may thus be produced from enhanced glutamine metabolism via alpha-ketoglutarate or the GABA shunt.