Childhood obesity is a common concern across global cities and threatens sustainable urban development. Initiatives to improve nutrition and encourage physical exercise are promising but are yet to exert significant influence on prevention. Childhood obesity in London is associated with distinct ethnic and socio-economic patterns. Ethnic inequalities in health-related behaviour endure, underpinned by inequalities in employment, housing, access to welfare services, and discrimination. Addressing these growing concerns requires a clearer understanding of the socio-cultural, environmental and economic contexts of urban living that promote obesity. We explore opportunities for prevention using asset based-approaches to nutritional health and well-being, with a particular focus on adolescents from diverse ethnic backgrounds living in London. We focus on the important role that community engagement and multi-sectoral partnership play in improving the nutritional outcomes of London's children. London's children and adolescents grow up in the rich cultural mix of a global city where local streets are characterised by diversity in ethnicities, languages, religions, foods, and customs, creating complex and fluid identities. Growing up with such everyday diversity we argue can enhance the quality of life for London's children and strengthen their social capital. The Determinants of young Adult Social well-being and Health longitudinal study of about 6500 of London's young people demonstrated the positive impact of cultural diversity. Born to parents from over a hundred countries and exposed to multi-lingual households and religious practices, they demonstrated strong psychological resilience and sense of pride from cultural straddling, despite material disadvantage and discrimination. Supporting the potential contribution of such socio-cultural assets is in keeping with the values of social justice and equitable and sustainable development. Our work signals the importance of community engagement and multisectoral partnerships, involving, for example, schools and faith-based organisations, to improve the nutrition of London's children.

Textural development of the felsic phases in two granodioritic rocks from the zoned Linga superunit of the Peruvian Coastal Batholith has been characterized using serial thin sectioning, image analysis and three-dimensional reconstruction. The study has shown how each mineral phase contributed to the texture during the formation and development of a contiguous crystal framework and during subsequent restriction, isolation and occlusion of the melt-filled porosity. The work highlights the important factors and potential problems in the use of serial thin sections and imaging in the analysis of complex polyphase rock textures.

Porosity occlusion has been studied in a granodiorite rock from the Peruvian Coastal Batholith. The texture of the granodiorite is characteristic of Cordilleran I-type rocks, and the textural relations and modelled crystallization path within the quaternary An-Ab-Or-Qz system indicate alkali feldspar was the last major phase to start crystallizing. In thin section, alkali feldspar crystals occur both as large anhedral ‘plates’ containing numerous inclusions, and small interstitial cuneiform ‘pockets’. The alkali feldspar pockets are interpreted as late stage nucleation and growth of new crystals in pores that became isolated from the larger crystals during the latter stages of crystallization. Their geometry therefore mirrors that of the pores immediately after isolation.

From the modal abundance of the interstitial pockets, and taking into account contemporaneous growth of the other major phases, it is suggested that crystallization in isolated pores involved solidification of the final 3–4% of liquid. Alkali feldspar growth on the rims of the large anhedral plates prior to pore isolation is evidence for the localised (mm-cm scale) diffusion of chemical species within the interconnected melt phase. However, Rayleigh number calculations indicate that the separation of melt from crystals by compositional convection is unlikely to have occurred during interstitial crystallization.

Chloritoid-biotite- and chloritoid-staurolite-bearing rocks occur around Blair Atholl, Perthshire. Textures suggest staurolite to be produced from chloritoid by a prograde ionic reaction involving muscovite. Chloritoid rocks are aluminous, lying above the muscovite-chlorite join, and staurolite formation involves the breakdown of chloritoid and muscovite. Their presence indicates that the chloritoid-biotite zone of Stonehaven continues as far SW as Central Perthshire, although its occurrence is severely limited by a lack of aluminium-rich rocks. The use of the chloritoid outcrop in the NE as an indication of pressure decrease to the SW is therefore queried.

The role of free radical-induced damage as a cause of loss of vigour in seeds is by no means resolved. In this contribution, the effects of environmental treatments known to reduce viability rapidly were compared with the effects of long-term, low-temperature storage on germination, hypocotyl growth and free radical accumulation and lipid peroxidation in soybean seeds. Accelerated aging was achieved by incubating seeds at 35°C and 1% relative humidity over H2SO4 for up to 69 days in the light and in darkness. In contrast, seeds under long-term storage were maintained at 5°C and 6% moisture content in darkness for up to 6 years. At 35°C there were rapid and significant reductions in rates of seed germination and hypocotyl extension. Loss of viability and declining vigour were associated with increases in lipid peroxidation and free radical build-up but the latter, surprisingly, was largely confined to the testa rather than the cotyledon. Exposure to light greatly enhanced lipid peroxidation and increased organic free radical accumulation in the translucent testas of seeds, but not in the cotyledons. Similar responses to light were recorded in testas detached from seeds. These results show that in soybean the testa is a significant locus of free radical degenerative events induced by high temperature combined with low moisture.

At shedding, the moisture content (MC) of Avicennia marina (Forssk.) Vierh. propagules was 65% (fresh mass basis), and there was no significant difference in the MC of four tissues (hypocotyl, cotyledons, plumule and root primordia). Viability declined as the propagules were dried below 60% MC, so that only 40%of seeds were capable of germination at 54% MC. At 47% MC all the seeds had died. The four tissues dried at the same constant rate of 0.02 g water g dwt-1 h–1 throughout this range of MCs. There was no significant depletion of the free-radical-quenching mechanisms measured. In each tissue an organic free-radical was detected by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). In the plumule the amplitude of the signal increased by a further 50% at MCs where viability was lost, but there was no increase in the other tissues. There was a concurrent increase in the amount of tocopherol and the activity of superoxide dismutase in the plumule. Lipid peroxidation, assessed by the amount of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances, also increased in advance of viability loss, suggesting that propagules were experiencing oxidative stress. However, lipid peroxidation decreased at 54–57% MC, where most seeds lost viability. The results presented are consistent with a propagule reacting to oxidative stress, but overtaken by more catastrophic physical damage.