Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The optimal duration of exclusive breastfeeding.

Since 1979, the WHO recommendation for the duration of exclusive breastfeeding has been “4-6 months”. In 1994 and 1996, the World Health Assembly (WHA) and UNICEF recommended introduction of complementary foods at the age of about six months, thus recognizing that exclusive breastfeeding should be fostered for about the first six months. But the WHO did not change its previous recommendation, stating that further evidence was needed despite the fact that the world's experts have argued that evidence supporting the change in the recommendation was sufficient. IBFAN has always maintained that the delay in changing the recommendation resulted mainly in large profits gained by infant food manufacturers from sales of complementary foods for two additional months of complementary feeding. During the 53 WHA in the year 2000, the Brazilian delegation proposed a resolution in favour of exclusive breastfeeding for six months. The draft resolution did not pass and the WHO Secretariat tried to postpone any further resolution on infant feeding to 2002. But the members of the WHO Executive Board in January 2001 clearly stated the need for the resolution. Therefore the Board decided to keep the recommended duration of exclusive breastfeeding in brackets (“4-6 months” vs “about 6 months”) until an expert committee decided on this issue and also decided to forward the resolution to be discussed at the 54 WHA in May 2001. In March, the report issued by the Expert Committee which was finally convened by the WHO Secretariat put an end to the long debate by endorsing exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months. Despite pressure from the baby food industry and some last-minute uncertainty, resolution WHA54.2 was eventually passed on 18 May 2001.
Exploratory Design of Animal Habitats Within an Immersive Virtual Environment

One of the first useful applications of virtual environments (VEs) was the architectural walkthrough, in which users view buildings or other structures in a natural, interactive manner. The obvious next step is to allow the user to create or modify designs while immersed in the virtual world, but such “immersive design” systems have not generally been successful, because of a lack of constraints, the inability to perform precise input, the difficulty of performing complex tasks while immersed, and the fact that designers generally have not been trained to design in all three dimensions, especially in the beginning stages of a project. We present an immersive design application, aimed at university-level architecture students, which addresses these issues. Users of the system are immersed within an existing zoo habitat, and can make modifications and enhancements to the exhibit, using a set of efficient and complementary interaction techniques for navigation, object manipulation, and system control. A usability study has shown that because the students are not creating a complete design, but rather making constrained modifications to an existing one, interesting and unique designs can be achieved in a short time.
MALDI imaging mass spectrometry and analysis of endogenous peptides

In recent years, MALDI imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-IMS) has developed as a promising tool to investigate the spatial distribution of biomolecules in intact tissue specimens. Ion densities of various molecules can be displayed as heat maps while preserving anatomical structures. In this short review, an overview of different biomolecules that can be analyzed by MALDI-IMS is given. Many reviews have covered imaging of lipids, small metabolites, whole proteins and enzymatically digested proteins in the past. However, little is known about imaging of endogenous peptides, for example, in the rat brain, and this will therefore be highlighted in this review. Furthermore, sample preparation of frozen or formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue is crucial for imaging experiments. Therefore, some aspects of sample preparation will be addressed, including washing and desalting, the choice of MALDI matrix and its deposition. Apart from mapping endogenous peptides, their reliable identification in situ still remains challenging and will be discussed as well.
Analysis of Layered Hierarchies for Necklaces

We study a hierarchical approach for modeling deformable necklaces. A recent paper by Guibas et al. [5] introduced two hierarchies, wrapped and layered. They proved that the wrapped hierarchy admits a separating family of size O(n2−2/d). The main result of this paper is that the same bound holds for the layered hierarchy. The layered hierarchy has some advantages compared with wrapped hierarchy. We show that it can be modified so that conformational changes can be handled efficiently.
Rapid Ramp-up for Statistical Machine Translation: Minimal Training for Maximal Coverage

This paper investigates optimal ways to get maximal coverage from minimal input training corpus. In effect, it seems antagonistic to think of minimal input training with a statistical machine translation system. Since statistics work well with repetition and thus capture well highly occurring words, one challenge has been to figure out the optimal number of “new” words that the system needs to be appropriately trained. Additionally, the goal is to minimize the human translation time for training a new language. In order to account for rapid ramp-up translation, we ran several experiments to figure out the minimal amount of data to obtain optimal translation results.
Evaluating Object DBMSs for Multimedia

We describe functionality for determining an object database management system's suitability for developing multimedia applications. We discuss all levels of hardware and software support, as even the most ideal database software cannot operate independent of operating systems, networks and hardware. A review of the multimedia support provided by current commercial and research object database management systems is also included.
INFLUENCE THE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE : THE PORTUGUESE REALITY

The goal of this paper is to study the factors that can influence the corporate governance, in particular, the impact of the chief executive office, CEO, in the performance of the firm. Firstly, we present the contributions of two schools, some studies concerning the concept of firms, their ownership and control as well as studies related with the impact of the CEO in the performance of corporate. Secondly, we analyse, from a statistical point of view, a sample of 5283 Portuguese firms belonging at 24 industries (3 digit, sic codes) and use the Wasserman, Nohria and Anand (2001) methodology for the statistic treatment of data. The research found evidence supporting the hypotheses that the CEO is a factor that has an impact on the performance. He has an higher impact when the industry’s level of growth and debts are more important and where the level of concentration is lower.
The Evaluation of Bony Union After Frontofacial Distraction

Frontofacial advancement by distraction osteogenesis using the rigid external distraction device has become an accepted treatment for the deformity associated with craniofacial dysostoses (e.g., Crouzon, Apert, and Pfeiffer syndromes). The technical and physiological principles of osteogenesis distraction are well understood. This study documents the pattern of calcification at the osteotomy sites after distraction by analysis of serial three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) scans. The CT scans of 25 patients (11 with Crouzon, 6 with Apert, and 8 with Pfeiffer syndrome) were analyzed. Eleven individual areas along the osteotomy lines were assessed for evidence of bone formation. Scores were assigned within 4 categories ranging from no bone, calcification without bridge formation, a bony bridge, to complete bony infill (>95%). The scans were reviewed on 2 separate occasions by 2 independent assessors. There was high concordance both for intraobserver and interobserver scores. Rigid external distraction frame removal was undertaken after a 6-week consolidation period. All CT scan timings were calculated from this date. Of the 25 patients studied, 16 patients had CT scans available at 3 to 6 months, 12 at 9 to 12 months, and 7 at or more than 18 months. The scans were available in standard coronal slices with three-dimensional reconstructions. Bone formation is most consistently seen in the pterygoid region with calcification consistently occurring earlier and more completely in this area. Bone formation was often delayed in the orbital region and severely delayed or absent in the frontal region and zygomatic arches. There was no significant difference in the order or quality of bony union for the 3 underlying craniofacial dysostoses. This preliminary study confirms the clinical impression that bone formation after distraction is greatest in the pterygoid regions. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
Release of neurotransmitters in the monkey frontal cortex is related to level of attention

Abstract Attention is reported to be maintained by monoamines, acetylcholine and amino acids systems. Changes in the releases of these neurotransmitters during the three stages comprising quiet wake (QW) and two arousal states (AW), which are activated from different sources, were investigated. Norepinephrine releases during AW were significantly higher than that during QW. Conversely, the levels of acetylcholine and serotonin that were released did not change significantly among these three stages. The interesting observation was the dissociation of the increase between glutamate and dopamine releases in the two AW states. These results indicate that attention level is related to the amount of norepinephrine release, and that attention quality is related to the interaction between dopamine and glutamate releases.
Prevalence of hypovitaminosis D and its association with comorbidities of childhood obesity.

PURPOSE Our study sought to further delineate the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D and its relationship to comorbidities of childhood obesity. METHODS We conducted a retrospective chart review from 155 obese children aged 5 to 19 years who attended the Penn State Children’s Hospital Pediatric Multidisciplinary Weight Loss Program from November 2009 through November 2010. We determined the incidence of hypovitaminosis D and examined its association with comorbidities including elevated blood pressure, diabetes, acanthosis nigricans, depression, hyperlipidemia, hyperinsulinemia, and abnormal liver function test results, as well as age, sex, and geographic location. RESULTS Under the latest Institute of Medicine definitions, vitamin D deficiency (< 20 ng/mL) and insufficiency (20-29 ng/mL) was present in 40% and 38% of children, respectively. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was 27.8% in children aged 5 to 9 years, 35.4% in children aged 10 to 14 years, and 50.9% of children aged 15 years or older. Older age, African-American race, winter/spring season, higher insulin level, total number of comorbidities, and polycystic ovary syndrome (in girls) were significantly associated with vitamin D deficiency. African-American race, winter/spring season, hyperinsulinemia, elevated systolic blood pressure, urban location, and total numbers of comorbidities were significantly associated with hypovitaminosis D (< 30 ng/mL). CONCLUSIONS Hypovitaminosis D is associated with several medical comorbidities in obese children. Given the large percentage of children, even in our youngest age group, who are vitamin D deficient, obese children should be considered for routine vitamin D screening.
Mechanochemical actuators of embryonic epithelial contractility

Significance This study shows how cell contractility is triggered within an embryonic epithelial sheet by local ligand stimulation and coordinates a long-range contraction response. The stimulation–response circuit exposed here provides a better understanding of how morphogenetic processes integrate responses to stimulation and how intercellular responses are transmitted across multiple cells. Understanding the systems-level behavior of biological signaling networks may allow us to control biological actuators with engineered spatiotemporal stimulation. Our findings will provide a better understanding of contractility-dependent morphogenetic movements as well as the intercellular communication pathways critical during developmental biology, synthetic morphogenesis, and multicellular mechanotransduction signaling. Spatiotemporal regulation of cell contractility coordinates cell shape change to construct tissue architecture and ultimately directs the morphology and function of the organism. Here we show that contractility responses to spatially and temporally controlled chemical stimuli depend much more strongly on intercellular mechanical connections than on biochemical cues in both stimulated tissues and adjacent cells. We investigate how the cell contractility is triggered within an embryonic epithelial sheet by local ligand stimulation and coordinates a long-range contraction response. Our custom microfluidic control system allows spatiotemporally controlled stimulation with extracellular ATP, which results in locally distinct contractility followed by mechanical strain pattern formation. The stimulation–response circuit exposed here provides a better understanding of how morphogenetic processes integrate responses to stimulation and how intercellular responses are transmitted across multiple cells. These findings may enable one to create a biological actuator that actively drives morphogenesis.
Cumulative incidence of rheumatic fever in an endemic region: a guide to the susceptibility of the population?

Aboriginal Australians in northern Australia are subject to endemic infection with group A streptococci, with correspondingly high rates of acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. For 12 communities with good ascertainment, the estimated lifetime cumulative incidence of acute rheumatic fever was approximately 5·7%, whereas over the whole population, with less adequate ascertainment, the cumulative incidence was only 2·7%. The corresponding prevalences of established rheumatic heart disease were substantially less than the cumulative incidences of acute rheumatic fever, at least in part because of poor ascertainment. The cumulative incidence of acute rheumatic fever estimates the proportion of susceptible individuals in endemically exposed populations. Our figures of 2·7–5·7% susceptible are consistent with others in the literature. Such comparisons suggest that the major part of the variation in rheumatic fever incidence between populations is due to differences in streptococcal exposure and treatment, rather than to any difference in (genetic) susceptibility.
Regulation of Na,K-ATPase Subunit Abundance by Translational Repression*

The Na,K-ATPase is an αβ heterodimer responsible for maintaining fluid and electrolyte homeostasis in mammalian cells. We engineered Madin-Darby canine kidney cell lines expressing α1FLAG, β1FLAG, or β2MYC subunits via a tetracycline-regulated promoter and a line expressing both stable β1MYC and tetracycline-regulated β1FLAG to examine regulatory mechanisms of sodium pump subunit expression. When overexpression of exogenous β1FLAG increased total β subunit levels by >200% without changes in α subunit abundance, endogenous β1 subunit (β1E) abundance decreased. β1E down-regulation did not occur during β2MYC overexpression, indicating isoform specificity of the repression mechanism. Measurements of RNA stability and content indicated that decreased β subunit expression was not accompanied by any change in mRNA levels. In addition, the degradation rate of β subunits was not altered by β1FLAG overexpression. Cells stably expressing β1MYC, when induced to express β1FLAG subunits, showed reduced β1MYC and β1E subunit abundance, indicating that these effects occur via the coding sequences of the down-regulated polypeptides. In a similar way, Madin-Darby canine kidney cells overexpressing exogenous α1FLAG subunits exhibited a reduction of endogenous α1 subunits (α1E) with no change in α mRNA levels or β subunits. The reduction in α1E compensated for α1FLAG subunit expression, resulting in unchanged total α subunit abundance. Thus, regulation of α subunit expression maintained its native level, whereas β subunit was not as tightly regulated and its abundance could increase substantially over native levels. These effects also occurred in human embryonic kidney cells. These data are the first indication that cellular sodium pump subunit abundance is modulated by translational repression. This mechanism represents a novel, potentially important mechanism for regulation of Na,K-ATPase expression.
A FAST SEARCH STRATEGY FOR TEMPLATE MATCHING

Abstract An active vision system with two cameras has to be calibrated on-line to perform stereo vision applications. A calibration of a binocular system is possible using a small number of homologous features in both images. The correspondence problem can be resolved by using traditional template matching algorithms but it has a high computational cost. In this paper some dynamic programming aspects are introduced to deal with template matching in order to reduce the execution time. Some experimental results demonstrate their viability and suggest other lines to improve its performance.
Mitochondrial DNA analysis by multiplex denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography and selective sequencing in pediatric patients with cardiomyopathy

Purpose: Mitochondrial DNA testing is typically performed by targeted mutation analysis only. We applied a more comprehensive approach to study the mitochondrial genome in 24 pediatric patients with idiopathic cardiomyopathy.Methods: Patients in the cohort did not show overt multisystemic disease and were previously tested for mutations in a subset of structural genes associated with cardiomyopathy. Mutation screening of the mitochondrial DNA by multiplex denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography was complemented by sequence analysis.Results: We identified 130 individual (unique) sequence changes. Among several potentially pathogenic changes, a novel heteroplasmic mutation in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase subunit 4 (10677G>A) was identified in one fraternal twin with worse clinical symptoms than his sibling. Another proband carried homoplasmic mutation 13708G>A (in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase subunit 5) that has been associated with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy.Conclusions: Changes in mitochondrial DNA may represent a relatively rare cause of idiopathic pediatric cardiomyopathies and/or influence their phenotypic expression. Interpretation of variants with uncertain pathogenicity, however, currently impedes clinical diagnostic use of comprehensive mitochondrial DNA testing. Whereas combined use of multiplex denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography and sequencing is more comprehensive than targeted mutation analysis, measurement of additional functional parameters, such as tissue respiratory chain activity, remains important to establishing a definitive diagnosis.
An Accelerated Release Method of Risperidone Loaded PLGA Microspheres with Good IVIVC.

BACKGROUND A long release period lasting several days or several weeks is always needed and thereby it is tedious and time consuming to screen formulations of such microspheres with so long release period and evaluate their release profiles in vitro with conventional long-term or "real-time" release method. So, an accelerated release testing of such system is necessary for formulation design as well as quality control purpose. The purpose of this study is to obtain an accelerated release method of risperidone loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres with good in vitro/in vivo correlation (IVIVC). METHODS Two formulations of risperidone loaded PLGA microspheres used for evaluating IVIVC were prepared by O/W method. The accelerated release condition was optimized by investigating the effect of pH, osmotic pressure, temperature and ethanol concentration on the release of risperidone from microspheres and the in vitro accelerated release profiles of risperidone from PLGA microspheres were obtained under this optimized accelerated release condition. The plasma concentration of risperidone were also detected after subcutaneous injection of risperidone loaded microspheres to rats. The in vivo cumulative absorption profiles were then calculated using Wagner-Nelson model, Loo- Riegelman model and numerical convolution model, respectively. The correlation between in vitro accelerated release and in vivo cumulative absorption were finally evaluated with Least Square Method. RESULTS It was shown that temperature and ethanol concentration significantly affected the release of risperidone from the microspheres while pH and osmotic pressure of release media slightly affected the release behavior of risperidone. The in vitro release of risperidone from microspheres were finally undergone in PBS (pH7.0, 300mosm) with 20% (V/V) ethanol at 45°C. The sustained and complete release of risperidone was observed in both formulations under the accelerated release condition although these two release profiles were dissimilar. The correlation coefficients (R2) of IVIVC were all above 0.95 and the slopes were all between 0.9564 and 1.1868 in spite of fitted model and microsphere formulation. CONCLUSION An in vitro accelerated release method of risperidone microspheres with good IVIVC was established in this paper and this accelerated release method was supposed to have great potential in both in vivo performance prediction and quality control for risperidone loaded PLGA microspheres.
The fluid dynamics of flight control by kinematic phase lag variation between two robotic insect wings

SUMMARY Insects flying with two pairs of wings must contend with the forewing wake passing over the beating hindwing. Some four-winged insects, such as dragonflies, move each wing independently and therefore may alter the relative timing between the fore- and hindwing stroke cycles. The significance of modifying the phase relationship between fore- and hindwing stroke kinematics on total lift production is difficult to assess in the flying animal because the effect of wing-wake interference critically depends on the complex wake pattern produced by the two beating wings. Here we investigate the effect of changing the fore- and hindwing stroke-phase relationship during hovering flight conditions on the aerodynamic performance of each flapping wing by using a dynamically scaled electromechanical insect model. By varying the relative phase difference between fore- and hindwing stroke cycles we found that the performance of the forewing remains approximately constant, while hindwing lift production may vary by a factor of two. Hindwing lift modulation appears to be due to two different fluid dynamic phenomenons: leading edge vortex destruction and changes in strength and orientation of the local flow vector. Unexpectedly, the hindwing regains aerodynamic performance near to that of the wing free from forewing wake interference, when the motion of the hindwing leads the forewing by around a quarter of the stroke cycle. This kinematic relationship between hind- and forewing closely matches the phase-shift commonly used by locusts and some dragonflies in climbing and forward flight. The experiments support previous assumptions that active neuromuscular control of fore- and hindwing stroke phase might enable dragonflies and other functionally four-winged insects to manipulate ipsilateral flight force production without further changes in wing beat kinematics.