Ratio of weight to height gain: a useful tool for identifying children at risk of becoming overweight or obese at preschool age

PURPOSE: To analyze the usefulness of the weight gain/height gain ratio from birth to two and three years of age as a predictive risk indicator of excess weight at preschool age. METHODS: The weight and height/length of 409 preschool children at daycare centers were measured according to internationally recommended rules. The weight values and body mass indices of the children were transformed into a z-score per the standard method described by the World Health Organization. The Pearson correlation coefficients (rP) and the linear regressions between the anthropometric parameters and the body mass index z-scores of preschool children were statistically analyzed (alpha = 0.05). RESULTS: The mean age of the study population was 3.2 years (± 0.3 years). The prevalence of excess weight was 28.8%, and the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 8.8%. The correlation coefficients between the body mass index z-scores of the preschool children and the birth weights or body mass indices at birth were low (0.09 and 0.10, respectively). There was a high correlation coefficient (rP = 0.79) between the mean monthly gain of weight and the body mass index z-score of preschool children. A higher coefficient (rP = 0.93) was observed between the ratio of the mean weight gain per height gain (g/cm) and the preschool children body mass index z-score. The coefficients and their differences were statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Regardless of weight or length at birth, the mean ratio between the weight gain per g/cm of height growth from birth presented a strong correlation with the body mass index of preschool children. These results suggest that this ratio may be a good indicator of the risk of excess weight and obesity in preschool-aged children.Research Support Foundation of the State of Sao Paulo (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP

MORPH: A Reference Architecture for Configuration and Behaviour Self-Adaptation

An architectural approach to self-adaptive systems involves runtime change of system configuration (i.e., the system's components, their bindings and operational parameters) and behaviour update (i.e., component orchestration). Thus, dynamic reconfiguration and discrete event control theory are at the heart of architectural adaptation. Although controlling configuration and behaviour at runtime has been discussed and applied to architectural adaptation, architectures for self-adaptive systems often compound these two aspects reducing the potential for adaptability. In this paper we propose a reference architecture that allows for coordinated yet transparent and independent adaptation of system configuration and behaviour

Usos potenciales de la madera de roble europeo y fresno americano cultivados en la provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina

- Spavento, E. Ing. Forestal, Docente-Investigadora, Xilotecnología y Profesional Independiente. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales, UNLP. [email protected] - Keil, G. Ing. Forestal M. Sc., Docente-Investigador, Xilotecnología e Industrias de Transformación Mecánica. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales, UNLP. [email protected] - Murace, M. Licenciada en Biología, Docente-Investigadora, Protección Forestal. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales, UNLP. [email protected] - Luján M . Doctora en Ciencias Naturales, Docente-Investigadora, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, UNLP. CIC, PBA. - Bertoli, B Ingeniero Forestal, Profesional Independiente.Los usos de una madera están estrechamente relacionados a sus características tecnológicas. Para utilizar con fiabilidad la madera de roble europeo (Quercus robur L.) y fresno americano (Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh.) cultivada en la provincia de Buenos Aires (Argentina) es necesario conocer sus propiedades físicomecánicas y su durabilidad. El objetivo de este trabajo fue determinar, mediante ensayos estandarizados, las características tecnológicas de la madera de roble y fresno, implantados en la provincia de Buenos Aires, con el propósito de definir sus usos. Las propiedades físicas determinadas fueron: contenido de humedad (IRAM 9532), densidades aparentes (IRAM 9544), cambios dimensionales (IRAM 9543). Las propiedades mecánicas determinadas fueron: dureza Janka (IRAM 9570), flexión estática (IRAM 9542), corte paralelo a las fibras (IRAM 9596), compresión perpendicular y paralela a las fibras (IRAM 9547 y 9541 respectivamente). La durabilidad natural se estimó aplicando la norma IRAM 9518. Se estudió además la estructura del leño de ambas especies, a nivel macro y microscópico, con el fin de relacionar estas características con las propiedades tecnológicas. Para ello se cuantificaron los siguientes caracteres: longitud, espesor de pared y diámetro del lumen de fibras y diámetro de vasos mayores. Ambas maderas resultaron medianamente estables, de densidad media alta y durables. De acuerdo con esto las maderas de roble europeo y fresno americano cultivadas en Argentina son aptas para una amplia gama de usos: elementos deportivos, mangos de herramientas, muebles, escaleras, molduras, puertas, solados interiores y exteriores y elementos estructurales como vigas y columnas, entre otros

Electric field control of magnetic properties and electron transport in BaTiO3-based multiferroic heterostructures

In this paper, we report on a purely electric mechanism for achieving the electric control of the interfacial spin polarization and magnetoresistance in multiferroic tunneling junctions. We investigate micrometric devices based on the Co/Fe/BaTiO3/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 heterostructure, where Co/Fe and La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 are the magnetic electrodes and BaTiO3 acts both as a ferroelectric element and tunneling barrier. We show that, at 20 K, devices with a 2 nm thick BaTiO3 barrier present both tunneling electroresistance (TER = 12   ±   0.1%) and tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR). The latter depends on the direction of the BaTiO3 polarization, displaying a sizable change of the TMR from  -0.32   ±   0.05% for the polarization pointing towards Fe, to  -0.12   ±   0.05% for the opposite direction. This is consistent with the on-off switching of the Fe magnetization at the Fe/BaTiO3 interface, driven by the BaTiO3 polarization, we have previously demonstrated in x-ray magnetic circular dichroism experiments

Anti-HBV treatment induces novel reverse transcriptase mutations with reflective effect on HBV S antigen

The identification of novel reverse-transcriptase (RT) drug-resistance mutations is critical in predicting the probability of success to anti-HBV treatment. Furthermore, due to HBV-RT/HBsAg gene-overlap, they can have an impact on HBsAg-detection and quantification

The camera of the fifth H.E.S.S. telescope. Part I: System description

In July 2012, as the four ground-based gamma-ray telescopes of the H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System) array reached their tenth year of operation in Khomas Highlands, Namibia, a fifth telescope took its first data as part of the system. This new Cherenkov detector, comprising a 614.5 m^2 reflector with a highly pixelized camera in its focal plane, improves the sensitivity of the current array by a factor two and extends its energy domain down to a few tens of GeV. The present part I of the paper gives a detailed description of the fifth H.E.S.S. telescope's camera, presenting the details of both the hardware and the software, emphasizing the main improvements as compared to previous H.E.S.S. camera technology.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in NIM

Search for squarks and gluinos with the ATLAS detector in final states with jets and missing transverse momentum using √s=8 TeV proton-proton collision data

A search for squarks and gluinos in final states containing high-p T jets, missing transverse momentum and no electrons or muons is presented. The data were recorded in 2012 by the ATLAS experiment in s√=8 TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, with a total integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1. Results are interpreted in a variety of simplified and specific supersymmetry-breaking models assuming that R-parity is conserved and that the lightest neutralino is the lightest supersymmetric particle. An exclusion limit at the 95% confidence level on the mass of the gluino is set at 1330 GeV for a simplified model incorporating only a gluino and the lightest neutralino. For a simplified model involving the strong production of first- and second-generation squarks, squark masses below 850 GeV (440 GeV) are excluded for a massless lightest neutralino, assuming mass degenerate (single light-flavour) squarks. In mSUGRA/CMSSM models with tan β = 30, A 0 = −2m 0 and μ > 0, squarks and gluinos of equal mass are excluded for masses below 1700 GeV. Additional limits are set for non-universal Higgs mass models with gaugino mediation and for simplified models involving the pair production of gluinos, each decaying to a top squark and a top quark, with the top squark decaying to a charm quark and a neutralino. These limits extend the region of supersymmetric parameter space excluded by previous searches with the ATLAS detector