Prematurity, executive functions and quality of parental care: a systematic review

Este artigo de revisão visa contextualizar o desenvolvimento das funções executivas (FE) em crianças prematuras, com especial atenção para o efeito dos cuidados parentais. As principais bases eletrônicas foram utilizadas para essa revisão: 31 estudos originais, duas meta-análises, uma meta-síntese e dois artigos de revisão foram identificados. Concluiu-se que as crianças prematuras têm maior risco de disfunção executiva global, sendo a qualidade dos cuidados parentais fundamentais para a modulação das FE, nomeadamente no que concerne às variáveis socioemocionais da interação, como a sensibilidadematerna. Salientam-se ainda as principais limitações dos estudos analisados e apontam-se recomendações para futura investigação sobre os efeitos dos cuidados parentais no desenvolvimento de FE em crianças prematuras.This review article aims to contextualize the development of executive functions (EF) in preterm children with special attention to the effects of parental care. The main electronic databases were used for this review: 31 original studies, two meta-analyses, one meta-synthesis and two systematic reviews were identified. The results showed that preterm infants are at risk for global executive dysfunction,and that the quality of parenting impacts the development of EF, mainly in terms of interactive socio-emotional variables, like maternal sensitivity.Finally, the main limitations of the analyzed studies are pointed out, and recommendations of future research about the effects of parental care in the development of EF in preterm children are offered.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Some experimental aspects of optimality theoretic pragmatics

The article has three main concerns: (i) it gives a concise introduction into optimality-theoretic pragmatics; (ii) it discusses the relation to alternative accounts (relevance theory and Levinson's theory of presumptive meanings); (iii) it reviews recent findings concerning the psychological reality of optimality-theoretic pragmatics and its central part concept - bidirectional optimization. A present challenge is to close the gap between experimental pragmatics and neo-Gricean theories of pragmatics. I claim that OT pragmatics helps to overcome this gap, in particular in connection with the discussion of asymmetries between natural language comprehension and production. The theoretical debate will be concentrated on two different ways of interpreting bidirection: (a) bidirectional optimization as a psychologically realistic online mechanism; (b) bidirectional optimization as an offline phenomenon of fossilizing optimal form-meaning pairs. It will be argued that neither of these extreme views fits completely with the empirical data when taken per se

Battle of Postdisaster Response and Restoration

The paper presents the results of the Battle of Postdisaster Response and Restoration (BPDRR) presented in a special session at the first International water distribution systems analysis & computing and control in the water industry (WDSA/CCWI) Joint Conference, held in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in July 2018. The BPDRR problem focused on how to respond and restore water service after the occurrence of five earthquake scenarios that cause structural damage in a water distribution system. Participants were required to propose a prioritization schedule to fix the damages of each scenario while following restrictions on visibility/nonvisibility of damages. Each team/approach was evaluated against six performance criteria: (1) time without supply for hospital/firefighting, (2) rapidity of recovery, (3) resilience loss, (4) average time of no user service, (5) number of users without service for eight consecutive hours, and (6) water loss. Three main types of approaches were identified from the submissions: (1) general-purpose metaheuristic algorithms, (2) greedy algorithms, and (3) ranking-based prioritizations. All three approaches showed potential to solve the challenge efficiently. The results of the participants showed that for this network, the impact of a large-diameter pipe failure on the network is more significant than several smaller pipes failures. The location of isolation valves and the size of hydraulic segments influenced the resilience of the system during emergencies. On average, the interruptions to water supply (hospitals and firefighting) varied considerably among solutions and emergency scenarios, highlighting the importance of private water storage for emergencies. The effects of damages and repair work were more noticeable during the peak demand periods (morning and noontime) than during the low-flow periods; and tank storage helped to preserve functionality of the network in the first few hours after a simulated event

Randomised placebo-controlled trial of lisinopril in normotensive patients with insulin-dependent diabetes and normoalbuminuria or microalbuminuria.

Background Renal disease in people with insulin-dependent diabetes (IDDM) continues to pose a major health threat. Inhibitors of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) slow the decline of renal function in advanced renal disease, but their effects at earlier stages are unclear, and the degree of albuminuria at which treatment should start is not known.Methods We carried out a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of the ACE inhibitor lisinopril in 530 men and women with IDDM aged 20-59 years with normoalbuminuria or microalbuminuria. Patients were recruited from 18 European centres, and were not on medication for hypertension. Resting blood pressure at entry was at least 75 and no more than 90 mm Hg diastolic, and no more than 155 mm Hg systolic. Urinary albumin excretion rate (AER) was centrally assessed by means of two overnight urine collections at baseline, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months.Findings There were no differences in baseline characteristics by treatment group; mean AER was 8.0 mu g/min in both groups; and prevalence of microalbuminuria was 13% and 17% in the placebo and lisinopril groups, respectively. On intention-to-treat analysis at 2 years, AER was 2.2 mu g/min lower in the lisinopril than in the placebo group, a percentage difference of 18.8% (95% CI 2.0-3.27, p=0.03), adjusted for baseline AER and centre, absolute difference 2 2 mu g/min. In people with normoalbuminuria, the treatment difference was 1.0 mu g/min (12.7% [-2.9 to 26.0], p=0.1). In those with microalbuminuria, however, the treatment difference was 34.2 mu g/min (49.7% [-14.5 to 77.9], p=0.1; for interaction, p=0.04). For patients who completed 24 months on the trial, the final treatment difference in AER was 38.5 mu g/min in those with microalbuminuria at baseline (p=0.001), and 0.23 mu g/min in those with narmoalbuminuria at baseline (p=0.6). There was no treatment difference in hypoglycaemic events or in metabolic control as assessed by glycated haemoglobin.Interpretation Lisinopril slows the progression of renal disease in normotensive IDDM patients with little or no albuminuria, though greatest effect was in those with microalbuminuria (AER greater than or equal to 20 mu g/min). Our results show that lisinopril does not increase the risk of hypoglycaemic events in IDDM

Randomised placebo-controlled trial of lisinopril in normotensive patients with insulin-dependent diabetes and normoalbuminuria or microalbuminuria

Background Renal disease in people with insulin-dependent diabetes (IDDM) continues to pose a major health threat. Inhibitors of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) slow the decline of renal function in advanced renal disease, but their effects at earlier stages are unclear, and the degree of albuminuria at which treatment should start is not known. Methods We carried out a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of the ACE inhibitor lisinopril in 530 men and women with IDDM aged 20-59 years with normoalbuminuria or microalbuminuria. Patients were recruited from 18 European centres, and were not on medication for hypertension. Resting blood pressure at entry was at least 75 and no more than 90 mm Hg diastolic, and no more than 155 mm Hg systolic. Urinary albumin excretion rate (AER) was centrally assessed by means of two overnight urine collections at baseline, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. Findings There were no differences in baseline characteristics by treatment group; mean AER was 8.0 mu g/min in both groups; and prevalence of microalbuminuria was 13% and 17% in the placebo and lisinopril groups, respectively. On intention-to-treat analysis at 2 years, AER was 2.2 mu g/min lower in the lisinopril than in the placebo group, a percentage difference of 18.8% (95% CI 2.0-3.27, p=0.03), adjusted for baseline AER and centre, absolute difference 2 2 mu g/min. In people with normoalbuminuria, the treatment difference was 1.0 mu g/min (12.7% [-2.9 to 26.0], p=0.1). In those with microalbuminuria, however, the treatment difference was 34.2 mu g/min (49.7% [-14.5 to 77.9], p=0.1; for interaction, p=0.04). For patients who completed 24 months on the trial, the final treatment difference in AER was 38.5 mu g/min in those with microalbuminuria at baseline (p=0.001), and 0.23 mu g/min in those with narmoalbuminuria at baseline (p=0.6). There was no treatment difference in hypoglycaemic events or in metabolic control as assessed by glycated haemoglobin. Interpretation Lisinopril slows the progression of renal disease in normotensive IDDM patients with little or no albuminuria, though greatest effect was in those with microalbuminuria (AER greater than or equal to 20 mu g/min). Our results show that lisinopril does not increase the risk of hypoglycaemic events in IDDM