Health And Nutrition In The Context Of Developing Countries

This dissertation examines three different aspects of population health and nutrition in low- and middle-income countries. Chapter 1 is methodological in nature and investigates the implications of using self-reported anthropometrics as proxies for measured ones. I analyze misreporting patterns of height and weight (and resulting body mass index, or BMI) in China, India, Russia, and South Africa, and find heterogeneity of reporting patterns both between these countries and high-income countries, as well as heterogeneity among these countries themselves. Adjustments of self-reported heights and weights are investigated, and the use of measured, self-reported, and adjusted BMI are compared in various applications. Chapters 2 and 3 study more substantive topics. Less-developed countries have traditionally dealt with issues of stunting, wasting, and underweight, and most resources have been put toward rectifying these. But as these countries continue to work on problems of under-nutrition, over-nutrition has been rising rapidly at rates not historically witnessed before, resulting in a double burden of malnutrition. Chapter 2 examines the population-level double burden by analyzing within- and between- country nutritional disparities among older adults in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. Using both country-specific and pooled partial proportional odds models, I analyze patterns of BMI categories along various socioeconomic dimensions. I conclude that economic development and the nutrition transition are intertwining processes, and progression through these processes results in shifts of the population segments affected by the two nutritional extremes. In Chapter 3, I use a birth cohort study from Guatemala to study changes in nutritional status over the life course, the double burden at an individual level. With an analysis of transitions, multiple regressions, and structural equation modeling, I find that while early anthropometrics are generally not associated with adulthood BMI, there are direct relationships between childhood nutritional status and growth with some chronic disease indicators, such as triglycerides and fasting blood glucose. Furthermore, these relationships are not mediated by BMI. When taken together, these three chapters have both significant research and policy implications for population health in the developing context

Affecting reality

This essay examines how digital games shape human affective repertoires and envisioned dynamics with nonhuman agents such as robots. Entanglements among humans, machines, and technologies impact essential issues in the historical present: from surveillance, climate change, cultural heritage, art, to the elicitation, habituation, and capturing of feelings. Approaching digital games as frontiers of such entanglements, this essay expounds dynamics among gameplay, affects, and gamic materiality through a case analysis of Nevermind (Flying Mollusk), a trauma-themed independent psychological thriller game with affect-sensing technologies. Discussion explores how the game can generatively engage with lived experiences and discourses of grief and trauma; and the relationality among individuals, structures of feelings, and stigmatization. Anchoring the essay is an argument that digital games represent and operate with fundamental tenets of posthumanism, communicating meaning across affective and semiotic dimensions, bodies, machines, and sociocultural contexts. This essay emerged from an ongoing project on affective semiotics and social impact game design, in connection with a transnational research project on human-robot interaction supported by the European Research Council

On the electrostatic component of protein-protein binding free energy

Calculations of electrostatic properties of protein-protein complexes are usually done within framework of a model with a certain set of parameters. In this paper we present a comprehensive statistical analysis of the sensitivity of the electrostatic component of binding free energy (ΔΔGel) with respect with different force fields (Charmm, Amber, and OPLS), different values of the internal dielectric constant, and different presentations of molecular surface (different values of the probe radius). The study was done using the largest so far set of entries comprising 260 hetero and 2148 homo protein-protein complexes extracted from a previously developed database of protein complexes (ProtCom). To test the sensitivity of the energy calculations with respect to the structural details, all structures were energy minimized with corresponding force field, and the energies were recalculated. The results indicate that the absolute value of the electrostatic component of the binding free energy (ΔΔGel) is very sensitive to the force field parameters, the minimization procedure, the values of the internal dielectric constant, and the probe radius. Nevertheless our results indicate that certain trends in ΔΔGel behavior are much less sensitive to the calculation parameters. For instance, the fraction of the homo-complexes, for which the electrostatics was found to oppose binding, is 80% regardless of the force fields and parameters used. For the hetero-complexes, however, the percentage of the cases for which electrostatics opposed binding varied from 43% to 85%, depending on the protocol and parameters employed. A significant correlation was found between the effects caused by raising the internal dielectric constant and decreasing the probe radius. Correlations were also found among the results obtained with different force fields. However, despite of the correlations found, the absolute ΔΔGel calculated with different force field parameters could differ more than tens of kcal/mol in some cases. Set of rules of obtaining confident predictions of absolute ΔΔGel and ΔΔGel sign are provided in the conclusion section

On the electrostatic component of protein-protein binding free energy

Calculations of electrostatic properties of protein-protein complexes are usually done within framework of a model with a certain set of parameters. In this paper we present a comprehensive statistical analysis of the sensitivity of the electrostatic component of binding free energy (DeltaDeltaGel) with respect with different force fields (Charmm, Amber, and OPLS), different values of the internal dielectric constant, and different presentations of molecular surface (different values of the probe radius). The study was done using the largest so far set of entries comprising 260 hetero and 2148 homo protein-protein complexes extracted from a previously developed database of protein complexes (ProtCom). To test the sensitivity of the energy calculations with respect to the structural details, all structures were energy minimized with corresponding force field, and the energies were recalculated. The results indicate that the absolute value of the electrostatic component of the binding free energy (DeltaDeltaGel) is very sensitive to the force field parameters, the minimization procedure, the values of the internal dielectric constant, and the probe radius. Nevertheless our results indicate that certain trends in DeltaDeltaGel behavior are much less sensitive to the calculation parameters. For instance, the fraction of the homo-complexes, for which the electrostatics was found to oppose binding, is 80% regardless of the force fields and parameters used. For the hetero-complexes, however, the percentage of the cases for which electrostatics opposed binding varied from 43% to 85%, depending on the protocol and parameters employed. A significant correlation was found between the effects caused by raising the internal dielectric constant and decreasing the probe radius. Correlations were also found among the results obtained with different force fields. However, despite of the correlations found, the absolute DeltaDeltaGel calculated with different force field parameters could differ more than tens of kcal/mol in some cases. Set of rules of obtaining confident predictions of absolute DeltaDeltaGel and DeltaDeltaGel sign are provided in the conclusion section.PACS codes: 87.15.A-, 87.15. km

Overall Equipment Effectiveness: Systematic Literature Review and Overview of Different Approaches

Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is a key performance indicator used to measure equipment productivity. The purpose of this study is to review and analyze the evolution of OEE, present modifications made over the original model and identify future development areas. This paper presents a systematic literature review; a structured and transparent study is performed by establishing procedures and criteria that must be followed for selecting relevant evidences and addressing research questions effectively. In a general search, 862 articles were obtained; after eliminating duplicates and applying certain inclusion and exclusion criteria, 186 articles were used for this review. This research presents three principal results: (1) The academic interest in this topic has increased over the last five years and the keywords have evolved from being related to maintenance and production, to being related to lean manufacturing and optimization; (2) A list of authors who have developed models based on OEE has been created; and (3) OEE is an emerging topic in areas such as logistics and services. To the best of our knowledge, no comparable review has been published recently. This research serves as a basis for future relevant studies

The meaning of care for older Chinese caregivers : an exploratory model of positive caring

Caring is often a highly personalized and individual activity. Through in-depth and searching interviews with two older care-givers, this study explored the determinants that help to sustain cares in their long-term care role and proposes an explanatory model for sustaining care. Attempts were made to uncover those meanings held by Chinese care-givers in interpreting their roles in a positive way despite the enormous demands placed on them by care-giving or, if they interpreted their care giving negatively, the attitudes that sustained their giving of care. Narrative accounts were obtained through separate interviews (conducted by two experienced social workers) asking open-ended questions guided by prescribed themes (determinants). Content coverage included basic demographic variables: sex, income, education level, religion, age; family responsibility/reciprocity, doing what needs to be done, caring personality, satisfaction and gratification, friendship and company, improved relationship, personal growth and identifying specific rewards of care-giving for self (i.e. the care-giver). The respondents were asked to describe all the above in relation to providing the care as they themselves perceive these domains, then were encouraged to provide a detail explanation for how these domains were encouraging/ discouraging them to continue to care. Similar description and explanation given by the two care-givers were extracted as congruent to the prescribed themes- hence these consistent findings serve to inform the formation of a crude explanatory model for care givers’ commitment to long term care. The study also informs practice in identifying and sustaining good care-givers

Development of a New Green Indicator and Its Implementation in a Cyber–Physical System for a Green Supply Chain

This work investigates Industry 4.0 technologies by developing a new key performance indicator that can determine the energy consumption of machine tools for a more sustainable supply chain. To achieve this, we integrated the machine tool indicator into a cyber–physical system for easy and real-time capturing of data. We also developed software that can turn these data into relevant information (using Python): Using this software, we were able to view machine tool activities and energy consumption in real time, which allowed us to determine the activities with greater energy burdens. As such, we were able to improve the application of Industry 4.0 in machine tools by allowing informed real-time decisions that can reduce energy consumption. In this research, a new Key Performance Indicator (KPI) was been developed and calculated in real time. This KPI can be monitored, can measure the sustainability of machining processes in a green supply chain (GSC) using Nakajima’s six big losses from the perspective of energy consumption, and is able to detect what the biggest energy loss is. This research was implemented in a cyber–physical system typical of Industry 4.0 to demonstrate its applicability in real processes. Other productivity KPIs were implemented in order to compare efficiency and sustainability, highlighting the importance of paying attention to both terms at the same time, given that the improvement of one does not imply the improvement of the other, as our results show.The authors would like to acknowledge the participation of TECNALIA RESEARCH & INNOVATIONS through their the implementation of the cyber–physical system and for their expertise in electronics and communication, as well as the Precision Mechanic Service of the Universidad de Zaragoza and their contributions during the essays

Dichlorido[(Z)-4-(2,6-diisopropyl­anilino)pent-3-en-2-one]dimethyl­tin(IV)

In the crystal structure of the title compound, [Sn(CH3)2Cl2(C17H25NO)], the Sn atom adopts a trigonal-bipyramidal geometry with the O and one Cl atom in axial positions. A weak intra­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond occurs. The crystal structure displays weak inter­molecular C—H⋯Cl inter­actions

Concordance of freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity

Efforts to set global conservation priorities have largely ignored freshwater diversity, thereby excluding some of the world\u27s most speciose, threatened, and valuable taxa. Using a new global map of freshwater ecoregions and distribution data for about 13,300 fish species, we identify regions of exceptional freshwater biodiversity and assess their overlap with regions of equivalent terrestrial importance. Overlap is greatest in the tropics and is higher than expected by chance. These high-congruence areas offer opportunities for integrated conservation efforts, which could be of particular value when economic conditions force conservation organizations to narrow their focus. Areas of low overlap-missed by current terrestrially based priority schemes-merit independent freshwater conservation efforts. These results provide new information to conservation investors setting priorities at global or regional scales and argue for a potential reallocation of future resources to achieve representation of overlooked biomes. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc