High consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with increased risk of micronutrient inadequacy in children: The SENDO project

Due to its rising prevalence, which parallels that of ultraprocessed food (UPF) consumption, inadequate micronutrient intake in childhood is a public health concern. This study aimed to evaluate the association between UPF consumption and inadequate intake of 20 micronutrients in a sample of children from the Mediterranean area. Cross-sectional information from participants in the “Seguimiento del Niño para un Desarrollo Óptimo” (SENDO) project 2015–2021 was used. Dietary information was gathered with a previously validated 147-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire and the NOVA system was used to classify food items. Children were classifed by tertiles of energy intake from UPF. Twenty micronutrients were evaluated, and inadequate intake was defned using the estimated average requirement as a cutof. Crude and multivariable adjusted OR (95% CI) for the inadequacy of≥3 micronutrients associated with UPF consumption were calculated ftting hierarchical models to take into account intra-cluster correlation between siblings. Analyses were adjusted for individual and family confounders. This study included 806 participants (51% boys) with a mean age of 5 years old (SD: 0.90) and an average energy intake from UPF of 37.64% (SD: 9.59). An inverse association between UPF consumption and the intake of 15 out of the 20 micronutrients evaluated was found (p<0.01). After the adjustment for individual and family confounders, compared with children in the frst tertile of UPF consumption, those in the third tertile showed higher odds of inadequate intake of≥3 micronutrients (OR 2.57; 95%CI [1.51–4.40]). Conclusion: High UPF consumption is associated with increased odds of inadequate intake of micronutrients in childhood

Study protocol of cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of a biopsychosocial multidisciplinary intervention in the evolution of non-specific sub-acute low back pain in the working population: cluster randomised trial.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Low back pain (LBP), with high incidence and prevalence rate, is one of the most common reasons to consult the health system and is responsible for a significant amount of sick leave, leading to high health and social costs. The objective of the study is to assess the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis of a multidisciplinary biopsychosocial educational group intervention (MBEGI) of non-specific sub-acute LBP in comparison with the usual care in the working population recruited in primary healthcare centres. Methods/design: The study design is a cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis of a MBEGI in comparison with the usual care of non-specific sub-acute LBP.Measures on effectiveness and costs of both interventions will be obtained from a cluster randomised controlled clinical trial carried out in 38 Catalan primary health care centres, enrolling 932 patients between 18 and 65 years old with a diagnosis of non-specific sub-acute LBP. Effectiveness measures are: pharmaceutical treatments, work sick leave (% and duration in days), Roland Morris disability, McGill pain intensity, Fear Avoidance Beliefs (FAB) and Golberg Questionnaires. Utility measures will be calculated from the SF-12. The analysis will be performed from a social perspective. The temporal horizon is at 3 months (change to chronic LBP) and 12 months (evaluate the outcomes at long term. Assessment of outcomes will be blinded and will follow the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: We hope to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of MBEGI, see an improvement in the patients' quality of life, achieve a reduction in the duration of episodes and the chronicity of non-specific low back pain, and be able to report a decrease in the social costs. If the intervention is cost-effectiveness and cost-utility, it could be applied to Primary Health Care Centres. Trial registration: ISRCTN: ISRCTN5871969

A detailed spectropolarimetric analysis of the planet hosting star WASP-12

The knowledge of accurate stellar parameters is paramount in several fields of stellar astrophysics, particularly in the study of extrasolar planets, where often the star is the only visible component and therefore used to infer the planet's fundamental parameters. Another important aspect of the analysis of planetary systems is the stellar activity and the possible star-planet interaction. Here we present a self-consistent abundance analysis of the planet hosting star WASP-12 and a high-precision search for a structured stellar magnetic field on the basis of spectropolarimetric observations obtained with the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter. Our results show that the star does not have a structured magnetic field, and that the obtained fundamental parameters are in good agreement with what was previously published. In addition we derive improved constraints on the stellar age (1.0-2.65 Gyr), mass (1.23-1.49 M/M0), and distance (295-465 pc). WASP-12 is an ideal object to look for pollution signatures in the stellar atmosphere. We analyse the WASP-12 abundances as a function of the condensation temperature and compare them with those published by several other authors on planet hosting and non-planet hosting stars. We find hints of atmospheric pollution in WASP-12's photosphere, but are unable to reach firm conclusions with our present data. We conclude that a differential analysis based on WASP-12 twins will probably clarify if an atmospheric pollution is present, the nature of this pollution and its implications in the planet formation and evolution. We attempt also the direct detection of the circumstellar disk through infrared excess, but without success.Comment: 49 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication on Ap

New Magellanic Cloud R Coronae Borealis and DY Per type stars from the EROS-2 database: the connection between RCBs, DYPers and ordinary carbon stars

R Coronae Borealis stars (RCB) are a rare type of evolved carbon-rich supergiant stars that are increasingly thought to result from the merger of two white dwarfs, called the Double degenerate scenario. This scenario is also studied as a source, at higher mass, of type Ia Supernovae (SnIa) explosions. Therefore a better understanding of RCBs composition would help to constrain simulations of such events. We searched for and studied RCB stars in the EROS Magellanic Clouds database. We also extended our research to DY Per type stars (DYPers) that are expected to be cooler RCBs (T~3500 K) and much more numerous than their hotter counterparts. The light curves of ~70 millions stars have been analysed to search for the main signature of RCBs and DYPers: a large drop in luminosity. Follow-up optical spectroscopy was used to confirm each photometric candidate found. We have discovered and confirmed 6 new Magellanic Cloud RCB stars and 7 new DYPers, but also listed new candidates: 3 RCBs and 14 DYPers. We estimated a range of Magellanic RCB shell temperatures between 360 and 600 K. We confirm the wide range of absolute luminosity known for RCB stars, M_V~-5.2 to -2.6. Our study further shows that mid-infrared surveys are ideal to search for RCB stars, since they have thinner and cooler circumstellar shells than classical post-AGB stars. In addition, by increasing the number of known DYPers by ~400%, we have been able to shed light on the similarities in the spectral energy distribution between DYPers and ordinary carbon stars. We also observed that DYPer circumstellar shells are fainter and hotter than those of RCBs. This suggests that DYPers may simply be ordinary carbon stars with ejection events, but more abundance analysis is necessary to give a status on a possible evolutionnary connexion between RCBs and DYPers.Comment: 22 pages, 38 figures, Accepted for publication in A&

Answering a Basic Objection to Bang/Crunch Holography

The current cosmic acceleration does not imply that our Universe is basically de Sitter-like: in the first part of this work we argue that, by introducing matter into *anti-de Sitter* spacetime in a natural way, one may be able to account for the acceleration just as well. However, this leads to a Big Crunch, and the Euclidean versions of Bang/Crunch cosmologies have [apparently] disconnected conformal boundaries. As Maldacena and Maoz have recently stressed, this seems to contradict the holographic principle. In the second part we argue that this "double boundary problem" is a matter not of geometry but rather of how one chooses a conformal compactification: if one chooses to compactify in an unorthodox way, then the appearance of disconnectedness can be regarded as a *coordinate effect*. With the kind of matter we have introduced here, namely a Euclidean axion, the underlying compact Euclidean manifold has an unexpectedly non-trivial topology: it is in fact one of the 75 possible underlying manifolds of flat compact four-dimensional Euclidean spaces.Comment: 29 pages, 3 figures, added references and comparison with "cyclic" cosmology, JHEP versio