Building a large-scale micro-simulation transport scenario using big data

A large-scale agent-based microsimulation scenario including the transport modes car, bus, bicycle, scooter, and pedestrian, is built and validated for the city of Bologna (Italy) during the morning peak hour. Large-scale microsimulations enable the evaluation of city-wide effects of novel and complex transport technologies and services, such as intelligent traffic lights or shared autonomous vehicles. Large-scale microsimulations can be seen as an interdisciplinary project where transport planners and technology developers can work together on the same scenario; big data from OpenStreetMap, traffic surveys, GPS traces, traffic counts and transit details are merged into a unique transport scenario. The employed activity-based demand model is able to simulate and evaluate door-to-door trip times while testing different mobility strategies. Indeed, a utility-based mode choice model is calibrated that matches the official modal split. The scenario is implemented and analyzed with the software SUMOPy/SUMO which is an open source software, available on GitHub. The simulated traffic flows are compared with flows from traffic counters using different indicators. The determination coefficient has been 0.7 for larger roads (width greater than seven meters). The present work shows that it is possible to build realistic microsimulation scenarios for larger urban areas. A higher precision of the results could be achieved by using more coherent data and by merging different data sources

Características físico-químicas de farinhas de duas cultivares de feijão-caupi (Vigna unguiculata l. Walp): BRS Tumucumaque e BRS Aracê.

O feijão-caupi (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) é uma leguminosa amplamente cultivada no Brasil com valor nutritivo elevado quanto a proteínas, minerais e componentes bioativos e cultivares biofortificadas com melhoria do teor de nutrientes tem sido desenvolvidas pela Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Embrapa. Há uma crescente utilização das farinhas mistas na composição de alimentos enriquecidos, sendo importante estudos de viabilidade de utilização de matérias-primas de elevado valor nutritivo, como o feijão-caupi, para elaboração destas farinhas. Tendo em vista essa necessidade, desenvolveu-se o presente trabalho com o objetivo de concretizar física e quimicamente farinhas de duas cultivares de feijão caupí biofortificados. As análises físicas e químicas das farinhas de ambas as cultivares foram realizadas em triplicata. As farinhas apresentaram de Índice de Solubilidade em Água superiores aos das referências consultadas, bom indicativo para produção de alimentos como sopa e mingaus. Quanto a composição centesimal, destacam-se os teores de proteínas e cinzas, como esperado devido a biofortificação e baixo teor de umidade que prediz estabilidade das farinhas. Ao analisar a concentração de minerais, as farinhas de feijão-caupi mostraram alto conteúdo de Fe, Zn, P, K e Mg. A cultivar BRS Tumucumaque apresentou teores de alguns minerais estatisticamente (p<0.05) superior em relação a cultivar BRS Aracê. Assim, as farinha de cultivares biofortificadas de feijão-caupi demonstraram possuir propriedades físicas, químicas e valor nutritivo favoráveis para o desenvolvimento de produtos alimentícios, devido a boa estabilidade, elevado teor de proteínas, alto conteúdo de minerais e ISA elevado.CONAC 2012. Disponível em: http://www.conac2012.org/resumos/pdf/038b.pdf. Acesso em: 03 jul. 2013

PGC-1α induced browning promotes involution and inhibits lactation in mammary glands

The PPARγ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α) is a transcriptional regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis and oxidative metabolism. Recent studies have highlighted a fundamental role of PGC-1α in promoting breast cancer progression and metastasis, but the physiological role of this coactivator in the development of mammary glands is still unknown. First, we show that PGC-1α is highly expressed during puberty and involution, but nearly disappeared in pregnancy and lactation. Then, taking advantage of a newly generated transgenic mouse model with a stable and specific overexpression of PGC-1α in mammary glands, we demonstrate that the re-expression of this coactivator during the lactation stage leads to a precocious regression of the mammary glands. Thus, we propose that PGC-1α action is non-essential during pregnancy and lactation, whereas it is indispensable during involution. The rapid preadipocyte–adipocyte transition, together with an increased rate of apoptosis promotes a premature mammary glands involution that cause lactation defects and pup growth retardation. Overall, we provide new insights in the comprehension of female reproductive cycles and lactation deficiency, thus opening new roads for mothers that cannot breastfeed

Dissemination of Clinical Practice Guidelines : A Content Analysis of Patient Versions

Financial support for this study was provided to Nancy Santesso from a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowship in Knowledge Translation. Financial support for this study was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowship in Knowledge Translation and for the DECIDE project from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement number 258583. The funding agreement ensured the authors’ independence in designing the study, interpreting the data, writing, and publishing the report.Peer reviewedPostprin

Composição centesimal e teor de minerais em pão de queijo enriquecido com farinha de feijão-caupi.

O feijão-caupi (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) apresenta um importante papel na nutrição humana por constituir uma fonte de proteínas, carboidratos, fibras alimentares, vitaminas e minerais. A escolha do pão de queijo para o enriquecimento foi devido à importância dos produtos de panificação na lista de compra dos brasileiros, ocupando a terceira colocação e representando, em média, 12% do orçamento familiar para alimentação. Logo, objetivou-se o enriquecimento de pão de queijo, um produto que faz parte do consumo alimentar, com ascensão de mercado e utilizando-se matéria-prima regional. Determinou-se umidade, cinzas, proteínas, lipídios e carboidratos conforme AOAC (1995) e valor calórico pelos fatores de conversão de Atwater. A técnica de espectrometria de emissão atômica com fonte de plasma indutivamente acoplado (ICP OES) foi utilizada para a quantificação dos minerais. Utilizou-se o Programa EPI ? INFO, versão 6.04b para análise dos dados. Os resultados da composição centesimal e conteúdo de minerais foram analisados por ANOVA. Para verificar diferença entre as médias foi aplicado o teste de Tukey. O nível de significância foi de 5%. Como resultado, observou-se que o pão de queijo formulado com feijão-caupi apresentou valor superior de cinzas, proteínas, carboidratos e minerais (cobre, ferro, fósforo, magnésio, manganês e zinco) além de redução da umidade, do teor de lipídios, valor energético total e sódio comparando-se com a formulação padrão. Assim, o produto elaborado apresentou-se enriquecido, com o acréscimo de minerais e macronutrientes, tornando a substituição parcial de polvilho doce por farinha de feijão-caupi (FFC) na elaboração de pães de queijo possível e relevante.CONAC 2012. Disponível em: http://www.conac2012.org/resumos/pdf/377a.pdf. Acesso em: 09 ago. 2013

Mineral inadequacy of oral diets offered to patients in a Brazilian hospital

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Introduction: While enteral diets for hospitalized patients normally follow nutrient composition guidelines, more than 90% of hospitalized patients receive oral diets with unknown mineral composition. Objective: To evaluate the mineral contents and adequacy of three types of oral diets (regular, blend and soft) and complementary snacks offered to patients of a Brazilian hospital. Methods: The amount of minerals was determined in two non-consecutive days in duplicate samples of breakfast, collation, lunch, snack, dinner, supper and a complementary snack meal. Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) were used to determine the adequacy of the daily amounts served to patients. Results and discussion: The regular diet met the RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowances) requirements only for Mn, P and Se, while the blend diet was deficient in Ca, K and Mg, and the soft diet met RDA requirements only for P and Zn. Iron was below the RDA requirement in all diets for women in fertile age, and Na was above the safe limit of intake (UL) in all the diets. The use of complementary snack was effective in meeting RDA requirements for Cu in the regular diet, and Mn and Se in the soft diet, but promoted overconsumption of Na. Conclusions: Evident nutritional imbalances have been detected at a key interphase between nutrition and public health services, but a solution does not appear to be insurmountable. A permanent nutritional evaluation of hospital oral diets should be an integral part of routine health care in order to speed the recovery of the hospitalized patient and dispel eventual risks due to critical mineral imbalances.271288297Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Defining decision thresholds for judgments on health benefits and harms using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Evidence to Decision (EtD) frameworks : A protocol for a randomised methodological study (GRADE-THRESHOLD)

Introduction The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) and similar Evidence to Decision (EtD) frameworks require its users to judge how substantial the effects of interventions are on desirable and undesirable people-important health outcomes. However, decision thresholds (DTs) that could help understand the magnitude of intervention effects and serve as reference for interpretation of findings are not yet available. The objective of this study is an approach to derive and use DTs for EtD judgments about the magnitude of health benefits and harms. We hypothesise that approximate DTs could have the ability to discriminate between the existing four categories of EtD judgments (Trivial, Small, Moderate, Large), support panels of decision-makers in their work, and promote consistency and transparency in judgments. Methods and analysis We will conduct a methodological randomised controlled trial to collect the data that allow deriving the DTs. We will invite clinicians, epidemiologists, decision scientists, health research methodologists, experts in Health Technology Assessment (HTA), members of guideline development groups and the public to participate in the trial. Then, we will investigate the validity of our DTs by measuring the agreement between judgments that were made in the past by guideline panels and the judgments that our DTs approach would suggest if applied on the same guideline data. Ethics and dissemination The Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board reviewed this study as a quality improvement study and determined that it requires no further consent. Survey participants will be required to read a consent statement in order to participate in this study at the beginning of the trial. This statement reads: You are being invited to participate in a research project which aims to identify indicative DTs that could assist users of the GRADE EtD frameworks in making judgments. Your input will be used in determining these indicative thresholds. By completing this survey, you provide consent that the anonymised data collected will be used for the research study and to be summarised in aggregate in publication and electronic tools. PROTOCOL registration number NCT05237635

Dissemination of clinical practice guidelines: A content analysis of patient versions

Background. Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are typically written for health care professionals but are meant to assist patients with health care decisions. A number of guideline producers have started to develop patient versions of CPGs to reach this audience. Objective. To describe the content and purpose of patient versions of CPGs and compare with patient and public views of CPGs. Design. A descriptive qualitative study with a directed content analysis of a sample of patient versions of CPGs published and freely available in English from 2012 to 2014. Results. We included 34 patient versions of CPGs from 17 guideline producers. Over half of the patient versions were in dedicated patient sections of national/professional agency websites. There was essentially no information about how to manage care in the health care system. The most common purpose was to equip people with information about disease, tests or treatments, and recommendations, but few provided quantitative data about benefits and harms of treatments. Information about beliefs, values and preferences, accessibility, costs, or feasibility of the interventions was rarely addressed. Few provided personal stories or scenarios to personalize the information. Three versions described the strength of the recommendation or the level of evidence. Limitations. Our search for key institutions that produce patient versions of guidelines was comprehensive, but we only included English and freely available versions. Future work will include other languages. Conclusions. This review describes the current landscape of patient versions of CPGs and suggests that these versions may not address the needs of their targeted audience. Research is needed about how to personalize information, provide information about factors contributing to the recommendations, and provide access