The Relationship between Zinc Intake and Serum/Plasma Zinc Concentration in Children: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis

Recommendations for zinc intake during childhood vary widely across Europe. The EURRECA project attempts to consolidate the basis for the definition of micronutrient requirements, taking into account relationships among intake, status and health outcomes, in order to harmonise these recommendations. Data on zinc intake and biomarkers of zinc status reported in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) can provide estimates of dose-response relationships which may be used for underpinning zinc reference values. This systematic review included all RCTs of apparently healthy children aged 1–17 years published by February 2010 which provided data on zinc intake and biomarkers of zinc status. An intake-status regression coefficient was calculated for each individual study and calculated the overall pooled and SE using random effects meta-analysis on a double log scale. The pooled dose-response relationship between zinc intake and zinc status indicated that a doubling of the zinc intake increased the serum/plasma zinc status by 9%. This evidence can be utilised, together with currently used balance studies and repletion/depletion studies, when setting zinc recommendations as a basis for nutrition policies

Proyecto E-Academy

El presente proyecto de investigación tiene como objetivo fomentar la interacción entre ciertos jugadores de videojuegos interesados en aprender más sobre el mundo de los e-sports y profesionales del área, también conocidos como coaches, quiénes se encargarán de entrenar a los alumnos según las metas planteadas por cada uno de ellos. Para ello, se propuso la creación de una plataforma virtual, la cual cumple con el objetivo principal del proyecto, esta podrá ser usada como medio principal de inscripción, conocimiento y fidelización del usuario. Asimismo, la idea de iniciar un proyecto de plataforma virtual gamer, nace de la urgencia y estrés que muchos jugadores presentan al no saber cómo manejar ciertos videojuegos de alto nivel de complejidad, además; debido a la coyuntura actual la demanda de videojuegos y uso de programas gamer ha incrementado considerablemente, hasta el punto de ampliar el panorama de los usuarios para llegar a competir internacionalmente. En ese sentido, el presente proyecto de investigación abordará temas relacionados al marketing, viabilidad del negocio, rentabilidad, y será posible validar la solución y el modelo de negocio a partir de las herramientas a usar. Finalmente, se analizará cada estrategia de negocio, comercial y operativa para determinar los puntos clave de venta que permitirán obtener ingresos elevados tanto en corto como en largo plazo.This research project aims to promote interaction between videogame players interested in learning more about the world of esports and professionals in the area, also known as coaches, who will be responsible for training students according to the goals set by each of them. For this, the creation of a virtual platform was proposed, which meets the main objective of the project, this can be used as the main means of registration, knowledge and user loyalty. Likewise, the idea of starting a virtual gamer platform project was born from the urgency and stress that many players present when they do not know how to handle certain video games of high level of complexity, in addition; due to the current situation the demand for video games and the use of gamer programs has increased considerably, to the point of expanding the panorama of users to compete internationally. In that sense, this research project will address issues related to marketing, business viability, profitability, and it will be possible to validate the solution and the business model from the tools to be used. Finally, each business, commercial and operational strategy will be analyzed to determine the key selling points that will allow obtaining high revenues in both the short and long term.Trabajo de investigació

Zinc or Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation to Reduce Diarrhea and Respiratory Disease in South African Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Prophylactic zinc supplementation has been shown to reduce diarrhea and respiratory illness in children in many developing countries, but its efficacy in children in Africa is uncertain.To determine if zinc, or zinc plus multiple micronutrients, reduces diarrhea and respiratory disease prevalence.Randomized, double-blind, controlled trial.Rural community in South Africa.THREE COHORTS: 32 HIV-infected children; 154 HIV-uninfected children born to HIV-infected mothers; and 187 HIV-uninfected children born to HIV-uninfected mothers.Children received either 1250 IU of vitamin A; vitamin A and 10 mg of zinc; or vitamin A, zinc, vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12, C, D, E, and K and copper, iodine, iron, and niacin starting at 6 months and continuing to 24 months of age. Homes were visited weekly.Primary outcome was percentage of days of diarrhea per child by study arm within each of the three cohorts. Secondary outcomes were prevalence of upper respiratory symptoms and percentage of children who ever had pneumonia by maternal report, or confirmed by the field worker.Among HIV-uninfected children born to HIV-infected mothers, median percentage of days with diarrhea was 2.3% for 49 children allocated to vitamin A; 2.5% in 47 children allocated to receive vitamin A and zinc; and 2.2% for 46 children allocated to multiple micronutrients (P = 0.852). Among HIV-uninfected children born to HIV-uninfected mothers, median percentage of days of diarrhea was 2.4% in 56 children in the vitamin A group; 1.8% in 57 children in the vitamin A and zinc group; and 2.7% in 52 children in the multiple micronutrient group (P = 0.857). Only 32 HIV-infected children were enrolled, and there were no differences between treatment arms in the prevalence of diarrhea. The prevalence of upper respiratory symptoms or incidence of pneumonia did not differ by treatment arms in any of the cohorts.When compared with vitamin A alone, supplementation with zinc, or with zinc and multiple micronutrients, did not reduce diarrhea and respiratory morbidity in rural South African children.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00156832

Effect on longitudinal growth and anemia of zinc or multiple micronutrients added to vitamin A: a randomized controlled trial in children aged 6-24 months

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The benefits of zinc or multiple micronutrient supplementations in African children are uncertain. African children may differ from other populations of children in developing countries because of differences in the prevalence of zinc deficiency, low birth weight and preterm delivery, recurrent or chronic infections such as HIV, or the quality of complementary diets and genetic polymorphisms affecting iron metabolism.</p> <p>The aim of this study was to ascertain whether adding zinc or multiple micronutrients to vitamin A supplementation improves longitudinal growth or reduces prevalence of anemia in children aged 6-24 months.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Randomized, controlled double-blinded trial of prophylactic micronutrient supplementation to children aged 6-24 months. Children in three cohorts - 32 HIV-infected children, 154 HIV-uninfected children born to HIV-infected mothers, and 187 uninfected children born to HIV-uninfected mothers - were separately randomly assigned to receive daily vitamin A (VA) [n = 124], vitamin A plus zinc (VAZ) [n = 123], or multiple micronutrients that included vitamin A and zinc (MM) [n = 126].</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among all children there were no significant differences between intervention arms in length-for-age Z scores (LAZ) changes over 18 months. Among stunted children (LAZ below -2) [n = 62], those receiving MM had a 0.7 Z-score improvement in LAZ versus declines of 0.3 in VAZ and 0.2 in VA (P = 0.029 when comparing effects of treatment over time). In the 154 HIV-uninfected children, MM ameliorated the effect of repeated diarrhea on growth. Among those experiencing more than six episodes, those receiving MM had no decline in LAZ compared to 0.5 and 0.6 Z-score declines in children receiving VAZ and VA respectively (P = 0.06 for treatment by time interaction). After 12 months, there was 24% reduction in proportion of children with anemia (hemoglobin below 11 g/dL) in MM arm (P = 0.001), 11% in VAZ (P = 0.131) and 18% in VA (P = 0.019). Although the within arm changes were significant; the between-group differences were not significant.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Daily multiple micronutrient supplementation combined with vitamin A was beneficial in improving growth among children with stunting, compared to vitamin A alone or to vitamin A plus zinc. Effects on anemia require further study.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number .NCT00156832.</p

b-tagging in DELPHI at LEP

Abstract: The standard method used for tagging b-hadrons in the DELPHI experiment at the CERN LEP Collider is discussed in detail. The main ingredient of b-tagging is the impact parameters of tracks, which relies mostly on the vertex detector. Additional information, such as the mass of particles associated to a secondary vertex, significantly improves the selection efficiency and the background suppression. The paper describes various discriminating variables used for the tagging and the procedure of their combination. In addition, applications of b-tagging to some physics analyses, which depend crucially on the performance and reliability of b-tagging, are described briefly

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass