Predicting of excess body fat in children

Purpose of reviewApproximately 370 million children and adolescents worldwide showed overweight or obesity in 2016. The risk of developing severe comorbidities depends on the age of onset and the duration of obesity. This review discusses available methodologies to detect excess body fat in children as well as the early life factors that predict excess body fat and its development.Recent findingsFactors, such as parental nutritional status, maternal weight gain during pregnancy, maternal malnutrition, maternal smoking during pregnancy, low and high birth weight, rapid weight gain, and short infant sleep duration have been independently and positively associated with neonatal, infant, and children adiposity. Early detection of excess body fat in children through the use of various tools is the first step in preventing nutrition-related diseases in adulthood.SummaryThe early detection of excess body fat and the implementation of efficient interventions to normalize the weight of children and adolescents at obesity risk are essential to prevent diseases in adult life. © 2022 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved

Immunostaining for allatotropin and allatostatin-A and -C in the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Anopheles albimanus

Confocal laser-scanning microscopy was used to carry out a comparative study of the immunostaining for three families of neuropeptides, viz., allatostatin-A (AS-A), allatostatin-C (AS-C) and allatotropin (AT), in adult female mosquitoes of Aedes aegypti and Anopheles albimanus. The specific patterns of immunostaining for each of the three peptides were similar in both species. The antisera raised against AT, AS-A, and AS-C revealed intense immunoreactivity in the cells of each protocerebral lobe of the brain and stained cells in each of the ventral ganglia and neuronal projections innervating various thoracic and abdominal tissues. Only the AS-A antiserum labeled immunoreactive endocrine cells in the midgut. The distribution of the peptides supports the concept that they play multiple regulatory roles in both species

Study of H2/N2Mixture Plasma Treatment on the AISI 1045

In the present work, we analyzed the effect of the plasma treatment of 80% H2/20% N2 mixture plasma over the AISI 1045 steel. To produce the plasma, an AC discharge of 0.1 A at 350 V was produced at a total pressure of 3.0 Torr. The mixture plasma was analyzed using optical emission spectroscopy (OES), in the wavelength range of 200 to 1100 nm. The principal species observed in the plasma were NH, N2, N2+, H2, and Hα. The electron temperature and ion density have been measured using a double Langmuir probe. The samples of steel were treated by plasma at different discharge times, between 3 and 12 h, at the same pressure and AC parameters (0.1 A and 350 V). The treated samples were characterized using X-ray analysis, finding the phases gamma and epsilon of iron nitride. The thickness of the nitrided layers was measured using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). From the images obtained, it is possible to appreciate the interphase between the nitrided layer and the steel matrix. The relationship between the morphology of the surface of nitrided steel and the wetting was analyzed by measuring the contact angle between the surface and a drop of 5 μL of distilled water. The contact angle of the drop increased with the increase of plasma treatment time. The control sample without treatment presented a smaller angle, and after the treatment the surfaces of the steel became hydrophobic. This may be related to the morphology change of the steel surface produced by plasma treatment

Validation of a Microwave-Assisted Derivatization Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Method for the Quantification of 2-Hydroxybutyrate in Human Serum as an Early Marker of Diabetes Mellitus

Circulating levels of 2-hydroxybutyrate (2HB) are highly related to glycemic status in different metabolomic studies. According to recent evidence, 2HB is an early biomarker of the future development of dysglycemia and type 2 diabetes mellitus and may be causally related to the progression of normal subjects to impaired fasting glucose or insulin resistance. In the present study, we developed and validated a simple, specific and sensitive gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method specifically intended to quantify serum levels of 2HB. Liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate was followed by 2 min of microwave-assisted derivatization. The method presented acceptable accuracy, precision and recovery, and the limit of quantification was 5 µM. Levels of 2HB were found to be stable in serum after three freeze-thaw cycles, and at ambient temperature and at a temperature of 4 °C for up to 24 h. Extracts derivatized under microwave irradiation were stable for up to 96 h. No differences were found in 2HB concentrations measured in serum or plasma EDTA samples. In summary, the method is useful for a rapid, precise and accurate quantification of 2HB in serum samples assessed for the evaluation of dysglycemia and diabetes mellitus

Accessible lifelong learning at higher education:outcomes and lessons Learned at two different PilotSites in the EU4ALL Project

[EN] The EU4ALL project (IST-FP6-034778) has developed a general framework to address the needs of accessible lifelong learning at Higher Education level consisting of several standards-based interoperable components integrated into an open web service architecture aimed at supporting adapted interaction to guarantee students' accessibility needs. Its flexibility has supported the project implementation at several sites with different settings and various learning management systems. Large-scale evaluations involving hundreds of users, considering diverse disability types, and key staff roles have allowed obtaining valuable lessons with respect to "how to adopt or enhance eLearning accessibility" at university. The project was evaluated at four higher education institutions, two of the largest in Europe and two mediumsized. In this paper, we focus on describing the implementation and main conclusions at the largest project evaluation site (UNED), which was involved in the project from the beginning, and thus, in the design process, and a medium-sized university that adopted the EU4ALL approach (UPV). This implies dealing with two well-known open source learning environments (i.e. dotLRN and Sakai), and considering a wide variety of stakeholders and requirements. Thus the results of this evaluation serve to illustrate the coverage of both the approach and developments.The authors would like to thank the European Commission for the financial support of the EU4ALL project (IST-2006-034478). The work at aDeNu is also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (TIN2008-06862-C04-01/TSI “A2UN@”). Authors would also like to thank all the EU4ALL partners for their collaboration.Boticario, JG.; Rodriguez-Ascaso, A.; Santos, OC.; Raffenne, E.; Montandon, L.; Roldán Martínez, D.; Buendía García, F. (2012). Accessible lifelong learning at higher education:outcomes and lessons Learned at two different PilotSites in the EU4ALL Project. Journal of Universal Computer Science. 18(1):62-85. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/37117628518