Mass fractionation processes of transition metal isotopes

Macromolecular Biochemistr

Tune in to your emotions: a robust personalized affective music player

The emotional power of music is exploited in a personalized affective music player (AMP) that selects music for mood enhancement. A biosignal approach is used to measure listeners’ personal emotional reactions to their own music as input for affective user models. Regression and kernel density estimation are applied to model the physiological changes the music elicits. Using these models, personalized music selections based on an affective goal state can be made. The AMP was validated in real-world trials over the course of several weeks. Results show that our models can cope with noisy situations and handle large inter-individual differences in the music domain. The AMP augments music listening where its techniques enable automated affect guidance. Our approach provides valuable insights for affective computing and user modeling, for which the AMP is a suitable carrier application

Ecosystem-based management for military training, biodiversity, carbon storage and climate resiliency on a complex coastal land/water-scape

The Defense Coastal/Estuarine Research Program (DCERP) was a 10-year multi-investigator project funded by the Department of Defense to improve understanding of ecosystem processes and their interactions with natural and anthropogenic stressors at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune (MCBCL) located in coastal North Carolina. The project was aimed at facilitating ecosystem-based management (EBM) at the MCBCL and other coastal military installations. Because of its scope, interdisciplinary character, and duration, DCERP embodied many of the opportunities and challenges associated with EBM, including the need for explicit goals, system models, long-term perspectives, systems complexity, change inevitability, consideration of humans as ecosystem components, and program adaptability and accountability. We describe key elements of this program, its contributions to coastal EBM, and its relevance as an exemplar of EBM

Effect of personalized nutrition on health-related behaviour change: evidence from the Food4me European randomized controlled trial

Background: Optimal nutritional choices are linked with better health, but many current interventions to improve diet have limited effect. We tested the hypothesis that providing personalized nutrition (PN) advice based on information on individual diet and lifestyle, phenotype and/or genotype would promote larger, more appropriate, and sustained changes in dietary behaviour. Methods: Adults from seven European countries were recruited to an internet-delivered intervention (Food4Me) and randomized to: (i) conventional dietary advice (control) or to PN advice based on: (ii) individual baseline diet; (iii) individual baseline diet plus phenotype (anthropometry and blood biomarkers); or (iv) individual baseline diet plus phenotype plus genotype (five diet-responsive genetic variants). Outcomes were dietary intake, anthropometry and blood biomarkers measured at baseline and after 3 and 6 months’ intervention. Results: At baseline, mean age of participants was 39.8 years (range 18–79), 59% of participants were female and mean body mass index (BMI) was 25.5 kg/m2. From the enrolled participants, 1269 completed the study. Following a 6-month intervention, participants randomized to PN consumed less red meat [-5.48 g, (95% confidence interval:- 10.8,-0.09), P=0.046], salt [-0.65 g, (-1.1,-0.25), P=0.002] and saturated fat [-1.14 % of energy, (-1.6,-0.67), P<0.0001], increased folate [29.6 mg, (0.21,59.0), P=0.048] intake and had higher Healthy Eating Index scores [1.27, (0.30, 2.25), P=0.010) than those randomized to the control arm. There was no evidence that including phenotypic and phenotypic plus genotypic information enhanced the effectiveness of the PN advice. Conclusions: Among European adults, PN advice via internet-delivered intervention produced larger and more appropriate changes in dietary behaviour than a conventional approach

A importância da associação obesidade e gravidez

Characteristics of the evolution of pregnancy in obese women were studied for their effect on newborn infants. Two control groups were observed - one of normal weight pregnant women, one of obese. The variables selected were: the socio-economic status of the family and the mother's age, height, arm circunference, prepregancy weight, total number of pregnancies, parity, weight gain during pregnancy, obstetric complications, birth weight, and fetal vitality. Results showed that pregnancy in obese women differs from that in normal weight women and that they show a larger incidence of obstetric complications. Children of obese mothers had a higher mortality rate principally in the perinatal period; moreover, there was also a higher rate of prematurity and a higher proportion of overweight babies among obese mothers. As a result, the distribution of the curve of the birth weight of infants of obese morthers was higher than that of infants of normal weight mothers. The conclusion reached was that whenever a pregnant obese woman reduced foot intake, with resultant insufficient weight gain, intrauterine growth was affected. Thus, it follows that pregnancy is not the best time for the obese mother to lose weight; for this reason, it is important that she receive adequate guidance in regard to diet. Obesity, therefore, is a factor contributing to high-risk pregnancy which can affect both mother and child.Foram estudados dois grupos de gestantes, sendo um de grávidas normais e outro de obesas, com a finalidade de reconhecer algumas características da evolução da gravidez, em mulheres obesas, e suas repercussões sobre o concepto. Foram relacionadas as seguintes variáveis: status sócio-econômico familiar, idade, altura, perímetro braquial, peso habitual, número de gestações anteriores, paridade materna, ganho de peso durante a gestação, idade gestacional, intercorrências durante a gestação, peso ao nascer e vitalidade do recém-nascido. Pelos resultados concluiu-se que as gestantes obesas são diferentes das normais e apresentam maior incidência de complicações obstétricas. Os recém-nascidos, filhos de obesas, registraram índice maior de mortalidade, principalmente no período perinatal. Houve maior incidência de prematuridade e de fetos macrossômicos, sendo a curva de distribuição de peso ao nascer diferente da dos recém-nascidos das gestantes normais. A média de peso ao nascer das crianças das gestantes obesas é maior que o das normais. Concluiu-se ainda que toda vez que a gestante obesa sofre restrição alimentar, com ganho de peso inadequado, o crescimento intra-uterino é afetado; não sendo, portanto, a época da gravidez a melhor para a obesa perder peso, mas, ao contrário, ela deveria receber uma orientação alimentar adequada. A obesidade é pois um fator de aumento do risco gravídico, que pode afetar tanto a mãe como o concepto