Prevalence and socioeconomic determinants of the double burden of malnutrition in mother–child pairs in Latin America and the Caribbean

Background: The double burden of malnutrition (DBM), which refers to the coexistence of overnutrition and undernutrition among populations, households or individuals, is a growing problem in low/middle-income countries. The Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region has been particularly affected by the DBM, following a nutrition transition and a rapid increase in overweight, obesity and diet-related disease, while high levels of undernutrition persist. This study aims to describe the prevalence of four different DBM definitions in mother–child pairs across nine LAC countries and investigate the socioeconomic determinants of overweight mothers with at least one stunted child (SCOM). Methods: We used cross-sectional data from the Demographic and Health Surveys for all analyses. We used descriptive statistics to obtain prevalence rates and conducted multiple logistic regression analyses to investigate the association between SCOM households and socioeconomic determinants, including wealth index, maternal education, place of residency and whether the mother was working, adjusted for a range of variables. Results: Overweight/obese mothers with at least one anaemic child were the most common type of DBM, with a prevalence of 19.39%, followed by SCOM with a prevalence of 10.44%. Statistically significant socioeconomic predictors of SCOM were households with a lower wealth index, lower maternal education and living in rural areas. Conclusion: This study showed that the overall prevalence of most DBM definitions examined was high, which points to the need for urgent interventions in the LAC region. The unique set of socioeconomic predictors of SCOM identified in this study calls for future double-duty policies that simultaneously target food affordability, nutrition education and access to healthy food

Scalable Parallel Numerical Constraint Solver Using Global Load Balancing

We present a scalable parallel solver for numerical constraint satisfaction problems (NCSPs). Our parallelization scheme consists of homogeneous worker solvers, each of which runs on an available core and communicates with others via the global load balancing (GLB) method. The parallel solver is implemented with X10 that provides an implementation of GLB as a library. In experiments, several NCSPs from the literature were solved and attained up to 516-fold speedup using 600 cores of the TSUBAME2.5 supercomputer.Comment: To be presented at X10'15 Worksho

Lubrication in cold rolling: Elasto-plasto-hydrodynamic lubrication

A model has been developed with respect to hydrodynamic lubrication in cold rolling. The basic model describes the configuration of a rigid, perfectly plastic sheet rolled by a rigid work roll. The governing equations have been solved throughout the complete contact area, i.e. the inlet, the work zone and the outlet zone. Multi-level techniques have been applied to solve these equations together with boundary conditions, resulting in an algorithm solving the problem in O(n) operations. This means that the distribution of the pressure and the traction force in the lubricant film, and the shape of this film, as well as the plastic deformation of the sheet, can be accurately calculated for a large number of nodal points on a minicomputer. Subsequently elastic deformation, work hardening and dynamic behaviour of the flow stress have been incorporated in the model. It will be shown that the influence of these effects on the film thickness or the pressure distribution is considerable

Ultrasensitive 3He magnetometer for measurements of high magnetic fields

We describe a 3He magnetometer capable to measure high magnetic fields (B > 0.1 Tesla) with a relative accuracy of better than 10^-12. Our approach is based on the measurement of the free induction decay of gaseous, nuclear spin polarized 3He following a resonant radio frequency pulse excitation. The measurement sensitivity can be attributed to the long coherent spin precession time T2* being of order minutes which is achieved for spherical sample cells in the regime of motional narrowing where the disturbing influence of field inhomogeneities is strongly suppressed. The 3He gas is spin polarized in-situ using a new, non-standard variant of the metastability exchange optical pumping. We show that miniaturization helps to increase T2* further and that the measurement sensitivity is not significantly affected by temporal field fluctuations of order 10^-4.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure

Prominent effect of soil network heterogeneity on microbial invasion

Using a network representation for real soil samples and mathematical models for microbial spread, we show that the structural heterogeneity of the soil habitat may have a very significant influence on the size of microbial invasions of the soil pore space. In particular, neglecting the soil structural heterogeneity may lead to a substantial underestimation of microbial invasion. Such effects are explained in terms of a crucial interplay between heterogeneity in microbial spread and heterogeneity in the topology of soil networks. The main influence of network topology on invasion is linked to the existence of long channels in soil networks that may act as bridges for transmission of microorganisms between distant parts of soil

Dry aerosol deposition over the North Sea estimated from aircraft measurements

A mathematical approach based on the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory is used to predict the wind speed, friction velocity and drag coefficient, which are then introduced in the well-known deposition model of Slinn and Slinn (1980), to calculate the dry deposition of heavy metals into the North Sea. This model is perfectly suitable for aircraft sampling considering the fact that usually due to safety reasons, flights at the reference height used in deposition models (10m), are not possible. To check this approach, deposition velocities were calculated based on the airborne concentrations of Cu, Cd, Zn and Pb obtained by sampling with the aid of an aircraft over the Dutch continental shelf of the North Sea. Results are in agreement with those found in the literature. A rough estimation of the atmospheric input for these heavy metals and comparison with riverine inputs and direct discharges is also included

Identification of sixteen grapevine rootstocks by RFLP and RFLP analysis of nuclear DNA extracted from the wood

Sixteen rootstocks of the Vitis genus have been identified by the RFLP analysis methodology with the restriction enzyme HinfI. Uniques or moderately repeated DNA sequences of the nuclear genome of the Chardonnay V. vinifera variety were used as probes. RFLP analysis of 5 clones of SO 4 (V. berlandieri x V. riparia) and of 3 clones of 41 B Mgt (V. berlandieri x V. vinifera) with 4 probes and HinfI did not lead to any polymorphism. This is not surprising because of the vegetative origin of the clones. A simple method of nuclear DNA extraction of wood is described for the grapevine. We propose now the RFLP analysis methodology to complement or to replace in certain cases the ampelographical methods of identification of the rootstocks. The extension of this application to the V. vinifera varieties is considered.Identification de 16 porte-greffes de vigne par analyse RFLP, et analyse RFLP d'ADN nucléaire extrait à partir du boisNous avons identifié 16 porte-greffes du genre Vitis par la méthodologie d'analyse du polymorphisme de longueur des fragments de restriction (RFLP) de l'ADN avec l'enzyme de restriction HinfI. Pour cela, nous avons utilisé comme sondes des fragments d'ADN uniques ou peu répétés du génome de la variete Chardonnay de Vitis vinifera. L'analyse RFLP de cinq clones de SO 4 (V. berlandieri x V. riparia) et de trois clones de 41 B Mgt (V. berlandieri x V. vinifera) avec quatre sondes RFLP et l'enzyme HinfI n'a pas permis de différencier les clones d'un même hybride, dont les genomes sont extrêmement proches puisqu'ils sont obtenus de façon végétative. Nous présentons aussi une méthode simple d'extraction d'ADN nucléaire à partir du bois de vigne. Les analyses RFLP de cet ADN ont donné des résultats identiques à ceux obtenus avec l'ADN des feuilles. Nous sommes maintenant en mesure de proposer que la méthodologie d'analyse RFLP complète ou remplace dans certains cas les méthodes ampélographiques d'identification des portegreffes du genre Vitis. L'élargissement de cette application est envisagé pour les varietes de Vitis vinifera

EMI Reduction in an Interleaved Buck Converter Through Spread Spectrum Frequency Modulation

Spread spectrum frequency modulation is applied in a high-frequency DC/DC power converter to reduce conducted EMI. A new modulation biasing technique is developed to further reduce EMI levels in converters equipped with hardware filters. In the lab, this biasing shows effective shaping of the EMI spectrum