Perinatal and social risk of poor language, memory, and learning outcomes in a cohort of extremely and very preterm children

Children born extremely preterm (EPT) or very preterm (VPT) are at risk of neurodevelopmental impairment. How the interaction between biological and social risk factors affects cognitive development has not yet been completely understood. The objectives of this study are to analyze and compare the language, memory, and learning outcomes of five-year-old children born EPT (<28 weeks’ gestational age) and VPT (28–31+6 weeks’ gestational age) and to determine the risk of having poor outcomes attending to perinatal and maternal characteristics. The analysis included 377 children born VPT (n = 284) and EPT (n = 93) in 2011–2012. Maternal, neonatal, and clinical information was obtained at birth, and maternal education was obtained at five years using a parental questionnaire. At five years, the language, memory, and learning outcomes were assessed with the developmental NEuroPSYchological assessment second edition (NEPSY-II®). Logistic regression models were applied to assess the association of biological and social risk factors with performance below the expected level for the child’s age in language, memory, and learning subtests. Lower maternal age and education increased the odds of having language performance below the expected level for the child’s age, while lower maternal educational level and gestational age increased the likelihood of having memory performance below the expected level. Children living in the most social disadvantage contexts are at a higher risk of suboptimal cognitive development. Implementing intervention programs in disadvantaged contexts and targeting specific cognitive domains may enable EPT and VPT children to reach and fulfill their potential in society. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.This work is financed by national funding through the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the projects UIDB/04750/2020 e LA/P/0064/2020

Algoritmo como ferramenta de apoio à decisão para avaliação de sustentabilidade na introdução de novas tecnologias agrícolas.

Resumo: A avaliação dos impactos das tecnologias agrícolas pode ser uma aliada do processo de decisão. Este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia para a avaliação dos impactos de inovações tecnológicas com adequações para a avaliação integrada das tecnologias agrícolas e suas aplicações, fornecendo informações organizadas de acordo com critérios e indicadores nas diversas dimensões onde os impactos da liberação ou utilização da tecnologia agrícola podem ser percebidos. O método consiste de um sistema que permite a análise do cenário no qual a tecnologia será introduzida, a partir da geração do índice de significância e a avaliação do desempenho da inovação, pela análise dos indicadores de impactos que irão compor o índice de magnitude. Este sistema conta com uma ferramenta de apoio, o software "Inovatec-AGRO", com informações apresentadas como um norteador para permitir uma avaliação instruída e embasada. Abstract: Agricultural technology impact assessment may be a helpful tool in the decision-making process. The present work suggests a method to evaluate the impact of technological innovation, with adequacy to assess agricultural technology providing information organized according to criteria and indicators in several areas where the innovation can be perceived, focusing the complexity of the innovation under investigation. The method consists of a system that allows the analysis of the innovation range starting from the generation of the significance index, and the assessment of the innovation performance through the analysis of the performance indicators which will compose the magnitude index. This system has a support tool, the software ?Inovatec-Agro?, with information shown as a guide to allow a well-informed and a well-based evaluation

Von Bezold assimilation effect reverses in stereoscopic conditions

Lightness contrast and lightness assimilation are opposite phenomena: in contrast, grey targets appear darker when bordering bright surfaces (inducers) rather than dark ones; in assimilation, the opposite occurs. The question is: which visual process favours the occurrence of one phenomenon over the other? Researchers provided three answers to this question. The first asserts that both phenomena are caused by peripheral processes; the second attributes their occurrence to central processes; and the third claims that contrast involves central processes, whilst assimilation involves peripheral ones. To test these hypotheses, an experiment on an IT system equipped with goggles for stereo vision was run. Observers were asked to evaluate the lightness of a grey target, and two variables were systematically manipulated: (i) the apparent distance of the inducers; and (ii) brightness of the inducers. The retinal stimulation was kept constant throughout, so that the peripheral processes remained the same. The results show that the lightness of the target depends on both variables. As the retinal stimulation was kept constant, we conclude that central mechanisms are involved in both lightness contrast and lightness assimilation

Software INOVA-TEC SYSTEM: uma proposta metodológica para avaliação de impacto das biotecnologias agrícolas.

A avaliação dos impactos das tecnologias pode ser uma aliada do processo de decisão. Este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia para a avaliação dos impactos de inovações tecnológicas com adequações para a avaliação integrada das biotecnologias agrícolas e suas aplicações, fornecendo informações organizadas de acordo com critérios e indicadores nas diversas dimensões onde os impactos da biotecnologia agrícola sob avaliação podem ser percebidos. O método consiste de um sistema que permite a análise: i) do cenário no qual a tecnologia será introduzida, a partir da geração do índice de significância, e ii) do desempenho da inovação, pela análise dos indicadores de desempenho que irão compor o índice de magnitude. Este sistema conta com uma ferramenta de apoio, o software ?INOVA-tec v 1.0?, com informações apresentadas como um nortear para permitir uma avaliação instruída e embasada

Contrasting geophysical signatures of a relict and an intact Andean rock glacier

In semi-arid Chile, rock glaciers cover more surface area than glaciers and are potentially important water reserves. To understand their current and future hydrological role, it is necessary to characterize their internal structure (e.g. internal boundaries and ice, air, water and rock content). In this study, we present the results and interpretations of profiles of electrical resistivity and refraction seismic tomography collected on two contrasting rock glaciers in the Chilean Andes located at the headwaters of the Elqui River within the Estero Derecho nature reserve. These geophysical measurements are interpreted both independently and jointly through a scheme of petrophysical four-phase inversion. These first in situ measurements in Estero Derecho confirm that El Ternero (intact rock glacier) contains a significant volume of ground ice, while El Jote contains little to no ice (relict rock glacier). Within our study, we highlight the strong differences in the geophysical responses between intact and relict rock glaciers and propose a diagnostic model that differentiates between them

Comportamento Preliminar de Alguns Clones de Seringueira.

Em três experimentos, em andamento, em áreas do Latossolo Amarelo, textura argilosa, de baixa fertilidade natural, boa profundidade e bem drenado, ocorrente em áreas do Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Seringueira e Dendê (CNPSD), em Manaus, AM, estio sendo avaliados a produção e o desenvolvimento de 48 clones de seringueira (Hevea spp.) das séries Fx IAN, RRIM e alguns clones primários em diferentes idades. Foi utilizado o delineamento de blocos casualizados em dois ou três experimentos, com 10 e 25 plantas por parcela, respectivamente, com duas repetições, obedecendo ao espaçamento de 7 m x 3 m. 0 terceiro experimento foi delineado em látece tripo 5 x 5, com 20 plantas por parcela. Os resultados indicam que, dos 48 clones estudados, os clones Fx 3899, IAN 717, Fx 4098, IAN 6158 e IAN 6323 estão mostrando o melhor desempenho em relação à produção e ao vigor

Characteristics of Dysphagia in Infants with Microcephaly Caused by Congenital Zika Virus Infection, Brazil, 2015.

We summarize the characteristics of dysphagia in 9 infants in Brazil with microcephaly caused by congenital Zika virus infection. The Schedule for Oral Motor Assessment, fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing, and the videofluoroscopic swallowing study were used as noninstrumental and instrumental assessments. All infants had a degree of neurologic damage and showed abnormalities in the oral phase. Of the 9 infants, 8 lacked oral and upper respiratory tract sensitivity, leading to delays in initiation of the pharyngeal phase of swallowing. Those delays, combined with marked oral dysfunction, increased the risk for aspiration of food, particularly liquid foods. Dysphagia resulting from congenital Zika virus syndrome microcephaly can develop in infants >3 months of age and is severe

Pesquisa e desenvolvimento da heveicultura no Brasil.

O inicio da pesquisa com seringueira no Brasil deu-se em 1937, quando foram desenvolvidas, em Fordlandia e Belterra no Estado do Para, as primeiras acoes de pesquisa entao voltadas para o controle de surtos epidemicos do fungo Microcyclus ulei ocorridos na regiao. A partir de 1946, o Instituto Agronomico do Norte (IAN) assumiu e deu sequencia aos trabalhos desenvolvidos pela Companhia Ford, dando inicio a segunda fase dos trabalhos com seringueira na regiao Norte. Na regiao Nordeste, especificamente no Estado da Bahia, os trabalhos com seringueira iniciaram-se em 1951, com a criacao do Instituto Agronomico do Leste (IPEAL), enquanto na regiao Centro-Sul, particularmente no Estado de Sao Paulo, o marco inicial dos trabalhos de pesquisa com seringueira deve-se ao Instituto Agronomico de Campinas (IAC), em 1942. A vitalizacao da pesquisa se fez sentir a partir de 1975 com a criacao do Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Seringueira (CNPSe), atualmente Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Seringueira e Dende (CNPSD), apos acordo entre a Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (EMBRAPA) e a Superintendencia da Borracha (SUDHEVEA).bitstream/item/83140/1/Pesquisa-e-Desenvolvimento-da-Heveicultura-no-Brasil.pd

A New Perceptual Bias Reveals Suboptimal Population Decoding of Sensory Responses

Several studies have reported optimal population decoding of sensory responses in two-alternative visual discrimination tasks. Such decoding involves integrating noisy neural responses into a more reliable representation of the likelihood that the stimuli under consideration evoked the observed responses. Importantly, an ideal observer must be able to evaluate likelihood with high precision and only consider the likelihood of the two relevant stimuli involved in the discrimination task. We report a new perceptual bias suggesting that observers read out the likelihood representation with remarkably low precision when discriminating grating spatial frequencies. Using spectrally filtered noise, we induced an asymmetry in the likelihood function of spatial frequency. This manipulation mainly affects the likelihood of spatial frequencies that are irrelevant to the task at hand. Nevertheless, we find a significant shift in perceived grating frequency, indicating that observers evaluate likelihoods of a broad range of irrelevant frequencies and discard prior knowledge of stimulus alternatives when performing two-alternative discrimination