Comparative study of risk factors among children and adolescents with an anthropometric diagnosis of overweight or obesity

OBJETIVO: O excesso de peso é um grande problema de saúde pública em todo o mundo, atingindo crianças e adolescentes. O presente estudo teve por objetivo verificar se a condição de portador de sobrepeso se associa à presença de fatores de risco à saúde. MÉTODOS: Foram estudados 84 sujeitos entre seis e 17 anos, constituindo-se um grupo de 34 pacientes portadores de sobrepeso e outro de 50 obesos, atendidos em ambulatório de Nutrologia Pediátrica da Universidade de Ribeirão Preto (Unaerp), durante o período de outubro de 2004 a outubro de 2005. Foram obtidas as variáveis: pressão arterial, circunferência abdominal, glicemia de jejum, glicemia de segunda hora, colesterol total, HDL-c, LDL-c e triglicérides. Comparam-se os dois grupos por meio de duas abordagens estatísticas: comparação entre as distribuições dos valores absolutos (teste de Mann-Whitney) e entre as frequências de valores considerados alterados (teste exato de Fisher). RESULTADOS: Quanto à primeira abordagem, verificou-se diferença estatística apenas para o HDL-c, com maiores valores para o subgrupo de portadores de sobrepeso de seis a dez anos. Quanto à segunda comparação, verificou-se diferença estatística para a circunferência abdominal (segundo os critérios de Freedman), HDL-c e glicemia de jejum, com maiores frequências de valores alterados entre os obesos. CONCLUSÕES: Os portadores de sobrepeso apresentaram alterações indicativas de prejuízos à sua saúde, semelhantemente aos obesos, sendo necessário também incluí-los nos programas de prevenção e tratamento.OBJECTIVE: Excess weight is a serious public health problem all over the world, affecting children and adolescents. The objective of the present study was to determine whether the condition of being overweight is associated to changes in health parameters. METHODS: 84 subjects aged 6-17 years old were studied (34 overweight and 50 obese patients), all of them assisted at the Pediatric Nutrology outpatient clinic of the University of Ribeirão Preto (Unaerp) from October/2004 to October/2005. Arterial pressure, abdominal circumference, fast glycemia, second hour glycemia, total cholesterol and its fractions (HDL-c and LDL-c) and triglycerides were determined. The two groups were compared by two statistical approaches: comparison of absolute values by Mann-Whitney test, and between frequencies of altered values by Fisher exact test. RESULTS: There was a statistical difference only for HDL-c, with higher concentrations in the overweight group when the subgroup of patients with 6-10 years old was considered. Regarding the second approach, there were statistical differences in the abdominal circumference by Freedman criteria, HDL-c and fast glycemia, with higher frequencies of altered values among obese subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Overweight patients presented alterations harmful to their health, similarly to obese individuals. It is necessary to enroll overweight children and adolescents in programs dedicated to the prevention and treatment of nutritional problems

Knowledge, attitudes, practices (KAP) of Italian occupational physicians towards tick borne encephalitis

Tick-Borne Encephalitis (TBE) is an occupational health threat with increasing incidence in the geographic area of Italy. Despite this, TBE vaccination rates have ranged from 10% to 40% in Italy, even in at-risk workers. The reasons for this low rate are investigated in this present study of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of occupational physicians (OP) regarding TBE disease and vaccination in at-risk workers. A total of 229 OP participated in an internet-based survey by completing a structured questionnaire. Adequate general knowledge of TBE disease was found in 58% of OP. Accurate perception of TBE risk in occupational settings was found in 20%. TBE vaccination for at-risk workers was recommended by 19%. Willingness to recommend TBE vaccination was more likely by OP practicing in endemic areas (Odds Ratio 3.10, 95% confidence intervals 1.47-6.55), who knew the existence of the term “arboviruses” (3.10, 1.29-7.44), or exhibited a better understanding of TBE (2.38, 1.11-5.12)-and were positive predictors for promoting TBE vaccine, while acknowledging that TBE as a severe disease was a negative one. Tick-borne disorders in Italy are a still rare (but increasing) occupational health threat, and vaccination gaps for TBE virus may find an explanation in OP incomplete knowledge of evidence-based recommendations

Occupational hantavirus infections in agricultural and forestry workers: A systematic review and metanalysis

Hantaviruses are zoonotic pathogens that can cause serious human disorders, including hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome. As the main risk factor for human infections is the interaction with rodents, occupational groups such as farmers and forestry workers are reportedly at high risk, but no summary evidence has been collected to date. Therefore, we searched two different databases (PubMed and EMBASE), focusing on studies reporting the prevalence of hantaviruses in farmers and forestry workers. Data were extracted using a standardized assessment form, and results of such analyses were systematically reported, summarized and compared. We identified a total of 42 articles, including a total of 28 estimates on farmers, and 22 on forestry workers, with a total workforce of 15,043 cases (821 positive cases, 5.5%). A pooled seroprevalence of 3.7% (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 2.2–6.2) was identified in farmers, compared to 3.8% (95% CI 2.6–5.7) in forestry workers. Compared to the reference population, an increased occurrence was reported for both occupational groups (odds ratio [OR] 1.875, 95% CI 1.438–2.445 and OR 2.892, 95% CI 2.079–4.023 for farmers and forestry workers, respectively). In summary, our analyses stress the actual occurrence of hantaviruses in selected occupational groups. Improved understanding of appropriate preventive measures, as well as further studies on hantavirus infection rates in reservoir host species (rodents, shrews, and bats) and virus transmission to humans, is needed to prevent future outbreaks

Leading and higher twists in the proton polarized structure function at large Bjorken x

A phenomenological parameterization of the proton polarized structure function has been developed for x > 0.02 using deep inelastic data up to ~ 50 (GeV/c)**2 as well as available experimental results on both photo- and electro-production of proton resonances. According to the new parameterization the generalized Drell-Hearn-Gerasimov sum rule is predicted to have a zero-crossing point at Q**2 = 0.16 +/- 0.04 (GeV/c)**2. Then, low-order polarized Nachtmann moments have been estimated and their Q**2-behavior has been investigated in terms of leading and higher twists for Q**2 > 1 (GeV/c)**2. The leading twist has been treated at NLO in the strong coupling constant and the effects of higher orders of the perturbative series have been estimated using soft-gluon resummation techniques. In case of the first moment higher-twist effects are found to be quite small for Q**2 > 1 (GeV/c)**2, and the singlet axial charge has been determined to be a0[10 (GeV/c)**2] = 0.16 +/- 0.09. In case of higher order moments, which are sensitive to the large-x region, higher-twist effects are significantly reduced by the introduction of soft gluon contributions, but they are still relevant at Q**2 ~ few (GeV/c)**2 at variance with the case of the unpolarized transverse structure function of the proton. Our finding suggests that spin-dependent correlations among partons may have more impact than spin-independent ones. As a byproduct, it is also shown that the Bloom-Gilman local duality is strongly violated in the region of polarized electroproduction of the Delta(1232) resonance.Comment: revised version to appear in Phys. Rev. D; extended discussion on the generalized DHG sum rul

Atomically precise lateral modulation of a two-dimensional electron liquid in anatase TiO2 thin films

Engineering the electronic band structure of two-dimensional electron liquids (2DELs) confined at the surface or interface of transition metal oxides is key to unlocking their full potential. Here we describe a new approach to tailoring the electronic structure of an oxide surface 2DEL demonstrating the lateral modulation of electronic states with atomic scale precision on an unprecedented length scale comparable to the Fermi wavelength. To this end, we use pulsed laser deposition to grow anatase TiO2 films terminated by a (1 x 4) in-plane surface reconstruction. Employing photo-stimulated chemical surface doping we induce 2DELs with tunable carrier densities that are confined within a few TiO2 layers below the surface. Subsequent in-situ angle resolved photoemission experiments demonstrate that the (1 x 4) surface reconstruction provides a periodic lateral perturbation of the electron liquid. This causes strong backfolding of the electronic bands, opening of unidirectional gaps and a saddle point singularity in the density of states near the chemical potential

Bayesian local projections

We propose a Bayesian approach to Local Projections that optimally addresses the empirical bias-variance trade-off intrinsic in the choice between direct and iterative methods. Bayesian Local Projections (BLP) regularise LP regressions via informative priors, and estimate impulse response functions that capture the properties of the data more accurately than iterative VARs. BLPs preserve the flexibility of LPs while retaining a degree of estimation uncertainty comparable to Bayesian VARs with standard macroeconomic priors. As regularised direct forecasts, BLPs are also a valuable alternative to BVARs for multivariate out-of-sample projections

Study of energetics in drag-reduced turbulent channels

Changes in integral power budgets and scale energy fluxes as induced by certain active flow control strategies for turbulent skin-friction drag reduction are studied by performing Direct Numerical Simulation of turbulent channels. The innovative feature of the present study is that the flow is driven at Constant total Power Input (CtPI), which is a necessary enabling choice in order to meaningfully compare a reference unmanipulated flow with a modified one from the energetic standpoint. Spanwise wall oscillation and opposition control are adopted as model strategies, because of their very different control input power requirements. The global power budget show that the increase of dissipation of mean kinetic energy is not always related to drag reduction, while the preliminary analysis of the scale energy fluxes through the generalized Kolmogorov equation shows that the space- and scale properties of the scale energy source and fluxes are significantly modified in the near-wall region, while remain unaltered elsewhere