Silence in virtual meetings: The case of virtual business professional project

Treball Final de Màster Universitari en Llengua Anglesa per al Comerç Internacional. Codi: SAR016. Curs: 2017/2018The present study provides an overall viewpoint of the symbiotic interrelation that technology and discourse maintain. Due to the development of new communication tools based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) researchers are given the opportunity to deal with new academic contexts and genres that pose new challenges for the profession (Ruiz-Madrid & Fortanet-Gómez, 2017). This is the case of Virtual Business Professional Project. The focus of this paper is on the identification of silence during the virtual meetings held by international students in the IBM Connections Platform. Although silence has been studied from multiples approaches, to our knowledge no research has focused on silence in online communication. This investigation emphases on the psycholinguistics approach applied by Zuo (2002) and the classification of silence according to Jensen (1973). The analysis is based on the observation of the recordings of virtual meetings held by students at five universities in Spain, the United States of America (Hawaii, California, Utah) and Canada. After conducting a quantitative study on the duration and location of silence in the conversations, our main results seem to indicate that the use of silence in online meetings are related to a number of variables such as context and motivation

Childhood Obesity

Currently, the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents and related complications is considered one of the most important nutritional problems globally. The prevalence of childhood obesity in Europe is 10 times higher now than it was in the 1970s. Initial assessments of these patients should include taking a careful history (investigating comorbidities, family history and potentially modifiable behaviors) and physical examination. The degree of investigation is dependent on the patient\u27s age and severity of obesity, the findings on history and physical examination and associated familial risk factors. Childhood obesity treatment is based on sustained lifestyle changes with family involvement. Management intervention strategies include nutrition, physical activity, behavior and lifestyle changes, medication and surgical considerations

CARDIOVASCULAR SUFFERING IN CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Obesity-related cardiovascular disease is becoming more prevalent in conjunction with the rise in childhood obesity. Children with obesity may exhibit early signs of cardiovascular dysfunction: increased arterial stiffness, early atherosclerosis, changes in the myocardial structure and function. These are the result of their excess adiposity, often independent of other obesity-related comorbidities such as dyslipidemia and insulin resistance. Obesity in childhood predisposes to an increased risk of morbidity and cardiovascular mortality in adult. This review is to highlight the importance and need of programs for early detection, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of childhood obesity in order to decrease the incidence of the cardiovascular pathology in adults

Obesity management in Prader-Willi syndrome in children

Universitatea de Medicină și Farmacie „Grigore T. Popa”, Disciplina Pediatrie, Facultatea de Medicină, Iași, RomâniaObezitatea este o boală cronică cu determinism multifactorial și una dintre cele mai importante cauze de morbiditate și mortalitate prematură. Sindroamele genetice sunt principala cauză de obezitate morbidă la vârsta pediatrică. Sindromul Prader-Willi (PWS) este considerat cea mai frecventă cauză genetică a obezității, care apare cu o frecvență de 1: 10.000-1: 30.000 de nou-născuți vii. PWS se caracterizează printr-un apetit excesiv care duce la obezitate severă. Pacienții cu PWS prezintă multe complicații legate de obezitate: diabet zaharat, sindrom metabolic, apnee de somn, insuficiență respiratorie și boli cardiovasculare. În zilele noastre, mecanismele hiperfagiei din PWS nu sunt complet cunoscute și nici un tratament medical nu și-a dovedit eficacitatea în controlul apetitului. În absența supravegherii riguroase a aportului alimentar și în lipsa activității fizice, pacienții cu PWS au o greutate de peste două ori mai mare decât greutatea ideală. Îmbunătățirea controlului greutății rămâne cel mai important obiectiv al oricărui program de tratament în PWS, dar gestionarea obezității la acești pacienți nu este deloc ușoară. Restricționarea aportului de alimente, activitatea fizică și managementul comportamental sunt fundamentale pentru prevenirea și gestionarea obezității în PWS. Deci, tratamentul acestor pacienți necesită o abordare multidisciplinară a obezității și a complicațiilor acesteia, pentru a îmbunătăți calitatea vieții atât a pacienților, cât și a familiei acestora.Obesity is a chronic and multi-factorial disease and one of the most important causes of morbidity and premature mortality. Genetic syndromes are the common cause of morbid obesity in pediatric age. Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is considered the most common genetic cause of obesity, occurring in 1:10,000-1:30,000 live births. PWS is characterized by excessive appetite leading to severe obesity. PWS patients presented many complications related to obesity, including diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea, respiratory insufficiency, and cardiovascular disease. Nowadays, the hyperphagia’s mechanisms in PWS are not completely discovered and date no medical treatment has proven their efficacy in controlling appetite. In the absence of rigorous supervision of food intake and lack of physical activity, PWS patients weigh is more than twice their ideal body weight. Improvement in weight control remains the most important goal of any PWS treatment program, but the management of obesity in these patients is not easy. The dietary restriction, physical activity, and behavior management are fundamental in the prevention and management of obesity in PWS. So, the treatment of these patients requires a multidisciplinary approach of obesity and its complications, in order to improve the quality of life both of patients and family

Детская раняя эпилептическая энцефалопатия - синдром Ohtahara

Universitatea de Medicină şi Farmacie ”Gr.T.Popa” Iaşi, Clinica a III-a PediatrieThe Ohtahara syndrome is a rare epileptic encephalopathy characterized by tonic seizures with onset in the first days of life and a typical EEG pattern of ,,suppression burst”. The authors present eight patients diagnosed with Ohtahara syndrome based on electro-clinical aspects. In all cases the neuro-imaging brain exploring showed major structural brain abnormalities. The antiepileptic medications could not achieve seizures control in any of the children. The prognosis was poor, 3 patients died in infancy and the rest had severe motor and mental retardation.Ohtahara синдром является редкой эпилептической энцефалопатиеи и характеризуется тоническими судорогами с началом в первые дни жизни, сопровождается ЭЭГ тип шаблона, „взрыв подавления”. Авторы представляют восемь пациентов с диагнозом синдром Ohtahara на основе электро-клинических аспектов. Изучение мозга нейровизуализации во всех случаях показало основные аномалия структур мозга. АЭП не смогли добиться контроля над приступами. 3 пациента умерли в младенчестве, а остальные 5 имели тяжелую психомоторную отсталость

Eating habits in school-age children

University of Medicine and Pharmacy „Grigore T. Popa”, Iasi, RomaniaAdopting a healthy lifestyle at childhood would reduce a number of conditions with a great influence on the quality of life, as we can recall obesity and malnutrition. Diet can be both a primary cause of a disease and a protective factor against it. The school-age child can be very easily influenced in one direction by class, teacher, family or media. That is why the education and advice received at this age are very important, as they can „cut off the roots” the possible health problems that could change the whole life course. In view of these considerations, we have focused on the analysis of the nutrition of the school-age children in order to identify non-healthy eating habits and their influence on the nutritional status. Methods: We evaluated the eating habits on a cohort of 270 children aged 7 to 15 from an urban school in Romania. We applied KIDMED questionnaire, by Serra-Majem et al. (2004), comprised of 16 questions with dichotomous response possibilities (YES / NO). Results: Of the study group, 91.48% responded that they consume fresh fruit or fresh fruit juice daily, while 8.51% responded negatively. At second item of the questionnaire, ‘’if they eat more than a fruit by day’’, only 68.51% of the children gave a positive answer. Answer to the question „if they eat once a day a vegetable was positive in 82.59% of cases and negative in 17.40%, but only 57.50 % of the study group eats more than one vegetable by day. From the study group 42.22% of children are not eating breakfast. 66.29% of children eat cereals/cereals products at breakfast, 61.11% of them are eating milk/milk based products at breakfast and 23.70% are eating pastry at breakfast. 36.66% of the study group eats more than once a week fast-food and 52.96% of them eat more than once a day sugar and sweets. 52.59 % of children declared that they eat olive oil at home. Conclusions: A high number of children have unhealthy habits in schools. School-based programs can play an important role in promoting lifelong healthy eating

LIVER DISEASE IN CHILDREN WITH CYSTIC FIBROSIS

Liver disease is an early complication in children with cystic fi brosis (CF).The clinical manifestations in hepatobiliary disease of CF include neonatal cholestasis, liver steatosis, liver fi brosis, biliary lithiasis, focal biliary cirrhosis and multilobular cirrhosis, with or without portal hypertension. Changes in the tests evaluating the liver function are inconsistent and are not correlated with the severity of the liver lesions. The diagnosis of liver disease in CF requires the presence of at least two of the following four diagnosis criteria:clinical manifestations, pathologic liver function tests, ultrasound and histologic changes.The annual follow-up to evaluate the liver function is s recommended for diagnosis of asymptomatic liver disease and early initiation of treatment with ursodeoxycholic acid.The improvement of the liver function infl uences life quality and increases the survival rate in patients with CF

Some Risk Factors of Chronic Functional Constipation Identified in a Pediatric Population Sample from Romania

We conducted an observational study over a 1-year period, including 234 children aged 4–18 years and their caregivers and a matching control group. 60.73% of the children from the study group were males. Average age for the onset of constipation was 26.39 months. The frequency of defecation was 1/4.59 days (1/1.13 days in the control group). 38.49% of the patients in the sample group had a positive family history of functional constipation. The majority of children with functional constipation come from single-parent families, are raised by relatives, or come from orphanages. Constipated subjects had their last meal of the day at later hours and consumed fast foods more frequently than the children in the control sample. We found a statistically significant difference between groups regarding obesity/overweight and constipation (χ2=104.94,  df=2,  p<0.001) and regarding physical activity and constipation (χ2=18.419;  df=3;  p<0.001). There was a positive correlation between the number of hours spent watching television/using the computer and the occurrence of the disease (F = 92.162, p<0.001, and 95% Cl). Children from broken families, with positive family history, defective dietary habits, obesity and sedentary behavior, are at higher risk to develop chronic functional constipation

Network analytics for drug repurposing in COVID-19

To better understand the potential of drug repurposing in COVID-19, we analyzed control strategies over essential host factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. We constructed comprehensive directed protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks integrating the top-ranked host factors, the drug target proteins and directed PPI data. We analyzed the networks to identify drug targets and combinations thereof that offer efficient control over the host factors. We validated our findings against clinical studies data and bioinformatics studies. Our method offers a new insight into the molecular details of the disease and into potentially new therapy targets for it. Our approach for drug repurposing is significant beyond COVID-19 and may be applied also to other diseases.</p