671 research outputs found

    Attainments and limitations of an early childhood programme in Colombia

    Get PDF
    The Growth and Development Monitoring Programme is a longstanding early childhood social intervention in Colombia. The programme's goal is the prevention and early identification of problems affecting children’s health and nutrition. To achieve this aim, the programme’s basic strategy is to educate parents about the overall health care of infants. The objective of this study is to measure the impact of this programme on children’s nutrition and health status and maternal child-care practices. To address potential selection bias, we employ quasi-experimental techniques. This article uses data from the Demographic Health Survey of 2010. The evidence suggests that the programme improved immunization status and the likelihood of health care for acute respiratory infection or fever. As expected, the programme has a greater impact on children from among the poorest people in the country. In the most advanced regions and for the beneficiaries of private health care, the effects of the programme have tended to be negligible. In this sense, our central policy recommendation is to optimize the programme for the poorest households in the country

    Amino acids and biogenic amines evolution during the estufagem of fortified wines

    Get PDF
    The current study was focused on the impact of accelerated ageing (heating step) on the amino acid and biogenic amine profiles of fortified wines. In this sense, three Madeira wines from two commonly used grape varieties (one red and the other white) were analysed during the heating, at standard (45∘ C, 3 months) and overheating (70∘ C, 1 month) conditions, following a precolumn derivatization procedure using iodoacetic acid, o-phthaldialdehyde, and 2-mercaptoethanol, carried out in the injection loop prior to RP-HPLC-FLD detection. Eighteen amino acids were identified, with arginine being the most abundant. An important decrease of the amino acid levels was detected during the standard heating (up to 30%), enhanced up to 61% by the temperature increase. Cysteine, histidine, and asparagine revealed the greatest decreases at 45∘ C. Conversely, some amino acids, such as asparagine, slightly increased. Four biogenic amines were identified but always in trace amounts. Finally, it was observed that the accelerated ageing did not favour the biogenic amine development. The results also indicate that the heating process promotes the amino acid transformation into new ageing products.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Conceptual modeling in the era of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence: Research topics and introduction to the special issue

    Get PDF
    Since the first version of the Entity–Relationship (ER) model proposed by Peter Chen over forty years ago, both the ER model and conceptual modeling activities have been key success factors for modeling computer-based systems. During the last decade, conceptual modeling has been recognized as an important research topic in academia, as well as a necessity for practitioners. However, there are many research challenges for conceptual modeling in contemporary applications such as Big Data, data-intensive applications, decision support systems, e-health applications, and ontologies. In addition, there remain challenges related to the traditional efforts associated with methodologies, tools, and theory development. Recently, novel research is uniting contributions from both the conceptual modeling area and the Artificial Intelligence discipline in two directions. The first one is efforts related to how conceptual modeling can aid in the design of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. The second one is how Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning can be applied in model-based solutions, such as model-based engineering, to infer and improve the generated models. For the first time in the history of Conceptual Modeling (ER) conferences, we encouraged the submission of papers based on AI and ML solutions in an attempt to highlight research from both communities. In this paper, we present some of important topics in current research in conceptual modeling. We introduce the selected best papers from the 37th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER’18) held in Xi’an, China and summarize some of the valuable contributions made based on the discussions of these papers. We conclude with suggestions for continued research.The research reported in this paper was partially funded by the ECLIPSE-UA (RTI2018-094283-B-C32) and the AETHER-UA (PID2020-112540RB-C43) Projects from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation

    The New Era of Business Intelligence Applications: Buildingfrom a Collaborative Point of View

    Get PDF
    Collaborative business intelligence (BI) iswidely embraced by enterprises as a way of making themost of their business processes. However, decision mak-ers usually work in isolation without the knowledge or thetime needed to obtain and analyze all the available infor-mation for making decisions. Unfortunately, collaborativeBI is currently based on exchanging e-mails and documentsbetween participants. As a result, information may be lost,participants may become disoriented, and the decision-making task may not yield the needed results. The authorspropose a modeling language aimed at modeling andeliciting the goals and information needs of participants ofcollaborative BI systems. This approach is based on inno-vative methods to elicit and model collaborative systemsand BI requirements. A controlled experiment was per-formed to validate this language, assessing its under-standability, scalability, efficiency, and user satisfaction byanalyzing two collaborative BI systems. By using theframework proposed in this work, clear guideless can beprovided regarding: (1) collaborative tasks, (2) their par-ticipants, and (3) the information to be shared among them.By using the approach to design collaborative BI systems,practitioners may easily trace every element needed in thedecision processes, avoiding the loss of information andfacilitating the collaboration of the stakeholders of suchprocesses

    Distributed Average Integral Secondary Control for Modular UPS Systems based Microgrids

    Get PDF

    Content in metallic ions of wines from the Madeira and Azores archipelagos

    Get PDF
    This study determines for the first time Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn, Sr, Li and Rb contents in wines from the archipelagos of Madeira and Azores (Portugal). The greater part of the mean content for the different parameters fell within the ranges described in the literature, except for sodium whose higher content may be due to the effect of marine spray. ANOVA was used to establish the metals with significant differences in mean content between the wines from both archipelagos, between table and liquor wines of Madeira, and between wines of Pico and Terceira Islands from the Azores archipelago. Principal component analysis shows differences in the wines according to the wine-making process and/or the equipment employed. Stepwise linear discriminant analysis achieves a good classification and validation of wines according to the archipelago of origin, and the island in the case of Azores wines

    Gene expression and volatile production during melon ripening

    Get PDF
    [SPA] Se realizó una secuenciación de transcriptoma para analizar los genes implicados en la formación de aromas expresados durante la maduración y para comprender los mecanismos moleculares que diferencian una línea casi isogénica (NIL) SC10-2 de melón y su parental Piel de Sapo (PS). El gen CmLOX18 (similar a la lipoxigenasa 4) se expresó diferencialmente comparando la NIL SC10-2 y PS y se asoció a la producción de hexanal, un compuesto diana e indicador del proceso de maduración no climatérica. La expresión del gen de la CmACO1 (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase 1) implicado en la biosíntesis de etileno no manifestó diferencias durante la maduración. La introgresión en LG X estuvo asociada a la diferente producción de hexanal entre la NIL y PS. Se propone un eQTL en el LG X que controla la producción de aromas del gen CmLOX18 localizado en LG I. [ENG] Transcriptome sequencing was performed in order to analyze the genes associated to volatile synthesis expressed during ripening and to understand the molecular mechanisms that differentiate a melon Near-isogenic Line (NIL) SC10-2 and its parental Piel de Sapo (PS). CmLOX18 gene (Similar to Lipoxygenase 18) was differentially expressed in the NIL SC10-2 compared with PS associated with the aroma volatile compound hexanal as a target compound of the non-climacteric ripening. The expression of CmACO1 (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase 1) gene associated with ethylene biosynthesis did not change during ripening. The introgression in LG X was associated with the differential hexanal production of the NIL and PS. An eQTL located in LG X is probably controlling the production of aroma volatiles due to CmLOX18 in LG I.Financial support: Fundación Séneca de la Región de Murcia (11784/PI/09), MINECO & UE-FEDER funds (AGL2010-20858). Thanks for the technical assistance to P. Varó and his team in CIFEA-Torre Pacheco (Consejería de Agricultura, Región de Murcia), N. Dos-Santos, E. Cuadros, M. García-Gutiérrez, A. Hakmaoui (UPCT), M.J. Roca (SAIT-UPCT), and IRTA-CRAG for the seeds of the NIL
    corecore