Feeding Practices and Growth of Children Under 20 Months of Age in Madrid.

The feeding habits of 344 children under 20 months of age were obtained from mothers using the dietary history method supplemented with questions on milk feeding and weaning. Infants were remarkably similarly fed. No relations were found between breast-feeding and socioeconomic group, age of the mother or sex of the baby. Neither did socioeconomic group, sex or birth weight of the baby influence the timing of complementary feeding; however, the latter was significantly correlated to both mother's age and feeding method at the age of three months. In addition, six anthropometric measurements of the children were taken. These anthropometric results showed that the children were, on average, taller and heavier, but leaner than those of relevant national and international growth references. Fifty one samples of home-prepared baby meals together with 46 food diaries of infants of seven and eight months were collected. The meals were analysed chemically and the diaries were calculated for daily intake of energy, macronutrients and six minerals. The meals had high protein but low fat content, with accordingly a low energy density. The children's mean daily nutrient intake showed also high protein and low fat levels due to the meals; nevertheless, intakes of energy and minerals were adequate. About 20% of the baby meals had a high sodium level. Children in this study were apparently well-fed and thriving. Compliance with present guidelines on infant nutrition is high, just minor changes are needed to improve actual practices: breast-feeding should last longer, complementary foods should be introduced later and salt and sugar should be avoided in baby meals. Mothers, particularly those in the low socioeconomic group, need better understanding of gluten and its introduction into the infant's diet

Foliicolous lichens from Suriname and Guyana: new records and three new species

Sampling of foliicolous lichens by the first author in Suriname in 2014 resulted in 103 records of lichenized and lichenicolous fungi for Suriname, including 89 first records for the country and one undescribed species. Fieldwork in Guyana by the second author in 1992 and 1997 brought 29 new records, including a new chemical strain for Loflammea epiphylla and two undescribed species. A full list for Suriname is presented (130 taxa), the additions for Guyana are listed, and the new species Calenia surinamensis, Enterographa paruimae and Strigula transversoundulata are described.

Societal burden and quality of life in patients with Lisfranc Injuries

Background: The incidence of Lisfranc fractures is rising, along with the incidence of foot fractures in general. These injuries can lead to long-term healthcare use and societal costs. Current economic evaluation studies are scarce in Lisfranc fracture research, and only investigate the healthcare costs. The aim of the present study was to accurately measure the monetary societal burden of disease and quality of life in the first 6 months after the injury in patients with Lisfranc fractures in the Netherlands. Materials and methods: This study used a prevalence-based, bottom-up approach. Patients were included through thirteen medical centres in the Netherlands. Both stable and unstable injuries were included. The societal perspective was used. The costs were measured at baseline, 12 weeks and 6 months using the iMTA MCQ and PCQ questionnaires. Reference prices were used for valuation. Quality-of-life was measured using the EQ-5D-5 L and VAS scores. Results: 214 patients were included. The mean age was 45.9 years, and 24.3% of patients had comorbidities. The baseline questionnaires yielded approximately €2023 as the total societal costs in the 3 months prior to injury. The follow-up questionnaires and surgery costs assessment yielded approximately €17,083 as the total costs in the first 6 months after injury. Of these costs, approximately two thirds could be attributed to productivity losses. The EQ-5D-5 L found a mean index value of 0.449 at baseline and an index value of 0.737 at the 6-month follow-up. Conclusion: The total monetary societal costs in the first 6 months after injury are approximately €17,083. Approximately two thirds of these costs can be attributed to productivity losses. These costs appear to be somewhat higher than those found in other studies. However, these studies only included the healthcare costs. Furthermore, the baseline costs indicate relatively low healthcare usage before the injury compared to the average Dutch patient. The mean QoL index was 0.462 at baseline and 0.737 at 6 months, indicating a rise in QoL after treatment as well as a long-lasting impact on QoL. To our knowledge, this is only the first study investigating the societal costs of Lisfranc injuries, so more research is needed.</p

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in a non-cirrhotic liver in a patient with homozygous ZZ alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency

Alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency, which is an under-recognised metabolic genetic disorder, is known to cause severe lung disease and liver cirrhosis in about 10%-15% of cases. Patients with AAT deficiency are at a higher risk for developing hepatocellular carcinoma, both in cirrhotic and in non-cirrhotic livers. In this case report, a 48-year-old woman with homozygous ZZ AAT deficiency presented with abdominal pain, and by imaging, an abnormal area in the liver was found. The initial differential diagnosis consisted of benign abnormalities but a malignancy could not be ruled out. Finally, this abnormality turned out to be an intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) in a non-cirrhotic liver. Since this type of tumour has been very infrequently described to be associated with AAT deficiency, the question remains whether alpha-1 trypsin accumulation in the hepatocytes was responsible for the development of iCCA. However, other associated factors for developing an iCCA were ruled out

Bayesian clustering of multiple zero-inflated outcomes

Several applications involving counts present a large proportion of zeros (excess-of-zeros data). A popular model for such data is the hurdle model, which explicitly models the probability of a zero count, while assuming a sampling distribution on the positive integers. We consider data from multiple count processes. In this context, it is of interest to study the patterns of counts and cluster the subjects accordingly. We introduce a novel Bayesian approach to cluster multiple, possibly related, zero-inflated processes. We propose a joint model for zero-inflated counts, specifying a hurdle model for each process with a shifted Negative Binomial sampling distribution. Conditionally on the model parameters, the different processes are assumed independent, leading to a substantial reduction in the number of parameters as compared with traditional multivariate approaches. The subject-specific probabilities of zero-inflation and the parameters of the sampling distribution are flexibly modelled via an enriched finite mixture with random number of components. This induces a two-level clustering of the subjects based on the zero/non-zero patterns (outer clustering) and on the sampling distribution (inner clustering). Posterior inference is performed through tailored Markov chain Monte Carlo schemes. We demonstrate the proposed approach on an application involving the use of the messaging service WhatsApp. This article is part of the theme issue 'Bayesian inference: challenges, perspectives, and prospects'

Lecania makarevicziae, a new lichen species from Iran

A new for science species Lecania makarevicziae differing from L. pallida in having knobby to squamulose, blastidiate thallus, in having larger apothecia, in having a dark violet-brown disc, in having a plane disc, in having (1–2–)3-septate ascospores with slightly distinct constrictions at the septum, as well as in the lack of dense bluish pruina on apothecium disc, from Iran and Turkmenistan, is described, compared with closely related taxa

Understanding public support for COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures over time:Does it wear out?

Background: COVID-19 mitigation measures intend to protect public health, but their adverse psychological, social, and economic effects weaken public support. Less favorable trade-offs may especially weaken support for more restrictive measures. Support for mitigation measures may also differ between population subgroups who experience different benefits and costs, and decrease over time, a phenomenon termed “pandemic fatigue.” Methods: We examined self-reported support for COVID-19 mitigation measures in the Netherlands over 12 consecutives waves of data collection between April 2020 and May 2021 in an open population cohort study. Participants were recruited through community panels of the 25 regional public health services, and through links to the online surveys advertised on social media. The 54,010 unique participants in the cohort study on average participated in 4 waves of data collection. Most participants were female (65%), middle-aged [57% (40–69 years)], highly educated (57%), not living alone (84%), residing in an urban area (60%), and born in the Netherlands (95%). Results: COVID-19 mitigation measures implemented in the Netherlands remained generally well-supported over time [all scores &gt;3 on 5-point scale ranging 1 (low)−5 (high)]. During the whole period studied, support was highest for personal hygiene measures, quarantine and wearing face masks, high but somewhat lower for not shaking hands, testing and self-isolation, and restricting social contacts, and lowest for limiting visitors at home, and not traveling abroad. Women and higher educated people were more supportive of some mitigation measures than men and lower educated people. Older people were more supportive of more restrictive measures than younger people, and support for more socially restrictive measures decreased most over time in higher educated people or in younger people. Conclusions: This study found no support for pandemic fatigue in terms of a gradual decline in support for all mitigation measures in the first year of the pandemic. Rather, findings suggest that support for mitigation measures reflects a balancing of benefits and cost, which may change over time, and differ between measures and population subgroups