Nutritional management of children with cerebral palsy: a practical guide

Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Growth in Children with Cerebral Palsy during five years after Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy: a practice-based study

Background: Overweight is reported as a side effect of SDR. The aims were to study the development of weight, height and body mass index (BMI) during five years after SDR. Methods: This prospective, longitudinal and practice-based study included all 56 children with CP spastic diplegia undergoing SDR from the start in March 1993 to April 2003 in our hospital. The preoperative Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) levels were I-II in 17, III in 15, IV-V in 24 children. Median age at SDR was 4.3 years (range 2.4-7.4 years). Weight and height/recumbent length were measured. Swedish growth charts for typically developing children generated weight, height and BMI z-scores for age and gender. Results: The preoperative median z-scores were for height-1.92 and for body mass index (BMI)-0.22. Five years later, the median BMI z-score was increased by + 0.57 (p + 2 SD) increased (p < 0.05). Baseline BMI and age at the start of follow-up influenced the BMI change during the five years (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05 respectively). The individual growth was highly variable, but a tendency towards increasing stunting with age was seen in severe gross motor dysfunction (GMFCS levels IV-V) and the opposite, a slight catch-up of height in children with walking ability (GMFCS levels I-III). Conclusions: These are the first available subtype-and GMFCS-specific longitudinal growth data for children with CP spastic diplegia. Their growth potential according to these data should be regarded as a minimum, as some children were undernourished. It is unknown whether the spasticity reduction through SDR increased the weight gain velocity, or if the relative weight increase was part of the general "obesity epidemic". For some children the weight increase was highly desirable. In others, it resulted in overweight and obesity with risk of negative health effects. Weight and height should be monitored to enable early prevention of weight aberrations also causing problems with mobility, activity and participation

Assessment of low-dose cisplatin as a model of nausea and emesis in beagle dogs, potential for repeated administration

Cisplatin is a highly emetogenic cancer chemotherapy agent, which is often used to induce nausea and emesis in animal models. The cytotoxic properties of cisplatin also cause adverse events that negatively impact on animal welfare preventing repeated administration of cisplatin. In this study, we assessed whether a low (subclinical) dose of cisplatin could be utilized as a model of nausea and emesis in the dog while decreasing the severity of adverse events to allow repeated administration. The emetic, nausea-like behavior and potential biomarker response to both the clinical dose (70 mg/m2) and low dose (15 mg/m2) of cisplatin was assessed. Plasma creatinine concentrations and granulocyte counts were used to assess adverse effects on the kidneys and bone marrow, respectively. Nausea-like behavior and emesis was induced by both doses of cisplatin, but the latency to onset was greater in the low-dose group. No significant change in plasma creatinine was detected for either dose groups. Granulocytes were significantly reduced compared with baseline (P = 0.000) following the clinical, but not the low-dose cisplatin group. Tolerability of repeated administration was assessed with 4 administrations of an 18 mg/m2 dose cisplatin. Plasma creatinine did not change significantly. Cumulative effects on the granulocytes occurred, they were significantly decreased (P = 0.03) from baseline at 3 weeks following cisplatin for the 4th administration only. Our results suggest that subclinical doses (15 and 18 mg/m2) of cisplatin induce nausea-like behavior and emesis but have reduced adverse effects compared with the clinical dose allowing for repeated administration in crossover studies

Conceptual Framework for Managing Uncertainty in a Collaborative Agri-Food Supply Chain Context

[EN] Agri-food supply chains are subjected to many sources of uncertainty. If these uncertainties are not managed properly, they can have a negative impact on the agri-food supply chain (AFSC) performance, its customers, and the environment. In this sense, collaboration is proposed as a possible solution to reduce it. For that, a conceptual framework (CF) for managing uncertainty in a collaborative context is proposed. In this context, this paper seeks to answer the following research questions: What are the existing uncertainty sources in the AFSCs? Can collaboration be used to reduce the uncertainty of AFSCs? Which elements can integrate a CF for managing uncertainty in a collaborative AFSC? The CF proposal is applied to the weather source of uncertainty in order to show its applicability.The first author acknowledges the partial support of the Program of Formation of University Professors of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport (FPU15/03595). The other authors acknowledge the partial support of the Project 691249, RUC-APS: Enhancing and implementing Knowledge based ICT solutions within high Risk and Uncertain Conditions for Agriculture Production Systems, funded by the EU under its funding scheme H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015.Esteso-Álvarez, A.; Alemany Díaz, MDM.; Ortiz Bas, Á. (2017). Conceptual Framework for Managing Uncertainty in a Collaborative Agri-Food Supply Chain Context. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. 506:715-724. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65151-4_64S715724506Taylor, D.H., Fearne, A.: Towards a framework for improvement in the management of demand in agri-food supply chains. Supply Chain Manag. Int. J. 11, 379–384 (2006)Matopoulos, A., Vlachopoulou, M., Manthou, V., Manos, B.: A conceptual framework for supply chain collaboration: empirical evidence from the agri-food industry. Supply Chain Manag. Int. J. 12, 177–186 (2007)Ahumada, O., Villalobos, J.R.: Application of planning models in the agri-food supply chain: a review. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 196, 1–20 (2009)Tsolakis, N.K., Keramydas, C.A., Toka, A.K., Aidonis, D.A., Iakovou, E.T.: Agrifood supply chain management: a comprehensive hierarchical decision-making framework and a critical taxonomy. Biosyst. Eng. 120, 47–64 (2014)van der Vorst, J.G., Da Silva, C.A., Trienekens, J.H.: Agro-industrial supply chain management: Concepts and applications. FAO (2007)Borodin, V., Bourtembourg, J., Hnaien, F., Kabadie, N.: Handling uncertainty in agricultural supply chain management: a state of the art. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 254, 348–359 (2016)van der Vorst, J.G.A.J., Beulens, A.J.M.: Identifying sources of uncertainty to generate supply chain redesign strategies. Int. J. Phys. Distrib. Logist. Manag. 32, 409–430 (2000)Klosa, E.: A concept of models for supply chain speculative risk analysis and management. J. Econ. Manag. 12, 45–59 (2013)Samson, S., Reneke, J.A., Wiecek, M.M.: A review of different perspectices on uncertainty and risk and an alternative modeling paradigm. Reliab. Eng. Syst. Saf. 94, 558–567 (2009)Backus, G.B.C., Eidman, V.R., Dijkhuizen, A.A.: Farm decision making under risk and uncertainty. Neth. J. Agric. Sci. 45, 307–328 (1997)van der Vorst, J.G.: Effective food supply chains; Generating, modelling and evaluating supply chain scenarios. (2000)Amorim, P., Günther, H.O., Almada-Lobo, B.: Multi-objective integrated production and distribution planning of perishable products. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 138, 89–101 (2012)Amorim, P., Meyr, H., Almeder, C., Almada-Lobo, B.: Managing perishability in production-distribution planning: a discussion and review. Flex. Serv. Manuf. 25, 389–413 (2013)Costa, C., Antonucci, F., Pallottino, F., Aguzzi, J., Sarria, D., Menesatti, P.: A review on agri-food supply chain traceability by means of RFID technology. Food Bioprocess Technol. 6, 353–366 (2013)Pahl, J., Voss, S.: Integrating deterioration and lifetime constraints in production and supply chain planning: a survey. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 238, 654–674 (2014)Grillo, H., Alemany, M.M.E., Ortiz, A.: A review of Mathematical models for supporting the order promising process under Lack of Homogeneity in product and other sources of uncertainty. Comput. Ind. Eng. 91, 239–261 (2016)Zwietering, M.H., van’t Riet, K.: Modelling of the quality of food: optimization of a cooling chain. In: Management Studies and the Agri-business: Management of Agri-chains, Wageningen, The Netherlands, pp. 108–117 (1994)Akkerman, R., Farahani, P., Grunow, M.: Quality, safety and sustainability in food distribution: a review of quantitative operations management approaches and challenges. Spectrum 32, 863–904 (2010)Apaiah, R.K., Hendrix, E.M.T., Meerdink, G., Linnemann, A.R.: Qualitative methodology for efficient food chain design. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 16, 204–214 (2005)Lehmann, R.J., Reiche, R., Schiefer, G.: Future internet and the agri-food sector: State-of-the-art in literature and research. Comput. Electron. Agric. 89, 158–174 (2012)Kusumastuti, R.D., van Donk, D.P., Teunter, R.: Crop-related harvesting and processing planning: a review. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 174, 76–92 (2016)Dreyer, H.C., Strandhagen, J.O., Hvolby, H.H., Romsdal, A., Alfnes, E.: Supply chain strategies for speciality foods: a Norwegian case study. Prod. Plan. Control 27, 878–893 (2016)Baghalian, A., Rezapour, S., Farahani, R.Z.: Robust supply chain network design with service level against disruptions and demand uncertainties: a real-life case. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 227, 199–215 (2013)Aggarwal, S., Srivastava, M.K.: Towards a grounded view of collaboration in Indian agri-food supply chains: a qualitative investigation. Br. Food J. 115, 1085–1106 (2016)Teimoury, E., Nedaei, H., Ansari, S., Sabbaghi, M.: A multi-objective analysis for import quota policy making in a perishable fruit and vegetable supply chain: a system dynamics approach. Comput. Electron. Agric. 93, 37–45 (2013)Opara, L.U.: Traceability in agriculture and food supply chain: a review of basic concepts, technological implications, and future prospects. J. Food Agric. Environ. 1, 101–106 (2003)Kruize, J.W., Wolfert, S., Goense, D., Scholten, H., Beulens, A., Veenstra, T.: Integrating ICT applications for farm business collaboration processes using Fl Space. In: 2014 Annual SRII Global Conference, pp. 232–240. IEEE (2014)Oriade, C.A., Dillon, C.R.: Developments in biophysical and bioeconomic simulation of agricultural systems: a review. Agric. Econ. 17, 45–58 (1997)Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Afsarmanesh, H.: Collaborative networks: value creation in a knowledge society. In: Wang, Kesheng, Kovacs, G.L., Wozny, Michael, Fang, Minglun (eds.) PROLAMAT 2006. IIFIP, vol. 207, pp. 26–40. Springer, Boston, MA (2006). doi: 10.1007/0-387-34403-9_4Prima Dania, W.A., Xing, K., Amer, Y.: Collaboration and sustainable agri-food supply chain: a literature review. MATEC Web Conf. 58 (2016)Simatupang, T.M., Sridharan, R.: The collaborative index: a measure for supply chain collaboration. Int. J. Phys. Distrib. Logist. Manag. 35, 44–62 (2005)Fischer, C., Hartmann, M., Reynolds, N., Leat, P., Revoredo-Giha, C., Henchion, M., Albisu, L.M., Gracia, A.: Factors influencing contractual choice and sustainable relationships in European agri-food supply chains. Eur. Rev. Agric. Econ. 36, 541–569 (2009

Cellular Radiosensitivity: How much better do we understand it?

Purpose: Ionizing radiation exposure gives rise to a variety of lesions in DNA that result in genetic instability and potentially tumorigenesis or cell death. Radiation extends its effects on DNA by direct interaction or by radiolysis of H2O that generates free radicals or aqueous electrons capable of interacting with and causing indirect damage to DNA. While the various lesions arising in DNA after radiation exposure can contribute to the mutagenising effects of this agent, the potentially most damaging lesion is the DNA double strand break (DSB) that contributes to genome instability and/or cell death. Thus in many cases failure to recognise and/or repair this lesion determines the radiosensitivity status of the cell. DNA repair mechanisms including homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) have evolved to protect cells against DNA DSB. Mutations in proteins that constitute these repair pathways are characterised by radiosensitivity and genome instability. Defects in a number of these proteins also give rise to genetic disorders that feature not only genetic instability but also immunodeficiency, cancer predisposition, neurodegeneration and other pathologies. Conclusions: In the past fifty years our understanding of the cellular response to radiation damage has advanced enormously with insight being gained from a wide range of approaches extending from more basic early studies to the sophisticated approaches used today. In this review we discuss our current understanding of the impact of radiation on the cell and the organism gained from the array of past and present studies and attempt to provide an explanation for what it is that determines the response to radiation

Identification of Novel Human Damage Response Proteins Targeted through Yeast Orthology

Studies in Saccharomyces cerevisiae show that many proteins influence cellular survival upon exposure to DNA damaging agents. We hypothesized that human orthologs of these S. cerevisiae proteins would also be required for cellular survival after treatment with DNA damaging agents. For this purpose, human homologs of S. cerevisiae proteins were identified and mapped onto the human protein-protein interaction network. The resulting human network was highly modular and a series of selection rules were implemented to identify 45 candidates for human toxicity-modulating proteins. The corresponding transcripts were targeted by RNA interference in human cells. The cell lines with depleted target expression were challenged with three DNA damaging agents: the alkylating agents MMS and 4-NQO, and the oxidizing agent t-BuOOH. A comparison of the survival revealed that the majority (74%) of proteins conferred either sensitivity or resistance. The identified human toxicity-modulating proteins represent a variety of biological functions: autophagy, chromatin modifications, RNA and protein metabolism, and telomere maintenance. Further studies revealed that MMS-induced autophagy increase the survival of cells treated with DNA damaging agents. In summary, we show that damage recovery proteins in humans can be identified through homology to S. cerevisiae and that many of the same pathways are represented among the toxicity modulators

Double blind randomized placebo-controlled trial on the effects of testosterone supplementation in elderly men with moderate to low testosterone levels: design and baseline characteristics [ISRCTN23688581]

In ageing men testosterone levels decline, while cognitive function, muscle and bone mass, sexual hair growth, libido and sexual activity decline and the risk of cardiovascular diseases increase. We set up a double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial to investigate the effects of testosterone supplementation on functional mobility, quality of life, body composition, cognitive function, vascular function and risk factors, and bone mineral density in older hypogonadal men. We recruited 237 men with serum testosterone levels below 13.7 nmol/L and ages 60–80 years. They were randomized to either four capsules of 40 mg testosterone undecanoate (TU) or placebo daily for 26 weeks. Primary endpoints are functional mobility and quality of life. Secondary endpoints are body composition, cognitive function, aortic stiffness and cardiovascular risk factors and bone mineral density. Effects on prostate, liver and hematological parameters will be studied with respect to safety. Measure of effect will be the difference in change from baseline visit to final visit between TU and placebo. We will study whether the effect of TU differs across subgroups of baseline waist girth (< 100 cm vs. ≥ 100 cm; testosterone level (<12 versus ≥ 12 nmol/L), age (< median versus ≥ median), and level of outcome under study (< median versus ≥ median). At baseline, mean age, BMI and testosterone levels were 67 years, 27 kg/m(2 )and 10.72 nmol/L, respectively

Haemonchus contortus Acetylcholine Receptors of the DEG-3 Subfamily and Their Role in Sensitivity to Monepantel

Gastro-intestinal nematodes in ruminants, especially Haemonchus contortus, are a global threat to sheep and cattle farming. The emergence of drug resistance, and even multi-drug resistance to the currently available classes of broad spectrum anthelmintics, further stresses the need for new drugs active against gastro-intestinal nematodes. A novel chemical class of synthetic anthelmintics, the Amino-Acetonitrile Derivatives (AADs), was recently discovered and the drug candidate AAD-1566 (monepantel) was chosen for further development. Studies with Caenorhabditis elegans suggested that the AADs act via nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) of the nematode-specific DEG-3 subfamily. Here we identify nAChR genes of the DEG-3 subfamily from H. contortus and investigate their role in AAD sensitivity. Using a novel in vitro selection procedure, mutant H. contortus populations of reduced sensitivity to AAD-1566 were obtained. Sequencing of full-length nAChR coding sequences from AAD-susceptible H. contortus and their AAD-1566-mutant progeny revealed 2 genes to be affected. In the gene monepantel-1 (Hco-mptl-1, formerly named Hc-acr-23H), a panel of mutations was observed exclusively in the AAD-mutant nematodes, including deletions at intron-exon boundaries that result in mis-spliced transcripts and premature stop codons. In the gene Hco-des-2H, the same 135 bp insertion in the 5′ UTR created additional, out of frame start codons in 2 independent H. contortus AAD-mutants. Furthermore, the AAD mutants exhibited altered expression levels of the DEG-3 subfamily nAChR genes Hco-mptl-1, Hco-des-2H and Hco-deg-3H as quantified by real-time PCR. These results indicate that Hco-MPTL-1 and other nAChR subunits of the DEG-3 subfamily constitute a target for AAD action against H. contortus and that loss-of-function mutations in the corresponding genes may reduce the sensitivity to AADs