5,847 research outputs found
Milk osmolality: does it matter?
No full textHigh osmolality of infant feed reflects a high concentration of solute particles and has been implicated as a cause of necrotising enterocolitis. Evidence for direct intestinal mucosal injury as a result of hyperosmolar feeds is scant, and no good evidence has been found to support such an association. High osmolality of enteral substrate may, however, slow down gastric emptying. Osmolality of current infant feeds ranges from around 300 mOsm/kg in human breast milk to just more than 400 mOsm/kg in fully fortified breast milk. Addition of mineral and vitamin supplements to small volumes of milk can increase osmolality significantly and should be avoided if possible.</p
Application of the matched nested case-control design to the secondary analysis of trial data
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Combating stem and leaf rust of wheat: Historical perspective, impacts, and lessons learned
No full textmillions fed, food security, wheat rust, stem rust, leaf rust, Norman Borlaug,
Optical instruments for measuring leaf area index in low vegetation : application in Arctic ecosystems
No full textAuthor Posting. © Ecological Society of America, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of Ecological Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ecological Applications 15 (2005): 1462–1470, doi:10.1890/03-5354.Leaf area index (LAI) is a powerful diagnostic of plant productivity. Despite the fact that many methods have been developed to quantify LAI, both directly and indirectly, leaf area index remains difficult to quantify accurately, owing to large spatial and temporal variability. The gap-fraction technique is widely used to estimate the LAI indirectly. However, for low-stature vegetation, the gap-fraction sensor either cannot get totally underneath the plant canopy, thereby missing part of the leaf area present, or is too close to the individual leaves of the canopy, which leads to a large distortion of the LAI estimate. We set out to develop a methodology for easy and accurate nondestructive assessment of the variability of LAI in low-stature vegetation. We developed and tested the methodology in an arctic landscape close to Abisko, Sweden.
The LAI of arctic vegetation could be estimated accurately and rapidly by combining field measurements of canopy reflectance (NDVI) and light penetration through the canopy (gap-fraction analysis using a LI-COR LAI-2000). By combining the two methodologies, the limitations of each could be circumvented, and a significantly increased accuracy of the LAI estimates was obtained. The combination of an NDVI sensor for sparser vegetation and a LAI-2000 for denser vegetation could explain 81% of the variance of LAI measured by destructive harvest. We used the method to quantify the spatial variability and the associated uncertainty of leaf area index in a small catchment area.This research was funded by U.S. National Science Foundation
grant DEB0087046
Early parenteral nutrition and growth outcomes in preterm infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textBackground: The achievement of adequate nutritional intakes in preterm infants is challenging and may explain the poor growth often seen in this group. The use of early parenteral nutrition (PN) is one potential strategy to address this problem, although the benefits and harms are unknown. Objective: We determined whether earlier administration of PN benefits growth outcomes in preterm infants. Design: We conducted a systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies. Results: Eight RCTs and 13 observational studies met the inclusion criteria (n = 553 and 1796 infants). The meta-analysis was limited by disparate growth-outcome measures. An assessment of bias was difficult because of inadequate reporting. Results are given as mean differences (95% CIs). Early PN reduced the time to regain birth weight by 2.2 d (1.1, 3.2 d) for RCTs and 3.2 d (2.0, 4.4 d) in observational studies. The maximum percentage weight loss with early PN was lower by 3.1 percentage points (1.7, 4.5 percentage points) for RCTs and by 3.5 percentage points (2.6, 4.3 percentage points) for observational studies. Early PN improved weight at discharge or 36 wk postmenstrual age by 14.9 g (5.3, 24.5 g) (observational studies only), but no benefit was shown for length or head circumference. There was no evidence that early PN significantly affects risk of mortality, necrotizing enterocolitis, sepsis, chronic lung disease, intraventricular hemorrhage, or cholestasis. Conclusions: The results of this review, although subject to some limitations, show that early PN provides a benefit for some shortterm growth outcomes. No evidence that early PN increases morbidity or mortality was found. Neonatal research would benefit from the development of a set of core growth outcome measures.</p
Nutrition and neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm infants: a systematic review
No full textA systematic review with meta-analysis was carried out to investigate the effects of increased nutritional intake, via either macronutrient or multi-nutrient intervention, during the neonatal period on neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants born at <32 weeks of gestation or weighing <1501g at birth.Conclusion: Although the relationship remains unclear, increased early nutrition may reduce neurodevelopmental impairment in this group of infants. Future research should focus on using standardised nutritional interventions and an agreed neurodevelopmental assessment battery
Preterm birth and body composition at term equivalent age: a systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textThe body composition at TEA of infants born preterm is different than that of infants born at term. Preterm infants have less lean tissue but more similar fat mass. There is a need to determine whether improved nutritional management can enhance lean tissue acquisition, which indicates a need for measures of body composition in addition to routine anthropometr
ADEPT - abnormal doppler enteral prescription trial
No full textBackground: pregnancies complicated by abnormal umbilical artery Doppler blood flow patterns often result in the baby being born both preterm and growth-restricted. These babies are at high risk of milk intolerance and necrotising enterocolitis, as well as post-natal growth failure, and there is no clinical consensus about how best to feed them. Policies of both early milk feeding and late milk feeding are widely used. This randomised controlled trial aims to determine whether a policy of early initiation of milk feeds is beneficial compared with late initiation. Optimising neonatal feeding for this group of babies may have long-term health implications and if either of these policies is shown to be beneficial it can be immediately adopted into clinical practice.Methods and design: babies with gestational age below 35 weeks, and with birth weight below 10th centile for gestational age, will be randomly allocated to an "early" or "late" enteral feeding regimen, commencing milk feeds on day 2 and day 6 after birth, respectively. Feeds will be gradually increased over 9-13 days (depending on gestational age) using a schedule derived from those used in hospitals in the Eastern and South Western Regions of England, based on surveys of feeding practice. Primary outcome measures are time to establish full enteral feeding and necrotising enterocolitis; secondary outcomes include sepsis and growth. The target sample size is 400 babies. This sample size is large enough to detect a clinically meaningful difference of 3 days in time to establish full enteral feeds between the two feeding policies, with 90% power and a 5% 2-sided significance level. Initial recruitment period was 24 months, subsequently extended to 38 months.Discussion: there is limited evidence from randomised controlled trials on which to base decisions regarding feeding policy in high risk preterm infants. This multicentre trial will help to guide clinical practice and may also provide pointers for future research.Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN: 87351483.</p
How to use: nutritional assessment in neonates
No full textAdequate nutrition and growth during the neonatal period are important, especially for preterm infants, for whom there is evidence of poor nutrient intakes and growth, and this has important implications for their health in later life. Increased nutritional support while on the neonatal intensive care unit has been shown to improve growth, but such support is not universally available. Being able to carry out and interpret a nutritional assessment is therefore an important skill for paediatricians caring for neonates. This article aims to explain how to use nutritional assessment in neonates and provides some tools to make this process as straightforward as possible.</p
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