440 research outputs found
Dietary adequacy of Egyptian children with autism spectrum disorder compared to healthy developing children
Although the etiology and pathology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is still poorly understood, a number of environmental, anthropological, neurobiological and genetic factors have been related to the pathophysiology of ASD, even the impact of oxidative stress response related to the environment and nutrition intake. Usual recommended dietary habits are based on the combination of behavioral and dietary or nutraceutical interventions together with pharmacotherapy. Investigations about a reliable relationship between diet and ASD are still lacking. The present study aimed at comparing dietary regimens and habits of normally developing apparently healthy children, without diagnosed ASD, with a pediatric population of individuals affected by autistic disorder. Assessments of nutritional and anthropometric data, in addition to biochemical evaluation for nutrient deficiencies, were performed. A total of 80 children with autistic disorder and 80 healthy, normally developing pediatric individuals were enrolled in the study. Parents were asked to complete the standardized questionnaire regarding the different types of food and the proportion of a serving for their children. Biochemical analysis of micro- and macronutrients were also done. Plotting on the Egyptian sex-specific anthropometric growth (auximetric) chart, absolute weights as well as weight-related for age classes, were significantly higher in cases than healthy controls. No differences between groups were observed in regard to total kilocalories (kcal), carbohydrates, and fat intake. A total of 23.8% of children with autistic disorder vs. 11.3% in the healthy control group had a nutrient intake with features below the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of protein. Children with autistic disorder showed low dietary intake of some micronutrients; calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), selenium (Se) and sodium (Na), also they had significantly high intake of potassium (K) and vitamin C compared to healthy controls. Serum Mg, Fe, Ca, folate and vitamin B12 in children with autistic disorder were significantly low compared with healthy children. Significant positive correlations between serum Mg, Fe, Ca, vitamin B12 and folate and their levels in food were present. These results confirmed that different nutritional inadequacy was observed in Egyptian children with autistic disorder. The evidence reported in the present study should recommend screening of the nutritional status of ASD children for nutrient adequacy to reduce these deficiencies by dietary means or by administering appropriate vitamin and mineral supplements. Nutritional intervention plan should be tailored to address specific needs
Evaluation of branched-chain amino acids in children with autism spectrum disorder and epilepsy
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and epilepsy run hand-to-hand in their pathophysiology. Epilepsy is not an uncommon finding in patients with ASD. The aim of the present study was to identify the metabolic abnormalities of BCAAs (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) in children with ASD with and without seizures in comparison with neurotypical controls. Also, this study aimed to investigate the presence of epileptiform discharges on electroencephalography (EEG) in ASD patients and to describe the types and frequency of seizures observed. The study included 90 children aged 2-7 years, 30 of whom were diagnosed with both ASD and epilepsy. The other 30 children were diagnosed as ASD without epilepsy, and a comparable 30 normally developed children served as a control group. The groups were matched by age and gender. All patients were referred to the Autism Disorders Clinic for interviews and examinations. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) was applied to all study participants to assess the degree of autism. The present study results show that all types of seizures may be identified in ASD children. The median serum levels of BCAAs were lower in ASD children with and without epilepsy than in neurotypical controls. This opens the door for discussion about new etiologies and better categorizations of ASD based on genotype and genetic abnormalities detected. More studies with larger samples are needed to understand ASD better and to more reliable evaluate the association between ASD, EEG changes, seizures, and BCAAs
Tools from statistical physics for systems biology and for genomics
My graduate studies involved three broad classes of problems, each of which are presented in different chapters of this thesis. The first two parts of my work were related to studying dynamics of biochemical networks. I studied a mean-field/stochastic model of epigenetic chromatin silencing in yeast. The model gives rise to different dynamical behaviors possible within the same molecular model and provides qualitative predictions that are being investigated experimentally. In another part of my work, I studied a model of segment polarity network in Drosophila and analyzed the parameter space of the system. I particularly studied the relation between the geometry of parameter space and the robustness of the network. I will show that, in addition to the volume, the geometry of this region has important consequences for the robustness and the fragility of a network. A major part of my PhD work involved applications of high-throughput sequencing technologies for extracting information at the genomic level. I present SOPRA, a new algorithm for exploiting the mate pair information for assembly of short reads. I have successfully applied SOPRA to real data and were able to assemble scaffolds of significant length with very few errors introduced in the process.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Adel Dayaria
Data-driven design of fault diagnosis systems: nonlinear multimode processes
In many industrial applications early detection and diagnosis of abnormal behavior of the plant is of great importance. During the last decades, the complexity of process plants has been drastically increased, which imposes great challenges in development of model-based monitoring approaches and it sometimes becomes unrealistic for modern large-scale processes. The main objective of Adel Haghani Abandan Sari is to study efficient fault diagnosis techniques for complex industrial systems using process historical data and considering the nonlinear behavior of the process. To this end, different methods are presented to solve the fault diagnosis problem based on the overall behavior of the process and its dynamics. Moreover, a novel technique is proposed for fault isolation and determination of the root-cause of the faults in the system, based on the fault impacts on the process measurements. Contents Process monitoring Fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control Data-driven approaches and decision making Target Groups Graduate students and scientists of automatic control and process engineering Engineers in field of process control and monitoring, mechatronic About the Author Adel Haghani Abandan Sari is research assistant with Institute of Automation, university of Rostock. His research interests include data-driven process monitoring and fault-tolerant control with focus on large-scale industrial processes
The share trading electronically
Les intermédiaires financiers - on parle alors de courtiers en ligne - peuvent utiliser le réseau internet pour recevoir des ordres d'achat et de vente de leur clientèle, pour leur faire parvenir toute information et toute proposition d'opérations à réaliser. Et ils peuvent tenir des sites permettant à leurs clients de réaliser les opérations qu'ils souhaitent accomplir ou permettent à leurs clients de consulter un certain nombre d'informations, notamment les cours de bourse et les opérations qui sont en cours de réalisation. Préalablement à la passation d'ordres de bourse par Internet , et afin de protéger l'investisseur non professionnel, le prestataire et le donneur d'ordre sont tenus de suivre et de respecter plusieurs étapes . En effet, l'utilisation d'Internet dans la passation des ordres de bourse ne dispense pas le prestataire de services d'investissement - courtier en ligne - de son obligation d'établir avec le donneur d'ordre, deux conventions imposées par la réglementation, conventions pouvant être néanmoins réunies en un même document : une convention d'ouverture de compte ; une convention de service écrite.Financial intermediaries - brokers are referred to as online - can use the Internet to receive orders for the purchase and sale of their customers, to send them any information and any proposed operations to be performed. And they can keep their sites that allow customers to complete the transactions they wish to do or allow their customers to access a number of information, including stock prices and transactions that are underway. Prior to the execution of trading orders via the Internet, and to protect non-professional investor, the provider and the payer are required to monitor and follow several steps. Indeed, Internet use in the awarding of stock orders does not absolve the provider of investment services - online broker - from its obligation to establish with the client, two conventions imposed by the regulations, conventions can still be gathered in one document: a convention account opening, a written service agreement
Stiffness of Coupling Slabs in Shear Wall Buildings
Title: Stiffness of Coupling Slabs in Shear Wall Buildings, Author: Adel A. Mahmoud, Location: Thode In this thesis, a study was made on the coupling effect of floor slabs on the behaviour of shear wall structures . The slab coupled shear walls were analysed by the finite element technique to obtain the bending stiffness. Experimental verification was done on a small scale model of
steel walls coupled by a steel slab. Design curves to estimate the stiffness of the various slab coupled wall configurations are presented. In addition, a study was made on the influence of the dimensions and shapes of the
walls (plane walls, T-section walls and box core walls), wall openings, and slab dimensions on the effective width and stiffness of the connecting slab.ThesisMaster of Engineering (ME
Correlated versus uncorrelated frailty Cox models: A comparison of different estimation procedures
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