1,720,963 research outputs found
Human Breast Milk-Acquired Cytomegalovirus Infection: Certainties, Doubts And Perspectives
No full textBreast Milk (BM) is the best source of nutrition for newborns, especially if premature. In fact, its beneficial impact on short- and long-term neonatal outcome has was deeply described. Unfortunately, BM could not be always so safe, especially due to the possible presence of maternal viruses that can shed and transferred to the breastfed neonate. Among these, Cytomegalovirus (CMV) can potentially lead to a serious and acute illness, mostly in case of low gestational age. Some studies also report the association of CMV-acquired infection to an increased risk of structural and functional brain modifications and neurological impairment. Due to these reasons, a strategy to remove CMV from BM with a minimal or absent impact on its beneficial components, would be desirable. Up to now, pasteurization, freezing, ultraviolet- C or microwave irradiation are the available techniques; they show different levels of efficacy and variable effects on BM composition, even if many studies are still needed to fully clarify these implications. In this review, we provide an update of the current evidence about these topics. We focus on the factors promoting CMV shedding through BM; moreover, the possible occurrence of a severe disease in preterm neonates is also described. Finally we investigate the potential effects showed on BM properties by the strategies that prevent or reduce viral transmission, therefore influencing newborns' healthy, and the new techniques which could show a relevant role in the next future, such as metabolomics
Omics in human colostrum and mature milk: Looking to old data with new eyes
Full text linkHuman Milk (HM) is the best source for newborn nutrition until at least six months; it exerts anti-inflammatory and anti-infective functions, promotes immune system formation and supports organ development. Breastfeeding could also protect from obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, human colostrum (HC) presents a peculiar role in newborn support as a protective effect against allergic and chronic diseases, in addition to long-term metabolic benefits. In this review, we discuss the recent literature regarding âomicsâ technologies and growth factors (GF) in HC and the effects of pasteurization on its composition. Our aim was to provide new evidence in terms of transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and microbiomics, also in relation to maternal metabolic diseases and/or fetal anomalies and to underline the functions of GF. Since HC results are so precious, particularly for the vulnerable pre-terms category, we also discuss the importance of HM pasteurization to ensure donated HC even to neonates whose mothers are unable to provide. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first review analyzing in detail the molecular pattern, microbiota, bioactive factors, and dynamic profile of HC, finding clinical correlations of such mediators with their possible in vivo effects and with the consequent impact on neonatal outcomes
Miracles and mysteries of breast milk: from Egyptians to the 3 M’s (Metabolomics, Microbiomics, Multipotent stem cells)
Full text linkThe ancient Egyptians considered breast milk the nectar of Gods that could give life, strength and ensure a very long existence. Nowadays, it is well known that breast milk is a dynamic bioactive mixture that is tailored upon the needs of the neonates. In fact breast milk contains nutritional substances (such as lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals), bioactive substances (such as hormones, cytokines, chemokines, immunoglobulins, leucocytes) and, according to the newest works, bacteria (microbiome of maternal milk) and multipotent stem cells.
Metabolomics is one of the newest “omics” sciences that make it possible to have a snapshot of the metabolic state of an individual or a biufluid. Now about 10 papers have been published in the last 3 years on metabolomics in human milk.
Human breast milk was mistakenly thought to be sterile for almost a century, but nowadays using the modern technologies it is well known that it is “contaminated”: in fact investigators we know that bacteria can be found in breast milk speaks about maternal milk microbiota. A breastfed baby is thought to ingest up to 10 milions of live bacteria per day. There are as much as 600 species of bacteria in maternal milk.
The possible future applications of stem cells found in are potentially endless: a tailored regenerative medicine with less ethical problems and better outcomes for the patients could be developed
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Breast Milk for Preterm Multiples: More Proteins, Less Lactose
No full textExclusive breastfeeding is currently recommended until at least 6 months of postnatal age, due to maternal breast milk (BM) unique composition and beneficial properties. In fact, BM modifies itself according to gestational age (GA) at birth, adapting its composition to neonatal requests during lactation. Multiple births represent about 3% of the whole pregnancies; such neonates result more vulnerable than full-term newborns, due to lower GA and birth weight (BW) and the higher incidence of perinatal complications. Although an adequate nutrition is fundamental for twins and other multiples, studies on this topic are lacking. We collected and analyzed BM from mothers of 19 twins and 5 triplets showing GA < 33 weeks and BW < 1500 g, comparing it to a control group of 28 preterm singletons. As a result, at GA <= 28 weeks, we observed that protein content is higher in BM for multiples (1.53 vs. 1.29 g per 100 ml), lactose concentration is greater in BM for singletons (6.72 vs. 6.34 g per 100 ml) and GA results the most relevant factor influencing BM protein composition. BM for multiples results higher in proteins and lower in lactose, if compared with singleton's samples; this could promote and sustain growth and organ development in this vulnerable category. BM from multiples shows a trophic and immunologic role, since these neonates often show lower GA and BW instead of singletons. These findings could help in optimizing nutritional strategies and improving BM individualized fortification
Individualized fortification of breast milk in 41 Extremely Low Birth Weight (ELBW) preterm infants
No full textBACKGROUND: The use of breast milk presents numerous early and long-term advantages for ELBW preterms. However, breast milk without fortification does not cover the high nutritional needs of such patients. The aim of our study was to assess the effect of individualized fortification of breast milk on the growth of ELBWs hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
METHODS: Retrospective single-center observational study.
RESULTS: We assessed the growth of 41 consecutive ELBWs (21 females, 20 males) with gestational ages between 23 and 30 weeks (mean GA 26.31±1.8) fed with breast milk in an individualized way. The rate of growth as the mean weight increase with breast milk fortification was 16.04±3.13 g/kg/day, more than the growth of the fetus in the uterus (~15 g/kg/day). This result was confirmed also among the ELBWs of lower GA. However, only 24.4% of all the ELBWs at the time of discharge from the NICU presented an appropriate weight for their gestational age. No cases of Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) were observed.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite high growth velocity, the ELBWs failed to remain in the same percentiles of birth and, at discharge, only 27.7% had a weight of >10 centiles. Further studies are needed to improve growth during early critical phases of development
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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