33 research outputs found
Effect of play-based family-centered psychomotor/psychosocial stimulation on the development of severely acutely malnourished children under six in a low-income setting: a randomized controlled trial
No full textBackground: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends incorporating psychosocial stimulation into the
management of severe acute malnutrition (SAM). However, there is little evidence about the effectiveness of these
interventions for SAM children, particularly when serious food shortages and lack of a balanced diet prevail. The
objective of this study was to examine whether family-based psychomotor/psychosocial stimulation in a lowincome setting improves the development, linear growth, and nutritional outcomes in children with SAM.
Method: Children with SAM (N = 339) admitted for treatment to the Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia,
were randomized to a control (n = 170) or intervention (n = 169) group. Both groups received routine medical care
and nutritional treatment at the hospital. The intervention group additionally received play-based psychomotor/
psychosocial stimulation during their hospital stay, and at home for 6 months after being discharged from hospital.
The fine motor (FM) and gross motor (GM) functions, language (LA) and personal-social (PS) skills of the children
were assessed using adapted Denver II, the social-emotional (SE) behavior was assessed using adapted Ages and
Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional, and the linear growth and nutritional status were determined through
anthropometric assessments. All outcomes were assessed before the intervention, upon discharge from hospital,
and 6 months after discharge (as end-line). The overtime changes of these outcomes measured in both groups
were compared using Generalized Estimating Equations.
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© The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to
the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver
(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
* Correspondence: [email protected] †
Teklu Gemechu Abessa and Marita Granitzer contributed equally to this
work.
1
Department of Special Needs and Inclusive Education, College of Behavioral
Sciences and Education, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
2
REVAL Rehabilitation Research Center, Biomedical Research Institute, Faculty
of Rehabilitation Sciences and Physiotherapy, Hasselt University, Hasselt,
Belgium
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Abessa et al. BMC Pediatrics (2019) 19:336
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-019-1696-z
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Results: The intervention group improved significantly on GM during hospital follow-up by 0.88 points (p < 0.001,
effect size = 0.26 SD), and on FM functions during the home follow-up by 1.09 points (p = 0.001, effect size = 0.22
SD). Both young and older children benefited similarly from the treatment. The intervention did not contribute
significantly to linear growth and nutritional outcomes.
Conclusion: Psychomotor/psychosocial stimulation of SAM children enhances improvement in gross motor
functions when combined with standard nutrient-rich diets, but it can enhance the fine motor functions even
when such standard dietary care is not available.
Trial registration: The trial was retrospectively registered on 30 January 2017 at the US National Institute of Health
(ClinicalTrials.gov) # NCT03036176.This study is part of the Jimma University-Interuniversity Collaboration partnership program funded by Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad - Universitaire Ontwikkelingssamenwerking (VLIR-UOS). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to prepare or publish the manuscript
Analysing Author Self-citations in Computer Science Publications
No full textIn scientific papers, citations refer to relevant previous work in order to underline the current line of argumentation, compare to other work and/or avoid repetition in writing. Self-citations, e.g. authors citing own previous work might have the same motivation but have also gained negative attention w.r.t. unjustified improvement of scientific performance indicators. Previous studies on self-citations do not provide a detailed analysis in the domain of computer science. In this work, we analyse the prevalence of self-citations in the DBLP, a digital library for computer science. We find, that approx. 10% of all citations are self-citations, while the rates vary with year after publication and the position of the author in the list as well as with the gender of the lead author. Further, we find that C-ranked venues have the highest incoming self-citation rate, while the outgoing rate is stable across all ranks
Die Funktion von MRP1/ABCC1 in der antioxidativen Abwehr der menschlichen Plazenta
No full textDie organische Schwermetallverbindung Methylquecksilber (MeHg) ist eine toxische Substanz, die effizient über die Plazenta zum Fötus transportiert wird und besonders schädlich für die Entwicklung des Nervensystems ist. MeHg bindet intrazellulär an Glutathion (GSH) und es wird vermutet, dass ABC-Transporter für den Export dieses GSH-Konjugats (MeHg-GS) verantwortlich sind. Unsere Hypothese ist, dass der ABC- Transporter Multidrug Resistance-Associated Protein (MRP)1 (ABCC1) der Haupttransporter ist, der für diesen Prozess in der menschlichen Plazenta verantwortlich ist.
Mit Hilfe des siRNA-vermittelten Gen-Knockdowns von MRP1 in einer Plazenta- Zelllinie des ersten Trimesters (HTR-8/SVneo) zeigen wir, dass MRP1 für den Export von MeHg verantwortlich ist und den GSH-Status der Zelle reguliert. Die Herunterregulierung von MRP1 führt zu einer signifikant erhöhten Empfindlichkeit gegenüber MeHg-induziertem oxidativem Stress, was zu erhöhter Zytotoxizität und Apoptose führt. Darüber hinaus ermöglichten Transportstudien in der Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) II-Zelllinie, die das menschliche MRP1-Protein überexprimiert, die Klärung der Transportrichtung. Da es in der Literatur bislang nur inkonsistente Befunde zur Lokalisation von MRP1 in der Plazenta gibt, wurden neue Lokalisationsstudien mit validierten Antikörpern durchgeführt, um diese Frage zu klären. Eine korrekte Lokalisierung von MRP1 ist für die Beurteilung der Toxikokinetik von MeHg in der menschlichen Plazenta unerlässlich.
Insgesamt zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass (1) MRP1 hauptsächlich den apikal- basolateralen Transport von MeHg in Epithelzellen reguliert, (2) MRP1 eine entscheidende Rolle für den oxidativen Status der Zelle spielt und die Resistenz gegenüber oxidativem Stress beeinflusst und (3) MRP1 hauptsächlich an der basolateralen Membran des Syncytiotrophoblasten in der menschlichen Plazenta lokalisiert ist. Zusammenfassend lässt sich sagen, dass MRP1 eine wichtige Funktion für das Überleben der menschlichen Plazenta unter oxidativem Stress und in der Folge für die Gesundheit des Fötus hat.The organic metal compound methylmercury (MeHg) is a toxic substance that is efficiently transported to the fetus via the placenta and particularly harmful to neurodevelopment. MeHg binds intracellularly to glutathione (GSH) and it is suggested that ABC-transporters are responsible for the export of this GSH conjugate (MeHg- GS). Our hypothesis is that the ABC-transporter multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP)1 (ABCC1) is the main transporter responsible for this process in the human placenta.
By using siRNA-mediated gene knockdown of MRP1 in a first-trimester placenta cell line (HTR-8/SVneo), we show that MRP1 is responsible for the export of MeHg and regulates the GSH status of the cell. MRP1 downregulation leads to a significantly increased sensitivity to MeHg-induced oxidative stress resulting in increased cytotoxicity and apoptosis. Furthermore, transport studies in the Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) II cell line, which overexpresses the human MRP1 protein, allowed to clarify the transport direction. Since the literature reports inconsistent findings on the localization of MRP1 in the placenta, new localization studies with verified antibodies were made to clarify this question. A correct localization of MRP1 is essential for the evaluation of the toxicokinetics of MeHg in the human placenta.
Together, the findings show that (1) MRP1 mainly regulates the apical-to-basolateral transport of MeHg in epithelial cells, (2) MRP1 plays a crucial role in the oxidative status of the cell influencing the resistance to oxidative stress and (3) MRP1 is mainly located at the basolateral membrane of the syncytiotrophoblast in the human placenta. In conclusion, MRP1 has an important function in the survival of the human placenta under oxidative stress and subsequently for fetal health.Abweichender Titel laut Übersetzung der Verfasserin/des VerfassersMedizinische Universität Wien, Diss., 202
bacon: Linked Data Integration based on the RDF Data Cube Vocabulary
No full textDiscovering and integrating relevant real-live datasets are es-
sential tasks, when it comes to handling Linked Data. Sim-
ilar to Data Warehousing approaches, Linked Data can be
prepared to enable sophisticated data analysis. The devel-
oped open source framework
bacon
enables interactive and
crowed-sourced Data Integration on Linked Data (Linked
Data Integration), utilizing the RDF Data Cube Vocabulary
and the semantic properties of Linked Open Data. Discov-
ering suitable datasets on-the- y in local or remote repos-
itories sets up the ensuing integration process. Based on
well-known Data Warehousing processes, the semantic na-
ture of the data is taken into account to handle and merge
RDF Data Cubes. To do so, structure and content of the
cubes must be analyzed and processed. A similarity measure
has been developed to nd similarly structured cubes. The
user is o ered a graphical interface, where he can search for
suitable cubes and modify their structure based on semantic
properties. This process is fostered by a set of automated
suggestions to support inexperienced users and also domain
expert
Physical Activity and Sedentary Time in Pregnancy: An Exploratory Study on Oxidative Stress Markers in the Placenta of Women with Obesity
No full textRegular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and reduced sedentary time (ST) improve maternal glucose metabolism in pregnancy. More MVPA and less ST outside pregnancy increase antioxidant capacity, hence, are beneficial in preventing oxidative stress. The placenta is the first line of defense for the fetus from an adverse maternal environment, including oxidative stress. However, effects of MVPA and ST on oxidative stress markers in the placenta are unknown. The purpose of this study was to assess the association of MVPA and ST in pregnancy with oxidative stress markers in placentas of overweight/obese women (BMI ≥ 29 kg/m(2)). MVPA and ST were objectively measured with accelerometers at <20 weeks, 24–27 and 35–37 weeks of gestation. Using linear Bayesian multilevel models, the associations of MVPA and ST (mean and changes) with mRNA expression of a panel of 11 oxidative stress related markers were assessed in 96 women. MVPA was negatively correlated with HSP70 mRNA expression in a sex-independent manner and with GCLM expression only in placentas of female fetuses. ST was positively associated with HO-1 mRNA expression in placentas of male neonates. None of the other markers were associated with MVPA or ST. We speculate that increasing MVPA and reducing ST attenuates the oxidative stress state in placentas of obese pregnant women
