New Findings
What is the central question of this study?
The aim was to compare the cost of transport and mechanical work between obese and non‐obese children at different walking speeds.
What is the ...main finding and its importance?
Our data show that the cost of transport, mechanical efficiency and work are similar and directly mass dependent in obese and non‐obese children. The optimal walking speed (most economical walking speed) is reduced in obese children.
Although studies have shown the influence of gait biomechanics on the metabolic economy in obese adults and adolescents, little is known regarding obese children. We compared the metabolic cost of transport, apparent mechanical efficiency and gait biomechanics (assessed by mechanical energy fluctuations) in obese children (n = 12; mean ± SD: 8.6 ± 0.51 years of age, 1.38 ± 0.04 m, 44.6 ± 6.65 kg, 24.1 ± 3.50 kg m−2) and age‐ and sex‐matched non‐obese children (n = 12, 7.8 ± 0.90 years of age, 1.31 ± 0.08 m, 26.8 ± 2.24 kg, 16.4 ± 1.40 kg m−2) while walking at different speeds (from 1 to 5 km h−1) on a treadmill. We found that the mechanical efficiency was higher at 3 km h−1 compared with the remaining speeds for both groups (P < 0.05). Although the internal mechanical work has been greater in obese compared with non‐obese children at 4 and 5 km h−1, the external, total mechanical work and the mechanical efficiency remained similar between obese and non‐obese children at all speeds. Likewise, the cost of transport was similar in the two groups, although the optimal walking speed was an average of 0.4 km h−1 slower in obese children. Clearly, these results show that the walking economy is associated with the total mechanical work in obese and non‐obese children. Finally, the reduced functional mobility in obese children observed in previous studies seems to be associated with a reduction in optimal walking speed in comparison to non‐obese children.
O objetivo deste artigo é verificar como se apresentam na literatura as estratégias de análise da democracia enquanto regime político, tendo como questão central a forma como é pensada a correlação ...entre os indicadores fundamentais deste tipo de sociedade, as instituições políticas democráticas, e o contexto, seja histórico, econômico, social ou cultural, com o qual elas se articulam. Verificamos que esta literatura pode ser pensada através de modelos, os quais se constituem a partir de autores fundamentais e se expressam nas análises sobre a experiência da democracia no Brasil. Entendemos que o conceito deregime político possui grande importância teórica e metodológica, em especial na produção de agendas de pesquisa sobre as experiências concretas de democracia, inclusive e especialmente sobre o caso brasileiro, e até mesmo na sua constituição enquanto projeto de sociedade e de nação.
Cisplatin treatment is one of the most commonly used treatments for patients with cancer. However, thirty percent of patients treated with cisplatin develop acute kidney injury (AKI). Several studies ...have demonstrated the effect of bioactive vitamin D or calcitriol on the inflammatory process and endothelial injury, essential events that contribute to changes in renal function and structure caused by cisplatin (CP). This study explored the effects of calcitriol administration on proximal tubular injury, oxidative stress, inflammation and vascular injury observed in CP-induced AKI. Male Wistar Hannover rats were pretreated with calcitriol (6 ng/day) or vehicle (0.9% NaCl). The treatment started two weeks before i.p. administration of CP or saline and was maintained for another five days after the injections. On the fifth day after the injections, urine, plasma and renal tissue samples were collected to evaluate renal function and structure. The animals of the CP group had increased plasma levels of creatinine and of fractional sodium excretion and decreased glomerular filtration rates. These changes were associated with intense tubular injury, endothelial damage, reductions in antioxidant enzymes and an inflammatory process observed in the renal outer medulla of the animals from this group. These changes were attenuated by treatment with calcitriol, which reduced the inflammation and increased the expression of vascular regeneration markers and antioxidant enzymes.
Glycerol injection in rats can lead to rhabdomyolysis, with the release of the intracellular muscle content to the extracellular compartment and acute kidney injury (AKI). Oxidative stress and the ...inflammatory processes contribute to the disturbances in renal function and structure observed in this model. This study evaluated the effect of calcitriol administration in AKI induced by rhabdomyolysis and its relationship with oxidative damage and inflammatory process. Male Wistar Hannover rats were treated with calcitriol (6 ng/day) or vehicle (0.9% NaCl) for 7 days and were injected with 50% glycerol or saline 3 days after the beginning of calcitriol or saline administration. Four days after glycerol or saline injection, urine, plasma and renal tissue samples were collected for renal function and structural analysis. The oxidative stress and the inflammatory processes were also evaluated. Glycerol-injected rats presented increased sodium fractional excretion and decreased glomerular filtration rates. These alterations were associated with tubular injury in the renal cortex. These animals also presented increased oxidative damage, apoptosis, inflammation, higher urinary excretion of vitamin D-binding protein and decreased cubilin expression in renal tissue. All these alterations were less intense in calcitriol-treated animals. This effect was associated with decreases in oxidative damage and inflammation.
Background/Aims: Physical training has beneficial effects on endothelial function and can influence the regeneration of the endothelial cell. We investigated the effect of physical training on ...cisplatin (CP)-induced acute kidney injury and assessed the impact of training on endothelial structure and function, and on the inflammatory processes in rats. Methods: We injected male Wistar rats subjected to previous physical training in treadmill running (trained, TR) or not (sedentary, SED) with CP (5 mg/kg) (TR+CP and SED+CP groups, respectively). Five days after the injections, blood and urine samples were collected to evaluate renal function and kidneys were harvested for morphological, immunohistochemical, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and analysis of nitric oxide (NO) levels. Results: Rats treated with CP showed increased levels of plasma creatinine and sodium and potassium fractional excretion. These alterations were associated with increase in tubulointerstitial lesions and macrophage number, reduction of endothelial cells, and increased VEGF, vimentin, and α-smooth muscle actin expression in the outer renal medulla in the SED+CP group. We also found increased levels of renal IL-1β and increased excretion of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and transforming growth factor-β compared with controls. These changes were milder in trained rats, associated with increased levels of renal tissue NO, and increased expression of p-eNOS and stromal cell-derived factor-1α (a chemokine involved in kidney repair) in the kidneys of CP-injected trained rats. Conclusions: The protective effect of previous training in CP-treated rats was associated with reduced endothelial cell lesions and increased renal production of NO in trained rats.
Machine Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) is often concerned with the prediction of the Remaining Useful Lifetime (RUL) of assets. Accurate real-time RUL predictions enable equipment health ...assessment and maintenance planning. In this work, we propose a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network combined with global Attention mechanisms to learn RUL relationships directly from time-series sensor data. We use the NASA Commercial Modular Aero- Propulsion System Simulation (C-MAPPS) datasets to assess the performance of our proposed method. We compare our approach with current state-of-the-art methods on the same datasets and show that our results yield competitive results. Moreover, our method does not require previous degradation knowledge, and attention weights can be used to visualise temporal relationships between inputs and predicted outputs.
This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of psychoactive substance use by adolescents from public schools. This is a cross-sectional study that used a random sample of adolescents from five public ...schools located in a municipality in the central-west region of the São Paulo Metropolitan Area, Brazil. Information on demographic, socioeconomic, and drug use was collected using self-report questionnaires. The sample consisted of 1,460 students, 716 (49%) males, aged 10-19 years (13.19±2.04 years). The prevalence of psychoactive substance use in the last month was 51% for analgesics; 48.8% for alcohol; 37.3% for tobacco; 30.8% for tranquilizers; 23.1% for marijuana; 22.6% for anabolic steroids; 21.6% for ecstasy; 15.3% for amphetamines/stimulants; 13.4% for phencyclidine; 12.9% for cocaine/crack; 12.6% for inhalants/solvents; 11.5% for opiates; 11.4% for hallucinogens; and 16.2% for other unclassified drugs. Elementary and middle school students were more likely to consume tobacco (OR = 2.306; 95%CI: 1.733-3.068; p < 0.001), and male students were more likely to consume any type of substance. We identified a high use of psychoactive substances among this study participants, with a higher prevalence among male students.
Citation Peraçoli MTS, Bannwart CF, Cristofalo R, Medeiros Borges VT, Araújo Costa RA, Witkin SS, Peraçoli JC. Increased reactive oxygen species and tumor necrosis factor‐alpha production by ...monocytes are associated with elevated levels of uric acid in pre‐eclamptic women. Am J Reprod Immunol 2011; 66: 460–467
Problem To evaluate associations between hyperuricemia and increases in production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α) in pre‐eclamptic pregnancies.
Method of study This study investigated serum uric acid levels, monocyte production of TNF‐α, superoxide anion (O2−) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), as well as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities in erythrocytes from 30 women with pre‐eclampsia (PE) compared with 30 normotensive (NT) pregnant women in the last trimester of pregnancy.
Results Serum uric acid levels (6.1 versus 2.8 mg/dL) as well as endogenous O2− (2.2 versus 1.6 nm), H2O2 (1.8 versus 1.4 nm) and TNF‐α (91.6 versus 40.4 pg/mL) released from monocytes were significantly higher in the pre‐eclamptic group than in the NT group (P < 0.05). SOD activity in erythrocytes was also significantly elevated in the PE group (5969.2 versus 4834.7 U/g Hb). No significant difference between groups was observed in relation to CAT activity.
Conclusions Elevated serum uric acid levels are correlated with higher O2− and TNF‐α production by monocytes in women with PE. This may contribute to the enhanced oxidative and inflammatory state characteristic of this disorder.
This paper proposes an attribute control chart named npx(I)μ$np_{x(I)}^{\mu }$ which is used for monitoring the process mean value of a variable (X) by employing sequential sample sizes of na$n_a$, ...nb$n_b$ with na>nb$n_a> n_b$. Each item is classified as approved or not according to a discriminant limit (wi$w_i$, i=a,b$i=a, b$) using a GO/NO GO gauge. In the end of inspection we'll have Ya$Y_a$ and Yb$Y_b$ items classified as disapproved. Whenever Ya>UCLna$Y_a> UCL_{n_a}$ or Yb>UCLnb$Y_b> UCL_{n_b}$, the process is judged to be out of control and after adjustments in the process, the inspection is always restarted with a sample size of na$n_a$. The parameters used in the construction of the npx(I)μ$np_{x(I)}^{\mu }$ control chart were obtained through a search for values that optimize their performance, such that can compete with the standard attribute npx$np_x$ chart and the traditional X¯$\overline{X}$ control chart. The performances were compared in terms of average run length (ARL$ARL$) in scenarios of shift sizes (δ) in the process mean. A numerical example illustrates its application.
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