Higher screen time is associated with overweight, poor dietary habits and physical inactivity in Brazilian adolescents, mainly among girls

To analyse the associations between high screen time and overweight, poor dietary habits and physical activity in adolescents according to sex. The study comprised 515 boys and 716 girls aged 14-17 years from Londrina, Brazil. Nutritional status (normal weight or overweight/obese) was assessed by calculating the body mass index. Eating habits and time spent in physical activity were reported using a questionnaire. The measurement of screen time considered the time spent watching television, using a computer and playing video games during a normal week. Associations between high screen time and dependent variables (nutritional status, eating habits and physical activity levels) were assessed by binary logistic regression, adjusted for sociodemographic and lifestyle variables. Most adolescents (93.8% of boys and 87.2% of girls) spent more than 2 hours per day in screen-time activities. After adjustments, an increasing trend in the prevalence of overweight and physical inactivity with increasing time spent on screen activities was observed for both sexes. Screen times of >4 hours/day compared with <2 hours/day were associated with physical inactivity, low consumption of vegetables and high consumption of sweets only in girls and the consumption of soft drinks in both sexes. The frequency of overweight and physical inactivity increased with increasing screen time in a trending manner and independently of the main confounders. The relationship between high screen time and poor eating habits was particularly relevant for adolescent girls.

Integrating Visual and Verbal Literacies in the Early Childhood Classroom

Young children have the strong desire to use all of the communicative tools their cultures and families offer them. They want to be able to do all of the things that the powerful people they admire can do, including talking, writing, drawing, using the computer, and otherwise creating and sharing ideas, memories, solutions, even jokes and feelings. Today, we live in a time when the communicative tools are changing rapidly, practically exploding before our eyes in terms of the formats and media available to us in complex combinations not seen before. What do these technological changes mean for how we can support children's development toward literacy? An integrated arts curriculum has long been favored by many educators, but today there are more reasons than ever to implement such a philosophy. From communications theory comes a new understanding of how modern technologies demand that children learn to "read" and "write" messages involving complex combinations and integrations of visual and verbal formats. From psychology come insights about intelligence being multiple not unitary, as well as ecological perception theory offering a well-accepted framework for analyzing the affordances and expressive possibilities of different media. From education come fresh approaches to integrated curriculum, including a philosophy and pedagogy from Reggio Emilia, Italy, that combines well with current thinking by North Americans. Altogether, we have many rationales and exciting strategies at hand for launching young children toward an integrated visual and verbal literacy that involves substance, challenge, and discipline, as well as innovation, creativity, and freedom.

Mapping and characterization of the Xlsirt P11 RNA cis-acting localization element

In many organisms, polarity of the oocyte is established post-transcriptionally via subcellular RNA localization. Many RNAs are localized during oogenesis in Xenopus laevis, including Xlsirts ( Xenopus laevis short interspersed repeat transcripts) [Kloc, 1993]. Xlsirts constitute a large family defined by highly homologous repeat units 79–81 nucleotides in length. Endogenous Xlsirt RNAs use the METRO (Message Transport Organizer) pathway of localization, where RNAs are transported from the nucleus to the mitochondrial cloud in stage I oocytes. Secondly, RNAs anchor at the vegetal pole in stage II oocytes. Exogenous Xlsirt RNAs can also utilize the Late pathway of localization, which involves localization to the vegetal cortex during stage III of oogenesis and results in RNAs anchored in the cortex of the entire vegetal hemisphere. ^ The Xlsirts localization signal is contained within the repeat region. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that there are cis -acting localization elements in Xlsirts, and that higher order structure plays a role. Results of experiments on Xlsirt P11, a 1700 basepair (bp) family member, led to the conclusion that a 137-bp fragment of the repetitive region is necessary and sufficient for METRO and Late pathway localization. This analysis definitively demonstrates that the Xlsirt localization signal for the METRO and Late pathways reside within the repetitive region and not within the flanking regions. Analysis of Xlsirt linker scanning mutations revealed two METRO-pathway specific subelements, and one Late-pathway specific subelement. Functional, computer, and biochemical evidence relates the higher order structure of this element to its ability to function as a localization element. ^ Xlsirt 137 is 99% identical to the Xlsirt consensus sequence identified in this study, suggesting that it is the localization element for all localized Xlsirt family members. The repeat unit was reframed based on function, rather than arbitrarily based on sequence. This work supports the hypothesis presented in 1981 by George Spohr, who originally isolated the Xlsirts, which stated that the highly conserved repetitive elements must be constrained from variability due to some unknown function of the repeats themselves. These studies shed light on the mechanism of RNA localization, linking structure and function. ^

Sugar sweetened beverage consumption and behavioral correlates in a pilot study of high school students in Austin, Texas

Habitual consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) has been reliably linked to obesity in adolescents. A wide variety of beverages sweetened with sugar are available to this population. The objective of this secondary data analysis was to assess the consumption of SSB by category and to identify behaviors that occur concurrently with the consumption of soda, sport drinks and fruit-flavored drinks in high school students. The analysis used self-reported survey data from 97 adolescents ages 14 to 18. SSB categories considered in the consumption analysis included regular soda, sports drinks, fruit-flavored drinks (FFD), iced tea, coffee drinks and energy drinks. The mean weekly sweetened beverage load in this population, calculated from the frequency and amount of consumption, was 145 ounces when all categories were considered. When SSB categories were considered independently, sports drinks (45 oz.) had the highest contribution to the mean sweetened beverage load followed by FFD (41 oz.), iced tea (27 oz.), soda (26 oz.) coffee drinks (15 oz.) and energy drinks (2 oz.). Sweetened beverage load was higher in boys (151 oz.) than girls (138 oz.) and was highest in Hispanics (159 oz.) followed by whites (152 oz.), blacks (137 oz.) and others (104 oz.). Behaviors that occurred on a usual basis during SSB consumption included watching TV, eating a family meal, eating salty and fried foods, being on the computer and hanging out with friends. Activities concurrent with sports drink consumption included physical activity behaviors whereas soda and FFD did not. Sports drink and FFD consumption commonly co-occurred with fruit consumption. Multiple SSB categories contribute to the total SSB consumption and the common dietary and activity behaviors are distinct between categories. Several of the concurrent behaviors point to the importance of home beverage availability, and to the influence that parents and peers have on SSB consumption. Identifying and assessing intervention strategies targeted to specific beverage categories could be an important step in behavioral intervention research aimed at reducing added sugar consumption, and ultimately, promote a healthy weight in adolescents. ^

A repository for integration of software artifacts with dependency resolution and federation support

While developing new IT products, reusability of existing components is a key aspect that can considerably improve the success rate. This fact has become even more important with the rise of the open source paradigm. However, integrating different products and technologies is not always an easy task. Different communities employ different standards and tools, and most times is not clear which dependencies a particular piece of software has. This is exacerbated by the transitive nature of these dependencies, making component integration a complicated affair. To help reducing this complexity we propose a model-based repository, capable of automatically resolve the required dependencies. This repository needs to be expandable, so new constraints can be analyzed, and also have federation support, for the integration with other sources of artifacts. The solution we propose achieves these working with OSGi components and using OSGi itself.

Mutual Information and Perplexity based Clustering of Dialogue Information for Dynamic Adaptation of Language Models

We present two approaches to cluster dialogue-based information obtained by the speech understanding module and the dialogue manager of a spoken dialogue system. The purpose is to estimate a language model related to each cluster, and use them to dynamically modify the model of the speech recognizer at each dialogue turn. In the first approach we build the cluster tree using local decisions based on a Maximum Normalized Mutual Information criterion. In the second one we take global decisions, based on the optimization of the global perplexity of the combination of the cluster-related LMs. Our experiments show a relative reduction of the word error rate of 15.17%, which helps to improve the performance of the understanding and the dialogue manager modules.

Time and space partition platform for safe and secure flight software.

There are a number of research and development activities that are exploring Time and Space Partition (TSP) to implement safe and secure flight software. This approach allows to execute different real-time applications with different levels of criticality in the same computer board. In order to do that, flight applications must be isolated from each other in the temporal and spatial domains. This paper presents the first results of a partitioning platform based on the Open Ravenscar Kernel (ORK+) and the XtratuM hypervisor. ORK+ is a small, reliable real-time kernel supporting the Ada Ravenscar Computational model that is central to the ASSERT development process. XtratuM supports multiple virtual machines, i.e. partitions, on a single computer and is being used in the Integrated Modular Avionics for Space study. ORK+ executes in an XtratuM partition enabling Ada applications to share the computer board with other applications.

Physical parameters in relation to physiological changes of avocado during ripening (20ºc) and cold storage (6ºc) in different conditions.

The application of the response of fruits to low energy for mechanical impacts is described, for evaluation of post-harvest ripening of avocadoes of the variety "Hass". An impactor of 50g of weight, provided with an accelerometer, and free-falling from a height of 4 cm, is used; it is interfaced to a computer and uses a special software for retrieving and analyzing the deceleration data. Impact response parameters of individual fruits were compared to firmness of the pulp, measured by the most used method of double-plate puncture, as well as to other physical and physiological parameters: color, skin puncture ethylene production rate and others. Two groups of fruits were carefully selected, stored at 6º C (60 days) and ripened at 20ºC (11 days), and tested during the storage period. It is shown that, as in other types of fruits, impact response can be a good predictor of firmness in avocadoes, obtaining the same accuracy as with destructive firmness measurements. Mathematical and multiple regression models are calculated and compared to measured data, with which a prediction of storage period can be made for these fruits.

Introduction to Special issue on Reconfigurable computing and FPGAs

During the last three decades, FPGA technology has quickly evolved to become a major subject of research in computer and electrical engineering as it has been identified as a powerful alternative for creating highly efficient computing systems. FPGA devices offer substantial performance improvements when compared against traditional processing architectures via custom design and reconfiguration capabilities.

Hsf1 and Hsp90 orchestrate temperature-dependent global transcriptional remodelling and chromatin architecture in Candida albicans

We thank Karim Gharbi and Urmi Trivedi for their assistance with RNA sequencing, carried out in the GenePool genomics facility (University of Edinburgh). We also thank Susan Fairley and Eduardo De Paiva Alves (Centre for Genome Enabled Biology and Medicine, University of Aberdeen) for help with the initial bioinformatics analysis. We thank Aaron Mitchell for kindly providing the ALS3 mutant, Julian Naglik for the gift of TR146 cells, and Jon Richardson for technical assistance. We thank the Genomics and Bioinformatics core of the Faculty of Health Sciences for Next Generation Sequencing and Bioinformatics support, the Information and Communication Technology Office at the University of Macau for providing access to a High Performance Computer and Jacky Chan and William Pang for their expert support on the High Performance Computer. Finally, we thank Amanda Veri for generating CaLC2928. M.D.L. is supported by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship (Wellcome Trust 096072), R.A.F. by a Wellcome Trust-Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Postdoctoral Fellowship, L.E.C. by a Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics and Infectious Disease and by Canadian Institutes of Health Research Grants MOP-119520 and MOP-86452, A.J. P.B. was supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/F00513X/1) and by the European Research Council (ERC-2009-AdG-249793-STRIFE), KHW is supported by the Science and Technology Development Fund of Macau S.A.R (FDCT) (085/2014/A2) and the Research and Development Administrative Office of the University of Macau (SRG2014-00003-FHS) and R.T.W. by the Burroughs Wellcome fund and NIH R15AO094406. Data availability RNA-sequencing data sets are available at ArrayExpress (www.ebi.ac.uk) under accession code E-MTAB-4075. ChIP-seq data sets are available at the NCBI SRA database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) under accession code SRP071687. The authors declare that all other data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary information files, or from the corresponding author upon request.

The evolution of coloration and toxicity in the poison frog family (Dendrobatidae)

The poison frogs (family Dendrobatidae) are terrestrial anuran amphibians displaying a wide range of coloration and toxicity. These frogs generally have been considered to be aposematic, but relatively little research has been carried out to test the predictions of this hypothesis. Here we use a comparative approach to test one prediction of the hypothesis of aposematism: that coloration will evolve in tandem with toxicity. Recently, we developed a phylogenetic hypothesis of the evolutionary relationships among representative species of poison frogs, using sequences from three regions of mitochondrial DNA. In our analysis, we use that DNA-based phylogeny and comparative analysis of independent contrasts to investigate the correlation between coloration and toxicity in the poison frog family (Dendrobatidae). Information on the toxicity of different species was obtained from the literature. Two different measures of the brightness and extent of coloration were used. (i) Twenty-four human observers were asked to rank different photos of each different species in the analysis in terms of contrast to a leaf-littered background. (ii) Color photos of each species were scanned into a computer and a computer program was used to obtain a measure of the contrast of the colors of each species relative to a leaf-littered background. Comparative analyses of the results were carried out with two different models of character evolution: gradual change, with branch lengths proportional to the amount of genetic change, and punctuational change, with all change being associated with speciation events. Comparative analysis using either method or model indicated a significant correlation between the evolution of toxicity and coloration across this family. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that coloration in this group is aposematic.

The future of voice-processing technology in the world of computers and communications.

This talk, which was the keynote address of the NAS Colloquium on Human-Machine Communication by Voice, discusses the past, present, and future of human-machine communications, especially speech recognition and speech synthesis. Progress in these technologies is reviewed in the context of the general progress in computer and communications technologies.

A Virtual Joystick as a Novel Interaction Modality for Surgeon-Computer Interaction During Computer-Assisted Surgical Procedures

Interacting with a computer system in the operating room (OR) can be a frustrating experience for a surgeon, who currently has to verbally delegate to an assistant every computer interaction task. This indirect mode of interaction is time consuming, error prone and can lead to poor usability of OR computer systems. This thesis describes the design and evaluation of a joystick-like device that allows direct surgeon control of the computer in the OR. The device was tested extensively in comparison to a mouse and delegated dictation with seven surgeons, eleven residents, and five graduate students. The device contains no electronic parts, is easy to use, is unobtrusive, has no physical connection to the computer and makes use of an existing tool in the OR. We performed a user study to determine its effectiveness in allowing a user to perform all the tasks they would be expected to perform on an OR computer system during a computer-assisted surgery. Dictation was found to be superior to the joystick in qualitative measures, but the joystick was preferred over dictation in user satisfaction responses. The mouse outperformed both joystick and dictation, but it is not a readily accepted modality in the OR.