Effects of a Functional Food Made with Salvia hispanica L. (Chia Seed), Amaranthus hypochondriacus L. (Amaranth), and an Ethanolic Extract of Curcuma longa L. (Curcumin) in a Rat Model of Childhood Obesity.

Obesity is a global health problem and is increasing in prevalence in most countries. Although obesity affects all age groups, children are the most vulnerable sector. Functional foods are novel formulated foods containing substances (i.e., nutrients, phytochemicals, probiotics, etc.) that have potential health-enhancing or disease-preventing value. The research objective was to study the possible beneficial effects of providing a functional food made with amaranth flour, chia seed, and curcumin extract on the metabolism and behavior of a rat model of childhood obesity. Male Wistar rat pups from two litters of different sizes, a normal litter (NL) (10 pups) and a small litter (SL) (4 pups), were used. After weaning, the rats were fed a hypercaloric diet (HD) or an HD supplemented with the functional food mixture. Body weight and energy intake were measured for seven weeks, and locomotor activity, learning, and memory tests were also performed. At the end of the experiment, glucose and lipid metabolism parameters were determined. The results showed that in this model of obesity produced by early overfeeding and the consumption of a hypercaloric diet, anxiety-like behaviors and metabolic alterations occurred in the rat offspring; however, the provision of the functional food failed to reduce or prevent these alterations, and an exacerbation was even observed in some metabolic indicators. Interestingly, in the NL rats, the provision of the functional food produced some of the expected improvements in health, such as significant decreases in body weight gain and liver cholesterol and non-significant decreases in adipose tissue and leptin and insulin serum levels.

Validation of the Edited Tromsø Infant Faces Database (E-TIF): A study on differences in the processing of children's emotional expressions.

Images of emotional facial expressions are often used in emotion research, which has promoted the development of different databases. However, most of these standardized sets of images do not include images from infants under 2 years of age, which is relevant for psychology research, especially for perinatal psychology. The present study aims to validate the edited version of the Tromsø Infant Faces Database (E-TIF) in a large sample of participants. The original set of 119 pictures was edited. The pictures were cropped to remove nonrelevant information, fitted in an oval window, and converted to grayscale. Four hundred and eighty participants (72.9% women) took part in the study, rating the images on five dimensions: depicted emotion, clarity, intensity, valence, and genuineness. Valence scores were useful for discriminating between positive, negative, and neutral facial expressions. Results revealed that women were more accurate at recognizing emotions in children. Regarding parental status, parents, in comparison with nonparents, rated neutral expressions as more intense and genuine. They also rated sad, angry, disgusted, and fearful faces as less negative, and happy expressions as less positive. The editing and validation of the E-TIF database offers a useful tool for basic and experimental research in psychology.

[Unexpected admission to the intensive care unit following ambulatory surgical procedures]. / Admisión no prevista a la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos en pacientes programados para procedimientos por estancia corta.

INTRODUCTION: Unexpected admission (UA) to the intensive care unit (ICU) among the ambulatory patient could be considered as an indicator of quality of attention on ambulatory services. However, the determinants associated with this rare complication are unknown. Objective. To identify the factors associated with UA to the ICU among the patients following ambulatory surgical procedures (ASP). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twenty one cases and 105 controls were selected from among 4,705 patients admitted for an ASP at a teaching hospital between January 2004 and May 2006. A case was that one with an UA to the ICU for monitoring and/or treatment after its ambulatory surgical procedure. Each case was paired with five controls according to type of procedure and date of accomplishment. Conditional logistic regression analyses were used to determine the potential factors associated with an UA to the ICU. RESULTS: Cases represented 0.4% of admitted ones for an ASP. Mean age of controls were 46.9 years and 52.4% were women. There were no statistically significant differences between cases and controls in relation to several clinical, biochemical and physical status variables (comorbidity, vital signs, biochemistry, surgical procedure, anesthetic, technical anesthetic, time of surgery, surgical bleeding). Fourteen patients were less than 48 hours at the ICU and there were no deaths. CONCLUSIONS: Most of UA to the ICU seem to be based on decisions non-related to general health status of patients and these are usually preventive. This decision is not based on scientific evidence. Admission to the ICU must be based on a multidisciplinary evaluation.