Pediatricians' advices on timing of solid food introduction: two Italian experiences.

AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare methods of weaning suggested by pediatricians in two Italian regions with different geographical and cultural characteristics, Tuscany and Apulia. METHODS: Questionnaires were sent to 30 pediatricians, 15 in Tuscany and 15 in Apulia. Questions regarded prevalence and duration of breastfeeding, timing and manner of introducing other foods, and use of commercial baby food or food prepared at home. RESULTS: The pediatricians advised beginning weaning between the 4(th) and the 6th months. In Tuscany, 60% of pediatricians advised breastfeeding for 6 months and 40% for 12 months. In Apulia the same figures were 86.7% and 13.3%. All pediatricians advised differentiated introduction of foods. The percentages of Tuscany pediatricians suggesting late introduction of certain foods were 31.70% for eggs, 19.51% for cow's milk, fish and tomato, 4.87% for vegetables and 2.44% for citrus and gluten. Foods introduced with caution by Apulia pediatricians were egg white (41.37%), gluten (31.03%) and fish (27.58%). The percentages of Tuscany and of Apulia pediatricians recommending home cooked food were 77.7% and 31.21%, respectively; 22.3% and 68.75% respectively recommended commercial baby food. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatricians in both regions are aware of the importance of nutritional quality in the first year of life and provide indications about the timing and manner of introducing foods in line with international scientific guidelines.

Reverse engineering techniques applied to a human skull, for CAD 3D reconstruction and physical replication by rapid prototyping.

The production of a copy of an existing object of complex shape is one of the typical applications of the integration between two modern computer-based technologies, reverse engineering (RE) and rapid prototyping (RP). The method is extremely versatile and can be used in various applicative domains (e.g. replacement of anatomical parts with artificial prostheses, replication of skeletal remains). Two different acquisition techniques of images of a skull, by laser and by CT scan, were compared to ascertain which enabled more accurate reproduction of the original specimen. The skull was chosen due to it being the body part most often used in medico-legal investigations (for personal identification, skull-photo superimposition techniques, forensic art, etc). Comparison between the copy and the original yielded satisfactory results for both techniques. However, CT scanning demonstrated some advantages over the laser technique, as it provided a cleaner point cloud, enabling shorter pre-reproduction processing times, as well as data on the internal parts, which resulted in the reproduction of a more faithful copy.