Maternal Age: A Major Factor Affecting the Outcome of in Vitro Fertilization

( Claudio A. Benodiva ),( Luis Blasco ),( Richard Tureck ),( Luigi Mastroianni ),( George L. Flickinger ),( Sun Haeng Kim ) 대한산부인과학회 1988 대한산부인과학회 학술대회 Vol.62 No.-

What do you Think Creativity is and Where can We Find it?

( Claudio Baccarani ) 한국품질경영학회 2005 The Asian Journal on Quality Vol.6 No.2

Breastfeeding Promotion and Support Policies in Brazil

Claudio M A O Lima,Waldyr Maymone 대한소아소화기영양학회 2019 Pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology & nutrition Vol.22 No.4

To the Editor: In a recent publication in Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition, Basrowi et al. [1] made several comments on the importance of breastfeeding in the workplace for female workers in Indonesia. In the discussion, the breastfeeding policy and support for workers in Indonesia were mentioned, noting the policies adopted in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and Asian countries. Being the largest country in South America, both geographically and politically, and recognized worldwide as an exemplar for breastfeeding, Brazil has achieved prominence in this area, and I therefore wish to add some comments. In issue No. 408, the French magazine La Santé de l'homme (Human health), edited by the National Institution for Prevention and Health Education in France, reported on the experience of the Brazilian government in the management of breastfeeding public policies. Brazil has the largest and most complex network of milk banks in the world, with 221 units and 186 collection points. Between 2009 and 2016, the Brazilian Network of Human Milk Banks benefited more than 1.8 million newborns and had support from 1.3 million donors, reducing child mortality by more than 70% and representing an economy of R$180 million. The profile of the Brazilian family changed during the 1980s, when the number of families headed by women almost doubled. As a result, there was a significant increase in the participation of women in the labor market, contributing directly or indirectly to the composition of family income and being forced to assume a triple life: mother, housewife, and salaried worker [2]. Many women are unable to successfully adapt to this triple life, leading to an interruption in breastfeeding. Women with greater purchasing power and more education tend to have few difficulties in reconciling breastfeeding with a return to work because they rely on private service assistance for the baby and the household. On the other hand, Brazilian women with less schooling and low purchasing power face more obstacles in adapting the life of a mother to that of work. Regardless of maternal labor, another aspect that has relevance in the early weaning process is the number of hours worked. Weaning rates are higher when work is over 20 hours per week. In 2013, Valduga [3] observed in a study with ten mothers that the relationship with employment was one of the reasons for weaning. Of the ten participants, eight had formal paid work and soon after the end of maternity leave were already introducing supplements to their children. In 2008, according to a study by Damião et al. [4] in Rio de Janeiro, the frequency of exclusive breastfeeding in non-working women was double than that of mothers who were salaried employees [5, 6]. Brazilian legislation has a postpartum leave of up to four months and two half-hour intervals during working hours or the option to leave one hour early so that the mother can breastfeed her baby until she is six months old. When the child’s health requires, the period of six months may be extended at the discretion of the competent authority. Even so, the right to maternity leave of 120 days is considered insufficient time to promote the practice of exclusive breastfeeding, which should be six months, a factor detrimental to the continuity of breastfeeding [5, 6]. In 2008, a law created the Citizen Company Program, which, through the granting of a tax incentive, encourages companies to increase the duration of maternity leave to six months. In 2010, the Brazilian Ministry of Health, together with the National Health Surveillance Agency, regulated the implementation of breastfeeding support rooms in companies through a technical note aimed at women workers to comply with the recommendation of exclusive breastfeeding up to the first six months and supplemented up to two years or more. Also in 2010, the Ministry of Health developed the “Supporting Working Women and Breastfee...

Political Economy and Its Application in Latin America: A Review

Claudio A. Bonilla,Juan Pablo Couyoumdjian,Leonardo A. Gatica 한국라틴아메리카학회 2012 라틴아메리카연구 Vol.25 No.4

This article reviews some contributions of two important research areas in political economy which were developed mainly in the US and Europe. Our purpose is to examine some applications of these theories in Latin American countries. Since the complex relationship between economics and politics becomes all the more complicated when the institutional setting does not provide political stability, it is interesting to study if the political economy models developed in the first world are also applicable to Latin America. We conclude that in great part the models developed are consistent with the empirical findings in Latin America. However, much work still has to be done and special consideration must be given to the institutional features of the Latin American countries.

A comparative analysis of the efficiency of national education systems

Claudio Thieme,Vı´ctor Gime´nez,Diego Prior 서울대학교 교육연구소 2012 Asia Pacific Education Review Vol.13 No.1

The present study assesses the performance of 54 participating countries in PISA 2006. It employs efficiency indicators that relate result variables with resource variables used in the production of educational services. Desirable outputs of educational achievement and undesirable outputs of educational inequality are considered jointly as result variables. A construct that captures the quality and quantity of educational resources consumed is used as resource variables. Similarly, environmental variables of each educational system are included in the efficiency evaluation model; while these resources are not controllable by the managers of the education systems, they do affect outcomes. We find that European countries are characterized by weak management, the Americans (mainly Latin Americans) by a weak endowment of resources, and the Asians by a high level of heterogeneity. In particular, Asia combines countries with optimal systems (South Korea and Macao-China); countries with managerial problems (Hong Kong, China-Taipei, Japan and Israel); others where the main challenge is the weak endowment of resources (Jordan and Kyrgyzstan), and, finally, others where the main problem is in the long run since it concerns structural conditions of a socioeconomic and cultural nature (Turkey, Thailand, and Indonesia).

A low cost miniature PZT amplifier for wirelessactive structural health monitoring

Claudio Olmi,Gangbing Song,Leang-San Shieh,Yi-Lung Mo 국제구조공학회 2011 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.7 No.5

Piezo-based active structural health monitoring (SHM) requires amplifiers specifically designed for capacitive loads. Moreover, with the increase in number of applications of wireless SHM systems, energy efficiency and cost reduction for this type of amplifiers is becoming a requirement. General lab grade amplifiers are big and costly, and not built for outdoor environments. Although some piezoceramic power amplifiers are available in the market, none of them are specifically targeting the wireless constraints and low power requirements. In this paper, a piezoceramic transducer amplifier for wireless active SHM systems has been designed. Power requirements are met by two digital On/Off switches that set the amplifier in a standby state when not in use. It provides a stable ±180 Volts output with a bandwidth of 7k Hz using a single 12 V battery. Additionally, both voltage and current outputs are provided for feedback control, impedance check, or actuator damage verification. Vibration control tests of an aluminum beam were conducted in the University of Houston lab, while wireless active SHM tests of a wind turbine blade were performed in the Harbin Institute of Technology wind tunnel. The results showed that the developed amplifier provided equivalent results to commercial solutions in suppressing structural vibrations, and that it allows researchers to perform active wireless SHM on moving objects with no power wires from the grid.

Trajectory Tracking Control of a Real Redundant Manipulator of the SCARA Type

Claudio Urrea,John Kern 대한전기학회 2016 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology Vol.11 No.1

Modeling, control and implementation of a real redundant robot with five Degrees Freedom (DOF) of the SCARA (Selective Compliant Assembly Robot Arm) manipulator type is presented. Through geometric methods and structural and functional considerations, the inverse kinematics for redundant robot can be obtained. By means of a modification of the classical sliding mode control law through a hyperbolic function, we get a new algorithm which enables reducing the chattering effect of the real actuators, which together with the learning and adaptive controllers, is applied to the model and to the real robot. A simulation environment including the actuator dynamics is elaborated. A 5 DOF robot, a communication interface and a signal conditioning circuit are designed and implemented for feedback. Three control laws are executed in: a simulation structure (together with the dynamic model of the SCARA type redundant manipulator and the actuator dynamics) and a real redundant manipulator of the SCARA type carried out using MatLab/Simulink programming tools. The results, obtained through simulation and implementation, were represented by comparative curves and RMS indices of the joint errors, and they showed that the redundant manipulator, both in the simulation and the implementation, followed the test trajectory with less pronounced maximum errors using the adaptive controller than the other controllers, with more homogeneous motions of the manipulator.

Analytic solution for the interaction between a viscoelastic Bernoulli-Navier beam and a winkler medium

Claudio Floris,Francesco Paolo Lamacchia 국제구조공학회 2011 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.38 No.5

This paper deals with the problem of the determination of the response of a viscoelastic Bernoulli-Navier beam, which is resting on an elastic medium. Assuming uniaxial bending, the displacement of the beam axis is governed by an integro-differential equation. The compatibility of the displacements between the beam and the elastic medium is imposed through an integral equation. In general and in particular in the case of a Boussinesq medium, the solution has to be pursued numerically. On the contrary, in the case of a Winkler’s medium the compatibility equation becomes a linear finite relationship, which allows finding an original analytical solution of the problem for both hereditary and aging behavior of the beam. Some numerical examples complete the paper, in which a comparison is made between the hereditary and the aging model for the creep of the beam.

GABA Receptors Genes Polymorphisms and Alcohol Dependence: No Evidence of an Association in an Italian Male Population

Claudio Terranova,Marianna Tucci,Laura Di Pietra,Santo Davide Ferrara 대한정신약물학회 2014 CLINICAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE Vol.12 No.2

Objective: The genes encoding for gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A and B receptors may be considered as candidatesfor alcoholism; genetic alterations at this level may produce structural and functional diversity and thus play a role in the responseto alcohol addiction treatment. To investigate these aspects further, we conducted a preliminary genetic association study ona population of Italian male alcohol addicts, focusing on GABA A and B receptors. Methods: A total of 186 alcohol-dependent subjects (in the first phase 139, then 47 more samples) and 182 controls were genotypedfor 25 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of genes encoding the alpha-1 subunit of GABA A receptor (GABRA1) andsubunits 1 and 2 of GABA B receptor (GABBR1 and GABBR2). The chi-squared test for allele and genotype distributions andHardy-Weinberg equilibrium analysis of both subjects and controls were performed. Bonferroni’s correction for multiple comparisonswas applied. Results: Preliminary results comparing 139 alcohol-dependent subjects and 182 controls showed differences in genotype distributionin the former for SNP rs29253, located in the intron region of the GABBR1 gene. In order to clarify the meaning ofthis association, 47 more samples from alcohol-dependent subjects were tested for this SNP only: the previously found associationwas not confirmed. Conclusion: The lack of significant differences between the two groups does not provide evidence that GABRA 1 and GABBR1and 2 genes are candidates for alcoholism in this population. Further studies with larger samples are needed, together with investigation of other components of the GABA pathway.

Sediment mineralogy of Quaternary lacustrine pet bog sequence in Southern Italy

Claudio Colombo,Erika Di Iorio,Hyo Jin Koo,Hyen Goo Cho 한국암석학회 2017 한국암석학회 학술발표회 논문집 Vol.2017 No.5