The findings supported our hypothesis that early introduction of eggs significantly improved growth in young children. Generally accessible to vulnerable groups, eggs have the potential to contribute to global targets to reduce stunting.

This article shows the coexistence of high rates of undernutrition and OW/OB at the individual, household, and national levels in Ecuador. Although integrated approaches to address the emerging double burden are required, public health policies to date have not responded adequately.

The traffic light label is an effective tool for conveying complex information. Its potential contribution to reduce consumption of products with high levels of fat, sugar and salt could be enhanced by promoting healthy diets among consumers who have not changed purchasing and consumption behaviour, by placing the label on front panels and by monitoring the production and marketing of processed foods.

Previous research has shown that total sleep deprivation produces impairment in sustained attention and vigilance especially if the deprivation period is greater than 48 hours. However little is known about the effects of sleep deprivation on performance of tasks considered to be measures of higher cortical functioning such as tests of cognitive flexibility and the capacity to shift from one response set to another. One current hypothesis is that sleep deprivation of a shorter duration (34-36 hours) adversely affects higher cortical function while effects on attention and vigilance tasks are relatively mild. Performance on an intelligence test, a test of sustained attention and tests designed to measure higher cortical function were compared in a group of 29 subjects who underwent 34-36 hours of continuous sleep deprivation and 32 normal sleeping control subjects. No significant group performance differences in the hypothesized direction were noted on any measure. One night of total sleep deprivation does not appear to impair performance on tasks that are designed to assess higher cortical functioning.

The sleep of 15 adult subjects who reported heightened generalized anxiety in the absence of other psychiatric syndromes and a 15-adult contrast group were studied by means of nocturnal polysomnography. Analysis of polysomnography variables revealed a significant discriminant function that accounted for 79% of the variance between groups, indicating that high-anxiety/worry subjects took longer to fall asleep, had a smaller percentage of deep (slow-wave) sleep, and more frequent transitions into light sleep [stage 1 nonrapid eye movement (NREM)]. Additional analyses indicated that high-anxiety/worry subjects had a greater percentage of light sleep, more early microarousals, a lower rapid eye movement (REM) density relative to low-anxiety subjects. These subjects also showed more electrodermal storming when slow-wave sleep and REM sleep variables were covaried. Results indicated disrupted sleep depth and continuity similar to that documented in clinical anxiety disorder patients and distinct from that of depressed patients. These results indicate that generalized anxiety and worry in otherwise healthy individuals may act to produce a clinically significant sleep disturbance in the absence of other psychiatric symptoms.

Abstract. Small-scale livestock production plays an essential role as a source of income and nutrition for households in low-and middle-income countries, yet these practices can also increase risk of zoonotic infectious diseases, especially among young children. To mitigate this risk, there is a need to better understand how livestock producers perceive and manage risks of disease transmission. Twenty semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with small-scale livestock producers in a semirural parish of Quito, Ecuador. Interviews explored livestock-raising practices, including animal health-care practices and use of antimicrobials, family members' interactions with livestock and other animals, and perceptions of health risk associated with these practices and activities. Interviews were analyzed for common themes. Awareness of zoonotic disease transmission was widespread, yet few study participants considered raising livestock a significant health risk for themselves or their families. Several study households reported handling and consuming meat or poultry from sick or dead animals and using animal waste as a fertilizer on their crops. Households typically diagnosed and treated their sick animals, occasionally seeking treatment advice from employees of local animal feed stores where medications, including antimicrobials, are available over the counter. Despite a basic understanding of zoonotic disease risk, this study identified several factors, such as the handling and consumption of sick and dead animals and purchasing medications for sick animals over the counter, that potentially increase the risk of zoonotic disease transmission as well as the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Cognitive and motor performance are critical in many circumstances and are impaired by sleep deprivation. We administered placebo, tyrosine 150 mg/kg, caffeine 300 mg/70 kg, phentermine 37.5 mg and D-amphetamine 20 mg at 15.30 h following overnight sleep deprivation and compare their effects on cognitive and motor performance in healthy young men. Tests of visual scanning, running memory, logical reasoning, mathematical processing, the Stroop task, four-choice serial reaction time, time wall take, pursuit tracking, visual vigilance, Trails (B) task and long-term memory were evaluated at standardized intervals before, during and after sleep deprivation and drugs. Performance decrements with sleep deprivation occurred in visual scanning, running memory, logical reasoning, mathematical processing, the Stroop test, the time wall test, tracking and visual vigilance. Interestingly, with sleep deprivation some tests improved and others did not deteriorate. Improvements with medication following sleep deprivation were seen in running memory, logical reasoning, mathematical processing, tracking and visual vigilance. Although less effective than D-amphetamine, tyrosine improved performance on several tests. We conclude that all drugs tested improved at least some aspects of cognitive and motor performance after sleep deprivation. As a naturally occurring amino acid, and thus amenable to nutritional strategies, tyrosine may deserve further testing.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether prior habituation of the phasic orienting response (OR) to stimuli which were later to be used as distractors in an attention demanding task, would improve task performance and reduce OR frequency to distractors during the task. The task was the solution of mathematical problems from immediate memory, and the distractors were random numbers and mathematical signs. Subjects were sequentially assigned to one of four conditions: 1) 15 presentations of distractors, problems with distractors; 2) 15 presentations of a tone, problems with distractors; 3) problems with distractors; and 4) 15 presentations of distractors or tone, problems without distractors. Results clearly indicated that prior habituation of the phasic OR to the distractors improved performance relative to no prior habituation or to prior habituation to a tone. There was also evidence of decreased OR activity during problem solving in the prior habituation group relative to the tone habituation and no habituation groups. The data supported an hypothesis that selective attention consists of at least two processes: 1) sensitization of phasic and tonic ORs to salient stimuli, and 2) habituation of phasic and tonic ORs to irrelevant stimuli.