| RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS |
could be improved further by increasing the thickness of the diamond layer, and that good bonding quality between the gallium nitride chip and the diamond heat spreader was crucial to obtain the best performance.
“We next hope to develop a novel microfluid
cooler of higher and more uniform cooling capability, and to achieve thermal management using a diamond layer of high thermal conduc- tivity near an electronic gate,” says Han.
1. Han, Y. Lau, B. L., Tang, G. & Zhang, X. Thermal management of hotspots using diamond heat spreader on Si microcooler for GaN devices. IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology 5, 1740–1746 (2015).
Nutrition:
SOLID START INFLUENCED BY CULTURE
The timing and approach by which infants are introduced to solid food varies according to their cultural background, a Sin- gaporean study suggests. A*STAR researcher Toh Jia Ying says health practitioners should be aware of these differences when offering advice to parents about the transition to solid food. These insights come from a large-scale
ongoing study of mothers and infants called Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO), a collaboration between Singapore’s National University
The introduction to solid food can form life- long feeding habits.
Health System (NUHS), KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) and the A*STAR Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences. The large cohort of mothers and infants being followed in the GUSTO study allowed close monitoring of how infants of Chinese, Malay or Indian ethnicity were weaned off of breast milk or formula and introduced to food.1 The study showed greater independent
self-feeding by Malay infants, perhaps reflecting a cultural propensity for eating with hands. In the Chinese group, there was a wider use
HOW SINGAPOREAN INFANTS OF DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS ARE INTRODUCED TO FOOD
of probiotics. Babies of Indian ethnicity were more likely to be given dietary supplements, have oil and seasonings added to their foods, and consume more sweetened drinks from the bottle. In general, most infants had some exposure to sweetened drinks by 12 months of age, but Toh notes that it is not advisable to feed infants sweetened beverages at a young age. Toh says that a key finding across all
ethnic groups was that a significant number of infants — a third of the cohort — were still given blended food at 12 months. The team recommends that by then, children should be given solid foods in bite-sized pieces, as this encourages children to chew, promoting the development of jaw muscles. “The research indicates that certain cultural
traditions are still widely practiced in modern cosmopolitan Singapore,” says Toh. These cultural differences in infant feeding practices have not been well studied in the past, a gap that the multi-ethnic GUSTO study is par- ticularly well-placed to address. Toh says that findings from the study will assist healthcare professionals in forming everyday guidance for parents and caregivers through the research team’s links with Singapore’s Health Promo- tion Board and Ministry of Health.
1. Toh, J. Y., Yip, G., Han, W. M., Fok, D., Low, Y-L. et al. Infant feeding practices in a multi-ethnic Asian cohort: The GUSTO study. Nutrients 8, 293 (2016).
18 A*STAR RESEARCH ISSUE 5 | OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2016
© Tang Ming Tung/Moment/Getty
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