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The impact of diet during adolescence on the neonatal health of offspring: evidence on the importance of preconception diet. The HUNT study
- Wendy Van Lippevelde, Frøydis N. Vik, Andrew K. Wills, Sofia T. Strömmer, Mary E. Barker, Marianne Skreden, Ann Anderson Berry, Corinne Hanson, Anne Lise Brantsæter, Elisabeth R. Hillesund, Nina C. Øverby
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- Journal:
- Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease / Volume 12 / Issue 5 / October 2021
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 December 2020, pp. 798-810
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Emerging evidence suggests that parents’ nutritional status before and at the time of conception influences the lifelong physical and mental health of their child. Yet little is known about the relationship between diet in adolescence and the health of the next generation at birth. This study examined data from Norwegian cohorts to assess the relationship between dietary patterns in adolescence and neonatal outcomes. Data from adolescents who participated in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (Young-HUNT) were merged with birth data for their offspring through the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Young-HUNT1 collected data from 8980 adolescents between 1995 and 1997. Linear regression was used to assess associations between adolescents’ diet and later neonatal outcomes of their offspring adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Analyses were replicated with data from the Young-HUNT3 cohort (dietary data collected from 2006 to 2008) and combined with Young-HUNT1 for pooled analyses. In Young-HUNT1, there was evidence of associations between dietary choices, meal patterns, and neonatal outcomes, these were similar in the pooled analyses but were attenuated to the point of nonsignificance in the smaller Young-HUNT3 cohort. Overall, energy-dense food products were associated with a small detrimental impact on some neonatal outcomes, whereas healthier food choices appeared protective. Our study suggests that there are causal links between consumption of healthy and unhealthy food and meal patterns in adolescence with neonatal outcomes for offspring some years later. The effects seen are small and will require even larger studies with more state-of-the-art dietary assessment to estimate these robustly.
14 - Arms control
- from Part III - The traditional agenda: States, war and law
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- By Marianne Hanson, Associate Professor in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland
- Edited by Richard Devetak, University of Queensland, Jim George, Australian National University, Canberra, Sarah Percy, University of Queensland
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- Book:
- An Introduction to International Relations
- Published online:
- 21 June 2018
- Print publication:
- 11 September 2017, pp 210-223
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter begins by discussing what arms control is and why it has featured so prominently in world politics, even since the end of the Cold War. After a discussion of the various weapons that are covered by arms-control processes, and the legal regimes that accompany these, the chapter outlines some of the ways in which arms control can be conceptualised and how various schools of thought in International Relations (IR) can be related to arms-control practices. We then look at the specific case of the nuclear weapons regime, as more states acquire nuclear weapons, and as calls increase for the elimination of these particular weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
What is arms control?
Arms control can be described simply as any arrangement made to limit the weapons that might be used in warfare. It can be conducted as a formal process involving treaties, or as an informal practice between states. These processes or steps can be unilateral, bilateral or multilateral; the most essential element is a willingness to cooperate with other states to achieve security interests. These interests could be ‘exclusively those of the cooperating states themselves’ or interests that are ‘more widely shared’ in the international community (Bull 1961: 2).
Arms control has been applied to both WMDs and to conventional weapons, although it has been related most heavily to WMDs. These are nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons, and are categorised as WMDs because of their enormous potential for causing mass casualties. (These are nevertheless very different types of weapon systems, and their lethality and damage potential vary greatly.) While WMDs are rightly abhorred for their capacity for destruction, so-called conventional weapons – that is, weapons that are not WMDs – have received less attention, largely because of the implied right of sovereign states to possess a normal or ‘conventional’ weapons capability. Although the focus for arms control continues to be on WMDs, certain kinds of conventional weapons are also now being considered as appropriate for restriction or elimination.
12 - Arms Control
- from 2 - The Traditional Agenda
- Edited by Richard Devetak, University of Queensland, Anthony Burke, Jim George, Australian National University, Canberra
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- Book:
- An Introduction to International Relations
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 17 October 2011, pp 172-188
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter examines the evolution and practices of arms control in international relations. It begins by discussing what arms control is and why it has featured so prominently in world politics, even after the ending of the Cold War, the period during which arms control can be said to have developed extensively. After a discussion of the various weapons that are covered by arms control processes, and the legal regimes that accompany these, the chapter proceeds to outline some of the ways in which arms control can be conceptualised and how various schools of thought in international relations can be related to arms control practices. We then look at the specific case of the nuclear weapons regime, as more states acquire nuclear weapons, and as calls increase for the elimination of these particular weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The chapter also examines how a number of key states have been involved in upholding various arms control and disarmament regimes in the contemporary period.
What is arms control?
Arms control can be described simply as any arrangement made directly between adversaries or multilaterally by the broader international community to limit the weapons that might be used in warfare. A more formal, or classical, definition of arms control is provided by Hedley Bull: ‘Arms control is restraint internationally exercised upon armaments policy, whether in respect of the level of armaments, their character, deployment or use’ (Bull 1961: vii). Arms control can be conducted as a formal process involving treaties and other binding arrangements, or as an informal practice between states. These processes or steps can be unilateral, bilateral or multilateral; the most essential element is a willingness to cooperate with other states to achieve security interests. These interests could be ‘exclusively those of the cooperating states themselves’ or interests that are ‘more widely shared’ in the international community (Bull 1961: 2).
12 - Nuclear weapons: Asian case studies and global ramifications
- Edited by William T. Tow, Australian National University, Canberra
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- Book:
- Security Politics in the Asia-Pacific
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 15 October 2009, pp 228-246
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter examines the regional and global impacts of nuclear weapons development in two crucial areas of the Asia-Pacific: the South Asia subregion and North Korea. Both the South Asian and Northeast Asian subregions came to attention in the 1990s as a result of widespread concerns about nuclear weapons proliferation. While some of these concerns have been modified recently, this has occurred for very different reasons in each case. This has been a reflection of the quite different circumstances surrounding each of these developments, in terms of the motivations behind the states' search for nuclear weapons, the effects that each case of proliferation has had at the regional and global levels, and the way in which each of them has come to be viewed by the international community more broadly. What both episodes share, however, is the dubious distinction of having unsettled existing norms of regional and global strategic behaviour, of having ‘thrown down the gauntlet’ to prevailing nuclear powers dominating international security by crossing the nuclear threshold.
One way of viewing nuclear developments in these regions is to think of them as having become relatively ‘settled’. The Indian–Pakistan case is seen as sui generis, and as such is not viewed as posing a threat to states outside this direct relationship (although the China factor cannot be separated from this case).
13 - Arms control
- from Part 2 - The traditional agenda: states, war and law
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- By Marianne Hanson, Associate Professor in the School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland
- Edited by Richard Devetak, University of Queensland, Anthony Burke, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Jim George, Australian National University, Canberra
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- Book:
- An Introduction to International Relations
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 13 November 2007, pp 155-166
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- Chapter
- Export citation
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter examines the evolution and practices of arms control in international relations. It begins by discussing what arms control is and why it has featured so prominently in world politics, even after the ending of the Cold War, the period during which arms control can be said to have developed extensively. After a discussion of the various weapons that are covered by arms control processes, and the legal regimes that accompany these, the chapter proceeds to outline some of the ways in which arms control can be conceptualised and how various schools of thought in international relations can be related to arms control practices. We then look at the specific case of the nuclear weapons regime, as more states acquire nuclear weapons, and as calls continue for the elimination of these particular weapons of mass destruction. The chapter also examines how Australia has been involved in upholding various arms control and disarmament regimes, including its contribution to the nuclear weapons debate.
What is arms control?
Arms control can be described simply as any arrangement made between adversaries to limit the weapons that might be used in warfare between them. A more formal, or classical, definition of arms control is provided by Australian writer Hedley Bull: ‘Arms control is restraint internationally exercised upon armaments policy, whether in respect of the level of armaments, their character, deployment or use’ (Bull 1961: 2).