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Greater adherence to a Mediterranean-like diet is associated with later breast development and menarche in peripubertal girls
- Elizabeth A Szamreta, Bo Qin, Zorimar Rivera-Núñez, Niyati Parekh, Emily S Barrett, Jeanne Ferrante, Yong Lin, Elisa V Bandera
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- Journal:
- Public Health Nutrition / Volume 23 / Issue 6 / April 2020
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 23 August 2019, pp. 1020-1030
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Objective:
To examine adherence to a Mediterranean-like diet at age 9–10 years in relation to onset of breast development (thelarche) and first menstruation (menarche).
Design:We evaluated the associations of adherence to a Mediterranean-like diet (measured by an adapted Mediterranean-like Diet Score, range 0–9) with thelarche at baseline, age at thelarche and time to menarche. Data were collected at baseline during a clinic visit, complemented with a mailed questionnaire and three 24 hour telephone dietary recalls, followed by annual follow-up questionnaires. Multivariable Poisson regression, linear regression and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to evaluate timing of pubertal development in relation to diet adherence.
Setting:New Jersey, USA.
Participants:Girls aged 9 or 10 years at baseline (2006–2014, n 202).
Results:High Mediterranean-like diet adherence (score 6–9) was associated with a lower prevalence of thelarche at baseline compared with low adherence (score 0–3; prevalence ratio = 0·65, 95 % CI 0·48, 0·90). This may have been driven by consumption of fish and non-fat/low-fat dairy. Our models also suggested a later age at thelarche with higher Mediterranean-like diet adherence. Girls with higher Mediterranean-like diet adherence had significantly longer time to menarche (hazard ratio = 0·45, 95 % CI 0·28, 0·71 for high v. low adherence). Further analysis suggested this may have been driven by vegetable and non-fat/low-fat dairy consumption.
Conclusions:Consuming a Mediterranean-like diet may be associated with older age at thelarche and menarche. Further research is necessary to confirm our findings in other US paediatric populations and elucidate the mechanism through which Mediterranean-like diet may influence puberty timing.
2502: mZAP (Zonas, Accion y Proteccion): Empowering communities with mobile strategies for mosquito-borne disease control in tropical environments
- Jose G. Perez-Ramos, Scott McIntosh, Carmen M. Velez Vega, Emily S. Barrett, Timothy De Ver Dye
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- Journal:
- Journal of Clinical and Translational Science / Volume 1 / Issue S1 / September 2017
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 May 2018, p. 41
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OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Our objectives with this project are to engage communities through technology creating a communication channel with affected communities and stakeholders about mosquito-borne illness, vector control and environmental health risk. Furthermore, engaging communities to electronically map ecological risks that impact mosquito-borne illness with the goal of creating a mobile application that will work as an ecological surveillance against mosquito proliferation and potential mosquito population reduction, and finally pilot test and evaluate potential benefits in communities where the application was used. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We propose a methodology to perform formative community work that will underscore a distributed, democratized ecological surveillance through an integration of multidimensional health behavior theories that address the challenges of ZIKV in Culebra, a marginalized island community off the coast of the main island of Puerto Rico. Using participatory design, we will develop, test, and evaluate users’ experiences towards mobile applications using qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (survey) methodologies. A mobile application with the capacity of mapping, use of social-media, crowdsourcing, and photo-voice in a dynamic and simple way will allow community members to alert “hot-zone” locations to the stakeholders interested in creating ecological action in their community. This multidimensional concept integrates explanatory and prospective approaches and will generate systematic short-term solutions for mosquito control and long-term solutions providing the necessary tools for community empowerment. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Our proposed design will facilitate better understanding of the interactions between community members and socio-environmental determinants of mosquito-borne diseases. Furthermore, our proposed project will not only facilitate communication among members of a community, but also it will provide a platform for engagement and empowerment, establishing a change in the preventive paradigm of how communities face the negative impacts of micro-ecologies that surround them. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Our proposed community collaboratory mHealth tool mZAP! (Zonas, Accion y Proteccion) will address the lack of community participation efforts against mosquito-borne diseases contributed simultaneously by the disengagement and disempowerment of community members. mZAP! will serve as an innovative tool to engage marginalized and communities made vulnerable in Puerto Rico. This approach should be successful as Puerto Rico is one of the most digitally connected countries in Latin America, with high mobile phone usage rates and social media use. Using mZAP!, communities will report and map breeding sites, use social media and crowd sensing, targeting against powerful tools against mosquito ecologies in their own environments. This application could result in an effective way to change the paradigms for public health approaches to use Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) to empower communities.
Herbivorous dinosaur jaw disparity and its relationship to extrinsic evolutionary drivers
- Jamie A. MacLaren, Philip S. L. Anderson, Paul M. Barrett, Emily J. Rayfield
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- Journal:
- Paleobiology / Volume 43 / Issue 1 / February 2017
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 15 December 2016, pp. 15-33
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Morphological responses of nonmammalian herbivores to external ecological drivers have not been quantified over extended timescales. Herbivorous nonavian dinosaurs are an ideal group to test for such responses, because they dominated terrestrial ecosystems for more than 155 Myr and included the largest herbivores that ever existed. The radiation of dinosaurs was punctuated by several ecologically important events, including extinctions at the Triassic/Jurassic (Tr/J) and Jurassic/Cretaceous (J/K) boundaries, the decline of cycadophytes, and the origin of angiosperms, all of which may have had profound consequences for herbivore communities. Here we present the first analysis of morphological and biomechanical disparity for sauropodomorph and ornithischian dinosaurs in order to investigate patterns of jaw shape and function through time. We find that morphological and biomechanical mandibular disparity are decoupled: mandibular shape disparity follows taxonomic diversity, with a steady increase through the Mesozoic. By contrast, biomechanical disparity builds to a peak in the Late Jurassic that corresponds to increased functional variation among sauropods. The reduction in biomechanical disparity following this peak coincides with the J/K extinction, the associated loss of sauropod and stegosaur diversity, and the decline of cycadophytes. We find no specific correspondence between biomechanical disparity and the proliferation of angiosperms. Continual ecological and functional replacement of pre-existing taxa accounts for disparity patterns through much of the Cretaceous, with the exception of several unique groups, such as psittacosaurids that are never replaced in their biomechanical or morphological profiles.
19 - Translations from Human Development to Public Policy
- Edited by Carol M. Worthman, Emory University, Atlanta, Paul M. Plotsky, Emory University, Atlanta, Daniel S. Schechter, Constance A. Cummings
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- Book:
- Formative Experiences
- Published online:
- 26 May 2010
- Print publication:
- 07 April 2010, pp 505-530
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Summary
Early childhood development (ECD) is receiving increased attention and scrutiny as policy makers attempt to respond to several historical, economic, scientific, and cultural changes that are transforming our understanding of the importance of the early years. This chapter tracks the evolution of our understanding about ECD and discusses the type of policy changes required to ensure that young children have the opportunity for optimal development. We propose a policy transformation framework to help guide the evolution of the current fragmented model of ECD services to a more responsive, comprehensive, integrated, and high performing early childhood system for the twenty-first century.
OVERVIEW
Our analysis begins with a discussion of the historical, political, and cultural contexts that influence ECD policies, practices, and programs, with a special emphasis on the transactional relationship between cultural norms and policy development, decision-making, and implementation. We then discuss the evolution of early childhood policy in the United States, focusing specifically on outcomes that are reflected in current measures of children's health, development, and well-being and what we know about the performance of services, programs, and policies currently in place to improve child health and developmental outcomes. We introduce the Life Course Health Development framework to link theories of social, cognitive, and emotional development with clinical and policy-oriented approaches toward optimizing health development outcomes. The Life Course Health Development framework also provides the basis for a more integrated approach to ECD, one that is more in tune with the human capital development orientation of a post-industrial society.