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Maternal iodine plays a central role in fetal neurodevelopment. It is recommended that pregnant women consume sufficient levels of iodine to accommodate increased need for mother and fetus. We examined associations among prenatal dietary and supplemental iodine intake and infant temperament.
Design:
The PRogramming of Intergenerational Stress Mechanisms (PRISM) study is an ongoing longitudinal pregnancy cohort. Data from 2011 to 2020 were used for this study. Women completed the Block98 FFQ ascertaining prenatal dietary and supplemental iodine intake and the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised at infant age 6 months to ascertain infant temperament (Surgency/Extraversion, Negative Affectivity and Orienting/Regulation).
Setting:
USA.
Participants:
Mother–child dyads (n 892).
Results:
Women were primarily Black/Hispanic Black (44 %) and non-Black Hispanic (35 %) with 46 % reporting household income < $25 000/year. Nearly half had an estimated average requirement (EAR) < 160 µg/d (49 % based on dietary intake; 43 % based on diet and supplements). Girls born to women with an EAR ≥ 160 µg/d compared to girls born to women below this level had higher unadjusted extraversion scores for dietary plus supplemental intake (β = 0·23 (0·13, 0·33)); decreased to β = 0·05 (–0·08, 0·19) after adjusting for covariates. Boys born to women with an EAR ≥ 160 µg/d (based on diet and supplements) as compared to boys born to women below this level had statistically non-significant higher unadjusted negative affective score (β = 0·06 (–0·08, 0·20)) that became significantly lower upon covariate adjustment (β = –1·66 (–1·97, –1·35)).
Conclusions:
A significant proportion of these women reported suboptimal prenatal iodine intake. Suboptimal prenatal iodine intake may have implications for child neurodevelopment evident as early as infancy.
Acute Appendicitis (AA) is an inflammatory condition of the vermiform appendix in the caecum of the colon. Genetic polymorphisms have been suggested as risk factors predisposing to AA susceptibility but have remained relatively unknown, due to insufficient sample size in previous analyses. Therefore, the primary research aim was to identify genetic variants associated with AA. It was hypothesised that gene polymorphisms associated with AA will provide a connection to other diet-related inflammatory diseases. Genetic variants associated with AA were studied via a Genome-Wide Association Scan (GWAS) using the Global Biobank Meta-Analysis Initiative (GBMI). The GBMI is a collaborative consortium of 23 biobanks with a publicly released repository of de-identified genetic data linked with digital health records spanning 4 continents with a study population size of over 2.2 million consented individuals of multiple ancestral backgrounds1. A linear regression model was used to estimate the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), across the human genome, and AA by each contributing biobank. The results were then meta-analysed with a total of 32,706 cases and 1,075,763 controls. In the present study, the free open-source Complex Traits Genetic Virtual Lab (CTG-VL) platform was used to access, analyse, and visualise the GWAS summary statistics of AA2. Genome-wide significantly associated SNPs (p-value < 5 x 10-8) were further searched for their associations with health-related traits in publicly available GWAS summary statistics. Upon analysis, significantly associated SNPs for AA were identified within or nearby nine genes. HLX, NKX2-3, LTBR, and DLEU1 are genes involved in immune responses; IRF8 associated with maturation of myeloid cells; OSR-1 responsible for transmembrane ion transporter activity; NCALD a regulator of G protein-coupled signal transduction. In addition, based on the hypothesis, the SNP of key clinical importance was the HLA-C rs2524046 (p-value = 2.38 x 10-8), with the AA risk-increasing allele C being also strongly associated with a higher risk of coeliac disease (CD). The CD is an autoimmune condition where gluten, a protein present in grains such as barley, rye, and wheat, elicits an inflammatory response that results in damage to the small intestine lining. Considering how both AA and CD share the same SNP, it is possible to speculate whether gluten initiates a similar pathophysiological mechanism that exacerbates inflammation in the vermiform appendix in AA. In conclusion, the top AA associated SNPs suggests its development could be due to immunological responses influenced by dietary nutrient intake. The HLA-C SNP is common to AA and CD, suggesting that the gluten protein found in certain cereal grains possibly contributes to the pathophysiology of AA like CD. This warrants further investigations into whether dietary gluten could play a key role in AA development.
Childhood obesity represents a significant global health concern and identifying its risk factors is crucial for developing intervention programs. Many “omics” factors associated with the risk of developing obesity have been identified, including genomic, microbiomic, and epigenomic factors. Here, using a sample of 48 infants, we investigated how the methylation profiles in cord blood and placenta at birth were associated with weight outcomes (specifically, conditional weight gain, body mass index, and weight-for-length ratio) at age six months. We characterized genome-wide DNA methylation profiles using the Illumina Infinium MethylationEpic chip, and incorporated information on child and maternal health, and various environmental factors into the analysis. We used regression analysis to identify genes with methylation profiles most predictive of infant weight outcomes, finding a total of 23 relevant genes in cord blood and 10 in placenta. Notably, in cord blood, the methylation profiles of three genes (PLIN4, UBE2F, and PPP1R16B) were associated with all three weight outcomes, which are also associated with weight outcomes in an independent cohort suggesting a strong relationship with weight trajectories in the first six months after birth. Additionally, we developed a Methylation Risk Score (MRS) that could be used to identify children most at risk for developing childhood obesity. While many of the genes identified by our analysis have been associated with weight-related traits (e.g., glucose metabolism, BMI, or hip-to-waist ratio) in previous genome-wide association and variant studies, our analysis implicated several others, whose involvement in the obesity phenotype should be evaluated in future functional investigations.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) has been a leader in weed science research covering topics ranging from the development and use of integrated weed management (IWM) tactics to basic mechanistic studies, including biotic resistance of desirable plant communities and herbicide resistance. ARS weed scientists have worked in agricultural and natural ecosystems, including agronomic and horticultural crops, pastures, forests, wild lands, aquatic habitats, wetlands, and riparian areas. Through strong partnerships with academia, state agencies, private industry, and numerous federal programs, ARS weed scientists have made contributions to discoveries in the newest fields of robotics and genetics, as well as the traditional and fundamental subjects of weed–crop competition and physiology and integration of weed control tactics and practices. Weed science at ARS is often overshadowed by other research topics; thus, few are aware of the long history of ARS weed science and its important contributions. This review is the result of a symposium held at the Weed Science Society of America’s 62nd Annual Meeting in 2022 that included 10 separate presentations in a virtual Weed Science Webinar Series. The overarching themes of management tactics (IWM, biological control, and automation), basic mechanisms (competition, invasive plant genetics, and herbicide resistance), and ecosystem impacts (invasive plant spread, climate change, conservation, and restoration) represent core ARS weed science research that is dynamic and efficacious and has been a significant component of the agency’s national and international efforts. This review highlights current studies and future directions that exemplify the science and collaborative relationships both within and outside ARS. Given the constraints of weeds and invasive plants on all aspects of food, feed, and fiber systems, there is an acknowledged need to face new challenges, including agriculture and natural resources sustainability, economic resilience and reliability, and societal health and well-being.
This study investigates the dose escalation to dominant intra-prostatic lesions (DILs) that is achievable using single-source-strength (SSS) and dual-source-strength (DSS) low-dose-rate (LDR) prostate brachytherapy and a sector-based plan approach.
Methods:
Twenty patients were retrospectively analysed. Image registration and planning were undertaken using VariSeed v9·0. SSS and DSS boost plans were produced and compared to clinical plans. Dosimetric robustness to seed displacement for SSS and DSS plans was compared to clinical plans using Monte Carlo simulations.
Results:
Fourteen out of 20 patients had DIL identifiable on magnetic resonance imaging. Median increase in sector D90 of 27% (p < 0·0001) and sector V150 of 31% (p < 0·0001) was achieved with SSS planning without exceeding local rectum and urethra dose constraints. DSS plans achieved dose distributions not statistically significantly different from the SSS plans with a median of eight fewer seeds and two fewer needles. SSS and DSS plan sensitivity to random seed displacement was similar to the clinical plans.
Conclusions:
Treatment planning using VariSeed to produce SSS and DSS focal boost plans is feasible for LDR prostate brachytherapy to achieve a median escalation in sector D90 of 27% without exceeding local urethral and rectal constraints. SSS and DSS plan dosimetric robustness was similar to clinical plan dosimetric robustness.
While unobscured and radio-quiet active galactic nuclei are regularly being found at redshifts
$z > 6$
, their obscured and radio-loud counterparts remain elusive. We build upon our successful pilot study, presenting a new sample of low-frequency-selected candidate high-redshift radio galaxies (HzRGs) over a sky area 20 times larger. We have refined our selection technique, in which we select sources with curved radio spectra between 72–231 MHz from the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky Murchison Widefield Array (GLEAM) survey. In combination with the requirements that our GLEAM-selected HzRG candidates have compact radio morphologies and be undetected in near-infrared
$K_{\rm s}$
-band imaging from the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy (VIKING) survey, we find 51 new candidate HzRGs over a sky area of approximately
$1200\ \mathrm{deg}^2$
. Our sample also includes two sources from the pilot study: the second-most distant radio galaxy currently known, at
$z=5.55$
, with another source potentially at
$z \sim 8$
. We present our refined selection technique and analyse the properties of the sample. We model the broadband radio spectra between 74 MHz and 9 GHz by supplementing the GLEAM data with both publicly available data and new observations from the Australia Telescope Compact Array at 5.5 and 9 GHz. In addition, deep
$K_{\rm s}$
-band imaging from the High-Acuity Widefield K-band Imager (HAWK-I) on the Very Large Telescope and from the Southern Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey Regions
$K_{\rm s}$
-band Survey (SHARKS) is presented for five sources. We discuss the prospects of finding very distant radio galaxies in our sample, potentially within the epoch of reionisation at
$z \gtrsim 6.5$
.
To evaluate the associations of pregestational BMI, gestational weight gain (GWG) and breast-feeding at 1 month postpartum with four patterns of weight change during the first year after delivery: postpartum weight retention (PPWR), postpartum weight gain (PPWG), postpartum weight retention + gain (PPWR + WG) and return to pregestational weight.
Design:
In this secondary analysis of a prospective study, we categorised postpartum weight change into four patterns using pregestational weight and weights at 1, 6 and 12 months postpartum. We evaluated their associations with pregestational BMI, GWG and breast-feeding using multinomial logistic regression. Results are presented as relative risk ratios (RRR) and 95 % CI.
Setting:
Mexico City.
Participants:
Women participating in the Programming Research in Obesity, Growth, Environment and Social Stressors pregnancy cohort.
Results:
Five hundred women were included (53 % of the cohort). Most women returned to their pregestational weight by 1 year postpartum (57 %); 8 % experienced PPWR, 14 % PPWG and 21 % PPWR + WG. Compared with normal weight, pregestational overweight (RRR 2·5, 95 % CI 1·3, 4·8) and obesity (RRR 2·2, 95 % CI 1·0, 4·7) were associated with a higher risk of PPWG. Exclusive breast-feeding, compared with no breast-feeding, was associated with a lower risk of PPWR (RRR 0·3, 95 % CI 0·1, 0·9). Excessive GWG, compared with adequate, was associated with a higher risk of PPWR (RRR 3·3, 95 % CI 1·6, 6·9) and PPWR + WG (RRR 2·4, 95 % CI 1·4, 4·2).
Conclusions:
Targeting women with pregestational overweight or obesity and excessive GWG, as well as promoting breast-feeding, may impact the pattern of weight change after delivery and long-term women’s health.
The SPARC tokamak is a critical next step towards commercial fusion energy. SPARC is designed as a high-field ($B_0 = 12.2$ T), compact ($R_0 = 1.85$ m, $a = 0.57$ m), superconducting, D-T tokamak with the goal of producing fusion gain $Q>2$ from a magnetically confined fusion plasma for the first time. Currently under design, SPARC will continue the high-field path of the Alcator series of tokamaks, utilizing new magnets based on rare earth barium copper oxide high-temperature superconductors to achieve high performance in a compact device. The goal of $Q>2$ is achievable with conservative physics assumptions ($H_{98,y2} = 0.7$) and, with the nominal assumption of $H_{98,y2} = 1$, SPARC is projected to attain $Q \approx 11$ and $P_{\textrm {fusion}} \approx 140$ MW. SPARC will therefore constitute a unique platform for burning plasma physics research with high density ($\langle n_{e} \rangle \approx 3 \times 10^{20}\ \textrm {m}^{-3}$), high temperature ($\langle T_e \rangle \approx 7$ keV) and high power density ($P_{\textrm {fusion}}/V_{\textrm {plasma}} \approx 7\ \textrm {MW}\,\textrm {m}^{-3}$) relevant to fusion power plants. SPARC's place in the path to commercial fusion energy, its parameters and the current status of SPARC design work are presented. This work also describes the basis for global performance projections and summarizes some of the physics analysis that is presented in greater detail in the companion articles of this collection.
Treatment-resistant schizophrenia does not exist as a discrete entity, so separating patients who will fail to respond to traditional antipsychotics from those who will respond is impossible with 100% accuracy. However, several predictors of poor clinical outcome have emerged from recent research and knowledge of the processes that lead to poor outcome has become increasingly important with the advent of atypical antipsychotics that may be used in patients with treatment-resistant illness. Much of the variation in outcome can be understood in terms of differences in sample selection, outcome definition and stringency of the diagnostic criteria used. Failure to appreciate these mechanisms may lead to over- or underestimation of the proportion of patients with poor treatment response in clinical and research settings. The importance of factors that predict poor outcome should be judged in terms of their effect size and the degree to which alternative explanations for the association with outcome have been excluded. Although much current research is being focused on specific biological predictors, baseline demographic and illness-related factors, such as ethnic group, sex, social class, type of onset, age of onset and concurrent misuse of alcohol or drugs, have large effects on outcome. Although duration of untreated psychosis before first contact with services may independently predict poor outcome, confounding by variables that are associated with both pathways to care and clinical outcome has not been excluded.
In 2001, the World Health Organization (WHO) created the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) to offer a comprehensive and universally accepted framework to describe functioning, disability and health. The ICF Core Sets (ICF-CS) are a selection of categories that serve as a minimal standard for the assessment of functioning and disability in a specific health condition. The ICF-CS for schizophrenia was created in 2015 based on four preliminary studies that intend to capture different perspectives.
Objectives
The aim of this study is to describe the similarities (i.e. overlap) and discrepancies (i.e. unique contribution) between the clinical, patient and expert perspectives on the most relevant problems in functioning of individuals with schizophrenia, being focused on the European WHO region.
Methods
Forty-four experts from 14 European countries participated in an expert survey, patients with schizophrenia were involved in four focus groups, and health professionals assessed 127 patients in relation to daily life functioning. Information gathered from these three preliminary studies was linked to the ICF.
Results
Data showed that although a considerable number of second-level ICF categories agreed on the three preparatory studies (n = 54, 27.7%), each perspective provided a unique set of ICF categories. Specifically, experts reported 65 unique ICF categories, patients 23 and health professionals 11.
Conclusions
Even though there were similarities between perspectives, each one underlined different areas of functioning, showing the importance of including different perspectives in order to get a complete view of functioning and disability in individuals with schizophrenia.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Epilepsy and mental illness have a bidirectional association. Psychiatrists are likely to encounter epilepsy as comorbidity. Seizures may present as mental illness. Equally, the management of psychiatric conditions has the potential to destabilise epilepsy. There is a need for structured epilepsy awareness and training amongst psychiatrists. This paper outlines key considerations around diagnosis, treatment and risk while suggesting practical recommendations.
Engineers have, until recent years, fought shy of anything relating to aerial navigation. Those who ventured, in spite of the odium attached to that study, to look into it at all, became very soon satisfied that the great obstacle in the way was the lack of a motor sufficiently light to sustain its weight and that of an aeroplane, upon the air. Fifteen years ago the lightest steam motor was the marine engine weighing 60 pounds to the H.P., while the gas engine weighed very much more; the locomotive weighed 200 pounds per H.P. During the past fifteen years a great change has taken place. Steam motors have been produced weighing only 10 pounds per horse–power, and gas engines have been lightened down to 12½ to 15 pounds per horse–power, so that the status, so far as engineers are concerned, is very greatly changed, and there is some hope that, for some limited purposes at least, man will eventually be able to fly through the air.
We describe bright microwave events that were first detected with the Parkes 64-m telescope at 8.4 or 22 GHz from six active-chromosphere stars. In some flares spectral data were obtained over a large frequency range from simultaneous measurements with the Parkes reflector (8.4 or 22 GHz), the Tidbinbilla interferometer (8.4 and 2.29 GHz), the Fleurs synthesis telescope (1.42 GHz) and the Molonglo Observatory synthesis telescope (0.843 GHz). Data on circular polarization were obtained from the Parkes observations at 8.4 GHz.
The stars were in a wide variety of evolutionary states, ranging from a single pre-main-sequence star (HD 36705), two RS CVn binaries (HD 127535, HD 128171), an Algol (HD 132742) and two apparently single K giants (HD 32918 and HD 196818). Their high brightness temperatures, positive spectral indices and low polarization are consistent with optically thick gyrosynchrotron emission from mildly relativistic electrons with average energies 0.5 to 3 MeV gyrating in inhomogeneous magnetic fields of 5 to 100 G.
We present an overview of the survey for radio emission from active stars that has been in progress for the last six years using the observatories at Fleurs, Molonglo, Parkes and Tidbinbilla. The role of complementary optical observations at the Anglo-Australian Observatory, Mount Burnett, Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories and Mount Tamborine are also outlined. We describe the different types of star that have been included in our survey and discuss some of the problems in making the radio observations.
We present some preliminary results of an optical and radio study of the very active RS CVn binary HD 127535. Photometric measurements show the presence of a large amplitude wave which exhibits marked changes in shape and range on time scales as short as a few months. This photometric variation is almost certainly due to large cool starspots on the cooler, more luminous component. As part of a survey of southern active-chromosphere stars with the Parkes radio telescope, HD 127535 has been observed at 5, 8.4 and 22 GHz. No detection was made at 5 GHz, possibly because of confusion due to the angular proximity of the star to the galatic plane. However, it is one of the strongest sources detected in the 8.4 GHz survey, and is one of only two stars detected at 22 GHz. Photometry obtained two cycles before the 8.4 GHz observations suggest a possible correlation between the radio emission and the photometric wave, i.e. spot visibility, but more data are needed.
Properties of the microwave emission from HR1099 are examined in an attempt to determine whether the emission arises as gyro-synchrotron radiation from mildly relativistic electrons trapped in magnetic fields above starspots on the active K subgiant component. It is shown that radio curves do not exhibit a systematic variation in phase with the rotation rate, as one might expect for emission from a source situated above a long-lived starspot. However, there is some evidence that the radio flaring occurs at two preferred longitude zones. Whether these zones agree with starspot locations remains to be determined by light curve modelling. What we can say with confidence is that the measured spectral index of the microwave emission does not fit a simple gyro-synchrotron source model, such as that proposed to explain the observed reversal with frequency of the sense of circular polarization.
The single G8V active chromosphere star HD36705 (AB Dor) was observed at 8.4 GHz with the Parkes 64 m telescope during three observing sessions involving a total of 21 days in the interval 1985 December to 1986 February. Subsequent photometric observations were made of the star with the 0.25 m and 0.45 m telescopes of the Monash Observatory in 1986 March-April. Two strong radio flares, each lasting three days, were detected; they yielded peak radio powers of P8.4≈4×109 W Hz-1, comparable with the microwave power emitted by the RS CVn binaries. Significant circular polarization of 13% left-hand was measured on only one of the six active days. The 8.4 GHz flux density showed smooth variation over an interval of several hours, consistent with the flare source being partly occulted by the stellar disk as the star rotated. When all the radio data was phase-binned using the known rotation period of 0.514 day we found two radio maxima corresponding to radio sources at stellar longitudes ~180° apart. The subsequent photometric data showed intensity variations that were consistent with the starspots at the same approximate longitudes. We thus interpret our radio curve as showing the presence of comparatively small (<0.5 D*) radio sources in the corona above the star spots. The upper limit to source diameter gives a peak brightness temperature ≥2×l010 K, which can be achieved by gyro-synchrotron emission only if the source is optically thick and the electrons, with average energy ~ 2 MeV, have a hard energy spectrum. The observed radiation can be due only to very high harmonics of the gyro-frequency, leading to an estimate for the magnetic field strength of ~30G.