Composition of the maternal gastrointestinal microbiome as a predictor of neonatal birth weight

BACKGROUND

The biological mechanism by which the maternal gastrointestinal microbiota contributes to fetal growth and neonatal birth weight is currently unknown. The purpose of this study was to explore how the composition of the maternal microbiome in varying pre-gravid body mass index (BMI) groups are associated with neonatal birth weight adjusted for gestational age.

METHODS

Retrospective, cross-sectional metagenomic analysis of bio-banked fecal swab biospecimens (n = 102) self-collected by participants in the late second trimester of pregnancy.

RESULTS

Through high-dimensional regression analysis using principal components (PC) of the microbiome, we found that the best performing multivariate model explained 22.9% of the variation in neonatal weight adjusted for gestational age. Pre-gravid BMI (p = 0.05), PC3 (p = 0.03), and the interaction of the maternal microbiome with maternal blood glucose on the glucose challenge test (p = 0.01) were significant predictors of neonatal birth weight after adjusting for potential confounders including maternal antibiotic use during gestation and total gestational weight gain.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate a significant association between the maternal gastrointestinal microbiome in the late second trimester and neonatal birth weight adjusted for gestational age. Moderated by blood glucose at the time of the universal glucose screening, the gastrointestinal microbiome may have a role in the regulation of fetal growth.

IMPACT

Maternal blood glucose in the late second trimester significantly moderates the relationship between the maternal gastrointestinal microbiome and neonatal size adjusted for gestational age. Our findings provide preliminary evidence for fetal programming of neonatal birth weight through the maternal gastrointestinal microbiome during pregnancy.

Shedding light on functional near-infrared spectroscopy and open science practices

Open science practices work to increase methodological rigor, transparency, and replicability of published findings. We aim to reflect on what the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) community has done to promote open science practices in fNIRS research and set goals to accomplish over the next 10 years.

First Leptophobic Dark Matter Search from the Coherent-CAPTAIN-Mills Liquid Argon Detector

We report the first results of a search for leptophobic dark matter (DM) from the Coherent-CAPTAIN-Mills (CCM) liquid argon (LAr) detector. An engineering run with 120 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and 17.9×10^{20} protons on target (POT) was performed in fall 2019 to study the characteristics of the CCM detector. The operation of this 10-ton detector was strictly light based with a threshold of 50 keV and used coherent elastic scattering off argon nuclei to detect DM. Despite only 1.5 months of accumulated luminosity, contaminated LAr, and nonoptimized shielding, CCM's first engineering run has already achieved sensitivity to previously unexplored parameter space of light dark matter models with a baryonic vector portal. With an expected background of 115 005 events, we observe 115 005+16.5 events which is compatible with background expectations. For a benchmark mediator-to-DM mass ratio of m_{V_{B}}/m_{χ}=2.1, DM masses within the range 9  MeV≲m_{χ}≲50  MeV are excluded at 90% C. L. in the leptophobic model after applying the Feldman-Cousins test statistic. CCM's upgraded run with 200 PMTs, filtered LAr, improved shielding, and 10 times more POT will be able to exclude the remaining thermal relic density parameter space of this model, as well as probe new parameter space of other leptophobic DM models.

Impact of parental incarceration on neonatal outcomes and newborn home environments: a case-control study

OBJECTIVES

Parental incarceration (PI) is a prevalent adverse childhood experience (ACE) that has been linked to numerous social, emotional, and health problems in childhood and adulthood. A growing body of research has emphasized the importance of the timing of parent's incarceration on developmental outcomes.

STUDY DESIGN

The present study uses case-control matching to examine the impact of recent PI on newborn health and home safety outcomes.

METHODS

Neonatal health and newborn sleep and home safety data, including rates of premature birth, low birth weight (LBW), neonatal intensive care unit admittance, breastfeeding initiation, safe sleep, and home environment (e.g. working smoke alarm, proper firearm storage), were collected from 108 women who completed the Virginia Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring survey. Half of these women (n = 54) had experienced the incarceration of themselves or their partner during the previous 12 months. Participants were matched by age, race, income, and the education level with those of 54 women who completed the survey and who had not experienced incarceration in the previous year.

RESULTS

Controlling for nicotine and alcohol consumption during pregnancy and other stressors, path analyses show that the women who experienced incarceration of themselves or their husband/partner were significantly less likely to deliver an LBW infant and more likely to live in a home with a loaded firearm in the home. No other significant differences emerged between the two matched groups among neonatal health or newborn sleep and home safety outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

This result is considered from a public health perspective, as PI is an ACE which can be impacted by policy, particularly policies that promote practices that healthcare workers can use in correctional and other environments to encourage healthy pregnancies and home environments for newborns.

Early Reputation Management: Three-Year-Old Children Are More Generous Following Exposure to Eyes

To enhance their reputations, adults and even 5-year-old children behave more prosocially when being observed by others. However, it remains unknown whether children younger than five also manage their reputations. One established paradigm for assessing reputation management is the 'watching eyes paradigm,' in which adults have been found to be more prosocial in the presence of eyes versus control images. However, the robustness of this effect in adults has recently been called into question, and it has never been demonstrated in children. In Study 1, we used a method similar to that used in prior work: 3- and 5-year-old children took part in a prosocial task while in the presence of an image of eyes or flowers but without explicit mention or reference to the image. With this method, children did not show the watching eyes effect. In Study 2, 3-year-old children were tested with a modified watching eyes paradigm, wherein they first explicitly interacted either with images of eyes or with cloth flowers, and they then engaged in a prosocial task. With this modified watching eyes paradigm, 3-year-olds showed the predicted effect: They were more prosocial following exposure to eyes than flowers. These results offer potential insight into the mixed findings across the adult literature, such that the manner of exposure, and specifically how explicit the exposure is, may influence the watching eyes effect. Finally, no study to date has examined whether cues of human presence other than the eyes also influence prosociality. We found that children in the Mouth condition were prosocial at an intermediate level between the Eyes and Flowers conditions. Overall, the findings point to the remarkably early emergence of reputation management in human ontogeny.

Emotion Correlates of Bullies, Victims, and Bully-Victims in African American Children

Bullying is a pervasive and widely studied problem. Less is known about the emotion correlates that accompany being a bully, being a victim of bullying, and experiencing both bullying and victimization for African American elementary-school-age students. The current study examined differences in emotion dysregulation and internalizing symptoms (depression, anxiety) across levels of bullying and victimization. Children ( N = 336, Mage = 9.58 years, 42.3% boys, 100% African American) were recruited from two inner-city elementary schools and completed self- and peer-reports of bullying and self-reports of victimization, emotion dysregulation, and internalizing symptoms. Results indicated that emotion dysregulation and anxiety symptoms were predicted by an interaction between self-reported bullying and victimization. For children low in victimization, higher levels of self-reported bullying predicted an increase in emotion dysregulation and anxiety symptoms. However, for children high in victimization, bullying was not predictive of these outcomes. Depressive symptoms were predicted by self- and peer-reported bullying and self-reported victimization. Understanding underlying emotional correlates of bullying and victimization within this context have important implications for prevention programs.

Can peripheral DXA measurements be used to predict fractures in elderly women living in the community?

While axial dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the accepted "gold standard" method both for diagnosing osteoporosis and predicting fractures, appropriate equipment is not universally available. Peripheral bone mass measurements may have the potential to identify patients at risk of fracture and to be used to target appropriate treatment. We assessed the effectiveness of peripheral DXA (PIXI, GELunar) in the assessment of risk and targeting treatment to prevent future fracture in 7,604 women aged 60-80 from five centres across Britain. At enrolment women completed a lifestyle and risk factor questionnaire and had a PIXI DXA scan of the heel. Women were categorised by PIXI DXA bone mineral density (BMD) into high, medium or low risk of future osteoporotic fracture. Treatment was recommended to those at highest risk. Follow-up was by simple questionnaire 18-24 months after baseline assessment. Seventy-four percent returned the follow-up questionnaire. The area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves for any fracture and osteoporotic fracture were comparable to those published using other sites and technologies. A 1-SD decrease in PIXI BMD was associated with an 86% increase in risk of osteoporotic fracture. Of the women identified as high risk, 74% had started treatment following their heel scan and 84.7% continued to take treatment at follow-up. No significant difference was noted in fracture rates in those who started treatment after assessment compared to those who did not. While peripheral DXA is highly effective for predicting older women who are at increased risk of future fracture, it has yet to be established as an effective method for targeting bisphosphonate or other therapy.

Accuracy and reliability of 'specialized' physical therapists in auscultating tape-recorded lung sounds

This study investigated the accuracy and inter-rater reliability of 'specialized' physical therapists in the auscultation of tape-recorded lung sounds. In addition, a correlation was investigated between accuracy of interpretation and the number of years of specialization in the field of cardiorespiratory physical therapy. This research follows an earlier study which investigated the accuracy and inter-rater reliability of auscultating tape-recorded lung sounds in a 'non-specialized' cohort of physical therapists. The subjects were 26 'specialized' cardiorespiratory physical therapists working in acute urban teaching hospitals. These individuals were required to have been practising currently and exclusively for at least one year in the area of cardiorespiratory physical therapy. Participants listened with a stethoscope to five different sounds and identified them from a standardized list of terms. One of three tapes with the same lung sounds in different order was randomly selected for each physical therapist. The percentage of correct answers for all subjects was calculated. An accurate response in the detection of lung sounds was arbitrarily defined as a percentage of correct answers of 70% or greater. The difference between the pooled correct response rate of 50% and the arbitrarily set value of 70% was statistically significant (z = 2.23, p < 0.05), indicating that the 'specialized' physical therapists were not accurate in identifying lung sounds. There was no relationship evident between the accuracy and the number of years of cardiorespiratory 'specialization' (r = 0.08). Analysis of inter-rater reliability revealed 'fair agreement' (kappa = 0.26) among subjects. These results were similar to those found in the previous study.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Three-phase radionuclide bone scanning in evaluation of local radiation injury. A case report

The management of local radiation injuries is influenced by the degree of vascular compromise within the skin and underlying tissues. Other authors have used thermography and angiography in assessing the blood flow to radiation damaged tissues. This report describes the use of radionuclide imaging in the evaluation of a patient who developed necrosis of his distal digits following a radiation accident. In addition to determining the vascular status of the hands, imaging helped indicate an appropriate level for amputation.

The radiologist and angiographic procedures. Absorbed radiation dose

The radiation dose absorbed by the angiographer during angiographic procedures is of vital importance to the radiologist. Nevertheless, most articles on the subject are incomplete, and few measure gonadal dose. In this study, three TLDs were used for each of the following sites: radiologist's eyes, thyroid, gonads with and without shielding apron, and hands. The average dose during carotid angiograms was 2.6, 4.1, 0.4, 4.7, and 7.1 mrads to the eyes, thyroid, gonads with and without .5 mm of lead shielding, and hands, respectively. Average dose during abdominal and peripheral vascular angiographic procedures was 5.2, 7.5, 1.2, 8.5, and 39.9 mrads to the eyes, thyroid, gonads with and without shielding, and hands, respectively. A literature review demonstrates a significant reduction in radiation dose to the angiographer after the advent of automated injectors. Our measured doses for carotid angiography are compatible with contemporary reported values. There was poor correlation with fluoroscopy time and measured dose to the angiographer.

An automated dosimetry data-acquisition and analysis system at the LAMPF pion therapy facility

An automated data-acquisition and analysis system has been developed for dosimetry measurements on the pion therapy beam at the Clinton P. Anderson Meson Physics Facility Biomedical Channel in Los Alamos using a PDP-11/45 computer and CAMAC interface. Initialization, test, and monitor programs allow the user to set the physical limits of scanner travel, test the data lines, calibrate the analog signals for the scanner position, and monitor the analog versus digital values of the scanner position during operation. Data-acquisition programs scan beams in one, two, and three dimensions. Many options are available to the user in selecting the scan parameters and in changing some of these parameters during scanning. Data-analysis programs provide reproduction of stored data, comparison of linear scans, beam profiles along any line of a planar or volume scan, and isodose distributions from any planar scan or from any planar scan or from any plane of a volume scan. Other programs summarize stored data files and search for specific data according to the user's instruments.