Clinical and inflammatory features of traffic-related diesel exposure in children with asthma.

Background: Epidemiologic studies have revealed associations between traffic-related pollutants such as diesel particulate matter (PM) and asthma outcomes in children, but the inflammatory features associated with diesel PM exposure in children with asthma are not understood.

Objective: To evaluate symptoms, exacerbations, and lung function measures in children with uncontrolled asthma and their associations with residential proximity to major roadways and to determine associations between diesel PM exposure and systemic inflammatory cytokines, circulating markers of T-cell activation and exhaustion, and metabolomic features using biomarker studies.

Methods: Children 5 to 17 years of age with physician-diagnosed, uncontrolled asthma despite treatment with an asthma controller medication completed a research visit involving questionnaires, lung function testing, and venipuncture for biomarker studies.

Innovative Learning Activities to Prepare Nursing Students for the Next Generation NCLEX.

The purpose of this course innovation was to introduce Next Generation NCLEX (NGN)-style questions and create supplemental cooperative learning assignments (CLAs) to enhance content mastery in a prelicensure maternity course. The course itself is divided into three modules focusing on maternal, newborn, and women's health. Three CLAs and two Canvas quizzes were developed to reinforce the course content and integrate NGN-style case studies and questions.

Environmental Injustice Is Associated With Poorer Asthma Outcomes in School-Age Children With Asthma in Metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia.

Background: Environmental justice mandates that no person suffers disproportionately from environmental exposures. The Environmental Justice Index (EJI) provides an estimate of the environmental burden for each census tract but has not yet been used in asthma populations.

Objective: We hypothesized that children from census tracts with high environmental injustice determined by the EJI would have a greater burden of asthma exacerbations, poorer asthma control, and poorer lung function over 12 months.

Obesity Is Associated with Sustained Symptomatology and Unique Inflammatory Features in Children with Asthma.

Background: Obesity complicates the clinical manifestations of asthma in children. However, few studies have examined longitudinal outcomes or markers of systemic inflammation in obese asthmatic children.

Objective: We hypothesized that obese children with asthma would have: (1) poorer clinical outcomes over 12 months, (2) decreased responsiveness to systemic corticosteroid administration, (3) greater markers of systemic inflammation, and (4) unique amino acid metabolites associated with oxidative stress.

Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether Serum Concentrations and Depressive Symptomatology in Pregnant African American Women.

(1) Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were widely produced in the United States until 2004 but remain highly persistent in the environment. The potential for PBDEs to disrupt normal neuroendocrine pathways resulting in depression and other neurological symptoms is largely understudied. This study examined whether PBDE exposure in pregnant women was associated with antenatal depressive symptomatology.

The Postpartum Maternal and Newborn Microbiomes.

Biological and environmental changes to maternal and newborn microbiomes in the postnatal period can affect health outcomes for the mother-baby dyad. Postpartum sleep deprivation and unmet dietary needs can alter commensal bacteria within the body and disrupt gut-brain communication. Perineal injury and breast infections also change microbial community composition, potentiating an environment favoring pathogen growth.

Classification of Heat-Related Illness Symptoms Among Florida Farmworkers.

Background: Farmworkers working in hot and humid environments have an increased risk for heat-related illness (HRI) if their thermoregulatory capabilities are overwhelmed. The manifestation of heat-related symptoms can escalate into life-threatening events. Increasing ambient air temperatures resulting from climate change will only exacerbate HRI in vulnerable populations.

Deleterious Effects From Occupational Exposure to Ethylene Thiourea in Pregnant Women.

Human exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) has become common as a result of widespread application of these chemicals to the food supply, environmental contamination, and occupational exposures (Caserta et al., 2011). However, relatively little is known about the effects of EDCs such as ethylene thiourea (ETU) in developing fetuses and the lasting implications of this disruption on human development from birth through adulthood.