The human gut microbiota is central in regulating all facets of host physiology, and in early life it is thought to influence the host's immune system and metabolism, affecting long-term health. However, longitudinally monitored cohorts with parallel analysis of faecal samples and health data are scarce. In our observational study we describe the gut microbiota development in the first 2 years of life and create a gut microbiota wellbeing index based on the microbiota development and health data in a cohort of nearly 1000 infants using clustering and trajectory modelling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report on the demonstration of a diode-pumped, Tm:YLF-based, chirped pulse amplification laser system operating at λ ≈ 1.9 µm that produces amplified pulse energies exceeding 1.5 J using a single 8-pass power amplifier.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Physician Assist Educ
December 2023
Purpose: Overtesting, ordering diagnostic investigations that do not help diagnose or manage a patient, is well-recognized as a problem across multiple healthcare settings in developed countries. One of the reasons often cited for overtesting is a lack of confidence or knowledge, so this article addresses our attempt to reduce overtesting through an investigation-specific course for a physician associate (PA) program based in the United Kingdom. We found no evidence of pedagogical literature that focused on clinical diagnostics teaching and assessment for PAs, so we aim to be the first to provide this research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Urban-related nature exposures are suggested to contribute to the rising prevalence of allergic diseases despite little supporting evidence. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of 12 land cover classes and two greenness indices around homes at birth on the development of doctor-diagnosed eczema by the age of 2 years, and the influence of birth season.
Methods: Data from 5085 children were obtained from six Finnish birth cohorts.