Publications by authors named "Bentley M"

Objective: To identify factors associated with the presence and severity of food insecurity among a sample of Honduran caregivers of young children.

Design: Cross-sectional study in which the dependent variable, household food insecurity, was measured using a fourteen-item questionnaire developed and validated in a population of similar cultural context. A predictive modelling strategy used backwards elimination in logistic regression and multinomial logit regression models to compute odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for food insecurity.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focused on how non-maternal caregivers (NMCs) influence infant feeding practices during the first two years of life, particularly regarding breastfeeding duration and the timing of introducing complementary foods.
  • Data from a group of 217 low-income, African-American mother-infant pairs revealed that a significant portion of households reported involvement from NMCs, with fathers, grandmothers, and childcare providers being the most common.
  • Findings indicated that NMC involvement was linked to shorter breastfeeding duration and higher consumption of juices or whole fruits, suggesting that interventions should support multiple family members to improve infant nutrition outcomes.
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This experimental work aimed to develop a simple, fast, economic, and environmentally friendly process for the extraction of lycopene from tomato and incorporate this lycopene-rich extract into ultradeformable vesicular nanocarriers suitable for topical application. Lycopene extraction was conducted without a cosolvent for 30 min. The extracts were analyzed and incorporated in transfersomes and ethosomes.

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Objective: The aim of this study was to determine if a latent variable approach might be useful in identifying shared variance across genetic risk alleles that is associated with antisocial behaviour at age 15 years.

Methods: Using a conventional latent variable approach, we derived an antisocial phenotype in 328 adolescents utilizing data from a 15-year follow-up of a randomized trial of a prenatal and infancy nurse-home visitation programme in Elmira, New York. We then investigated, via a novel latent variable approach, 450 informative genetic polymorphisms in 71 genes previously associated with antisocial behaviour, drug use, affiliative behaviours and stress response in 241 consenting individuals for whom DNA was available.

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We report the development of D, L lactic co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)-based nanoparticles (NPs) for topical delivery of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), a photosensitizer (PS), in treatments like photodynamic therapy (PDT) of skin cancers. PpIX-NPs were obtained in ~75.0% yield, encapsulation efficiency of 67.

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Study Objective: Out-of-hospital care is becoming more complex, thus placing greater reliance on the cognitive abilities of paramedics to manage difficult situations. In adapting to the challenges in their work, paramedics develop expertise. We study the cognitive strategies used by expert paramedics to contribute to understanding how paramedics and the EMS system can adapt to new challenges.

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Introduction: Since the inception of emergency medical services (EMS), individuals have assumed the role of "training officer" without a clear and concise description of the responsibilities inherent in this position. Furthermore, EMS system leaders rely heavily on these individuals to implement changes within an EMS system and to ensure the competency of practicing out-of-hospital professionals. The limited understanding of and research in training officer roles highlight the need for study in this area.

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Maternal weight loss during exclusive breastfeeding may influence the growth of exclusively breast-fed infants through impaired quality or quantity of breast milk. This study evaluated how maternal weight loss from 2 to 24 wk postpartum was related to infant weight and length gain in 1309 lactating HIV-infected mothers and their exclusively breast-fed infants. Malawian mother-infant pairs in the Breastfeeding, Antiretrovirals, and Nutrition Study were randomized with a 2 × 3 factorial design to a 2-arm nutritional intervention with a lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS), meeting nutritional needs of lactation, or no LNS and a 3-arm antiretroviral (ARV) intervention (maternal, infant, or no ARV regimen).

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A measurement of the reduced transition probability for the excitation of the ground state to the first 2+ state in 104Sn has been performed using relativistic Coulomb excitation at GSI. 104Sn is the lightest isotope in the Sn chain for which this quantity has been measured. The result is a key point in the discussion of the evolution of nuclear structure in the proximity of the doubly magic nucleus 100Sn.

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Background And Objectives: Idiopathic thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a rare, clinically diagnosed disorder characterized by widespread intravascular platelet thrombosis. The pathophysiology involves acquired deficiency of ADAMTS13 (A disintegrin and metalloprotease with thrombospondin type 1 repeats), the enzyme responsible for cleavage of high molecular weight vonWillebrand factor multimers. Disease mortality is high, although prompt treatment with plasma exchange is generally effective.

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The environmental determinants of public health and social equity present many challenges to a sustainable urbanism-climate change, water shortages and oil dependency to name a few. There are many pathways from urban environments to human health. Numerous links have been described but some underlying mechanisms behind these relationships are less understood.

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This paper reports on the health promotion and disease prevention conducted at Australian multi-disciplinary primary health care (PHC) services and considers the ways in which the organizational environment affects the extent and type of health promotion and disease prevention activity. The study involves five PHC services in Adelaide and one in Alice Springs. Four are managed by a state health department and two by boards of governance.

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Objective: The prevalence of overweight among infants and toddlers has increased dramatically in the past three decades, highlighting the importance of identifying factors contributing to early excess weight gain, particularly in high-risk groups. Parental feeding styles and the attitudes and behaviors that characterize parental approaches to maintaining or modifying children's eating behavior are an important behavioral component shaping early obesity risk.

Design And Methods: Using longitudinal data from the Infant Care and Risk of Obesity Study, a cohort study of 217 African-American mother-infant pairs with feeding styles, dietary recalls, and anthropometry collected from 3 to 18 months of infant age, we examined the relationship between feeding styles, infant diet, and weight-for-age and sum of skinfolds.

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Micronutrient deficiency is an important cause of growth stunting. To avoid micronutrient deficiency, the World Health Organization recommends complementary feeding with animal-source foods. However, animal-source foods are not readily available in many parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

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The Breastfeeding, Antiretrovirals, and Nutrition (BAN) Study randomized HIV-infected mothers and their infants to receive either maternal lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS) during lactation or no LNS and then to 1 of 3 antiretroviral drug (ARV) arms (maternal, infant, or no drugs). Assigned interventions were provided from 0 to 28 wk and all infants (n = 1619) were given LNS during (24-28 wk) and following (28-48 wk) weaning. This paper assesses the feasibility of infant LNS as a breastmilk replacement and uses longitudinal random effects models to examine associations of interventions, morbidity, and season with weight-for-age (WAZ), length-for-age (LAZ), and BMI-for-age (BMIZ) Z-scores from 24 to 48 wk.

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Wild bees that provide pollination services to vegetable crops depend on forage resources, nesting sites, and overwintering sites in the agricultural landscape. The scale at which crop-visiting bees use resources in the landscape can vary regionally, and has not been characterized in the Midwestern United States. We investigated the effects of seminatural land cover on wild bee visitation frequency to cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.

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Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence and severity of depression, anxiety, and stress among a cohort of nationally certified emergency medical services (EMS) professionals. The secondary objective was to determine whether there were differences between individuals who were experiencing depression, anxiety, or stress and those who were not.

Methods: This was a questionnaire-based, case-control analysis of nationally certified emergency medical technician (EMT)-Basics and paramedics who applied for national recertification in 2009.

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Drug administration through the transdermal route has optimized for the comfort of patients and easy application. However, the main limitation of transdermal drug delivery is the impermeability of the human skin. Recent advances on improvement of drug transport through the skin include elastic liposomes as a penetration enhancer.

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With the increasing number of studies proposing new and optimal delivery strategies for the efficacious silencing of gene-related diseases by the local administration of siRNAs, the present review aims to provide a broad overview of the most important and latest developments of non-viral siRNA delivery systems for local administration. Moreover, the main disease targets for the local delivery of siRNA to specific tissues or organs, including the skin, the lung, the eye, the nervous system, the digestive system and the vagina, were explored.

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Childhood obesity is an increasing public health problem, particularly among minority infants and young children. Disparities in overweight prevalence persist and widen with age, highlighting the need to identify factors contributing to early excess weight gain. We review the behavioral, social and macro-environmental factors contributing to the development of obesogenic early feeding practices among African-American infants and young children.

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Objective: This study examines the development of television (TV) behaviors across the first 18 months of life and identifies maternal and infant predictors of infant TV exposure.

Methods: We used longitudinal TV exposure, maternal sociodemographic, and infant temperament data from 217 African-American mother-infant pairs participating in the Infant Care and Risk of Obesity Study. Longitudinal logistic models and ordered regression models with clustering for repeated measures across subjects adjusted for infant gender and visit were used to assess maternal and infant predictors of TV exposure and to test whether infants with both maternal and infant risk factors had higher odds of more detrimental TV exposure.

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We combined an ensemble of satellite altimetry, interferometry, and gravimetry data sets using common geographical regions, time intervals, and models of surface mass balance and glacial isostatic adjustment to estimate the mass balance of Earth's polar ice sheets. We find that there is good agreement between different satellite methods--especially in Greenland and West Antarctica--and that combining satellite data sets leads to greater certainty. Between 1992 and 2011, the ice sheets of Greenland, East Antarctica, West Antarctica, and the Antarctic Peninsula changed in mass by -142 ± 49, +14 ± 43, -65 ± 26, and -20 ± 14 gigatonnes year(-1), respectively.

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The American College of Clinical Pharmacy charged the Public and Professional Relations Committee to develop a short white paper describing quality measures of clinical pharmacists' patient care services in transitional care settings. Transitional care describes patient movement from one health care setting or service to another. Care transitions are associated with an increased risk of adverse events for patients.

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Recent estimates of Antarctica's present-day rate of ice-mass contribution to changes in sea level range from 31 gigatonnes a year (Gt yr(-1); ref. 1) to 246 Gt yr(-1) (ref. 2), a range that cannot be reconciled within formal errors.

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