Probing the anharmonicity of vibrational polaritons with double-quantum two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy.

Strong coupling between the molecular vibrations and electromagnetic fields of light confined to an infrared cavity leads to the formation of vibro-polaritons - quasi-particles thought to provide the means to control the rates of chemical reactions inside a dark cavity. Despite the mechanisms indicating how vibrational coupling to the vacuum fields can affect the reaction rates are still not well understood, it has been recently demonstrated that the formation of the polariton states alters the ultrafast relaxation dynamics of the strongly coupled system. The relaxation dynamics in molecules, which is known to be important for the chemical reactivity, is directed by anharmonic couplings involving multiple intra- and inter-molecular vibrational degrees of freedom.

Contributions of maternal prenatal infection and antibiotic exposure to offspring infection and risk for allergic respiratory conditions through age 5.

Objectives: To determine if maternal prenatal infection increases risk of offspring postnatal infections through age 5 or diagnosis of respiratory allergy at age 5, independent of prenatal/postnatal antibiotic exposure. To evaluate if frequency of offspring infections mediates an association between prenatal infection and respiratory allergy at age 5.

Study Design: Secondary data analyses were performed from the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS), a prospective, longitudinal birth cohort that enrolled pregnant women from 1959 to 1966 (N = 19,044 live births).

Early Intervention services in the era of genomic medicine: setting a research agenda.

Newborn genomic sequencing (NBSeq) has the potential to substantially improve early detection of rare genetic conditions, allowing for pre-symptomatic treatment to optimize outcomes. Expanding conceptions of the clinical utility of NBSeq include earlier access to behavioral early intervention to support the acquisition of core motor, cognitive, communication, and adaptive skills during critical windows in early development. However, important questions remain about equitable access to early intervention programs for the growing number of infants identified with a genetic condition via NBSeq.

In utero exposure to antihistamines and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in a multigenerational cohort.

Background: Growing evidence suggests that liver disease originates in early life. Antihistamines cross the placenta and are frequently prescribed to pregnant women to treat nausea and vomiting, as well as allergy and asthma symptoms. Exposure to antihistamines in utero may impact the developing liver by reprogramming or inducing epigenetic changes in fetal hepatocytes.

Sex-specific DNA methylation signatures of autism spectrum disorder in newborn blood.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder comprises a group of neurodevelopmental conditions currently diagnosed by behavioral assessment in childhood, although neuropathology begins during gestation. A poorly understood male bias for ASD diagnosis is thought to be due to both biological sex differences and cultural biases against female diagnosis of ASD. Identification of molecular biomarkers of ASD likelihood in newborns would provide more objective screening and early intervention.

Prenatal maternal Inflammation, childhood cognition and adolescent depressive symptoms.

Background: Accumulating evidence indicates that higher prenatal maternal inflammation is associated with increased depression risk in adolescent and adult-aged offspring. Prenatal maternal inflammation (PNMI) may increase the likelihood for offspring to have lower cognitive performance, which, in turn, may heighten risk for depression onset. Therefore, this study explored the potential mediating role of childhood cognitive performance in the relationship between PNMI and adolescent depressive symptoms in offspring.

Opt-in or out? Public perspectives on forensic DNA kinship investigations within the Dutch-speaking community.

Forensic DNA kinship investigation involves analyzing genetic relationships between individuals to offer new leads for solving (cold) cases. Familial DNA matching has become a valuable asset in criminal case investigations, especially when traditional DNA methods hit dead ends. However, concerns surrounding ethical and privacy implications raised questions about its implementation and acceptance among the general public.

Young Women's Perspectives on Being Screened for Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk During Routine Primary Care.

Purpose: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening women to identify individuals eligible for genetic counseling based on a priori hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome (HBOC) risk (i.

Cumulative Stress Across the Life Course and Biological Aging in Adulthood.

Objective: Psychosocial stressors have been linked with accelerated biological aging in adults; however, few studies have examined stressors across the life course in relation to biological aging.

Methods: In 359 individuals (57% White, 34% Black) from the Child Health and Development Studies Disparities study, economic (income, education, financial strain), social (parent-child relations, caretaker responsibilities) and traumatic (death of a sibling or child, violence exposure) stressors were assessed at multiple time points (birth and ages 9, 15, and 50 years). Experiences of major discrimination were assessed at age 50.

Sex-Specific Pathways From Prenatal Maternal Inflammation to Adolescent Depressive Symptoms.

Importance: Prenatal maternal inflammation has been associated with major depressive disorder in offspring in adulthood as well as with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in childhood; however, the association between prenatal inflammation and offspring depression in adolescence has yet to be examined.

Objective: To determine whether maternal levels of inflammatory biomarkers during pregnancy are associated with depressive symptomatology in adolescent-aged offspring and to examine how gestational timing, offspring sex, and childhood psychiatric symptoms impact these associations.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This was an observational study of a population-based birth cohort from the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS), which recruited almost all mothers receiving obstetric care from the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (KFHP) in Alameda County, California, between June 1959 and September 1966.

Muscle redundancy is greatly reduced by the spatiotemporal nature of neuromuscular control.

Animals must control numerous muscles to produce forces and movements with their limbs. Current theories of motor optimization and synergistic control are predicated on the assumption that there are multiple highly diverse feasible activations for any motor task ("muscle redundancy"). Here, we demonstrate that the dimensionality of the neuromuscular control problem is greatly reduced when adding the temporal constraints inherent to any sequence of motor commands: the physiological time constants for muscle activation-contraction dynamics.

Birth Defects in Offspring of Adolescent and Young Adults with a History of Cancer: A Population-Based Study of 27,000 Women.

Background: We examined birth defects in offspring of adolescent and young adult (AYA) women with a history of cancer (age 15-39 years at diagnosis).

Methods: We identified AYA women diagnosed with cancer between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2015 using population-based data from the Texas Cancer Registry; data were linked with live birth and fetal death certificates through December 31, 2016 to identify singleton births to AYA women after diagnosis. Birth defects in offspring through age 12 months were ascertained from the Texas Birth Defects Registry.

Spontaneous Raman scattering from vibrational polaritons is obscured by reservoir states.

Vibrational strong coupling results from the interaction between optically allowed molecular vibrational excitations and the resonant mode of an infrared cavity. Strong coupling leads to the formation of hybrid states, known as vibrational polaritons, which are readily observed in transmission measurements and a manifold of the reservoir states. In contrast, Raman spectroscopy of vibrational polaritons is elusive and has recently been the focus of both theoretical and experimental investigations.

The Effect of Individual or Study-Wide Report-Back on Knowledge, Concern, and Exposure-Reducing Behaviors Related to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals.

Background: To make informed decisions about endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), people need functional understanding of exposures and health and an ability to act on their knowledge. The return of biomonitoring results is an opportunity to educate people about EDCs and motivate exposure reduction.

Objectives: This study investigates environmental health knowledge about EDCs, concerns about health effects, and exposure-reducing behaviors before and after the return of individual-level exposure results or only study-wide results.

Third Trimester Serum Amino Acid Metabolism is Associated with Maternal Breast Cancer Diagnosed within 15 years of Pregnancy.

A prospective metabolome-wide association study revealed widespread amino acid limitation in late pregnancy is associated with early onset breast cancer. Archival third trimester pregnancy serum samples from 172 women who subsequently were diagnosed with breast cancer within 38 years after pregnancy were compared to 351 women without breast cancer. No individual metabolite differed after false discovery rate adjustment, indicating that individual metabolites are unlikely to be useful for classification or prediction.

Genomic testing in voluntary workplace wellness programs in the US: Evidence and challenges.

Background: Workplace genetic and/or genomic testing (wGT) is one of many options that employers can offer within the scope of voluntary workplace wellness programs, though we know little about how many employers are offering this benefit, or what kinds of testing are included.

Methods: Our landscaping review sought to discover the prevalence and distribution of wGT within voluntary wellness programs among U.S.

Exposome epidemiology for suspect environmental chemical exposures during pregnancy linked to subsequent breast cancer diagnosis.

Breast cancer is now the most common cancer globally, accounting for 12% of all new annual cancer cases worldwide. Despite epidemiologic studies having established a number of risk factors, knowledge of chemical exposure risks is limited to a relatively small number of chemicals. In this exposome research study, we used non-targeted, high-resolution mass spectrometry of pregnancy cohort biospecimens in the Child Health and Development Studies to test for associations with breast cancer identified via the California Cancer Registry.

Exposome Epidemiology for Suspect Environmental Chemical Exposures during Pregnancy Linked to Subsequent Breast Cancer Diagnosis.

Breast cancer is now the most common cancer globally, accounting for 12% of all new annual cancer cases worldwide. Despite epidemiologic studies having established a number of risk factors, knowledge of chemical exposure risks is limited to a relatively small number of chemicals. In this exposome research study, we used non-targeted, high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) of pregnancy cohort biospecimens in the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS) to test for associations with breast cancer identified via the California Cancer Registry.

Racial socialization and discrimination-related psychological distress in middle-aged Black men and women.

Our objectives were to evaluate gender-specific associations of racial discrimination with psychological sequelae among middle-aged Blacks and to evaluate the capacity of racial socialization to moderate the association between discrimination and psychological distress, accounting for relevant prospectively assessed childhood factors. We used data from the Child Health and Development Disparities Study that followed a Northern California-based group of Blacks from the prenatal period through midlife ( = 244, 49.6% female).

Adverse birth outcomes of adolescent and young adult women diagnosed with cancer during pregnancy.

Background: We examined adverse birth outcomes among adolescent and young adult women diagnosed with cancer (AYA women, ages 15-39 years) during pregnancy.

Methods: We linked data from the Texas Cancer Registry, vital records, and Texas Birth Defects Registry to identify all singleton births to AYA women diagnosed during pregnancy from January 1999 to December 2016. We compared prevalence of adverse live birth outcomes between AYA women and women without cancer (matched 1:4 on age, race and ethnicity, and year).

In utero exposure to antiemetic and risk of adult-onset colorectal cancer.

Background: Incidence rates of colorectal cancer (CRC) are increasing among adults born in and after the 1960s, implicating pregnancy-related exposures introduced at that time as risk factors. Dicyclomine, an antispasmodic used to treat irritable bowel syndrome, was initially included in Bendectin (comprising doxylamine, pyridoxine, and dicyclomine), an antiemetic prescribed during pregnancy in the 1960s.

Methods: We estimated the association between in utero exposure to Bendectin and risk of CRC in offspring of the Child Health and Development Studies, a multigenerational cohort that enrolled pregnant women in Oakland, CA, between 1959 and 1966 (n = 14 507 mothers and 18 751 liveborn offspring).

In-utero exposure to antibiotics and risk of colorectal cancer in a prospective cohort of 18 000 adult offspring.

Background: Incidence rates of colorectal cancer (CRC) are increasing among younger adults and in mid-life, implicating exposures in early life as risk factors. We examined the association between in-utero exposure to antibiotics and risk of CRC in adult offspring.

Methods: The Child Health and Development Studies is a prospective cohort of women receiving prenatal care between 1959 and 1966 in Oakland, California, with deliveries through June 1967.

Enhanced efficiency in visually guided online motor control for actions redirected towards the body midline.

Reaching objects in a dynamic environment requires fast online corrections that compensate for sudden object shifts or postural changes. Previous studies revealed the key role of visually monitoring the hand-to-target distance throughout action execution. In the current study, we investigate how sensorimotor asymmetries associated with space perception, brain lateralization and biomechanical constraints, affect the efficiency of online corrections.

Direct-to-consumer genetic testing in the news: a descriptive analysis.

Direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC GT) diagnostic tools do not entail referral through a healthcare provider and are used by consumers to screen for genetic health risk, pharmacogenomics, and predisposition to certain diseases and to learn more about ancestry. The purpose of this study was to describe the content of DTC DNA online news articles - specifically to characterize how rising concerns related to consumer privacy, medical advancements, and bioethics are covered in online news as access to these testing kits continues to grow. One hundred news articles identified on Google News using the search term "direct to consumer DNA testing" were coded for pre-determined content categories.