Pre-natal exposure to NO and PM and newborn lung function: An approach based on repeated personal exposure measurements.

Context: While strong evidence supports adverse effects of pre-natal air pollution on child's lung function, previous studies rarely considered fine particulate matter (PM) or the potential role of offspring sex and no study examined the effects of pre-natal PM on the lung function of the newborn.

Aim: We examined overall and sex-specific associations of personal pre-natal exposure to PM and nitrogen (NO) with newborn lung function measurements.

Methods: This study relied on 391 mother-child pairs from the French SEPAGES cohort.

Comparison of a Barcode-Based Smartphone Application to a Questionnaire to Assess the Use of Cleaning Products at Home and Their Association with Asthma Symptoms.

Household disinfectant and cleaning products (HDCPs) assessment is challenging in epidemiological research. We hypothesized that a newly-developed smartphone application was more objective than questionnaires in assessing HDCPs. Therefore, we aimed to compare both methods, in terms of exposure assessments and respiratory health effects estimates.

Deciphering the Impact of Early-Life Exposures to Highly Variable Environmental Factors on Foetal and Child Health: Design of SEPAGES Couple-Child Cohort.

In humans, studies based on Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) concept and targeting short half-lived chemicals, including many endocrine disruptors, generally assessed exposures from spot biospecimens. Effects of early-life exposure to atmospheric pollutants were reported, based on outdoor air pollution levels. For both exposure families, exposure misclassification is expected from these designs: for non-persistent chemicals, because a spot biospecimen is unlikely to capture exposure over windows longer than a few days; for air pollutants, because indoor levels are ignored.

Radiocarbon test for demographic events in written and oral history.

We extend an established simulation-based method to test for significant short-duration (1-2 centuries) demographic events known from one documented historical and one oral historical context. Case study 1 extrapolates population data from the Western historical tradition using historically derived demographic data from the catastrophic European Black Death/bubonic plague (). We find a corresponding statistically significant drop in absolute population using an extended version of a previously published simulation method.

[Socioeconomic disparities for maternal serum screening of Down's syndrome: trends between 1998 and 2003 in France].

Objectives: To compare trends in the use of and the opportunity for making an informed choice, regarding maternal serum screening for Down's syndrome.

Methods: Data were based on the national perinatal surveys of 1998 and 2003, which comprise representative samples of births in France. We used logistic regression models and likelihood ratio tests for testing the statistical significance of interactions between time trends and socioeconomic factors.