Maternal antenatal stress and mental and behavioral disorders in their children.

Background: Maternal antenatal stress, including symptoms of depression, anxiety and perceived stress, is associated with mental and behavioral problems in children. Whether it is associated with child mental and behavioral disorders remains uncertain. We examined if maternal antenatal symptoms of depression, anxiety and perceived stress were associated with mental and behavioral disorders in their children, if the associations varied according to gestational week, stress type, fluctuating or consistently high symptoms, and if they were driven by maternal or paternal lifetime mood or anxiety disorders.

Improving Understanding of Participation and Attrition Phenomena in European Cohort Studies: Protocol for a Multi-Situated Qualitative Study.

Background: Cohort studies represent a strong methodology for increasing one's understanding of human life-course development and etiological mechanisms. Retention of participants, especially during long follow-up periods, is, however, a major challenge. A better understanding of the motives for participation and attrition in cohort studies in diverse sociogeographic and cultural settings is needed, as this information is most useful in developing effective retention strategies.

The death of dignity is greatly exaggerated: Reflections 15 years after the declaration of dignity as a useless concept.

Fifteen years ago, Ruth Macklin shook the medical community with her claim in the BMJ that dignity is a useless concept. Her essay provoked a storm of reactions. What have we learned from the debate? In this article I analyse the responses to her essay and the following debate to investigate whether she was right that "[d]ignity is a useless concept in medical ethics and can be eliminated without any loss of content.

Maternal Hypertensive Pregnancy Disorders and Mental Disorders in Children.

The associations of maternal hypertensive pregnancy disorders with offspring mental disorders remain unclear. We examined whether maternal hypertensive disorders and maximum blood pressure during pregnancy predict offspring childhood mental disorders, whether the associations are independent of maternal and paternal mental disorders and paternal hypertensive disorders, independent of or additive with maternal early pregnancy overweight/obesity and diabetes mellitus disorders, and mediated or moderated by preterm birth, small-for-gestational-age birth and neonatal intensive care unit admission. Our prospective study comprised 4743 mother-child dyads of Prediction and Prevention of Preeclampsia and Intrauterine Growth Restriction study.

Pregnancy outcomes according to the definition of gestational diabetes.

Objective: To assess the frequency and perinatal outcomes of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) defined by the criteria according to the International Association of Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group (IADPSG) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) diagnostic criteria for GDM.

Design: A retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Six secondary and tertiary delivery hospitals in Finland in 2009.

Body composition and changes in health-related quality of life in older age: a 10-year follow-up of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study.

Purpose: Most studies examining the associations between body composition and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in older age have been cross-sectional and analyzed only fat or lean mass. Hence, it is poorly known whether fat and lean mass are independently associated with subsequent changes in HRQoL. We investigated whether baseline lean and fat mass are associated with changes in HRQoL over a 10-year period in older adults.

Persistently High Levels of Maternal Antenatal Inflammation Are Associated With and Mediate the Effect of Prenatal Environmental Adversities on Neurodevelopmental Delay in the Offspring.

Background: Prenatal exposure to environmental adversities, including maternal overweight/obesity, diabetes/hypertensive disorders, or mood/anxiety disorders, increases the risk for adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. However, the underlying biological mechanisms remain elusive. We tested whether maternal antenatal inflammation was associated with the number of neurodevelopmental delay areas in children and whether it mediated the association between exposure to any prenatal environmental adversity and child neurodevelopmental delay.

Episodic memory: Neuronal codes for what, where, and when.

Episodic memory is defined as the ability to recall events in a spatiotemporal context. Formation of such memories is critically dependent on the hippocampal formation and its inputs from the entorhinal cortex. To be able to support the formation of episodic memories, entorhinal cortex and hippocampal formation should contain a neuronal code that follows several requirements.

Associations of Fat and Lean Body Mass with Circulating Amino Acids in Older Men and Women.

Circulating amino acids are potential markers of body composition. Previous studies are mainly limited to middle age and focus on either fat or lean mass, thereby ignoring overall body composition. We investigated the associations of fat and lean body mass with circulating amino acids in older men and women.

Growth and metabolism of adult polar cod (Boreogadus saida) in response to dietary crude oil.

The increasing human presence in the Arctic shelf seas, with the expansion of oil and gas industries and maritime shipping, poses a risk for Arctic marine organisms such as the key species polar cod (Boreogadus saida). The impact of dietary crude oil on growth and metabolism of polar cod was investigated in the early spring (March-April) when individuals are expected to be in a vulnerable physiological state with poor energy stores. Adult polar cod were exposed dietarily to three doses of Kobbe crude oil during an eight weeks period and followed by two weeks of depuration.

Incidence and Progression of Echocardiographic Abnormalities in Older Children with Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Adolescents Taking Antiretroviral Therapy: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Background: A high prevalence of cardiac abnormalities has been reported in children with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa. We investigated the incidence and progression of cardiac abnormalities among children taking ART in Zimbabwe.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted at a pediatric HIV clinic from 2014 to 2017.

Development and topographical organization of projections from the hippocampus and parahippocampus to the retrosplenial cortex.

The rat hippocampal formation (HF), parahippocampal region (PHR), and retrosplenial cortex (RSC) play critical roles in spatial processing. These regions are interconnected, and functionally dependent. The neuronal networks mediating this reciprocal dependency are largely unknown.

Drivers of maternal accumulation of organohalogen pollutants in Arctic areas (Chukotka, Russia) and 4,4'-DDT effects on the newborns.

Background: One of the most worrying consequence of the production and use of persistent organohalogen pollutants (POPs) is the high accumulation in Arctic populations because of long-range transport. Study of the effects in these populations may illustrate human impacts that are difficult to assess in other locations with lower exposure to these compounds and more diverse pollutant influences.

Objective: We aimed to identify the main maternal characteristics influencing on the accumulation of these compounds and the effects on the newborns in a highly exposed Arctic population (Chukotka, Russia).

Prospective health associations of drive for muscularity in young adult males.

Objective: The objective of the study was to estimate prospective associations of drive for muscularity measured in 2013 and related health outcomes (depressive symptoms, overeating, binge eating, purging, binge drinking, and use of muscle-building products [e.g., creatine and steroids]) measured in 2014.

Automatic Intraoperative Correction of Brain Shift for Accurate Neuronavigation.

Background: Unreliable neuronavigation owing to inaccurate patient-to-image registration and brain shift is a major problem in conventional magnetic resonance imaging-guided neurosurgery. We performed a prospective intraoperative validation of a system for fully automatic correction of this inaccuracy based on intraoperative three-dimensional ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging-to-ultrasound registration.

Methods: The system was tested intraoperatively in 13 tumor resection cases, and performance was evaluated intraoperatively and postoperatively.

Impact of eating disorders on obstetric outcomes in a large clinical sample: A comparison with the HUNT study.

Objective: Current evidence from clinical studies suggests that having an active eating disorder (ED) during pregnancy is associated with unfavorable obstetric outcomes. However, the role of a lifetime diagnosis of ED is not fully understood. Variations in findings suggest a need for additional studies of maternal ED.

Why We Don't Need "Unmet Needs"! On the Concepts of Unmet Need and Severity in Health-Care Priority Setting.

In health care priority setting different criteria are used to reflect the relevant values that should guide decision-making. During recent years there has been a development of value frameworks implying the use of multiple criteria, a development that has not been accompanied by a structured conceptual and normative analysis of how different criteria relate to each other and to underlying normative considerations. Examples of such criteria are unmet need and severity.

In pursuit of goodness in bioethics: analysis of an exemplary article.

Background: What is good bioethics? Addressing this question is key for reinforcing and developing the field. In particular, a discussion of potential quality criteria can heighten awareness and contribute to the quality of bioethics publications. Accordingly, the objective of this article is threefold: first, we want to identify a set of criteria for quality in bioethics.

Automatic intraoperative estimation of blood flow direction during neurosurgical interventions.

Purpose: In neurosurgery, reliable information about blood vessel anatomy and flow direction is important to identify, characterize, and avoid damage to the vasculature. Due to ultrasound Doppler angle dependencies and the complexity of the vascular architecture, clinically valuable 3-D flow direction information is currently not available. In this paper, we aim to clinically validate and demonstrate the intraoperative use of a fully automatic method for estimation of 3-D blood flow direction from freehand 2-D Doppler ultrasound.

Current concepts in cleft care: A multicenter analysis.

The current surgical techniques used in cleft repair are well established, but different centers use different approaches. To determine the best treatment for patients, a multi-center comparative study is required. In this study, we surveyed all craniofacial departments registered with the German Society of Maxillofacial Surgery to determine which cleft repair techniques are currently in use.

Does community deprivation determine longevity after the age of 75? A cross-national analysis.

Objectives: Analyze the association between socioeconomic deprivation and old-age survival in Europe, and investigate whether it varies by country and gender.

Methods: Our study incorporated five countries (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and England). A 10-year survival rate expressing the proportion of population aged 75-84 years who reached 85-94 years old was calculated at area-level for 2001-11.

Genomic and functional integrity of the hematopoietic system requires tolerance of oxidative DNA lesions.

Endogenous DNA damage is causally associated with the functional decline and transformation of stem cells that characterize aging. DNA lesions that have escaped DNA repair can induce replication stress and genomic breaks that induce senescence and apoptosis. It is not clear how stem and proliferating cells cope with accumulating endogenous DNA lesions and how these ultimately affect the physiology of cells and tissues.

Tuberculosis inequalities and socio-economic deprivation in Portugal.

Objective: To analyse the geographical distribution of tuberculosis (TB) in Portugal and estimate the association between TB and socio-economic deprivation.

Methods: An ecological study at the municipality level using TB notifications for 2010-2014 was conducted. Spatial Bayesian models were used to calculate smoothed standardised notification rates, identify high- and low-risk areas and estimate the association between TB notification and the European Deprivation Index (EDI) for Portugal and its component variables.