Publications

Introduction: Some caloric beverages (e.g., sugar-sweetened beverage and fruit juice) have been associated with an elevated risk of type 2 diabetes; therefore, substitution of these caloric beverages with non-caloric beverages such as plain water may be important for diabetes prevention. Few previous studies have examined the association between plain water or total beverage intake and risk of type 2 diabetes. Methods: We followed 82,900 women, aged 27-45 years and free of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer at baseline, from 1991 to 2007. Diet, including various beverages, was assessed by food frequency questionnaires and updated every four years. Incident type 2 diabetes cases were confirmed by supplementary questionnaires. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate relative risks (RRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and we estimated the effect of “substituting” a serving of one beverage for another by including both as continuous variables in the same multivariable model. The difference in their beta coefficients and their variances and covariance were used to estimate the RR and 95% CI for the substitution effect. Results: During 1,294,196 person-years of follow-up, we documented 2,980 incident T2DM cases. After adjustment for age and body mass index, compared with the reference group (<1 glass/d), the relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of type 2 diabetes according to categories of plain water consumption were 0.91 (0.81-1.02) for 1 glass/d, 0.91 (0.82-1.01) for 2-3 glasses/d, 0.98 (0.87-1.11) for 4-5 glasses/d, and 1.02 (0.89-1.18) for 6 or more glasses/d (P-for-trend=0.51). Further adjustment for other diabetes risk factors did not substantially alter the RRs. We estimated that substituting one serving/d of plain water for one serving/d of sugar-sweetened beverage or fruit juice was associated with a 10% (95% CI, 6%-13%) and 13% (95% CI, 7%-18%) lower risk of type 2 diabetes, respectively. In this cohort, no association was found for total beverage intake and risk of type 2 diabetes: compared with women who drank less than 6 servings/d of total beverage, the RRs (95% CIs) were 0.97 (0.87-1.09), 0.98 (0.88-1.10), 1.01 (0.89-11.5), and 0.99 (0.86-1.14) for women drank 6-8, 8-10, 10-12, and ≥12 servings/d of total beverages (P-for-trend=0.83). Conclusions: Increasing consumption of water per se was not associated with risk of type 2 diabetes, but substituting plain water for sugar-sweetened beverage or fruit juice was associated with a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND: Clinical recommendations to limit gestational weight gain (GWG) imply high GWG is causally related to adverse outcomes in mother or offspring, but GWG is the sum of several inter-related complex phenotypes (maternal fat deposition and vascular expansion, placenta, amniotic fluid and fetal growth). Understanding the genetic contribution to GWG could help clarify the potential effect of its different components on maternal and offspring health. Here we explore the genetic contribution to total, early and late GWG. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: A genome-wide association study was used to identify maternal and fetal variants contributing to GWG in up to 10 543 mothers and 16 317 offspring of European origin, with replication in 10 660 mothers and 7561 offspring. Additional analyses determined the proportion of variability in GWG from maternal and fetal common genetic variants and the overlap of established genome-wide significant variants for phenotypes relevant to GWG (for example, maternal body mass index (BMI) and glucose, birth weight). RESULTS: Approximately 20% of the variability in GWG was tagged by common maternal genetic variants, and the fetal genome made a surprisingly minor contribution to explain variation in GWG. Variants near the pregnancy-specific beta-1 glycoprotein 5 (PSG5) gene reached genome-wide significance (P=1.71 × 10-8) for total GWG in the offspring genome, but did not replicate. Some established variants associated with increased BMI, fasting glucose and type 2 diabetes were associated with lower early, and higher later GWG. Maternal variants related to higher systolic blood pressure were related to lower late GWG. Established maternal and fetal birth weight variants were largely unrelated to GWG. CONCLUSIONS: We found a modest contribution of maternal common variants to GWG and some overlap of maternal BMI, glucose and type 2 diabetes variants with GWG. These findings suggest that associations between GWG and later offspring/maternal outcomes may be due to the relationship of maternal BMI and diabetes with GWG.International Journal of Obesity advance online publication, 21 November 2017; doi:10.1038/ijo.2017.248.

Subwavelength diameter semiconductor nanowires can support optical resonances with anomalously large absorption cross sections, and thus tailoring these resonances to specific frequencies could enable a number of nanophotonic applications. Here, we report the design and synthesis of core/shell p-type/intrinsic/n-type (p/i/n) Si nanowires (NWs) with different sizes and cross-sectional morphologies as well as measurement and simulation of photocurrent spectra from single-NW devices fabricated from these NW building blocks. Approximately hexagonal cross-section p/i/n coaxial NWs of various diameters (170-380 nm) were controllably synthesized by changing the Au catalyst diameter, which determines core diameter, as well as shell deposition time, which determines shell thickness. Measured polarization-resolved photocurrent spectra exhibit well-defined diameter-dependent peaks. The corresponding external quantum efficiency (EQE) spectra calculated from these data show good quantitative agreement with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations and allow assignment of the observed peaks to Fabry-Perot, whispering-gallery, and complex high-order resonant absorption modes. This comparison revealed a systematic red-shift of equivalent modes as a function of increasing NW diameter and a progressive increase in the number of resonances. In addition, tuning shell synthetic conditions to enable enhanced growth on select facets yielded NWs with approximately rectangular cross sections; analysis of transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy images demonstrate that growth of the n-type shell at 860 °C in the presence of phosphine leads to enhanced relative Si growth rates on the four {113} facets. Notably, polarization-resolved photocurrent spectra demonstrate that at longer wavelengths the rectangular cross-section NWs have narrow and significantly larger amplitude peaks with respect to similar size hexagonal NWs. A rectangular NW with a diameter of 260 nm yields a dominant mode centered at 570 nm with near-unity EQE in the transverse-electric polarized spectrum. Quantitative comparisons with FDTD simulations demonstrate that these new peaks arise from cavity modes with high symmetry that conform to the cross-sectional morphology of the rectangular NW, resulting in low optical loss of the mode. The ability to modulate absorption with changes in nanoscale morphology by controlled synthesis represents a promising route for developing new photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices.

Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences on calcified tissues ISSN 2052-1219 (online)

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We construct shells with tunable morphology and mechanical response with colloidal particles that self-assemble at the interface of emulsion droplets. Particles self-assemble to minimize the total interfacial energy, spontaneously forming a particle layer that encapsulates the droplets. We stabilize these layers to form solid shells at the droplet interface by aggregating the particles, connecting the particles with adsorbed polymer, or fusing the particles. These techniques reproducibly yield shells with controllable properties such as elastic moduli and breaking forces. To enable diffusive exchange through the particle shells, we transfer them into solvents that are miscible with the encapsulant. We characterize the mechanical properties of the shells by measuring the response to deformation by calibrated microcantilevers.

These patterns suggest both health-damaging and health-promoting changes accompanying divorce and widowhood, and generally health-promoting changes following remarriage.