Publications

Objectives. To provide prevalence and trends of underweight, overweight, and obesity among reproductive-age women and adolescent girls in rural China. Methods. We measured weight and height in 16 742 344 women aged 20 to 49 years and 178 556 girls aged 15 to 19 years from the National Free Preconception Health Examination Project between 2010 and 2014. Results. Among women, the prevalence of underweight was 7.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 7.7%, 7.9%), and overweight or obesity was 16.5% (95% CI = 16.4%, 16.6%; World Health Organization criteria). Among adolescents, prevalence of underweight was 6.0% (95% CI = 5.7%, 6.2%; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria) and overweight or obesity was 8.3% (95% CI = 7.9% to 8.8%; International Obesity Task Force criteria). According to Chinese criteria, overweight and obesity prevalence was 24.8% (95% CI = 24.7%, 24.9%) for women and 17.2% (95% CI = 16.6%, 17.8%) for adolescents, and underweight prevalence was 2.9% (95% CI = 2.8%, 3.1%) for adolescents. Considerable disparities existed in prevalence and trends within subpopulations (age groups, parity, region, education levels, and socioeconomic status). Conclusions. Our results reveal coexisting underweight and overweight or obesity among rural women and adolescents of reproductive age, which requires public health attention.

This paper describes the mechanism of formation of bubbles of nitrogen in water containing Tween 20 as a surfactant, and of droplets of water in hexadecane containing Span 80 as a surfactant. The study of these microfluidic systems compares two or four flow-focusing generators coupled through shared inlets, supplying the continuous phase, and through a common outlet channel. The processes that form bubbles in neighboring generators interact for a wide range of flow parameters; the formation of bubbles alternates in time and space, and the bubbles assemble into complex patterns in the outlet channel. The dynamics of formation of bubbles in these systems are stable for long time (at least 10 min). For a certain range of flow parameters, the coupled flow-focusing generators exhibit two stable modes of operation for a single set of flow parameters. The dynamics of formation of droplets of water in hexadecane by the coupled flow-focusing generators are simpler--the adjacent generators produce only monodisperse droplets over the entire range of flow parameters that are explored. These observations suggest that the mechanism of interaction between coupled flow-focusing generators relies on the compressibility of the dispersed phase (e.g., the gas or liquid), and on variations in pressure at the flow-focusing orifices induced by the breakup of bubbles or droplets.

<b>Objective</b> We examined lifestyle factors with mid-life weight change according to history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in a large longitudinal female cohort. <p><b>Research Design and Methods </b>In the Nurses’ Health Study II, we categorized change in lifestyle within 4-year periods and estimated their associations with concurrent change in body weight (kg) among parous women after age 40 for the following: diet quality (Alternate Healthy Eating Index [AHEI]), leisure-time physical activity (PA), alcohol, and smoking, by GDM history status <a>(total n=54,062, 5</a>.3% with a history of GDM). </p> <p><b>Results </b>Over a median follow-up of 13 years, average 4-year weight gain was 1.10 kg and 1.33 kg for women with and without prior GDM, respectively. Women improving diet quality had favorable 4-year weight change, particularly among women with a history of GDM (AHEI change from low to high: -2.97 kg [CI: -4.34, -1.60] vs. -1.19 kg [CI: -1.41, -0.96] for GDM vs. non-GDM, respectively; <i>p</i>-heterogeneity=0.04). Increasing PA was associated with weight maintenance for GDM women only (PA increase from low to high: 0.26 kg [95% CI: -0.25, 0.77] vs. 0.90 kg [95% CI: 0.80, 1.01] for GDM vs. non-GDM, respectively; <i>p</i>-heterogeneity=0.02). For both GDM and non-GDM women, weight change did not differ significantly with change in alcohol, while women who quit smoking had significant weight gain (4.38 kg for GDM and 3.85 kg for non-GDM).</p> <p><b>Conclusions </b>Improvements in diet quality and PA were related to less weight gain in mid-life among parous women, and the benefit of such improvements on weight management was particularly pronounced among women with a history of GDM.</p>

Background— Although whole-grain consumption has been associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and mortality in the general population, the association of whole grain with mortality in diabetic patients remains to be determined. This study investigated whole grain and its components cereal fiber, bran, and germ in relation to all-cause and CVD-specific mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods and Results— We followed 7822 US women with type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Nurses’ Health Study. Dietary intakes and potential confounders were assessed with regularly administered questionnaires. We documented 852 all-cause deaths and 295 CVD deaths during up to 26 years of follow-up. After adjustment for age, the highest versus the lowest fifths of intakes of whole grain, cereal fiber, bran, and germ were associated with 16% to 31% lower all-cause mortality. After further adjustment for lifestyle and dietary risk factors, only the association for bran intake remained significant ( P for trend=0.01). The multivariate relative risks across the fifths of bran intake were 1.0 (reference), 0.94 (0.75 to 1.18), 0.80 (0.64 to 1.01), 0.82 (0.65 to 1.04), and 0.72 (0.56 to 0.92). Similarly, bran intake was inversely associated with CVD-specific mortality ( P for trend=0.04). The relative risks across the fifths of bran intake were 1.0 (reference), 0.95 (0.66 to 1.38), 0.80 (0.55 to 1.16), 0.76 (0.51 to 1.14), and 0.65 (0.43 to 0.99). Similar results were observed for added bran alone. Conclusions— Whole-grain and bran intakes were associated with reduced all-cause and CVD-specific mortality in women with diabetes mellitus. These findings suggest a potential benefit of whole-grain intake in reducing mortality and cardiovascular risk in diabetic patients.

No abstract is provided for this article.

This paper describes the influence of the composition of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) on the attachment and growth of several different types of mammalian cells: primary human umbilical artery endothelial cells (HUAECs), transformed 3T3 fibroblasts (3T3s), transformed osteoblast-like MC3T3-E1 cells, and HeLa (transformed epithelial) cells. Cells grew on PDMS having different ratios of base to curing agent: 10:1 (normal PDMS, PDMSN), 10:3 (PDMSCA), and 10:0.5 (PDMSB). They were also grown on "extracted PDMS" (normal PDMS that has reduced quantities of low molecular-weight oligomers, PDMSN,EX) and normal PDMS that had been extracted and then oxidized (PDMSN,EX,OX); all surfaces were exposed to a solution of fibronectin prior to cell attachment. Generally, fibronectin-coated PDMS is a suitable substrate for culturing mammalian cells. Compatibility of cells on some surfaces, however, was dependent on the cell type: PDMSN,EX,OX caused cell detachment of 3T3 fibroblasts and MC3T3-E1 cells, and PDMSCA caused detachment of HUAECs and HeLa cells. Growth of cells on PDMSN, PDMSN,EX, and PDMSB was comparable to growth on tissue culture-treated polystyrene for most of the cell types. All cells grew at similar rates on PDMS substrates regardless of the stiffness of the substrate, for substrates having Young's moduli ranging from E=0.60 +/- 0.04 to 2.6 +/- 0.2 MPa (for PDMSB and PDMSN,EX, respectively).

Economic variables such as income, education, and occupation are known to affect mortality and morbidity, such as cardiovascular disease, and have also been shown to be partly heritable. However, very little is known about which genes influence economic variables, although these genes may have both a direct and an indirect effect on health. We report results from the first large-scale collaboration that studies the molecular genetic architecture of an economic variable-entrepreneurship-that was operationalized using self-employment, a widely-available proxy. Our results suggest that common SNPs when considered jointly explain about half of the narrow-sense heritability of self-employment estimated in twin data (σg2/σP2= 25%, h2= 55%). However, a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies across sixteen studies comprising 50,627 participants did not identify genome-wide significant SNPs. 58 SNPs with p<10-5were tested in a replication sample (n = 3,271), but none replicated. Furthermore, a gene-based test shows that none of the genes that were previously suggested in the literature to influence entrepreneurship reveal significant associations. Finally, SNP-based genetic scores that use results from the meta-analysis capture less than 0.2% of the variance in self-employment in an independent sample (p≥0.039). Our results are consistent with a highly polygenic molecular genetic architecture of self-employment, with many genetic variants of small effect. Although self-employment is a multi-faceted, heavily environmentally influenced, and biologically distal trait, our results are similar to those for other genetically complex and biologically more proximate outcomes, such as height, intelligence, personality, and several diseases.

Introduction: C-reactive protein (CRP; a marker of inflammation) and the ankle-brachial index (ABI; a marker of peripheral artery disease (PAD)) are considered emerging risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in addition to traditional cardiometabolic markers. Results on the association of a healthy diet and these emerging risk factors have been inconsistent, and few studies have been conducted on Hispanics/Latinos, who present high prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that higher diet quality as measured with the Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI; range 0-110: lowest to highest quality) would be associated with lower odds of having high-risk levels of CRP and of ABI, independently from cardiometabolic risk factors. Methods: Baseline data were analyzed from US-Hispanics/Latinos aged 18-74y without previously-diagnosed CVD participating in the population-based Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos cohort. There were 14,623 participants with complete CRP data, and 7,892 with ABI data (measured only for those aged ≥45y). Food and nutrients components of AHEI were assessed from two 24-hour recalls. High-risk CRP was defined as &gt;3.0 mg/L, and high-risk ABI was defined as &lt;0.90 or &gt;1.40, with further categorization into PAD (&lt;0.90) and arterial stiffness (&gt;1.40). Results: Nearly 35% of Hispanics/Latinos had high-risk CRP levels and 6.3% had high-risk ABI (4.2% had PAD and 2.1% had arterial stiffness). After adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors, as well as cardiometabolic risk factors (diabetes, hypertension, obesity, or dyslipidemia), the odds (95% confidence interval) of having high-risk ABI were 36% (5, 43%) lower for each 10-unit increase in AHEI (p=0.020). The association remained significant for PAD alone, albeit attenuated (p=0.046), but not for arterial stiffness (p=0.210). Each 10-unit increase in AHEI was associated with 21% (10, 31%) lower odds of high-risk CRP(p=0.0003) after similar adjustments. There were no significant interactions between AHEI and sex, background, smoking, or cardiometabolic risk factors for the associations with ABI. The association of AHEI with high-risk CRP was stronger for those with diabetes (0.68 (0.52, 0.89) vs. 0.82 (0.71, 0.94) without diabetes; p-interaction=0.0002) and with obesity (0.70 (0.58, 0.85) vs. 0.86 (0.73, 1.01) without obesity; p-interaction=0.0001). Conclusions: A higher diet quality is associated with lower inflammation and PAD among Hispanics/Latinos, independently from traditional cardiometabolic risk factors. Promoting a healthy overall diet may benefit with further lowering CVD-risk related to emerging factors in a population that already presents high prevalence of cardiometabolic markers.

&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;OBJECTIVE &lt;/strong&gt;The present study aims to prospectively examine the association between post-diagnosis low carbohydrate diet (LCD) patterns and mortality among individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RSEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS &lt;/strong&gt;Among participants with incident diabetes identified in the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, an overall total low carbohydrate diet score (TLCDS) was calculated based on the percentage of energy as total carbohydrates. In addition, vegetable (VLCDS), animal (ALCDS), healthy (HLCDS), and unhealthy LCDS (ULCDS) were further derived that emphasized different sources and quality of macronutrients. Multivariable-adjusted Cox model were used to assess the association between the LCDS and mortality.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RESULTS &lt;/strong&gt;Among 10,101 incident T2D cases contributing 139,407 person-years during follow-up, we documented 4,595 deaths of which 1,389 cases were attributed to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 881 to cancer. The pooled multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs, 95% CIs) of total mortality per 10 points increment of post-diagnosis LCDS were 0.87 (0.82,0.92) for TLCDS, 0.76 (0.71,0.82) for VLCDS, and 0.78 (0.73,0.84) for HLCDS. Both VLCDS and HLCDS were also associated with significantly lower CVD and cancer mortality. Each 10 points increase of TLCDS, VLCDS, and HLCDS from pre-diagnosis to post-diagnosis period was associated with 12% (7%, 17%), 25% (19%, 30%), and 25% (19%, 30%) lower total mortality, respectively. No significant associations were observed for ALCDS and ULCDS. &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CONCLUSIONS&lt;/strong&gt; Among people with T2D, greater adherence to LCD patterns that emphasize high quality sources of macronutrients was significantly associated with lower total, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality. &lt;/p&gt;