bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Prevalence and risk factors for anaemia in pregnant women: a population‐based prospective cohort study in China
Authors: Zhang Qiaoyi , Li Zhu , Ananth Cande V. 
Published: April 2009

SummaryMaternal anaemia is a common pregnancy complication in developing countries; however, its epidemiology remains largely unexplored in China. This study was designed to explore the epidemiology and risk factors of anaemia during pregnancy. A prospective cohort study was conducted, using data from a population‐based pregnancy‐monitoring system in 13 counties in East China (1993–96). Women who delivered singleton infants at 20–44 weeks with at least one haemoglobin assessment during pregnancy were included (n = 164 667). The prevalence of anaemia (haemoglobin < 10 g/dL) during pregnancy as well as in each trimester was estimated. Multivariable log‐binomial regression models were used to evaluate risk factors.The overall prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy was 32.6%, with substantial variations across trimesters (11.2%, 20.1% and 26.2% in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimesters respectively). Risk factors for anaemia included older maternal age, education below junior high school (prevalence rate ratio [RR] 1.10, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08, 1.12), farming occupation (1.05, 95% CI 1.03, 1.06), and mild pregnancy‐induced hypertension (PIH) (RR 1.09, 95% CI 1.05, 1.13) and severe PIH (RR 1.13, 95% CI 1.06, 1.19). Peri‐conception folic acid use was associated with a reduced risk for anaemia in the 1st trimester (RR 0.75, 95% CI 0.72, 0.78). Initiating prenatal care after the 1st trimester was associated with increased risk of anaemia in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters. Our study found anaemia during pregnancy is highly prevalent in this indigenous Chinese population. The risk increases with the severity of hypertensive disorders. Folic acid supplementation during the peri‐conception period is associated with reduced risk of 1st trimester anaemia.
Maternal obesity in pregnancy and respiratory health in early childhood
Authors: Håberg Siri E. , Stigum Hein , London Stephanie J. , Nystad Wenche , Nafstad Per 
Published: April 2009

SummaryObesity is associated with systemic inflammation, immunological changes, increased risk of respiratory infections and chronic respiratory illness. Maternal obesity in pregnancy increases the risk of pregnancy complications, caesarean sections and adverse birth outcomes, which have in turn been associated with respiratory illness in children. To our knowledge, the possible influence of maternal obesity in pregnancy on respiratory illness in early childhood beyond the newborn period has not been explored. We examined the relationship between a high maternal body mass index (BMI) in pregnancy and lower respiratory tract infections and wheeze up to 18 months of age in the Norwegian Mother and Child Study (MoBa), a population‐based cohort study that includes 100 000 pregnant women, conducted at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. We analysed data from the first 33 192 children, born between 1999 and 2005.In unadjusted analyses maternal obesity in pregnancy was related to both respiratory infections and wheeze in the children. In multivariable analyses, only an effect on wheeze remained. The risk of wheeze increased linearly with maternal BMI in pregnancy, and was 3.3% higher [95% CI 1.2, 5.3] for children with mothers who were obese during pregnancy, than for children of mothers with normal BMI. This effect was not mediated through obesity‐related pregnancy complications, low birthweight, preterm birth or caesarean section.
Linear growth in early life is associated with suicidal ideation in 18‐year‐old Filipinos
Authors: Cheung Yin Bun , Ashorn Per 
Published: April 2009

SummaryStudies in Western societies have shown some evidence that growth in early life may be associated with suicide and suicidal ideation in later life. The pattern of growth retardation in developing countries is different from that in Western societies. This study examines the association between size at birth, postnatal growth from birth to age 24 months and suicidal ideation in 18‐year‐old Filipinos. The 1941 participants born in 1983 and 1984 in the Philippines were assessed for growth status bimonthly from birth to 24 months of age and were administered an interview in 2002, which included items on suicidal ideation.The pattern of growth stunting in this cohort was similar to that in many other developing countries: a minor level of shortness in crown‐heel length at birth followed by sharp decline in length‐for‐age in the first 24 months of life. The prevalence of suicidal ideation at age 18 was 2.9%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.2, 3.8%. Length Z‐score at 24 months (odds ratios [OR] = 0.67; 95% CI [0.52, 0.86]; P = 0.002) and gain in length Z‐score from birth to age 24 months (OR = 0.74; 95% CI [0.56, 0.98]; P = 0.037) were inversely associated with the odds of suicidal ideation. Adjustment for covariates made little difference. Length at birth Z‐score was associated with suicidal ideation only after adjustment for postnatal length gain (OR = 0.61; 95% CI [0.46, 0.80]; P < 0.001). The associations between linear growth in early life and suicidal ideation appeared to be partly mediated by educational attainment. In conclusion, postnatal growth stunting is an important predictor of suicidal ideation in later life. It also affects the association between birth length and suicidal ideation.
Climate‐induced sediment‐palaeosol cycles in a Late Cretaceous dry aeolian sand sheet: Marília Formation (North‐West Bauru Basin, Brazil)
Authors: BASILICI GIORGIO , DAL BÓ PATRICK FRANCISCO FÜHR , LADEIRA FRANCISCO SÉRGIO BERNARDES 
Published: April 2009

AbstractAeolian sand sheets, which are characterized by low relief surfaces that lack dunes, are common in arid and semi‐arid climatic settings. The surface of an aeolian sand sheet can either be stable and subject to pedogenetic effects, or unstable such that it is affected by deflation or sedimentation. The Marília Formation (Late Cretaceous) may be interpreted as an ancient aeolian sand sheet area, where alternating phases of stability and instability of the accumulation surface have been recorded. Detailed field studies were carried out in several sections of the Marília Formation, where cyclic alternations of palaeosols and aeolian deposits were evident, using palaeopedological and facies analysis methods, supported in the laboratory by the analysis of rock samples, cut and polished in slabs, thin sections, scanning electron microscope images and X‐ray diffraction data from the clay minerals. The deposits comprise three lithofacies that, in order of abundance, are characterized by: (i) translatent wind‐ripple strata; (ii) flood deposits; and (iii) ephemeral river channel deposits. Palaeosols constitute, on average, 65% of the vertical succession. Three types of palaeosols (pedotypes) are recognized: (i) Aridisols; (ii) Entisols; and (iii) Vertisols. Erosional surfaces due to aeolian deflation divide the top of the palaeosol profiles from the overlying aeolian deposits. The palaeoenvironmental interpretation of the deposits and the palaeosols allows the depositional system of the Marília Formation to be defined as a flat area, dominated by aeolian sedimentation, with subordinate ephemeral river sedimentation, and characterized by a dry climatic setting with occasional rainfall. The climate is the main forcing factor controlling the alternation between episodes of active sedimentation and periods of palaeosol development. A climate‐controlled model is proposed in which: (i) the palaeosols are indicative of a stable surface that is developed during the more humid climatic phases; and (ii) the erosional surfaces and the overlying aeolian sediments attest to periods of deflation and subsequent sedimentation, thereby increasing the availability of sediment during the drier climatic phases. The ephemeral fluvial deposits mark the more humid climatic conditions and contribute to the lagged sediment influx caused during the drier periods by the erosion of previously stored sediment.
Fine particle deposition to initially starved, stationary, planar beds
Authors: HAMM NATHAN T. , DADE W. BRIAN , RENSHAW CARL E. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractReported here are results from new flume experiments examining deposition and entrainment of inert, silt‐sized particles (with spherical diameters in the range from 20 to 60 μm) to and from planar, impermeable and initially starved beds underlying channel flows. Bed surfaces comprised smooth or fixed sand‐size granular roughness and provided hydraulically smooth to transitionally rough boundaries. Results of these experiments were analysed with a simple model that describes the evolution of vertically averaged concentration of suspended sediment and accommodates the simultaneous delivery to and entrainment of grains from the bed. The rate of particle arrival to a bed diminishes linearly, and the rate of particle entrainment increases by the 5/2 power, as the value of the dimensionless Saffman parameterS = u*3/g’νapproaches a threshold value of order unity, whereuis the conventional friction velocity of the turbulent channel flow,g’is the acceleration due to gravity adjusted for the submerged buoyancy of individual particles andνis the kinematic viscosity of the transporting fluid. This transport behaviour is consistent with the notion that non‐cohesive, silt‐sized particles can neither reach nor remain on an impermeable bed under flow conditions where mean lift imposed on stationary particles in the viscous sublayer equals or exceeds the submerged weight of individual particles. Within the size range of particles used in these experiments, particle size and the characteristic size of granular roughness, up to that of medium sand, did not affect rates of dimensionless arrival or entrainment to a significant degree. Instead, a new but consistent picture of fine‐particle transport is emerging. Silt‐sized material, at least, is subject to potentially significant interaction with the bed during intermittent suspension transport at intermediate flow speeds greater than the value required for initiation of transport (ca 20 cm sec−1) but less than the value (ca 50 cm sec−1) required by the Saffman criterion ensuring transport in fully passive suspension or, equivalently, ‘wash‐load’.
The preservation potential of ash layers in the deep‐sea: the example of the 1991‐Pinatubo ash in the South China Sea
Authors: WETZEL ANDREAS 
Published: April 2009

AbstractFollowing the eruption of Mount Pinatubo on 15 June 1991, volcanic ash was transported westward to the South China Sea in an atmospheric plume, falling out and settling to the sea floor within days and forming an up to 10 cm thick layer on an area >400 000 km2. Immediately after deposition, surviving deep‐burrowing animals re‐opened their connection to the sea floor to obtain water for respiration and/or food take‐up. Later, small‐sized meiofauna and then macrofauna re‐colonized the sea floor, mixing newly deposited organic fluff with the underlying ash. Consequently, ash deposits thinner than 1 mm have not often been observed as a continuous layer when cored six years after the eruption, while ash about 2 mm thick is now patchily bioturbated. In areas covered by ash thicker than 5 mm, mixing by benthic animals is controlled mainly by the adaptation of the burrowing fauna to variations in grain‐size, the rate of background sedimentation, the availability of benthic food on and within the sediment and pore water oxygen levels. With respect to these factors, four provinces can be distinguished: (i) Along the Philippines margin run‐off from land fuels primary production that, in turn, leads to a high benthic food content. The benthic fauna is adapted to a variable grain‐size and rapid sedimentation. Therefore, mixing is intense and the preservation potential of the ash layer is low. (ii) In areas affected by deposition of hyperpycnites and turbidites, i.e. in canyons in front of river mouths and in the Manila Trench, the ash layer is preserved due to rapid burial. (iii) The area to the west to about 116° E receives low amounts of benthic food, benthic mixing is less intense and the preservation potential of the ash is high. (iv) The central South China Sea, where the ash is thinner than 3 cm, is affected by intense wind mixing and upwelling and the benthic food content is high; thus, the chance that the ash will be preserved as a sharp‐based layer is low. Consequently, the style of ash preservation has palaeo‐environmental significance. Older buried and burrowed event layers provide further information to elucidate the fate of the 1991 Pinatubo ash layer; in general their appearance fits with observations in the Recent.
Association of TIM4 promoter polymorphism −1419G>A with childhood asthma in a Chinese Han population
Authors: Cai P. C. , Hu L. H. , Cui T. P. , Li Y. R. , Chen F. H. , Wu Q. W. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractTIM4, which is expressed on dendritic cells and macrophages, plays an important role in the proliferation of T helper type 2 (Th2) cells. Asthma, as a complex genetic disease, is thought to arise from the development of a Th2‐lymphocyte‐predominant immune response. To evaluate the effects of the promoter polymorphisms (‐1419G>A and ‐1609G>A) in TIM4 on asthma susceptibility, case‐control and family‐based association studies were conducted by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism. Our results showed that TIM4 ‐1419G>A polymorphism was associated with asthma susceptibility in our study population (χ2= 9.88, P < 0.001, OR = 1.91, 95% CI 1.37–2.64). The ‐1419A/A and ‐1419A/G genotypes were observed more common in asthmatic group (6.3%, 41.8%) than in control group (1.7%, 29.3%). No significant difference was found in genotype and allele frequencies of TIM4 ‐1619G>A polymorphism between asthmatic and control groups. No association between the two SNPs and total serum IgE levels, lung function was observed. In conclusion, the present findings suggest that TIM4 ‐1419G>A polymorphism might be the genetic factor for the risk of childhood asthma in Chinese Han population.
Distribution of KIR genes in the Iranian population
Authors: Tajik N. , Shahsavar F. , Mousavi T. , Radjabzadeh M. F. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractKiller‐cell immunoglobulin‐like receptors (KIR) are a family of inhibitory and activating receptors that are expressed mainly by natural killer cells. The KIR gene family is highly polymorphic, and its genomic diversity is achieved through differences in gene content as well as allelic polymorphism. The number of KIR loci has been reported to be various among individuals and therefore resulting in different KIR haplotypes. This study represents the first report on the distribution of 17 presently defined KIR genes and pseudogenes in the Iranian population. In our study, 200 unrelated healthy individuals were KIR typed by a novel polymerase chain reaction–sequence‐specific primers genotyping assay, and Iranian KIR genes distribution was compared with other ethnic groups. Over all, twenty‐six different genotype profiles were found in our population and all KIR genes were observed. The most frequent non‐framework KIR genes detected in our population were KIR2DL1 (96.5%), KIR3DL1 (91.5%), KIR2DS4 (91.5%) and the pseudogene KIR2DP1 (96.5%). The most commonly observed KIR genotype in Iranian population with a frequency of 27.5% consisted of KIR2DL1, KIR2DL3, KIR2DL4, KIR3DL1, KIR3DL2, KIR3DL3 and KIR2DS4 genes and the pseudogenes KIR2DP1 and KIR3DP1, which was compatible with a homozygote group‐A haplotype. In addition, we found a new genotype (KIR2DL2, KIR2DL4, KIR2DL5, KIR3DL2, KIR3DL3, KIR2DS2, KIR2DS3, KIR2DS5, KIR3DS1 and KIR3DP1) in our samples. The results show that distribution of KIR genes in the Iranian population has common general features with the Caucasian populations studied before but still with unique, decreased or increased frequencies of several loci.
A diffusion‐based approach to stochastic individual growth and energy budget, with consequences to life‐history optimization and population dynamics
Authors: FILIN I. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractUsing diffusion processes, I model stochastic individual growth, given exogenous hazards and starvation risk. By maximizing survival to final size, optimal life histories (e.g. switching size for habitat/dietary shift) are determined by two ratios: mean growth rate over growth variance (diffusion coefficient) and mortality rate over mean growth rate; all are size dependent. For example, switching size decreases with either ratio, if both are positive. I provide examples and compare with previous work on risk‐sensitive foraging and the energy–predation trade‐off. I then decompose individual size into reversibly and irreversibly growing components, e.g. reserves and structure. I provide a general expression for optimal structural growth, when reserves grow stochastically. I conclude that increased growth variance of reserves delays structural growth (raises threshold size for its commencement) but may eventually lead to larger structures. The effect depends on whether the structural trait is related to foraging or defence. Implications for population dynamics are discussed.
Spatial and genetic structure of host‐associated differentiation in the parasitoid Copidosoma gelechiae
Authors: KOLACZAN C. R. , HEARD S. B. , SEGRAVES K. A. , ALTHOFF D. M. , NASON J. D. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractHost‐associated differentiation (HAD) appears to be an important driver of diversification in the hyperdiverse phytophagous and parasitoid insects. The gallmaking moth Gnorimoschema gallaesolidaginis has undergone HAD on two sympatric goldenrods (Solidago), and HAD has also been documented in its parasitoid Copidosoma gelechiae, with the intriguing suggestion that differentiation has proceeded independently in multiple populations. We tested this suggestion with analysis of Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) markers for C. gelechiae collections from the midwestern and northeastern United States and eastern Canada. AFLP data were consistent with the existence of HAD, with between‐host FST significant before Bonferroni correction in two of seven sympatric populations. amova analysis strongly rejected a model of HAD with a single historical origin, and thus supported the repeated‐HAD hypothesis. Copidosoma gelechiae shows significant host‐associated divergence at a number of allozyme loci (Stireman et al., 2006), but only weak evidence via AFLPs for genome‐wide differentiation, suggesting that this species is at a very early stage of HAD.
Is the peacock’s train an honest signal of genetic quality at the major histocompatibility complex?
Authors: HALE M. L. , VERDUIJN M. H. , MØLLER A. P. , WOLFF K. , PETRIE M. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractPeacocks are a classic example of sexual selection, where females preferentially mate with males who have longer, more elaborate trains. One of the central hypotheses of sexual selection theory is that large or elaborate male ‘ornaments’ may signal high genetic quality (good genes). Good genes are thought to be those associated with disease resistance and as diversity at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has been shown to equate to superior immune responses, we test whether the peacock’s train reveals genetic diversity at the MHC. We demonstrate via a captive breeding experiment that train length of adult males reflects genetic diversity at the MHC while controlling for genome‐wide diversity and that peahens lay more, and larger, eggs for males with a more diverse MHC, but not for males with longer trains. Our results suggest that females are assessing and responding to male quality in terms of MHC diversity, but this assessment does not appear to be via train length, despite the fact that train length reflects MHC diversity.
Turbulence‐plankton interactions: a new cartoon
Authors: Jumars Peter A. , Trowbridge John H. , Boss Emmanuel , Karp‐Boss Lee 
Published: April 2009

AbstractClimate change redistributes turbulence in both space and time, adding urgency to understanding of turbulence effects. Many analytic and analog models used to simulate and assess effects of turbulence on plankton rely on simple Couette flow. There shear rates are constant and spatially uniform, and hence so is vorticity. Over the last decade, however, turbulence research within fluid dynamics has focused on the structure of dissipative vortices in space and time. Vorticity gradients, finite net diffusion of vorticity and small radii of curvature of streamlines are ubiquitous features of turbulent vortices at dissipation scales but are explicitly excluded from simple, steady Couette flows. All of these flow components contribute instabilities that cause rotation of particles and so are important to simulate in future laboratory devices designed to assess effects of turbulence on nutrient uptake, particle coagulation, motility and predator‐prey encounter in the plankton. The Burgers vortex retains these signature features of turbulence and provides a simplified “cartoon” of vortex structure and dynamics that nevertheless obeys the Navier‐Stokes equations. Moreover, this idealization closely resembles many dissipative vortices observed in both the laboratory and the field as well as in direct numerical simulations of turbulence. It is simple enough to allow both simulation in numerical models and fabrication of analog devices that selectively reproduce its features. Exercise of such numerical and analog models promises additional insights into mechanisms of turbulence effects on passive trajectories and local accumulations of both living and nonliving particles, into solute exchange with living and nonliving particles and into more subtle influences on sensory processes and swimming trajectories of plankton, including demersal organisms and settling larvae in turbulent bottom boundary layers. The literature on biological consequences of vortical turbulence has focused primarily on the smallest, Kolmogorov‐scale vortices of length scale η. Theoretical dissipation spectra and direct numerical simulation, however, indicate that typical dissipative vortices with radii of 7η to 8η, peak azimuthal speeds of order 1 cm s−1 and lifetimes of order 10 s or longer (and much longer for moderate pelagic turbulence intensities) deserve new attention in studies of biological effects of turbulence.
Admission of all gestations to a regional neonatal unit versus controls: Neonatal morbidity
Authors: Darlow Brian A , Mogridge Nina , Horwood L John , Wynn‐Williams M Beth , Austin Nicola C 
Published: April 2009

Aims:  To describe the neonatal course and morbidity of all infants admitted to the regional neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Christchurch Women's Hospital (CWH) and to compare these with term control infants who were not admitted, in one calendar year. Infants in both NICU and control cohorts were enrolled in a 2‐year follow‐up study.Methods:  All infants born over a 12‐month period from February 2001 and admitted to the NICU, whose parents were domiciled in a defined geographical region, were eligible for study, together with every eighth healthy infant born at term and not admitted (to a total of 300). Comprehensive perinatal and neonatal data were collected for all enrolled infants.Results:  A total of 387 NICU infants (86% eligible) were enrolled in the study together with 306 controls. Forty‐one percent of NICU admissions were term and 40% were 33–36 weeks gestation. Term NICU infants were more likely to be born following induction of labour or by Caesarean section (34%, of which 50% were pre‐labour) than control infants (18%, of which 32% were pre‐labour). Infants of <28, 28–32, 33–36 and ≥37 weeks accounted for 74, 16, 7 and 3% of assisted ventilation days and 18, 31, 31 and 20% of total baby days, respectively.Conclusions:  The need for assisted ventilation and length of NICU stay was inversely proportional to gestation. However, preterm infants of 28 weeks gestation and greater, as well as term infants, account for a high proportion of the NICU workload.