Long-term effects of a preconception lifestyle intervention on cardiometabolic health of overweight and obese women

Background: The global prevalence of obesity in women keeps increasing. The preconception period may be a window of opportunity to improve lifestyle, reduce obesity and improve cardiometabolic health. This study assessed the effect of a preconception lifestyle intervention on long-term cardiometabolic health in two randomized controlled trials (RCTs).Methods: Participants of the LIFEstyle and RADIEL preconception lifestyle intervention studies with a baseline body mass index (BMI) ≥29 kg/m2 were eligible for this follow-up study. Both studies randomized between a lifestyle intervention targeting physical activity, diet and behaviour modification or usual care. We assessed cardiometabolic health 6 years after randomization.Results: In the LIFEstyle study (n = 111) and RADIEL study (n = 39), no statistically significant differences between the intervention and control groups were found for body composition, blood pressure, arterial stiffness, fasting glucose, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, HbA1c, lipids and high sensitive C-reactive protein levels 6 years after randomization. Participants of the LIFEstyle study who successfully lost ≥5% bodyweight or reached a BMI &lt;29 kg/m2 during the intervention (n = 22, [44%]) had lower weight (-8.1 kg; 99% CI [-16.6 to -0.9]), BMI (-3.3 kg/m2; [-6.5 to -0.8]), waist circumference (-8.2 cm; [-15.3 to -1.3]), fasting glucose (-0.5 mmol/L; [-1.1 to -0.0]), HbA1c (-4.1 mmol/mol; [-9.1 to -0.8]), and higher HDL-C (0.3 mmol/L; [0.1-0.5]) compared with controls.Conclusion: We found no evidence of improved cardiometabolic health 6 years after a preconception lifestyle intervention among overweight and obese women in two RCTs. Women who successfully lost weight during the intervention had better cardiometabolic health 6 years later, emphasizing the potential of successful preconception lifestyle improvement.</p

Seasonal pattern of regional carbon balance in the central Rocky Mountains from surface and airborne measurements

[1] High-elevation forests represent a large fraction of potential carbon uptake in North America, but this uptake is not well constrained by observations. Additionally, forests in the Rocky Mountains have recently been severely damaged by drought, fire, and insect outbreaks, which have been quantified at local scales but not assessed in terms of carbon uptake at regional scales. The Airborne Carbon in the Mountains Experiment was carried out in 2007 partly to assess carbon uptake in western U.S. mountain ecosystems. The magnitude and seasonal change of carbon uptake were quantified by (1) paired upwind-downwind airborne CO2 observations applied in a boundary layer budget, (2) a spatially explicit ecosystem model constrained using remote sensing and flux tower observations, and (3) a downscaled global tracer transport inversion. Top-down approaches had mean carbon uptake equivalent to flux tower observations at a subalpine forest, while the ecosystem model showed less. The techniques disagreed on temporal evolution. Regional carbon uptake was greatest in the early summer immediately following snowmelt and tended to lessen as the region experienced dry summer conditions. This reduction was more pronounced in the airborne budget and inversion than in flux tower or upscaling, possibly related to lower snow water availability in forests sampled by the aircraft, which were lower in elevation than the tower site. Changes in vegetative greenness associated with insect outbreaks were detected using satellite reflectance observations, but impacts on regional carbon cycling were unclear, highlighting the need to better quantify this emerging disturbance effect on montane forest carbon cycling

Interactions between the night time valley-wind system and a developing cold-air pool

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Boundary-Layer Meteorology following peer review. The version of record [Arduini, G., Staquet, C & Chemel, C., ‘Interactions between the night time valley-wind system and a developing cold-air pool’, Boundary-Layer Meteorol (2016) 161:1 (49-72), first published online June 2, 2016, is available at Springer online at doi: 10.1007/s10546-016-0155-8The Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) numerical model is used to characterize the influence of a thermally-driven down-valley flow on a developing cold-air pool in an idealized alpine valley decoupled from the atmosphere above. Results for a three-dimensional (3D) valley, which allows for the formation of a down-valley flow, and for a two-dimensional (2D) valley, where the formation of a down-valley flow is inhibited, are analyzed and compared. A key result is that advection leads to a net cooling in the 2D valley and to a warming in the 3D valley, once the down-valley flow is fully developed. This difference stems from the suppression of the slope-flow induced upward motions over the valley centre in the 3D valley. As a result, the downslope flows develop a cross-valley circulation within the cold-air pool, the growth of the cold-air pool is reduced and the valley atmosphere is generally warmer than in the 2D valley. A quasi-steady state is reached for which the divergence of the down-valley flow along the valley is balanced by the convergence of the downslope flows at the top of the cold-air pool, with no net contribution of subsiding motions far from the slope layer. More precisely, the inflow of air at the top of the cold-air pool is found to be driven by an interplay between the return flow from the plain region and subsidence over the plateaux. Finally, the mechanisms that control the structure of the cold-air pool and its evolution are found to be independent of the valley length as soon as the quasi-steady state is reached and the down-valley flow is fully developed.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Over ‘Diversiteit is een werkwoord’: Resultaten en aanbevelingen van de Commissie Diversiteit, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Protesten aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam leidden in 2016 tot de instelling van drie onderzoekscommissies, die oplossingen moesten formuleren voor de voornaamste problemen aan de universiteit. Naast een Commissie Financiën en Huisvesting en een Commissie Democratisering en Decentralisering, kwam er ook een Commissie Diversiteit Deze laatste commissie heeft, aan de hand van een bottom-up opgesteld mandaat en gebruik makend van een arsenaal aan kwalitatieve en kwantitatieve methoden, ‘diversiteit en inclusie’ aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam in kaart gebracht. In dit artikel bespreken wij de theoretische en methodologische uitgangspunten van het onderzoek. Tevens presenteren wij aan de hand van een vijfpunts-raamwerk de resultaten, aangevuld met enkele conclusies en aanbevelingen. Achtereenvolgens bespreken we (1) de samenstelling van studenten en staf, (2) processen van in- en uitsluiting, (3) het diversiteitsdiscours, (4) kennis- en onderwijspraktijken en (5) organisationele verankering. Dit artikel schetst niet alleen een beeld van de huidige diversiteit aan een grote Nederlandse onderwijsinstelling, maar illustreert ook hoe een onderzoek naar diversiteit binnen het hoger onderwijs opgezet kan worden. In het onderzoek van de Commissie zijn de theoretische perspectieven van dekolonialiteit en intersectionaliteit richtinggevend geweest

Reading Obama: collective responsibility and the politics of tears

Book synopsis: Read First Chapter image missing Feminists speak out on race and gender in the 2008 presidential campaign. Who should be first? With Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as frontrunners, the 2008 Democratic primary campaign was a watershed moment in U.S. history. Offering the choice of an African American man or a white woman as the next Democratic candidate for president, the primary marked an unprecedented moment—but one that painfully echoed previous struggles for progressive change that pitted race and gender against each other. Who Should Be First? collects key feminist voices that challenge the instances of racism and sexism during the presidential campaign season, offer personal reflections on this historic moment, and trace the historic legacy of opposing issues of race and gender that informed debates and media representations of the 2008 Democratic primary. Over thirty leading feminists contribute to the book, including Patricia J. Williams, Gloria Steinem, Alice Walker, Carol Moseley Braun, Maureen Dowd, Katha Pollitt, Pearl Cleage, Robin Morgan, Erica Jong, Mark Anthony Neal, and M. Jacqui Alexander. Editors Beverly Guy-Sheftall and Johnnetta Betsch Cole deftly balance these charged conversations in the first collection on this key moment in contemporary U.S. history