Postpartum Maternal Health at a Time of Rapid Societal Change in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Background. Abu Dhabi has undergone a rapid transition from a subsistence economy to a wealthy modern state over the last 50 years. This paper presents an insight into the health status of Emirati mothers during this transition through a prospective longitudinal study of mothers who gave birth in a government maternity hospital in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.Methods. 125 women were interviewed within the first week after birth, as part of a larger study encompassing a wide range of cultural, social, and behavioural aspects of health. They were then re-interviewed at three, six and 15 months postpartum. A food frequency questionnaire was also administered to the mothers at birth. Data were analysed using univariate statistics.Results. Over 70% of the mothers had BMI in the overweight and obese categories, and approximately half of the women were dissatisfied with their weight. Contributing factors were likely to be diets high in fats and sugar, low levels of exercise and women’s limited involvement in household food purchasing and preparation. Iron deficiency anaemia, diabetes, asthma and fertility problems were found to be the most common concerns amongst the participants prior to conception. Anaemia rates were high during pregnancy, with 35% having haemoglobin < 11 g/dL, and were positively associated with parity. Belief in traditional and herbal medicines was strong, with 43% of women using a variety of remedies during pregnancy.Conclusions. Policies and support mechanisms to encourage women to make better dietary choices and to provide more opportunities for exercising are required to improve the health of mothers in the UAE. The development of good quality health care has resulted in the better maternal health outcomes, although traditional practices in relation to herbal medicines are still common.

X-rays and hard UV radiation From the First Galaxies: Ionization Bubbles and 21 cm Observations

The first stars and quasars are known sources of hard ionizing radiation in the first billion years of the Universe. We examine the joint effects of X-rays and hard UV radiation from such first-light sources on the hydrogen and helium reionization of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at early times, and the associated heating. We study the growth and evolution of individual HII, HeII and HeIII regions around early galaxies with first stars and/or QSO populations. We find that in the presence of helium-ionizing radiation, X-rays may not dominate the ionization and thermal history of the IGM at redshifts, z, of 10-20, contributing relatively modest increases to IGM ionization, and heating up to about 10^3--10^5 K in IGM temperatures. We also calculate the 21 cm signal expected from a number of scenarios with metal-free starbursts and quasars at these redshifts. The peak values for the spin temperature reach about 10^4 to 10^5 K in such cases. The maximum values for the 21 cm brightness temperature are around 30-40 mK in emission, while the net values of the 21 cm absorption signal range from about a few to 60 mK on scales of 0.01-1 Mpc. We find that the 21 cm signature of X-ray versus UV ionization could be distinct, with the emission signal expected from X-rays alone occurring at smaller scales than that from UV radiation, resulting from the inherently different spatial scales at which X-ray and UV ionization/heating manifest. This difference is time-dependent, and becomes harder to distinguish with an increasing X-ray contribution to the total ionizing photon production. Such differing scale-dependent contributions from X-ray and UV photons may therefore "blur" the 21 cm signature of the percolation of ionized bubbles around early halos (depending on whether a cosmic X-ray or UV background built up first), and affect the interpretation of 21 cm data constraints on reionization.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 15 pages, 14 figure

Neural mechanisms of social influence in adolescence

During the transformative period of adolescence, social influence plays a prominent role in shaping young people’s emerging social identities, and can impact their propensity to engage in prosocial or risky behaviors. In this study, we examine the neural correlates of social influence from both parents and peers, two important sources of influence. Nineteen adolescents (age 16–18 years) completed a social influence task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. Social influence from both sources evoked activity in brain regions implicated in mentalizing (medial prefrontal cortex, left temporoparietal junction, right temporoparietal junction), reward (ventromedial prefrontal cortex), and self-control (right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex). These results suggest that mental state reasoning, social reward and self-control processes may help adolescents to evaluate others’ perspectives and overcome the prepotent force of their own antecedent attitudes to shift their attitudes toward those of others. Findings suggest common neural networks involved in social influence from both parents and peers

CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey - The Hubble Space Telescope Observations, Imaging Data Products and Mosaics

This paper describes the Hubble Space Telescope imaging data products and data reduction procedures for the Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS). This survey is designed to document the evolution of galaxies and black holes at $z\sim1.5-8$, and to study Type Ia SNe beyond $z>1.5$. Five premier multi-wavelength sky regions are selected, each with extensive multiwavelength observations. The primary CANDELS data consist of imaging obtained in the Wide Field Camera 3 / infrared channel (WFC3/IR) and UVIS channel, along with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The CANDELS/Deep survey covers \sim125 square arcminutes within GOODS-N and GOODS-S, while the remainder consists of the CANDELS/Wide survey, achieving a total of \sim800 square arcminutes across GOODS and three additional fields (EGS, COSMOS, and UDS). We summarize the observational aspects of the survey as motivated by the scientific goals and present a detailed description of the data reduction procedures and products from the survey. Our data reduction methods utilize the most up to date calibration files and image combination procedures. We have paid special attention to correcting a range of instrumental effects, including CTE degradation for ACS, removal of electronic bias-striping present in ACS data after SM4, and persistence effects and other artifacts in WFC3/IR. For each field, we release mosaics for individual epochs and eventual mosaics containing data from all epochs combined, to facilitate photometric variability studies and the deepest possible photometry. A more detailed overview of the science goals and observational design of the survey are presented in a companion paper.Comment: 39 pages, 25 figure

The effect of social rank feedback on risk taking and associated reward processes in adolescent girls

The onset of adolescence is associated with an increased tendency to engage in risky behaviors and a developmental shift toward peers that contributes to increased prioritization for learning about and achieving social status. There is relatively little understanding about the specific links between these adolescent-typical phenomena, particularly regarding their neural underpinnings. Based on existing models that suggest the role of puberty in promoting adolescent status-seeking and risk-taking tendencies, we investigated the relation of pubertal hormones with behavioral and neural responses to status-relevant social information in the context of risk taking. We used a probabilistic decision task in which 11- to 13-year-old girls chose to take a risk, or not, while receiving either social rank or monetary performance feedback. While feedback type did not differentially influence risk-taking behavior, whole-brain imaging results showed that activation in the anterior insula was increased for risk taking in the social rank feedback condition compared to the monetary feedback condition. This heightened activation was more pronounced in girls with higher estradiol levels. These findings suggest that brain processes involved in adolescent risky decisions may be influenced by the desire for social-status enhancement and provide preliminary evidence for the role of pubertal hormones in enhancing this adolescent-typical social sensitivity

A Pathfinder for JWST Spectroscopy: Deep High Spectral Resolution Maps of Galaxies over 1

International audienceWe propose deep, spatially resolved NIRSpec MSA near-IR spectroscopy of ~40 galaxies at redshifts

A Pathfinder for JWST Spectroscopy: Deep High Spectral Resolution Maps of Galaxies over 1

International audienceWe propose deep, spatially resolved NIRSpec MSA near-IR spectroscopy of ~40 galaxies at redshifts

Postoperative continuous positive airway pressure to prevent pneumonia, re-intubation, and death after major abdominal surgery (PRISM): a multicentre, open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial

Background: Respiratory complications are an important cause of postoperative morbidity. We aimed to investigate whether continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) administered immediately after major abdominal surgery could prevent postoperative morbidity. Methods: PRISM was an open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial done at 70 hospitals across six countries. Patients aged 50 years or older who were undergoing elective major open abdominal surgery were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive CPAP within 4 h of the end of surgery or usual postoperative care. Patients were randomly assigned using a computer-generated minimisation algorithm with inbuilt concealment. The primary outcome was a composite of pneumonia, endotracheal re-intubation, or death within 30 days after randomisation, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. Safety was assessed in all patients who received CPAP. The trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN56012545. Findings: Between Feb 8, 2016, and Nov 11, 2019, 4806 patients were randomly assigned (2405 to the CPAP group and 2401 to the usual care group), of whom 4793 were included in the primary analysis (2396 in the CPAP group and 2397 in the usual care group). 195 (8\ub71%) of 2396 patients in the CPAP group and 197 (8\ub72%) of 2397 patients in the usual care group met the composite primary outcome (adjusted odds ratio 1\ub701 [95% CI 0\ub781-1\ub724]; p=0\ub795). 200 (8\ub79%) of 2241 patients in the CPAP group had adverse events. The most common adverse events were claustrophobia (78 [3\ub75%] of 2241 patients), oronasal dryness (43 [1\ub79%]), excessive air leak (36 [1\ub76%]), vomiting (26 [1\ub72%]), and pain (24 [1\ub71%]). There were two serious adverse events: one patient had significant hearing loss and one patient had obstruction of their venous catheter caused by a CPAP hood, which resulted in transient haemodynamic instability. Interpretation: In this large clinical effectiveness trial, CPAP did not reduce the incidence of pneumonia, endotracheal re-intubation, or death after major abdominal surgery. Although CPAP has an important role in the treatment of respiratory failure after surgery, routine use of prophylactic post-operative CPAP is not recommended