Sports Medicine Australia Position Statement: Exercise in pregnancy and the postpartum period

Background: Historically, pregnancy was believed to be a time for rest from exercise. However, an increasing body of epidemiological and empirical evidence has recently challenged this view. It is now widely acknowledged that appropriate physical activity and exercise (PAE) undertaken during pregnancy promotes many benefits for both the mother and her unborn child. Despite these benefits, very few pregnant women are sufficiently active to benefit health. In an attempt to help educate pregnant women and healthcare providers, Sports Medicine Australia (SMA) released the first Australian position statement ‘Exercise during Pregnancy’ in 2002. Other peak industry bodies have recently released guidelines for PAE during pregnancy targeting general practitioners, exercise and fitness professionals and pregnant women. However, these guidelines present inconsistent recommendations and none present evidence-based research to guide their recommendations. The aim of this study was to undertake a review of exercise during pregnancy literature, and use the findings to guide the development of a new SMA Position Statement on Exercise in pregnancy and the post-partum period. Methods: A working group of academics (n=3) and health professionals (n=2) was established in 2014. An extensive ‘review of reviews’ approach was used to identify relevant literature published in the last 10 years. Results: The search resulted in 12 systematic and meta-analyses and 9 narrative reviews. These narrative reviews included two peer-reviewed summary papers that included 11 exercise during pregnancy and postpartum guidelines from 9 countries, 6 ‘guidelines’ or ‘fact sheets’ on exercise during pregnancy, 3 scientific reports on Australian and US physical activity guidelines, and a WHO factsheet on obesity and overweight. Each of the above was reviewed by working group members with new evidence informing the development of the 2016 SMA position statement ‘Exercise in pregnancy and the post-partum period’, designed for pregnant women, as well as healthcare providers. Discussion: This new evidence-based position statement will help to guide women and healthcare providers through safe and appropriate PAE during pregnancy, in accordance with best practice recommendations

A sustainable connectivity model of the Internet access technologies in rural and low-income areas

The Internet has evolved as a critical booster for the economic, social and technical development of human society. Almost half of the world’s population is unfortunately missing out due to the lack of access to the Internet. Such users are mainly those living in rural and low-income areas. Various strategies and approaches for improving the Internet’s accessibility are available, each with a different set of benefits, costs, and risks. It is important to choose solutions from these feasible options that promise to promote the efficiency as well as the sustainability of the ‘Internet Ecosystem’. In this paper, we propose a new model of sustainable connectivity that integrates three factors (affordability, social shareability, and geographical network coverage) that must be considered in the selection and design of Internet access solutions. In addition, we develop a hypergraph-based network graph solution that illustrates the relationship among the three factors. Then, we use Coloured Petri Nets (CPNs) to model and simulate the possible Internet access solutions and also interplay those three factors to study how they impact the overall network connectivity performance. Our initial results have revealed how sustainable Internet connectivity behaves as a function of the affordability, social interaction, and geographical network coverage and investigates how these factors could be leveraged to provide different network connectivity and Internet access solutions. © ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2018

Impact of the food additive titanium dioxide (e171) on gut microbiota-host interaction

The interaction between gut microbiota and host plays a central role in health. Dysbiosis, detrimental changes in gut microbiota and inflammation have been reported in non-communicable diseases. While diet has a profound impact on gut microbiota composition and function, the role of food additives such as titanium dioxide (TiO2), prevalent in processed food, is less established. In this project, we investigated the impact of food grade TiO2 on gut microbiota of mice when orally administered via drinking water. While TiO2 had minimal impact on the composition of the microbiota in the small intestine and colon, we found that TiO2 treatment could alter the release of bacterial metabolites in vivo and affect the spatial distribution of commensal bacteria in vitro by promoting biofilm formation. We also found reduced expression of the colonic mucin 2 gene, a key component of the intestinal mucus layer, and increased expression of the beta defensin gene, indicating that TiO2 significantly impacts gut homeostasis. These changes were associated with colonic inflammation, as shown by decreased crypt length, infiltration of CD8+ T cells, increased macrophages as well as increased expression of inflammatory cytokines. These findings collectively show that TiO2 is not inert, but rather impairs gut homeostasis which may in turn prime the host for disease development. © 2019 Pinget, Tan, Janac, Kaakoush, Angelatos, O'Sullivan, Koay, Sierro, Davis, Divakarla, Khanal, Moore, Stanley, Chrzanowski and Macia

Highly active and stable CuAlOx/WO3photoanode for simultaneous pollutant degradation, hydrogen and electricity generation

An unassisted solar water-energy nexus system (SWENS) based on an ultra-thin CuAlOx overlayer coated WO3 nanoplate array (CuAlOx/WO3) photoanode, a rear silicon solar cell and a Pt-black/Pt cathode was proposed to efficiently degrade refractory organic pollutants and simultaneously produce hydrogen and electricity. The formed p-n junction between p-type CuAlOx and n-type WO3 effectively facilitated the charge separation in the CuAlOx/WO3 photoanode. Moreover, the CuAlOx overlayer enhanced the capture of photogenerated holes and isolated WO3 from the solution, thereby improving the charge transfer and inhibiting the photocorrosion of WO3. Therefore, the optimized CuAlOx/WO3 photoanode showed a significantly enhanced and stable photocurrent density of ∼2.82 mA cm-2 at 1.0 V vs. Ag/AgCl, which was ∼4 times higher than that of the pristine WO3. Based on this outstanding photoelectrocatalytic performance, the assembled SWENS showed a degradation efficiency of nearly 100% for tetracycline, a hydrogen generation rate of ∼26.8 μmol·h-1·cm-2 and a power density of ∼593 μW cm-2 under simulated solar light illumination. Our SWENS also exhibited outstanding universality in degrading various refractory organic pollutants for green energy production

Metabolite-sensing receptors GPR43 and GPR109A facilitate dietary fibre-induced gut homeostasis through regulation of the inflammasome

Diet and the gut microbiota may underpin numerous human diseases. A major metabolic product of commensal bacteria are short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that derive from fermentation of dietary fibre. Here we show that diets deficient or low in fibre exacerbate colitis development, while very high intake of dietary fibre or the SCFA acetate protects against colitis