Obesity, antenatal depression, diet and gestational weight gain in a population cohort study

PURPOSE: The aims of this paper are to examine: (1) the relationship between high pre-pregnancy BMI and antenatal depression; (2) whether BMI and antenatal depression interact to predict diet and gestational weight gain (GWG). METHODS: Data came from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Underweight women were excluded. Pre-pregnancy BMI was self-reported and antenatal depression was assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale at 18 and 32 weeks' gestation to identify persistently elevated depressive symptoms (EPDS>12). Dietary patterns were calculated from food frequency questionnaires at 32 weeks' gestation. GWG was categorised using the USA Institute of Medicine guidelines. RESULTS: This study included 13,314 pregnant women. Obese women had significantly higher odds of antenatal depression than normal weight controls after adjusting for socio-demographics and health behaviours (aOR 1.39, 95%CI 1.05-1.84). Every unit increase in pre-pregnancy BMI was associated with approximately 3% higher odds of antenatal depression (aOR 1.03, 95%CI 1.01-1.05). Antenatal depression was not meaningfully associated with dietary patterns after adjusting for confounders and was not associated with inadequate or excessive GWG. There was no evidence for an interaction of depression and BMI on either diet or GWG. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare professionals should be aware of the dose-response relationship between high pre-pregnancy BMI and antenatal depression

Entropy on Spin Factors

Recently it has been demonstrated that the Shannon entropy or the von Neuman entropy are the only entropy functions that generate a local Bregman divergences as long as the state space has rank 3 or higher. In this paper we will study the properties of Bregman divergences for convex bodies of rank 2. The two most important convex bodies of rank 2 can be identified with the bit and the qubit. We demonstrate that if a convex body of rank 2 has a Bregman divergence that satisfies sufficiency then the convex body is spectral and if the Bregman divergence is monotone then the convex body has the shape of a ball. A ball can be represented as the state space of a spin factor, which is the most simple type of Jordan algebra. We also study the existence of recovery maps for Bregman divergences on spin factors. In general the convex bodies of rank 2 appear as faces of state spaces of higher rank. Therefore our results give strong restrictions on which convex bodies could be the state space of a physical system with a well-behaved entropy function.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figure

Recent physical and sexual violence against adults with severe mental illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis

People with severe mental illness (SMI) have high prevalence of lifetime victimization, but little is known about the extent and risk of recent domestic/sexual violence. The objective was to synthesize evidence on prevalence, odds, and risk factors for recent violence against people with SMI, with a focus on domestic and sexual violence. Relevant studies were identified through literature searches in Medline, Psychinf, Embase (for studies published in 2010–2015), and through existing systematic reviews (for studies published in 2000–2014). The review included 30 studies (with 16 140 SMI participants), including six on domestic violence and 11 on sexual violence. Prevalence of recent domestic violence ranged from 15–22% among women and from 4–10% among men/mixed samples; with little evidence on risk compared with the general population. Median prevalence of sexual violence was 9.9% (IQR = 5.9–18.1%) in women and 3.1% (IQR = 2.5–6.7%) in men; with 6-fold higher odds of victimization compared with the general population. There was little evidence on risk factors for domestic or sexual violence. In conclusion, people with SMI have a high prevalence of recent domestic and sexual violence, but little is known about risk factors for these violence types, or extent of domestic violence victimization compared to the general population

Experiences of Improving Access to Psychological Therapy Services for Perinatal Mental Health Difficulties: a Qualitative Study of Women's and Therapists' Views

BACKGROUND: Perinatal mental health difficulties are highly prevalent. In England, the Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) programme provides evidence-based psychological treatment, predominantly in the form of brief manualized cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), to people with mild to moderate depression or anxiety. Yet little is known about the experiences of women referred to IAPT with perinatal mental health difficulties. AIMS: The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate how women view IAPT support for perinatal mental health. We also gained the perspective of IAPT therapists. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve women who had been referred to and/or received therapy from IAPT during the perinatal period. Additionally, fourteen IAPT therapists participated in two focus groups. Thematic analysis was used. RESULTS: Key themes centred on barriers to access and the need to tailor support to (expectant) mothers. Women and therapists suggested that experiences could be improved by supporting healthcare professionals to provide women with more help with referrals, better tailoring support to the perinatal context, improving perinatal-specific training, supervision and resources, and offering a more individualized treatment environment. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, women reported positive experiences of support offered by IAPT for perinatal mental health difficulties. However, services should seek to facilitate access to support and to enable therapists to better tailor treatment

Formation of Super-Earths

Super-Earths are the most abundant planets known to date and are characterized by having sizes between that of Earth and Neptune, typical orbital periods of less than 100 days and gaseous envelopes that are often massive enough to significantly contribute to the planet's overall radius. Furthermore, super-Earths regularly appear in tightly-packed multiple-planet systems, but resonant configurations in such systems are rare. This chapters summarizes current super-Earth formation theories. It starts from the formation of rocky cores and subsequent accretion of gaseous envelopes. We follow the thermal evolution of newly formed super-Earths and discuss their atmospheric mass loss due to disk dispersal, photoevaporation, core-cooling and collisions. We conclude with a comparison of observations and theoretical predictions, highlighting that even super-Earths that appear as barren rocky cores today likely formed with primordial hydrogen and helium envelopes and discuss some paths forward for the future.Comment: Invited review accepted for publication in the 'Handbook of Exoplanets,' Planet Formation section, Springer Reference Works, Juan Antonio Belmonte and Hans Deeg, Ed

Evolution of Th2 responses : Characterization of IL-4/13 in sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.) and studies of expression and biological activity

Acknowledgements This research was funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) of the European Union (Grant Agreement 311993 TARGETFISH). T.W. received funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference number HR09011) and contributing institutions.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A meta-analytic review of stand-alone interventions to improve body image

Objective Numerous stand-alone interventions to improve body image have been developed. The present review used meta-analysis to estimate the effectiveness of such interventions, and to identify the specific change techniques that lead to improvement in body image. Methods The inclusion criteria were that (a) the intervention was stand-alone (i.e., solely focused on improving body image), (b) a control group was used, (c) participants were randomly assigned to conditions, and (d) at least one pretest and one posttest measure of body image was taken. Effect sizes were meta-analysed and moderator analyses were conducted. A taxonomy of 48 change techniques used in interventions targeted at body image was developed; all interventions were coded using this taxonomy. Results The literature search identified 62 tests of interventions (N = 3,846). Interventions produced a small-to-medium improvement in body image (d+ = 0.38), a small-to-medium reduction in beauty ideal internalisation (d+ = -0.37), and a large reduction in social comparison tendencies (d+ = -0.72). However, the effect size for body image was inflated by bias both within and across studies, and was reliable but of small magnitude once corrections for bias were applied. Effect sizes for the other outcomes were no longer reliable once corrections for bias were applied. Several features of the sample, intervention, and methodology moderated intervention effects. Twelve change techniques were associated with improvements in body image, and three techniques were contra-indicated. Conclusions The findings show that interventions engender only small improvements in body image, and underline the need for large-scale, high-quality trials in this area. The review identifies effective techniques that could be deployed in future interventions

A rocky planet transiting a nearby low-mass star

M-dwarf stars -- hydrogen-burning stars that are smaller than 60 per cent of the size of the Sun -- are the most common class of star in our Galaxy and outnumber Sun-like stars by a ratio of 12:1. Recent results have shown that M dwarfs host Earth-sized planets in great numbers: the average number of M-dwarf planets that are between 0.5 to 1.5 times the size of Earth is at least 1.4 per star. The nearest such planets known to transit their star are 39 parsecs away, too distant for detailed follow-up observations to measure the planetary masses or to study their atmospheres. Here we report observations of GJ 1132b, a planet with a size of 1.2 Earth radii that is transiting a small star 12 parsecs away. Our Doppler mass measurement of GJ 1132b yields a density consistent with an Earth-like bulk composition, similar to the compositions of the six known exoplanets with masses less than six times that of the Earth and precisely measured densities. Receiving 19 times more stellar radiation than the Earth, the planet is too hot to be habitable but is cool enough to support a substantial atmosphere, one that has probably been considerably depleted of hydrogen. Because the host star is nearby and only 21 per cent the radius of the Sun, existing and upcoming telescopes will be able to observe the composition and dynamics of the planetary atmosphere.Comment: Published in Nature on 12 November 2015, available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature15762. This is the authors' version of the manuscrip

Obstetric near misses among women with serious mental illness: data linkage cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Investigating obstetric near misses (life-threatening obstetric complications) provides crucial information to prevent maternal mortality and morbidity. AIMS: To investigate the rate and type of obstetric near misses among women with serious mental illness (SMI). METHOD: We conducted a historical cohort study, using de-identified electronic mental health records linked with maternity data from Hospital Episode Statistics. The English Maternal Morbidity Outcome Indicator was used to identify obstetric near misses at the time of delivery in two cohorts: (1) exposed cohort - all women with a live or still birth in 2007-2016, and a history of secondary mental healthcare before delivery in south-east London (n = 13 570); (2) unexposed cohort - all women with a live or still birth in 2007-2016, resident within south-east London, with no history of mental healthcare before delivery (n = 223 274). RESULTS: The rate of obstetric near misses was 884.3/100 000 (95% CI 733.2-1057.4) maternities in the exposed group compared with 575.1/100 000 (95% CI 544.0-607.4) maternities in the unexposed group (adjusted odds ratio 1.6, 95% CI 1.3-2.0, P < 0.001). Highest risks were for acute renal failure (adjusted odds ratio 2.1, 95% CI 1.1-3.8, P = 0.022); cardiac arrest, failure or infarction (adjusted odds ratio 2.3, 95% CI 1.1-4.8, P = 0.028); and obstetric embolism (adjusted odds ratio 3.1, 95% CI 1.6-5.8, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Findings emphasise the importance of integrated physical and mental healthcare before and during pregnancy for women with SMI