OCTANT: Digital platform for interdisciplinary and collaborative learning and research

OCTANT is designed to become an online digital platform integrating both pedagogical and research features combining open and restricted accesses. It will initially focus on the humanities and social sciences, but aims to make itself available to the whole academic community. OCTANT will open up new virtual spaces of learning that juxtapose time and space graphically through the interactive association of timelines and maps. It will also allow for the visualization of text areas and of a diversity of links to bibliographies, websites, Moodle pages, open archives, scientific newsfeeds. This online pedagogical space is intended to encourage successful learning strategies, student autonomy, critical thinking, and collaborative learning. With its focus on interdisciplinary research, it encourages students to open their perspectives and to conceive of original research objects through the organization and analysis of personalized databases

Association of serum level of 25-hydroxy Vitamin D deficiency and pulmonary function in healthy individuals

Background. Besides the extensive regulatory role in growing number of biologic processes, Vitamin D has been recently considered essential for lungs function as well as protective against exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. We assessed the correlation between Vitamin D serum levels with pulmonary function in healthy individuals. Methods. In a cross-sectional study, healthy volunteer (n=92) participants underwent the following laboratory procedures: a blood test, a 24-hour urine collection test, and the serum level of 25-hydroxy Vitamin D before undergoing spirometry. Linear correlation coefficient was calculated to detect the association between serum level of 25-hydroxy Vitamin D and pulmonary volumes. Results. The mean age of participants was 39.95±9.98 years. 48 of participants showed different levels of 25-hydroxy Vitamin D deficiency. We recognized a consistent direct positive correlation between serum levels of 25-hydroxy Vitamin D and lung function volumes. The coefficient for forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in 1 second, forced expiratory flow 25-75, and forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity ratio were 0.610, 0.509, 0.454, and 0.551, respectively. Conclusions. Our findings suggest correlation between higher serum levels of 25-hydroxy Vitamin D and improved pulmonary function. Accordingly, supplemental Vitamin D might significantly improve treatment response. © 2018 Maryam Moghaddassi et al

Antibiotic use among 8-month-old children in Malmö, Sweden – in relation to child characteristics and parental sociodemographic, psychosocial and lifestyle factors

In the county of Scania, Sweden, antibiotic use among small children is among the highest in the country. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between antibiotic use among 8-month-old children in Malmö and characteristics of the child as well as parental sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, and psychosocial support. The study was a population-based cross-sectional survey. The study population consisted of children who visited the Child Health Care (CHC) centres in Malmö for their 8-month health checkup during 2003–2006 and whose parents answered a self-administered questionnaire (n = 7266 children). The questionnaire was distributed to parents of children registered with the CHC and invited for an 8-month checkup during the study period. The odds of using antibiotics increased as parental educational level decreased. Using high educational level as a reference group, low maternal educational level was associated with an increased antibiotic use for the child, odds ratio (OR) = 1.61 (95% CI: 1.34–1.93). Furthermore, children whose parents were born outside Sweden showed higher antibiotic use, OR = 1.43 (95% CI: 1.24–1.65), in comparison with children whose parents were born in Sweden. Exposure to environmental smoking, parental experience of economic stress, and a low level of emotional support increased the odds for antibiotic use. Boys had higher odds of use of antibiotics than girls, OR = 1.40 (95% CI: 1.25–1.57). Having a low birth weight, having an allergy and having siblings also increased the odds for early antibiotic use, while breastfeeding seemed to have a protective role. Conclusion There were clear associations between parental factors such as sociodemographic, psychosocial and lifestyle factors and antibiotic use at this early stage of life. Several characteristics of the child also affected the use of antibiotics

Social capital and leisure time physical activity: a population based multilevel analysis in Malmö, Sweden

Objective: To investigate the influence of social capital and individual factors on the level of leisure time physical inactivity in the neighbourhoods. Methods: The public health survey in Malmö 1994 is a cross sectional study. A total of 5600 people aged 20–80 years were invited to answer a postal questionnaire. The participation rate was 71%. A multilevel logistic regression model, with individuals at the first level and neighbourhoods at the second, was performed. The effect (intra-area correlation, cross level modification, and odds ratios) was analysed of individual and neighbourhood (the 1993 migration out of an area as a proxy for social capital) factors on leisure time physical inactivity after adjustment for individual factors. Results: Neighbourhood factors accounted for 5.0% of the crude total variance in physical inactivity. This effect was significantly reduced when the individual factors, especially country of origin, education, and social participation, were included in the model. In contrast, it was not reduced by the introduction of the contextual social capital variable. Conclusion: This study suggests that in the neighbourhoods of Malmö leisure time physical inactivity is mainly affected by individual factors

A multilevel analysis of condom use among adolescents in the European Union

OBJECTIVES: This study examined which individual and national factors affect condom use among adolescents. STUDY DESIGN: Multilevel analysis. METHODS: This study reviewed the data on bullying, alcohol use and condom use provided by 18 European countries and subnational entities in the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey. Another eight contextual variables were also analysed. Three multilevel logistic regression models were applied consecutively (analysing for crude geographical and school variance in condom use, adjusting for gender and adjusting all variables for one another). RESULTS: Among the 15-year-olds studied, 7.0% of the total variance in condom use was explained by school-related factors (intraschool-level correlation) and 5.8% by national/subnational factors. In the empty model, condom use was significantly associated with gender, alcohol consumption, predominant national religion and national prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In the full model, there was also a significant association with the Human Development Index ranking, gross domestic product, Gini coefficient and the Gender-related Development Index. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that while alcohol, gender, human development level, income, religion and HIV prevalence affect condom use in young Europeans, these factors do not explain all or even most of the variation. Nonetheless, since some of these factors are not traditionally associated with young people's sexual and reproductive health, these findings should enable more nuanced health policy programming