Birth Outcomes in Relation to Prenatal Exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Stress in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program

BACKGROUND: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent and ubiquitous chemicals associated with risk of adverse birth outcomes. Results of previous studies have been inconsistent. Associations between PFAS and birth outcomes may be affected by psychosocial stress. OBJECTIVES: We estimated risk of adverse birth outcomes in relation to prenatal PFAS concentrations and evaluate whether maternal stress modifies those relationships. METHODS: We included 3,339 participants from 11 prospective prenatal cohorts in the Environmental influences on the Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program to estimate the associations of five PFAS and birth outcomes. We stratified by perceived stress scale scores to examine effect modification and used Bayesian Weighted Sums to estimate mixtures of PFAS. RESULTS: We observed reduced birth size with increased concentrations of all PFAS. For a 1-unit higher log-normalized exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), we observed lower birthweight-for-gestational-age z-scores of formula presented [95% confidence interval (CI): formula presented ], formula presented (95% CI: formula presented ), formula presented (95% CI: formula presented ), formula presented (95% CI: formula presented , 0.06), and formula presented (95% CI: formula presented ), respectively. We observed a lower odds ratio (OR) for large-for-gestational-age: formula presented (95% CI: 0.38, 0.83), formula presented (95% CI: 0.35, 0.77). For a 1-unit increase in log-normalized concentration of summed PFAS, we observed a lower birthweight-for-gestational-age z-score [formula presented ; 95% highest posterior density (HPD): formula presented ] and decreased odds of large-for-gestational-age (formula presented ; 95% HPD: 0.29, 0.82). Perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) explained the highest percentage (40%) of the summed effect in both models. Associations were not modified by maternal perceived stress. DISCUSSION: Our large, multi-cohort study of PFAS and adverse birth outcomes found a negative association between prenatal PFAS and birthweight-for-gestational-age, and the associations were not different in groups with high vs. low perceived stress. This study can help inform policy to reduce exposures in the environment and humans. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP10723

Gendering the careers of young professionals: some early findings from a longitudinal study. in Organizing/theorizing: developments in organization theory and practice

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales

The present and future of QCD

This White Paper presents an overview of the current status and future perspective of QCD research, based on the community inputs and scientific conclusions from the 2022 Hot and Cold QCD Town Meeting. We present the progress made in the last decade toward a deep understanding of both the fundamental structure of the sub-atomic matter of nucleon and nucleus in cold QCD, and the hot QCD matter in heavy ion collisions. We identify key questions of QCD research and plausible paths to obtaining answers to those questions in the near future, hence defining priorities of our research over the coming decades

Causal Relationship between Obesity and Vitamin D Status: Bi-Directional Mendelian Randomization Analysis of Multiple Cohorts

M.-L. Lokki työryhmän Genetic Invest Anthropometric Trai jäsen.Peer reviewe

The present and future of QCD

This White Paper presents an overview of the current status and future perspective of QCD research, based on the community inputs and scientific conclusions from the 2022 Hot and Cold QCD Town Meeting. We present the progress made in the last decade toward a deep understanding of both the fundamental structure of the sub-atomic matter of nucleon and nucleus in cold QCD, and the hot QCD matter in heavy ion collisions. We identify key questions of QCD research and plausible paths to obtaining answers to those questions in the near future, hence defining priorities of our research over the coming decades

Single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with gut homeostasis influence risk and age-at-onset of Parkinson's disease

Research is increasingly focusing on gut inflammation as a contributor to Parkinson's disease (PD). Such gut inflammation is proposed to arise from a complex interaction between various genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors, however these factors are under-characterized. This study investigated the association between PD and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes responsible for binding of bacterial metabolites and intestinal homeostasis, which have been implicated in intestinal infections or inflammatory bowel disease. A case-control analysis was performed utilizing the following cohorts: (i) patients from the Australian Parkinson's Disease Registry (APDR) (n = 212); (ii) a Caucasian subset of the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) cohort (n = 376); (iii) a combined control group (n = 404). The following SNPs were analyzed: PGLYRP2 rs892145, PGLYRP4 rs10888557, TLR1 rs4833095, TLR2 rs3804099, TLR4 rs7873784, CD14 rs2569190, MUC1 rs4072037, MUC2 rs11825977, CLDN2 rs12008279 and rs12014762, and CLDN4 rs8629. PD risk was significantly associated with PGLYRP4 rs10888557 genotype in both cohorts. PGLYRP2 rs892145 and TLR1 rs4833095 were also associated with disease risk in the APDR cohort, and TLR2 rs3804099 and MUC2 rs11825977 genotypes in the PPMI cohort. Interactive risk effects between PGLYRP2/PGLYRP4 and PGLYRP4/TLR2 were evident in the APDR and PPMI cohorts, respectively. In the APDR cohort, the PGLYRP4 GC genotype was significantly associated with age of symptom onset, independently of gender, toxin exposure or smoking status. This study demonstrates that genetic variation in the bacterial receptor PGLYRP4 may modulate risk and age-of-onset in idiopathic PD, while variants in PGLYRP2, TLR1/2, and MUC2 may also influence PD risk. Overall, this study provides evidence to support the role of dysregulated host-microbiome signaling and gut inflammation in PD, and further investigation of these SNPs and proteins may help identify people at risk of developing PD or increase understanding of early disease mechanisms