Maternal Obesity, Gestational Weight Gain And Offspring’s Asthma

Introduction: Obesity is common among women of childbearing age and intrauterine exposures may influence the development of early childhood asthma. A handful of studies have investigated pre-pregnancy obesity, but even fewer have thoroughly explored gestational weight gain as possible childhood asthma risk factors. Gaps remain in the literature and to our knowledge, none have longitudinally explored these relationships in a nationally representative sample of U.S. children. Methods: We used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort, in which children were followed through age four (n≈5,200). Asthma was based on parent report of a physician’s diagnosis. Four definitions of gestational weight gain were used. Generalized estimating equation binomial models were used to compute adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals. Results: Compared to children of normal weight mothers, children born to obese mothers had an overall increased risk of early childhood asthma (aOR: 1.63 95% CI: 1.25-2.11); whereas pre-pregnancy overweight fell just below statistical significance (aOR: 1.26 95% CI 0.99-1.60). Extreme weight gains (\u3c5kg and ≥25kg) were also independently associated with increased risks of asthma; however, no other significant associations were observed for weight gain and offspring’s asthma. Conclusions: We found that in the U.S., extreme weight gain levels, maternal obesity, and to a lesser extent maternal overweight are risk factors of early childhood asthma. Exceeding weight gain recommendations was not a risk factor for asthma. Our study provides further evidence for the long-term effects intrauterine exposures may have on children and the need to target preconception care in improving child health indicators

Introducing first-year medical students to surgery via a hands-on surgical workshop

INTRODUCTION Surgical interest among medical students has declined in recent years. Lack of exposure to basic procedural skills and formulated perceptions of surgeons prior to surgical clerkships increases discomfort felt among medical students, deterring students from entering the field of surgery. METHODS In 2021 we instituted a hand-on "Introduction to Surgical Techniques" course to first-year medical students at Harvard Medical School. The course was provided prior to clinical rotations and focused on the fundamentals of knot-tying and suturing. Students were exposed to a breadth of surgical instructors. A survey was offered to all students before and after the workshop. RESULTS A total of 112 first-year medical students (of 124) participated in the pre and post-workshop surveys for a response rate of 90.3%. Most students (86.1%) were very satisfied with the suturing course and all of the students’ abilities to perform a two-handed knot and running suture significantly improved (p< 0.001; p< 0.001). 26.0% of students demonstrated an increased likelihood to enter the surgical field after completing the workshop. Underrepresented racial and ethnical minorities responded well to the workshop with 40% of Hispanics displaying an increased likelihood to enter the surgical field after the workshop. 34.4% of women highly rated their likelihood to consider surgery in the future. CONCLUSION The results of this study demonstrate early exposure of surgical training and surgical mentors during medical students’ pre-clinical years improves suturing techniques as well as increases the likelihood students will go into a surgical field in the future

Automated Monitoring of Online News Streams: Topic Detection and Tracking Considerations

This paper describes the term frequency patterns found in online news summaries published over a seven-week period. The patterns are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to facilitate the refinement of algorithms used for the automatic detection and tracking of important topics appearing in streams of text. It is shown that a term's importance cannot be measured in raw frequency counts or significant increases in volume alone. The impact of these findings on existing algorithms is discussed, and new approaches for automated story detection and presentation are considered

Note sur des meules en trachy-andésite d’époque romaine découvertes en Loire-Atlantique

La Loire-Atlantique, à cheval sur la cité namnète et une partie du territoire picton, a livré pour la période gallo-romaine une quantité non négligeable de mobilier de mouture en trachy-andésite. Ce matériel reflète un phénomène d’importation qui semble s’exprimer avec le plus d’intensité dans la seconde moitié du iiesiècle et peut-être dans la première moitié du iiie. À côté de moulins rotatifs à bras, voire à sang, et de mortiers tripodes, des éléments de moulins actionnés selon toute vraisemblance par énergie hydraulique ont pu être identifiés, les catilli étant pour la plupart munis d’un unique système d’anille-barrette «par-dessus» qui paraît assez atypique.Straddling the Namneti city-state and a part of the Picton area, Loire-Atlantique yelded, for the Gallo-Roman period, a significant quantity of milling artefacts in trachyandesite. These objects reflect importation, a phenomenon which seems to have been most prominent in the second half of the 2nd century and perhaps the first half of the 3rd one. Besides hand-held or even blood mills and tripod mortars, millstones which were most probably water powered have been identified, most of the catilli being fitted with a single overhead mill-edge which seems quite atypical