Maternal Lifestyle and Pregnancy Complications: The Generation R Study

Adverse maternal lifestyle habits during pregnancy are important modifiable risk factors for pregnancy complications in Western countries. Most common adverse maternal lifestyle habits include smoking, alcohol consumption, and caffeine consumption. Although not directly lifestyle related, maternal age is also considered as a modifiable risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes

Coping Strategies Used by Christian Social Workers to Manage their Mental Health Amidst Covid-19

A grounded theory model of qualitative research was used in order to create a theory for the ways in which Christian social workers coped with the effects of job stress and compassion fatigue during the global Covid-19 pandemic. The participants were six female social workers from Northwest Iowa who worked in direct care with clients. From the participants’ stories emerged a fluent framework for how the social workers were coping within the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. Researchers found that the participants’ coping strategies fell within the realm of five categories: faith, physical activity, distractions, support systems, and boundaries, all of which are supported by previous literature

Domestic Violence and Sex Trafficking Among Adult and Minor Females

The organizers of this event recognized a need within their community to begin to understand that domestic violence and human trafficking are present and that they can do something to help. They began by gathering current information about what these two phenomena are, how they can be prevented, and how we can help when they return to society. The organizers then got to work by partnering with agencies in the community that specialize in working with individuals impacted by human trafficking and domestic violence and from there, prepared a community event

Acoustics and Biological Structures

Within the context of noise-induced health effects, the impact of airborne acoustical phenomena on biological tissues, particularly within the lower frequency ranges, is very poorly understood. Although the human body is a viscoelastic-composite material, it is generally modeled as Hooke elastic. This implies that acoustical coupling is considered to be nonexistent at acoustical frequencies outside of the human auditory threshold. Researching the acoustical properties of mammalian tissue raises many problems. When tissue samples are investigated as to their pure mechanical properties, stimuli are not usually in the form of airborne pressure waves. Moreover, since the response of biological tissue is dependent on frequency, amplitude, and time profile, precision laboratory equipment and relevant physiological endpoints are mandatory requirements that are oftentimes difficult to achieve. Drawing upon the viscoelastic nature of biological tissue and the tensegrity model of cellular architecture, this chapter will visit what is known to date on the biological response to a variety of different acoustic stimuli at very low frequencies

A common genetic variant at 15q25 modifies the associations of maternal smoking during pregnancy with fetal growth: The generation r study

Objective: Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with fetal growth retardation. We examined whether a common genetic variant at chromosome 15q25 (rs1051730), which is known to be involved in nicotine metabolism, modifies the associations of maternal smoking with fetal growth characteristics. Methods: This study was performed in 3,563 European mothers participating in a population-based prospective cohort study from early pregnancy onwards. Smoking was assessed by postal questionnaires and fetal growth characteristics were measured by ultrasound examinations in each trimester of pregnancy. Results: Among mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy (82.9%), maternal rs1051730 was not consistently associated with any fetal growth characteristic. Among mothers who continued smoking during pregnancy (17.1%), maternal rs1051730 was not associated with head circumference. The T-allele of maternal rs1051730 was associated with a smaller second and third trimester fetal femur length [differences -0.23 mm (95%CI -0.45 to -0.00) and -0.41 mm (95%CI -0.69 to -0.13), respectively] and a smaller birth length [difference -2.61 mm (95%CI -5.32 to 0.11)]. The maternal T-allele of rs1051730 was associated with a lower third trimester estimated fetal weight [difference -33 grams (95%CI -55 to -10)], and tended to be associated with birth weight [difference -38 grams (95%CI -89 to 13)]. This association persisted after adjustment for smoking quantity. Conclusions: Our results suggest that maternal rs1051730 genotype modifies the associations of maternal smoking during pregnancy with impaired fetal growth in length and weight. These results should be considered as hypothesis generating and indicate the need for large-scale genome wide association studies focusing on gene - fetal smoke exposure interactions