Mapping and zooming in on childhood obesity

Overweight and obesity are a challenge for children and adolescents worldwide and in the EU. This report shows the dimension of the challenge at the EU level and tells a series of stories, illustrated through maps, that highlight and make the case for the importance of showing data disaggregated at various levels (by socio-economic status or by region – NUTS2, and even NUTS3). The data and maps presented show that education level for example, is an important determinant of obesity. Data collected at local level are a powerful source of knowledge that can and should be used for evidence-informed and truly tailor-made targeted actions and policies. This is illustrated by the comprehensive yearly evaluation of children's health that the Portuguese city of Gaia organises and the actions that stem from it. Interventions at local level based on local data have immediacy and deliver a sense of action and empowerment that is hardly achievable at national level. The stories selected here are mere examples; other stories, using other disaggregated data sets, could have been told. There is room and need for deepening data collection relevant to children's health and childhood obesity and to make it more accessible and comparable. This will benefit decision-makers at every level, public health practitioners and researchers. And most importantly, it will benefit the health of children and adolescents in our continent.JRC.F.1-Health in Societ

Differential cross section for neutron-proton bremsstrahlung

The neutron-proton bremsstrahlung process $(np \to np\gamma)$ is known to be sensitive to meson exchange currents in the nucleon-nucleon interaction. The triply differential cross section for this reaction has been measured for the first time at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, using an intense, pulsed beam of up to 700 MeV neutrons to bombard a liquid hydrogen target. Scattered neutrons were observed at six angles between 12$^\circ$ and 32$^\circ$, and the recoil protons were observed in coincidence at 12$^\circ$, 20$^\circ$, and 28$^\circ$ on the opposite side of the beam. Measurement of the neutron and proton energies at known angles allows full kinematic reconstruction of each event. The data are compared with predictions of two theoretical calculations, based on relativistic soft-photon and non-relativistic potential models.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Neutron-proton bremsstrahlung from intermediate energy heavy-ion reactions as a probe of the nuclear symmetry energy?

Hard photons from neutron-proton bremsstrahlung in intermediate energy heavy-ion reactions are examined as a potential probe of the nuclear symmetry energy within a transport model. Effects of the symmetry energy on the yields and spectra of hard photons are found to be generally smaller than those due to the currently existing uncertainties of both the in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections and the photon production probability in the elementary process $pn\to pn\gamma$. Very interestingly, nevertheless, the ratio of hard photon spectra $R_{1/2}(\gamma)$ from two reactions using isotopes of the same element is not only approximately independent of these uncertainties but also quite sensitive to the symmetry energy. For the head-on reactions of $^{132}Sn+^{124}Sn$ and $^{112}Sn+^{112}Sn$ at $E_{beam}/A=50$ MeV, for example, the $R_{1/2}(\gamma)$ displays a rise up to 15% when the symmetry energy is reduced by about 20% at $\rho=1.3\rho_0$ which is the maximum density reached in these reactions.Comment: Added new results in Fig. 6 and new references [27.28]. Phys. Lett. B in pres

Azimuthal asymmetry of direct photons in intermediate energy heavy-ion collisions

Hard photon emitted from energetic heavy ion collisions is of very interesting since it does not experience the late-stage nuclear interaction, therefore it is useful to explore the early-stage information of matter phase. In this work, we have presented a first calculation of azimuthal asymmetry, characterized by directed transverse flow parameter $F$ and elliptic asymmetry coefficient $v_2$, for proton-neutron bremsstrahlung hard photons in intermediate energy heavy-ion collisions. The positive $F$ and negative $v_2$ of direct photons are illustrated and they seem to be anti-correlated to the corresponding free proton's flow.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; accepted by Physics Letters

A direct probe of the in-medium pn scattering cross section

Hard photon production from neutron-proton bremsstrahlung in intermediate energy heavy-ion reactions is examined as a probe of the in-medium pn scattering cross section within a transport model. Uncertainty of photon production probability pn-pngamma is cancelled out by using the ratio of hard photon spectra R_{12C+12C/p+n}(gamma) from two reactions. The in medium pn scattering cross section is constrained by using the ratio of hard photon production cross sections of proton-induced reactions p+12C and p+2H. A reduction factor sigma_pn^medium/sigma_pn^free of about 0.5 ~ 0.7 around saturation density is obtained by comparing with the existing experimental data.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, accepted by PL

Glycemic control of type 2 diabetes and severe periodontal disease in the US adult population

Objective: We investigated the association between glycemic control of type 2 diabetes mellitus (type 2 DM) and severe periodontal disease in the US adult population ages 45 years and older. Methods: Data on 4343 persons ages 45–90 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study III were analyzed using weighted multivariable logistic regression. Severe periodontal disease was defined as 2 + sites with 6 + mm loss of attachment and at least one site with probing pocket depth of 5 + mm. Individuals with fasting plasma glucose > 126 mg/dL were classified as having diabetes; those with poorly controlled diabetes (PCDM) had glycosylated hemoglobin > 9% and those with better-controlled diabetes (BCDM) had glycosylated hemoglobin ≤ 9%. Additional variables evaluated in multivariable modeling included age, ethnicity, education, gender, smoking status, and other factors derived from the interview, medical and dental examination, and laboratory assays. Results: Individuals with PCDM had a significantly higher prevalence of severe periodontitis than those without diabetes (odds ratio = 2.90; 95% CI: 1.40, 6.03), after controlling for age, education, smoking status, and calculus. For the BCDM subjects, there was a tendency for a higher prevalence of severe periodontitis (odds ratio = 1.56; 95% CI: 0.90, 2.68). Conclusion: These results provide population-based evidence to support an association between poorly controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus and severe periodontitis.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71997/1/j.1600-0528.2002.300304.x.pd

Alloxan-Induced Diabetes Triggers the Development of Periodontal Disease in Rats

BACKGROUND: Periodontal disease in diabetic patients presents higher severity and prevalence; and increased severity of ligature-induced periodontal disease has been verified in diabetic rats. However, in absence of aggressive stimuli such as ligatures, the influence of diabetes on rat periodontal tissues is incompletely explored. The aim of this study was to evaluate the establishment and progression of periodontal diseases in rats only with diabetes induction. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Diabetes was induced in Wistar rats (n = 25) by intravenous administration of alloxan (42 mg/kg) and were analyzed at 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after diabetes induction. The hemimandibles were removed and submitted to radiographical and histopathological procedures. A significant reduction was observed in height of bone crest in diabetic animals at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, which was associated with increased numbers of osteoclasts and inflammatory cells. The histopathological analyses of diabetic rats also showed a reduction in density of collagen fibers, fibroblasts and blood vessels. Severe caries were also detected in the diabetic group. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results demonstrate that diabetes induction triggers, or even co-induces the onset of alterations which are typical of periodontal diseases even in the absence of aggressive factors such as ligatures. Therefore, diabetes induction renders a previously resistant host into a susceptible phenotype, and hence diabetes can be considered a very important risk factor to the development of periodontal disease