A Structured Training Course for Non-structured Design Course

In an engineering design course, teaching assistant plays a critical role to in supporting the teaching and the learning process for the participants – students and instructors.  The instructors would invite or hire a postgraduate student to be the teaching assistant.  In most cases, the postgraduate student does not has any teaching experience. This work proposed and implemented a quick start training course for the teaching assistant specifically for an engineering design course, by adopting concept-design-implementation-operation

Gestational diabetes mellitus and retinal microvasculature.

BACKGROUND: Small-vessel dysfunction may be an important consequence of chronic hyperglycemia. We examined the association between gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), a state of transient hyperglycemia during pregnancy, and retinal microvascular changes in pregnant women at 26-28 weeks of pregnancy. METHODS: A total of 1136 pregnant women with singleton pregnancies were recruited during their first trimester at two major Singapore maternity hospitals in an on-going birth cohort study. Participants underwent an oral glucose tolerance test and retinal imaging at 26-28 weeks gestation (n = 542). We used the 1999 World Health Organization (WHO) criteria to define GDM: ≥7.0 mmol/L for fasting glucose and/or ≥7.8 mmol/L for 2-h post-glucose. Retinal microvasculature was measured using computer software (Singapore I Vessel Analyzer, SIVA version 3.0, Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore) from the retinal photographs. RESULTS: In a multiple linear regression model adjusting for age, ethnicity and maternal education, mothers with GDM had narrower arteriolar caliber (-1.6 μm; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: -3.1 μm, -0.2 μm), reduced arteriolar fractal dimension (-0.01 Df; 95% CI: -0.02 Df, -0.001 Df;), and larger arteriolar branching angle (1.8°; 95% CI: 0.3°, 3.3°) than mothers without GDM. After further adjusting for traditional risks of GDM, arteriolar branching angle remained significantly larger in mothers with GDM than those without GDM (2.0°; 95% CI: 0.5°, 3.6°). CONCLUSIONS: GDM was associated with a series of retinal arteriolar abnormalities, including narrower caliber, reduced fractal dimension and larger branching angle, suggesting that transient hyperglycemia during pregnancy may cause small-vessel dysfunction

Sustainability of Women’s Employment Rate for Malaysian Economic Development

This research paper develops a model for the sustainability of women’s employment rate in Malaysia’s economic development. This study examined annual data from 1982 to 2018, with 37 observations. A new econometric method was adopted to determine both short-run and long-run relationships among the variables using the Johansen Cointegration rank test, Vector Error Correction Method (VECM) with error correction model of cointegration equation. The VECM results revealed significant and positive short-term relationships between foreign direct investment, gross domestic product (GDP), and the negative short-term relationship of the lagged period of women’s employment rate to women employment rate (WER). The variables, GDP, education level, and women’s marital status are cointegrated and have a long-term relationship between WER in the cointegration equation. The Johansen Cointegration rank test also showed the existence of cointegration equations, and a long-term relationship between the variables. Eventually, the residual diagnosis, significant error term, and the performance of the model evaluation were found as satisfactory and valid. In short, this research paves the way for policymakers to construct a better policy for the future of women’s employment sustainability

Artificial-Intelligence-Assisted Discovery of Genetic Factors for Precision Medicine of Antiplatelet Therapy in Diabetic Peripheral Artery Disease

An increased risk of cardiovascular events was identified in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). Clopidogrel is one of the most widely used antiplatelet medications. However, there are heterogeneous outcomes when clopidogrel is used to prevent cardiovascular events in PAD patients. Here, we use an artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted methodology to identify genetic factors potentially involved in the clopidogrel-resistant mechanism, which is currently unclear. Several discoveries can be pinpointed. Firstly, a high proportion (>50%) of clopidogrel resistance was found among diabetic PAD patients in Taiwan. Interestingly, our result suggests that platelet function test-guided antiplatelet therapy appears to reduce the post-interventional occurrence of major adverse cerebrovascular and cardiac events in diabetic PAD patients. Secondly, AI-assisted genome-wide association study of a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) database identified a SNP signature composed of 20 SNPs, which are mapped into 9 protein-coding genes (SLC37A2, IQSEC1, WASHC3, PSD3, BTBD7, GLIS3, PRDM11, LRBA1, and CNR1). Finally, analysis of the protein connectivity map revealed that LRBA, GLIS3, BTBD7, IQSEC1, and PSD3 appear to form a protein interaction network. Intriguingly, the genetic factors seem to pinpoint a pathway related to endocytosis and recycling of P2Y12 receptor, which is the drug target of clopidogrel. Our findings reveal that a combination of AI-assisted discovery of SNP signatures and clinical parameters has the potential to develop an ethnic-specific precision medicine for antiplatelet therapy in diabetic PAD patients

Maternal PUFA status and offspring allergic diseases up to the age of 18 months

10.1017/S000711451500001XBritish Journal of Nutrition1136975-983GUSTO (Growing up towards Healthy Outcomes

Breastfeeding duration and development of dysglycemia in women who had gestational diabetes mellitus: evidence from the GUSTO cohort study

Background: breastfeeding has been shown to support glucose homeostasis in women after a pregnancy complicated by gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and is potentially effective at reducing long-term diabetes risk. Methods: data from the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) study were analyzed to understand the influence of breastfeeding duration on long-term dysglycemia (prediabetes and diabetes) risk in women who had GDM in the index pregnancy. GDM and dysglycemia four to seven years postpartum were determined by the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). A Poisson regression model with a robust error variance was used to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for dysglycemia four to seven years post-delivery according to groupings of the duration of any breastfeeding (<1, ≥1 to <6, and ≥6 months). Results: women who had GDM during the index pregnancy and complete breastfeeding information and OGTT four to seven years postpartum were included in this study (n = 116). Fifty-one women (44%) had postpartum dysglycemia. Unadjusted IRRs showed an inverse association between dysglycemia risk and ≥1 month to <6 months (IRR 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.57, 1.43; p = 0.68) and ≥6 months (IRR 0.50; 95% CI 0.27, 0.91; p = 0.02) breastfeeding compared to <1 month of any breastfeeding. After adjusting for key confounders, the IRR for the ≥6 months group remained significant (IRR 0.42; 95% CI 0.22, 0.80; p = 0.008). Conclusions: our results suggest that any breastfeeding of six months or longer may reduce long-term dysglycemia risk in women with a history of GDM in an Asian setting. Breastfeeding has benefits for mothers beyond weight loss, particularly for those with GDM

Breastfeeding Duration and Development of Dysglycemia in Women Who Had Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Evidence from the GUSTO Cohort Study

10.3390/nu13020408Nutrients132408-40