Lactation intensity and postpartum maternal glucose tolerance and insulin resistance

OBJECTIVEdTo examine the association between breastfeeding intensity in relation to maternal blood glucose and insulin and glucose intolerance based on the postpartum 2-h 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) results at 6-9 weeks after a pregnancy with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSdWe selected 522 participants enrolled into the Study of Women, Infant Feeding, and Type 2 Diabetes (SWIFT), a prospective observational cohort study of Kaiser Permanente Northern California members diagnosed with GDM using the 3-h 100-g OGTT by the Carpenter and Coustan criteria. Women were classified as normal, prediabetes, or diabetes according to American Diabetes Association criteria based on the postpartum 2-h 75-g OGTT results. RESULTSdCompared with exclusive or mostly formula feeding (.17 oz formula per 24 h), exclusive breastfeeding and mostly breastfeeding (#6 oz formula per 24 h) groups, respectively, had lower adjusted mean (95% CI) group differences in fasting plasma glucose (mg/dL) of 24.3 (27.4 to 21.3) and 25.0 (28.5 to 21.4), in fasting insulin (mU/mL) of 26.3 (210.1 to 22.4) and 27.5 (211.9 to 23.0), and in 2-h insulin of 221.4 (241.0 to 21.7) and 236.5 (259.3 to 213.7) (all P , 0.05). Exclusive or mostly breastfeeding groups had lower prevalence of diabetes or prediabetes (P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONSdHigher intensity of lactation was associated with improved fasting glucose and lower insulin levels at 6-9 weeks' postpartum. Lactation may have favorable effects on glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity that may reduce diabetes risk after GDM pregnancy. 35:50-56, 2012 Diabetes Car

Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity.

Many genetic loci affect circulating lipid levels, but it remains unknown whether lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, modify these genetic effects. To identify lipid loci interacting with physical activity, we performed genome-wide analyses of circulating HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in up to 120,979 individuals of European, African, Asian, Hispanic, and Brazilian ancestry, with follow-up of suggestive associations in an additional 131,012 individuals. We find four loci, in/near CLASP1, LHX1, SNTA1, and CNTNAP2, that are associated with circulating lipid levels through interaction with physical activity; higher levels of physical activity enhance the HDL cholesterol-increasing effects of the CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 loci and attenuate the LDL cholesterol-increasing effect of the CNTNAP2 locus. The CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 regions harbor genes linked to muscle function and lipid metabolism. Our results elucidate the role of physical activity interactions in the genetic contribution to blood lipid levels

Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity

The present work was largely supported by a grant from the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (R01HL118305). The full list of acknowledgments appears in the Supplementary Notes 3 and 4.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Verhandeln mit der Realität auf der Bergen Assembly 2016

Non peer reviewe

Educating the Commons and Commoning Education: Thinking Radical Education with Radical Technology

All over the world, education—which could be understood as a universal right and public good—is facing processes of economization and privatization. Technology—which could be understood as a common means of production, collaboratively developed—is taken away from the public and put into corporate hands. This article is designed as a conversation investigating the question of shared and common knowledge from the perspectives of an educator and an engineer, respectively. The dialogue explores necessary convergences in radical practices of commoning, and possible future strategies for education and Open Technology. It asks how new models can challenge the neoliberal agenda and move away from established policies, and how a collective re-appropriation of the means of production could emerge within a post-digital society.Peer reviewe

Infrastructure

For 2016 Bergen Assembly, freethought will focus on its current collective interest: Infrastructure. By looking at many different understandings of this keyword—from legacies of colonial and early capitalist systems of governance to current conditions of the financialization of the cultural field to the subversive possibilities of thinking and working with infrastructures as sites of affect and contradiction— Infrastructure emerges as the invisible force of manifest culture today. This large-scale investigation will wrest the term away from the language of planners and technocrats to put it to creative and critical use within the cultural sphere

Gegen den Stand der Dinge. Objekte in Museen und Ausstellungen

Challenging the Status of Things reflects on the current shift in how museums relate to material culture. Contemporary notions in material culture studies, sociology, and art theory ascribe critical power to objects. The interdisciplinary essays examine new approaches to the conditions of production, commemorative practices, and materiality of objects in museums and exhibitions