Developmental programming by maternal obesity: Lessons from animal models

Funder: Medical Research Council; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265Funder: British Heart Foundation; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000274Abstract: The obesity epidemic has led to more women entering pregnancy overweight or obese. In addition to adverse short‐term outcomes, maternal obesity and/or gestational diabetes predispose offspring to developing obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in adulthood through developmental programming. Human epidemiological studies, although vital in identifying associations, are often unable to address causality and mechanistic studies can be limited by the lack of accessibility of key metabolic tissues. Furthermore, multi‐generational studies take many years to complete. Integration of findings from human studies with those from animal models has therefore been critical in moving forward this field that has been termed the ‘Developmental Origins of Health and Disease’. This review summarises the evidence from animal models and highlights how animal models provide valuable insight into the maternal factors responsible for developmental programming, potential critical developmental windows, sexual dimorphism, molecular mechanisms and age‐related offspring outcomes throughout life. Moreover, we describe how animal models are vital to explore clinically relevant interventions to prevent adverse offspring outcomes in obese or glucose intolerant pregnancy, such as antioxidant supplementation, exercise and maternal metformin treatment

Robotics to enable older adults to remain living at home

Given the rapidly ageing population, interest is growing in robots to enable older people to remain living at home. We conducted a systematic review and critical evaluation of the scientific literature, from 1990 to the present, on the use of robots in aged care. The key research questions were as follows: (1) what is the range of robotic devices available to enable older people to remain mobile, independent, and safe? and, (2) what is the evidence demonstrating that robotic devices are effective in enabling independent living in community dwelling older people? Following database searches for relevant literature an initial yield of 161 articles was obtained. Titles and abstracts of articles were then reviewed by 2 independent people to determine suitability for inclusion. Forty-two articles met the criteria for question 1. Of these, 4 articles met the criteria for question 2. Results showed that robotics is currently available to assist older healthy people and people with disabilities to remain independent and to monitor their safety and social connectedness. Most studies were conducted in laboratories and hospital clinics. Currently limited evidence demonstrates that robots can be used to enable people to remain living at home, although this is an emerging smart technology that is rapidly evolving.<br /

Constraint and Strategic Choice in Deanship Succession in Graduate Social Work Schools.

This thesis focuses on deanship succession in graduate social work schools from both a contemporary and historical perspective. The theoretical framework of analysis is that of political economy applied to the analysis of macro historical trends in social work education and to the micro decision environment of the search committee in a social work school at the time of a succession. The nature of constraint and strategic choice in succession decisions is explored against the backdrop of the 50 year evolution of social work education in the United States by an analysis of the origins and destinations of the deans of graduate schools of social work from 1898-1978. Specific exemplar cases from five time frames within this period are presented by way of illustration. The nature of constraint and strategic choice in contemporary succession decisions is analyzed by the exploration of four cases of succession occurring in the decade of the 1970's in four institutionally dissimilar social work schools. This analysis explores contemporary environmental and organizational level factors that impact on succession decisions and examines the character of the micro decision environment of the search committee. The environmental niche in which the social work educational enterprise finds itself in any period of history, and the particular institutional environment and resources of the individual school represent the specific context of constraint and opportunity in succession decisions. The effective reading of environment and institutional circumstance by a search committee will determine the efficacy and effectiveness of their search decisions.Ph.D.Social workUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160577/1/8512482.pd