Food allergies in pregnant women: a study of prevalence in expecting mothers and association with neonatal outcomes

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityIntroduction: Food allergies, the second most common form of allergic disorders in Western countries, have been on the rise in the US over the past few decades especially in young children. As the exact causes of food sensitizations are still unknown, much research has been dedicated to solving the mystery of how and why individuals develop food allergies in the first place. However, very few studies have focused solely on the prevalence of food allergies in the adult population. Furthermore, the prevalence of food allergies in expecting mothers and their potential impact on mother-baby health outcomes have barely been investigated. As such, this retrospective chart review study aimed at comparing the prevalence of food allergies in pregnant women to that of the adult US population and investigated the potential effects of maternal food allergies on perinatal maternal outcomes and infant health. Methods: A total of 595 maternal charts and 614 infant charts were reviewed for expecting mothers age 18 to 49 years old who gave birth at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, NC, between November 15, 2011 and November 15, 2012. Mothers’ data collected included basic demographic information, presence and nature of food allergies, and if applicable, occurrence and length of High Risk Antepartum visits. In addition to basic infant demographic information, the infant health outcomes collected were, when applicable: gestational age at birth, birth weight, 1 and 5 minute APGAR scores, NICU admissions and length of stay, as well as infant death. All statistical tests were two-tailed and p values < 0.05 were considered significant. Results: Food allergies were documented in 5.6% (N = 22) of the mothers, which was not significantly different from the national average reported by the FDA (Vierk et al., 2007). The most commonly reported allergy in the study’s pregnant women sample was seafood (42.2%), and the least common maternal food hypersensitivity disorder in the sample was egg allergy (2.2%). No significant relationship was found between the presence of maternal food allergies and maternal or infant health outcomes. Conclusion: Our study found that the proportion of pregnant women with food allergies was consistent with the FDA-reported percentage of US adult population affected by food allergies. Furthermore, we were unable to establish significant relationships between the presence of maternal food allergies and mother-baby health outcomes

How does the LULUCF Regulation affect EU Member States’ forest management? IES Policy Brief No. 11

• The new EU land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) Regulation takes a novel approach to emissions accounting, giving EU Member States discretion in sustainable forest management. • The Forest Reference Levels (FRLs) in the National Forestry Accounting Plans required by the Regulation need to be in line with other requirements of the Regulation, including the critical requirement to maintain or strengthen longterm carbon sinks. • The FRL does not constrain national sustainable forest management in qualitative or quantitative terms but ensures that the climate impacts of the decisions made are accounted for in a transparent and reliable manner. • The Regulation’s environmental integrity is tied to the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals and ambition mechanism, making the Regulation a dynamic forward-looking instrument that is open for review, and revision

The d-Smith sets of Cartesian products of the alternating groups and finite elementary abelian 2-groups

Let G be a finite group. In 1970s, T. Petrie defined the Smith equivalence of real G-modules. The Smith set of G is the subset of the real representation ring consisting of elements obtained as differences of Smith equivalent real G-modules. Various results of the topic have been obtained. The d-Smith set of G is the set of all elements [V ]−[W] in the Smith set of G such that the H-fixed point sets of V and W have the same dimension for all subgroups H of G. The results of the Smith sets of the alternating groups and the symmetric groups are obtained by E. Laitinen, K. Pawa lowski and R. Solomon. In this paper, we give the calculation results of the d-Smith sets of the alternating groups and the symmetric groups. In addition, we give the calculation results of the d-Smith sets of Cartesian products of the alternating groups and finite elementary abelian 2-groups

Govtran Policy Brief: How does the LULUCF Regulation affect EU Member States’ forest management? Institute for European Studies Issue 2019/03

• The new EU land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) Regulation takes a novel approach to emissions accounting, giving EU Member States discretion in sustainable forest management. • The Forest Reference Levels (FRLs) in the National Forestry Accounting Plans required by the Regulation need to be in line with other requirements of the Regulation, including the critical requirement to maintain or strengthen long-term carbon sinks. • The FRL does not constrain national sustainable forest management in qualitative or quantitative terms but ensures that the climate impacts of the decisions made are accounted for in a transparent and reliable manner. • The Regulation’s environmental integrity is tied to the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals and ambition mechanism, making the Regulation a dynamic forward-looking instrument that is open for review, and revision

My Lazy Laboratory

In this text, Sophie Seita writes about knowing as an experimental practice that is situated and relational and how knowledge, understood in this way, is configured by responsibility and interdependence. This essay is part of a special issue on interdependence and care, edited by Yates Norton, for Rupert's online journal