Dietary intakes of women with Type 1 diabetes before and during pregnancy: A pre‐specified secondary subgroup analysis among CONCEPTT participants

Aim To describe the dietary intakes of women with Type 1 diabetes before and during pregnancy. Methods This was a pre‐specified subgroup analysis of CONCEPTT involving 63 women planning pregnancy and 93 pregnant women from 14 sites in England, Scotland and Ireland. Two hundred and forty‐six 3‐day food diaries (104 planning pregnancy, 142 pregnant) were matched to data source and food reference codes, and analysed using dietary software. Participants were informed that food diaries would be de‐identified and used only for research purposes. Results Mean (sd) daily energy intake was 1588 (346) kcal and 1673 (384) kcal in women planning pregnancy and pregnant women respectively. Total carbohydrate intake was consistent with dietary guideline recommendations [180 (52) g planning pregnancy, 198 (54) g pregnant], but non‐recommended sources (e.g. sugars, preserves, confectionery, biscuits, cakes) contributed to 46% of total daily carbohydrate intake. Fat consumption exceeded guideline recommendations [70 (21) g planning pregnancy, 72 (21) g pregnant]. Fibre [15.5 (5.3) g planning pregnancy, 15.4 (5.1) g pregnant], fruit and vegetable intakes [3.5 (2.2) and 3.1 (1.8) serves/day] were inadequate. Twelve women planning pregnancy (19%) and 24 pregnant women (26%) did not meet micronutrient requirements. Conclusions The diets of pregnant women from England, Scotland and Ireland are characterized by high fat, low fibre and poor‐quality carbohydrate intakes. Fruit and vegetable consumption is inadequate, with one in four women at risk of micronutrient deficiencies. Further research is needed to optimize maternal nutrition for glycaemic control and for maternal and offspring health

Instantaneous neural processing of communicative functions conveyed by speech prosody

During conversations, speech prosody provides important clues about the speaker’s communicative intentions. In many languages, a rising vocal pitch at the end of a sentence typically expresses a question function, whereas a falling pitch suggests a statement. Here, the neurophysiological basis of intonation and speech act understanding were investigated with high-density electroencephalography (EEG) to determine whether prosodic features are reflected at the neurophysiological level. Already approximately 100 ms after the sentence-final word differing in prosody, questions, and statements expressed with the same sentences led to different neurophysiological activity recorded in the event-related potential. Interestingly, low-pass filtered sentences and acoustically matched nonvocal musical signals failed to show any neurophysiological dissociations, thus suggesting that the physical intonation alone cannot explain this modulation. Our results show rapid neurophysiological indexes of prosodic communicative information processing that emerge only when pragmatic and lexico-semantic information are fully expressed. The early enhancement of question-related activity compared with statements was due to sources in the articulatory-motor region, which may reflect the richer action knowledge immanent to questions, namely the expectation of the partner action of answering the question. The present findings demonstrate a neurophysiological correlate of prosodic communicative information processing, which enables humans to rapidly detect and understand speaker intentions in linguistic interactions

Supplementing food for health: Practices amongst French adults aged 60 to 75 years

The use of food supplements continues to grow in France, even though it is being discouraged by the main health and medical authorities. The ambiguous definitions surrounding these products make it difficult to measure their consumption. Using a qualitative survey based on interviews (n = 31) of consumers aged 60 to 75 years, this paper explores the ways in which this consumption is increasing. It traces the adoption of food supplementation in this age group back to life-course events, relating to health in particular. Using the practice theory, three forms of supplementation are identified according to the norms, products, sources of medical prescription and purposes at play. The first form is dependent on orthodox medical prescription having been taken; the supplements are prescribed by a doctor and considered by the consumer to be almost like medicinal products. The second form is linked to heterodox 'natural' therapies; products are most often based on plants and considered to be traditional remedies. The third form is related to a heterodox micronutritional approach, claiming to be scientifically advanced; products are identified as food supplements, and their consumption reflected a strategy of prevention, or even health optimisation in ageing. The affinities between these supplementation forms and the individuals' social characteristics are discussed. Results suggest that common consumer categories should be better integrated in the measurement of food supplement consumption

On the use of haptic tablets for UGV teleoperation in unstructured environments: system design and evaluation

Teleoperation of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs), particularly for inspection of unstructured and unfamiliar environments still raises important challenges from the point of view of the operator interface. One of these challenges is caused by the fact that all information available to the operator is presented to the operator through a computer interface, providing only a partial view of the robot situation. The majority of existing interfaces provide information using visual, and, less frequently, sound channels. The lack of Situation Awareness (SA), caused by this partial view, may lead to an incorrect and inefficient response to the current UGV state, usually confusing and frustrating the human operator. For instance, the UGV may become stuck in debris while the operator struggles to move the robot, not understanding the cause of the UGV lack of motion. We address this problem by studying the use of haptic feedback to improve operator SA. More precisely, improving SA with respect to the traction state of the UGV, using a haptic tablet for both commanding the robot and conveying traction state to the user by haptic feedback. We report (1) a teleoperating interface, integrating a haptic tablet with an existing UGV teleoperation interface, and (2) the experimental results of a user study designed to evaluate the advantage of this interface in the teleoperation of a UGV, in a search and rescue scenario. Statistically significant results were found supporting the hypothesis that using the haptic tablet elicits a reduction in the time that the UGV spends in states without traction.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Identification of novel off targets of baricitinib and tofacitinib by machine learning with a focus on thrombosis and viral infection

As there are no clear on-target mechanisms that explain the increased risk for thrombosis and viral infection or reactivation associated with JAK inhibitors, the observed elevated risk may be a result of an off-target effect. Computational approaches combined with in vitro studies can be used to predict and validate the potential for an approved drug to interact with additional (often unwanted) targets and identify potential safety-related concerns. Potential off-targets of the JAK inhibitors baricitinib and tofacitinib were identified using two established machine learning approaches based on ligand similarity. The identified targets related to thrombosis or viral infection/reactivation were subsequently validated using in vitro assays. Inhibitory activity was identified for four drug-target pairs (PDE10A [baricitinib], TRPM6 [tofacitinib], PKN2 [baricitinib, tofacitinib]). Previously unknown off-target interactions of the two JAK inhibitors were identified. As the proposed pharmacological effects of these interactions include attenuation of pulmonary vascular remodeling, modulation of HCV response, and hypomagnesemia, the newly identified off-target interactions cannot explain an increased risk of thrombosis or viral infection/reactivation. While further evidence is required to explain both the elevated thrombosis and viral infection/reactivation risk, our results add to the evidence that these JAK inhibitors are promiscuous binders and highlight the potential for repurposing.</p

Neurophysiological evidence for rapid processing of verbal and gestural information in understanding communicative actions

During everyday social interaction, gestures are a fundamental part of human communication. The communicative pragmatic role of hand gestures and their interaction with spoken language has been documented at the earliest stage of language development, in which two types of indexical gestures are most prominent: the pointing gesture for directing attention to objects and the give-me gesture for making requests. Here we study, in adult human participants, the neurophysiological signatures of gestural-linguistic acts of communicating the pragmatic intentions of naming and requesting by simultaneously presenting written words and gestures. Already at ~150 ms, brain responses diverged between naming and request actions expressed by word-gesture combination, whereas the same gestures presented in isolation elicited their earliest neurophysiological dissociations significantly later (at ~210 ms). There was an early enhancement of request-evoked brain activity as compared with naming, which was due to sources in the frontocentral cortex, consistent with access to action knowledge in request understanding. In addition, an enhanced N400-like response indicated late semantic integration of gesture-language interaction. The present study demonstrates that word-gesture combinations used to express communicative pragmatic intentions speed up the brain correlates of comprehension processes – compared with gesture-only understanding – thereby calling into question current serial linguistic models viewing pragmatic function decoding at the end of a language comprehension cascade. Instead, information about the social-interactive role of communicative acts is processed instantaneously

CONCEPTT: Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Women with Type 1 Diabetes in Pregnancy Trial: A multi-center, multi-national, randomized controlled trial - Study protocol.

BACKGROUND: Women with type 1 diabetes strive for optimal glycemic control before and during pregnancy to avoid adverse obstetric and perinatal outcomes. For most women, optimal glycemic control is challenging to achieve and maintain. The aim of this study is to determine whether the use of real-time continuous glucose monitoring (RT-CGM) will improve glycemic control in women with type 1 diabetes who are pregnant or planning pregnancy. METHODS/DESIGN: A multi-center, open label, randomized, controlled trial of women with type 1 diabetes who are either planning pregnancy with an HbA1c of 7.0 % to ≤10.0 % (53 to ≤ 86 mmol/mol) or are in early pregnancy (<13 weeks 6 days) with an HbA1c of 6.5 % to ≤10.0 % (48 to ≤ 86 mmol/mol). Participants will be randomized to either RT-CGM alongside conventional intermittent home glucose monitoring (HGM), or HGM alone. Eligible women will wear a CGM which does not display the glucose result for 6 days during the run-in phase. To be eligible for randomization, a minimum of 4 HGM measurements per day and a minimum of 96 hours total with 24 hours overnight (11 pm-7 am) of CGM glucose values are required. Those meeting these criteria are randomized to RT- CGM or HGM. A total of 324 women will be recruited (110 planning pregnancy, 214 pregnant). This takes into account 15 and 20 % attrition rates for the planning pregnancy and pregnant cohorts and will detect a clinically relevant 0.5 % difference between groups at 90 % power with 5 % significance. Randomization will stratify for type of insulin treatment (pump or multiple daily injections) and baseline HbA1c. Analyses will be performed according to intention to treat. The primary outcome is the change in glycemic control as measured by HbA1c from baseline to 24 weeks or conception in women planning pregnancy, and from baseline to 34 weeks gestation during pregnancy. Secondary outcomes include maternal hypoglycemia, CGM time in, above and below target (3.5-7.8 mmol/l), glucose variability measures, maternal and neonatal outcomes. DISCUSSION: This will be the first international multicenter randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of RT- CGM before and during pregnancy in women with type 1 diabetes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01788527 Registration Date: December 19, 2012

The effects of the initial mass function on Galactic chemical enrichment

Context. We have been seeing mounting evidence that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) might extend far beyond the canonical Mi ∼ 100 M⊙ limit, but the impact of such a hypothesis on the chemical enrichment of galaxies is yet to be clarified. Aims. We aim to address this question by analysing the observed abundances of thin- and thick-disc stars in the Milky Way with chemical evolution models that account for the contribution of very massive stars dying as pair instability supernovae. Methods. We built new sets of chemical yields from massive and very massive stars up to Mi ∼ 350 M⊙ by combining the wind ejecta extracted from our hydrostatic stellar evolution models with explosion ejecta from the literature. Using a simple chemical evolution code, we analysed the effects of adopting different yield tables by comparing predictions against observations of stars in the solar vicinity. Results. After several tests, we set our focus on the [O/Fe] ratio that best separates the chemical patterns of the two Milky Way components. We find that with a standard IMF, truncated at Mi ∼ 100 M⊙, we can reproduce various observational constraints for thin-disc stars; however, the same IMF fails to account for the [O/Fe] ratios of thick-disc stars. The best results are obtained by extending the IMF up to Mi = 350 M⊙, while including the chemical ejecta of very massive stars in the form of winds and pair instability supernova (PISN) explosions. Conclusions. Our study indicates that PISN may have played a significant role in shaping the chemical evolution of the thick disc of the Milky Way. Including their chemical yields makes it easier to reproduce not only the level of the α-enhancement, but also the observed slope of thick-disc stars in the [O/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] diagram. The bottom line is that the contribution of very massive stars to the chemical enrichment of galaxies is potentially quite important and should not be neglected in models of chemical evolution