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Background
Nicotine consumption during pregnancy and advanced maternal age are well known independent risk factors for poor pregnancy outcome and therefore serious public health problems.
Objectives
Considering the ongoing trend of delaying childbirth in our society, this study investigates potential additive effects of nicotine consumption during pregnancy and advanced maternal age on foetal growth.
Sample and Methods
In a medical record-based study, we analysed the impact of maternal age and smoking behaviour before and during pregnancy on newborn size among 4142 singleton births that took place in Vienna, Austria between 1990 and 1995.
Results
Birth weight (H=82.176, p<0.001), birth length (H=91.525, p<0.001) and head circumference (H=42.097, p<0.001) differed significantly according to maternal smoking behaviour. For birth weight, the adjusted mean differences between smokers and non-smokers increased from 101.8g for the < 18-year-old mothers to 254.8g for >35 year olds, with the respective values for birth length being 0.6 cm to 0.7cm, for head circumference from 0.3 cm to 0.6 cm.
Conclusion
Increasing maternal age amplified the negative effects of smoking during pregnancy on newborn parameters. Our findings identify older smoking mothers as a high-risk group which should be of special interest for public health systems.
Background
Over the last 20 years, a decreasing trend in external skeletal robusticity and an increasing trend in overweight and obesity was observed worldwide in adults and children as modern lifestyles in nutritional and activity behavior have changed. However, body mass index (BMI) as a measure for overweight is not an ideal predictor of % body fat (%BF) either in children and adolescents or in adults. On the contrary, it disguises a phenomenon called “hidden obesity”.
Objectives
We aim to approximate %BF by combining skeletal robusticity and BMI and develop an estimation-based tool to identify normal weight obese children and adolescents.
Sample and Methods
We analyzed cross-sectional data on height, weight, elbow breadth, and skinfold thickness (triceps and subscapular) of German children aged 6 to 18 years (N=15,034). We used modified Hattori charts and multiple linear regression to develop a tool, the “%BF estimator”, to estimate %BF by using BMI and skeletal robusticity measured as Frame Index.
Results
Independent of sex and age an increase in BMI is associated with an increase in %BF, an increase in Frame Index is associated with a decrease in %BF. The developed tool “%BF estimator” allows the estimation of %BF per sex and age group after calculation of BMI and Frame Index.
Conclusion
The “%BF estimator” is an easily applicable tool for the estimation of %BF in respect of body composition for clinical practice, screening, and public health research. It is non-invasive and has high accuracy. Further, it allows the identification of normal weight obese children and adolescents.
Focus on English Linguistics
(2021)
Groundwater arsenic contamination in the Bengal Delta Plain is an important public health issue
(2021)
There is a close association between human biology, epidemiology and public health. Exposure to toxic elements is one area of such associations and global concerns. The Bengal Delta Plain (BDP) is a region where contamination of ground water by arsenic has assumed epidemic proportions. Apart from dermatological manifestations, chronic exposure to arsenic causes a heavy toll through several carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic disorders. This article provides a global overview of groundwater arsenic contamination in the BDP region, especially the sources, speciation, and mobility of arsenic, and critically reviews the effects of arsenic on human health. The present review also provides a summary of comprehensive knowledge on various measures required for mitigation and social consequences of the problem of arsenic contaminated groundwater in the BDP region.
Twenty-three scientists met at Krobielowice, Poland to discuss the role of growth, nutrition and economy on body size. Contrasting prevailing concepts, re-analyses of studies in Indonesian and Guatemalan school children with high prevalence of stunting failed to provide evidence for an association between nutritional status and body height. Direct effects of parental education on growth that were not transmitted via nutrition were shown in Indian datasets using network analysis and novel statistical methods (St. Nicolas House Analysis) that translate correlation matrices into network graphs. Data on Polish children suggest significant impact of socioeconomic sensitivity on child growth, with no effect of maternal money satisfaction. Height and maturation tempo affect the position of a child among its peers. Correlations also exist between mood disorders and height. Secular changes in height and weight varied across decades independent of population size. Historic and recent Russian data showed that height of persons whose fathers performed manual work were on average four cm shorter than persons whose fathers were high-degree specialists. Body height, menarcheal age, and body proportions are sensitive to socioeconomic variables. Additional topics included delayed motherhood and its associations with newborn size; geographic and socioeconomic indicators related to low birth weight, prematurity and stillbirth rate; data on anthropometric history of Brazil, 1850-1950; the impact of central nervous system stimulants on the growth of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; and pituitary development and growth hormone secretion. Final discussions debated on reverse causality interfering between social position, and adolescent growth and developmental tempo.
The field of American Jewish studies has recently trained its focus on the transnational dimensions of its subject, reflecting in more sustained ways than before about the theories and methods of this approach. Yet, much of the insight to be gained from seeing American Jewry as constitutively entangled in many ways with other Jewries has not yet been realized. Transnational American Jewish studies are still in their infancy.
This issue of PaRDeS presents current research on the multiple entanglements of American with Central European, especially German-speaking Jewries in the 19th and 20th centuries. The articles reflect the wide range of topics that can benefit from a transnational understanding of the American Jewish experience as shaped by its foreign entanglements.
Portal Wissen = Change
(2021)
Change makes everything different. Let’s be honest: Just about everything is constantly in transformation. Even huge massifs that seem like eternity turned to stone will eventually dissolve into dust. So is change itself the only constant? The Greek philosopher Heraclitus certainly thought so. He said, “The only thing that is constant is change.”
Change is frightening. A change that we cannot explain throws us into turmoil – like a magic trick we cannot decipher. Viruses that mutate, ecosystems that collapse, stars that perish – they all seem to threaten the fragile balance that makes our existence possible. Humanity is late in recognizing that we ourselves are all too often the impetus for dangerous transformations.
Change gives hope. People have always been fascinated by change and felt compelled to explore its origin and essence. Quite successfully. We understand many things much better than generations before. But well enough? Not at all. Alexander von Humboldt said, “Every law of nature that reveals itself to the observer suggests a higher, as yet unrecognized one.” There is still much to be done.
The current issue of Portal Wissen is all about change. We spoke to an astrophysicist who has found her happiness in researching the formation and change of stars. We also look at different aspects of the very earthly climate change and its consequences: A geoscientist explains how global warming affects the stability of mountain ranges.
A legal expert makes clear that the call for a right to climate protection has gone largely unheard until now. How human land use affects biodiversity is being investigated by young researchers of the “Bio- Move” research training group, who have provided us with insights into their work on brown hares, water fleas, and mallard ducks. Other researchers focus on change in the contexts of humans. A group of nutrition scientists at the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) and sports scientists at the University of Potsdam are investigating the factors that cause our bodies to change as we age – and why some people lose muscles more quickly than others.
Despite all these changes, we do not lose sight of the diversity of research at the University of Potsdam. A visit to the laboratory of the project “OptiZeD” gives us an idea of the possibilities offered by optical sensors for the personalized medicine of tomorrow, while an educational researcher explains why cultural diversity is an asset beneficial to our education. In addition, a cultural scientist reports on the fascination of comics. They are all part of the hopeful change that science is initiating and accomplishing! Enjoy the read!
Portal Wissen = Departure
(2021)
On October 20, 1911, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen left the safe base camp “Framheim” at the Bay of Whales together with four other explorers and 52 sledge dogs to be the first person to reach the South Pole. Ahead of them lay the perpetual ice at temperatures of 20 to 30 degrees Celsius below zero and a distance of 1,400 kilometers. After eight weeks, the group reached its destination on December 13. The men planted the Norwegian flag in the lonely snow and shortly afterwards set off to make their way back – celebrated, honored as conquerors of the South Pole and laden with information and knowledge from the world of Antarctica. The voyage of Amundsen and his companions is undoubtedly so extraordinary because the five proved that it was possible and were the first to succeed. It is, however, also a symbol of what enables humans to push the boundaries of their world: the urge to set out into the unknown, to discover what has not yet been found, explored, and described.
What distinguishes science - even before each discovery and new knowledge – is the element of departure. Questioning apparent certainties, taking a critical look at outdated knowledge, and breaking down encrusted thought patterns is the starting point of exploratory curiosity. And to set out from there for new knowledge is the essence of scientific activities – neither protected nor supported by the reliable and known. Probing, trying, courageously questioning, and sensing that the solid ground, which still lies hidden, can only be reached again in this way. “Research is always a departure for new shoreless waters,” said chemist Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Quadbeck-Seeger. Leaving behind the safe harbor, trusting that new shores are waiting and can be reached is the impetus that makes science so important and valuable.
For the current issue of the University of Potsdam’s research magazine, we looked over the shoulders of some researchers as they set out on new research journeys – whether in the lab, in the library, in space, or in the mind. Astrophysicist Lidia Oskinova, for example, uses the Hubble telescope to search for particularly massive stars, while hydrologist Thorsten Wagener is trying to better understand the paths of water on Earth. Economists and social scientists such as Elmar Kriegler and Maik Heinemann are researching in different projects what politics can do to achieve a turnaround in climate policy and stop climate change.
Time and again, however, such departures are themselves the focus of research: And a group of biologists and environmental scientists is investigating how nature revives forest fire areas and how the newly emerging forests can become more resilient to future fires.
Since – as has already been said – a departure is inherent in every research question, this time the entire issue of “Portal Wissen” is actually devoted to the cover topic. And so we invite you to set out with Romance linguist Annette Gerstenberg to research language in old age, with immunologist Katja Hanack to develop a quick and safe SARS-CoV-2 test, and with the team of the Potsdam Center for Industry 4.0 to the virtual factory of tomorrow. And we will show you how evidence- based economic research can inform and advise politicians, and how a warning system is intended to prevent future accidents involving cyclists.
So, what are you waiting for?!
Settings Perspective
(2021)