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can help define specific strategies to achieve environmentally friendly industrial development.

Metal(loid)s have been associated to adverse birth outcomes in experimental and epidemiological studies, but the underlying mechanism(s) are not well understood. Endocrine disruption may be a mechanism by which the metal(loid)s impact birth outcomes.

Pregnant women were recruited through the Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT). Urine, blood, demographic and pregnancy-related data were collected at recruitment and subsequent visits. Sixteen metal(loid)s were analyzed in urine and blood samples, while nine maternal hormones (corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG), estriol (E3), progesterone, testosterone, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), total triiodothyronine (T3), total thyroxine (T4), and free thyroxine (fT4)) were measured in serum samples from 815 singleton pregnancies. Linear mixed models with random intercepts were used to examine associations between metal(loid)s in blood and urine with hormone concentrations.

Arsenic blood conceidemiological research and future studies are needed to further investigate these associations.

Our analysis suggests that metal(loid)s may act as endocrine disruptors by altering prenatal hormone levels. This disruption may depend on specific windows of exposure during pregnancy. Additionally, some essential metal(loid)s such as managense and cobalt may be contributors to adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. The study of metal(loid)s as endocrine disruptors is in the early stages of epidemiological research and future studies are needed to further investigate these associations.

Social participation can have a positive impact on health; however, physical challenges can be hindrances. During a preventive home visit a health professional (visitor) assesses different aspects of physical, mental and social health. However, there might be a challenge for the visitor to discover the interrelationship between physical factors that hinder social participation. Therefore, the aim of this study was, in the context of preventive home visits, to identify physical factors which can hinder older persons from taking part in social contexts.

Cross-sectional register data from preventive home visits to older persons (n=1245, ≥77 years old, without home care) was used. Data was collected during a period of 17 months, in seven Swedish municipalities. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association between physical factors and the item physical problems hindering social participation.

The mean age was 78.8 (standard deviation 1.8 years), and 55% were women. The physical factors significanton both an individual and a societal level might reduce inequalities among older persons.

Infants develop many complex visual competences within the first 12months of life. Premature infants are at high risk for abnormal visual and neurological development. Clinical medical history or neurologic evaluation do not give enough information on visual maturation in infants under 12months of age.

To compare visual maturation between preterm and full-term infants aged under 12months, using the Preverbal Visual Assessment questionnaire (PreViAs).

Retrospective cross-sectional analysis.

Infants aged under 12months, who visited our rehabilitation department for early intervention. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/GSK461364.html Infants were categorized as either preterm or full-term, and assigned to one of three subgroups (0-4months, 4-8months, 8-12months) according to corrected or chronological age.

PreViAs scores.

There were 200 preterm and 225 full-term infants analyzed. The mean global PreViAs scores among preterm infants were significantly lower than among full-term infants in all age groups (0-4months p=0.033, 4-8months p=0.005, and 8-12months p=0.008). The mean global scores and four subdomain scores of the PreViAs were significantly lower (p<0.001) in very preterm (under 32-weeks gestational age) and very low birth weight (under 1500g birth weight) than in moderate-to-late preterm infants (between 32- to 37- weeks gestational age) and infants with birth weight above 1500g. Patent ductus arteriosus, retinopathy of prematurity, and birth weight (percent) showed significant correlation with PreViAs global scores.

PreViAs is a useful tool for visual assessment of infants under 12months, especially in high-risk infants.

PreViAs is a useful tool for visual assessment of infants under 12 months, especially in high-risk infants.Hyperacusis is defined as an increased sensitivity to sounds, i.e. sounds presented at moderate levels can produce discomfort or even pain. Existing diagnostic methods, like the Hyperacusis Questionnaire (HQ) and Loudness Discomfort Levels (LDLs), have been challenged because of their variability and lack of agreement on appropriate cut-off values. We propose a novel approach by using psychoacoustic ratings of natural sounds as an assessment tool for hyperacusis. Subjects (n = 81) were presented with natural and artificial (tone pips, noises) sounds (n = 69) in a controlled environment at four sound levels (60, 70, 80 and 90 dB SPL). The task was to rate them on a pleasant to unpleasant visual analog scale. The inherent challenge of this study was to create a new diagnostic tool when no gold standard of hyperacusis diagnosis exists. We labeled our subjects as hyperacusic (n = 26) when they were diagnosed as such by at least two of three methods (HQ, LDLs and self-report). There was a significant difference between controls (n = 23) and hyperacusics in the median global rating of pleasant sounds. Median global ratings of unpleasant sounds and artificial sounds did not differ significantly. Then we selected the subset of sounds that could best discriminate the controls from the hyperacusics, the Core Discriminant Sounds (CDS), and we used them to develop a new metric The CDS score. A normalized global score and a score for each sound level can be computed with respect to a control population without hyperacusis. A receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the accuracy of our method in distinguishing subjects with and without complaints of hyperacusis (86%, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 76-93%) is comparable to that of existing methods such as the LDL (77%, CI 67-86%) and the HQ (80%, CI 69-88%). We believe that the CDS score is more relevant to subject's complaints than LDLs and that it could be applied in a clinical environment in a fast and effective way, while minimizing discomfort and biases.