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Objective: To examine the prospective association of television (TV) watching from adolescence to young adulthood with BMI, waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and obesity.Design: A community-based longitudinal cohort study.Setting: Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) Cohort, Brisbane, Australia.Subjects: A sub-sample of 2439 children was followed up at ages 14 years and 21 years as part of a population-based birth cohort. Offspring reported the number of TV viewing hours each day at 14 and 21 years. BMI, WC and WHR were measured at 21 years.Results: In the adjusted model, offspring who watched TV for <3 h/d at 14 years but for ≥ 3 h/d at 21 years, or who watched TV for ≥ 3 h/d at 14 and 21 years, had greater BMI, WC and WHR at 21 years. Offspring who watched TV for ≥ 3 h/d at 14 years but for <3 h/d at 21 years had similar mean BMI, WC and WHR at 21 years to those who watched TV for <3 h/d at 14 and 21 years. Those offspring who reduced their TV watching hours to <3 h/d during the transition from adolescence into young adulthood were at less risk of becoming obese and those who continued or increased their TV watching to ≥ 3 h/d were at greater risk of becoming obese. This association remained independent of the potential confounding factors considered.Conclusions: The present findings suggest that our efforts to decrease obesity by reducing TV watching hours among adults should consider interventions to reduce TV time among adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE:: To describe different patterns of overweight status between ages 5 and 14?y and examine the role of modifiable family and early life characteristics in explaining different patterns of change between these two ages. DESIGN:: A population-based prospective birth cohort. SUBJECTS:: A total of 2934 children (52%males) who were participants in the Mater-University study of pregnancy, Brisbane, and who were examined at ages 5 and 14?y. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:: Four patterns of change in overweight/obesity status between ages 5 and 14?y: (i) normal at both ages; (ii) normal at 5?y and overweight/obese at 14?y; (iii) overweight/obese at 5?y and normal at 14?y; (iv) overweight/obese at both ages. RESULTS:: Of the 2934 participants, 2018 (68.8%) had a normal body mass index (BMI) at ages 5 and 14?y, 425 (14.5%) changed from a normal BMI at age 5?y to overweight or obese at age 14?y, 175 (6.0%) changed from being overweight or obese at age 5?y to normal weight at age 14?y and 316 (10.8%) were overweight or obese at both ages 5 and 14?y. Girls were more likely to make the transition from overweight or obese at age 5?y to normal at 14?y than their boy counterparts. Children whose parents were overweight or obese were more likely to change from having a normal BMI at age 5?y to being overweight at 14?y (fully adjusted RR: 6.17 (95%CI: 3.97, 9.59)) and were more likely to be overweight at both ages (7.44 (95%CI: 4.60, 12.02)). Birth weight and increase in weight over the first 6 months of life were both positively associated with being overweight at both ages. Other explanatory factors were not associated with the different overweight status transitions. CONCLUSIONS:: Parental overweight status is an important determinant of whether a child is overweight at either stage or changes from being not overweight at 5?y to becoming so at 14?y.International Journal of Obesity (2005) 29, 475-482. doi:10.1038/sj.ijo.0802922 Published online 8 March 2005 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To determine the outcome of preterm infants born to mothers with hypertension during pregnancy, and preterm controls.Methods: 107 infants of 24-32 weeks gestation, born to hypertensive mothers, and 107 controls matched for gestational age, sex, and multiple pregnancy, born to normotensive mothers, were prospectively enrolled over 2 years. Information on maternal complications and medication was obtained and neonatal mortality and morbidities recorded. Survivors were followed up to at least 2 years, corrected for prematurity.Results: One third of the hypertensive mothers were treated with antihypertensive drugs, while 18% received convulsion prophylaxis with phenytoin. Magnesium sulphate was not prescribed. Both groups had a mean gestational age of 29.9 weeks, with the study infants having a significantly lower birthweight than the controls. Four study and three control infants died in the neonatal period. Cerebral palsy was not diagnosed in any infant of a hypertensive mother compared with five of the controls. The mean general quotient for the two groups was very similar and no difference in the incidence of minor neuromotor developmental problems was shown.Conclusions: Maternal hypertension seems to protect against cerebral palsy in preterm infants without increasing the risk of cognitive impairment. This was independent of the use of maternally administered magnesium sulphate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional traits are increasingly being used to predict extinction risks and range shifts under long-term climate change scenarios, but have rarely been used to study vulnerability to extreme climatic events, such as supraseasonal droughts. In streams, drought intensification can cross thresholds of habitat loss, where marginal changes in environmental conditions trigger disproportionate biotic responses. However, these thresholds have been studied only from a structural perspective, and the existence of functional nonlinearity remains unknown. We explored trends in invertebrate community functional traits along a gradient of drought intensity, simulated over 18 months, using mesocosms analogous to lowland headwater streams. We modelled the responses of 16 traits based on a priori predictions of trait filtering by drought, and also examined the responses of trait profile groups (TPGs) identified via hierarchical cluster analysis. As responses to drought intensification were both linear and nonlinear, generalized additive models (GAMs) were chosen to model response curves, with the slopes of fitted splines used to detect functional thresholds during drought. Drought triggered significant responses in 12 (75%) of the a priori-selected traits. Behavioural traits describing movement (dispersal, locomotion) and diet were sensitive to moderate-intensity drought, as channels fragmented into isolated pools. By comparison, morphological and physiological traits showed little response until surface water was lost, at which point we observed sudden shifts in body size, respiration mode and thermal tolerance. Responses varied widely among TPGs, ranging from population collapses of non-aerial dispersers as channels fragmented to irruptions of small, eurythermic dietary generalists upon extreme dewatering. Our study demonstrates for the first time that relatively small changes in drought intensity can trigger disproportionately large functional shifts in stream communities, suggesting that traits-based approaches could be particularly useful for diagnosing catastrophic ecological responses to global change., (© 2018 The Authors. Global Change Biology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Although there is considerable genetic and pathologic evidence for an association between neuregulin 1 (NRG1) dysregulation and schizophrenia, the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms remain unclear. Mutant mice containing disruption of the transmembrane (TM) domain of the NRG1 gene constitute a heuristic model for dysregulation of NRG1-ErbB4 signaling in schizophrenia. The present study focused on hitherto uncharacterized information processing phenotypes in this mutant line. Using a mass spectrometry-based metabolomics approach, we also quantified levels of unique metabolites in brain. Across 2 different sites and protocols, Nrg1 mutants demonstrated deficits in prepulse inhibition, a measure of sensorimotor gating, that is, disrupted in schizophrenia; these deficits were partially reversed by acute treatment with second, but not first-, generation antipsychotic drugs. However, Nrg1 mutants did not show a specific deficit in latent inhibition, a measure of selective attention that is also disrupted in schizophrenia. In contrast, in a "what-where-when" object recognition memory task, Nrg1 mutants displayed sex-specific (males only) disruption of "what-when" performance, indicative of impaired temporal aspects of episodic memory. Differential metabolomic profiling revealed that these behavioral phenotypes were accompanied, most prominently, by alterations in lipid metabolism pathways. This study is the first to associate these novel physiological mechanisms, previously independently identified as being abnormal in schizophrenia, with disruption of NRG1 function. These data suggest novel mechanisms by which compromised neuregulin function from birth might lead to schizophrenia-relevant behavioral changes in adulthood., (© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center.)

Memory allows organisms to forecast the future on the basis of experience, and thus, in some form, is important for the development of flexible adaptive behavior by animal communities. To model memory, we use the concept of hysteresis, which mathematically is described by the Preisach operator. As a case study, we consider anti-predator adaptation in the classic Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model. Despite its simplicity, the model allows us to naturally incorporate essential features of an adaptive system and memory. Our analysis and simulations show that a system with memory can have a continuum of equilibrium states with non-trivial stability properties. The main factor that determines the actual equilibrium state to which a trajectory converges is the maximal number achieved by the population of predator along this trajectory.

Aim: It is unclear whether any breastfeeding or a certain duration of breastfeeding is protective against the development of diabetes in adult offspring., Methods: We followed a sub-sample of 3,595 offspring born in the Mater Hospital in Brisbane, Australia between 1981 and 1983 and for whom we had doctor diagnosed self-reported diabetes at age 21 years and maternal reported duration of breastfeeding at 6-month post-natal follow-up. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine the independent associations of duration of breastfeeding (never breastfeed, breastfed <4 months and breastfed ≥4 months) with offspring diabetes by age 21 years., Results: Of 3,595 young adults, 45 (1.25 %) developed diabetes by age 21 years. The odds ratio of experiencing diabetes was 0.58 (95 % CI 0.29, 1.16) for offspring who were breastfed <4 months, and it was 0.29 (95 % CI 0.13, 0.63), for offspring who were breastfed at least 4 months compared to the never breastfed offspring. Adjusting for potential confounding and mediating factors including maternal age, education, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), smoking, offspring sports, TV and their BMI at 21 years did not substantially alter this association., Conclusions: Findings of this study suggest that infants who are breastfed for longer than 4 months have a substantial protective effect against the development of diabetes in young adulthood, which is independent of current BMI. Promoting breastfeeding for a minimum of 4 months may be a useful strategy for the prevention of diabetes among young adults.

Background: Rapid weight gain in early life may increase the risk of overweight and obesity in adulthood. We investigated the association between the rate of growth during early childhood and the development of overweight and obesity in young adults., Methods: We used a prospective cohort study of 2077 young adults who were born between 1981 and 1984 in Brisbane, Australia and had anthropometry measurements available at birth, 6 months, 5 years, 14 years and 21 years of age. The associations of rate of early growth with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and their categories at 21 years were studied using multivariate analysis., Results: We found that rapid weight gain [> + 0.67 standard deviation score (SDS)] in the first 5 years of life was associated with young adults' overweight status (BMI: adjusted OR = 2.35, 95% CI, 1.82-3.03; WC: adjusted OR = 2.20, 95% CI, 1.65-2.95). We also observed that slow weight gain in the first 5 years of age (< -0.67 SDS) was inversely associated with overweight (BMI: OR = 0.62, 95% CI, 0.45-0.84). Such associations were not found with WHR. Rapid weight gain in the first 6 months of life increased the risk of overweight as defined by BMI (adjusted OR = 1.13, 95% CI, 0.86-1.49) and WC (adjusted OR = 1.24, 95% CI, 0.92-1.67), but these associations were not statistically significant., Conclusion: Rapid weight gain in the first 5 years of life in children increased their risk of a higher BMI and WC in young adulthood, in contrast slow weight gain was inversely associated with weight status at 21 years.

There is evidence that multiple stable equilibrium states are possible in real-life ecological systems. Phenomenological mathematical models which exhibit such properties can be constructed rather straightforwardly. For instance, for a predator-prey system this result can be achieved through the use of non-monotonic functional response for the predator. However, while formal formulation of such a model is not a problem, the biological justification for such functional responses and models is usually inconclusive. In this note, we explore a conjecture that a multitude of equilibrium states can be caused by an adaptation of animal behaviour to changes of environmental conditions. In order to verify this hypothesis, we consider a simple predator-prey model, which is a straightforward extension of the classic Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model. In this model, we made an intuitively transparent assumption that the prey can change a mode of behaviour in response to the pressure of predation, choosing either "safe" of "risky" (or "business as usual") behaviour. In order to avoid a situation where one of the modes gives an absolute advantage, we introduce the concept of the "cost of a policy" into the model. A simple conceptual two-dimensional predator-prey model, which is minimal with this property, and is not relying on odd functional responses, higher dimensionality or behaviour change for the predator, exhibits two stable co-existing equilibrium states with basins of attraction separated by a separatrix of a saddle point., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aim: The aim of the study was to screen very preterm infants for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with comparisons to a group of term controls. The study also aimed to identify maternal and neonatal risk factors, development and behaviour associated with a positive screen in the preterm group., Method: Preterm infants born ≤ 30 weeks gestation and term infants were recruited at two years of age. The mothers were posted the questionnaires and completed the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT), the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS). Previously collected data from the mothers at 12 months--the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scales (EPDS) were analysed. The children had neurodevelopmental assessment including the Bayley-III. Infants positive on M-CHAT screen had an M-CHAT follow-up interview by phone and then were assessed by a developmental paediatrician as indicated with a diagnosis of autism being made on clinical judgement., Results: 13 (13.4%) of the 97 preterm infants screened positive on the M-CHAT compared to three (3.9%) of the 77 term infants (p = 0.036). On follow-up interview, three of the preterm infants remained positive (one was diagnosed with autism) compared to none of the term infants. The preterm infants who screened positive were born to younger, non-Caucasian mothers and were of lower birth weight and had a higher incidence of being small for gestational age (SGA). The infants had lower composite scores on Bayley-III and had more internalising and externalising behaviours on the CBCL. The mothers had more emotional problems on the DASS and higher scores on the EPDS. On multivariate analysis, SGA, greater internalising behaviours and higher EPDS scores remained statistically significant., Conclusions: A positive screen on the M-CHAT occurs more commonly in very preterm infants than those born at term. Internalising behaviours and maternal mental health are associated with a positive screen in the preterm cohort., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Very preterm birth (<32 weeks gestation) is associated with motor, cognitive, behavioural and educational problems in children and maternal depression and withdrawal. Early interventions that target parenting have the greatest potential to create sustained effects on child development and parental psychopathology. Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) has shown positive effects on child behaviour and adjustment, parenting practices and family functioning. Baby Triple P for Preterm infants, has been developed to target parents of very preterm infants. This study tests the effectiveness of Baby Triple P for Preterm infants in improving child and parent/couple outcomes at 24 months corrected age (CA)., Methods/design: Families will be randomised to receive either Baby Triple P for Preterm infants or Care as Usual (CAU). Baby Triple P for Preterm infants involves 4 × 2 hr group sessions at the hospital plus 4 × 30 min telephone consultations soon after transfer (42 weeks C.A.). After discharge participants will be linked to community based Triple P and intervention maintenance up to 24 months C.A. Assessments will be: baseline, post-intervention (6 weeks C.A.), at 12 and 24 months C.A. The primary outcome measure is the Infant Toddler Social & Emotional Assessment (ITSEA) at 24 months C.A. Child behavioural and emotional problems will be coded using the mother-toddler version of the Family Observation Schedule at 24 months C.A. Secondary outcome will be the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID III) cognitive development, language and motor abilities. Proximal targets of parenting style, parental self-efficacy, parental mental health, parental adjustment, parent-infant attachment, couple relationship satisfaction and couple communication will also be assessed. Our sample size based on the ITSEA, has 80% power, predicted effect size of 0.33 and an 85% retention rate, requires 165 families are required in each group (total sample of 330 families)., Discussion: This protocol presents the study design, methods and intervention to be analysed in a randomised trial of Baby Triple P for Preterm infants compared to Care as Usual (CAU) for families of very preterm infants. Publications of all outcomes will be published in peer reviewed journals according to CONSORT guidelines., Trial Registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12612000194864.

Typical ferroelectric Sm-C(*) liquid crystal (FLC) cells exhibit a voltage threshold for switching from one stable state to another despite the FLC's response being inherently continuous and thresholdless (free rotation of the director around the tilt cone). This switching threshold is due to FLC-surface interactions and to the chevron smectic structure commonly formed in cells. It is shown here that the FLC electrostatic energy contribution ∼P(S)(2) responsible for thresholdless switching of high-P(S) FLCs also plays a key role in the bistable switching of lower-P(S) FLCs. Among the consequences are that it can be difficult to lower a cell's threshold below V(TB)∼3.4(B/ɛ(F))(1/2) (B and ɛ(F) are the FLC's elastic and dielectric constants), that a cell's threshold becomes independent of cell thickness once it substantially exceeds the characteristic length ξ(P)=(ɛ(F)B)(1/2)/P(S), and that there are conditions under which alignment layer capacitance can decrease rather than increase the threshold (i.e., transition to thresholdless switching). A model that predicts and explains these behaviors is presented along with threshold measurements of representative FLC cells.

Whether the dopamine Drd-2 receptor is necessary for the behavioural action of antipsychotic drugs is an important question, as Drd-2 antagonism is responsible for their debilitating motor side effects. Using Drd-2 null mice (Drd2 -/-) it has previously been shown that Drd-2 is not necessary for antipsychotic drugs to reverse D-amphetamine disruption of latent inhibition (LI), a behavioural measure of learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli. Weiner's 'two-headed' model indicates that antipsychotics not only reverse LI disruption, 'disrupted LI', but also potentiate LI when low/absent in controls, 'persistent' LI. We investigated whether antipsychotic drugs haloperidol or clozapine potentiated LI in wild-type controls or Drd2 -/-. Both drugs potentiated LI in wild-type but not in Drd2 -/- mice, suggesting moderation of this effect of antipsychotics in the absence of Drd-2. Haloperidol potentiated LI similarly in both Drd1 -/- and wild-type mice, indicating no such moderation in Drd1 -/-. These data suggest that antipsychotic drugs can have either Drd-2 or non-Drd-2 effects on learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli, depending on how the abnormality is produced. Identification of the non-Drd-2 mechanism may help to identify novel non-Drd2 based therapeutic strategies for psychosis., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s) 2014.)

We isolated seven polymorphic microsatellite loci from a ground beetle (Bembidion atrocaeruleum, Coleoptera, Carabidae (Stephens, 1826)) associated with naturally and regularly disturbed floodplain habitat in northwest Europe. Loci were tested on 157 individuals collected from five distinct habitat patches across two adjacent drainage basins in Wales, United Kingdom, to assess their potential for revealing population structure across a relatively short spatial extent. Alleles per locus ranged from 4 to 12. For a central representative population, expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.23 to 0.78 (mean: 0.63), and observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.16 to 0.94 (mean: 0.56). Analysis of molecular variance indicated significant structure among populations, even when one locus potentially containing null alleles was removed. These loci have the potential to aid the study of dispersal mechanisms of this important riparian species along and between river corridors, a recurring question in floodplain conservation studies. In addition, given the diversity of the Bembidion genus, they may have utility in the study of sister species., (© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Entomological Society of America.)

We have investigated the prospective association between excess gestational weight gain (GWG) and development of diabetes by 21 years post-partum using a community-based large prospective cohort study in Brisbane, Australia. There were 3386 mothers for whom complete data were available on GWG, pre-pregnancy BMI and self-reported diabetes 21 years post-partum. We used The Institute of Medicine (IOM) definition to categorize GWG as inadequate, adequate and excessive. We found 839 (25.78%) mothers gained inadequate weight, 1,353 (39.96%) had adequate weight gain and 1,194 (35.26%) had gained excessive weight during pregnancy. At 21 years post-partum, 8.40% of mothers self-reported a diagnosis of diabetes made by their doctor. In the age adjusted model, we found mothers who gained excess weight during pregnancy were 1.47 (1.11,1.94) times more likely to experience diabetes at 21 years post-partum compared to the mothers who gained adequate weight. This association was not explained by the potential confounders including maternal age, parity, education, race, smoking, TV watching and exercise. However, this association was mediated by the current BMI. There was no association for the women who had normal BMI before pregnancy and gained excess weight during pregnancy. The findings of this study suggest that women who gain excess weight during pregnancy are at greater risk of being diagnosed with diabetes in later life. This relationship is likely mediated through the pathway of post-partum weight-retention and obesity. This study adds evidence to the argument that excessive GWG during pregnancy for overweight mothers has long term maternal health implications.

With marital breakdown and discord relatively common, we examined whether family structure and the quality of marital relationship have a long-term impact on offspring's psychopathology in early adulthood. This study aimed to examine the association of family structure and marital discord in the family with a wide range of offspring's mental health and problem behaviours at 21 years. Data were from the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy, a population based birth cohort study, which commenced in Brisbane, Australia in 1981. Mothers and children were followed up at birth, 6 months and 5, 14 and 21 years after the initial interview. Marital status and marital quality were assessed at the 14 year follow-up. Young Adult Self-Report sub-scales of mental health and problem behaviours were measured at the 21-year follow-up. Type of family structure and the quality of marital relationship (at the 14-year follow-up) predicted offspring's psychopathology at 21 years. When a selected group of confounding factors were included in the multivariate analyses, children who lived with a step-father, un-partnered mother, or in families where parents had conflict in marital relationship reported higher symptoms of psychopathology at 21 years. The association between marital problems and young adult psychopathology does not appear to be confounded by a wide range of confounding variables. Further research is needed to explore the mechanism of these associations to develop preventive programmes.

Objective: Early onset of smoking is associated with subsequent abuse of other substances and development of negative health outcomes. This study aimed to examine early life predictors of onset of smoking in an Australian young cohort., Methods: Data were from the Mater Hospital and University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), a population-based prospective birth cohort study (1981-2012). The present study is based on a cohort of 3714 young adults who self-reported smoking status and age of onset of smoking at the 21-year follow-up. Of these, data were available for 3039 on early childhood factors collected between the baseline and 14-year follow-up of the study., Results: Of 3714 young adults, 49.6% (49.9% males and 49.3% females) reported having ever smoked cigarettes. For those who had ever smoked, mean and median ages at first smoke were 15.5 and 16.0years, respectively. In multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis mother's education, change in maternal marital status, maternal cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption, maternal depression and child externalizing when the child was 5years statistically significantly predicted early onset of smoking., Conclusions: The data suggest that individuals exposed to personal and environmental risk factors during the early stage of childhood are at increased risk of initiation to cigarette smoking at an earlier age. Identification of the pathways of association between these early life factors and initiation to cigarette smoking may help reduce risk of tobacco smoking in adolescents and its adverse consequences., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To measure levels of parenting stress and postnatal depression in mothers of very preterm infants in comparison with mothers of infants born at term is the objective of this study. The study also aimed to explore factors associated with parenting stress in the mothers of the preterm infants., Methods: One hundred and five mothers who delivered 124 babies at ≤30 weeks gestation were enrolled together with 105 term mothers who delivered 120 babies. At one year of age (corrected for prematurity for the preterm cohort), the mothers completed the Parenting Stress Index Short Form (PSI), the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the Short Temperament Scale for Toddlers. The infants had neurodevelopmental assessment. The preterm and term groups were compared., Results: Questionnaires were completed by 101 of the preterm mothers and 98 of the term mothers. The mean PSI Total Stress score was significantly higher for the preterm mothers (70.28 vs 64.52, p = 0.022), with 19% of the preterm group and 9% of the term group having high scores (p = 0.038).There was no group difference on the EPDS or measures of temperament, with disability being greater in the preterm infants. For the preterm group, maternal depression and infant temperament were independent predictors of Total Stress scores on multivariate analysis., Conclusions: Parenting stress in mothers of preterm infants at one year of age is significantly greater than that found in mothers of term infants. For preterm mothers, symptoms of depression and infant temperament are independent risk factors for higher levels of parenting stress., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To examine whether changes in maternal overweight and obesity from pre-pregnancy to two decades postpartum predict the body mass index (BMI) of adult offspring., Methods: We used a subsample of 1997 mother-offspring pairs from the 7,223 original cohorts of women who gave birth in Brisbane, Australia, between 1981 and 1984. Multiple linear regression and multinomial logistic regression were used to examine the relationship between change in maternal BMI from pre-pregnancy to 21-year postpartum, and offspring BMI at 21-year, adjusting for potential confounding factors., Results: At 21-year postpartum, 31.15 % mothers were overweight and a further 30.80 % were obese. Mothers gained a mean weight of 16.07 kg over the 21 year. We found that the offspring of mothers who became overweight or remained overweight at 21-year postpartum were at greater risk of being overweight and obese at 21 years. In the adjusted model, offspring of mothers who had normal BMI before pregnancy but became overweight by 21-year postpartum were (odds ratio) 1.72 (95 % CI = 1.20, 2.47) times more likely to be overweight. Compared to offspring of mothers who maintained normal weight over two decades, offspring of mothers who remained persistently overweight were (odds ratio) 5.39 (95 % CI = 3.50, 8.30) times more likely to be obese by age 21 year., Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that long-term changes in maternal BMI from pre-pregnancy to 21-year postpartum are independently associated with BMI in their young adult offspring.

Objective: To examine whether adolescent males and females who were victims of bullying were at greater risk of a higher body mass index (BMI) and obesity by young adulthood., Design: Secondary analysis of data from a community-based cohort study., Subjects: A sub-sample of 1694 offspring (50% males) who were participants in the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), Brisbane, and who provided bullying information at 14 years and physical assessment at 21 years., Main Outcome Measures: BMI and its categories as normal, overweight or obese at 21 years., Results: One in two adolescent males and one in three adolescent females reported that they had been bullied at school by others. We found that adolescent males and females who were bullied were at a significantly greater risk of a higher BMI and obesity by young adulthood. Fourteen-year-old males who were occasionally/often bullied at school had 0.64 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.02, 1.27) kg m(2) greater mean BMI by 21 years compared with males who were never bullied by 14 years. This mean difference in BMI was 1.52, (95% CI: 0.75, 2.29) kg m(2) for females. Similarly, the odds of being obese were 2.54 (95% CI: 1.58, 4.09) times at 21 years for those males who were bullied occasionally/often compared with adolescent males who were never bullied. For females, this was 2.18 (95% CI: 1.40, 3.39). Overweight adolescents who experienced bullying had the greatest increase in BMI by young adulthood. Adjusting for potential confounding or mediating factors, the associations remain strong for males but are attenuated for females., Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that both male and female adolescents who were bullied often/sometimes by their peer group at 14 years were at greater risk of higher BMI and obesity by young adulthood.

Seasonality is a complex force in nature that affects multiple processes in wild animal populations. In particular, seasonal variations in demographic processes may considerably affect the persistence of a pathogen in these populations. Furthermore, it has been long observed in computer simulations that under seasonal perturbations, a host-pathogen system can exhibit complex dynamics, including the transition to chaos, as the magnitude of the seasonal perturbation increases. In this paper, we develop a seasonally perturbed Susceptible-Infected-Recovered model of avian influenza in a seabird colony. Numerical simulations of the model give rise to chaotic recurrent epidemics for parameters that reflect the ecology of avian influenza in a seabird population, thereby providing a case study for chaos in a host- pathogen system. We give a computer-assisted exposition of the existence of chaos in the model using methods that are based on the concept of topological hyperbolicity. Our approach elucidates the geometry of the chaos in the phase space of the model, thereby offering a mechanism for the persistence of the infection. Finally, the methods described in this paper may be immediately extended to other infections and hosts, including humans.

Drugs that induce psychosis, such as D-amphetamine (AMP), and those that alleviate it, such as antipsychotics, are suggested to exert behavioral effects via dopamine receptor D2 (D2). All antipsychotic drugs are D2 antagonists, but D2 antagonism underlies the severe and debilitating side effects of these drugs; it is therefore important to know whether D2 is necessary for their behavioral effects. Using D2-null mice (Drd2-/-), we first investigated whether D2 is required for AMP disruption of latent inhibition (LI). LI is a process of learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli. Disruption of LI by AMP models impaired attention and abnormal salience allocation consequent to dysregulated dopamine relevant to schizophrenia. AMP disruption of LI was seen in both wild-type (WT) and Drd2-/-. This was in contrast to AMP-induced locomotor hyperactivity, which was reduced in Drd2-/-. AMP disruption of LI was attenuated in mice lacking dopamine receptor D1 (Drd1-/-), suggesting that D1 may play a role in AMP disruption of LI. Further supporting this possibility, we found that D1 antagonist SKF83566 attenuated AMP disruption of LI in WT. Remarkably, both haloperidol and clozapine attenuated AMP disruption of LI in Drd2-/-. This demonstrates that antipsychotic drugs can attenuate AMP disruption of learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli in the absence of D2 receptors. Data suggest that D2 is not essential either for AMP to disrupt or for antipsychotic drugs to reverse AMP disruption of learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli and further that D1 merits investigation in the mediation of AMP disruption of these processes.