Menarche is the first occurrence of a woman’s menstruation, an event that symbolizes reproductive capacity and the transition from childhood into womanhood. The global average age for menarche is 12 years and this has been declining in recent years. Many factors that affect the timing menarche in girls could be affected by climate change. A systematic literature review was performed regarding the timing of menarche and four publication databases were interrogated: EMBASE, SCOPUS, PubMed, and Cochrane Reviews. Themes were identified from 112 articles and related to environmental causes of perturbations in menarche (either early or late), disease causes and consequences of perturbations, and social causes and consequences. Research from climatology was incorporated to describe how climate change events, including increased hurricanes, avalanches/mudslides/landslides, and extreme weather events could alter the age of menarche by disrupting food availability or via increased toxin/pollutant release. Overall, our review revealed that these perturbations in the timing of menarche are likely to increase the disease burden for women in four key areas: mental health, fertility-related conditions, cardiovascular disease, and bone health. In summary, the climate does have the potential to impact women’s health through perturbation in the timing of menarche and this, in turn, will affect women’s risk of disease in future.

Type I collagen morphology can be characterized using fibril D-spacing, a metric which describes the periodicity of repeating bands of gap and overlap regions of collagen molecules arranged into collagen fibrils. This fibrillar structure is stabilized by enzymatic crosslinks initiated by lysyl oxidase (LOX), a step which can be disrupted using β-aminopropionitrile (BAPN). Murine in vivo studies have confirmed effects of BAPN on collagen nanostructure and the objective of this study was to evaluate the mechanism of these effects in vitro by measuring D-spacing, evaluating the ratio of mature to immature crosslinks, and quantifying gene expression of type I collagen and LOX. Osteoblasts were cultured in complete media, and differentiated using ascorbic acid, in the presence or absence of 0.25mM BAPN-fumarate. The matrix produced was imaged using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and 2D Fast Fourier transforms were performed to extract D-spacing from individual fibrils. The experiment was repeated for quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses. The D-spacing distribution of collagen produced in the presence of BAPN was shifted toward higher D-spacing values, indicating BAPN affects the morphology of collagen produced in vitro, supporting aforementioned in vivo experiments. In contrast, no difference in gene expression was found for any target gene, suggesting LOX inhibition does not upregulate the LOX gene to compensate for the reduction in aldehyde formation, or regulate expression of genes encoding type I collagen. Finally, the mature to immature crosslink ratio decreased with BAPN treatment and was linked to a reduction in peak percent area of mature crosslink hydroxylysylpyridinoline (HP). In conclusion, in vitro treatment of osteoblasts with low levels of BAPN did not induce changes in genes encoding LOX or type I collagen, but led to an increase in collagen D-spacing as well as a decrease in mature crosslinks.

No abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between individual-level and neighborhood-level risk factors and severe maternal morbidity. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of all pregnancies delivered between 2010 and 2017 in the University of Pennsylvania Health System. International Classification of Diseases codes classified severe maternal morbidity according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Logistic regression modeling evaluated individual-level risk factors for severe maternal morbidity, such as maternal age and preeclampsia diagnosis. Additionally, we used spatial autoregressive modeling to assess Census-tract, neighborhood-level risk factors for severe maternal morbidity such as violent crime and poverty. RESULTS: Overall, 63,334 pregnancies were included, with a severe maternal morbidity rate of 2.73%, or 272 deliveries with severe maternal morbidity per 10,000 delivery hospitalizations. In our multivariable model assessing individual-level risk factors for severe maternal morbidity, the magnitude of risk was highest for patients with a cesarean delivery (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 3.50, 95% CI 3.15–3.89), stillbirth (aOR 4.60, 95% CI 3.31–6.24), and preeclampsia diagnosis (aOR 2.71, 95% CI 2.41–3.03). Identifying as White was associated with lower odds of severe maternal morbidity at delivery (aOR 0.73, 95% CI 0.61–0.87). In our final multivariable model assessing neighborhood-level risk factors for severe maternal morbidity, the rate of severe maternal morbidity increased by 2.4% (95% CI 0.37–4.4%) with every 10% increase in the percentage of individuals in a Census tract who identified as Black or African American when accounting for the number of violent crimes and percentage of people identifying as White. CONCLUSION: Both individual-level and neighborhood-level risk factors were associated with severe maternal morbidity. These factors may contribute to rising severe maternal morbidity rates in the United States. Better characterization of risk factors for severe maternal morbidity is imperative for the design of clinical and public health interventions seeking to lower rates of severe maternal morbidity and maternal mortality.

Conferences are spaces to meet and network within and across academic and technical fields, learn about new advances, and share our work. They can help define career paths and create long-lasting collaborations and opportunities. However, these opportunities are not equal for all. This article introduces 10 simple rules to host an inclusive conference based on the authors’ recent experience organizing the 2021 edition of the useR! statistical computing conference, which attracted a broad range of participants from academia, industry, government, and the nonprofit sector. Coming from different backgrounds, career stages, and even continents, we embraced the challenge of organizing a high-quality virtual conference in the context of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and making it a kind, inclusive, and accessible experience for as many people as possible. The rules result from our lessons learned before, during, and after the organization of the conference. They have been written mainly for potential organizers and selection committees of conferences and contain multiple practical tips to help a variety of events become more accessible and inclusive. We see this as a starting point for conversations and efforts towards building more inclusive conferences across the world. * Translated versions of the English abstract and the list of rules are available in 10 languages in S1 Text: Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil, and Thai.