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Frequent land-use changes in urban areas require an efficient and dynamic approach to reform and update detailed plans by re-arrangement of surrounding land-uses in case of change in one or several urban land-uses. However, re-arrangement of land-uses is problematic, since a variety of conflicting criteria must be considered and satisfied. This paper proposes and examines a two-step approach to re
Groundwater quality and quantity are two major challenges in arid and semi-arid regions, due to their critical roles in sustainable agricultural development. Irrigated lands are spread all over Urmia Lake's surrounding plains in Iran. Due to the risk of saltwater intrusion as a result of over-exploitation from groundwater resources, it is important to monitor the groundwater quality and quantity t
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of varied lifestyle intervention programs designed to ameliorate excess gestational weight gain (GWG) in pregnant women with overweight or obesity compared with standard care, including effects on pregnancy outcomes. Methods: Seven clinical centers conducted separate randomized clinical trials to test different lifestyle intervention strategies t
Purpose: Biomedical data governance strategies should ensure that data are collected, stored, and used ethically and lawfully. However, research participants’ preferences for how data should be governed is least studied. The Diabetes Research on Patient Stratification (DIRECT) project collected substantial amounts of health and genetic information from patients at risk of, and with type II diabete
OBJECTIVE: Maternal hemodynamics in pregnancy is associated with fetal growth and birth weight, which in turn is associated with offspring cardiovascular disease later in life. We therefore sought to quantify the extent to which birth weight is associated with cardiac structure and function in adolescence.METHODS: Participants (N=1,964, 55% females) from a UK birth cohort were examined with echoca
BACKGROUND: Women with history of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are at increased risk of early onset cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes (T2D). We aimed to investigate the extent to which HDP is also associated with midlife development of T2D and hypertension above and beyond established risk factors.METHODS: We included parous women who attended population-based structured clin
Aims: Subclinical systemic inflammation may contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes, but its association with early progression of glycaemic deterioration in persons without diabetes has not been fully investigated. Our primary aim was to assess longitudinal associations of changes in pro-inflammatory (leukocytes, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP)) and anti-inflammatory (adipone
The detailed characterization of human biology and behaviors is now possible at scale owing to innovations in biomarkers, bioimaging, and wearable technologies; "big data" from electronic medical records, health insurance databases, and other platforms becoming increasingly accessible; and rapidly evolving computational power and bioinformatics methods. Collectively, these advances are creating un
In genotype-based recall (GBR) studies, people (or their biological samples) who carry genotypes of special interest for a given hypothesis test are recalled from a larger cohort (or biobank) for more detailed investigations. There are several GBR study designs that offer a range of powerful options to elucidate (1) genotype-phenotype associations (by increasing the efficiency of genetic associati
Objectives: Counts of missing teeth or measures of incident tooth loss are gaining attention as a simple way to measure dental status in large population studies. We explore the meaning of these metrics and how missing teeth might influence other measures of dental status. Methods: An observational study was performed in 2 contrasting adult populations. In total, 62 522 adult participants were ava
BACKGROUND: Women with a history of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are at increased risk of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. Offspring from pregnancies complicated by HDP also have worse cardiometabolic status in childhood and young adulthood, but the offspring risk of clinical hypertension in adulthood is largely unknown.METHODS: We studied 13,893 first-born a
Prior studies suggest dental caries traits in children and adolescents are partially heritable, but there has been no large-scale consortium genome-wide association study (GWAS) to date. We therefore performed GWAS for caries in participants aged 2.5-18.0 years from nine contributing centres. Phenotype definitions were created for the presence or absence of treated or untreated caries, stratified
Recent genetic studies have identified alleles associated with opposite effects on adiposity and risk of type 2 diabetes. We aimed to identify more of these variants and test the hypothesis that such favorable adiposity alleles are associated with higher subcutaneous fat and lower ectopic fat. We combined MRI data with genome-wide association studies of body fat percentage (%) and metabolic traits
Type 2 diabetes has become a leading health problem throughout the world. The escalating epidemic of type 2 diabetes is believed to result from a collision between inherent biological susceptibilities (genotypes) and a shift toward dietary habits and lifestyle that promote obesity over the past several decades; the transition from “traditional” to modern “obesogenic” lifestyles is characterized by
Importance: The role of ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids for primary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD) remains controversial. Most prior longitudinal studies evaluated self-reported consumption rather than biomarkers. Objective: To evaluate biomarkers of seafood-derived eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5 ω-3), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA; 22:5 ω-3), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6 ω-3) an
The rising prevalences of type 2 diabetes and obesity constitute major threats to human health globally. Powerful social and economic factors influence the distribution of these diseases among and within populations. These factors act on a substrate of individual predisposition derived from the composite effects of inherited DNA variation and a range of environmental exposures experienced througho
Objective - To examine select adipokines, including fatty acid-binding protein 4, retinol-binding protein 4, and high-molecular-weight (HMW) adiponectin in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Approach and Results - Plasma levels of fatty acid-binding protein 4, retinol-binding protein 4, and HMW adiponectin were measured in 950 men with
Background-Fetal exposure to preeclampsia is associated with higher blood pressure and later risk of stroke. We aimed to investigate the associations of maternal preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, and maternal blood pressure change in pregnancy with offspring cardiac structure and function in adolescence. Methods and Results-Using data from a prospective birth cohort study, we included offspr
Randomized controlled trials (RCT) are often underpowered for validating gene-treatment interactions. Using published data from the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), we examined power in conventional and genotype-based recall (GBR) trials. We calculated sample size and statistical power for gene-metformin interactions (vs. placebo) using incidence rates, gene-drug interaction effect estimates and
