Search

Key findings of the work: Maternal frequent intake of a sufficient amount (>3 times per week, or >50 g day−1) of yogurt in late pregnancy may benefit offspring by decreasing the risk of infantile eczema.

Maternal gestational weight gain (GWG) is an important determinant of infant birth weight, and having adequate total GWG has been widely recommended. However, the association of timing of GWG with birth weight remains controversial. We aimed to evaluate this association, especially among women with adequate total GWG. In a prospective cohort study, pregnant women’s weight was routinely measured during pregnancy, and their GWG was calculated for the ten intervals: the first 13, 14–18, 19–23, 24–28, 29–30, 31–32, 33–34, 35–36, 37–38 and 39–40 weeks. Birth weight was measured, and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) and large-for-gestational-age were assessed. Generalized linear and Poisson models were used to evaluate the associations of GWG with birth weight and its outcomes after multivariate adjustment, respectively. Of the 5049 women, increased GWG in the first 30 weeks was associated with increased birth weight for male infants, and increased GWG in the first 28 weeks was associated with increased birth weight for females. Among 1713 women with adequate total GWG, increased GWG percent between 14 and 23 weeks was associated with increased birth weight. Moreover, inadequate GWG between 14 and 23 weeks, compared with the adequate GWG, was associated with an increased risk of SGA (43 (13·7 %) v. 42 (7·2 %); relative risk 1·83, 95 % CI 1·21, 2·76). Timing of GWG may influence infant birth weight differentially, and women with inadequate GWG between 14 and 23 weeks may be at higher risk of delivering SGA infants, despite having adequate total GWG.

The poor reversibility of Zn metal anodes arising from water-induced parasitic reactions poses a significant challenge to the practical applications of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs). Herein, a novel quasi-solid-state water-in-swelling-clay electrolyte (WiSCE) containing zinc sulfate and swelling clay bentonite (BT) is designed to enable highly reversible Zn metal anodes. AZIB full 2 cells based on the WiSCE exhibit excellent cyclic stability at various current densities, long shelf life, low self-discharge rate, and outstanding high-temperature adaptability. Particularly, the capacity of WiSCE-based AZIB full cells retains 90.47% after 200 cycles at 0.1 A/g, 96.64% after 2000 cycles at 1 A/g, and 88.29% after 5000 cycles at 3 A/g. Detailed density functional theory calculations show that strong hydrogen-bonds are formed between BT and water molecules in the WiSCE. Thus, water molecules are strongly confined by BT particularly within the interlayers, which significantly inhibits water-induced side reactions and thus greatly improves cyclic stability. Compared to the state-of-the-art water-in-salt electrolyte, the WiSCE can provide a significantly higher capacity at the full-cell level with a substantially reduced cost, which is promising for the design of next-generation high-performance AZIBs. This work provides a new direction for developing cost-competitive AZIBs as alternatives in grid-scale energy storage.

Laser nanoengineering the CNT/GNP heterogenous structure for robust thermal interface capable of swift heat transfer is presented.

Human activities have significantly increased the release of thallium (Tl) to the environment. However, the study of the relationship between maternal Tl exposure during pregnancy and the risk of preterm birth (PTB) is scarce so far. We aimed to investigate the association between Tl exposure in early pregnancy and the risk of PTB. A total of 2104 pregnant women from the Tongji Maternal and Child Health Cohort (TMCHC) in Wuhan, China were enrolled in the analysis. We collected the urine samples in early pregnancy ( 20 weeks) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to detect urinary Tl levels. The association between Tl levels and the risk of PTB was evaluated by an unconditional logistic regression. The median and geometric mean values of Tl levels were 0.35 μg/L (0.47 μg/g creatinine) and 0.33 μg/L (0.47 μg/g creatinine), respectively. Compared with the lowest tertile of Tl levels (≤ 0.37 μg/g creatinine), the highest tertile ( 0.57 μg/g creatinine) was associated with an increased risk of PTB with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 2.11 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08, 4.12). Stratified analyses showed an elevated risk of PTB related to the highest tertile of Tl levels for male newborns. After excluding women with miss covariate information, gestational diabetes mellitus, pregnancy-induced hypertension, reporting fish intake, or exposed to smoke, the association remained stable. Our results suggested that maternal Tl exposure during early pregnancy was positively associated with the risk of PTB, and Tl exposure may have a sex-specific effect on PTB.

Hierarchical micro- and nano-channels for ultrafast spontaneous and continuous oil recovery.

To explore the changes in plasma D-dimer (D-D) levels of pregnant women during pregnancy and their predictive value for venous thromboembolism (VTE).A selection of 240 pregnant women who came to our hospital for routine perinatal care and delivery from January 2018 to January 2019 were selected as the observation group, and 240 cases that came to our hospital for routine physical examination were served as the control group. The D-D levels of the two groups of women were compared, and the D-D levels of pregnant women in the observation group with different delivery methods were explored; the observation group was into VTE and non-VTE groups according to the occurrence of VTE, and the D-D levels of the two groups of pregnant women in different periods were compared, and its predictive value on VTE was analyzed.The observation group exhibited a notably higher D-D level than the control group (The D-D of pregnant women during pregnancy showed an increase trend with the gestational weeks, and they were all beyond the normal range. The D-D level in the second trimester has the highest predictive value for VTE.

Gestational diabetes and jaundice are the correlated diseases predominantly found in mother and newborn child. Jaundice is a neonatal complication with an increased risk when mother has gestational diabetes. Mothers with diabetes at an early stage of gestational age are at higher risk for hyperbilirubinemia (jaundice) and hypoglycemia. So, it is mandatory to monitor the condition of diabetes and jaundice during the pregnancy period for a healthy child and safest delivery. On the other hand, nanotechnology has displayed a rapid advancement that can be implemented to overcome these issues. The development of high-performance diagnosis using appropriate biomarkers provides their efficacy in the detection gestational diabetes and jaundice. This review covers the aspects from a fast-developing field to generate nanosensors in the nanosized dimensions for the applications to overcome these complications by coupling diagnostics with biomarkers. Further, the serum-based biomarkers have been discussed for these inborn complications and also the diagnosis with the current trend.

Graphene, a two-dimensional (2D) carbon allotrope, has been widely used in various fields due to its excellent inherent properties. Graphene and its derivatives usually possess poor printability, which makes it challenging to create three-dimensional (3D) structures. The objective of this work is to investigate a nanoclay-assisted 3D printing approach to print 3D structures from self-supporting graphene oxide (GO)-laponite nanocomposites. Due to the physical crosslinking between nanoclay and GO, the resulted nanocomposites can be directly printed into complex geometries in air. A significantly large range of laponite to GO mass ratio (5.00 to 32.00) was achieved by a mixing and centrifuging method as compared to previously reported GO-laponite composites made by the solvent evaporation method. It is found that the concentrations of nanoclay additives and GO can significantly affect the extrudability. In addition, the formability of the extruded filaments was studied by assessing the filament shapes/dimensions as well as the filament deflections when printing between supporting structures. Our results show that operating conditions such as dispensing pressure, path speed, nozzle diameter, and stand-off distance can be used to control the width of printed filaments on a substrate. Due to the self-supporting property of the proposed GO-laponite nanocomposites, it is possible to form continuous filaments with negligible deflections between supporting structures. Thus, 3D scaffolds with well-defined shape and controllable geometries have been successfully fabricated, which proves the proposed nanoclay-assisted 3D printing technology to achieve complex 3D graphene structures is feasible.

Summary Background & aims Emerging evidence has shown the inverse association between dietary polyphenols intake and type 2 diabetes mellitus risk, however, few studies focus on the prospective effects of polyphenols on gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Thus, the aim was to evaluate whether higher polyphenols intake and the intake from fruits and vegetables was correlated to a lower risk of GDM. Methods Dietary intake of polyphenols of women with a singleton pregnancy and without any history of diabetes were obtained by a validated food frequency questionnaire from Tongji Maternal and Child Health Cohort study. Oral glucose tolerance tests were conducted at 24–28 weeks to screen for GDM. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between dietary intake of polyphenols, and the results were presented as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence interval (CIs). Generalized linear models were adopted to determine the association of polyphenols intake with blood glucose concentrations, and the results were presented as coefficients (β) with 95% CIs. Results 185 (8.3%) of 2231 pregnant women were diagnosed with GDM. The intake of total polyphenols was 319.9 (217.8–427.0) mg/d, and the intake from fruits and vegetables was 201.6 (115.3–281.8) mg/d and 63.2 (41.1–92.7) mg/d, respectively. Compared with the lowest quartile, the adjusted ORs (95% CIs) of GDM risk for women with the highest quartile of total polyphenols and flavonoids intake was 0.55 (0.30, 0.99), and 0.57 (0.32, 0.99). The adjusted ORs (95% CIs) of GDM risk was 0.55 0.51 (0.30, 0.87) (P for trend = 0.017) for polyphenols from fruits, 0.58 (0.34, 0.99) (P for trend = 0.038) for flavonoids from fruits, and 0.62 (0.38, 1.00) (P for trend = 0.065) for anthocyanidins from fruits comparing the highest versus lowest quartile. In addition, each 100 mg increase of total polyphenols and polyphenols from fruits was associated with 0.054 (0.008, 0.096) (P = 0.021) and 0.061 (0.012, 0.109) (P = 0.015) decrease in 2-h post-load blood glucose. No significant association was found between total polyphenols from vegetables intake and the risk of GDM. Conclusions Higher dietary intake of total polyphenols and flavonoids and the intake from fruits was associated with lower GDM risk. This study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03099837.

Titanium nitride (TiN) metadevices as perfect absorbers are studied using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. In this paper, we demonstrate a metastructure including a top silica (SiO2) layer, two layers of TiN nano-ribbon arrays, a SiO2 dielectric layer, and a TiN film to realize efficient solar energy harvesting. We theoretically optimize the geometrical parameters of each active layer to achieve high absorption rates with an average value of up to 95% within an ultra-wide band from 0.4 to 1.8 microns, covering over 93% of total energy in the solar spectrum. Our detailed analysis of the electric field enhancement indicates that such ultra-broadband high absorption in the visible/near-infrared ranges can be attributed to surface plasmon resonances, Fabry-Perot resonances, and strong plasmon hybridization between adjacent TiN nano-ribbons. Together with refractory properties of TiN and SiO2, the designed metadevice may exhibit great potential in efficient solar energy harvesting applications, particularly in harsh environments.

Objectives The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had become a worldwide pandemic, however, information is limited on the asymptomatic proportion and thromboembolism risk of pregnant women with infection. Methods All 32 pregnant women with COVID-19 who were admitted to the hospital in Wuhan during the outbreak from January 20 to March 18, 2020, were retrospectively reviewed for the clinical records, laboratory tests, chest CT scans, and neonatal outcomes. Results There were 17 of the 32 patients (53%) with no subjective symptoms before admission, and 13 (41%) remained asymptomatic throughout hospitalization. There were 28 patients (88%) showing typical radiographic evidence of pneumonia on chest CT. The patients with COVID-19 were found in an increased risk of thromboembolism with much higher D-dimer levels than uninfected pregnant women. One neonate with asphyxia and positive immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies was reported. Conclusions The considerable asymptomatic proportion of pregnant women with COVID-19 indicates symptom-based screening would miss a number of cases. Chest CT could provide a useful screening resource during the COVID-19epidemic outbreak. Anticoagulation therapy for the postpartum patients may be helpful for good prognosis. The findings provide important information for the hospital isolation, control strategies and clinical therapy.

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical implication of metabolic score for insulin resistance (METS-IR) during early midpregnancy on subsequent risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in Chinese women.Methods: A total of 1747 pregnant women without pre-existing diabetes from the Tongji Maternal and Child Health Cohort (TMCHC) were included in this analysis. Blood glucose and lipid profiles (triglyceride [TG], total cholesterol [TC], high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-C] and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C]) were measured during 15-19 weeks and 75-g 2-h oral glucose tolerance test was conducted during 24-28 weeks to diagnose GDM. METS-IR was calculated by a modified formula which originally as follows: Ln(2×FPG[mg/dl]+TG[mg/dl])×BMI[kg/m2] /Ln(HDL-C[mg/dl]).Results: The median (interquartile range) of age was 28 (26-30) years, and 19.7% of them were underweight and 11.7% were overweight/obese before pregnancy. The overall incidence of GDM was 9.4% and median (interquartile range) of METS-IR was 27.36 (24.57-31.07). The median METS-IR was significantly increased with the increasing pre-pregnancy BMI categories (22.92 vs 27.72 vs 35.55, P＜0.001). Based on quartiles of METS-IR in women with normal pre-pregnancy BMI, participants were classified into 4 groups. Compared with women in the lowest quartile of METS-IR (＜25.52) , the adjusted RRs (95% CIs) of GDM were 2.15 (1.23-3.74), 1.34 (0.72-2.49), and 3.63 (2.22-5.95) for women in quartile 2 (25.52-27.71), quartile 3 (27.72-30.39) and quartile 4 (≥30.40) after adjusting potential confounds. In addition, a significant increase risk of GDM (adjusted RR [95% CI]: 2.55 [1.83-3.55]) was found in women within the highest quartile of METS-IR (≥30.40) compared to the other 3 lower quartiles (＜30.40).Conclusions: Women with METS-IR (≥30.40) during early midpregnancy were more likely to develop GDM, thus the index might be a reliable early indicator for identifying women at high risk of GDM.

The in-plane orientation-dependent electrical and optical properties of two-dimensional (2D) anisotropic materials attract significant attention because of the intriguing underlying physics. However, this feature limits their further development in polarization-independent applications such as refractive index sensors and light absorbers. In this paper, polarization-independent optical properties of black phosphorous (BP) metadevices are achieved by the design of a single-layer pattern of 2D anisotropic material. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation results indicate that the absorption spectrum remains unchanged as the polarization angle of the incident light varies from 0° to 360°. The performance of the BP metadevices when used as refractive index sensors is also studied. The results show that the polarization-independent BP sensors exhibit high sensitivity and figures of merit (FOMs). This work opens up the possibility of fabricating optically polarization-independent devices based on a single-layer pattern of 2D anisotropic material.

We evaluated the potential role of maternal serum levels of neutrophils in the first trimester of pregnancy in the prediction of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).This prospective cohort study enrolled singleton pregnant women before gestational weeks 16 and evaluated them until delivery. Among the 1467 pregnant women who performed prenatal care before 14 weeks of gestation in the cohort, a total of 731 were eligible for the final analysis. The associations between neutrophil counts, white blood cell count, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, and GDM (assessed by a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test between 24 and 28 weeks) were evaluated by multivariate logistic regression.Neutrophil count outperformed the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and white blood cell count in predicting GDM occurrence. We applied a smoothing function and found that neutrophil count was associated with both fasting blood glucose (FBG) (The results indicated an association between higher neutrophil levels and GDM occurrence.

Borophene has recently attracted significant attention as an emerging two-dimensional monoelemental material for refractive index sensing because of its ultra-high surface-to-volume ratio and outstanding surface sensitivity. However, current research mainly focuses on designing borophene-based sensors with single-peak absorption, which lacks reliability compared to the performance of multi-peak sensors. In this paper, high-performance borophene refractive index sensors with multiple nearly perfect absorption peaks are proposed. The geometric parameters of the metadevices are optimized using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations to obtain three strong absorption peaks in the near-infrared (near-IR) regime with intensities of 99.72%, 99.18%, and 98.13%. Further calculations show that the sensitivities of the three strong peaks reach 339.1 nm shift per refractive index units (nm/RIU), 410.1 nm/RIU, and 738.1 nm/RIU, and their corresponding figure of merits (FOMs) reach up to 15.41/RIU, 14.65/RIU and 10.85/RIU, respectively, exhibiting great potential for near-IR refractive index sensing. Moreover, the three absorption peaks can be easily tuned by adjusting the carrier density of borophene, which can be realized by applying different external electric bias voltages. These results can provide theoretical guidance for the development of multi-peak near-IR dynamic integrated photonic devices, Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

Effective separation and transfer of photogenerated charge carriers are common issues in solar energy conversion. Strong localized electric fields near functional nanostructures reduce charge recombination and boost energy efficiency and photocatalytic activity. However, common metal-based photocatalytic systems on conducting supports under-utilize infrared (IR) light energy, and suffer from unsatisfactory interface quality and stability, as well as high complexity and cost. Here we develop a photocatalytic nano-antennas simultaneously featuring localized field-enhancement in IR, high electric conductivity, and interface stability. In the nano-antennas, plasma-made all-carbon vertical graphene nanopetals (GPs) are covalently interfaced with high-performance metal-free semiconducting graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) photocatalyst. The photo-induced force microscopy is used to obtain real-space images of localized electric field enhancement in the near-IR and mid-IR ranges along the vertically standing ultra-sharp GP edge nano-antennas. The photocurrent, electrochemical impedance spectra, and time-resolved photoluminescence spectra confirm that the GP edge nano-antennas significantly enhance the photogenerated charge carrier separation, accelerate carrier migration, and prolong carrier lifetime. We also demonstrate the scalability of production of the petal edge nano-antennas. The unique graphene nanoarchitecture offer exotic spectral properties, which are essential for many large-scale solar energy harvesting applications such as photocatalysis, photovoltaics, and solar-thermal water desalination and purification.

Solar desalination that exploits interfacial evaporation represents a promising solution to global water scarcity. Real-world feedstocks (e.g., natural seawater and contaminated water) include oil contamination issues, raising a compelling need for desalination systems that offer anti-oil-fouling capability; however, it is still challenging to prepare oil-repellent and meanwhile water-attracting surfaces. This work demonstrates a concept of molecularly dispersing functional F and Na sites on plasma-made vertically oriented graphene nanosheets to achieve an in-air and in-water oleophobic, hydrophilic surface. The graphene architecture presents high in-air (138°) and in-water (145°) oil contact angles, with simultaneously high water affinity (0°). Such surface wettability is enabled by oleophobic, hydrophobic -CFx, and hydrophilic -COONa groups of the molecules that disperse on graphene surfaces; low-dispersion (0.439 mJ m-2) and high-polarity (95.199 mJ m-2) components of the solid surface tension; and increased surface roughness produced by graphene edges. The graphene nanostructures pump water upward by capillary action but repel oil from the surface, leading to complete in-water and in-air oil rejection and universal anti-oil-fouling capability for solar desalination. Consequently, stable solar-vapor energy efficiency of more than 85% is achieved regardless of whether the feedstock is pure or oil-contaminated water (e.g., a mixture of oil floating on water, an oil-in-water emulsion), resulting in the efficient production of clean water over several days. This outstanding performance is attributed to the universal (both in-water and in-air) oleophobic wettability, together with high light absorptance contributed by nanotraps, fast interfacial heat transfer enhanced by finlike nanostructures, and accelerated evaporation enabled by sharp graphene edges.

Context.— The pandemic of a novel coronavirus, termed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has created an unprecedented global health burden. Objective.— To investigate the effect of the SARS-CoV-2 infection on maternal, fetal, and neonatal morbidity and other poor obstetrical outcomes. Design.— All suspected cases of pregnant women with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) admitted into one center in Wuhan from January 20 to March 19, 2020, were included. Detailed clinical data of those pregnancies with COVID-19 were retrospectively collected and analyzed. Results.— Twenty-seven pregnant women (4 early pregnancies included) with laboratory or clinically confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and 24 neonates born to the 23 women in late pregnancy were analyzed. On admission, 46.2% (13 of 27) of the patients had symptoms, including fever (11 of 27), cough (9 of 27), and vomiting (1 of 27). Decreased total lymphocytes count was observed in 81.5% (22 of 27) of patients. Twenty-six patients showed typical viral pneumonia by chest computed tomography scan, whereas 1 patient confirmed with COVID-19 infection showed no abnormality on chest computed tomography. One mother developed severe pneumonia 3 days after her delivery. No maternal or perinatal death occurred. Moreover, 1 early preterm newborn born to a mother with the complication of premature rupture of fetal membranes, highly suspected to have SARS-CoV-2 infection, was SARS-CoV-2 negative after repeated real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction testing. Statistical differences were observed between the groups of women in early and late pregnancy with COVID-19 in the occurrence of lymphopenia and thrombocytopenia. Conclusions.— No major complications were reported among the studied cohort, though 1 serious case and 1 perinatal infection were observed. Much effort should be made to reduce the pathogenic effect of COVID-19 infection in pregnancies.

Oil spills remain a worldwide challenge and need emergency "spill-SOS" actions when they occur. Conventional methods suffer from complex processes and high cost. Here, we demonstrate a solar-heating siphon-capillary oil skimmer (S-SOS) that harvests solar energy, gravitational potential energy, and solid surface energy to enable efficient oil spill recovery in a self-pumping manner. The S-SOS is assembled by an inverted U-shape porous architecture combining solar-heating, siphon, and capillary effects, and works without any external power or manual interventions. Importantly, solid surface energy is used by capillary adsorption to enable the self-starting behavior, gravitational potential energy is utilized by siphon transport to drive the oil flow, and solar energy is harvested by solar-thermal conversion to facilitate the transport speed. In the proof-of-concept work, an all-carbon hierarchical architecture (VG/GF) is fabricated by growing vertically oriented graphene nanosheets (VGs) on a monolith of graphite felt (GF) via a plasma-enhanced method to serve as the U-shape architecture. Consequently, an oil-recovery rate of 35.2 L m-2 h-1 is obtained at ambient condition. When exposed to normal solar irradiation, the oil-recovery rate dramatically increases to 123.3 L m-2 h-1. Meanwhile, the solar-thermal energy efficiency is calculated to be 75.3%. Moreover, the S-SOS system presents excellent stability without obvious performance-degradation over 60 h. The outstanding performance is ascribed to the enhanced siphon action, capillary action, photonic absorption, and interfacial heating in the plasma-made graphene nanostructures. Multiple merits make the current S-SOS design and the VG/GF nanostructures promising for efficient oil recovery and transport of energy stored in chemical bonds.

Solar-thermal conversion is a key technology in harvesting solar energy for a diverse range of applications including water vapor generation. However, simultaneously ultrafast and highly efficient solar-thermal conversion and scalable fabrication of materials and devices to achieve such performance in practical applications still remain the key unmet challenges. Here we report a hierarchical nanoarchitecture that integrates vertically oriented graphene nanosheets and highly porous graphene aerogel to achieve ultrafast solar-thermal response (a temperature increase of 169.7°C within 1 s), resulting from superior photonic absorption and excellent thermal insulation. Through engineering surface water pathways and minimizing interfacial thermal resistances, ultrafast solar-thermal response (reaching 100°C within 34 s) and simultaneously high energy efficiency (89.4%) for saturated vapor generation at 10 sun is achieved. Importantly, we demonstrate high-throughput, scalable fabrication of the unique nanoarchitecture. Ultrafast medical sterilization is demonstrated as a potential practical application of this green, nanotechnology-enhanced system for large-scale solar energy harvesting.

Epidemiological studies have investigated the associations between vitamin D and the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes; however, the results are conflicting and dose-response relationships remain to be confirmed. This study aimed to summarize previous studies on the associations of vitamin D levels with the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), pre-eclampsia (PE), gestational hypertension (GH), and caesarean section (C-section), and to clarify the dose-response trends. PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched to identify eligible articles. A total of 69 prospective observational studies including cohort studies, case-cohort studies, or nested case-control studies were included in the current systematic review, of which 68 studies were available for meta-analysis. Compared with the lowest level, the highest level of 25(OH)D was significantly associated with a lower risk of GDM (RR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.66-0.87), PE (RR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.60-0.90;), and GH (RR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.79-0.97); however, no significant relationship was found for C-section (RR: 1.00; 95% CI: 0.90-1.12). There was significant between-study heterogeneity for GDM (I2 = 69.2%; Pheterogeneity < 0.001), PE (I2 = 52.0%; Pheterogeneity = 0.001), and C-section (I2 = 59.1%; Pheterogeneity < 0.001), while no heterogeneity was found for GH (I2 = 0.0%; Pheterogeneity = 0.676). For each 25 nmol L-1 increase in 25(OH)D, the pooled RR was 0.92 (95% CI: 0.86-0.97) for GDM and 0.89 (95% CI: 0.84-0.94) for PE, respectively. Notably, the dose-response analysis showed a non-linear relationship between maternal 25(OH)D levels and the risk of PE (Pnon-linearity = 0.009). Our meta-analysis provides further scientific evidence of the inverse association between 25(OH)D levels and the risk of GDM, PE, and GH, which may be useful for the prevention of pregnancy complications. However, more evidence from prospective studies is needed regarding the dietary intake of vitamin D during pregnancy.

Background The evidence on the relationship between diet diversity in early life and allergic outcomes was few and inconsistent. We sought to determine the association of food diversity in the first year of life with allergic outcomes in the second year. Methods 2251 mother-infant pairs from Tongji Maternal and Child Health Cohort (TMCHC) were involved in the study. Information on complementary foods introduction was obtained by telephone interview at 6- and 12-months postpartum follow-up. Doctor-diagnosed any allergic diseases in the second year were recorded at 2 years postpartum follow-up. Food allergies in infancy were assessed and self-reported by mothers at each postpartum follow-up. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the effect of food diversity at 6 and 12 months of age on later allergic diseases and food allergy. Results 135(6.0%) infants reported allergic diseases at between 1 and 2 years of age. Independent of food allergy history of infants and other potential confounders, less food diversity at 6 months of age was associated with increased risk of later allergic diseases (OR 2.17, 95%CI 1.04-4.50 for 0 vs. 3-6 food groups). By 12 months of age, significant inverse associations with later allergic diseases (OR 2.35, 95%CI 1.03-5.32 for 1-5 vs. 8-11 food groups, and OR 1.98, 95%CI 1.16-3.37 for 6-7 vs. 8-11 food groups) and food allergy (OR 2.10, 95%CI 1.29-3.42 for 1-5 vs. 8-11 food groups) were observed. Children with higher food diversity in both periods had the lowest risk of allergic diseases during the second year of life. Conclusions A more diverse diet within the first year of life was associated with reduced risk of allergic diseases at 1-2 years of age. Introducing higher diversity of foods from 6 to 12 months of age might be an effective strategy to improve the allergy outcomes of infants in later life.