The transmission of traits across generations has typically been attributed to the inheritance by offspring of genomic information from parental generations. However, recent evidence suggests that epigenetic mechanisms are capable of mediating this type of transmission. In the case of maternal care, there is evidence for the behavioral transmission of postpartum behavior from mothers to female ...

Whether mHealth improves maternal and newborn health outcomes remains uncertain as the response is perhaps not true or false but lies somewhere in between when considering unintended harmful consequences. Fuzzy logic, a mathematical approach to computing, extends the traditional binary “true or false” (one or zero) to exemplify this notion of partial truths that lies between completely true and...

The effect of smoking on breastfeeding duration was investigated in a population-based birth cohort study of 1,098 Brazilian infants. There were few losses to follow-up (3.2%) in the first 6 months. Maternal smoking was strongly associated with breastfeeding duration, even after adjustment for confounding. Compared with nonsmokers, mothers smoking 20 or more cigarettes daily presented an odds r...

Thirdhand smoke (THS) is the contamination that persists after secondhand tobacco smoke has been emitted into air. It refers to the tobacco-related gases and particles that become embedded in materials, such as the carpet, walls, furniture, blankets, and toys. THS is not strictly smoke, but chemicals that adhere to surfaces from which they can be released back into the air, undergo chemical tra...

Birth defects are the leading cause of infant mortality, and they are caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Environmental risk factors may contribute to birth defects in genetically susceptible infants by altering critical molecular pathways during embryogenesis, but experimental evidence for gene-environment interactions is limited. Fetal hyperglycemia associated with m...

BACKGROUND There is a strong relationship between feeding problems in childhood and eating disorder in the mother. The mechanisms responsible for this relationship are not understood. AIMS To elucidate family-environmental factors that could mediate this association. METHOD A general population sample of children with feeding problems (n=35), other problems (shyness, fears or behavioural pr...

BACKGROUND There is evidence from previous studies that maternal occupational exposure to hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) is positively associated with oral clefts; however, studies evaluating the association between residential exposure to these toxicants and oral clefts are lacking. Therefore, our goal was to conduct a case-control study examining the association between estimated maternal re...

Records for birth and subsequent, monthly weights until weaning on beef calves of two breeds in a selection experiment were analysed fitting random regression models. Independent variables were orthogonal (Legendre) polynomials of age at weighing in days, and orders of polynomial fit up to 10 were considered. Analyses were carried out on a phenotypic and genetic scale, fitting sets of random re...

Immune function early in life can be influenced by parental effects and the environment, but it remains unclear how these two factors may interact to influence immunocompetence. We evaluated maternal and environmental contributions to offspring healing ability in a viviparous reptile, the northern watersnake (Nerodia sipedon). We measured wound healing rates, a highly integrative and biological...

Neural Tube Defects, resulting from the failure in the closure of the neural tube, have been found to be one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity in the infants and have a variable worldwide incidence rate. Various debatable theories suggest different models for the process of the formation of the neural tube or neurulation, resulting in different types of NTDs. NTDs are an outcome of...