Improving the Care of Infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome by Implementing Rooming In

Background: Opioid use and drug abuse has led to an increase in fetal exposure to illicit drugs in the United States, putting these infants at risk for developing neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Parental involvement in the care of these infants during their hospitalization has become an essential part of the treatment process Purpose: The purpose of this project is to implement rooming in for infants with in utero exposure to opioids as a quality improvement practice change. Methods: A literature search relating to improving the care of infants with NAS was conducted. Educational handouts were provided to staff regarding the practice change, and to the parents that described NAS and the process of rooming in. Rooming in was then initiated and data was collected relating to hospital length of stay (LOS), pharmacologic treatment, and breastfeeding. Feedback for this practice change was conducted with a staff survey. Results: Data was collected on 19 infants over a 90-day period. This data was compared to hospital averages previously collected. LOS decreased from an average of 14.4 days in the comparison group to 6.11 days in the study group (P= 0.0004). Pharmacological utilization to treat infants with NAS, decreased from 62% in the comparison group to 5.3% in the study group (P \u3c 0.0001). Breastfeeding rates at discharge increased from 14.1% in the comparison group to 26.3% in the study group (P =0.1891). Discussion: The change in LOS and pharmacological treatment was found to be statistically and clinically significant. It is predicted that LOS and use of pharmacological treatment will continue at this current trend if rooming in continues. Breast feeding rates were found to be clinically but not statistically significant

Characterizing Linkage Disequilibrium in Pig Populations

Knowledge of the extent and range of linkage disequilibrium (LD), defined as non-random association of alleles at two or more loci, in animal populations is extremely valuable in localizing genes affecting quantitative traits, identifying chromosomal regions under selection, studying population history, and characterizing/managing genetic resources and diversity. Two commonly used LD measures, r(2) and D', and their permutation based adjustments, were evaluated using genotypes of more than 6,000 pigs from six commercial lines (two terminal sire lines and four maternal lines) at ~4,500 autosomal SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms). The results indicated that permutation only partially removed the dependency of D' on allele frequency and that r(2) is a considerably more robust LD measure. The maximum r(2) was derived as a function of allele frequency. Using the same genotype dataset, the extent of LD in these pig populations was estimated for all possible syntenic SNP pairs using r(2) and the ratio of r(2) over its theoretical maximum. As expected, the extent of LD highest for SNP pairs was found in tightest linkage and decreased as their map distance increased. The level of LD found in these pig populations appears to be lower than previously implied in several other studies using microsatellite genotype data. For all pairs of SNPs approximately 3 centiMorgan (cM) apart, the average r(2) was equal to 0.1. Based on the average population-wise LD found in these six commercial pig lines, we recommend a spacing of 0.1 to 1 cM for a whole genome association study in pig populations

Search for Higgs Bosons Decaying to Tau Pairs in pp-bar Collisions with the D0 Detector

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.071804.We present a search for the production of neutral Higgs bosons ϕ decaying into τ(+)τ(−) final states in pp-bar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 1  fb(−1), were collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. Limits on the production cross section times branching ratio are set. The results are interpreted in the minimal supersymmetric standard model yielding limits that are the most stringent to date at hadron colliders

Combination of Tevatron Searches for the Standard Model Higgs Boson in the W(+)W(−) Decay Mode

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.061802.We combine searches by the CDF and D0 Collaborations for a Higgs boson decaying to W(+)W(−). The data correspond to an integrated total luminosity of 4.8 (CDF) and 5.4 (D0) fb(−1) of pp-bar collisions at s√=1.96  TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. No excess is observed above background expectation, and resulting limits on Higgs boson production exclude a standard model Higgs boson in the mass range 162–166 GeV at the 95% C.L