Stillbirth occurrence during COVID-19 pandemic: A population-based prospective study

Objectives: Data collected worldwide on stillbirth (SB) rates during the Covid-19 pandemic are contradictory. Variations may be due to methodological differences or population characteristics. The aim of the study is to assess the changes in SB rate, risk factors, causes of death and quality of antenatal care during the pandemic compared to the control periods. Methods: This prospective study is based on the information collected by the Emilia-Romagna Surveillance system database. We conducted a descriptive analysis of SB rate, risk factors, causes of death and quality of cares, comparing data of the pandemic (March 2020-June 2021) with the 16 months before. Results: During the pandemic, the SB rate was 3.45/1,000 births, a value in line with the rates of previous control periods. Neonatal weight >90th centile was the only risk factor for SB that significantly changed during the pandemic (2.2% vs. 8.0%; p-value: 0.024). No significant differences were found in the distribution of the causes of death groups. Concerning quality of antenatal cares, cases evaluated with suboptimal care (5.2%) did not change significantly compared to the control period (12.0%), as well as the cases with less than recommended obstetric (12.6% vs. 14%) and ultrasound evaluations (0% vs. 2.7%). Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, no significant differences in SB rates were found in an area that maintained an adequate level of antenatal care. Thus, eventual associations between SB rate and the COVID-19 infection are explained by an indirect impact of the virus, rather than its direct effect

Mode of Delivery in Women with Stillbirth: Results of an Area-Based Italian Prospective Cohort Study

Introduction: The choice of the mode of delivery, in case of stillbirth (SB) (fetus non-viable >22 weeks' gestation), should consider maternal preference, gestational age, bishop score, the clinical condition of the woman, and her previous obstetric history. However, despite these clear indications, data on the effective implementation of the latter are lacking. The aim of our study is to evaluate the different modes of delivery in an Italian population of SBs, according to gestational age, parity, causes of death, obstetric history, and maternal characteristics. Material and Methods: This is an area-based, prospective cohort study conducted in Emilia Romagna, Italy between January 2014 to December 2020. Data included all cases of SB (>22 weeks). Results: From 2014 to 2020, 783 SB occurred out of a total of 232.506 births, with a SB rate of 3.3 per 1000. Labor was spontaneous in 85 (11%). Of remnant, 567 (73.6%) were induced and 118 (15.3%) had no labor. The mode of delivery was vaginal in most of the cases (649/770, 84.3%) and by cesarean section in 121/770 (15.7%) of cases. Emergency CS was most frequent and performed in 89/121 (73.5%) of total CS, representing 11.5% of SB deliveries. Mode of induction did not differ in relation to gestational age at stillbirth, while vaginal delivery was significantly higher in women induced with prostaglandins (p = 0.000) respect to other methods. Nulliparous women had a significantly higher need for multiple methods of induction (p = 0.000) respect multiparous and obese women used more frequently prostaglandins (p = 0.03) than other methods. Women with a history of previous CS presented a significantly higher rate of repeated elective CS (p = 0.000). Moreover, emergency CS was performed more frequent in obese (p = 0.02), diabetic (p = 0.04) and hypertensive (p = 0.04) women and in SB caused by placenta disorders, namely in abruptio placentae (p = 0.000). In the case of chorioamnionitis and funisitis women significantly were induced with prostaglandin (p = 0.000) and delivered vaginally (p = 0.000). Conclusions: The method of induction of labor and the mode of delivery in case of SB did not depend on gestational age at the diagnosis of death, while they are related to placenta disorders representing a relevant condition leading to emergency CS also after diagnosis of fetal death. These data could help obstetric providers in managing the deliveries of stillborn infants

News as changing texts: Corpora, methodologies and analysis (second edition)

The updated and revised edition of this volume maintains its focus on the dialectic interrelation between \u2018news\u2019 and \u2018change\u2019. News is intended as a textual type in its evolutionary \u2013 and revolutionary \u2013 development, while change is discussed with reference to the form, content and structure of news texts. The news texts in question range from the first forms of periodical news in the seventeenth century up to the news blogs and social media of the present day. Divided into four chapters, representing key historical moments in the process of news writing, each chapter makes use of a set of corpora specifically designed to suit the needs of scholars working in those particular fields. Topics that the authors examine include pronominal usage and the interrelationship between news writer and reader, heads and headlines, the language of advertisements and other text classes, the trend towards conversationalization, and impartiality and \u2018perspective\u2019 in modern-day news. These and other topics, coupled with the varying corpora that are exploited to analyse them, call into question basic methodological issues that are examined from different perspectives. Throughout the volume, the authors contextualise the news publications of the day so as to better understand the continuous process of adjustment and renewal that news texts are subject to over time

CEA and CYFRA 21-1 as prognostic biomarker and as a tool for treatment monitoring in advanced NSCLC treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors

Aims: To assess prognostic value of pre-therapy carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cytokeratin-19 fragments (CYFRA 21-1) blood levels in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and their early change as predictor of benefit. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective cohort study including patients with stage IIIB–IV NSCLC who received anti PD-1/PD-L1 in first or advanced lines of therapy in two institutions. A control cohort of patients treated only with chemotherapy has been enrolled as well. Results: A total of 133 patients treated with nivolumab or atezolizumab were included in the test set, 74 treated with pembrolizumab first line in the validation set and 89 in the chemotherapy only cohort. CYFRA 21-1 >8 ng/mL was correlated with overall survival (OS) in the test set, validation set and in univariate and multivariate analysis (pooled cohort hazard ratio (HR) 1.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.24–2.93, p 0.003). Early 20% reduction after the third cycle was correlated with OS for CEA (HR 0.12; 95% CI 0.04–0.33; p < 0.001), and for CYFRA 21-1 (HR 0.19; 95% CI 0.07–0.55; p 0.002) Conclusions: CYFRA 21-1 pre-therapy assessment provides clinicians with relevant prognostic information about patients treated with ICI. CEA and CYFRA 21-1 repeated measures could be useful as an early marker of benefit

Dataspaces: Concepts, Architectures and Initiatives

Despite not being a new concept, dataspaces have become a prominent topic due to the increasing availability of data and the need for efficient management and utilization of diverse data sources. In simple terms, a dataspace refers to an environment where data from various sources, formats, and domains can be integrated, shared, and analyzed. It aims to provide a unified view of heterogeneous data by bridging the gap between different data silos, enabling interoperability. The concept of dataspaces promotes the idea that data should be treated as a cohesive entity, rather than being fragmented across different systems and applications. Dataspaces often involve the integration of structured and unstructured data, including databases, documents, sensor data, social media feeds, and more. The goal is to enable organizations to harness the full potential of their data assets by facilitating data discovery, access, and analysis. By bringing together diverse data sources, dataspaces can offer new insights, support decision-making processes, and drive innovation. In the context of European Commission-funded research projects, dataspaces are often explored as part of initiatives focused on data management, data sharing, and the development of data-driven technologies. These projects aim to address challenges related to data integration, data privacy, data governance, and scalability. The goal is to advance the state of the art in data management and enable organizations to leverage data more effectively for societal, economic, and scientific advancements. It is important to notice that while dataspaces offer potential benefits, they also come with challenges. These challenges include data quality assurance, data privacy and security, semantic interoperability, scalability, and the need for appropriate data governance frameworks. Overall, dataspaces represent an approach to managing and utilizing data that emphasizes integration, interoperability, and accessibility. The concept is being explored and researched to develop innovative solutions that can unlock the value of data in various domains and sectors

3-(2H-1,3-Benzodioxol-5-ylmeth­yl)-2-(2-meth­oxy­phen­yl)-1,3-thia­zolidin-4-one

The title mol­ecule, C18H17NO4S, features a 1,3-thia­zolidine ring that is twisted about the S—C(methyl­ene) bond. With reference to this ring, the 1,3-benzodioxole and benzene rings lie to either side and form dihedral angles of 69.72 (16) and 83.60 (14)°, respectively, with the central ring. Significant twisting in the mol­ecule is confirmed by the dihedral angle of 79.91 (13)° formed between the outer rings. Linear supra­molecular chains along the a-axis direction mediated by C—H⋯O inter­actions feature in the crystal packing

Argot2: a large scale function prediction tool relying on semantic similarity of weighted Gene Ontology terms

Background: Predicting protein function has become increasingly demanding in the era of next generation sequencing technology. The task to assign a curator-reviewed function to every single sequence is impracticable. Bioinformatics tools, easy to use and able to provide automatic and reliable annotations at a genomic scale, are necessary and urgent. In this scenario, the Gene Ontology has provided the means to standardize the annotation classification with a structured vocabulary which can be easily exploited by computational methods.Results: Argot2 is a web-based function prediction tool able to annotate nucleic or protein sequences from small datasets up to entire genomes. It accepts as input a list of sequences in FASTA format, which are processed using BLAST and HMMER searches vs UniProKB and Pfam databases respectively; these sequences are then annotated with GO terms retrieved from the UniProtKB-GOA database and the terms are weighted using the e-values from BLAST and HMMER. The weighted GO terms are processed according to both their semantic similarity relations described by the Gene Ontology and their associated score. The algorithm is based on the original idea developed in a previous tool called Argot. The entire engine has been completely rewritten to improve both accuracy and computational efficiency, thus allowing for the annotation of complete genomes.Conclusions: The revised algorithm has been already employed and successfully tested during in-house genome projects of grape and apple, and has proven to have a high precision and recall in all our benchmark conditions. It has also been successfully compared with Blast2GO, one of the methods most commonly employed for sequence annotation. The server is freely accessible at http://www.medcomp.medicina.unipd.it/Argot2Journal Articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The Lantern Vol. 27, No. 2, Spring 1959

• The Case for a Stratified Society • Education Courses • Some Thoughts for God\u27s Thinking Creatures • Sawdust to the Oats? • To Change the Things I Can... • Vignette • I Meet Goliath • Reverie and Reminiscence • On Flight • In Defense of Jazz • A Description • Line of Retreat • Alan Lomax and the American Folk Song • Dawn Stillness • Seasons • Two Poems • Despair • Too Late • Education • For All Practical Purposes He Was Bald • Contrast • I Belong to the Sea • Waves • Love • The Glory and the Dreamhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1077/thumbnail.jp