Impact of in utero drug exposure on neonates requiring ECMO: A retrospective cohort study

The incidence of in utero drug exposure (IUDE) and neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) utilization have both increased over the past decade. However, there are no studies to date that examine the impact that IUDE has on neonates requiring ECMO. In this retrospective cohort study, we compared the clinic course and outcomes of neonates who were placed on ECMO with IUDE vs. neonates without IUDE. Analysis included data extracted from medical records from all neonatal ECMO runs between January 2014 and January 2021 at the University of Kentucky Children's Hospital. A total of 56 neonatal patients were placed on ECMO during this time period and there were a total of 57 ECMO runs. Nearly one-third of neonates (16) had documented IUDE. There were no differences in gestational age, length of ECMO run, survival to discharge, or number of major complications while on ECMO in the neonates with IUDE compared to those without. In contrast, greater use of sedative and analgesic adjuvant medications during ECMO was required for IUDE-ECMO cases (p < 0.01). Trending results indicated that post-ECMO feeding complications and total hospitalization length were also greater in the IUDE-ECMO group. These findings illustrate the complex influence of prenatal drug exposures on neonatal patient care and warrant the development of clinical care strategies optimized for this unique patient group

A comparative study of WASP-67b and HAT-P-38b from WFC3 data

Atmospheric temperature and planetary gravity are thought to be the main parameters affecting cloud formation in giant exoplanet atmospheres. Recent attempts to understand cloud formation have explored wide regions of the equilibrium temperature-gravity parameter space. In this study, we instead compare the case of two giant planets with nearly identical equilibrium temperature ($T_\mathrm{eq}$ $\sim 1050 \, \mathrm{K}$) and gravity ($g \sim 10 \, \mathrm{m \, s}^{-1})$. During $HST$ Cycle 23, we collected WFC3/G141 observations of the two planets, WASP-67 b and HAT-P-38 b. HAT-P-38 b, with mass 0.42 M$_\mathrm{J}$ and radius 1.4 $R_\mathrm{J}$, exhibits a relatively clear atmosphere with a clear detection of water. We refine the orbital period of this planet with new observations, obtaining $P = 4.6403294 \pm 0.0000055 \, \mathrm{d}$. WASP-67 b, with mass 0.27 M$_\mathrm{J}$ and radius 0.83 $R_\mathrm{J}$, shows a more muted water absorption feature than that of HAT-P-38 b, indicating either a higher cloud deck in the atmosphere or a more metal-rich composition. The difference in the spectra supports the hypothesis that giant exoplanet atmospheres carry traces of their formation history. Future observations in the visible and mid-infrared are needed to probe the aerosol properties and constrain the evolutionary scenario of these planets.Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, 8 tables, accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

Brilliance of a fire: innocence, experience and the theory of childhood

This essay offers an extensive rehabilitation and reappraisal of the concept of childhood innocence as a means of testing the boundaries of some prevailing constructions of childhood. It excavates in detail some of the lost histories of innocence in order to show that these are more diverse and more complex than established and pejorative assessments of them conventionally suggest. Recovering, in particular, the forgotten pedigree of the Romantic account of the innocence of childhood underlines its depth and furnishes an enriched understanding of its critical role in the coming of mass education - both as a catalyst of social change and as an alternative measure of the child-centeredness of the institutions of public education. Now largely and residually confined to the inheritance of nursery education, the concept of childhood innocence, and the wider Romantic project of which it is an element, can help question the assumptions underpinning modern, competence-centred philosophies of childhood

Homogeneously derived transit timings for 17 exoplanets and reassessed TTV trends for WASP-12 and WASP-4

We homogeneously analyse ∼3.2 × 105 photometric measurements for ∼1100 transit lightcurves belonging to 17 exoplanet hosts. The photometric data cover 16 years 2004–2019 and include amateur and professional observations. Old archival lightcurves were reprocessed using up-to-date exoplanetary parameters and empirically debiased limb-darkening models. We also derive self-consistent transit and radial-velocity fits for 13 targets. We confirm the nonlinear TTV trend in the WASP-12 data at a high significance, and with a consistent magnitude. However, Doppler data reveal hints of a radial acceleration about ( − 7.5 ± 2.2) m/s/yr, indicating the presence of unseen distant companions, and suggesting that roughly 10 per cent of the observed TTV was induced via the light-travel (or Roemer) effect. For WASP-4, a similar TTV trend suspected after the recent TESS observations appears controversial and model-dependent. It is not supported by our homogeneus TTV sample, including 10 ground-based EXPANSION lightcurves obtained in 2018 simultaneously with TESS. Even if the TTV trend itself does exist in WASP-4, its magnitude and tidal nature are uncertain. Doppler data cannot entirely rule out the Roemer effect induced by possible distant companions

Supersymmetric QCD corrections to e+e−→tbˉH−e^+e^-\to t\bar{b}H^- and the Bernstein-Tkachov method of loop integration

The discovery of charged Higgs bosons is of particular importance, since their existence is predicted by supersymmetry and they are absent in the Standard Model (SM). If the charged Higgs bosons are too heavy to be produced in pairs at future linear colliders, single production associated with a top and a bottom quark is enhanced in parts of the parameter space. We present the next-to-leading-order calculation in supersymmetric QCD within the minimal supersymmetric SM (MSSM), completing a previous calculation of the SM-QCD corrections. In addition to the usual approach to perform the loop integration analytically, we apply a numerical approach based on the Bernstein-Tkachov theorem. In this framework, we avoid some of the generic problems connected with the analytical method.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Transit timing analysis of the exoplanet TrES-5 b. Possible existence of the exoplanet TrES-5 c

peer reviewedIn this work, we present transit timing variations detected for the exoplanet TrES-5b. To obtain the necessary amount of photometric data for this exoplanet, we have organized an international campaign to search for exoplanets based on the transit-timing variation (TTV) method and as a result of this we collected 30 new light curves, 15 light curves from the Exoplanet Transit Database (ETD) and 8 light curves from the literature for the timing analysis of the exoplanet TrES-5b. We have detected timing variations with a semi-amplitude of A≈ 0.0016 d and a period of P≈ 99 d. We carried out the N-body modelling based on the three-body problem. The detected perturbation of TrES-5b may be caused by a second exoplanet in the TrES-5 system. We have calculated the possible mass and resonance of the object: M ≈ 0.24MJup at a 1:2 Resonance. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.RSF: 14-50-0004

Discovery of a young low-mass brown dwarf transiting a fast-rotating F-type star by the Galactic Plane eXoplanet (GPX) survey

We announce the discovery of GPX-1 b, a transiting brown dwarf with a mass of $19.7\pm 1.6$ $M_{\mathrm{Jup}}$ and a radius of $1.47\pm0.10$ $R_{\mathrm{Jup}}$, the first sub-stellar object discovered by the Galactic Plane eXoplanet (GPX) survey. The brown dwarf transits a moderately bright ($V$ = 12.3 mag) fast-rotating F-type star with a projected rotational velocity $v\sin{ i_*}=40\pm10$ km/s. We use the isochrone placement algorithm to characterize the host star, which has effective temperature $7000\pm200$ K, mass $1.68\pm0.10$ $M_{\mathrm{Sun}}$, radius $1.56\pm0.10$ $R_{\mathrm{Sun}}$ and approximate age $0.27_{-0.15}^{+0.09}$ Gyr. GPX-1 b has an orbital period of $\sim$1.75 d, and a transit depth of $0.90\pm0.03$ %. We describe the GPX transit detection observations, subsequent photometric and speckle-interferometric follow-up observations, and SOPHIE spectroscopic measurements, which allowed us to establish the presence of a sub-stellar object around the host star. GPX-1 was observed at 30-min integrations by TESS in Sector 18, but the data is affected by blending with a 3.4 mag brighter star 42 arcsec away. GPX-1 b is one of about two dozen transiting brown dwarfs known to date, with a mass close to the theoretical brown dwarf/gas giant planet mass transition boundary. Since GPX-1 is a moderately bright and fast-rotating star, it can be followed-up by the means of Doppler tomography.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, accepted to MNRAS in May 202