Acute Pain Assessment in Prematurely Born Infants Below 29 Weeks A Long Way to Go

Objectives: Neonates born extremely prematurely are at high risk of acute and prolonged pain. Effective treatment requires reliable pain assessment, which is currently missing. Our study explored whether existing pain assessment tools and physiological indicators measure pain and comfort accurately in this population. Materials and Methods: We prospectively collected data in 16 neonates born at less than 29 weeks’ gestational age during 3 conditions: skin-to-skin care, rest, and heelstick procedure for capillary blood sampling in the incubator. The neonates were video recorded in these situations, and recordings were coded using 5 observational pain assessment tools and numeric rating scales for pain and distress. We simultaneously collected heart rate, respiratory rate, arterial oxygen saturation, regional cerebral oxygenation, and the number of skin conductance peaks. All measures across the 3 conditions were compared using general linear modeling. Results: The median gestational age was 27.1 weeks (range: 24.1 to 28.7). Forty measurement periods across the 3 conditions were analyzed. Heart rate was significantly higher during heelstick procedures compared with during rest, with a mean difference of 10.7 beats/min (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.7-18.6). Oxygen saturation was significantly higher during skin-to-skin care compared with during heelstick procedures with a mean difference of 5.5% (95% CI: 0.2-10.8). The Premature Infant Pain Profile-revised (PIPP-R) score was significantly higher during heelstick procedures compared with skin-to-skin care with a mean difference of 3.2 points (95% CI: 1.6-5.0). Discussion: Pain measurement in clinical practice in prematurely born infants below 29 weeks remains challenging. The included behavioral and physiological indicators did not adequately distinguish between a painful situation, rest, and skin-to-skin care in premature neonates

The role of capital controls in mediating global shocks

To compare the effect of oral glucose given with or without facilitated tucking (FT), versus placebo (water) to facilitate image acquisition during a targeted neonatal echocardiography (TNE).Factorial, double blind, randomized controlled trial.Tertiary neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).Infants born between 26 and 42 weeks of gestation (GA).One of four treatment groups: oral water (placebo), oral glucose (25%), facilitated tucking with oral water or facilitated tucking with oral glucose, during a single, structured TNE. All infants received a soother.Change in Behavioral Indicators of Infant Pain (BIIP) scores.104 preterm infants were randomized (mean ± SD GA: 33.4 ± 3.5 weeks). BIIP scores remained low during the echocardiography scan (median, [IQ range]: 0, [0 to 1]). There were no differences in the level of agitation of infants amongst the treatment groups, with estimated reductions in mean BIIP relative to control of 0.27 (95%CI -0.40 to 0.94) with use of oral glucose and .04 (-0.63 to 0.70) with facilitated tucking. There were also no differences between treatment groups in the quality and duration of the echocardiography scans.In stable infants in the NICU, a TNE can be performed with minimal disruption in a majority of cases, simply by providing a soother. The use of 25% glucose water in this context did not provide further benefit in reducing agitation and improving image acquisition.Clinical Trials.gov: NCT01253889

Grexit News and Stock Returns

During the first eight months of 2015, there was an ongoing debate about whether or not Greece should remain in the euro area. Using an event study approach, we quantify the effects of Grexit-related statements made by six important euro area politicians (Merkel, Schaeuble, Tsipras, Varoufakis, Juncker, and Schulz) on intraday stock returns in Germany, Greece, and the euro area during the period of January 1, 2015 - August 19, 2015. We show that positive statements indicating that a Grexit is less likely lead to higher returns, and negative statements to lower returns. The overall impact of negative statements is more pronounced. The cumulative absolute effects on stock returns are sizeable as the statements contribute to a variation of up to 58 percentage points in the ATHEX. These large effects are of particular relevance as our study only captures an eight month snapshot of the Greek government debt crisis

Gender, age and the MBA: An analysis of extrinsic and intrinsic career benefits

Against the background of an earlier UK study, this paper presents the findings of a Canadian based survey of career benefits from the MBA. Results indicate firstly that gender and age interact to influence perceptions of career outcomes (young men gain most in terms of extrinsic benefits of career change and pay), and secondly that both men and women gain intrinsic benefits from the MBA. However, intrinsic benefits vary by gender: men in the study were more likely to say they gained confidence from having a fuller skill set while women were more likely to say they gained confidence from feelings of self worth; men emphasised how they had learned to give up control while women argued that they had gained a ‘voice’ in the organization. The role of the MBA in career self- management and the acquisition of key skills are examined as well as the implications for the design of programmes in meeting the varied need of men and women in different age groups

Adverse Behavioral Changes in Adult Mice Following Neonatal Repeated Exposure to Pain and Sucrose

Sucrose is recommended for the treatment of pain during minor procedures in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and is currently used worldwide as the standard of care. We recently reported that adult mice repetitively exposed to sucrose compared to water during the first week of life, irrespective of exposure to an intervention, had significantly smaller brain volumes in large white matter, cortical and subcortical structures (e.g., hippocampus, striatum, fimbria). These structures are important for stress regulation and memory formation. Here, we report the effects of repeated neonatal exposure to pain and sucrose on adult behavior in mice. Neonatal C57BL/6J mice (N = 160, 47% male) were randomly assigned to one of two treatments (sucrose, water) and one of three interventions (needle-prick, tactile, handling). Pups received 10 interventions daily from postnatal day 1 (P1) to P6. A single dose of 24% sucrose or water was given orally 2 min before each intervention. At adulthood (P60-85) mice underwent behavioral testing to assess spatial memory, anxiety, motor function, pain sensitivity, and sugar preference. We found that mice that had received sucrose and handling only, had poorer short-term memory in adulthood compared to water/handling controls (p < 0.05). When exposed to pain, mice treated with repetitive sucrose or water did not differ on memory performance (p = 0.1). A sugar preference test showed that adult mice that received sucrose before an intervention as pups consumed less sugar solution compared to controls or those that received water before pain (p < 0.05). There were no significant group differences in anxiety, motor, or pain sensitivity. In a mouse model that closely mimics NICU care, we show for the first time that memory in adulthood was poorer for mice exposed to pain during the first week of life, irrespective of sucrose treatment, suggesting that sucrose does not protect memory performance when administered for pain. In the absence of pain, early repetitive sucrose exposure induced poorer short-term memory, highlighting the importance of accurate pain assessment

Why is there no queer international theory?

Over the last decade, Queer Studies have become Global Queer Studies, generating significant insights into key international political processes. Yet, the transformation from Queer to Global Queer has left the discipline of International Relations largely unaffected, which begs the question: if Queer Studies has gone global, why has the discipline of International Relations not gone somewhat queer? Or, to put it in Martin Wight’s provocative terms, why is there no Queer International Theory? This article claims that the presumed non-existence of Queer International Theory is an effect of how the discipline of International Relations combines homologization, figuration, and gentrification to code various types of theory as failures in order to manage the conduct of international theorizing in all its forms. This means there are generalizable lessons to be drawn from how the discipline categorizes Queer International Theory out of existence to bring a specific understanding of International Relations into existence

Elite opinion and foreign policy in post-communist Russia

Russian elite opinion on matters of foreign policy may be classified as ‘Liberal Westerniser’, ‘Pragmatic Nationalist’ and ‘Fundamentalist Nationalist’, terms that reflect longstanding debates about the country’s relationship with the outside world. An analysis of press statements and election manifestoes together with a programme of elite interviews between 2004 and 2006 suggests a clustering of opinion on a series of strategic issues. Liberal Westernisers seek the closest possible relationship with Europe, and favour eventual membership of the EU and NATO. Pragmatic Nationalists are more inclined to favour practical co-operation, and do not assume an identity of values or interests with the Western countries. Fundamentalist Nationalists place more emphasis on the other former Soviet republics, and on Asia as much as Europe, and see the West as a threat to Russian values as well as to its state interests. Each of these positions, in turn, draws on an identifiable set of domestic constituencies: Liberal Westernisers on the promarket political parties, Pragmatic Nationalists on the presidential administration and defence and security ministries, and Fundamentalist Nationalists on the Orthodox Church and Communists

A Biased Review of Sociophysics

Various aspects of recent sociophysics research are shortly reviewed: Schelling model as an example for lack of interdisciplinary cooperation, opinion dynamics, combat, and citation statistics as an example for strong interdisciplinarity.Comment: 16 pages for J. Stat. Phys. including 2 figures and numerous reference