The Impact of CenteringPregnancy Implementation

Evaluation of 6 Centering Pregnancy Group Prenatal Care cycles showed the logic models supported implementation and expansion of Centering Groups at 2 federally qualified health centers. There was adequate progress toward site approval with favorable method fidelity scores in addition to patient and staff satisfaction ratings using the Centering Counts data collection system. Outcomes in 33 participants demonstrated beneficial effects on key indicators.https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/archivedposters/1122/thumbnail.jp

Centering Pregnancy Implementation and its Effect on Preterm Birth and Low Birthweight

Preterm birth (PTB) and low birthweight (LBW) babies are the source of a large burden of infant, neonatal, and childhood morbidity. The purpose of this project was to expand the use of the CenteringPregnancyTM Group Prenatal Care Model as an evidence-based intervention for management of both medical and psychosocial risk in low-income, ethnic and racial minorities in New York City. The standardized model developed by Schindler Rising decreases the incidence of preterm birth and low birthweight and increases the rate of breastfeeding. A CenteringPregnancyTM program implementation plan, customized to meet the needs of a multisite urban hospital system, was coordinated with the Centering Healthcare Institute to ensure method fidelity while allowing for an individual site\u27s needs based upon patient demographics and provider mix. Program evaluation showed that the logic models supported implementation and expansion of Centering Groups at 2 federally qualified health centers, with adequate progress toward site approval, method fidelity scores, and favorable patient and staff satisfaction ratings using the CenteringCountsTM data collection system. After a total of 4 Centering group cohorts with 26 women, 7 at high medical risk, 4 delivered preterm (11.5%), 2.3% less than the institutional average PTB rate of 13.8%. One out of 26 women delivered a LBW infant. Twenty-two of 24 women (92%) initiated breastfeeding compared to the institutional average of 89%. To foster a change in policy toward Centering as the default option for prenatal care, ongoing evaluation is required to assess the reduction of and fiscal impact on preterm and low birthweight rates to offset the cost of implementation

Studying the coincidence excess between EXPLORER and NAUTILUS during 1998

The coincidences between EXPLORER and NAUTILUS during 1998 (Astone et al. 2001) are more deeply studied. It is found that the coincidence excess is greater in the ten-day period 7-17 September 1998 and it occurs at the sidereal hour 4, when the detectors axes are perpendicular to the Galactic Disk. The purpose of this paper is to bring our results with the GW detectors to the attention of scientists working in the astrophysical field, and ask them whether are they aware of any special phenomenon occurring when EXPLORER and NAUTILUS showed a coincidence excess.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures, submitted to A &

Doubts and Concerns about Isolated Maternal Hypothyroxinemia

There is evidence that isolated maternal hypothyroxinemia may have detrimental effects on both mother and foetus. Nonetheless, this condition is still far from being universally accepted as a separate thyroid disease, and a standard definition of this state of mild thyroid underfunction is still lacking. We will review the biochemical criteria used to define isolated maternal hypothyroxinemia, together with current methodological issues related to FT4 assays. We will also discuss its epidemiological impact in both iodine-deficient and-sufficient areas, and the effectiveness of iodine prophylaxis on maternal thyroid function and neuropsychomotor development in offspring

Long-term follow-up of Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) in children and adolescents managed at a single institution over a 20-year period

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is rare in childhood. In our Institution we managed 30 consecutive Ph+CML patients aged <18 years, according to our adults’ guidelines. Patients with HLA-identical related donor (RD) underwent stem cell transplant (SCT). Since 1989, patients without RD were systematically treated with -interferon (IFN) (median dosage: 6 MU/day). Of 18/19 evaluable patients, 17 (94.5%) achieved haematologic response (HR), 11/17 (65%) cytogenetic response (CyR), complete (CCyR) in 4 (23.5%). Three patients remain in CCyR, 2 achieved BCR-ABL transcript disappearance. Of 13 patients without CCyR, 5 underwent SCT, 4 switched to STI571, 4 progressed. All patients receiving STI571 in chronic phase (CP) obtained sustained CCyR and 3 a persistent molecular response. 8-year survival among IFN-treated patients, censored or not for subsequent therapies, is 62% and 63%. Overall, 13/30 patients underwent SCT: 5 HLA-identical-RD, 5 matched unrelated donor, 2 mismatched-RD, 1 unrelated mismatched umbilical cord blood. Eight allotransplanted patients (6/6 in 1st CP) are in cytogenetic and molecular remission with 8-year survival of 61% from SCT and 69% from diagnosis. In our 20-year experience, the use of IFN in children without matched RD led to prolonged cytogenetic and molecular responses and long-term survival, without impairing the outcome of subsequent SCT

Quark nuggets search using 2350 Kg gravitational waves aluminum bar detectors

The gravitational wave resonant detectors can be used as detectors of quark nuggets, like nuclearites (nuclear matter with a strange quark). This search has been carried out using data from two 2350 Kg, 2 K cooled, aluminum bar detectors: NAUTILUS, located in Frascati (Italy), and EXPLORER, that was located in CERN Geneva (CH). Both antennas are equipped with cosmic ray shower detectors: signals in the bar due to showers are continuously detected and used to characterize the antenna performances. The bar excitation mechanism is based on the so called thermo-acoustic effect, studied on dedicated experiments that use particle beams. This mechanism predicts that vibrations of bars are induced by the heat deposited in the bar from the particle. The geometrical acceptance of the bar detectors is 19.5 $\rm m^2$ sr, that is smaller than that of other detectors used for similar searches. However, the detection mechanism is completely different and is more straightforward than in other detectors. We will show the results of ten years of data from NAUTILUS (2003-2012) and 7 years from EXPLORER (2003-2009). The experimental limits we obtain are of interest because, for nuclearites of mass less than $10^{-4}$ grams, we find a flux smaller than that one predicted considering nuclearites as dark matter candidates.Comment: presented to the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference Rio de Janeiro 201

MiniGRAIL progress report 2004

The MiniGRAIL detector was improved. The sphere was replaced by a slightly larger one, having a diameter of 68 cm (instead of 65 cm), reducing the resonant frequency by about 200 Hz to around 2.9 kHz. The last four masses of the attenuation system were machined to increase their resonant frequency and improve the attenuation around the resonant frequency of the sphere. In the new sphere, six holes were machined on the TIGA positions for easy mounting of the transducers. During the last cryogenic run, two capacitive transducers and a calibrator were mounted on the sphere. The first transducer was coupled to a double-stage SQUID amplifier having a commercial quantum design SQUID as a first stage and a DROS as a second stage. The second transducer was read by a single-stage quantum design SQUID. During the cryogenic run, the sphere was cooled down to 4 K. The two-stage SQUID had a flux noise of about 1.6 μ0 Hz−1/2. The detector was calibrated and the sensitivity curve of MiniGRAIL was determined

On the crosscorrelation between Gravitational Wave Detectors for detecting association with Gamma Ray Bursts

Crosscorrelation of the outputs of two Gravitational Wave (GW) detectors has recently been proposed [1] as a method for detecting statistical association between GWs and Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). Unfortunately, the method can be effectively used only in the case of stationary noise. In this work a different crosscorrelation algorithm is presented, which may effectively be applied also in non-stationary conditions for the cumulative analysis of a large number of GRBs. The value of the crosscorrelation at zero delay, which is the only one expected to be correlated to any astrophysical signal, is compared with the distribution of crosscorrelation of the same data for all non-zero delays within the integration time interval. This background distribution is gaussian, so the statistical significance of an experimentally observed excess would be well-defined. Computer simulations using real noise data of the cryogenic GW detectors Explorer and Nautilus with superimposed delta-like signals were performed, to test the effectiveness of the method, and theoretical estimates of its sensitivity compared to the results of the simulation. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is compared to that of other cumulative techniques, finding that the algorithm is particularly effective in the case of non-gaussian noise and of a large (100-1000s) and unpredictable delay between GWs and GRBs.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Submitted by Phys. Rev.

Analysis of 3 years of data from the gravitational wave detectors EXPLORER and NAUTILUS

We performed a search for short gravitational wave bursts using about 3 years of data of the resonant bar detectors Nautilus and Explorer. Two types of analysis were performed: a search for coincidences with a low background of accidentals (0.1 over the entire period), and the calculation of upper limits on the rate of gravitational wave bursts. Here we give a detailed account of the methodology and we report the results: a null search for coincident events and an upper limit that improves over all previous limits from resonant antennas, and is competitive, in the range h_rss ~1E-19, with limits from interferometric detectors. Some new methodological features are introduced that have proven successful in the upper limits evaluation.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure