Mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus in Italy : temporal trends and determinants of infection

In order to analyse temporal trends in vertical transmission rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and determinant of congenital HIV infection in Italy, we have considered data from a network of hospitals co-operating in the Italian Collaborative Study on HIV infection in pregnancy, conducted between 1988 and 1995. A total of 1040 women entered the study. The HIV-1 status of the babies was known in 848 cases (81.5%). Transmission rates were highest in the period 1988\u20131991, then tended to decrease and in 1995 the rate was 9.7 per 100 children (this finding, however, was based on only six infected children and the trend was not statistically significant). Considering the overall series, the risk of vertical HIV transmission was higher in women with low CD4 count in pregnancy [odds ratio (OR) <400 versus \u2a7e400 1.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1\u20132.9]. In comparison with vaginal delivery the risk of transmission was 0.3 (95% CI 0.1\u20130.5) and 0.6 (95% CI 0.3\u20131.2) respectively for elective and emergency delivery. In comparison with women who delivered at term (\u2a7e37 gestation weeks) the OR of HIV infection of the babies for the whole series was 2.2 (95% CI 1.3\u20133.6) in women who delivered preterm. Similar findings emerged when the analysis was conducted considering, separately, subjects observed in the period 1988\u20131991 and 1992\u20131995. The frequency of Caesarean section increased from 26.5% of deliveries in 1988\u20131991 to 36.2% in 1992\u20131995. Consequently, most temporal differences disappeared after standardization for mode of delivery, but the rate in 1995 was still lower than in 1988\u20131994

Nutraceutyki w żywności i farmacji. Praca przeglądowa

The increase in consumer awareness about food and health has led to an increase in the demand for food containing biologically active compounds, especially antioxidants, which can help the human body fight the oxidative stress. Many unconventional or new sources of antioxidants have been discovered, which is a priority not only for food, but also for the pharmaceutical industry. It has been shown that not only raw materials, but also waste from fruit and vegetable processing contains valuable molecules, such as: proteins, essential amino acids, antioxidants, dietary fibers, natural pigments, or aromatic compounds, that can be extracted, purified and modernized in food products or pharmaceuticals with added value. This is the basis of huge potential of not only plant and biotechnology raw materials, but also food waste for the use as a source of antioxidants.

The Types of Tunnels Main-tenance in Umbrella Arch Method

Abstract During tunneling in loose grounds, the ground deformation caused by drillings around the tunnel, leads to land subsidence and the adjacent tunnel which would affect tunnel structure and surrounding structures. In such situations it is necessary to improve the properties of the ground prior to drilling operations. In order to acquire tunnel face stability during excavation operations in areas with loose soil fault or areas with lack of adhesion, there are various methods such as split cross drilling, frame holder or auxiliary pre-holding methods such as umbrella arch method; preholding methods must provide safety when drilling and must be affordable, economically. In this study, we assessed the previous studies on methods and behaviors of umbrella arch strategy in reinforcing the concrete tunnels, reached the purpose with experimental and numerical methods and offered the latest design achievements, implementation progresses and analysis in relation with this method

Enhancement of Nurse Scheduling Steps Using Particle Swarm Optimization

Allocation of working schedule especially for shift approach is hard to ensure its fairness among them. In the case of nurse scheduling, to set up the time tablefor each available nurse is time consuming and complicated, which consider many factors including rules, regulation and human factor. Moreover, most nurses are women which have personnel constraints and maternity leave factors. The undesirable schedule can affect the nurse productivity, social life and the absenteeism can significantly as well affect patient's life. This paper aimed to enhance the scheduling process by utilizing the particle swarm optimization in order to generate an intelligent nurse schedule. The result shows that the multiple initial schedule can be generated and can be selected with the lowest cost of constraint violation