Effects of gestational age at birth on cognitive performance : a function of cognitive workload demands

Objective: Cognitive deficits have been inconsistently described for late or moderately preterm children but are consistently found in very preterm children. This study investigates the association between cognitive workload demands of tasks and cognitive performance in relation to gestational age at birth. Methods: Data were collected as part of a prospective geographically defined whole-population study of neonatal at-risk children in Southern Bavaria. At 8;5 years, n = 1326 children (gestation range: 23–41 weeks) were assessed with the K-ABC and a Mathematics Test. Results: Cognitive scores of preterm children decreased as cognitive workload demands of tasks increased. The relationship between gestation and task workload was curvilinear and more pronounced the higher the cognitive workload: GA2 (quadratic term) on low cognitive workload: R2 = .02, p<0.001; moderate cognitive workload: R2 = .09, p<0.001; and high cognitive workload tasks: R2 = .14, p<0.001. Specifically, disproportionally lower scores were found for very (<32 weeks gestation) and moderately (32–33 weeks gestation) preterm children the higher the cognitive workload of the tasks. Early biological factors such as gestation and neonatal complications explained more of the variance in high (12.5%) compared with moderate (8.1%) and low cognitive workload tasks (1.7%). Conclusions: The cognitive workload model may help to explain variations of findings on the relationship of gestational age with cognitive performance in the literature. The findings have implications for routine cognitive follow-up, educational intervention, and basic research into neuro-plasticity and brain reorganization after preterm birth

Excision of sympathetic ganglia and the rami communicantes with histological confirmation offers better early and late outcomes in Video assisted thoracoscopic sympathectomy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Sympathectomy (VATS) is an established minimally invasive procedure for thoracic sympathetic blockade in patients with hyperhidrosis, facial flushing and intractable angina. Various techniques using clips, diathermy and excision are used to perform sympathectomy. We present our technique of excision of the sympathetic chain with histological proof and the analysis of the early and late outcomes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We evaluated 200 procedures in 100 consecutive patients, who underwent Video Assisted Thoracoscopic Sympathectomy by a single surgeon in our centre between September 1996 to March 2007. All patients had maximum medical therapy prior to surgery and were divided into 3 groups based on indications, Group 1(hyperhidrosis: 48 patients), Group 2 (facial flushing: 26 patients) and Group 3(intractable angina: 26 patients). The demography and severity of symptoms for each group were analysed. The endpoints were success rate, 30 day mortality, complications and patient's satisfaction.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>99 patients had bilateral VATS sympathectomy and 1 had unilateral sympathectomy. The conversion rate to open was 1(1%). All patients had successful removal of ganglia proven histologically with no perioperative mortality in our series. The complications included pneumothorax (5%), acute coronary syndrome (2%), transient Horner's syndrome (1%), transient paraesthesia (1%), wound infection (4%), compensatory hyperhidrosis (18%), residual flushing (3%) and wound pain (5%). There were five late deaths in the intractable angina group at a mean follow up of 36.7 months. Overall success rates of abolishing the symptoms were 96.3%, 87.5% and 95.2% for Group 1, 2 and 3 respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Excision of the sympathetic chain with histological confirmation during VATS sympathectomy is a safe and effective method in treating hyperhidrosis, facial flushing and intractable angina with good long term results and satisfaction.</p

Long-term cognitive and behavioral consequences of neonatal encephalopathy following perinatal asphyxia: a review

Neonatal encephalopathy (NE) following perinatal asphyxia (PA) is considered an important cause of later neurodevelopmental impairment in infants born at term. This review discusses long-term consequences for general cognitive functioning, educational achievement, neuropsychological functioning and behavior. In all areas reviewed, the outcome of children with mild NE is consistently positive and the outcome of children with severe NE consistently negative. However, children with moderate NE form a more heterogeneous group with respect to outcome. On average, intelligence scores are below those of children with mild NE and age-matched peers, but within the normal range. With respect to educational achievement, difficulties have been found in the domains reading, spelling and arithmetic/mathematics. So far, studies of neuropsychological functioning have yielded ambiguous results in children with moderate NE. A few studies suggest elevated rates of hyperactivity in children with moderate NE and autism in children with moderate and severe NE. Conclusion: Behavioral monitoring is required for all children with NE. In addition, systematic, detailed neuropsychological examination is needed especially for children with moderate NE

Global and Regional Differences in Brain Anatomy of Young Children Born Small for Gestational Age

In children who are born small for gestational age (SGA), an adverse intrauterine environment has led to underdevelopment of both the body and the brain. The delay in body growth is (partially) restored during the first two years in a majority of these children. In addition to a negative influence on these physical parameters, decreased levels of intelligence and cognitive impairments have been described in children born SGA. In this study, we used magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain anatomy in 4- to 7-year-old SGA children with and without complete bodily catch-up growth and compared them to healthy children born appropriate for gestational age. Our findings demonstrate that these children strongly differ on brain organisation when compared with healthy controls relating to both global and regional anatomical differences. Children born SGA displayed reduced cerebral and cerebellar grey and white matter volumes, smaller volumes of subcortical structures and reduced cortical surface area. Regional differences in prefrontal cortical thickness suggest a different development of the cerebral cortex. SGA children with bodily catch-up growth constitute an intermediate between those children without catch-up growth and healthy controls. Therefore, bodily catch-up growth in children born SGA does not implicate full catch-up growth of the brain

Patterns of neonatal hypoxic–ischaemic brain injury

Enormous progress has been made in assessing the neonatal brain, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this review, we will describe the use of MRI and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in detecting different patterns of brain injury in (full-term) human neonates following hypoxic–ischaemic brain injury and indicate the relevance of these findings in predicting neurodevelopmental outcome

Euclid preparation: XVII. Cosmic Dawn Survey: Spitzer Space Telescope observations of the Euclid deep fields and calibration fields

We present a new infrared survey covering the three Euclid deep fields and four other Euclid calibration fields using Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). We combined these new observations with all relevant IRAC archival data of these fields in order to produce the deepest possible mosaics of these regions. In total, these observations represent nearly 11 % of the total Spitzer Space Telescope mission time. The resulting mosaics cover a total of approximately 71.5 deg^{2} in the 3.6 and 4.5 μm bands, and approximately 21.8 deg^{2} in the 5.8 and 8 μm bands. They reach at least 24 AB magnitude (measured to 5σ, in a 2″​​.5 aperture) in the 3.6 μm band and up to ∼5 mag deeper in the deepest regions. The astrometry is tied to the Gaia astrometric reference system, and the typical astrometric uncertainty for sources with 16 "< "[3.6]< 19 is ≲ 0″​​.15. The photometric calibration is in excellent agreement with previous WISE measurements. We extracted source number counts from the 3.6 μm band mosaics, and they are in excellent agreement with previous measurements. Given that the Spitzer Space Telescope has now been decommissioned, these mosaics are likely to be the definitive reduction of these IRAC data. This survey therefore represents an essential first step in assembling multi-wavelength data on the Euclid deep fields, which are set to become some of the premier fields for extragalactic astronomy in the 2020s

<em>Euclid</em> preparation: LIII. LensMC, weak lensing cosmic shear measurement with forward modelling and Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling

\ua9 The Authors 2024. LENSMC is a weak lensing shear measurement method developed for Euclid and Stage-IV surveys. It is based on forward modelling in order to deal with convolution by a point spread function (PSF) with comparable size to many galaxies, sampling the posterior distribution of galaxy parameters via Markov chain Monte Carlo, and marginalisation over nuisance parameters for each of the 1.5 billion galaxies observed by Euclid. We quantified the scientific performance through high-fidelity images based on the Euclid Flagship simulations and emulation of the Euclid VIS images, realistic clustering with a mean surface number density of 250 arcmin2 (IE &lt; 29.5) for galaxies, and 6 arcmin2 (IE &lt; 26) for stars, and a diffraction-limited chromatic PSF with a full width at half maximum of 02.22 and spatial variation across the field of view. LENSMC measured objects with a density of 90 arcmin2 (IE &lt; 26.5) in 4500 deg2. The total shear bias was broken down into measurement (our main focus here) and selection effects (which will be addressed in future work). We found measurement multiplicative and additive biases of m1 = (3.6 \ub1 0.2) A- 103, m2 = (4.3 \ub1 0.2) A- 103, c1 = (1.78 \ub1 0.03) A- 104, and c2 = (0.09 \ub1 0.03) A- 104; a large detection bias with a multiplicative component of 1.2 A- 102 and an additive component of 3 A- 104; and a measurement PSF leakage of α1 = (9 \ub1 3) A- 104 and α2 = (2 \ub1 3) A- 104. When model bias is suppressed, the obtained measurement biases are close to Euclid requirement and largely dominated by undetected faint galaxies (5 A- 103). Although significant, model bias will be straightforward to calibrate given its weak sensitivity on galaxy morphology parameters. LENSMC is publicly available at gitlab.com/gcongedo/LensMC

<em>Euclid</em> preparation: XLVII. Improving cosmological constraints using a new multi-tracer method with the spectroscopic and photometric samples

\ua9 2024 The Authors. Future data provided by the Euclid mission will allow us to better understand the cosmic history of the Universe. A metric of its performance is the figure-of-merit (FoM) of dark energy, usually estimated with Fisher forecasts. The expected FoM has previously been estimated taking into account the two main probes of Euclid, namely the three-dimensional clustering of the spectroscopic galaxy sample, and the so-called 3 72pt signal from the photometric sample (i.e., the weak lensing signal, the galaxy clustering, and their cross-correlation). So far, these two probes have been treated as independent. In this paper, we introduce a new observable given by the ratio of the (angular) two-point correlation function of galaxies from the two surveys. For identical (normalised) selection functions, this observable is unaffected by sampling noise, and its variance is solely controlled by Poisson noise. We present forecasts for Euclid where this multi-tracer method is applied and is particularly relevant because the two surveys will cover the same area of the sky. This method allows for the exploitation of the combination of the spectroscopic and photometric samples. When the correlation between this new observable and the other probes is not taken into account, a significant gain is obtained in the FoM, as well as in the constraints on other cosmological parameters. The benefit is more pronounced for a commonly investigated modified gravity model, namely the γ parametrisation of the growth factor. However, the correlation between the different probes is found to be significant and hence the actual gain is uncertain. We present various strategies for circumventing this issue and still extract useful information from the new observable

Euclid preparation: LVIII. Detecting extragalactic globular clusters in the Euclid survey

\ua9 The Authors 2025.Extragalactic globular clusters (EGCs) are an abundant and powerful tracer of galaxy dynamics and formation, and their own formation and evolution is also a matter of extensive debate. The compact nature of globular clusters means that they are hard to spatially resolve and thus study outside the Local Group. In this work we have examined how well EGCs will be detectable in images from the Euclid telescope, using both simulated pre-launch images and the first early-release observations of the Fornax galaxy cluster. The Euclid Wide Survey will provide high-spatial resolution VIS imaging in the broad IE band as well as near-infrared photometry (YE, JE, and HE). We estimate that the 24 719 known galaxies within 100 Mpc in the footprint of the Euclid survey host around 830 000 EGCs of which about 350 000 are within the survey\u27s detection limits. For about half of these EGCs, three infrared colours will be available as well. For any galaxy within 50 Mpc the brighter half of its GC luminosity function will be detectable by the Euclid Wide Survey. The detectability of EGCs is mainly driven by the residual surface brightness of their host galaxy. We find that an automated machine-learning EGC-classification method based on real Euclid data of the Fornax galaxy cluster provides an efficient method to generate high purity and high completeness GC candidate catalogues. We confirm that EGCs are spatially resolved compared to pure point sources in VIS images of Fornax. Our analysis of both simulated and first on-sky data show that Euclid will increase the number of GCs accessible with high-resolution imaging substantially compared to previous surveys, and will permit the study of GCs in the outskirts of their hosts. Euclid is unique in enabling systematic studies of EGCs in a spatially unbiased and homogeneous manner and is primed to improve our understanding of many understudied aspects of GC astrophysics