Intact perineum : what are the predictive factors in spontaneous vaginal birth?

Introduction: Perineal trauma at birth is distressing for women and can cause serious short and long term morbidity. Aim: Investigate the prevalence and predictive factors of intact perineum after normal vaginal birth among Portuguese women who had spontaneous vaginal births. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective study was carried out among pregnant women who had spontaneous vaginal births, between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2017, in a single birth centre in Portugal. Following ethical approval, the prevalence of intact perineum was calculated and multivariate analysis with logistic regression was carried out, to identify the predictive factors of having an intact perineum after spontaneous vaginal birth. Results: A total of 1748 pregnant women had spontaneous vaginal births. Four hundred and forty-one women (25.2%) had intact perineum whereas in 1307 (74.8%) of women, the perineum was not intact. First-degree tears occurred in 23.2% (405/1748) of women, second-degree tears occurred in 4% (70/1748) of women while three women (0.2%) experienced a third-degree tear. The rate of episiotomies was 43.8% (766/1748). Episiotomy and first-degree tears occurred in 2.6% (45/1748), episiotomy and second-degree tears occurred in 0.7% (12/1748), while episiotomy and third-degree tears occurred in 0.3% (6/1748) of women. Having a previous caesarean section reduced the odds of intact perineum by 60%, while nulliparity reduced the odds by 70%. For every 250 grams increase in birth weight, the odds of sustaining an intact perineum were decreased by 13%. Alternative birth positions (excluding lithotomy) doubled the odds of maintaining an intact perineum. Conclusion: The prevalence of intact perineum is 25,2%. Predictive factors for intact perineum include birth weight, parity, previous caesarean section and birthing position. Recognizing these factors could support and facilitate the management of spontaneous vaginal birth to promote an intact perineum. Further research is needed to gain better understanding of this phenomenon.peer-reviewe

Two-step purification of epilactose produced by cellobiose 2-epimerase from Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus

Epilactose is a functional sugar that can be produced from lactose using cellobiose 2-epimerase and it is considered a developing prebiotic. In that sense, the development of strategies to produce and purify epilactose is key for its wider use in the food industry. The aim of this work was to establish a food-grade purification strategy suitable to be scaled-up to an industrial level. Firstly, the epilactose was produced by enzymatic epimerization of lactose in a reaction catalyzed by the recombinant cellobiose 2-epimerase from Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus produced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Then, to remove the unreacted lactose, a screening study was performed to find a suitable -galactosidase enzyme with high lactose hydrolysis capacity but low ability to convert the epilactose. The elimination of the generated monosaccharides was then attempted by microbial treatment using different microorganisms and using activated charcoal. The bakers yeast S. cerevisiae was proven to be the most suitable microorganism for glucose and galactose removal from the reaction mixture. Overall, an attractive and food-grade two-step process for epilactose recovery was established, resulting in a purity and yield of 87% and 76.4%, respectively. Additionally, the INFOGEST 2.0 static in vitro simulation of gastrointestinal food digestion was used, for the first time, to assess the resistance of epilactose (77% resistance) to the upper gastrointestinal tract conditions, reinforcing its potential to be used as prebiotic.BBC and JMF acknowledge their doctoral grants (SFRH/BD/ 132324/2017 and SFRH/BD/147286/2019, respectively) from the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology (FCT). This study was supported by FCT under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/ 04469/2020 unit.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Spectroscopic and Theoretical Studies of Some 3-(4 '-Substituted phenylsulfanyl)-1-methyl-2-piperidones

The analysis of the IR carbonyl bands of some 3-(4 '-substituted phenylsulfanyl)1- methyl-2-piperidones 1-6 bearing substituents: NO2 (compound 1), Br (compound 2), Cl (compound 3), H (compound 4) Me (compound 5) and OMe (compound 6) supported by B3LYP/ 6-31+ G(d, p) and PCM calculations along with NBO analysis (for compound 4) and X-ray diffraction (for 2) indicated the existence of two stable conformations, i.e., axial (ax) and equatorial (eq), the former corresponding to the most stable and the least polar one in the gas phase calculations. the sum of the energy contributions of the orbital interactions (NBO analysis) and the electrostatic interactions correlate well with the populations and the vCO frequencies of the ax and eq conformers found in the gas phase. Unusually, in solution of the non-polar solvents n-C6H14 and CCl4, the more intense higher IR carbonyl frequency can be ascribed to the ax conformer, while the less intense lower IR doublet component to the eq one. the same.CO frequency trend also holds in polar solvents, that is nu(CO(eq)) < nu(CO(ax)). However, a reversal of the ax/eq intensity ratio occurs going from non-polar to polar solvents, with the ax conformer component that progressively decreases with respect to the eq one in CHCl3 and CH2Cl2, and is no longer detectable in the most polar solvent CH3CN. the PCM method applied to compound 4 supports these findings. in fact, it predicts the progressive increase of the eq/ax population ratio as the relative permittivity of the solvent increases. Moreover, it indicates that the computed.CO frequencies of the ax and eq conformers do not change in the non-polar solvents n-C6H14 and CCl4, while the.CO frequencies of the eq conformer become progressively lower than that of the ax one going from CHCl3 to CH2Cl2 and to CH3CN, in agreement with the experimental IR values. the analysis of the geometries of the ax and eq conformers shows that the carbonyl oxygen atom of the eq conformer is free for solvation, while the O-[CO]center dot center dot center dot H[o-Ph] hydrogen bond that takes place in the ax conformer partially hinders the approach of the solvent molecules to the carbonyl oxygen atom. Therefore, the larger solvation that occurs in the carbonyl oxygen atom of the eq conformer is responsible for the observed and calculated decrease of the corresponding frequency. the X-ray single crystal analysis of 2 indicates that this compound adopts the most polar eq geometry in the solid. in fact, in order to obtain the largest energy gain, the molecules are arranged in the crystal in a helical fashion due to dipole moment coupling along with C-H center dot center dot center dot O and C-H center dot center dot center dot pi(Ph) hydrogen bonds.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)MIUR (PRIN)Univ São Paulo, Inst Chem, Conformat Anal & Elect Interact Lab, BR-05513970 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, UNIFESP, Inst Environm Chem & Pharmaceut Sci, BR-09972270 Diadema, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Carlos, Dept Chem, BR-13565905 Sao Carlos, SP, BrazilUniv Ferrara, Dept Chem, I-44100 Ferrara, ItalyUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, UNIFESP, Inst Environm Chem & Pharmaceut Sci, BR-09972270 Diadema, SP, BrazilCAPES: 808/2009Web of Scienc

Clinical Epidemiology of Buruli ulcer from Benin (2005-2013): effect of time-delay to diagnosis on clinical forms and severe phenotypes

Buruli Ulcer (BU) is a neglected infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans that is responsible for severe necrotizing cutaneous lesions that may be associated with bone involvement. Clinical presentations of BU lesions are classically classified as papules, nodules, plaques and edematous infiltration, ulcer or osteomyelitis. Within these different clinical forms, lesions can be further classified as severe forms based on focality (multiple lesions), lesions' size (>15 cm diameter) or WHO Category (WHO Category 3 lesions). There are studies reporting an association between delay in seeking medical care and the development of ulcerative forms of BU or osteomyelitis, but the effect of time-delay on the emergence of lesions classified as severe has not been addressed. To address both issues, and in a cohort of laboratory-confirmed BU cases, 476 patients from a medical center in Allada, Benin, were studied. In this laboratory-confirmed cohort, we validated previous observations, demonstrating that time-delay is statistically related to the clinical form of BU. Indeed, for non-ulcerated forms (nodule, edema, and plaque) the median time-delay was 32.5 days (IQR 30.0-67.5), while for ulcerated forms it was 60 days (IQR 20.0-120.0) (p = 0.009), and for bone lesions, 365 days (IQR 228.0-548.0). On the other hand, we show here that time-delay is not associated with the more severe phenotypes of BU, such as multi-focal lesions (median 90 days; IQR 56-217.5; p = 0.09), larger lesions (diameter >15 cm) (median 60 days; IQR 30-120; p = 0.92) or category 3 WHO classification (median 60 days; IQR 30-150; p = 0.20), when compared with unifocal (median 60 days; IQR 30-90), small lesions (diameter =15 cm) (median 60 days; IQR 30-90), or WHO category 1+2 lesions (median 60 days; IQR 30-90), respectively. Our results demonstrate that after an initial period of progression towards ulceration or bone involvement, BU lesions become stable regarding size and focal/multi-focal progression. Therefore, in future studies on BU epidemiology, severe clinical forms should be systematically considered as distinct phenotypes of the same disease and thus subjected to specific risk factor investigation.The research leading to these results received funding from the Health Services of the Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian under the grant Proc. No94776 LJ; from the Fundacao para a Ciecia e Tecnologia (FCT), cofunded by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2-O Novo Norte); from the Quadro de Referencia Estrategico Nacional (QREN) through the Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) and from the Projeto Estrategico - LA 26 - 2013-2014 (PEst-C/SAU/LA0026/2013). A. G. Fraga received an individual FCT fellowship (SFRH/BPD/68547/2010) and J. Menino received an individual QREN fellowship (UMINHO/BPD/14/2014). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Dendrimers toward translational nanotherapeutics: concise key step analysis

The goal of nanomedicine is to address specific clinical problems optimally, to fight human diseases, and to find clinical relevance to change clinical practice. Nanomedicine is poised to revolutionize medicine via the development of more precise diagnostic and therapeutic tools. The field of nanomedicine encompasses numerous features and therapeutic disciplines. A plethora of nanomolecular structures have been engineered and developed for therapeutic applications based on their multitasking abilities and the wide functionalization of their core scaffolds and surface groups. Within nanoparticles used for nanomedicine, dendrimers as well polymers have demonstrated strong potential as nanocarriers, therapeutic agents, and imaging contrast agents. In this review, we present and discuss the different criteria and parameters to be addressed to prepare and develop druggable nanoparticles in general and dendrimers in particular. We also describe the major requirements, included in the preclinical and clinical roadmap, for NPs/dendrimers for the preclinical stage to commercialization. Ultimately, we raise the clinical translation of new nanomedicine issues.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

High-resolution shotgun proteomics reveals that increased air [CO2] amplifies the acclimation response of coffea species to drought regarding antioxidative, energy, sugar, and lipid dynamics

Funding Information: This work received funding support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No 727934 , project BreedCAFS), and from national funds from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT) , Portugal, through the project PTDC/ASP-AGR/31257/2017 , and the research units UIDB/00239/2020 ( CEF ), and UIDP/04035/2020 (GeoBioTec) and under the Scientific Employment Stimulus - Individual Call (CEEC Individual) - 2021.01107.CEECIND/CP1689/CT0001 (IM) . Fellowships from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brazil (CNPq) , (to F.M. DaMatta and F.L. Partelli), and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais, Brazil (FAPEMIG, projects CRA-RED-00053-16 and APQ 01512-18 , to F.M. DaMatta) are also greatly acknowledged. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier GmbHAs drought threatens crop productivity it is crucial to characterize the defense mechanisms against water deficit and unveil their interaction with the expected rise in the air [CO2]. For that, plants of Coffea canephora cv. Conilon Clone 153 (CL153) and C. arabica cv. Icatu grown under 380 (aCO2) or 700 μL L−1 (eCO2) were exposed to moderate (MWD) and severe (SWD) water deficits. Responses were characterized through the activity and/or abundance of a selected set of proteins associated with antioxidative (e.g., Violaxanthin de-epoxidase, Superoxide dismutase, Ascorbate peroxidases, Monodehydroascorbate reductase), energy/sugar (e.g., Ferredoxin-NADP reductase, NADP-dependent glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, sucrose synthase, mannose-6-phosphate isomerase, Enolase), and lipid (Lineolate 13S-lipoxygenase) processes, as well as with other antioxidative (ascorbate) and protective (HSP70) molecules. MWD caused small changes in both genotypes regardless of [CO2] level while under the single imposition to SWD, only Icatu showed a global reinforcement of most studied proteins supporting its tolerance to drought. eCO2 alone did not promote remarkable changes but strengthened a robust multi-response under SWD, even supporting the reversion of impacts already observed by CL153 at aCO2. In the context of climate changes where water constraints and [CO2] levels are expected to increase, these results highlight why eCO2 might have an important role in improving drought tolerance in Coffea species.publishersversionpublishe