In preterm infants, ascending intrauterine infection is associated with lower cerebral tissue oxygen saturation and higher oxygen extraction

BACKGROUND: Placental lesions are associated with neurological morbidity but the mechanism leading to morbidity is unclear. To provide insight into such a possible mechanism, we determined whether placental lesions were associated with regional cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (r(c)SO(2)) and fractional tissue oxygen extraction (FTOE) in preterm infants during their first 5 d after birth. We hypothesized that as a result of cerebral hypoperfusion, rcSO2 would be lower and FTOE would be higher. METHOD: In a prospective, observational study of 42 preterm infants (gestational age RESULTS: Only three placentas showed no pathology. Ascending intrauterine infection (AlUI) (n = 16) was associated with lower r(c)SO(2) and higher FTOE values on days 2, 3, and 4 (P CONCLUSION: AlUI is associated with lower r(c)SO(2), and higher FTOE shortly after birth. The effect it has on cerebral oxygenation might be the mechanism leading to neurodevelopmental problems

Redox-active molecular wires incorporating ruthenium(II) alpha-arylacetylide complexes for molecular electronics

The preparation and properties of novel ruthenium carbon-rich complexes for molecular electronics are reported. The synthetic procedure used in this work led to the first series of neutral redox-active conjugated molecular wires including mono-, bi-, and trimetallic bis(sigma-arylacetylide) complexes (RunNC and CNRunNC, n = 1-3) having 1,4-diethynylbenzene spacers and one or two isocyanide terminal groups for surface binding. An analogous cationic sigma-arylacetylide-allenylidene molecule (AllRuNC(+)) is also reported. These new structurally rigid complexes have lengths ranging from 1.8 to 4.5 nm and are excellent candidates for the building of alternative metal-molecule-metal junctions. Indeed, the molecules uniquely contain up to three metal-redox centers that are efficiently coupled by conjugated ligands to provide significant electronic communication along the molecular backbone, as indicated by the optical and electrochemical properties. Furthermore, the wires offer multiple low potential redox states that can lead to unusual current-voltage behavior and efficient charge conduction. Overall, these molecules will open a route to establish the structure-property relationships of conductive molecular wires and to gain valuable insights into the correlation between charge transport and molecular length