Maternal outcomes and risk factors for COVID-19 severity among pregnant women.

Pregnant women may be at higher risk of severe complications associated with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which may lead to obstetrical complications. We performed a case control study comparing pregnant women with severe coronavirus disease 19 (cases) to pregnant women with a milder form (controls) enrolled in the COVI-Preg international registry cohort between March 24 and July 26, 2020. Risk factors for severity, obstetrical and immediate neonatal outcomes were assessed. A total of 926 pregnant women with a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 were included, among which 92 (9.9%) presented with severe COVID-19 disease. Risk factors for severe maternal outcomes were pulmonary comorbidities [aOR 4.3, 95% CI 1.9-9.5], hypertensive disorders [aOR 2.7, 95% CI 1.0-7.0] and diabetes [aOR2.2, 95% CI 1.1-4.5]. Pregnant women with severe maternal outcomes were at higher risk of caesarean section [70.7% (n = 53/75)], preterm delivery [62.7% (n = 32/51)] and newborns requiring admission to the neonatal intensive care unit [41.3% (n = 31/75)]. In this study, several risk factors for developing severe complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection among pregnant women were identified including pulmonary comorbidities, hypertensive disorders and diabetes. Obstetrical and neonatal outcomes appear to be influenced by the severity of maternal disease

Weather Awareness: On the Lookout for Wildfire in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

Mountains are crucial places in which to observe, experience, and learn about rapid weather and climate shifts, felt to varying degrees in different contexts. Fire lookout observers, immersed in the mountain environments of Alberta, Canada, for 5 to 6 months of the year, many of them returning to the same place for over 3 decades, have a distinctive and little-studied perspective on weather experience and how seasonal changes, sudden weather shifts, and subtle weather irregularities are experienced first-hand in alpine regions. Drawing on recent fieldwork in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, this article sheds light on fire lookout observers' awareness of mountain weather in their everyday lived experience and in their observations of wildfires as severe weather events. A focus on wildfire smoke as one way of experiencing wildfires allows us to touch on the implications of smoke dispersal for communities near to and far from wildfires

15. Clicker Lessons: Assessing and Addressing Student Responses to Audience Response Systems

This project began in response to a perceived need to assess students’ perceptions with respect to the emerging use of audience response systems (clickers) in several mid- to large-size undergraduate courses at the University of Victoria. We developed and validated a “Clicker Use Survey” to gather students’ opinions with respect to clicker utility and the impact of clicker use on their learning. With the collected data we generated a set of baseline distributions to support assessment of various clicker use protocols and created a self-evaluation tool to share with instructors to support teacher reflection on the efficacy of their clicker practices. We also provided a sample self-evaluation to model the use of the tool. Links to the survey instrument, baseline data and self-evaluation tool, and sample self-evaluation are provided

Improving the Usability of Eclipse for Novice Programmers

This paper describes how we are designing a set of plug-ins to improve teaching and learning of Java programming. Based on requirements gathered from key project stakeholders, the plug-ins include perspectives for both students and instructors. These plug-ins are being developed as part of the Gild project. The paper summarizes our design process from requirements gathering through to initial tool evaluation. In particular, it details the student perspective and describes how it addresses many pedagogical issues facing computer science educators today. Gild is currently deployed and in use at the University of Victoria.

Life and death in Neolithic Southeastern Italy. The strontium isotopic evidence

There is a strong relation between people’s structured identities and their chemical biographies: these can reflect the way individuals choose to reside and/or move. The strontium isotope ratio (87Sr/86Sr) of skeletal remains is considered a useful proxy to assess residential mobility and social practices in past populations; however, so far, it has only occasionally been applied to prehistoric contexts in the Mediterranean. In this paper, we present 87Sr/86Sr data of human and animal samples from several Neolithic sites in the Apulian Tavoliere (southeastern Italy), namely, Grotta Scaloria, Passo di Corvo, Masseria Candelaro and La Torretta/Poggio Imperiale. Data obtained from dental enamel reflect the local origin of the individuals and allowed us to differentiate function and meaning of the sites examined. In particular, within a generally homogeneous background of Sr signatures, the range of 87Sr/86Sr at Scaloria Cave is greater than at the other sites, with variation likely to be related to funerary practices. We interpret this as the evidence of the ritual use of the cave, which implied the gathering of people of different origin. The relative variation of the Sr signature among individuals, either intersite or intrasite can be tentatively associated with mobility during life as well as with social practices, such as access to foods from geologically different environment

Evidenze isotopiche e paleodieta nel neolitico pugliese. Verso la globalizzazione?

Le evidenze dirette della dieta in area Mediterranea nel corso del neolitico sono piuttosto limitate. in Puglia, la maggior parte dei dati paleonutrizionali proviene tuttora dal record archeologico, che per sua natura è soggetto a molteplici limitazioni. in questo senso si inseriscono le indagini degli isotopi stabili di carbonio e azoto misurabili nel collagene umano e animale. Questo genere di analisi permette di ricostruire la componente proteica della dieta. in particolare, il rapporto isotopico del carbonio permette di distinguere tra tipi di piante consumate in ragione del processo fotosintetico utilizzato (i.e., piante C3 o C4), nonché tra dieta di tipo terrestre piuttosto che marina. il rapporto isotopico dell’azoto è invece utile nella collocazione degli organismi esaminati all’interno della catena trofica, misurando l’apporto relativo di proteine animali e/o vegetali. l’indagine isotopica effettuata su una serie di siti pugliesi riferibili a tutte le fasi del neolitico, ci ha permesso di individuare una sostanziale indifferenziazione nelle pratiche di sussistenza, che prevede, verosimilmente, l’impiego di un range ricor- rente di specie animali e vegetali. Questa koiné alimentare, si materializza nel consumo di specie prevalentemente terrestri, con un limitato impiego di risorse marine. i dati emersi da questa indagine ci costringono a riconsiderare alcuni assunti, rivelando al tempo stesso una complessità inattesa