The experience of antenatal hospitalization among high-risk pregnant women

Pregnancy is a multi-dimensional experience that affects a woman physically, psychologically, and socially, in which hopes and expectations for the pregnancy and becoming a mother are developed. However, when women experience a high-risk pregnancy, the hopes of a rewarding experience are shattered. These women could have difficulty with the mothering role after birth and their mental health or parenting ability could be impacted. If there are major discrepancies between maternal expectations and actual experiences, taking on the maternal role could be negatively impacted (Rubin, 1984). The purpose of the study was to describe the high-risk pregnant woman’s experience of antepartum hospitalization. Specific aims for the study were to discover how the hospitalized high-risk pregnant woman felt about her unborn baby and to describe how the hospitalized high-risk pregnant woman cognitively constructed her transition to becoming a mother. The study was conducted using a hermeneutic, phenomenological approach. Rubin’s (1984) work on maternal identity was used to guide the study. Additionally, the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty (1945/2012) was used to understand the unique lived experiences of hospitalized high-risk pregnant women. Thirteen hospitalized, high-risk pregnant women, with an average age of 27.5 years (range: 20-38), were interviewed for the study. The average number of weeks gestation of the participants was 28.19 (range: 22 6/7-33 5/7 weeks gestation). Thematic analysis of high-risk pregnant women’s hospital experiences yielded the overarching theme, Doing Whatever It Takes, and four additional themes: Flooding Emotions from Hospitalization, Struggling with Uncertainty and Changing Expectations, Dealing with Hospitalization, and Anticipating Motherhood. Doing Whatever It Takes was expressed as a prominent way of dealing with the hospitalization and the unanticipated changes in their pregnancies, with many expressing the will to fight for their babies no matter the difficulties they faced. The initial response to the hospitalization caused a wide range of negative emotions, with some women grieving the loss of the idealized pregnancy, while others grieved missing out on the events of pregnancy (e.g., baby showers and preparing the nursery). Despite these difficulties, all women considered the hospital as a safe place for them, knowing they and their babies were close to care, if needed. Various ways of Dealing with the Hospitalization included holding on to hope, keeping a positive attitude, relying upon God, and feeling supported. Overall, most women expressed excitement for their babies and becoming a mother, with some already seeing themselves as mothers. Many women described their babies in the present tense and expressed their thoughts of what their babies would be like in the future (e.g., size and personality). However, not all women saw themselves as mothers “until the baby was born” or “hoping it would develop (being mother) after the baby was born.” Some women described the relationship with their babies as close already, while a few stated they did not have a relationship with the baby yet, but expected it to form once the baby arrived. Three new findings emerged from this study. First, the developing relationship between a mother and baby was described as growing stronger as the pregnancy continued. Second, the use of technology to stay connected to family and friends during hospitalization was reported as being helpful. Finally, previous studies reported deleterious physical effects of bed rest; whereas in this study, women described emotional effects, rather than physical effects

Breed and adaptive response modulate bovine peripheral blood cells’ transcriptome

Background: Adaptive response includes a variety of physiological modifications to face changes in external or internal conditions and adapt to a new situation. The acute phase proteins (APPs) are reactants synthesized against environmental stimuli like stress, infection, inflammation. Methods: To delineate the differences in molecular constituents of adaptive response to the environment we performed the whole-blood transcriptome analysis in Italian Holstein (IH) and Italian Simmental (IS) breeds. For this, 663 IH and IS cows from six commercial farms were clustered according to the blood level of APPs. Ten extreme individuals (five APP+ and APP- variants) from each farm were selected for the RNA-seq using the Illumina sequencing technology. Differentially expressed (DE) genes were analyzed using dynamic impact approach (DIA) and DAVID annotation clustering. Milk production data were statistically elaborated to assess the association of APP+ and APP- gene expression patterns with variations in milk parameters. Results: The overall de novo assembly of cDNA sequence data generated 13,665 genes expressed in bovine blood cells. Comparative genomic analysis revealed 1,152 DE genes in the comparison of all APP+ vs. all APP- variants; 531 and 217 DE genes specific for IH and IS comparison respectively. In all comparisons overexpressed genes were more represented than underexpressed ones. DAVID analysis revealed 369 DE genes across breeds, 173 and 73 DE genes in IH and IS comparison respectively. Among the most impacted pathways for both breeds were vitamin B6 metabolism, folate biosynthesis, nitrogen metabolism and linoleic acid metabolism. Conclusions: Both DIA and DAVID approaches produced a high number of significantly impacted genes and pathways with a narrow connection to adaptive response in cows with high level of blood APPs. A similar variation in gene expression and impacted pathways between APP+ and APP- variants was found between two studied breeds. Such similarity was also confirmed by annotation clustering of the DE genes. However, IH breed showed higher and more differentiated impacts compared to IS breed and such particular features in the IH adaptive response could be explained by its higher metabolic activity. Variations of milk production data were significantly associated with APP+ and APP- gene expression patterns

Analysis of wild-type and mutant aspartate aminotransferases using integrated rate equations.

A general integrated rate equation was fit to reaction progress curves catalyzed by wild-type E. coli aspartate aminotransferase and the site-specific mutant enzymes, H193Q and Y70F. A nonlinear step-regression code, revised for this study selected from all kinetic constants in a general integrated rate equation for all unbranched enzyme mechanisms with stoichiometries upto two substrates and two products including terms for substrate inhibitions and that of an exogenous inhibitor. For each aspartate aminotransferase enzyme studied only kinetic constants consistent with a substituted enzyme mechanism were found statistically significant, thus the enzyme mechanism and sources of inhibition were determined objectively by statistics. The kinetic constants for wild-type and Y70F aspartate aminotransferase were similar to those previously reported indicating the validity of the integrated rate equation analysis. Minor changes in kinetic constants were observed for the H193Q mutant enzyme suggesting that the catalytic effects of the electrostatic hydrogen bonding network extending from the pyridine nitrogen of the cofactor through Asp-222, His-189 ends prior to His-193

Probing the effect of substrate heating during deposition of DCV4T:C₆₀ blend layers for organic solar cells

We present a comprehensive investigation of morphological changes inside the active layer of an organic solar cell induced by substrate heating during layer deposition by thermal evaporation in ultra-high vacuum. To explore the trends observed in solar cell devices, we apply absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and organic field effect transistor measurements. The material combination we use comprises unsubstituted dicyanovinyl end-capped quaterthiophene (DCV4T) as the donor material mixed with C60 as the acceptor. The solar cell power conversion efficiency decreases with increasing substrate temperature during film deposition due to changes in the crystalline structure of the oligothiophene phase, leading to a decrease in absorption strength. Photoluminescence measurements show that substrate heating increases the amount of phase separation between the donor and acceptor, and topology and structure investigations reveal large aggregates of polycrystalline DCV4T at the surface. However, the fill factor is increased for higher substrate temperatures due to better transport properties. The highest efficiency obtained with this material combination and stack design is 3.0% under AM1.5g illumination. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Mycobacterium decipiens sp. nov., a new species closely related to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex

Two mycobacterial strains with close similarity to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) were isolated from cutaneous lesions of patients in the USA and Italy. At the phenotypic level, similarities to the MTBC included slow growth rate, rough morphotype of the unpigmented colonies and nearly identical high-performance liquid chromatography profiles of mycolic acids. In contrast to the MTBC, the strains were niacin- and nitrate-negative, and catalase-positive both at 68 °C and in semi-quantitative tests. The clinical isolates were more closely related to M. tuberculosis than to any other known mycobacterium and scored positive with commercial DNA probes (Hologic AccuProbe M. tuberculosis). Both average nucleotide identity and genome-to-genome distance suggested the strains are different from the MTBC. Therefore, given the distinguishing phenotypic and genomic-scale differences, we submit that the strains belong to a new species we have named Mycobacteriumdecipiens with type strain TBL 1200985T (=ATCC TSD-117T=DSM 105360T)

Age dependence of glucose tolerance in adult KK-Ay mice, a model of non–insulin dependent diabetes mellitus

Yellow KK mice carrying the \u27yellow obese\u27 gene Ay are a well established polygenic model for human non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. These animals develop marked adiposity and decreased glucose tolerance relative to their control littermates, KK mice. The authors monitored glucose tolerance in KK-Ay mice over time and observed a significant (P ≤ 0.05) age-dependent improvement (13.3% by 175 d of age and 36.4% by 212 d of age, relative to 85 d of age). During the same time period, body weight and food and water consumption were relatively constant. The authors also measured plasma levels of endocrine hormones that are important in diabetes. Levels of insulin were approximately 8 times higher and levels of amylin 3 times higher in 220-d-old KK-Ay mice than in 180-d-old mice, whereas levels of glucagon-like peptide 1, glucagon and leptin remained relatively constant. These findings suggest that KK-Ay mice undergo an age-dependent improvement of glucose tolerance when maintained on a normal diet for 25 weeks or longer, due in part to increases in plasma levels of insulin and amylin