63 research outputs found
Producing valid statistics when legislation, culture, and medical practices differ for births at or before the threshold of survival: Report of a European workshop
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Using Robson's TenâGroup Classification System for comparing caesarean section rates in Europe: an analysis of routine data from the EuroâPeristat study
Objective
Robson's Ten Group Classification System (TGCS) creates clinically relevant subâgroups for monitoring caesarean birth rates. This study assesses whether this classification can be derived from routine data in Europe and uses it to analyse national caesarean rates.
Design
Observational study using routine data.
Setting
Twentyâseven EU member states plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the UK.
Population
All births at â„22 weeks of gestational age in 2015.
Methods
National statistical offices and medical birth registers derived numbers of caesarean births in TGCS groups.
Main outcome measures
Overall caesarean rate, prevalence and caesarean rates in each of the TGCS groups.
Results
Of 31 countries, 18 were able to provide data on the TGCS groups, with UK data available only from Northern Ireland. Caesarean birth rates ranged from 16.1 to 56.9%. Countries providing TGCS data had lower caesarean rates than countries without data (25.8% versus 32.9%, P = 0.04). Countries with higher caesarean rates tended to have higher rates in all TGCS groups. Substantial heterogeneity was observed, however, especially for groups 5 (previous caesarean section), 6, 7 (nulliparous/multiparous breech) and 10 (singleton cephalic preterm). The differences in percentages of abnormal lies, group 9, illustrate potential misclassification arising from unstandardised definitions.
Conclusions
Although further validation of data quality is needed, using TGCS in Europe provides valuable comparator and baseline data for benchmarking and surveillance. Higher caesarean rates in countries unable to construct the TGCS suggest that effective routine information systems may be an indicator of a country's investment in implementing evidenceâbased caesarean policies.
Tweetable abstract
Many European countries can provide Robson's TenâGroup Classification to improve caesarean rate comparisons
Probing polydopamine adhesion to protein and polymer films: microscopic and spectroscopic evaluation
Polydopamine has been found to be a biocompatible polymer capable of supporting cell growth and attachment, and to have antibacterial and antifouling properties. Together with its ease of manufacture and application, it ought to make an ideal biomaterial and function well as a coating for implants. In this paper, atomic force microscopy was used to measure the adhesive forces between polymer-, protein- or polydopamine-coated surfaces and a silicon nitride or polydopamine-functionalised probes. Surfaces were further characterised by contact angle goniometry, and solutions by circular dichroism. Polydopamine was further characterised with infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. It was found that polydopamine functionalisation of the atomic force microscope probe significantly reduced adhesion to all tested surfaces. For example, adhesion to mica fell from 0.27 ± 0.7 nN nm-1 to 0.05 ± 0.01 nN nm-1. The results suggest that polydopamine coatings are suitable to be used for a variety of biomedical applications
Unravelling electrochemical lignin depolymerization
Lignin valorisation via electrochemical
depolymerization is a promising
approach for commercial application due to its moderate reaction conditions.
However, there is no available kinetics model for this reaction. Conventional
reaction kinetics equations are inadequate when used for lignin degradation
because of the limited kinetics information with respect the reaction
mechanism. We suggest to use population balance equations to predict
the evolution of molecular weight distribution of lignin with time.
Solving the low molecular weight (MW) population balance equations
is carried out discretely whereas a continuous solution was implemented
for the high MW. Additionally, the model accounts for a recombination
reaction for the depolymerized species. The model is capable of predicting
the molecular weight distribution of lignin as a function of electrochemical
processing time. New experimental results are used to extract kinetics
constants for different kraft lignin samples
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