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Objective: To describe the incidence, clinical features and perinatal outcome of late-onset fetal growth restriction (FGR) associated with genetic syndrome or aneuploidy, structural malformation or congenital infection.Methods: This was a retrospective multicenter cohort study of patients who attended one of four tertiary maternity hospitals in Italy. We included consecutive singleton pregnancies between 32 + 0 and 36 + 6 weeks' gestation with either fetal abdominal circumference (AC) or estimated fetal weight < 10th percentile for gestational age or a reduction in AC of > 50 percentiles from the measurement at an ultrasound scan performed between 18 and 32 weeks. The study group consisted of pregnancies with late-onset FGR and a genetic syndrome or aneuploidy, structural malformation or congenital infection (anomalous late-onset FGR). The presence of congenital anomalies was ascertained postnatally in neonates with abnormal findings on antenatal investigation or detected after birth. The control group consisted of pregnancies with structurally and genetically normal fetuses with late-onset FGR. Composite adverse perinatal outcome was defined as the presence of at least one of stillbirth, 5-min Apgar score < 7, admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), need for respiratory support at birth, neonatal jaundice and neonatal hypoglycemia. The primary aims of the study were to assess the incidence and clinical features of anomalous late-onset FGR, and to compare the perinatal outcome of such cases with that of fetuses with non-anomalous late-onset FGR.Results: Overall, 1246 pregnancies complicated by late-onset FGR were included in the study, of which 120 (9.6%) were allocated to the anomalous late-onset FGR group. Of these, 11 (9.2%) had a genetic syndrome or aneuploidy, 105 (87.5%) had an isolated structural malformation, and four (3.3%) had a congenital infection. The most frequent structural defects associated with late-onset anomalous FGR were genitourinary malformations (28/105 (26.7%)) and limb malformation (21/105 (20.0%)). Compared with the non-anomalous late-onset FGR group, fetuses with anomalous late-onset FGR had an increased incidence of composite adverse perinatal outcome (35.9% vs 58.3%; P < 0.01). Newborns with anomalous, compared to those with non-anomalous, late-onset FGR showed a higher frequency of need for respiratory support at birth (25.8% vs 9.0%; P < 0.01), intubation (10.0% vs 1.1%; P < 0.01), NICU admission (43.3% vs 22.6%; P < 0.01) and longer hospital stay (median, 24 days (range, 4-250 days) vs 11 days (range, 2-59 days); P < 0.01).Conclusions: Most pregnancies complicated by anomalous late-onset FGR have structural malformations rather than genetic abnormality or infection. Fetuses with anomalous late-onset FGR have an increased incidence of complications at birth and NICU admission and a longer hospital stay compared with fetuses with isolated late-onset FGR. © 2022 The Authors. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between Doppler and biometric ultrasound parameters measured at diagnosis and perinatal adverse outcome in a cohort of late-onset growth-restricted (FGR) fetuses.Methods: This was a multicenter retrospective study of data obtained between 2014 and 2019 including non-anomalous singleton pregnancies complicated by late-onset FGR (≥ 32 weeks), which was defined either as abdominal circumference (AC) or estimated fetal weight (EFW) < 10th percentile for gestational age or as reduction of the longitudinal growth of AC by over 50 percentiles compared to ultrasound scan performed between 18 and 32 weeks of gestation. We evaluated the association between sonographic findings at diagnosis of FGR and composite adverse perinatal outcome (CAPO), defined as stillbirth or at least two of the following: obstetric intervention due to intrapartum fetal distress, neonatal acidemia, birth weight < 3rd percentile and transfer to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).Results: Overall, 468 cases with complete biometric and umbilical, fetal middle cerebral and uterine artery (UtA) Doppler data were included, of which 53 (11.3%) had CAPO. On logistic regression analysis, only EFW percentile was associated independently with CAPO (P = 0.01) and NICU admission (P < 0.01), while the mean UtA pulsatility index (PI) multiples of the median (MoM) > 95th percentile at diagnosis was associated independently with obstetric intervention due to intrapartum fetal distress (P = 0.01). The model including baseline pregnancy characteristics and the EFW percentile was associated with an area under the receiver-operating-characteristics curve of 0.889 (95% CI, 0.813-0.966) for CAPO (P < 0.001). A cut-off value for EFW corresponding to the 3.95th percentile was found to discriminate between cases with and those without CAPO, yielding a sensitivity of 58.5% (95% CI, 44.1-71.9%), specificity of 69.6% (95% CI, 65.0-74.0%), positive predictive value of 19.8% (95% CI, 13.8-26.8%) and negative predictive value of 92.9% (95% CI, 89.5-95.5%).Conclusions: Retrospective data from a large cohort of late-onset FGR fetuses showed that EFW at diagnosis is the only sonographic parameter associated independently with the occurrence of CAPO, while mean UtA-PI MoM > 95th percentile at diagnosis is associated independently with intrapartum distress leading to obstetric intervention. © 2021 The Authors. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate clean and atomic hydrogen exposed β-SiC(100) 3×2 surfaces by synchrotron radiation-based Si 2p core-level photoemission spectroscopy. The clean 3×2 surface reconstruction exhibits three surface and subsurface components. Upon hydrogen exposures, those surface and subsurface components are shifted to lower binding energies by large values, indicating significant charge transfer to the surface and subsurface regions, in excellent agreement with the recently discovered H-induced β-SiC(100) 3×2 surface metallization. In addition, the interaction of hydrogen results in a large reactive component at Si 2p supporting an asymmetric charge transfer in the third plane below the surface, in agreement with previous experimental investigations. However, the results are inconsistent with recent ab initio theoretical “frozen” calculations predicting H atom to be in a bridge-bond position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Major depression disorder (MDD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) are characterized by the use of perseverative cognition (PC) as a dysfunctional coping strategy. We sought to investigate the dysfunctional physiological and psychological consequences of PC and how the valence of social interactions moderates such consequences in these psychopathological conditions.Design/methods: The study combined 24-hour heart rate variability (HRV) and ecological momentary assessments in 48 individuals with MDD, SAD, and sex-matched controls.Results: In all participants, PC was associated with mood worsening and reduced ability of the parasympathetic nervous system, mainly the vagus, to inhibit sympathetic arousal (i.e., reduced HRV). Individuals with SAD had the highest frequency of daily PC, while those with MDD reported that PC interfered more with their ongoing activities. In SAD, daily PC was associated with significantly lower HRV after negative social interactions. Individuals with MDD reported higher levels of sadness during PC irrespective of the valence of the preceding social interaction but higher levels of anxiety and efforts to inhibit PC following positive interactions.Conclusions: Results highlight the need to account for important moderators like the valence of social interaction when looking at the physiological consequences of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postnatal MRI showed signs of severe damage at the level of the left cerebral hemisphere and basal ganglia with abnormal cortical thickness and configuration, abnormal white matter signal and an enlarged left ventricle (figure 1e-1d). Postmortem autopsy confirmed the prenatal findings and found multiple visceral peritoneal adherences that explained the "hook-shaped" gallbladder. [Extracted from the article]

Despite the role of anxiety, depression and hostility in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases, their impact on two significant cardiovascular risk factors, nocturnal dipping and morning surge in blood pressure (MSBP), are largely ignored and primarily studied in clinical populations. This study examined the effects of dipping and psychological traits on MSBP in healthy people. Nocturnal dipping and MSBP were derived from 24-h ambulatory BP obtained in 77 men and 79 women, mean age 32.8 (s.d.: 7.4). Differences in depression, anxiety and hostility were examined by questionnaires. Higher levels of dipping (P<0.0001) and depressive symptoms (P=0.01) independently contributed to increased MSBP. Dipping interacts with depression (P=0.04), hostility (P=0.01) and anxiety (P=0.04) in determining MSBP. Low dippers with higher scores on the psychological traits showed higher MSBP than high dippers. A significant MSBP interaction was found between sex and depressive symptoms (P=0.05), anxiety (P<0.0001) and hostility (P=0.01) with higher scores associated with increased MSBP observed in males. Findings underscore depression as a predictor of MSBP independent of dipping. The clinically significant relationship between dipping and non-dipping patters, psychological traits and MSBP requires further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction of a five-level atomic system involving electromagnetically induced transparency with four light fields is investigated. Two different operating regimes are considered, semi-classical and quantized, where two light fields are treated as quantum. In the semi-classical regime, the dispersive properties of the scheme are analyzed in detail, and the conditions leading to group velocity matching for two of the light fields are identified. In the quantized regime, the two quantum fields undergo cross-phase modulation induced by electromagnetically induced transparency. Based on this, a recent proposal [C. Ottaviani et al., Phys. Rev. A 73, 010301 (R) (2006)] for a two-qubit quantum phase gate for traveling single-photon qubits is examined. An experimental scheme for verification of QPG operation is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction of a five-level atomic system involving electromagnetically induced transparency with four light fields is investigated. Two different light-atom configurations are considered, and their efficiency in generating large nonlinear cross-phase shifts compared. The dispersive properties of those schemes are analyzed in detail, and the conditions leading to group velocity matching for two of the light fields are identified. An analytical treatment based on amplitude equations is used in order to obtain approximate solutions for the susceptibilities, which are shown to fit well with the numerical solution of the full Bloch equations in a large parameter region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the quantum theory of a polarization phase gate that can be realized in a sample of ultracold rubidium atoms driven into a tripod configuration. The main advantages of this scheme are its relative simplicity and inherent symmetry. It is shown that conditional phase shifts of order π can be attained. © 2005 Pleiades Publishing, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large optical nonlinearities occurring in a coherently prepared atomic system are shown to produce phase shifts of order π. Such an effect may be observed in ultracold rubidium atoms where it could be feasibly exploited toward the realization of a polarization phase gate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report here on the electronic properties of the Ge/Sb/Si(001) interface formation studied by very high-energy-resolution photoemission spectro-scopy using synchrotron radiation. Surface- and bulk-sensitive measurements of the core levels of the different atomic species give a clear indication of the occurrence of a site exchange process between germanium and antimony, when Ge is deposited on the already prepared Sb/Si(001) interface. We demonstrate that the use of surfactant atoms like Sb at the strained Ge/Si(001) interface produces a perfect epitaxial interface, where the Si atoms are in register with the bulk geometrical positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate umbilical vein blood flow volume (UmbQ) in fetuses with inappropriate growth for gestational age with normal Doppler indices and adverse perinatal outcome. The figure represents fetuses with inappropriate growth and normal Doppler indices with (orange dots n = 14) or without (green dots n = 40) adverse perinatal outcome: a) absolute QUmbV (both p < 0.001); b) normalised for EFW QUmbV (p = 0.004 for fetuses with and p = 0.06 for fetuses without adverse perinatal outcome, respectively). [Extracted from the article]