Search

AIMS: Multiple studies have suggested a likely association between breech presentation and assisted reproductive technology (ART) for conception. The aims were to determine whether conception via in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and ovulation induction (OI) is associated with fetal malpresentation at birth and to ascertain what mediating factors most significantly contribute to fetal malpresentation. METHODS: This whole-population-based cohort study included 355 990 singleton pregnancies born in Queensland, Australia, between July 2012 and July 2018. Multinomial logistic regression models estimated the adjusted odds of breech, transverse/shoulder and face/brow malpresentations in pregnancies conceived via spontaneous conception, OI (OI group) and IVF with or without intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ART group). RESULTS: After adjustment for potential confounding factors, breech presentation occurred approximately 20% more often in singleton pregnancies conceived via both ART (adjusted odds ratio: 1.20, 95% confidence interval: 1.10-1.30, P < 0.001) and OI (1.21, 95% confidence interval: 1.04-1.39, P < 0.05). No significant associations were observed between the three modes of conception and transverse/shoulder or face/brow presentations. Low birthweight was found to be the most significant mediating factor for breech presentation in pregnancies conceived via ART and OI. CONCLUSIONS: Similar levels of increased odds of breech presentation are present in pregnancies conceived via OI and ART, suggesting a shared underlying mechanism for the aetiology of breech presentation. For women who are considering or have conceived via these methods, counselling with respect to this increased risk is recommended.

© American Society for Engineering Education 2020. Communication is a crucial skillset for engineers, yet graduates [1]-[3] and their employers [4]-[8] continue to report their lack of preparation for effective communication upon completion of their undergraduate or graduate programs. Thus, technical communication training merits deeper investigation and creative solutions. At the 2017 ASEE Meeting, we introduced the MIT School of Engineering Communication Lab, a discipline-specific technical communication service that is akin to a writing center, but embedded within engineering departments [9]. By using the expertise of graduate student and postdoctoral peer coaches within a given discipline, the Communication Lab provides a scalable, content-aware solution with the benefits of just-in-time, one-on-one [10], and peer [11] training. When we first introduced this model, we offered easy-to-record metrics for the Communication Lab's effectiveness (such as usage statistics and student and faculty opinion surveys), as are commonly used to assess writing centers [12], [13]. Here we present a formal quantitative study of the effectiveness of Communication Lab coaching. We designed a pre-post test study for two related tasks: personal statements for applications to graduate school and graduate fellowships. We designed an analytic rubric with seven categories (strategic alignment, audience awareness, context, evidence, organization/flow, language mechanics, and visual impact) and tested it to ensure inter-rater reliability. Over one semester, we collected and anonymized 119 personal statement drafts from 47 unique Communication Lab clients across four different engineering departments. Peer coaches rubric-scored the drafts, and we developed a statistical model based on maximum likelihood to identify significant score changes in individual rubric categories across trajectories of sequential drafts. In addition, post-session surveys of clients and their peer coaches provided i

Previous studies investigating the relationship between sodium intake and blood pressure have mostly relied on dietary recall and clinic blood pressure measurement. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between 24 hour urinary sodium and potassium excretion, and their ratio, with 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure parameters including nocturnal blood pressure dipping in patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes. We report that in 116 patients with diabetes, systolic blood pressure was significantly predicted by the time of day, age, the interaction between dipping status with time, and 24 hour urinary sodium-to-potassium ratio (R2 = 0.83) with a relative contribution of 53%, 21%, 20% and 6%, respectively. However, there was no interaction between urinary sodium-to-potassium ratio and dipping status.