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Objective:To examine associations with morbidly adherent placenta (MAP) among women with placenta previa.Study Design:Women with MAP (cases) and previa alone (controls) were identified from a cohort of 236 714 singleton pregnancies with both first and second trimester prenatal screening, and live birth and hospital discharge records; pregnancies with aneuploidies and neural tube or abdominal wall defects were excluded. Logistic binomial regression was used to compare cases with controls.Result:In all, 37 cases with MAP and 699 controls with previa alone were included. Risk for MAP was increased among multiparous women with pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) ⩾95th percentile (⩾2.63 multiple of the median (MoM); adjusted OR (aOR) 8.7, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.8 to 27.4), maternal-serum alpha fetoprotein (MS-AFP) ⩾95th percentile (⩾1.79 MoM; aOR 2.8, 95% CI 1.0 to 8.0), and 1 and ⩾2 prior cesarean deliveries (CDs; aORs 4.4, 95% CI 1.5 to 13.6 and 18.4, 95% CI 5.9 to 57.5, respectively).Conclusion:Elevated PAPP-A, elevated MS-AFP and prior CDs are associated with MAP among women with previa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:To compare the efficacy of oral misoprostol to vaginal dinoprostone for labor induction in nulliparous women.Study design:Admissions for labor induction from January 2008 to December 2010 were reviewed. Patients receiving oral misoprostol were compared with those receiving vaginal dinoprostone. The primary outcome was time from induction agent administration to vaginal delivery. Secondary outcomes included vaginal delivery within 24 h, mode of delivery and maternal and fetal outcomes.Result:A total of 680 women were included: 483 (71%) received vaginal dinoprostone and 197 (29%) received oral misoprostol. Women who received oral misoprostol had a shorter interval to vaginal delivery (27.2 vs 21.9 h, P<0.0001) and were more likely to deliver vaginally in <24 h (47% vs 64%, P=0.001). There was no increase in the rate of cesarean delivery or adverse maternal or neonatal outcomes.Conclusion:Labor induction with oral misoprostol resulted in shorter time to vaginal delivery without increased adverse outcomes in nulliparous women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:In 2009, the California Genetic Disease Branch introduced an aneuploidy screening program allowing Medi-Cal (state insured) patients access to state-sponsored first-trimester screening. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of greater access to prenatal screening on available resources at a single center.Study Design:Data of prenatal screening and diagnostic procedures performed 4 months before the introduction of the program were compared with those of 12 months following the introduction.Result:Between December 2008 and March 2010, 7689 women underwent first trimester screening, 1286 underwent amniocentesis and 398 underwent chorionic villus sampling. When a comparison was made between the 4 months before and the 12 months after the program's introduction, a greater number of nuchal translucency (NT) examinations was seen to have been performed (384 per month vs 513 per month, P=0.001). Prenatal diagnostic procedures did not increase, but a greater proportion was performed for positive screen results.Conclusion:Introduction of the California screening program was associated with increased NT procedures and fewer invasive procedures for advanced maternal age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pharmacogenomics, the study of specific genetic variations and their effect on drug response, will likely give rise to many applications in maternal–fetal and neonatal medicine; yet, an understanding of these applications in the field of obstetrics and gynecology and neonatal pediatrics is not widespread. This review describes the underpinnings of the field of pharmacogenomics and summarizes the current pharmacogenomic inquiries in relation to maternal–fetal medicine—including studies on various fetal and neonatal genetic cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme variants and their role in drug toxicities (for example, codeine metabolism, sepsis and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) toxicity). Potential future directions, including alternative drug classification, improvements in drug efficacy and non-invasive pharmacogenomic testing, will also be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nuclear break-up of 6He on a 208Pb target was studied at 20A MeV using a secondary beam of 6He produced by the SPIRAL facility at GANIL. $ \alpha$ -particles were detected in coincidence with two neutrons with a large angular coverage and the reaction mechanism was identified. From the distribution of the relative angles between the two neutrons the correlation function was extracted. It shows a strong correlation at small relative angles attributed to the contribution of the di-neutron configuration of 6He . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The studies of the evolution of the hot Giant Dipole Resonance (GDR) properties as a function of excitation energy are reviewed. The discussion will mainly focus on the A ∼ 100-120 mass region where a large amount of data concerning the width and the strength evolution with excitation energy are available. Models proposed to interpret the main features and trends of the experimental results will be presented and compared to the available data in order to extract a coherent scenario on the limits of the development of the collective motion in nuclei at high excitation energy. Experimental results on the GDR built in hot nuclei in the mass region A ∼ 60-70 will be also shown, allowing to investigate the mass dependence of the main GDR features. The comparison between limiting excitation energies for the collective motion and critical excitation energies extracted from caloric curve studies will suggest a possible link between the disappearance of collective motion and the liquid-gas phase transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure of the neutron-rich nucleus 47Ar has been investigated through the d( 46Ar, 47Ar)p transfer reaction. The radioactive beam of 46Ar at 10 A·MeV was provided by the SPIRAL facility at GANIL. The protons corresponding to a neutron pick-up on bound or unbound states mechanism in 47Ar nuclei were detected at backward angles by the position-sensitive Si array-detector MUST. The transfer-like ejectiles were detected in the SPEG spectrometer. Level scheme, spin assignments and spectroscopic factors have been deduced for 47Ar and compared to shell model predictions. They suggest a slight erosion of the N = 28 shell gap from the weakening of the spin-orbit interaction arising from the f and p orbitals. These spectroscopic information are subsequently used to infer ( n,γ) reaction rates in the Ar isotopic chain to understand the origin of the 48Ca/ 46Ca abnormal isotopic ratio observed in certain inclusions of meteorites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light proton-rich bound and unbound nuclei were produced by means of stripping reactions of secondary beams of 20Mg and 18Ne. The decays of the unbound nuclei 18,19Na have been measured by detecting their decay products 17,18Ne and one proton and by performing an invariant-mass reconstruction. For 18Na, the present work is the first measurement of its decay. As the decay scheme of this nucleus could not be determined, two possible scenarios are proposed and discussed. In addition, the decay of excited states in 17Ne via two-proton emission was observed. The proton-proton angular distribution is isotropic for the first two-proton-emitting states, whereas higher-lying states seem to decay by a correlated two-proton emission, consistent with a 2He emission pattern for part of the decay strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We measured elastic and inelastic scattering to the low-lying states of [sup 10]C and [sup 11]C isotopes on a proton target with respective incident energies 45.3 and 40.6 A MeV. Data are analyzed with a microscopic complex potential. Elastic data are sensitive to the rms matter radius, which has been deduced for both isotopes. The moment of the neutron transition density was deduced for [sup 10]C from inelastic scattering.© 2003 MAIK “Nauka / Interperiodica”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross sections were measured for fragments (4

The proton scattering on unstable38S nuclei has been measured in inverse kinematics by using a38S secondary beam at 39 MeV/nucleon. The first 2+ state is seen at 1.2 MeV excitation energy and its angular distribution is extracted. Optical and folding model calculations are compared with the elastic and the 2 angular distributions and the β2 value is determined to be 0.35±0.04. This value is compared with the corresponding result from a Coulomb excitation measurement and the M n/Mp value is extracted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive energy spectra and cross sections of reaction products close to theN projectile (C,C,C,N andO) have been measured in the angular range θ =1.2°-4.2° at an incident energy of 60 MeV/u for five different target nuclei (C,Al,Ni,Zr andPb). Two components are found to be systematically present in the energy spectra of the carbon isotopes, the first similar to that observed at relativistic energies and the second shifted down in energy characteristic for a very dissipative process. The dependence of the differential and integrated cross sections on the target mass indicates that the two-body final channels (N,C), (N,N) and (N,O) are strongly correlated to the fragmentation channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy spectra of fragments from theAr+Pb reaction at 11 MeV/n exhibit structures at high excitation energies. These structures are interpreted in terms of target multi-phonon excitations built from giant resonances. The importance of such processes for the kinetic energy dissipation in heavy ion collisions is emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inelastic spectra from theAr+Pb reaction at 11 MeV/n andNe+Pb at 30 MeV/n have been measured with a time of flight spectrometer. Structures ranging up to 100 MeV excitation energy are observed together with previously known giant resonance excitations. Transfer-evaporation reactions are shown to contribute only to the background under the structures. These structures are interpreted in terms of an excitation of the target nucleus through a direct process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angular correlations between light charged particles and heavy ion fragments from theCa+Ca collision have been investigated. The high excitation energy structure previously observed in inclusive experiments is strongly populated in coincidence with protons for calcium and potassium fragments, with alphas for argon fragments. Particles emitted in coincidence with the structure are strongly focused and have a velocity close to the velocity of the beam, whereas the yield of evaporation decay is very small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proton elastic scatterings of neutron-rich nuclei F and F have been measured for the first time at 289 and 298 MeV/nucleon, respectively, using the MUST2 silicon strip detector array and RIBF facility at RIKEN. The differential cross section of F was found to be smaller than the calculation with the global potential by Koning and Deraloche. The small cross section of F can be well reproduced by an optical model calculation with a shallow and long-tail potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have developed a new telescope array, dedicated to the study of direct reactions of exotic nuclei on light targets in inverse kinematics. This device, called MUST2, is briefly described, and the results of the first tests performed with an alpha source and Ni beams at 10 and 75 MeV/ u on a CDH target are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]