Influence of maternal, anesthetic, and surgical factors on neonatal survival after emergency cesarean section in 78 dogs: A retrospective study (2002 to 2020).

Neonatal mortality rate (NMR) may be affected by maternal physical condition, anesthesia, and uterine incision or en-bloc neonate removal. The association of selected factors with number of dogs with dead puppies at hospital discharge was evaluated using 78 records. Data obtained at admittance for emergency cesarean section included: age, small or large body size, rectal temperature, packed cell volume, serum total protein, blood urea nitrogen, glucose, puppy in pelvic canal, and heart rate. Administration of opioids, propofol, alfaxalone, isoflurane, and sevoflurane, and anesthesia/surgical times and surgical technique were evaluated using Fisher's exact tests. There were 238 live puppies and 38 dogs had 58 dead puppies; the NMR was 19.6%. Mortality was associated with puppy in the pelvic canal (P = 0.003) and duration of anesthesia > 80 minutes (P = 0.029). Age > 8 years (P = 0.054) and induction time to start of surgery > 30 minutes (P = 0.17) may be associated with mortality. Expedient cesarean section with obstructive dystocia and an induction time to start of surgery < 30 minutes are important for puppy survival.

Influence des facteurs maternels, anesthésiques et chirurgicaux sur la survie néonatale après césarienne d'urgence chez 78 chiens : Une étude rétrospective (2002 à 2020). Le taux de mortalité néonatale (TMN) peut être affecté par l'état physique de la mère, l'anesthésie et l'incision utérine ou l'ablation en bloc du nouveau-né. L'association de facteurs sélectionnés avec le nombre de chiens avec des chiots morts à la sortie de l'hôpital a été évaluée à l'aide de 78 dossiers. Les données obtenues à l'admission pour une césarienne d'urgence comprenaient : l'âge, la taille corporelle petite ou grande, la température rectale, l'hématocrite, les protéines sériques totales, l'azotémie, le glucose, la présence de chiot dans le canal pelvien et la fréquence cardiaque. L'administration d'opioïdes, de propofol, d'alfaxalone, d'isoflurane et de sévoflurane, ainsi que les temps d'anesthésie/de chirurgie et la technique chirurgicale ont été évalués à l'aide des tests exacts de Fisher. Il y avait 238 chiots vivants et 38 chiens avaient 58 chiots morts; le TMN était de 19,6 %. La mortalité était associée la présence de chiot dans le canal pelvien (P = 0,003) et à la durée de l'anesthésie > 80 minutes (P = 0,029). Un âge > 8 ans (P = 0,054) et un délai d'induction avant le début de la chirurgie > 30 minutes (P = 0,17) peuvent être associés à la mortalité. Une césarienne opportune lors de dystocie obstructive et un temps d'induction avant le début de la chirurgie < 30 minutes sont importants pour la survie du chiot.(Traduit par Dr Serge Messier).

Protocol of a prospective and multicentre China Teratology Birth Cohort (CTBC): association of maternal drug exposure during pregnancy with adverse pregnancy outcomes.

BACKGROUND: As reported, 27-93 % of pregnant women take at least one drug during pregnancy. However, drug exposure during pregnancy still lacks sufficient foetal safety evidence of human origin. It is urgent to fill the knowledge gap about medication safety during pregnancy for optimization of maternal disease treatment and pregnancy drug consultation. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The China Teratology Birth Cohort (CTBC) was established in 2019 and is a hospital-based open-ended prospective cohort study with the aim of assessing drug safety during pregnancy. Pregnant women who set up the pregnancy health records in the first trimester or who seek drug consultation regardless of gestational age in the member hospitals are recruited. Enrolled pregnant women need to be investigated four times, namely, 6-14 and 24-28 weeks of gestational age, before discharge after hospital delivery, and 28-42 days after birth. Maternal medication exposure during pregnancy is the focus of the CTBC. For drugs, information on the type, name, and route of medication; start and end time of medication; single dose; frequency of medication; dosage form; manufacturer; and reason for medication is collected. The adverse pregnancy outcomes collected in the study include birth defects, stillbirth, spontaneous abortion, preterm birth, post-term birth, low birth weight, macrosomia, small for gestational age, large for gestational age and low Apgar score. CTBC uses an electronic questionnaire for data collection and a cloud system for data management. Biological samples are collected if informed consents are obtained. Multi-level logistic regression, mixed-effect negative binomial distribution regression and spline function regression are used to explore the effect of drugs on the occurrence of birth defects. DISCUSSION: The findings of the study will assist in further understanding the risk of birth defects and other adverse pregnancy outcomes associated with maternal drug exposure and developing the optimal treatment plans and drug counselling for pregnant women. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the West China Second Hospital of Sichuan University and registered at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ( http://www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx , registration number ChiCTR1900022569 ).

Model diagnostics for censored regression via randomized survival probabilities.

Residuals in normal regression are used to assess a model's goodness-of-fit (GOF) and discover directions for improving the model. However, there is a lack of residuals with a characterized reference distribution for censored regression. In this article, we propose to diagnose censored regression with normalized randomized survival probabilities (RSP). The key idea of RSP is to replace the survival probability (SP) of a censored failure time with a uniform random number between 0 and the SP of the censored time. We prove that RSPs always have the uniform distribution on (0, 1) under the true model with the true generating parameters. Therefore, we can transform RSPs into normally distributed residuals with the normal quantile function. We call such residuals by normalized RSP (NRSP residuals). We conduct simulation studies to investigate the sizes and powers of statistical tests based on NRSP residuals in detecting the incorrect choice of distribution family and nonlinear effect in covariates. Our simulation studies show that, although the GOF tests with NRSP residuals are not as powerful as a traditional GOF test method, a nonlinear test based on NRSP residuals has significantly higher power in detecting nonlinearity. We also compared these model diagnostics methods with a breast-cancer recurrent-free time dataset. The results show that the NRSP residual diagnostics successfully captures a subtle nonlinear relationship in the dataset, which is not detected by the graphical diagnostics with CS residuals and existing GOF tests.

A graphene quantum dots-Pb2+ based fluorescent switch for selective and sensitive determination of D-penicillamine.

Taking consideration of metal-induced fluorescence quenching and excellent coordination effect of D-penicillamine (D-PA), a graphene quantum dots (GQDs)-based fluorescent switch for D-PA detection was designed and established firstly with the help of lead ions. GQDs obtained from citric acids made them rich in carboxyl and hydroxyl groups, giving GQDs the ability to combine with lead ions. As anticipated, the fluorescence intensity was quenched by Pb2+ through electron transfer process. Further, the addition of D-PA effectively recovered the fluorescence due to the departure of Pb2+ from GQDs aroused by the strong coordination between D-PA and Pb2+. Thus, a fluorescent switch was activated for D-PA detection. The fluorescence recovery efficiencies were found to be proportional to the concentration of D-PA in the range of 0.6-50 µmol L-1 and the detection limit was 0.47 µmol L-1. The real sample detection was performed in human urea sample and satisfactory recoveries of 96.84%-102.13% were obtained. The GQDs-Pb2+ based fluorescent switch sensing method was firstly established with low detection limit and wide linear range, making it a supplement and improvement for D-PA detection.

Electrochemical sensor for sensitive detection of triclosan based on graphene/palladium nanoparticles hybrids.

In this paper, poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) functionalized graphene/palladium nanoparticles (PDDA-Gr/PdNPs) have been successfully synthesized through a simple one-pot method with the use of PDDA as stabilizing agents. The electrochemical response of triclosan on the PDDA-Gr/PdNPs modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) is greatly enhanced comparing to the PDDA-Gr/GCE or the bare GCE. It is suggested that the nanocomposite exhibited good electron transfer ability and catalytic activity. Under the optimal conditions, the oxidation current increased linearly with the concentration of triclosan in the range of 9.0nM to 20.0µM. The detection limit was estimated to be 3.5nM (S/N=3). Besides, the electrochemical sensor presented superior reproducibility, excellent anti-interference performance and long-term stability. What is more, the method is promising for the determination of trace amounts of triclosan in water samples.