Exercise during pregnancy and type of delivery in nulliparae.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between participation in aerobic exercise during the first two trimesters of pregnancy and type of delivery in nulliparous women. DESIGN: Nonexperimental, retrospective. SETTING: A large metropolitan area in the southwestern United States. PARTICIPANTS: 137 nulliparous women. OUTCOME MEASURES: Method of delivery. RESULTS: An unadjusted odds ratio showed that sedentary women (n = 93) were 2.05 times more likely to deliver via cesarean section than active women (n = 44), but this relationship was not statistically significant. Through logistic regression analysis with control for the mother's prepregnancy exercise program, age, use of epidural anesthesia, change in prepregnancy to delivery body mass index, labor length, whether labor was induced, and the hospital of birth, the odds of cesarean delivery were found to be 4.5 times greater for sedentary women than for active women. CONCLUSION: Regular participation in physical activity during the first two trimesters of pregnancy may be associated with reduced risk for cesarean delivery in nulliparous women.

Test of charge conjugation invariance.

We report on the first determination of upper limits on the branching ratio (BR) of eta decay to pi0pi0gamma and to pi0pi0pi0gamma. Both decay modes are strictly forbidden by charge conjugation (C) invariance. Using the Crystal Ball multiphoton detector, we obtained BR(eta-->pi0pi0gamma)<5 x 10(-4) at the 90% confidence level, in support of C invariance of isoscalar electromagnetic interactions of the light quarks. We have also measured BR(eta-->pi0pi0pi0gamma)<6 x 10(-5) at the 90% confidence level, in support of C invariance of isovector electromagnetic interactions.

Morphology and Photosynthetic Efficiency of Tobacco Leaves That Received End-of-Day Red and Far Red Light during Development.

Shaded leaves in plant canopies receive a higher proportion of far red relative to red light than is received by unshaded leaves. Brief end-of-day irradiations with red or far red light, acting through the phytochrome system, reversibly control morphological development of tobacco plants. Leaves that received far red light for 5 minutes at the end of each day during development were longer and narrower than those that received end-of-day red light. The far red treated leaves weighed less, had fewer stomata, and had less chlorophyll per unit area of leaf. Net CO(2) assimilation rates did not differ significantly between red- and far red-treated leaves on an area basis; however, the far red-treated leaves assimilated significantly more CO(2) on a leaf weight basis.

Combined cardiac marker approach with adjunct two-dimensional echocardiography to diagnose acute myocardial infarction in the emergency department.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a combined cardiac marker approach with adjunct two-dimensional echocardiography in diagnosing acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the emergency department. METHODS: This prospective, cohort study enrolled 190 patients aged 18 years and older who presented to the ED of a county teaching hospital and were admitted with chest pain suggestive of AMI. A standardized history and physical examination were performed. Serum sampling for myoglobin and creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) was done at the time of presentation (time 0) and 3 hours later (time 3 hours). An echocardiographic study was obtained, and a left ventricular wall motion score was derived. RESULTS: Using World Health Organization criteria, 21 patients (11.2%) with AMI were identified. The serum markers were found to be clinically and statistically different between AMI and non-AMI groups at both time 0 and time 3 hours. Receiver operator characteristic curves were used to determine a "positive" myoglobin level at 88.7 ng/mL or higher at either time point, and a "positive" CK-MB level at 11.9 ng/mL or higher; these were used as the optimal cutoff values to predict AMI in the ED. Serum myoglobin was a more sensitive marker (90.5%) than CK-MB (81.0%). However, CK-MB was more specific (99.4%) than myoglobin (88.4%). A combination of both tests, which was rated positive if either test was positive, was a superior predictor overall, with a 100% capture rate of AMI patients and a 91.2% specificity. No significant difference in echocardiographic scores was appreciated in the AMI group compared with the non-AMI group (16.9 +/- 1.5 versus 15.3 +/- .5, respectively; P = .3252). CONCLUSION: Serum myoglobin shows greater sensitivity but is less specific than CK-MB in the early detection of AMI. Use of a combination of both rapid assays during a 3-hour time period in the ED appears to be superior to use of either enzyme assay alone. Two-dimensional echocardiography does not appear to be helpful in diagnosing AMI in the ED.

Properties of the Lambda(1670)(1-)/2 resonance.

Recently the Crystal Ball Collaboration measured precise new data for the near-threshold reaction K(-)p-->etaLambda, which is dominated by formation of the Lambda(1670)1 / 2(-). In this Letter, we present results of a unitary, multichannel analysis that incorporates the new Crystal Ball data. For our preferred fit, we obtain mass M = 1673+/-2 MeV, width Gamma = 23+/-6 MeV, and elasticity x = 0.37+/-0.07. This elasticity is significantly larger than previously recognized. Resonance parameters of our preferred fit are in striking agreement with the quark-model predictions of Koniuk and Isgur.

Measurement of pi(0)pi(0) production in the nuclear medium by pi(-) interactions at 0.408 GeV/c.

We report on an investigation of the (pi(-),pi(0)pi(0)) reaction by means of measurements of the pi(0)pi(0) invariant mass distributions from pi(-) interactions on H, D, C, Al, and Cu targets at p(pi(-)) = 0.408 GeV/c. The sharp, strong peak in the pi(+)pi(-) invariant mass near 2m(pi) reported by the CHAOS Collaboration is not seen in our pi(0)pi(0) data. However, we do observe a change in the shape of the pi(0)pi(0) invariant mass spectrum for the different targets, indicating that the pi(0)pi(0) interaction diminishes in the nuclear medium as represented by nuclei D, C, Al, and Cu, compared to hydrogen.

Dynamics of the pi(-)p-->pi(0)pi(0)n reaction for p(pi(-))<750 MeV/c.

Data are presented for the reaction pi(-)p-->pi(0)pi(0)n in the range from threshold to p(pi(-))=750 MeV/c. The systematics of the data and multipole analyses are examined for sensitivity to a f(0)(600) ("sigma") meson. A one-pion-exchange mechanism is found to be very weak, or absent. The reaction appears to become dominated by sequential pi(0) decays through the Delta(1232) resonance as the beam momentum increases, along with substantial interference effects from several competing mechanisms.