Antenatal steroids elicited neurodegenerative-associated transcriptional changes in the hippocampus of preterm fetal sheep independent of lung maturation.

Background: Antenatal steroid therapy for fetal lung maturation is routinely administered to women at risk of preterm delivery. There is strong evidence to demonstrate benefit from antenatal steroids in terms of survival and respiratory disease, notably in infants delivered at or below 32 weeks' gestation. However, dosing remains unoptimized and lung benefits are highly variable.

Trend of soil salinization in Africa and implications for agro-chemical use in semi-arid croplands.

Soil salinization is a gradual degradation process that begins as a minor problem and grows to become a significant economic loss if no control action is taken. It progressively alters the soil environment which eventually negatively affects plants and organism that were not originally adapted for saline conditions. Soil salinization arises from diverse sources such as side-effects of long-term use of agro-chemicals, saline parent rocks, periodic inundation of soil with saline water, etc.

The association of the room air challenge with long-term outcomes in extremely preterm infants.

Objective: Evaluate the association between results of the room air (RA) challenge and death, respiratory morbidity, and neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) at 2 years' corrected age.

Study Design: Cohort study of infants born <27 weeks' gestational age who underwent a RA challenge to determine BPD diagnosis at 36 weeks postmenstrual age.

Results: Of 1022 infants eligible for the RA challenge, 554 underwent testing and 223 passed.