Publications by authors named "Alessandra Morelli"

Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to analyze outcomes for women with gestational or pre-existing diabetes during labor in midwifery units, comparing them to women without diabetes.
  • Conducted through a national cohort study and practice survey, data was collected from midwifery units in the UK between October 2021 and February 2023.
  • Results indicated that women with diabetes did not have significantly different maternal or neonatal outcomes compared to those without diabetes, suggesting that selected diabetic women can be safely managed in these units.
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Background: Postnatal care supports healthy transitions to parenthood, mother-infant relationships, and breastfeeding establishment. Highly valued by women and families, it is often an area where parents report low satisfaction compared with other areas of maternity care. Most research about postnatal care is hospital-focused.

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Objective: Neonatal infection with wildtype SARS-CoV-2 is rare and good outcomes predominate. We investigated neonatal outcomes using national population-level data to describe the impact of different SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Design: Prospective population-based cohort study.

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Background: Newborns may be affected by maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy. We aimed to describe the epidemiology, clinical course and short-term outcomes of babies admitted to a neonatal unit (NNU) following birth to a mother with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection within 7 days of birth.

Methods: This is a UK prospective cohort study; all NHS NNUs, 1 March 2020 to 31 August 2020.

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Background: Women who have experienced a postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) 'requiring treatment or transfusion' are typically advised to plan birth in obstetric-led settings in subsequent pregnancies. Many UK alongside midwifery units (AMU) admit women for labour care following a previous PPH. We aimed to describe outcomes in women admitted for labour care to AMUs following a previous PPH, compare outcomes with other multiparous women admitted to the same AMUs, and explore risk factors for recurrence.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic required all healthcare systems to adapt quickly. There is some evidence about the impact of the pandemic on United Kingdom maternity services overall, but little is known about the impact on midwifery-led services, including midwifery units and home birth services.

Objective: To describe changes to midwifery-led service provision in the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Objectives: To compare agreement between self-reported height, weight and blood pressure measurements submitted to an online contraceptive service with researcher-measured values and document strategies used for self-reporting.

Design: An observational study.

Setting: An online sexual health service which provided the combined oral contraceptive pill, free of charge, to users in Southeast London, England.

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Objective: To present process evaluation results from the Bridge-it Study, a pragmatic cluster randomised cross-over trial to improve effective contraception uptake through provision of the progestogen only pill (POP) plus sexual and reproductive health (SRH) clinic rapid-access to women presenting to community pharmacies for emergency contraception (EC).

Research Design And Methods: A multimethod process evaluation was conducted to assess intervention implementation, mechanisms of change and contextual factors. Data were gathered from screening logs (n=599), observations of pharmacist training, analysis of data from 4-month follow-up questionnaires (n=406), monitoring of contemporaneous events and qualitative interviews with 22 pharmacists, 5 SRH clinical staff and 36 study participants in three participating UK sites in Lothian, Tayside and London.

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Article Synopsis
  • * A study analyzed 78 isolates from diseased pigs in Italy, revealing that nearly 60% of infections were linked to serotypes 1/2 and 9, with distinct clustering patterns among different sequence types.
  • * Many serotype 9 isolates were found to be resistant to penicillin, raising concerns about treatment effectiveness and emphasizing the need for monitoring these S. suis strains in pigs for better disease management.
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Article Synopsis
  • - The process of cancer metastasis, similar to cancer development, involves multiple stages including local invasion, entry into circulation, and establishing growth at distant sites, which can lead to significant tumor formation.
  • - Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a crucial role in helping cancer cells navigate challenges during this process by altering their traits, allowing them to become more mobile and invasive.
  • - To improve cancer treatment, especially for gastrointestinal cancers, it's important to bridge the gap between basic research findings and their practical applications in clinical settings, focusing on the role of EMT and its reversal processes.
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Apolipoprotein A-IV amyloidosis is an uncommon form of the disease normally resulting in renal and cardiac dysfunction. ApoA-IV amyloidosis was identified in 16 patients attending the National Amyloidosis Centre and in eight clinical samples received for histology review. Unexpectedly, proteomics identified the presence of ApoA-IV signal sequence residues (p.

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Introduction: Unless women start effective contraception after using emergency contraception, they remain at risk of unintended pregnancy. Most women in the UK obtain emergency contraception from community pharmacies that are unable to provide ongoing contraception (apart from barrier methods which have high failure rates). This means that women need an appointment with a general practitioner or at a sexual and reproductive health clinic.

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One hundred forty-five florfenicol-resistant enterococci, isolated from swine fecal samples collected from 76 pig farms, were investigated for the presence of , , and genes by PCR. Thirty florfenicol-resistant isolates had at least one linezolid resistance gene. was found to be the most widespread linezolid resistance gene (23/30), while and were detected in 6/30 and 7/30 enterococcal isolates, respectively.

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Background: Unless women start effective contraception after oral emergency contraception, they remain at risk of unintended pregnancy. Most women in the UK obtain emergency contraception from community pharmacies. We hypothesised that pharmacist provision of the progestogen-only pill as a bridging interim method of contraception with emergency contraception plus an invitation to a sexual and reproductive health clinic, in which all methods of contraception are available, would result in increased subsequent use of effective contraception.

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Objectives: To describe user experience of obtaining and uploading biometric measurements to a 'digital-only' contraceptive service prior to a prescription for the combined oral contraceptive (COC). To analyse this experience to inform the design of safe and acceptable 'digital-only' online contraceptive services.

Setting: An online contraceptive service available free of charge to women in South East London, UK.

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Background: Digital health care is increasingly used to improve health service accessibility and reduce costs. Remote health care requires a significant self-management role for service users, and this generates information provision and support needs that should be reflected in service planning. SMS text messaging offers a convenient and low-cost method of communication and is increasingly used across digital health care services to provide remote support.

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This study describes an Aujeszky's disease case in an adult male red fox found in an urban area in Central Italy, that exhibited a fatal infection with neurological lesions, but neither itching nor skin lesions. Diagnostic examinations included histology, and parasitological, bacteriological and virological analyses. Detection of parasitic enteric pathogens, bacteria, E.

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Introduction: Oral emergency contraception (EC) can prevent unintended pregnancy but it is important to start a regular method of contraception. Women in the UK usually access EC from a pharmacy but then need a subsequent appointment with a general practitioner or a sexual and reproductive health (SRH) service to access regular contraception. Unintended pregnancies can occur during this time.

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HIV testing is recommended as part of routine preconception and prenatal care but some cases of vertical transmission still occur because of missed HIV testing in pregnancy. We estimated the percentage of women missing HIV testing before delivery, and we evaluated factors related with it. An anonymous survey was distributed to women giving birth during a two-week period in the maternity units of hospitals in the Lazio region of Italy in 2011.

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HC is a possible cause of morbidity and extended hospitalization after HSCT. Recent studies have reported the efficiency of HOT in adult patients who underwent allogeneic HSCT, but data in children are scarce. We report our single center experience with HOT in late-onset HC after HSCT.

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RP-HPLC-ESI-MS profile of naturally occurring salivary peptides of subjects with autistic spectrum disorder [ASD; N = 27:12 with diagnosis of autism, 1 with diagnosis of Asperger, 14 with diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorders not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS)] was compared to that of age-matched controls with the goal of identifying differences that could turn out to become hallmarks of at least a subgroup of ASD individuals. Phosphorylation level of four specific salivary phospho-peptides, namely statherin, histatin 1 (both, p < 0.0001) and acidic proline-rich proteins (both entire and truncated isoforms) (p < 0.

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The synthesis of catenanes and rotaxanes using the hard trivalent transition metal ion cobalt(III) as a template is reported. Tridentate dianionic pyridine-2,6-dicarboxamido ligands, each with two terminal alkene groups, coordinate Co(III) in a mutually orthogonal arrangement such that entwined or interlocked molecular architectures are produced by ring-closing olefin metathesis. Double macrocyclization of two such ligands bound to Co(III) afford a non-interlocked "figure-of-eight" complex in 42% yield, the structure determined by X-ray crystallography.

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