Improving maternal safety: Usability and performance assessment of a new medical device for the treatment of postpartum haemorrhage.

Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is an obstetric emergency causing nearly one-quarter of maternal deaths worldwide, 99% of these in low-resource settings (LRSs). Uterine balloon tamponade (UBT) devices are a non-surgical treatment to stop PPH. In LRSs, low-cost versions of UBT devices are based on the condom balloon tamponade (CBT) technique, but their effectiveness is limited.

Design of a sensor network for the quantitative analysis of sport climbing.

We describe the design of a modular sensorized climbing wall for motion analysis in a naturalistic environment. The wall is equipped with force sensors to measure interaction forces between the athlete and the wall, which can be used by experienced instructors, athletes, or therapists, to gain insights into the quality of motion. A specifically designed triaxial load cell is integrated into each hold placement, invisible to the climber, and compatible with standard climbing holds.

Italian version of the Occupational Depression Inventory: Validity, reliability, and associations with health, economic, and work-life characteristics.

Background: The Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) reflects a new approach to job-related distress centered on work-attributed depressive symptoms. The instrument was developed with reference to the characterization of major depression found in the , fifth edition. The ODI has been validated in English, French, and Spanish.

Development of an affective database made of interactive virtual environments.

Despite the great potential of Virtual Reality (VR) to arouse emotions, there are no VR affective databases available as it happens for pictures, videos, and sounds. In this paper, we describe the validation of ten affective interactive Virtual Environments (VEs) designed to be used in Virtual Reality. These environments are related to five emotions.

Affective Virtual Reality: How to Design Artificial Experiences Impacting Human Emotions.

Computer graphics is-in many cases-about visualizing what you cannot see. However, virtual reality (VR), from its beginnings, aimed at stimulating all human senses: not just the visual channel. Moreover, this set of multisensory stimuli allows users to feel present and able to interact with the virtual environment.

Corrigendum: May I Smell Your Attention: Exploration of Smell and Sound for Visuospatial Attention in Virtual Reality.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.

May I Smell Your Attention: Exploration of Smell and Sound for Visuospatial Attention in Virtual Reality.

When interacting with technology, attention is mainly driven by audiovisual and increasingly haptic stimulation. Olfactory stimuli are widely neglected, although the sense of smell influences many of our daily life choices, affects our behavior, and can catch and direct our attention. In this study, we investigated the effect of smell and sound on visuospatial attention in a virtual environment.

Trends in Factors Affecting Pregnancy Outcomes Among Women With Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes of Childbearing Age (2004-2017).

Aim: To describe trends in modifiable and non-modifiable unfavorable factors affecting pregnancy outcomes, over time (years 2004-2017), in women with diabetes of childbearing age from an English primary care perspective.

Methods: We identified women with diabetes aged 16-45 years from the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) network, an English primary care sentinel database. Repeated annual cross-sectional analyses (2004-2017) assessed the prevalence of unfavorable factors for pregnancy, such as obesity, poor glycaemic control, microalbuminuria, hypertension, use of medications for treating diabetes, and associated comorbidities not recommended for pregnancy.

Awareness about diabetes and pregnancy among diabetes specialists and fellows: The YoSID diabetes and pregnancy project.

Background And Aims: Despite evidence that pregnancy planning improves outcomes, in Italy, as in many other countries worldwide, <50% of women with diabetes prepare their pregnancy. The aim of this study was to document training and knowledge on diabetes and pregnancy (D&P) among diabetes professionals.

Methods And Results: We administered an anonymous online questionnaire, focused on diabetes and pregnancy planning, to diabetes team members.

Portrait of women with type 1 or type 2 diabetes of childbearing age attending diabetes clinics in Italy: the AMD-Annals initiative.

Aim: To describe characteristics relevant in case of an unplanned pregnancy for T1D or T2D women of childbearing age.

Methods: We analyzed the 2011 AMD-Annals dataset, compiling information from 300 clinics (28,840 T1D patients and 532,651 T2D patients). A risk score of unfavorable conditions for pregnancy included HbA1c > 8.

Screening for gestational diabetes in the Lombardy region: A population-based study.

Aim: As the treatment of hyperglycaemia during pregnancy with diet or insulin reduces the risk of adverse maternal outcomes and perinatal complications, screening for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is included, albeit to variable extents, in all guidelines of care for pregnant women. The aim of the present investigation was to estimate the proportion of pregnancies screened for GDM in Lombardy between 2007 and 2010, and to identify predictors of screening.

Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study using regional healthcare utilization databases of Lombardy was conducted.

Cord blood telomere length, telomerase activity and inflammatory markers in pregnancies in women with diabetes or gestational diabetes.

Aims: We tested the hypothesis that diabetes during pregnancy leads to chromosomal DNA damage and telomere attrition in the feto placental unit and cord blood, and provides evidence for intrauterine programming towards a senescent phenotype in the offspring.

Methods: We obtained cord blood from pregnant women with pregestational Type 1 diabetes (n=26), Type 2 diabetes (n=20) or gestational diabetes (n=71), and control subjects without diabetes (n=45, n=76 and n=81, respectively) matched for maternal and gestational age. We measured cord blood mononuclear cell telomere length, telomerase activity (a reverse transcriptase that limits telomere attrition), and concentrations of insulin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1).

Absence of telomere shortening and oxidative DNA damage in the young adult offspring of women with pre-gestational type 1 diabetes.

Aims/hypothesis: The offspring of mothers with pre-gestational type 1 diabetes (PGDM) may be at increased risk of glucose intolerance and cardiovascular disease in childhood. The underlying causes of these observations, and whether they persist into adulthood, are unknown. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that fetal chromosomal telomere oxidative DNA damage resulting from maternal PGDM programmes the offspring towards a senescent phenotype that is detectable in young adulthood.

Low density lipoprotein from patients with Type 2 diabetes increases expression of monocyte matrix metalloproteinase and ADAM metalloproteinase genes.

Aims: Type 2 diabetes is characterised by increased plasma concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines [such as tumour necrosis factor - alpha; TNF-alpha] and soluble forms of adhesion molecules involved in leukocyte - endothelial interactions. These molecules are synthesised as transmembrane proteins and the plasma soluble forms are generated by ectodomain cleavage from the cell surface by members of the ADAM [adisintegrin and metalloproteinase] proteinase family. We hypothesised that plasma low density lipoprotein [LDL] from subjects with Type 2 diabetes would influence in vitro monocytic ADAM and matrix metalloproteinase [MMP] gene expression differently compared to control LDL.

Total and excess bed occupancy by age, specialty and insulin use for nearly one million diabetes patients discharged from all English Acute Hospitals.

To investigate total diabetes bed occupancy and prolonged inpatient length of stay (LOS) in all English Acute Hospitals, we analysed hospital episode statistics (HES) discharge data for all English Acute Hospitals over 4 years for ICD10 discharge codes of E10 ('insulin-dependent diabetes') or E11 ('non-insulin dependent diabetes') by age-band (18-60, 61-75 and >75 years) and specialties. We matched these data to control discharges without these codes. There were 943,613 diabetes discharges (6,508,668 bed days) and 10,724,414 matched controls.

Trends in bed occupancy for inpatients with diabetes before and after the introduction of a diabetes inpatient specialist nurse service.

Aims: To compare diabetes bed occupancy and inpatient length of stay, before and after the introduction of a dedicated diabetes inpatient specialist nurse (DISN) service in a large UK Hospital.

Methods: We analysed bed occupancy data for medical or surgical inpatients for 6 years (1998-2004 inclusive), with a DISN service in the final 2 years. Excess bed days per diabetes patient were derived from age band, specialty, and seasonally matched data for all inpatients without diabetes.

A mobile screening programme for the cardiovascular and microvascular complications of Type 2 diabetes in primary care.

The Diabetes National Service framework (NSF), and the quality payments in the new contract for UK General Practitioners, promote regular screening for diabetes complications. The new contract also includes immediate incentives to meet screening and quality targets, but it will be difficult to meet these targets in primary care. We have developed a mobile 'annual review' programme for patients with Type 2 diabetes managed solely in primary care, that screens for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, retinopathy and neuropathy at the patient's general practice, and gives written foot care, dietary advice and level 1 smoking cessation advice to all patients.

Absence of otoacoustic emissions in insulin-dependent diabetic patients: is there evidence for diabetic cochleopathy?

In order to evaluate cochlear function in Type 1 diabetes mellitus, this study analyses otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) on normal hearing subjects with diabetes and on controls. Patients with Type 1 diabetes (n=60), with a mean age of 31+/-6.23 years, mean disease duration of 17.

T cell responses to type 1 diabetes related peptides sharing homologous regions.

Glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) 65 is a major autoantigen in type 1 diabetes. Regions of homology exist between GAD65 (residues 250-273) and the Coxsackie P2-C protein (residues 28-50) and between GAD65 (residues 506-518) and proinsulin (residues 24-36), and each of these has been reported to be a diabetes-associated T cell target. The aim of this study was to determine whether the homologous regions are shared targets of T lymphocyte reactivity in individual patients with type 1 diabetes.

Insulin receptor antibodies inhibit insulin uptake by the liver: in vivo 123I-insulin scintigraphic scanning and in vitro characterization in autoimmune hypoglycemia.

Background: Insulin receptor antibodies can induce severe hypoglycemia or insulin resistance in rare autoimmune syndromes. In vitro properties of these antibodies occasionally explain the clinical features of the syndrome, but direct evidence of their in vivo activity is poor. We studied a 58-year-old male with rheumatoid arthritis who presented with hypoglycemic coma.

Cellular and humoral immunity against cow's milk proteins in type 1 diabetes.

Cow's milk beta-casein has been proposed as a candidate trigger of autoimmunity associated with type 1 diabetes. In this study, cellular and humoral immunity against beta-casein was compared to that against other major cow's milk proteins in patients with recent onset type 1 diabetes and control subjects. T cell responses were found against alpha-casein, beta-casein, beta-lactoglobulin and bovine serum albumin in both patients with type 1 diabetes (stimulation index: 0.

Reversal of diabetes in mice by implantation of human fibroblasts genetically engineered to release mature human insulin.

Autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta cells in type I, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) results in the loss of endogenous insulin secretion, which is incompletely replaced by exogenous insulin administration. The functional restoration provided by allogeneic beta-cell transplantation is limited by adverse effects of immunosuppression. To pursue an insulin replacement therapy based on autologous, engineered human non-beta cells, we generated a retroviral vector encoding a genetically modified human proinsulin, cleavable to insulin in non-beta cells, and a human nonfunctional cell surface marker.