Impact of Adherence to a Standardized Oxytocin Induction Protocol on Obstetric and Neonatal Outcomes.

Background: Oxytocin protocols are employed to induce uterine contractions and progressive cervical changes, but they are associated with adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. The aim of this study was to determine whether compliance with a checklist-based protocol for oxytocin administration was associated with changes in neonatal and maternal outcomes.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 86,786 pregnant women undergoing term (> 37 weeks) induction of labor between January 2015 and December 2017 was performed.

An update: improvements in imaging perfluorocarbon-mounted plant leaves with implications for studies of plant pathology, physiology, development and cell biology.

Plant leaves are optically complex, which makes them difficult to image by light microscopy. Careful sample preparation is therefore required to enable researchers to maximize the information gained from advances in fluorescent protein labeling, cell dyes and innovations in microscope technologies and techniques. We have previously shown that mounting leaves in the non-toxic, non-fluorescent perfluorocarbon (PFC), perfluorodecalin (PFD) enhances the optical properties of the leaf with minimal impact on physiology.

Maternal mortality in the United States: predictability and the impact of protocols on fatal postcesarean pulmonary embolism and hypertension-related intracranial hemorrhage.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of specific protocols that have been developed in response to a previous analysis of maternal deaths in a large hospital system. We also analyzed the theoretic impact of an ideal system of maternal triage and transport on maternal deaths and the relative performance of cause of death determination from chart review compared with a review of discharge coding data.

Study Design: We conducted a retrospective evaluation of maternal deaths from 2007-2012 after the introduction of disease-specific protocols that were based on 2000-2006 data.

Micromechanical response of articular cartilage to tensile load measured using nonlinear microscopy.

Articular cartilage (AC) is a highly anisotropic biomaterial, and its complex mechanical properties have been a topic of intense investigation for over 60 years. Recent advances in the field of nonlinear optics allow the individual constituents of AC to be imaged in living tissue without the need for exogenous contrast agents. Combining mechanical testing with nonlinear microscopy provides a wealth of information about microscopic responses to load.