Maternal thrombocytopenia is not predictive of neonatal thrombocytopenia: a single-center Irish study.

Background: Maternal thrombocytopenia during pregnancy is common. However, the relationship between maternal and neonatal thrombocytopenia is poorly understood.

Objectives: We aimed to determine whether an association exists between platelet counts of neonates born to mothers with moderate-to-severe thrombocytopenia (<100 × 10/L) and neonatal platelet counts.

The full blood count in screening asymptomatic infants for early-onset sepsis: A cross-sectional study.

Aim: The full blood count (FBC) is commonly measured as part of a partial septic work-up in asymptomatic infants at increased risk of early-onset neonatal sepsis (EOS). To determine the impact of FBC parameters on infants' subsequent management a retrospective cross-sectional study was performed.

Methods: Infants, born at ≥34 weeks gestation, asymptomatic at birth, undergoing a partial septic work-up and receiving prophylactic antibiotics due to increased risk of EOS in a single centre over a 2-year period, were included.

Haematological parameters and coagulation in umbilical cord blood following COVID-19 infection in pregnancy.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate infants, born to women with SARS-CoV-2 detected during pregnancy, for evidence of haematological abnormalities or hypercoagulability in umbilical cord blood.

Study Design: This was a prospective observational case-control study of infants born to women who had SARS-CoV-2 RNA detected by PCR at any time during their pregnancy (n = 15). The study was carried out in a Tertiary University Maternity Hospital (8,500 deliveries/year) in Ireland.

Predicting bacteraemia in maternity patients using full blood count parameters: A supervised machine learning algorithm approach.

Introduction: Bacteraemia in pregnancy and the post-partum period can lead to maternal and newborn morbidly. The purpose of this study was to use machine learning tools to identify if bacteraemia in pregnant or post-partum women could be predicted by full blood count (FBC) parameters other than the white cell count.

Methods: The study was performed on 129 women with a positive blood culture (BC) for a clinically significant organism, who had a FBC taken at the same time.

Directions for Research on Climate and Conflict.

The potential links between climate and conflict are well studied, yet disagreement about the specific mechanisms and their significance for societies persists. Here, we build on assessment of the relationship between climate and organized armed conflict to define crosscutting priorities for future directions of research. They include (1) deepening insight into climate-conflict linkages and conditions under which they manifest, (2) ambitiously integrating research designs, (3) systematically exploring future risks and response options, responsive to ongoing decision-making, and (4) evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to manage climate-conflict links.

Climate as a risk factor for armed conflict.

Research findings on the relationship between climate and conflict are diverse and contested. Here we assess the current understanding of the relationship between climate and conflict, based on the structured judgments of experts from diverse disciplines. These experts agree that climate has affected organized armed conflict within countries.

First trimester serum biomarkers to predict gestational diabetes in a high-risk cohort: Striving for clinically useful thresholds.

Objectives: Screening and diagnosis of gestational diabetes (GDM) has been a source of controversy. The prevalence has increased in line with an obesity epidemic and a trend towards delayed child-bearing. Treatment of even modest glycaemic impairment in pregnancy has been shown to be beneficial in preventing its clinical sequalae.

Effects of temperature and precipitation variability on the risk of violence in sub-Saharan Africa, 1980-2012.

Ongoing debates in the academic community and in the public policy arena continue without clear resolution about the significance of global climate change for the risk of increased conflict. Sub-Saharan Africa is generally agreed to be the region most vulnerable to such climate impacts. Using a large database of conflict events and detailed climatological data covering the period 1980-2012, we apply a multilevel modeling technique that allows for a more nuanced understanding of a climate-conflict link than has been seen heretofore.

Training high: a clinical skills initiative for families and staff.

During the past 50 years the care of children and young people who are unwell in the UK has shifted out of the hospital environment and into the community and has become more complex, requiring the development among families and care staff of corresponding clinical skills. The ongoing initiative Training High aims to meet this need by offering appropriate training programmes to families and professional carers so they can safely undertake certain procedures. This article describes the success of one training project in England.

Climate variability and conflict risk in East Africa, 1990-2009.

Recent studies concerning the possible relationship between climate trends and the risks of violent conflict have yielded contradictory results, partly because of choices of conflict measures and modeling design. In this study, we examine climate-conflict relationships using a geographically disaggregated approach. We consider the effects of climate change to be both local and national in character, and we use a conflict database that contains 16,359 individual geolocated violent events for East Africa from 1990 to 2009.

Safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of SPL7013 gel (VivaGel): a dose ranging, phase I study.

Objectives: To evaluate safety, tolerability and systemic pharmacokinetics of escalating doses of SPL7013 Gel in healthy women.

Design: : Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled dose-escalation trial.

Methods: Thirty-seven healthy women were randomized to receive 3.