Birth Process | ScienceGate

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a disorder characterized by abnormal tone, posture and movement. The incidence of CP is 2–4 per 1,000 live births in the world. Prematurityand low birth weight are important risk factors for CP; however, multiple other factors have been associated with an increased risk for CP, including maternal infections and diseases, and abnormal birth process. In most cases of CP the initial injury to the brain occurs during early fetal brain development, later a brain area that is injured cannot function properly in the future. CP is classified clinically based on the predominant motor syndrome—spastic hemiplegia, spastic diplegia, spastic quadriplegia, ataxic and dyskinetic cerebral palsies. The diagnosis of CPis based on a combination of clinical history, use of standardized neuromotor assessment and findings on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). If there is a suspicionof genetic or inborn metabolic disorders, screening tests should be provided additionally. Because CP is associated with multiple associated and secondary medical conditions, its management requires a multidisciplinary team approach

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Salivary cortisol as a non-invasive approach to assess stress in dystocic dairy calves

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-85666-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Levente Kovács ◽

Fruzsina Luca Kézér ◽

Szilárd Bodó ◽

Ferenc Ruff ◽

Rupert Palme ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Birth Weight ◽

Body Condition ◽

Salivary Cortisol ◽

Sampling Period ◽

Dairy Calves ◽

Birth Process ◽

Invasive Approach ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Saliva Cortisol ◽

Cortisol Levels

AbstractThe intensity and the magnitude of saliva cortisol responses were investigated during the first 48 h following birth in newborn dairy calves which underwent normal (eutocic, EUT, n = 88) and difficult (dystocic, DYS, n = 70) calvings. The effects of parity and body condition of the dam, the duration of parturition, the time spent licking the calf, the sex and birth weight of the calf were also analyzed. Neonatal salivary cortisol concentrations were influenced neither by factors related to the dam (parity, body condition) nor the calf (sex, birth weight). The duration of parturition and the time spent licking the calf also had no effect on salivary cortisol levels. Salivary cortisol concentrations increased rapidly after delivery in both groups to reach their peak levels at 45 and 60 min after delivery in EUT and DYS calves, respectively supporting that the birth process means considerable stress for calves and the immediate postnatal period also appears to be stressful for newborn calves. DYS calves exhibited higher salivary cortisol concentrations compared to EUT ones for 0 (P = 0.022), 15 (P = 0.016), 30 (P = 0.007), 45 (P = 0.003), 60 (P = 0.001) and 120 min (P = 0.001), and for 24 h (P = 0.040), respectively. Peak levels of salivary cortisol and the cortisol release into saliva calculated as AUC were higher in DYS than in EUT calves for the 48-h of the sampling period (P = 0.009 and P = 0.003, respectively). The greater magnitude of saliva cortisol levels in DYS calves compared to EUT ones suggest that difficult parturition means severe stress for bovine neonates and salivary cortisol could be an opportunity for non-invasive assessment of stress during the early neonatal period in cattle.

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Potential of standard perinatal data for measuring maternal integrity in childbirth

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckaa165.422 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽

Author(s):

C Miani ◽

S Batram-Zantvoort ◽

O Razum

Keyword(s):

Real Life ◽

Healthcare Setting ◽

Demographic Variables ◽

Care Providers ◽

Birth Process ◽

Standard Data ◽

Obstetric Violence ◽

Relevant Variables ◽

Perinatal Data ◽

Birth Centres

Abstract Background Measuring the phenomenon of violation of maternal integrity in childbirth (e.g. obstetric violence) relies in part on the completeness of maternity care providers' data. The population coverage and linkage possibilities that they provide make for a great untapped potential. Although violation of integrity is a complex phenomenon best measured with dedicated instruments, standard data provide details about the birth and care received. Relevant variables include justifications of medical procedures (e.g. episiotomy) and characteristics of the birth process (e.g. length of labour). Demographic variables can be used for intersectional analyses to track potential discrimination -a dimension of violation of integrity in childbirth. Methods Using a baseline questionnaire and perinatal data obtained from hospitals, birth centres and midwifes in the BaBi study (Germany), we compared the completeness of integrity-relevant variables across providers and depending on the demographic and clinical characteristics of the women. We investigated potential for analysis from an intersectional perspective. Results Our analyses included 908 births, of which 32 outside hospital. There were 634 vaginal birth vs. 274 caesarean sections. We found poor reporting on demographic variables, in particular with regard to the 'region of origin' variable (correct origin recorded for half of the migrants). There was better reporting by midwives than by hospitals for “soft indicators”, such as the position of the women during birth (100% vs. 87.6%). Conclusions Putting more emphasis on completeness of standardised data could increase their potential for research. Healthcare setting, organisational culture and working conditions might determine what is judged important in terms of reporting; therefore, targeted education may improve this process. Next, we will interview care providers to understand data collection constraints and priorities and potential reporting bias in real-life settings.

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Semiparametric likelihood inference for heterogeneous survival data under double truncation based on a Poisson birth process

Japanese Journal of Statistics and Data Science ◽

10.1007/s42081-021-00128-w ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Achim Dörre

Keyword(s):

Survival Data ◽

Process Model ◽

Optimization Method ◽

Finite Sample ◽

Birth Process ◽

Dimensional Parameter ◽

Lifetime Distributions ◽

Computational Performance ◽

Semiparametric Likelihood ◽

Double Truncation

AbstractWe study a selective sampling scheme in which survival data are observed during a data collection period if and only if a specific failure event is experienced. Individual units belong to one of a finite number of subpopulations, which may exhibit different survival behaviour, and thus cause heterogeneity. Based on a Poisson process model for individual emergence of population units, we derive a semiparametric likelihood model, in which the birth distribution is modeled nonparametrically and the lifetime distributions parametrically, and define maximum likelihood estimators. We propose a Newton–Raphson-type optimization method to address numerical challenges caused by the high-dimensional parameter space. The finite-sample properties and computational performance of the proposed algorithms are assessed in a simulation study. Personal insolvencies are studied as a special case of double truncation and we fit the semiparametric model to a medium-sized dataset to estimate the mean age at insolvency and the birth distribution of the underlying population.

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A generalized Gompertz growth model with applications and related birth-death processes

Ricerche di Matematica ◽

10.1007/s11587-020-00548-y ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Majid Asadi ◽

Antonio Di Crescenzo ◽

Farkhondeh A. Sajadi ◽

Serena Spina

Keyword(s):

Growth Model ◽

Growth Curve ◽

Goodness Of Fit ◽

Gompertz Model ◽

Death Process ◽

Birth Process ◽

Failure Data ◽

First Case ◽

Gompertz Growth Model ◽

Birth Death

AbstractIn this paper, we propose a flexible growth model that constitutes a suitable generalization of the well-known Gompertz model. We perform an analysis of various features of interest, including a sensitivity analysis of the initial value and the three parameters of the model. We show that the considered model provides a good fit to some real datasets concerning the growth of the number of individuals infected during the COVID-19 outbreak, and software failure data. The goodness of fit is established on the ground of the ISRP metric and the $$d_2$$ d 2 -distance. We also analyze two time-inhomogeneous stochastic processes, namely a birth-death process and a birth process, whose means are equal to the proposed growth curve. In the first case we obtain the probability of ultimate extinction, being 0 an absorbing endpoint. We also deal with a threshold crossing problem both for the proposed growth curve and the corresponding birth process. A simulation procedure for the latter process is also exploited.

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Integrodifference master equation describing actively growing blood vessels in angiogenesis

International Journal of Nonlinear Sciences and Numerical Simulation ◽

10.1515/ijnsns-2019-0094 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (7-8) ◽

pp. 705-713 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Luis L. Bonilla ◽

Manuel Carretero ◽

Filippo Terragni

Keyword(s):

Master Equation ◽

Blood Vessels ◽

Transition Probabilities ◽

Reaction Diffusion ◽

Reaction Diffusion Equations ◽

Birth Process ◽

Sink Term ◽

System Of Particles ◽

Vessel Network ◽

Tip Cells

AbstractWe study a system of particles in a two-dimensional geometry that move according to a reinforced random walk with transition probabilities dependent on the solutions of reaction-diffusion equations (RDEs) for the underlying fields. A birth process and a history-dependent killing process are also considered. This system models tumor-induced angiogenesis, the process of formation of blood vessels induced by a growth factor (GF) released by a tumor. Particles represent vessel tip cells, whose trajectories constitute the growing vessel network. New vessels appear and may fuse with existing ones during their evolution. Thus, the system is described by tracking the density of active tips, calculated as an ensemble average over many realizations of the stochastic process. Such density satisfies a novel discrete master equation with source and sink terms. The sink term is proportional to a space-dependent and suitably fitted killing coefficient. Results are illustrated studying two influential angiogenesis models.

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Extremal Values of the Sackin Tree Balance Index

Annals of Combinatorics ◽

10.1007/s00026-021-00539-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mareike Fischer

Keyword(s):

Phylogenetic Trees ◽

Theoretical Computer Science ◽

Search Trees ◽

Formal Proofs ◽

Birth Process ◽

Ordered Trees ◽

Research Areas ◽

New Findings ◽

Mathematical Phylogenetics ◽

Extremal Values

AbstractTree balance plays an important role in different research areas like theoretical computer science and mathematical phylogenetics. For example, it has long been known that under the Yule model, a pure birth process, imbalanced trees are more likely than balanced ones. Also, concerning ordered search trees, more balanced ones allow for more efficient data structuring than imbalanced ones. Therefore, different methods to measure the balance of trees were introduced. The Sackin index is one of the most frequently used measures for this purpose. In many contexts, statements about the minimal and maximal values of this index have been discussed, but formal proofs have only been provided for some of them, and only in the context of ordered binary (search) trees, not for general rooted trees. Moreover, while the number of trees with maximal Sackin index as well as the number of trees with minimal Sackin index when the number of leaves is a power of 2 are relatively easy to understand, the number of trees with minimal Sackin index for all other numbers of leaves has been completely unknown. In this manuscript, we extend the findings on trees with minimal and maximal Sackin indices from the literature on ordered trees and subsequently use our results to provide formulas to explicitly calculate the numbers of such trees. We also extend previous studies by analyzing the case when the underlying trees need not be binary. Finally, we use our results to contribute both to the phylogenetic as well as the computer scientific literature using the new findings on Sackin minimal and maximal trees to derive formulas to calculate the number of both minimal and maximal phylogenetic trees as well as minimal and maximal ordered trees both in the binary and non-binary settings. All our results have been implemented in the Mathematica package SackinMinimizer, which has been made publicly available.

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When Fear Surrounding Childbirth Leads Women to Request a Planned Cesarean Birth

Western Journal of Nursing Research ◽

10.1177/01939459211010192 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 019394592110101

Author(s):

Janet Bryanton ◽

Cheryl Tatano Beck ◽

Stephanie Morrison

Keyword(s):

Lived Experiences ◽

Healing Process ◽

Phenomenological Method ◽

Birth Process ◽

Healthy Baby ◽

Cesarean Birth ◽

Traumatic Birth

Fear surrounding childbirth requires a more in-depth understanding from women’s perspectives, especially those who request a planned cesarean due to that fear. Therefore, we explored primiparous and multiparous women’s lived experiences of fear surrounding childbirth in relation to their decision to request a planned cesarean birth. We used Colaizzi’s (1978) phenomenological method to interview 16 women from 4 provinces and to analyze the data. Women expressed numerous fears and most experienced more than one fear. Most feared their baby/babies being injured or dying during childbirth or developing complications themselves. Others feared experiencing a traumatic birth. Women described numerous emotional and physical manifestations of fear, and all believed that a planned cesarean birth would provide more control over the birth process. For some, the birth of their healthy baby/babies began a healing process, whereas others noted that their fear subsided or resolved upon confirmation that they would have a planned cesarean.

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