Background: Antenatal corticosteroid (ACS) treatment has been proven to decrease rates of adverse perinatal outcomes when administered to pregnant women at risk for preterm delivery. Given the uncertainty about the be...Background: Antenatal corticosteroid (ACS) treatment has been proven to decrease rates of adverse perinatal outcomes when administered to pregnant women at risk for preterm delivery. Given the uncertainty about the benefit of ACS according to gestational age, we aimed to examine whether there was any benefit of ACS on perinatal mortality and respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) according to different gestational ages at birth. Methods: Secondary analysis of data from an observational prospective chart review study was conducted in four hospitals located in the Mwanza region, Tanzania. The study population consisted of singleton infants delivered between 27 and 34 weeks of gestation between July 2019 and February 2020. Sociodemographic and medical data were recorded from participants’ medical records. Results: Over an eight-month period, 838 preterm singletons were delivered between 27 and 34 weeks of gestation. Three hundred and twelve (37.2%) pregnant women received at least one dose of ACS. Among infants exposed to ACS, perinatal mortality rates were significantly lower than those without exposure at the 27th week (27.8% vs 94.4%, P < 0.001), the 29th week (13.3% vs 51.4%, P = 0.012) and the 34th week (3.0% vs 18.2%, P < 0.001). Among infants exposed to ACS, the RDS rate was significantly lower than those without exposure only at the 32nd week (9.5% vs 25.0%, P = 0.039). Conclusion: Our findings add to the literature about the benefits of ACS for preterm infants of various gestational ages in low-resource settings. Compared to unexposed infants, those exposed to ACS and born at 27th and 34th weeks of gestation experienced lower rates of perinatal mortality. Future research, especially among infants born before the 27th week of pregnancy, is a priority.展开更多
This article introduces a singleton type-1 fuzzy logic system(T1-SFLS) controller and Fuzzy-WDO hybrid for the autonomous mobile robot navigation and collision avoidance in an unknown static and dynamic environment. T...This article introduces a singleton type-1 fuzzy logic system(T1-SFLS) controller and Fuzzy-WDO hybrid for the autonomous mobile robot navigation and collision avoidance in an unknown static and dynamic environment. The WDO(Wind Driven Optimization) algorithm is used to optimize and tune the input/output membership function parameters of the fuzzy controller. The WDO algorithm is working based on the atmospheric motion of infinitesimal small air parcels navigates over an N-dimensional search domain. The performance of this proposed technique has compared through many computer simulations and real-time experiments by using Khepera-Ⅲ mobile robot. As compared to the T1-SFLS controller the Fuzzy-WDO algorithm is found good agreement for mobile robot navigation.展开更多
文摘Background: Antenatal corticosteroid (ACS) treatment has been proven to decrease rates of adverse perinatal outcomes when administered to pregnant women at risk for preterm delivery. Given the uncertainty about the benefit of ACS according to gestational age, we aimed to examine whether there was any benefit of ACS on perinatal mortality and respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) according to different gestational ages at birth. Methods: Secondary analysis of data from an observational prospective chart review study was conducted in four hospitals located in the Mwanza region, Tanzania. The study population consisted of singleton infants delivered between 27 and 34 weeks of gestation between July 2019 and February 2020. Sociodemographic and medical data were recorded from participants’ medical records. Results: Over an eight-month period, 838 preterm singletons were delivered between 27 and 34 weeks of gestation. Three hundred and twelve (37.2%) pregnant women received at least one dose of ACS. Among infants exposed to ACS, perinatal mortality rates were significantly lower than those without exposure at the 27th week (27.8% vs 94.4%, P < 0.001), the 29th week (13.3% vs 51.4%, P = 0.012) and the 34th week (3.0% vs 18.2%, P < 0.001). Among infants exposed to ACS, the RDS rate was significantly lower than those without exposure only at the 32nd week (9.5% vs 25.0%, P = 0.039). Conclusion: Our findings add to the literature about the benefits of ACS for preterm infants of various gestational ages in low-resource settings. Compared to unexposed infants, those exposed to ACS and born at 27th and 34th weeks of gestation experienced lower rates of perinatal mortality. Future research, especially among infants born before the 27th week of pregnancy, is a priority.
文摘This article introduces a singleton type-1 fuzzy logic system(T1-SFLS) controller and Fuzzy-WDO hybrid for the autonomous mobile robot navigation and collision avoidance in an unknown static and dynamic environment. The WDO(Wind Driven Optimization) algorithm is used to optimize and tune the input/output membership function parameters of the fuzzy controller. The WDO algorithm is working based on the atmospheric motion of infinitesimal small air parcels navigates over an N-dimensional search domain. The performance of this proposed technique has compared through many computer simulations and real-time experiments by using Khepera-Ⅲ mobile robot. As compared to the T1-SFLS controller the Fuzzy-WDO algorithm is found good agreement for mobile robot navigation.