1,721,225 research outputs found
The programming role of maternal antenatal inflammation on infants’ early neurodevelopment: A review of human studies: Special Section on “Translational and Neuroscience Studies in Affective Disorders” Section Editor, Maria Nobile MD, PhD
No full textBackground: Maternal inflammation during pregnancy is a frequently proposed mechanism underlying the link between maternal antenatal physical (e.g. infections, immune disease, obesity) and/or psychological (e.g. depression, anxiety) conditions and child outcomes. However, the extent to which maternal inflammation is directly associated with offspring's early development and health in humans remains largely unknown. Methods: In this review, empirical findings on the prospective association between maternal prenatal levels of inflammatory markers and infants’ neurodevelopmental outcomes are summarized. Fifteen studies were included with sample sizes ranging from 36 to 6016 mother-infant dyads and average overall quality score 9.53 (range 6–12). Results: Findings concerning the link between maternal antenatal inflammation and, respectively, infants’ health and birth outcomes, stress reactivity or cognitive development are mixed. However, it is noteworthy that all higher quality studies (scores >10) reviewed here do find evidence of an association between levels of inflammation, mostly as indexed by Interleukin-6 (IL-6), in healthy women across the whole gestation and offspring's neurodevelopmental outcomes, including structural and functional brain alterations. Limitations: The correlational nature of the findings and conspicuous methodological heterogeneity across studies make drawing strong conclusions premature. Conclusions: Findings, albeit preliminary, are consistent with animal studies and speak in favor of a role of maternal antenatal inflammation in shaping fetal development with possible long-term effects
Antenatal maternal anxiety, maternal sensitivity and toddlers' behavioral problems: An investigation of possible pathways
No full textBackground: While evidence exists of an association between maternal antenatal anxiety and offspring's behavioral outcomes, the role played by maternal care in explaining this link has been poorly investigated. Aim: The current study aimed to investigate the mediating/moderating role of maternal sensitivity in the association between maternal antenatal trait anxiety and toddlers' behavioral problems and temperament, taking also into account potential confounders. Analyses were also replicated for maternal antenatal state anxiety and depression.Methods: Ninety women filled in the State-Trait Anxiety Questionnaire and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale to assess anxiety/depressive symptoms during the third trimester of pregnancy (34-36 weeks of gestation) and 14 months post-partum. They also filled in the Child Behavior Checklist and the Infant Behavior Questionnaire to evaluate their 14-month-olds' behavioral problems and negative affectivity, respectively. Maternal sensitivity was assessed through the Emotional Availability Scales.Results: Maternal antenatal trait anxiety was associated with internalizing, but not externalizing, problems. Interestingly, maternal sensitivity moderated the association between antenatal trait anxiety and externalizing problems. Conversely, antenatal maternal depression was significantly associated with toddlers' negative affectivity.Conclusions: Our findings contribute to shed light on the association between maternal antenatal anxiety and child behaviors, as well as on the role played by parenting in moderating this link, with promising implications for targeted interventions
Qualità della disorganizzazione nelle rappresentazioni mentali d'attaccamento delle madri: uno studio pilota nell'ambito del maltrattamento
No full textFinite element solution of the Fokker-Planck equation
No full textThe numerical solution of the Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov (FPK) equation for computing the transition joint probability density function of the response state vector of a random dynamic system is addressed with reference to the finite element method (FE). A computer code for a Bubnov-Galerkin FE procedure is implemented. The code uses quadratic and cubic splines to interpolate the nodal values. The weighting functions may be different from the shape functions. The validity of the method is proved by comparison with some exact solutions
Minimal entropy of 3-manifolds
Full text linkWe compute the Minimal Entropy for every closed, orientable 3-manifold, showing that its cube equals the sum of the cubes of the minimal entropies of each hyperbolic component arising from the JSJ decomposition of each prime summand.
As a consequence we show that the cube of the Minimal Entropy is additive with respect to both the prime and the JSJ decomposition. This answers a conjecture asked by Anderson and Paternain for irreducible manifolds
Facial nerve reconstruction using a thoracodorsal nerve graft after radical parotidectomy
No full textIntroducing the Maputo Province. A Tentative Assemblage of Planning Tools and Visions
No full textThe city of Maputo and its de facto metropolitan area could be defined as an “unknown Metropolis”, fragmented in terms of administrative boundaries and governance and shaped by a complex tangle of unmapped non-formal urbanization patterns, rural-to-urban migrations, as well as national and transnational flows, and local and global interests. Moreover, climate change is strongly affecting the area; threatening agricultural activities; and making water, food, and energy (WEF) security issues to be urgently considered. What is the most appropriate scale to address this complexity? To what extent the current and past planning and governance tools have been effective and adequate to address emerging socio-spatial trends and guide future territorial development? How to reframe these tools into larger territorial visions and a long-durée perspective? Starting from such premises and drawing on the results of “Boa_Ma_Nhã, Maputo!” research, this chapter aims first at introducing the main cultural and methodological framework of the project, and then at addressing the complex—and yet incomplete mosaic—of the available planning documents and tools in force in the Maputo Province. The purpose is to understand their potential and unexplored synergies and surface the existing inconsistencies and gaps in between them to provide an operative background for further design-oriented explorations
Maternal mood moderates the trajectory of emotional and behavioural problems from pre- to during the COVID-19 lockdown in preschool children
No full textThe COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown have dramatically impacted families’ life, raising serious concerns about children’s emotional wellbeing. However, few studies have investigated whether the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on psychological adjustment in youngest can be moderated by maternal mood and, to our knowledge, none of them has adopted a longitudinal design. The main aim of the current study was to explore if the intensity and directionality of maternal mood symptoms moderated the trajectory of emotional and behavioural problems in Italian pre-schoolers from pre- to during the lockdown adopting a longitudinal design. To assess maternal anxiety and depression symptoms, the EPDS and the STAI-Y were filled in by 94 and 88 women before the lockdown, when their children were 1 (Wave P1) and 3 years old (Wave P2), respectively, and by 74 women during the lockdown, when their children were 4 years old (Wave L). Mothers also filled in the CBCL/1 1⁄2–5 to assess their children’s emotional and behavioural problems at each assessment wave. As a whole, children’s emotional and behavioural problems significantly increased from pre- to during the lockdown. Furthermore, maternal mood moderated this trajectory. In particular, greater maternal mood symptoms were significantly associated with a greater increase in emotional reactive, anxious-depressed, withdrawn and aggressive symptoms during the lockdown. These results contribute to shed light on the role played by maternal emotional wellbeing in buffering the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on children’s behavioural development. Albeit preliminary, the current findings highlight the need to provide timely psychological interventions to distressed mothers to help their children to better cope with the effects of the pandemic
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