1,721,110 research outputs found
INTRAUTERINE GROWTH RESTRICTION AND NEURODEVELOPMENTAL OUTCOMES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
No full textIntrauterine growth restriction is defined as a fetal growth retardation, resulting in an estimated fetal weight (postnatally confirmed by birth weight) below the 10th centile for gestational age. Developing brain of IUGR infants is affected by the atypical fetal growth, presenting altered structure and connectivity, exposing to an increased risk for neurodevelopmental impairments.
Nevertheless, the association between growth restriction and later neurodevelopmental outcomes lacks systematic evidence. Indeed, the available studies often involve both in-utero diagnosed as well as at-birth small for gestational age children. However, considering birth weight diagnosis as proxy of fetal growth abnormalities, does not allow to isolate the effect of retardation in antenatal growth.
For these reasons, aim of this ongoing systematic review is to: i) identify the existence of a direct association between IUGR diagnosis and developmental outcomes across infancy and childhood; ii) highlight the moderating role of critical factors on this association.
One-hundred fifty-five studies have been selected from an initial pool of 4313 scientific papers recruited applying the following keywords: intrauterine growth restriction/retardation, small for gestational age and neurodevelopment, cognitive development.
First preliminary results highlight great variability in the definition and assessment methods for the intrauterine growth restriction. In addition, confounding factors, such as premature delivery, emerge to play a role in the association of IUGR and later outcomes.
Overall, considering the great variability in the collected studies, this study is intended as a starting point for a quantitative analysis of existing literature on the role of IUGR on child development. Indeed, the present study represents a closer examination of early mechanisms underpinning
neurocognitive development in infants with Intrauterine Growth Restriction
PARENTING AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE DISORDER: IMPLICATIONS OF LOSSES AND ALEXITHYMIA ON MATERNAL SENSITIVITY
No full textParental Substance Use Disorder (SUD) represents a complex clinical condition associated with
psychosocial and emotional risk factors that could affect parenting and child development.
Individuals with SUD usually report past histories characterized by traumatic experiences and
significant losses. Moreover, they often present higher rates of alexithymic traits, which could
worsen their clinical condition. Despite this empirical evidence, no prior studies examined how
alexithymia could moderate the link between past adverse experiences and observed parenting
behaviors in the context of SUD. The present study aimed to investigate the associations between
the presence of past losses, alexithymia, and observed emotional availability in the context of
maternal SUD.
Thirty-two mothers (M age=29.25 yrs, SD=6.69) with Substance Use Disorder (SUD), enrolled in
a residential rehabilitative community program, participate into the study with their children.
Participants have been tested on clinical history of SUD, with respect to alexithymia (TAS-20).
Parenting behaviors were assessed during free-play mother-child interactions (EA-Scales).
Regression analysis highlighted a significant effect of alexithymia on maternal sensitivity. More
specifically, a significant interaction between early experiences of parental loss and alexithymic
traits was found, showing that parental losses worsen the effect of difficulties in becoming aware
of someone’s own emotions on maternal sensitivity. In particular, in the presence of an history of
mournful experiences, maternal sensitivity appears to be less dependent on alexithymia, while when
loss is not experienced a good ability in becoming aware of own feelings enables the parents to be
more sensitive.
In the context of SUD significant life events should be taken into account when considering the
impact psychological variables on parenting. Clinical implications for parenting-focused
interventions for SUD mothers are discussed
Neural vulnerability and behavioral development in infants with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR): mechanisms and outcomes
No full textIntrauterine growth restriction is defined as a fetal growth retardation, resulting in an estimated fetal weight below the 10th centile for gestational age. Developing brain of IUGR infants is affected by the atypical fetal growth, presenting altered structure and connectivity, exposing to an increased risk for neurodevelopmental impairments. Behaviorally, IUGR infants show reduced responsiveness and engagement with human faces.
The present work reports on the interconnected role of neural and environmental factors involved in IUGR developmental trajectories. Specifically, results of: i) a meta-analysis; ii) an MRI case-control study; and iii) preliminary findings of a longitudinal behavioral study will be presented.
Meta-analysis shows increased risk for cognitive outcomes in IUGR vs appropriate for gestational age (AGA) peers across childhood, both for preterm and term-born children. The MRI case-control study highlights significant differences in brain volumes in several regions for IUGR preterm vs AGA preterm newborns at term-equivalent. Last, the longitudinal study suggests that low birth weight is significantly associated with atypical patterns of mother-infant interaction at 4 months, namely in visual and verbal contact.
Taken together these findings have implications for identifying antenatal impacts of IUGR on child development and proposing clinical strategies to constrain the effects of atypical brain growth and behavioral development on later outcomes
Personal Satellite Services: Third International ICST Conference, PSATS 2011 Malaga, Spain, February 2011
No full textthe Child Abuse Potential Inventory. Applications from 1986 to 2014.
No full textTraumatic experiences in childhood, as different forms of abuse, are known to produce severe consequences on mental health which can emerge both in infancy and in adult age. Identify potential abuse and risky contexts could decrease the risk of child’s death, health problems and later mental diseases. Even in situation of real abuse, attention to risk factors is needed in order to identify potential chronic maltreatment and stop a circle of violence.
The Child Abuse Potential (CAP) Inventory is a widely used assessment tool that enable to identify physical abuse and at-risk situations. Considerations about its characteristics allow the promotion of its use as an important help for programs of secondary prevention, aimed to prevent the actuation of a risk situation and of tertiary prevention, in order to stop physical abuse situations and avoid a possibility of chronicity and revictimization. A mini review of the literature is proposed, focusing on the construct validity and the concurrent predictive validity of the CAP Inventory with the intent to underline its potentialities and evidences across the time and suggest furthers investigations
Multimedia communication techniques for remote cable-based video-surveillance systems
No full texthis paper aims at presenting a study of costs and performance concerning different multimedia communication techniques that can be employed in the context of the implementation of 2/sup nd/ generation remote video-surveillance systems using wired cable TV networks as a communication means. The multimedia information is acquired by video sensors and transmitted through the CATV network to a remote control centre, where a PC-based image processing architecture performs the image processing tasks needed by the implementation of the foreseen system functionalities. The paper will show some possible analogue and digital solutions to the problems concerning the real-time multimedia data transmission in generic cable-based AVS applications. Laboratory simulations of multimedia data transmission over upstream noisy channels have been performed in order to test the performance in terms of quality of the received images provided by the most advanced high-speed commercial cable modem systems
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Lo sviluppo motorio nei primi due anni di vita: caratteristiche individuali ed esperienze ambientali in interazione.
No full textPerformance evaluation of MC-CDMA techniques for variable bit-rate transmission in LEO satellite networks
No full textThis work is aimed at investigating the use of Multi-Carrier CDMA (MC-CDMA) techniques in variable bit-rate transmission over low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite channels by means of realistic simulations. It is known by literature that MC-CDMA techniques are much more resilient with respect to multi-user interference effects in multipath fading channels than single-carrier DS/CDMA ones. Moreover, MC-CDMA exhibits a natural capability to deliver multirate services simply by assigning to each user a variable-cardinality set of subcarriers. The achieved simulation results clearly confirmed the expected improved robustness of MC-CDMA techniques transmitting multirate data streams in frequency selective LEO satellite channels, with respect to state-of-the-art DS/CDMA transceivers
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