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BACKGROUND: Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is a serious problem in preterm infants. Brazilian national data are unknown. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the incidence and temporal trend of IVH in very low birth weight (VLBW) preterm infants of 18 centers of the Brazilian Network on Neonatal Research. STUDY DESIGN: National prospective multicenter cohort study including inborn VLBW preterm infants aged 230/7- 336/7 weeks' gestation, admitted between 2013 and 2018. The center with the mean incidence rate was used as reference. We applied two adjustments models using perinatal variables, and perinatal + neonatal diseases. RESULTS: Of 6,420 infants, 1951/30.4% (range 27.1-33.8%) had IVH and the disease showed a significant trend towards an overall increase in incidence over time (p = 0.003), especially in three centers. Severe IVH (grade III or IV) occurred in 32.2% (range 29.2-34.5%) of those affected by IVH, with a stable incidence. After adjustments for perinatal variables, the differences persisted among centers: for global IVH, 7 centers had significantly lower rates (OR ranging from 0.31 to 0.62), and 2 presented rates higher than the reference center (OR ranging from 2.00 to 12.46) for severe HIV. Considering perinatal and neonatal variables, 6 centers had significantly lower rates (OR ranging from 0.36 to 0.60) for global IVH than the reference center and 3 had statistically higher rates (OR 1.72, 1.86 and 11.78) for severe forms. CONCLUSION: The incidence rate of IVH in this Brazilian cohort was high and it revealed an increasing trend towards over time. The severe IVH rate was also worrisome.

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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Brazilian Neonatal Resuscitation Program releases guidelines based on local interpretation of international consensus on science and treatment recommendations. We aimed to analyze whether guidelines for preterm newborns were applied to practice in the 20 Brazilian Network on Neonatal Research centers of this middle-income country. METHODS: Prospectively collected data from 2014 to 2020 were analyzed for 8514 infants born at 230/7 to 316/7 weeks' gestation. The frequency of procedures was evaluated by gestational age (GA) category, including use of a thermal care bundle, positive pressure ventilation (PPV), PPV with a T-piece resuscitator, maximum fraction of inspired oxygen (Fio2) concentration during PPV, tracheal intubation, chest compressions and medications, and use of continuous positive airway pressure in the delivery room. Logistic regression, adjusted by center and year, was used to estimate the probability of receiving recommended treatment. RESULTS: For 3644 infants 23 to 27 weeks' GA and 4870 infants 28 to 31 weeks' GA, respectively, the probability of receiving care consistent with guidelines per year increased, including thermal care (odds ratio [OR], 1.52 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.44-1.61] and 1.45 [1.38-1.52]) and PPV with a T-piece (OR, 1.45 [95% CI 1.37-1.55] and 1.41 [1.32-1.51]). The probability of receiving PPV with Fio2 1.00 decreased equally in both GA groups (OR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.86-0.93). CONCLUSIONS: Between 2014 and 2020, the resuscitation guidelines for newborns <32 weeks' GA on thermal care, PPV with a T-piece resuscitator, and decreased use of Fio2 1.00 were translated into clinical practice.

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BACKGROUND: The effects of antenatal corticosteroids (ANSs) on twins are not well established. OBJECTIVE: To determine the impact of ANS use according to the number of fetuses. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of newborns between 23 and 33 weeks of gestational age, birth weight from 400 to 1499 g, without malformations, delivered at 20 public university hospitals from 2010 to 2014.Exposed group: Received ANS (any time, any dose) and no exposed group: no received ANS. Analysis of birth conditions and clinical outcomes. Association of variables, relative risks, and 95% confidence intervals estimated from the adjustment of log-binomial regression models. RESULTS: About 7165 premature infants were analyzed: 5167 singleton, 937 twins, and 104 triplets. Characteristics of gestations with one, two, or three fetuses not receiving ANS were similar. Reduced hemodynamic instability in single and twins gestations in the first 72 h were observed (Adj R2 Twins = 0.78; 95% CI = 0.69-0.86) (Adj R2 Singles = 0.79; 95% CI = 0.62-0.99). Reduced peri-intraventricular hemorrhage (Adj R2 Twins = 0.54; 95% CI = 0.36-0.78) (Adj R2 singles = 0.54; 95% CI = 0.36-0.78); and early sepsis reduction on single and triplex gestations (Adj R2 triplex = 0.51; 95% CI = 0.27-0.94) (Adj single R2 = 0.51; 95% CI = 0.27-0.94) were observed. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates ANS produces an important protective factor for severe intraventricular hemorrhage and hemodynamic instability in single and multiple pregnancies. ANS had a protective effect on death and birth conditions improvement just in single gestations. Regarding respiratory aspects was not observed the protective effect in the single or multiple gestations.

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BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization recognizes exclusive breastfeeding a safe source of nutrition available for children in most humanitarian emergencies, as in the current pandemic caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Despite the Brazilian national guideline protecting breastfeeding practices, there are many concerns about protecting infants from their infected mothers. This study aimed to analyze how the Brazilian hospitals and maternity services promote and support mothers suspected or diagnosed with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). METHODS: This is a descriptive cross-sectional and multicenter study which collected data from 24 Brazilian hospitals and maternity services between March and July 2020. Representatives of the institutions completed a questionnaire based on acts to promote and support breastfeeding, the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, and Brazil's federal law recommendations. RESULTS: The results showed that in delivery rooms, 98.5% of the services prohibited immediate and uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact between mothers and their infants and did not support mothers to initiate breastfeeding in the first hour. On the postnatal ward, 98.5% of the services allowed breastfeeding while implementing respiratory hygiene practices to prevent transmission of COVID-19. Companions for mothers were forbidden in 83.3% of the hospitals. Hospital discharge was mostly between 24 and 28 h (79.1%); discharge guidelines were not individualized. Additionally, a lack of support was noticed from the home environment's health community network (83.3%). Hospital and home breast pumping were allowed (87.5%), but breast milk donation was not accepted (95.8%). There was a lack of guidance regarding the use of infant comforting strategies. Guidelines specific for vulnerable populations were not covered in the material evaluated. CONCLUSIONS: In Brazil, hospitals have not followed recommendations to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding during the COVID-19 outbreak. The disagreement between international guidelines has been a major issue. The absence of recommendations on breastfeeding support during the pandemic led to difficulties in developing standards among hospitals in different regions of Brazil and other countries worldwide. The scientific community needs to discuss how to improve maternal and infant care services to protect breastfeeding in the current pandemic.

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The stimulus equivalence paradigm presented operational criteria to identify symbolic functions in observable behaviors. When humans match dissimilar stimuli (e.g., words to pictures), equivalence relations between those stimuli are likely to be demonstrated through behavioral tests derived from the logical properties of reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity. If these properties are confirmed, one can say that those stimuli are members of an equivalence class in which each member is substitutable for the others. A number of studies, which have established equivalence classes comprised of arbitrary stimuli and pictures of faces expressing emotions, have found that valences of the faces affect the relatedness of equivalent stimuli. Importantly, several studies reported stronger relational strength in equivalence classes containing happy faces than in equivalence classes containing angry faces. The processes that may account for this higher degree of relatability of happy faces are not yet known. The current study investigated the dynamics of the symbolic relational responding involving facial expressions of different emotions by means of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). Participants were 186 undergraduate students who were taught to establish two equivalence classes, each comprising pictures of faces expressing either happiness (for one class) or a negative emotion (for another class), and meaningless words. The IRAP effect was taken as an index for the relational strength established between equivalent stimuli in the different equivalence classes. The dynamics of arbitrary relational responding in the course of the four IRAP trial types revealed that the participants exhibited a stronger IRAP effect in trials involving the happy faces and a weaker IRAP effect in trials involving the negative faces. These findings indicate that the happy faces had higher impact on the symbolic relational responding than the negative faces. The potential role played by the orienting function of happy vs. negative faces is discussed. By considering other studies that also reported a happiness superiority effect in other contexts, we present converging evidence for the prioritization of positive affect in emotional, categorical, and symbolic processing.

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OBJECTIVE: To verify whether the use of the T-piece resuscitator compared with the self-inflating bag in preterm infants ventilated at birth modifies survival to hospital discharge without major morbidities. DESIGN: Pragmatic prospective cohort study. SETTING: 20 Brazilian university hospitals of Brazilian Network on Neonatal Research. Patients were 1962 inborn infants in 2014-2015 ventilated at birth with 23-33' weeks gestation and birth weight 400-1499 g without malformations. Patients transferred until the 27th day after birth were excluded. INTERVENTIONS: Positive pressure ventilation at birth with T-piece resuscitator or self-inflating bag without positive end expiratory pressure valve. Intervention with ventilation followed the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics guidelines. The choice of the equipment was at the neonatologist's discretion in each delivery. The main outcome measures were survival to hospital discharge without bronchopulmonary dysplasia, severe peri-intraventricular haemorrhage and periventricular leucomalacia. Logistic regression adjusted for confounding variables was applied for main outcome. RESULTS: 1456 (74%) were only ventilated with T-piece resuscitator and 506 (26%) with the self-inflating bag. The characteristics of those ventilated with T-Piece resuscitator versus self-inflating bag were birth weight 969 ± 277 vs 941 ± 279 g, gestational age 28.2±2.5 vs 27.8±2.7 weeks and survival to hospital discharge without major morbidities 47% vs 35%. Logistic regression adjusted for maternal characteristics, obstetric and neonatal morbidities showed that the T-piece resuscitator increased the chance of survival to hospital discharge without major morbidities (OR=1.38; 95% CI 1.06 to 1.80; Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit: 0.695). CONCLUSION: This study is the first that highlights the effectiveness of T-piece resuscitator ventilation in improving relevant outcomes in preterm neonates.

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According to Relational Frame Theory (RFT) Crel denotes a contextual stimulus that controls a particular type of relational response (sameness, opposition, comparative, temporal, hierarchical etc.) in a given situation. Previous studies suggest that contextual functions may be indirectly acquired via transfer of function. The present study investigated the transfer of Crel contextual control through equivalence relations. Experiment 1 evaluated the transfer of Crel contextual functions for relational responses based on sameness and opposition. Experiment 2 extended these findings by evaluating transfer of function using comparative Crel stimuli. Both experiments followed a similar sequence of phases. First, abstract forms were established as Crel stimuli via multiple exemplar training (Phase 1). The contextual cues were then applied to establish arbitrary relations among nonsense words and to test derived relations (Phase 2). After that, equivalence relations involving the original Crel stimuli and other abstract forms were trained and tested (Phase 3). Transfer of function was evaluated by replacing the directly established Crel stimuli with their equivalent stimuli in the former experimental tasks (Phases 1 and 2). Results from both experiments suggest that Crel contextual control may be extended via equivalence relations, allowing other arbitrarily related stimuli to indirectly acquire Crel functions and regulate behavior by evoking appropriate relational responses in the presence of both previously known and novel stimuli.

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