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IMPORTANCE Nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) is a well-established treatment of respiratory distress syndrome in preterm infants. Suboptimal weaning from nCPAP may be associated with lung injury, pulmonary morbidity, and infant weight gain. To our knowledge, the best weaning strategy from nCPAP is unknown.OBJECTIVE To compare the effect of sudden wean and pressure wean from nCPAP in very preterm infants. A randomized, clinical, open-label, multicenter trial was conducted at 6 neonatal intensive care units in Denmark from September 2012 to December 2016 and included infants born before 32 weeks of gestation. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSINTERVENTIONS Sudden wean with discontinuation of nCPAP without a prior reduction in pressure. Pressure wean with gradual pressure reduction prior to the discontinuation of nCPAP. MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURESThe primary outcome was weight gain velocity from randomization to postmenstrual age 40 weeks. Secondary outcomes included other measures of growth, nCPAP and the duration of oxygen supplementation, postmenstrual age at successful wean and at discharge, successful wean at the first attempt, the number of attempts to wean, and the length of the hospital stay. Prespecified subgroup analyses by gestational age were performed. RESULTSOf the 372 randomized infants, 185 (49.7%) were randomized to sudden wean and 187 infants (50.3%) to pressure wean. A total of 177 infants in both groups completed the trial (median gestational age for sudden and pressure wean, 30 weeks [interquartile range, 29-31]; male: sudden wean, 89 [50%]; pressure wean, 96 [54%]). There was no difference in mean [SD] weight gain velocity from randomization to 40 weeks postmenstrual age between the 2 groups (22 [6] g/kg/day). No difference was found in any of the secondary outcomes. More infants born before 28 weeks of gestation were successfully weaned from nCPAP during the first attempt in the pressure wean group compared with the sudden wean group (risk difference, 31%; 95% CI, 13%-50%), but there was no difference in the duration of nCPAP and oxygen supplementation.CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Overall, we found no difference in weight gain velocity or any of the secondary outcomes between very preterm infants who were randomized to sudden wean or pressure wean from nCPAP. However, among infants born before 28 weeks' gestation, infants from the pressure wean group were more often successfully weaned during the first attempt without a longer total duration of nCPAP treatment.

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After adjusting for confounders, we found that the association between hypothermia on admission to the NICU and RDS or death, or BPD or death was statistically insignificant.

The large spread in y values (1-10 5 ) for gigaelectronvolt secondary beams has been used in a novel technique to measure the relativistic effects on inner-shell excitation in Cu and Al and energy loss in Si and Ge. In Jf-shell excitation, a pronounced influence of density effect is found for the first time, in apparent contradiction to earlier measurements, where the lack of density effects has been a great mystery. These problems are explained as target-thickness effects in connection with transition radiation.

A theoretical and experimental investigation is presented for the process of atomic K-shell excitation for GeV particles with special emphasis on the influence from the polarization of the surrounding target medium. It is shown that the transition radiation emitted upon entrance into the target compensates partly the reduction due to the density effect. In this way inner-shell excitation yields are obtained which depend on penetrated depth into the target, e.g., with the net result that polarization effects may be neglected for thin samples. A simple relation is constructed which explains all existing experimental data. The large spread in γ values (1-104) for a GeV secondary beam has been exploited to measure the above relativistic effects in one single experiment. Here the simple model has proven to stand all tests including variation of target thickness, comparison of X-ray yields from the front and back sides of the target, and inclusion of a stack of foils to produce extra transition radiation upstream with respect to the target.

Aim Our aim was to investigate the rates of preterm births, live births and stillbirths in Denmark during the first year of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Methods This was a national, cross‐sectional registry‐based study that used the Danish Newborn Quality database, which covers all births in Denmark. The proportions of preterm births were compared between the COVID‐19 pandemic period of 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021 and the preceding 4‐year pre‐pandemic period. Results We studied 60 323 and 244 481 newborn infants from the pandemic and pre‐pandemic periods, respectively. The proportion of preterm live births and stillbirths declined slightly, from 6.29% during the pre‐pandemic period to 6.02% during the pandemic period. This corresponded to a relative risk (RR) of 0.96, with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.93–0.99 during the pandemic. The RRs for extremely preterm, very preterm and moderately preterm infants were 0.88 (95% CI 0.76–1.02), 0.91 (95% CI 0.82–1.02) and 0.97 (95% CI 0.93–1.01), respectively. Conclusion This comparative study showed a small reduction in just over 4%, from 6.29 to 6.02% in the proportion of all preterm births during the pandemic period, compared with the previous four pandemic‐free years. There were no differences between subcategories of preterm births.