Trinity College Dublin

Maternal perception of reduced fetal movements is a frequent reason for referral to maternity services and may signal risk of adverse outcomes, particularly stillbirth. To identify contemporary maternal and pregnancy-related risk factors for RFM and to examine associations between RFM and perinatal outcomes. A prospective case-control study in a large urban maternity hospital in Ireland was conducted. Women with singleton pregnancies with RFM at ≥24 weeks' gestation between 1 January and 30 September 2020 (cases) were compared with randomly selected women without RFM during pregnancy (controls) from the same population and timeframe. Associations were assessed using univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses. A total of 850 women with RFM were compared with 1743 controls. Women with RFM were younger (mean age [SD] 33.8 [5.04] vs 34.4 [4.93] years; p = 0.004), had a higher body mass index (BMI) (mean [SD] 26.6 [5.76] v 25.89 [5.10]; p < 0.05) and more likely nulliparous (68 % vs 43.8 %; p < 0.001). Multivariable analyses identified anterior placenta (OR 1.24 95 %CI 1.05-1.46; p = 0.01), a prior history of neonatal death (OR 4.65, 95 % CI 1.43-15.15; p = 0.01), and recurrent miscarriage (OR 1.64, 95 % CI 0.99-2.72; p = 0.05) as independent risk factors for RFM. RFM was not associated with stillbirth, preterm birth or neonatal death but was significantly associated with small for gestational age (SGA) infants (OR 1.48, 95 % CI 1.09-2.02). Women with RFM were more likely to undergo induction of labour (aOR 1.44 95 %CI 1.20-1.74) but not emergency caesarean section (aOR 1.20 95 % CI 0.80-1.80), or neonatal intensive care admission. RFM is influenced by maternal and pregnancy characteristics and is associated with SGA but not severe adverse perinatal outcomes. Careful assessment of women presenting with RFM, targeted growth surveillance, antenatal education and standardised care pathways are essential to optimise maternal and fetal well-being, inform clinical practice, and guide policy in contemporary maternity care.

• DOFC interrogates 0.1–0.5 nm FBGs with high fidelity across bandwidths. • Unified adaptive approach ensures stable Bragg tracking even under sparse sampling. • Calibration residuals reduced, enabling precise 375 nε resolution. • Maintains high linearity (R 2 ≈ 0.97–0.99) across all strain ranges. • Outperforms commercial interrogator in sensitivity and repeatability. Dual Optical Frequency Comb (DOFC) interrogation has emerged as a promising approach for high-resolution Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensing, yet its robustness across gratings of differing spectral bandwidths remains insufficiently explored. Two key gaps persist: first, the lack of systematic evaluation of a single DOFC platform applied consistently to both narrow- and broadband FBGs; and second, the absence of a unified signal-processing strategy that maintains accuracy under variable spectral sampling conditions. Here, we address these challenges by developing a bandwidth-adaptive DOFC interrogation framework that unifies optical and algorithmic optimization across diverse FBG bandwidths. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic assessment of a mutually coherent dual-comb system applied to multiple FBG bandwidth regimes within a single interrogation platform. The system employs Externally-Injected Gain-Switched Lasers (EI-GSLs) to generate two mutually coherent combs and a custom ADC-FFT module enabling real-time spectral acquisition. A spectral-envelope-assisted inverted Gaussian fitting (IGF) algorithm is implemented to reconstruct sparsely sampled FBG notches and extract precise Bragg wavelength shifts. Experiments on FBGs with 0.1 nm and 0.3 nm bandwidths demonstrate consistent high-fidelity strain tracking, achieving effective detection limits of ∼ 375–380 nε, dynamic ranges up to 1300 µε, and linearity of R 2 ≈ 0.98. Compared with a state-of-the-art swept-laser interrogator, which fails to resolve at the finest nano-strain increments, the proposed DOFC-IGF approach delivers superior stability and resolution across all tested bandwidths. These findings establish a practical framework for bandwidth-adaptive DOFC interrogation, enabling scalable and cost-effective deployment of mixed-bandwidth FBG arrays in high-resolution sensing networks.

The 4th UN General Assembly declaration on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health, adopted on Dec 15, 2025, was notable for its explicit inclusion of dementia, bringing dementia prevention into focus as an international public policy priority.1 A central question therefore becomes how dementia prevention will be prioritised, resourced, and implemented and how it will be integrated into existing NCD policies and health-system strategies (appendix).

Hereditary angioedema is a bradykinin-mediated, rare condition characterised by recurrent and potentially life-threatening attacks of subcutaneous and submucosal swelling. Bradykinin B2 receptor antagonism is a proven mechanism for on-demand treatment of attacks, but no evidence exists on its effects when used prophylactically. Deucrictibant is an investigational orally bioavailable bradykinin B2 receptor antagonist. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of two dose regimens of oral deucrictibant administered as prophylaxis against hereditary angioedema attacks. CHAPTER-1 was a multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised, phase 2 trial conducted in two parts, a double-blind placebo controlled first part and an open-label second part, with only part 1 reported here. Part 1 recruited adults (aged 18-75 years) with hereditary angioedema type 1 or 2 from 37 sites (university hospitals and accredited angioedema centres) across North America, Europe, and Israel. Patients required a documented history of three or more attacks within the last 3 consecutive months before screening or two or more during the screening period (up to 8 weeks) to be eligible. An interactive response technology system randomised eligible patients 1:1:1 to receive oral deucrictibant 20 mg daily, 40 mg daily, or matching placebo for 12 weeks. Randomisation to treatment groups was stratified by the baseline attack rate. Patients, investigators, site personnel, and the sponsor were blinded to treatment assignment. Masking was achieved with identically appearing deucrictibant and placebo capsules. The primary endpoint was the time-normalised number of investigator-confirmed attacks per 4 weeks (monthly attack rate) from weeks 1 to 12 and was assessed using the intention-to-treat set. The endpoint was analysed by comparing each deucrictibant group with the placebo group using a Poisson generalised linear model with a log link function and Pearson's χ2 scaling of SEs to account for potential dispersion. The safety analysis set included all patients who were randomly assigned and who received one or more doses of study drug (deucrictibant or placebo). CHAPTER-1 is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05047185) and is now complete. Between March 9, 2022, and June 19, 2023, 44 patients were screened. Of 34 patients who were randomly assigned, 11 patients received deucrictibant 20 mg, 12 patients received deucrictibant 40 mg, and 11 patients received the placebo, with a median follow-up of 85·0 days (IQR 84·0-86·0). 21 (62%) patients were female, 13 (38%) were male, and 34 (100%) patients were White. The least squares mean monthly attack rate (primary analysis) was 0·40 (95% CI 0·18-0·92) for deucrictibant 20 mg, 0·30 (0·11-0·81) for deucrictibant 40 mg, and 1·93 (1·30-2·88) for placebo; percent reduction in attack rate compared with placebo was 79·2% (95% CI 47·2-91·8) for deucrictibant 20 mg (p=0·0010) and 84·5% (95% CI 53·8-94·8) for deucrictibant 40 mg (p=0·0008). Treatment-related treatment-emergent adverse events were experienced by two (18%) patients receiving deucrictibant 20 mg, one (8%) patient receiving deucrictibant 40 mg, and one (9%) patient receiving the placebo; all were mild in severity (grade 1) and did not require dosing modification of the study drug. There were no serious adverse events or deaths in any treatment group. To the best of our knowledge, this trial provides the first clinical evidence and proof-of-concept for bradykinin B2 receptor antagonism as a therapeutic approach for the prevention of hereditary angioedema attacks and supports further investigation of oral deucrictibant for bradykinin-mediated angioedema. Pharvaris.

The application of chemical nitrogen (N) fertilisers is a significant driver of greenhouse gas emissions from food production. While promoting plant growth, they generate emissions and have a detrimental effect on soil pH and water quality. Thus, policymakers have prioritized reducing their application. The presence of high prices, substitute technologies, environmental schemes, and regulations aimed at reducing application makes it difficult to explain what is driving continuing strong demand. In this paper, we estimate the elasticity of demand for chemical N fertilisers by dairy farmers using a 10-year panel dataset (2013-2022) from the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network for Ireland. This study offers important contributions to the literature, methodologically advancing the analysis of how weather variability influences the demand for chemical N fertilisers. Unlike most previous studies, weather data were obtained by matching real spatial coordinates of dairy farms with weather data rasters through a geographic information system. Using static and dynamic models, we also explore the influence of dairy farmers' characteristics, economic variables, and mitigation measures on chemical N fertiliser demand. Results indicate that dairy farmers' demand is sensitive to weather variability, thus complicating optimal application. In addition, we identify three key challenges to reducing application: dairy farmers are inelastic to price changes, chemical N fertiliser is considered a good of necessity, and dairy farmers exhibit path dependence, where an increase in the previous year's application raises that of the current year. These challenges need to be addressed from a policy perspective, and important recommendations are drawn based on these findings.

The strength-ductility trade-off remains a critical challenge in additively manufactured stainless steels due to their process-induced microstructures. In this study, type 316 stainless steel (SS316) was fabricated via a novel metal additive manufacturing technique employing powder sheets (MAPS), demonstrating exceptional strength with considerable ductility. To elucidate the mechanisms underlying this performance, quasi-in-situ electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was employed to monitor the microstructural evolution and deformation behaviour of SS316 produced by MAPS in comparison with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). LPBF exhibits extensive deformation twinning that facilitates broad strain accommodation with sustained hardening, whereas MAPS shows dense dislocation storage within cellular substructures, leading to pronounced strain hardening and superior strength. The limited twinning activation in MAPS constrains strain redistribution, localising plasticity along cellular subgrain boundaries. The interplay between dislocation-dominated hardening and twinning-limited plasticity provides MAPS-processed SS316 with enhanced mechanical performance and highlights the importance of processing strategy in tailoring deformation pathways.