Evidence indicates that nutrients and minerals might play an important role in preterm delivery (PTD). The aim of this study was to determine maternal nutritional status during second trimester of pregnancy and its association with preterm delivery (<34 weeks gestation) in Iranian women. In a large scale longitudinal study, 1033 pregnant women were recruited from prenatal clinics since December...

Once a cow becomes pregnant, the effect of pregnancy loss on its reproductive cycle is a topic of great interest for dairy herds. This paper reviews the factors of a non-infectious nature that affect the pregnancy maintenance during the late embryonic/early fetal period. Some clinical suggestions on bovine neosporosis and coxiellosis are also highlighted.

MICHEL FOUCAULT'S Naissance de la clinique (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1963) makes a brilliant case for the sudden emergence in the late eighteenth century of the hospital clinic as the central concept and institution of Western medicine. Foucault's thesis, briefly stated, sees the birth of the clinic as an "essential mutation in medical knowledge" arising out of a general epistem...