Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1459 Identification and Treatment of Women with a Fear of Birth

Ternström, E. 2018. Identification and Treatment of Women with a Fear of Birth. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1459. 84 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0320-8. Although a fear of birth affects many women during pregnancy and is associated with adverse birth outcomes, it is rarely measured in clinical practice and evidence-based treatments are lacking. The aim of this thesis was to assess the clinical utility of the Fear of Birth Scale, and to evaluate the effect of guided Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy compared with standard care on the levels of fear of birth in pregnant and postpartum women. This thesis consists of four papers originating from three studies. The Fear of Birth Scale was used to measure fear of birth among pregnant women in all three studies. In Study I, prevalence of fear of birth among Swedish-born and foreign-born pregnant women was measured, and in Study II, 31 pregnant women were interviewed about their thoughts when assessing fear of birth. In Study III, a multicenter randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare guided Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) with standard care for pregnant women with a fear of birth. Fear of birth was identified among 22% of the pregnant women. Prevalence was twice as high among the foreign-born women (37%) compared to the Swedish-born women (18%). When asking the participants what they thought when assessing their fear on the Fear of Birth Scale, they confirmed that they had understood the measurement intent of the scale. The randomized controlled trial showed that fear of birth decreased during pregnancy and postpartum in both groups. However, the levels of fear decreased more in the guided ICBT-group when measuring fear of birth up to one year postpartum. The changes in fear of birth over time did not differ between parity groups. Altogether, these results suggest that the Fear of Birth Scale is a suitable screening instrument for identifying pregnant women with a fear of birth in a clinical setting and that such screening would be beneficial, as it probably would increase the chance of achieving a more equitable care. As the effect of time during pregnancy and postpartum was most evident in reducing fear of birth, this can be communicated to pregnant women, along with a continuous dialogue about how the women experience fear during pregnancy.
Presidential Leadership and the Resurgence of Trust in Government

Are Happy Days for government really here again? Recent polls suggest that the long slide in public confidence in America's political institutions and authorities has finally ended. Ronald Reagan, who came to Washington to bury government rather than praise it, ironically has presided over a restoration of trust in the competence of national leadership. We begin this article by charting the contours of the unanticipated improvement in the public's image of government, assessing the magnitude of the increase in confidence, identifying the social groups whose outlook has changed and specifying the institutions that have gained in popular esteem. Our main purpose, however, is to provide an explanation for the resurgence of trust in government that addresses persistent controversies about the theoretical and empirical status of this concept.
Export-market dynamics and firm-level productivity: evidence for UK tradable sectors

This study empirically assesses the microeconomic productivity impact associated with export-market transitions, providing the first analysis for the whole tradable economy for the UK. Using weighted firm-level data for both UK production and service sectors covering the 1996--2004 period, and based on estimation for 14 industry groups separately, our findings show that a productivity effect resulting from UK firms entering and exiting export markets is present in many industries but it is not universal. Our overall estimate for the UK economy suggests a substantial postentry productivity gain for firms new to exporting; a negative productivity effect for firms exiting overseas markets; and significant productivity gains for those that are observed to have both switched into and out of export markets. We also find that such productivity effects are larger in the services, when compared to production (the latter encompassing agriculture, manufacturing, and construction). Copyright 2012 The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved. , Oxford University Press.
Challenges in selectivity, specificity and quantitation range of ligand-binding assays: case studies using a microfluidics platform.

BACKGROUND Method developers of plate-based ligand-binding assays (LBAs) often face challenges establishing selectivity, specificity and range of quantitation to meet the needs of a particular study. Case studies are presented to compare different ligand-binding immunoassay platforms (plate-based vs microfluidic system) in method development to support pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies. RESULTS Studies highlight the challenges of plate-based LBAs to establish selectivity, specificity and range of quantitation as a result of nonspecific background signal, matrix interference, lack of linearity and drug interference. The fast assay kinetics of a microfluidic immunoassay system was shown to generally reduce nonspecific background and matrix effects, while increasing assay linear range and drug tolerance. CONCLUSION The short incubation times with microfluidics can be beneficial for LBAs burdened by matrix effects and in these cases had superior assay performance compared with widely used immunoassay platforms in bioanalysis, for example, Meso Scale Discovery(®) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
An Insightful Assessment on Impact of Local Economic Development Programmes in South Africa and Nigeria: Linking Socio-Cooperative Connections and Youths’ Participation

The study assembled insights comparison between two different Local municipalities in South Africa and Nigeria pertaining to youths’ participation linked to some socio-economic status within the context of the Local Economic Development Programmes. The study made use of (n-160) youthful participants who participated in various LED programs out of a total number of (n-205) youths whom were multi-staged sampled. Data were analysed using multivariate inferential statistics and Pearson chi-square Test for independence correlations between variables (Lowry, 2002) and employed descriptive procedures recommended by Creswell (2007). This study revealed acute institutional challenges, indifference and supportive legal framework system and a significant effect with maturity level due to pedagogic attainment viable among certain age group range. It recommends the need for cooperative linkages of youths to substantive opportunities and increased informational knowledge of programmes using career survey assessment to ascertain matching skills capabilities within the youth’s interest and their self-regulatory and self-efficacy. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n23p1621
What is the appropriate level of aggregation for productivity indices? Comparing district, regional and national measures

Abstract This paper examines the appropriate level of aggregation for the construction of total factor productivity (TFP) indices. The dataset covers the magisterial districts and statistical regions of the Western Cape for the years 1952 to 2002. Over these five decades agricultural production in the Western Cape grew twice as fast as in the country as a whole but this average masks substantial regional variation. Results show that TFP growth was negative in the Karoo, moderate in the Swartland, Overberg and Southern Cape, and generally above 2% per year in the Boland and Breede River Valleys, where there is extensive irrigation.
Carcinoembryonic antigen inhibits neutrophil activation by N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a surface glycoprotein expressed in human epithelial cells and is released from their surface, especially during colorectal cancer. Frequently, colorectal cancer is accompanied by inflammation, where tumor-infiltrating neutrophils play an important role. CEA was also found to be a strong chemotactic agent for neutrophils. The purpose of this study was to find out if CEA can enhance neutrophil priming and activation. Primed neutrophils were activated by N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (formyl-MLP) and the resulting oxidative burst was measured luminometrically. Unexpectedly, in vitro priming of neutrophils by CEA, alone or preceded by LPS, inhibited subsequent activation of these cells by formyl-MLP. CEA may have anti-inflammatory properties in vivo.
Quantitative mRNA expression analysis of neurotrophin‐receptor TrkC and oncogene c‐MYC from formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded primitive neuroectodermal tumor samples

Most recent studies analyzing candidate biological prognostic factors (including neurotrophin receptor TrkC and proto‐oncogene c‐MYC) in childhood primitive neuroectodermal brain tumors (PNET) are limited by small patient numbers due to dependence on fresh‐frozen tumor material. In contrast, large archives of formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded PNET samples exist from homogeneously treated patients. The ability of real‐time RT‐PCR to assay very small mRNA fragments makes this assay amenable to studies where the RNA is moderately or even highly degraded. We have optimized RNA isolation from archive PNET samples and found that TrkC and c‐MYC mRNA measurements significantly correlated with those obtained from matching fresh‐frozen tissues. Exploitation of already existing archives of formalin‐fixed paraffin‐embedded PNET samples may accelerate the building of better stratification systems for PNET patients.
Semi‐Parametric Examination of Industry Risk: The Australian Evidence

This paper examines the time variation form of the systematic risk measurement, betas, of Australian industry sectors. By using a semi-parametric approach, the variation of the systematic risk measurement, beta, is a combination of one stable parametric component and one varying non-parametric component. Two categories of industries are identified. The Energy, Material, Mining, Industrial, and Property Trust Industries have a generally increasing beta for most of the sample period, while the Consumer Discretionary, Financials Excluding Property Trust, IT and Telecommunications have a decreasing beta for the same period. The betas of Health and Utility industry are more stable than others. The variation of industry risk is linked with the market condition as well as the change of interest rates.
A randomized, double‐blind comparison of donor tolerance of 400 mL, 200 mL, and sham red cell donation

BACKGROUND: Volume replacement could allow the safe collection of twice the normal amount of red cells in a standard donation. Studies in small numbers of donors have shown that a temporary decrease in red cell mass is well tolerated when donors give twice the usual amount (170–225 mL) of red cells in a standard 405‐ to 495‐mL donation. Sham‐donation control groups have not been included in previous studies of increased red cell donation, and perceptions of donation effects could have been biased. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: In the study reported here, 17 male and 13 female volunteers were randomly assigned to make a sham donation, 1‐unit donation, or 2‐unit donation on an automated blood cell separator. Donor tolerance was assessed by ambulatory heart rate monitoring and by a poststudy interview. Hemoglobin, hematocrit, ferritin, serum iron, total iron‐binding capacity, red cell 2,3 DPG, and serum erythropoietin were measured before and after donation for comparison of the erythropoietic responses in the three study groups. RESULTS: Red cells collected totaled 206 +/− 10 mL in the 1‐unit group and 414 +/− 21 mL in the 2‐unit group. Changes in heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure with donation and changes in heart rate recorded by ambulatory monitoring did not differ for the experimental groups. Postdonation changes from baseline values were evaluated on Days 2, 7, and 14. Changes in hemoglobin were significantly different between groups (p < 0.017) in all postdonation tests. There were differences between groups in erythropoietin response, red cell 2,3 DPG, ferritin levels, and hemoglobin synthesis. Hemoglobin synthesis and mean changes in 2,3 DPG, erythropoietin, ferritin, and postdonation hemoglobin were greater in the 2‐unit group than in the 1‐unit group. CONCLUSION: Donor tolerance of red cell donations of 414 +/− 21 mL, a volume of red cells twice that in a standard 450‐mL blood donation, does not differ from donor tolerance of standard or sham donations. Physiologic adjustments and the hematopoietic response to reduced red cell mass were greater in the 2‐ unit group, but the donation of 1 unit or 2 units did not cause detectable symptoms of reduced oxygen‐carrying capacity.
PHOTOIONIZATION MODELING OF OXYGEN K ABSORPTION IN THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM: THE CHANDRA GRATING SPECTRA OF XTE J1817-330

We present detailed analyses of oxygen K absorption in the interstellar medium (ISM) using four high-resolution Chandra spectra toward the X-ray low-mass binary XTE J1817-330. The 11–25 Å broadband is described with a simple absorption model that takes into account the pile-up effect and results in an estimate of the hydrogen column density. The oxygen K-edge region (21–25 Å) is fitted with the physical warmabs model, which is based on a photoionization model grid generated with the xstar code with the most up-to-date atomic database. This approach allows a benchmark of the atomic data which involves wavelength shifts of both the K lines and photoionization cross sections in order to fit the observed spectra accurately. As a result we obtain a column density of NH = 1.38 ± 0.01 × 1021 cm−2; an ionization parameter of log ξ = −2.70 ± 0.023; an oxygen abundance of ; and ionization fractions of O i/O = 0.911, O ii/O = 0.077, and O iii/O = 0.012 that are in good agreement with results from previous studies. Since the oxygen abundance in warmabs is given relative to the solar standard of Grevesse & Sauval, a rescaling with the revision by Asplund et al. yields , a value close to solar that reinforces the new standard. We identify several atomic absorption lines—Kα, Kβ, and Kγ in O i and O ii and Kα in O iii, O vi, and O vii—the last two probably residing in the neighborhood of the source rather than in the ISM. This is the first firm detection of oxygen K resonances with principal quantum numbers n > 2 associated with ISM cold absorption.
Bromodomain-Containing Protein 4: The Epigenetic Origin of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

RATIONALE Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a vasculopathy characterized by enhanced pulmonary artery (PA) smooth muscle cell (PASMC) proliferation and suppressed apoptosis. Decreased expression of microRNA-204 has been associated to this phenotype. By a still elusive mechanism, microRNA-204 downregulation promotes the expression of oncogenes, including nuclear factor of activated T cells, B-cell lymphoma 2, and Survivin. In cancer, increased expression of the epigenetic reader bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4) sustains cell survival and proliferation. Interestingly, BRD4 is a predicted target of microRNA-204 and has binding sites on the nuclear factor of activated T cells promoter region. OBJECTIVE To investigate the role of BRD4 in PAH pathogenesis. METHODS AND RESULTS BRD4 is upregulated in lungs, distal PAs, and PASMCs of patients with PAH compared with controls. With mechanistic in vitro experiments, we demonstrated that BRD4 expression in PAH is microRNA-204 dependent. We further studied the molecular downstream targets of BRD4 by inhibiting its activity in PAH-PASMCs using a clinically available inhibitor JQ1. JQ1 treatment in PAH-PASMCs increased p21 expression, thus triggering cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, BRD4 inhibition, by JQ1 or siBRD4, decreased the expression of 3 major oncogenes, which are overexpressed in PAH: nuclear factor of activated T cells, B-cell lymphoma 2, and Survivin. Blocking this oncogenic signature led to decreased PAH-PASMC proliferation and increased apoptosis in a BRD4-dependent manner. Indeed, pharmacological JQ1 or molecular (siRNA) inhibition of BRD4 reversed this pathological phenotype in addition to restoring mitochondrial membrane potential and to increasing cells spare respiratory capacity. Moreover, BRD4 inhibition in vivo reversed established PAH in the Sugen/hypoxia rat model. CONCLUSIONS BRD4 plays a key role in the pathological phenotype in PAH, which could offer new therapeutic perspectives for patients with PAH.
Unsupervised Articulated Skeleton Extraction From Point Set Sequences Captured by a Single Depth Camera

How to robustly and accurately extract articulated skeletons from point set sequences captured by a single consumer-grade depth camera still remains to be an unresolved challenge to date. To address this issue, we propose a novel, unsupervised approach consisting of three contributions (steps): (i) a non-rigid point set registration algorithm to first build one-to-one point correspondences among the frames of a sequence; (ii) a skeletal structure extraction algorithm to generate a skeleton with reasonable numbers of joints and bones; (iii) a skeleton joints estimation algorithm to achieve accurate joints. At the end, our method can produce a quality articulated skeleton from a single 3D point sequence corrupted with noise and outliers. The experimental results show that our approach soundly outperforms state of the art techniques, in terms of both visual quality and accuracy.
Manufacturing Tail Risk: A Perspective on the Financial Crisis of 2007-09

We argue that the fundamental cause of the financial crisis of 2007–2009 was that large, complex financial institutions ("LCFIs") took excessive leverage in the form of manufacturing tail risks that were systemic in nature and inadequately capitalized. We employ a set of headline facts about the build-up of such risk exposures to explain how and why LCFIs adopted this new banking model during 2003–2Q 2007, relative to earlier models. We compare the crisis with other episodes in the United States, in particular, the panic of 1907, the failure of Continental Illinois and the Savings and Loan crisis. We conclude that several principal imperfections, in particular, distortions induced by regulation and government guarantees, developed in decades preceding the current one, allowing LCFIs to take on excessive systemic risk. We also examine alternative explanations for the financial crisis. We conclude that while moral hazard problems in the originate-and-distribute model of banking, excess liquidity due to global imbalances and mispricing of risk due to behavioral biases have some merit as candidates, they fail to explain the complete spectrum of evidence on the crisis.
Long-term global radiation, carbon and water fluxes derived from multi-satellite data and a process-based model

The world is experiencing remarkable climate change, which alters vegetation structural and functional status, and the biosphere feedback to the climate might amplify or dampen regional and global climate change. The exchange of energy and mass across the land-atmosphere interface is an essential indicator of the interaction between ecosystem and environment, and it has been widely measured at landscape scale since the establishment of FLUXNET, a global network of micrometeorological flux measurement sites (Baldocchi, 2008; Baldocchi et al., 2001). Furthermore, these site observations have been upscaled to global scale in conjunction with satellite remote sensing data, providing opportunities to investigate the spatial and temporal variations of carbon and water cycles from a macro perspective (Beer et al., 2010; Martin Jung et al., 2010). However, such upscaling approaches are based on data-driven models, which need to be well calibrated using site observations (M. Jung, Reichstein, & Bondeau, 2009; Papale & Valentini, 2003; Xiao et al., 2010; Yang et al., 2007). Consequently, those models are limited by the representativeness, quantity and quality of the training datasets (Sundareshwar et al., 2006), as well as the lack of independent reference datasets for validation. Furthermore, by using the upscaling approach predictors are directly linked with target fluxes through machine learning, while the intermediate variables along with intrinsic mechanisms are hidden.
Depression and health-seeking behaviour among migrant workers in Shenzhen

Background: This study describes the prevalence of depression symptoms and its impact on health-seeking behaviour among Chinese migrant workers in a sample of 1,533 Shenzhen residents. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was administered in Shenzhen with a random sample of 859 registered and 674 non-registered residents. The 20-item Centre for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Scale (CES-D) scale was used to measure depression symptoms. Multivariate regression analysis was applied to assess healthcare services utilisation. Results: Non-registered residents were more likely to have clinically significant depressive symptoms (CES-D score ≥ 16) (odds ratio (OR) = 1.81; confidence interval (CI) = 1.18, 2.76). Despite this, depressed non-registered residents had no significant difference in health-seeking behaviour when compared to those without depression (OR = 2.86; CI = 0.98, 8.32), while in contrast, depressed registered residents had a positive and stronger association with healthcare services utilisation and/or self-medication (OR = 3.34; CI = 1.28, 8.71). Conclusion: The findings suggest higher prevalence of depression but less utilisation of healthcare services or self-medication among migrant residents. That migrants with depression lack access to healthcare suggests healthcare inequality. Psychological disorders require careful management and treatment; the mismatch in their health needs and access to care may contribute to the Inverse-care law.
Online Clustering of Contextual Cascading Bandits

We consider a new setting of online clustering of contextual cascading bandits, an online learning problem where the underlying cluster structure over users is unknown and needs to be learned from a random prefix feedback. More precisely, a learning agent recommends an ordered list of items to a user, who checks the list and stops at the first satisfactory item, if any. We propose an algorithm of CLUB-cascade for this setting and prove an n-step regret bound of order O(√n). Previous work corresponds to the degenerate case of only one cluster, and our general regret bound in this special case also significantly improves theirs. We conduct experiments on both synthetic and real data, and demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm and the advantage of incorporating online clustering method.