bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Relations Between the Catholic Church and the Political Arena in Portugal
Authors: Meyer Resende Madalena 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
The relation between the Catholic Church and the political arena in Portugal is shaped by the absence of a religious cleavage and by a strong interdependence between the church and the state. This makes Portugal unique among the Southern European Catholic monopolies, and results in a culture of compromise between the two spheres. This chapter describes the evolution of the Catholic Church as a political actor. Starting with the democratic transition, it goes on to examine the processes of transition to religious freedom, the liberalization of abortion, and the reorganization of state support to private (including Catholic) schools. The chapter concludes that the ecclesiastic hierarchy has maintained its reserve of direct interventions in the political arena, while negotiating with state interlocutors. This has resulted in a decline of its relevance as a political actor, despite the fact that religiosity remains high.
Portuguese Labour Market Governance in Comparative Perspective
Authors: Afonso Alexandre 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
This chapter analyses the core characteristics of labour market governance in Portugal in a comparative perspective, analysing the interplay between public and private regulation within the context of wages and employment conditions. This chapter describes the main characteristics of the Portuguese employment model within the European context and how it differs from other Southern European countries, notably when it comes to female and low-skilled employment. It argues that the power relationships that emerged from the transition to democracy favoured a more liberal employment regime than in Spain, resulting in a lower threshold of unemployment but also in higher income inequalities and lower wage protections. The models have tended to converge in recent years, and income inequality in Portugal has diminished. This chapter highlights the high level of female employment since the 1960s, a characteristic that is significantly different from other Southern European countries. This can be explained by specific contextual factors, notably the legacy of the colonial war and high rates of emigration.
The Portuguese Macroeconomic Policy Framework
Authors: Alexandre Fernando , Bação Pedro 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
This chapter describes the evolution of Portugal’s macroeconomic policy framework since the mid-1970s. During this period, Portugal’s macroeconomic policy framework changed considerably, from an autonomous economic policy to compliance with the Eurozone rules. During this regime change, the importance of policy targets varied, as the set of instruments changed. The regime change was fundamental for achieving the goal of price stability. Initially, the external equilibrium was overlooked, with dire consequences. The fundamental problem was the failure to achieve the goal of economic growth and convergence. The Eurozone sovereign debt crisis led to a review of the Eurozone’s governance. Structural reforms and policies focused on productivity became the core of national economic policies. In the case of Portugal, these policies are crucial for ensuring the sustainability of public debt, and for reducing the dependency on the ECB’s policies, especially within the context of an ageing society.
The Military and Defence Policies
Authors: Carreiras Helena 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
After briefly examining the role of the military in the transition and consolidation of democracy in Portugal, this chapter focuses on major transformations that have been taking place since the mid-1980s in terms of civil-military relations, military organization, and defence policies. Two main areas are explored. Firstly, organizational restructuring, looking at force reduction, the end of conscription, budgetary shrinking, and personnel policies; secondly, changing mission definition and alliance policies, including the reorientation of the Portuguese armed forces towards international peace support missions and operations. The overall legitimacy of the military around those major organizational changes is also addressed on the basis of results from public opinion surveys conducted since the early 1990s. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the changing role of the military throughout this period and raises questions for future research.
The Telomerase Connection of the Brain and Its Implications for Neurodegenerative Diseases
Authors: Saretzki Gabriele 
Published: November 2022

AbstractTelomerase, consisting of the protein subunit telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and RNA component TERC, is best known for maintaining and extending human telomeres, the ends of linear chromosomes, in tissues, where it is active, such as stem cells, germline cells, lymphocytes and endothelial cells. This function is considered as canonical. However, various non-canonical functions for the protein part TERT have been discovered. There are multiple such roles which can interfere with several signaling pathways, cancer development and many other processes. One of these non-canonical functions includes shuttling of the TERT protein out of the nucleus upon increased oxidative stress into the cytoplasm and organelles such as mitochondria. Mitochondrial TERT is able to protect cells from oxidative stress, DNA damage and apoptosis although the exact mechanisms are incompletely understood. Recently, a protective role for TERT was described in brain neurons. Here TERT is able to counteract effects of toxic neurodegenerative proteins via changes in gene expression, activation of neurotrophic factors as well as activation of protein degrading pathways such as autophagy. Protein degradation processes are prominently involved in degrading toxic proteins in the brain like amyloid-β, pathological tau and α-synuclein that are responsible for various neurodegenerative diseases. These new findings can have implications for the development of novel treatment strategies for neurodegenerative diseases. The current review summarizes our knowledge on the role of the telomerase protein TERT in brain function, in particular, under the aspect of age-related neurodegenerative diseases. It also describes various strategies to increase TERT levels in the brain.
When can a refusal to consent to the exercise of a power be challenged?
Authors: Hayton David 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
This update, prepared for a January 2022 session with the Bahamian judiciary, casts light upon three alternative approaches where someone’s consent is required before trustees can exercise particular powers; the rights of protectors to information necessary for them properly to exercise their functions; the large scope for trustees not to follow a settlor’s letter of wishes; distinctions between shams, rights indistinguishable from ownership and revocable trusts; difficulties finding that a large company has dishonestly assisted in a breach of equitable duties; the scope of exoneration clauses and of equitable compensation.
Mediating effects of resilience on frailty and depression among older Chinese people living with HIV/AIDS: a cross-sectional study in Hunan
Authors: Yao Meng , Chen Dan , Meng Lijun , Zhou Cui , Li Xingli 
Published: November 2022

AbstractBackgroundLittle is known about the ambiguous and complex relationship between frailty, resilience and depression in older adults living with HIV (OALHIV). Thus, the current study aimed to further clarify the relationship, as well as to investigate whether resilience plays a mediating role and to quantify the mediating effect.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on patients who were aged ≥50 y with HIV/AIDS at the First Hospital of Changsha City from June to August 2019. The sociodemographic characteristics of participants, depression, resilience and frailty were evaluated by the self-developed questionnaire, the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale and Tilburg Frailty Indicator, respectively. SPSS macro model 4 was used to analyse the mediation of resilience between frailty and depression.ResultsA total of 175 OALHIV (120 males and 55 females) were investigated in this study. The prevalence of frailty and depression was 31.4% and 30.9%, respectively. Additionally, the mediation analysis model showed that frailty could contribute to depression directly, and that it also affected depression through resilience, suggesting that resilience partially mediated the relationship between frailty and depression among OALHIV.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that resilience appears to be a protective factor for depression. Effective and targeted intervention on resilience is available and is crucial to improve the life quality of OALHIV.
Content Validity and Interrater Reliability of a Newborn Fall Risk Assessment Tool
Authors: Savage Krystal , Antista Hannah , Diamond Taylor , Knepp Alyssa , Oja Kenneth 
Published: November 2022

Background:
Newborn falls are a safety concern in the acute care setting. To our knowledge, a valid and reliable tool for assessing newborn fall risk has not been developed.

Purpose:
To evaluate the content validity and interrater reliability of a tool for nurses to assess the fall risk of newborns in the acute care setting.

Methods:
Content validity was established using a modified Delphi technique with neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses (n = 27). Item-level content validity indices and an average scale content validity index were calculated. For interrater reliability, pairs (n = 130) of NICU nurses simultaneously assessed multiple newborns using the tool, and an intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated.

Results:
The initial tool had 28 items classified in 2 sections (newborn and caregiver variables). Fourteen items met predefined cut-off values for content validity. This resulted in the tool (KAnt Fall) having 7 items for assessing newborns and 7 items for caregivers. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.99 indicating excellent interrater reliability.

Implications for Practice:
The tool will help assist nurses in systematically identifying newborns at high risk for falls. This assessment will allow nurses to identify and implement timely preventive actions for hospitalized newborns at high risk for falls.

Implications for Research:
Since this was a single-center study in 1 NICU, future research is needed in other hospitals and types of newborn settings (eg, labor and delivery and postpartum units). Further testing of KAnt Fall is also needed to establish additional psychometric properties.
Sensitivity analysis for live birth bias in the Ulaanbaatar Gestation and Air Pollution Research study
Authors: McCandless Lawrence C. , Gombojav Enkhjargal , Allen Ryan W. 
Published: November 2022

Background:
The Ulaanbaatar Gestation and Air Pollution Research (UGAAR) study is a randomized controlled trial of the effects of portable high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter air cleaner use during pregnancy on fetal growth and child health outcomes. A challenge with the study is that the outcome variables cannot be measured in the absence of a live birth. Thus pregnancy loss is a competing event for the outcome variables that can obscure the intervention-outcome relationship. This phenomenon is called “live birth bias” in the epidemiological literature, and it is an example of selection bias due to adjustment for variables affected by previous exposure.

Methods:
In this investigation, we reanalyzed data from the UGAAR study and examined the impacts of the intervention on three health outcomes: preterm birth (PTB), birth weight, and full-scale IQ (FSIQ) measured with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence III when children were four years old, while accounting for live birth bias. Specifically, we used a novel multiple imputation approach to simulate scenarios in which pregnancy losses had instead been born alive and experienced a range of health outcomes.

Results:
After accounting for live birth bias, the association between the intervention and PTB diminished. Additionally, the magnitude of intervention effect on birth weight and FSIQ increased. FSIQ was less sensitive to live birth bias than birth weight.

Conclusion:
We introduced a novel analysis approach to examine the role of live birth bias, and the findings will be useful in environmental epidemiology studies of birth cohorts.
Fall risk management using clinical decision support in a rural nursing-led primary care practice
Authors: Schentrup Denise , Middlemas Amelie , Shear Kristen , Bjarnadottir Ragnhildur I. , Lucero Robert J. 
Published: November 2022

ABSTRACT

Background:
The leading cause of injuries among older adults in the United States is unintentional falls. The American Geriatrics Society/British Geriatrics Society promote fall risk management in primary care; however, this is challenging in low-resource settings.

Local Problem:
Archer Family Health Care (AFHC), an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN)–managed and federally designated rural health clinic, identified a care gap with falls adherence to guidelines for patients at higher risk for falls.

Methods:
The aim of this quality improvement effort was to integrate an evidence-based fall risk management tool in a rural nurse-managed primary care practice. A standardized fall risk management process with a new brief paper-based clinical decision support (CDS) tool was developed and tested in two phases.

Intervention:
Phase 1 focused on developing a fall risk management CDS tool, identifying the primary care visit workflow, communicating the workflow patterns to the AFHC staff, and collaborating with the staff to identify when and who should implement the tool. Phase 2 focused on implementation of the fall risk management CDS tool into standard practice among older adults aged 65 years and older.

Results:
We found that integrating the tool did not disrupt the workflow of primary care visits at AFHC. The most common recommended intervention for patients at risk of falling was daily vitamin D supplementation.

Conclusion:
This project revealed that it is feasible to introduce a brief fall risk management decision support tool in an APRN-managed rural primary care practice.
“Quantifying the Effective Lift of Skin Only, SMAS Plication (Lateral SMASectomy), and Extended SMAS Facelift Techniques in a Cadaveric Comparison Study”
Authors: Rao Vinay , Basta Marten N. , Jehle Charles C. , Crozier Joseph W. , Woo Albert S. 
Published: November 2022

Purpose:
Rhytidectomies are performed to rejuvenate the aging face. Various techniques exist to achieve soft tissue elevation and skin tightening. This study analyzes three common facelift techniques – Skin Only, superficial musculoaponeurotic system (SMAS) Plication, and Extended SMAS lifts. We characterize effective facial changes with each procedure in a cadaver model.

Methods:
We performed facelift procedures on 18 cadaver hemi-faces. Each face was measured along horizontal and vertical vectors. The primary outcome was change along these vectors. Skin Only, SMAS Plication, and Extended SMAS lifts were performed sequentially on each hemi-face. SMAS Plication was used to approximate a Lateral SMASectomy procedure. Parameter measurements were compared.

Results:
All three procedures exhibited a significant tightening along horizontal vectors. SMAS procedures provided a significant lift along all vertical vectors while the Skin Only lift failed to demonstrate significant vertical elevation. SMAS procedures achieved significantly greater composite horizontal and vertical lifts compared to the Skin Only operation. There was only an incremental increase in lift between the SMAS Plication and Extended SMAS procedures in the upper and midface regions. The Extended SMAS led to the greatest lift in the lower face.

Conclusion:
SMAS procedures provided a greater lift along both horizontal and vertical vectors than the Skin lift alone. The increased dissection in the Extended SMAS technique resulted in only a modest increase in lift compared to SMAS Plication. The Extended SMAS approach appears to offer the most benefit at the lower face and may be the best choice for targeting this region.
DNA Methylation Study in Presbycusis Patients
Authors: Roche Marie Valerie , Yan Denise , Godrich Dana , Hamad Naser , Tang Pei-Ciao , Young Juan , Blanton Susan , Gong Feng , Liu Xue Zhong 
Published: November 2022

ABSTRACTBackgroundPresbycusis, also known as age-related hearing loss (ARHL), is the most frequent sensory disability affecting elderly adults worldwide.ARHL is typified by a bilateral, progressive, sensorineural hearing loss that is pronounced in high frequency. Conventional factors associated with ARHL include diabetes, hypertension, and family history of hereditary hearing loss. The severity of hearing impairment varies between individuals. The accurate causative molecular pathogenesis for ARHL is unknown, therefore the investigation of the underlying pathogenic mechanisms involved in ARHL is imperative for the development of effective therapeutic approaches. Epigenetics is the study of phenotypic changes caused by modification of genetic expression rather than alteration of DNA sequence. It is hypothesized that ARHL could result from unclarified epigenetic susceptibility, nevertheless, there is a shortage of information on the exact contribution of epigenetic modifications to ARHL. Here we present an investigation on the involvement of DNA methylation with Age-related hearing loss.ResultsIn the present study the Illumina Infinium® Methylation EPIC Beadchip has been used to identify regions with aberrant levels of methylation across genomes from ARHL patients. Hearing measurements were used to determine the audioprofiles. Clinical, audiometric patterns, DNA testing, and methylation pattern screening were undertaken. Our results demonstrate a strong correlation between patients’ hearing measurements and CpG sites methylation inESPNandTNFRSF25. A Methylation Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was used to confirm methylation levels at specific gene locus in ARHL patients.ConclusionAberrant DNA methylation and its impact on gene expression have been implicated in many biological processes. By interrogating methylation status across the genome at single-nucleotide resolution of hearing loss patients, our study can help establish the association between audiometric patterns and methylation status in age-related hearing loss patients.
Clinical study type classification, validation, and PubMed filter comparison with natural language processing and active learning
Authors: van IJzendoorn David G P , Habets Philippe C , Vinkers Christiaan H , Otte Willem M 
Published: November 2022

AbstractEach day, many thousands of new studies are published. Identifying specific study types with high sensitivity and specificity may improve searchability and accelerate updating systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Machine learning transformer models could facilitate this identification process if sufficient training data is available.We used an active learning strategy to construct a large training set (n=50,000) and fine-tuned the PubMedBERT language model to classify PubMed abstracts as randomized controlled trials, human studies, systematic reviews with and without meta-analyses, protocols, and rodent studies. In an external dataset (n=5,000), the average sensitivity and specificity across study types were 0.94 and 0.96, respectively. PubMed’s internal filters had a low sensitivity for both systematic reviews with meta-analysis (0.175, CI: 0.057–0.293) and randomized controlled trials (0.256, CI: 0.119–0.393). We applied this labeling to all 34 million PubMed abstracts currently available and provide the results within an online meta-information platform (EvidenceHunt).In conclusion, we show that study type classification in PubMed is opportune, given the available language models. The high accuracy in this study invites extending these models to more elaborate and hierarchical identification schemes.
Population-based sero-epidemiological estimates of real-world vaccine effectiveness against Omicron infection in an infection-naive population, Hong Kong, January to July 2022
Authors: Lau Jonathan J , Cheng Samuel MS , Leung Kathy , Lee Cheuk Kwong , Hachim Asmaa , Tsang Leo CH , Yam Kenny WH , Chaothai Sara , Kwan Kelvin KH , Chai Zacary YH , Lo Tiffany HK , Mori Masashi , Wu Chao , Valkenburg Sophie , Amarasinghe Gaya K , Lau Eric HY , Hui David S , Leung Gabriel M , Peiris Malik , Wu Joseph T 
Published: November 2022

AbstractThe SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has demonstrated enhanced transmissibility and escape of vaccine-derived immunity. While current vaccines remain effective against severe disease and death, robust evidence on vaccine effectiveness (VE) against all Omicron infections (i.e. irrespective of symptoms) remains sparse. We addressed this knowledge-gap using a community-wide serosurvey with 5,310 subjects by estimating how vaccination histories modulated risk of infection in Hong Kong (which was largely infection naïve) during a large wave of Omicron epidemic during January-July 2022. We estimated that Omicron infected 45% (41-48%) of the Hong Kong population. Three and four doses of BNT162b2 or CoronaVac were effective against Omicron infection (VE of 47% (95% credible interval 34-68%) and 70% (43-99%) for three and four doses of BNT162b2 respectively; VE of 31% (1-73%) and 59% (10-99%) for three and four doses of CoronaVac respectively) seven days after vaccination, but protection waned with half-lives of 15 (3-47) weeks for BNT162b2 and 5 (1-37) weeks for CoronaVac. Our findings suggest that booster vaccination can temporarily enhance population immunity ahead of anticipated waves of infections.
Effect of maternal and infant selenium status on child growth in a birth cohort from Dhaka, Bangladesh
Authors: Mehta Rukshan , Krupa Christine , Ahmed Tahmeed , Hamer Davidson H. , Mahmud Abdullah Al 
Published: November 2022

AbstractDeficiency of selenium, an essential trace element, has been implicated in adverse birth outcomes and the growth of infants and young children.We used data from a randomized controlled trial to examine associations between selenium biomarkers in whole blood (WBSe), serum and selenoprotein P (SEPP1) in maternal delivery and venous cord (VC) blood, and birth weight, and adverse birth outcomes. Furthermore, we examined associations between selenium biomarkers and infant growth outcomes (age adjusted length, weight, head circumference and weight-for-length z-scores) at birth, one, and two years of age using linear regression.WB and serum selenium in delivery and VC specimens were negatively associated with birth weight (adjusted β, 95% CI: WBSe delivery: -26.6 (−44.3, -8.9); WBSe VC: -19.6 (−33.0, -6.1)); however, delivery SEPP1 levels (adjusted β: -37.5 (−73.0, -2.0)) and VC blood (adjusted β: 82.3 (30.0, 134.7)) showed inconsistent associations across biomarkers. We found small to moderate associations between infant growth and WBSe VC (LAZ β, 95% CI, at birth: -0.05 (−0.1, -0.01)); 12-months (β: -0.05 (−0.08, -0.007)). WAZ also showed weak negative associations with delivery WBSe (at birth: -0.07 (−0.1, -0.02); 12-months: -0.05 (−0.1, -0.005)) and in WBSe VC (β at birth: -0.05 (−0.08, -0.02); 12-months: -0.05 (−0.09, -0.004)).Mechanisms connected to redox biology and its antioxidant effects have been causally associated with selenium’s protective properties. Given the fine balance between nutritional and toxic properties of selenium, it is possible that WB and serum selenium may negatively impact growth outcomes, both in utero and postpartum.