Main Findings. This study used an experimental paradigm to explore emotional facial expression and experience in people diagnosed with anorexia and bulimia nervosa. The results support the hypothesis that people with AN show alterations in the expression and experience of emotion which are more severe than shown in people with BN. The findings are consistent with previous research using self report measures which show that people with AN do not express their feelings (e.g. Xxxxxxxx et al., 2010). They are also consistent with studies using different methodologies which found differences in how positive and negative affect is experienced in AN with a general attenuation of positive affect but similar levels of negative affect to control participants (Xxxx et al., 2009; Xxxx et al., 2007). There were no significant differences in response to the neutral film clip, suggesting the emotion eliciting stimuli evoked a differentiated response. An additional finding, which was not included in the initial hypotheses, was that the AN participants looked away significantly more during the negative film clip. One could speculate that looking away was the result of lack of attention or boredom. However, if this was the case one would expect the highest levels of looking away to be in response to the neutral film clip rather than the emotion eliciting clips. Interestingly, the HC looked away mostly in response to the neutral film clip, although this was not a significant effect. Given that the AN participants looked away significantly more in response to the negative film clip could be construed as an attempt to avoid any negative feelings the stimulus was evoking. This interpretation was supported by previous studies which suggest that avoidance in AN is used as a means of reducing affective states (Corstorphine et al., 2007). Alternatively, looking away could be used as a way of hiding negative expression. As the self report literature demonstrates (Xxxxxx et al., 2000) showing negative expression is unacceptable to people with AN due to feared negative consequences. In this study participants were on their own whilst watching the film clips, but were aware of their expressions being filmed. Moreover, Xxxxxxxx (1994) has suggested that even emotional expression that takes place in solitude involves implicit or imagined audiences whereby solitary expression is a means of controlling images projected during imagined social interactions. Results for the BN group showed that they were ge...
Main Findings. The development of the global community has caused development in security of loan application in banking internationally, one of them is security by using Patent. In Article 108 paragraph (1) of Patent Law, it is stated that right on Patent can be used as fiduciary security. The existing regulation indicates that the State supports economic development through granting of loan to Patent holders in order to develop their invention. A Patent Holder shall have an exclusive right to use the Intellectual Property Right by his/herself by using it as security. Implications/Applications: The findings of this study are helpful for the individuals in understanding the aspect of patents and exclusive rights held by the owner in order to secure Intellectual Property. Keywords: Patents, accounts payable, collateral, loan, intellectual property, credit.
Main Findings. Our study sought to determine the association between individual-‐ and census tract-‐level characteristics and history of arrest in the past 12 months. Our study found that MSM who had higher odds of history of arrest were significantly more likely to be younger, less educated, in poverty, to identify as bisexual, have had a male UAI partner, have had a female sex partner, have had exchange sex, and have been homeless in the past 12 months. We also found that current health insurance was associated with lower odds of arrest in our sample. The characteristics in the final model were race (forced to stay in), age, having a male UAI partner, being homeless, and census tract-‐level education. Potential key variables that were not significantly associated with arrest were past drug use and problem alcohol drinking. Race Our study found that arrest prevalence did not significantly differ between races. This is in contrast to the general US population, where black men are disproportionately incarcerated compared to white men (Xxxxxx et al., 2014a, 2014b; Xxxxxx et al., 2013; Wakefield & Xxxxx, 2010). The association between race and arrest in the general population may not be homogenous among MSM in different communities or settings. First, it may be that any significant difference in arrest by race is more difficult to detect because MSM in general are not as likely to be arrested as the general population. For example, a study on substance using men in California found that men reporting sex with other men in the last 30 days were significantly less likely to have ever been arrested and charged than men who had sex with only women (Xxxxxx et al., 2004). Second, it may be that there are no significant racial differences in arrest among MSM in Atlanta. However, there is evidence in the research of significant racial differences in arrest among MSM. Xxx et al. (2011) found that MSM from 15 US cities, including Atlanta, who identified as black or Hispanic were more likely to report recent arrest than those who identified as white. A study of young MSM (Xxxxxxxx, Xxxxxxxxx, Xxxxxxx, & Xxxxxxx, 2010) found that young BMSM were significantly more likely to report prior arrest/incarceration than white or Latino young MSM. Likewise, Xxxxxx et al. (2010) reported that among MSM, BMSM were more likely to report having been to jail, prison, or juvenile detention than white or other race MSM. Given we were unable to detect differential arrest by race in our sample, it is...
Main Findings. In recent years, research has shown racial disparities along the HIV care continuum. In the United States, disease progression, infectiousness, and mortality from HIV occur in greater frequency among HIV-positive black MSM compared to HIV-positive white MSM [6]. This highlights the public health importance of ART initiation and adherence as a part of the HIV care continuum in reducing excess HIV risk and achieving viral suppression, especially among HIV- positive black MSM. Antiretroviral therapy is a treatment and a means of HIV prevention, as reduction in viral load has been shown to diminish the risk of transmission of HIV to a serodiscordant sexual partner [4,8]. Therefore, adherence to HIV medication is a must for this to be successful [8]. However, many studies have documented that HIV-positive minorities are less likely to begin and engage in HIV care, such as initiating and adhering to ART, than HIV- positive whites, therefore they are less likely to have HIV viral suppression [3-4,8,13-14]. Public health professionals and researchers have both documented and hypothesized that social and structural factors (i.e., education level, poverty, unemployment, housing, transportation, etc.), distrust in the medical and research community, stigma related to HIV and gender identities, mental health and other psychosocial influencers contribute to these racial disparities in HIV care and treatment [16-18]. Additionally, inequities in access to and utilization of health care, insurance coverage, patient-provider relationships, and adherence to scheduled outpatient appointment among patients engaged in medical care are contributing factors to noted racial disparities in HIV medical care, which may also be additional factors that provide insight into ART adherence disparities between black and white HIV-positive MSM [13,18-19]. This study explored the association between race, specifically black and white race, and ART adherence among a cohort of newly and previously diagnosed MSM (n=400) in Atlanta, Georgia using baseline survey data. The aim of this analysis was to provide insight into racial disparities in ART adherence among MSM in the United States, a key element of HIV care, prevention, and positive health outcomes for people living with HIV, while also discussing what other factors may be contributing to this disparity. This analysis found a statistically significant adjusted association between race and ART adherence; black MSM are 67% less likely to be ...
Main Findings. This paper examined the association between caregiver’s access to Anganwadi Center services and the school readiness scores of their children. The only service that was significant in its crude form and then insignificant in its adjusted form was the child going to the Anganwadi center, therefore signifying that the child attending an Anganwadi center was not negatively associated with school readiness in the presence of confounders. After controlling for these confounding variables, mother’s income, mother’s education, child’s gender and caste, parameter estimates did change by 10%, indicating these variables are potential confounders of the relationship between access to community health services and school readiness scores. The mother registering her pregnancy at the Anganwadi Center showed a strong association with improved school readiness among their five-year old children. This coincided with what is found in the literature, as registering the pregnancy in AWCs has shown to increase access to and communication on antenatal care and general maternal nutrition during pregnancy, in addition to safe means of delivery.[50] Children with mothers who received TT (Tetanus Toxoid) vaccinations scored approximately 2 points higher on their adaptive behavior scores and their overall school readiness scores than children with mothers without TT. Additionally, children whose mothers received supplementary nutrition from their Anganwadi center scored between 1 and 2 points higher on school readiness scores than children with mothers who did not receive supplementary nutrition. The nutritional status of both the mother and child affect the child’s early physical and intellectual development. Cross-sectional analysis cannot claim causality between supplemental nutrition and scores, but it does show an association and this association reflects what has been shown in the literature. Supplementary nutrition, intended to increase nutritional intake for both mothers and children, has shown proven improvements in child development. [51] [52]. Additionally, these results suggest that greater access to AWC services in pregnancy may improve children’s school readiness. Other studies have also shown that awareness and utilization of AWC services by pregnant and lactating women, such as getting a TT injection, has contributed to improved developmental outcomes of their children. [53] However, many results deviated from what was expected. Some services such as a village health...
Main Findings. Our study represents the first report on inter- and intra-observer reproducibility of the EFI and demonstrates high intra- and inter-agreement rate with narrow 95%CIs. More specifically, we confirmed our hypothesis that clinical agreement for the ‘inter-expert’ comparison (primary outcome) was higher than 95%. These results concur with the hypothetical assumption based on the sensitivity analysis on the EFI by Xxxxxxx and Pasta9. In addition, very high agreements were also reported for numerical ‘inter-expert’ agreement, clinical and numerical ‘junior-expert’ and ‘intra-expert’ comparison (secondary outcomes), although not near-to-perfect as for clinical “inter-expert” agreement. In other words, the high reproducibility supports the use of the EFI in daily clinical practice as a very relevant clinical tool for management and counselling of postoperative endometriosis patients on their reproductive outcome. Strengths and limitations Our study was designed to avoid bias in several ways. First of all, the assessment of the EFI was done based on a combination of patient history information, standardized operative reports and complete photographic series of the operative site, in order to prevent any Accepted Article misclassification of rASRM staging and associated adnexal adhesions as much as possible.5, 21 Second, to blind raters to the personal details of patients, a coded CRF was used for rating instead of the patient file itself. Third, to avoid recall bias, a standardized and anonymized CRF was used. Additionally, ‘en-bloc’ rating sessions, with random order of patient files, were organised for each rater. Fourth, since C.T. had the most experience in calculating the EFI in clinical practice, her first rating was therefore chosen as standard to assess agreement with the second expert (‘inter-expert’), the junior surgeon (‘junior-expert’) and within one rater (‘intra-expert’). Out of the 117 eligible patients, 35 were excluded because they did not have sufficiently detailed photographic documentation. This was not considered as a flaw, but merely a consequence of the fact that the study was conducted in a real life turbulent clinical setting (different surgeons, different operation theatres, technical difficulties etc.). Patients files were only included if photographic documentation (both pre- and postoperative) met the criteria as defined per WERF-EpHect procedures.15 Despite this strict selection, our study population was still representative for the p...
Main Findings. The results of this and an earlier study (5) show that neural networks can be trained to diagnose myocardial infarction from the electrocardiogram with greater accuracy than a conventional interpretation program and an experienced electrocardiographer. It has also been shown in this study that there is a high level of agreement between the artificial neural network and an electrocardiographer. When there is obvious disagreement the artificial neural network was correct somewhat more often than the expert, with regard to the gold standard of this study material. Most users of black box methods like artificial neural networks are worried that they make obvious and severe misclassifications in some cases even though the overall performance of the method is very good. The worst cases of the 1664 electrocardiograms in this study are presented in Figures 1 and 2. In our opinion, none of these electrocardiograms is a severe misclassification. Reasons for misclassification. Why are some electrocardiograms misclassified by the artificial neural network and correctly classified by the electrocardiographer? A relatively small number of input variables is used to train the neural networks in this study. A network fed with many input variables requires many examples in the training set. As a rule of thumb, ten training examples are needed for each connection weight to be trained. In this study only eight variables from each of three leads were used, but the number of weights was as high as 157. A network of this size could be trained using a database of some 1500 electrocardiograms as in this study, but much larger networks would probably not be sufficiently trained. In contrast, the electrocardiographer makes his decision, based on much more data, in this study the QRS complexes and ST-T segments of six leads. Therefore, it is not surprising that the electrocardiographer outperforms the neural network in a few electrocardiograms with minor morphology deviations, such as notches in the QRS complex. Another reason for misclassification of the neural networks could be the fact that the networks in this study were only trained to diagnose anterior myocardial infarction.
Main Findings. 4. PRODERNEA represents the continuation of efforts undertaken in the north-east by the Programme of Credit and Technical Support for Small Producers in North-east Argentina (PNEA), the first programme devoted to smallholder farming in the region. The implementation of the project was strongly marked by an extremely variable social, economic and political environment, including a deep-seated economic and financial crisis that unfolded in 2001, various development approaches, and highly diverse national and sectoral policies, all of which generated an unfavourable environment for rural development. Despite the above the project achieved most of its objectives – although with some limitations – and produced a number of complementary results and positive externalities in relation to the institutionalization and enhanced visibility of the smallholder farming sector
Main Findings. Accomplishments, Priorities by Supervision area, and for the Program as a Whole Overall, the project has had a significant impact on improving immediate and appropriate breastfeeding practices, immunization rates, and caretaking practices during episodes of diarrhea and respiratory infections. All SAs met the respective benchmarks for 10 of the 13 project matrix indicators, and the combined frequency for 8 of the 13 indicators has already met or exceeded the final target for that indicator. The LQAS performed at the end of the first year (LQAS1) revealed that all SAs performed adequately with regard to every indicator other than the water treatment indicator, in which only SA1 failed to meet the benchmark for year 1. There were, however, a few changes in the results noted in this midterm LQAS from LQAS1. The percentage of infants aged 6-9 months receiving breast milk and complementary foods was found to be lower than the result found in LQAS1, with SA2 and SA4 not meeting their benchmarks set for the midterm. While the indicator for the percentage of children 6-23m who received a dose of Vitamin A in the last 6 months is still very high and at the level of the final target chosen for the project, SA1 did not meet the midterm benchmark for this indicator in this LQAS. The percentage of mothers protected from Tetanus was reduced from the end of year one, and SA1 did not meet the midterm benchmark set for this indicator. There continues to be difficulty regarding the treatment of drinking water, with all 4 SAs not meeting the midterm benchmark. Addressing quality of drinking water will require targeting communities drinking from streams and rivers with water hygiene education messages and targeting communities with hand pumps with the means to successfully chlorinate hand pumps regularly. The results, listed by intervention area, are discussed below.
Main Findings. Effect of interventions on depressive symptoms (Hypothesis 1) Hypothesis 1 was partially supported. Consistent with hypothesis 1, the present study showed that both mindfulness and relaxation interventions led to reduced depressive symptoms among currently depressed patients, and the results were maintained at follow-up. The finding that the mindfulness intervention contributed to reduced depressive symptoms among currently depressed patients adds to a growing body of evidence (Xxxxxxxxx et al., 2009; Xxxxxxxxxx et al., 2008; Xxxxxxxx & Xxxxxx, 2006; Xxxxx & Xxxxxxxx, 2007) suggesting that mindfulness interventions can successfully reduce symptoms of depression in currently symptomatic patients. It also corroborates research that has suggested an association between mindfulness practice and lower levels of negative emotions (Xxx, Xxxxxxx, Xxxxxxxx, Xxxx, & Xxxxxxx, 2010). The finding that relaxation also led to reduced depressive symptoms at post- intervention and follow-up is in line with a recent review on the effects of relaxation for depression showing that relaxation reduced self-reported depressive symptoms compared to waitlist and no treatment (Jorm et al., 2008), and with previous studies showing that relaxation interventions led to decreases in psychological distress among community samples (Xxxx, Xxxxxx-Xxxx, & Xxxxx, 2009; Xxxx et al., 2007). However, contrary to hypothesis 1, there was no significant difference between the mindfulness and relaxation groups on depressive symptoms at post-intervention or follow-up. This finding is consistent with previous studies showing no significant differences between the effects of mindfulness and relaxation training on psychological distress (Xxxx et al., 2009; Xxxx et al., 2007). The finding that both interventions led to similarly reduced symptoms was not accounted for by amount of practice, as there were no significant differences between the two groups on practice time during the active intervention and follow-up stages. The fact that relaxation produced similar effects to mindfulness in the reduction of depressive symptoms might be explained by several factors. Relaxation might have served as a distraction, and according to the response styles theory (Xxxxx- Xxxxxxxx, 1991, 2000; Xxxxx-Xxxxxxxx et al., 2008) distractive behaviours decrease depressive mood both by preventing individuals from focusing on negative thoughts and feelings, and by increasing opportunities for positive reinforcement through en...
