The causal effect of paid parental leave on gender equality: A comparative analysis with a synthetic control method

This study estimates the causal effect of paid parental leave on gender equality. California and New Jersey are the two first states in the United States to implement a statewide program offering six weeks of compensated parental leave, when having a new-born or adopted child. To estimate the effects of these reforms, I use repeated cross-sectional micro-level Census and ACS data from 2001 and 2015. For each state and outcome, I construct a synthetic control out of the remaining states, and compare it to the treated state in a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach. The study investigates the impact on share of hours worked and share of wage earned by the mother in the household, as well as on the labour market outcomes; labour force participation, wage level and average hours worked per week. I find a significant increase in share of hours worked in New Jersey and share of wage earned by the mother in California, which indicates a small positive effect on gender equality. A dynamic analysis validates the robustness of the findings for New Jersey. However, the dynamic analysis reveals that the increase in California is not solely driven by the intervention, as I identify a clear positive pre-trend prior to the intervention in labour force participation among mothers. Any conclusions regarding the general effects of paid parental leave on gender equality in California can hence not be drawn. Further, I find that the effect on gender equality in New Jersey is mostly driven by a change on the extensive margin: More married mothers, especially low-income mothers, participate in the labour force as a consequence of paid parental leave

Körskador inom bekämpningsområde mot granbarkborre i Västernorrlands län

Stormskador under 2007 och efterföljande varma somrar skapade gynnsamma förhållanden för skogsskadeinsekter. Till följd av detta införde Skogsstyrelsen ett bekämpningsområde mot granbarkborre inom delar av Jämtlands och Västernorrlands län. Inom bekämpningsområdet mot granbarkborre infördes nya regler gällande lagring av färskt barrvirke i skogen. Efter införandet har fältpersonal på Skogsstyrelsen observerat en ökad mängd körskador inom bekämpningsområdet. På grund av detta har behovet att undersöka dess omfattning framkommit. Detta arbete syftar därför till att utreda eventuella samband mellan körskador och bekämpningsområdet. Arbetet var begränsat till att endast omfatta Västernorrlands län. Datamaterialet erhölls från Skogsstyrelsen och var avgränsat till Polytax P1-inventeringar, utförda under 2008-2012. Ytterligare en begränsning var att endast omfatta grandominerade områden då dessa löper högre risk att angripas av granbarkborre. Med Fishers exakta test analyserades materialet med avseende på variablerna ’antal undersökta hyggen’, ’representativt antal hyggen’ och ’representativ areal’. Resultatet visade en signifikant skillnad med mer körskador i bekämpningsområdet jämfört med referensområdet, trots att viktiga egenskaper för markskador, så som fuktighet och textur var likvärdiga mellan de båda områdena.Storm damages in 2007 and the subsequent warm summers created favorable conditions for forest pests. As a result of this the Swedish Forest Agency introduced a spruce bark beetle management area in parts of Jämtland and Västernorrland Counties. Within the management area new rules were introduced governing the storage of fresh coniferous wood in the forest. After this introduction the field staff of the Swedish Forest Agency observed an increased amount of driving damages in the management area. Due to this a need for examining its extent emerged. Therefore this study aims to investigate possible relations between driving damages and the bark beetle management area. This study was limited to include only Västernorrland County. The data were obtained from the Swedish Forest Agency and was limited to Polytax P1 inventories conducted in 2008-2012. Another limitation was to only include spruce dominated areas, as they are more likely to be attacked by spruce bark beetle. Using Fisher's exact test, the material was analyzed regarding the variables ’number of surveyed clearcuts’, ’representative number of clearcuts’ and ’representative areas’. The results showed a significant difference with more driving damage in the bark beetle management area than in the reference area, even though features important for soil damages, like soil moisture and texture were similar between the two areas

Axel: A Minimalist Tethered Rover for Exploration of Extreme Planetary Terrains

Recent scientific findings suggest that some of the most interesting sites for future exploration of planetary surfaces lie in terrains that are currently inaccessible to conventional robotic rovers. To provide robust and flexible access to these terrains, we have been developing Axel, the robotic rover. Axel is a lightweight two-wheeled vehicle that can access steep terrains and negotiate relatively large obstacles because of its actively managed tether and novel wheel design. This article reviews the Axel system and focuses on those system components that affect Axel's steep terrain mobility. Experimental demonstrations of Axel on sloped and rocky terrains are presented

Повышение доходности лесоохотничьих хозяйств на основе развития новых туристических услуг

The comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of clinically annotated human tissue has found widespread use in oncology, cell biology, immunology, and toxicology. In cancer research, microarray-based gene expression profiling has successfully been applied to subclassify disease entities, predict therapy response, and identify cellular mechanisms. Public accessibility of raw data, together with corresponding information on clinicopathological parameters, offers the opportunity to reuse previously analyzed data and to gain statistical power by combining multiple datasets. However, results and conclusions obviously depend on the reliability of the available information. Here, we propose gene expression-based methods for identifying sample misannotations in public transcriptomic datasets. Sample mix-up can be detected by a classifier that differentiates between samples from male and female patients. Correlation analysis identifies multiple measurements of material from the same sample. The analysis of 45 datasets (including 4913 patients) revealed that erroneous sample annotation, affecting 40 % of the analyzed datasets, may be a more widespread phenomenon than previously thought. Removal of erroneously labelled samples may influence the results of the statistical evaluation in some datasets. Our methods may help to identify individual datasets that contain numerous discrepancies and could be routinely included into the statistical analysis of clinical gene expression data

Markers of cerebral damage during delirium in elderly patients with hip fracture

BACKGROUND: S100B protein and Neuron Specific Enolase (NSE) can increase due to brain cell damage and/or increased permeability of the blood-brain-barrier. Elevation of these proteins has been shown after various neurological diseases with cognitive dysfunction. Delirium is characterized by temporal cognitive deficits and is an important risk factor for dementia. The aim of this study was to compare the level of S100B and NSE of patients before, during and after delirium with patients without delirium and investigate the possible associations with different subtypes of delirium. METHODS: The study population were patients aged 65 years or more acutely admitted after hip fracture. Delirium was diagnosed by the Confusion Assessment Method and the subtype by Delirium Symptom interview. In maximal four serum samples per patient S100B and NSE levels were determined by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. RESULTS: Of 120 included patients with mean age 83.9 years, 62 experienced delirium. Delirious patients had more frequently pre-existing cognitive impairment (67% vs. 18%, p<0.001). Comparing the first samples during delirium to samples of non-delirious patients, a difference was observed in S100B (median 0.16 versus 0.10 ug/L, p=<0.001), but not in NSE (median 11.7 versus 11.7 ng/L, p=0.97). Delirious state (before, during, after) (p<0.001), day of blood withdrawal (p<0.001), pre- or postoperative status (p=0.001) and type of fracture (p=0.036) were all associated with S100B level. The highest S100B levels were found 'during' delirium. S100B levels 'before' and 'after' delirium were still higher than those from 'non-delirious' patients. No significant difference in S100B (p=0.43) or NSE levels (p=0.41) was seen between the hyperactive, hypoactive and mixed subtype of delirium. CONCLUSIONS: Delirium was associated with increased level of S100B which could indicate cerebral damage either due to delirium or leading to delirium. The possible association between higher levels of S100B during delirium and the higher risk of developing dementia after delirium is an interesting field for future research. More studies are needed to elucidate the role of S100B proteins in the pathophysiological pathway leading to delirium and to investigate its possibility as biomarker for deliriu

Neutrophil-guided dosing of anthracycline–cyclophosphamide-containing chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer: a feasibility study

The aim of this study was to investigate whether neutrophil-guided dose escalation of anthracycline–cyclophosphamide-containing chemotherapy (ACC) for breast cancer is feasible, in order to optimize outcome. Breast cancer patients planned for 3-weekly ACC were enrolled in this study. The first treatment cycle was administered in a standard BSA-adjusted dose. The absolute neutrophil count was measured at baseline and at day 8, 11 and 15 after administration of ACC. For patients with none or mild (CTC grade 0–2) neutropenia and no other dose-limiting toxicity, we performed a 10–25 % dose escalation of the second cycle with the opportunity to a further 10–25 % dose escalation of the third cycle. Thirty patients were treated in the adjuvant setting with either FE100C (n = 23) or AC (n = 4), or in the palliative setting with FAC (n = 3). Two out of 23 patients (9 %) treated with FEC did not develop grade 3–4 neutropenia after the first treatment cycle. Dose escalation was performed in these two patients (30 % in one and 15 % in the other patient). During dose escalation, there were no complications like febrile neutropenia. No patients treated with FAC or AC could be escalated, since all of them developed grade 3–4 neutropenia. We conclude that asymptomatic grade 3–4 neutropenia is likely to be achieved in the majority of patients with breast cancer treated with ACC according to presently advocated BSA-based dose levels. Escalation of currently advocated ACC doses without G-CSF, with a target of grade 3–4 neutropenia, is feasible, but only possible in a small proportion of patients. EudraCT 2010-020309-33

Deciphering colorectal cancer genetics through multi-omic analysis of 100,204 cases and 154,587 controls of European and east Asian ancestries

In the version of this article initially published, the author affiliations incorrectly listed “Candiolo Cancer Institute FPO-IRCCS, Candiolo (TO), Italy” as “Candiolo Cancer Institute, Candiolo, Italy.” The change has been made to the HTML and PDF versions of the article

Fine-mapping analysis including over 254,000 East Asian and European descendants identifies 136 putative colorectal cancer susceptibility genes

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 200 common genetic variants independently associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, but the causal variants and target genes are mostly unknown. We sought to fine-map all known CRC risk loci using GWAS data from 100,204 cases and 154,587 controls of East Asian and European ancestry. Our stepwise conditional analyses revealed 238 independent association signals of CRC risk, each with a set of credible causal variants (CCVs), of which 28 signals had a single CCV. Our cis-eQTL/mQTL and colocalization analyses using colorectal tissue-specific transcriptome and methylome data separately from 1299 and 321 individuals, along with functional genomic investigation, uncovered 136 putative CRC susceptibility genes, including 56 genes not previously reported. Analyses of single-cell RNA-seq data from colorectal tissues revealed 17 putative CRC susceptibility genes with distinct expression patterns in specific cell types. Analyses of whole exome sequencing data provided additional support for several target genes identified in this study as CRC susceptibility genes. Enrichment analyses of the 136 genes uncover pathways not previously linked to CRC risk. Our study substantially expanded association signals for CRC and provided additional insight into the biological mechanisms underlying CRC development