A Critical Assessment of EU-Russia Relations: Conflict, Competition, or Consensus?

The purpose of this thesis is to examine EU-Russian relations from an analytical point of view. Due to the changing climate in the European Union and Russia, caused by such factors as the EU's expansion to twenty-seven member states and Russia's establishment of itself as the main European petrol and gas provider, the relationship between the two is by necessity now vigorous and essential. This ultimately translates into numerous clashes, and competitive situations, but also an effort from the two powers to find new effective ways to make the relationship work. This paper aims to discover which term - conflict, competition, or consensus - best describes the target relationship and sets the tone for the future. Different countries from the EU have established different approaches to deal with the Russian superpower. As a result the EU- Russian relationship appears to be a combination of all of the above

Nutrition – trigger and protector in autoimmune diseases

Nutrition, mucosal immune system, intestinal microbiome, and immune-mediated diseases are intertwined and interact with each other. This review examines the connections between obesity, salt consumption, gluten, low-calorie diets, polyunsaturated fatty acids, olive oil, polyphenols, antioxidants, vitamin D, probiotics, and the immune system, and their role as a trigger or protective factor in the inflammatory cascade. Some practical aspects of the diet for autoimmune diseases are also presented as part of the personalised approach

Intensifying the treatment of familial hypercholesterolemia—the experience of a single center in Eastern Bulgaria

Introduction: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an established risk factor for the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (CVD), which determines early morbidity and mortality. Intensive reduction of the high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) reduces the incidence of CVD.Aim: The aim of this article is to analyze changes in lipid levels after intensification of the treatment of patients with familial hypercholesterolemia.Participants and Methods: Lipid levels of 59 patients with familial hypercholestrolemia from Eastern Bulgaria were studied with the aim of optimizing the management at an FH treatment center at St. Marina University Hospital, Varna. The period covered was from October 2017 to July 2020. The diagnosis of FH was determined as probable or certain according to the Dutch Lipid Clinics Network (DLCN) with a score of ≥ 6 points. After evaluation of the inclusion criteria for initiating treatment with evolocumab, all patients were monitored every 6 months for their lipid status. Baseline demographic characteristics and changes in the levels of laboratory tests for total cholesterol, LDL-c, and HDL cholesterol (HDL-c) were analyzed. A t-test for grouped pairs was used to estimate the difference from the baseline.Results: Of all 59 who passed through the center, the majority were men (58%). The mean age was 57.66 ± 9.57 years, from 37 to 76 years. A total of 54% had ischemic heart disease, 30.5% had survived a myocardial infarction, and 12% had a previous stroke. The mean baseline of total cholesterol was 8.23 ± 3.65 mmol/L, that of LDL cholesterol was 5.31 ± 1.95 mmol/L, and that of HDL-c was 1.25 ± 0.4 mmol/L. After 6 months, LDL-c levels dropped down to an average of 2.46 ± 1.59 mmol/L (p <0.0001) and persisted for 2.5 years after onset. The same trend was observed for total cholesterol. Achieving different target levels of LDL-c was reached as early as the 6th month in 76% and 56% of the treated, respectively.Conclusion: The use of evolocumab in addition to statin therapy leads to a significant and lasting reduction in total and LDL cholesterol in patients with FH. A significant number of them achieve targeted levels of LDL-c, which reduces the risk of new cardiovascular events

Stochastic methods and genetic algorithms for neural network learning

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Stochastic methods and genetic algorithms for neural network learning

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Trustworthy artificial intelligence and ethical design: public perceptions of trustworthiness of an AI-based decision-support tool in the context of intrapartum care

Abstract Background Despite the recognition that developing artificial intelligence (AI) that is trustworthy is necessary for public acceptability and the successful implementation of AI in healthcare contexts, perspectives from key stakeholders are often absent from discourse on the ethical design, development, and deployment of AI. This study explores the perspectives of birth parents and mothers on the introduction of AI-based cardiotocography (CTG) in the context of intrapartum care, focusing on issues pertaining to trust and trustworthiness. Methods Seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted with birth parents and mothers based on a speculative case study. Interviewees were based in England and were pregnant and/or had given birth in the last two years. Thematic analysis was used to analyze transcribed interviews with the use of NVivo. Major recurring themes acted as the basis for identifying the values most important to this population group for evaluating the trustworthiness of AI. Results Three themes pertaining to the perceived trustworthiness of AI emerged from interviews: (1) trustworthy AI-developing institutions, (2) trustworthy data from which AI is built, and (3) trustworthy decisions made with the assistance of AI. We found that birth parents and mothers trusted public institutions over private companies to develop AI, that they evaluated the trustworthiness of data by how representative it is of all population groups, and that they perceived trustworthy decisions as being mediated by humans even when supported by AI. Conclusions The ethical values that underscore birth parents and mothers’ perceptions of trustworthy AI include fairness and reliability, as well as practices like patient-centered care, the promotion of publicly funded healthcare, holistic care, and personalized medicine. Ultimately, these are also the ethical values that people want to protect in the healthcare system. Therefore, trustworthy AI is best understood not as a list of design features but in relation to how it undermines or promotes the ethical values that matter most to its end users. An ethical commitment to these values when creating AI in healthcare contexts opens up new challenges and possibilities for the design and deployment of AI

Business Dynamics and Innovation in the Home Video Game Industry

The purpose of this thesis is to present and analyze the innovations in the home video game industry and their impact on the competitive strategies of the companies in the indus-try. The existing literature about business cycles and business dynamics is scarce from busi-ness administrative perspective. This thesis contributes to fill the gap in the academic literature. The choice of the home video game industry has been done, due to its fast growing economic nature and the rapid changes that can be noticed, especially for the last decade. A qualitative research method with secondary qualitative and quantitative data and primary qualitative data through interviews has been used for this thesis. The home video game industry is highly driven by technological product innovations. Incremental innovations do not affect in a significant way the dynamics within the industry. Radical innovations create a competitive advantage through differentiation and they increase market share for the company which followed this strategy. Disruptive innovations open new markets, change the business environment for every firm and generate a shift in consumer preferences. Hence, the company which implements a disruptive innovation gains extensive market share. Innovations are possible due to the strategic orientation a company aims to pursue. If a company pursues a high market orientation and a low inno-vation orientation it manufactures an upgraded product to keep customers satisfied. When the firm pursues a high market and innovation orientation, the final product includes cha-racteristics that the customers desire. While at the same time the product created offers services and features hard to be matched by the competition. Finally, if a firm pursues a high innovation orientation and a low market orientation strategy, it creates an easier and more convenient alternative on the existing products while being cheaper. At the same time this strategic orientation disregards the established customers' desires.The purpose of this thesis is to present and analyze the innovations in the home video game industry and their impact on the competitive strategies of the companies in the indus-try. The existing literature about business cycles and business dynamics is scarce from busi-ness administrative perspective. This thesis contributes to fill the gap in the academic litera-ture. The choice of the home video game industry has been done, due to its fast growing economic nature and the rapid changes that can be noticed, especially for the last decade. A qualitative research method with secondary qualitative and quantitative data and primary qualitative data through interviews has been used for this thesis.The home video game industry is highly driven by technological product innovations. Incremental innovations do not affect in a significant way the dynamics within the industry. Radical innovations create a competitive advantage through differentiation and they increase market share for the company which followed this strategy. Disruptive innovations open new markets, change the business environment for every firm and generate a shift in consumer preferences. Hence, the company which implements a disruptive innovation gains extensive market share. Innovations are possible due to the strategic orientation a company aims to pursue. If a company pursues a high market orientation and a low inno-vation orientation it manufactures an upgraded product to keep customers satisfied. When the firm pursues a high market and innovation orientation, the final product includes cha-racteristics that the customers desire. While at the same time the product created offers services and features hard to be matched by the competition. Finally, if a firm pursues a high innovation orientation and a low market orientation strategy, it creates an easier and more convenient alternative on the existing products while being cheaper. At the same time this strategic orientation disregards the established customers' desires

Multimodal Deep Learning for Predicting Adverse Birth Outcomes Based on Early Labour Data

Cardiotocography (CTG) is a widely used technique to monitor fetal heart rate (FHR) during labour and assess the health of the baby. However, visual interpretation of CTG signals is subjective and prone to error. Automated methods that mimic clinical guidelines have been developed, but they failed to improve detection of abnormal traces. This study aims to classify CTGs with and without severe compromise at birth using routinely collected CTGs from 51,449 births at term from the first 20 min of FHR recordings. Three 1D-CNN and LSTM based architectures are compared. We also transform the FHR signal into 2D images using time-frequency representation with a spectrogram and scalogram analysis, and subsequently, the 2D images are analysed using a 2D-CNNs. In the proposed multi-modal architecture, the 2D-CNN and the 1D-CNN-LSTM are connected in parallel. The models are evaluated in terms of partial area under the curve (PAUC) between 0–10% false-positive rate; and sensitivity at 95% specificity. The 1D-CNN-LSTM parallel architecture outperformed the other models, achieving a PAUC of 0.20 and sensitivity of 20% at 95% specificity. Our future work will focus on improving the classification performance by employing a larger dataset, analysing longer FHR traces, and incorporating clinical risk factors

The association between placenta-associated circulating biomarkers and composite adverse delivery outcome of a likely placental cause in healthy post-date pregnancies

Introduction Post-date pregnancies have an increased risk of adverse delivery outcome. Our aim was to explore the association between placenta-associated circulating biomarkers and composite adverse delivery outcome of a likely placental cause in clinically healthy post-date pregnancies. Material and methods Women with healthy singleton post-date pregnancies between 40+2 and 42+2 weeks of gestation were recruited to this prospective, observational study conducted at Oslo University Hospital, Norway (NCT03100084). Placental growth factor (PlGF) and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1) were measured in the maternal serum samples closest to delivery. The composite adverse delivery outcome included fetal acidemia, low Apgar score (<4 at 1 min or <7 at 5 min), asphyxia, fetal death, assisted ventilation for more than 6 h, meconium aspiration, hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy, therapeutic hypothermia, operative delivery due to fetal distress, or pathological placental histology findings. Two study-independent senior consultant obstetricians blinded to biomarker results concluded, based on clinical expert opinion, whether the adverse delivery outcomes were most likely associated with placental dysfunction (“likely placental cause”) or not. Means were compared using one-way analysis of variance and Bonferroni corrected pairwise comparisons between groups. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves assessed the predictive ability of PlGF, sFlt-1/PlGF ratio, and PlGF <10th centile after adjustment for gestational age at blood sampling. Results Of 501 pregnancies reviewed for predefined adverse delivery outcomes and for a likely placental cause, 468 were healthy pregnancies and subsequently assigned to either the “uncomplicated” (no adverse outcome, n = 359), “intermediate” (non-placental cause/undetermined, n = 90), or “complicated” (likely placental cause, n = 19) group. There was a significant difference in mean PlGF and sFlt-1/PlGF ratio between the “complicated”, “intermediate”, and “uncomplicated” groups (108, 185, and 179 pg/mL, p = 0.001; and 48.3, 23.4, and 24.6, p = 0.002, respectively). There was a higher proportion of PlGF concentration <10th centile in the “complicated” group compared with the “intermediate” and “uncomplicated” groups (42.1% vs. 11.1% and 9.5%, p = 0.001). The largest area under the ROC curve for predicting “complicated” outcome was achieved by PlGF concentration and gestational age at blood sampling (0.76; 95% CI 0.65–0.86). Conclusions In clinically healthy post-date pregnancies, an antiangiogenic pre-delivery profile (lower PlGF level and higher sFlt-1/PlGF ratio) was associated with composite adverse delivery outcome of a likely placental cause