A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world

Protective intraoperative ventilation with higher versus lower levels of positive end-expiratory pressure in obese patients (PROBESE): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) increase the morbidity and mortality of surgery in obese patients. High levels of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) with lung recruitment maneuvers may improve intraoperative respiratory function, but they can also compromise hemodynamics, and the effects on PPCs are uncertain. We hypothesized that intraoperative mechanical ventilation using high PEEP with periodic recruitment maneuvers, as compared with low PEEP without recruitment maneuvers, prevents PPCs in obese patients. Methods/design The PRotective Ventilation with Higher versus Lower PEEP during General Anesthesia for Surgery in OBESE Patients (PROBESE) study is a multicenter, two-arm, international randomized controlled trial. In total, 2013 obese patients with body mass index ≥35 kg/m2 scheduled for at least 2 h of surgery under general anesthesia and at intermediate to high risk for PPCs will be included. Patients are ventilated intraoperatively with a low tidal volume of 7 ml/kg (predicted body weight) and randomly assigned to PEEP of 12 cmH2O with lung recruitment maneuvers (high PEEP) or PEEP of 4 cmH2O without recruitment maneuvers (low PEEP). The occurrence of PPCs will be recorded as collapsed composite of single adverse pulmonary events and represents the primary endpoint. Discussion To our knowledge, the PROBESE trial is the first multicenter, international randomized controlled trial to compare the effects of two different levels of intraoperative PEEP during protective low tidal volume ventilation on PPCs in obese patients. The results of the PROBESE trial will support anesthesiologists in their decision to choose a certain PEEP level during general anesthesia for surgery in obese patients in an attempt to prevent PPCs. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02148692. Registered on 23 May 2014; last updated 7 June 2016. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13063-017-1929-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Предпринимательство в России: Проблемы его Развития в Современной Экономике

The development of a robust small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector has been widely seen as important to Russiaís socio-economic transformation. This has been clear from state policies and rhetoric that claim to support the development of entrepreneurship and publicly advocate its importance. But however, the states didn’t follow up the words been said, this official support for the SME sector has been out of line with the patterns of entrepreneurial development from the ground up. Business people prolong facing the same obstacles they’ve been facing a decade ago in such spheres such as legislation, tax, accessing credit, as well as administrative barriers; all of this stop small and medium sized businesses from the successful development. The entrepreneurs themselves play a huge role in shaping and molding the SME sector, an understanding of entrepreneurs themselves and their experiences, attitudes, values and beliefs is required in order to understand the patterns and problems of entrepreneurial development. Yet notably, much of the existing literature has not attached a high degree of importance to the experiences of entrepreneurs in processes of development. This article addresses this gap in the literature by exploring the patterns and problems of entrepreneurial development from the perspective of entrepreneurs themselves. It asks the question: how have behaviour, attitudes, values and socio-cultural context impacted on the development of entrepreneurship? Qualitative ethnographic research methods were used to explore the experi-ences of entrepreneurs and their responses to the challenges of the Russian business environment in four regions of Russia: Moscow, Sverdlovsk, Tverí and Kaluga. Semistructured interviews were conducted with entrepreneurs as well as state officials and leaders of business associations. Involving a variety of individuals who have played a role in shaping the entrepreneurial process providedinsight into the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and values towards entrepreneurship. This article found that the relationships that entrepreneurs form with other entrepreneurs, as well as with state officials and leaders of business associations are instrumental to understanding the patterns of behaviour of entrepreneurs and how these, in turn, shape entrepreneurial processes. It also finds that informal practices such as personal networks are integral strategies used by entrepreneurs to navigate the challenges of doing business in Russia. At the same time, this article concludes that these behaviours of entrepreneurs, which often occur in collusion with state officials and leaders of business associations, have subverted the integrity of the formal system and have contributed to a pattern of entrepreneurial development which has suffocated the potential and prosperity of the SME sector. The entrepreneurial process in Russia has thus been a complex mixture of successes and frustrations and the experiences of entrepreneurs are key to understanding this process.Развитие надежного сектора малых и средних предприятий считается важным фактором социально-экономических преобразований в России. Это было ясно из государственной по-литики и дискуссии, которые утверждают, что поддерживают развитие предпринимательства и публично отстаивают его важность. Но, тем не менее, официальная поддержка сектора малого и среднего предпринмательства не соответствовала моделям развития предпринимательства с нуля. Деловые люди продолжают сталкиваться с теми же препятствиями, с которыми они сталкивались десять лет назад в таких сферах, как законодательство, налогообложение, доступ к кредитам, а также административные барьеры; все это мешает малому и среднему бизнесу успешно развиваться. Сами предприниматели играют огромную роль в формировании и формировании сектора малого и среднего предпринимательсьва, для понимания закономерностей и проблем развития предпринимательства требуется понимание самих предпринимателей и их опыта, взглядов, ценностей и убеждений. Тем не менее, примечательно, что большая часть существующей литературы не придает высокой степени важности опыту предпринимателей в процессах развития. Эта статья устраняет этот пробел в литературе, исследуя закономерности и проблемы развития предпринимательства с точки зрения самих предпринимателей. Здесь задается вопрос: как поведение, установки, ценности и социокультурный контекст повлияли на развитие предпринимательства? Методы качественного этнографического исследования были использованы для изучения опыта предпринимателей и их ответов на вызовы российской бизнес-среды в четырех регионах России: Москве, Екатеринбурге, Твери и Калуге. Полуструктурированные интервью были проведены с предпринимателями, а также с государственными чиновниками и лидерами бизнес-ассоциаций. Вовлечение различных людей, которые сыграли свою роль в формировании предпринимательского процесса, обеспечило понимание отношений, убеждений, восприятия и ценностей в отношении предпринимательства. Эта статья обнаружила, что отношения, которые предприниматели устанавливают с другими предпринимателями, а также с государственными чиновниками и лидерами деловых ассоциаций, способствуют пониманию моделей поведения предпринимателей и того, как они, в свою очередь, формируют предпринимательские процессы. Также установлено, что неформальные практики, такие как личные сети, являются неотъемлемой стратегией, используемой предпринимателями для решения проблем ведения бизнеса в России. В то же время в этой статье делается вывод о том, что такое поведение предпринимателей, которое часто встречается в сговоре с государственными чиновниками и лидерами деловых ассоциаций, подрывает целостность формальной системы и способствует модели развития предпринимательства, которая замедляет потенциал и процветание сектора малого и среднего предпринимательства. Таким образом, предпринимательский процесс в России представляет собой сложную смесь успехов и разочарований, и опыт предпринимателей является ключом к пониманию этого процесса

Fast Adaptive Blind MMSE Equalizer for Multichannel FIR Systems

<p/> <p>We propose a new blind minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalization algorithm of noisy multichannel finite impulse response (FIR) systems, that relies only on second-order statistics. The proposed algorithm offers two important advantages: a low computational complexity and a relative robustness against channel order overestimation errors. Exploiting the fact that the columns of the equalizer matrix filter belong both to the signal subspace and to the kernel of truncated data covariance matrix, the proposed algorithm achieves blindly a direct estimation of the zero-delay MMSE equalizer parameters. We develop a two-step procedure to further improve the performance gain and control the equalization delay. An efficient fast adaptive implementation of our equalizer, based on the projection approximation and the shift invariance property of temporal data covariance matrix, is proposed for reducing the computational complexity from <inline-formula><graphic file="1687-6180-2006-014827-i1.gif"/></inline-formula> to <inline-formula><graphic file="1687-6180-2006-014827-i2.gif"/></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula><graphic file="1687-6180-2006-014827-i3.gif"/></inline-formula> is the number of emitted signals, <inline-formula><graphic file="1687-6180-2006-014827-i4.gif"/></inline-formula> the data vector length, and <inline-formula><graphic file="1687-6180-2006-014827-i5.gif"/></inline-formula> the dimension of the signal subspace. We then derive a statistical performance analysis to compare the equalization performance with that of the optimal MMSE equalizer. Finally, simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed blind equalization algorithm.</p

Time-frequency analysis of multichannel signals using two-sided autoregressive modeling

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Protective intraoperative ventilation with higher versus lower levels of positive end-expiratory pressure in obese patients (PROBESE): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) increase the morbidity and mortality of surgery in obese patients. High levels of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) with lung recruitment maneuvers may improve intraoperative respiratory function, but they can also compromise hemodynamics, and the effects on PPCs are uncertain. We hypothesized that intraoperative mechanical ventilation using high PEEP with periodic recruitment maneuvers, as compared with low PEEP without recruitment maneuvers, prevents PPCs in obese patients. Methods/design: The PRotective Ventilation with Higher versus Lower PEEP during General Anesthesia for Surgery in OBESE Patients (PROBESE) study is a multicenter, two-arm, international randomized controlled trial. In total, 2013 obese patients with body mass index ≥35 kg/m2 scheduled for at least 2 h of surgery under general anesthesia and at intermediate to high risk for PPCs will be included. Patients are ventilated intraoperatively with a low tidal volume of 7 ml/kg (predicted body weight) and randomly assigned to PEEP of 12 cmH2O with lung recruitment maneuvers (high PEEP) or PEEP of 4 cmH2O without recruitment maneuvers (low PEEP). The occurrence of PPCs will be recorded as collapsed composite of single adverse pulmonary events and represents the primary endpoint. Discussion: To our knowledge, the PROBESE trial is the first multicenter, international randomized controlled trial to compare the effects of two different levels of intraoperative PEEP during protective low tidal volume ventilation on PPCs in obese patients. The results of the PROBESE trial will support anesthesiologists in their decision to choose a certain PEEP level during general anesthesia for surgery in obese patients in an attempt to prevent PPCs. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02148692. Registered on 23 May 2014; last updated 7 June 2016