Partisan media exposure, polarization, and candidate evaluations in the 2016 general election

Objective This study aims to examine the influence of Republican and Democratic partisan television news on attitudes toward candidates for president immediately following the 2016 general election. Method Using two waves of the 2016 American National Election Study, we examine feelings toward Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton before and after the election. Results Exposure to Republican partisan media did have a significant negative effect on feelings toward Hillary Clinton, even when controlling for party identification, ideology, and feelings toward Clinton before the election. Consumption of Democratic partisan television, however, had no influence on feelings toward Donald Trump. Conclusion Further fragmentation and the expansion of partisan media has—and will continue to—benefit Republicans over Democrats.Wiley Open Access Accoun

Incorporating DNA Sequencing into Current Prenatal Screening Practice for Down's Syndrome

PMCID: PMC3604109This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Product Stewardship in Maine

This report examines the growing trend of recycling through product stewardship programs. Product stewardship programs attempt to keep potentially harmful products out of the waste stream, reduce pressure on landfills, and encourage manufacturers to reduce waste

Treating vaginal candidiasis for the prevention of preterm birth: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

NHMR

Treating vaginal candidiasis for the prevention of preterm birth: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

NHMR

Do Industrial Relations Affect Plant Performance?: The Case of Commercial Aircraft Manufacturing

This study analyzes the impact of major industrial relations variables on productivity within a plant that assembles large commercial aircraft. The analysis combines the deep firm- specific knowledge of management and labor typical of the best of traditional industrial relations with formal statistical tests. We use a before and after research design over an 18-year period with monthly data, as well as information from the participants in the industrial relations events. Our approach is unusual in showing that by focusing only on managerial factors or the learning curve, and omitting factors such as union leadership and related labor relations events, estimates may mis-specify impacts on firm performance. Strikes, slowdowns, and tough union leaders influenced the productivity of this plant by both large percentages and absolute dollar amounts during the period they were occurring. In contrast with much of the firm performance literature, we find small initial productivity impacts of movements from traditional adversarial management, which is the norm in this industry, to total quality management (TQM) and back again. How and why TQM is adopted may be just as important as whether it is adopted. Finally, simulations from a counterfactual case show that major industrial relations events like strikes, slowdowns, and the TQM program did not have long term productivity effects, and that the firm we studied returned to pre-event levels of production within one to four months.

Treatment of vaginal candidiasis for the prevention of preterm birth: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Background: Recognition that ascending infection leads to preterm birth has led to a number of studies that have evaluated the treatment of vaginal infections in pregnancy to reduce preterm birth rates. However, the role of candidiasis is relatively unexplored. Our aim was to undertake a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess whether treatment of pregnant women with vulvovaginal candidiasis reduces preterm birth rates and other adverse birth outcomes. Methods: We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in which pregnant women were treated for vulvovaginal candidias (compared to placebo or no treatment) and where preterm birth was reported as an outcome. Trials were identified by searching the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Medline and Embase databases to January 2014. Trial eligibility and outcomes were pre-specified. Two reviewers independently assessed the studies against the agreed criteria and extracted relevant data using a standard data extraction form. Meta-analysis was used to calculate pooled rate ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using a fixed-effects model. Results: There were 2 eligible RCTs both among women with asymptomatic candidiasis, with a total of 685 women randomised. Both trials compared treatment with usual care (no screening for, or treatment of, asymptomatic candidiasis). Data from one trial involved a post-hoc analysis of a larger trial of treatment of asymptomatic infections in pregnancy (n=586) and the other was a pilot study (n=99). There was a significant reduction in spontaneous preterm births in treated compared with untreated women (meta-analysis RR=0.36, 95%CI 0.17-0.75). No other outcomes were assessed by both trials. Conclusions: This systematic review found two trials comparing treatment of vaginal candidiasis in pregnancy for the outcome of preterm birth. Although the effect estimate provides support for the hypothesis that treatment of asymptomatic candidiasis may reduce 3 the risk of preterm birth, the result needs to be interpreted with caution as the primary driver for the pooled estimate comes from a post-hoc analysis. A prospective trial with sufficient power to answer the clinical question ‘does treatment of asymptomatic candidiasis in early pregnancy prevent preterm birth’ is warranted.Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grant (#632544). CLR is supported by a NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship (#APP1021025)

Increased planned delivery contributes to declining rates of pregnancy hypertension in Australia: a population-based record linkage study

Objective: Since the 1990s, pregnancy hypertension rates have declined in some countries but not all. Increasing rates of early planned delivery (before the due date) have been hypothesised as the reason for the decline. The aim of this study was to explore whether early planned delivery can partly explain the declining pregnancy hypertension rates in Australia. Design: Population-based record linkage study utilising linked birth and hospital records Setting and Participants: A cohort of 1,076,122 deliveries in New South Wales, Australia, 2001-2012. Outcome measures: Pregnancy hypertension (including gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and eclampsia) was the main outcome, preeclampsia was a secondary outcome Results: From 2001 to 2012, pregnancy hypertension rates declined by 22% from 9.9% to 7.7% and preeclampsia by 27% from 3.3% to 2.4% (trend P <0.0001). At the same time, planned deliveries increased: prelabour caesarean section by 43% (12.9% to 18.4%) and labour inductions by 10% (24.8% to 27.2%). Many maternal risk factors for pregnancy hypertension significantly increased (P<0.01) over the study period including nulliparity, age ≥35 years, diabetes, overweight and obesity, and use of assisted reproductive technologies; some risk factors decreased including multi-fetal pregnancies, age <20 years, autoimmune diseases and previous pregnancy hypertension. Given these changes in risk factors the pregnancy hypertension rate was predicted to increase to 10.5%. Examination of annual gestational age distributions showed that pregnancy hypertension rates actually declined from 38 weeks gestation and were steepest from 41 weeks; at least 36% of the decrease could be attributed to planned deliveries. The risk factors for pregnancy hypertension were also risk factors for planned delivery. Conclusions: It appears that an unanticipated consequence of increasing early planned deliveries is a decline in the incidence of pregnancy hypertension. Women with risk factors for hypertension were relatively more likely to be selected for early delivery.NHMRC, AR