Birth outcomes by type of attendance at antenatal education: An observational study

Background: Antenatal education aims to prepare expectant parents for pregnancy, birth, and parenthood. Studies have reported antenatal education teaching breathing and relaxation methods for pain relief, termed psychoprophylaxis, is associated with reduction in caesarean section rates compared with general birth and parenting classes. Given the rising rates of caesarean section, we aimed to determine whether there was a difference in mode of birth in women based on the type of antenatal education attended. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional antenatal survey of nulliparous women ≥28 weeks gestation with a singleton pregnancy was conducted in two maternity hospitals in Sydney, Australia in 2018. Women were asked what type of antenatal education they attended and sent a follow-up survey post-birth. Hospital birth data were also obtained. Education was classified into four groups: psychoprophylaxis, birth and parenting, other, or none. Results: Five hundred and five women with birth data were included. A higher proportion of women who attended psychoprophylaxis education had a vaginal birth (instrumental/spontaneous) (79%) compared with women who attended birth and parenting, other or no education (69%, 67%, 60%, respectively P = 0.045). After adjusting for maternal characteristics, birth and hospital factors, the association was attenuated (odds ratio 2.03; 95% CI 0.93–4.43). Conclusions: Women who attended psychoprophylaxis couple-based education had a trend toward higher rates of vaginal birth. Randomised trials comparing different types of antenatal education are required to determine whether psychoprophylaxis education can reduce caesarean section rates and improve other birth outcomes

An Empirical Analysis of the Seasonal Patterns in Aggregate Directors’ Trades

This paper examins the seasonal patterns in aggregate insider trading transactions, specifically, do insiders prefer to trade on any particular day of the week or month of the year? It also, given that such seasonal patterns exist, attempts to relate these patterns to explanations drawn from the literature on calendar anomalies in returns (and volumes). The results outlined from this paper includes: There is a day of the week anomaly in aggregate insider activities (as measured by number and value of insider transactions). Particularly, relative to other days, insiders tend to trade more on Fridays and less on Tuesdays. Also, the distribution of the average value of directors‟ trades (buys and sells) across the week days forms a U shape i.e. high trading value on the beginning of the week (Monday) and the end of the week (Friday). Also, there is a month of the year anomaly in aggregate insider activities (as measured by the number of insider transactions). Insiders tend to trade most frequently in March and least in August. The results of OLS Regression Model indicate that there is no monthly anomaly in aggregate insider selling activities as measured by the aggregate value of insider transactions. The results of TOBIT Regression Model show that the average value of directors‟ selling activities in March is higher and significantly different relative to other months of the year. The results of OLS regression are also confirmed by the results of K-W statistic test which supported the non existence of monthly anomaly in aggregate director trading (measured by the value of director transactions)

Impact of the assimilation of ozone from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer on surface ozone across North America

We examine the impact of assimilating ozone observations from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) on North American surface ozone abundances in the GEOS-Chem model in August 2006. The assimilation reduces the negative bias in the modeled free tropospheric ozone, which enhances the ozone flux into the boundary layer. Surface ozone abundances increased by as much as 9 ppb in western North America and by less than 2 ppb in the southeast, resulting in a total background source of ozone of 20-40 ppb. The enhanced ozone in the model reduced the model bias with respect to surface ozone observations in the western USA, but exacerbated it in the east. This increase in the bias in the boundary layer in the east, despite the agreement between the assimilation and ozonesonde measurements in the free troposphere, suggests errors in the ozone sources or sinks or in boundary layer mixing in the model. © 2009

Perspectives for sustainable aviation biofuels in Brazil

The aviation industry has set ambitious goals to reduce carbon emissions in coming decades. The strategy involves the use of sustainable biofuels, aiming to achieve benefits from environmental, social, and economic perspectives. In this context, Brazilian conditions are favorable, with a mature agroindustry that regularly produces automotive biofuel largely adopted by Brazilian road vehicles, while air transportation has been growing at an accelerating pace and a modern aircraft industry is in place. This paper presents the main conclusions and recommendations from a broad assessment of the technological, economic, and sustainability challenges and opportunities associated with the development of drop-in aviation biofuels in Brazil. It was written by a research team that prepared the initial reports and conducted eight workshops with the active participation of more than 30 stakeholders encompassing the private sector, government institutions, NGOs, and academia. The main outcome was a set of guidelines for establishing a new biofuels industry, including recommendations for (a) filling the identified research and development knowledge gaps in the production of sustainable feedstock; (b) overcoming the barriers in conversion technology, including scaling-up issues; (c) promoting greater involvement and interaction between private and government stakeholders; and (d) creating a national strategy to promote the development of aviation biofuels2015FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP2012/50009-

Neural connectome prospectively encodes the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected humans worldwide and led to unprecedented stress and mortality. Detrimental effects of the pandemic on mental health, including risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have become an increasing concern. The identification of prospective neurobiological vulnerability markers for developing PTSD symptom during the pandemic is thus of high importance. Methods Before the COVID-19 outbreak (September 20, 2019–January 11, 2020), some healthy participants underwent resting-state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) acquisition. We assessed the PTSD symptomology of these individuals during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic (February 21, 2020–February 28, 2020) in China. This pseudo-prospective cohort design allowed us to test whether the pre-pandemic neural connectome status could predict the risk of developing PTSD symptom during the pandemic. Results A total of 5.60% of participants (n = 42) were identified as being high-risk to develop PTSD symptom and 12.00% (n = 90) exhibited critical levels of PTSD symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic measures of functional connectivity (the neural connectome) prospectively classified those with heightened risk to develop PTSD symptom from matched controls (Accuracy = 76.19%, Sensitivity = 80.95%, Specificity = 71.43%). The trained classifier generalized to an independent sample. Continuous prediction models revealed that the same connectome could accurately predict the severity of PTSD symptoms within individuals (r2 = 0.31p<.0). Conclusions This study confirms COVID-19 break as a crucial stressor to bring risks developing PTSD symptom and demonstrates that brain functional markers can prospectively identify individuals at risk to develop PTSD symptom