Lokaldemokratiet på Svalbard - lokalpolitikk på storpolitisk grunn : Om politikerroller og geografisk representasjon i Longyearbyen lokalstyre

Studien tar for seg hvordan politikerne i Longyearbyen lokalstyre forholder seg til den storpolitiske konteksten Svalbard ligger i, og hvordan de ser på det å være de eneste tilstedeværende folkevalgte politikerne på øygruppen. Med utgangspunkt i rolleteori og teorien om flernivåstyring forsøker studien å se på lokalpolitikernes forventninger og mål om innflytelse. Det empiriske materialet bygger på intervjuer med sittende og tidligere politikere i lokalstyret

“Opening up a well of emotions”: A qualitative study of men's emotional experiences in the transition to fatherhood

Aim To explore the emotional changes and reactions men experience in their transition to fatherhood. Design This study used a qualitative design. Methods Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 13 Norwegian fathers. Results Through thematic analysis, three main themes were developed: (1) from self-focus to family perspective; (2) emotional vulnerability; and (3) from insecurity to self-assurance. The themes describe fathers' emotional process during the child's first year of life, ranging from positive feelings like affection and mastery, to challenging feelings like exclusion, jealousy and exhaustion. Many fathers describe taboos and shame over their own emotional reactions, although these can be considered a natural part of the postnatal period

“Opening up a well of emotions”: A qualitative study of men's emotional experiences in the transition to fatherhood

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.Aim: To explore the emotional changes and reactions men experience in their transition to fatherhood. Design: This study used a qualitative design. Methods: Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 13 Norwegian fathers. Results: Through thematic analysis, three main themes were developed: (1) from selffocus to family perspective; (2) emotional vulnerability; and (3) from insecurity to selfassurance. The themes describe fathers' emotional process during the child's first year of life, ranging from positive feelings like affection and mastery, to challenging feelings like exclusion, jealousy and exhaustion. Many fathers describe taboos and shame over their own emotional reactions, although these can be considered a natural part of the postnatal period.publishedVersio

Instruments to Identify Symptoms of Paternal Depression During Pregnancy and the First Postpartum Year: A Systematic Scoping Review

Men often experience depressive symptoms during the transition to parenthood, but there is a lack of synthesized knowledge of instruments used to identify such symptoms. The aim of this scoping review was to identify instruments used to measure symptoms of depressive symptoms among fathers in pregnancy and the postpartum period, and to describe the instruments’ characteristics and measurement properties. We identified studies published since 1990 through searches in databases such as MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO and in gray literature. Pairs of reviewers selected relevant studies based on predetermined inclusion criteria. For each included study, we collected information relevant to the review question, guided by the COnsensus based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement INstruments (COSMIN). We included 13 instruments, described in 59 studies with about 29,000 participants across 25 countries. There were 12 validation studies. None of the instruments were uniquely developed for assessing paternal depressive symptoms related to fatherhood. The three most extensively examined instruments were the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and Beck Depression Inventory. For seven of the 13 instruments, there was no information reported about the instruments’ properties beyond internal consistency, but for the other six instruments the 12 validation studies reported on both reliability and validity. No studies reported on measurement error or responsiveness. EPDS was both the most extensively assessed instrument and reported to be the most reliable and valid. Further research on instruments for identifying men with depression in pregnancy and the postpartum period is warranted

Norwegian fathers’ experiences with a home visiting program

Objective - To explore fathers’ experiences with a Norwegian home visiting program during the prenatal period and the first-year postpartum. Design - Qualitative design with interpretive description (ID) as the methodological approach. Sample - Individual interviews with fathers (n = 13) who received home visits by a public health nurse (PHN) within the New Families home visiting program. Measures - Interviews were guided by a semi-structured interview-guide, which contained open-ended questions encouraging informants to reflect on their experiences with home visits. The analysis of the data was informed by content analysis. Results - Two main themes that reflect the fathers’ experiences emerged: (1) The importance of being on their home ground captures the fathers’ experience of receiving home visits and building a trusting relationship with the PHN. (2) Including fathers in the home visit represents their thoughts about the content and focus of the home visits. Conclusions - Fathers experienced the universal New Families home visiting program as an important contribution towards a more available and tailored service, with the home environment as a suitable arena for developing a trusting relationship with the PHN. However, the fathers often felt insufficiently included in the home visits, with only scant attention towards them as independent caregivers, their emotional reactions, roles, and family relationships. Pre-birth home visits might contribute to strengthening preparations for fatherhood and increase fathers’ engagement in the Child Health Service

Expansion of bovine skeletal muscle stem cells from spinner flasks to benchtop stirred-tank bioreactors for up to 38 days

Introduction: Successful long-term expansion of skeletal muscle satellite cells (MuSCs) on a large scale is fundamental for cultivating animal cells for protein production. Prerequisites for efficient cell expansion include maintaining essential native cell activities such as cell adhesion, migration, proliferation, and differentiation while ensuring consistent reproducibility. Method: This study investigated the growth of bovine MuSC culture using low-volume spinner flasks and a benchtop stirred-tank bioreactor (STR). Results and discussion: Our results showed for the first time the expansion of primary MuSCs for 38 days in a bench-top STR run with low initial seeding density and FBS reduction, supported by increased expression of the satellite cell marker PAX7 and reduced expression of differentiation-inducing genes like MYOG, even without adding p38-MAPK inhibitors. Moreover, the cells retained their ability to proliferate, migrate, and differentiate after enzymatic dissociation from the microcarriers. We also showed reproducible results in a separate biological benchtop STR run.Expansion of bovine skeletal muscle stem cells from spinner flasks to benchtop stirred-tank bioreactors for up to 38 dayspublishedVersio

Quality of life in Norwegian pregnant women and men with pregnant partners, and association with perception of sleep and depressive symptoms: a cross-sectional study

Background: Pregnant women and men with pregnant partners experience variations in quality of life (QoL) during pregnancy, a period characterized by physical, psychological, and social changes. Pregnancy is associated with reduced QoL, depressive symptoms, and sleep problems. This study aimed to: (1) determine whether Norwegian pregnant women and men with pregnant partners differed in QoL levels in the third trimester of pregnancy; (2) determine whether the relationship between perception of sleep and QoL is moderated by depressive symptoms, when analyzed separately in pregnant women and men with pregnant partners; and (3) determine whether selected possible predictive factors were associated with QoL when stratified by level of depressive symptoms, in pregnant women and men with pregnant partners separately. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted between October 2018 and January 2020 included 228 pregnant women and 197 men with pregnant partners in the third trimester of pregnancy. The age range was 22–50 years. QoL was assessed using the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire brief version, depressive symptoms using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and perception of sleep by a single item. Data were analyzed in SPSS version 28 using descriptive statistics, the PROCESS macro for moderation analyses, and multivariate linear regression. The level of statistical significance was p < 0.05. Results: Pregnant women reported significantly lower QoL scores on the physical health and psychological domains than the men with pregnant partners. Our data did not reveal any moderating effect of depressive symptoms on the relationship between the perception of sleep and QoL. Depressive symptoms in the pregnant women were found to be a significant predictor of lower QoL in all domains. In the men with pregnant partners, getting enough sleep was a significant predictor of higher QoL in all domains. In the pregnant women without depressive symptoms, higher QoL in the physical health domain was significantly associated with the perception of getting enough sleep. Conclusion: Women in the final trimester of pregnancy experience poor QoL compared to the men with pregnant partners. Pregnant women with depressive symptoms have lower QoL compared to those without depressive symptoms. The perception of getting enough sleep was associated with better QoL.publishedVersio

Production of food-grade microcarriers based on by-products from the food industry to facilitate the expansion of bovine skeletal muscle satellite cells for cultured meat production

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Helsestasjonstilbudet i Oslo under covid-19 – førstegangsmødres erfaringer

Bakgrunn: Helsestasjonstjenesten er i kontakt med nesten alle foreldre og barn det første leveåret og frem til skolestart og har en sentral rolle med å veilede, støtte og trygge foreldrene. Oslo kommune har i tillegg til det ordinære helsestasjonsprogrammet iverksatt hjemmebesøksprogrammet «Nye familier» som en del av helsestasjonstilbudet for å gi ekstra støtte til alle førstegangsforeldrene. Helsedirektoratet iverksatte våren 2020 midlertidige nasjonale retningslinjer for helsestasjonstjenesten som følge av covid-19, der helsestasjonsprogrammet ble kraftig redusert. Hensikt: Hensikten med undersøkelsen var å kartlegge hvordan førstegangsmødre erfarte helsestasjonstilbudet i forbindelse med covid-19- pandemien. Vi ønsket også å undersøke om førstegangsmødre som mottok hjemmebesøksprogrammet «Nye familier», hadde andre erfaringer enn dem som ikke mottok programmet. Metode: Studien var en tverrsnittsundersøkelse, og dataene ble samlet inn ved å bruke Nettskjema. Deskriptive analyser ble utført i SPSS. Studien rekrutterte mødre som deltar i forskningsprosjektet «Nye familier». Resultat: Responsraten var 62 prosent (111 mødre). Syttiåtte mødre (70 prosent) hadde benyttet en eller ere kontaktformer til helsestasjonen, og re (4 prosent) hadde ikke fått kontakt med en helsesykepleier ved behov. En større andel av mødrene i bydelene med hjemmebesøksprogrammet (intervensjonsbydelene) hadde hatt kontakt med helsestasjonen (p = 0,028). Mødrene som hadde hatt telefonkontakt, rapporterte at slik kontakt fungerte dårligere (n = 17 / 63 prosent) eller like godt (n = 5 / 19 prosent) som tidligere helsestasjonskonsultasjoner. Majoriteten av mødrene (n = 71 / 64 prosent) hadde erfart helsestasjonstilbudet som forventet. Konklusjon: En stor andel av mødrene hadde vært i kontakt med helsestasjonen i perioden, og signikant ere i intervensjonsbydelene enn i kontrollbydelene. Mer enn en tredjedel av mødrene rapporterte at de kk utilstrekkelig informasjon om endringer i tjenestetilbudet i perioden. Mødrene foretrakk det ordinære tilbudet, men så likevel ut til å tilpasse seg endringene og det tilbudet som ble gitt.publishedVersio

Characterization of wooden breast myopathy: a focus on syndecans and ECM remodeling

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