The effect of antenatal screening for depression on neonatal birthweight and gestation

BackgroundAntenatal depression has been associated with poor perinatal outcomes such as preterm birth and low birth weight. Universal screening of perinatal depression has been recommended to improve maternal and pregnancy outcomes.Hypothesis and aimWe hypothesise that screening for antenatal depressive symptoms may reduce the risk of preterm birth and low birth weight. To assess the hypothesis, we explore the association between antenatal depression screening using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and neonatal outcomes.MethodsA retrospective analysis of state-wide population-based health administrative data. Inclusion criteria were pregnant women who gave birth to a singleton in Queensland in the second half of 2015 (29,543 women). Logistic regression analyses were run in 27,817 women with information in all variables. Main outcomes were preterm birth (<37 weeks of gestation) and low birth weight (<2500 grs).ResultsWomen who did not complete the screening had increased odds of preterm birth (AOR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.39–1.74; p < 0.001) and low birth weight (AOR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.30–1.68; p < 0.001) before and after adjustments for relevant confounders when compared to women who completed the screening. Sensitivity analyses performed in women with spontaneous labour and in women without a diagnosis of depression showed similar results.Conclusion(s)We found an association between screening for depressive symptoms during pregnancy and better neonatal outcomes. However, this result does not necessarily infer causality. Any association may represent a previously unknown benefit to screening, which could support the case for universal antenatal depression screening.     

Fuzzy属性文法的分解定理与表现定理

提出了广义 Fuzzy 集合与 Fuzzy 属性文法的概念,并给出了 Fuzzy 属性文法的分解定理与表现定理,从两个不同的角度阐明了 Fuzzy 属性文法与普通文法以及它们的代数结构之间的关系。     

Healthy lower backs in the construction industry in Sweden

This corss-sectional study exmaines the relationship between healthy lower and psychosocial and physical factors in a random sample of 1773 male construction workers. Infoamtion on lower back status, lifestyle habits, stress, psychosomatic and psychological symptoms, psychosocizal demands and resoruces and physical workload were collected by means of a postal questionnaire. Measures of psycholocial and physical factors were based on factor analysis of the data. The criterion variable 'healthy lower back' (HLB)—no lifetime history of low back pain—proved to be valid compared with an interview and a physical examination. A total of 216 workers (12%) reported HLB. The prevalance rate decreased significantly with increasing age. The prevalence rate of HLB was 6% among workers reporting high stress levels. It was postively influenced when there was a balance between demands and resoruces. A low level of physical workload also increased the prevalence rate of HLB. When age, lifestyle and physical factors were kept constant in a multivariate analysis high scores on the discretions index and low scores on eh psychosomatic, psychological and stress indices cosntributed significantly to an increase prevalence rate of HLB.     

On the identification of ARMA echelon-form models

An identification procedure for multivariate autoregressive moving average (ARMA) echelon-form models is proposed. It is based on the study of the linear dependence between rows of the Hankel matrix of serial correlations. To that end, we define a statistical test for checking the linear dependence between vectors of serial correlations. It is shown that the test statistic t?_n considered is distributed asymptotically as a finite linear combination of independent chi-square random variables with one degree of freedom under the null hypothesis, whereas under the alternative hypothesis, t?_N/N converges in probability to a positive constant. These results allow us, in particular, to compute the asymptotic probability of making a specification error with the proposed procedure. Links to other methods based on the application of canonical analysis are discussed. A simulation experiment was done in order to study the performance of the procedure. It is seen that the graphical representation of t?_N, as a function of N, can be very useful in identifying the dynamic structure of ARMA models. Furthermore, for the model considered, the proposed identification procedure performs very well for series of 100 observations or more and reasonably well with short series of 50 observations.     

从二语词汇习得的心理表征与发展看词汇僵化现象的成因

中国英语学习者(并列双语者)二语词汇知识的内部结构由词目和词位组成。二语词汇的心理表征和发展分为三个阶段:形式阶段、母语词目中介阶段和整合阶段。并列双语者在达到第二阶段后出现词汇僵化现象,其主要原因在于母语词目信息占据了二语词目空间,二语词目知识被挡在二语词条知识之外,无法实现全面合理有效的整合。因此,二语词条的发展不能自然地过渡到整合阶段,致使二语词汇知识无法变成词汇能力。解除词汇僵化的有效途径是,在中高级二语学习阶段尽量避免母语中介作用和翻译法,采用语境法习得语义。这样,二语形式与二语语义或概念之间可建立直接紧密的联系,认知型词汇可发展成活用型词汇。     

ESTIMATION OF SPATIAL ARMA MODELS

Spatial ARMA models are considered using the nonsymmetric half plane ordering on a lattice of data. A method is given for the estimation of the orders and the coefficients of such models under an identifiability condition and the condition that the beat linear predictor is the best predictor in the mean square sense. Under these conditions, the strong consistency of the estimators ia established. The usual methods for ARMA modelling in Time Series Analysis require estimation of the innovations. The method of this paper introduces an inveree model complementary to the original model so that the estimation of the innovations is avoided. This leads to a substantial reduction in the computational complexity in the two-dimensional case.     

Some critical aspects of the use of exchangeability in statistics

Summary This expository paper provides a framework for analysing de Finetti's representation theorem for exchangeable finitely additive probabilities. Such an analysis is justified by reasoning of statistical nature, since it is shown that the abandonment of the axiom of σ-additivity has some noteworthy consequences on the common interpretation of the Bayesian paradigm. The usual (strong) fromulation of de Finetti's theorem is deduced from the finitely additive (weak) formulation, and it is used to solve the problem of stating the existence of a stochastic process, with given finite-dimensional probability distributions, whose sample paths are probability distributions. It is of importance, in particular, to specify prior distributions for nonparametric inferential problems in a Bayesian setting. Research partially supported by MPI (40% 1990, Gruppo Nazionale ?Modelli Probabilistici e Statistica Matematica?).     

论徐訏小说中的暗示艺术

徐訏深受中西方文化的影响,善于在小说创作中运用暗示艺术,在其部分小说中的标题设置、人物命名、意象选择、景物描写、细节设置上都有明显的体现。暗示艺术的运用,一方面能使抽象的情感具象化,促进读者与作者之间的交流;另一方面也让徐訏小说呈现出简约含蓄的文体风格。     

The anorexic body: Reading disorders

ABSTRACT

This article examines the feminist interpretation of self-starvation or anorexia nervosa as a pathology brought about by women's consumption of media images of thin femininity. The anorexic subject is presented as a synecdoche for the alienated female body in general; female corporeality is damaged by the consumption of phallocentric representations. This negative view of women's uncritical ‘consumption’ of media texts can be connected to nineteenth-century discussions of the causes of hysteria, revealing a similar pathologization of women's reading practices. An alternative framework for conceptualizing eating disorders is outined. First, closer attention to the biomedical identity construct of anorexia nervosa reveals it to be contested by the very subjects it names. Second, a consideration of the continuum between the disordered practices of self-starvation and weight-loss regimens more generally suggests that both are informed by the biomedical discourse of metabolism, as a framework which inscribes the body as a calculable source of energy. The practices of anorexia nervosa are thus situated within a genealogy of weight-loss regimens which in turn produce narratives about the female body.     

Book Reviews

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