Psychologists' experiences of working with fear of childbirth: implications and advice for care providers.

Background And Aim: Fear of childbirth is a common problem that affects women's health and wellbeing. A variety of interventions have been used in research and clinical settings, but it remains unclear how interventions should be designed to be as effective and acceptable as possible. Additionally, the experiences of psychologists working to support women fearing childbirth are sparsely documented and therefore unavailable for researchers and clinicians.

Novel pathways linked to the expression of temperament in Merino sheep: a genome-wide association study.

Animal temperament refers to the inherent behavioural and emotional characteristics of an animal, influencing how it interacts with its environment. The selection of sheep for temperament can change the temperament traits of the selected line and improve the welfare and production (reproduction, growth, immunity) of those animals. To understand the genetics that underly variation in temperament in sheep, and how selection on temperament can affect other production traits, a genome-wide association study was carried out.

Genomic Regions Associated with Resistance to Gastrointestinal Parasites in Australian Merino Sheep.

The objective of this study was to identify genomic regions and genes associated with resistance to gastrointestinal nematodes in Australian Merino sheep in Uruguay, using the single-step GWAS methodology (ssGWAS), which is based on genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) obtained from a combination of pedigree, genomic, and phenotypic data. This methodology converts GEBVs into SNP effects. The analysis included 26,638 animals with fecal egg count (FEC) records obtained in two independent parasitic cycles (FEC1 and FEC2) and 1700 50K SNP genotypes.

Virtual reality for postsurgical pain management: An explorative randomized controlled study.

Background: Virtual reality (VR) is a promising tool in a multimodal analgesic approach; however, evidence regarding virtual reality for postsurgical pain is limited. This study investigates the initial effectiveness and feasibility of self-administered virtual reality in postsurgical pain management.

Methods: Patients reporting a postsurgical pain score ≥4 were randomized for control or VR, stratified for 3 interventions with varying levels of immersion and interaction.

Identification of Candidate Genes and Pathways Linked to the Temperament Trait in Sheep.

Temperament can be defined as the emotional variability among animals of the same species in response to the same stimulus, grouping animals by their reactivity as nervous, intermediate, or calm. Our goal was to identify genomic regions with the temperament phenotype measured by the Isolation Box Test (IBT) by single-step genome-wide association studies (ssGWAS). The database consisted of 4317 animals with temperament records, and 1697 genotyped animals with 38,268 effective Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) after quality control.