A study of the experience of Norwegian IVF physicians in evaluating the parenting capacity of patients.

Research Question: How do Norwegian fertility doctors assess the parenting capacity of applicants, and how do they experience and evaluate the assessment practice?

Design: Qualitative interview study with 14 Norwegian fertility doctors. Interviews were analysed with systematic text condensation, a qualitative analysis framework.

Results: Norwegian fertility doctors deem parenting capacity assessments of applicants to be straightforward and simple in most cases.

Does egg carotenoid improve larval quality in Arctic charr ()?

Females in mutually ornamented species are often less conspicuously ornamented than their male conspecifics. It has been hypothesized that offspring quality may decrease if females invest more resources into ornaments at the expense of resources in eggs. An experiment was carried out to test whether natural variation in carotenoid in the eggs from a wild population of Arctic charr () was associated with survival and growth of their offspring until hatching.

Cannibalism and protective behavior of eggs in Arctic charr ().

From video recordings of spawning events, we quantified protective and cannibalistic behavior of Arctic charr occurring immediately after spawning. The number of fish cannibalizing on stray eggs was examined regarding (a) whether more than one male shed milt during the spawning event, that is, whether sperm competition occurred, (b) whether the sperm competition included few or many males, that is, the intensity of sperm competition, and (c) the density of fish at the spawning site. Response behavior toward egg cannibalism was also examined among females and dominant males in order to determine any parental investment toward protecting the eggs after spawning.

Carotenoids-based reddish pelvic spines in nonreproducing female and male sticklebacks () - Signalling social dominance?

Conspicuous ornaments are often considered a result of evolution by sexual selection. According to the social selection hypothesis, such conspicuous traits may also evolve as badges of status associated with increased boldness or aggression toward conspecifics in conflicts about ecological resources. This study tested predictions from the social selection hypothesis to explain evolution of conspicuous red color of the pelvic spines of the three-spine stickleback ().

Fine mapping of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) suggests involvement of both HLA class I and class II loci.

The etiology of myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is unknown, but involvement of the immune system is one of the proposed underlying mechanisms. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) associations are hallmarks of immune-mediated and autoimmune diseases. We have previously performed high resolution HLA genotyping and detected associations between ME/CFS and certain HLA class I and class II alleles.

MP44-09 UNDERSTANDING PRUNE BELLY SYNDROME AT SINGLE CELL RESOLUTION.

Introduction And Objective: Prune Belly Syndrome (PBS) is characterized by bladder dysmyogenesis, yielding a dysfunctional compliant thick wall with excess collagen deposition. To dissect the cellular heterogeneity and gene expression networks altered in PBS, we report the cell type composition and transcriptional activity of PBS human bladder by using single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq).

Methods: Using IRB-approved methods, bladder dome from 2 PBS and 6 non-PBS control (CO) males underwent fresh single-cell digestion.

Joint DNA-based disaster victim identification.

We address computational and statistical aspects of DNA-based identification of victims in the aftermath of disasters. Current methods and software for such identification typically consider each victim individually, leading to suboptimal power of identification and potential inconsistencies in the statistical summary of the evidence. We resolve these problems by performing joint identification of all victims, using the complete genetic data set.

Making decisions in missing person identification cases with low statistical power.

The present work proposes a general strategy for dealing with missing person identification cases through DNA-database search. Our main example is the identification of abducted children in the last civic-dictatorship of Argentina, known as the "Missing Grandchildren of Argentina". Particularly we focus on those pedigrees where few, or only distant relatives of the missing person are available, resulting in low statistical power.

Does prolonged labor affect the birth experience and subsequent wish for cesarean section among first-time mothers? A quantitative and qualitative analysis of a survey from Norway.

Background: Prolonged labor might contribute to a negative birth experience and influence first-time mothers' attitudes towards future pregnancies. Previous studies have not adjusted for possible confounding factors, such as operative delivery, induction and postpartum hemorrhage. We aimed to determine the impact of prolonged labor on birth experience and a wish for cesarean section in subsequent pregnancies.

Pairwise relatedness testing in the context of inbreeding: expectation and variance of the likelihood ratio.

In this paper we investigate various effects of inbreeding on the likelihood ratio (LR) in forensic kinship testing. The basic setup of such testing involves formulating two competing hypotheses, in the form of pedigrees, describing the relationship between the individuals. The likelihood of each hypothesis is computed given the available genetic data, and a conclusion is reached if the ratio of these exceeds some pre-determined threshold.

"Let's Get Out of Here!": Cognitive Motivation and Maximizing Help Teams Solving an Escape Room.

Contemporary teams often face complex problem-solving tasks. We theorized that two individual differences previously neglected in team research (cognitive motivation and maximizing) would be helpful for teams facing such situations. We tested this assertion on 81 teams participating in an escape-room simulation in which teams were locked into a pre-arranged room and had to solve various complex problems to escape the room as quickly as possible.

Prioritising family members for genotyping in missing person cases: A general approach combining the statistical power of exclusion and inclusion.

Missing person identification typically involves genetic matching of a person of interest against relatives of the missing person. In cases with few available relatives, exhumations or other substantial efforts may be necessary in order to secure adequate statistical power. We propose a simulation approach for solving prioritisation problems arising in such cases.

Human Leukocyte Antigen alleles associated with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).

The etiology and pathogenesis of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) are unknown, and autoimmunity is one of many proposed underlying mechanisms. Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) associations are hallmarks of autoimmune disease, and have not been thoroughly investigated in a large ME/CFS patient cohort. We performed high resolution HLA -A, -B, -C, -DRB1, -DQB1 and -DPB1 genotyping by next generation sequencing in 426 adult, Norwegian ME/CFS patients, diagnosed according to the Canadian Consensus Criteria.

The CD34 Cell Dose Matters in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation with Peripheral Blood Stem Cells from Sibling Donors.

The effect of CD34 cell dose in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) on overall survival (OS) and incidence of acute and chronic graft--host disease (GvHD) has not been established and few studies have been performed. Our single center analysis included 189 patients with hematological malignancies who received peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) grafts from sibling donors. Myeloablative conditioning was used in 88 cases and 101 received reduced intensity conditioning.

Fish sperm competition in hatcheries and between wild and hatchery origin fish in nature.

Males compete pre- and post-mating to fertilize the maximum number of eggs. In polyandry, sperm competition occurs when sperm from two or more males compete to fertilize eggs from a female. Here we review how sperm competition from hatchery origin fish can cause loss of genetic variability in fish populations kept in captivity and in wild populations.

Current use of biosimilar G-CSF for haematopoietic stem cell mobilisation.

Despite biosimilars of the granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) filgrastim being approved by the European Medicines Agency since 2008, there is still some debate regarding their use in related and unrelated healthy haematopoietic stem cell donors. We present a review of published experiences using biosimilar filgrastim for healthy donor mobilisation as well as the results of a survey by the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) of its current use by register-associated transplant and collection centres for both related and unrelated donors. A total of 1287 healthy donors and volunteers are included in the reviewed studies.

Spawning behavior of Arctic charr (): Spawning synchrony, vibrational communication, and mate guarding.

A mismatch in synchrony between male and female gamete release in external fertilizers can result in reduced or failed fertilization, sperm competition, and reduced paternity. In Arctic charr (), males can adopt either a guard or sneak tactic resulting in both pre- and postcopulatory competition between males with alternative reproduction tactics. Here, spawning behavior of free-living Arctic charr was video-recorded, and their reproductive behavior was analyzed.

Advancing estimation of chronological age by utilizing available evidence based on two radiographical methods.

This paper describes a strategy for estimating chronological age of individuals based on age indicators of X-ray of the hand and the third molar tooth. The great majority of studies in the field provide group-wise data of different formats, which makes them difficult to compare and utilize in a model. In this paper, we have provided a framework to utilize different types of data formats to build a common model for estimating chronological age.

HLA -A, -C, -B, -DRB1, -DQB1 and -DPB1 allele and haplotype frequencies in 4514 healthy Norwegians.

We report HLA-A, -C, -B, -DRB1, -DQB1 and -DPB1 allele frequencies and estimated haplotype frequencies from 4514 healthy Norwegians who volunteered to participate in the Norwegian Bone Marrow Donor Registry. HLA genotyping was conducted on a Next Generation Sequencing platform. Data were analyzed using Arlequin and Pypop software.

The failing measurement of attitudes: How semantic determinants of individual survey responses come to replace measures of attitude strength.

The traditional understanding of data from Likert scales is that the quantifications involved result from measures of attitude strength. Applying a recently proposed semantic theory of survey response, we claim that survey responses tap two different sources: a mixture of attitudes plus the semantic structure of the survey. Exploring the degree to which individual responses are influenced by semantics, we hypothesized that in many cases, information about attitude strength is actually filtered out as noise in the commonly used correlation matrix.