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Abstract Background There is increasing evidence that a companionship is an important tool for improving the quality of care provided to pregnant women during the labour and delivery process. The literature review shows very limited studies assessing the role of companions during childbirth from the companion’s point of view. Many published papers studied the role and satisfaction of pregnant women but not their companions. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the role and effect of companions during childbirth in Oman. Methods This cross-sectional observational study was conducted at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Oman, between June 2022 and April 2023. Companions were interviewed face-to-face at a time convenient to them. A telephone interview was conducted with those who left the hospital early. The questionnaire comprised sociodemographic data and other sections, including the nature of the help provided by the supportive companion, their effects on the women who gave birth, and the timing of their presence during companionship. Results A total of 214 companions were included in this study with the mean age of 42.54 years. The most common relationship to the pregnant women was mothers (35.7%), followed by husbands (30.5%). The majority of companions provided support during admission (62.6%), in the immediate post-partum ward (56.5%) and during delivery (54.2%), while a minority helped from admission to discharge (22.4%). The most common type of support provided was encouraging words (89.7%) followed by transferring things (43.9%), massage (37.4%) and touch (33.6%). The majority of companions (96.7%) reported that their support helped very much, and the pregnant women felt better and calmer. Conclusions Labouring women felt better and calmer because of the presence of companions. Companions preferred to be present in the postpartum and during labour and delivery. The majority of companions support their labouring women by encouraging wards. Companions love and encourage others to support their labouring women during their critical times.

The article provides an analysis of interaction of the principle of sustainability and environmental protection in the case law of the Constitutional Court. The principle of sustainability in Latvian constitutional law is a quite new one. Still, it is applied by the Constitutional Court reviewing different cases. It is included also in the written text of the Constitution and all development of the state is focused on sustainability. As environmental protection is the core of this principle, the Constitutional Court has applied it by solving different environmental issues. The article points out also the content of environmental constitutionalism. Namely, in Latvia, it is implemented also as a specific fundamental right to live in a benevolent environment. Legal remedies such as those before the administrative court and the Constitutional Court are analysed which can be used to protect violated fundamental rights. To get insight into the case law of the Constitutional Court, three different issues are explained. First, the importance of agricultural land and its cultivation and protection by achieving the idea of sustainability is given. Then the author explains the main arguments of the application of this principle in spatial planning. In the end, sustainable energy cases where sustainability is applied lead to conclusions about the future and importance of renewable sources.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a core feature of today’s real-world applications, making it a trending topic within the software engineering (SE) community. The rise in the availability of AI techniques encompasses the capability to make rapid, automated, impactful decisions and predictions, leading to the adoption of AI techniques in SE. With industry revolution 4.0, the role of software engineering has become critical for developing productive, efficient, and quality software. Thus, there is a major need for AI techniques to be applied to enhance and improve the critical activities within the software engineering phases. Software is developed through intelligent software engineering phases. This paper concerns a systematic mapping study that aimed to characterize the publication landscape of AI techniques in software engineering. Gaps are identified and discussed by mapping these AI techniques against the SE phases to which they contributed. Many systematic mapping review papers have been produced only for a specific AI technique or a specific SE phase or activity. Hence, to our best of knowledge within the last decade, there is no systematic mapping review that has fully explored the overall trends in AI techniques and their application to all SE phases.

Ample evidence in the literature emphasizes using socio-technical congruence (STC) to address coordination issues in distributed software development. The recent decades have shown a progressive growth in STC, resulting in an increasing number of research studies in the scientific corpora. However, no existing study has systematically analyzed and illustrated the research patterns, latest trends, and evolution in STC. This study aims to explore the knowledge structure and create evolutionary trajectories from STC publications. To achieve this aim, a scientometric analysis is performed that combined a critical literature review (CLR) of STC-related published research in the Web of Science and Scopus databases from 2000 to 2020. The scientometric analysis is conducted through four scientometric techniques: 1) co-word network analysis; 2) co-author network analysis; 3) co-citation analysis; 4) document clustering with timeline analysis. The study outcomes will help understand and visualize STC’s research status quo. CLR is objectively conducted to recognize the latest research topics, themes, and salient features of STC research in software development. A total of 306 bibliographic data are analyzed to generate study-related networks and density visualizations. The results reveal an evolution in the STC field from its conception to the recent developments of STC models and other related factors. This study primarily contributes to the literature by providing a systematic view related to STC research to assist software practitioners in identifying applications and key research areas. Moreover, the combination of scientometric analysis and CLR reveals key researchers, journals and conferences, institutions, prominent contributing countries, and six major research themes, including “community structure” and “socio-technical congruence” as the most prominent ones.

The intricate network of protein-chaperone interactions is crucial for maintaining cellular function. Recent discoveries have unveiled the existence of specialized chaperone assemblies, known as epichaperomes, which serve as scaffolding platforms that orchestrate the reconfiguration of protein-protein interaction networks, thereby enhancing cellular adaptability and proliferation. This study explores the structural and regulatory aspects of epichaperomes, with a particular focus on the role of post-translational modifications (PTMs) in their formation and function. A key finding is the identification of specific PTMs on HSP90, particularly at residues Ser226 and Ser255 within an intrinsically disordered region, as critical determinants of epichaperome assembly. Our data demonstrate that phosphorylation of these serine residues enhances HSP90s interactions with other chaperones and co-chaperones, creating a microenvironment conducive to epichaperome formation. Moreover, we establish a direct link between epichaperome function and cellular physiology, particularly in contexts where robust proliferation and adaptive behavior are essential, such as in cancer and pluripotent stem cell maintenance. These findings not only provide mechanistic insights but also hold promise for the development of novel therapeutic strategies targeting chaperone assemblies in diseases characterized by epichaperome dysregulation, thereby bridging the gap between fundamental research and precision medicine.

Far-edge analytics refers to the enablement of data mining algorithms in far-edge mobile devices that are part of mobile edge cloud computing (MECC) systems. Far-edge analytics enables data reduction in mobile environments, hence reducing the data transfer rate and bandwidth utilization cost for mobile-edge communication. In addition, far-edge analytics facilitates local knowledge availability to enable personalized mobile data stream mining applications. Existing literature mainly addresses classification and clustering problems in far-edge mobile devices, but the problem of frequent pattern mining (FPM) remains unexplored. This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the performance profiling of frequent pattern mining algorithms. We developed a real mobile application for performance analysis and profiling of 21 FPM algorithms with various real data sets in terms of execution time, storage complexity, sparsity, density, and data set size. According to the experimental results, large-sized data sets with high sparsity increase computational and storage cost in far-edge mobile devices. To address these issues, we propose a framework and discuss the relevant research challenges for seamless execution of FPM algorithms in MECC systems.

PURPOSE Gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) is safe overall, with few adverse effects. One potential effect from using testosterone for GAHT is an increase in hemoglobin and/or hematocrit, known as secondary erythrocytosis. Current guidelines recommend monitoring hemoglobin or hematocrit routinely in the first year, some as frequently as every 3 months, which can create barriers to care. Our study explored the incidence of erythrocytosis in the first 20 months of testosterone therapy among people receiving gender-affirming care. METHODS This is a descriptive fixed cohort study of hematocrit and hemoglobin data from the charts of 282 people taking testosterone for GAHT. RESULTS During the first 20 months of testosterone therapy, the cumulative incidence of hematocrit >50.4% was 12.6%, hematocrit >52% was 1.0%, and hematocrit >54% was 0.6%. All people were taking injectable testosterone cypionate, with a median dose of 100 mg weekly. CONCLUSION Severe erythrocytosis (hematocrit >54%) is a rare outcome of gender-affirming testosterone therapy. Clinical recommendations should reconsider the need for routine frequent erythrocytosis screening within the first year of testosterone therapy for patients who prefer to minimize laboratory draws. Key words: transgender; gender affirming care; gender affirming hormone therapy; guideline; erythrocytosis; testosterone, INTRODUCTION Gender-affirming health care includes hormone therapy, surgery, voice training, and additional inclusive medical and social services provided to transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals, including people who identify as [...]

In this study, we investigated crosslinguistic influence (CLI) at developmental stages of third language (L3) acquisition of English by Russian--Norwegian children (N = 31). We tested seven linguistic properties within three linguistic modules (morphology, syntax and syntax-semantics). We compared the L3 learners to Norwegian (N = 90) and Russian (N = 74) second language (L2) learners of English. We predicted simultaneous facilitative and non-facilitative CLI in the L3 group within all modules, as the previously acquired languages offered conflicting options. Our predictions were partly supported. On one property, the L3 learners were different from both L2 groups, which is in line with cumulative CLI from both previously acquired languages. On four conditions, the L3 learners performed like the more accurate L2 group, indicating facilitative influence. On two conditions, all groups performed alike, showing high rates of accuracy. Taken together, the results indicate that CLI obtains on a property-by-property basis, with none of the L1s being the sole or primary source of CLI. Finally, we found CLI in all linguistic domains, but the developmental slopes for the properties were not equal, which suggests that factors such as complexity and saliency needs to be taken into account when we compare CLI.