| 1. |
- Schweiker, Marcel, et al.
(author)
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The Scales Project, a cross-national dataset on the interpretation of thermal perception scales
- 2019
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In: Scientific data. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2052-4463. ; 6:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Thermal discomfort is one of the main triggers for occupants' interactions with components of the built environment such as adjustments of thermostats and/or opening windows and strongly related to the energy use in buildings. Understanding causes for thermal (dis-)comfort is crucial for design and operation of any type of building. The assessment of human thermal perception through rating scales, for example in post-occupancy studies, has been applied for several decades; however, long-existing assumptions related to these rating scales had been questioned by several researchers. The aim of this study was to gain deeper knowledge on contextual influences on the interpretation of thermal perception scales and their verbal anchors by survey participants. A questionnaire was designed and consequently applied in 21 language versions. These surveys were conducted in 57 cities in 30 countries resulting in a dataset containing responses from 8225 participants. The database offers potential for further analysis in the areas of building design and operation, psycho-physical relationships between human perception and the built environment, and linguistic analyses.
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| 2. |
- Abbaspoor, Zahra, et al.
(author)
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Translation and cultural adaptation of the Childbirth Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) in Iran
- 2019
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In: Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research. - 1735-9066 .- 2228-5504. ; 24:4, s. 296-300
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- © 2019 Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow. A standardized method to measure and quantify women's birth experiences is required to study satisfaction of childbirth care. Therefore, this study aimed to translate and culturally adapt the Childbirth Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) for use in Iran. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study including 203 women who attended 2 hospitals and 2 health centers and met the inclusion criteria in Ahvaz city, between February 2013 and June 2014. After forward and backward translation of the Swedish CEQ into Persian language, content validity was assessed by an expert panel. Scale reliability (internal consistency and test-retest reliability) was assessed with respect to the psychometric properties of the scale. Results: Minor cultural differences were identified and resolved during the translation process. One item was excluded. The intraclass correlation coefficient ranging from 0.63 to 0.90 was satisfactory. Conclusions: The Persian version of the CEQ appears to be valid and reliable; hence, it can be an effective tool in designing childbirth experience interventions and also childbirth care and education interventions for the promotion of positive childbirth experience in Iranian women.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Ahmadi, Zahra, 1966-
(author)
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Moderating effects on the market orientation and strategic performance relationship in public housing
- 2019
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In: Baltic Journal of Management. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1746-5265 .- 1746-5273. ; 14:4, s. 559-577
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine how external factors moderate public housing companies’ market orientation and strategic performance relationship.Design/methodology/approach – The quantitative method was applied to data from a survey sent to 289 public housing companies in Sweden. A hierarchical, multicollinearity diagnostics–moderated regression analysis is used to test the research hypotheses.Findings – The results reveal moderating factors. The companies take several initiatives to inform themselves about customers’ needs and distribute the information within the company, but economic conditions, as well as market and technological turbulence in the municipalities, moderate the relationship between market orientation and strategic performance. Economic conditions make it difficult for public housing companies to strategically act based on market needs when making decisions and planning construction strategies (strategic performance).Research limitations/implications – This study is limited by focusing on public housing companies, a sector that differs radically from the open market. The study highlights the effects of moderating factors that are important for companies’ strategic performance and long-term construction strategies. From this limited focus, researchers might use the results to compare both similar and different market situations.Practical implications – The results of the study are useful for companies facing a similar market situation of external moderating constraints. The result might be used in future research related to the area in focus.Originality –This research adds new knowledge to market research by including the impact of economic conditions, which provide insight into how to develop and use market knowledge in real estate and public housing markets.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Alimoradi, Zainab, et al.
(author)
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Internet addiction and sleep problems : A systematic review and meta-analysis
- 2019
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In: Sleep Medicine Reviews. - : Elsevier. - 1087-0792 .- 1532-2955. ; 47, s. 51-61
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The pathological use of the internet – conceptualized as ‘internet addiction’ – might be crucial in initiating and increasing sleep disturbances in the community. While inconsistent evidence is reported regarding the association of internet addiction and sleep disturbances, the severity of this association remains unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to increase our understanding of the relationship between internet addiction and sleep disturbances. A systematic review was conducted through Scopus, PubMed Central, ProQuest, ISI Web of Knowledge, and EMBASE using keywords related to internet addiction and sleep problems. Observational studies (cohort, case-control or cross-sectional studies) focusing on association between internet addiction and sleep disturbances including sleep problems and sleep duration were selected. A meta-analysis using random-effect model was conducted to calculate the odds ratio (OR) for experiencing sleep problems and standardized mean differences (SMDs) for sleep duration. Eligible studies (N = 23) included 35,684 participants. The overall pooled OR of having sleep problems if addicted to the internet was 2.20 (95% CI: 1.77–2.74). Additionally, the overall pooled SMDs for sleep duration for the IA group compared to normal internet users was −0.24 (95% CI: −0.38, −0.10). Results of the meta-analysis revealed a significant OR for sleep problems and a significant reduced sleep duration among individuals addicted to the internet.
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| 7. |
- Andersson Evelönn, Emma, 1983-, et al.
(author)
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DNA methylation associates with survival in non-metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma
- 2019
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In: BMC Cancer. - : BioMed Central. - 1471-2407. ; 19
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common subtype among renal cancer and is associated with poor prognosis if metastasized. Up to one third of patients with local disease at diagnosis will develop metastasis after nephrectomy, and there is a need for new molecular markers to identify patients with high risk of tumor progression. In the present study, we performed genome-wide promoter DNA methylation analysis at diagnosis to identify DNA methylation profiles associated with risk for progress.Method: Diagnostic tissue samples from 115 ccRCC patients were analysed by Illumina HumanMethylation450K arrays and methylation status of 155,931 promoter associated CpGs were related to genetic aberrations, gene expression and clinicopathological parameters.Results: The ccRCC samples separated into two clusters (cluster A/B) based on genome-wide promoter methylation status. The samples in these clusters differed in tumor diameter (p < 0.001), TNM stage (p < 0.001), morphological grade (p < 0.001), and patients outcome (5 year cancer specific survival (pCSS5yr) p < 0.001 and cumulative incidence of progress (pCIP5yr) p < 0.001. An integrated genomic and epigenomic analysis in the ccRCCs, revealed significant correlations between the total number of genetic aberrations and total number of hypermethylated CpGs (R = 0.435, p < 0.001), and predicted mitotic age (R = 0.407, p < 0.001). We identified a promoter methylation classifier (PMC) panel consisting of 172 differently methylated CpGs accompanying progress of disease. Classifying non-metastatic patients using the PMC panel showed that PMC high tumors had a worse prognosis compared with the PMC low tumors (pCIP5yr 38% vs. 8%, p = 0.001), which was confirmed in non-metastatic ccRCCs in the publically available TCGA-KIRC dataset (pCIP5yr 39% vs. 16%, p < 0.001).Conclusion: DNA methylation analysis at diagnosis in ccRCC has the potential to improve outcome-prediction in non-metastatic patients at diagnosis.
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| 8. |
- Arabameri, Alireza, et al.
(author)
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A comparison of statistical methods and multi-criteria decision making to map flood hazard susceptibility in Northern Iran
- 2019
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In: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 660, s. 443-458
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In north of Iran, flood is one of the most important natural hazards that annually inflict great economic damages on humankind infrastructures and natural ecosystems. The Kiasar watershed is known as one of the critical areas in north of Iran, due to numerous floods and waste of water and soil resources, as well as related economic and ecological losses. However, a comprehensive and systematic research to identify flood-prone areas, which may help to establish management and conservation measures, has not been carried out yet. Therefore, this study tested four methods: evidential belief function (EBF), frequency ratio (FR), Technique for Order Preference by Similarity To ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Vlse Kriterijumsk Optimizacija Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) for flood hazard susceptibility mapping (FHSM) in this area. These were combined in two methodological frameworks involving statistical and multi-criteria decision making approaches. The efficiency of statistical and multi-criteria methods in FHSM were compared by using area under receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve, seed cell area index and frequency ratio. A database containing flood inventory maps and flood-related conditioning factors was established for this watershed. The flood inventory maps produced included 132 flood conditions, which were randomly classified into two groups, for training (70%) and validation (30%). Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) indicated that slope, distance to stream and land use/land cover are of key importance in flood occurrence in the study catchment. In validation results, the EBF model had a better prediction rate (0.987) and success rate (0.946) than FR, TOPSIS and VIKOR (prediction rate 0.917, 0.888, and 0.810; success rate 0.939, 0.904, and 0.735, respectively). Based on their frequency ratio and seed cell area index values, all models except VIKOR showed acceptable accuracy of classification.
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| 9. |
- Blösch, Günter, et al.
(author)
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Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) - a community perspective
- 2019
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In: Hydrological Sciences Journal. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0262-6667 .- 2150-3435. ; 64:10, s. 1141-1158
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper is the outcome of a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts. The procedure involved a public consultation through online media, followed by two workshops through which a large number of potential science questions were collated, prioritised, and synthesised. In spite of the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work. Questions remain focused on the process-based understanding of hydrological variability and causality at all space and time scales. Increased attention to environmental change drives a new emphasis on understanding how change propagates across interfaces within the hydrological system and across disciplinary boundaries. In particular, the expansion of the human footprint raises a new set of questions related to human interactions with nature and water cycle feedbacks in the context of complex water management problems. We hope that this reflection and synthesis of the 23 unsolved problems in hydrology will help guide research efforts for some years to come.
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| 10. |
- Bring, Arvid, et al.
(author)
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Contrasting Hydroclimatic Model-Data Agreements Over the Nordic-Arctic Region
- 2019
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In: Earth's Future. - : John Wiley and Sons Inc. - 2328-4277. ; 7:12, s. 1270-1282
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Rapid changes in high-latitude hydroclimate have important implications for human societies and environment. Previous studies of different regions have indicated better agreement between climate model results and observation data for the thermodynamic variable of surface air temperature (T) than for the water variables of precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), and runoff (R). Here we compare climate model output with observations for 64 Nordic and Arctic hydrological basins of different sizes, and for the whole region combined. We find an unexpectedly high agreement between models and observations for R, about as high as the model-observation agreement for T and distinctly higher than that for P or ET. Model-observation agreement for R and T is also consistently higher on the whole-region scale than individual basin scales. In contrast, model-observation agreement for P and ET is overall lower, and for some error measures also lower for the whole region than for individual basins of various scales. Region-specific soil freeze-thaw bias of climate models can at least partly explain the low model-observation agreement for P and ET, while leaving modeled R relatively unaffected. Thereby, model projections for this region may be similarly reliable and directly useful for large-scale average conditions of R as of T.
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