Ivermectin Treatment and Sanitation Effectively Reduce Strongyloides stercoralis Infection Risk in Rural Communities in Cambodia

BACKGROUND: Strongyloides stercoralis is the only soil-transmitted helminth with the ability to replicate within its host, leading to long-lasting and potentially fatal infections. It is ubiquitous and its worldwide prevalence has recently been estimated to be at least half that of hookworm. Information on the epidemiology of S. stercoralis remains scarce and modalities for its large-scale control are yet to be determined. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A community-based two-year cohort study was conducted among the general population in a rural province in North Cambodia. At each survey, participants infected with S. stercoralis were treated with a single oral dose of ivermectin (200μg/kg BW). Diagnosis was performed using a combination of the Baermann method and Koga agar plate culture on two stool samples. The cohort included participants from eight villages who were either positive or negative for S. stercoralis at baseline. Mixed logistic regression models were employed to assess risk factors for S. stercoralis infection at baseline and re-infection at follow-up. A total of 3,096 participants were examined at baseline, revealing a S. stercoralis prevalence of 33.1%. Of these participants, 1,269 were followed-up over two years. Re-infection and infection rates among positive and negative participants at baseline were 14.4% and 9.6% at the first and 11.0% and 11.5% at the second follow-up, respectively. At follow-up, all age groups were at similar risk of acquiring an infection, while infection risk significantly decreased with increasing village sanitation coverage. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Chemotherapy-based control of S. stercoralis is feasible and highly beneficial, particularly in combination with improved sanitation. The impact of community-based ivermectin treatment on S. stercoralis was high, with over 85% of villagers remaining negative one year after treatment. The integration of S. stercoralis into existing STH control programs should be considered without further delay

THE EFFECT OF DZIKIR CONCERNING TO PAIN LEVEL AFTER SURGICAL OPERATION REDUCTION INTERNAL FIXATION (ORIF)

ABSTRACT Background: Surgical operation of ORIF affect painful which disturb the patient’s comfortable. Dzikir have psychological benefit psichologis which affect comfortable and spiritual feelings focused to Allah, so could give a relaxation effect to percepts pain. Objective: The objectives of this thesis is to find out the effect of dzikir concerning to pain level felt after surgical operation of ORIF in RS Ortopedi Prof. Dr. R. Soeharso Surakarta. Methods: This thesis was done by true eksperimen by applying randomized control group pre-test post-test design method. The number of sample was 44 respondents were obtained by consecutive sampling based on inclusion and exclusion criteria and classified using a simple random sampling to 22 experimental group and 22 control group. Results: The average pain level of the respondents on experimental group after surgical operation of ORIF before gave dzikir was 5.18 and the pain level after dzikir was 4.05. The average pain level pretest of the respondents on control group was 4,82 and pain level of posttest was 4,77. The result of pain level before and after gave dzikir to the experiment groups shows that the significance points 0.001 and 0.317 in the control group. Conclusion: The decrease of pain level in the experimental group were given analgesic therapy and dhikr greater than the control group who were given analgesic therapy. This thesis could be used as reference and consideration for nurse to apply dzikir as a complementary therapy to diminish the pain level to the post-surgical operation patient’s of ORIF. Keyword: Dzikr, Pain, Pasca ORI

An Empirical Investigation of Customer Retention: Addressing Unique Challenges in Customer-Firm Relationships

Effective customer retention is vital to the survival and prosperity of any customer-centric organization. Systematic examination of different aspects of the customer’s relationship with the firm has the potential to provide valuable insights to support retention efforts. However, the nature of the purchasing options and relationship patterns inherent in each industry require managers to shift their focus on varied aspects of the relationship, thus posing unique challenges. One such challenge is examined in the first essay of this dissertation, in a setting where customer-firm relationships are intermittent, with customers being lost to and won back again by the firm. A unifying model for joint estimation of the customers’ second lifetime duration, multiple repeat churn reasons, and heterogeneity in exhibiting a related churn reason is developed to study this relationship. The findings support the existence of a cured group of returning customers, defined as those who are not susceptible to churn due to a repeated reason. Another challenge is examined in the second essay, which involves a setting where the structure of the purchasing options is a combination of contractual and noncontractual services. The complexities and dynamics of the customer-firm relationship and customers’ underlying commitment to it are modeled through a hidden Markov model, incorporating the dependency between the two purchase processes. The findings suggest that contractual and noncontractual purchase behaviors are distinct but interrelated

Semiparametric Estimation in Models of First-Price, Sealed-Bid Auctions with Affiliation

Within the affiliated private-values paradigm, we develop a tractable empirical model of equilibrium behaviour at first-price, sealed-bid auctions. The model is non-parametrically identified, but the rate of convergence in estimation is slow when the number of bidders is even moderately large, so we develop a semiparametric estimation strategy, focusing on the Archimedean family of copulae and implementing this framework using particular members--the Clayton, Frank, and Gumbel copulae. We apply our framework to data from low-price, sealed-bid auctions used by the Michigan Department of Transportation to procure road-resurfacing services, rejecting the hypothesis of independence and finding significant (and high) affiliation in cost signals.first-price, sealed-bid auctions, copulae, affiliation

Statistical Modeling of Data From Smoking Cessation Clinical Trials

In smoking cessation clinical trials, subjects commonly experience a series of lapse and recovery episodes of varying lengths. Any quit episode may become permanent, in the sense that the subject stops smoking for good, and any lapse may also become permanent, in the sense that the subject abandons the quit attempt entirely. Individual quit patterns may reflect the effects of treatment and measured and unmeasured covariates. To describe this complex data structure, we propose a multivariate time-to-event model that i) incorporates alternating recurrent events of two types, each with the possibility of cure , ii) allows for the modifying effects of treatment and covariates, and iii) reflects within-subject correlation via frailties. Specifically, we introduce a novel cure-mixture frailty model in which the cure probability follows a binary regression and the time to event given not cured is determined by a proportional hazard model. We then extend it to data with recurring events of two alternating types, where we assume that each type of event has a gamma frailty, and we link the frailties by means of a Clayton copula. In my first project, I fit this model to data from a smoking cessation drug trial. In my second project, I developed a Bayesian method to predict individual long-term smoking behavior from observed short-term quit/relapse patterns. In my third project, I investigated the theoretical properties of the survival distribution, evidently not previously described, that arises from our cure-mixture frailty model

Health-Promoting Behaviors, Hope, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Persons Impacted by Parkinson’s Disease

Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between hope, health-promoting behaviors, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in persons with Parkinson’s disease.Background: The incidence of Parkinson’s disease is high in Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States. Parkinson’s disease affects motor and non-motor symptoms and has a variety of complications. Parkinson’s disease is related to genetic and environmental factors. HRQOL decreases in Parkinson’s disease; thus, the effect of hope and health-promoting behaviors on health is crucial as the disease advances.Methods: A descriptive correlational design was used to guide the study. A convenience sample of persons with Parkinson’s disease who completed three questionnaires was used to measure health-promoting behaviors and HRQOL while modifying for disease severity.Results: Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine dimensions of hope, healthpromoting behaviors (HPLP), and HRQOL. Confirmatory factor analysis determined goodness of fit for the structure of the study data. The construct reliability of the confirmed factor structure model showed an adequate inter-item consistency (Cronbach’s alpha 0.70, QOL = .792, HPLP = .857, and hope = .844). After meeting the assessment of the reliability test, convergent validity, discriminant validity and confirmation of model fit of the factor model, a summated scale or a composite variable was created. The summated scale variables met five assumptions of the multivariate regression method to assess for appropriateness of method used. Finally, a path analysis was constructed where together hope and HPLP explained about 62% of the variation of scores within the dependent measure in HRQOL. Hope became non-significant statistically, with the inclusion of HPLP. Effects of varying stages of disease severity and its relation to the direct effects of hope and HPLP to the dependent measure in HRQOL was contemplated.Conclusions: This study advances knowledge regarding the relationship between hope, HPLP, and HRQOL in persons with Parkinson’s disease. The increased knowledge raises awareness of the importance of hope and health-promoting behaviors despite various stages of disease severity

Direct-To-Consumer Advertisements and Medical Services Utilization Among Adult Dermatology Patients in the United States

Pharmaceutical product claim and help-seeking advertisements have prompted the types and purposes of medical dermatology service(s) that patients have used in the United States. Indeed, researchers have demonstrated that 94% of working nurse practitioners affirmed receiving from their patients a request for a cancer drug advertised. However, adult dermatology patients members of Saint Nicholas Catholic Church or/and patients at MedStar Clinic in Houston, Texas, have not been of interest for any study so far. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess the relationship between product claim, help-seeking, types, and purposes of medical dermatology services used amongst males and females aged at least 18 years. Prospect theory (PT) was the theoretical framework used to analyze the purpose of this study. A cross-sectional survey approach permitted to collect primary data from 120 participants who were members of Saint Nicholas Catholic Church or/and patients at MedStar Clinic. The results, based on a forced entry multiple regression analysis at 95% confidence interval, indicated that product claim and help-seeking significantly explained (p -?¤ .05) the variances of certain types and purposes of medical dermatology services used. Thus, product claim and help-seeking predicted the types and purposes of medical services used by the study population. Pharmaceutical announcers may benefit from the results of this study by using the study results to create new direct-to-consumers advertisements for the dermatology health promotion. The study population may benefit healthy skin, hairs, and nails by using medical dermatology services after exposure to the new pharmaceutical direct-to-consumer advertisements

STI Knowledge in Berlin Adolescents

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) pose a significant threat to individual and public health. They disproportionately affect adolescents and young adults. In a cross-sectional study, we assessed self-rated and factual STI knowledge in a sample of 9th graders in 13 secondary schools in Berlin, Germany. Differences by age, gender, migrant background, and school type were quantified using bivariate and multivariable analyses. A total of 1177 students in 61 classes participated. The mean age was 14.6 (SD = 0.7), 47.5% were female, and 52.9% had at least one immigrant parent. Knowledge of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was widespread, but other STIs were less known. For example, 46.2% had never heard of chlamydia, 10.8% knew of the HPV vaccination, and only 2.2% were aware that no cure exists for HPV infection. While boys were more likely to describe their knowledge as good, there was no general gender superiority in factual knowledge. Children of immigrants and students in the least academic schools had lower knowledge overall. Our results show that despite their particular risk to contract an STI, adolescents suffer from suboptimal levels of knowledge on STIs beyond HIV. Urgent efforts needed to improve adolescent STI knowledge in order to improve the uptake of primary and secondary prevention

Having a lot of a good thing: multiple important group memberships as a source of self-esteem.

Copyright: © 2015 Jetten et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedMembership in important social groups can promote a positive identity. We propose and test an identity resource model in which personal self-esteem is boosted by membership in additional important social groups. Belonging to multiple important group memberships predicts personal self-esteem in children (Study 1a), older adults (Study 1b), and former residents of a homeless shelter (Study 1c). Study 2 shows that the effects of multiple important group memberships on personal self-esteem are not reducible to number of interpersonal ties. Studies 3a and 3b provide longitudinal evidence that multiple important group memberships predict personal self-esteem over time. Studies 4 and 5 show that collective self-esteem mediates this effect, suggesting that membership in multiple important groups boosts personal self-esteem because people take pride in, and derive meaning from, important group memberships. Discussion focuses on when and why important group memberships act as a social resource that fuels personal self-esteem.This study was supported by 1. Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT110100238) awarded to Jolanda Jetten (see http://www.arc.gov.au) 2. Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP110200437) to Jolanda Jetten and Genevieve Dingle (see http://www.arc.gov.au) 3. support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being Program to Nyla Branscombe, S. Alexander Haslam, and Catherine Haslam (see http://www.cifar.ca)

Quantitative genetics of taura syndrome resistance in pacific white shrimp (penaeus vannamei): a cure model approach

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In aquaculture breeding, resistance against infectious diseases is commonly assessed as time until death under exposure to a pathogen. For some diseases, a fraction of the individuals may appear as "cured" (non-susceptible), and the resulting survival time may thus be a result of two confounded underlying traits, i.e., endurance (individual hazard) and susceptibility (whether at risk or not), which may be accounted for by fitting a cure survival model. We applied a cure model to survival data of Pacific white shrimp (<it>Penaeus vannamei</it>) challenged with the Taura syndrome virus, which is one of the major pathogens of Panaeid shrimp species.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In total, 15,261 individuals of 513 full-sib families from three generations were challenge-tested in 21 separate tests (tanks). All challenge-tests were run until mortality naturally ceased. Time-until-event data were analyzed with a mixed cure survival model using Gibbs sampling, treating susceptibility and endurance as separate genetic traits.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall mortality at the end of test was 28%, while 38% of the population was considered susceptible to the disease. The estimated underlying heritability was high for susceptibility (0.41 ± 0.07), but low for endurance (0.07 ± 0.03). Furthermore, endurance and susceptibility were distinct genetic traits (r_g= 0.22 ± 0.25). Estimated breeding values for endurance and susceptibility were only moderately correlated (0.50), while estimated breeding values from classical models for analysis of challenge-test survival (ignoring the cured fraction) were closely correlated with estimated breeding values for susceptibility, but less correlated with estimated breeding values for endurance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>For Taura syndrome resistance, endurance and susceptibility are apparently distinct genetic traits. However, genetic evaluation of susceptibility based on the cure model showed clear associations with standard genetic evaluations that ignore the cure fraction for these data. Using the current testing design, genetic variation in observed survival time and absolute survival at the end of test were most likely dominated by genetic variation in susceptibility. If the aim is to reduce susceptibility, earlier termination of the challenge-test or back-truncation of the follow-up period should be avoided, as this may shift focus of selection towards endurance rather than susceptibility.</p