Management and conservation of marine fisheries resources

The present understanding of the term fishery management includes, besides conservation (avoiding over-flshing), other aspects like avoiding under-flshing of stocks, meting out social equity and affording consumer protection, mathematical models developed, based on experience In temperate waters, are of doubtful applicability in the tropical waters. Moreover, in a populous country like India, employment, economic and social aspects are the dominant considerations. In India, while fish production has increased, the unit production of both mechanised and nonmechanised sectors has dropped to about 40%, but the higher price of fish, both In the export and domestic market, is sustaining the fishing industr

Legal Academia and Legal Aid Clinics: The Two Invisible Pillars for Dispute Resolution

Justice delivery in a society depends on its legal framework and the institutional framework through which such justice is delivered. Law Schools through which legal education is delivered play a crucial role in the justice delivery system in a country. In India, different formats of legal educational institutions are found, all of which have their own conception of ‘justice’ and have adopted their own mode of delivering legal education in order to cater to the need of the ‘justice’ delivery system of the country. Two important limps of legal education are the legal academia and the Legal aid clinics. Restriction on engaging these resources for dispute resolution is not only a waste of intellectual resources but also a burden on society. The current paper focuses on different ways to engage the above limps as a catalyst to expedite justice delivery

The Earned Income Tax Credit and Rural Families: Differences between Participants and Non-participants

The differences between rural low-income mothers who were participants and non-participants in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) were examined. One-third of the 224 eligible mothers in a multi-state study did not claim the tax credit. Non-participants were more likely to be Hispanic, less educated, with larger families, borrowing money from family, and living in more rural counties. Participating mothers, on the other hand, were more food secure, perceived their household income as being adequate, reported recent improvements in their economic situation, were satisfied with life, and lived in states with a state EITC. Analysis of qualitative data revealed that rural mothers had many misconceptions about the EITC. These findings contribute to family and economic professionals’ understanding of why rural low-income families do not participate in the tax credit and assist in formulating policies and education/outreach efforts that would increase their participationEITC non-participants, EITC participants, rural low-income mothers, state EITC, rural low-income families

Generalised partially linear regression with misclassified data and an application to labour market transitions

We consider the semiparametric generalised linear regression model which has mainstream empirical models such as the (partially) linear mean regression, logistic and multinomial regression as special cases. As an extension to related literature we allow a misclassified covariate to be interacted with a nonparametric function of a continuous covariate. This model is tailormade to address known data quality issues of administrative labour market data. Using a sample of 20m observations from Germany we estimate the determinants of labour market transitions and illustrate the role of considerable misclassification in the educational status on estimated transition probabilities and marginal effects

Effectiveness of active school transport interventions : a systematic review and update

Background: Active school transport (AST) is a promising strategy to increase children's physical activity. A systematic review published in 2011 found large heterogeneity in the effectiveness of interventions in increasing AST and highlighted several limitations of previous research. We provide a comprehensive update of that review. Methods: Replicating the search of the previous review, we screened the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, Sport Discus and National Transportation Library databases for articles published between February 1, 2010 and October 15, 2016. To be eligible, studies had to focus on school-aged children and adolescents, include an intervention related to school travel, and report a measure of travel behaviors. We assessed quality of individual studies with the Effective Public Health Practice Project quality assessment tool, and overall quality of evidence with the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. We calculated Cohen's d as a measure of effect size. Results: Out of 6318 potentially relevant articles, 27 articles reporting 30 interventions met our inclusion criteria. Thirteen interventions resulted in an increase in AST, 8 found no changes, 4 reported inconsistent results, and 5 did not report inferential statistics. Cohen's d ranged from -0.61 to 0.75, with most studies reporting "trivial-to-small" positive effect sizes. Three studies reported greater increases in AST over longer follow-up periods and two Safe Routes to School studies noted that multi-level interventions were more effective. Study quality was rated as weak for 27/30 interventions (due notably to lack of blinding of outcome assessors, unknown psychometric properties of measurement tools, and limited control for confounders), and overall quality of evidence was rated as low. Evaluations of implementation suggested that interventions were limited by insufficient follow-up duration, incomplete implementation of planned interventions, and limited access to resources for low-income communities. Conclusions: Interventions may increase AST among children; however, there was substantial heterogeneity across studies and quality of evidence remains low. Future studies should include longer follow-ups, use standardized outcome measures (to allow for meta-analyses), and examine potential moderators and mediators of travel behavior change to help refine current interventions. Trial registration: Registered in PROSPERO: CRD4201603325

Perception and correlates of excessive vaginal discharge in rural women

Background: Vaginal discharge is one of the most common symptoms of gynecological morbidity. Vaginitis is the most prevalent cause. Gynecological disorders have substantial impact on female health and behaviour. Recent evidence suggests that the association between the complaint of vaginal discharge and the presence of Reproductive Tract Infections is weak. Women who are overanxious, introspective or suffering from fears of venereal disease and cancer tend to exaggerate the complaint of vaginal discharge into something pathological. The objective of the study was to study rural women’s perception and health care seeking behaviour regarding excessive vaginal discharge. To study various psychological and biological correlates of excessive vaginal dischargeMethods: This was a community based cross sectional study, conducted in the rural field practice areas under the Department of Community Medicine, Christian Medical College, Ludhiana. House to house surveys were conducted with semi-structured questionnaire and GAD 7 (Generalised Anxiety Disorder) scale, using systematic random sampling.Results: 160 rural women were interviewed to collect data. Of them, 27.5% reported having excessive vaginal discharge. There was no association observed between menstrual hygiene methods and excessive vaginal discharge (p= 0.77). Association couldn’t be observed with selection of barrier and other non-barrier methods of contraception (p= 0.09) either. Statistically significant association was observed between presence of anxiety and vaginal discharge (p=0.01).Conclusions: All vaginal discharges are not pathological. Causative factor of excessive vaginal discharge may not be infections always. There was a statistically significant association between anxiety and perceived vaginal discharge

Nipple aspirate cytology and pathologic parameters predict residual cancer and nodal involvement after excisional breast biopsy

We previously demonstrated that abnormal nipple aspirate fluid (NAF) cytology predicted residual breast cancer (RC) and tumour size after excisional biopsy (EB), although normal NAF cytology did not exclude RC. Tumour size correlates with the risk of lymph node (LN) metastases. LN metastases provide prognostic information allowing medical and radiation oncologists to determine the need for adjuvant therapy. We hypothesized that pathologic factors known after EB, combined with NAF cytology, would predict with a high degree of accuracy the presence of RC and LN spread. NAF cytology and pathologic parameters: tumour distance from biopsy margins, multifocal and multicentric disease, sub-type of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or invasive cancer (IC), grade of DCIS or IC, tumour and specimen size, tumour and biopsy cavity location, presence or absence of extensive DCIS, and biopsy scar distance from the nipple were evaluated bivariately and then by logistic regression (LR) for their association with RC and involved LN (≥ 1 (+) LN, useful to determine chemotherapy need, and ≥ 4 (+) LN, useful to determine radiation need to the chest and axilla). Data were analysed using NAF cytology alone, pathologic parameters alone, and NAF cytology and pathologic parameters combined. The combined LR model was superior in predicting residual cancer (94%) to LR models using NAF cytology (36%) or pathologic parameters (75%) alone. When only subjects with normal NAF cytology were evaluated by LR, the model was 92% sensitive in predicting RC. Tumour size and NAF cytology predicted which patients had ≥ 1 (+) LN, whereas tumour and specimen size predicted which patients had ≥ 4 (+) LN. We propose an alogorithm which, if confirmed in a larger study, may allow clinicians to be more selective in their recommendations of re-excision breast biopsy or mastectomy. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

PAC-Bayesian Bounds for Randomized Empirical Risk Minimizers

The aim of this paper is to generalize the PAC-Bayesian theorems proved by Catoni in the classification setting to more general problems of statistical inference. We show how to control the deviations of the risk of randomized estimators. A particular attention is paid to randomized estimators drawn in a small neighborhood of classical estimators, whose study leads to control the risk of the latter. These results allow to bound the risk of very general estimation procedures, as well as to perform model selection

Primary healthcare policy and vision for community pharmacy and pharmacists in Germany.

Germany is the highest populated country in Europe with a population of 82.3 million in 2019. As in many other developed countries, it has an aging population. Approximately 10% of the gross domestic product is spent on healthcare. The healthcare system is characterized by its accessibility. Patients are generally free to choose their primary care physicians, both family doctors and specialists, pharmacy, dentist, or emergency service. Up to a certain income, health insurance is mandatory with the statutory health insurance (SHI) system, covering 88% of the population. Major challenges are the lack of cooperation and integration between the different sectors and healthcare providers. This is expected to change with the introduction of a telematic infrastructure that is currently being implemented. It will not only connect all providers in primary and secondary care in a secure network but will also enable access to patients' electronic record/medical data and at the same time switch from paper to electronic prescriptions. Approximately 52,000 of the 67,000 pharmacists are working in approximately 19,000 community pharmacies. These pharmacies are owner-operated by a pharmacist. Pharmacists may own up to three subsidiaries nearby to their main pharmacy. Community pharmacy practice mainly consists of dispensing drugs, counselling patients on drug therapy and safety, and giving advice on lifestyle and healthy living. Many cognitive pharmaceutical services have been developed and evaluated in the past 20 years. Discussions within the profession and with stakeholders on the national level on the roles and responsibilities of pharmacists have resulted in nationally agreed guidelines, curricula, and services. However, cognitive services remunerated by the SHI funds on the national level remain to be negotiated and sustainably implemented. A law passed in November 2020 by parliament will regulate the remuneration of pharmaceutical services by the SHI funds with an annual budget of EUR 150 million. The type of services and their remuneration remain to be negotiated in 2021. The profession has to continue on all levels to advocate for a change in pharmacy practice by introducing pharmacy services into routine care