Women in post-trafficking services in moldova: diagnostic interviews over two time periods to assess returning women's mental health

BACKGROUND: Trafficking in women is a widespread human rights violation commonly associated with poor mental health. Yet, to date, no studies have used psychiatric diagnostic assessment to identify common forms of mental distress among survivors returning to their home country. METHODS: A longitudinal study was conducted of women aged 18 and over who returned to Moldova between December 2007 and December 2008 registered by the International Organisation for Migration as a survivor of human trafficking. Psychiatric diagnoses in women at a mean of 6 months after return (range 2-12 months) were made by a trained Moldavian psychiatrist using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, and compared with diagnoses recorded in the same women within 5 days of return. We described the socio-demographic characteristics of the women in the sample including both pre and post-trafficking information. We then described the distribution of mental health diagnoses recorded during the crisis intervention phase (1-5 days after return) and the re-integration phase (2-12 months after return). We compared diagnoses at the patient level between the two time points by tabulating the diagnoses and carrying out a kappa test of agreement and the Stuart-Maxwell test for marginal homogeneity (an extension of the McNemar test to kxk table). RESULTS: 120/176 (68%) eligible women participated. At 2-12 months after their return, 54% met criteria for at least one psychiatric diagnoses comprising post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) alone (16%); co-morbid PTSD (20%); other anxiety or mood disorder (18%). 85% of women who had been diagnosed in the crisis phase with co-morbid PTSD or with another anxiety or mood disorder sustained a diagnosis of any psychiatric disorder when followed up during rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS: Trafficked women returning to their country of origin are likely to suffer serious psychological distress that may endure well beyond the time they return. Women found to have co-morbid PTSD or other forms of anxiety and depression immediately post-return should be offered evidenced-based mental health treatment for at least the standard 12-month period of rehabilitation

Impact of children's migration on health and health care-seeking behavior of elderly left behind

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many countries are facing the burden of accelerated population aging and a lack of institutional support to meet the needs of older individuals. In developing countries, adult children are primarily responsible for the care of their elderly parents. However, out-migration of adult children is common in these countries. This study aims to explore the impact of migration on the health of the elderly left behind and their health care-seeking behavior.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This paper uses data from a national survey of older persons in Thailand conducted in 2007. The analysis is confined to those who were aged 60 years or above and who had at least one child (biological or step/adopted) (n = 28,677). Logistic regression was used to assess the net effect of migration of adult children on the health of the elderly left behind and their health care-seeking behavior, after controlling for other socio-demographic and economic variables.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>More than two-thirds of the elderly (67%) had at least one migrant child. About three-fifths (58%) reported that they had at least one symptom of poor mental health. Almost three in five elderly (56%) rated their health as poor, and 44% had experienced at least one chronic disease. About two-thirds of the elderly (65%) got sick during the 5 years preceding the survey. An overwhelming majority of elderly (88%) who got sick during the five years preceding the survey had sought treatment for their last illness.</p> <p>After controlling for socio-demographic and economic variables, our study found that those elderly who had a migrant child were more likely (OR = 1.10; 95% CI 1.05-1.17) to have symptoms of poor mental health than those whose children had not migrated. However, no significant association was observed among physical health, such as experience of chronic disease, perceived poor health, and illness of the elderly left behind. Interestingly, however, out-migration of adult children was independently associated with higher utilization of health services. The elderly who had migrant children were more likely (odds ratio = 1.22, CI 1.11-1.33) than those whose children had not migrated to seek treatment for their most recent illness, after controlling for socio-demographic and economic variables.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study provides novel evidence on an issue of special importance to countries affected by heavy out-migration of adult children, an issue that has received little attention. Out-migration of adult children was highly associated with poor mental health but it was not associated with the physical health of the elderly left behind. Out-migration of children was also highly associated with higher utilization of health facilities by the elderly. Thus, in order to decrease morbidity among the elderly as well as to maintain and enhance the well-being of families, programs should focus on alleviating the symptoms of poor mental health among the elderly left behind and aim to reduce the differences in utilization of health care-seeking behavior among elderly with children present in the community and elderly left behind.</p

Trend and status of air quality at three different monitoring stations in the Klang Valley, Malaysia

Over the last decades, the development of the Klang Valley (Malaysia), as an urban commercial and industrial area, has elevated the risk of atmospheric pollutions. There are several significant sources of air pollutants which vary depending on the background of the location they originate from. The aim of this study is to determine the trend and status of air quality and their correlation with the meteorological factors at different air quality monitoring stations in the Klang Valley. The data of five major air pollutants (PM10, CO, SO2, O3, NO2) were recorded at the Alam Sekitar Sdn Bhd (ASMA) monitoring stations in the Klang Valley, namely Petaling Jaya (S1), Shah Alam (S2) and Gombak (S3). The data from these three stations were compared with the data recorded at Jerantut, Pahang (B), a background station established by the Malaysian Department of Environment. Results show that the concentrations of CO, NO2 and SO2 are higher at Petaling Jaya (S1) which is due to influence of heavy traffic. The concentrations of PM10 and O3, however, are predominantly related to regional tropical factors, such as the influence of biomass burning and of ultra violet radiation from sunlight. They can, though, also be influenced by local sources. There are relatively stronger inter-pollutant correlations at the stations of Gombak and Shah Alam, and the results also suggest that heavy traffic flow induces high concentrations of PM10, CO, NO2 and SO2 at the three sampling stations. Additionally, meteorological factors, particularly the ambient temperature and wind speed, may influence the concentration of PM10 in the atmosphere

Practical guidelines for rigor and reproducibility in preclinical and clinical studies on cardioprotection

The potential for ischemic preconditioning to reduce infarct size was first recognized more than 30 years ago. Despite extension of the concept to ischemic postconditioning and remote ischemic conditioning and literally thousands of experimental studies in various species and models which identified a multitude of signaling steps, so far there is only a single and very recent study, which has unequivocally translated cardioprotection to improved clinical outcome as the primary endpoint in patients. Many potential reasons for this disappointing lack of clinical translation of cardioprotection have been proposed, including lack of rigor and reproducibility in preclinical studies, and poor design and conduct of clinical trials. There is, however, universal agreement that robust preclinical data are a mandatory prerequisite to initiate a meaningful clinical trial. In this context, it is disconcerting that the CAESAR consortium (Consortium for preclinicAl assESsment of cARdioprotective therapies) in a highly standardized multi-center approach of preclinical studies identified only ischemic preconditioning, but not nitrite or sildenafil, when given as adjunct to reperfusion, to reduce infarct size. However, ischemic preconditioning—due to its very nature—can only be used in elective interventions, and not in acute myocardial infarction. Therefore, better strategies to identify robust and reproducible strategies of cardioprotection, which can subsequently be tested in clinical trials must be developed. We refer to the recent guidelines for experimental models of myocardial ischemia and infarction, and aim to provide now practical guidelines to ensure rigor and reproducibility in preclinical and clinical studies on cardioprotection. In line with the above guideline, we define rigor as standardized state-of-the-art design, conduct and reporting of a study, which is then a prerequisite for reproducibility, i.e. replication of results by another laboratory when performing exactly the same experiment

Master data definition and the privacy classification in government agencies: Case studies of local government

The Master Data Management (MDM) empowers government agencies to consolidate and integrate multiple master data sources to a single source of truth. With MDM, the master data from different agencies that are valuable across agencies, applications and services will be identified and managed in a central repository as a high quality enterprise master data. However, the MDM establishment usually hindered by a data policy where most of the government agencies are reluctant to share their master data due to widespread privacy concerns. Hence, this study aims to define master data and its privacy classification in each government agencies by using a qualitative and quantitative data analysis approach. It involves participative case studies from seven (7) Malaysia’s local government agencies. The study identifies 36 sets of master data which generally grouped into three domains which are; (1) customers’ profile, (2) services and products, and (3) service providers’ profile. From these master datasets, 20 datasets (56%) are classified as open data. The result indicates that the government agency has a high potential to share these open master data to the centralized MDM platform with no worry of the privacy issues. This study presents a significant contribution to the MDM research area by clarifying master data definition and its privacy classification in government agencies

Effects of KMnO4 treatment on the Flexural, Impact, and Thermal properties of sugar palm fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane composites

Global warming has had a great impact on environmental changes since the last decade. Eco-friendly industrial products are of great importance to sustain life on earth, including using natural composites. Natural fibers used as fillers are also environmentally valuable because of their biodegradable nature. However, compatibility issues between the fiber and its respective matrix is a major concern. The present work focused on the study of the flexural, impact, and thermal behaviors of environmentally friendly sugar palm fibers (SPF) incorporated into a composite with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). Two techniques (extrusion and compression molding) were used to prepare these composites. The fiber size and dosage were kept constant at 250 µm and 30 wt.% SPF, respectively. The effects of potassium permanganate (KMnO4) treatment on the flexural, impact, and thermal behaviors of the treated SPF with 6% NaOH-reinforced TPU composites were investigated. Three different concentrations of KMnO4 (0.033%, 0.066%, and 0.125%) were studied for this purpose. The characterization of the flexural and impact properties of the new TPU/SPF composites was studied as per American Society for Testing Materials ASTM standards. Thermogravimetric analysis was employed for thermal behavior analysis of the TPU/SPF composites. The best flexural strength, impact strength, and modulus properties (8.118 MPa, 55.185 kJ/m2, and 262.102 MPa, respectively) were obtained with a 0.033% KMnO4-treated sample. However, all flexural strength, impact strength, and modulus properties for the KMnO4-treated samples were lower than the sample treated only with 6% NaOH. The highest thermal stability was also shown by the sample treated with 0.033% KMnO4. Therefore, this method enhanced the thermal properties of the TPU/SPF composites with clear deterioration of the flexural and impact properties