Cultural adaptation and validation of the Freiburg Life Quality Assessment - Wound Module to Brazilian Portuguese

Objectives: to adapt the Freiburg Life Quality Assessment - Wound Module to Brazilian Portuguese and to measure its psychometric properties: reliability and validity. Method: the cultural adaptation was undertaken following the stages of translation, synthesis of the translations, back translation, committee of specialists, pre-test and focus group. A total of 200 patients participated in the study. These were recruited in Primary Care Centers, Family Health Strategy Centers, in a philanthropic hospital and in a teaching hospital. Reliability was assessed through internal consistency and stability. Validity was ascertained through the correlation of the instrument's values with those of the domains of the Ferrans and Powers Quality of Life Index - Wound Version and with the quality of life score of the visual analog scale. Results: the instrument presented adequate internal consistency (Cronbach alpha =0.86) and high stability in the test and retest (0.93). The validity presented correlations of moderate and significant magnitude (-0.24 to -0.48, p<0.0001). Conclusion: the results indicated that the adapted version presented reliable and valid psychometric measurements for the population with chronic wounds in the Brazilian culture

Incidência do near miss materno no parto e pós-parto hospitalar: dados da pesquisa Nascer no Brasil

Este estudo avaliou os dados sobre a incidência do near miss materno, identificados segundo os critérios da Organização Mundial da Saúde, na pesquisa Nascer no Brasil. O estudo foi realizado entre fevereiro/2011 e outubro/2012 e os resultados apresentados são estimativas para a população estudada (2.337.476 partos), baseados na amostra de 23.894 puérperas entrevistadas. Os resultados mostraram uma incidência de near miss materno de 10,21 por mil nascidos vivos e uma razão de mortalidade do near miss materno de 30,8 casos para cada morte materna. Os critérios clínicos para identificação do near miss materno foram os mais prevalentes e tiveram incidência de 5,2 por mil nascidos vivos. O near miss materno esteve associado com a idade materna de 35 anos ou mais (RR = 1,6; IC95%: 1,1-2,5), com história de cesariana anterior (RR = 1,9; IC95%: 1,1-3,4) e gestação de risco (RR = 4,5; IC95%: 2,8-7,0). Os hospitais localizados nas capitais (RR = 2,2; IC95%: 1,3-3,8) e os pertencentes ao SUS (RR = 3,2; IC95%: 1,6-6,6) também apresentaram maior incidência de casos de near miss materno. A qualificação dos serviços de assistência ao parto pode ajudar a reduzir a mortalidade materna no Brasil

FinTech revolution: the impact of management information systems upon relative firm value and risk

The FinTech or ‘financial technology’ revolution has been gaining increasing interest as technologies are fundamentally changing the business of financial services. Consequently, financial technology is playing an increasingly important role in providing relative performance growth to firms. It is also well known that such relative performance can be observed through pairs trading investment. Therefore pairs trading have implications for understanding financial technology performance, yet the relationships between relative firm value and financial technology are not well understood. In this paper we investigate the impact of financial technology upon relative firm value in the banking sector. Firstly, using pairs trade data we show that financial technologies reveal differences in relative operational performance of firms, providing insight on the value of financial technologies. Secondly, we find that contribution of relative firm value growth from financial technologies is dependent on the specific business characteristics of the technology, such as the business application and activity type. Finally, we show that financial technologies impact the operational risk of firms and so firms need to take into account both the value and risk benefits in implementing new technological innovations. This paper will be of interest to academics and industry professionals

Unraveling a 146 Years Old Taxonomic Puzzle: Validation of Malabar Snakehead, Species-Status and Its Relevance for Channid Systematics and Evolution

The current distribution of C. diplogramma and C. micropeltes is best explained by vicariance. The significant variation in the key taxonomic characters and the results of the molecular marker analysis points towards an allopatric speciation event or vicariant divergence from a common ancestor, which molecular data suggests to have occurred as early as 21.76 million years ago. The resurrection of C. diplogramma from the synonymy of C. micropeltes has hence been confirmed 146 years after its initial description and 134 years after it was synonymised, establishing it is an endemic species of peninsular India and prioritizing its conservation value