Intimate Partner Violence and Pregnancy Termination in Armenia: Evidence from Nationally-Representative Survey Data

Intimate partner violence has been associated with numerous consequences for women, including pregnancy termination. This study examined the association between predictive capacity of intimate partner violence and pregnancy termination among women in Armenia. The study analyzed the 2015–16 Armenia Demographic and Health Survey (ADHS) data on women aged 15–49 (Mean: 31.49; Standard Deviation, SD: 9.51). Marital control exercised by husbands, ever experienced physical violence, sexual violence, and emotional violence by husbands were the four indicators of intimate partner violence used in this study. To assess the association between intimate partner violence and pregnancy termination, a binary logistic regression model was fitted. After controlling for confounders, we found that women whose husbands exercised marital control were 26% more likely to experience pregnancy termination, compared to women whose husbands did not exercise marital control (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 1.26, 95% Confidence interval (CI): 1.03–1.53). Women who ever experienced sexual violence were about 10 times likely to experience pregnancy termination than women who did not experience sexual violence (aOR: 9.76, 95% CI: 1.91–49.96). Both ever experienced physical violence and emotional violence did not have any significant associations with pregnancy termination. Forms of intimate partner violence are associated with pregnancy termination. The findings of this study provide evidence for government and policymakers to formulate, modify, and implement policies and program that target both men and women regarding the prevailing intimate partner violence and its consequences. Strengthening the policy implementation will ensure that women are empowered to make decisions about their reproductive health. Making husbands and their family members aware of the basics and consequences of intimate partner violence and focusing on child cognitive development which can be hampered due to the prevalence violence in families are recommended

Assessment of Food Safety Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Food Service Staff in Bangladeshi Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices among hospital food service staff are crucial in the prevention of foodborne disease outbreaks, as hospitalized patients are more vulnerable to potential hazards. This study, therefore, sought to assess the food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of food service staff in Bangladeshi hospitals. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 191 food service staff from seven different hospitals in Dhaka and Chattogram from October 2021 to March 2022 using pretested questionnaires. Multiple linear regression was used to identify the factors associated with the food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices. The findings showed moderate knowledge but high levels of attitudes and practices of food safety among hospital food handlers. Food safety knowledge was significantly higher among males, participants from private hospitals and participants working in a hospital that had a food service supervisor and dietitian in charge of food service operations. Moreover, participants from private hospitals and participants working in a hospital that had a food service supervisor and dietitian in charge of food service operations had more positive attitudes and better practices regarding food safety. Hospital management should consider these factors for enhancing food handlers' knowledge and increase training and supervision on food safety practices to reduce foodborne diseases and outbreaks

A randomized trial of symptom-based management in Japanese patients with COPD.

Background: The Global initiative for chronic Obstructive Lung Disease strategy document for COPD recommends treatment changes according to the persistence of symptoms or exacerbations. This study assessed the feasibility and outcomes of a structured step-up/step-down treatment approach in a randomized controlled clinical trial setting. Methods: Japanese patients with moderate-to-severe COPD were randomized to blinded, double-dummy treatment with twice-daily fluticasone propionate/salmeterol (FP/SAL) 250/50 µg or once-daily tiotropium bromide (TIO) 18 µg for 24 weeks (dual bronchodilator was not available). At 4-weekly intervals, patients remaining symptomatic (COPD Assessment Test score >10) or experiencing an exacerbation were offered the option to use triple therapy. Primary endpoint was the proportion of patients remaining on randomized therapy. Results: In total, 406 patients participated (mean FEV1 59%±13% predicted; COPD Assessment Test 12±6). Of these, 204 and 201 patients were included in the FP/SAL and TIO groups, respectively, of whom 67% and 63% continued treatment throughout the study; this difference was not statistically significant. Time to first therapy switch was longer with FP/SAL, but not significantly (P=0.21). More patients in Global initiative for chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (2011 criteria) groups C/D switched (FP/SAL 55%, TIO 63%) than in groups A/B (FP/SAL 27%, TIO 27%). Conclusion: Given the choice, patients with more symptoms or those experiencing an exacerbation will agree to step-up therapy. Effectiveness of disease management pathways can be tested using double-blind studies

High-performance predictor for critical unstable generators based on scalable parallelized neural networks

A high-performance predictor for critical unstable generators (CUGs) of power systems is presented in this paper. The predictor is driven by the MapReduce based parallelized neural networks. Specifically, a group of back propagation neural networks (BPNNs), fed by massive response trajectories data, are efficiently organized and concurrently trained in Hadoop to identify dynamic behaviour of individual generator. Rather than simply classifying global stability of power systems, the presented approach is able to distinguish unstable generators accurately with a few cycles of synchronized trajectories after fault clearing, enabling more in-depth emergency awareness based on wide-area implementation. In addition, the technique is of rich scalability due to Hadoop framework, which can be deployed in the control centers as a high-performance computing infrastructure for real-time instability alert. Numerical examples are studied using NPCC 48 machines test system and a realistic power system of China

Extra-osseous osteochondroma-like soft tissue mass of the patello-femoral space

BACKGROUND: Extraskeletal cartilaginous tumors are uncommon. Osteochondromas usually arise from the metaphyseal region of the growing skeleton. CASE PRESENTATION: A 53 year old man presented with a three years history of anterior knee pain and inability to flex his knee more than 90°. Clinical examination and imaging studies revealed a nodular calcific mass in the anterior portion of the knee, displacing the medial portion of the patellar tendon. Following excision, histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of extra-osseous osteochondroma-like soft tissue mass, with no recurrence 24 months after surgery. CONCLUSION: An integrated clinical-pathologic diagnosis helps to clarify the nature of extraskeletal cartilaginous tumors that can arise at unusual anatomic site. Complete local surgical excision is the management of choice

Observed Reductions in Schistosoma mansoni Transmission from Large-Scale Administration of Praziquantel in Uganda: A Mathematical Modelling Study

To date schistosomiasis control programmes based on chemotherapy have largely aimed at controlling morbidity in treated individuals rather than at suppressing transmission. In this study, a mathematical modelling approach was used to estimate reductions in the rate of Schistosoma mansoni reinfection following annual mass drug administration (MDA) with praziquantel in Uganda over four years (2003-2006). In doing this we aim to elucidate the benefits of MDA in reducing community transmission.Age-structured models were fitted to a longitudinal cohort followed up across successive rounds of annual treatment for four years (Baseline: 2003, TREATMENT: 2004-2006; n = 1,764). Instead of modelling contamination, infection and immunity processes separately, these functions were combined in order to estimate a composite force of infection (FOI), i.e., the rate of parasite acquisition by hosts.MDA achieved substantial and statistically significant reductions in the FOI following one round of treatment in areas of low baseline infection intensity, and following two rounds in areas with high and medium intensities. In all areas, the FOI remained suppressed following a third round of treatment.This study represents one of the first attempts to monitor reductions in the FOI within a large-scale MDA schistosomiasis morbidity control programme in sub-Saharan Africa. The results indicate that the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, as a model for other MDA programmes, is likely exerting a significant ancillary impact on reducing transmission within the community, and may provide health benefits to those who do not receive treatment. The results obtained will have implications for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of schistosomiasis control programmes and the design of monitoring and evaluation approaches in general

Tear fluid biomarkers in ocular and systemic disease: potential use for predictive, preventive and personalised medicine

In the field of predictive, preventive and personalised medicine, researchers are keen to identify novel and reliable ways to predict and diagnose disease, as well as to monitor patient response to therapeutic agents. In the last decade alone, the sensitivity of profiling technologies has undergone huge improvements in detection sensitivity, thus allowing quantification of minute samples, for example body fluids that were previously difficult to assay. As a consequence, there has been a huge increase in tear fluid investigation, predominantly in the field of ocular surface disease. As tears are a more accessible and less complex body fluid (than serum or plasma) and sampling is much less invasive, research is starting to focus on how disease processes affect the proteomic, lipidomic and metabolomic composition of the tear film. By determining compositional changes to tear profiles, crucial pathways in disease progression may be identified, allowing for more predictive and personalised therapy of the individual. This article will provide an overview of the various putative tear fluid biomarkers that have been identified to date, ranging from ocular surface disease and retinopathies to cancer and multiple sclerosis. Putative tear fluid biomarkers of ocular disorders, as well as the more recent field of systemic disease biomarkers, will be shown

A Meta-analysis of Attachment to Parents and Delinquency

To investigate the link between attachment to parents and delinquency, and the potential moderating effects of age and sex, 74 published and unpublished manuscripts (N = 55,537 participants) were subjected to a multilevel meta-analysis. A mean small to moderate effect size was found (r = 0.18). Poor attachment to parents was significantly linked to delinquency in boys and girls. Stronger effect sizes were found for attachment to mothers than attachment to fathers. In addition, stronger effect sizes were found if the child and the parent had the same sex compared to cross-sex pairs of children and parents. Age of the participants moderated the link between attachment and delinquency: larger effect sizes were found in younger than in older participants. It can be concluded that attachment is associated with juvenile delinquency. Attachment could therefore be a target for intervention to reduce or prevent future delinquent behavior in juveniles

Artificial Neural Networks Versus Multiple Logistic Regression to Predict 30-Day Mortality After Operations For Type A Ascending Aortic Dissection§

There are few comparative reports on the overall accuracy of neural networks (NN), assessed only versus multiple logistic regression (LR), to predict events in cardiovascular surgery studies and none has been performed among acute aortic dissection (AAD) Type A patients. OBJECTIVES: We aimed at investigating the predictive potential of 30-day mortality by a large series of risk factors in AAD Type A patients comparing the overall performance of NN versus LR. METHODS: We investigated 121 plus 87 AAD Type A patients consecutively operated during 7 years in two Centres. Forced and stepwise NN and LR solutions were obtained and compared, using receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (AUC) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) and Gini's coefficients. Both NN and LR models were re-applied to data from the second Centre to adhere to a methodological imperative with NN. RESULTS: Forced LR solutions provided AUC 87.9+/-4.1% (CI: 80.7 to 93.2%) and 85.7+/-5.2% (CI: 78.5 to 91.1%) in the first and second Centre, respectively. Stepwise NN solution of the first Centre had AUC 90.5+/-3.7% (CI: 83.8 to 95.1%). The Gini's coefficients for LR and NN stepwise solutions of the first Centre were 0.712 and 0.816, respectively. When the LR and NN stepwise solutions were re-applied to the second Centre data, Gini's coefficients were, respectively, 0.761 and 0.850. Few predictors were selected in common by LR and NN models: the presence of pre-operative shock, intubation and neurological symptoms, immediate post-operative presence of dialysis in continuous and the quantity of post-operative bleeding in the first 24 h. The length of extracorporeal circulation, post-operative chronic renal failure and the year of surgery were specifically detected by NN. CONCLUSIONS: Different from the International Registry of AAD, operative and immediate post-operative factors were seen as potential predictors of short-term mortality. We report a higher overall predictive accuracy with NN than with LR. However, the list of potential risk factors to predict 30-day mortality after AAD Type A by NN model is not enlarged significantly

Use of humanised rat basophilic leukaemia cell line RS-ATL8 for the assessment of allergenicity of Schistosoma mansoni proteins.

BACKGROUND Parasite-specific IgE is thought to correlate with protection against Schistosoma mansoni infection or re-infection. Only a few molecular targets of the IgE response in S. mansoni infection have been characterised. A better insight into the basic mechanisms of anti-parasite immunity could be gained from a genome-wide characterisation of such S. mansoni allergens. This would have repercussions on our understanding of allergy and the development of safe and efficacious vaccinations against helminthic parasites. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A complete medium- to high-throughput amenable workflow, including important quality controls, is described, which enables the rapid translation of S. mansoni proteins using wheat germ lysate and subsequent assessment of potential allergenicity with a humanised Rat Basophilic Leukemia (RBL) reporter cell line. Cell-free translation is completed within 90 minutes, generating sufficient amounts of parasitic protein for rapid screening of allergenicity without any need for purification. Antigenic integrity is demonstrated using Western Blotting. After overnight incubation with infected individuals' serum, the RS-ATL8 reporter cell line is challenged with the complete wheat germ translation mixture and Luciferase activity measured, reporting cellular activation by the suspected allergen. The suitability of this system for characterization of novel S. mansoni allergens is demonstrated using well characterised plant and parasitic allergens such as Par j 2, SmTAL-1 and the IgE binding factor IPSE/alpha-1, expressed in wheat germ lysates and/or E. coli. SmTAL-1, but not SmTAL2 (used as a negative control), was able to activate the basophil reporter cell line. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE This method offers an accessible way for assessment of potential allergenicity of anti-helminthic vaccine candidates and is suitable for medium- to high-throughput studies using infected individual sera. It is also suitable for the study of the basis of allergenicity of helminthic proteins