Transcultural adaptation to the Brazilian Portuguese of the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire for assessing the postpartum bond between mother and baby

The establishment of the bond between mother and baby in the postpartum period is important for ensuring the physical and psychological health of both. This short communication reports the first phase of the cross-cultural translation and adaptation to the Brazilian context of the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ). Four aspects of equivalence between the original scale and the Portuguese version were evaluated: the conceptual, semantic, operational and item equivalences. Literature review, the study of PBQ history, translation, expert evaluation, back-translation and pretests involving 30 mothers with children aging up to 7 months using a primary healthcare unit were conducted. Each step demonstrated the need for adjustments, which were made during the adaptation process. At the end of the study, a version of PBQ in Brazilian Portuguese equivalent to the original one was obtained, offering promise for national studies on the mother-baby bond, and its influence on health, and for use in health services

Description of two measles outbreaks in the Lazio Region, Italy (2006-2007). Importance of pockets of low vaccine coverage in sustaining the infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite the launch of the national plan for measles elimination, in Italy, immunization coverage remains suboptimal and outbreaks continue to occur. Two measles outbreaks, occurred in Lazio region during 2006-2007, were investigated to identify sources of infection, transmission routes, and assess operational implications for elimination of the disease.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data were obtained from several sources, the routine infectious diseases surveillance system, field epidemiological investigations, and molecular genotyping of virus by the national reference laboratory.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall 449 cases were reported, sustained by two different stereotypes overlapping for few months. Serotype D4 was likely imported from Romania by a Roma/Sinti family and subsequently spread to the rest of the population. Serotype B3 was responsible for the second outbreak which started in a secondary school. Pockets of low vaccine coverage individuals (Roma/Sinti communities, high school students) facilitated the reintroduction of serotypes not endemic in Italy and facilitated the measles infection to spread.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Communities with low vaccine coverage represent a more serious public health threat than do sporadic susceptible individuals. The successful elimination of measles will require additional efforts to immunize low vaccine coverage population groups, including hard-to-reach individuals, adolescents, and young adults. An enhanced surveillance systems, which includes viral genotyping to document chains of transmission, is an essential tool for evaluating strategy to control and eliminate measles</p

Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

Charging for Data Processing Services

Management control has been defined as the process by which managers assure that resources are obtained and used effectively and efficiently in the accomplishment of the organization\u27s goals. 1 One aspect of the management control problem is assuring effective and efficient utilization of corporate services. Service organizations can be classified as: 1. Those which offer services over which the user has no control. 2. Those that provide services that the user must accept, but for which the amount of the service is at least partially controllable by the user. 3. Those which the user has the discretion of using or not using. Using departments ordinarily cannot control the services rendered by such staff offices as accounting, public relations, industrial relations, and legal. They must accept these services and have little, if anything, to say about the amount that is spent on them. In some cases, user departments must accept a central service, but the amount of the service that it accepts may be controllable. Data processing and.research development are two examples. There are some instances where management may decide that the use of a central service is optional to the user department thus allowing it to use an outside service, develop internal capability, or simply not use the service at all. Data processing and internal consulting groups lend themselves to this type of arrangement. From the standpoint of responsibility accounting very little attention has been given to the control of these types of services. Typical cost accounting literature, policies and procedures center around such control techniques as standard costs, analysis of variances, statistical quality control, production control, and inventory control, most of which are not easy applications in a service environment. One method of management control gaining more and more acceptance is charging internally for the use of data processing services. It is this method of control and the establishment of accounting methodology that I wish to explore in depth. Like all management control mechanisms, a chargeback system must be tailored to the objectives it will serve and the environment in which it will operate. For this reason I will deal in general terms and attempt to develop a chargeback system that will be applicable in any type of organization. 1 R.N. Anthony, J. Dearden and R.I. Vancil, Management Control Systems, Revised Edition (Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1972), p. 5

Unobserved Heterogeneity in Event History Analysis: A Quantile Regression Approach

157 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005.The dissertation is organized as follows: In Chapter 1 we provide a brief survey of the unobserved heterogeneity problem in event history analysis. In Chapter 2 we analyze the estimation and inference procedures of MPH models. In chapter 3 we examine the theoretical properties of random effects duration quantiles, while in Chapter 4 we present a Monte Carlo study of the small sample performance of the aforementioned estimators. In Chapter 5 we provide an empirical application of the discussed methods on what we consider to be the first systematic assessment of the duration of financial analysts' employment spells. Our concluding remarks and suggestions of future research are given in Chapter 6.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Unobserved Heterogeneity in Event History Analysis: A Quantile Regression Approach

157 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005.The dissertation is organized as follows: In Chapter 1 we provide a brief survey of the unobserved heterogeneity problem in event history analysis. In Chapter 2 we analyze the estimation and inference procedures of MPH models. In chapter 3 we examine the theoretical properties of random effects duration quantiles, while in Chapter 4 we present a Monte Carlo study of the small sample performance of the aforementioned estimators. In Chapter 5 we provide an empirical application of the discussed methods on what we consider to be the first systematic assessment of the duration of financial analysts' employment spells. Our concluding remarks and suggestions of future research are given in Chapter 6.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD