Pesticides Use and Impaired Lung Function Among Male Agricultural Farmers in Rural Sindh, Pakistan

Use of pesticides implicated in decrement in lung function, manifested as restrictive or obstructive dysfunction or both. Using comparative cross-sectional study design, authors conducted the study to determine an association of pesticide use with impairment in lung function (restrictive/obstructive pattern of lung function) among agricultural farmers. The data were collected using modified American Thoracic Society Division of Lung Disease (ATS-DLD-78A) questionnaire and spirometer measurements. Using multinomial logistic regression, the risk of both restrictive and obstructive lung dysfunction was found to be almost twice among pesticides users with each increasing year of exposure to pesticides (1.92 and 1.95, respectively) after adjusting for other covariates. There is a need for reliable monitoring and reporting procedures along with appropriate environmental policies and regulations for handling of pesticides. Interventional studies are needed where farmers could be trained on the proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE) to limit the exposure to pesticides.

True "Lies" and False "Truths": Women, Rape and the Police

<p>The notion that women lie about rape is a prevalent belief with pervasive influence. This thesis comprises a series of studies aimed at elucidating understanding of the ways in which this belief affects police officers' responses to women who report rape. The thesis begins by examining the historical context within which rape came to be defined as a crime, and considers the impact of dominant assumptions regarding the 'nature' of women on the formation of rape laws. Factors affecting criminal justice system responses to women who report rape are identified, considering in particular the ways in which these have been influenced by views of women's inherent deceitfulness. Having established the ideological and socio-political framework, attention then shifts to a consideration of rape in contemporary New Zealand. The views of rape complainants regarding their experiences of reporting rape and sexual assault to the police are presented, highlighting the centrality of 'being believed'. Quantitative and qualitative data are presented from an analysis of police sexual assault investigation files and are used to highlight the factors affecting police officers' perceptions of complainants' credibility. The file analysis is complemented by material derived from interviews with sexual assault investigators, which explores further the issue of allegedly false rape complaints. The final study presented documents the experiences of a group of rape victims who largely conform to the police stereotype of the 'perfect victim'. In this chapter, women who were attacked by serial rapist Malcolm Rewa reflect on the ways in which they were treated by the police. Their accounts are useful in highlighting the potential for positive police-complainant relationships when the issue of the victim's credibility is not the dominant concern. Taken together, these studies provide a series of different perspectives on police responses to reports of rape. The results indicate that concerns about the victim's credibility continue to dominate reporting procedures, and that negative stereotypes concerning lying, vengeful women remain influential. Recent attempts by the police to improve women's experiences of rape investigations are acknowledged, but the overall conclusion suggests that the scope for positive change will remain limited while such negative stereotypes prevail.</p>

True "Lies" and False "Truths": Women, Rape and the Police

<p>The notion that women lie about rape is a prevalent belief with pervasive influence. This thesis comprises a series of studies aimed at elucidating understanding of the ways in which this belief affects police officers' responses to women who report rape. The thesis begins by examining the historical context within which rape came to be defined as a crime, and considers the impact of dominant assumptions regarding the 'nature' of women on the formation of rape laws. Factors affecting criminal justice system responses to women who report rape are identified, considering in particular the ways in which these have been influenced by views of women's inherent deceitfulness. Having established the ideological and socio-political framework, attention then shifts to a consideration of rape in contemporary New Zealand. The views of rape complainants regarding their experiences of reporting rape and sexual assault to the police are presented, highlighting the centrality of 'being believed'. Quantitative and qualitative data are presented from an analysis of police sexual assault investigation files and are used to highlight the factors affecting police officers' perceptions of complainants' credibility. The file analysis is complemented by material derived from interviews with sexual assault investigators, which explores further the issue of allegedly false rape complaints. The final study presented documents the experiences of a group of rape victims who largely conform to the police stereotype of the 'perfect victim'. In this chapter, women who were attacked by serial rapist Malcolm Rewa reflect on the ways in which they were treated by the police. Their accounts are useful in highlighting the potential for positive police-complainant relationships when the issue of the victim's credibility is not the dominant concern. Taken together, these studies provide a series of different perspectives on police responses to reports of rape. The results indicate that concerns about the victim's credibility continue to dominate reporting procedures, and that negative stereotypes concerning lying, vengeful women remain influential. Recent attempts by the police to improve women's experiences of rape investigations are acknowledged, but the overall conclusion suggests that the scope for positive change will remain limited while such negative stereotypes prevail.</p>

Adverse Drug Reactions Reporting among Health Professionals in Government Hospitals in Katsina State, Nigeria

Medicines have the potential to cause Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) and therefore the need for health professionals to detect and spontaneously report to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for further actions to ensure patients and public safety. The study was conducted to ascertain the proportion and reporting procedures of ADRs reported by health professionals in the Government Hospitals in Katsina State, Nigeria. This was a cross-sectional survey of 392 health professionals randomly selected from the 19 secondary hospitals in Katsina state. Data were collected through a self-administered structured questionnaire from 18th January to 19th February 2021 with a 98.7% and 1.3% response rate. Data were analyzed using STATA software Version 15.0. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the background characteristics of respondents, and the outcome, such as the proportion of ADR reported summarized in percentages, frequencies, and charts. There was only a 28.3% ADRs reporting rate, and 25.1% of health professionals who saw an ADRs case reported it by completing the ADRs form. The level of knowledge on ADRs reporting procedures was 58.3% among respondents. The main systemic challenge with ADRs reporting was the lack of access to the reporting form for ADRs. Therefore, there is a need to improve access to the reporting form in all the hospitals. Keywords: Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting, Government Hospitals, Health Professionals, Katsina state, Nigeria, Reporting Rate.

Spoken Discourse Assessment and Analysis in Aphasia: An International Survey of Current Practices

Purpose Spoken discourse analysis is commonly employed in the assessment and treatment of people living with aphasia, yet there is no standardization in assessment, analysis, or reporting procedures, thereby precluding comparison/meta-analyses of data and hindering replication of findings. An important first step is to identify current practices in collecting and analyzing spoken discourse in aphasia. Thus, this study surveyed current practices, with the goal of working toward standardizing spoken discourse assessment first in research settings with subsequent implementation into clinical settings. Method A mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative) survey was publicized to researchers and clinicians around the globe who have collected and/or analyzed spoken discourse data in aphasia. The survey data were collected between September and November 2019. Results Of the 201 individuals who consented to participate, 189 completed all mandatory questions in the survey (with fewer completing nonmandatory response questions). The majority of respondents reported barriers to utilizing discourse including transcription, coding, and analysis. The most common barrier was time (e.g., lack of time). Respondents also indicated that there was a lack of, and a need for, psychometric properties and normative data for spoken discourse use in the assessment and treatment of persons with aphasia. Quantitative and qualitative results are described in detail. Conclusions The current survey study evaluated spoken discourse methods in aphasia across research and clinical settings. Findings from this study will be used to guide development of process standardization in spoken discourse and for the creation of a psychometric and normative property database. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.166395100

Knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of the Pharm.D interns towards adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting and pharmacovigilance

Introduction: Lack of awareness about pharmacovigilance (PV) is one of the most important causes of under-reporting, which is widespread and poses a daunting challenge in India. The aim of this study is to assess and to document the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D) interns who practicing in hospitals with regards to PV and adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting and to identify the causes of under reporting. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted for a period of six months across ten hospitals in Andhra Pradesh, India. Results: Overall, 578 responses were analysed, 78% of the participants had good knowledge on reporting ADR, 82% were aware that patient will be benefited from the ADR reporting, and the majority of the participants had a positive attitude towards reporting ADR. Fifty-nine percentage of the participants had reported the ADRs through different ADR reporting procedures, 52% were advised the awareness programmes for improving the reporting culture, and 34% had the difficulty in deciding or diagnosing the ADR. Conclusion: The KAP of the Pharm.D interns is appreciable and may reduce the burden on the other healthcare providers and improve patient care.

Interrelation between the climate-related sustainability and the financial reporting disclosures of the European automotive industry

The financial reports of the automotive companies' are measured in a standardized manner; therefore, they are transparent and comparable to each other, but this is not valid for the sustainability reports and it is not possible to compare their sustainability performances. Standard-setting organizations are currently searching for better reporting procedures. This study aims to investigate the connection between sustainability and financial reports for the most dominant European car manufacturers. It reviews the traceability of the sustainability elements back to the financial statements, which helps transparency, comparability, and impact measurement of the disclosed items and issues. This investigation allowed us to additionally review whether these companies are targeting to disclose the most harmful pollution impacts, or only focus to disclose the required obligatory items. Given the financial and sustainability reports magnitude manual testing would not provide complete and proper coverage, therefore we utilized an automated and AI-assisted content analysis with natural language processing. In this new review method, the sustainable elements of the textual reports were automatically retrieved following the 5-stage model of Landrum & Ohsowski (2018). The study highlights the lack of true sustainability information content of reports and the potential discrepancies and connections between the financial and the sustainability reports. Findings concluded that sustainability disclosures at the reviewed companies from several aspects could be improved and quantified, traced back to the financial disclosures, and to be comparable to each other if they apply a similar review method. Graphic abstract

Pharmacovigilance of COVID-19 vaccines in the context of Nepal: an assessment based on early adverse drug reaction reports

Objective The objective of this study was to assess the ongoing pharmacovigilance of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) vaccines in the Nepalese context based on the available preliminary adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports and suggest approaches for strengthening pharmacovigilance mechanisms. Methods Currently, many COVID-19 vaccines are under advanced development and some have begun to be administered. In Nepal, the vaccination programme was initiated with Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 AZD1222 (Covishield) vaccine on January 27th targeting frontline healthcare professionals, sanitary staff and security workers. Newspaper reports and ADR reports received at a regional pharmacovigilance centre in Nepal were analysed. Nepal initiated a national pharmacovigilance programme 15 years back and has 14 functioning regional pharmacovigilance centres. The authors examine the strengths and challenges facing the current pharmacovigilance system in ensuring the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. Key findings The news coverage has not mentioned any deaths till date with COVID-19 vaccination. Some patients reported vomiting, urticaria and sudden increase in blood pressure. Few people suffered from headache, fever and myalgia after being vaccinated. A vaccine, approved in an accelerated manner may have safety concerns. The vaccine may cause several types of reactions, but serious reactions have not been reported. Occurrence of adverse effects due to the vaccine is being studied. Conclusions Involving key stake holders, training health professionals and strengthening existing reporting procedures are important. Developing a system of reporting and analysing ADRs daily can help generate actionable intelligence to improve the safety of the vaccination programme. Establishing functioning communication channels between regulatory authorities and other stakeholders is crucial.

Sistem Informasi Dalam Hubungan Prinsipal – Agen Di RSU-BLUD Bahteramas, Kota Kendari Provinsi Sulawesi Tenggara

This study aims to analyze the information systems that occur, especially in terms of reporting procedures, budgeting systems and the role of the supervisory board at the Bahteramas Hospital, Kendari City, Southeast Sulawesi Province. This research uses a qualitative approach. The results show that the reporting procedure uses a combination of computers and manuals, but manual systems are still dominant. The budgeting system still uses conventional systems and also uses performance-based budgets. The supervisory board has carried out its duties, but it is still not optimal. Even so, there is complete information where the principal knows what the agent is doing. Even though in reality, there are still agency problems (moral hazard and adverse selection) both potentially and factually. For example, negligence in the supply of drugs, but on the whole does not hinder the disclosure of information by the principal.

What should we report? Lessons learnt from the development and implementation of serious adverse event reporting procedures in non-pharmacological trials in palliative care

Background/aims Serious adverse event reporting guidelines have largely been developed for pharmaceutical trials. There is evidence that serious adverse events, such as psychological distress, can also occur in non-pharmaceutical trials. Managing serious adverse event reporting and monitoring in palliative care non-pharmaceutical trials can be particularly challenging. This is because patients living with advanced malignant or non-malignant disease have a high risk of hospitalisation and/or death as a result of progression of their disease rather than due to the trial intervention or procedures. This paper presents a number of recommendations for managing serious adverse event reporting that are drawn from two palliative care non-pharmacological trials. Methods The recommendations were iteratively developed across a number of exemplar trials. This included examining national and international safety reporting guidance, reviewing serious adverse event reporting procedures from other pharmacological and non-pharmacological trials, a review of the literature and collaboration between the ACTION study team and Data Safety Monitoring Committee. These two groups included expertise in oncology, palliative care, statistics and medical ethics and this collaboration led to the development of serious adverse event reporting procedures. Results The recommendations included; allowing adequate time at the study planning stage to develop serious adverse event reporting procedures, especially in multi-national studies or research naïve settings; reviewing the level of trial oversight required; defining what a serious adverse event is in your trial based on your study population; development and implementation of standard operating procedures and training; refining the reporting procedures during the trial if necessary and publishing serious adverse events in findings papers. Conclusions There is a need for researchers to share their experiences of managing this challenging aspect of trial conduct. This will ensure that the processes for managing serious adverse event reporting are continually refined and improved so optimising patient safety. Trial registration ACTION trial registration number: ISRCTN63110516 (date of registration 03/10/2014). Namaste trial registration number: ISRCTN14948133 (date of registration 04/10/2017).