background: hamadan province is one of the high-risk regions in iran for multiple sclerosis (ms). a majority of the epidemiological studies conducted in iran addressing ms are descriptive. this study was conducted to assess ms and its associated risk factors in hamadan province, the west of iran . methods: this case-control study compared 100 patients with ms (case group) and 100 patients with ...

Michael Schmuker " All models are wrong, but some models are useful. " – George E. P. Box (1979)

We investigated the relevance of introducing talent identification/classifications among Egyptian public business schools, as perceived by academics, and expected outcomes such proposed classification system. employed thematic analysis data collected from interviews with 49 academics three large schools. Our findings revealed following themes: no clear systems for management; being means going ...

results the findings indicated that although mothers were aware of breastfeeding benefits and regarded it as their responsibility, in few cases, neonates were fed by items other than breast milk. exclusive breast feeding was not followed precisely. pregnancy of mothers, lack of knowledge, misinformation and physician instruction were among the reasons why mother may stop breast- feeding. mother...

In this paper a network comprising alternative branching nodes with probabilistic outcomes is considered. In other words, network nodes are probabilistic with exclusive-or receiver and exclusive-or emitter. First, an analytical approach is proposed to simplify the structure of network. Then, it is assumed that the duration of activities is positive trapezoidal fuzzy number (TFN). This paper com...

BACKGROUND The overall health care costs for managing patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in U.S. hospitals is burdensome. While pharmacy costs comprise only a minor proportion of these costs, hospital length of stay (LOS) is the greatest contributor. Infections due to antimicrobial-resistant pathogens are also associated with increased overall health care cost. Therefore, strategi...

Guaranteed Annuity Options (GAOs) are options available to holders of certain pension policies. Under these contracts, policyholders contribute premiums into a fund managed by the insurer. At retirement, the policyholders buy life annuities at a guaranteed rate provided by the original insurer, or annuitize with another insurer. If the guaranteed annuity rates are better than the prevailing rat...

This article assesses insurance uptake in three community-based health insurance (CBHI) schemes located in rural parts of two of India's poorest states and offered through women's self-help groups (SHGs). We examine what drives uptake, the degree of inclusive practices of the schemes and the influence of health status on enrolment. The most important finding is that a household's socio-economic...