Coalition for a Healthier Community: Lessons learned and implications for future work

The Coalition for a Healthier Community (CHC) initiative was implemented to improve the health and well-being of women and girls. Underpinning CHC is a gender-based focus that uses a network of community partners working collaboratively to generate relevant behavior change and improved health outcomes. Ten programs are trying to determine whether gender-focused system approaches are cost-effective ways to address health disparities in women and girls. Programs implemented through coalitions made up of academic institutions, public health departments, community-based organizations, and local, regional, and national organizations, are addressing health issues such as domestic violence, cardiovascular disease prevention, physical activity, and healthy eating. Although these programs are ongoing, they have made significant progress. Key factors contributing to their early success include a comprehensive needs assessment, robust coalitions, the diversity of populations targeted, programs based on findings of the needs assessments, evaluations taking into consideration the effect of gender, and strong academic–community partnerships. A noteworthy impact of these programs has been their ability to shape and impact public, social, and health policies at the state and local levels. However, there have been challenges associated with the implementation of such a complex program. Lessons learned are discussed in this paper.     

An approximation of logarithmic functions in the regression setting

We consider a method of moments approach for dealing with censoring at zero for data expressed in levels when researchers would like to take logarithms. A Box–Cox transformation is employed. We explore this approach in the context of linear regression where both dependent and independent variables are censored. We contrast this method to two others, (1) dropping records of data containing censored values and (2) assuming normality for censored observations and the residuals in the model. Across the methods considered, where researchers are interested primarily in the slope parameter, estimation bias is consistently reduced using the method of moments approach.     

Does geographical proximity matter in determining the profitability of banks?

Despite the existence of a burgeoning literature on bank profitability, yet, none of them gave due consideration to geographical proximity. I fulfill such a gap by analyzing the effects of COVID-19 on the profitability of top-rated banks. Findings confirm the prevalence of spatial dependence at both the global and sub-global with feedback effects being systematically higher than spillover effects. My study uncovers evidence of a COVID-19 induced decline in asset utilization. Findings advocate sharing economy as a potential tool to banks in combating any future pandemic risk with regionalized approach to supervision being deemed better than its globalized counterpart.     

Pregnancy after loss during the COVID19 pandemic

BackgroundRapid changes to how maternity health care is delivered has occurred in many countries across the globe in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Maternity care provisions have been challenged attempting to balance the needs and safety of pregnant women and their care providers. Women experiencing a pregnancy after loss (PAL) during these times face particularly difficult circumstances.AimIn this paper we highlight the situation in three high income countries (Australia, Ireland and USA) and point to the need to remember the unique and challenging circumstances of these PAL families. We suggest new practices may be deviating from established evidence-based guidelines and outline the potential ramifications of these changes.FindingsRecommendations for health care providers are suggested to bridge the gap between the necessary safety requirements due to the pandemic, the role of the health care provider, and the needs of families experiencing a pregnancy after loss.DiscussionChanges to practices i.e. limiting the number of antenatal appointments and access to a support person may have detrimental effects on both mother, baby, and their family. However, new guidelines in maternity care practices developed to account for the pandemic have not necessarily considered women experiencing pregnancy after loss.ConclusionBereaved mothers and their families experiencing a pregnancy after loss should continue to be supported during the COVID-19 pandemic to limit unintended consequences.     

新冠肺炎疫情下对完善快递末端配送体系建设的思考——以重庆市为例

自新冠肺炎疫情发生以来，快递业为应急救援物资和人民群众日常基本生活物资运输和寄递服务、畅通经济循环、满足民生需要等方面做出了重要贡献，为疫情防控提供了强有力的支撑；但同时也暴露出了一些问题，集中体现在末端配送体系不健全、末端收投不畅等方面。在对电子商务和快递业发展现状进行分析的基础上，对快递末端配送的主要模式和发展趋势进行了论述，结合重庆市的实际情况，分析了其末端配送存在的不足，并从公共服务平台搭建、智能化无接触式配送构建、乡村快递服务网络完善、快递员队伍建设等方面提出了对策建议，以助推重庆经济社会高质量发展。     

深蕴着人情美的艺术珠玑——《古诗十九首》艺术特色谫论

《古诗十九首》不但把文学从经学中解放出来 ,而且在艺术上具有很高的成就。它善于借景抒情 ,又善于撷取抒情主人公瞬息的感情、生活片断来抒发主人公的内心情感 ,特别是在构思上具有很高的艺术性 ,真可谓钟嵘所说的“一字千金”     

Predicting body fat using weight–height indices

While body fat is the most accurate measure of obesity, its measurement requires special equipment that can be costly and time consuming to operate. Attention has thus typically focused on the easier to calculate body mass index (BMI). However, the ability of BMI to accurately identify obesity has been increasingly questioned. This paper focuses attention on whether more general body mass indices are appropriate measures of body fat. Using a data set of body fat, height, and weight measurements, general models are estimated which nest a wide variety of weight–height indices as special cases. In the absence of a race and gender categorisation, the conventional BMI was found to be the appropriate index with which to predict body fat. When such a categorisation was made, however, the BMI was never selected as the appropriate index. In general, predicted female body fat was some 10 kg higher than that of a male of identical build and predicted % body fat was over 11 percentage points higher, but age effects were smaller for females. Considerable racial differences in predicted body fat were found for males, but such differences were less marked for females. The implications of this finding for interpreting recent research on the effect of obesity on health, society, and economic factors are considered.     

关联理论视角下的隐喻翻译研究——以《抗击新冠肺炎疫情的中国行动》英译为例

借助Pragglejaz团队的“隐喻识别程序”对《抗击新冠肺炎疫情的中国行动》白皮书中的隐喻进行分类描述,从认知关联视角切入对各类隐喻翻译进行案例分析。为实现白皮书类外宣文本国际传播的最佳社会效益,最大语境效果、共同的语境假设以及交际传播的目的是译者在实现隐喻跨语际转换时的重要考量准则。