College and university compliance with a required meningococcal vaccination law

OBJECTIVE: Maryland became the first state to pass a vaccination law requiring college and university students living on campus to obtain a meningococcal vaccination or to sign a waiver refusing vaccination because college students are at increased risk for disease. The authors sought to identify how Maryland colleges addressed the law and determine whether schools were in full compliance. PARTICIPANTS: The authors surveyed 32 college/university administrators via a self-administered questionnaire. METHODS: The authors calculated vaccination and waiver rates and assessed compliance with the law overall and with specific law components. RESULTS: Among 28 participating schools, annual vaccination rates and waiver rates among students during 2000-2004 ranged from 66%-76% and 12%-17%, respectively. Two (7%) schools were compliant with all components of the law. CONCLUSIONS: Mandatory vaccination laws do not ensure compliance at the college and university level. Mandatory reporting, increased education, and collaboration between colleges and universities and public health agencies are needed.     

Characteristics of the female athlete triad in collegiate cross-country runners

The Female Athlete Triad is a life-threatening syndrome defined by disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis. OBJECTIVE AND PARTICIPANTS: The author's purpose in this study was to examine female cross-country runners' (N=300) calcium consumption, along with the prevalence of 2 components of the triad: disordered eating and menstrual dysfunction. METHODS: The author used measures including the Orientation to Exercise Questionnaire, Calcium Rapid Assessment Method, and questions related to height, weight, exercise time, perceptions of eating disorders, and menstrual status. Previous or current eating disorders were reported by 19.4% of the women, 23.0% had irregular menstrual cycles, and 29.1% had inadequate calcium intake. RESULTS: Those athletes perceiving a previous/current eating disorder scored higher on the Orientation to Exercise questionnaire than did those who did not perceive such. CONCLUSION: The author recommends educational efforts for the prevention of components of the Female Athlete Triad.     

Community YouthMapping: female youth voices through empowerment and workforce preparation

Because of poverty, many girls and young women throughout Egypt neglect their education in order to marry early, help in the fields, gain immediate employment, or carry out domestic labor to meet family needs. In Egypt, the Academy for Educational Development's Community YouthMapping (CYM) has been structured to provide a solid foundation for a systemic approach to education reform. CYM focuses on changing communities' perceptions and behavior through its youth and mechanisms to develop transferable skills to those who have traditionally been marginalized during afterschool time.     

Proteins' promise--progress and challenges in ovarian cancer proteomics

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of gynaecological cancer death. The mortality rate of ovarian cancer could be greatly decreased if there were a screening test which was able to detect the disease at an early stage, resulting in an increased probability of cure. The most promising prospect for the early detection of ovarian cancer comes from the rapidly advancing field of clinical proteomics. An increasing number of reports on the potential clinical application of proteomics research for early detection as well as risk assessment and management of ovarian cancer are being published. Although the research is very promising, major technical challenges are still preventing new discoveries in ovarian cancer proteomics from being translated into clinical practice.     

Quasi-binomial zero-inflated regression model suitable for variables with bounded support

In recent years, a variety of regression models, including zero-inflated and hurdle versions, have been proposed to explain the case of a dependent variable with respect to exogenous covariates. Apart from the classical Poisson, negative binomial and generalised Poisson distributions, many proposals have appeared in the statistical literature, perhaps in response to the new possibilities offered by advanced software that now enables researchers to implement numerous special functions in a relatively simple way. However, we believe that a significant research gap remains, since very little attention has been paid to the quasi-binomial distribution, which was first proposed over fifty years ago. We believe this distribution might constitute a valid alternative to existing regression models, in situations in which the variable has bounded support. Therefore, in this paper we present a zero-inflated regression model based on the quasi-binomial distribution, taking into account the moments and maximum likelihood estimators, and perform a score test to compare the zero-inflated quasi-binomial distribution with the zero-inflated binomial distribution, and the zero-inflated model with the homogeneous model (the model in which covariates are not considered). This analysis is illustrated with two data sets that are well known in the statistical literature and which contain a large number of zeros.