Plagiarism Allegations Account for Most Retractions in Major Latin American/Caribbean Databases.

This study focuses on retraction notices from two major Latin American/Caribbean indexing databases: SciELO and LILACS. SciELO includes open scientific journals published mostly in Latin America/the Caribbean, from which 10 % are also indexed by Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge Journal of Citation Reports (JCR). LILACS has a similar geographical coverage and includes dissertations and conference/symposia proceedings, but it is limited to publications in the health sciences.

Validation in principal components analysis applied to EEG data.

The well-known multivariate technique Principal Components Analysis (PCA) is usually applied to a sample, and so component scores are subjected to sampling variability. However, few studies address their stability, an important topic when the sample size is small. This work presents three validation procedures applied to PCA, based on confidence regions generated by a variant of a nonparametric bootstrap called the partial bootstrap: (i) the assessment of PC scores variability by the spread and overlapping of "confidence regions" plotted around these scores; (ii) the use of the confidence regions centroids as a validation set; and (iii) the definition of the number of nontrivial axes to be retained for analysis.

Maternal mortality and accessibility to health services by means of transit-network estimated traveled distances.

This study analyzed the relationship between maternal mortality and variables related to the use of health services (especially residence-hospital traveled distances estimated through transit networks). Deaths were identified for Rio de Janeiro and adjacent cities, from 2000 to 2002, and were matched by age and socio-economic level to birth admissions without maternal deaths (1 case to 3 controls). The variables used were: type of hospital (general × specialized maternity services), number of hospital beds, nature of hospital ownership (public × private-associated), main admission diagnostic, residence-hospital distance, age, income, and education.

[Multiple correspondence analysis in the evaluation of hospital pharmacy services in Brazil].

This study aimed to evaluate associations among variables in hospital pharmacy services. Thirty variables were used from the project Diagnosis of Hospital Pharmacies in Brazil pertaining to the overall description of the hospital, overall characterization of the hospital pharmacy service, and stages in pharmaceutical care. The statistical techniques were multiple correspondence and cluster analysis.

A new indicator for the measurement of change with ordinal scores.

Background: Studies on how to better measure change have been published at least since the third decade of the last century, but no general indicator or strategy of measurement is currently agreed upon. The aim of this study is to propose a new indicator, the indicator of positive change, as an option for the assessment of change when ordinal scores are used in pretest and posttest designs.

Methods: The basic idea is to measure the proportion of possible (positive) change inside a group that can be attributed to an intervention.

Comorbidity adjustment index for the international classification of diseases, 10th revision.

Objective: To develop a Charlson-like comorbidity index based on clinical conditions and weights of the original Charlson comorbidity index.

Methods: Clinical conditions and weights were adapted from the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision and applied to a single hospital admission diagnosis. The study included 3,733 patients over 18 years of age who were admitted to a public general hospital in the city of Rio de Janeiro, southeast Brazil, between Jan 2001 and Jan 2003.

Computer simulation and discrete-event models in the analysis of a mammography clinic patient flow.

Objective: This work develops a discrete-event computer simulation model for the analysis of a mammography clinic performance.

Material And Methods: Two mammography clinic computer simulation models were developed, based on an existing public sector clinic of the Brazilian Cancer Institute, located in Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil. Two clinics in a total of seven configurations (number of equipment units and working personnel) were studied.

[Rural work and risk factors associated with pesticide use in Minas Gerais, Brazil].

This paper aimed to characterize the rural work process in nine counties in Minas Gerais State, considering socio-demographic indicators, the land tenure structure of farm operations, and work practices related to pesticide use and poisoning Data were obtained through the Jorge Duprat Figueiredo Foundation for Workers' Safety and Occupational Medicine, which applied a questionnaire to 1,064 rural workers from 1991 to 2000. Through a logistic regression, risk factors associated with pesticide poisoning were obtained for the carbamate and organophosphate groups. Some 50% of interviewees displayed at least moderate pesticide toxicity.