During the past decades, advancement in pubertal maturation in children has been noticed worldwide. Growing evidence indicates that increasing prevalence of obesity in children is a major factor for the secular trend of earlier puberty. In girls, several epidemiologic studies suggest that earlier pubertal onset and earlier menarche might be caused by obesity. On the other hand, in boys, few res...

Earlier Initiation of ARV Therapy Over the past few years, several studies have been presented and published that indicate that earlier initiation of antiretroviral (ARV) therapy decreases morbidity and mortality amongst HIV+ patients [Kitahata M, et al. New Engl J Med 2009;360:1815-26; Emery S, et al. JID 2008;197:1133-1144]. A number of studies reported on specific mechanisms that could be co...

However, there is substantial evidence about the advantages of earlier identification of hearing loss from a number of retrospective studies in which children have been categorized into groups who were identified early or identified later, matched on relevant variables that may affect outcomes, and assessed on various developmental outcomes and success in school-related areas. Although each of ...

This paper estimates the probability of a lost decade, where equity investments lose value over a ten year period. The findings are a reminder that equity investments are risky even over longer time periods, and investors should take this into consideration when making portfolio choices. It also introduces a simple method to allow the reader to combine beliefs about long run stock returns along...