BACKGROUND Detecting and treating asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) prevents urinary tract infection and its consequences. The cost-effectiveness of routine screening for ASB in pregnancy is controversial. In populations with high prevalence, however, it is worthwhile and justifiable. AIM To determine the profile, prevalence, microbiological isolates, and risk factors of ASB among booking antena...

R management models traditionally assume that future demand is unknown but can be described by a stochastic process or a probability distribution. Demand is, however, often difficult to characterize, especially in new or nonstationary markets. In this paper, we develop robust formulations for the capacity allocation problem in revenue management using the maximin and the minimax regret criteria...

Revenue management (RM) aims to maximize a company’s revenue by allocating the right seat to the right customer. In this paper, we present an approach based on a Markov decision process (MDP) formulation. Our approach involves an off-line phase that derives a policy for accepting/rejecting customer booking requests, and an on-line phase that conducts the actual decisions as the booking requests...

Today the Internet offers a massive amount of reviews and user experiences about a variety of products from different manufacturers, ranging from smartphones, automobiles, and home appliances to Internet services such as hotel booking and airplane booking. For a careful customer it is time-consuming to make good purchasing decisions due to a variety of similar products, lots of reviews for each...

BACKGROUND A couple's decision to undergo an invasive test based on a screening test result is a process associated with anxiety. The aim of this study was to determine whether anxiety and prenatal attachment were affected by undergoing an invasive test compared to women in early pregnancy and after a reassuring anomaly scan. METHODS 200 women were recruited at booking, 14 women and 20 partne...

Background Smoking cessation interventions in pregnancy could influence a woman’s social behaviour and her partner’s smoking behaviour, but this has not been examined in any published randomized trials. Method 918 women smoking at booking for antenatal care were enrolled in a clusterrandomized trial of three interventions: standard care, self-help manual and enhanced stage-based counselling, or...

BACKGROUND Smoking cessation interventions in pregnancy could influence a woman's social behaviour and her partner's smoking behaviour, but this has not been examined in any published randomized trials. METHOD 918 women smoking at booking for antenatal care were enrolled in a cluster-randomized trial of three interventions: standard care, self-help manual and enhanced stage-based counselling,...