ObjectiveTo provide an estimate of the burden of postpartum depression in Indian mothers and investigate some risk factors for the condition.MethodsWe searched PubMed®, Google Scholar and Embase® databases for articles published from year 2000 up to 31 March 2016 on the prevalence of postpartum depression in Indian mothers. The search used subject headings and keywords with no language restrictions. Quality was assessed via the Newcastle–Ottawa quality assessment scale. We performed the meta-analysis using a random effects model. Subgroup analysis and meta-regression was done for heterogeneity and the Egger test was used to assess publication bias.FindingsThirty-eight studies involving 20 043 women were analysed. Studies had a high degree of heterogeneity (I2 = 96.8%) and there was evidence of publication bias (Egger bias = 2.58; 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.83–4.33). The overall pooled estimate of the prevalence of postpartum depression was 22% (95% CI: 19–25). The pooled prevalence was 19% (95% CI: 17–22) when excluding 8 studies reporting postpartum depression within 2 weeks of delivery. Small, but non-significant differences in pooled prevalence were found by mother’s age, geographical location and study setting. Reported risk factors for postpartum depression included financial difficulties, presence of domestic violence, past history of psychiatric illness in mother, marital conflict, lack of support from husband and birth of a female baby. ConclusionThe review shows a high prevalence of postpartum depression in Indian mothers. More resources need to be allocated for capacity-building in maternal mental health care in India.

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This study examines the impact of frontline employees' problem solving on customer satisfaction (CSAT) during ongoing interactions prompted by service failures and complaints. Using outsourced regulation theory, the authors predict negative moderating effects of frontline relational work and displayed affect on the dynamic influence of frontline solving work on CSAT. Frontline employees' verbal (nonverbal) cues provide the basis to identify solving and relational work (displayed affect). The authors test hypotheses with data from video recordings of real-life problem-solving interactions involving airline customers as well as a controlled experimental study. They find that frontline solving work has a positive effect on CSAT, and it increases in magnitude as the interaction unfolds. However, this positive effect becomes weaker for relatively higher levels of frontline relational work or displayed affect and, conversely, stronger for relatively lower levels over time. In summary, overdoing relational work and overdisplaying positive affect diminish the efficacy of problem-solving interactions, a finding that provides implications for theory and practice.

E-negotiations, or sales negotiations over email, are increasingly common in business-to-business (B2B) sales, but little is known about selling effectiveness in this medium. This research investigates salespeople’s use of influence tactics as textual cues to manage buyers’ attention during B2B e-negotiations to win sales contract award. Drawing on studies of attention as a selection heuristic, the authors advance the literature on mechanisms of sales influence by theorizing buyer attention as a key mediating variable between the use of influence tactics and contract award. They use a unique, longitudinal panel spanning more than two years of email communications between buyers and salespeople during B2B sales negotiations to develop a validated corpus of textual cues that are diagnostic of salespeople’s influence tactics in e-negotiations. These e-communications data are augmented by salesperson in-depth interviews and survey, archival performance data, and a controlled experimental study with professional salespeople. The obtained results indicate that the concurrent use of compliance or internalization-based tactics as textual cues bolsters buyers’ attention and is associated with greater likelihood of contract award. In contrast, concurrent use of compliance and internalization-based tactics is prone to degrade buyer attention and likely to put the salesperson at a disadvantage in closing the contract award.

Bacillus anthracis, the etiological agent of anthrax disease, is a proven weapon of bioterrorism. Currently, the only licensed vaccine against anthrax in the United States is AVA Biothrax, which, although efficacious, suffers from several limitations. This vaccine requires six injectable doses over 18 months to stimulate protective immunity, requires a cold chain for storage, and in many cases has been associated with adverse effects. In this study, we modified the B. anthracis protective antigen (PA) gene for optimal expression and stability, linked it to an inducible promoter for maximal expression in the host, and fused it to the secretion signal of the Escherichia coli alpha-hemolysin protein (HlyA) on a low-copy-number plasmid. This plasmid was introduced into the licensed typhoid vaccine strain, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi strain Ty21a, and was found to be genetically stable. Immunization of mice with three vaccine doses elicited a strong PA-specific serum immunoglobulin G response with a geometric mean titer of 30,000 (range, 5,800 to 157,000) and lethal-toxinneutralizing titers greater than 16,000. Vaccinated mice demonstrated 100% protection against a lethal intranasal challenge with aerosolized spores of B. anthracis 7702. The ultimate goal is a temperature-stable, safe, oral human vaccine against anthrax infection that can be self-administered in a few doses over a short period of time.

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Objectives Lack of insight and neurocognitive deficits are often seen in schizophrenia patients. While there are several studies investigating the relationship between suicidal ideation, executive function and insight, there are relatively fewer investigating the triangular relationship between suicide intent, insight and cognitive competence in schizophrenia. The aim of our study was to address this issue. Methods One hundred seventy five subjects with DSM-IV TR diagnoses of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were enrolled and the diagnosis was established using the Hindi version of the Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies and other available information in consultation with a Board certified senior Psychiatrist. All the subjects were interviewed on Beck’s cognitive insight scale and tested on the Trail Making Test. All the subjects who had lifetime history of suicide attempt were interviewed on Pierce’s suicide intent scale. Results Ever attempters scored significantly higher on Beck’s cognitive insight scale (p = 0.012) and outperformed non-attempters on Trail Making Test A and B (p = 0.026 and p = 0.012 respectively), indicating better executive functions in the former. However among ever attempters, significant relationship was not found between executive functions, insight and severity of suicide intent. Conclusion Our study suggests that good insight and better executive functioning may be significantly correlated with suicide attempts at some time during the course of illness. Patients with schizophrenia should be evaluated for potential suicidality once denial, neurocognitive deficits and other factors associated with poor insight abate.

Using a novel approach with video-recordings of sales interactions, this study focuses on a dynamic analysis of salesperson effectiveness in handling customer queries. We conceptualize salesperson behaviors, namely, resolving, relating, and emoting, as separate elements of customer query handling and empirically identify the distinct verbal and nonverbal cues that salespeople use to display these behaviors during sales interactions. We draw from compensation effects in social cognition theory to propose that customers' perceptions of a salesperson's effectiveness are prone to trade-offs between competence (resolving behaviors) and warmth (relating and emoting behaviors). Results, robust to endogeneity corrections, support the proposed tradeoffs such that the effectiveness of salesperson's resolving behavior is significantly curtailed, even neutralized, by the salesperson's relating and emoting behaviors. We situate these counterintuitive results within the extant theory and research on sales interactions, and outline implications for practice.Keywords Customer query handling . Customer interest . Salesperson behaviors . Linguistic cues . Dynamic effects Customer queries, including questions, requests, objections, and other asks, are common in salesperson-customer interactions (Clark et al. 1994;Clark and Pinch 2001;Packard et al. 2014;Schurr et al. 1985). 1 Queries are motivated by customers' need for more information (e.g., features), greater clarity (e.g., benefits/ costs), special requests (e.g., preferred costing), or settling concerns/objections (e.g., counter-claims). In this sense, customers' queries seek to reduce uncertainty as they process how the salesperson's offer/solution pitch fits with their needs and wants (