It is my pleasure to introduce this new —and long-awaited— issue of Ab Initio, in which guest editor Anne Bentley Waddoups and I have assembled a wide range of original research and clinical reports, all of which are based on or were stimulated by the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) or the Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) system. This issue also includes an interview with Jerome Kagan, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, who is not only one of the great researchers of our time but one of the most admired colleagues and mentors in the field of Developmental Psychology and Child Development. The interview was conducted by Marie Burks, a student at Harvard University and intern at the Brazelton Institute.

In the Original Articles section, in response to concerns about how pediatricians are trained, Susan McQuiston and her colleagues at Baystate Children's Hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, designed a follow-up study to examine the effects of an NBO-based training program on the attitudes and behavior of pediatric residents. Pediatrician and former Child Development Unit Fellow, Mario Becker, reports from Brazil on the use of NBAS and Touchpoints principles in his work in preventing tobacco smoking. Early Intervention Director, Martha Levine, who has spent a lifetime working in Early Intervention, describes her experience with the NBO in Early Intervention settings. J. Kevin Nugent, Nancy Snidman, Jerome Kagan, Mei-Chiung Shih, S. Ming, Cecilia Matson, Simona Bujoreanu, and Jennifer Gillette provide a brief description of the use of the revised NBAS (NBAS-R) in a study of the origins of temperament. In another report, my colleagues from the University of Massachusetts, Jay Killough and Julio Gonzalez, Judith Wides along with Clarissa Valim, and Mei-Chiung Shih, from the Children's Hospital, Boston, report on a randomized study on the effects of the NBO on parent-child interaction. David Nugent and Dana Alhaffer present a report on the Brazelton Institute-March of Dimes Family Support Program partnership, a training program for professionals working with parents of preterm infants, which was sponsored by the March of Dimes. This paper summarizes the results of the evaluation of the effects of the NBO training program on these professionals and on their work with families. Finally, we are very pleased to present an important paper by Mary Eming Young from the World Bank, on the importance of preventative, community-based, early child development programs in poorer rural settings, where resources are scarce. She emphasizes the importance of community-based programs—"programs owned by the community"—which integrate childcare, health, nutrition, and early child development programs for young children from birth to three, so that the child will do better in school and will have a better chance to develop skills to contribute to society and compete in the global economy.

The URBI et ORBI section includes news of presentations, research, and clinical work by Brazelton Institute International Network colleagues in a range of settings around the world, including Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Brazil, and the United States. This includes:

• a description of the expanding influence of the Brazelton Center of Great Britain, led by Joanna Hawthorne and her colleagues;
• the NBAS symposium scheduled for the World Infant Mental Health congress in Paris in July 2006; an international conference organized by Gherardo Rapizardi and his colleagues in Florence, which will feature a keynote address by Dr. Brazelton;
• a description of the huge conference organized by NBAS trainers Jose and Jane Saraiva in Sao Paulo, Brazil, drawing over 1000 participants;
• a brief report on NBAS and NBO training in Quebec, Canada, by Yvette Blanchard and Kevin Nugent;
• an announcement of a new NBAS film produced in Spanish by NBAS trainer Carme Costas in the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona;
• the use of the NBO by Doulas and a description of workshops presented by Susan O'Brien and Kevin Nugent at the 11th International Annual DONA conference in Washington, DC
• presentations at the Zero to Three conferences in New Orleans and in Washington, DC,