Homegrown Terrorism: The Threat Within

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-05-01

terrorism is perhaps one of the more shocking aspects of the new sources of terrorism for Western publics and policy makers alike. Potential...senior FBI official cited in Raffi Khatchadourian, “Azzam the American,” The New Yorker, January 22, 2007. 2 We are indebted to Dr. Hans Binnendijk...with their new countrymen. Many young people from Muslim countries also attend universities in Western countries. Most successfully enter these

Understanding The Relationships Between Noncommunicable Diseases, Unhealthy Lifestyles, And Country Wealth.

PubMed

Bollyky, Thomas J; Templin, Tara; Andridge, Caroline; Dieleman, Joseph L

2015-09-01

The amount of international aid given to address noncommunicable diseases is minimal. Most of it is directed to wealthier countries and focuses on the prevention of unhealthy lifestyles. Explanations for the current direction of noncommunicable disease aid include that these are diseases of affluence that benefit from substantial research and development into their treatment in high-income countries and are better addressed through domestic tax and policy measures to reduce risk-factor prevalence than through aid programs. This study assessed these justifications. First, we examined the relationships among premature adult mortality, defined as the probability that a person who has lived to the age of fifteen will die before the age of sixty from noncommunicable diseases; the major risk factors for these diseases; and country wealth. Second, we compared noncommunicable and communicable diseases prevalent in poor and wealthy countries alike, and their respective links to economic development. Last, we examined the respective roles that wealth and risk prevention have played in countries that achieved substantial reductions in premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases. Our results support greater investment in cost-effective noncommunicable disease preventive care and treatment in poorer countries and a higher priority for reducing key risk factors, particularly tobacco use. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

Global cancer statistics, 2012.

PubMed

Torre, Lindsey A; Bray, Freddie; Siegel, Rebecca L; Ferlay, Jacques; Lortet-Tieulent, Joannie; Jemal, Ahmedin

2015-03-01

Cancer constitutes an enormous burden on society in more and less economically developed countries alike. The occurrence of cancer is increasing because of the growth and aging of the population, as well as an increasing prevalence of established risk factors such as smoking, overweight, physical inactivity, and changing reproductive patterns associated with urbanization and economic development. Based on GLOBOCAN estimates, about 14.1 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million deaths occurred in 2012 worldwide. Over the years, the burden has shifted to less developed countries, which currently account for about 57% of cases and 65% of cancer deaths worldwide. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among males in both more and less developed countries, and has surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death among females in more developed countries; breast cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death among females in less developed countries. Other leading causes of cancer death in more developed countries include colorectal cancer among males and females and prostate cancer among males. In less developed countries, liver and stomach cancer among males and cervical cancer among females are also leading causes of cancer death. Although incidence rates for all cancers combined are nearly twice as high in more developed than in less developed countries in both males and females, mortality rates are only 8% to 15% higher in more developed countries. This disparity reflects regional differences in the mix of cancers, which is affected by risk factors and detection practices, and/or the availability of treatment. Risk factors associated with the leading causes of cancer death include tobacco use (lung, colorectal, stomach, and liver cancer), overweight/obesity and physical inactivity (breast and colorectal cancer), and infection (liver, stomach, and cervical cancer). A substantial portion of cancer cases and deaths could be prevented by broadly applying effective prevention measures, such as tobacco control, vaccination, and the use of early detection tests. © 2015 American Cancer Society.

Legal and policy foundations for global generic competition: Promoting affordable drug pricing in developing societies.

PubMed

Zapatero Miguel, Pablo

2015-01-01

The so-called 'TRIPS flexibilities' restated in 2001 by the World Trade Organization's Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health offer a variety of policy avenues for promoting global price-based competition for essential medicines, and thus for improving access to affordable medicines in the developing world. In recent years, developing countries and international organisations alike have begun to explore the potentialities of global generic markets and competition generally, and also of using compulsory licensing to remedy anti-competitive practices (e.g. excessive pricing) through TRIPS-compatible antitrust enforcement. These and other 'pro-competitive' TRIPS flexibilities currently available provide the critical leverage and policy space necessary to improve access to affordable medicines in the developing world.

The global financial crisis has led to a slowdown in growth of funding to improve health in many developing countries.

PubMed

Leach-Kemon, Katherine; Chou, David P; Schneider, Matthew T; Tardif, Annette; Dieleman, Joseph L; Brooks, Benjamin P C; Hanlon, Michael; Murray, Christopher J L

2012-01-01

How has funding to developing countries for health improvement changed in the wake of the global financial crisis? The question is vital for policy making, planning, and advocacy purposes in donor and recipient countries alike. We measured the total amount of financial and in-kind assistance that flowed from both public and private channels to improve health in developing countries during the period 1990-2011. The data for the years 1990-2009 reflect disbursements, while the numbers for 2010 and 2011 are preliminary estimates. Development assistance for health continued to grow in 2011, but the rate of growth was low. We estimate that assistance for health grew by 4 percent each year from 2009 to 2011, reaching a total of $27.73 billion. This growth was largely driven by the World Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and appeared to be a deliberate strategy in response to the global economic crisis. Assistance for health from bilateral agencies grew by only 4 percent, or $444.08 million, largely because the United States slowed its development assistance for health. Health funding through UN agencies stagnated, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria announced that it would make no new grants for the next two years because of declines in funding. Given the international community's focus on meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and persistent economic hardship in donor countries, continued measurement of development assistance for health is essential for policy making.

Idiopathic ulcers as an oral manifestation in pediatric patients with AIDS: multidisciplinary management.

PubMed

Martinez-Sandoval, B; Ceballos-Hernández, H; Téllez-Rodríguez, J; Xochihua-Díaz, L; Durán-Ibarra, G; Pozos-Guillen, A J

2012-01-01

HIV infection is a major global health problem affecting developing and developed countries alike. HIV infection is associated with multiple oral lesions, some of which are of value in diagnosing the disease. The aim of this report is to describe the clinical manifestations and their multidisciplinary management, in a 6-year-old girl with AIDS. The findings of this case report indicate that, it is essential to be familiar with the early oral manifestations of AIDS in order to understand the patient's dental health needs, apply preventive methods, control caries, and understand the value of oral lesions as diagnostic markers of disease progression in children with HIV infection. A multidisciplinary management is fundamental.

TREATMENT OF BEET SUGAR PLANT SEWAGE

PubMed Central

Pearse, Langdon; Greeley, Samuel A.

1920-01-01

Beet sugar is an industry yearly attaining greater and greater importance. Likewise the disposal of the wastes is a problem of increasing consequence in various sections of the country. This paper and the discussions constitute an unusual assembling of the facts, valuable to local authorities and those commercially interested, alike. PMID:18010285

Teaching Culture in the Classroom to Arabic Language Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eldin, Ahmad Abdel Tawwab Sharaf

2015-01-01

Arabic language learning comprises of certain elements, including syntactic ability, oral capability, dialect proficiency, and a change in state of mind towards different culture or society. For teachers and laymen alike, cultural competence, i.e., the knowledge of the customs, beliefs, and systems of another country, is indisputably an integral…

Leading System-Wide Improvement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Alma

2012-01-01

Around the world there is a preoccupation with improving the performance of schools and school systems. Comparisons made between countries through PISA and PERLs have led to a preoccupation, and in some cases, an obsession, with securing a high position in the international league tables. The minds of policy-makers and politicians alike are…

Remote Sensing Education and Development Countries: Multilateral Efforts through the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Charles, Leslie Bermann

1998-01-01

The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) is an international organization which coordinates space-based Earth observations world wide. Created in 1984, CEOS now comprises 38 national space agencies, regional organizations and international space-related and research groups. The aim of CEOS is to achieve international coordination in the planning of satellite missions for Earth observation and to maximize the utilization of data from these missions world-wide. With regard to developing countries, the fundamental aim of CEOS is to encourage the creation and maintenance of indigenous capability that is integrated into the local decision-making process, thereby enabling developing countries to obtain the maximum benefit from Earth observation. Obtaining adequate access to remote sensing information is difficult for developing countries and students and teachers alike. High unit data prices, the specialized nature of the technology , difficulty in locating specific data, complexities of copyright provisions, the emphasis on "leading edge" technology and research, and the lack of training materials relating to readily understood application are frequently noted obstacles. CEOS has developed an education CD-ROM which is aimed at increasing the integration of space-based data into school curricula, meeting the heretofore unsatisfied needs of developing countries for information about Earth observation application, data sources and future plans; and raising awareness around the world of the value of Earth observation data from space. The CD-ROM is designed to be used with an Internet web browser, increasing the information available to the user, but it can also be used on a stand-alone machine. It contains suggested lesson plans and additional resources for educators and users in developing countries.

Food waste within food supply chains: quantification and potential for change to 2050

PubMed Central

Parfitt, Julian; Barthel, Mark; Macnaughton, Sarah

2010-01-01

Food waste in the global food supply chain is reviewed in relation to the prospects for feeding a population of nine billion by 2050. Different definitions of food waste with respect to the complexities of food supply chains (FSCs)are discussed. An international literature review found a dearth of data on food waste and estimates varied widely; those for post-harvest losses of grain in developing countries might be overestimated. As much of the post-harvest loss data for developing countries was collected over 30 years ago, current global losses cannot be quantified. A significant gap exists in the understanding of the food waste implications of the rapid development of ‘BRIC’ economies. The limited data suggest that losses are much higher at the immediate post-harvest stages in developing countries and higher for perishable foods across industrialized and developing economies alike. For affluent economies, post-consumer food waste accounts for the greatest overall losses. To supplement the fragmentary picture and to gain a forward view, interviews were conducted with international FSC experts. The analyses highlighted the scale of the problem, the scope for improved system efficiencies and the challenges of affecting behavioural change to reduce post-consumer waste in affluent populations. PMID:20713403

Energy efficiency through integrated environmental management.

PubMed

Benromdhane, Souad Ahmed

2015-05-01

Integrated environmental management became an economic necessity after industrial development proved to be unsustainable without consideration of environmental direct and indirect impacts. Energy dependency and air pollution along with climate change grew into major challenges facing developed and developing countries alike. Thus, a new global market structure emerged and changed the way we do trade. The search intensified for alternatives to petroleum. However, scientists, policy makers, and environmental activists agreed to focus on strategic conservation and optimization of energy use. Environmental concerns will remain partially unaddressed with the current pace of consumption because greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise with economic growth. This paper discusses energy efficiency, steady integration of alternative sources, and increased use of best available technologies. Energy criteria developed for environmental labeling certification are presented. Our intention is to encourage manufacturers and service providers to supply consumers with less polluting and energy-consuming goods and services, inform consumers of the environmental and energy impacts, and thereby instill sustainable and responsible consumption. As several programs were initiated in developed countries, environmental labeling requirements created barriers to many exports manufactured in developing countries, affecting current world trade and putting more pressure on countries to meet those requirements. Defining an institutional and legal framework of environmental labeling is a key challenge in implementing such programs for critical economic sectors like tourism, textiles, and food production where energy needs are the most important aspect to control. A case study of Tunisia and its experience with eco-labeling is presented.

The Career Pathways of Young Adults in the Former USSR

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Ken

2006-01-01

Market reforms in former communist countries are supposed to have liberated individuals and enterprises alike. Post-industrial, globalised contexts are said to create greater risks and to require flexibility of businesses and employees, and that the latter are therefore required to become reflexive, proactive, and to take charge of their own…

Race to Top Now Faces Acid Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cavanagh, Sean

2010-01-01

With the conclusion of the second round of the federal Race to the Top competition, states across the country--winners and losers alike--are vowing to move forward with ambitious plans to reshape teacher-evaluation systems, fix struggling schools, revamp antiquated data systems, and make other changes aimed at raising student achievement. Yet…

The Evolution of a Practitioner; Transforming Praxis in Campus Internationalization and Beyond: An Autoethnography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chervenock, Kristian

2016-01-01

Many universities and colleges across the country and around the globe are concentrating on becoming increasingly international. The extent to which they are internationalizing varies widely and depends greatly on strategic initiatives and priorities on the part of university administration, faculty, staff and students alike. Despite the many…

The Early Career Paths of UK-Educated Intra-European Mobile Graduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Behle, Heike

2017-01-01

Students and graduates alike are encouraged to enhance their skills and knowledge by moving to a different European country as both national governments and European institutions anticipate individual skill gains, closer European networks and a boost to national economies as a result. Using data from a longitudinal survey, this paper follows…

Statistical classification of drug incidents due to look-alike sound-alike mix-ups.

PubMed

Wong, Zoie Shui Yee

2016-06-01

It has been recognised that medication names that look or sound similar are a cause of medication errors. This study builds statistical classifiers for identifying medication incidents due to look-alike sound-alike mix-ups. A total of 227 patient safety incident advisories related to medication were obtained from the Canadian Patient Safety Institute's Global Patient Safety Alerts system. Eight feature selection strategies based on frequent terms, frequent drug terms and constituent terms were performed. Statistical text classifiers based on logistic regression, support vector machines with linear, polynomial, radial-basis and sigmoid kernels and decision tree were trained and tested. The models developed achieved an average accuracy of above 0.8 across all the model settings. The receiver operating characteristic curves indicated the classifiers performed reasonably well. The results obtained in this study suggest that statistical text classification can be a feasible method for identifying medication incidents due to look-alike sound-alike mix-ups based on a database of advisories from Global Patient Safety Alerts. © The Author(s) 2014.

Road traffic and other unintentional injuries among travelers to developing countries

PubMed Central

Stewart, Barclay; Yankson, Isaac Kofi; Afukaar, Francis; Medina, Martha Hijar; Cuong, Pham Viet; Mock, Charles

2015-01-01

Synopsis Injuries result in nearly 6 million deaths and incur 52 million disability-adjusted life years annually, comprising 15% of the global disease burden. More than 90% of this burden occurs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Given this burden, it’s not unexpected that injuries are the leading cause of death among travelers to LMICs, namely from road traffic crashes and drowning. Opportunely, the majority of injuries are preventable. Therefore, pre-travel advice regarding foreseeable dangers and how to avoid them may significantly mitigate injury risk, such as: wearing seatbelts, helmets and personal flotation devices when appropriate; responsibly consuming alcohol; and closely supervising children. Upon return, travelers to LMICs are in a unique position; having shared injury risks while abroad, travelers can advocate for injury control initiatives that might make the world safer for travelers and local populations alike. PMID:26900117

Research Misconduct: The Peril of Publish or Perish

PubMed Central

Al-Adawi, Samir; Ali, Badreldin H.; Al-Zakwani, Ibrahim

2016-01-01

There is a spurt of interest in research productivity in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to lay the foundation for national development. From a global perspective, increased research productivity could conceivably be accompanied by an exponential increase in research misconduct (RM). Inevitably, erroneous or falsified data will be expected to adversely affect public health by misleading policy makers and clinicians alike into embarking on health policy and allocation of resources that are byproducts of RM. This will contribute significantly to the emerging crisis of confidence of the public in the integrity of scientific research. For a long time, RM has been considered only as plagiarism or data fabrication and falsification. However, the concept of RM nowadays encompasses more and, in this review, we discuss its possible implications in emerging economies, such as those of the GCC countries. We suggest that GCC countries ought to consider implementing remedial and punitive policies to deal with RM. PMID:26816563

Evidence for Overuse of Medical Services Around the World

PubMed Central

Brownlee, Shannon; Chalkidou, Kalipso; Doust, Jenny; Elshaug, Adam G.; Glasziou, Paul; Heath, Iona; Nagpal, Somil; Saini, Vikas; Srivastava, Divya; Chalmers, Kelsey; Korenstein, Deborah

2017-01-01

Summary Overuse, which is defined as the provision of medical services that are more likely to cause harm than good, is a global problem that afflicts rich and poor countries alike. This article reviews the definition of overuse, methods for measuring overuse, harms from overuse, and the evidence for worldwide overuse of many types of services. PMID:28077234

Secondary Analysis of Large-Scale Assessment Data: An Alternative to Variable-Centred Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chow, Kui Foon; Kennedy, Kerry John

2014-01-01

International large-scale assessments are now part of the educational landscape in many countries and often feed into major policy decisions. Yet, such assessments also provide data sets for secondary analysis that can address key issues of concern to educators and policymakers alike. Traditionally, such secondary analyses have been based on a…

NIRS Identification of Swietenia Macrophylla is Robust Across Specimens from 27 Countries

Treesearch

Maria C.J. Bergo; Tereza C.M. Pastore; Vera T.R. Coradin; Alex C. Wiedenhoeft; Jez W.B. Braga

2016-01-01

Big-leaf mahogany is the world’s most valuable widely traded tropical timber species and Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) has been applied as a tool for discriminating its wood from similar species using multivariate analysis. In this study four look-alike timbers of Swietenia macrophylla (mahogany or big-leaf mahogany), Carapa...

Managing water supply systems using free-market economy approaches: A detailed review of the implications for developing countries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chikozho, C.; Kujinga, K.

2017-08-01

Decision makers in developing countries are often confronted by difficult choices regarding the selection and deployment of appropriate water supply governance regimes that sufficiently take into account national socio-economic and political realities. Indeed, scholars and practitioners alike continue to grapple with the need to create the optimum water supply and allocation decision-making space applicable to specific developing countries. In this paper, we review documented case studies from various parts of the world to explore the utility of free-market economics approaches in water supply governance. This is one of the major paradigms that have emerged in the face of enduring questions regarding how best to govern water supply systems in developing countries. In the paper, we postulate that increasing pressure on available natural resources may have already rendered obsolete some of the water supply governance regimes that have served human societies very well for many decades. Our main findings show that national and municipal water supply governance paradigms tend to change in tandem with emerging national development frameworks and priorities. While many developing countries have adopted water management and governance policy prescriptions from the international arena, national and local socio-economic and political realities ultimately determine what works and what does not work on the ground. We thus, conclude that the choice of what constitutes an appropriate water supply governance regime in context is never simple. Indeed, the majority of case studies reviewed in the paper tend to rely on a mix of market economics and developmental statism to make their water governance regimes more realistic and workable on the ground.

Design and Fabrication of Solar Updraft Tower and Estimation of Power Generation; Initially Focused on Bangladesh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ayub, F.; Akhand, S.; Khan, A. S.; Saklayen, G.

2018-05-01

In our studies we focused on area of sourcing, converting and delivering sustainable energy, concentrating at the potential role of solar power. Power generation through a solar updraft tower (SUT) has been a promising approach for sustainable generation of renewable energy. Developing nations are faced with many challenges. Conventional sources are insufficient to meet the increasing demand of a developing, industrious nation (e.g. Bangladesh). Our project aims in reducing electricity crisis and forming a solution for our country, Bangladesh. The electricity generated can be supplied to the national grid. This will mean reduced cost for the government in the long run and also allow the government to reduce its dependency on costly and unsustainable fossil fuel. This cost reduction benefit can be passed on to the public as reduced energy cost or preferably through nationwide energy infrastructure development. This technology will not only help with the energy concern of Bangladesh but also will help to improve the situations of other developing countries alike Bangladesh. All in all implementing this technology will pave the way towards a better world and form a part of an integrated ecosystem of sustainable energy technology.

In Wrong Anticipation - Miscalibrated Beliefs between Germans, Israelis, and Palestinians

PubMed Central

Goerg, Sebastian J.; Hennig-Schmidt, Heike; Walkowitz, Gari; Winter, Eyal

2016-01-01

The reconcilability of actions and beliefs in inter-country relationships, either in business or politics, is of vital importance as incorrect beliefs on foreigners’ behavior can have serious implications. We study a typical inter-country interaction by means of a controlled laboratory investment game experiment in Germany, Israel and Palestine involving 400 student participants in total. An investor has to take a risky decision in a foreign country that involves transferring money to an investee/allocator. We found a notable constellation of calibrated and un-calibrated beliefs. Within each country, transfer standards exist, which investees correctly anticipate within their country. However, across countries these standards differ. By attributing the standard of their own environment to the other countries investees are remarkably bad in predicting foreign investors’ behavior. The tendency to ignore this potential difference can be a source of misinterpreting motives in cross-country interaction. Foreigners might perceive behavior as unfavorable or favorable differentiation, even though—unknown to them—investors actually treat fellow-country people and foreigners alike. PMID:27311066

Prevalence of Diabetes and Intermediate Hyperglycemia Among Adults From the First Multinational Study of Noncommunicable Diseases in Six Central American Countries

PubMed Central

Barcelo, Alberto; Gregg, Edward W.; Gerzoff, Robert B.; Wong, Roy; Perez Flores, Enrique; Ramirez-Zea, Manuel; Cafiero, Elizabeth; Altamirano, Lesbia; Ascencio Rivera, Melanie; de Cosio, Gerardo; de Maza, Martha Dinorah; del Aguila, Roberto; Emanuel, Englebert; Gil, Enrique; Gough, Ethan; Jenkins, Valerie; Orellana, Patrícia; Palma, Ruben; Palomo, Ruben; Pastora, Martha; Peña, Rodolfo; Pineda, Elia; Rodriguez, Bismark; Tacsan, Luis; Thompson, Loraine; Villagra, Lucy

2012-01-01

OBJECTIVE The increasing burdens of obesity and diabetes are two of the most prominent threats to the health of populations of developed and developing countries alike. The Central America Diabetes Initiative (CAMDI) is the first study to examine the prevalence of diabetes in Central America. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The CAMDI survey was a cross-sectional survey based on a probabilistic sample of the noninstitutionalized population of five Central American populations conducted between 2003 and 2006. The total sample population was 10,822, of whom 7,234 (67%) underwent anthropometry measurement and a fasting blood glucose or 2-h oral glucose tolerance test. RESULTS The total prevalence of diabetes was 8.5%, but was higher in Belize (12.9%) and lower in Honduras (5.4%). Of the screened population, 18.6% had impaired glucose tolerance/impaired fasting glucose. CONCLUSIONS As this population ages, the prevalence of diabetes is likely to continue to rise in a dramatic and devastating manner. Preventive strategies must be quickly introduced. PMID:22323417

How do public health safeguards in Indian patent law affect pharmaceutical patenting in practice?

PubMed

Sampat, Bhaven N; Amin, Tahir

2013-08-01

The 1995 Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement required developing countries to grant product patents in pharmaceuticals. Developing countries have since explored various measures to ameliorate potential negative effects of the new laws on public health. A prominent example is India, whose post-TRIPS patent laws include a provision, section 3(d), that restricts patents on incremental pharmaceutical innovations. Its critics and supporters alike suggest that this provision makes Indian patent law very different from that in other jurisdictions. Yet there are concerns that given resource constraints facing the Indian patent office, this novel feature of Indian patent laws on the books may not have an effect on Indian patent prosecution in practice. We test this by examining the prosecution outcomes of 2,803 applications filed in both India and Europe, coded by whether they include claims that trigger 3(d) considerations. We find that having the 3(d) provision on the books does not translate into very different patent outcomes in practice in India, relative to Europe, a jurisdiction without this provision.

[Poor, propertyless and pregnant: classification of women's status by country].

PubMed

1988-12-01

A new study called "Poor, propertyless, and pregnant" that classified the condition of women in 99 countries found women in Sweden, Finland, and the US to enjoy the best legal and social conditions and the greatest degree of equality with men. The worst discrimination against women occurred in Bangladesh, Mali, Afghanistan, North Yemen, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia. Women do not have complete equality with men in any country. But over 60% of the world's female population lives in countries where extensive poverty and sexual discrimination have created conditions of deprivation. One of the principal mechanisms that negatively influences the condition of women is early procreation; early and frequent childbirth obliterates women's chances for education and paid employment. Feminization of poverty is becoming universal, largely because a growing proportion of households are headed by women with dependent children. In developed and developing countries alike, working women with families work a double day. Although the struggle for legal and social equality for women takes different forms in different countries, certain basic measures can be applied by all governments. Reforms are needed to give women access to more remunerative jobs, equal property rights, and access to credit. Greater investments are needed in reproductive health and in education and training for women. Governments, employers, and husbands should recognize the social value of childbirth and child rearing. The study is divided into 5 sections, each of which has 4 series of data, so that each country is evaluated on 20 variables. The 5 sections are health, nuptiality and children, education, economic participation, and social equality. In most developed countries women live an average of 7 years longer than men, but in developing countries the difference is only 2 years. Complications of pregnancy and childbirth cause the deaths of over 500,000 women each year and affect another 5 million, mostly in developing countries. The condition and welfare of women are tightly linked to 3 factors: age at marriage, beginning of procreation, and capacity to regulate and space pregnancies. Women's status is also influenced by whether they are married and their rights to divorce. In developing countries about 45% of women are illiterate, compared to 25% of men. The salaries of women do not equal those of men in any country. Only Finland and Sweden have been unreservedly committed to providing equal political rights and legal protection against sexual discrimination.

The Bayer Facts of Science Education XVI: US STEM Workforce Shortage— Myth or Reality? Fortune 1000 Talent Recruiters on the Debate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bayer Corporation

2014-10-01

A major debate is currently underway in the USA about whether there is, in fact, a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce shortage in the country or not. This is the subject of the Bayer Facts of Science Education XVI: US STEM Workforce Shortage—Myth or Reality? Fortune 1000 Talent Recruiters on the Debate. An ongoing public opinion research project commissioned by Bayer Corporation, the Bayer Facts surveys examine US STEM education, diversity and workforce issues. The 16th in the series, the newest survey asks talent recruiters at some of the country's largest employers—those included in the Fortune 1000—to weigh in on current and future demand for new hires with 2- and 4-year STEM degrees. As professionals responsible for scouting, recruiting and hiring talent at Fortune 1000 companies, both STEM and non-STEM alike, these individuals are on the frontlines, tasked with assessing and filling their companies' workforce needs. The survey asks the recruiters whether new hires with 2- and 4-year STEM degrees are as, more or less in demand than their peers without STEM degrees? Are more new STEM jobs being created at their companies than non-STEM jobs? Can they find adequate numbers of qualified candidates in a timely manner and how fierce is the competition for STEM degree holders? To answer these and other questions, the survey polled 150 talent recruiters at Fortune 1000 companies, both STEM and non-STEM alike. The survey also asks the recruiters about diversion in STEM, workforce diversity in the pipeline, the role of community colleges in developing the STEM pipeline and the desired skills and competencies of new hires.

An approach to human work systems development under the circumstances of an aging society and international business operations.

PubMed

Ikeda, Y T

1997-12-01

At least three serious aspects of problems exist as obstacles for the national economy in Japan to grow or even to maintain its present level: the lack of natural resources, the trends of a decreasing young labor force, and an increase in the shift of domestic business operations to foreign countries. Although top managers make the decisions of product or service planning, or both, work systems designers are also responsible for conserving the resources. An action against the decrease of the young work force is needed to maintain work systems in an operable condition. The business shifts to foreign countries affect all the people, who are losing job opportunities. The present paper presents an approach to reorienting human work systems within the scope of the work systems designers' roles under the circumstance of these social environments. The following discussion is based on the assumptions that work organizations be productive for themselves and the world, effective and efficient for themselves, and contributive to their communities and the world. In essence, an approach to human work systems development should be fair to managers and workers alike. Presented are cases of these work systems as developed along the perspectives mentioned.

Special Session 4: Astronomy Education between Past and Future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Greve, Jean-Pierre

2010-11-01

The special session aims at discussing an integrated approach of the different efforts to increase and promote the teaching and learning of astronomy in the world, with emphasis on developing countries. To this end, attention will be given to research on education, specifically in the field of physics, to best practices of the use of astronomy in educational systems (specifically in developing countries), and to innovative learning initiatives other than formal education. The Special Session aims also at creating a universal perspective wherein modern (post-Copernican) astronomy will presented as an intellectual cumulus. The objective of the session is to disseminate best practices in teaching and learning activities of astronomy and to give an opportunity to learn about initiatives in different cultural and socio-economic settings. The special session also wants to give food-for-thought and proposals for reflection for an integrative approach, and for optimization processes, to enhance the interest in astronomy and its role as a trigger towards science education in the educational systems, with emphasis on the developing countries. The outcome should be a sensitization of teachers and students alike to the concept of a universal history of astronomy and creation of some reliable source material which can be used as a teaching aid in a culture-specific context. The outcome could be a set of recommendations for future integrated actions, and eventually recommendations on new initiatives, framed into the new decadal policy plan.

Stem cell therapy clinical research: A regulatory conundrum for academia.

PubMed

Nagpal, Anjali; Juttner, Chris; Hamilton-Bruce, Monica Anne; Rolan, Paul; Koblar, Simon A

2017-12-01

The encouraging pace of discovery and development in the field of regenerative medicine holds tremendous potential for bringing therapies to the clinic that may offer meaningful benefit to patients, particularly in diseases with no or suboptimal therapeutic options. Academic researchers will continue to play a critical role in developing concepts and therapies, thus determining whether regenerative medicine will be able to live up to this potential that clearly excites clinicians, researchers and patients alike. This review summarises recent developments in regulatory frameworks across different countries that aim to ensure adequate oversight of the development of regenerative medicine products, which are unique in structural and functional complexity when compared to traditional chemical drugs and fully characterised biological drugs. It discusses the implications of these developments for researchers aiming to make the challenging transition from laboratory to clinical development of these therapies and considers possible pragmatic solutions that could accelerate this process that is essential to maintain research credibility and ensure patient safety. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Alien or Alike? How the Perceived Similarity between the Typical Science Teacher and a Student's Self-Image Correlates with Choosing Science at School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kessels, Ursula; Taconis, Ruurd

2012-01-01

By applying the self-to-prototype matching theory to students' academic choices, this study links the unpopularity of science in many industrialized countries with the perceived gap between typical persons representing science (e.g. physics teachers) on the one hand and students' self-image on the other. A sample of N = 308 Dutch and German…

When populism takes over the delivery of health care: Venezuela

PubMed Central

Daryanani, Sunil

2017-01-01

Adequate and modern health care is not available in Venezuela at this moment. A humanitarian crisis of post war dimensions is currently rampant and afflicting all Venezuelans alike. The delivery and availability of cancer care is severely limited and inadequate. No funding is available as populist measures, mismanagement, pillaging, corruption, lack of forethought and expertise have brought the country into severe economic collapse and political turmoil. PMID:29225695

When populism takes over the delivery of health care: Venezuela.

PubMed

Daryanani, Sunil

2017-01-01

Adequate and modern health care is not available in Venezuela at this moment. A humanitarian crisis of post war dimensions is currently rampant and afflicting all Venezuelans alike. The delivery and availability of cancer care is severely limited and inadequate. No funding is available as populist measures, mismanagement, pillaging, corruption, lack of forethought and expertise have brought the country into severe economic collapse and political turmoil.

Social responsibility, international development, and institutional commitment: lessons from the Boston University experience.

PubMed

Babich, Lauren P; Bicknell, William J; Culpepper, Larry; Jack, Brian W

2008-02-01

Boston University (BU) has a long history of a strong social mission and commitment to service. In August 2003, BU made an institutional commitment to work with the country of Lesotho to tackle the human capital implications of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Surrounded by South Africa, and with a population of two million, Lesotho, a stable democracy, suffers the world's third-highest adult HIV prevalence rate of about 24%. The initiation of the program required a substantial initial institutional investment without any promise of payback. This allowed BU to begin work in Lesotho while searching for additional funds. The government of Lesotho and BU agreed to focus on preserving the lives of Lesotho's citizens, building the capacity of the country's workforce, and maximizing the efficiency of Lesotho's existing systems and resources. Initial activities were modest, beginning with workshops on problem solving, then the launch of a primary care clinic that offered HIV/AIDS treatment services at the nation's only teacher training college. With support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the main focus is now on strengthening district-level primary care services, including the initiation of a family medicine residency training program in cooperation with the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. The initial commitment has developed into a mutual partnership, with benefits to country and university alike. By combining the expertise from various schools and departments to focus on a single country, a university can significantly advance international development, strengthen its service mission, enrich teaching, and provide new opportunities for research.

[Possibilities for Universities to Influence Global Pricing of Medicines].

PubMed

Jaehn, Philipp; Inhoffen, Johannes; Scheer, Jana; Streicher, Felix; Gesine Huhn, Anna; Lance, Christopher

2017-07-01

People in countries of the global south are affected by a unique spectrum of diseases, while costs for health care are a huge burden in the context of poverty. Furthermore, non-communicable diseases increasingly play a role in these countries. The management of translational research, potential clinical applications and marketing of new drugs in Germany is thus getting more and more important for global health. Regarding this, universities have a particular responsibility for two reasons. First, through basic research, they contribute significantly to the development of new medicines. Second, the university is a public institution and has thus the responsibility to return the gained knowledge to the public. Marketing of publicly funded innovations should provide benefits to patients in wealthy and poor countries alike. As a first step towards this goal, we demand the introduction of a globally responsible licensing policy at German universities. Different mechanisms which have been described in the German speaking areas such as "Equitable Licensing" provide a basis for the realization of this ambitious aim and have been introduced successfully at the universities of Muenster, Tuebingen and Freiburg. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

More a plowshare than a sword: the legacy of US Cold War agricultural diplomacy.

PubMed

McGlade, Jacqueline

2009-01-01

Recently, agriculture has assumed an elevated role in world diplomacy due to pressing issues like international poverty relief, changing environmental conditions, farm trade imbalances, rising food prices, and the diversion of crops into bio-fuel production. Consequently, agricultural interests and production have become increasingly entwined with the politics of national protectionism and identity, domestic security, and the preservation of trading advantage in developed and developing countries alike. This study examines the current impasse in world agricultural negotiations as an outgrowth of US foreign aid and trade policymaking as it evolved during the Cold War. In particular, it chronicles the historic shift in US foreign policy away from "give-away" food aid and surplus sales and toward the championing of global agricultural redevelopment under such programs as the Marshall Plan and PL 480, the Food for Peace program. As more a plowshare than a sword, the American Cold War push for worldwide agricultural modernization led many countries to experience new levels of food self-efficiency and export capabilities. Along with production parity, however, has come escalating levels of trade competition and national protectionism, which challenges again the achievement of world agricultural stability and prosperity.

Depo-Provera--ethical issues in its testing and distribution.

PubMed Central

Potts, M; Paxman, J M

1984-01-01

Ethical issues relating to the use of the injectable contraceptive in developed and developing countries alike involve public policy decisions concerning both criteria for testing a new drug and individual choices about using a specific form of contraception approved for national distribution. Drug testing consists of an important but still evolving set of procedures. Depo-Provera is not qualitatively different from any other drug and some unpredictable risks are inevitable, even after extensive animal experiments and clinical trials. In assessing the risks and benefits of Depo-Provera use, epidemiological data from large-scale human use is now beginning to become more important than data from animal experiments and clinical trials. The consumer's best interest is central to any ethically responsible system of drug distribution. Systems of informed choice are needed, even in societies where illiteracy remains common and medical services are weak. In the case of a contraceptive, the risks of non-use leading to unintended pregnancy, which can result in high mortality, are relevant as well as the side-effects of the method. An attempt, therefore, is made here to categorise those issues which are universal and those which are country-specific. PMID:6231379

International medical migration: a critical conceptual review of the global movements of doctors and nurses.

PubMed

Bradby, Hannah

2014-11-01

This paper critically appraises the discourse around international medical migration at the turn of the 21st century. A critical narrative review of a range of English-language sources, including grey literature, books and research reports, traces the development and spread of specific causative models. The attribution of causative relations between the movement of skilled medical workers, the provision of health care and population health outcomes illustrates how the global reach of biomedicine has to be understood in the context of local conditions. The need to understand migration as an aspect of uneven global development, rather than a delimited issue of manpower services management, is illustrated with reference to debates about 'brain drain' of Africa's health-care professionals, task-shifting and the crisis in health-care human resources. The widespread presumed cause of shortages of skilled health-care staff in sub-Saharan Africa was overdetermined by a compelling narrative of rich countries stealing poor countries' trained health-care professionals. This narrative promotes medical professional interests and ignores historical patterns of underinvestment in health-care systems and structures. Sociological theories of medicalization suggest that the international marketization of medical recruitment is a key site where the uneven global development of capital is at work. A radical reconfiguration of medical staffing along the lines of 'task-shifting' in rich and poor countries' health-care systems alike offers one means of thinking about global equity in access to quality care. © The Author(s) 2014.

Understanding parents' and professionals' knowledge and awareness of autism in Nepal.

PubMed

Heys, Michelle; Alexander, Amy; Medeiros, Emilie; Tumbahangphe, Kirti M; Gibbons, Felicity; Shrestha, Rita; Manandhar, Mangala; Wickenden, Mary; Shrestha, Merina; Costello, Anthony; Manandhar, Dharma; Pellicano, Elizabeth

2017-05-01

Autism is a global phenomenon. Yet, there is a dearth of knowledge of how it is understood and its impact in low-income countries. We examined parents' and professionals' understanding of autism in one low-income country, Nepal. We conducted focus groups and semi-structured interviews with parents of autistic and non-autistic children and education and health professionals from urban and rural settings ( n = 106), asking questions about typical and atypical development and presenting vignettes of children to prompt discussion. Overall, parents of typically developing children and professionals had little explicit awareness of autism. They did, however, use some distinctive terms to describe children with autism from children with other developmental conditions. Furthermore, most participants felt that environmental factors, including in-utero stressors and birth complications, parenting style and home or school environment were key causes of atypical child development and further called for greater efforts to raise awareness and build community capacity to address autism. This is the first study to show the striking lack of awareness of autism by parents and professionals alike. These results have important implications for future work in Nepal aiming both to estimate the prevalence of autism and to enhance support available for autistic children and their families.

Spatially Enabling the Health Sector

PubMed Central

Weeramanthri, Tarun Stephen; Woodgate, Peter

2016-01-01

Spatial information describes the physical location of either people or objects, and the measured relationships between them. In this article, we offer the view that greater utilization of spatial information and its related technology, as part of a broader redesign of the architecture of health information at local and national levels, could assist and speed up the process of health reform, which is taking place across the globe in richer and poorer countries alike. In making this point, we describe the impetus for health sector reform, recent developments in spatial information and analytics, and current Australasian spatial health research. We highlight examples of uptake of spatial information by the health sector, as well as missed opportunities. Our recommendations to spatially enable the health sector are applicable to high- and low-resource settings. PMID:27867933

Spatially Enabling the Health Sector.

PubMed

Weeramanthri, Tarun Stephen; Woodgate, Peter

2016-01-01

Spatial information describes the physical location of either people or objects, and the measured relationships between them. In this article, we offer the view that greater utilization of spatial information and its related technology, as part of a broader redesign of the architecture of health information at local and national levels, could assist and speed up the process of health reform, which is taking place across the globe in richer and poorer countries alike. In making this point, we describe the impetus for health sector reform, recent developments in spatial information and analytics, and current Australasian spatial health research. We highlight examples of uptake of spatial information by the health sector, as well as missed opportunities. Our recommendations to spatially enable the health sector are applicable to high- and low-resource settings.

African Female Physicians and Nurses in the Global Care Chain: Qualitative Explorations from Five Destination Countries.

PubMed

Wojczewski, Silvia; Pentz, Stephen; Blacklock, Claire; Hoffmann, Kathryn; Peersman, Wim; Nkomazana, Oathokwa; Kutalek, Ruth

2015-01-01

Migration of health professionals is an important policy issue for both source and destination countries around the world. The majority of migrant care workers in industrialized countries today are women. However, the dimension of mobility of highly skilled females from countries of the global south has been almost entirely neglected for many years. This paper explores the experiences of high-skilled female African migrant health-workers (MHW) utilising the framework of Global Care Chain (GCC) research. In the frame of the EU-project HURAPRIM (Human Resources for Primary Health Care in Africa), the research team conducted 88 semi-structured interviews with female and male African MHWs in five countries (Botswana, South Africa, Belgium, Austria, UK) from July 2011 until April 2012. For this paper we analysed the 34 interviews with female physicians and nurses using the qualitative framework analysis approach and the software atlas.ti. In terms of the effect of the migration on their career, almost all of the respondents experienced short-term, long-term or permanent inability to work as health-care professionals; few however also reported a positive career development post-migration. Discrimination based on a foreign nationality, race or gender was reported by many of our respondents, physicians and nurses alike, whether they worked in an African or a European country. Our study shows that in addition to the phenomenon of deskilling often reported in GCC research, many female MHW are unable to work according to their qualifications due to the fact that their diplomas are not recognized in the country of destination. Policy strategies are needed regarding integration of migrants in the labour market and working against discrimination based on race and gender.

African Female Physicians and Nurses in the Global Care Chain: Qualitative Explorations from Five Destination Countries

PubMed Central

Wojczewski, Silvia; Pentz, Stephen; Blacklock, Claire; Hoffmann, Kathryn; Peersman, Wim; Nkomazana, Oathokwa; Kutalek, Ruth

2015-01-01

Migration of health professionals is an important policy issue for both source and destination countries around the world. The majority of migrant care workers in industrialized countries today are women. However, the dimension of mobility of highly skilled females from countries of the global south has been almost entirely neglected for many years. This paper explores the experiences of high-skilled female African migrant health-workers (MHW) utilising the framework of Global Care Chain (GCC) research. In the frame of the EU-project HURAPRIM (Human Resources for Primary Health Care in Africa), the research team conducted 88 semi-structured interviews with female and male African MHWs in five countries (Botswana, South Africa, Belgium, Austria, UK) from July 2011 until April 2012. For this paper we analysed the 34 interviews with female physicians and nurses using the qualitative framework analysis approach and the software atlas.ti. In terms of the effect of the migration on their career, almost all of the respondents experienced short-term, long-term or permanent inability to work as health-care professionals; few however also reported a positive career development post-migration. Discrimination based on a foreign nationality, race or gender was reported by many of our respondents, physicians and nurses alike, whether they worked in an African or a European country. Our study shows that in addition to the phenomenon of deskilling often reported in GCC research, many female MHW are unable to work according to their qualifications due to the fact that their diplomas are not recognized in the country of destination. Policy strategies are needed regarding integration of migrants in the labour market and working against discrimination based on race and gender. PMID:26068218

[Social marketers' lack of success in using CSM discipline to harness commercial resources and increase contraceptive prevalence].

PubMed

Davies, J

1984-01-01

Social marketers have certainly shown that the CSM discipline can quickly and cost-effectively harness commercial resources to increase contraceptive prevalence. But why hasn't the social marketing idea caught on in more countries? According to Social Marketing Forum, only a tiny number of countries have active programs after more than a decade of effort. The most likely reason for this lack of success is doubt and fear on the part of both developing countries' officials and donor agencies about allowing marketing enthusiasts--with our very noticeable advertising methods--to join the family planning fight. And what has our answer been? Usually, a head-on retort such as, "But look at all the condoms we've sold]" And that gets us nowhere, because the successful peddling of 1 not-so-impressive method doesn't begin to balance the fears of a possible backlash that brash condom promotions could bring down on official heads. The lesson we should be learning is that social marketers possess to narrow an outlook and promote a small range of products that don't enthuse decisionmakers. Hence, we are often perceived as condom salesmen--and not much more. What should we be doing? We should be selling the idea of using private sector experience to assist national development. That means social development, particularly improved health, family planning and women's education. These 3 activities have proven effective in reducing fertility and would add up to a marketing opportunity--a longterm challenge that should enthuse dicisionmakers, private sector entrepreneurs and donor agencies alike. Further, our model--the commercial sector--is renowned for branching out and secceeding in a broad range of endeavors. As an example, Procter and Gamble uses separate divisions to market different products. Initiatives already exist in many countries to harness the private sector as a development tool. Social marketers should be leading the initiative--and benefitting from it, too. full text

Offshore platform sourced pollution monitoring using space-borne fully polarimetric C and X band synthetic aperture radar.

PubMed

Singha, Suman; Ressel, Rudolf

2016-11-15

Use of polarimetric SAR data for offshore pollution monitoring is relatively new and shows great potential for operational offshore platform monitoring. This paper describes the development of an automated oil spill detection chain for operational purposes based on C-band (RADARSAT-2) and X-band (TerraSAR-X) fully polarimetric images, wherein we use polarimetric features to characterize oil spills and look-alikes. Numbers of near coincident TerraSAR-X and RADARSAT-2 images have been acquired over offshore platforms. Ten polarimetric feature parameters were extracted from different types of oil and 'look-alike' spots and divided into training and validation dataset. Extracted features were then used to develop a pixel based Artificial Neural Network classifier. Mutual information contents among extracted features were assessed and feature parameters were ranked according to their ability to discriminate between oil spill and look-alike spots. Polarimetric features such as Scattering Diversity, Surface Scattering Fraction and Span proved to be most suitable for operational services. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

HIV-related travel restrictions: trends and country characteristics.

PubMed

Chang, Felicia; Prytherch, Helen; Nesbitt, Robin C; Wilder-Smith, Annelies

2013-06-03

Increasingly, HIV-seropositive individuals cross international borders. HIV-related restrictions on entry, stay, and residence imposed by countries have important consequences for this mobile population. Our aim was to describe the geographical distribution of countries with travel restrictions and to examine the trends and characteristics of countries with such restrictions. In 2011, data presented to UNAIDS were used to establish a list of countries with and without HIV restrictions on entry, stay, and residence and to describe their geographical distribution. The following indicators were investigated to describe the country characteristics: population at mid-year, international migrants as a percentage of the population, Human Development Index, estimated HIV prevalence (age: 15-49), presence of a policy prohibiting HIV screening for general employment purposes, government and civil society responses to having non-discrimination laws/regulations which specify migrants/mobile populations, government and civil society responses to having laws/regulations/policies that present obstacles to effective HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support for migrants/mobile populations, Corruption Perception Index, and gross national income per capita. HIV-related restrictions exist in 45 out of 193 WHO countries (23%) in all regions of the world. We found that the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific Regions have the highest proportions of countries with these restrictions. Our analyses showed that countries that have opted for restrictions have the following characteristics: smaller populations, higher proportions of migrants in the population, lower HIV prevalence rates, and lack of legislation protecting people living with HIV from screening for employment purposes, compared with countries without restrictions. Countries with a high proportion of international migrants tend to have travel restrictions - a finding that is relevant to migrant populations and travel medicine providers alike. Despite international pressure to remove travel restrictions, many countries continue to implement these restrictions for HIV-positive individuals on entry and stay. Since 2010, the United States and China have engaged in high profile removals. This may be indicative of an increasing trend, facilitated by various factors, including international advocacy and the setting of a UNAIDS goal to halve the number of countries with restrictions by 2015.

HIV-related travel restrictions: trends and country characteristics

PubMed Central

Chang, Felicia; Prytherch, Helen; Nesbitt, Robin C.; Wilder-Smith, Annelies

2013-01-01

Introduction Increasingly, HIV-seropositive individuals cross international borders. HIV-related restrictions on entry, stay, and residence imposed by countries have important consequences for this mobile population. Our aim was to describe the geographical distribution of countries with travel restrictions and to examine the trends and characteristics of countries with such restrictions. Methods In 2011, data presented to UNAIDS were used to establish a list of countries with and without HIV restrictions on entry, stay, and residence and to describe their geographical distribution. The following indicators were investigated to describe the country characteristics: population at mid-year, international migrants as a percentage of the population, Human Development Index, estimated HIV prevalence (age: 15–49), presence of a policy prohibiting HIV screening for general employment purposes, government and civil society responses to having non-discrimination laws/regulations which specify migrants/mobile populations, government and civil society responses to having laws/regulations/policies that present obstacles to effective HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support for migrants/mobile populations, Corruption Perception Index, and gross national income per capita. Results HIV-related restrictions exist in 45 out of 193 WHO countries (23%) in all regions of the world. We found that the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific Regions have the highest proportions of countries with these restrictions. Our analyses showed that countries that have opted for restrictions have the following characteristics: smaller populations, higher proportions of migrants in the population, lower HIV prevalence rates, and lack of legislation protecting people living with HIV from screening for employment purposes, compared with countries without restrictions. Conclusion Countries with a high proportion of international migrants tend to have travel restrictions – a finding that is relevant to migrant populations and travel medicine providers alike. Despite international pressure to remove travel restrictions, many countries continue to implement these restrictions for HIV-positive individuals on entry and stay. Since 2010, the United States and China have engaged in high profile removals. This may be indicative of an increasing trend, facilitated by various factors, including international advocacy and the setting of a UNAIDS goal to halve the number of countries with restrictions by 2015. PMID:23735755

National health insurance in America--can we practice with it? Can we continue to practice without it?

PubMed Central

Grumbach, K

1989-01-01

Health insurance in the United States is failing patients and physicians alike. In this country 37 million uninsured face economic barriers to care, and the health of many suffers as a result. The "corporatization" of medical care threatens professional values with an unprecedented administrative and commercial intrusion into the daily practice of medicine. Competitive strategies have also failed their most ostensible goal--cost control. In contrast, Canada offers a model of a national health insurance plan that provides universal and comprehensive coverage, succeeds at restraining health care inflation, and does little to abrogate the clinical autonomy of physicians in private practice. I propose that American physicians relent in their historical opposition to national health insurance and participate in the development of a universal, public insurance plan responsive to the needs of both patients and physicians. Images PMID:2672604

A review of AirQ Models and their applications for forecasting the air pollution health outcomes.

PubMed

Oliveri Conti, Gea; Heibati, Behzad; Kloog, Itai; Fiore, Maria; Ferrante, Margherita

2017-03-01

Even though clean air is considered as a basic requirement for the maintenance of human health, air pollution continues to pose a significant health threat in developed and developing countries alike. Monitoring and modeling of classic and emerging pollutants is vital to our knowledge of health outcomes in exposed subjects and to our ability to predict them. The ability to anticipate and manage changes in atmospheric pollutant concentrations relies on an accurate representation of the chemical state of the atmosphere. The task of providing the best possible analysis of air pollution thus requires efficient computational tools enabling efficient integration of observational data into models. A number of air quality models have been developed and play an important role in air quality management. Even though a large number of air quality models have been discussed or applied, their heterogeneity makes it difficult to select one approach above the others. This paper provides a brief review on air quality models with respect to several aspects such as prediction of health effects.

Epidemiology of Global Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: Qualitative Review.

PubMed

Dewan, Michael C; Mummareddy, Nishit; Wellons, John C; Bonfield, Christopher M

2016-07-01

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common condition affecting children all over the world, and it represents a global public health concern. It is unclear how geopolitical, societal, and ethnic differences may influence the nature of TBI among children. A comprehensive literature search was conducted incorporating studies with hospital-, regional-, or country-specific pediatric TBI epidemiology data published between 1995 and 2015. Incidence, age, severity, mechanism of injury, and other relevant injury characteristics were extracted and compared across diverse geographic regions. Thirty articles met inclusion criteria, incorporating TBI data from more than 165,000 children on 5 continents. The worldwide incidence of pediatric TBI ranges broadly and varies greatly by country, with most reporting a range between 47 and 280 per 100,000 children. After the age of 3, male children suffered higher rates of TBI than females. A bimodal age distribution is often described, with very young children (0-2 years) and adolescents (15-18) more commonly injured. Mild TBI (Glasgow Coma Scale ≥13) constitutes more than 80% of injuries, and up to 90% of all injuries are associated with negative imaging. Only a small fraction (<10%) requires surgical intervention. Independent of country or region of origin, the vast majority of children suffering TBI achieve a good clinical outcome. Hospital admission rates vary widely, with U.S. patients more commonly admitted than those from other countries. Falls and motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) represent the majority of injury mechanisms. In Africa and Asia, pedestrians were most commonly injured in MVCs, while vehicle occupants were more likely involved among Australian, European, and U.S. For children, nonaccidental trauma was prevalent in developing and developed nations alike. TBI is a relatively common entity stretching across traditional geographic and demographic boundaries and affecting pediatric populations worldwide. Continued civil infrastructure development and public health policy reforms may help to reduce the societal burden of pediatric TBI. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The right to health of non-nationals and displaced persons in the sustainable development goals era: challenges for equity in universal health care.

PubMed

Brolan, Claire E; Forman, Lisa; Dagron, Stéphanie; Hammonds, Rachel; Waris, Attiya; Latif, Lyla; Ruano, Ana Lorena

2017-02-21

Under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), United Nations (UN) Member States reported progress on the targets toward their general citizenry. This focus repeatedly excluded marginalized ethnic and linguistic minorities, including people of refugee backgrounds and other vulnerable non-nationals that resided within a States' borders. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to be truly transformative by being made operational in all countries, and applied to all, nationals and non-nationals alike. Global migration and its diffuse impact has intensified due to escalating conflicts and the growing violence in war-torn Syria, as well as in many countries in Africa and in Central America. This massive migration and the thousands of refugees crossing borders in search for safety led to the creation of two-tiered, ad hoc, refugee health care systems that have added to the sidelining of non-nationals in MDG-reporting frameworks. We have identified four ways to promote the protection of vulnerable non-nationals' health and well being in States' application of the post-2015 SDG framework: In setting their own post-2015 indicators the UN Member States should explicitly identify vulnerable migrants, refugees, displaced persons and other marginalized groups in the content of such indicators. Our second recommendation is that statisticians from different agencies, including the World Health Organization's Gender, Equity and Human Rights programme should be actively involved in the formulation of SDG indicators at both the global and country level. In addition, communities, civil society and health justice advocates should also vigorously engage in country's formulation of post-2015 indicators. Finally, we advocate that the inclusion of non-nationals be anchored in the international human right to health, which in turn requires appropriate financing allocations as well as robust monitoring and evaluation processes that can hold technocratic decision-makers accountable for progress.

Pharmacy Education and Practice in 13 Middle Eastern Countries

PubMed Central

Kheir, Nadir; Zaidan, Manal; Younes, Husam; El Hajj, Maguy; Wilbur, Kerry

2008-01-01

The Arab world has influenced the art and science of pharmacy for centuries. Pharmacy education and practice is continuing to evolve in the Arabic-speaking traditional Middle East countries, although relatively little information has been published in the English press. Our goal was to provide a high-level synopsis of conditions in this region. We selected 13 countries for review. Information was obtained by reviewing the available published literature and individual university and program web sites, as well as contacting program or country representatives. Seventy-eight active pharmacy schools in 12 countries were identified. At least 14,000 students (over 75% from Egypt) are admitted into baccalaureate degree programs every year. The 5-year baccalaureate degree remains the first professional degree to practice. While changes in pharmacy education have been relatively rapid over the past decade, the advancement of pharmacy practice, particularly in the private sector, appears to be slower. Hospital pharmacists often possess an advanced degree and tend to have a higher level of practice compared to that of community pharmacists. Despite the adversities that face academics and practitioners alike, there is a strong desire to advance the science and practice of pharmacy in the Middle East. PMID:19325953

Engineering Students: Enhancing Employability Skills through PBL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

H, Othman; Mat Daud K., A.; U, Ewon; Salleh B, Mohd; Omar N., H.; Baser J, Abd; Ismail M., E.; A, Sulaiman

2017-05-01

As a developing country, Malaysia faces challenging tasks to develop her economy just like many other countries. Nowadays, change involves many aspects like the economy from agriculture to manufacturing, technology from modern to more advanced ones; mindset from traditional to advanced and so on. Previous studies show that one of the major issues facing local graduates is the lack of employability skills. This problem concerns not only the government but undergraduates and institutions alike. From the pedagogical aspect, one of the more effective ways to improve this is through instructional delivery and in this case the use of Problem-based Learning (PBL). The need to adopt PBL should involved applied subjects undertaken by engineering students. Studies have shown that the use of PBL has been proven to make learning more attractive and effective. In this research, we studied the effectiveness of PBL towards enhancing employability skills among engineering undergraduates. This study adopted a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data was collected using documents analysis. Student samples comprised manufacturing engineering undergraduates from public institutions of higher learning in Malaysia. The results show that student’s employability skills can be enhanced using PBL. In addition, students become more competitive towards making them more relevance with the needs of the industry with regard to employability skills. In conclusion, PBL is a very effective catalyst towards raising the employability skills among engineering undergraduates and should be adopted in all engineering education.

Development of surface friction guidelines for LADOTD.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-04-01

The main objective of this study was to develop a Louisiana pavement surface friction guideline that considers polished stone value (PSV) and mixture : type alike in terms of both micro- and macro- surface textures. The polishing and texture properti...

What Happened to the Amateurs After Professionalization? The Amateurization of Astronomy in Britain and the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, T. R.

2003-12-01

For nearly two centuries, astronomers have felt the need for a journal in which to publish their results, a venue for meetings in which to discuss those results, and a means for standardizing techniques and coordinating programs within the discipline. These factors are typically the basis on which professional associations have been formed, but in many countries some form of an amateur organization now exists to serve these same purposes. In two case studies, this paper will explore the different paths along which amateur organizations have developed in response to radically different dynamics in the professionalization of astronomy. In Britain, several failures preceded the successful formation of the British Astronomical Association (BAA). Within no more than a decade after its founding, the BAA's specialized observing sections and credible journal were admired by professional and amateur astronomers alike, and served as a model for at least three failed attempts to form a similar organization in the United States. What emerged in the United States instead were six separate specialized observing associations, some of which now legitimately claim international status. This talk will consider how the radically different circumstances under which the professionalization of astronomy occurred in Britain and the United States influenced the amateurization of astronomy in both countries.

Happier together. Social cohesion and subjective well-being in Europe.

PubMed

Delhey, Jan; Dragolov, Georgi

2016-06-01

Despite mushrooming research on "social" determinants of subjective well-being (SWB), little is known as to whether social cohesion as a collective property is among the key societal conditions for human happiness. This article fills this gap in investigating the importance of living in a cohesive society for citizens' SWB. For 27 European Union countries, it combines the newly developed Bertelsmann Foundation's Cohesion Index with individual well-being data on life evaluation and psychological functioning as surveyed in the recent European Quality of Life Survey. The main results from multi-level analyses are as follows. First, Europeans are indeed happier and psychologically healthier in more cohesive societies. Second, all three core domains of cohesion increase individuals' SWB. Third, citizens in the more affluent part of Europe feel the positivity of social cohesion more consistently than those in the less affluent part. Finally, within countries, cohesion is good for the SWB of resource-rich and resource-poor groups alike. Our findings also shed new light on the ongoing debate on economic progress and quality of life: what makes citizenries of affluent societies happier is, in the first place, their capacity to create togetherness and solidarity among their members-in other words, cohesion. © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

Microbicide research in developing countries: have we given the ethical concerns due consideration?

PubMed

Moodley, Keymanthri

2007-09-19

HIV prevention research has been fraught with ethical concerns since its inception. These concerns were highlighted during HIV vaccine research and have been elaborated in microbicide research. A host of unique ethical concerns pervade the microbicide research process from trial design to post-trial microbicide availability. Given the urgency of research and development in the face of the devastating HIV pandemic, these ethical concerns represent an enormous challenge for investigators, sponsors and Research Ethics Committees (RECs) both locally and internationally. Ethical concerns relating to safety in microbicide research are a major international concern. However, in the urgency to develop a medically efficacious microbicide, some of these concerns may not have been anticipated. In the risk-benefit assessment of research protocols, both medical and psycho-social risk must be considered. In this paper four main areas that have a potential for medical and/or psycho-social harm are examined. Male partner involvement is controversial in the setting of covert use of microbicides. However, given the long-term exposure of men to experimental products, this may be methodologically, ethically and legally important. Covert use of microbicides may impact negatively on relationship dynamics leading to psychosocial harm to varying extents. The unexpectedly high rates of pregnancy during clinical trials raise important methodological and ethical concerns. Enrollment of adolescents without parental consent generates ethical and legal concerns that must be carefully considered by RECs and trial sites. Finally, paradoxical outcomes in recent trials internationally have advanced the debate on the nature of informed consent and responsibility of researchers to participants who become HIV positive during or after trials. Phase 3 microbicide trials are an undisputed research and ethical priority in developing countries. However, such trials must be conducted with attention to both methodological and ethical detail. It is imperative that guidelines are formulated to ensure that high ethical standards are maintained despite the scientific urgency of microbicide development. Given the controversy raised by emergent ethical issues during the course of microbicide development, it is important that international consensus is reached amongst the various ethics and regulatory agencies in developing and developed countries alike.

Drugs for rare disorders.

PubMed

Cremers, Serge; Aronson, Jeffrey K

2017-08-01

Estimates of the frequencies of rare disorders vary from country to country; the global average defined prevalence is 40 per 100 000 (0.04%). Some occur in only one or a few patients. However, collectively rare disorders are fairly common, affecting 6-8% of the US population, or about 30 million people, and a similar number in the European Union. Most of them affect children and most are genetically determined. Diagnosis can be difficult, partly because of variable presentations and partly because few clinicians have experience of individual rare disorders, although they may be assisted by searching databases. Relatively few rare disorders have specific pharmacological treatments (so-called orphan drugs), partly because of difficulties in designing trials large enough to determine benefits and harms alike. Incentives have been introduced to encourage the development of orphan drugs, including tax credits and research aids, simplification of marketing authorization procedures and exemption from fees, and extended market exclusivity. Consequently, the number of applications for orphan drugs has grown, as have the costs of using them, so much so that treatments may not be cost-effective. It has therefore been suggested that not-for-profit organizations that are socially motivated to reduce those costs should be tasked with producing them. A growing role for patient organizations, improved clinical and translational infrastructures, and developments in genetics have also contributed to successful drug development. The translational discipline of clinical pharmacology is an essential component in drug development, including orphan drugs. Clinical pharmacologists, skilled in basic pharmacology and its links to clinical medicine, can be involved at all stages. They can contribute to the delineation of genetic factors that determine clinical outcomes of pharmacological interventions, develop biomarkers, design and perform clinical trials, assist regulatory decision making, and conduct postmarketing surveillance and pharmacoepidemiological and pharmacoeconomic assessments. © 2017 The British Pharmacological Society.

The role of typography in differentiating look-alike/sound-alike drug names.

PubMed

Gabriele, Sandra

2006-01-01

Until recently, when errors occurred in the course of caring for patients, blame was assigned to the healthcare professionals closest to the incident rather than examining the larger system and the actions that led up to the event. Now, the medical profession is embracing expertise and methodologies used in other fields to improve its own systems in relation to patient safety issues. This exploratory study, part of a Master's of Design thesis project, was a response to the problem of errors that occur due to confusion between look-alike/sound-alike drug names (medication names that have orthographic and/or phonetic similarities). The study attempts to provide a visual means to help differentiate problematic names using formal typographic and graphic cues. The FDA's Name Differentiation Project recommendations and other typographic alternatives were considered to address issues of attention and cognition. Eleven acute care nurses participated in testing that consisted of word-recognition tasks and questions intended to elicit opinions regarding the visual treatment of look-alike/sound-alike names in the context of a label prototype. Though limited in sample size, testing provided insight into the kinds of typographic differentiation that might be effective in a high-risk situation.

Teaching Social Media in Business

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McHaney, Roger; Warkentin, Merrill; Sachs, David; Pope, Michael Brian; Ormond, Dustin

2015-01-01

The ways people connect, interact, share, and communicate have changed due to recent developments in information technology. These developments, categorized as social media, have captured the attention of business executives, technologists, and education professionals alike, and have altered many business models. Additionally, the concept of…

Structural Limits on Organizational Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice, George H., Jr.

1977-01-01

Organizational development practitioners tend to assume that all workplaces are pretty much alike, and that emotional health in all job situations can be described in approximately the same way. They have failed to recognize the sociological and structural/functional limitations of the workplace. (Author/JG)

Space activities in 2009/2010

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pagkratis, Spyros

2011-09-01

The global financial crisis of 2008 has created an economic environment unfavourable to public and corporate economic activity alike, which could not have left space activities unaffected. However, the effects of the crisis upon the space sector have been so far less damaging than anticipated. The following paper presents recent developments in the field of space policies, institutional budgets and commercial activity worldwide, in an effort to improve the understanding of the new trends in commercial and public space activities. It particularly explores the strategies followed by space stakeholders in different countries and regions in order to pursue their planned space programmes in view of difficult financial conditions. Finally, it highlights the differences in the outlook of space activities between established and emerging space-faring nations and attempts to explore their medium-term consequences on an international level. For this purpose, it was based on research conducted in the framework of a recent ESPI report on "Space Policies, Issues and trends in 2009/2010".

Taking a Step Forward in Public Health Finance: Establishing Standards for a Uniform Chart of Accounts Crosswalk.

PubMed

Honoré, Peggy A; Leider, Jonathon P; Singletary, Vivian; Ross, David A

2015-01-01

In its 2012 report on the current and future states of public health finance, the Institute of Medicine noted, with concern, the relative lack of capacity for practitioners and researchers alike to make comparisons between health department expenditures across the country. This is due in part to different accounting systems, service portfolios, and state- or agency-specific reporting requirements. The Institute of Medicine called for a uniform chart of accounts, perhaps building on existing efforts such as the Public Health Uniform National Data Systems (PHUND$). Shortly thereafter, a group was convened to work with public health practitioners and researchers to develop a uniform chart of accounts crosswalk. A year-long process was undertaken to create the crosswalk. This commentary discusses that process, challenges encountered along the way and provides a draft crosswalk in line with the Foundational Public Health Services model that, if used by health departments, could allow for meaningful comparisons between agencies.

Insights from Zootaxa on potential trends in zoological taxonomic activity

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background An opinion currently shared by taxonomists and non taxonomists alike is that the work of inventorying biodiversity is unbalanced: firstly, in favour of countries in which taxonomy has been studied for a long time, and, secondly, in favour of vertebrates. In the current context of threats of species extinction, access for taxonomists to biological material and information becomes crucial if the scientific community really aims at a better knowledge of biological diversity before it is severely and irreversibly impoverished. We performed an analysis of 748 papers published in Zootaxa in 2006 and 2007, as well as 434 questionnaires sent to their authors to test these opinions. A generalization of these results to zoological taxonomy as a whole is discussed. Discussion We found that the disequilibrium is not exactly what it usually considered to be. The USA, China and Brazil are currently the three leading countries in zoological taxonomy. Each of them presents, however, a different pattern. Taxonomists from Asia and South America are younger and mainly work in universities, not museums. A bias in favour of vertebrates still exists if we refer to the effort invested in each group to produce taxonomic data, but not to the number of papers. Finally, we insist on the idea that "describing a species" is very different from "knowing a species". Summary The taxonomic involvement of a country, in terms of manpower and funding, appears to be a key factor in the development of fruitful taxonomic research. This message seems to have been understood by the countries that recently decided to increase considerably their taxonomic involvement. It still has to be received by those who did not. PMID:21418568

Squaring the Arctic Circle: connecting Arctic knowledge with societal needs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilkinson, J.

2017-12-01

Over the coming years the landscape of the Arctic will change substantially- environmentally, politically, and economically. Furthermore, Arctic change has the potential to significantly impact Arctic and non-Arctic countries alike. Thus, our science is in-demand by local communities, politicians, industry leaders and the public. During these times of transition it is essential that the links between science and society be strengthened further. Strong links between science and society is exactly what is needed for the development of better decision-making tools to support sustainable development, enable adaptation to climate change, provide the information necessary for improved management of assets and operations in the Arctic region, and and to inform scientific, economic, environmental and societal policies. By doing so tangible benefits will flow to Arctic societies, as well as for non-Arctic countries that will be significantly affected by climate change. Past experience has shown that the engagement with a broad range of stakeholders is not always an easy process. Consequently, we need to improve collaborative opportunities between scientists, indigenous/local communities, private sector, policy makers, NGOs, and other relevant stakeholders. The development of best practices in this area must build on the collective experiences of successful cross-sectorial programmes. Within this session we present some of the outreach work we have performed within the EU programme ICE-ARC, from community meetings in NW Greenland through to sessions at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP Conferences, industry round tables, and an Arctic side event at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Data on the migration of health-care workers: sources, uses, and challenges.

PubMed Central

Diallo, Khassoum

2004-01-01

The migration of health workers within and between countries is a growing concern worldwide because of its impact on health systems in developing and developed countries alike. Policy decisions need to be made at the national, regional and international levels to manage more effectively this phenomenon, but those decisions will be effective and correctly implemented and evaluated only if they are based on adequate statistical data. Most statistics on the migration of health-care workers are neither complete nor fully comparable, and they are often underused, limited (because they often give only a broad description of the phenomena) and not as timely as required. There is also a conflict between the wide range of potential sources of data and the poor statistical evidence on the migration of health personnel. There are two major problems facing researchers who wish to provide evidence on this migration: the problems commonly faced when studying migration in general, such as definitional and comparability problems of "worker migrations" and those related to the specific movements of the health workforce. This paper presents information on the uses of statistics and those who use them, the strengths and limitations of the main data sources, and other challenges that need to be met to obtain good evidence on the migration of health workers. This paper also proposes methods to improve the collection, analysis, sharing, and use of statistics on the migration of health workers. PMID:15375450

eGY-Africa: addressing the digital divide for science in Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barton, C.; Petitdidier, M.; Cottrell, L.; Fox, P.

2009-04-01

The digital divide is worse in Africa than in the rest of the world, the gap is growing, and in many sub-Saharan African countries the education and research sector suffers some of the worst deficiencies in access to the Internet. By contrast, it is widely acknowledged in policy statements from the African Union, the UN, and others that this very sector provides the key to meeting and sustaining Millenium Development Goals. Developed countries with effective cyber-capabilities wax eloquent about the equal benefits to rich and poor alike arising from the Information Revolution. This is but a dream for many (most?) scientists in African institutions; as the world of science becomes increasingly Internet-dependent, so they become increasingly isolated. eGY-Africa is a bottom-up initiative by African scientists and their collaborators to try to reduce this digital divide by a campaign of advocacy for better institutional facilities. The present status of Internet services, problems, and plans are being mapped via a combination of a survey questionnaire-based survey and direct measurement of Internet performance (the PingER Project). Information is being gathered on policy statements and initiatives aimed at reducing the Digital Divide. eGY-Africa is establishing National groups of concerned scientists and engaging with those initiatives with related goals. The expectation is that informed opinion from the scientific community at the institutional, national, and international levels can be used to influence the decision makers and donors who are in a position to deliver better capabilities.

Prosocial spending and well-being: cross-cultural evidence for a psychological universal.

PubMed

Aknin, Lara B; Barrington-Leigh, Christopher P; Dunn, Elizabeth W; Helliwell, John F; Burns, Justine; Biswas-Diener, Robert; Kemeza, Imelda; Nyende, Paul; Ashton-James, Claire E; Norton, Michael I

2013-04-01

This research provides the first support for a possible psychological universal: Human beings around the world derive emotional benefits from using their financial resources to help others (prosocial spending). In Study 1, survey data from 136 countries were examined and showed that prosocial spending is associated with greater happiness around the world, in poor and rich countries alike. To test for causality, in Studies 2a and 2b, we used experimental methodology, demonstrating that recalling a past instance of prosocial spending has a causal impact on happiness across countries that differ greatly in terms of wealth (Canada, Uganda, and India). Finally, in Study 3, participants in Canada and South Africa randomly assigned to buy items for charity reported higher levels of positive affect than participants assigned to buy the same items for themselves, even when this prosocial spending did not provide an opportunity to build or strengthen social ties. Our findings suggest that the reward experienced from helping others may be deeply ingrained in human nature, emerging in diverse cultural and economic contexts.

'2A-Like' Signal Sequences Mediating Translational Recoding: A Novel Form of Dual Protein Targeting.

PubMed

Roulston, Claire; Luke, Garry A; de Felipe, Pablo; Ruan, Lin; Cope, Jonathan; Nicholson, John; Sukhodub, Andriy; Tilsner, Jens; Ryan, Martin D

2016-08-01

We report the initial characterization of an N-terminal oligopeptide '2A-like' sequence that is able to function both as a signal sequence and as a translational recoding element. Owing to this translational recoding activity, two forms of nascent polypeptide are synthesized: (i) when 2A-mediated translational recoding has not occurred: the nascent polypeptide is fused to the 2A-like N-terminal signal sequence and the fusion translation product is targeted to the exocytic pathway, and, (ii) a translation product where 2A-mediated translational recoding has occurred: the 2A-like signal sequence is synthesized as a separate translation product and, therefore, the nascent (downstream) polypeptide lacks the 2A-like signal sequence and is localized to the cytoplasm. This type of dual-functional signal sequence results, therefore, in the partitioning of the translation products between the two sub-cellular sites and represents a newly described form of dual protein targeting. © 2016 The Authors. Traffic published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Census data for studying elderly populations.

PubMed

Martin, L G

1987-06-01

As fertility and population growth rates decline in the Asian and Pacific region, populations of the elderly (aged 65 and older) are growing rapidly. In 1980, the number of elderly was roughly equally divided between more developed and less developed countries; in the future, the majority of the elderly will live in less developed countries, especially in Asia. Most countries will double their elderly populations between 1980 and 2000. Censuses can provide information for planning ways to accommodate the growing numbers of elderly. Most censuses in the Asian and Pacific region provide population counts to fairly high ages. The elderly should not be stereotyped by assuming that they are all alike physically, emotionally, socially, and politically. Except for Indonesia and the Republic of Korea, all the censuses lower the last age for which provide detail in their published tabulations of marital status data compared to tabulations of population counts. Policy makers are more concerned with the extent to which the generations live together. Censuses potentially are a rich source of data on living arrangements, but, except for Japan, that potential is not being realized. Various types of information on the living arrangements of the elderly are contained in several censuses. An example is tabulations by 5-year groups to 85+ years of individuals by their relationship to the household head and by family type. It is important for the government to ascertain the extent to which some elderly may need some public assistance. Most of the censuses provide information on labor force participation to ages 60 or 65 and above. Censuses also provide information on income. More information will be needed on elderly in the future and much of it can be made available by increasing the amount of detail, by age, in published tabulations. Censuses can provide a regular, reliable flow of data and information that will form the foundation for designing programs for the expanding elderly population of Asia and the Pacific.

Pacific island health inequities forecast to grow unless profound changes are made to health systems in the region.

PubMed

Matheson, Don; Park, Kunhee; Soakai, Taniela Sunia

2017-10-01

Objective Twenty years ago the Pacific's health ministers developed a 'Healthy Islands' vision to lead health development in the subregion. This paper reports on a review of health development over this period and discusses the implications for the attainment of the health related Sustainable Development Goals. Methods The review used qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative review included conducting semi-structured interviews with Pacific Island Government Ministers and officials, regional agencies, health workers and community members. A document review was also conducted. The quantitative review consisted of examining secondary data from regional and global data collections. Results The review found improvement in health indicators, but increasing health inequality between the Pacific and the rest of the world. Many of the larger island populations were unable to reach the health Millennium Development Goals. The 'Healthy Islands' vision remained an inspiration to health ministers and senior officials in the region. However, implementation of the 'Healthy Islands' approach was patchy, under-resourced and un-sustained. Communicable and Maternal and Child Health challenges persist alongside unprecedented levels of non-communicable diseases, inadequate levels of health finance and few skilled health workers as the major impediments to health development for many of the Pacific's countries. Conclusions The current trajectory for health in the Pacific will lead to increasing health inequity with the rest of the world. The challenges to health in the region include persisting communicable disease and maternal and child health threats, unprecedented levels of NCDs, climate change and instability, as well as low economic growth. In order to change the fortunes of this region in the age of the SDGs, a substantial investment in health is required, including in the health workforce, by countries and donors alike. That investment requires a nuanced response that takes into account the contextual differences between and within Pacific islands, adherence to aid effectiveness principles and interventions designed to strengthen local health systems. What is known about the topic? It is well established that the Pacific island countries are experiencing the double disease burden, and that the non-communicable disease epidemic is more advanced. What does this paper add? This paper discusses the review of 20 years of health development in the Pacific. It reveals that although progress is being made, health development in the region is falling behind that of the rest of the world. It also describes the progress made by the Pacific countries in pursuit of the 'Healthy Islands' concept. What are the implications for practitioners? This paper has significant implications for Pacific countries, donor partners and development partners operating across and within Pacific countries. It calls for a substantial increase in health resourcing and the way development assistance is organised to arrest the increasing inequities in health outcomes between Pacific people and those of the rest of the world.

Meta-Analysis: An Approach to Interview Success.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCaslin, Mark; Carlson, Nancy M.

An initial research step, developing an effective interview strategy, presents unique challenges for novice and master research alike. To focus qualitative research in the human ecology of the study, the strategy presented in this paper used an initial interview protocol and preanalysis process, called meta-analysis, prior to developing the formal…

Comparative studies of oil product regulation in polluted soil for several industrialized countries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paccassoni, F.; Kalnina, D.; Piga, L.

2017-10-01

Oil contaminated sites are the consequence of a long period of industrialization. Oil is a complex mixture including aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, which are known to have negative effects on human health and the environment. Dividing oil products in groups (fractions) of petroleum hydrocarbons that act alike in soil and water, one can better know what happens to them. Being able to understand the behaviour of oil products in soil, it will allow to implement prevention and remediation actions. Interventions on contaminated sites are bound to comply with regulatory limits that each country has set in their own environmental legislation. The different concentration thresholds of oil products in soil for several EU countries and Canada has led to compare: limit values, analytical method, soil characteristics and/or land use. This will allow to evaluate what could be the best regulation approach, assessing if it is better to consider soil matrix in the site or the specific land use or both of them. It will also assess what is the best analytical methodology to be adopted to achieve the pollutant concentrations in the soil in order to have comparable results among different countries, such as: Baltic countries (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania), Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark), Western countries (Italy and The Netherlands) and Canada, like gaschromatography in the range from C10 - C50. The study presents an overview of environmental regulatory system of several EU countries and Canada and the correlation between different parameters about oil products indicated in each environmental legislation.

An exploratory study on cultural variations in oral health attitudes, behaviour and values of freshman (first-year) dental students.

PubMed

Kawamura, M; Wright, F A C; Declerck, D; Freire, M C M; Hu, D Y; Honkala, E; Lévy, G; Kalwitzki, M; Polychronopoulou, A; Yip, H K; Kinirons, M J; Eli, I; Petti, S; Komabayashi, T; Kim, K J; Razak, A A A; Srisilapanan, P; Kwan, S Y L

2005-08-01

To identify similarities and differences in oral health attitudes, behaviour and values among freshman dental students. Cross-cultural survey of dental students. 18 cultural areas. 904 first-year dental students completed the Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioural Inventory (HU-DBI) translated into their own languages. Individual areas were clustered by similarity in responses to the questions. The first group displayed an 'occidental-culture orientation' with the exception of Brazil (Cluster 1 comprised: Australia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and Brazil, Cluster 2: Germany, Italy, Finland and France). The second group displayed an 'oriental-cultural orientation' with the exception of Greece and Israel (Cluster 3 comprised: China and Indonesia, and Cluster 4: Japan, Korea, Israel, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Greece). Australia and United Kingdom were the countries that were most alike. Ireland was the 'neighbour' to these countries. Greece and Malaysia had similar patterns of oral health behaviour although geographic conditions are very different. Although it was considered that in Hong Kong, occidental nations have affected the development of education, it remained in the oriental-culture group. Comparison with the data from the occidentals indicates that a higher percentage of the orientals put off going to the dentist until they have toothache (p < 0.001). Only a small proportion of the occidentals (8%) reported a perception of inevitability in having false teeth, whereas 33% of the orientals held this fatalistic belief (p = 0.001). Grouping the countries into key cultural orientations and international clusters yielded plausible results, using the HU-DBI.

The Professional Practice of Career Counseling and Consultation: A Resource Document. Second Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Engels, Dennis W., Ed.

Changes in the United States and around the globe have influenced the world of work and the field of career development. Legislation is emphasizing career development programs for students and adults alike. This document provides an overview of the National Career Development Association's (NCDA) efforts to support the recognition and use of…

Strategies for Developing Sustainable Design Practice for Students and SME Professionals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Eyto, A.; Mc Mahon, M.; Hadfield, M.; Hutchings, M.

2008-01-01

Designers and engineers seem finally to be awakening to the challenge that sustainable development has given. Educators and students alike are keenly aware of the need to become more effective in the training and practice of their specific disciplines with respect to sustainability. In the past four years since this research has developed, there…

Photovoltaics: Reviewing the European Feed-in-Tariffs and Changing PV Efficiencies and Costs

PubMed Central

Zhang, H. L.; Van Gerven, T.; Baeyens, J.; Degrève, J.

2014-01-01

Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) mechanisms have been important in boosting renewable energy, by providing a long-term guaranteed subsidy of the kWh-price, thus mitigating investment risks and enhancing the contribution of sustainable electricity. By ongoing PV development, the contribution of solar power increases exponentially. Within this significant potential, it is important for investors, operators, and scientists alike to provide answers to different questions related to subsidies, PV efficiencies and costs. The present paper therefore (i) briefly reviews the mechanisms, advantages, and evolution of FiT; (ii) describes the developments of PV, (iii) applies a comprehensive literature-based model for the solar irradiation to predict the PV solar energy potential in some target European countries, whilst comparing output predictions with the monthly measured electricity generation of a 57 m² photovoltaic system (Belgium); and finally (iv) predicts the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) in terms of investment and efficiency, providing LCOE values between 0.149 and 0.313 €/kWh, as function of the overall process efficiency and cost. The findings clearly demonstrate the potential of PV energy in Europe, where FiT can be considerably reduced or even be eliminated in the near future. PMID:24959614

Progress towards Sustainable Utilisation and Management of Food Wastes in the Global Economy.

PubMed

Ghosh, Purabi R; Fawcett, Derek; Sharma, Shashi B; Poinern, Gerrard Eddy Jai

2016-01-01

In recent years, the problem of food waste has attracted considerable interest from food producers, processors, retailers, and consumers alike. Food waste is considered not only a sustainability problem related to food security, but also an economic problem since it directly impacts the profitability of the whole food supply chain. In developed countries, consumers are one of the main contributors to food waste and ultimately pay for all wastes produced throughout the food supply chain. To secure food and reduce food waste, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the various sources of food wastes throughout the food supply chain. The present review examines various reports currently in the literature and quantifies waste levels and examines the trends in wastage for various food sectors such as fruit and vegetable, fisheries, meat and poultry, grain, milk, and dairy. Factors contributing to food waste, effective cost/benefit food waste utilisation methods, sustainability and environment considerations, and public acceptance are identified as hurdles in preventing large-scale food waste processing. Thus, we highlight the need for further research to identify and report food waste so that government regulators and food supply chain stakeholders can actively develop effective waste utilisation practices.

The Conceptual Design of a Mechatronic System to Handle Bedridden Elderly Individuals.

PubMed

Bruno, Silva; José, Machado; Filomena, Soares; Vítor, Carvalho; Demétrio, Matos; Karolina, Bezerra

2016-05-19

The ever-growing percentage of elderly people in developed countries have made Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions an important subject to be explored and developed. The increase in geriatric care requests are overburdening specialized institutions that cannot cope with the demand for support. Patients are forced to have to remain at their homes encumbering the spouse or close family members with the caregiver role. This caregiver is not always physically and technically apt to assist the bedridden person with his/her meals and hygiene/bath routine. Consequently, a solution to assist caregivers in these tasks is of the utmost importance. This paper presents an approach for supporting caregivers when moving and repositioning Bedridden Elderly Peoples (BEPs) in home settings by means of a mechatronic system inspired by industrial conveyers. The proposed solution is able to insert itself underneath the patient, due to its low-profile structural properties, and retrieve and reallocate him/her. Ideally, the proposed mechatronic system aims to promote autonomy by reducing handling complexity, alter the role of the caregiver from physically handler of the BEP to an operator/supervisor role, and lessen the amount of effort expended by caregivers and BEPs alike.

The Conceptual Design of a Mechatronic System to Handle Bedridden Elderly Individuals

PubMed Central

Bruno, Silva; José, Machado; Filomena, Soares; Vítor, Carvalho; Demétrio, Matos; Karolina, Bezerra

2016-01-01

The ever-growing percentage of elderly people in developed countries have made Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions an important subject to be explored and developed. The increase in geriatric care requests are overburdening specialized institutions that cannot cope with the demand for support. Patients are forced to have to remain at their homes encumbering the spouse or close family members with the caregiver role. This caregiver is not always physically and technically apt to assist the bedridden person with his/her meals and hygiene/bath routine. Consequently, a solution to assist caregivers in these tasks is of the utmost importance. This paper presents an approach for supporting caregivers when moving and repositioning Bedridden Elderly Peoples (BEPs) in home settings by means of a mechatronic system inspired by industrial conveyers. The proposed solution is able to insert itself underneath the patient, due to its low-profile structural properties, and retrieve and reallocate him/her. Ideally, the proposed mechatronic system aims to promote autonomy by reducing handling complexity, alter the role of the caregiver from physically handler of the BEP to an operator/supervisor role, and lessen the amount of effort expended by caregivers and BEPs alike. PMID:27213383

Progress towards Sustainable Utilisation and Management of Food Wastes in the Global Economy

PubMed Central

Ghosh, Purabi R.; Fawcett, Derek; Sharma, Shashi B.

2016-01-01

In recent years, the problem of food waste has attracted considerable interest from food producers, processors, retailers, and consumers alike. Food waste is considered not only a sustainability problem related to food security, but also an economic problem since it directly impacts the profitability of the whole food supply chain. In developed countries, consumers are one of the main contributors to food waste and ultimately pay for all wastes produced throughout the food supply chain. To secure food and reduce food waste, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the various sources of food wastes throughout the food supply chain. The present review examines various reports currently in the literature and quantifies waste levels and examines the trends in wastage for various food sectors such as fruit and vegetable, fisheries, meat and poultry, grain, milk, and dairy. Factors contributing to food waste, effective cost/benefit food waste utilisation methods, sustainability and environment considerations, and public acceptance are identified as hurdles in preventing large-scale food waste processing. Thus, we highlight the need for further research to identify and report food waste so that government regulators and food supply chain stakeholders can actively develop effective waste utilisation practices. PMID:27847805

Traditional low-alcoholic and non-alcoholic fermented beverages consumed in European countries: a neglected food group.

PubMed

Baschali, Aristea; Tsakalidou, Effie; Kyriacou, Adamantini; Karavasiloglou, Nena; Matalas, Antonia-Leda

2017-06-01

Fermented beverages hold a long tradition and contribution to the nutrition of many societies and cultures worldwide. Traditional fermentation has been empirically developed in ancient times as a process of raw food preservation and at the same time production of new foods with different sensorial characteristics, such as texture, flavour and aroma, as well as nutritional value. Low-alcoholic fermented beverages (LAFB) and non-alcoholic fermented beverages (NAFB) represent a subgroup of fermented beverages that have received rather little attention by consumers and scientists alike, especially with regard to their types and traditional uses in European societies. A literature review was undertaken and research articles, review papers and textbooks were searched in order to retrieve data regarding the dietary role, nutrient composition, health benefits and other relevant aspects of diverse ethnic LAFB and NAFB consumed by European populations. A variety of traditional LAFB and NAFB consumed in European regions, such as kefir, kvass, kombucha and hardaliye, are presented. Milk-based LAFB and NAFB are also available on the market, often characterised as 'functional' foods on the basis of their probiotic culture content. Future research should focus on elucidating the dietary role and nutritional value of traditional and 'functional' LAFB and NAFB, their potential health benefits and consumption trends in European countries. Such data will allow for LAFB and NAFB to be included in national food composition tables.

Regional scale groundwater resource assessment in the Australian outback - Geophysics is the only way.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Munday, T. J.; Davis, A. C.; Gilfedder, M.; Annetts, D.

2015-12-01

Resource development, whether in agriculture, mining and/or energy, is set to have significant consequences for the groundwater resources of Australia in the short to medium term. These industry sectors are of significant economic value to the country and consequently their support remains a priority for State and Federal Governments alike. The scale of potential developments facilitated in large part by the Government Programs, like the West Australian (WA) Government's "Water for Food" program, and the South Australian's Government's PACE program, will result in an increase in infrastructure requirements, including access to water resources and Aboriginal lands to support these developments. However, the increased demand for water, particularly groundwater, is likely to be compromised by the limited information we have about these resources. This is particularly so for remote parts of the country which are targeted as primary development areas. There is a recognised need to expand this knowledge so that water availability is not a limiting factor to development. Governments of all persuasions have therefore adopted geophysical technologies, particularly airborne electromagnetics (AEM), as a basis for extending the hydrogeological knowledge of data poor areas. In WA, the State Government has employed regional-scale AEM surveys as a basis for defining groundwater resources to support mining, regional agricultural developments whilst aiming to safeguard regional population centres, and environmental assets. A similar approach is being employed in South Australia. These surveys are being used to underpin conceptual hydrogeological frameworks, define basin-scale hydrogeological models, delimit the extent of saltwater intrusion in coastal areas, and to determine the groundwater resource potential of remote alluvial systems aimed at supporting new, irrigation-based, agricultural developments in arid parts of the Australian outback. In the absence of conventional hydrogeological information, geophysical methods are demonstrably a cost and time effective approach to upscaling local hydrogeological information, thereby fast tracking groundwater resource assessments that would otherwise take decades to complete.

How to start a biotech company.

PubMed

Tajonar, Adriana

2014-11-01

The spirit of life science entrepreneurship is alive and well, with outstanding innovation hubs arising throughout the country and the world. Of note, many of these hubs flourish in close proximity to research universities. If universities are the engine for discovery, then startups are the vehicle for innovation. The creativity and drive of young researchers has the potential to explore novel or underserved applications and revolutionize industries. © 2014 Tajonar. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). Two months after publication it is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

Cultural Differences in the Self Esteem and Adaptation of Spanish-Speaking Second Generation Adolescents.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Portes, Pedro R.; Zady, Madelon F.

Development of self-esteem tends to become stable in middle adolescence for mainstream groups, but relatively little is known about self-esteem development of individuals in groups undergoing cultural adaptation, such as Spanish-speaking adolescents. The idea that immigrant students (voluntary minorities) are alike in many psychological and social…

More Alike than Different: Early Childhood Professional Development in Guatemala

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardin, Belinda J.; Vardell, Rosemarie; de Castaneda, Albertina

2008-01-01

This article describes an early childhood professional development project that took place in the summer of 2005 in Guatemala City. Located in Central America, Guatemala has a population of approximately 12.3 million people, including more than two million children under the age of 5 (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2007; UNICEF, 2004). Events…

Bulls, Goats, and Pedagogy: Engaging Students in Overseas Development Aid

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miles, William F. S.

2009-01-01

This article illustrates the profound learning that occurs--for students and instructor alike--when a class on third-world development attempts to undertake foreign aid. With undergraduate, graduate, and departmental money, I purchased bulls and carts for farmers, and goats for widows, in two West African villages. Such experiential learning…

Pulmonary diseases induced by ambient ultrafine and engineered nanoparticles in twenty-first century.

PubMed

Xia, Tian; Zhu, Yifang; Mu, Lina; Zhang, Zuo-Feng; Liu, Sijin

2016-12-01

Air pollution is a severe threat to public health globally, affecting everyone in developed and developing countries alike. Among different air pollutants, particulate matter (PM), particularly combustion-produced fine PM (PM 2.5 ) has been shown to play a major role in inducing various adverse health effects. Strong associations have been demonstrated by epidemiological and toxicological studies between increases in PM 2.5 concentrations and premature mortality, cardiopulmonary diseases, asthma and allergic sensitization, and lung cancer. The mechanisms of PM-induced toxicological effects are related to their size, chemical composition, lung clearance and retention, cellular oxidative stress responses and pro-inflammatory effects locally and systemically. Particles in the ultrafine range (<100 nm), although they have the highest number counts, surface area and organic chemical content, are often overlooked due to insufficient monitoring and risk assessment. Yet, ample studies have demonstrated that ambient ultrafine particles have higher toxic potential compared with PM 2.5 . In addition, the rapid development of nanotechnology, bringing ever-increasing production of nanomaterials, has raised concerns about the potential human exposure and health impacts. All these add to the complexity of PM-induced health effects that largely remains to be determined, and mechanistic understanding on the toxicological effects of ambient ultrafine particles and nanomaterials will be the focus of studies in the near future.

APE-Type Non-LTR Retrotransposons of Multicellular Organisms Encode Virus-Like 2A Oligopeptide Sequences, Which Mediate Translational Recoding during Protein Synthesis

PubMed Central

Odon, Valerie; Luke, Garry A.; Roulston, Claire; Brown, Jeremy D.; Ryan, Martin D.; Sukhodub, Andriy

2013-01-01

2A oligopeptide sequences (“2As”) mediate a cotranslational recoding event termed “ribosome skipping.” Previously we demonstrated the activity of 2As (and “2A-like sequences”) within a wide range of animal RNA virus genomes and non-long terminal repeat retrotransposons (non-LTRs) in the genomes of the unicellular organisms Trypanosoma brucei (Ingi) and T. cruzi (L1Tc). Here, we report the presence of 2A-like sequences in the genomes of a wide range of multicellular organisms and, as in the trypanosome genomes, within non-LTR retrotransposons (non-LTRs)—clustering in the Rex1, Crack, L2, L2A, and CR1 clades, in addition to Ingi. These 2A-like sequences were tested for translational recoding activity, and highly active sequences were found within the Rex1, L2, CR1, and Ingi clades. The presence of 2A-like sequences within non-LTRs may not only represent a method of controlling protein biogenesis but also shows some correlation with such apurinic/apyrimidinic DNA endonuclease-type non-LTRs encoding one, rather than two, open reading frames (ORFs). Interestingly, such non-LTRs cluster with closely related elements lacking 2A-like recoding elements but retaining ORF1. Taken together, these observations suggest that acquisition of 2A-like translational recoding sequences may have played a role in the evolution of these elements. PMID:23728794

Status and Outlook for the U.S. Non-Automotive Fuel Cell Industry: Impacts of Government Policies and Assessment of Future Opportunities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Greene, David L; Duleep, K. G.; Upreti, Girish

Fuel cells (FCs) are considered essential future energy technologies by developed and developing economies alike. Several countries, including the United States, Japan, Germany, and South Korea have established publicly funded R&D and market transformation programs to develop viable domestic FC industries for both automotive and non-automotive applications. Important non-automotive applications include large scale and small scale distributed combined heat and electrical power, backup and uninterruptible power, material handling and auxiliary power units. The U.S. FC industry is in the early stages of development, and is working to establish sustainable markets in all these areas. To be successful, manufacturers must reducemore » costs, improve performance, and overcome market barriers to new technologies. U.S. policies are assisting via research and development, tax credits and government-only and government-assisted procurements. Over the past three years, the industry has made remarkable progress, bringing both stack and system costs down by more than a factor of two while improving durability and efficiency, thanks in part to government support. Today, FCs are still not yet able to compete in these markets without continued policy support. However, continuation or enhancement of current policies, such as the investment tax credit and government procurements, together with continued progress by the industry, appears likely to establish a viable domestic industry within the next decade.« less

Area wide management of stable flies

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Stable flies are among the most damaging pests of livestock worldwide. Their painful bites cause both physiological and behavioral changes that reduce productivity and wellbeing of domestic animals and humans alike. Immature stable flies develop in decomposing and fermenting vegetative materials, of...

Community Health Centers and Private Practice Performance on Ambulatory Care Measures

PubMed Central

Goldman, L. Elizabeth; Chu, Philip W.; Tran, Huong; Stafford, Randall S.

2013-01-01

Background The 2010 Affordable Care Act relies on Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and FQHC look-alikes (look-alikes) to provide care for newly insured patients, but ties increased funding to demonstrated quality and efficiency. Purpose To compare FQHC and look-alike physician performance with private practice primary care physicians (PCPs) on ambulatory care quality measures. Methods The study was a cross-sectional analysis of visits in the 2006–2008 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Performance of FQHCs and Look-alikes on 18 quality measures was compared with private practice PCPs. Data analysis was completed in 2011. Results Compared to private practice PCPs, FQHCs and look-alikes performed better on 6 measures (p<0.05), worse on diet counseling in at-risk adolescents (26 % vs. 36%, p=0.05), and no differently on 11 measures. Higher performance occurred in: ACE inhibitors use for congestive heart failure (51% vs. 37%, p=0.004); aspirin use in coronary artery disease (CAD) (57% vs. 44%, p=0.004); beta blocker use for CAD (59% vs. 47%, p=0.01); no use of benzodiazepines in depression (91% vs. 84%, p=0.008); blood pressure screening (90% vs. 86%, p<0.001); and screening electrocardiogram (EKG) avoidance in low-risk patients (99% vs. 93%, p<0.001). Adjusting for patient characteristics yielded similar results except private practice PCPs no longer performed better on any measures. Conclusions FQHCs and look-alikes demonstrated equal or better performance than private practice primary care physicians on select quality measures despite serving patients with more chronic disease and socioeconomic complexity. These findings can provide policymakers with some reassurance as to the quality of chronic disease and preventive care at Federally Qualified Health Centers and Federally Qualified Health Center look-alikes, as they plan to use these health centers to serve 20 million newly insured individuals. PMID:22813678

Sea Oil Spill Detection Using Self-Similarity Parameter of Polarimetric SAR Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tong, S.; Chen, Q.; Liu, X.

2018-04-01

The ocean oil spills cause serious damage to the marine ecosystem. Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an important mean for oil spill detections on sea surface. The major challenge is how to distinguish oil slicks from look-alikes effectively. In this paper, a new parameter called self-similarity parameter, which is sensitive to the scattering mechanism of oil slicks, is introduced to identify oil slicks and reduce false alarm caused by look-alikes. Self-similarity parameter is small in oil slicks region and it is large in sea region or look-alikes region. So, this parameter can be used to detect oil slicks from look-alikes and water. In addition, evaluations and comparisons were conducted with one Radarsat-2 image and two SIR-C images. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the self-similarity parameter for oil spill detection.

Incorporating climate change into systematic conservation planning

USGS Publications Warehouse

Groves, Craig R.; Game, Edward T.; Anderson, Mark G.; Cross, Molly; Enquist, Carolyn; Ferdana, Zach; Girvetz, Evan; Gondor, Anne; Hall, Kimberly R.; Higgins, Jonathan; Marshall, Rob; Popper, Ken; Schill, Steve; Shafer, Sarah L.

2012-01-01

The principles of systematic conservation planning are now widely used by governments and non-government organizations alike to develop biodiversity conservation plans for countries, states, regions, and ecoregions. Many of the species and ecosystems these plans were designed to conserve are now being affected by climate change, and there is a critical need to incorporate new and complementary approaches into these plans that will aid species and ecosystems in adjusting to potential climate change impacts. We propose five approaches to climate change adaptation that can be integrated into existing or new biodiversity conservation plans: (1) conserving the geophysical stage, (2) protecting climatic refugia, (3) enhancing regional connectivity, (4) sustaining ecosystem process and function, and (5) capitalizing on opportunities emerging in response to climate change. We discuss both key assumptions behind each approach and the trade-offs involved in using the approach for conservation planning. We also summarize additional data beyond those typically used in systematic conservation plans required to implement these approaches. A major strength of these approaches is that they are largely robust to the uncertainty in how climate impacts may manifest in any given region.

Assessment of Minimal HE (with emphasis on computerized psychometric tests)

PubMed Central

Kappus, Matthew R; Bajaj, Jasmohan S

2012-01-01

Synopsis Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) is associated with a high risk of development of overt hepatic encephalopathy, impaired quality of life and driving accidents. The detection of MHE requires specialized testing since it cannot by definition, be diagnosed on standard clinical examination. Psychometric (paper-pencil or computerized or a combination) and neuro-physiological techniques are often used to test for MHE. Paper-pencil psychometric batteries like the Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Score (PHES) have been validated in several countries but do not have US normative values. Computerized tests such as the inhibitory control test (ICT), cognitive drug research system and Scan test have proven useful to diagnose MHE and predict outcomes. The specificity and sensitivity of these tests are similar to the recommended gold standards. Neuro-physiological tests such as the EEG and its interpretations, evoked potentials and Critical Flicker Frequency (CFF) also provide useful information. The diagnosis of MHE is an important issue for clinicians and patients alike and the testing strategies depend on the normative data available, patient comfort and local expertise. PMID:22321464

Just compensation: a no-fault proposal for research-related injuries

PubMed Central

Henry, Leslie Meltzer; Larkin, Megan E.; Pike, Elizabeth R.

2015-01-01

Biomedical research, no matter how well designed and ethically conducted, carries uncertainties and exposes participants to risk of injury. Research injuries can range from the relatively minor to those that result in hospitalization, permanent disability, or even death. Participants might also suffer a range of economic harms related to their injuries. Unlike the vast majority of developed countries, which have implemented no-fault compensation systems, the United States continues to rely on the tort system to compensate injured research participants—an approach that is no longer morally defensible. Despite decades of US advisory panels advocating for no-fault compensation, little progress has been made. Accordingly, this article proposes a novel and necessary no-fault compensation system, grounded in the ethical notion of compensatory justice. This first-of-its-kind concrete proposal aims to treat like cases alike, offer fair compensation, and disburse compensation with maximum efficiency and minimum administrative cost. It also harmonizes national and international approaches—an increasingly important goal as research becomes more globalized, multi-site trials grow in number, and institutions and sponsors in the United States move to single-IRB review. PMID:27774216

The Volcano Adventure Guide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopes, Rosaly

2005-02-01

This guide contains vital information for anyone wishing to visit, explore, and photograph active volcanoes safely and enjoyably. Following an introduction that discusses eruption styles of different types of volcanoes and how to prepare for an exploratory trip that avoids volcanic dangers, the book presents guidelines to visiting 42 different volcanoes around the world. It is filled with practical information that includes tour itineraries, maps, transportation details, and warnings of possible non-volcanic dangers. Three appendices direct the reader to a wealth of further volcano resources in a volume that will fascinate amateur enthusiasts and professional volcanologists alike. Rosaly Lopes is a planetary geology and volcanology specialist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. In addition to her curatorial and research work, she has lectured extensively in England and Brazil and written numerous popular science articles. She received a Latinas in Science Award from the Comision Feminil Mexicana Nacional in 1991 and since 1992, has been a co-organizer of the United Nations/European Space Agency/The Planetary Society yearly conferences on Basic Science for the Benefit of Developing Countries.

Conflicts and natural disaster management: a comparative study of flood control in the Republic of Korea and the United States.

PubMed

Chung, Jibum

2016-07-01

The purpose of this research is to analyse the conflicts that arise among major stakeholders during the process of disaster management and to suggest policy recommendations for improving disaster management systems. It describes several important conflict cases that have occurred among major stakeholders, such as governments, private-sector entities, and non-governmental organisations, during natural disaster management. In addition, it probes the similarities and the differences between such conflicts in the Republic of Korea and the United States. The differences between them may originate from a range of factors, such as the disaster itself, cultural features, management practices, and government organisation. However, the conflicts also are very similar in some ways, as the motivations and the behaviour of stakeholders during a disaster are alike in both countries. Based on this comparison, the study presents some common and important implications for successful disaster management practices in Korea and the US, as well as in many other nations around the world. © 2016 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2016.

Initial Development and Factor Structure of the Educator Test Stress Inventory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

von der Embse, Nathaniel P.; Kilgus, Stephen P.; Solomon, Hadley J.; Bowler, Mark; Curtiss, Caroline

2015-01-01

With the proliferation of test-based accountability policies, educators and students alike are under pressure to improve test performance. However, little is known regarding the stress experienced by educators in response to these policies. The purpose of this article is to describe the initial development and validation of a new measure of stress…

Community of Practice or Affinity Space: A Case Study of a Professional Development MOOC

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Kyle M. L.; Stephens, Michael; Branch-Mueller, Jennifer; de Groot, Joanne

2016-01-01

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have brought about new questions regarding the construction of virtual learning environments and course delivery systems. One such question that researchers and instructors alike are considering is the role of community in learning spaces. This paper uses a professional development (PD) MOOC as a case study to…

Promoting an "Active Start" for Young Children: Developing Competent and Confident Early Movers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodway, Jacqueline D.; Wall, Sarah; Getchell, Nancy

2009-01-01

With childhood obesity and physical inactivity at an all-time high, parents and physical educators alike must look to the early years to promote competent and confident young movers. Popular opinion believes that children are naturally active and motor skill development progresses as a normal function of getting older. However, if one looks at…

Reading Development and Achievement of 4th-Grade Hmong Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahowald, Megan; Loughnane, Megan

2016-01-01

Researchers and practitioners alike have noted that Hmong students in the United States do not achieve as well as their monolingual peers and other bilingual students. The current mixed-methods study is designed to describe reading development and achievement of 4th-grade Hmong students in one large, urban school district. This study explores the…

Synthetically derived bat influenza A-like viruses reveal a cell type- but not species-specific tropism.

PubMed

Moreira, Étori Aguiar; Locher, Samira; Kolesnikova, Larissa; Bolte, Hardin; Aydillo, Teresa; García-Sastre, Adolfo; Schwemmle, Martin; Zimmer, Gert

2016-10-24

Two novel influenza A-like viral genome sequences have recently been identified in Central and South American fruit bats and provisionally designated "HL17NL10" and "HL18NL11." All efforts to isolate infectious virus from bats or to generate these viruses by reverse genetics have failed to date. Recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) encoding the hemagglutinin-like envelope glycoproteins HL17 or HL18 in place of the VSV glycoprotein were generated to identify cell lines that are susceptible to bat influenza A-like virus entry. More than 30 cell lines derived from various species were screened but only a few cell lines were found to be susceptible, including Madin-Darby canine kidney type II (MDCK II) cells. The identification of cell lines susceptible to VSV chimeras allowed us to recover recombinant HL17NL10 and HL18NL11 viruses from synthetic DNA. Both influenza A-like viruses established a productive infection in MDCK II cells; however, HL18NL11 replicated more efficiently than HL17NL10 in this cell line. Unlike conventional influenza A viruses, bat influenza A-like viruses started the infection preferentially at the basolateral membrane of polarized MDCK II cells; however, similar to conventional influenza A viruses, bat influenza A-like viruses were released primarily from the apical site. The ability of HL18NL11 or HL17NL10 viruses to infect canine and human cells might reflect a zoonotic potential of these recently identified bat viruses.

Synthetically derived bat influenza A-like viruses reveal a cell type- but not species-specific tropism

PubMed Central

Moreira, Étori Aguiar; Locher, Samira; Kolesnikova, Larissa; Bolte, Hardin; Aydillo, Teresa; García-Sastre, Adolfo; Schwemmle, Martin; Zimmer, Gert

2016-01-01

Two novel influenza A-like viral genome sequences have recently been identified in Central and South American fruit bats and provisionally designated “HL17NL10” and “HL18NL11.” All efforts to isolate infectious virus from bats or to generate these viruses by reverse genetics have failed to date. Recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) encoding the hemagglutinin-like envelope glycoproteins HL17 or HL18 in place of the VSV glycoprotein were generated to identify cell lines that are susceptible to bat influenza A-like virus entry. More than 30 cell lines derived from various species were screened but only a few cell lines were found to be susceptible, including Madin–Darby canine kidney type II (MDCK II) cells. The identification of cell lines susceptible to VSV chimeras allowed us to recover recombinant HL17NL10 and HL18NL11 viruses from synthetic DNA. Both influenza A-like viruses established a productive infection in MDCK II cells; however, HL18NL11 replicated more efficiently than HL17NL10 in this cell line. Unlike conventional influenza A viruses, bat influenza A-like viruses started the infection preferentially at the basolateral membrane of polarized MDCK II cells; however, similar to conventional influenza A viruses, bat influenza A-like viruses were released primarily from the apical site. The ability of HL18NL11 or HL17NL10 viruses to infect canine and human cells might reflect a zoonotic potential of these recently identified bat viruses. PMID:27791106

Effects of Offering Look-Alike Products as Smart Snacks in Schools.

PubMed

Harris, Jennifer L; Hyary, Maia; Schwartz, Marlene B

2016-12-01

In 2014, USDA established nutrition standards for snack foods sold in schools. Many manufacturers reformulated products to meet these Smart Snacks standards, but continue to advertise unhealthy versions of the same brands. Furthermore, Smart Snack packaging often looks similar to less nutritious versions sold outside of schools (look-alike products). This practice may confuse consumers about the nutritional quality of Smart Snacks and raise concerns about schools selling them. An online experiment with 659 students (13-17 years) and 859 parents (children ages 10-13) was performed. Participants randomly viewed information about snacks sold at a hypothetical school, including (1) look-alike Smart Snacks; (2) existing store versions of the same brands; (3) repackaged Smart Snacks (highlighting differences versus unhealthy versions); or (4) consistent brands (i.e., Smart Snack versions also sold in stores). They then rated the individual snacks offered and the school selling them. As hypothesized, students and parents rated look-alike and store versions similarly in taste, healthfulness, and purchase intent, while considering repackaged Smart Snacks as healthier, but less tasty. Most participants also inaccurately believed they had seen look-alike products for sale in stores. Furthermore, they rated schools offering look-alike Smart Snacks and store versions as less concerned about students' health and well-being than schools in the other two conditions. The nutritional quality of snacks sold in schools has improved, but many Smart Snacks are virtually indistinguishable from less nutritious versions widely sold outside of schools. This practice likely benefits the brands, but may not improve children's overall diet and undermines schools' ability to teach good nutrition.

Confronting the Pedagogical Challenge of Cyber Safety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanewald, Ria

2008-01-01

Cyber violence and the antidote of cyber safety are fast becoming a global concern for governments, educational authorities, teachers, parents and children alike. Despite substantial funding for information dissemination on preventative strategies and the development of electronic responses to hinder perpetrators, the phenomenon of cyber violence…

Value Creation in Online Communities for Educators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Booth, Sharon E.; Kellogg, Shaun B.

2015-01-01

The popularity and pervasiveness of online communities have led researchers and practitioners alike to closely examine the utility of online communities for supporting and facilitating professional learning. As economic constraints leave fewer resources available for professional development, educators in particular are examining the potential of…

Antimicrobial Resistance Gene Transfer in Drug Resistant Acinetobacter Species

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Abstract: Antibiotic resistance is rapidly developing into one of the most formidable challenges for healthcare providers and researchers alike. To combat the rapid evolution of resistance, it will be important to uncover different mechanisms that bacteria use to acquire drug resistance genes. Acine...

Referencing web pages and e-journals.

PubMed

Bryson, David

2013-12-01

One of the areas that can confuse students and authors alike is how to reference web pages and electronic journals (e-journals). The aim of this professional development article is to go back to first principles for referencing and see how with examples these should be referenced.

Making It Work.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brotherton, Phaedra

2000-01-01

The Racine Workforce Development Center pools resources and personnel to create a successful one-stop shop for job seekers and employers alike. Self-directed services for job seekers include a resource room, an academic improvement center, information about job openings, and free resume and cover letter preparation. (Author/JOW)

Student Learning through Service Learning: Effects on Academic Development, Civic Responsibility, Interpersonal Skills and Practical Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hébert, Ali; Hauf, Petra

2015-01-01

Although anecdotal evidence and research alike espouse the benefits of service learning, some researchers have suggested that more rigorous testing is required in order to determine its true effect on students. This is particularly true in the case of academic development, which has been inconsistently linked to service learning. It has been…

Online Professional Development for High-School Biology Teachers: Effects on Teachers' and Students' Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldenberg, Lauren B.; Culp, Katherine McMillan; Clements, Margaret; Pasquale, Marian; Anderson, Alice

2014-01-01

One chronic challenge facing professional development providers is the need to convene and support groups of role-alike K-12 teachers who require similar kinds of discipline-and grade-level-specific training. Online courses have become an increasingly common way to meet this challenge. This article reports on a randomized control trial that tested…

Problems Identifying Independent and Dependent Variables

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leatham, Keith R.

2012-01-01

This paper discusses one step from the scientific method--that of identifying independent and dependent variables--from both scientific and mathematical perspectives. It begins by analyzing an episode from a middle school mathematics classroom that illustrates the need for students and teachers alike to develop a robust understanding of…

Copyright Considerations in Distance Education and Technology-Mediated Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salomon, Kenneth D.

The accelerating development of distance education and the use of technology-mediated instructional materials over interactive computer networks has given rise to heightened interest and thought by faculty and administration alike about related copyright issues. The evolution of distance education from early morning television broadcasts to…

Somali Syntax,

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-01-01

they - go The Vietnamese people should be allowed the right of determining their own destiny . 174" a.- ] !- ’--- _ (373) Anaa warrameya. I/SP (baa... embryo of a form of prepositional government which is the same for verbs and nouns alike and which is developing on the basis of a spatial noun

Chiropteran influenza viruses: flu from bats or a relic from the past?

PubMed

Brunotte, Linda; Beer, Martin; Horie, Masayuki; Schwemmle, Martin

2016-02-01

The identification of influenza A-like genomic sequences in bats suggests the existence of distinct lineages of chiropteran influenza viruses in South and Central America. These viruses share similarities with conventional influenza A viruses but lack the canonical receptor-binding property and neuraminidase function. The inability to isolate infectious bat influenza viruses impeded further studies, however, reverse genetic analysis provided new insights into the molecular biology of these viruses. In this review, we highlight the recent developments in the field of the newly discovered bat-derived influenza A-like viruses. We also discuss whether bats are a neglected natural reservoir of influenza viruses, the risk associated with bat influenza viruses for humans and whether these viruses originate from the pool of avian IAV or vice versa. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Protein A-like activity and streptococcal cross-reactions.

PubMed Central

Kingston, D

1981-01-01

Recognition of the protein A-like activity of some strains of group A streptococci has thrown doubt on much previous work suggesting antigenic cross-reactions between these streptococci and mammalian tissues. The strains used in our previous studies have now been examined by the mixed reverse passive antiglobulin reaction (MRPAH) for the 'non-specific' absorption of purified Fc portion of human IgG. They were found to have only traces of activity. The strain of Staphylococcus aureus used to control 'non-specific' absorption by bacterial cell walls was strongly positive. Protein A-like material as detected in this way was not therefore responsible for our earlier results. PMID:7039880

From the USDA: Educating the Next Generation: Funding Opportunities in Food, Agricultural, Natural Resources, and Social Sciences Education.

PubMed

Parker, Joyce E; Wagner, David J

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture within the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides leadership, capacity, and funds to support the continuing development of a safe and competitive agricultural system. Many of the agency's educational programs are led by the Division of Community and Education (DOCE). These programs span agricultural education, enhancing agricultural literacy through both formal and nonformal education. Here, we have highlighted funding opportunities within DOCE that enhance agricultural education and literacy by supporting the improvement of students' critical communication, leadership skills, and experiential learning opportunities. Some of these programs include opportunities for which students can apply, while others focus on faculty applications. Opportunities faculty can apply for may support student-recruitment and student-retention techniques, curriculum development, innovative teaching methods, and institutional capacity-building programs. Overall, these programs foster a diverse workforce in agricultural science that matches the increasing diversity of the country. © 2016 J. E. Parker and D. J. Wagner. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2016 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

Hypothyroxinemia induced by maternal mild iodine deficiency impairs hippocampal myelinated growth in lactational rats.

PubMed

Wei, Wei; Wang, Yi; Dong, Jing; Wang, Yuan; Min, Hui; Song, Binbin; Shan, Zhongyan; Teng, Weiping; Xi, Qi; Chen, Jie

2015-11-01

Hypothyroxinemia induced by maternal mild iodine deficiency causes neurological deficits and impairments of brain function in offspring. Hypothyroxinemia is prevalent in developing and developed countries alike. However, the mechanism underlying these deficits remains less well known. Given that the myelin plays an important role in learning and memory function, we hypothesize that hippocampal myelinated growth may be impaired in rat offspring exposed to hypothyroxinemia induced by maternal mild iodine deficiency. To test this hypothesis, the female Wistar rats were used and four experimental groups were prepared: (1) control; (2) maternal mild iodine deficiency diet inducing hypothyroxinemia; (3) hypothyroidism induced by maternal severe iodine deficiency diet; (4) hypothyroidism induced by maternal methimazole water. The rats were fed the diet from 3 months before pregnancy to the end of lactation. Our results showed that the physiological changes occuring in the hippocampal myelin were altered in the mild iodine deficiency group as indicated by the results of immunofluorescence of myelin basic proteins on postnatal day 14 and postnatal day 21. Moreover, hypothyroxinemia reduced the expressions of oligodendrocyte lineage transcription factor 2 and myelin-related proteins in the treatments on postnatal day 14 and postnatal day 21. Our data suggested that hypothyroxinemia induced by maternal mild iodine deficiency may impair myelinated growth of the offspring. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Leadership for Differentiating Schools & Classrooms.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomlinson, Carol Ann; Allan, Susan Demirsky

Differentiation is simply a teacher attending to the learning needs of a particular student or small group of students, rather than teaching a class as though all individuals in it were basically alike. This book explores in 10 chapters how school leaders can develop responsive, personalized, and differentiated classrooms: (1) "Understanding…

Advances in forest hydrology: challenges and opportunities

Treesearch

D.M. Amatya; K.R. Douglas-Mankin; T.M. Williams; R.W. Skaggs; J.E. Nettles

2011-01-01

Forests are an integral component of the landscape, and maintaining their functional integrity is fundamental for the sustainability of ecosystems and societies alike. Tools, innovations, and practices, analogous to those developed to improve agricultural production and quantify environmental impacts, are needed to ensure the sustainability of these forested landscapes...

Validation of a modified Bristol stool scale - inter-rater reliability amongst pediatric gastroenterologists

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Stool form and changes in stool form are important criteria in both clinical practice and clinical research. However, descriptions of stool form from both patients and physicians alike may be subjective and objective measurements of stool form are not well developed. Although the Bristol stool scale...

Casual Dating Dissolution: A Typology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loyer-Carlson, Vicki L.; Walker, Alexis J.

Although there are many typologies of relationship development and love, it is frequently assumed that all break-ups are alike. This longitudinal study examined persons' cognitions regarding early relationship interactions and/or observations which caused them to think about the viability of the relationship. The role of causal attributions in the…

Relationships across Multiple Settings: An Overview

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noam, Gil G.; Fiore, Nina

2004-01-01

Educators are witnessing an underlying shift toward recognizing the effects of relationships on development for youth and adults alike in many contexts. Parenting, teaching, mentoring, youth work, out-of-school programming, and therapy have all had shifts in underlying theory, such as attachment models, resilience studies, and feminist psychology,…

Principal Induction: A Standards-Based Model for Administrator Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilmore, Elaine L.

2004-01-01

Many school administrator candidates enter the principalship with great potential, but sometimes lack the critical guidance to ensure success. With the many challenges facing principals daily, it is imperative for new and seasoned principals alike to remain informed, rejuvenated, and passionate about providing students with a quality education and…

The Gross Anatomy Course: An Analysis of Its Importance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bockers, Anja; Jerg-Bretzke, Lucia; Lamp, Christoph; Brinkmann, Anke; Traue, Harald C.; Bockers, Tobias M.

2010-01-01

The gross anatomy dissection course is a cost-intensive piece of undergraduate medical education that students and professionals alike describe as very important within the overall medical curriculum. We sought to understand more explicitly students' valuation of gross anatomy as an "important" course and so developed a quantitative…

Blogging to Develop Honors Students' Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harlan-Haughey, Sarah; Cunningham, Taylor; Lees, Katherine; Estrup, Andrew

2016-01-01

Blogging is an excellent way to implement students bringing their further insights to their classmates following an exciting class discussion, continuing an exchange of ideas and providing students with another tool to improve their writing skills. Student class blogging offers many benefits--for student and instructor alike--compared to assigning…

Writing Narratives about a Socioscientific Issue: Engaging Students and Learning Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomas, Louisa

2012-01-01

International assessments of student science achievement, and growing evidence of students' waning interest in school science, have ensured that the development of scientific literacy continues to remain an important educational priority (Tytler, 2007). Consequently, researchers and classroom teachers alike have called for innovative approaches to…

Share (And Not) Share Alike: Improving Virtual Team Climate and Decision Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cordes, Sean

2017-01-01

Virtual teams face unique communication and collaboration challenges that impact climate development and performance. First, virtual teams rely on technology mediated communication which can constrain communication. Second, team members lack skill for adapting process to the virtual setting. A collaboration process structure was designed to…

Building a Just Adolescent Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Enright, Mary Schaefer; Schaefer, Lawrence V.; Schaefer, Patricia S.; Schaefer, Kristin A.

2008-01-01

Lawrence Kohlberg, a psychologist, coined the term "Just Community" to describe a community built on trust and resolution, in which each member participates democratically in the development of the rules and regulations that govern their community life (Kohlberg, 1985). In a school, this means that students and teachers alike actively participate…

Pulmonary diseases induced by ambient ultrafine and engineered nanoparticles in twenty-first century

PubMed Central

Xia, Tian; Zhu, Yifang; Mu, Lina; Zhang, Zuo-Feng; Liu, Sijin

2016-01-01

Abstract Air pollution is a severe threat to public health globally, affecting everyone in developed and developing countries alike. Among different air pollutants, particulate matter (PM), particularly combustion-produced fine PM (PM2.5) has been shown to play a major role in inducing various adverse health effects. Strong associations have been demonstrated by epidemiological and toxicological studies between increases in PM2.5 concentrations and premature mortality, cardiopulmonary diseases, asthma and allergic sensitization, and lung cancer. The mechanisms of PM-induced toxicological effects are related to their size, chemical composition, lung clearance and retention, cellular oxidative stress responses and pro-inflammatory effects locally and systemically. Particles in the ultrafine range (<100 nm), although they have the highest number counts, surface area and organic chemical content, are often overlooked due to insufficient monitoring and risk assessment. Yet, ample studies have demonstrated that ambient ultrafine particles have higher toxic potential compared with PM2.5. In addition, the rapid development of nanotechnology, bringing ever-increasing production of nanomaterials, has raised concerns about the potential human exposure and health impacts. All these add to the complexity of PM-induced health effects that largely remains to be determined, and mechanistic understanding on the toxicological effects of ambient ultrafine particles and nanomaterials will be the focus of studies in the near future. PMID:28649460

Understanding global health and development partnerships: Perspectives from African and global health system professionals.

PubMed

Barnes, Amy; Brown, Garrett W; Harman, Sophie

2016-06-01

Partnership is a key idea in current debates about global health and development assistance, yet little is known about what partnership means to those who are responsible for operationalising it or how it is experienced in practice. This is particularly the case in the context of African health systems. This paper explores how health professionals working in global health hubs and the health systems of South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia understand and experience partnership. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 101 professionals based in each country, Washington DC and Geneva between October 2012 and June 2013, the paper makes four key arguments. First, partnership has a legitimating function in global health policy processes for international development institutions, government agencies and civil society organisations alike. Second, the practice of partnership generates idiosyncratic and complicated relationships that health professionals have to manage and navigate, often informally. Third, partnership is shaped by historical legacies, critical events, and independent consultants. Fourth, despite being an accepted part of global health policy, there is little shared understanding of what good partnership is meant to include or resemble in practice. Knowing more about the specific socio-cultural and political dynamics of partnership in different health system contexts is critical to equip health professionals with the skills to build the informal relations that are essential to effective partnership engagement. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The decline in BMI among Japanese women after World War II.

PubMed

Maruyama, Shiko; Nakamura, Sayaka

2015-07-01

The body mass index (BMI) of the Japanese is significantly lower than is found in other high-income countries. Moreover, the average BMI of Japanese women is lower than that of Japanese men, and the age-specific BMI of Japanese women has decreased over time. The average BMI of Japanese women at age 25 decreased from 21.8 in 1948 to 20.4 in 2010 whereas that of men increased from 21.4 to 22.3 over the same period. We examine the long-term BMI trend in Japan by combining several historical data sources spanning eleven decades, from 1901 to 2012, to determine not only when but also how the BMI decline among women began: whether its inception was period-specific or cohort-specific. Our nonparametric regression analysis generated five findings. First, the BMI of Japanese women peaked with the 1930s birth cohort. This means that the trend is cohort-specific. Second, the BMI of men outpaced that of women in the next cohort. Third, the BMI of Japanese children, boys and girls alike, increased steadily throughout the 20th century. Fourth, the gender difference in the BMI trend is due to a gender difference in the weight trend, not the height trend. Fifth, these BMI trends are observed in urban and rural populations alike. We conclude that the BMI decline among Japanese women began with those who were in their late teens shortly after World War II. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Molecular Epidemiology of Adenovirus Type 21 Respiratory Strains Isolated From US Military Trainees (1996-2014).

PubMed

Kajon, Adriana E; Hang, Jun; Hawksworth, Anthony; Metzgar, David; Hage, Elias; Hansen, Christian J; Kuschner, Robert A; Blair, Patrick; Russell, Kevin L; Jarman, Richard G

2015-09-15

The circulation of human adenovirus type 21 (HAdV21) in the United States has been documented since the 1960s in association with outbreaks of febrile respiratory illness (FRI) in military boot camps and civilian cases of respiratory disease. To describe the molecular epidemiology of HAdV21 respiratory infections across the country, 150 clinical respiratory isolates obtained from continuous surveillance of military recruit FRI, and 23 respiratory isolates recovered from pediatric and adult civilian cases of acute respiratory infection were characterized to compile molecular typing data spanning 37 years (1978-2014). Restriction enzyme analysis and genomic sequencing identified 2 clusters of closely related genomic variants readily distinguishable from the prototype and designated 21a-like and 21b-like. A-like variants predominated until 1999. A shift to b-like variants was noticeable by 2007 after a 7-year period (2000-2006) of cocirculation of the 2 genome types. US strains are phylogenetically more closely related to European and Asian strains isolated over the last 4 decades than to the Saudi Arabian prototype strain AV-1645 isolated in 1956. Knowledge of circulating HAdV21 variants and their epidemic behavior will be of significant value to local and global FRI surveillance efforts. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Incentives for market penetration of biosimilars in Belgium and in five European countries.

PubMed

Swartenbroekx, N; Farfan-Portet; Espín, J; Gerkens, S

2014-12-01

Biosimilars are products similar to a biological already authorized and no longer protected by a patent. As the biological product, they contain a biological substance produced by or derived from a living organism. Alike with generics, biosimilars are potential tool to ensure savings for health systems. The current lack of market penetration of biosimilars may be seen by national authorities as a lost opportunity in terms of cost- containment. The objective of this paper is therefore to analyze the current situation in Belgium and to identify potential measures to stimulate biosimilar uptake in Belgium through an analysis of the experience in five European countries: France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. This international comparison was performed using a two steps analysis: a structured review of the literature followed by a validation from experts in each country. Potential incentives and constraints were identified, i.e., prescription quotas/target, clinical guidelines, primary substitution, reference price system, fixed payment and public tendering. However, the literature reviewed provided little evaluation of the effectiveness of these policies in terms of biosimilar uptake or potential savings. The impact of these policies on biosimilar related savings is currently based on expectation and assumptions. Such kind of studies is therefore essential in the future.

Instability, investment, disasters, and demography: natural disasters and fertility in Italy (1820-1962) and Japan (1671-1965).

PubMed

Lin, C-Y Cynthia

2010-03-01

This article examines whether natural disasters affect fertility-a topic little explored but of policy importance given relevance to policies regarding disaster insurance, foreign aid, and the environment. The identification strategy uses historic regional data to exploit natural variation within each of two countries: one European country-Italy (1820-1962), and one Asian country-Japan (1671-1965). The choice of study settings allows consideration of Jones' (The European miracle, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1981) theory that preindustrial differences in income and population between Asia and Europe resulted from the fertility response to different environmental risk profiles. According to the results, short-run instability, particularly that arising from the natural environment, appears to be associated with a decrease in fertility-thereby suggesting that environmental shocks and economic volatility are associated with a decrease in investment in the population size of future generations. The results also show that, contrary to Jones' (The European miracle, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1981) theory, differences in fertility between Italy and Japan cannot be explained away by disaster proneness alone. Research on the effects of natural disasters may enable social scientists and environmentalists alike to better predict the potential effects of the increase in natural disasters that may result from global climate change.

Higher Education Learning Outcomes--Ambiguity and Change in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caspersen, Joakim; Frølich, Nicoline; Muller, Johan

2017-01-01

The emerging interdependent world order poses new challenges for States and citizens alike. For States, interdependence has meant a new concern with integration, whilst for citizens and authorities alike, greater mobility has raised new concerns about recognition of competences, qualifications, quality and transparency. The introduction of…

The Latin American cohabitation boom, 1970–2007.

PubMed

Esteve, Albert; Lesthaeghe, Ron; López-Gay, Antonio

2012-01-01

The article describes the rise of unmarried cohabitation in Latin American countries during the last 30 years of the twentieth century, both at the national and regional levels. It documents that this major increase occurred in regions with and without traditional forms of cohabitation alike. In addition, the striking degree of catching up of cohabitation among the better-educated population segments is illustrated. The connections between these trends and economic (periods of high inflation) and cultural (reduction of stigmas in ethical domains) factors are discussed. The conclusion is that the periods of inflation and hyperinflation may have been general catalysts, but no clear indications of correlation were found between such economic factors and the rise in cohabitation. The shift toward more tolerance for hitherto stigmatized forms of conduct (e.g., homosexuality, euthanasia, abortion, singleparent household) is in line with the rise of cohabitation in regions of Argentina, Chile, and Brazil where cohabitation used to be uncommon. Further rises in cohabitation during the first decade of the twenty-first century are expected in a number of countries (e.g., mexico) despite conditions of much lower inflation.

Test versus analysis: A discussion of methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butler, T. G.

1986-01-01

Some techniques for comparing structural vibration data determined from test and analysis are discussed. Orthogonality is a general category of one group, correlation is a second, synthesis is a third and matrix improvement is a fourth. Advantages and short-comings of the methods are explored with suggestions as to how they can complement one another. The purpose for comparing vibration data from test and analysis for a given structure is to find out whether each is representing the dynamic properties of the structure in the same way. Specifically, whether: mode shapes are alike; the frequencies of the modes are alike; modes appear in the same frequency sequence; and if they are not alike, how to judge which to believe.

Observation of a superfluid He-3 A- B phase transition in silica aerogel

PubMed

Barker; Lee; Polukhina; Osheroff; Hrubesh; Poco

2000-09-04

New NMR studies of 3He in high-porosity aerogel reveal a phase transition from an A-like to a B-like phase on cooling. The evidence includes frequency shift and magnetic susceptibility data, and similar behavior is found in two quite different aerogel samples. The A-like phase is stable only very near to T(c) but can be supercooled to below 0.8T(c). This behavior has been seen clearly at 32- and 24-bar pressures, and the presence of negative frequency shifts suggests that an A-like phase exists near T(c) at pressures as low as 12 bars in a magnetic field of 28.4 mT.

15 CFR 1150.4 - Waiver.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE MARKING OF TOY, LOOK-ALIKE AND IMITATION FIREARMS § 1150.4 Waiver. The prohibitions set forth in § 1150.2 of this part may be waived for any toy, look-alike or imitation firearm that... imitation firearm will be used only in the theatrical, movie or television industry. A sample of the item...

Structure of vortices in superfluid 3He A-like phase in uniaxially stretched aerogel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aoyama, Kazushi; Ikeda, Ryusuke

2009-02-01

Possible vortex-core transitions in A-like phase of superfluid 3He in uniaxially stretched aerogel are investigated. Since the global anisotropy in this system induces the polar pairing state in a narrow range close to the superfluid transition in addition to the A-like and B-like phases, the polar state may occur in the core of a vortex in the A-like phase identified with the ABM pairing state, like in the case of the bulk B phase where a core including the ABM state is realized at higher pressures. We examine the core structure of a single vortex under the boundary condition compatible with the Mermin-Ho vortex in the presence of the dipole interaction. Following Salomaa and Volovik's approach, we numerically solve the Ginzburg-Landau equation for an axially symmetric vortex and, by examining its stability against nonaxisymmetric perturbations, discuss possible vortex core states. It is found that a first order transition on core states may occur on warming from an axisymmetric vortex with a nonunitary core to a singular vortex with the polar core.

Bovine Tuberculosis and the Establishment of an Eradication Program in the United States: Role of Veterinarians

PubMed Central

Palmer, Mitchell V.; Waters, W. Ray

2011-01-01

The significance of the identification of Mycobacterium bovis as a zoonotic pathogen in 1882 was not initially recognized. After years of research by veterinarians, and other scientists, the importance of M. bovis as a pathogen and the public health ramifications, were appreciated. Veterinarians played pivotal roles in the creation of improved meat and milk inspection, diagnosis of M. bovis infected cattle, and in time, a bovine tuberculosis eradication program that would impact every cattle producer in the country. After overcoming many challenges, the 93-year-long program has decreased disease prevalence from 5% to <0.001%. Today, years of hard work by practitioners, researchers and regulatory officials alike, have yielded a program with a net benefit of almost $160 million per year. PMID:21647341

OSCE as a Summative Assessment Tool for Undergraduate Students of Surgery-Our Experience.

PubMed

Joshi, M K; Srivastava, A K; Ranjan, P; Singhal, M; Dhar, A; Chumber, S; Parshad, R; Seenu, V

2017-12-01

Traditional examination has inherent deficiencies. Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is considered as a method of assessment that may overcome many such deficits. OSCE is being increasingly used worldwide in various medical specialities for formative and summative assessment. Although it is being used in various disciplines in our country as well, its use in the stream of general surgery is scarce. We report our experience of assessment of undergraduate students appearing in their pre-professional examination in the subject of general surgery by conducting OSCE. In our experience, OSCE was considered a better assessment tool as compared to the traditional method of examination by both faculty and students and is acceptable to students and faculty alike. Conducting OSCE is feasible for assessment of students of general surgery.

High Aspirations: Transforming Dance Students from Print Consumers to Digital Producers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alvarez, Inma

2013-01-01

During 2012, the Dance Department at the University of Surrey developed a set of Open Educational Resources with a Creative Commons license (Attribution, Non- Commercial, Share Alike) for dance studies as part of the JISC-funded project Contexts, Culture and Creativity: Enriching E-learning in Dance (CCC:EED) see…

Drawing and Writing in Digital Science Notebooks: Sources of Formative Assessment Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shelton, Angi; Smith, Andrew; Wiebe, Eric; Behrle, Courtney; Sirkin, Ruth; Lester, James

2016-01-01

Formative assessment strategies are used to direct instruction by establishing where learners' understanding is, how it is developing, informing teachers and students alike as to how they might get to their next set of goals of conceptual understanding. For the science classroom, one rich source of formative assessment data about scientific…

Students' Development in Theory and Practice: The Doubtful Role of Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Egan, Kieran

2005-01-01

In this article, Kieran Egan contests the scientific foundations of Piaget's developmental theories and the scientific basis of much educational research. In so doing, he pushes researchers and practitioners alike to rethink the centrality of Piaget's tenets to teaching and learning. Egan traces the history of the developmental literature that…

The Relationship between Perceived School Climate and the Adolescents' Adherence to Humanitarian Values

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turhan, Muhammed; Akgül, Tülin

2017-01-01

This study investigates the relationship between students' perception of school climate and their adherence to humanitarian values. To this end, the study group consisted of 1094 students in 21 secondary schools in Elazig province of Turkey. The "School Climate Scale," developed by Çalik and Kurt, and the "Humanitarian Values…

Lessons from Successes in Medical Communication Training and Their Applications to Accounting Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daff, Lyn

2012-01-01

Accountants interact with people from diverse backgrounds. While accounting knowledge and technical skills are essential, it is well-developed interpersonal skills that will enhance their relationships with clients and staff alike. Similarly, patients want their doctors to have extensive medical knowledge and an agreeable bedside manner. To…

A Young University in India Focuses on Real-World Industry and Sustainability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neelakantan, Shailaja

2009-01-01

A small, relatively new Indian university is making a name for itself--nationally and internationally--in the rapidly growing field of sustainable development. TERI University, the creation of one of India's leading environmentalists, has won praise from industry executives and academics alike. They say the institution is tackling some of the…

Tablets in K-12 Education: Integrated Experiences and Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

An, Heejung, Ed.; Alon, Sandra, Ed.; Fuentes, David, Ed.

2015-01-01

The inclusion of new and emerging technologies in the education sector has been a topic of interest to researchers, educators, and software developers alike in recent years. Utilizing the proper tools in a classroom setting is a critical factor in student success. "Tablets in K-12 Education: Integrated Experiences and Implications"…

Integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Applications into Business Courses Using Online Business Geographics Modules

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Fred; Mangold, W. Glynn; Holmes, Terry

2006-01-01

Although the value of geographic information systems (GIS) technologies is recognized by practitioners and educators alike, GIS instruction has yet to make significant inroads into business curricula. In this article, the authors discuss the constraints of integrating GIS tools into business education. They develop a prototype module for…

Talent Development: A Guide for Practice and Research Within Sport

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martindale, Russell J. J.; Collins, Dave; Daubney, Jim

2005-01-01

The transformation of talented youngsters into senior world-beaters is a topic of interest for practitioners and researchers alike. Unfortunately there is a dearth of research to guide the optimization of this process. Accordingly, this paper offers an overview of key themes apparent in the literature that have relevance to the effective…

Learning Initiatives in the Residential Setting. The First-Year Experience Monograph Series No. 48

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luna, Gene, Ed.; Gahagan, Jimmie, Ed.

2008-01-01

In 2004, "Learning Reconsidered" urged educators to think more holistically about student learning and development. "Learning Initiatives in the Residential Setting" provides a framework for putting this call into action at large universities and small colleges alike. Chapters trace the history of learning in residence halls, discuss academic and…

Children's Risk-Taking Behaviour: Implications for Early Childhood Policy and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Little, Helen

2006-01-01

The safety of children as they learn and develop is of prime concern for parents, teachers and legislators alike. Legislation governing the provision of early childhood services provides guidelines and procedures for reducing the likelihood of children being exposed to injuries and unsafe environments. Such strategies, however, only take account…

Older Workers' Learning within Organizations: Issues and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Findsen, Brian

2015-01-01

As increasing numbers of older adults stay in the workforce or engage in encore careers, they are subjected to diverse issues and challenges. The new dynamics of the workplace in a global market exert pressure on older workers and employers alike in which training and development has a potentially significant function for achieving greater…

PBL Group Autonomy in a High School Environmental Science Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weiss, D. Mark; Belland, Brian R.

2018-01-01

With increasing class sizes, teachers and facilitators alike hope for learning groups where students work together in self-contained and autonomous ways requiring reduced teacher support. Yet many instructors find the idea of developing independent learning in small groups to be elusive particularly in K-12 settings (Ertmer and Simons in…

Implementing the WorkAdvance Model: Lessons for Practitioners. Policy Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kazis, Richard; Molina, Frieda

2016-01-01

WorkAdvance is a sectoral workforce development program designed to meet the needs of workers and employers alike. For unemployed and low-wage working adults, the program provides skills training in targeted sectors that have good-quality job openings with room for advancement within established career pathways. For employers in those sectors,…

Development of a Yorùbá Arithmetic Multimedia Learning System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eludiora, Safiriyu

2017-01-01

In recent times, the endangerment of Yorùbá has highly been speculated among Yorùbá intellectuals, indigenes and enthusiasts alike. In an effort to promote the learning and use of Yorùbá numeral system in carrying out day-to-day activities and transactions, the development of a Yorùbá arithmetic learning system will help bridge the gap between…

Assessment of DoD and Industry Networks for Computer Aided Logistics Support (CALS) Telecommunications.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-06-01

International Business Machines ( IBM ) Corporation compatible synchronous terminals (2780/3780/327X), and the Federal Data Corporation (FDC) has developed...the interfaces for Burroughs look-alike asynchronous and synchronous terminals. Basically, this means that the IBM and Burroughs protocols are...and other vendor computers, such as IBM , UNIVAC, and Honeywell. The Navy has developed file transfer capabilities between Tandem and Burroughs. These

The Development of Advanced Passive Acoustic Monitoring Systems Using microMARS Technology

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-09-30

localization that will be available in a number of configurations for deep and shallow water environments alike. OBJECTIVES The project has two...through two test series, first targeting the GPS synchronized shallow water and then the self-synchronized deep water configurations. The project will...main objectives: 1. Development of all the components of a compact passive acoustic monitoring system suitable both for shallow water moored

Open-Source web-based geographical information system for health exposure assessment

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

This paper presents the design and development of an open source web-based Geographical Information System allowing users to visualise, customise and interact with spatial data within their web browser. The developed application shows that by using solely Open Source software it was possible to develop a customisable web based GIS application that provides functions necessary to convey health and environmental data to experts and non-experts alike without the requirement of proprietary software. PMID:22233606

Ideal citizens: the birthing of state truths and fictions in Quintana Roo.

PubMed

Williams, Sarah A

2016-12-01

Reducing the maternal mortality rate (MMR) is an important part of Mexico's commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, and the country has made great strides towards achieving this goal. However, researchers have questioned to what extent the focus on improved MMR and other indices of maternal health has contributed to an emphasis on improved statistics rather than quality care, and the effect this has had on the quality of reporting. While public health officials and hospital administrators alike agree that improved obstetric reporting is necessary, there is little discussion regarding the accuracy of the data that are submitted and the institutional pressures that may contribute to the production of inaccurate data. Using ethnographic research collected in Tulum, Quintana Roo, this paper explores how biomedical childbirth functions as a source of legitimization for the state while simultaneously providing the means for the presentation of an ideal subjecthood, one that situates birthing women and healthcare personnel as properly attenuated to the norms and needs of the modern Mexican state. By highlighting the point of disjuncture between women's experiences and the formal 'reality' created through hospital texts, this paper explores the place of biomedical birth as a producer of and legitimization for Mexican public health policy.

Eugenics and modern biology: critiques of eugenics, 1910-1945.

PubMed

Allen, Garland E

2011-05-01

Eugenics in most western countries in the first four decades of the 20th century was based on the idea that genes control most human phenotypic traits, everything from physical features such as polydactyly and eye colour to physiological conditions such as the A-B-O blood groups to mental and personality traits such as "feeblemindedness," alcoholism and pauperism. In assessing the development of the eugenics movement-its rise and decline between 1900 and 1950-it is important to recognise that its naïve assumptions and often flawed methodologies were openly criticised at the time by scientists and nonscientists alike. This paper will present a brief overview of the critiques launched against eugenicists' claims, particularly criticisms of the American school led by Charles B. Davenport. Davenport's approach to eugenics will be contrasted to his British counterpart, Karl Pearson, founder and first editor of the Annals of Eugenics. It was not the case that nearly everyone in the early 20th century accepted eugenic conclusions as the latest, cutting-edge science. There are lessons from this historical approach for dealing with similar naïve claims about genetics today. © 2011 The Author Annals of Human Genetics © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd/University College London.

Toward a multidimensional understanding of culture for health interventions.

PubMed

Asad, Asad L; Kay, Tamara

2015-11-01

Although a substantial literature examines the relationship between culture and health in myriad individual contexts, a lack of comparative data across settings has resulted in disparate and imprecise conceptualizations of the concept for scholars and practitioners alike. This article examines scholars and practitioners' understandings of culture in relation to health interventions. Drawing on 169 interviews with officials from three different nongovernmental organizations working on health issues in multiple countries-Partners in Health, Oxfam America, and Sesame Workshop-we examine how these respondents' interpretations of culture converge or diverge with recent developments in the study of the concept, as well as how these understandings influence health interventions at three different stages-design, implementation, and evaluation-of a project. Based on these analyses, a tripartite definition of culture is built-as knowledge, practice, and change-and these distinct conceptualizations are linked to the success or failure of a project at each stage of an intervention. In so doing, the study provides a descriptive and analytical starting point for scholars interested in understanding the theoretical and empirical relevance of culture for health interventions, and sets forth concrete recommendations for practitioners working to achieve robust improvements in health outcomes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Inexpensive Open-Source Data Logging in the Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wickert, A. D.

2013-12-01

I present a general-purpose open-source field-capable data logger, which provides a mechanism to develop dense networks of inexpensive environmental sensors. This data logger was developed as a low-power variant of the Arduino open-source development system, and is named the ALog ("Arduino Logger") BottleLogger (it is slim enough to fit inside a Nalgene water bottle) version 1.0. It features an integrated high-precision real-time clock, SD card slot for high-volume data storage, and integrated power switching. The ALog can interface with sensors via six analog/digital pins, two digital pins, and one digital interrupt pin that can read event-based inputs, such as those from a tipping-bucket rain gauge. We have successfully tested the ALog BottleLogger with ultrasonic rangefinders (for water stage and snow accumulation and melt), temperature sensors, tipping-bucket rain gauges, soil moisture and water potential sensors, resistance-based tools to measure frost heave, and cameras that it triggers based on events. The source code for the ALog, including functions to interface with a a range of commercially-available sensors, is provided as an Arduino C++ library with example implementations. All schematics, circuit board layouts, and source code files are open-source and freely available under GNU GPL v3.0 and Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licenses. Through this work, we hope to foster a community-driven movement to collect field environmental data on a budget that permits citizen-scientists and researchers from low-income countries to collect the same high-quality data as researchers in wealthy countries. These data can provide information about global change to managers, governments, scientists, and interested citizens worldwide. Watertight box with ALog BottleLogger data logger on the left and battery pack with 3 D cells on the right. Data can be collected for 3-5 years on one set of batteries.

Reducing Dissonance along Health-Education Fault Lines: Health-Literacy Advocacy and the Case for Efficacious Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCuaig, L.; Coore, S.; Hay, P. J.

2012-01-01

International health and education sectors alike readily support the argument that healthy young people who attend school tend to learn better, and a good education influences the development of a healthier population. Such sentiments recognize the interaction between schools and young people, and the overall experience of attending school as…

Internationalisation of Higher Education and Global Mobility. Oxford Studies in Comparative Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Streitwieser, Bernhard, Ed.

2014-01-01

Continuous and rapid developments in global higher education today more than ever before present new questions, greater challenges, and vast new opportunities for institutions, policy makers, scholars and students alike. This book is a collection of studies and essays by many of the leading experts in international higher education who share their…

Ecosystem services in changing landscapes: An introduction

Treesearch

Louis Iverson; Cristian Echeverria; Laura Nahuelhual; Sandra Luque

2014-01-01

The concept of ecosystem services from landscapes is rapidly gaining momentum as a language to communicate values and benefits to scientists and lay alike. Landscape ecology has an enormous contribution to make to this field, and one could argue, uniquely so. Tools developed or adapted for landscape ecology are being increasingly used to assist with the quantification...

Changing Career and Changing Identity: How Do Teacher Career Changers Exercise Agency in Identity Construction?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Elaine; Deaney, Rosemary

2010-01-01

The quest to understand what it means to "become" a teacher and the conditions in which such aspirations can be translated into lived experience, continues to exercise teacher educators and researchers alike. Whilst the literature points towards the importance of developing teacher identity, little attention has been given to…

Learning from Success as Leverage for a Professional Learning Community: Exploring an Alternative Perspective of School Improvement Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schechter, Chen

2010-01-01

Background: Although the professional learning community as a means of improving student achievement has received growing support from researchers and practitioners alike, professionals are still exploring ways to develop interaction networks regarding teaching and learning issues. Purpose: This study explores the evolving stages of a collective…

Assessment of Creative Writing: The Case of Singapore Secondary Chinese Language Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tung, Chan Kwong

2015-01-01

In Singapore and in elsewhere alike, educators nowadays are paying much more attention on the set of teaching and assessment recommendations called the 21st century skills that include creativity at the policy, programmatic, school and classroom levels. As these education systems develop and respond to the demands of the new century, educators are…

Position Paper and Recommendations: The Family and Child Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffman, Jeanne, Comp.; And Others

The Council on Appalachian Women calls upon the governors of the Appalachian region to provide the leadership necessary for change that will benefit children and adults alike, that will provide access to the needed human services, and that will at the same time preserve the rural nature and the desirable qualities of Appalachian culture. The…

Effects of Engineering Design-Based Science on Elementary School Science Students' Engineering Identity Development across Gender and Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Capobianco, Brenda M.; Yu, Ji H.; French, Brian F.

2015-01-01

The integration of engineering concepts and practices into elementary science education has become an emerging concern for science educators and practitioners, alike. Moreover, how children, specifically preadolescents (grades 1-5), engage in engineering design-based learning activities may help science educators and researchers learn more about…

A Proposal for Accelerating the Implementation and Development of Video Games in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Greg; Kalinowski, Kevin

2006-01-01

The integration of video games in the classroom continues to be a topic for educators and researchers alike. Yet despite the dialogue, widespread integration of this technology has yet to occur. To help remedy this situation, Greg Jones and Kevin Kalinowski propose the establishment of an online, open community designated to explore and develop…

Philosophy for Welders: Colleges Offer Innovative Humanities Curricula for Liberal Arts and Career Track Students Alike

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finkel, Ed

2016-01-01

Does America needs more welders and fewer philosophers? Community college humanities professors and administrators say it benefits all students, whether liberal arts or career track, to take courses in philosophy, history, political science, language arts, and other liberal arts subjects. And they're developing innovative humanities curricula to…

From Rhetoric to Reality: Planning and Conducting Collaborations for International Research in the Global South

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lombe, Margaret; Newransky, Chrisann; Crea, Tom; Stout, Anna

2013-01-01

International collaboration in social work research, particularly research in the global south, presents unique opportunities for the personal and professional development of researchers and students alike. Yet data to help direct the process are limited. Using a research project recently carried out in Ghana as background, the authors present…

The Guerrillas in the Boardroom: What COIN Theory Teaches Leaders about Organizational Change, and How Corporate Change Models Could Transform Military Doctrine

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-25

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince Introduction The idea that war and unarmed competition are much alike is common. Athletes, especially football players ...... research , Kotter formulated eight steps: (1) Establish a Sense of Urgency, (2) Create a Guiding Coalition, (3) Develop a Change Vision, (4) Communicate a

Within We Are All Alike--But Do We Realize It? Development Education Paper No. 10.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tenfjord, Jon

For nearly a generation, teachers have taught Norwegian school children through songs, explanation, films, and reading about children from other cultures with international understanding as an ideal. Now, however, with nearly 80,000 foreign workers in Norway, incidents of racism and discrimination (such as insults and mobbing in schoolyards) are…

Attractions to Violence and the Limits of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duncum, Paul

2006-01-01

The effects of violent media fare upon young people are of great concern for educators and parents alike. Recently, some visual art educators have attempted to deal with the issue under the rubric of visual culture. Adopting a critical position toward media violence, they have developed programs that attempt to encourage in their students a view…

Teacher Educators as Researchers: A Profile of Research in Israeli Teacher Colleges Versus University Departments of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yogev, Sima; Yogev, Abraham

2006-01-01

The teacher research movement has encouraged the development of "practitioner research" action-oriented and reflective studies among teachers and teacher educators alike. This study compares the profile of research conducted in the Israeli academic teacher colleges with that performed by university faculty. A content analysis of the 204…

Atlantis University: A New Pedagogical Approach beyond E-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bleimann, Udo

2004-01-01

Atlantis University is an ambitious international project in the area of learning and is currently being developed by a group of universities and companies. It combines three different types of learning and teaching to form a single package offered to Students and people in the workplace alike: face-to-face learning, e-learning and project-based…

Beyond the Theoretical Impasse: Extending the Applications of Transactional Distance Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gokool-Ramdoo, Sushita

2008-01-01

The premise of this article is that the Transactional Distance Theory (TDT) should be accepted as a global theory for the further development of distance education. Despite the fact that a transactional approach seems to be consciously or unconsciously adopted by theorists and practitioners alike, the reluctance to recognise it as a global theory…

Win–win data sharing in neuroscience

PubMed Central

Ascoli, Giorgio A; Maraver, Patricia; Nanda, Sumit; Polavaram, Sridevi; Armañanzas, Rubén

2017-01-01

Most neuroscientists have yet to embrace a culture of data sharing. Using our decade-long experience at NeuroMorpho.Org as an example, we discuss how publicly available repositories may benefit data producers and end-users alike. We outline practical recipes for resource developers to maximize the research impact of data sharing platforms for both contributors and users. PMID:28139675

Science Education and the Nature of Nature: Bruno Latour's Ontological Politics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gleason, Tristan

2017-01-01

This article explores recent developments in the field of science and technology, and the work of Bruno Latour in particular, to problematize the nature of Nature in science education. Although science and technology studies, and the scholarship on science education alike, have become increasingly attentive to the antidemocratic habits of science…

Critical Thinking as Integral to Social Work Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibbons, Jill; Gray, Mel

2004-01-01

The paper examines the role of critical thinking in an experience-based model of social work education. Within this model, the development of a critical approach to our own understanding of, as well as to existing knowledge about, the world is fundamental for students and educators alike. Critical thinking is defined as more than a rational,…

Specialization in Youth Sport: What Coaches Should Tell Parents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bodey, Kimberly J.; Judge, Lawrence W.; Hoover, Jonathan V.

2013-01-01

We live in the age of the performance ethic. Youth sport, a highly visible and valued activity in communities across the nation, is a proving ground for children and parents alike. Fun sometimes equates to being a better athlete. The sport experience is assessed in terms of enhanced technical skill development and competitive ranking (Coakley,…

Department-Store Education: An Account of the Training Methods Developed at the Boston School of Salesmanship under the Direction of Lucinda Wyman Prince. Bulletin, 1917, No. 9

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norton, Helen Rich

1917-01-01

Vocational training, as a part of the great movement for industrial betterment is now widely recognized as an advantageous measure for both the worker and the industry, but it is not many years since such applied education was looked upon with disfavor by employers and employees alike. This report will deal specifically with the development of…

Worldwide trends in Universal Service Funds and telemedicine.

PubMed

Nakajima, Isao

2010-12-01

A survey of recent worldwide trends in Universal Service Funds (USFs) and the assistance provided for their application indicates that industrialized countries and developing nations alike have offered or plan to offer tax-relief measures or reimbursement for communications costs incurred by telemedicine programs, thus finding a way to actively apply USFs in rural areas. There are three main systems used to calculate the amount of reimbursement from a USF. While many countries adopt a service-area net-loss estimation method, Japan uses a benchmark method and provides financial assistance only to unprofitable areas. The USA has proactively introduced telemedicine to rural areas and isolated islands in order to minimize rapidly rising healthcare costs and to improve the efficiency of healthcare services. In the USA, the USF is used to pay back communications costs incurred through telemedicine programs. For instance, the budget allocated from the USF for reimbursements for telemedicine in Alaska reached USD 30 Mil. in 2007. Developing countries in Africa and Asia are operating various forms of telemedicine on a trial basis, but a tax-relief measure or payback of communications costs, which are a large portion of the running costs, will need to be implemented to ensure sustainable and autonomous operation of telemedicine. In Japan, up until January 2007, the USF system assumed the use of an NTS (non-traffic sensitive cost) system to obtain funds from connection fees, and this system would receive funds from each telecommunications carrier (payer: the telecommunications carriers). The beneficiaries would be limited to two companies, namely NTT East and NTT West. However, the Japanese USF system was revised in February 2007, and a fee is now collected from each telephone number (payer: the user). The collected funds are used to cover losses in unprofitable areas (not limited to remote areas) among 7,000 business areas in Japan. In view of worldwide trends, the author believes that Japan should also start using the USF system to reimburse communications costs (including costs of telemedicine) in order to achieve sustainable and autonomous operation of public communication systems in rural areas.

Prevalence of and factors associated with frailty and disability in older adults from China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa.

PubMed

Biritwum, R B; Minicuci, N; Yawson, A E; Theou, O; Mensah, G P; Naidoo, N; Wu, F; Guo, Y; Zheng, Y; Jiang, Y; Maximova, T; Kalula, S; Arokiasamy, P; Salinas-Rodríguez, A; Manrique-Espinoza, B; Snodgrass, J J; Sterner, K N; Eick, G; Liebert, M A; Schrock, J; Afshar, S; Thiele, E; Vollmer, S; Harttgen, K; Strulik, H; Byles, J E; Rockwood, K; Mitnitski, A; Chatterji, S; Kowal, P

2016-09-01

The severe burden imposed by frailty and disability in old age is a major challenge for healthcare systems in low- and middle-income countries alike. The current study aimed to provide estimates of the prevalence of frailty and disability in older adult populations and to examine their relationship with socioeconomic factors in six countries. Focusing on adults aged 50+ years, a frailty index was constructed as the proportion of deficits in 40 variables, and disability was assessed using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0), as part of the Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) Wave 1 in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. This study included a total of 34,123 respondents. China had the lowest percentages of older adults with frailty (13.1%) and with disability (69.6%), whereas India had the highest percentages (55.5% and 93.3%, respectively). Both frailty and disability increased with age for all countries, and were more frequent in women, although the sex gap varied across countries. Lower levels of both frailty and disability were observed at higher levels of education and wealth. Both education and income were protective factors for frailty and disability in China, India and Russia, whereas only income was protective in Mexico, and only education in South Africa. Age-related frailty and disability are increasing concerns for older adult populations in low- and middle-income countries. The results indicate that lower levels of frailty and disability can be achieved for older people, and the study highlights the need for targeted preventive approaches and support programs. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Opening the 'black box' of performance-based financing in low- and lower middle-income countries: a review of the literature.

PubMed

Renmans, Dimitri; Holvoet, Nathalie; Orach, Christopher Garimoi; Criel, Bart

2016-11-01

Although performance-based financing (PBF) receives increasing attention in the literature, a lot remains unknown about the exact mechanisms triggered by PBF arrangements. This article aims to summarize current knowledge on how PBF works, set out what still needs to be investigated and formulate recommendations for researchers and policymakers from donor and recipient countries alike. Drawing on an extensive systematic literature review of peer-reviewed journals, we analysed 35 relevant articles. To guide us through this variety of studies, point out relevant issues and structure findings, we use a comprehensive analytical framework based on eight dimensions. The review inter alia indicates that PBF is generally welcomed by the main actors (patients, health workers and health managers), yet what PBF actually entails is less straightforward. More research is needed on the exact mechanisms through which not only incentives but also ancillary components operate. This knowledge is essential if we really want to appreciate the effectiveness, desirability and appropriate format of PBF as one of the possible answers to the challenges in the health sector of low-and lower middle-income countries. A clear definition of the research constructs is a primordial starting point for such research. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

[The Bellagio Model: an evidence-informed, international framework for population-oriented primary care. First experiences].

PubMed

Schlette, Sophia; Lisac, Melanie; Wagner, Ed; Gensichen, Jochen

2009-01-01

The Bellagio Model for Population-oriented Primary Care is an evidence-informed framework to assess accessible care for sick, vulnerable, and healthy people. The model was developed in spring 2008 by a multidisciplinary group of 24 experts from nine countries. The purpose of their gathering was to determine success factors for effective 21st century primary care based on state-of-the-art research findings, models, and empirical experience, and to assist with its implementation in practice, management, and health policy. Against the backdrop of "partialization", fragmentation in open health care systems, and the growing numbers of chronically ill or fragile people or those in need of any other kind of care, today's health care systems do not provide the much needed anchor point for continuing coordination and assistance prior, during and following an episode of illness. The Bellagio Model consists of ten key elements, which can make a substantial contribution to identify and overcome current gaps in primary care by using a synergetic approach. These elements are Shared Leadership, Public Trust, Horizontal and Vertical Integration, Networking of Professionals, Standardized Measurement, Research and Development, Payment Mix, Infrastructure, Programmes for Practice Improvement, and Population-oriented Management. All of these elements, which have been identified as being equally necessary, are also alike in that they involve all those responsible for health care: providers, managers, and policymakers.

Hunger, escaping excess.

PubMed

Gardner, G; Halweil, B

2000-01-01

According to the WHO, in spite of decades of global food surpluses, half of humanity, in both rich and poor nations, is still malnourished. Malnutrition has become a significant impediment to development in rich and poor countries, alike. At the individual level, both hunger and poor eating habits reduce a person's physical fitness, increase susceptibility to illness, and shorten lifespan. In addition, children deprived of adequate nutrients during development can suffer from permanently reduced mental capacity. At the national level, poor eating hampers educational performance, curtails economic productivity, increases the burden on health care, and reduces well-being. Confronting this epidemic of poor eating will have widespread benefits, but the myths and misconceptions permeating humanity¿s understanding of malnutrition should be addressed first. It is noted that the major cause of hunger is poverty, not scarcity of food; it is the lack of access to the goods and services essential for a healthy life. On the other hand, for those who have access to plenty of food, dietary intake includes meat, dairy products, and highly processed items loaded with fat and sugar. This leads to the problem of obesity, a condition that increases susceptibility to disease and disability, reduces worker productivity, and shortens lifespan. In view of this, efforts to improve nutrition should focus on poverty eradication, health education, agricultural change, and policy change towards promotion of good nutrition.

Defining the unique role of the specialist district nurse practitioner.

PubMed

Barrett, Anne; Latham, Dinah; Levermore, Joy

2007-10-01

Due to the reorganization of primary care trusts across the country, certain trusts proposed a reduction in the specialist district nurse practitioner numbers in favour of less qualified community nurses and health care assistants. Such proposals in one PCT were blocked, partly in response to documentation compiled by practitioners at the sharp end of nursing practice. With the new agenda of practice based commissioning, it is imperative that commissioners and management alike are aware of the scope of specialist district nurse practitioners. This is the first of a series of articles looking at specific case histories where the role of the district nurse is highlighted. It is the intention to stress the importance of the clinical expertise and confidence required by the district nurse to care for patients with complex needs in the community.

City encounter and desert encounter: two sources of American regional planning thought

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Guttenberg, A.Z.

1978-10-01

Referring to the American experience, the historian, Richard Hofstadter wrote, The US was born in the country and has moved to the city, but this is only part of the story. At the turn of the century while some Americans were moving to the city others were moving to the arid West. As different as they were in many respects, the city encounter and the desert encounter were alike in that both resulted in planned attempts to establish rural institutions and values in inhospitable environments. In the urban East the basis for regional planning was the neighborhood concept. In themore » arid West it was the cooperative colony and the scientific family farm. This article is a study of the similarity-in-diversity which characterized American planning in its original phase. 60 references.« less

Country of origin and racio-ethnicity: are there differences in perceived organizational cultural competency and job satisfaction among nursing assistants in long-term care?

PubMed

Allensworth-Davies, Donald; Leigh, Jennifer; Pukstas, Kim; Geron, Scott Miyake; Hardt, Eric; Brandeis, Gary; Engle, Ryann L; Parker, Victoria A

2007-01-01

Long-term care facilities nationwide are finding it difficult to train and retain sufficient numbers of nursing assistants, resulting in a dire staffing situation. Researchers, managers, and practitioners alike have been trying to determine the correlates of job satisfaction to address this increasingly untenable situation. One factor that has received little empirical attention in the long-term care literature is cultural competence. Cultural competence is defined as a set of skills, attitudes, behaviors, and policies that enable organizations and staff to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. To examine organizational cultural competence as perceived by nursing assistants and determine if this was related to differences in job satisfaction across countries of origin and racio-ethnic groups. Primary data collected from a cross-section of 135 nursing assistants at four New England nursing homes. Demographics, perceptions of organizational cultural competence, and ratings of job satisfaction were collected. A multivariate, generalized linear model was used to assess predictors of job satisfaction. A secondary analysis was then conducted to identify the most important components of organizational cultural competency. Perception of organizational cultural competence (p = .0005) and autonomy (p = .001) were the strongest predictors of job satisfaction among nursing assistants; as these increase, job satisfaction also increases. Neither country of origin nor racio-ethnicity was associated with job satisfaction, but racio-ethnicity was associated with perceived organizational cultural competence (p = .05). A comfortable work environment for employees of different races/cultures emerged as the strongest organizational cultural competency factor (p = .04). Developing and maintaining organizational cultural competency and employee autonomy are important managerial strategies for increasing job satisfaction and improving staff retention. Toward this end, creating a comfortable work environment for employees of different races/cultures is an integral part of the process. Managerial recommendations are discussed.

SN REFSDAL: CLASSIFICATION AS A LUMINOUS AND BLUE SN 1987A-LIKE TYPE II SUPERNOVA

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kelly, P. L.; Filippenko, A. V.; Graham, M. L.

We have acquired Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Very Large Telescope near-infrared spectra and images of supernova (SN) Refsdal after its discovery as an Einstein cross in fall 2014. The HST light curve of SN Refsdal has a shape consistent with the distinctive, slowly rising light curves of SN 1987A-like SNe, and we find strong evidence for a broad H α P-Cygni profile and Na I D absorption in the HST grism spectrum at the redshift ( z = 1.49) of the spiral host galaxy. SNe IIn, largely powered by circumstellar interaction, could provide a good match to the lightmore » curve of SN Refsdal, but the spectrum of a SN IIn would not show broad and strong H α and Na I D absorption. From the grism spectrum, we measure an H α expansion velocity consistent with those of SN 1987A-like SNe at a similar phase. The luminosity, evolution, and Gaussian profile of the H α emission of the WFC3 and X-shooter spectra, separated by ∼2.5 months in the rest frame, provide additional evidence that supports the SN 1987A-like classification. In comparison with other examples of SN 1987A-like SNe, photometry of SN Refsdal favors bluer B - V and V - R colors and one of the largest luminosities for the assumed range of potential magnifications. The evolution of the light curve at late times will provide additional evidence about the potential existence of any substantial circumstellar material. Using MOSFIRE and X-shooter spectra, we estimate a subsolar host-galaxy metallicity (8.3 ± 0.1 dex and <8.4 dex, respectively) near the explosion site.« less

An Investigation of the Gender Differential Performance on a High-Stakes Language Proficiency Test in Iran

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karami, Hossein

2013-01-01

There has been a growing consensus among the educational measurement experts and psychometricians that test taker characteristics may unduly affect the performance on tests. This may lead to construct-irrelevant variance in the scores and thus render the test biased. Hence, it is incumbent on test developers and users alike to provide evidence…

No Two Cues Are Alike: Depth of Learning during Infancy Is Dependent on What Orients Attention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Rachel; Kirkham, Natasha Z.

2010-01-01

Human infants develop a variety of attentional mechanisms that allow them to extract relevant information from a cluttered multimodal world. We know that both social and nonsocial cues shift infants' attention, but not how these cues differentially affect learning of multimodal events. Experiment 1 used social cues to direct 8- and 4-month-olds'…

Tobacco Use Prevention Education. K-12 Lesson Plans from the Montana Model Curriculum for Health Enhancement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montana State Office of Public Instruction, Helena.

This publication presents K-12 tobacco use prevention lesson plans for schools in the state of Montana. Lessons for students in grades K-6 include: family connections; body tracing; smokeless tobacco; prenatal development; tobacco look-alikes; tobacco chemicals; analyzing tobacco and alcohol ads; tobacco use and the lungs; and a personal health…

Developing a Second Life Virtual Field Trip for University Students: An Action Research Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathews, Shane; Andrews, Lynda; Luck, Edwina

2012-01-01

Background: Integrating 3D virtual world technologies into educational subjects continues to draw the attention of educators and researchers alike. The focus of this study is the use of a virtual world, Second Life, in higher education teaching. In particular, it explores the potential of using a virtual world experience as a learning component…

Impact of Students' Participation to a Facebook Group on Their Motivation and Scores and on Teacher's Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montoneri, Bernard

2015-01-01

The development of Information and communications technology (ICT) has brought rapid and profound changes in the field of Education. Nowadays, teachers and students alike are engaging on social networks such as Facebook. This study discusses the benefits of using social network in the classroom. It aims at assessing the impact of Facebook on…

Public Sector Training: A "Blind" Spot in the 1999 South African National Levy-Grant Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paterson, Andrew

2005-01-01

In 2000, South Africa implemented a levy-grant policy (Skills Development Levies Act, 1999) to give an incentive for workplace training across private and public sector workplaces alike, but the impact of the levy-grant scheme in the public sector was restricted by financial and management processes unique to that environment. This article shows…

Introduction to the Discrete Fourier Series Considering Both Mathematical and Engineering Aspects--A Linear Algebra Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kohaupt, Ludwig

2015-01-01

The discrete Fourier series is a valuable tool developed and used by mathematicians and engineers alike. One of the most prominent applications is signal processing. Usually, it is important that the signals be transmitted fast, for example, when transmitting images over large distances such as between the moon and the earth or when generating…

Improving the Lives of Students, Gay and Straight Alike: Gay-Straight Alliances and the Role of School Psychologists

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Heather Elise

2012-01-01

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students face many risk factors every day when they enter their school's door. These students often fear for their safety at school, are victimized, have academic difficulties, suffer from issues with their identity development, and are at risk for suicide. School-based Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs)…

Gods of the City? Reflecting on City Building Games as an Early Introduction to Urban Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bereitschaft, Bradley

2016-01-01

For millions of gamers and students alike, city building games (CBGs) like SimCity and the more recent Cities: Skylines present a compelling initial introduction to the world of urban planning and development. As such, these games have great potential to shape players' understanding and expectations of real urban patterns and processes. In this…

Renewed Attention to Social Sciences in China Leads to New Partnerships with American Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hvistendahl, Mara

2009-01-01

Politics and a lack of money resulted in decades of neglect for the social sciences in China, by foreign and domestic institutions alike. American universities looking to establish partnerships here have focused instead on high-demand fields like finance and the hard sciences. But societal change, along with a government push to develop more…

Hillary Clinton impressed by the Centre's work.

PubMed

1995-01-01

In April 1994, US First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, her daughter Chelsea, the Bangladesh Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, and the US Ambassador to Bangladesh visited the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). The First Lady remarked that ICDDR,B's research programs on health and family planning have many important lessons for the developing and developed regions alike. She noted the development successes in Bangladesh that can be applied in the US and other countries: the Grameen Bank, oral rehydration solution (ORS), and the community outreach programs for health and family planning services. The First Lady was especially interested in ORS and its cost-effectiveness. Most of the 220,000 children hospitalized each year in the US for severe gastrointestinal illness are treated with expensive intravenous (IV) drips (average cost = $2300), while a few ORS packets would be a small fraction of the cost. The average cost of treatment per patient at ICDDR,B was only $12. Patients receive care free of charge. Less than 0.6% of the patients die. The previous year, a USAID administrator asked ICDDR,B for its expertise in fighting cholera at the Rwandan refugee camps in Goma, Zaire. ICDDR,B staff developed diagnostic antisera for the new cholera strain responsible for the epidemic in the Americas, described its pathophysiology, and established its mode of transmission in surface waters. ICDDR,B also provides technical support to the national family planning and maternal and child health programs. In the Matlab, ICDDR,B's work has contributed to a high contraceptive prevalence rate of more than 64% among poor and largely illiterate persons.

Professional Development in the International Year of Astronomy: Expanding the Universe in the Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reinfeld, Erika L.; Harman, P.; Lee, M. H.; Bailey, J. M.

2008-05-01

The International Year of Astronomy offers unparalleled opportunity to expand our audiences’ understanding about the universe. However, many learners, students and adults alike, are unfamiliar with the universe beyond the solar system. This collaborative workshop explores strategies for teacher professional development around the origin and evolution of the universe, using the resources of the Beyond the Solar System Professional Development Project as a guide. The Beyond the Solar System (BtSS) Professional Development Project is a NASA-supported initiative from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) designed to foster public understanding of NASA's exciting astronomy and space science research. The BtSS portfolio includes video resources, assessment tools, data about common student ideas, content presentations, online telescope investigations, and other classroom activities designed to deepen content knowledge and improve the quality of teaching and learning about current scientific models and evidence for the origin and evolution of our universe of galaxies. During this session, members of the BtSS Leadership Team from around the country will share their experience using these resources in educator workshops and teacher-training courses, and facilitate discussions among workshop participants about how these materials and pedagogical strategies can be used in their own professional development efforts during the International Year of Astronomy. EPO specialists and scientists will engage in focused exploration of the project's DVD--"Expanding the Universe in the Classroom"--in order make explicit connections between the themes of the International Year of Astronomy and their own work. The goals of this workshop are to equip professional development providers to support IYA education efforts in classrooms, afterschool programs, and informal education venues and to raise awareness about the opportunities for continuing Galileo's legacy of discovery through current science and online telescopes.

Diminishing Funding and Rising Expectations: Trends and Challenges for Public Research Universities. A Companion to Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. NSB-12-45

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Science Foundation, 2012

2012-01-01

Research universities, both public and private alike, are the leading producers of science and engineering (S&E) bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. They are contributors to economic development at the local, state, and national levels, performing over half of the Nation's total basic research in 2009, and they educate and train our…

Handbook of Research Methods in Social and Personality Psychology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reis, Harry T.; Judd, Charles M.

2000-03-01

This volume provides an overview of research methods in contemporary social psychology. Coverage includes conceptual issues in research design, methods of research, and statistical approaches. Because the range of research methods available for social psychology have expanded extensively in the past decade, both traditional and innovative methods are presented. The goal is to introduce new and established researchers alike to new methodological developments in the field.

Research and Teaching: Using Models from the Literature and Iterative Feedback to Teach Students to Construct Effective Data Figures for Poster Presentations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gray, Christine E.; Contreras-Shannon, Veronica E.

2017-01-01

Analyzing, interpreting, and clearly presenting real data are skills we hope to develop in all students, majors and nonmajors alike. These process skills require lots of practice coupled with targeted feedback from instructors or mentors. Here we present a pedagogy implemented within a course-based research experience that is designed to help…

Defining Concepts in the War/Peace Field: A Task for Academics and Curriculum Developers Alike. An Occasional Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freeman, Robert E.

Advocates of the new social studies have long urged the use of concepts as the basic building blocks in social studies. The question of what concepts and definitions of them should be taught is a matter of agreement among qualified judges. As qualified judges in the international relations-war/peace international education field, we can determine…

Hands on Stem Cells: How to Make the Elusive Science of Stem Cells Tangible for the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanderson, Aimee

2010-01-01

With new technologies developing so fast, it is difficult for students and teachers alike to keep up to date. Add into the mix skewed media reporting, some creative science fiction films and the unregulated world of the internet, and it becomes increasingly hard to separate fact from fiction. As Australia's largest funding body for stem cell…

Virtual water trade and bilateral conflicts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Angelis, Enrico; Metulini, Rodolfo; Bove, Vincenzo; Riccaboni, Massimo

2017-12-01

In light of growing water scarcity, virtual water, or the water embedded in key water-intensive commodities, has been an active area of debate among practitioners and academics alike. As of yet, however, there is no consensus on whether water scarcity affects conflict behavior and we still lack empirical research intending to account for the role of virtual water in affecting the odds of militarized disputes between states. Using quantitative methods and data on virtual water trade, we find that bilateral and multilateral trade openness reduce the probability of war between any given pair of countries, which is consistent with the strategic role of this important commodity and the opportunity cost associated with the loss of trade gains. We also find that the substantive effect of virtual water trade is comparable to that of oil and gas, the archetypal natural resources, in determining interstate conflicts' probability.

Integrating basic science in academic cardiology training: two international perspectives on a common challenge.

PubMed

Bode, Michael F; Hilgendorf, Ingo

2018-06-09

Political bodies and professional societies acknowledge that translational research benefits from researchers trained in both, clinical medicine and basic science. Yet, few physicians undergoing clinical training in cardiology seek this dual career (Milewicz et al. J Clin Invest 125:3742-3747, 2015). The reasons are likely manifold, but with cardiology having become increasingly interventional and facing economic pressure, how much attention, credit, and encouragement is given to physicians interested in basic cardiovascular science? Having studied and worked in hospitals and laboratories, in both Germany and the USA, we aim to compare in this article how basic science education is currently integrated into cardiology training at German and US university hospitals, from medical school to more advanced career stages. By doing so, we hope to provide some outside perspectives to young physicians and decision makers alike, that may inspire changes to curricula in the respective countries and around the world.

Pathos & Ethos: Emotions and Willingness to Pay for Tobacco Products

PubMed Central

Chakravarti, Amitav; Ortoleva, Pietro; Gaskell, George; Ivchenko, Andriy; Lupiáñez-Villanueva, Francisco; Mureddu, Francesco; Rudisill, Caroline

2015-01-01

In this article we use data from a multi-country Randomized Control Trial study on the effect of anti-tobacco pictorial warnings on an individual’s emotions and behavior. By exploiting the exogenous variations of images as an instrument, we are able to identify the effect of emotional responses. We use a range of outcome variables, from cognitive (risk perception and depth of processing) to behavioural (willingness to buy and willingness to pay). Our findings suggest that the odds of buying a tobacco product can be reduced by 80% if the negative affect elicited by the images increases by one standard deviation. More importantly from a public policy perspective, not all emotions behave alike, as eliciting shame, anger, or distress proves more effective in reducing smoking than fear and disgust. JEL Classification C26, C99, D03, I18 PsycINFO classification 2360; 3920 PMID:26485272

Retainment incentives in three rural practice settings: variations in job satisfaction among staff registered nurses.

PubMed

Stratton, T D; Dunkin, J W; Juhl, N; Geller, J M

1995-05-01

Researchers have demonstrated repeatedly the importance of the relationship linking job satisfaction to employee retention. In rural areas of the country, where a persistent maldistribution of nurses continues to hamper health care delivery, the potential benefits of bolstering retention via enhancements in job satisfaction are of utmost utility to administrators and providers alike. Data were gathered from a multistate survey of registered nurses (RNs) practicing in rural hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and community/public health settings (N = 1,647; response rate = 40.3%). The investigators found that the use of tuition reimbursement corresponded significantly with increased levels of job satisfaction among nurses in all three practice environments, as did day care services for nurses in acute care settings. Also, among hospital-based RNs, level of nursing education was found to be a significant factor in the relationship between tuition reimbursement and job satisfaction, with the highest level occurring among diploma-prepared nurses.

Invasive Haemophilus influenzae Serotype f Case Reports in Mazovia Province, Poland.

PubMed

Golebiewska, Anna; Kuch, Alicja; Gawrońska, Agnieszka; Albrecht, Piotr; Skoczyńska, Anna; Radzikowski, Andrzej; Kutylowska, Ewa; Feleszko, Wojciech

2016-02-01

After successful introduction of anti-Haemophilus influenzae (Hi) serotype b vaccination program in Poland, invasive non-b or nontypeable H. influenzae infections have been reported more frequently alike in other countries all over the world. In this paper, we report 2 cases of H. influenzae serotype f (Hif) meningitis with severe clinical presentations which are rarely seen in previously healthy children.The first case is a 6-year-old girl who was admitted to pediatric ward with signs of meningitis. Laboratory tests confirmed bacteremic meningitis caused by Hif. The girl responded very well to administered treatment and recovered without any further complications. No underlying comorbidities were found. The second patient was a 4-year-old boy who, in course of Hif bacteremic meningitis, developed rapid septicemia and, despite aggressive treatment, died within a few hours of hospitalization. The child's past history was unremarkable.By presenting these cases, we would like to remind clinicians that invasive non-b Hi infections can become fatal not only in the group of the youngest children or children with coexisting comorbidities, as most commonly reported in the worldwide literature. At the same time, we want to emphasize the legitimacy of constant monitoring Hi epidemiology in order to take accurate actions if necessary.

Reconsidering non-traditional export agriculture and household food security: A case study in rural Guatemala

PubMed Central

Bennett, Elena M.

2018-01-01

As the production of non-traditional export (NTX) crops by smallholder households in developing countries expands, there is a compelling need to understand the potential effects of this type of agricultural production on household food security and nutrition. We use two household surveys with a sample of 52 households, interviews, and focus groups to examine whether smallholder farmers who produce broccoli for export in a rural Guatemalan community have different household food security than farmers in the same community who are still growing traditional maize and bean crops. We explore and compare the food security status of broccoli farmers (adopters) and traditional farmers (non-adopters) across four dimensions of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability. Adopters earned significantly more income (40%) than non-adopters, but higher incomes did not coincide with improvements in food availability, food access, or food utilization. Results indicate that adopters and non-adopters alike struggle with access to food, while the intensity of broccoli production may be undermining the ability of local agricultural systems to naturally control pests and regulate nutrients. More systematic approaches to food security assessment, especially those that consider all four dimensions of food security, are needed to better target interventions designed to alleviate food insecurity among rural smallholders. PMID:29795691

Reconsidering non-traditional export agriculture and household food security: A case study in rural Guatemala.

PubMed

Méthot, Josée; Bennett, Elena M

2018-01-01

As the production of non-traditional export (NTX) crops by smallholder households in developing countries expands, there is a compelling need to understand the potential effects of this type of agricultural production on household food security and nutrition. We use two household surveys with a sample of 52 households, interviews, and focus groups to examine whether smallholder farmers who produce broccoli for export in a rural Guatemalan community have different household food security than farmers in the same community who are still growing traditional maize and bean crops. We explore and compare the food security status of broccoli farmers (adopters) and traditional farmers (non-adopters) across four dimensions of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability. Adopters earned significantly more income (40%) than non-adopters, but higher incomes did not coincide with improvements in food availability, food access, or food utilization. Results indicate that adopters and non-adopters alike struggle with access to food, while the intensity of broccoli production may be undermining the ability of local agricultural systems to naturally control pests and regulate nutrients. More systematic approaches to food security assessment, especially those that consider all four dimensions of food security, are needed to better target interventions designed to alleviate food insecurity among rural smallholders.

Invasive Haemophilus influenzae Serotype f Case Reports in Mazovia Province, Poland

PubMed Central

Golebiewska, Anna; Kuch, Alicja; Gawrońska, Agnieszka; Albrecht, Piotr; Skoczyńska, Anna; Radzikowski, Andrzej; Kutylowska, Ewa; Feleszko, Wojciech

2016-01-01

Abstract After successful introduction of anti-Haemophilus influenzae (Hi) serotype b vaccination program in Poland, invasive non-b or nontypeable H. influenzae infections have been reported more frequently alike in other countries all over the world. In this paper, we report 2 cases of H. influenzae serotype f (Hif) meningitis with severe clinical presentations which are rarely seen in previously healthy children. The first case is a 6-year-old girl who was admitted to pediatric ward with signs of meningitis. Laboratory tests confirmed bacteremic meningitis caused by Hif. The girl responded very well to administered treatment and recovered without any further complications. No underlying comorbidities were found. The second patient was a 4-year-old boy who, in course of Hif bacteremic meningitis, developed rapid septicemia and, despite aggressive treatment, died within a few hours of hospitalization. The child's past history was unremarkable. By presenting these cases, we would like to remind clinicians that invasive non-b Hi infections can become fatal not only in the group of the youngest children or children with coexisting comorbidities, as most commonly reported in the worldwide literature. At the same time, we want to emphasize the legitimacy of constant monitoring Hi epidemiology in order to take accurate actions if necessary. PMID:26844500

A wasted world

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Delbello, A.

1991-03-01

It is still legal under American law to dump waste products in any country whose government consents to accept them. Many developing countries accept waste exports for a per ton charge. It does not matter to them whether the waste is hazardous, toxic, nonhazardous, or nontoxic. Nor does it matter to them whether or not they have the technology for the safe disposal of wastes. In some nations there is little or no thought about the long-term consequences of unsafe disposal of hazardous wastes to their land, air, water, quality of life, crops, animals and children. Some of the mainmore » culprits in the U.S. have been surprising: the Pentagon, other federal agencies, state and local governments, the American business community in general, and, of course, various brokers and entrepreneurs have all been documented, time and again, as exporters of hazardous waste to the Third World. And then there are the illegal waste shipments, perpetrated by hustlers and nice people alike in many industrialized nations. Here is a sample: In September 1987, Italian ships unloaded 10,000 steel drums of hazardous waste in the Nigerian port of Koko and stored them in a vacant residential lot. The press learned of it in June 1988. The Nigerian government ultimately imprisoned 54 people, including Italian nationals, and formally expressed outrage to the Italian government. The Italian government responded by sending a team of experts to arrange removal. A West German ship was loaded with the waste and went back to Ravenna, Italy, but Italian protestors prevented the ship form docking. It attempted to dock in Spain, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, without success. Finally, a home for the waste was found in an unidentified Italian port in mid-September.« less

What is the best use of 100 Euros to reduce the earthquake risk of a residential masonry building in a developed nation? Optimisation and Quantification of the benefits of risk reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Daniell, James; Schaefer, Andreas; Wenzel, Friedemann

2015-04-01

The average loss per building in developed countries like Australia or Switzerland due to earthquakes will be far in excess of 100€ over a political lifetime of 4 years (via a stochastic risk assessment). So a good question is, what can be done for 100€ and a bit of hard work, to strengthen and retrofit a URM (unreinforced masonry house). Of course much of the loss occurs in a few large events, but significant damage also occurs from more frequent smaller events. Using the CATDAT Damaging Earthquakes Database (Daniell et al., 2011), 57% of deaths from earthquakes have occurred in masonry buildings since 1900 globally. Thus, with a view towards life safety and the maximum return on investment, different options are tested and discussed for retrofitting the average brick house for earthquake resistance. Bolting and bracketing furniture, electrical equipment and valuables to walls, the removal or tying in of certain non-structural elements, as well as adjustments such as seismic wallpaper and reinforcement are tested from empirical and analytical experience from around the world. Of course, earthquakes are not the only main concern for developed nation populations, so a view as to the best use of the 100€ is looked at in combination with other disaster types. Insurance takeout and its implications are also discussed. The process is repeated for the D-A-CH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region in order to see the regional economic implications for widespread awareness of earthquake risks and losses. The risk reduction is quantified and is seen to be significant for nearly all of the D-A-CH region. This analysis has implications for developed and developing nations alike.

Influential sources affecting Bangkok adolescent body image perceptions.

PubMed

Thianthai, Chulanee

2006-01-01

The study of body image-related problems in non-Western countries is still very limited. Thus, this study aims to identify the main influential sources and show how they affect the body image perceptions of Bangkok adolescents. The researcher recruited 400 Thai male and female adolescents in Bangkok, attending high school to freshmen level, ranging from 16-19 years, to participate in this study. Survey questionnaires were distributed to every student and follow-up interviews conducted with 40 students. The findings showed that there are eight main influential sources respectively ranked from the most influential to the least influential: magazines, television, peer group, familial, fashion trend, the opposite gender, self-realization and health knowledge. Similar to those studies conducted in Western countries, more than half of the total percentage was the influence of mass media and peer groups. Bangkok adolescents also internalized Western ideal beauty through these mass media channels. Alike studies conducted in the West, there was similarities in the process of how these influential sources affect Bangkok adolescent body image perception, with the exception of familial source. In conclusion, taking the approach of identifying the main influential sources and understanding how they affect adolescent body image perceptions can help prevent adolescents from having unhealthy views and taking risky measures toward their bodies. More studies conducted in non-Western countries are needed in order to build a cultural sensitive program, catered to the body image problems occurring in adolescents within that particular society.

Cognitive tests predict real-world errors: the relationship between drug name confusion rates in laboratory-based memory and perception tests and corresponding error rates in large pharmacy chains

PubMed Central

Schroeder, Scott R; Salomon, Meghan M; Galanter, William L; Schiff, Gordon D; Vaida, Allen J; Gaunt, Michael J; Bryson, Michelle L; Rash, Christine; Falck, Suzanne; Lambert, Bruce L

2017-01-01

Background Drug name confusion is a common type of medication error and a persistent threat to patient safety. In the USA, roughly one per thousand prescriptions results in the wrong drug being filled, and most of these errors involve drug names that look or sound alike. Prior to approval, drug names undergo a variety of tests to assess their potential for confusability, but none of these preapproval tests has been shown to predict real-world error rates. Objectives We conducted a study to assess the association between error rates in laboratory-based tests of drug name memory and perception and real-world drug name confusion error rates. Methods Eighty participants, comprising doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technicians and lay people, completed a battery of laboratory tests assessing visual perception, auditory perception and short-term memory of look-alike and sound-alike drug name pairs (eg, hydroxyzine/hydralazine). Results Laboratory test error rates (and other metrics) significantly predicted real-world error rates obtained from a large, outpatient pharmacy chain, with the best-fitting model accounting for 37% of the variance in real-world error rates. Cross-validation analyses confirmed these results, showing that the laboratory tests also predicted errors from a second pharmacy chain, with 45% of the variance being explained by the laboratory test data. Conclusions Across two distinct pharmacy chains, there is a strong and significant association between drug name confusion error rates observed in the real world and those observed in laboratory-based tests of memory and perception. Regulators and drug companies seeking a validated preapproval method for identifying confusing drug names ought to consider using these simple tests. By using a standard battery of memory and perception tests, it should be possible to reduce the number of confusing look-alike and sound-alike drug name pairs that reach the market, which will help protect patients from potentially harmful medication errors. PMID:27193033

Rituximab in the treatment of follicular lymphoma: the future of biosimilars in the evolving therapeutic landscape

PubMed Central

Subramanian, Janakiraman; Cavenagh, Jamie; Desai, Bhardwaj; Jacobs, Ira

2017-01-01

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is the second most common type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. FL is an incurable disease with treatment options ranging from a “watch-and-wait” approach to localized therapy with radiation or systemic therapy with rituximab in combination with chemotherapy regimens. This review summarizes the role of rituximab across the spectrum of FL treatment and the evolving therapeutic landscape with the emergence of novel agents currently in clinical development. Despite the prospect of new agents on the horizon, it is widely accepted that rituximab will remain as the cornerstone of therapy because of its established long-term efficacy. Many biologics, including rituximab, have lost exclusivity of composition-of-matter patent or will do so in the next few years, which is a concern for patients and physicians alike. Moreover, access to rituximab is challenging, particularly in countries with restricted resources. Together, these concerns have fueled the development of safe and effective biosimilars. The term “biosimilar” refers to a biologic product that is highly similar to an approved reference (or originator) product, notwithstanding minor differences in clinically inactive components, and for which there are no clinically meaningful differences in purity, potency, or safety. Biosimilars are developed to treat the same condition(s) using the same treatment regimens as an approved reference biologic, and have the potential to increase access to more affordable treatment of FL. Herein, we also discuss the potential benefits of eagerly awaited rituximab biosimilars, which may mitigate the impact of the lack of access to rituximab. PMID:28479860

[Croatian Catholic Movement and Vladimir Hudolin (1922-1996): formation of one world known alcohologist].

PubMed

Pavlovic, Eduard

2009-01-01

Vladimir Hudolin was born in Ogulin in 1922 and died in Zagreb in 1996. He was one of the best students of the Susak grammar school and distinguished himself in a Catholic youth association Domagoj. In 1940, he moved to Zagreb to study medicine. In 1948 he graduated, and in 1951 specialised in psychiatry. His field of expertise was social psychiatry, alcohology in particular. In developing his own original preventive and remedial programmes, he much relied on the concepts of Community Psychiatry and alike, and managed to encourage their implementation on a variety of community levels, from local to national. His concept was recognised in a number of countries around the world; over 650 articles speak about how successful it was. This article focuses on Vladimir Hudolin's grammar school years in Susak, proposing that particular circumstances and figures from his formative years played a key role in his humanistic and scientific development. Early on it was his social activity in the Catholic youth association Domagoj and Bonifacije Perović, a theologist-sociologist who was a member of the Croatian Catholic Movement. The key figures who made him aware of the alcoholism issue were Fran Gudrum, Mirko Cunko, Maksimilijan Benković, Andrija Stampar, Josip Silović, and the Bishop of Senj Josip Marusić. Regardless of the controversies and controversial activities of some of the members of the Croatian Catholic Movement between the two world wars, there is no doubt that this movement has played a major role in the development of one of the most distinct figures in world alcohology, Vladimir Hudolin.

Defense Manufacturing Management Guide for Program Managers, Third Edition

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-04-01

Crosby (Quality goals of quality, cost, schedule, mission need, College), Genechi Taguchi (Experimental 5-1 Design), Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa (Cause/Effect...the remaining problems were resolved. 5-7 6. Ishikawa Diagram 7. Control Charts This technique was developed by Dr. In the minds of some quality Kaoru ... Ishikawa , one of the foremost professionals and nonprofesslonals alike, the authorities on quality control in Japan. The control chart is synonymous

Molecular understanding of the slit diaphragm.

PubMed

Grahammer, Florian; Schell, Christoph; Huber, Tobias B

2013-10-01

Glomerular filtration has always attracted the interest of nephrologists and renal researchers alike. Although several key questions on the structure and function of the kidney filter may have been answered within the last 40 years of intense research, there still remain crucial questions to be solved. The following article attempts to give a brief overview of recent developments in glomerular research highlighting particular advances in our understanding of the slit diaphragm.

Advances in Male Contraception

PubMed Central

Page, Stephanie T.; Amory, John K.; Bremner, William J.

2008-01-01

Despite significant advances in contraceptive options for women over the last 50 yr, world population continues to grow rapidly. Scientists and activists alike point to the devastating environmental impacts that population pressures have caused, including global warming from the developed world and hunger and disease in less developed areas. Moreover, almost half of all pregnancies are still unwanted or unplanned. Clearly, there is a need for expanded, reversible, contraceptive options. Multicultural surveys demonstrate the willingness of men to participate in contraception and their female partners to trust them to do so. Notwithstanding their paucity of options, male methods including vasectomy and condoms account for almost one third of contraceptive use in the United States and other countries. Recent international clinical research efforts have demonstrated high efficacy rates (90–95%) for hormonally based male contraceptives. Current barriers to expanded use include limited delivery methods and perceived regulatory obstacles, which stymie introduction to the marketplace. However, advances in oral and injectable androgen delivery are cause for optimism that these hurdles may be overcome. Nonhormonal methods, such as compounds that target sperm motility, are attractive in their theoretical promise of specificity for the reproductive tract. Gene and protein array technologies continue to identify potential targets for this approach. Such nonhormonal agents will likely reach clinical trials in the near future. Great strides have been made in understanding male reproductive physiology; the combined efforts of scientists, clinicians, industry and governmental funding agencies could make an effective, reversible, male contraceptive an option for family planning over the next decade. PMID:18436704

Outreach Programmes for Education and Training: Contributions from the International Cartographic Association

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cartwright, W. E.; Fairbairn, D.

2012-07-01

Organisations like the International Cartographic Association champion programmes that develop and deliver education and training to cartographers and geospatial scientists, globally. This can be in the form of traditional university and training college programmes, short courses for professional and technical members of mapping agencies and as outreach initiatives to transfer knowledge about the discipline and its contemporary practices. Through its international community, the ICA undertakes the transfer of knowledge about cartography and GI Science by publishing books and special editions of journals and running workshops. Colleagues from the ICA community conduct these workshops on a volunteer basis, generally with the support of the national member organisation of ICA or the national mapping body. For example, the ICA promotes the generation of extensive publications, generally through its Commissions and Working Groups. The publications include books, journals and the ICA Newsletter. Outreach activities are especially pertinent to up skill colleagues from developing countries. Specialist programmes can be offered for professional and 'everyday' map users (from adults to children). The ICA can assist with its current programmes, designed to embrace professional and non-professional cartographers alike. This paper will address how education and outreach programmes can be supported by international associations, by offering programmes independently, or in partnership with sister associations and national and regional organisations and societies. As well, the paper will address the need to deliver education and outreach programmes not to just the professional international community, but also to map users and citizen map publishers.

Comparative and evolutionary studies of vertebrate ALDH1A-like genes and proteins.

PubMed

Holmes, Roger S

2015-06-05

Vertebrate ALDH1A-like genes encode cytosolic enzymes capable of metabolizing all-trans-retinaldehyde to retinoic acid which is a molecular 'signal' guiding vertebrate development and adipogenesis. Bioinformatic analyses of vertebrate and invertebrate genomes were undertaken using known ALDH1A1, ALDH1A2 and ALDH1A3 amino acid sequences. Comparative analyses of the corresponding human genes provided evidence for distinct modes of gene regulation and expression with putative transcription factor binding sites (TFBS), CpG islands and micro-RNA binding sites identified for the human genes. ALDH1A-like sequences were identified for all mammalian, bird, lizard and frog genomes examined, whereas fish genomes displayed a more restricted distribution pattern for ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 genes. The ALDH1A1 gene was absent in many bony fish genomes examined, with the ALDH1A3 gene also absent in the medaka and tilapia genomes. Multiple ALDH1A1-like genes were identified in mouse, rat and marsupial genomes. Vertebrate ALDH1A1, ALDH1A2 and ALDH1A3 subunit sequences were highly conserved throughout vertebrate evolution. Comparative amino acid substitution rates showed that mammalian ALDH1A2 sequences were more highly conserved than for the ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 sequences. Phylogenetic studies supported an hypothesis for ALDH1A2 as a likely primordial gene originating in invertebrate genomes and undergoing sequential gene duplication to generate two additional genes, ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3, in most vertebrate genomes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using Six Sigma to reduce medication errors in a home-delivery pharmacy service.

PubMed

Castle, Lon; Franzblau-Isaac, Ellen; Paulsen, Jim

2005-06-01

Medco Health Solutions, Inc. conducted a project to reduce medication errors in its home-delivery service, which is composed of eight prescription-processing pharmacies, three dispensing pharmacies, and six call-center pharmacies. Medco uses the Six Sigma methodology to reduce process variation, establish procedures to monitor the effectiveness of medication safety programs, and determine when these efforts do not achieve performance goals. A team reviewed the processes in home-delivery pharmacy and suggested strategies to improve the data-collection and medication-dispensing practices. A variety of improvement activities were implemented, including a procedure for developing, reviewing, and enhancing sound-alike/look-alike (SALA) alerts and system enhancements to improve processing consistency across the pharmacies. "External nonconformances" were reduced for several categories of medication errors, including wrong-drug selection (33%), wrong directions (49%), and SALA errors (69%). Control charts demonstrated evidence of sustained process improvement and actual reduction in specific medication error elements. Establishing a continuous quality improvement process to ensure that medication errors are minimized is critical to any health care organization providing medication services.

Integrated care: learning between high-income, and low- and middle-income country health systems

PubMed Central

Mounier-Jack, Sandra; Mayhew, Susannah H; Mays, Nicholas

2017-01-01

Abstract Over the past decade, discussion of integrated care has become more widespread and prominent in both high- and low-income health care systems (LMICs). The trend reflects the mismatch between an increasing burden of chronic disease and local health care systems which are still largely focused on hospital-based treatment of individual clinical episodes and also the long-standing proliferation of vertical donor-funded disease-specific programmes in LMICs which have disrupted horizontal, or integrated, care. Integration is a challenging concept to define, in part because of its multiple dimensions and varied scope: from integrated clinical care for individual patients to broader systems integration—or linkage—involving a wide range of interconnected services (e.g. social services and health care). In this commentary, we compare integrated care in high- and lower-income countries. Although contexts may differ significantly between these settings, there are many common features of how integration has been understood and common challenges in its implementation. We discuss the different approaches to, scope of, and impacts of, integration including barriers and facilitators to the processes of implementation. With the burden of disease becoming more alike across settings, we consider what gains there could be from comparative learning between these settings which have constituted two separate strands of research until now. PMID:29194541

Impact of universal mass vaccination with monovalent inactivated hepatitis A vaccines - A systematic review.

PubMed

Stuurman, Anke L; Marano, Cinzia; Bunge, Eveline M; De Moerlooze, Laurence; Shouval, Daniel

2017-03-04

The WHO recommends integration of universal mass vaccination (UMV) against hepatitis A virus (HAV) in national immunization schedules for children aged ≥1 year, if justified on the basis of acute HAV incidence, declining endemicity from high to intermediate and cost-effectiveness. This recommendation has been implemented in several countries. Our aim was to assess the impact of UMV using monovalent inactivated hepatitis A vaccines on incidence and persistence of anti-HAV (IgG) antibodies in pediatric populations. We conducted a systematic review of literature published between 2000 and 2015 in PubMed, Cochrane Library, LILACS, IBECS identifying a total of 27 studies (Argentina, Belgium, China, Greece, Israel, Panama, the United States and Uruguay). All except one study showed a marked decline in the incidence of hepatitis A post introduction of UMV. The incidence in non-vaccinated age groups decreased as well, suggesting herd immunity but also rising susceptibility. Long-term anti-HAV antibody persistence was documented up to 17 y after a 2-dose primary vaccination. In conclusion, introduction of UMV in countries with intermediate endemicity for HAV infection led to a considerable decrease in the incidence of hepatitis A in vaccinated and in non-vaccinated age groups alike.

Impact of universal mass vaccination with monovalent inactivated hepatitis A vaccines – A systematic review

PubMed Central

Stuurman, Anke L.; Marano, Cinzia; Bunge, Eveline M.; De Moerlooze, Laurence; Shouval, Daniel

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT The WHO recommends integration of universal mass vaccination (UMV) against hepatitis A virus (HAV) in national immunization schedules for children aged ≥1 year, if justified on the basis of acute HAV incidence, declining endemicity from high to intermediate and cost-effectiveness. This recommendation has been implemented in several countries. Our aim was to assess the impact of UMV using monovalent inactivated hepatitis A vaccines on incidence and persistence of anti-HAV (IgG) antibodies in pediatric populations. We conducted a systematic review of literature published between 2000 and 2015 in PubMed, Cochrane Library, LILACS, IBECS identifying a total of 27 studies (Argentina, Belgium, China, Greece, Israel, Panama, the United States and Uruguay). All except one study showed a marked decline in the incidence of hepatitis A post introduction of UMV. The incidence in non-vaccinated age groups decreased as well, suggesting herd immunity but also rising susceptibility. Long-term anti-HAV antibody persistence was documented up to 17 y after a 2-dose primary vaccination. In conclusion, introduction of UMV in countries with intermediate endemicity for HAV infection led to a considerable decrease in the incidence of hepatitis A in vaccinated and in non-vaccinated age groups alike. PMID:27786671

Developmental changes in drug-metabolizing enzyme expression during metamorphosis of Xenopus tropicalis.

PubMed

Mori, Junpei; Sanoh, Seigo; Kashiwagi, Keiko; Hanada, Hideki; Shigeta, Mitsuki; Suzuki, Ken-Ichi T; Yamamoto, Takashi; Kotake, Yaichiro; Sugihara, Kazumi; Kitamura, Shigeyuki; Kashiwagi, Akihiko; Ohta, Shigeru

2017-01-01

A large number of chemicals are routinely detected in aquatic environments, and these chemicals may adversely affect aquatic organisms. Accurate risk assessment requires understanding drug-metabolizing systems in aquatic organisms because metabolism of these chemicals is a critical determinant of chemical bioaccumulation and related toxicity. In this study, we evaluated mRNA expression levels of nuclear receptors and drug-metabolizing enzymes as well as cytochrome P450 (CYP) activities in pro-metamorphic tadpoles, froglets, and adult frogs to determine how drug-metabolizing systems are altered at different life stages. We found that drug-metabolizing systems in tadpoles were entirely immature, and therefore, tadpoles appeared to be more susceptible to chemicals compared with metamorphosed frogs. On the other hand, cyp1a mRNA expression and CYP1A-like activity were higher in tadpoles. We found that thyroid hormone (TH), which increases during metamorphosis, induced CYP1A-like activity. Because endogenous TH concentration is significantly increased during metamorphosis, endogenous TH would induce CYP1A-like activity in tadpoles.

eGY-Africa: Addressing the Digital Divide for Science in Africa

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Barton, C.E.; /Australian Natl. U., Canberra; Amory-Mazaudier, C.

Adoption of information and communication technologies and access to the Internet is expanding in Africa, but because of the rapid growth elsewhere, a Digital Divide between Africa and the rest of the world exists, and the gap is growing. In many sub-Saharan African countries, education and research sector suffers some of the worst deficiencies in access to the Internet, despite progress in development of NRENs - National Research and Education (cyber) Networks. By contrast, it is widely acknowledged in policy statements from the African Union, the UN, and others that strength in this very sector provides the key to meetingmore » and sustaining Millennium Development Goals. Developed countries with effective cyber-capabilities proclaim the benefits to rich and poor alike arising from the Information Revolution. This is but a dream for many scientists in African institutions. As the world of science becomes increasingly Internet-dependent, so they become increasingly isolated. eGY-Africa is a bottom-up initiative by African scientists and their collaborators to try to reduce this Digital Divide by a campaign of advocacy for better institutional facilities. Four approaches are being taken. The present status of Internet services, problems, and plans are being mapped via a combination of direct measurement of Internet performance (the PingER Project) and a questionnaire-based survey. Information is being gathered on policy statements and initiatives aimed at reducing the Digital Divide, which can be used for arguing the case for better Internet facilities. Groups of concerned scientists are being formed at the national, regional levels in Africa, building on existing networks as much as possible. Opinion in the international science community is being mobilized. Finally, and perhaps most important of all, eGY-Africa is seeking to engage with the many other programs, initiatives, and bodies that share the goal of reducing the Digital Divide - either as a direct policy objective, or indirectly as a means to an end, such as the development of an indigenous capability in science and technology for national development. The expectation is that informed opinion from the scientific community at the institutional, national, and international levels can be used to influence the decision makers and donors who are in a position to deliver better Internet capabilities.« less

eGY-Africa: Addressing the Digital Divide for Science in Africa

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Barton, C. E.

Adoption of information and communication technologies and access to the Internet is expanding in Africa, but because of the rapid growth elsewhere, a Digital Divide between Africa and the rest of the world exists, and the gap is growing. In many sub-Saharan African countries, education and research sector suffer some of the worst deficiencies in access to the Internet, despite progress in development of NRENs National Research and Education (cyber) Networks. By contrast, it is widely acknowledged in policy statements from the African Union, the UN, and others that strength in this very sector provides the key to meeting andmore » sustaining Millennium Development Goals. Developed countries with effective cyber-capabilities proclaim the benefits to rich and poor alike arising from the Information Revolution. This is but a dream for many scientists in African institutions. As the world of science becomes increasingly Internet-dependent, so they become increasingly isolated. eGY-Africa is a bottom-up initiative by African scientists and their collaborators to try to reduce this Digital Divide by a campaign of advocacy for better institutional facilities. Four approaches are being taken. The present status of Internet services, problems, and plans are being mapped via a combination of direct measurement of Internet performance (the PingER Project) and a questionnaire-based survey. Information is being gathered on policy statements and initiatives aimed at reducing the Digital Divide, which can be used for arguing the case for better Internet facilities. Groups of concerned scientists are being formed at the national, regional levels in Africa, building on existing networks as much as possible. Opinion in the international science community is being mobilized. Finally, and perhaps most important of all, eGY-Africa is seeking to engage with the many other programs, initiatives, and bodies that share the goal of reducing the Digital Divide either as a direct policy objective, or indirectly as a means to an end, such as the development of an indigenous capability in science and technology for national development. The expectation is that informed opinion from the scientific community at the institutional, national, and international levels can be used to influence the decision makers and donors who are in a position to deliver better Internet capabilities.« less

eGY-Africa: addressing the digital divide for science in Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baki, Paul; Nguno, Anna; Barton, Charles; Amaeshi, Larry; Tenthani, Chifundo; Petitdidier, Monique; Cottrell, Les

2013-04-01

Adoption of information and communication technologies and access to the Internet is expanding in Africa, but because of the rapid growth elsewhere, a Digital Divide between Africa and the rest of the world exists. In many sub-Saharan African countries, education and research sector suffers some of the worst deficiencies in access to the Internet, despite progress in the development of NRENs - National Research and Education (cyber) Networks. By contrast, it is widely acknowledged in policy statements from the African Union, the UN, and others that strength in this very sector provides the key to meeting and sustaining Millennium Development Goals. Developed countries with effective cyber-capabilities proclaim the benefits to rich and poor alike arising from the Information Revolution. This is still a dream for many scientists in African institutions. As the world of science becomes increasingly Internet-dependent, so they become increasingly isolated. eGY-Africa is a bottom-up initiative by African scientists and their collaborators to try to reduce this digital divide by a campaign of advocacy for better institutional facilities. Four approaches are being taken. The present status of Internet services, problems, and plans are being mapped via a combination of direct measurement of Internet performance (the PingER Project) and a questionnaire-based survey. Information is being gathered on policy statements and initiatives aimed at reducing the digital divide, which can be used for arguing the case for better Internet facilities. Groups of concerned scientists are being formed at the national, regional levels in Africa, building on existing networks as much as possible. Opinion in the international science community is being mobilized. Finally, and perhaps most important of all, eGY-Africa is seeking to engage with the many other programs, initiatives, and bodies that share the goal of reducing the digital divide - either as a direct policy objective, or indirectly as a means to an end, such as the development of an indigenous capability in science and technology for national development. The expectation is that informed opinion from the scientific community at the institutional, national, and international levels can be used to influence the decision makers and donors who are in a position to deliver better Internet capabilities. eGYAfrica workshops have been held approximately bi annually, the last of which was in Nairobi Kenya.

Wave Propagation in Inhomogeneous Excitable Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zykov, Vladimir S.; Bodenschatz, Eberhard

2018-03-01

Excitable media are ubiquitous in nature and can be found in physical, chemical, and biological systems that are far from thermodynamic equilibrium. The spatiotemporal self-organization of these systems has long attracted the deep interest of condensed matter physicists and applied mathematicians alike. Spatial inhomogeneity of excitable media leads to nontrivial spatiotemporal dynamics. Here, we report on well-established as well as recent developments in the experimental and theoretical studies of inhomogeneous excitable media.

NMR properties of 3He-A in biaxially anisotropic aerogel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dmitriev, V. V.; Krasnikhin, D. A.; Senin, A. A.; Yudin, A. N.

2012-12-01

Theoretical model of G.E. Volovik for A-like phase of 3He in aerogel suggests formation of Larkin-Imry-Ma state of Anderson-Brinkmann-Morel order parameter. Most of results of NMR studies of A-like phase are in a good agreement with this model in assumption of uniaxial anisotropy, except for some of experiments in weakly anisotropic aerogel samples. We demonstrate that these results can be described in frames of the same model in assumption of biaxial anisotropy. Parameters of anisotropy in these experiments can be determined from the NMR data.

Lighten the Load: Scaffolding Visual Literacy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

PubMed

Offerdahl, Erika G; Arneson, Jessie B; Byrne, Nicholas

2017-01-01

The development of scientific visual literacy has been identified as critical to the training of tomorrow's scientists and citizens alike. Within the context of the molecular life sciences in particular, visual representations frequently incorporate various components, such as discipline-specific graphical and diagrammatic features, varied levels of abstraction, and spatial arrangements of visual elements to convey information. Visual literacy is achieved when an individual understands the various ways in which a discipline uses these components to represent a particular way of knowing. Owing to the complex nature of visual representations, the activities through which visual literacy is developed have high cognitive load. Cognitive load can be reduced by first helping students to become fluent with the discrete components of visual representations before asking them to simultaneously integrate these components to extract the intended meaning of a representation. We present a taxonomy for characterizing one component of visual representations-the level of abstraction-as a first step in understanding the opportunities afforded students to develop fluency. Further, we demonstrate how our taxonomy can be used to analyze course assessments and spur discussions regarding the extent to which the development of visual literacy skills is supported by instruction within an undergraduate biochemistry curriculum. © 2017 E. G. Offerdahl et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2017 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

Western classical music development: a statistical analysis of composers similarity, differentiation and evolution.

PubMed

Georges, Patrick

2017-01-01

This paper proposes a statistical analysis that captures similarities and differences between classical music composers with the eventual aim to understand why particular composers 'sound' different even if their 'lineages' (influences network) are similar or why they 'sound' alike if their 'lineages' are different. In order to do this we use statistical methods and measures of association or similarity (based on presence/absence of traits such as specific 'ecological' characteristics and personal musical influences) that have been developed in biosystematics, scientometrics, and bibliographic coupling. This paper also represents a first step towards a more ambitious goal of developing an evolutionary model of Western classical music.

Cognitive tests predict real-world errors: the relationship between drug name confusion rates in laboratory-based memory and perception tests and corresponding error rates in large pharmacy chains.

PubMed

Schroeder, Scott R; Salomon, Meghan M; Galanter, William L; Schiff, Gordon D; Vaida, Allen J; Gaunt, Michael J; Bryson, Michelle L; Rash, Christine; Falck, Suzanne; Lambert, Bruce L

2017-05-01

Drug name confusion is a common type of medication error and a persistent threat to patient safety. In the USA, roughly one per thousand prescriptions results in the wrong drug being filled, and most of these errors involve drug names that look or sound alike. Prior to approval, drug names undergo a variety of tests to assess their potential for confusability, but none of these preapproval tests has been shown to predict real-world error rates. We conducted a study to assess the association between error rates in laboratory-based tests of drug name memory and perception and real-world drug name confusion error rates. Eighty participants, comprising doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technicians and lay people, completed a battery of laboratory tests assessing visual perception, auditory perception and short-term memory of look-alike and sound-alike drug name pairs (eg, hydroxyzine/hydralazine). Laboratory test error rates (and other metrics) significantly predicted real-world error rates obtained from a large, outpatient pharmacy chain, with the best-fitting model accounting for 37% of the variance in real-world error rates. Cross-validation analyses confirmed these results, showing that the laboratory tests also predicted errors from a second pharmacy chain, with 45% of the variance being explained by the laboratory test data. Across two distinct pharmacy chains, there is a strong and significant association between drug name confusion error rates observed in the real world and those observed in laboratory-based tests of memory and perception. Regulators and drug companies seeking a validated preapproval method for identifying confusing drug names ought to consider using these simple tests. By using a standard battery of memory and perception tests, it should be possible to reduce the number of confusing look-alike and sound-alike drug name pairs that reach the market, which will help protect patients from potentially harmful medication errors. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques for the life sciences

PubMed Central

Aguib, Yasmine; Yacoub, Magdi H.

The development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy, for which the Nobel Prize was awarded in 2014, has been a topic of interest to physicists and biologists alike. It is inevitable that numerous questions in biomedical research cannot be answered by means other than direct observation. In this review, advances to fluorescence microscopy are covered in a widely accessible fashion to facilitate its use in decisions related to its acquisition and utilization in biomedical research. PMID:29043264

Evaluation of nanoparticle immunotoxicity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dobrovolskaia, Marina A.; Germolec, Dori R.; Weaver, James L.

2009-07-01

The pharmaceutical industry is developing increasing numbers of drugs and diagnostics based on nanoparticles, and evaluating the immune response to these diverse formulations has become a challenge for scientists and regulatory agencies alike. An international panel of scientists and representatives from various agencies and companies reviewed the imitations of current tests at a workshop held at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland. This article outlines practical strategies for identifying and controlling interferences in common evaluation methods and the implications for regulation.

Reflective practice and social responsibility in family medicine: Effect of performing an international rotation in a developing country.

PubMed

Loignon, Christine; Gottin, Thomas; Valois, Carol; Couturier, François; Williams, Robert; Roy, Pierre-Michel

2016-11-01

To explore the perceived effect of an elective international health rotation on family medicine resident learning. Qualitative, collaborative study based on semistructured interviews. Quebec. A sample of 12 family medicine residents and 9 rotation supervisors (N = 21). Semistructured interviews of residents and rotation supervisors. Residents and supervisors alike reported that their technical skills and relationship skills had benefited. All increased their knowledge of tropical pathologies and learned to expand their clinical examinations. They benefited from having very rich interactions in other care settings, working with vulnerable populations. The rotations had their greatest effect on relationship skills (communication, empathy, etc) and the ability to work with vulnerable patients. All of the participants were exposed to local therapies and local interpretations of disease symptoms and pathogenesis. The findings of this study will have a considerable effect on pedagogy. The residents' experiences of their international health rotations and what they learned in terms of medical skills and pedagogic approaches in working with patients are described. Using a collaborative approach with the rotation supervisors, the data were triangulated and the benefits of an international rotation on academic training were more accurately defined. The findings can now be used to enrich academic programs in social and preventive medicine and more adequately prepare future family physicians for work in various social and cultural settings. Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Perspective: What Makes It So Difficult to Mitigate Worldwide Anemia Prevalence?123

PubMed Central

Schümann, Klaus; Solomons, Noel W

2017-01-01

Anemia can be related to decreased production or increased loss of erythrocytes, or both, leading to many underlying and often overlapping causes. A largely cereal-based diet with plenty of phytates, polyphenols, and other ligands that inhibit intestinal iron absorption predominated in preindustrial Europe and predominates in present-day developing countries alike. In both situations, we find poor hygienic conditions, which frequently lead to anemia of inflammation. The large number of possible causes and their interaction shows why it is so difficult to mitigate anemia prevalence. Diagnostic biomarkers are required to differentiate the different types of anemia and to treat them appropriately. Some of them are well established in adults [e.g., concentrations of serum ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), and serum iron or the ratio of sTfR to log ferritin]. Others, such as serum hepcidin, hold considerable promise, although they are not yet widely used. A particular issue is to establish reference values for biomarkers in infants and children at different ages. The fact that resource-rich postindustrial societies have a very low prevalence of iron-deficiency anemia offers hope that common types of anemia can be eliminated. In contrast, inborn forms of anemia, such as thalassemia, and anemias related to underlying diseases (e.g., bleeding tumors or peptic ulcers, gynecologic blood losses, or renal diseases) require an operational health system to be addressed appropriately. PMID:28507005

Clinical Research and Development of Tuberculosis Diagnostics: Moving From Silos to Synergy

PubMed Central

Kim, Peter S.; Evans, Carlton A.; Alland, David; Barer, Michael; Diefenbach, Jane; Ellner, Jerrold; Hafner, Richard; Hamilton, Carol Dukes; Iademarco, Michael F.; Ireton, Gregory; Kimerling, Michael E.; Lienhardt, Christian; MacKenzie, William R.; Murray, Megan; Perkins, Mark D.; Posey, Jamie E.; Roberts, Teri; Sizemore, Christine; Stevens, Wendy S.; Via, Laura; Williams, Sharon D.; Yew, Wing W.; Swindells, Susan

2012-01-01

The development, evaluation, and implementation of new and improved diagnostics have been identified as critical needs by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis researchers and clinicians alike. These needs exist in international and domestic settings and in adult and pediatric populations. Experts in tuberculosis and HIV care, researchers, healthcare providers, public health experts, and industry representatives, as well as representatives of pertinent US federal agencies (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, United States Agency for International Development) assembled at a workshop proposed by the Diagnostics Working Group of the Federal Tuberculosis Taskforce to review the state of tuberculosis diagnostics development in adult and pediatric populations. PMID:22476718

Combating healthcare corruption and fraud with improved global health governance.

PubMed

Mackey, Tim K; Liang, Bryan A

2012-10-22

Corruption is a serious threat to global health outcomes, leading to financial waste and adverse health consequences. Yet, forms of corruption impacting global health are endemic worldwide in public and private sectors, and in developed and resource-poor settings alike. Allegations of misuse of funds and fraud in global health initiatives also threaten future investment. Current domestic and sectorial-level responses are fragmented and have been criticized as ineffective. In order to address this issue, we propose a global health governance framework calling for international recognition of "global health corruption" and development of a treaty protocol to combat this crucial issue.

Health technology assessment and haemophilia.

PubMed

Farrugia, A; O'Mahony, B; Cassar, J

2012-03-01

Although the funding of rare diseases such as haemophilia in developing countries remains a low priority, pressures on the funding of haemophilia treatment are also emerging in developed economies affected by the global economic downturn and the other demands on health care budgets. This is leading advisory bodies and payers alike to explore the tools of Health Technology Assessment (HTAs) in deriving recommendations for reimbursement policies. In particular, the use of cost utility analysis (CUA) in deriving costs per quality adjusted life year (QALY) for different interventions is being used to rank interventions in order of priorities relative to a threshold cost per QALY. In these exercises, rare chronic disorders such as haemophilia emerge as particularly unattractive propositions for reimbursement, as the accepted methodology of deriving a CUA. For e.g. the use of prophylaxis in haemophilia leads to a range of costs/QALY which exceed the willingness to pay thresholds of most payers. In this commentary, we review the principles utilized in a recent systematic review of the use of haemophilia products carried out in Sweden as part of an HTA. We suggest that ranking haemophilia related interventions with the standard interventions of therapeutics and public health in CUA comparisons is inappropriate. Given that haemophilia treatment is a form of blood replacement therapy, we propose that such comparisons should be made with the interventions of mainstream blood transfusion. We suggest that unequivocally effective treatments such as haemophilia therapies should be assessed differently from mainstream interventions, that new methodologies are required for these kinds of diseases and that evidence of a societal willingness to support people with rare disorders needs to be recognized when reimbursement policies are developed. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Drivers and Dynamics of Global Environmental Change in Southern Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jewitt, Graham; Munishi, Subira; Kunz, Richard; Viola, Paula

2010-05-01

Africa's potential to provide food, fuel, fibre and fodder for future global food and energy security has made it a target for a myriad investors from developed and developing countries alike. In many places, land grants and purchases have led to the establishment of huge monoculture production areas for food, fuel, fibre (maize, sugar cane, jatropha, plantation forestry etc) often preceded by deforestation and large scale utilisation and modification of available water resources. This coupled with the likelihood of rapid urbanisation in Africa over the next forty years and associated impacts linked to the high concentrations of inhabitants utilising and ultimately degrading available natural resources (e.g. wood for charcoal; water quality) have made Africa's ecosystems and people amongst the most vulnerable to global environmental change. Key questions that arise are how available scientific knowledge can best be utilized to reduce this vulnerability, where key gaps in knowledge in understanding the inter-linkages between societal needs and Food- Fibre-Energy-Water supply exist and how to best address the necessary complexity of considering these at different spatial and temporal scales. Drawing on the Ecosystem Goods and Services approach, we present key messages from ongoing research activities in South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique and Tanzania and report on progress in applying management tools and systems to support decision making in these areas where development needs are critical. We also highlight lessons drawn from situations where unintended consequences have resulted from well meaning or politically expedient initiatives linked to large donor or foreign investment schemes, such as "outgrower" programmes, and where major environmental damage and ultimately the permanent loss of productivity of some landscapes has occurred.

Are occupational exposure limits becoming more alike within the European Union?

PubMed

Schenk, Linda; Hansson, Sven Ove; Rudén, Christina; Gilek, Michael

2008-10-01

The occupational exposure limits (OELs) established by seven different national regulatory agencies of EU member states are compared with those of the European Commission (EC). The comparison concerned: (1) what chemicals have been selected, (2) the average level of exposure limits for all chemicals, and (3) the similarity between the OELs of different EU member states and the OELs recommended by the European Commission. The average level of the exposure limits has declined during the past 10 years in four of the five countries in our study for which historical data were available to us. Poland has not changed its level noticeably and Germany has increased it. Since the first list of indicative OELs was established by the EC, a few of the EU exposure limits have been lowered. The similarity index indicates that the exposure limits of EU member states are converging towards the European Commission's recommended OELs. Still, the average level of OELs differs between organizations--the Estonian OELs are on average 35% higher than the Polish OELs.

Child-to-Child programme in the Philippine setting.

PubMed

Rabor, I F; Santos Ocampo, P D

1982-09-01

The Philippines is an archipelago with a growing population, largely rural, 50% of which is in the 0-14 years old age group. As noted by WHO (1978), the leading health problems are communicable diseases, malnutrition, poor environmental sanitation, malaria and schistosomiasis, rapid population growth, drug abuse and dependence. Health care delivery is hampered by insufficient number and maldistribution of personnel, health clinics and hospitals. The predominant attitude of curative rather than preventive approach to health problems shared by consumers and care givers alike, passive and meager participation if at all on the part of recipients also contribute to deficient health care delivery. Child-to-Child health programmes would be most useful in depressed areas of the country, especially in the rural setting and should be widely implemented if feasible. Data concerning the community involved will include resources, strengths and weaknesses, and degree of commitment from its members. We hope to have in the Philippines more experience in Child-to-Child programmes-health care delivery in the future.

ARC-2011-ACD11-0172-069

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-10-01

Space Farm 7Space Farm 7 Program; NASA Day at the Dell'osso Family Farm, Lathrop,CA for the opening of the Kepler Corn Maze. Lots of fun activities were available and Kepler scientists gave talks and hands on demos to the audience of kids and adults alike to better understand Kepler and it's mission. Program; NASA Day at the Dell'osso Family Farm, Lathrop,CA for the opening of the Kepler Corn Maze. Lots of fun activities were available and Kepler scientists gave talks and hands on demos to the audience of kids and adults alike to better understand Kepler and it's mission.

Better value digital health: the medium, the market and the role of openness.

PubMed

Reynolds, Carl J

2013-08-01

The recent NHS 'hack days' have showcased the enthusiasm and talent of the junior doctor body as well as the potential of open source, open governance and small-medium enterprise. There still remains much scope for developing better value digital health services within the NHS. This article sets out the current state of NHS information technology (IT), how it fails to meet the needs of patients and professionals alike and suggests how better value digital health can be achieved.

Examining the Evolution of Paid Parental Leave.

PubMed

Sladek, Carol

While the United States continues to be the only developed nation without mandated paid maternity leave, U.S. employers are blazing their own trail for new parents. This article defines parental leave, explains what's driving the increased interest in paid parental leave among employers offering it and discusses how paid parental leave can benefit employers and employees alike. Finally, the author discusses why not all employers are offering these benefits as well as considerations for employers contemplating whether paid parental leave is right for them.

Narrowband (LPC-10) Vocoder Performance under Combined Effects of Random Bit Errors and Jet Aircraft Cabin Noise.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-12-01

rAD-141 333 NRRROWRAND (LPC-iB) VOCODER PERFORMANCE UNDER COMBINED i/ EFFECTS OF RRNDOM.(U) ROME AIR DEVELOPMENT CENTER GRIFFISS RFB NY C P SMITH DEC...LPC-10) VOCODER In House. PERFORMANCE UNDER COMBINED EFFECTS June 82 - Sept. 83 OF RANDOM BIT ERRORS AND JET AIRCRAFT Z PERFORMING ORG REPO- NUMSEF...PAGE(Wh.n Does Eneerd) 20. (contd) Compartment, and NCA Compartment were alike in their effects on overall vocoder performance . Composite performance

Measuring Balance Across Multiple Radar Receiver Channels.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Doerry, Armin W.; Bickel, Douglas L.

When radar receivers employ multiple channels, the general intent is for the receive channels to be as alike as possible, if not as ideal as possible. This is usually done via prudent hardware design, supplemented by system calibration. Towards this end, we require a quality metric for ascertaining the goodness of a radar channel, and the degree of match to sibling channels. We propose a relevant and useable metric to do just that. Acknowledgements This report was the result of an unfunded research and development activity.

Achieving Unity of Effort: Leveraging Interagency Cooperation Between the Department of Defense (DOD) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-06-12

Government Printing Office, 2005), 2. 12 Carlos Pascual, ―Unifying our Approach to Conflict Transformation ,‖ U.S. Department of State, http...1 Peter F. Schaefer and P. Clayton Schaefer, ―Planning for Reconstruction and Transformation of Japan after WWII,‖ Applying a ‘Whole-of- Government ...Iraq and continuing challenges. Given, these experiences, senior military and civilian leaders alike have called for a ―whole of government

Women Content in Units: Force Development Test (MAX WAC)

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-10-03

ARTEPs, the positive nature of the responses to th"se questions suggests that it is -alikely that gros& errors would be made.usin& the ARTEP as a basis...companies, while the second ARTEP was conducted solely for the purpose& of the project. The unofficial nature of the second ARTEP was alto true for the...been excluded from this section of the report due to its voluminous and, in some cases, draft style nature . All refrences are available for inspection

Fusing the boundaries between home and child care to support children's scientific learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fleer, Marilyn

1996-06-01

Parent involvement in early childhood education is highly valued by staff and families alike. However, limited research is available to guide professionals in how best to involve families in the early childhood programs developed for their children. This article reports on a study which investigated the impact of a science teaching and learning program on families of children attending an Australian Child Care Centre. Particular reference is made to the level of scientific support families gave to their children.

Enzymes in bast fibrous plant processing.

PubMed

Kozlowski, Ryszard; Batog, Jolanta; Konczewicz, Wanda; Mackiewicz-Talarczyk, Maria; Muzyczek, Malgorzata; Sedelnik, Natalia; Tanska, Bogumila

2006-05-01

The program COST Action 847 Textile Quality and Biotechnology (2000-2005) has given an excellent chance to review the possibilities of the research, aiming at development of the industrial application of enzymes for bast fibrous plant degumming and primary processing. The recent advancements in enzymatic processing of bast fibrous plants (flax, hemp, jute, ramie and alike plants) and related textiles are given. The performance of enzymes in degumming, modification of bast fibres, roving, yarn, related fabrics as well as enzymatic bonding of lignocellulosic composites is provided.

Biochemical Mechanisms for Geographical Adaptations to Novel Toxin Exposures in Butterflyfish

PubMed Central

Knuston, Sean; Slattery, Marc; Ankisetty, Sridevi; Goldstone, Jared V.; Watanabe, Kayo; Hoh, Eunha; Gadepalli, Rama S.; Rimoldi, John M.; Ostrander, Gary K.

2016-01-01

Some species of butterflyfish have had preyed upon corals for millions of years, yet the mechanism of butterflyfish specialized coral feeding strategy remains poorly understood. Certain butterflyfish have the ability to feed on allelochemically rich soft corals, e.g. Sinularia maxima. Cytochrome P450 (CYP) is the predominant enzyme system responsible for the detoxification of dietary allelochemicals. CYP2-like and CYP3A-like content have been associated with butterflyfish that preferentially consumes allelochemically rich soft corals. To investigate the role of butterflyfish CYP2 and CYP3A enzymes in dietary preference, we conducted oral feeding experiments using homogenates of S. maxima and a toxin isolated from the coral in four species of butterflyfish with different feeding strategies. After oral exposure to the S. maxima toxin 5-episinulaptolide (5ESL), which is not normally encountered in the Hawaiian butterflyfish diet, an endemic specialist, Chaetodon multicinctus experienced 100% mortality compared to a generalist, Chaetodon auriga, which had significantly more (3–6 fold higher) CYP3A-like basal content and catalytic activity. The specialist, Chaetodon unimaculatus, which preferentially feed on S. maxima in Guam, but not in Hawaii, had 100% survival, a significant induction of 8–12 fold CYP3A-like content, and an increased ability (2-fold) to metabolize 5ESL over other species. Computer modeling data of CYP3A4 with 5ESL were consistent with microsomal transformation of 5ESL to a C15-16 epoxide from livers of C. unimaculatus. Epoxide formation correlated with CYP3A-like content, catalytic activity, induction, and NADPH-dependent metabolism of 5ESL. These results suggest a potentially important role for the CYP3A family in butterflyfish-coral diet selection through allelochemical detoxification. PMID:27136924

Impact of physiological hormonal fluctuations on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in breast cancer.

PubMed

Miyake, Kanae K; Nakamoto, Yuji; Saji, Shigehira; Sugie, Tomoharu; Kurihara, Kensuke; Kanao, Shotaro; Ikeda, Debra M; Toi, Masakazu; Togashi, Kaori

2018-06-01

Premenopausal physiologic steroid levels change cyclically, in contrast to steady state low levels seen in postmenopausal patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose ( 18 F-FDG) uptake in breast cancer is influenced by physiological hormonal fluctuations. A total of 160 primary invasive breast cancers from 155 females (54 premenopausal, 101 postmenopausal) who underwent 18 F-FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography before therapy were retrospectively analyzed. The maximal standardized uptake values (SUVmax) of tumors were compared with menstrual phases and menopausal status according to the following subgroups: 'luminal A-like,' 'luminal B-like,' and 'non-luminal.' Additionally, the effect of estradiol (E2) on 18 F-FDG uptake in breast cancer cells was evaluated in vitro. Among premenopausal patients, SUVmax during the periovulatory-luteal phase was significantly higher than that during the follicular phase in luminal A-like tumors (n = 25, p = 0.004), while it did not differ between the follicular phase and the periovulatory-luteal phase in luminal B-like (n = 24) and non-luminal tumors (n = 7). Multiple regression analysis showed menstrual phase, tumor size, and Ki-67 index are independent predictors for SUVmax in premenopausal luminal A-like tumors. There were no significant differences in SUVmax between pre- and postmenopausal patients in any of the subgroups. In in vitro studies, uptake in estrogen receptor-positive cells was significantly augmented when E2 concentration was increased from 0.01 to ≥ 1 nM. Our data suggest that 18 F-FDG uptake may be impacted by physiological hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycle in luminal A-like cancers, and that E2 could be partly responsible for these events.

Training Families To Learn Science Together Using Astronomical Topics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noel-Storr, Jacob; Wyllie, G.; Lierheimer, D.

2012-05-01

We present a collection of messages and lessons learned from a set of Family Science programs that have been developed, implemented and/or evaluated by the RIT Insight Lab over the past 5 years. The programs are connected by their use of astronomical topics to serve as the motivator for engagement and learning. The programs all focus on the development of inquiry skills and connecting family members to each other as science learning communities, rather than focusing on the development of specific content knowledge. We show how family science programs can increase engagement in STEM for parents and their children alike, and strengthen the pipeline of the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Mining and biodiversity offsets: a transparent and science-based approach to measure "no-net-loss".

PubMed

Virah-Sawmy, Malika; Ebeling, Johannes; Taplin, Roslyn

2014-10-01

Mining and associated infrastructure developments can present themselves as economic opportunities that are difficult to forego for developing and industrialised countries alike. Almost inevitably, however, they lead to biodiversity loss. This trade-off can be greatest in economically poor but highly biodiverse regions. Biodiversity offsets have, therefore, increasingly been promoted as a mechanism to help achieve both the aims of development and biodiversity conservation. Accordingly, this mechanism is emerging as a key tool for multinational mining companies to demonstrate good environmental stewardship. Relying on offsets to achieve "no-net-loss" of biodiversity, however, requires certainty in their ecological integrity where they are used to sanction habitat destruction. Here, we discuss real-world practices in biodiversity offsetting by assessing how well some leading initiatives internationally integrate critical aspects of biodiversity attributes, net loss accounting and project management. With the aim of improving, rather than merely critiquing the approach, we analyse different aspects of biodiversity offsetting. Further, we analyse the potential pitfalls of developing counterfactual scenarios of biodiversity loss or gains in a project's absence. In this, we draw on insights from experience with carbon offsetting. This informs our discussion of realistic projections of project effectiveness and permanence of benefits to ensure no net losses, and the risk of displacing, rather than avoiding biodiversity losses ("leakage"). We show that the most prominent existing biodiversity offset initiatives employ broad and somewhat arbitrary parameters to measure habitat value and do not sufficiently consider real-world challenges in compensating losses in an effective and lasting manner. We propose a more transparent and science-based approach, supported with a new formula, to help design biodiversity offsets to realise their potential in enabling more responsible mining that better balances economic development opportunities for mining and biodiversity conservation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Increasing Dengue Incidence in Singapore over the Past 40 Years: Population Growth, Climate and Mobility

PubMed Central

Struchiner, Claudio Jose; Rocklöv, Joacim; Wilder-Smith, Annelies; Massad, Eduardo

2015-01-01

In Singapore, the frequency and magnitude of dengue epidemics have increased significantly over the past 40 years. It is important to understand the main drivers for the rapid increase in dengue incidence. We studied the relative contributions of putative drivers for the rise of dengue in Singapore: population growth, climate parameters and international air passenger arrivals from dengue endemic countries, for the time period of 1974 until 2011. We used multivariable Poisson regression models with the following predictors: Annual Population Size; Aedes Premises Index; Mean Annual Temperature; Minimum and Maximum Temperature Recorded in each year; Annual Precipitation and Annual Number of Air Passengers arriving from dengue-endemic South-East Asia to Singapore. The relative risk (RR) of the increase in dengue incidence due to population growth over the study period was 42.7, while the climate variables (mean and minimum temperature) together explained an RR of 7.1 (RR defined as risk at the end of the time period relative to the beginning and goodness of fit associated with the model leading to these estimates assessed by pseudo-R2 equal to 0.83). Estimating the extent of the contribution of these individual factors on the increasing dengue incidence, we found that population growth contributed to 86% while the residual 14% was explained by increase in temperature. We found no correlation with incoming air passenger arrivals into Singapore from dengue endemic countries. Our findings have significant implications for predicting future trends of the dengue epidemics given the rapid urbanization with population growth in many dengue endemic countries. It is time for policy-makers and the scientific community alike to pay more attention to the negative impact of urbanization and urban climate on diseases such as dengue. PMID:26322517

Increasing Dengue Incidence in Singapore over the Past 40 Years: Population Growth, Climate and Mobility.

PubMed

Struchiner, Claudio Jose; Rocklöv, Joacim; Wilder-Smith, Annelies; Massad, Eduardo

2015-01-01

In Singapore, the frequency and magnitude of dengue epidemics have increased significantly over the past 40 years. It is important to understand the main drivers for the rapid increase in dengue incidence. We studied the relative contributions of putative drivers for the rise of dengue in Singapore: population growth, climate parameters and international air passenger arrivals from dengue endemic countries, for the time period of 1974 until 2011. We used multivariable Poisson regression models with the following predictors: Annual Population Size; Aedes Premises Index; Mean Annual Temperature; Minimum and Maximum Temperature Recorded in each year; Annual Precipitation and Annual Number of Air Passengers arriving from dengue-endemic South-East Asia to Singapore. The relative risk (RR) of the increase in dengue incidence due to population growth over the study period was 42.7, while the climate variables (mean and minimum temperature) together explained an RR of 7.1 (RR defined as risk at the end of the time period relative to the beginning and goodness of fit associated with the model leading to these estimates assessed by pseudo-R2 equal to 0.83). Estimating the extent of the contribution of these individual factors on the increasing dengue incidence, we found that population growth contributed to 86% while the residual 14% was explained by increase in temperature. We found no correlation with incoming air passenger arrivals into Singapore from dengue endemic countries. Our findings have significant implications for predicting future trends of the dengue epidemics given the rapid urbanization with population growth in many dengue endemic countries. It is time for policy-makers and the scientific community alike to pay more attention to the negative impact of urbanization and urban climate on diseases such as dengue.

The A-Like Faker Assay for Measuring Yeast Chromosome III Stability.

PubMed

Novoa, Carolina A; Ang, J Sidney; Stirling, Peter C

2018-01-01

The ability to rapidly assess chromosome instability (CIN) has enabled profiling of most yeast genes for potential effects on genome stability. The A-like faker (ALF) assay is one of several qualitative and quantitative marker loss assays that indirectly measure loss or conversion of genetic material using a counterselection step. The ALF assay relies on the ability to count spurious mating events that occur upon loss of the MATα locus of haploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains. Here, we describe the deployment of the ALF assay for both rapid and simple qualitative, and more in-depth quantitative analysis allowing determination of absolute ALF frequencies.

Combating healthcare corruption and fraud with improved global health governance

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Corruption is a serious threat to global health outcomes, leading to financial waste and adverse health consequences. Yet, forms of corruption impacting global health are endemic worldwide in public and private sectors, and in developed and resource-poor settings alike. Allegations of misuse of funds and fraud in global health initiatives also threaten future investment. Current domestic and sectorial-level responses are fragmented and have been criticized as ineffective. In order to address this issue, we propose a global health governance framework calling for international recognition of “global health corruption” and development of a treaty protocol to combat this crucial issue. PMID:23088820

When approved is not enough: development of a supervision consultation model.

PubMed

Green, S; Shilts, L; Bacigalupe, G

2001-10-01

The dramatic increase in the literature that addresses family therapy training and supervision over the last decade has been predominantly in the area of theory, rather than practice. This article describes the development of a meta-supervisory learning context for approved supervisors and provides examples of interactions between supervisors that subsequently influenced both therapy and supervision. We delineate the assumptions that inform our work and offer specific guidelines for supervisors who wish to implement a similar model in their own contexts. We provide suggestions for a proactive refiguring of supervision that may have profound effects and benefits for supervisors and supervisees alike.

Companion diagnostics: a regulatory perspective from the last 5 years of molecular companion diagnostic approvals.

PubMed

Roscoe, Donna M; Hu, Yun-Fu; Philip, Reena

2015-01-01

Companion diagnostics are essential for the safe and effective use of the corresponding therapeutic products. The US FDA has approved a number of companion diagnostics used to select cancer patients for treatment with contemporaneously approved novel therapeutics. The processes of co-development and co-approval of a therapeutic product and its companion diagnostic have been a learning experience that continues to evolve. Using several companion diagnostics as examples, this article describes the challenges associated with the scientific, clinical and regulatory hurdles faced by FDA and industry alike. Taken together, this discussion is intended to assist manufacturers toward a successful companion diagnostics development plan.

Enter Sandbox

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clucas, T.; Wirth, G. S.

2015-12-01

Interactive geospatial education tools can excite students and public audiences alike. Alaska EPSCoR and UAF GINA have taken one such tool - an augmented-reality sandbox invented at UC-Davis - and created a completely mobile version, which can be easily transported and deployed on and off the road system. In addition, EPSCoR has developed model curricula that use the sandbox to teach basic topography and hydrology skills. More advanced curricular modules in development will teach about flooding, tsunamis, and other hydrologic and landscape hazards. Instructions on building a mobile sandbox, curricula, and video of the sandbox in action are available at www.alaska.edu/epscor/Augmented-Reality%20Sandbox/

Model driven development of clinical information sytems using openEHR.

PubMed

Atalag, Koray; Yang, Hong Yul; Tempero, Ewan; Warren, Jim

2011-01-01

openEHR and the recent international standard (ISO 13606) defined a model driven software development methodology for health information systems. However there is little evidence in the literature describing implementation; especially for desktop clinical applications. This paper presents an implementation pathway using .Net/C# technology for Microsoft Windows desktop platforms. An endoscopy reporting application driven by openEHR Archetypes and Templates has been developed. A set of novel GUI directives has been defined and presented which guides the automatic graphical user interface generator to render widgets properly. We also reveal the development steps and important design decisions; from modelling to the final software product. This might provide guidance for other developers and form evidence required for the adoption of these standards for vendors and national programs alike.

GEM: Geospace Environment Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roederer, Juan G.

Shortly after the beginning of the “space age” with the launching of the first man made object into terrestrial orbit, geospace assumed a fundamental role as a technological resource for all countries, advanced and developing alike. Today, satellite systems for communications, weather prediction, navigation, and remote sensing of natural resources are supporting, in an essential way, many facets of societal operations. We must expect that this trend will continue; for instance, in perhaps less than 3 decades, transatmospheric transportation will be routine and satellite systems will sustain human colonies in space.The medium in which Earth-orbiting systems operate is hostile. Far from a perfect vacuum, it is made up of high-temperature gas and corpuscular radiation of varying densities and intensities; these solar-activity controlled variations can reach proportions dangerous to orbital stability, to electronic systems performance, to shuttle and spaceplane reentry, and to the life of humans in orbit. Dramatic examples of solar-activity-induced satellite failures are the unexpected early degradation of the orbit of Skylab due to unusual upper atmosphere heating and the demise of satellite GOES-5, most probably caused by a large injection of energetic electrons from the outer magnetoshere. The need to predict “weather and climate” in geospace is becoming as important as the need to predict weather and climate in the inhospitable regions on Earth into which industrial activity has moved during the last decades, such as the Arctic and some of the arid lands.

Science Under Attack! Public Policy, Science Education and the Emperor's New Clothes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Krass, Lawrence

2005-12-05

The popular debate about the teaching of intelligent design in public schools is but one quandary for scientists and policy makers. Given recent developments which have worked to breed a general distrust of science, it is evident that researchers and politicians alike should be wary of using popular opinion as a guide for policy and pedagogy when it comes to science in public education. Dr. Krauss will qualify this complex issue and will address how educators, policy makers and scientists can work effectively to prevent public misconceptions of science.

Science Under Attack! Public Policy, Science Education, and the Emperor's New Clothes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Krauss, Lawrence

2005-12-05

The popular debate about the teaching of intelligent design in public schools is but one quandary for scientists and policy makers. Given recent developments which have worked to breed a general distrust of science, it is evident that researchers and politicians alike should be wary of using popular opinion as a guide for policy and pedagogy when it comes to science in public education. Dr. Krauss will qualify this complex issue and will address how educators, policy makers and scientists can work effectively to prevent public misconceptions of science.

Science, Technology and the Nuclear Arms Race

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schroeer, Dietrich

1984-09-01

A comprehensive survey of the nuclear arms race from a technological point of view, which will appeal to the scientist and non-scientist alike. Provides information for the layman on this current topic and is designed for undergraduate courses in political science, history, international studies, as well as physics courses on the subject. Explores the motivation behind the development of various nuclear arms technologies and their deployment and examines the effects these technologies have on military, political and social strategies. Discusses the nature of deterrence and alternatives to it, arms control, and disarmament.

Melting line of polymeric nitrogen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yakub, L. N.

2013-05-01

We made an attempt to predict location of the melting line of polymeric nitrogen using two equations for Helmholtz free energy: proposed earlier for cubic gauche-structure and developed recently for liquid polymerized nitrogen. The P-T relation, orthobaric densities and latent heat of melting were determined using a standard double tangent construction. The estimated melting temperature decreases with increasing pressure, alike the temperature of molecular-nonmolecular transition in solid. We discuss the possibility of a triple point (solid-molecular fluid-polymeric fluid) at ˜80 GPa and observed maximum of melting temperature of nitrogen.

On The TerraSAR-X Dual-Mode For Oil Slick Observation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Velotto, D.; Migliaccio, M.; Nunziata, F.; Lehner, S.

2010-04-01

In this study a polarimetric approach is for the first time developed and applied to X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data for sea oil slick observation. Following this an electromagnetic model which, based on the Co-polarized Phase Difference (CPD), allows describing the slick-free and slick-covered sea surface scattering is proposed. Single Look Complex (SSC) TerraSAR-X (TSX) data, gathered in dual polarimetric mode, in which both certified oil slicks and look-alikes are present, are analyzed. Several experiments are shown here and discussed in detail.

A survey of major east coast snowstorms, 1960-1983. Part 2: Case studies of eighteen storms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kocin, P. J.; Uccellini, L. W.

1985-01-01

Snowfall, surface and upper air charts, and available satellite images are presented for eighteen major East Coast snowstorms that occurred between 1960 and 1983. The charts and descriptions of key fields are provided so that students, weather forecasters, and researchers alike can visualize how a large sample of major winter cyclones form and intensify. Although there are noted similarities in certain aspects of the surface and upper tropospheric development of the storms, significant case-to-case variability precludes the ability to effectively composite these weather systems.

Engineered pharmabiotics with improved therapeutic potential.

PubMed

Sleator, Roy D; Hill, Colin

2008-01-01

Although described for over a century, scientists and clinicians alike are only now beginning to realize the significant medical applications of probiotic cultures. Given the increasing commercial and clinical relevance of probiotics, improving their stress tolerance profile and ability to overcome the physiochemical defences of the host is an important biological goal. Patho-biotechnology describes the application of pathogen derived (ex vivo and in vivo) stress survival strategies for the design of more technologically robust and effective probiotic cultures with improved biotechnological and clinical applications as well as the development of novel vaccine and drug delivery platforms.

DICOM version 3.0 demonstration at InfoRAD 1992

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jost, R. Gilbert

1993-09-01

Over the past 10 years, a large number of devoted individuals have worked on a project to develop a standard for the storage and exchange of medical images. Known as the ACR/NEMA standardization effort, this project is jointly sponsored by the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA). Over the years, radiologists and industry representatives alike have supported the standardization effort, but there has been little evidence of actual exchanges of medical images among medical equipment vendors who use the ACR/NEMA standard.

Real-time animation software for customized training to use motor prosthetic systems.

PubMed

Davoodi, Rahman; Loeb, Gerald E

2012-03-01

Research on control of human movement and development of tools for restoration and rehabilitation of movement after spinal cord injury and amputation can benefit greatly from software tools for creating precisely timed animation sequences of human movement. Despite their ability to create sophisticated animation and high quality rendering, existing animation software are not adapted for application to neural prostheses and rehabilitation of human movement. We have developed a software tool known as MSMS (MusculoSkeletal Modeling Software) that can be used to develop models of human or prosthetic limbs and the objects with which they interact and to animate their movement using motion data from a variety of offline and online sources. The motion data can be read from a motion file containing synthesized motion data or recordings from a motion capture system. Alternatively, motion data can be streamed online from a real-time motion capture system, a physics-based simulation program, or any program that can produce real-time motion data. Further, animation sequences of daily life activities can be constructed using the intuitive user interface of Microsoft's PowerPoint software. The latter allows expert and nonexpert users alike to assemble primitive movements into a complex motion sequence with precise timing by simply arranging the order of the slides and editing their properties in PowerPoint. The resulting motion sequence can be played back in an open-loop manner for demonstration and training or in closed-loop virtual reality environments where the timing and speed of animation depends on user inputs. These versatile animation utilities can be used in any application that requires precisely timed animations but they are particularly suited for research and rehabilitation of movement disorders. MSMS's modeling and animation tools are routinely used in a number of research laboratories around the country to study the control of movement and to develop and test neural prostheses for patients with paralysis or amputations.

Mother-child play in children with Down syndrome and typical development

PubMed Central

Venuti, P.; de Falco, S.; Esposito, G.; Bornstein, Marc H.

2014-01-01

The present study compares child solitary and collaborative play with mother in 21 children with Down syndrome (DS) and 33 mental-age-matched typically developing (TD) children. In solitary play, children with DS showed less exploratory but similar symbolic play compared to TD children. From solitary to collaborative play, children with DS increased their exploratory play attaining the same level as TD children; Pretense significantly increased from solitary to collaborative play only in TD children . Differences between mothers’ play in the two groups mirrored those between their children. Child and mother play in both groups showed similar attunement and synchrony. Mothers contribute to the play development of children with DS through their own adaptation to their children’s limitations and potentialities alike. PMID:19642713

Singularity: Scientific containers for mobility of compute.

PubMed

Kurtzer, Gregory M; Sochat, Vanessa; Bauer, Michael W

2017-01-01

Here we present Singularity, software developed to bring containers and reproducibility to scientific computing. Using Singularity containers, developers can work in reproducible environments of their choosing and design, and these complete environments can easily be copied and executed on other platforms. Singularity is an open source initiative that harnesses the expertise of system and software engineers and researchers alike, and integrates seamlessly into common workflows for both of these groups. As its primary use case, Singularity brings mobility of computing to both users and HPC centers, providing a secure means to capture and distribute software and compute environments. This ability to create and deploy reproducible environments across these centers, a previously unmet need, makes Singularity a game changing development for computational science.

Singularity: Scientific containers for mobility of compute

PubMed Central

Kurtzer, Gregory M.; Bauer, Michael W.

2017-01-01

Here we present Singularity, software developed to bring containers and reproducibility to scientific computing. Using Singularity containers, developers can work in reproducible environments of their choosing and design, and these complete environments can easily be copied and executed on other platforms. Singularity is an open source initiative that harnesses the expertise of system and software engineers and researchers alike, and integrates seamlessly into common workflows for both of these groups. As its primary use case, Singularity brings mobility of computing to both users and HPC centers, providing a secure means to capture and distribute software and compute environments. This ability to create and deploy reproducible environments across these centers, a previously unmet need, makes Singularity a game changing development for computational science. PMID:28494014

BRAF inhibitor therapy for melanoma, thyroid and colorectal cancers: development of resistance and future prospects.

PubMed

Rahman, Md Atiqur; Salajegheh, Ali; Smith, Robert Anthony; Lam, Alfred King-yin

2014-01-01

BRAF is a major oncoprotein and oncogenic mutations in BRAF are found in a significant number of cancers, including melanoma, thyroid cancer, colorectal cancer and others. Consequently, BRAF inhibitors have been developed as treatment options for cancers with BRAF mutations which have shown some success in improving patient outcomes in clinical trials. Development of resistance to BRAF kinase inhibitors is common, however, overcoming this resistance is an area of significant concern for clinicians, patients and researchers alike. In this review, we identify the mechanisms of BRAF kinase inhibitor resistance and discuss the implications for strategies to overcome this resistance in the context of new approaches such as multi-kinase targeted therapies and emerging RNA interference based technologies.

Factors and facts in Hungarian HIV/AIDS epidemic, 1985-2000.

PubMed

Dömök, I

2001-01-01

In Hungary among others there were some special factors, which shaped the outcome of HIV/AIDS epidemic. (1) In the early period of pandemic the "iron curtain" delayed and limited the importation of HIV to Hungary. (2) In 1985, at the time of detection of first HIV infected persons the etiological diagnostic tools were already commercially available and laboratory facilities have been created immediately for HIV antibody tests in networks of blood banks, public health and venereological services. (3) Laboratory facilities together with introduced health regulations resulted in (a) elimination of possibility of nosocomial HIV transmission by blood, blood products and organ transplantation; (b) efficient case finding and contact tracing in population groups potentially playing a significant role in spreading of infection; (c) opportunities for voluntary HIV testing free of charge. (4) Broad scale education and information activities have been developed from the beginning by governmental and non-governmental organizations alike. (5) Parenteral drug abuse did not play a role in spreading of HIV, so far. The above factors resulted in a slowly developing moderate epidemic. The facts are as follows. By the end of 2000 altogether 879 HIV positive (666 male, 100 female and 113 anonymous) persons have been notified, 377 (344 male and 33 female) of whom showed already the characteristic features of AIDS and 229 died. 29% of registered HIV positive persons have been foreigners originating from 56 countries. The cumulative incidence rate of AIDS was 38 per million population. 73% of Hungarian HIV positive persons and 72% of patients with AIDS belonged to transmission group of men having sex with men. The age of HIV positive persons at the time of detection was between 20 and 49 years in 81% and 72% of them resided in or around Budapest.

Care staff perceptions of a social robot called Paro and a look-alike Plush Toy: a descriptive qualitative approach.

PubMed

Moyle, Wendy; Bramble, Marguerite; Jones, Cindy; Murfield, Jenny

2018-03-01

Social robots such as Paro, a therapeutic companion robot, have recently been introduced into dementia care as a means to reduce behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. The purpose of this study was to explore care staff perceptions of Paro and a look-alike non-robotic animal, including benefits and limitations in dementia care. The study assumed a descriptive qualitative approach, nested within a large cluster-randomised controlled trial. We interviewed a subsample of 20 facility care staff, from nine long-term care facilities in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Thematic analysis of the data, which was inductive and data-driven, was undertaken with the assistance of the qualitative software, ATLAS.ti®. The findings refer to four categories: increasing excitement for Paro and decreasing enthusiasm for Plush Toy; value and function of Paro; opportunities for engagement; and alternatives vs. robustness. Staff caring for people with dementia preferred Paro compared to a look-alike Plush Toy. Staff identified that Paro had the potential to improve quality of life for people with dementia, whereas the Plush Toy had limitations when compared to Paro. However, participants expressed concern that the cost of Paro could reduce opportunities for use within aged care.

East and West African milk products are reservoirs for human and livestock-associated Staphylococcus aureus.

PubMed

Jans, Christoph; Merz, Axel; Johler, Sophia; Younan, Mario; Tanner, Sabine A; Kaindi, Dasel Wambua Mulwa; Wangoh, John; Bonfoh, Bassirou; Meile, Leo; Tasara, Taurai

2017-08-01

Staphylococcus aureus frequently isolated from milk products in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a major pathogen responsible for food intoxication, human and animal diseases. SSA hospital-derived strains are well studied but data on the population structure of foodborne S. aureus required to identify possible staphylococcal food poisoning sources is lacking. Therefore, the aim was to assess the population genetic structure, virulence and antibiotic resistance genes associated with milk-derived S. aureus isolates from Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya and Somalia through spa-typing, MLST, and DNA microarray analysis. Seventy milk S. aureus isolates from the three countries were assigned to 27 spa (7 new) and 23 (12 new) MLST sequence types. Milk-associated S. aureus of the three countries is genetically diverse comprising human and livestock-associated clonal complexes (CCs) predominated by the CC5 (n = 10) and CC30 (n = 9) isolates. Panton-Valentine leukocidin, toxic shock syndrome toxin and enterotoxin encoding genes were predominantly observed among human-associated CCs. Penicillin, fosfomycin and tetracycline, but not methicillin resistance genes were frequently detected. Our findings indicate that milk-associated S. aureus in SSA originates from human and animal sources alike highlighting the need for an overarching One Health approach to reduce S. aureus disease burdens through improving production processes, animal care and hygienic measures. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The battle over workers' compensation.

PubMed

Ellenberger, J N

2000-01-01

Faced with lower profits and rapidly increasing premium costs in the 1980s, insurers and employer organizations cleverly parlayed the public perception of worker fraud and abuse in the workers' compensation system (that they helped to create) into massive legislative changes. Over the last decade, state legislators and governors, Republican and Democrat alike, have jumped on this bandwagon, one that workers and their allies have dubbed the workers' compensation "deform" movement. Alleging a "game plan" and a calculated campaign on the part of insurers and employers, the author looks at the major components of changes that were made, examines the elements of workers' compensation over which employers and insurers have gained control, and discusses Newt Gingrich's efforts to capitalize on employer and insurer fervor over the system. This campaign whistled through the country until it goaded the labor movement, injured workers, the trial bar, and others in Ohio in 1997 to organize themselves to stand up to employers by defeating the deform law through a ballot initiative. The article details that battle and suggests that similar voices can be achieved through a return to grassroots organizing and mobilization.

Physics Internationally From the Industrial Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Venkatesan, T.

2009-03-01

Physicists traditionally get employed by academia, National Labs and industry. The investment of multi-national companies in R&D and manufacturing operations globally has been accelerating owing to availability of trained human resources and the economy of operation. This has created tremendous opportunities for candidates with global experience as opposed to a highly localized education. In the last decade, the investments made by Asian academic institutions in education and research has seen a significant increase creating opportunities for Graduate students and researchers alike in parts of the world other than US and Europe, the traditional destinations for students and researchers over the last several decades. Many Asian universities are hiring a diverse faculty from all over the world as opposed to hiring from local talent pools. Many of the Asian countries are focusing on creating local hitech economies by fostering global entrepreneurship programs. In my talk I will discuss this globalization phenomenon with specific examples from both academia and industry. I will also discuss strategies for academic institutions in terms of making the appropriate modification to their programs to deal with this inevitable evolution.

Organ donation and transplantation in Canada: insights from the Canadian Organ Replacement Register.

PubMed

Kim, Sang Joseph; Fenton, Stanley Sa; Kappel, Joanne; Moist, Louise M; Klarenbach, Scott W; Samuel, Susan M; Singer, Lianne G; Kim, Daniel H; Young, Kimberly; Webster, Greg; Wu, Juliana; Ivis, Frank; de Sa, Eric; Gill, John S

2014-01-01

To provide an overview of the transplant component of the Canadian Organ Replacement Register (CORR). CORR is the national registry of organ failure in Canada. It has existed in some form since 1972 and currently houses data on patients with end-stage renal disease and solid organ transplants (kidney and/or non-kidney). The transplant component of CORR receives data on a voluntary basis from individual transplant centres and organ procurement organizations across the country. Coverage for transplant procedures is comprehensive and complete. Long-term outcomes are tracked based on follow-up reports from participating transplant centres. The longitudinal nature of CORR provides an opportunity to observe the trajectory of a patient's journey with organ failure over their life span. Research studies conducted using CORR data inform both practitioners and health policy makers alike. The importance of registry data in monitoring and improving care for Canadian transplant candidates/recipients cannot be over-stated. This paper provides an overview of the transplant data in CORR including its history, data considerations, recent findings, new initiatives, and future directions.

Managing Maternal Substance Use in the Perinatal Period: Current Concerns and Treatment Approaches in the United States and Australia

PubMed Central

Burns, Lucinda; Coleman-Cowger, Victoria H.; Breen, Courtney

2016-01-01

Substance use in pregnancy can have adverse effects on mother and fetus alike. Australia and the US are countries with high levels of substance use and policies advising abstinence, although the Australian approach occurs within a broader framework of harm minimization. Less attention has been paid to treatment of the mothers’ substance use and what is considered gold standard. This is despite evidence that prior substance use in pregnancy is the most important factor in predicting future substance use in pregnancy. This paper draws together information from both the peer-reviewed and gray literature to provide a contemporary overview of patterns and outcomes of the three main drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis, used in Australia and the US during pregnancy and discusses what are considered gold standard screening and treatment approaches for these substances. This paper does not set out to be a comprehensive review of the area but rather aims to provide a concise summary of current guidelines for policy makers and practitioners who provide treatment for women who use substances in pregnancy. PMID:27980414

SimLife a new model of simulation using a pulsated revascularized and reventilated cadaver for surgical education.

PubMed

Delpech, P O; Danion, J; Oriot, D; Richer, J P; Breque, C; Faure, J P

2017-02-01

Alike becoming a pilot requires competences, acquisition of technical skills is essential to become a surgeon. Halsted's theory on surgical education "See one, do one, and teach one" is not currently compatible with the reality of socio-economic constraints of the operating room, the patient's safety demand and the reduction of residents' work hours. In all countries, this brings mandatory to simulation education for surgery resident's training. Many models are available: video trainers or pelvi-trainers, computed simulator, animal models or human cadaver… Human cadaveric dissection has long been used to teach surgical anatomy. Surgery on human cadaveric model brings greatest accuracy to the haptic characteristics of surgical procedures. Learning in an appropriate and realistic simulation context increases the level of acquisition of the residents' skills and reduces stress and anxiety when performing real procedures. We present a technique of perfusion and ventilation of a fresh human cadaver that restores pulsatile circulation and respiratory movements of the model. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Mounting of Biomaterials for Use in Ophthalmic Cell Therapies

PubMed Central

Dunphy, Siobhan E.; Shadforth, Audra M. A.; Dawson, Rebecca A.; Walshe, Jennifer; Zakaria, Nadia

2018-01-01

When used as scaffolds for cell therapies, biomaterials often present basic handling and logistical problems for scientists and surgeons alike. The quest for an appropriate mounting device for biomaterials is therefore a significant and common problem. In this review, we provide a detailed overview of the factors to consider when choosing an appropriate mounting device including those experienced during cell culture, quality assurance, and surgery. By way of example, we draw upon our combined experience in developing epithelial cell therapies for the treatment of eye diseases. We discuss commercially available options for achieving required goals and provide a detailed analysis of 4 experimental designs developed within our respective laboratories in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Belgium. PMID:29338382

Mounting of Biomaterials for Use in Ophthalmic Cell Therapies.

PubMed

Harkin, Damien G; Dunphy, Siobhan E; Shadforth, Audra M A; Dawson, Rebecca A; Walshe, Jennifer; Zakaria, Nadia

2017-11-01

When used as scaffolds for cell therapies, biomaterials often present basic handling and logistical problems for scientists and surgeons alike. The quest for an appropriate mounting device for biomaterials is therefore a significant and common problem. In this review, we provide a detailed overview of the factors to consider when choosing an appropriate mounting device including those experienced during cell culture, quality assurance, and surgery. By way of example, we draw upon our combined experience in developing epithelial cell therapies for the treatment of eye diseases. We discuss commercially available options for achieving required goals and provide a detailed analysis of 4 experimental designs developed within our respective laboratories in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Belgium.

From Diagnosis to Gnosis: writing, knowledge, and repair in breast cancer and BRCA memoirs.

PubMed

Boesky, Amy

2015-01-01

This essay explores the reparative work of diagnostic retellings in breast cancer and BRCA memoirs (memoirs written by women who learn they carry a mutation predisposing them to develop breast or ovarian cancers). It considers four memoirists (Felicia Knaul, Melanie Norton, Masha Gessen, and Sarah Gabriel) as they illuminate initial moments of "finding out"--learning they have cancer or have tested positive for a BRCA mutation. These memoirists invite readers to appreciate the complexity of cancer as a lived experience. Writing about breast cancer and the risk of its development helps writers and readers alike to understand illness in greater depth, challenging some aspects of care and championing others.

Seeing the Invisible: Educating the Public on Planetary Magnetic Fields and How they Affect Atmospheres

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fillingim, M. O.; Brain, D. A.; Peticolas, L. M.; Schultz, G.; Yan, D.; Guevara, S.; Randol, S.

2010-08-01

Magnetic fields and charged particles are difficult for school children, the general public, and scientists alike to visualize. But studies of planetary magnetospheres and ionospheres have broad implications for planetary evolution, from the deep interior to the ancient climate, that are important to communicate to each of these audiences. This presentation will highlight the visualization materials that we are developing to educate audiences on the magnetic fields of planets and how they affect the atmosphere. The visualization materials that we are developing consist of simplified data sets that can be displayed on spherical projection systems and portable 3-D rigid models of planetary magnetic fields.

Current strategic thinking for the development of a trivalent alphavirus vaccine for human use.

PubMed

Wolfe, Daniel N; Heppner, D Gray; Gardner, Shea N; Jaing, Crystal; Dupuy, Lesley C; Schmaljohn, Connie S; Carlton, Kevin

2014-09-01

Vaccinations against the encephalitic alphaviruses (western, eastern, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus) are of significant interest to biological defense, public health, and agricultural communities alike. Although vaccines licensed for veterinary applications are used in the Western Hemisphere and attenuated or inactivated viruses have been used under Investigational New Drug status to protect at-risk personnel, there are currently no licensed vaccines for use in humans. Here, we will discuss the need for a trivalent vaccine that can protect humans against all three viruses, recent progress to such a vaccine, and a strategy to continue development to Food and Drug Administration licensure. © The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Darknet and bitcoin, the obscure and anonymous side of the internet in healthcare.

PubMed

Masoni, Marco; Guelfi, Maria Renza; Gensini, Gian Franco

2016-11-14

Illegal activities prosecutable by law in the real life can be committed on the internet alike. In the healthcare domain, we refer mainly to selling of illegal and counterfeit drugs, exchange of pedo-pornographic material and marketing of stolen medical records. These illegal activities are made easier by recent developments of the Internet that medical community must be aware of: darknet and bitcoin. The first allows anonymous surfing and the last anonymous financial transactions. After discussing which healthcare areas are affected by these technological developments of the Internet and the deriving consequences, then the Authors express their opinion on what actions can be taken to protect internet community.

A systematic approach for introducing innovative product design in courses with engineering and nonengineering students.

PubMed

Patterson, P E

2007-01-01

In our new global economy, biomedical product development teams need to be even more innovative in an environment constrained by fewer resources with less time from concept to market. Teams are often comprised of individuals spread around the world. To simulate this setting, we revised an existing course to incorporate teams of on-campus and distance students, with each team including both engineers and other specialties. Through interactive lectures and projects, we presented a systematic approach to innovation that should be useful to engineers and non-engineers alike. Students found the course challenging and exciting, displaying an improved ability to work in distributed teams and in developing innovative design solutions.

Primary care and care for older persons: position paper of the European Forum for Primary Care.

PubMed

Boeckxstaens, Pauline; De Graaf, Pim

2011-01-01

This article explores how to address the needs of the growing number of older patients in primary care practice. Primary care is not a fixed organisational structure but a combination of functional characteristics which has developed variably in European countries with differing responses to the emerging needs of older persons. Multimorbidity, frailty, disability and dependence play out differently in older persons; a key challenge for primary care is to provide a response that is adapted to the needs of individuals - as they see them and not as the professional defines them. Indeed, growing experience shows how to involve older persons in taking decisions. Contrary to popular opinion, older persons often rate their quality of life as high. Indeed, comprehensive primary care offers health promotion and prevention: also older people may benefit from measures that support their health and independence and some case descriptions show this potential. Although most people prefer to be in their own environment (home, community) during the last stage of life, providing end-of-life care in the community is a challenge for primary care because it requires continuity and coordination with specialist care. Successful models of care however do exist. Delivering seamless integrated care to older persons is a central theme in primary care. Rather than disease management, in primary care, case management is the preferred approach. Proactive geriatric assessment of individual medical, functional and social needs, including loneliness and isolation, has been shown to be useful and its place in primary care is the subject of further research. Clinical practice guidelines for multimorbidity are badly needed. Non-adherence to medication, linked to multiple and uncoordinated prescriptions, is a widespread and costly problem. Successful approaches in primary care are being developed, including the use of electronic patient files. With the general practitioner (GP) as the central care provider, primary care is increasingly teamwork, and the role of nurses and other (new) professions in primary care is developing constantly. The composition and coordination of teams are two components of one of the major complexities to address: how to provide individualised care with standardisation at organisation the level. (Lack of) Coordination with specialist care remains a widespread problem and needs attention from policy makers and practitioners alike. Alignment with home care and social services remains a challenge in all countries, not least because of the different funding arrangements between the services. Further priorities for research and development are summarised.

Developing an interdisciplinary community-based sports concussion management program.

PubMed

LoGalbo, Anthony; Salinas, Christine M; Dougherty, Michael; Field, Mel

2014-01-01

The increasing incidence and associated consequences of sport-related concussion have been at the forefront of public health concerns in recent years, prompting the need for safe and effective management guidelines and availability of appropriately trained healthcare providers. In this report we provide practical and user-friendly information regarding several important factors to consider when developing a sports concussion program, including how to select relevant team members, assess community needs and available resources, provide concussion education, secure and nurture partnerships with athletic programs, implement management strategies that align with current practice standards, and cater to athletes' unique needs in terms of program accessibility. It is hoped that the knowledge shared and proposed recommendations will be beneficial for guiding both newly developing and established concussion programs alike. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Runway exit designs for capacity improvement demonstrations. Phase 2: Computer model development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trani, A. A.; Hobeika, A. G.; Kim, B. J.; Nunna, V.; Zhong, C.

1992-01-01

The development is described of a computer simulation/optimization model to: (1) estimate the optimal locations of existing and proposed runway turnoffs; and (2) estimate the geometric design requirements associated with newly developed high speed turnoffs. The model described, named REDIM 2.0, represents a stand alone application to be used by airport planners, designers, and researchers alike to estimate optimal turnoff locations. The main procedures are described in detail which are implemented in the software package and possible applications are illustrated when using 6 major runway scenarios. The main output of the computer program is the estimation of the weighted average runway occupancy time for a user defined aircraft population. Also, the location and geometric characteristics of each turnoff are provided to the user.

Molecular pharming - VLPs made in plants.

PubMed

Marsian, Johanna; Lomonossoff, George P

2016-02-01

Plant-based expression offers a safe, inexpensive and potentially limitless way to produce therapeutics in a quick and flexible manner. Plants require only simple inorganic nutrients, water, carbon dioxide and sunlight for efficient growth. Virus-like particles (VLPs) are convincing look-alikes of viruses but without carrying infectious genomic material. However, they can still elicit a very potent immune response which makes them ideal vaccine candidates. In this review the different methods of plant expression are described together with the most recent developments in the field of transiently-expressed plant-made VLPs. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Rocket Launch Trajectory Simulations Mechanism

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Margasahayam, Ravi; Caimi, Raoul E.; Hauss, Sharon; Voska, N. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The design and development of a Trajectory Simulation Mechanism (TSM) for the Launch Systems Testbed (LST) is outlined. In addition to being one-of-a-kind facility in the world, TSM serves as a platform to study the interaction of rocket launch-induced environments and subsequent dynamic effects on the equipment and structures in the close vicinity of the launch pad. For the first time, researchers and academicians alike will be able to perform tests in a laboratory environment and assess the impact of vibroacoustic behavior of structures in a moving rocket scenario on ground equipment, launch vehicle, and its valuable payload or spacecraft.

An Ontological Approach to Connecting SOA Implementations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McGregor, Wesley

Service Orientation as a design paradigm has taken root in the academic, development and business communities alike. The notion that activity models in all aspects of human endeavour can be thought of as a set of services with consumers and providers is not new, but the amount of “air time” the service oriented paradigm is getting is new. However like all good things in life, every good deed does not go unpunished. There are drawbacks to service oriented designs and this paper attempts to highlight one such drawback that all system practitioners must be aware of in the long term.

Electrochemical Sensors for Clinic Analysis

PubMed Central

Wang, You; Xu, Hui; Zhang, Jianming; Li, Guang

2008-01-01

Demanded by modern medical diagnosis, advances in microfabrication technology have led to the development of fast, sensitive and selective electrochemical sensors for clinic analysis. This review addresses the principles behind electrochemical sensor design and fabrication, and introduces recent progress in the application of electrochemical sensors to analysis of clinical chemicals such as blood gases, electrolytes, metabolites, DNA and antibodies, including basic and applied research. Miniaturized commercial electrochemical biosensors will form the basis of inexpensive and easy to use devices for acquiring chemical information to bring sophisticated analytical capabilities to the non-specialist and general public alike in the future. PMID:27879810

Daily users compared to less frequent users find vape as or more satisfying and less dangerous than cigarettes, and are likelier to use non-cig-alike vaping products.

PubMed

Kozlowski, Lynn T; Homish, D Lynn; Homish, Gregory G

2017-06-01

We assessed the roles of perceived satisfaction and perceived danger and vaping-product-type as correlates of more frequent use of vaping products. In a baseline assessment of a longitudinal study of US Army Reserve/National Guard Soldiers and their partners (New York State, USA, 2014-2016), participants were asked about current use of vaping products (e-cigarettes) and perceived satisfaction and danger in comparison to cigarettes as well as type of product used. Fisher-exact tests and multiple ordinal logistic regressions were used. In multivariable and univariate models, more perceived satisfaction, less perceived danger, and use of non-cig-alike products were associated with more frequent use of vaping products ( p s < 0.05, two-tailed). For self-selected, more frequent adult users, e-cigs can be at least as satisfying as cigarettes and often more satisfying and are perceived as less dangerous than cigarettes. Non-cig-alike products were more likely in daily users. Some concern that e-cigs are a gateway to cigarettes arises from assuming that e-cigs may not be as reinforcing and pleasurable as cigarettes. These results indicate that accurate perception of comparative risk and use of more effective-nicotine delivery product can produce for some users a highly-satisfying alternative to cigarettes.

Baltic Consortium on Promoting Gender Equality in Marine Research Organisations (Baltic Gender)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kısakürek Ibsen, Başak; Braun, Sarah; Heiskanen, Anna-Stiina; Kutser, Tiit; Stadmark, Johanna; Vaitkevičienė, Viktorija; Waniek, Joanna; Werner, Iris; Matthes, Katja

2017-04-01

Marine Science and Technology has been traditionally a male-dominated research field, with a significant lack of women in leadership positions. However, the whole intellectual capacity of men and women alike are needed to create innovative solutions for the sustainable use of marine resources in the face of major global challenges for the development of the marine environment. The EU-funded project, Baltic Gender (GA No. 710363), responds to this need for creating policies and implementing measures at the institutional level with the aim of harvesting the full human capital for the needs of marine research. The main goal of Baltic Gender is to help reduce gender segregation and gender inequalities in Marine Science and Technology. To this end, eight partner institutions from five countries in the Baltic Sea region (Estonia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania and Sweden) came together for the exchange of institutional practices as well as for the transfer of knowledge from institutions/countries leading in gender equality to those following. Baltic Gender will sow the seeds for long-lasting institutional practices by initiating schemes and strategies that promote gender equality in the partner institutions. These include, for instance: the founding of grass-root networks that support the career advancement of women; creating strategies for better reconciliation of work and family life of women and men; the review and improvement of institutional policies and practices with regard to gender balance, fairness and transparency; development of a method protocol for incorporating gender analysis into research projects or programmes of Marine Science and Technology; initiating gender focused training and mentoring in or across all partner institutions. The project will support the implementation of Gender Equality Plans (GEPs), which consist of a set of actions an institution commits to in order to identify any existing gender bias and to implement strategies to advance gender equality on all levels of the organisation. The implementation of GEPs in the partner organisations will be supported via the collection, standardization and analysis of gender-segregated data as well as the establishment of gender-sensitive indicators. Such data analysis is essential for uncovering trends regarding gender (in)equality and for defining/setting explicit targets, whereas indicators are used (together with qualitative methods) for monitoring progress.

Exploring the economic and social effects of care dependence in later life: protocol for the 10/66 research group INDEP study.

PubMed

Mayston, Rosie; Guerra, Mariella; Huang, Yueqin; Sosa, Ana Luisa; Uwakwe, Richard; Acosta, Isaac; Ezeah, Peter; Gallardo, Sara; de Oca, Veronica Montes; Wang, Hong; Guerchet, Maëlenn; Liu, Zhaorui; Sanchez, Maria; Lloyd-Sherlock, Peter; Prince, Martin J

2014-01-01

In low or middle income countries chronic diseases are rapidly becoming the main cause of disease burden. However, the main focus of health policymakers has been on preventing death from cancer and heart disease, with very little attention to the growing problem of long-term needs for care (dependence). Numbers of dependent older people are set to quadruple by 2050. The economic impact of providing long-term care is likely to be substantial. The study uses mixed methods and draws on and extends the population-based surveys conducted by the 10/66 Dementia Research Group. We focus on two countries in Latin America (Peru and Mexico), China and Nigeria. The surveys comprised baseline surveys of health, socioeconomic circumstances and care arrangements, repeated three to four years later. We are going back to these households to make a detailed assessment of the overall economic status and the use of health services by all family members. We will compare households where: a) an older resident became dependent between baseline and follow-up (incident care), b) one or more older people were dependent at both time points (chronic care), b) c) no older residents had needs for care (control households) for household income, consumption, healthcare expenditure and economic strain. In each of the four countries we are carrying out six detailed household 'case studies' to explore in more depth the economic impacts of dependence, and the social relations between household members and others in their network. The INDEP study will provide a detailed examination of the economic and social effects of care dependence in low and middle income settings. As the proportion of older people with needs for care rises rapidly in these countries, this neglected policy area is likely to become increasingly salient for families, communities and policymakers alike. Our detailed multilevel plans for dissemination will ensure that the study helps to put this important issue on the agenda for the international and national media, the public and researchers.

Anatomy of a Triangulum

NASA Image and Video Library

2005-10-13

This image from NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, is a perennial favorite of amateur and professional astronomers alike, due to its orientation and relative proximity to us.

An introduction to quality assurance.

PubMed

Riggs, D G

1989-10-01

Although initially applied within the manufacturing sectors of industry the benefits of quality assurance to both specifiers and customers alike are rapidly being realised by all sectors of business and industry.

Knuckle Cracking

MedlinePlus

... education to patients and healthcare providers alike. Recent News I can’t be a runner because I ... areas of exercise are aerobic exercise and resistance News Categories Ankylosing Spondylitis News Fibromyalgia News Gout News ...

Development of Experimental Icing Simulation Capability for Full-Scale Swept Wings: Hybrid Design Process, Years 1 and 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fujiwara, Gustavo; Bragg, Mike; Triphahn, Chris; Wiberg, Brock; Woodard, Brian; Loth, Eric; Malone, Adam; Paul, Bernard; Pitera, David; Wilcox, Pete;

The use of affective interaction design in car user interfaces.

PubMed

Gkouskos, Dimitrios; Chen, Fang

2012-01-01

Recent developments in the car industry have put Human Machine Interfaces under the spotlight. Developing gratifying human-car interactions has become one of the more prominent areas that car manufacturers want to invest in. However, concepts like emotional design remain foreign to the industry. In this study 12 experts on the field of automobile HMI design were interviewed in order to investigate their needs and opinions of emotional design. Results show that emotional design has yet to be introduced for this context of use. Designers need a tool customized for the intricacies of the car HMI field that can provide them with support and guidance so that they can create emotionally attractive experiences for drivers and passengers alike.

Newborn healthcare in urban India

PubMed Central

Sharma, J; Osrin, D; Patil, B; Neogi, S B; Chauhan, M; Khanna, R; Kumar, R; Paul, V K; Zodpey, S

2016-01-01

The rapid population growth in urban India has outpaced the municipal capacity to build essential infrastructures that make life in cities safe and healthy. Local and national governments alike are grappling with the challenges of urbanization with thousands migrating from villages to cities. Thus, urbanization in India has been accompanied by a concentration of poverty and urban public healthcare has emerged as one of the most pressing priorities facing our country. Newborn mortality rates in urban settings are lower than rural areas, early neonatal deaths account for greater proportion than late neonatal deaths. The available evidence suggests that socio-economic inequalities and poor environment pose major challenges for newborn health. Moreover, fragmented and weak public health system, multiplicity of actors and limited capacity of public health planning further constrain the delivery of quality and affordable health care service. Though healthcare is concentrated in urban areas, delay in deciding to seek health care, reaching a source of it and receiving appropriate care affects the health outcomes disproportionately. However, a few city initiatives and innovations piloted in different states and cities have brought forth the evidences of effectiveness of different strategies. Recently launched National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) provides an opportunity for strategic thinking and actions to improve newborn health outcomes in India. There is also an opportunity for coalescence of activities around National Health Mission (NHM) and Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health+Adolescent (RMNCH+A) strategy to develop feasible and workable models in different urban settings. Concomitant operational research needs to be carried out so that the obstacles, approaches and response to the program can be understood. PMID:27924107

Newborn healthcare in urban India.

PubMed

Sharma, J; Osrin, D; Patil, B; Neogi, S B; Chauhan, M; Khanna, R; Kumar, R; Paul, V K; Zodpey, S

2016-12-01

The rapid population growth in urban India has outpaced the municipal capacity to build essential infrastructures that make life in cities safe and healthy. Local and national governments alike are grappling with the challenges of urbanization with thousands migrating from villages to cities. Thus, urbanization in India has been accompanied by a concentration of poverty and urban public healthcare has emerged as one of the most pressing priorities facing our country. Newborn mortality rates in urban settings are lower than rural areas, early neonatal deaths account for greater proportion than late neonatal deaths. The available evidence suggests that socio-economic inequalities and poor environment pose major challenges for newborn health. Moreover, fragmented and weak public health system, multiplicity of actors and limited capacity of public health planning further constrain the delivery of quality and affordable health care service. Though healthcare is concentrated in urban areas, delay in deciding to seek health care, reaching a source of it and receiving appropriate care affects the health outcomes disproportionately. However, a few city initiatives and innovations piloted in different states and cities have brought forth the evidences of effectiveness of different strategies. Recently launched National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) provides an opportunity for strategic thinking and actions to improve newborn health outcomes in India. There is also an opportunity for coalescence of activities around National Health Mission (NHM) and Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health+Adolescent (RMNCH+A) strategy to develop feasible and workable models in different urban settings. Concomitant operational research needs to be carried out so that the obstacles, approaches and response to the program can be understood.

Enhancing Linkages Between Healthy Diets, Local Agriculture, and Sustainable Food Systems: The School Meals Planner Package in Ghana.

PubMed

Fernandes, Meenakshi; Galloway, Rae; Gelli, Aulo; Mumuni, Daniel; Hamdani, Salha; Kiamba, Josephine; Quarshie, Kate; Bhatia, Rita; Aurino, Elisabetta; Peel, Francis; Drake, Lesley

2016-12-01

Interventions that enhance linkages between healthy diets and local agriculture can promote sustainable food systems. Home-grown school feeding programs present a promising entry point for such interventions, through the delivery of nutritious menus and meals. To describe the adaptation of the School Meals Planner Package to the programmatic and environmental reality in Ghana during the 2014 to 2015 school year. Guided by a conceptual framework highlighting key considerations and trade-offs in menu design, an open-source software was developed that could be easily understood by program implementers. Readily available containers from markets were calibrated into "handy measures" to support the provision of adequate quantities of food indicated by menus. Schools and communities were sensitized to the benefits of locally sourced, nutrient-rich diets. A behavior change communication campaign including posters and songs promoting healthy diets was designed and disseminated in schools and communities. The School Meals Planner Package was introduced in 42 districts in Ghana, reaching more than 320 000 children. Monitoring reports and feedback on its use were positive, demonstrating how the tool can be used by planners and implementers alike to deliver nutritious, locally-sourced meals to schoolchildren. The value of the tool has been recognized at the highest levels by Ghana's government who have adopted it as official policy. The School Meals Planner Package supported the design of nutritious, locally sourced menus for the school feeding program in Ghana. The tool can be similarly adapted for other countries to meet context-specific needs. © The Author(s) 2016.

Unexpected Functional Divergence of Bat Influenza Virus NS1 Proteins.

PubMed

Turkington, Hannah L; Juozapaitis, Mindaugas; Tsolakos, Nikos; Corrales-Aguilar, Eugenia; Schwemmle, Martin; Hale, Benjamin G

2018-03-01

Recently, two influenza A virus (FLUAV) genomes were identified in Central and South American bats. These sequences exhibit notable divergence from classical FLUAV counterparts, and functionally, bat FLUAV glycoproteins lack canonical receptor binding and destroying activity. Nevertheless, other features that distinguish these viruses from classical FLUAVs have yet to be explored. Here, we studied the viral nonstructural protein NS1, a virulence factor that modulates host signaling to promote efficient propagation. Like all FLUAV NS1 proteins, bat FLUAV NS1s bind double-stranded RNA and act as interferon antagonists. Unexpectedly, we found that bat FLUAV NS1s are unique in being unable to bind host p85β, a regulatory subunit of the cellular metabolism-regulating enzyme, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K). Furthermore, neither bat FLUAV NS1 alone nor infection with a chimeric bat FLUAV efficiently activates Akt, a PI3K effector. Structure-guided mutagenesis revealed that the bat FLUAV NS1-p85β interaction can be reengineered (in a strain-specific manner) by changing two to four NS1 residues (96L, 99M, 100I, and 145T), thereby creating a hydrophobic patch. Notably, ameliorated p85β-binding is insufficient for bat FLUAV NS1 to activate PI3K, and a chimeric bat FLUAV expressing NS1 with engineered hydrophobic patch mutations exhibits cell-type-dependent, but species-independent, propagation phenotypes. We hypothesize that bat FLUAV hijacking of PI3K in the natural bat host has been selected against, perhaps because genes in this metabolic pathway were differentially shaped by evolution to suit the unique energy use strategies of this flying mammal. These data expand our understanding of the enigmatic functional divergence between bat FLUAVs and classical mammalian and avian FLUAVs. IMPORTANCE The potential for novel influenza A viruses to establish infections in humans from animals is a source of continuous concern due to possible severe outbreaks or pandemics. The recent discovery of influenza A-like viruses in bats has raised questions over whether these entities could be a threat to humans. Understanding unique properties of the newly described bat influenza A-like viruses, such as their mechanisms to infect cells or how they manipulate host functions, is critical to assess their likelihood of causing disease. Here, we characterized the bat influenza A-like virus NS1 protein, a key virulence factor, and found unexpected functional divergence of this protein from counterparts in other influenza A viruses. Our study dissects the molecular changes required by bat influenza A-like virus NS1 to adopt classical influenza A virus properties and suggests consequences of bat influenza A-like virus infection, potential future evolutionary trajectories, and intriguing virus-host biology in bat species. Copyright © 2018 Turkington et al.

Unexpected Functional Divergence of Bat Influenza Virus NS1 Proteins

PubMed Central

Turkington, Hannah L.; Juozapaitis, Mindaugas; Tsolakos, Nikos; Corrales-Aguilar, Eugenia; Schwemmle, Martin

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Recently, two influenza A virus (FLUAV) genomes were identified in Central and South American bats. These sequences exhibit notable divergence from classical FLUAV counterparts, and functionally, bat FLUAV glycoproteins lack canonical receptor binding and destroying activity. Nevertheless, other features that distinguish these viruses from classical FLUAVs have yet to be explored. Here, we studied the viral nonstructural protein NS1, a virulence factor that modulates host signaling to promote efficient propagation. Like all FLUAV NS1 proteins, bat FLUAV NS1s bind double-stranded RNA and act as interferon antagonists. Unexpectedly, we found that bat FLUAV NS1s are unique in being unable to bind host p85β, a regulatory subunit of the cellular metabolism-regulating enzyme, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K). Furthermore, neither bat FLUAV NS1 alone nor infection with a chimeric bat FLUAV efficiently activates Akt, a PI3K effector. Structure-guided mutagenesis revealed that the bat FLUAV NS1-p85β interaction can be reengineered (in a strain-specific manner) by changing two to four NS1 residues (96L, 99M, 100I, and 145T), thereby creating a hydrophobic patch. Notably, ameliorated p85β-binding is insufficient for bat FLUAV NS1 to activate PI3K, and a chimeric bat FLUAV expressing NS1 with engineered hydrophobic patch mutations exhibits cell-type-dependent, but species-independent, propagation phenotypes. We hypothesize that bat FLUAV hijacking of PI3K in the natural bat host has been selected against, perhaps because genes in this metabolic pathway were differentially shaped by evolution to suit the unique energy use strategies of this flying mammal. These data expand our understanding of the enigmatic functional divergence between bat FLUAVs and classical mammalian and avian FLUAVs. IMPORTANCE The potential for novel influenza A viruses to establish infections in humans from animals is a source of continuous concern due to possible severe outbreaks or pandemics. The recent discovery of influenza A-like viruses in bats has raised questions over whether these entities could be a threat to humans. Understanding unique properties of the newly described bat influenza A-like viruses, such as their mechanisms to infect cells or how they manipulate host functions, is critical to assess their likelihood of causing disease. Here, we characterized the bat influenza A-like virus NS1 protein, a key virulence factor, and found unexpected functional divergence of this protein from counterparts in other influenza A viruses. Our study dissects the molecular changes required by bat influenza A-like virus NS1 to adopt classical influenza A virus properties and suggests consequences of bat influenza A-like virus infection, potential future evolutionary trajectories, and intriguing virus-host biology in bat species. PMID:29237829

Look-alike Moons

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-04-04

Rhea and Dione seem like dark and light fraternal twins in this image from NASA Cassini spacecraft, with each of these two Saturnian moons displaying a large crater oriented similarly in the northern hemisphere.

What Are the Odds?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beam, John

2012-01-01

Students and mathematicians alike have long struggled to understand the nature of probability. This article explores the use of gambling activities as a basis for defining probabilities. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

The Libyan civil conflict: selected case series of orthopaedic trauma managed in Malta in 2014.

PubMed

Ng, Colin; Mifsud, Max; Borg, Joseph N; Mizzi, Colin

2015-11-20

The purpose of this series of cases was to analyse our management of orthopaedic trauma casualties in the Libyan civil war crisis in the European summer of 2014. We looked at both damage control orthopaedics and for case variety of war trauma at a civilian hospital. Due to our geographical proximity to Libya, Malta was the closest European tertiary referral centre. Having only one Level 1 trauma care hospital in our country, our Trauma and Orthopaedics department played a pivotal role in the management of Libyan battlefield injuries. Our aims were to assess acute outcomes and short term mortality of surgery within the perspective of a damage control orthopaedic strategy whereby aggressive wound management, early fixation using relative stability principles, antibiotic cover with adequate soft tissue cover are paramount. We also aim to describe the variety of war injuries we came across, with a goal for future improvement in regards to service providing. Prospective collection of six interesting cases with severe limb and spinal injuries sustained in Libya during the Libyan civil war between June and November 2014. We applied current trends in the treatment of war injuries, specifically in damage control orthopaedic strategy and converting to definitive treatment where permissible. The majority of our cases were classified as most severe (Type IIIB/C) according to the Gustilo-Anderson classification of open fractures. The injuries treated reflected the type of standard and improved weaponry available in modern warfare affecting both militants and civilians alike with increasing severity and extent of damage. Due to this fact, multidisciplinary team approach to patient centred care was utilised with an ultimate aim of swift recovery and early mobilisation. It also highlighted the difficulties and complex issues required on a hospital management level as a neighbouring country to war zone countries in transforming care of civil trauma to military trauma.

An Arduino Based Citizen Science Soil Moisture Sensor in Support of SMAP and GLOBE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Podest, E.; Das, N. N.; Rajasekaran, E.; Jeyaram, R.; Lohrli, C.; Hovhannesian, H.; Fairbanks, G.

2017-12-01

Citizen science allows individuals anywhere in the world to engage in science by collecting environmental variables. One of the longest running platforms for the collection of in situ variables is the GLOBE program, which is international in scope and encourages students and citizen scientists alike to collect in situ measurements. NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite mission, which has been acquiring global soil moisture measurements every 3 days of the top 5 cm of the soil since 2015, has partnered with the GLOBE program to engage students from around the world to collect in situ soil moisture and help validate SMAP measurements. The current GLOBE SMAP soil moisture protocol consists in collecting a soil sample, weighing, drying and weighing it again in order to determine the amount of water in the soil. Preparation and soil sample collection can take up to 20 minutes and drying can take up to 3 days. We have hence developed a soil moisture measurement device based on Arduino- microcontrollers along with off-the-shelf and homemade sensors that are accurate, robust, inexpensive and quick and easy to use so that they can be implemented by the GLOBE community and citizen scientists alike. In addition, we have developed a phone app, which interfaces with the Arduino, displays the soil moisture value and send the measurement to the GLOBE database. This talk will discuss building, calibration and validation of the soil moisture measuring device and assessing the quality of the measurements collected. This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Seasonal variation in child and old-age mortality in rural Ghana.

PubMed

Engelaer, Frouke M; van Bodegom, David; Mangione, Julia N A; Eriksson, Ulrika K; Westendorp, Rudi G J

2014-03-01

Mortality in tropical countries varies considerably from season to season. As many of these countries have seen mortality moving from child to old-age mortality, we have studied seasonal variation in child and old-age mortality in a rural area in Ghana that currently undergoes an epidemiologic transition. In an annual survey from 2002 through to 2011, we followed 29 642 individuals and obtained the cause and month of death from 1406 deceased individuals by making use of verbal autopsies. When comparing the seasons, we observed a trend for higher mortality during the wet season. When comparing separate months, we observed 34% more deaths than expected in September (95% CI 1.04-1.69; p = 0.024) at the end of the wet season and 43% more deaths in April (95% CI 1.13-1.80; p = 0.004) at the end of the dry season, while there were 42% less deaths than expected in December (95% CI 0.52-0.70; p = 0.003), shortly after the wet season. Cause-specific analysis indicated that the peak at the end of the wet season was due to excess mortality from infectious diseases in children and older people alike, whereas the peak in old-age mortality at the end of the dry season was due to non-infectious causes in older people only. Taken together, our data suggest that during the epidemiologic transition, mortality not only shifts from child to old-age and from infectious to non-infectious, but also from the wet to the dry season.

[Sleep habits, sleep quality and sleep medicine use of the Swiss population result].

PubMed

Tinguely, Gilberte; Landolt, Hans-Peter; Cajochen, Christian

2014-11-01

A survey in a representative sample of the Swiss population revealed an average sleep duration of 7.5 hours on workdays and of 8.5 hours on free days, which reflected a more than half an hour (38 min) shorter sleep duration than 28 years ago. The mean time in bed was between 22:41 and 06:37 on workdays and between 23:29 and 08:27 on free days. On workdays as well as on free days the bedtime was delayed by 47 minutes in comparison to a similar survey 28 years ago. By contrast, the mean rise times on workdays and free days did not change. The sleep duration required to feel refreshed was indicated with 7 hours, which was 41 minutes less than 28 years ago. Roughly 90 % of the interviewees answered that they felt healthy, and 75 % described their sleep as good or very good compared to 79 % 28 years ago. The most frequent reasons stated for bad sleep were personal problems and strain at the workplace. The effect of bad quality sleep on every day functioning was considered as essential by 65 % of the respondents compared to 69 % 28 years ago. The use of medication to improve sleep was declared by 2.8 % (2.7 % 28 years ago), most often benzodiazepines, but also Valerian products and so-called z-drugs. In comparison with similar surveys in other countries (France, Great Britain and USA), Swiss residents slept roughly half an hour longer, but these other countries alike showed a sizable shortening of their habitual sleep duration over the last decades.

The Montreal Protocol treaty and its illuminating history of science-policy decision-making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grady, C.

2017-12-01

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, hailed as one of the most effective environmental treaties of all time, has a thirty year history of science-policy decision-making. The partnership between Parties to the Montreal Protocol and its technical assessment panels serve as a basis for understanding successes and evaluating stumbles of global environmental decision-making. Real-world environmental treaty negotiations can be highly time-sensitive, politically motivated, and resource constrained thus scientists and policymakers alike are often unable to confront the uncertainties associated with the multitude of choices. The science-policy relationship built within the framework of the Montreal Protocol has helped constrain uncertainty and inform policy decisions but has also highlighted the limitations of the use of scientific understanding in political decision-making. This talk will describe the evolution of the scientist-policymaker relationship over the history of the Montreal Protocol. Examples will illustrate how the Montreal Protocol's technical panels inform decisions of the country governments and will characterize different approaches pursued by different countries with a particular focus on the recently adopted Kigali Amendment. In addition, this talk will take a deeper dive with an analysis of the historic technical panel assessments on estimating financial resources necessary to enable compliance to the Montreal Protocol compared to the political financial decisions made through the Protocol's Multilateral Fund replenishment negotiation process. Finally, this talk will describe the useful lessons and challenges from these interactions and how they may be applicable in other environmental management frameworks across multiple scales under changing climatic conditions.

Legal and Regulatory Barriers to Reverse Innovation.

PubMed

Rowthorn, Virginia; Plum, Alexander J; Zervos, John

Reverse innovation, or the importation of new, affordable, and efficacious models to high-income countries from the developing world, has emerged as a way to improve the health care system in the United States. Reverse innovation has been identified as a key emerging trend in global health systems in part because low-resourced settings are particularly good laboratories for low-cost/high-impact innovations that are developed out of necessity. A difficult question receiving scant attention is that of legal and regulatory barriers. The objective of this paper is to understand and elucidate the legal barriers faced by innovators bringing health interventions to the United States. Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 9 key informants who have directly participated in the introduction of global health care approaches to the United States health system. A purposive sampling scheme was employed to identify participants. Phone interviews were conducted over one week in July 2016 with each participant and lasted an average of 35 minutes each. Purely legal barriers included questions surrounding tort liability, standard of care, and concerns around patient-administered self-care. Regulatory burdens included issues of international medical licensure, reimbursement, and task shifting and scope of work challenges among nonprofessionals (e.g. community health workers). Finally, perceived (i.e. not realized or experienced) legal and regulatory barriers to innovative modalities served as disincentives to bringing products or services developed outside of the United States to the United States market. Conflicting interests within the health care system, safety concerns, and little value placed on low-cost interventions inhibit innovation. Legal and regulatory barriers rank among, and contribute to, an anti-innovation atmosphere in healthcare for domestic and reverse innovators alike. Reverse innovation should be fostered through the thoughtful development of legal and regulatory standards that encourage the introduction and scalable adoption of successful health care innovations developed outside of the US, particularly innovations that support public health goals and do not have the benefit of a large corporate sponsor to facilitate introduction to the market. Copyright © 2016 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Feeling Right at Home on a Big Ten Campus.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corbin, Jeffry

2001-01-01

Examines why Penn State's wayfinding program wins high marks from students and visitors alike. The school's combination of major boundary markers, kiosks, lighting, and identification signs is discussed. (GR)

Probability Learning: Changes in Behavior Across Time and Development.

PubMed

Plate, Rista C; Fulvio, Jacqueline M; Shutts, Kristin; Green, C Shawn; Pollak, Seth D

2018-01-01

Individuals track probabilities, such as associations between events in their environments, but less is known about the degree to which experience-within a learning session and over development-influences people's use of incoming probabilistic information to guide behavior in real time. In two experiments, children (4-11 years) and adults searched for rewards hidden in locations with predetermined probabilities. In Experiment 1, children (n = 42) and adults (n = 32) changed strategies to maximize reward receipt over time. However, adults demonstrated greater strategy change efficiency. Making the predetermined probabilities more difficult to learn (Experiment 2) delayed effective strategy change for children (n = 39) and adults (n = 33). Taken together, these data characterize how children and adults alike react flexibly and change behavior according to incoming information. © 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Seeing the Invisible: Educating the Public on Planetary Magnetic Fields and How they Affect Atmospheres

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fillingim, M. O.; Brain, D. A.; Peticolas, L. M.; Schultz, G.; Yan, D.; Guevara, S.; Randol, S.

2009-12-01

Magnetic fields and charged particles are difficult for school children, the general public, and scientists alike to visualize. But studies of planetary magnetospheres and ionospheres have broad implications for planetary evolution, from the deep interior to the ancient climate, that are important to communicate to each of these audiences. This presentation will highlight the visualization materials that we are developing to educate audiences on the magnetic fields of planets and how they affect atmospheres. The visualization materials that we are developing consist of simplified data sets that can be displayed on spherical projection systems and portable 3-D rigid models of planetary magnetic fields.We are developing presentations for science museums and classrooms that relate fundamental information about the Martian magnetic field, how it differs from Earth’s, and why the differences are significant.

A Learned Society's Perspective on Publishing.

PubMed

Suzuki, Kunihiko; Edelson, Alan; Iversen, Leslie L; Hausmann, Laura; Schulz, Jörg B; Turner, Anthony J

2016-10-01

Scientific journals that are owned by a learned society, like the Journal of Neurochemistry (JNC), which is owned by the International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN), benefit the scientific community in that a large proportion of the income is returned to support the scientific mission of the Society. The income generated by the JNC enables the ISN to organize conferences as a platform for members and non-members alike to share their research, supporting researchers particularly in developing countries by travel grants and other funds, and promoting education in student schools. These direct benefits and initiatives for ISN members and non-members distinguish a society journal from pure commerce. However, the world of scholarly publishing is changing rapidly. Open access models have challenged the business model of traditional journal subscription and hence provided free access to publicly funded scientific research. In these models, the manuscript authors pay a publication cost after peer review and acceptance of the manuscript. Over the last decade, numerous new open access journals have been launched and traditional subscription journals have started to offer open access (hybrid journals). However, open access journals follow the general scheme that, of all participating parties, the publisher receives the highest financial benefit. The income is generated by researchers whose positions and research are mostly financed by taxpayers' or funders' money, and by reviewers and editors, who frequently are not reimbursed. Last but not least, the authors pay for the publication of their work after a rigorous and sometimes painful review process. JNC itself has an open access option, at a significantly reduced cost for Society members as an additional benefit. This article provides first-hand insights from two former Editors-in-Chief, Kunihiko Suzuki and Leslie Iversen, about the history of JNC's ownership and about the difficulties and battles fought along the way to its current success and reputation. Scientific journals that are owned by a learned society, like the Journal of Neurochemistry (JNC) which is owned by the International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN), benefit the scientific community in that a large proportion of the income is returned to support the scientific mission of the Society. The income generated by the JNC enables the ISN to organize conferences as a platform for members and non-members alike to share their research, supporting researchers particularly in developing countries by travel grants and other funds, and to promote education in student schools. These direct benefits and initiatives for ISN members and non-members distinguish a society journal from pure commerce. However, the world of scholarly publishing is changing rapidly. Open access models have challenged the business model of traditional journal subscription and hence provide free access to publicly funded scientific research. In these models, the manuscript authors pay a publication cost after peer review and acceptance of the manuscript. Over the last decade, numerous new open access journals have been launched and traditional subscription journals have started to offer open access (hybrid journals). However, open access journals pertain to the general scheme that, of all participating parties, the publisher receives the highest financial benefit. The income is generated by researchers whose positions and research are mostly financed by tax payers' or funders' money, reviewers and editors, who frequently are not reimbursed. Last but not least, the authors pay for the publication of their work after a rigorous and sometimes painful review process. JNC itself has an open access option, at a significantly reduced cost for Society members as an additional benefit. This article provides first-hand insights from a long-standing Editor-in-Chief, Kunihiko Suzuki, about the history of JNC's ownership and about difficulties and battles fought on the way to its current success and reputation today. This article is part of the 60th Anniversary special issue. © 2016 International Society for Neurochemistry.

77 FR 63707 - General Pulaski Memorial Day, 2012

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-16

... men from Europe and America alike, Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski battled to extend the principles... standing proudly with its strong ally, a free and independent Poland. On General Pulaski Memorial Day, we...

"Space flight is utter bilge"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yeomans, Donald

2004-01-01

Despite skepticism and ridicule from scientists and the public alike, a small handful of dreamers kept faith in their vision of space flight and planned for the day when humanity would break loose from Earth.

Knowledge inhibition and N400: a study with words that look like common words.

PubMed

Debruille, J B

1998-04-01

In addition to their own representations, low frequency words, such as BRIBE, can covertly activate the representations of higher frequency words they look like (e.g., BRIDE). Hence, look-alike words can activate knowledge that is incompatible with the knowledge corresponding to accurate representations. Comparatively, eccentric words, that is, low frequency words that do not look as much like higher frequency words, are less likely to activate incompatible knowledge. This study focuses on the hypothesis that the N400 component of the event-related potential reflects the inhibition of incompatible knowledge. This hypothesis predicts that look-alike words elicit N400s of greater amplitudes than eccentric words in conditions where incompatible knowledge is inhibited. Results from a single item lexical decision experiment are reported which support the inhibition hypothesis. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

Water & Sanitation: An Essential Battlefront in the War on Antimicrobial Resistance.

PubMed

Bürgmann, Helmut; Frigon, Dominic; Gaze, William; Manaia, Célia; Pruden, Amy; Singer, Andrew C; Smets, Barth; Zhang, Tong

2018-06-05

Water and sanitation represents a key battlefront in combating the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Basic water sanitation infrastructure is an essential first step to protecting public health, thereby limiting the spread of pathogens and the need for antibiotics. AMR presents unique human health risks, meriting new risk assessment frameworks specifically adapted to water and sanitation-borne AMR. There are numerous exposure routes to AMR originating from human waste, each of which must be quantified for its relative risk to human health. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play a vital role in centralized collection and treatment of human sewage, but there are numerous unresolved questions in terms of the microbial ecological processes occurring within and the extent to which they attenuate or amplify AMR. Research is needed to advance understanding of the fate of resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in various waste management systems, depending on the local constraints and intended re-use applications. WHO and national AMR action plans would benefit from a more holistic 'One Water' understanding. Here we provide a framework for research, policy, practice, and public engagement aimed at limiting the spread of AMR from water and sanitation in both low-, medium- and high-income countries, alike.

[Fluorescein angiography and optical coherence tomography findings in central fundus of myopic patients].

PubMed

Avetisov, S E; Budzinskaya, M V; Zhabina, O A; Andreeva, I V; Plyukhova, A A; Kobzova, M V; Musaeva, G M

2015-01-01

Myopia prevalence grows alike in many countries, including Russia, regardless of geographical and population conditions. to assess fundus changes in myopic patients at different ocular axial lengths by means of modern diagnostic tools. The study enrolled 97 patients (194 eyes) aged 45 ± 20.17 years with myopia of different degrees. Besides a standard ophthalmic examination, all patients underwent fundus fluorescein angiography and optical coherence tomography. The occurrence of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) atrophy (diffuse or focal) has been shown to increase with increasing ocular axial length. Only 27 eyes (28.1%) appeared intact. As myopia progression implies axial growth of the eye, it is associated with a more severe decrease in choroid, RPE, and photoreceptor layer thicknesses: the longer the anterior-posterior axis, the thinner the above mentioned fundus structures. Age-related changes in the fundus are also likely to be more pronounced in longer axes. Myopic traction maculopathy, which in our case appeared the main cause of increased retinal thickness, was diagnosed in 105 eyes, "outer" macular retinoschisis--in 40 eyes. Thus, modern diagnostic tools, such as fluorescein angiography and optical coherence tomography, enable objective assessment of the central fundus.

Indonesian legal framework to support innovation sustainability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pratama, Bambang

2018-03-01

The successful economy in a country can be measured by the number of commercializing intellectual property rights (IPR). To pursue IPR growth, triple helix component becomes a backbone to weave academia, business and government to collaborate with each other. Generally, collaborations move from their common interest, but within triple helix the collaboration can be run structurally and sustain. Depart from the arguments; the question arises: How is the condition of Indonesia Innovation System? Through legal approach, this paper will explain current legal condition and legal structure of the Indonesian innovation system. The reason to review the law is to relate with the government’s target to create 1000 digital start-ups alike as in Silicon Valley level size. Therefore, legal framework review becomes useful to explain the condition of the law as a supporting system. In this sense, the legal prescription can be generated to confirm Indonesian laws, whether supported the national innovation system or conversely. Within law perspective, Indonesian government categorizes the innovative industry as a creative industry. However, there is still no resolute concept to follow. Therefore, some of law adjustment is needed to support the government’s plan to pursue commercialized innovation.

Dilemma for high-tech refiners

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

The price difference between lighter and heavier crude oils, and between light and heavy refined products, amounts to the incentive for refiners to upgrade processing facilities. When that differential widens, the incentive to utilize lower price, lower quality crude is enhanced; when it narrows, the desirability of relying on light oil prices and supplies is intensified. The incentive to upgrade has been eroded ever since 1981 ushered in world-wide overproduction of crude oil. Lower demand due to recession met with increased pressure on producers to compete for market shares to maintain vital revenue levels - for private and national oilmore » companies alike. Light crude prices suffered, while heavy crude prices improved. As of mid-1984, the shrinkage of the price differential went into dormancy (see Energy Detente 8/8/84, A Hey-Day for Heavy Crudes) after both Mexico and Venezuela raised heavy oil prices by US $0.50 per barrel (bbl). Energy Detente refining netback data for the first half of October are presented for the US Gulf Coast and the US West Coast. The fuel price/tax series and the industrial fuel prices for October 1984 are included for countries of the Eastern Hemisphere.« less

How changes to Irish healthcare financing are affecting universal health coverage.

PubMed

Briggs, Adam D M

2013-11-01

In 2010, the World Health Organisation (WHO) published the World Health Report - Health systems financing: the path to universal coverage. The Director-General of the WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, commissioned the report "in response to a need, expressed by rich and poor countries alike, for practical guidance on ways to finance health care". Given the current context of global economic hardship and difficult budgetary decisions, the report offered timely recommendations for achieving universal health coverage (UHC). This article analyses the current methods of healthcare financing in Ireland and their implications for UHC. Three questions are asked of the Irish healthcare system: firstly, how is the health system financed; secondly, how can the health system protect people from the financial consequences of ill-health and paying for health services; and finally, how can the health system encourage the optimum use of available resources? By answering these three questions, this article argues that the Irish healthcare system is not achieving UHC, and that it is unclear whether recent changes to financing are moving Ireland closer or further away from the WHO's ambition for healthcare for all. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Individuals' perceptions of employment accommodation decisions and solutions: lessons for social workers.

PubMed

Hartnett, Helen P; Thurman, Hanna; Cordingly, Kim

2010-01-01

Disability rights advocates in social work have claimed that employment opportunities for people with disabilities are an important part of personal empowerment and social inclusion. Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act is aimed at ensuring meaningful employment opportunities are available. Hahn and Raske (2005) state that social work needs to develop a research paradigm that values the inclusion of people with disabilities. This article examines these efforts by incorporating the voices of individuals with disabilities who accessed services at the Job Accommodation Network. Understanding individuals' perspectives could contribute to better accommodation outcomes for people with disabilities, employers, and advocacy professionals alike.

SBEToolbox: A Matlab Toolbox for Biological Network Analysis

PubMed Central

Konganti, Kranti; Wang, Gang; Yang, Ence; Cai, James J.

2013-01-01

We present SBEToolbox (Systems Biology and Evolution Toolbox), an open-source Matlab toolbox for biological network analysis. It takes a network file as input, calculates a variety of centralities and topological metrics, clusters nodes into modules, and displays the network using different graph layout algorithms. Straightforward implementation and the inclusion of high-level functions allow the functionality to be easily extended or tailored through developing custom plugins. SBEGUI, a menu-driven graphical user interface (GUI) of SBEToolbox, enables easy access to various network and graph algorithms for programmers and non-programmers alike. All source code and sample data are freely available at https://github.com/biocoder/SBEToolbox/releases. PMID:24027418

SBEToolbox: A Matlab Toolbox for Biological Network Analysis.

PubMed

Konganti, Kranti; Wang, Gang; Yang, Ence; Cai, James J

2013-01-01

We present SBEToolbox (Systems Biology and Evolution Toolbox), an open-source Matlab toolbox for biological network analysis. It takes a network file as input, calculates a variety of centralities and topological metrics, clusters nodes into modules, and displays the network using different graph layout algorithms. Straightforward implementation and the inclusion of high-level functions allow the functionality to be easily extended or tailored through developing custom plugins. SBEGUI, a menu-driven graphical user interface (GUI) of SBEToolbox, enables easy access to various network and graph algorithms for programmers and non-programmers alike. All source code and sample data are freely available at https://github.com/biocoder/SBEToolbox/releases.

[DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF TUMOROID-LIKE ABSCESS AND LUNG CANCER].

PubMed

Churylin, R

2015-01-01

The purpose of work is development and clarification of roentgenology displays of tumoroidea variant of abscess of lungs for differential diagnostics him with the cancer of lungs. Practically in most cases abscess of lungs there is a necessity of leadthrough of differential diagnostics with in a number of nosology forms, including with the cavernous form of peripheral cancer of lungs. The features of flow of roentgenologic picture of tumoroidea variant are resulted, alike symptoms, differ ences and signs which allow to set a correct diagnosis, are resulted, the value of follow-up of roent genologic research and use of computed tomography is underlined.

Testimony and interrogation of minors: assumptions about maturity and morality.

PubMed

Owen-Kostelnik, Jessica; Reppucci, N Dickon; Meyer, Jessica R

2006-01-01

This article examines the legal histories and social contexts of testimony and interrogation involving minors, developmental research on suggestibility and judgment, interactions between development and legal/sociological contexts, and the reasoning behind how minors are treated in different legal contexts. The authors argue (a) that young witnesses, victims, and suspects alike possess youthful characteristics that influence their ability to validly inform legal processes, some of which were recently recognized by the Supreme Court as they apply to the juvenile death penalty, and (b) that consideration should be given to reforming current practices in the context of juvenile interrogation. ((c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

[S2k-Guideline on Meniscal Disease: Non-operative and Surgical Management].

PubMed

Siebert, Christian H; Becker, Roland; Buchner, Matthias; Förster, Jürgen; Frosch, Karl-Heinz; Losch, Andreas; Niemeyer, Philipp; Scheffler, Sven

2018-03-12

A meniscal injury should not automatically lead to surgery. Even in light of all the developments in arthroscopic surgery, non-operative management still has a place in the treatment algorithms for lesions around the knee. In this second publication of the German guidelines for meniscal surgery, the authors describe the various treatment possibilities, their indications and offer critical insight into the various therapeutic options. This will allow the patient and physician alike to make the proper individual decisions. Various German speaking associations addressing topics surrounding the knee have joined forces to develop these guidelines for meniscal lesions. The hope is that these two publications on the topic will shed light on the ongoing debate and offer some guidance. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Evolution of Cardiac Biomodels from Computational to Therapeutics.

PubMed

Rathinam, Alwin Kumar; Mokhtar, Raja Amin Raja

2016-08-23

Biomodeling the human anatomy in exact structure and size is an exciting field of medical science. Utilizing medical data from various medical imaging topography, the data of an anatomical structure can be extracted and converted into a three-dimensional virtual biomodel; thereafter a physical biomodel can be generated utilizing rapid prototyping machines. Here, we have reviewed the utilization of this technology and have provided some guidelines to develop biomodels of cardiac structures. Cardiac biomodels provide insights for cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiologists, and patients alike. Additionally, the technology may have future usability for tissue engineering, robotic surgery, or routine hospital usage as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Given the broad areas of application of cardiac biomodels, attention should be given to further research and development of their potential.

[Medical rehabilitation from a lifespan perspective].

PubMed

Linden, Michael; Bernert, Sebastian; Funke, Ariane; Dreinhöfer, Karsten E; Jöbges, Michael; von Kardorff, Ernst; Riedel-Heller, Steffi G; Spyra, Karla; Völler, Heinz; Warschburger, Petra; Wippert, Pia-Maria

2017-04-01

Lifespan research investigates the development of individuals over the course of life. As medical rehabilitation deals with primary and secondary prophylaxis, treatment, and compensation of chronic illnesses, a lifespan perspective is needed for the classification and diagnosis of chronic disorders, the assessment of course modifying factors, the identification of vulnerable life periods and critical incidents, the implementation of preventive measures, the development of methods for the evaluation of prior treatments, the selection and prioritization of interventions, including specialized inpatient rehabilitation, the coordination of therapies and therapists, and for evaluations in social and forensic medicine. Due to the variety of individual risk constellations, illness courses and treatment situations across the lifespan, personalized medicine is especially important in the context of medical rehabilitation, which takes into consideration hindering and fostering factors alike.

Measuring the severity of topical 5-fluorouracil toxicity.

PubMed

Korgavkar, Kaveri; Firoz, Elnaz F; Xiong, Michael; Lew, Robert; Marcolivio, Kimberly; Burnside, Nancy; Dyer, Robert; Weinstock, Martin A

2014-01-01

Topical 5% 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is known to cause toxicity, such as erythema, pain, and crusting/erosions. We sought to develop a scale to measure this toxicity and test the scale for reliability. A scale was developed involving four parameters: erythema severity, percentage of face involved in erythema, crusting/erosions severity, and percentage of face involved in crusting/erosions. Thirteen raters graded 99 sets of photographs from the Veterans Affairs Keratinocyte Carcinoma Chemoprevention (VAKCC) Trial using these parameters. Intraclass correlation overall for 13 raters was 0.82 (95% CI 0.77-0.86). There was no statistically significant trend in reliability by level of training in dermatology. This scale is a reliable method of evaluating the severity of toxicity from topical 5-fluorouracil and can be used by dermatologists and nondermatologists alike.

Vision 20/20: Automation and advanced computing in clinical radiation oncology.

PubMed

Moore, Kevin L; Kagadis, George C; McNutt, Todd R; Moiseenko, Vitali; Mutic, Sasa

2014-01-01

This Vision 20/20 paper considers what computational advances are likely to be implemented in clinical radiation oncology in the coming years and how the adoption of these changes might alter the practice of radiotherapy. Four main areas of likely advancement are explored: cloud computing, aggregate data analyses, parallel computation, and automation. As these developments promise both new opportunities and new risks to clinicians and patients alike, the potential benefits are weighed against the hazards associated with each advance, with special considerations regarding patient safety under new computational platforms and methodologies. While the concerns of patient safety are legitimate, the authors contend that progress toward next-generation clinical informatics systems will bring about extremely valuable developments in quality improvement initiatives, clinical efficiency, outcomes analyses, data sharing, and adaptive radiotherapy.

Behavioral Economics and the Public Acceptance of Synthetic Biology.

PubMed

Oliver, Adam

2018-01-01

Different applications of synthetic biology are alike in that their possible negative consequences are highly uncertain, potentially catastrophic, and perhaps irreversible; therefore, they are also alike in that public attitudes about them are fertile ground for behavioral economic phenomena. Findings from behavioral economics suggest that people may not respond to such applications according to the normal rules of economic evaluation, by which the value of an outcome is multiplied by the mathematical probability that the outcome will occur. Possibly, then, synthetic biology applications challenge the normative postulates of the standard approach, too. I want to first consider how some of the phenomena described by behavioral economists-and behavioral scientists more broadly-might affect people's perceptions of the uncertainties associated with synthetic biology. My analysis will be far from complete, however, because behavioral economics is essentially the study of human behavior, and thus its reach is potentially vast and its development longstanding and ongoing. Nonetheless, I hope to give an indicative perspective on how some aspects of behavioral economics might affect the assessment and perceived acceptability of synthetic biology. I will then consider the issue of agency. Should policy-makers respect people's reactions to synthetic biology when those reactions are known to be driven by behavioral economic phenomena rather than following the normative postulates of rational choice theory? Or should policy-makers dismiss these reactions as inherently biased? I will argue that the normative force of these human reactions (probably) depends on phenomenon and context. © 2018 The Hastings Center.

The need for a comprehensive medication safety module in medical education.

PubMed

Chandy, Sujith John

2016-10-01

A rising number of medicines and minimal emphasis on rational prescribing in the medical curriculum may compromise medication safety. There is no focused module in the curriculum dealing with factors affecting safety such as quality, medicines management, rational use, and approach to adverse effects. Creating awareness of these issues would hopefully plant a seed of safe prescribing and encourage pharmacovigilance. A study was therefore done to determine the need for such a module. A quasi-experimental pre-post module study. Medical students ( n = 88) completing pharmacology term were recruited after informed consent. A questionnaire containing 20 questions on various themes was administered and scored. Subsequently a module was developed and relevant safety themes taught to the students. After one month, the questionnaire was re-administered. The pre module score was 9.52/20. Knowledge about the various themes, adverse effects, medication management, quality issues and rational use were similar though poor knowledge was evident in specific areas such as clinical trials, look alike-sound alike medicines (LASA) and medicine storage. The post module score was 12.24/20. The improvement of score was statistically significant suggesting the effectiveness of the module. The relatively poor knowledge and improvement with a specific educational module emphasizes the need of such a module within the medical curriculum to encourage safe use of medicines by Indian Medical Graduates (IMG). It is hoped that the policy makers in medical education will introduce such a module within the medical curriculum.

NUTRITIONAL STUDIES ON THE CONFUSED FLOUR BEETLE, TRIBOLIUM CONFUSUM DUVAL

PubMed Central

Chapman, Royal N.

1924-01-01

The confused flour beetle (Tribolium confusum) was chosen for this study because it lives in a food which ordinarily contains no living organisms. The death rates are greater in cultures which are handled daily than in those which are not handled but when all are handled alike the results are comparable. The results from experiments with individual beetles in various kinds of flour were plotted with instars (larval stages) on the ordinate and time in days on the abscissa, using the results from control experiments in wheat flour to determine the length of the various instars from an "x = y" formula. The curves of development were found to be straight lines throughout all but the last instar. The curve for the last instar during which the larva transformed deviated from the straight line in certain foods, notably rice flour. When mass cultures were used the death and transformation curves were plotted for each synthetic food. A comparison of the curves from wheat flour and the synthetic foods shows that the first parts of the curves are very much alike in all cases and that a few resemble the control in every respect except that the transformation curve has been moved back for a considerable time. The death curves for the mass cultures are not smooth but show sudden increase in death at approximately the times of molting. These curves may therefore be compared with the records from individual beetles. PMID:19872096

Verifying the secure setup of UNIX client/servers and detection of network intrusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feingold, Richard; Bruestle, Harry R.; Bartoletti, Tony; Saroyan, R. A.; Fisher, John M.

1996-03-01

This paper describes our technical approach to developing and delivering Unix host- and network-based security products to meet the increasing challenges in information security. Today's global `Infosphere' presents us with a networked environment that knows no geographical, national, or temporal boundaries, and no ownership, laws, or identity cards. This seamless aggregation of computers, networks, databases, applications, and the like store, transmit, and process information. This information is now recognized as an asset to governments, corporations, and individuals alike. This information must be protected from misuse. The Security Profile Inspector (SPI) performs static analyses of Unix-based clients and servers to check on their security configuration. SPI's broad range of security tests and flexible usage options support the needs of novice and expert system administrators alike. SPI's use within the Department of Energy and Department of Defense has resulted in more secure systems, less vulnerable to hostile intentions. Host-based information protection techniques and tools must also be supported by network-based capabilities. Our experience shows that a weak link in a network of clients and servers presents itself sooner or later, and can be more readily identified by dynamic intrusion detection techniques and tools. The Network Intrusion Detector (NID) is one such tool. NID is designed to monitor and analyze activity on the Ethernet broadcast Local Area Network segment and product transcripts of suspicious user connections. NID's retrospective and real-time modes have proven invaluable to security officers faced with ongoing attacks to their systems and networks.

Theory of Alike Selectivity in Biological Channels

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Luchinsky, Dmitry G.; Gibby, Will A. T.; Kaufman, Igor Kh.; Eisenberg, Robert S.; McClintock, Peter V. E.

2016-01-01

We introduce a statistical mechanical model of the selectivity filter that accounts for the interaction between ions within the channel and derive Eisenman equation of the filter selectivity directly from the condition of barrier-less conduction.

Lyme Disease: Fact or Fiction?

MedlinePlus

... message, please visit this page: About CDC.gov . Lyme Disease Lyme Disease Preventing tick bites On people On pets In ... What you need to know about Lyme carditis Lyme Disease Rashes and Look-alikes Diagnosis and testing Two- ...

15 CFR 272.4 - Waiver.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... waived for any toy, look-alike or imitation firearm that will be used only in the theatrical, movie or... imitation firearm will be used only in the theatrical, movie or television industry. A sample of the item...

15 CFR 1150.2 - Prohibitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE MARKING OF TOY, LOOK-ALIKE AND IMITATION FIREARMS § 1150.2 Prohibitions... imitation firearm (“device”) covered by this part as set forth in § 1150.1 of this part unless such device...

29 CFR 531.25 - Introductory statement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... variance only where justified by very good reasons.” (Skidmore v. Swift, 323 U.S. 134.) (b) The....” Further, as stated by the Court: “Good administration of the Act and good judicial administration alike...

78 FR 46792 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Least Developed Countries That Are Designated Countries

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-01

... 9000-AM62 Federal Acquisition Regulation; Least Developed Countries That Are Designated Countries... States Trade Representative (USTR) to the list of least developed countries that are designated countries...) allows the President to designate least developed countries as eligible countries under the Trade...

Mathematics and online learning experiences: a gateway site for engineering students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masouros, Spyridon D.; Alpay, Esat

2010-03-01

This paper focuses on the preliminary design of a multifaceted computer-based mathematics resource for undergraduate and pre-entry engineering students. Online maths resources, while attractive in their flexibility of delivery, have seen variable interest from students and teachers alike. Through student surveys and wide consultations, guidelines have been developed for effectively collating and integrating learning, support, application and diagnostic tools to produce an Engineer's Mathematics Gateway. Specific recommendations include: the development of a shared database of engineering discipline-specific problems and examples; the identification of, and resource development for, troublesome mathematics topics which encompass ideas of threshold concepts and mastery components; the use of motivational and promotional material to raise student interest in learning mathematics in an engineering context; the use of general and lecture-specific concept maps and matrices to identify the needs and relevance of mathematics to engineering topics; and further exploration of the facilitation of peer-based learning through online resources.

Multi-factor energy price models and exotic derivatives pricing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hikspoors, Samuel

The high pace at which many of the world's energy markets have gradually been opened to competition have generated a significant amount of new financial activity. Both academicians and practitioners alike recently started to develop the tools of energy derivatives pricing/hedging as a quantitative topic of its own. The energy contract structures as well as their underlying asset properties set the energy risk management industry apart from its more standard equity and fixed income counterparts. This thesis naturally contributes to these broad market developments in participating to the advances of the mathematical tools aiming at a better theory of energy contingent claim pricing/hedging. We propose many realistic two-factor and three-factor models for spot and forward price processes that generalize some well known and standard modeling assumptions. We develop the associated pricing methodologies and propose stable calibration algorithms that motivate the application of the relevant modeling schemes.

Reprint of: Client interfaces to the Virtual Observatory Registry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demleitner, M.; Harrison, P.; Taylor, M.; Normand, J.

2015-06-01

The Virtual Observatory Registry is a distributed directory of information systems and other resources relevant to astronomy. To make it useful, facilities to query that directory must be provided to humans and machines alike. This article reviews the development and status of such facilities, also considering the lessons learnt from about a decade of experience with Registry interfaces. After a brief outline of the history of the standards development, it describes the use of Registry interfaces in some popular clients as well as dedicated UIs for interrogating the Registry. It continues with a thorough discussion of the design of the two most recent Registry interface standards, RegTAP on the one hand and a full-text-based interface on the other hand. The article finally lays out some of the less obvious conventions that emerged in the interaction between providers of registry records and Registry users as well as remaining challenges and current developments.

Client interfaces to the Virtual Observatory Registry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demleitner, M.; Harrison, P.; Taylor, M.; Normand, J.

2015-04-01

The Virtual Observatory Registry is a distributed directory of information systems and other resources relevant to astronomy. To make it useful, facilities to query that directory must be provided to humans and machines alike. This article reviews the development and status of such facilities, also considering the lessons learnt from about a decade of experience with Registry interfaces. After a brief outline of the history of the standards development, it describes the use of Registry interfaces in some popular clients as well as dedicated UIs for interrogating the Registry. It continues with a thorough discussion of the design of the two most recent Registry interface standards, RegTAP on the one hand and a full-text-based interface on the other hand. The article finally lays out some of the less obvious conventions that emerged in the interaction between providers of registry records and Registry users as well as remaining challenges and current developments.

Perception of Intonation in Native and Non-Native Speakers of English.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berkovits, Rochele

1980-01-01

Indicates that native and nonnative speakers alike can make use of intonation if they explicitly listen for it, although prosodic features are generally ignored when other cues (semantic and pragmatic) are available. (Author/RL)

INCORPORATING CATASTROPHES INTO INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT: SCIENCE, IMPACTS, AND ADAPTATION

EPA Science Inventory

Incorporating potential catastrophic consequences into integrated assessment models of climate change has been a top priority of policymakers and modelers alike. We review the current state of scientific understanding regarding three frequently mentioned geophysical catastrophes,...

Half-lit Enceladus

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-10-12

A world whose mysteries are just coming to light, Enceladus has enchanted scientists and non-scientists alike. With its potential for near-surface liquid water, the icy moon may be the latest addition to the list of possible abodes for life

Look Out! It's Poison Ivy!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Darlington, Elizabeth, Day

1986-01-01

Provides background information on poison ivy and offers suggestions for instructional activities. Includes illustrations of the varieties of poison ivy leaf forms and poison ivy look-alikes. Highlights interesting facts and cases associated with poison ivy and its relatives. (ML)

Comparative research on response stereotypes for daily operation tasks of Chinese and American engineering students.

PubMed

Yu, Rui-Feng; Chan, Alan H S

2004-02-01

A group of Mainland Chinese engineering students were asked to respond to 12 questions by indicating their design conventions and expectations about operations, directions-of-motion, and descriptions of movement for items such as doors, keys, taps, and knobs. Chi-square tests demonstrated strong response stereotypes for tasks of all 12 questions. A comparison of the stereotype strengths found here with that of Hong Kong Chinese and American engineering students reported earlier indicated that stereotype strengths of engineering students from the three regions were generally different. For some cases stereotype characteristics of two regions were more alike than the other, and also for some subjects in the three regions performed similarly. The Mainland and Hong Kong Chinese were more alike in making their choices on questions of conceptual compatibility, while more consistent preferences on movement compatibility and spatial compatibility were noted between the Mainland Chinese and American students than Hong Kong Chinese.

Statistical text classifier to detect specific type of medical incidents.

PubMed

Wong, Zoie Shui-Yee; Akiyama, Masanori

2013-01-01

WHO Patient Safety has put focus to increase the coherence and expressiveness of patient safety classification with the foundation of International Classification for Patient Safety (ICPS). Text classification and statistical approaches has showed to be successful to identifysafety problems in the Aviation industryusing incident text information. It has been challenging to comprehend the taxonomy of medical incidents in a structured manner. Independent reporting mechanisms for patient safety incidents have been established in the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong etc. This research demonstrates the potential to construct statistical text classifiers to detect specific type of medical incidents using incident text data. An illustrative example for classifying look-alike sound-alike (LASA) medication incidents using structured text from 227 advisories related to medication errors from Global Patient Safety Alerts (GPSA) is shown in this poster presentation. The classifier was built using logistic regression model. ROC curve and the AUC value indicated that this is a satisfactory good model.

Baptisia poisoning: a new and toxic look-alike in the neighborhood.

PubMed

Anderson, Matthew J; Kurtycz, Daniel F I; Cline, Joseph R

2015-01-01

Baptisia is commonly found in residential gardens as an ornamental plant, in municipal "rain gardens" for water control, as well as in native and restored prairie habitat. Cytisine, an alkaloid with nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist properties, is a component of Baptisia. Two patients poisoned after simultaneously ingesting Baptisia plant material are presented. In addition to findings of generalized nicotinic agonist toxicity, including generalized weakness and gastrointestinal symptoms, profound ataxia was present in both, consistent with recently described nicotinic subunit activity in the cerebellum. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: Baptisia, a native prairie plant commonly found in restored prairie habitats and public spaces, has striking "look-alike" characteristics, in its immature state, to asparagus. As future exposures by foraging citizens will be likely, awareness of this relationship and the toxic manifestations of cytisine will be useful. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Patterns of ecosystem services supply across farm properties: Implications for ecosystem services-based policy incentives.

PubMed

Nahuelhual, Laura; Benra, Felipe; Laterra, Pedro; Marin, Sandra; Arriagada, Rodrigo; Jullian, Cristobal

2018-09-01

In developing countries, the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES) rests on the hands of millions of small landowners that coexist with large properties, in a reality of highly unequal land distribution. Guiding the effective allocation of ES-based incentives in such contexts requires researchers and practitioners to tackle a largely overlooked question: for a given targeted area, will single large farms or several small ones provide the most ES supply? The answer to this question has important implications for conservation planning and rural development alike, which transcend efficiency to involve equity issues. We address this question by proposing and testing ES supply-area relations (ESSARs) around three basic hypothesized models, characterized by constant (model 1), increasing (model 2), and decreasing increments (model 3) of ES supply per unit of area or ES "productivity". Data to explore ESSARs came from 3384 private landholdings located in southern Chile ranging from 0.5ha to over 30,000ha and indicators of four ES (forage, timber, recreation opportunities, and water supply). Forage provision best fit model 3, which suggests that targeting several small farms to provide this ES should be a preferred choice, as compared to a single large farm. Timber provision best fit model 2, suggesting that in this case targeting a single large farm would be a more effective choice. Recreation opportunities best fit model 1, which indicates that several small or a single large farm of a comparable size would be equally effective in delivering this ES. Water provision fit model 1 or model 2 depending on the study site. The results corroborate that ES provision is not independent from property area and therefore understanding ESSARs is a necessary condition for setting conservation incentives that are both efficient (deliver the highest conservation outcome at the least cost) and fair for landowners. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

"Got Snow?" Education and Outreach for the IPY

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turrin, M.; Bell, R. E.; Pfirman, S.; Maru, P.

2004-12-01

The "Bridging the Poles: Education Linked with Research" workshop of June 23-25, brought together an international group of 65 scientists, educators and media specialists to define strategies to engage the next generation of polar scientists, engineers and leaders, and inspire the general public. The workshop results emphasized the need to leverage emerging science programs with meaningful education and outreach programming that is rolled out to the public as major media events. Participants advocated a broad interdisciplinary approach, recognizing that the poles have a rich cultural heritage and fascinating history. Linking research events with student fascination about polar environments, peoples and histories of exploration, can help improve science, math, reading, and other skills. Distance learning with web course delivery is a powerful tool to reach advanced students and to help develop a new generation of researchers among Arctic indigenous peoples. Successful examples of this approach include the University of the Arctic's PhD network, and collaborative field courses. Field experiences build life-long advocates of the poles for students, teachers, and the media alike. Establishing connections among scientists, educators and informal outreach venues in their own community, can have long-lasting impact. "Think Globally/Act Locally" and the complementary "Think Locally/Act Globally" will be important themes for local, national and international IPY programming. Imagine a semi-trailer truck labeled "Got Snow?" traversing the country loaded with polar gear, interactive activities and a snowmaker; polar exhibitions opening at natural history and art museums and zoos; polar-themed postage stamps; national polar book-of-the-month recommendations; made-for-TV polar documentaries; and a rich, multidisciplinary and multilingual web portal. To meet these opportunities requires coordination, linking communities, and high-bandwidth access to high quality content from the polar regions. We need to start now to develop an integrated research/media/education strategy; establish partners among the research, media, and education communities; and diversify participation and audiences.

78 FR 48333 - Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement: Least Developed Countries That Are Designated...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-08

... Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement: Least Developed Countries That Are Designated Countries (DFARS... least developed countries that are designated countries under the Trade Agreements Act of 1979. DATES... least developed countries as eligible countries under the Trade Agreements Act of 1979, allowing non...

Genetic diversity in Trypanosoma theileri from Sri Lankan cattle and water buffaloes.

PubMed

Yokoyama, Naoaki; Sivakumar, Thillaiampalam; Fukushi, Shintaro; Tattiyapong, Muncharee; Tuvshintulga, Bumduuren; Kothalawala, Hemal; Silva, Seekkuge Susil Priyantha; Igarashi, Ikuo; Inoue, Noboru

2015-01-30

Trypanosoma theileri is a hemoprotozoan parasite that infects various ruminant species. We investigated the epidemiology of this parasite among cattle and water buffalo populations bred in Sri Lanka, using a diagnostic PCR assay based on the cathepsin L-like protein (CATL) gene. Blood DNA samples sourced from cattle (n=316) and water buffaloes (n=320) bred in different geographical areas of Sri Lanka were PCR screened for T. theileri. Parasite DNA was detected in cattle and water buffaloes alike in all the sampling locations. The overall T. theileri-positive rate was higher in water buffaloes (15.9%) than in cattle (7.6%). Subsequently, PCR amplicons were sequenced and the partial CATL sequences were phylogenetically analyzed. The identity values for the CATL gene were 89.6-99.7% among the cattle-derived sequences, compared with values of 90.7-100% for the buffalo-derived sequences. However, the cattle-derived sequences shared 88.2-100% identity values with those from buffaloes. In the phylogenetic tree, the Sri Lankan CATL gene sequences fell into two major clades (TthI and TthII), both of which contain CATL sequences from several other countries. Although most of the CATL sequences from Sri Lankan cattle and buffaloes clustered independently, two buffalo-derived sequences were observed to be closely related to those of the Sri Lankan cattle. Furthermore, a Sri Lankan buffalo sequence clustered with CATL gene sequences from Brazilian buffalo and Thai cattle. In addition to reporting the first PCR-based survey of T. theileri among Sri Lankan-bred cattle and water buffaloes, the present study found that some of the CATL gene fragments sourced from water buffaloes shared similarity with those determined from cattle in this country. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The International Decision Support Initiative Reference Case for Economic Evaluation: An Aid to Thought.

PubMed

Wilkinson, Thomas; Sculpher, Mark J; Claxton, Karl; Revill, Paul; Briggs, Andrew; Cairns, John A; Teerawattananon, Yot; Asfaw, Elias; Lopert, Ruth; Culyer, Anthony J; Walker, Damian G

2016-12-01

Policymakers in high-, low-, and middle-income countries alike face challenging choices about resource allocation in health. Economic evaluation can be useful in providing decision makers with the best evidence of the anticipated benefits of new investments, as well as their expected opportunity costs-the benefits forgone of the options not chosen. To guide the decisions of health systems effectively, it is important that the methods of economic evaluation are founded on clear principles, are applied systematically, and are appropriate to the decision problems they seek to inform. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a major funder of economic evaluations of health technologies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), commissioned a "reference case" through the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) to guide future evaluations, and improve both the consistency and usefulness to decision makers. The iDSI Reference Case draws on previous insights from the World Health Organization, the US Panel on Cost-Effectiveness in Health Care, and the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Comprising 11 key principles, each accompanied by methodological specifications and reporting standards, the iDSI Reference Case also serves as a means of identifying priorities for methods research, and can be used as a framework for capacity building and technical assistance in LMICs. The iDSI Reference Case is an aid to thought, not a substitute for it, and should not be followed slavishly without regard to context, culture, or history. This article presents the iDSI Reference Case and discusses the rationale, approach, components, and application in LMICs. Copyright © 2016 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Acceptance of sexual minorities, discrimination, social capital and health and well-being: a cross-European study among members of same-sex and opposite-sex couples.

PubMed

van der Star, Arjan; Bränström, Richard

2015-08-21

Awareness of health disparities based on sexual orientation has increased in the past decades, and many official public health agencies throughout Europe call for programs addressing the specific needs of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals. However, the acceptance of LGB individuals varies significantly in different countries, which potentially influences health and well-being in this population. We explored differences in self-rated health and subjective well-being between individuals living in same-sex and opposite-sex couples. We also examined the effects of discrimination and country-level variations in LGB acceptance on health and well-being and the potential mediating role of social capital in these associations. Using the 2010 European Social Survey (n = 50,781), 315 individuals living with a same-sex partner were matched and compared with an equal number of individuals living in opposite-sex couples. We performed structural equation modeling analyses to estimate path coefficients, mediations and interactions. LGB acceptance was significantly related to better self-rated health and subjective well-being among all individuals, and these associations were partially mediated by individual social capital. No differences in these associations were found between individuals living in same-sex and opposite-sex couples. Sexuality-based discrimination had an additional significantly negative effect on self-related health and subjective well-being. The findings of this study suggest a negative association between exposure to discrimination based on sexual orientation and both health and well-being of individuals living in same-sex couples. Members of same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples alike may benefit from living in societies with a high level of LGB acceptance to promote better health and well-being.

Bedouin in Lebanon: Social discrimination, political exclusion, and compromised health care.

PubMed

Chatty, Dawn; Mansour, Nisrine; Yassin, Nasser

2013-04-01

Global inequalities in health have long been associated with disparities between rich and poor nations. The middle-income countries of the Levant (Lebanon, Syria and Jordan) have developed models of health care delivery that mirror the often complex make-up of their states. In Lebanon, which is characterized by political clientelism and sectarian structures, access to health care is more contingent on ethnicity and religious affiliation than on poverty. This case study of the Bedouin of the Middle Bekaa Valley of Lebanon is based on interviews with policymakers, health care providers and the Bedouin as part of a study funded by the European Commission between 2006 and 2010. The study explores the importance of considering social discrimination and political exclusion in understanding compromised health care. Three decades after the Declaration of Alma Ata (1978), which declared that an acceptable level of health care for all should be attained by the year 2000, the Bedouin community of Lebanon remains largely invisible to the government and, thus, invisible to national health care policy and practice. They experience significant social discrimination from health practitioners and policymakers alike. Their unfair treatment under the health system is generally disassociated from issues of wealth or poverty; it is manifested in issues of access and use, discrimination, and resistance and agency. Overcoming their political exclusion and recognizing the social discrimination they face are steps that can be taken to protect and promote equal access to basic reproductive and child health care. This case study of the Bedouin in Lebanon is also relevant to the health needs of other marginalized populations in remote and rural areas. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Diagnostic evaluation of a multiplexed RT-PCR microsphere array assay for the detection of foot-and-mouth disease virus and look-alike disease viruses

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hindson, B J; Reid, S M; Baker, B R

2007-07-26

A high-throughput multiplexed assay was developed for the differential laboratory diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) from viruses which cause clinically similar diseases of livestock. This assay simultaneously screens for five RNA and two DNA viruses using multiplexed reverse transcription PCR (mRT-PCR) amplification coupled with a microsphere hybridization array and flow-cytometric detection. Two of the seventeen primer-probe sets included in this multiplex assay were adopted from previously characterized real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) assays for FMDV. The diagnostic accuracy of the mRT-PCR was evaluated using 287 field samples, including 248 (true positive n= 213, true negative n=34) from suspect cases of foot-and-mouthmore » disease collected from 65 countries between 1965 and 2006 and 39 true negative samples collected from healthy animals. The mRT-PCR assay results were compared with two singleplex rRT-PCR assays, using virus isolation with antigen-ELISA as the reference method. The diagnostic sensitivity of the mRT-PCR assay for FMDV was 93.9% [95% C.I. 89.8-96.4%], compared to 98.1% [95% C.I. 95.3-99.3%] for the two singleplex rRT-PCR assays used in combination. In addition, the assay could reliably differentiate between FMDV and other vesicular viruses such as swine vesicular disease virus and vesicular exanthema of swine virus. Interestingly, the mRT-PCR detected parapoxvirus (n=2) and bovine viral diarrhea virus (n=2) in clinical samples, demonstrating the screening potential of this mRT-PCR assay to identify viruses in FMDV-negative material not previously recognized using focused single-target rRT-PCR assays.« less

Diagnostic evaluation of a multiplexed RT-PCR microsphere array assay for the detection of foot-and-mouth and look-alike disease viruses

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hindson, B J; Baker, B R; Bentley Tammero, L F

2007-09-18

A high-throughput multiplexed assay (Multiplex Version 1.0) was developed for the differential laboratory diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) from viruses which cause clinically similar diseases of livestock. This assay simultaneously screens for five RNA and two DNA viruses using multiplexed reverse transcription PCR (mRT-PCR) amplification coupled with a microsphere hybridization array and flow-cytometric detection. Two of the seventeen primer-probe sets included in this multiplex assay were adopted from previously characterized real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) assays for FMDV. The diagnostic accuracy of the mRT-PCR was evaluated using 287 field samples, including 248 (true positive n= 213, true negative n=34) from suspectmore » cases of foot-and-mouth disease collected from 65 countries between 1965 and 2006 and 39 true negative samples collected from healthy animals. The mRT-PCR assay results were compared with two singleplex rRT-PCR assays, using virus isolation with antigen-ELISA as the reference method. The diagnostic sensitivity of the mRT-PCR assay for FMDV was 93.9% [95% C.I. 89.8-96.4%], compared to 98.1% [95% C.I. 95.3-99.3%] for the two singleplex rRTPCR assays used in combination. In addition, the assay could reliably differentiate between FMDV and other vesicular viruses such as swine vesicular disease virus and vesicular exanthema of swine virus. Interestingly, the mRT-PCR detected parapoxvirus (n=2) and bovine viral diarrhea virus (n=2) in clinical samples, demonstrating the screening potential of this mRT-PCR assay to identify viruses in FMDV-negative material not previously recognized using focused single-target rRT-PCR assays.« less

Web-based Collaboration and Visualization in the ANDRILL Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reed, J.; Rack, F. R.; Huffman, L. T.; Cattadori, M.

2009-12-01

ANDRILL has embraced the web as a platform for facilitating collaboration and communicating science with educators, students and researchers alike. Two recent ANDRILL education and outreach projects, Project Circle 2008 and the Climate Change Student Summit, brought together classrooms from around the world to participate in cutting edge science. A large component of each project was the online collaboration achieved through project websites, blogs, and the GroupHub--a secure online environment where students could meet to send messages, exchange presentations and pictures, and even chat live. These technologies enabled students from different countries and time zones to connect and participate in a shared 'conversation' about climate change research. ANDRILL has also developed several interactive, web-based visualizations to make scientific drilling data more engaging and accessible to the science community and the public. Each visualization is designed around three core concepts that enable the Web 2.0 platform, namely, that they are: (1) customizable - a user can customize the visualization to display the exact data she is interested in; (2) linkable - each view in the visualization has a distinct URL that the user can share with her friends via sites like Facebook and Twitter; and (3) mashable - the user can take the visualization, mash it up with data from other sites or her own research, and embed it in her blog or website. The web offers an ideal environment for visualization and collaboration because it requires no special software and works across all computer platforms, which allows organizations and research projects to engage much larger audiences. In this presentation we will describe past challenges and successes, as well as future plans.

PRIMARY MINERALIZATION OF URANIUM-BEARING "SILICEOUS REEF" VEINS IN THE BOULDER BATHOLITH, MONTANA. PART I. THE HOST ROCKS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wright, H.D.; Bieler, B.H.

1960-01-01

Between 1952 and 1956 a study was made of some of the uranium-bearing hydrothermal veins in the northern part of the Boulder batholith, Montana. Three mines, the W. Wilson, G. Washington, and Free Enterprise, were investigated in detail. The veins are characterized by a microcrystalline quartz gangue containing sparsely scattered, very fine-grained sulfide minerals and uraninite. Above the present water table, secondary uranium minerals are abundant locally. Throughout the area the veins --called "siliceous reefs"--strike east to northeast, are of steep dip, and vary in thickness from a fraction of an inch to several feet. The country rock is granodioritemore » containing, in order of abundance, plagioclase (An/sub 30/ to An/sub 36/), quartz, orthoclase, biotite, and hornblende, with apatite, zircon, and sphene. Small bodies of aplite, pegmatite, and alaskite occur along some veins. The granodiorite adjacent to the veins is rather strongly altered. The alteration is similar throughout all of the deposits studied, in barren and orebearing portions alike. The essential minerals show a characteristic sequence of alteration, in the order hornblende, andesine, biotite, orthoclase, and quartz. Successive zones of alteration are characterized, from the vein outward, by maximum development of sericite (muscovite polytype 1M, in part), kaolinite, and montmorillonite. Other alteration products are quartz, pyrite, calcite, leucoxene, and chlorite. The alteration resulted in an increase in silica and ferric iron, a decrease in alumina, total iron, ferrous iron, lime, soda, and magnesia, and little change in potash, titania, phosphorus, carbon dioxide, and sulfur. Consideration of the stability fields of the sheet structure silicate minerals indicates little basis for interpretation of the temperatures prevailing during mineralization. (auth)« less

Parents and Students and Healthy Indoor School Environments

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

School-aged children spend a great deal of time inside school buildings. Parents can play an important role in creating healthy indoor school environments. Parents and students alike can make a powerful case for protecting health in schools.

Mars Odyssey All Stars: Cerberus Crack

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-12-09

Geological faulting has opened cracks in the Cerberus region that slice through flat plains and mesas alike. This image is part of an All Star set marking the occasion of NASA Mars Odyssey as the longest-working Mars spacecraft in history.

Ask Your Pharmacist | NIH MedlinePlus the Magazine

MedlinePlus

... you can choose between either a generic or brand name drug. Generic and brand name medicines are alike because they act the ... A generic drug is the same as a brand name drug in dosage, safety, strength, quality, the ...

A SIMPLE HYDROLOGICAL MODEL FOR WATERSHED CHARACTERIZATION

EPA Science Inventory

Catchment behavior is characterized with a variety of metrics - discharge, chemical export, biological activity, to name a few. Catchments have complex temporal behavior, e.g., summer and winter storm recessions and nutrient export may look nothing alike. Further, catchment res...

Attitudes to aging mediate the relationship between older peoples’ subjective health and quality of life in 20 countries

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background With ever-increasing life expectancy globally, it is imperative to build knowledge of how older peoples’ views of their own aging, considering their health-related circumstances, affect quality of life for practitioners and policy-makers alike. Based on our literature review, we wanted to determine whether older adults’ attitudes toward their own aging would partly mediate the effect of their health satisfaction ratings upon their quality of life. Furthermore, would these attitudes mediate the relationship between health satisfaction and quality of life in the same way when we account for older adults’ country of origin, and their age and gender? Methods This was a secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data collected in 20 countries taking part in the 2003 WHOQOL-OLD Field study. The study sample consisted of 4593 adults whom were, on average, 72.10 years of age (range = 60 to 100 years of age); 42.8% were female. The WHOQOL-BREF measured quality of life and health satisfaction. The Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire measured participants’ attitudes toward physical change, psychosocial loss, and psychological growth. All items in both questionnaires were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. Questionnaire responses were analyzed using multilevel modeling and path analysis. Results All three attitudes to aging partly mediated the relationship between health satisfaction and physical, psychological, social, environmental, and global quality of life. These partial mediations manifested in the same way across all 20 country samples, regardless of age or gender. Attitudes toward physical change were the strongest mediator of health satisfaction upon global and domain-specific quality of life, followed by psychosocial loss and psychosocial growth. Conclusions Our study is the first cross-cultural study with a large sample to show that quality of life judgements, between 60 to 100 years of age, are a product of older men’s and women’s perceptions of health-related circumstances, and attitudes toward physical and psychosocial aspects of the aging self. A prospective study of the linkages between older peoples’ subjective views of health and attitudes toward the aging self over time using multiple subjective measures of health is warranted. Understanding these linkages may help practitioners and policy makers consider strategies to enhance quality of life. PMID:23984754

Assessment of minimal hepatic encephalopathy (with emphasis on computerized psychometric tests).

PubMed

Kappus, Matthew R; Bajaj, Jasmohan S

2012-02-01

Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) is associated with a high risk of development of overt hepatic encephalopathy, impaired quality of life, and driving accidents. The detection of MHE requires specialized testing because it cannot, by definition, be diagnosed on standard clinical examination. Psychometric and neurophysiologic techniques are often used to test for MHE. Paper-pencil psychometric batteries and computerized tests have proved useful in diagnosing MHE and predicting its outcomes. Neurophysiologic tests also provide useful information. The diagnosis of MHE is an important issue for clinicians and patients alike. Testing strategies depend on the normative data available, patient comfort, and local expertise. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Lasers and ancillary treatments for scar management Part 2: Keloid, hypertrophic, pigmented and acne scars

PubMed Central

McGoldrick, Rory Boyd; Theodorakopoulou, Evgenia; Azzopardi, Ernest Anthony; Murison, Maxwell

2017-01-01

The formation of a wide range of excessive scars following various skin injuries is a natural consequence of healing. Scars resulting from surgery or trauma affect approximately 100 million people per annum in the developed world and can have profound physical, aesthetic, psychological and social consequences. Thus, scar treatment is a priority for patient and physician alike. Laser treatment plays an important role in scar management with additional support from ancillary modalities. Subsequent to part 1: Burns scars, part 2 focuses on our strategies and literature review of treatment of keloid, hypertrophic, pigmented and acne scars where lasers are used in conjunction with other measures, and illustrated with case studies. PMID:29799579

Travel Vaccines Enter the Digital Age: Creating a Virtual Immunization Record

PubMed Central

Wilson, Kumanan; Atkinson, Katherine M.; Bell, Cameron P.

2016-01-01

At present, proof of immunization against diseases such as yellow fever is required at some international borders in concordance with the International Health Regulations. The current standard, the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP), has limitations as a paper record including the possibility of being illegible, misplaced, or damaged. We believe that a complementary, digital record would offer advantages to public health and travelers alike. These include enhanced availability and reliability, potential to include lot specific information, and integration with immunization information systems. Challenges exist in implementation, particularly pertaining to verification at border crossings. We describe a potential course for the development and implementation of a digital ICVP record. PMID:26711516

Passive and hybrid solar technologies program summary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1985-05-01

The goal of the national energy policy is to foster an adequate supply of energy at reasonable prices. This policy recognizes that adequate supply requires flexibility, with no undue reliance on any single source of supply. The goal of reasonable prices suggests economic efficiency so that consumers, individuals, commercial and industrial users alike, are not penalized by government regulation or subside. The strategies for achieving this energy policy goal are: (1) to minimize federal regulation in energy pricing while maintaining public health and safety and environmental quality, and (2) to promote a balanced and mixed energy resource system through research and development. One of the keys to energy sufficiently is the scientific application of passive solar energy techniques.

Cutaneous Scarring: A Clinical Review

PubMed Central

Baker, Richard; Urso-Baiarda, Fulvio; Linge, Claire; Grobbelaar, Adriaan

2009-01-01

Cutaneous scarring can cause patients symptoms ranging from the psychological to physical pain. Although the process of normal scarring is well described the ultimate cause of pathological scarring remains unknown. Similarly, exactly how early gestation fetuses can heal scarlessly remains unsolved. These questions are crucial in the search for a preventative or curative antiscarring agent. Such a discovery would be of enormous medical and commercial importance, not least because it may have application in other tissues. In the clinical context the assessment of scars is becoming more sophisticated and new physical, medical and surgical therapies are being introduced. This review aims to summarise some of the recent developments in scarring research for non-specialists and specialists alike. PMID:20585482

Complementary and alternative medicine in women's health. Developing a research agenda.

PubMed

Murphy, P A; Kronenberg, F; Wade, C

1999-01-01

Complementary and alternative medicine is becoming an established intervention modality within the contemporary health care system. Various forms of complementary and alternative medicine are used by patients and practitioners alike, including chiropractic, massage, botanical medicine, homeopathy, and energy therapies. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine was established within the National Institutes of Health to facilitate evaluation of these alternative therapies, establish an information clearinghouse, and promote research in the field. This article discusses several aspects of complementary and alternative medicine, relates them to women's health, and describes the need for a research agenda to evaluate the impact of the complementary and alternative medicine modalities used for important conditions affecting women.

Medical history of the representation of rosacea in the 19th century.

PubMed

Cribier, Bernard

2013-12-01

Throughout the 1800s, clinical illustrations helped to formalize what was then the recently developed field of dermatology. Knowledge of skin diseases was given new dimension as artists and clinicians alike strove to accurately document the physical characteristics of numerous dermatoses. Introduction of novel processes and refined techniques advanced the clinical use of disease images. The increasingly superior quality of these images aided in the early distinction between rosacea and acne. This article highlights these illustrative contributions in dermatology, and includes key images that serve as a road map to early clinical understanding of skin diseases. Copyright © 2013 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Vision 20/20: Automation and advanced computing in clinical radiation oncology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moore, Kevin L., E-mail: kevinmoore@ucsd.edu; Moiseenko, Vitali; Kagadis, George C.

This Vision 20/20 paper considers what computational advances are likely to be implemented in clinical radiation oncology in the coming years and how the adoption of these changes might alter the practice of radiotherapy. Four main areas of likely advancement are explored: cloud computing, aggregate data analyses, parallel computation, and automation. As these developments promise both new opportunities and new risks to clinicians and patients alike, the potential benefits are weighed against the hazards associated with each advance, with special considerations regarding patient safety under new computational platforms and methodologies. While the concerns of patient safety are legitimate, the authorsmore » contend that progress toward next-generation clinical informatics systems will bring about extremely valuable developments in quality improvement initiatives, clinical efficiency, outcomes analyses, data sharing, and adaptive radiotherapy.« less

CuboCube: Student creation of a cancer genetics e-textbook using open-access software for social learning.

PubMed

Seid-Karbasi, Puya; Ye, Xin C; Zhang, Allen W; Gladish, Nicole; Cheng, Suzanne Y S; Rothe, Katharina; Pilsworth, Jessica A; Kang, Min A; Doolittle, Natalie; Jiang, Xiaoyan; Stirling, Peter C; Wasserman, Wyeth W

2017-03-01

Student creation of educational materials has the capacity both to enhance learning and to decrease costs. Three successive honors-style classes of undergraduate students in a cancer genetics class worked with a new software system, CuboCube, to create an e-textbook. CuboCube is an open-source learning materials creation system designed to facilitate e-textbook development, with an ultimate goal of improving the social learning experience for students. Equipped with crowdsourcing capabilities, CuboCube provides intuitive tools for nontechnical and technical authors alike to create content together in a structured manner. The process of e-textbook development revealed both strengths and challenges of the approach, which can inform future efforts. Both the CuboCube platform and the Cancer Genetics E-textbook are freely available to the community.

Technical Considerations in Remote LIMS Access via the World Wide Web

PubMed Central

Schlabach, David M.

2005-01-01

The increased dependency on the World Wide Web by both laboratories and their customers has led LIMS developers to take advantage of thin-client web applications that provide both remote data entry and manipulation, along with remote reporting functionality. Use of an LIMS through a web browser allows a person to interact with a distant application, providing both remote administration and real-time analytical result delivery from virtually anywhere in the world. While there are many benefits of web-based LIMS applications, some concern must be given to these new methods of system architecture before justifying them as a suitable replacement for their traditional client-server systems. Developers and consumers alike must consider the security aspects of introducing a wide area network capable system into a production environment, as well as the concerns of data integrity and usability. PMID:18924736

Vision 20/20: Automation and advanced computing in clinical radiation oncology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moore, Kevin L., E-mail: kevinmoore@ucsd.edu; Moiseenko, Vitali; Kagadis, George C.

2014-01-15

This Vision 20/20 paper considers what computational advances are likely to be implemented in clinical radiation oncology in the coming years and how the adoption of these changes might alter the practice of radiotherapy. Four main areas of likely advancement are explored: cloud computing, aggregate data analyses, parallel computation, and automation. As these developments promise both new opportunities and new risks to clinicians and patients alike, the potential benefits are weighed against the hazards associated with each advance, with special considerations regarding patient safety under new computational platforms and methodologies. While the concerns of patient safety are legitimate, the authorsmore » contend that progress toward next-generation clinical informatics systems will bring about extremely valuable developments in quality improvement initiatives, clinical efficiency, outcomes analyses, data sharing, and adaptive radiotherapy.« less

Flail chest as a complication of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

PubMed

Enarson, D A; Didier, E P; Gracey, D R

1977-01-01

Records of all patients who developed flail chest after cardiopulmonary resuscitation at Rochester Methodist Hospital between January, 1966 and March 1976 were reviewed. Also, for comparison, records of patients with flail chest resulting from motor vehicle accidents and those of a matched group of patients who underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation without developing flail chest were reviewed. The incidence of flail chest after cardiopulmonary resuscitation was about 5.6 per 100 survivors. The groups who did and did not have flail chest after cardiopulmonary resuscitation were alike in age and in frequency and duration of the resuscitation. Stabilization of the flail chest required mechanical ventilation for 1 to 24 days (mean, 10.7). Flail chest did not significantly lengthen the hospitalization of patients who survived after cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The occurrence of flail chest after cardiopulmonary resuscitation did not seem to increase the mortality rate.

CuboCube: Student creation of a cancer genetics e-textbook using open-access software for social learning

PubMed Central

Seid-Karbasi, Puya; Ye, Xin C.; Zhang, Allen W.; Gladish, Nicole; Cheng, Suzanne Y. S.; Rothe, Katharina; Pilsworth, Jessica A.; Kang, Min A.; Doolittle, Natalie; Jiang, Xiaoyan; Stirling, Peter C.; Wasserman, Wyeth W.

2017-01-01

Student creation of educational materials has the capacity both to enhance learning and to decrease costs. Three successive honors-style classes of undergraduate students in a cancer genetics class worked with a new software system, CuboCube, to create an e-textbook. CuboCube is an open-source learning materials creation system designed to facilitate e-textbook development, with an ultimate goal of improving the social learning experience for students. Equipped with crowdsourcing capabilities, CuboCube provides intuitive tools for nontechnical and technical authors alike to create content together in a structured manner. The process of e-textbook development revealed both strengths and challenges of the approach, which can inform future efforts. Both the CuboCube platform and the Cancer Genetics E-textbook are freely available to the community. PMID:28267757

Partnership research on nutrition transition and chronic diseases in West Africa - trends, outcomes and impacts.

PubMed

Delisle, Hélène; Agueh, Victoire; Fayomi, Benjamin

2011-11-08

Nutrition-related chronic diseases (NRCD) are rising quickly in developing countries, and the nutrition transition is a major contributor. Low-income countries have not been spared. Health issues related to nutritional deficiencies also persist, creating a double burden of malnutrition (DBM). There is still a major shortage of data on NRCD and DBM in Sub-Saharan Africa. A research program has been designed and conducted in partnership with West African institutions since 2003 to determine how the nutrition transition relates to NRCD and the DBM in order to support prevention efforts. In Benin, cross-sectional studies among apparently healthy adults (n=540) from urban, semi-urban and rural areas have examined cardiometabolic risk (hypertension, obesity, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance) in relation to diet and lifestyle, also factoring in socio-economic status (SES). Those studies were followed by a longitudinal study on how risk evolves, opening the way for mutual aid groups to develop a prevention strategy within an action research framework. In Burkina Faso, a cross-sectional study on the nutritional status and dietary patterns of urban school-age children (n=650) represented the initial stages of an action research project to prevent DBM in schools. A cross-sectional study among adults (n=330) from the capital of Burkina Faso explored the coexistence, within these individuals, of cardiometabolic risk factors and nutritional deficiencies (anemia, vitamin A deficiency, chronic energy deficiency), as they relate to diet, lifestyle and SES. The studies have shown that the prevalence of NRCD is high among the poor, thereby exacerbating social inequalities. The hypothesis of a positive socio-economic (and rural-urban) gradient was confirmed only for obesity, whereas the prevalence of hypertension, insulin resistance and dyslipidemia did not prove to be higher among affluent city dwellers. Women were particularly affected by abdominal obesity, at 48% compared to 6% of men. Protective factors against the risk of NRCD were physical activity and adequate micronutrient intake. The research also showed that nutritional deficiencies were not restricted to schoolchildren in rural areas because in the capital of Ouagadougou, for example, 40% of schoolchildren were anaemic and 40% were vitamin A deficient. Partnership research has expanded to include advocacy and human resources training. These initial studies on NRCD in West Africa indicate the relevance and urgency of prevention, even among low-income groups and countries. They show that the fight against NRCD as well as nutritional deficiencies should focus on women. Seeing how researchers from the African partner institutions have connections with decision-making authorities, the research findings could have an impact on prevention policies and programs in communities and schools alike. Greater support must nevertheless be provided to lobbying and advocacy work for an even greater impact. As well, the sustainability of the research program remains a challenge that requires resource mobilization and training for the purpose.

Are All Community Colleges Alike?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Arthur M.

While there are many ways to differentiate among community colleges (size, control, student characteristics, etc.), there have been few attempts to categorize them. The Carnegie Foundation's classification system, published first in 1971 and since revised several times, categorizes research universities, comprehensive institutions, liberal arts…

Shaping Future Phosphorus Management Pathways by Understanding the Past and Present

EPA Science Inventory

Sustainable phosphorus (P) management in agricultural and urban ecosystems is necessary to ensure global food security and healthy aquatic ecosystems. Researchers and decision-makers alike need to understand how social, economic, political, and biophysical factors interact to cre...

Safe Haven

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miranda, Maria Eugenia

2011-01-01

In this article, the author discusses how college administrators are increasingly prioritizing dating violence prevention and intervention services. To combat dating violence, campus groups and programming are becoming more prevalent as increased awareness of dating violence forces students and administrators alike to address a problem that…

Alder flycatcher

Treesearch

Scott H. Stoleson

2010-01-01

The alder flycatcher is a small flycatcher in the confusing genus Empidonax. It so closely resembles its look-alike congener, the willow flycatcher (E. traillii), that until 1973 they were considered a single species, Traill's flycatcher (American Ornithologists' Union 1973). As most published studies of Traill's...

Developed-developing country partnerships: benefits to developed countries?

PubMed

Syed, Shamsuzzoha B; Dadwal, Viva; Rutter, Paul; Storr, Julie; Hightower, Joyce D; Gooden, Rachel; Carlet, Jean; Bagheri Nejad, Sepideh; Kelley, Edward T; Donaldson, Liam; Pittet, Didier

2012-06-18

Developing countries can generate effective solutions for today's global health challenges. This paper reviews relevant literature to construct the case for international cooperation, and in particular, developed-developing country partnerships. Standard database and web-based searches were conducted for publications in English between 1990 and 2010. Studies containing full or partial data relating to international cooperation between developed and developing countries were retained for further analysis. Of 227 articles retained through initial screening, 65 were included in the final analysis. The results were two-fold: some articles pointed to intangible benefits accrued by developed country partners, but the majority of information pointed to developing country innovations that can potentially inform health systems in developed countries. This information spanned all six WHO health system components. Ten key health areas where developed countries have the most to learn from the developing world were identified and include, rural health service delivery; skills substitution; decentralisation of management; creative problem-solving; education in communicable disease control; innovation in mobile phone use; low technology simulation training; local product manufacture; health financing; and social entrepreneurship. While there are no guarantees that innovations from developing country experiences can effectively transfer to developed countries, combined developed-developing country learning processes can potentially generate effective solutions for global health systems. However, the global pool of knowledge in this area is virgin and further work needs to be undertaken to advance understanding of health innovation diffusion. Even more urgently, a standardized method for reporting partnership benefits is needed--this is perhaps the single most immediate need in planning for, and realizing, the full potential of international cooperation between developed and developing countries.

The Role of System Thinking Development and Experiential Learning on Enterprise Transformation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopez, Gabriel

The recent economic downturn has had global repercussions in all businesses alike. Competition is fierce and a survival of the fittest model is always present; fast delivery times and innovative designs ultimately translate into the enterprises' bottom line. In such market conditions, enterprises have to find ways to develop and train their workforce in a manner that enhances the innovative capabilities of the enterprise. Additionally, if companies are to stay competitive, they have to ensure critical skills in their workforce are transferred from generation to generation. This study builds on recent research on system-thinking development via experiential learning methodologies. First, a conceptual framework model was developed. This conceptual model captures a methodology to construct a system-thinking apprenticeship program suitable for system engineers. Secondly, a survey of system engineering professionals was conducted in order to assess and refine the proposed conceptual model. This dissertation captures the findings of the conceptual model and the implications of the study for enterprises and for system engineering organizations.

Searching for new pharmacological targets for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease in Down syndrome.

PubMed

Caraci, Filippo; Iulita, M Florencia; Pentz, Rowan; Flores Aguilar, Lisi; Orciani, Chiara; Barone, Concetta; Romano, Corrado; Drago, Filippo; Cuello, A Claudio

2017-12-15

Individuals with Down syndrome are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease due to increase gene dosage resulting from chromosome 21 triplication. Although virtually all adults with Down syndrome will exhibit the major neuropathological hallmarks that define Alzheimer's disease, not all of them will develop the clinical symptoms associated with this disorder (i.e. dementia). Therefore, a good understanding of the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease in Down syndrome will be crucial for the identification of novel pharmacological targets to develop disease-modifying therapies for the benefit of Down syndrome individuals and for Alzheimer's sufferers alike. The study of biomarkers will also be essential for the development of better screening tools to identify dementia at its incipient stages. This review discusses the best-validated pharmacological targets for the treatment of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease in Down syndrome. We further examine the relevance of newly discovered biological markers for earlier dementia diagnosis in this population. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ethical adoption: A new imperative in the development of technology for dementia.

PubMed

Robillard, Julie M; Cleland, Ian; Hoey, Jesse; Nugent, Chris

2018-06-19

Technology interventions are showing promise to assist persons with dementia and their carers. However, low adoption rates for these technologies and ethical considerations have impeded the realization of their full potential. Building on recent evidence and an iterative framework development process, we propose the concept of "ethical adoption": the deep integration of ethical principles into the design, development, deployment, and usage of technology. Ethical adoption is founded on five pillars, supported by empirical evidence: (1) inclusive participatory design; (2) emotional alignment; (3) adoption modelling; (4) ethical standards assessment; and (5) education and training. To close the gap between adoption research, ethics and practice, we propose a set of 18 practical recommendations based on these ethical adoption pillars. Through the implementation of these recommendations, researchers and technology developers alike will benefit from evidence-informed guidance to ensure their solution is adopted in a way that maximizes the benefits to people with dementia and their carers while minimizing possible harm. Copyright © 2018 the Alzheimer's Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An integrated framework for the optimisation of sport and athlete development: a practitioner approach.

PubMed

Gulbin, Jason P; Croser, Morag J; Morley, Elissa J; Weissensteiner, Juanita R

2013-01-01

This paper introduces a new sport and athlete development framework that has been generated by multidisciplinary sport practitioners. By combining current theoretical research perspectives with extensive empirical observations from one of the world's leading sport agencies, the proposed FTEM (Foundations, Talent, Elite, Mastery) framework offers broad utility to researchers and sporting stakeholders alike. FTEM is unique in comparison with alternative models and frameworks, because it: integrates general and specialised phases of development for participants within the active lifestyle, sport participation and sport excellence pathways; typically doubles the number of developmental phases (n = 10) in order to better understand athlete transition; avoids chronological and training prescriptions; more optimally establishes a continuum between participation and elite; and allows full inclusion of many developmental support drivers at the sport and system levels. The FTEM framework offers a viable and more flexible alternative for those sporting stakeholders interested in managing, optimising, and researching sport and athlete development pathways.

Verifying the secure setup of Unix client/servers and detection of network intrusion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Feingold, R.; Bruestle, H.R.; Bartoletti, T.

1995-07-01

This paper describes our technical approach to developing and delivering Unix host- and network-based security products to meet the increasing challenges in information security. Today`s global ``Infosphere`` presents us with a networked environment that knows no geographical, national, or temporal boundaries, and no ownership, laws, or identity cards. This seamless aggregation of computers, networks, databases, applications, and the like store, transmit, and process information. This information is now recognized as an asset to governments, corporations, and individuals alike. This information must be protected from misuse. The Security Profile Inspector (SPI) performs static analyses of Unix-based clients and servers to checkmore » on their security configuration. SPI`s broad range of security tests and flexible usage options support the needs of novice and expert system administrators alike. SPI`s use within the Department of Energy and Department of Defense has resulted in more secure systems, less vulnerable to hostile intentions. Host-based information protection techniques and tools must also be supported by network-based capabilities. Our experience shows that a weak link in a network of clients and servers presents itself sooner or later, and can be more readily identified by dynamic intrusion detection techniques and tools. The Network Intrusion Detector (NID) is one such tool. NID is designed to monitor and analyze activity on an Ethernet broadcast Local Area Network segment and produce transcripts of suspicious user connections. NID`s retrospective and real-time modes have proven invaluable to security officers faced with ongoing attacks to their systems and networks.« less

Specific Mutations in the PB2 Protein of Influenza A Virus Compensate for the Lack of Efficient Interferon Antagonism of the NS1 Protein of Bat Influenza A-Like Viruses.

PubMed

Aydillo, Teresa; Ayllon, Juan; Pavlisin, Amzie; Martinez-Romero, Carles; Tripathi, Shashank; Mena, Ignacio; Moreira-Soto, Andrés; Vicente-Santos, Amanda; Corrales-Aguilar, Eugenia; Schwemmle, Martin; García-Sastre, Adolfo

2018-04-01

Recently, two new influenza A-like viruses have been discovered in bats, A/little yellow-shouldered bat/Guatemala/060/2010 (HL17NL10) and A/flat-faced bat/Peru/033/2010 (HL18NL11). The hemagglutinin (HA)-like (HL) and neuraminidase (NA)-like (NL) proteins of these viruses lack hemagglutination and neuraminidase activities, despite their sequence and structural homologies with the HA and NA proteins of conventional influenza A viruses. We have now investigated whether the NS1 proteins of the HL17NL10 and HL18NL11 viruses can functionally replace the NS1 protein of a conventional influenza A virus. For this purpose, we generated recombinant influenza A/Puerto Rico/8/1934 (PR8) H1N1 viruses containing the NS1 protein of the PR8 wild-type, HL17NL10, and HL18NL11 viruses. These viruses (r/NS1PR8, r/NS1HL17, and r/NS1HL18, respectively) were tested for replication in bat and nonbat mammalian cells and in mice. Our results demonstrate that the r/NS1HL17 and r/NS1HL18 viruses are attenuated in vitro and in vivo However, the bat NS1 recombinant viruses showed a phenotype similar to that of the r/NS1PR8 virus in STAT1 -/- human A549 cells and mice, both in vitro and in vivo systems being unable to respond to interferon (IFN). Interestingly, multiple mouse passages of the r/NS1HL17 and r/NS1HL18 viruses resulted in selection of mutant viruses containing single amino acid mutations in the viral PB2 protein. In contrast to the parental viruses, virulence and IFN antagonism were restored in the selected PB2 mutants. Our results indicate that the NS1 protein of bat influenza A-like viruses is less efficient than the NS1 protein of its conventional influenza A virus NS1 counterpart in antagonizing the IFN response and that this deficiency can be overcome by the influenza virus PB2 protein. IMPORTANCE Significant gaps in our understanding of the basic features of the recently discovered bat influenza A-like viruses HL17NL10 and HL18NL11 remain. The basic biology of these unique viruses displays both similarities to and differences from the basic biology of conventional influenza A viruses. Here, we show that recombinant influenza A viruses containing the NS1 protein from HL17NL10 and HL18NL11 are attenuated. This attenuation was mediated by their inability to antagonize the type I IFN response. However, this deficiency could be compensated for by single amino acid replacements in the PB2 gene. Our results unravel a functional divergence between the NS1 proteins of bat influenza A-like and conventional influenza A viruses and demonstrate an interplay between the viral PB2 and NS1 proteins to antagonize IFN. Copyright © 2018 American Society for Microbiology.

Developed-developing country partnerships: Benefits to developed countries?

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Developing countries can generate effective solutions for today’s global health challenges. This paper reviews relevant literature to construct the case for international cooperation, and in particular, developed-developing country partnerships. Standard database and web-based searches were conducted for publications in English between 1990 and 2010. Studies containing full or partial data relating to international cooperation between developed and developing countries were retained for further analysis. Of 227 articles retained through initial screening, 65 were included in the final analysis. The results were two-fold: some articles pointed to intangible benefits accrued by developed country partners, but the majority of information pointed to developing country innovations that can potentially inform health systems in developed countries. This information spanned all six WHO health system components. Ten key health areas where developed countries have the most to learn from the developing world were identified and include, rural health service delivery; skills substitution; decentralisation of management; creative problem-solving; education in communicable disease control; innovation in mobile phone use; low technology simulation training; local product manufacture; health financing; and social entrepreneurship. While there are no guarantees that innovations from developing country experiences can effectively transfer to developed countries, combined developed-developing country learning processes can potentially generate effective solutions for global health systems. However, the global pool of knowledge in this area is virgin and further work needs to be undertaken to advance understanding of health innovation diffusion. Even more urgently, a standardized method for reporting partnership benefits is needed—this is perhaps the single most immediate need in planning for, and realizing, the full potential of international cooperation between developed and developing countries. PMID:22709651

All Sky Imager Network for Science and Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhatt, A.; Kendall, E. A.; Zalles, D. R.; Baumgardner, J. L.; Marshall, R. A.; Kaltenbacher, E.

2012-12-01

A new all sky imager network for space weather monitoring and education outreach has been developed by SRI International. The goal of this program is to install sensitive, low-light all-sky imagers across the continental United States to observe upper atmospheric airglow and aurora in near real time. While aurora borealis is often associated with the high latitudes, during intense geomagnetic storms it can extend well into the continental United States latitudes. Observing auroral processes is instrumental in understanding the space weather, especially in the times of increasing societal dependence on space-based technologies. Under the THEMIS satellite program, Canada has installed a network of all-sky imagers across their country to monitor aurora in real-time. However, no comparable effort exists in the United States. Knowledge of the aurora and airglow across the entire United States in near real time would allow scientists to quickly assess the impact of a geomagnetic storm in concert with data from GPS networks, ionosondes, radars, and magnetometers. What makes this effort unique is that we intend to deploy these imagers at high schools across the country. Selected high-schools will necessarily be in rural areas as the instrument requires dark night skies. At the commencement of the school year, we plan to give an introductory seminar on space weather at each of these schools. Science nuggets developed by SRI International in collaboration with the Center for GeoSpace Studies and the Center for Technology in Learning will be available for high school teachers to use during their science classes. Teachers can use these nuggets as desired within their own curricula. We intend to develop a comprehensive web-based interface that will be available for students and scientific community alike to observe data across the network in near real time and also to guide students towards complementary space weather data sets. This interface will show the real time extent of auroral precipitation. The all sky imager package is designed to be a low-budget self-contained scientific instrument. The schools will need to only provide power and internet. The external package is an insulated, heat-controlled box roughly 2'x2'x1' in dimension. Inside, an astronomy-grade monochromatic camera is coupled with telecentric optics and a narrowband filter designed for the wavelength of the airglow or auroral phenomena of interest. Thus far, a prototype instrument has been installed at the Pescadero High School in Pescadero, CA after testing and calibration at the McDonald Observatory in Texas. A science seminar was delivered and science nuggets are being tested in an introductory science class as well as an upper level astronomy course. This poster will show all of the above mentioned aspects of this project.

19 CFR 10.177 - Cost or value of materials produced in the beneficiary developing country.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

...) Wholly the growth, product, or manufacture of the beneficiary developing country; or (2) Substantially... beneficiary developing country. 10.177 Section 10.177 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION... produced in the beneficiary developing country. (a) “Produced in the beneficiary developing country...

19 CFR 10.177 - Cost or value of materials produced in the beneficiary developing country.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

...) Wholly the growth, product, or manufacture of the beneficiary developing country; or (2) Substantially... beneficiary developing country. 10.177 Section 10.177 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION... produced in the beneficiary developing country. (a) “Produced in the beneficiary developing country...

Assessing Social-Emotional Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rikoon, Samuel H.; Brenneman, Meghan W.; Petway, Kevin T., II

2016-01-01

While basic proficiency in mathematics, reading, and writing is essential, educators and parents alike would more likely list characteristics like perseverance, self-control, creativity, time management, leadership, conscientiousness, and being an effective collaborator when considering what is most important for success in school, work, and life.…

Reflections.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitmore, Kathryn F.; Norton-Meier, Lori A.

2000-01-01

Forms part of a themed issue describing "Parent-Kid-Teacher Investigators," a program in which parents, children, and teachers gather regularly to use language and literacy for action research projects. Discusses ways in which schools and families are alike in building a supportive environment for learning. Illustrates conditions contributing to…

Spotlight on Spelling.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardin County Board of Education, Elizabethtown, KY.

Word lists and class activities are suggested for improving the spelling of elementary school students. The word lists contain rhyming words, antonyms, synonyms, homonyms, 100 spelling demons, look-alike words that are easily confused, and content area words (for geography, mathematics, science, sports, music, social studies). The suggested…

Content in Native Literature Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grant, Agnes

Including Native literature in school curricula is an important way of enhancing the Native student's self-concept and providing accurate Native cultural knowledge to Native and non-Native students alike. Nevertheless, Canadian school literature programs generally contain neither contemporary nor traditional Native literature. Some programs…

PR Means Positive Results.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foree, Marilyn

1992-01-01

Describes the advantages of public relations to a school music program. Suggests that, to succeed, a music program must have the support of school administrators, teachers, parents, and students alike. Recommends means of attracting support from the four groups. Stresses the importance of effective local publicity. (SG)

Morphogenesis of the Terrarium

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brinker, Andrew

2012-01-01

Terrariums have decorated the shelves and counters of biology offices and classrooms for centuries. Living organisms inspire students and teachers alike. These wonderful ecosystems allow for both experimentation and observation of living systems. Here, I outline a new approach to building classroom terrariums. Historically, terrariums have been…

Many Ways of Knowing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canipe, Martha; Tolbert, Sara

2016-01-01

As institutions, science and science education alike have rarely included the perspectives and contributions of indigenous peoples pertaining to the natural world. Yet, people worldwide have benefited from the traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous communities. Western science and technology, though broadly worthwhile, have been a source…

Writing about Careers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zehring, John William

1979-01-01

There is no end to the voluminous need for information and resources. Career counselors and employers alike, an underutilized source, will find that free-lance writing is a way to extend their help to others, is a fulfilling avocation, and is a source of extra income. (Author)

A synthesized biophysical and social vulnerability assessment for Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Yung-Jaan

2017-11-01

Taiwan, located in the Western Pacific, is a country that is one of the most vulnerable to disasters that are associated with the changing climate; it is located within the Ring of Fire, which is the most geologically active region in the world. The environmental and geological conditions in Taiwan are sensitive and vulnerable to such disasters. Owing to increasing urbanization in Taiwan, floods and climate-related disasters have taken an increasing toll on human lives. As global warming accelerates the rising of sea levels and increasing of the frequency of extreme weather events, disasters will continue to affect socioeconomic development and human conditions. Under such circumstances, researchers and policymakers alike must recognize the importance of providing useful knowledge concerning vulnerability, disaster recovery and resilience. Strategies for reducing vulnerability and climate-related disaster risks and for increasing resilience involve preparedness, mitigation and adaptation. In the last two decades, extreme climate events have caused severe flash floods, debris flows, landslides, and other disasters and have had negative effects of many sectors, including agriculture, infrastructure and health. Since climate change is expected to have a continued impact on socio-economic development, this work develops a vulnerability assessment framework that integrates both biophysical and social vulnerability and supports synthesized vulnerability analyses to identify vulnerable areas in Taiwan. Owing to its geographical, geological and climatic features, Taiwan is susceptible to earthquakes, typhoons, droughts and various induced disasters. Therefore, Taiwan has the urgent task of establishing a framework for assessing vulnerability as a planning and policy tool that can be used to identify not only the regions that require special attention but also hotspots in which efforts should be made to reduce vulnerability and the risk of climate-related disaster. To analyze the biophysical vulnerability of Taiwan, hazards on eight maps from Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) are analyzed. Statistical data from the NCDR on social vulnerability are also adopted. Finally, a GIS overlaying method was used to perform the synthesized vulnerability analysis of biophysical and social vulnerability for municipalities and counties in Taiwan.

Suicide in developing countries (2): risk factors.

PubMed

Vijayakumar, Lakshmi; John, Sujit; Pirkis, Jane; Whiteford, Harvey

2005-01-01

The majority of studies on risk factors for suicide have been conducted in developed countries, and less work has been done to systematically profile risk factors in developing countries. The current paper presents a selective review of sociodemographic, clinical, and environmental/situational risk factors in developing countries. Taken together, the evidence suggests that the profiles of risk factors in developing countries demonstrate some differences from those in developed countries. In some developing countries, at least, being female, living in a rural area, and holding religious beliefs that sanction suicide may be of more relevance to suicide risk than these factors are in developed countries. Conversely, being single or having a history of mental illness may be of less relevance. Risk factors that appear to be universal include youth or old age, low socioeconomic standing, substance use, and previous suicide attempts. Recent stressful life events play a role in both developing and developed countries, although their nature may differ (e.g., social change may have more of an influence in the former). Likewise, access to means heightens risk in both, but the specific means may vary (e.g., access to pesticides is of more relevance in developing countries). These findings have clear implications for suicide prevention, suggesting that preventive efforts that have shown promise in developed countries may need to be tailored differently to address the risk factor profile of developing countries.

VIOLENCE AND NON-VIOLENCE-RELATED INJURIES AND ALCOHOL IN WOMEN FROM DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A MULTI-SITE EMERGENCY ROOM STUDY

PubMed Central

da Silva, Rosiane Lopes; Diehl, Alessandra; Cherpitel, Cheryl J.; Figlie, Neliana B.

2014-01-01

This study sought to analyze the association between alcohol consumption and the occurrence of injuries in women attending the emergency room (ER) from developing and developed countries. The sample consisted of ER data from women in 15 countries that were collected as part of two multi-site studies using similar methodologies: the Emergency Room Collaborative Alcohol Analysis Project (ERCAAP), and World Health Organization Collaborative Study on Alcohol and Injuries (WHO Study). Women ranged in age from 18 and 98 years. Those from developed countries had higher levels of education (43% completed high-school) than women from developing countries (37%). Over half of the women from developing countries reported they had not consumed alcohol in the last 12 months (abstentious), while 2% reported drinking every day. In addition, current drinking women from developing countries reported more binge drinking episodes (33% reported 5 to 11 drinks and 15% reported 12 or more drinks on an occasion) compared to those from developed countries (28% and 11%, respectively). Violence-related injury was more prevalent in developing countries (18%) compared to developed countries (9%). An association between injury and the frequency of alcohol consumption in the last 12 months was observed in both developing and developed countries. Although women from developing countries who suffered violence-related injuries were more likely to demonstrate alcohol abstinence or have lower rates of daily alcohol consumption, these women drank in a more dangerous way, and violence-related injuries were more likely to occur in these women than in those living in developed countries. PMID:25452073

[State of the world population, 1986].

PubMed

1987-01-01

The majority of the world population will soon reside in urban areas. At present, over 40% of the world's people are urban, and 50% will be urban soon after the year 2000. The proportion urban in developed countries has exceeded 50% since the mid-20th century, and in developing countries this level will be reached in the 1st quarter of the next century. Developing countries in Asia and Africa have less than 30% of their population urban. While over 70% of Latin America's population is urban. Within the next 50 years, the predominantly rural character of the developing countries will disappear forever. Currently the majority of the world's urban population lives in developing countries. In 1970, 695 million urban dwellers were in developed countries vs. 666 million in developing countries, but by 1985, there were only 849 million urban dwellers in developed countries vs. 1164 million in developing countries. By the year 2025, there will be nearly 4 times as many urban dwellers in developing countries. An increasing proportion of the urban population will reside in the largest cities. Around 2025, almost 30% of the urban population in developing countries will live in cities of over 4 million. Around 2000 there will be 5 cities of 15 million or more, 3 of them in developing countries. The proportion of the 20 largest cities in developing countries will increase from 9 in 1970 to 16 in 2000. The close relationship between city size and economic development that existed until the recent past is disappearing. It is possible that the very largest cities will no longer be at the center of international political and economic networks. Many developing countries will have to develop plans for cities of sizes never imagined in the developed countries of today. High rates of population increase in the developing countries are an inseparable aspect of their urbanization. Growth of the urban population in developing countries will continue to be rapid until well into the 21st century. The world rate of urban growth will continue to be about 2.5%/year during the 1st quarter of sthe 21st century. The annual rate of urban growth is 3.5% in developing countries and is highest in Africa, especially West Africa where it reaches 6.5%/year. Despite migration to cities, the rural population in developing countries will continue to grow at a rate of about 1%/year through the end of the century. In many rural areas, population density is already very high, and continued growth will hamper efforts to reduce urban migration. In developing countries, the increase in the urban population is due more to natural increase than to migration.

An international analysis of cigarette affordability

PubMed Central

Blecher, E; van Walbeek, C P

2004-01-01

Objective: To investigate how affordable cigarettes are in developed and developing countries, and to calculate by how much the affordability of cigarettes has changed between 1990 and 2001; and secondly, to investigate the relation between cigarette affordability and consumption. Design: Affordability was defined as the cost of cigarettes relative to per capita income. Trends in cigarette affordability, and affordability elasticities of demand, were estimated using regression techniques. Subjects: Seventy countries were investigated, of which 28 are categorised as high income developed countries, while 42 are categorised as developing countries. Cigarette prices were obtained for the main city/cities in the countries. Results: Despite the fact that cigarettes are more expensive in developed countries, the high levels of income make cigarettes more affordable in these countries vis-à-vis developing countries. Of the 28 developed countries, cigarettes became more affordable in 11 and less affordable in 17 countries during the 1990s. Of the 42 developing countries, cigarettes became more affordable in 24 and less affordable in 18 countries. Based on a cross sectional analysis, a 1% increase in the relative income price (the inverse of cigarette affordability) is expected to decrease cigarette consumption by between 0.49–0.57%. Conclusions: Cigarette affordability, more than just the price, determines cigarette consumption. While cigarettes have become more affordable in many developing countries, some developing countries (for example, South Africa, Poland, and Thailand) have implemented strong and effective tobacco control policies, and have been able to decrease cigarette consumption as a result. PMID:15564616

Alien or Alike? How the Perceived Similarity Between the Typical Science Teacher and a Student's Self-Image Correlates with Choosing Science at School

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kessels, Ursula; Taconis, Ruurd

2012-12-01

By applying the self-to-prototype matching theory to students' academic choices, this study links the unpopularity of science in many industrialized countries with the perceived gap between typical persons representing science (e.g. physics teachers) on the one hand and students' self-image on the other. A sample of N = 308 Dutch and German students described both themselves and typical teachers representing different school subjects using 65 trait adjectives. The following hypotheses were tested: The typical hard sciences teacher and the typical languages teacher will be perceived as differing in their personal characteristics. The typical physics teachers will be perceived as being less similar to students' own self-image than teachers representing languages. Actual choices students make during secondary school should correlate with the perceived fit between students' self-image and the prototype of teachers representing different school subjects, especially in the less frequent and less popular choices of a math or physics major/profile. The findings supported these hypotheses. The discussion stresses that students acquire not only knowledge about science but also about science culture (sensu Aikenhead) in their science classes and that students' image of science teachers can influence their academic choices.

Birth-cohort patterns in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

PubMed

Sonnenberg, Amnon

2014-01-01

To test the long-term time trends of mortality from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), for the presence of birth-cohort phenomena. We analyzed mortality data from the national statistical offices of Canada, England and Wales, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the USA for the past 60-80 years. Age-specific rates of death were plotted against the period of death, as period-age contours, and against the period of birth, as cohort-age contours. In all six countries alike, the general time trends of IBD have been shaped by an underlying birth-cohort pattern. This pattern was also observed in the data of CD and UC analyzed separately. UC mortality increased in all generations born during the 19th century. It peaked among generations born shortly before the turn of the century and then decreased in all subsequent generations born throughout the 20th century. Compared with UC, the birth-cohort pattern of CD was delayed by 30-50 years. In addition to one risk factor responsible for the general occurrence of IBD and possibly UC alone, there exists at least one additional risk factor responsible for CD. Exposure to both separate risk factors must occur during early life.

Zombie projects, negative networks, and multigenerational science: The temporality of the International Map of the World.

PubMed

Rankin, William

2017-06-01

The International Map of the World was a hugely ambitious scheme to create standardized maps of the entire world. It was first proposed in 1891 and remained a going concern until 1986. Over the course of the project's official life, nearly every country in the world took part, and map sheets were published showing all but a few areas of the planet. But the project ended quite unceremoniously, repudiated by cartographers and mapping institutions alike, and it is now remembered as a 'sad story' of network failure. How can we evaluate this kind of sprawling, multigenerational project? In order to move beyond practitioners' (and historians') habit of summarizing the entire endeavor using the blunt categories of success and failure, I propose a more temporally aware reading, one that both disaggregates the (persistent) project from the (always changing) network and sees project and network as invertible, with the possibility of zombie projects and negative networks that can remain robust even when disconnected from their original goals. I therefore see the abandonment of the International Map of the World as resulting from vigorous collaboration and new norms in cartography, not from lack of cooperation or other resources. New categories are required for analyzing science over the long durée.

Best practice for obesity and weight management: finding success through linking effective gastric bypass surgery policy and health management.

PubMed

Foust, Robin F; Burke, Rosemary; Gordon, Neil

2006-06-01

Obesity is a health issue of epidemic proportions in the United States, creating a health and financial burden for Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial populations alike. While obesity has been linked to an increased risk for any number of health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers, even a moderate weight loss can mitigate some of the negative medical consequences of unhealthy weight. Obese individuals are often unsuccessful at meeting their weight loss goals for a variety of reasons. Many are increasingly looking to gastric bypass surgery as an easy-fix weight loss solution without fully addressing underlying issues for the original weight gain and failures with previous attempts to lose weight. Because of this, over the past five years an increase in gastric bypass surgeries has resulted in cases with poor outcomes and a subsequent reaction by health plans and employers across the country to eliminate coverage. Others have determined that, while exclusion is not the answer, neither is coverage as standard policies allow. Instead, these groups are opting to implement best practice programs that merge individualized counseling, nutritional education/ planning, and physical activity goals with specific policy changes. Evidence has shown that they are achieving success in managing obesity and its impact on healthcare costs and outcomes.

Reasons for Intrauterine Device Use, Discontinuation and Non-Use in Malawi: A Qualitative Study of Women and their Partners.

PubMed

Bryant, Amy G; Hamela, Gloria; Gotter, Ann; Stuart, Gretchen S; Kamanga, Gift

2015-12-01

The copper intrauterine device (IUD) is a safe, long-acting, and effective method of contraception that is under-utilized in many countries, including Malawi. A unique cohort of women who had enrolled in a trial of postpartum IUD use one year earlier gave insights into reasons for using, discontinuing, or not using the IUD. We conducted in-depth interviews with 18 women one year after they participated in a pilot study of a randomized controlled trial of postpartum IUD insertion, and 10 of their male partners. Women and their partners expressed a strong desire for family planning, and perceived numerous benefits of the IUD. However, fear of the IUD was common among successful users and non-users alike. This fear arose from rumours from friends and neighbors who were non-users. How women and their partners responded to this fear affected IUD adoption and continuation. Key themes included (1) Trust in information received from health care providers versus rumours from community members; (2) Partner involvement in IUD decision-making; and (3) Experience with side effects from short-term hormonal contraceptive methods. Broad community education about the IUD's benefits and safety, and proactive counseling to address couples' specific fears, may be needed to increase uptake of the method.

Unemployment, public-sector healthcare expenditure and colorectal cancer mortality in the European Union: 1990-2009.

PubMed

Maruthappu, Mahiben; Watson, Robert A; Watkins, Johnathan; Williams, Callum; Zeltner, Thomas; Faiz, Omar; Ali, Raghib; Atun, Rifat

2016-01-01

We examined the association between unemployment and government spending on healthcare with colorectal cancer mortality. Retrospective observational study using data from the World Bank and WHO. Multivariate regression analysis was used, controlling for country-specific differences in infrastructure and demographics. A 1 % increase in unemployment was associated with a significant increase in colorectal cancer mortality in both men and women [men: coefficient (R) = 0.0995, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.0132-0.1858, P = 0.024; women: R = 0.0742, 95 % CI 0.0160-0.1324, P = 0.013]. A 1 % increase in government spending on healthcare was associated with a statistically significant decrease in colorectal cancer mortality across both sexes (men: R = -0.4307, 95 % CI -0.6057 to -0.2557, P < 0.001; women: R = -0.2162, 95 % CI -0.3407 to -0.0917, P = 0.001). The largest changes in mortality occurred 3-4 years following changes in either economic variable. Unemployment rises are associated with a significant increase in colorectal cancer mortality, whilst government healthcare spending rises are associated with falling mortality. This is likely due, in part, to reduced access to healthcare services and has major implications for clinicians and policy makers alike.

Public or private? The role of the state and civil society in health and health inequalities across nations.

PubMed

Olafsdottir, Sigrun; Bakhtiari, Elyas; Barman, Emily

2014-12-01

Social scientists have long recognized that macro-level factors have the potential to shape the health of populations and individuals. Along these lines, they have theorized about the role of the welfare state in creating more equal opportunities and outcomes and how this intervention may benefit health. More recently, scholars and policymakers alike have pointed out how the involvement of civil society actors may replace or complement any state effort. Using data from the World Values Surveys and the European Values Study, combined with national-level indicators for welfare state and civil society involvement, we test the impact of each sector on health and health inequalities in 25 countries around the world. We find that both have a statistically significant effect on overall health, but the civil society sector may have a greater independent influence in societies with weaker welfare states. The health inequalities results are less conclusive, but suggest a strong civil society may be particularly beneficial to vulnerable populations, such as the low income and unemployed. Our paper represents an early step in providing empirical evidence for the impact of the welfare state and civil society on health and health inequalities. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

At the crossroads: new paradigms of food security, public health nutrition and school food.

PubMed

Ashe, Leah M; Sonnino, Roberta

2013-06-01

Public health nutrition sits at the nexus of a global crisis in food, environmental and health systems that has generated - along with numerous other problems - an urgent and changing problem of food insecurity. The 'new' food insecurity, however, is different from the old: it is bimodal, encompassing issues of both under- and over-consumption, hunger and obesity, quantity and quality; it has assumed a decidedly urban dimension; and it implicates rich and poor countries alike. The complexity of the expressions of this challenge requires new approaches to public health nutrition and food policy that privilege systemic, structural and environmental factors over individual and mechanistic ones. In this context, the current paper argues that school food systems rise with buoyant potential as promising intervention sites: they are poised to address both modes of the food security crisis; integrate systemic, structural and environmental with behavioural approaches; and comprise far-reaching, system-wide efforts that influence the wider functioning of the food system. Based on a discussion of Bogotá and other pioneering policies that explicitly aim to create a broader food system with long-term foundations for good public health and food security, the paper suggests a new research and action agenda that gives special attention to school food in urban contexts.

Country of Origin and Country of Service Delivery Effects in Transnational Higher Education: A Comparison of International Branch Campuses from Developed and Developing Nations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chee, Chiu Mei; Butt, Muhammad Mohsin; Wilkins, Stephen; Ong, Fon Sim

2016-01-01

Over the last decade, international branch campuses have been established by universities from developing countries as well as developed countries. Little research has been conducted into students' perceptions of branch campuses from different countries, or how universities from different countries compete in the increasingly competitive market. A…

Disparities in Under-Five Child Injury Mortality between Developing and Developed Countries: 1990-2013.

PubMed

Huang, Yun; Wu, Yue; Schwebel, David C; Zhou, Liang; Hu, Guoqing

2016-07-07

Using estimates from the 2013 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, we update evidence on disparities in under-five child injury mortality between developing and developed countries from 1990 to 2013. Mortality rates were accessed through the online visualization tool by the GBD study 2013 group. We calculated percent change in child injury mortality rates between 1990 and 2013. Data analysis was conducted separately for <1 year and 1-4 years to specify age differences in rate changes. Between 1990 and 2013, over 3-fold mortality gaps were observed between developing countries and developed countries for both age groups in the study time period. Similar decreases in injury rates were observed for developed and developing countries (<1 year: -50% vs. -50% respectively; 1-4 years: -56% vs. -58%). Differences in injury mortality changes during 1990-2013 between developing and developed nations varied with injury cause. There were greater reductions in mortality from transport injury, falls, poisoning, adverse effects of medical treatment, exposure to forces of nature, and collective violence and legal intervention in developed countries, whereas there were larger decreases in mortality from drowning, exposure to mechanical forces, and animal contact in developing countries. Country-specific analysis showed large variations across countries for both injury mortality and changes in injury mortality between 1990 and 2013. Sustained higher child injury mortality during 1990-2013 for developing countries merits the attention of the global injury prevention community. Countries that have high injury mortality can benefit from the success of other countries.

Hopi Doll Look-Alikes: An Extended Definition of Inauthenticity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pearlstone, Zena

2011-01-01

This essay is a short history of imitation "tithu," dolls representing "katsinam," the Hopi supernaturals. It is a study of "authenticity" in the marketplace and its perceived relation to "magic," "spirituality," and "antiquity," as the article follows early changes at Hopi through the…

Music in Motion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olson, Catherine Applefeld

2008-01-01

Travel of any sort--to performances, competitions, or other events--can be a bonding, life-broadening experience for students and teachers alike. For students, travel offers unparalleled learning opportunities. However, for teachers, travel can sometimes be a logistical nightmare. Gearing up for trips requires plenty of advance planning, precise…

Securing Cyber Acquisitions

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-02-01

networking provides 24-hour access to data and information between friends and strangers alike. Technology also has played a significant role in the world’s...economic environment, many or- ganizations look at cyber budgets as areas to cut back. And many top-level managers and members of the acquisition

Sleep Deprivation and Exercise Tolerance.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-01-01

thermoneutral environment) is alike unchanged by loss of sleep. 5) Seven subjects were allowed to exercise to thermal comfort in a very cold (OC, 2.5...Subjects selected identical work loads for thermal comfort , and became exhausted/miserable after similar period of exposure. Physiologi- cal response and

A ward without patients.

PubMed

1988-01-02

Walk into Brooke ward and it doesn't feel like a ward at all. There are bright-coloured bedspreads, cuddly toys everywhere, a 1930s ball gown hangs above one of the lockers. And of course, there's Emma, the ward cat - continually fussed over by nurses and residents alike.

E-Commerce Comes Slowly But Surely to Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Revenaugh, Mickey

2000-01-01

Discusses why e-commerce is being used so sparingly by big business and school purchasers alike, the benefits on going on-line for school buyers, and the integration of e-commerce with the district's accounting and management information systems. Available online services are detailed. (GR)

Strategies for Increasing Academic Achievement in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ensign, Julene; Woods, Amelia Mays

2014-01-01

Higher education today faces unique challenges. Decreasing student engagement, increasing diversity, and limited resources all contribute to the issues being faced by students, educators, and administrators alike. The unique characteristics and expectations that students bring to their professional programs require new methods of addressing…

Pieces and Parts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Deborah A.; Ellis, Edith B.

2006-01-01

Although critical to understanding human sexuality and reproductive physiology, the male and female reproductive anatomy is often minimally covered by teachers. For teachers and students alike, it is often an embarrassing topic to discuss. This activity allows students and teachers to identify the parts of both reproductive systems with little…

No Safety Net Required

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benigni, Mark D.; Moylan, Maureen

2009-01-01

This article discusses the Berlin (Connecticut) High School's NET (Non-Traditional Educational Training) program. NET is a self-contained program that is composed of three components: academics, social and emotional support, and vocational training. Rather than treat students alike, the NET program tailors their high school experience to meet…

Do Portfolios Have a Future?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Driessen, Erik

2017-01-01

While portfolios have seen an unprecedented surge in popularity, they have also become the subject of controversy: learners often perceive little gain from writing reflections as part of their portfolios; scholars question the ethics of such obligatory reflection; and students, residents, teachers and scholars alike condemn the bureaucracy…

3 CFR 8758 - Proclamation 8758 of November 18, 2011. National Child’s Day, 2011

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act last year. We also launched MyPlate, a new food icon that can guide children and adults alike on healthy portions as they choose their next meal. These efforts go hand-in-hand...

Paraganglioma of the larynx. A case report and clinical review.

PubMed

Shipton, E A; van der Linde, J C

1984-02-04

An 8-year-old Black boy recently underwent surgery for the excision of a non-chromaffin laryngeal paraganglioma. The peri-operative management of this patient is presented. The specific problems involved and their importance to the anaesthesiologist and surgeon alike are discussed.

Alkalinity and hardness: Critical but elusive concepts in aquaculture

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Total alkalinity and total hardness are familiar variables to those involved in aquatic animal production. Aquaculturists – both scientists and practitioners alike – tend to have some understanding of the two variables and of methods for adjusting their concentrations. The chemistry and the biolog...

Acute otitis media guidelines in selected developed and developing countries: uniformity and diversity.

PubMed

Ovnat Tamir, Sharon; Shemesh, Shay; Oron, Yahav; Marom, Tal

2017-05-01

Acute otitis media (AOM) is a common childhood disease, with an enormous economic and healthcare-related burden. Guidelines and consensus papers for AOM diagnosis and management were published in many countries. Our objective was to study the differences and similarities between these protocols in developing and developed countries. The keywords: 'acute otitis media' AND 'children' AND ['treatment' or 'management'] AND ['guideline' or 'consensus'] were used in various electronic databases between 1 January 1989 through 31 December 2015. Overall, 99 sources from 62 countries were retrieved: 53 from 22 developed countries, and 46 from 40 developing countries. Representative guidelines from America (the USA, Argentina), Europe (Italy, Moldova), Africa (South Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia), Asia (Japan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka),and Oceania (South Australia, Fiji) were compared. Paediatric societies publish guidelines in most developed countries; in developing countries, the Ministry of Health usually initiates guideline formulation. Most guidelines use the same diagnostic criteria and offer watchful waiting in mild-moderate scenarios. Amoxicillin is the suggested first-line antibiotic, whereas options for second-line and third-line therapies vary. Duration of therapy varies and is usually age dependent: 5-7 days for children <2 years and 10 days for children >2 years in developed countries, while duration and age groups vary greatly in developing countries. Reduction of AOM risk factors is encouraged in developed countries, but rarely in developing countries. Guidelines for AOM from developing and developed countries are similar in many aspects, with variation in specific recommendations, due to local epidemiology and healthcare accessibility. Formulation of regional guidelines may help reduce AOM burden. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Demand for abortion and post abortion care in Ibadan, Nigeria.

PubMed

Awoyemi, Bosede O; Novignon, Jacob

2014-01-01

While induced abortion is considered to be illegal and socially unacceptable in Nigeria, it is still practiced by many women in the country. Poor family planning and unsafe abortion practices have daunting effects on maternal health. For instance, Nigeria is on the verge of not meeting the Millennium development goals on maternal health due to high maternal mortality ratio, estimated to be about 630 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Recent evidences have shown that a major factor in this trend is the high incidence of abortion in the country. The objective of this paper is, therefore, to investigate the factors determining the demand for abortion and post-abortion care in Ibadan city of Nigeria. The study employed data from a hospital-based/exploratory survey carried out between March to September 2010. Closed ended questionnaires were administered to a sample of 384 women of reproductive age from three hospitals within the Ibadan metropolis in South West Nigeria. However, only 308 valid responses were received and analysed. A probit model was fitted to determine the socioeconomic factors that influence demand for abortion and post-abortion care. The results showed that 62% of respondents demanded for abortion while 52.3% of those that demanded for abortion received post-abortion care. The findings again showed that income was a significant determinant of abortion and post-abortion care demand. Women with higher income were more likely to demand abortion and post-abortion care. Married women were found to be less likely to demand for abortion and post-abortion care. Older women were significantly less likely to demand for abortion and post-abortion care. Mothers' education was only statistically significant in determining abortion demand but not post-abortion care demand. The findings suggest that while abortion is illegal in Nigeria, some women in the Ibadan city do abort unwanted pregnancies. The consequence of this in the absence of proper post-abortion care is daunting. There is the need for policymakers to intensify public education against indiscriminate abortion and to reduce unwanted pregnancies. In effect, there is need for effective alternative family planning methods. This is likely to reduce the demand for abortion. Further, with income found as a major constraint, post abortion services should be made accessible to both the rich and poor alike so as to prevent unnecessary maternal deaths as a result of abortion related complications.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Marshall, Rachael E., E-mail: rmarsh01@uoguelph.ca; Farahbakhsh, Khosrow, E-mail: khosrowf@uoguelph.ca

Highlights: ► Five drivers led developed countries to current solid waste management paradigm. ► Many unique factors challenge developing country solid waste management. ► Limited transferability of developed country approaches to developing countries. ► High uncertainties and decision stakes call for post-normal approaches. ► Systems thinking needed for multi-scale, self-organizing eco-social waste systems. - Abstract: Solid waste management (SWM) has become an issue of increasing global concern as urban populations continue to rise and consumption patterns change. The health and environmental implications associated with SWM are mounting in urgency, particularly in the context of developing countries. While systems analyses largelymore » targeting well-defined, engineered systems have been used to help SWM agencies in industrialized countries since the 1960s, collection and removal dominate the SWM sector in developing countries. This review contrasts the history and current paradigms of SWM practices and policies in industrialized countries with the current challenges and complexities faced in developing country SWM. In industrialized countries, public health, environment, resource scarcity, climate change, and public awareness and participation have acted as SWM drivers towards the current paradigm of integrated SWM. However, urbanization, inequality, and economic growth; cultural and socio-economic aspects; policy, governance, and institutional issues; and international influences have complicated SWM in developing countries. This has limited the applicability of approaches that were successful along the SWM development trajectories of industrialized countries. This review demonstrates the importance of founding new SWM approaches for developing country contexts in post-normal science and complex, adaptive systems thinking.« less

GIS Based Application of Advanced Traveler Information System in India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, P.; Singh, V.

2012-02-01

Developed countries like USA, Canada, Japan, UK, Australia and Germany have adopted advanced traveler information technologies expeditiously in comparison to developing countries. But, unlike developed countries, developing countries face considerable financial and framework constraints. Moreover local traffic, roadway, signalization, demographic, topological and social conditions in developing countries are quite different from those in developed countries. In this paper, a comprehensive framework comprising of system architecture, development methodology and salient features of a developed Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) for metropolitan cities in developing countries has been discussed. Development of proposed system is based on integration of two well known information technologies viz. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and World Wide Web (WWW). Combination of these technologies can be utilized to develop an integrated ATIS that targets different types of travelers like private vehicle owners, transit users and casual outside visitors.

[The informed consent in international clinical trials including developing countries].

PubMed

Montenegro Surís, Alexander; Monreal Agüero, Magda Elaine

2008-01-01

The informed consent procedure has been one of the most important controversies of ethical debates about clinical trials in developing countries. In this essay we present our recommendations about important aspects to consider in the informed consent procedure for clinical trials in developing countries. We performed a full publications review identified by MEDLINE using these terms combinations: informed consent, developing countries, less developed countries and clinical trials. To protect volunteers in less developed countries should be valuated the importance of the community in the informed consent proceeding. The signing and dating of the informed consent form is not always the best procedure to document the informed consent. The informed consent form should be written by local translators. Alternative medias of communications could be needed for communicatios of the information to volunteers. Comparing with developed countries the informed consent proceeding in clinical trials in developing countries frequently require additional efforts. The developing of pragmatic researches is needed to implement informed consent proceedings assuring subjects voluntarily in each developing country. The main aspects to define in each clinical trial for each country are the influence of the community, the effective communication of the information, the documentation of the informed consent and local authority's control.

Short forms of the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP) for self- and collateral ratings: development, reliability, and validity.

PubMed

Harlan, E; Clark, L A

1999-06-01

Researchers and clinicians alike increasingly seek brief, reliable, and valid measures to obtain personality trait ratings from both selves and peers. We report the development of a paragraph-descriptor short form of a full-length personality assessment instrument, the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP) with both self- and other versions. Reliability and validity data were collected on a sample of 294 college students, from 90 of whom we also obtained parental ratings of their personality. Internal consistency reliability was good in both self- and parent data. The factorial structures of the self-report short and long forms were very similar. Convergence between parental ratings was moderately high. Self-parent convergence was variable, with lower agreement on scales assessing subjective distress than those assessing more observable behaviors; it also was stronger for higher order factors than for scales.

A Bayesian paradigm for decision-making in proof-of-concept trials.

PubMed

Pulkstenis, Erik; Patra, Kaushik; Zhang, Jianliang

2017-01-01

Decision-making is central to every phase of drug development, and especially at the proof of concept stage where risk and evidence must be weighed carefully, often in the presence of significant uncertainty. The decision to proceed or not to large expensive Phase 3 trials has significant implications to both patients and sponsors alike. Recent experience has shown that Phase 3 failure rates remain high. We present a flexible Bayesian quantitative decision-making paradigm that evaluates evidence relative to achieving a multilevel target product profile. A framework for operating characteristics is provided that allows the drug developer to design a proof-of-concept trial in light of its ability to support decision-making rather than merely achieve statistical significance. Operating characteristics are shown to be superior to traditional p-value-based methods. In addition, discussion related to sample size considerations, application to interim futility analysis and incorporation of prior historical information is evaluated.

Large Scale Production of Stem Cells and Their Derivatives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zweigerdt, Robert

Stem cells have been envisioned to become an unlimited cell source for regenerative medicine. Notably, the interest in stem cells lies beyond direct therapeutic applications. They might also provide a previously unavailable source of valuable human cell types for screening platforms, which might facilitate the development of more efficient and safer drugs. The heterogeneity of stem cell types as well as the numerous areas of application suggests that differential processes are mandatory for their in vitro culture. Many of the envisioned applications would require the production of a high number of stem cells and their derivatives in scalable, well-defined and potentially clinical compliant manner under current good manufacturing practice (cGMP). In this review we provide an overview on recent strategies to develop bioprocesses for the expansion, differentiation and enrichment of stem cells and their progenies, presenting examples for adult and embryonic stem cells alike.

Living on pyrrolic foundations - Advances in natural and artificial bioactive pyrrole derivatives.

PubMed

Domagala, Anna; Jarosz, Tomasz; Lapkowski, Mieczyslaw

2015-07-15

Pyrrole, a simple heterocyclic system, is an important building block for numerous biologically active compounds both natural and synthetic in origin, which boast an immense array of qualities, baleful and beneficial alike. The latter have given rise to a bountiful variety of pyrrole-based drugs, with many more being designed, developed and applied each year, as evidenced by the amount of entries in the Cambridge Structural Database skyrocketing from about six hundred in 2004 to more than a thousand over the course of the last decade. Particularly important in light of the ever-encroaching menace of drug-resistant bacteria, the vast progress in the field necessitates a sound organisational framework and summary - a task, to which we contribute this summary and checklist of the most recent developments, indicating the classes of compounds, which have attracted the most significant research attention. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Interpretation of coagulation test results using a web-based reporting system.

PubMed

Quesada, Andres E; Jabcuga, Christine E; Nguyen, Alex; Wahed, Amer; Nedelcu, Elena; Nguyen, Andy N D

2014-01-01

Web-based synoptic reporting has been successfully integrated into diverse fields of pathology, improving efficiency and reducing typographic errors. Coagulation is a challenging field for practicing pathologists and pathologists-in-training alike. To develop a Web-based program that can expedite the generation of a individualized interpretive report for a variety of coagulation tests. We developed a Web-based synoptic reporting system composed of 119 coagulation report templates and 38 thromboelastography (TEG) report templates covering a wide range of findings. Our institution implemented this reporting system in July 2011; it is currently used by pathology residents and attending pathologists. Feedback from the users of these reports have been overwhelmingly positive. Surveys note the time saved and reduced errors. Our easily accessible, user-friendly, Web-based synoptic reporting system for coagulation is a valuable asset to our laboratory services. Copyright© by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP).

Research Program on Type 1 Diabetes and Youth Depression in Puerto Rico

PubMed Central

Cumba-Avilés, Eduardo; Sáez-Santiago, Emily

2016-01-01

This work reviews the progress and current state of a research program on Diabetes and youth depression in Puerto Rico. Given the high depression rate, its impact in youth with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), and the lack of interventions to target this link in an integrative way, the manual titled Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Depression in Adolescents with T1D was developed. After its first use in an Open Trial, we currently assess the initial efficacy of its revised version to reduce depression and improve glycemic control, self-care, and quality of life. We present its approach, and initial data on its feasibility, acceptability and potential to reduce emotional problems in T1D youth. We discuss implications of this line of research for health psychology, and its utility to model the development of interventions alike focused on other chronic illnesses. PMID:27818725

[Military psychiatry in Israel: a 50-year perspective].

PubMed

Bleich, A

2000-05-01

The history of military psychiatry in Israel may be divided into 2 main periods. The first extended from the War of Independence in 1948, through the Sinai, Six Day and Yom Kippur Wars. Its outstanding feature was avoidance of the issue of combat stress reaction (CSR). The Yom Kippur War made the recognition of CSR inescapable, assisted in breaking up denial, and served as a stimulus for development of the next phase of the system. This second phase was characterized by impressive progress in all areas of military psychiatry. The rich experience accumulated during the wars, together with the assimilation of a research culture which began blooming, especially in the wake of the Lebanon War, aided the development and crystallization of concepts related to combat and non-combat military psychiatry alike. The build-up of the mental health organization overlapped field deployment of the Medical Corps.

Research Program on Type 1 Diabetes and Youth Depression in Puerto Rico.

PubMed

Cumba-Avilés, Eduardo; Sáez-Santiago, Emily

2016-01-01

This work reviews the progress and current state of a research program on Diabetes and youth depression in Puerto Rico. Given the high depression rate, its impact in youth with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), and the lack of interventions to target this link in an integrative way, the manual titled Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Depression in Adolescents with T1D was developed. After its first use in an Open Trial, we currently assess the initial efficacy of its revised version to reduce depression and improve glycemic control, self-care, and quality of life. We present its approach, and initial data on its feasibility, acceptability and potential to reduce emotional problems in T1D youth. We discuss implications of this line of research for health psychology, and its utility to model the development of interventions alike focused on other chronic illnesses.

Pathways to Third-Grade Calculation Versus Word-Reading Competence: Are They More Alike or Different?

PubMed

Fuchs, Lynn S; Geary, David C; Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L; Hamlett, Carol L

2016-01-01

Children (n = 747; 6.5 years) were assessed on domain-general processes and mathematics and reading-related competencies (start of first grade), addition retrieval (end of second grade), and calculations and word reading (end of third grade). Attentive behavior, reasoning, visuospatial memory, and rapid automatized naming (RAN) indirectly contributed to both outcomes, via retrieval. However, there was no overlap in domain-general direct effects on calculations (attentive behavior, reasoning, working memory) versus word reading (language, phonological memory, RAN). Results suggest ease of forming associative relations and abilities engaged during the formation of these long-term memories are common to both outcomes and can be indexed by addition-fact retrieval, but further growth in calculations and word reading is driven by different constellations of domain-general abilities. © 2015 The Authors. Child Development © 2015 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

NDFOM Description for DNDO Summer Internship Program

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Budden, Brent Scott

2017-12-01

Nuclear Detection Figure of Merit (NDFOM) is a DNDO-funded project at LANL to develop a software framework that allows a user to evaluate a radiation detection scenario of interest, quickly obtaining results on detector performance. It is intended as a “first step” in detector performance assessment, and meant to be easily employed by subject matter experts (SMEs) and non-SMEs alike. The generic scenario consists of a potential source moving past a detector at a relative velocity and with a distance of closest approach. Such a scenario is capable of describing, e.g., vehicles driving through portal monitors, border patrol scanning suspectedmore » illicit materials with a handheld instrument, and first responders with backpackor pager-based detectors (see Fig. 1). The backend library is prepopulated by the NDFOM developers to include sources and detectors of interest to DNDO and its community.« less

[Antibiotic consumption and antimicrobial resistance in human and veterinary medicine : An overview of established national surveillance systems in Germany].

PubMed

Noll, Ines; Schweickert, Birgitta; Tenhagen, Bernd-Alois; Käsbohrer, Annemarie

2018-05-01

The German Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy (DART) assigns a key role in combatting and reducing the further development and spread of antimicrobial resistance to the setup and development of instruments for the monitoring and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic consumption. The strategy follows the One Health approach, which targets human and veterinary medicine alike. An ongoing collection of appropriate data on antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic consumption and its distribution in time and space, will provide the basis for the identification of problems, the deduction of interventions, and finally the evaluation of their effectiveness. This article presents an overview of established surveillance systems in human and veterinary medicine with a national scope, including those that enable Germany to meet its own legal commitments as well as those within European and international action plans.

78 FR 22593 - Generalized System of Preferences (GSP): Initiation of a Review of the Union of Burma and the Lao...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-16

...) as beneficiary developing countries under the GSP program, and, if designated, whether either country...-preference-gsp/gsp-program-inf . Burma was previously designated a beneficiary developing country under GSP...-developed country beneficiary developing country for purposes of the GSP program. Submissions should not...

Proteomics data repositories

PubMed Central

Riffle, Michael; Eng, Jimmy K.

2010-01-01

The field of proteomics, particularly the application of mass spectrometry analysis to protein samples, is well-established and growing rapidly. Proteomics studies generate large volumes of raw experimental data and inferred biological results. To facilitate the dissemination of these data, centralized data repositories have been developed that make the data and results accessible to proteomics researchers and biologists alike. This review of proteomics data repositories focuses exclusively on freely-available, centralized data resources that disseminate or store experimental mass spectrometry data and results. The resources chosen reflect a current “snapshot” of the state of resources available with an emphasis placed on resources that may be of particular interest to yeast researchers. Resources are described in terms of their intended purpose and the features and functionality provided to users. PMID:19795424

[A cooperative project in the district of Mettmann: preventive assistance for mentally ill parents and their children].

PubMed

Hipp, Michael; Schatte, Dirk; Altrogge, Birgit

2010-01-01

Mentally ill parents are impaired in their ability to care for their children. To support the affected families from the perspective of the parents and the children alike a close cooperation between the institutions of psychiatry and child-welfare is of utmost importance. In the district of Mettmann a cooperation agreement was concluded to realize a cross-system concept to care for the families with mentally ill parents. To prevent children from developing psychiatric disorders the taboo of the psychiatric diseases has to be overcome, an early diagnostic clarification to be reached, and multiinstitutional help to be implemented. In the article the experience in dealing with the affected families in a multidisciplinary context is described.

Guess what? Implicit motivation boosts the influence of subliminal information on choice.

PubMed

Milyavsky, Maxim; Hassin, Ran R; Schul, Yaacov

2012-09-01

When is choice affected by subliminal messages? This question has fascinated scientists and lay people alike, but it is only recently that reliable empirical data began to emerge. In the current paper we bridge the literature on implicit motivation and that on subliminal persuasion. We suggest that motivation in general, and implicit motivation more specifically, plays an important role in subliminal persuasion: It sensitizes us to subliminal cues. To examine this hypothesis we developed a new paradigm that allows powerful tests of subliminal influences as well as stringent assessments of subliminality. The results of two experiments suggest that implicit motivation can enhance the effects of subliminal priming on choice. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.