Understanding the evolution of rice technology in China - from traditional agriculture to GM rice today.

PubMed

Shen, Xiaobai

2010-01-01

This paper provides an historical survey of the evolution of rice technology in China, from the traditional farming system to genetically modified rice today. Using sociotechnological analytical framework, it analyses rice technology as a socio-technical ensemble - a complex interaction of material and social elements, and discusses the specificity of technology development and its socio-technical outcomes. It points to two imperatives in rice variety development: wholesale transporting agricultural technology and social mechanism to developing countries are likely lead to negative consequences; indigenous innovation including deploying GM technology for seed varietal development and capturing/cultivating local knowledge will provide better solutions.

The Changing Landscape of Education in Africa: Quality, Equality and Democracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, David, Ed.

2008-01-01

It is 40 years since Coombs (1967) first drew attention to the World Education Crisis, and specifically problems in the educational systems of countries in the developing world. Today, many of these problems remain, and are most visible in the educational systems of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. A large number of children remain out of school…

New Developments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karlsson-Lohmander, Maelis

2005-01-01

A growing number of countries have recognised the importance of high quality early childhood provision for the development of the young child and the impact on economic growth and prosperity. What shapes Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in an expanding Europe of today? Many factors clearly influence policy decisions and program…

Post-1500 Population Flows and the Long Run Determinants of Economic Growth and Inequality.

PubMed

Putterman, Louis; Weil, David N

2010-01-01

We construct a matrix showing the share of the year 2000 population in every country that is descended from people in different source countries in the year 1500. Using the matrix to adjust indicators of early development so they reflect the history of a population's ancestors rather than the history of the place they live today greatly improves the ability of those indicators to predict current GDP. The variance of early development history of a country's inhabitants is a good predictor for current inequality, with ethnic groups originating in regions having longer histories of organized states tending to be at the upper end of a country's income distribution.

Women and Literacy; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Report from the Hasselby Symposium on Women and Literacy Sponsored by the Nordic Association for the Study of Education in Developing Countries (Stockholm, Sweden, June 8-10, 1989).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Odora, Catherine, Ed.; And Others

Fourteen papers are provided from a symposium to provide general input into the 1990 Unesco International Literacy Year by reviewing and documenting existing knowledge and current issues in the field of women and literacy with special emphasis on developing countries. Specific topics are as follows: the definition of literacy; review of methods;…

Qualifications Frameworks in Africa: A Critical Reflection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Higgs, P.; Keevy, J.

2009-01-01

Today there is an accelerating trend towards qualifications frameworks as an instrument to develop, classify and recognise formal learning across the African continent, as is also the case across most of Europe, Australasia and the Asia-Pacific region. As more and more countries and regions across the world develop qualifications frameworks to…

Pedagogical Documentation and Its Relation to Everyday Activities in Early Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rintakorpi, Kati; Reunamo, Jyrki

2017-01-01

Documentation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions has been developed for decades in various contexts. Today, documentation is preferred as an inclusive method of evaluating, planning, and developing ECEC in the curricula of many countries. Qualitative research on documentation has increased in past years, but quantitative…

Adolescents and Youth in Developing Countries: Health and Development Issues in Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fatusi, Adesegun O.; Hindin, Michelle J.

2010-01-01

Adolescence is a period of transition, marked by physical, psychological, and cognitive changes underpin by biological factors. Today's generation of young people--the largest in history--is approaching adulthood in a world vastly different from previous generations; AIDS, globalisation, urbanisation, electronic communication, migration, and…

ICT in Education: Catalyst for Economic Growth in the Congo

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ngoma, Sylvester

2010-01-01

The correlation between ICT-supported education system and economic development of a developing country has been documented by several studies (Anderson, 2009; Selwood et al, 2003; and Unwin, 2009). Today's Information and Communication Technology can significantly and positively impact the educational and economic landscape of the Democratic…

Communication in health care delivery in developing countries: which way out?

PubMed

Olutimayin, Jide

2002-09-01

Most governments in developing countries have adopted frameworks for health development which stressed community based initiatives and intervention at all levels of the health pyramid (WHO, 1992). But even today, most of the rural communities in these countries are still not developed in terms of available health facilities. What then is/are responsible for these failures? Various authors have come up with various reasons, principal amongst which are inadequate resources, lack of planning, insincerity/non-commitment of the governments, lack of modern information technology, etc. This paper examines some of these factors in relation to how they accentuate or hamper healthcare delivery in developing countries, using African rural communities as a study field. The resultant suggestions are a consortium of varying factors, some of which are economic in nature, policy changes, human resources development, and re-orientation of social and government attitudes towards achieving meaningful results in healthcare delivery, particularly in the rural communities.

Technology assessment: Some questions from a developing country perspective

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

Goonatilake, S.

1994-01-01

The emergence of technology assessment did not occur in a societal or value vacuum; neither did its practice. Today`s TA expertise is the outcome of historically located concerns, still unique to a particular narrow space ({open_quotes}Euro America{close_quotes}) and a narrow time frame (post-1960s). There are wide cultural, economic, societal and historical variations in the developing world as compared to the developed Western nations. This variation limits the usefulness of the simple transfer of concepts developed in the West. There are also many different potential stakeholders in developing countries. These also include those outside the formal sectors who variously define desirablemore » and undesirable aspects of the social and other factors of technology. This results in different cultural definitions of ethics, different visions of gender equality, different attitudes to the environment, different contents and values in local knowledge systems, and different social organizations associated with a given technology. An effective TA should recognize this multiplicity. It requires cognition, action, and debate on these key factors. At times this becomes an unavoidable developmental debate. 45 refs.« less

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.

Medical tourism today: what is the state of existing knowledge?

PubMed

Hopkins, Laura; Labonté, Ronald; Runnels, Vivien; Packer, Corinne

2010-07-01

One manifestation of globalization is medical tourism. As its implications remain largely unknown, we reviewed claimed benefits and risks. Driven by high health-care costs, long waiting periods, or lack of access to new therapies in developed countries, most medical tourists (largely from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe) seek care in Asia and Latin America. Although individual patient risks may be offset by credentialing and sophistication in (some) destination country facilities, lack of benefits to poorer citizens in developing countries offering medical tourism remains a generic equity issue. Data collection, measures, and studies of medical tourism all need to be greatly improved if countries are to assess better both the magnitude and potential health implications of this trade.

Global Justice and Intellectual Property Rights: Reforming the International IPR Regime for Balanced Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salokannel, Marjut

2006-01-01

Today it is widely recognized that a uniform global intellectual property (IP) system requiring a high level of protection is inherently unjust and affects countries differently depending upon their level of technological and economic development. This article analyzes the functioning of the current international treaty framework having…

Qualification and Development Needs for Technical Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El Tell, Khalaf; Al-Maaitah, Ayman

Vast and rapid changes in global technologies have made development of a sound and efficient system of technical education (TE) critical for Oman and the other Arab Gulf countries. Producing TE graduates with the skills needed for success in today's global economy requires TE teachers with the following qualifications: mastery of the core skills…

Conflict, famine and the arms trade.

PubMed

Judd, F

1995-01-01

Armed conflict has had horrendous humanitarian effects, causing 22 million deaths, over 80 per cent of them civilian, since 1945 and resulting today in 19 million refugees and 24 million displaced persons. War results in economic collapse, and high levels of military spending decrease regional stability. Benefits to the producers are limited or negative and developed countries should diversify away from arms production. There is a need for greater awareness in the developed countries, an end to the secrecy besetting the arms trade, and restructuring of the industry. A Code of Conduct governing arms exports is proposed.

Evaluative Case Study of the Effectiveness of Professional Development Elements When Implementing a Learning Management System in Elementary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beams, Tara E.

2017-01-01

As school districts across the country attempt to comply with federal and state mandates to effectively integrate technology into today's teaching and learning, they must face the challenge of also developing professional development plans which will adequately and successfully prepare teachers for implementing these new resources and these new…

Health, globalization and developing countries.

PubMed

Cilingiroglu, Nesrin

2005-02-01

In health care today, scientific and technological frontiers are expanding at unprecedented rates, even as economic and financial pressures shrink profit margins, intensify competition, and constrain the funds available for investment. Therefore, the world today has more economic, and social opportunities for people than 10 or 100 years since globalization has created a new ground somewhat characterized by rapid economic transformation, deregulation of national markets by new trade regimes, amazing transport, electronic communication possibilities and high turnover of foreign investment and capital flow as well as skilled labor. These trends can easily mask great inequalities in developing countries such as importation and spreading of infectious and non-communicable diseases; miniaturization of movement of medical technology; health sector trades management driven by economics without consideration to the social and health aspects and its effects, increasing health inequalities and their economic and social burden creation; multinational companies' cheap labor employment promotion in widening income differentials; and others. As a matter of fact, all these factors are major determinants of ill health. Health authorities of developing countries have to strengthen their regulatory framework in order to ensure that national health systems derive maximum benefit in terms of equity, quality and efficiency, while reducing potential social cost to a minimum generated risky side of globalization.

ENGLISH FOR TODAY. BOOK FIVE, LIFE IN ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

SLAGER, WILLIAM R.; AND OTHERS

ON AN UPPER-INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED LEVEL OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE FOR SECONDARY STUDENTS, "LIFE IN ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES" IS THE FIFTH VOLUME IN THE "ENGLISH FOR TODAY" SERIES. THE MAIN EMPHASIS IN THIS VOLUME IS THE TRANSITION FROM READING TO COMPOSITION. EACH OF THE 14 READINGS IS FOLLOWED BY INTENSIVE COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS,…

A Cross-Cultural Perspective about the Implementation and Adaptation Process of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model: The Importance of Talent Development in a Global World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hernández-Torrano, Daniel; Saranli, Adile Gulsah

2015-01-01

Gifted education and talent development are considered today as key elements for developing human capital and increasing competitiveness within education and the economy. Within this framework, a growing number of countries have begun to invest large amounts of resources to discover and nurture their most able students. As boundaries and…

[What type of welfare policy promotes health?: the puzzling interrelation of economic and health inequality].

PubMed

Hurrelmann, K; Richter, M; Rathmann, K

2011-06-01

In all highly developed countries, the overall health status of the population has significantly improved within the past 30 years. The most important reason for this is the increase in economic prosperity. Economic wealth, however, today is much more unequally distributed than it was 3 decades ago. Countries with relatively small disparities in the availability of material resources between socioeconomic groups, such as the Scandinavian countries, have better health outcomes on the population level. Health inequalities, however, have also reached a higher level than 30 years ago. As of today, we do not have convincing explanations for the interrelation of economic and health inequality. This paper gives an overview of existing research on a comparative basis. The research results are ambivalent. They show the puzzling result that the Scandinavian countries with their highly distributive welfare policy manage to achieve the comparatively highest level of economic, but not health, equity. Based on these results, we develop proposals for future research approaches. A central assumption is that in rich societies no longer only material, but more and more immaterial determinants are crucial for the formation of health inequality. The promotion of "salutogenic" self-management capabilities in socially disadvantaged groups is considered to be the central element in effective intervention strategies. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Perception of Peace in Students' Drawings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cengelci Kose, Tuba; Gurdogan Bayir, Omur

2016-01-01

Problem Statement: Societies are facing several kinds of problems in the world today as chaos among the countries, conflicts between different groups, wars and diseases. It can be claimed that solving these problems is impossible unless societies care about humanistic cooperation, tolerance and peace. Individuals required developing fundamental…

The Road Less Traveled: How the Developmental Sciences Can Prepare Educators to Improve Student Achievement--Policy Recommendations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leibbrand, Jane A.; Watson, Bernardine H.

2010-01-01

The most important problem facing public education in the country today is: how can teachers address the needs of all learners? A 2007 report issued by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) says, "aspects of development--neural, cognitive, social, psychological, physical and ethical--have far-reaching effects on…

Ecological Growth Boundaries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bluszcz, Anna

2017-03-01

The trends of the society for the continuous growth, combined with the demographic changes, today have led to the important ecological problems on a global scale, which include, among others: the increased use of non-renewable natural resources, an increase of the greenhouse gas emissions, contamination of soil, water, air and the progressive degradation of ecosystems. In the face of such serious threats the global initiatives of all countries are important to limit the results of the excessive consumption. The aim of the article is to present the methods of measurement of the consumption level of natural resources by the societies and the examination of relationships between the level of development of the societies and the use of resources. The popular measure - the ecological footprint - was used as a measurement method for the consumption of the today's generations in relation to the regenerative possibilities of the natural environment. On the other hand, as the assessment method for the level of development of societies - the Human Development Index (HDI), including three basic areas: the life expectancy, GDP level per capita and education was used. The results of the research indicate that the current trend of the unlimited consumption of the highly developed countries takes place at the expense of the future generations.

Red Meat and Colorectal Cancer

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in men and the second in women worldwide. More than half of cases occur in more developed countries. The consumption of red meat (beef, pork, lamb, veal, mutton) is high in developed countries and accumulated evidence until today demonstrated a convincing association between the intake of red meat and especially processed meat and CRC risk. In this review, meta-analyses of prospective epidemiological studies addressed to this association, observed link of some subtypes of red meat with CRC risk, potential carcinogenic compounds, their mechanisms and actual recommendations of international guidelines are presented. PMID:26779313

Dropout Prevention Fieldbook: Best Practices from the Field

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schargel, Franklin P.

2012-01-01

Reduce your school's dropout rate, help improve teaching and learning, and develop stronger relationships with parents and the community. This book showcases the collected efforts of dedicated educators from across the country, selected and presented by one of today's leading experts in dropout prevention, Franklin Schargel. Easily indexed…

Voice of Experience International Research Infrastructure and the Impact of Export Control Regulations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kulakowski, Elliott C.; Chronister, Lynne; Molfese, Victoria; Slocum, Michael; Studman, Cliff; Waugaman, Paul

2007-01-01

Research today has become very complex, often involving international collaborations among multidisciplinary teams. Many institutions, especially those in less economically developed countries, have a great deal of expertise to contribute to these collaborations, but often lack the instrumentation, training, and research management infrastructure…

East Meets West

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korman, Sanja

2012-01-01

Western and Eastern dance styles have developed in their respective countries on their own, neither really influencing the other, but today the conjugation between Western and Eastern cultures is a phenomenon that the dance world is experiencing to the fullest. In dance, these cultures are so interwoven that sometimes it is hard to distinguish the…

A Forgotten Concept: Global Citizenship Education and State Social Studies Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rapoport, Anatoli

2009-01-01

In today's global environment, social studies educators have the opportunity to expand their students' vision of the role of citizenship in developing a democratic understanding by adopting multiple perspectives on citizenship. Global citizenship education is becoming an important component in citizenship education in many countries. However,…

Fostering Social and Emotional Skills for Well-Being and Social Progress

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miyamoto, Koji; Huerta, Maria C.; Kubacka, Katarzyna

2015-01-01

Children need a balanced set of cognitive, social and emotional capabilities to adapt to today's demanding, changing and unpredictable world. OECD countries and partner economies recognise the importance on the holistic development of individuals. However, there are big gaps between stakeholders' knowledge, expectations and practices on how to…

Iran, Iraq, and the United States: The New Triangle’s Impact on Sectarianism and the Nuclear Threat

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-11-01

cultural developments in the Middle East. She is the author of 12 books and monographs, and more than 51 articles and book chapters. Dr. Zuhur...Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown in an Islamic revolution, and country after country faced the activities of home -grown Islamist movements. Today...a of Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon are, on the other hand, Arabs. Shi’ism itself was originally both an Arabian peninsular and a Mesopotamian

Optimizing antiretroviral product selection: a sample approach to improving patient outcomes, saving money, and scaling-up health services in developing countries.

PubMed

Amole, Carolyn D; Brisebois, Catherine; Essajee, Shaffiq; Koehler, Erin; Levin, Andrew D; Moore, Meredith C; Brown Ripin, David H; Sickler, Joanna J; Singh, Inder R

2011-08-01

Over the last decade, increased funding to support HIV treatment programs has enabled millions of new patients in developing countries to access the medications they need. Today, although demand for antiretrovirals continues to grow, the financial crisis has severely constrained funding leaving countries with difficult choices on program prioritization. Product optimization is one solution countries can pursue to continue to improve patient care while also uncovering savings that can be used for further scale up or other health system needs. Program managers can make procurement decisions that actually reduce program costs by considering additional factors beyond World Health Organization guidelines when making procurement decisions. These include in-country product availability, convenience, price, and logistics such as supply chain implications and laboratory testing requirements. Three immediate product selection opportunities in the HIV space include using boosted atazanavir in place of lopinovir for second-line therapy, lamivudine instead of emtricitabine in both first-line and second-line therapy, and tenofovir + lamivudine over abacavir + didanosine in second-line therapy. If these 3 opportunities were broadly implemented in sub-Saharan Africa and India today, approximately $300 million of savings would be realized over the next 5 years, enabling hundreds of thousands of additional patients to be treated. Although the discussion herein is specific to antriretrovirals, the principles of product selection are generalizable to diseases with multiple treatment options and fungible commodity procurement. Identifying and implementing approaches to overcome health system inefficiencies will help sustain and may expand quality care in resource-limited settings.

A New Educational Perspective: The Case of Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kent, Daniel C.

2017-01-01

Today Singapore is the top or among the top performers in the world on a number of educational metrics. The country boasts the number one ranking in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the highly visible and regarded international assessment conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)…

Conference Summary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doherty, Cait

2009-01-01

This article summarizes an original conference, organised by the Child Care Research Forum (http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/ccrf/), which brought together experts from all over Northern Ireland to showcase some of the wealth of research with children and young people that is going on in the country today. Developed around the six high-level outcomes of…

Promoting Global Citizenship through ICT: Ukrainian High School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yukhymenko, Mariya A.; Brown, Scott W.

2009-01-01

Information is one of the important assets in today's society. Information and communication technologies (ICT) may be particularly important for students as one of the tools shaping global citizens. The objective of this study was to investigate the use of ICT by high school students (n=122) from a developing country, like Ukraine. The…

How "Green" Are Today's 15-Year-Olds? PISA in Focus. No. 15

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

OECD Publishing (NJ1), 2012

2012-01-01

How "green" are 15-year-olds? To what extent do they understand environmental issues? What are the sources of their information about the environment? Can they apply scientific principles and evidence to the world around them? This paper reports that across OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, around…

Private and Public Initiatives: Working Together for Health and Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaag, Jacques van der

The World Bank helps countries to arrive at whatever combination of public and private control is best for their particular economic circumstances. This booklet describes that work and summarizes examples of private-sector involvement in health and education provision in the developing world today. The examples also illustrate what the World Bank…

Conception and Definition of the Democratization of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murati, Rabije

2015-01-01

Republic of Macedonia at the moment with all the trends for reforms in the educational system, there are still shortcomings in this regard. The intention of Republic of Macedonia since independence, until today is the modernization and adjustment of the system of education to the European developed countries and their upbringing-educational…

Training Participation and Gender: Analyzing Individual Barriers across Different Welfare State Regimes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Massing, Natascha; Gauly, Britta

2017-01-01

Lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important in today's societies. Individuals need to develop their skills through training in order to be successfully integrated in the labor market. We use data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies to investigate gender differences in training across 12 countries. We…

Bringing Politics into the Nursery: Early Childhood Education as a Democratic Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moss, Peter

2007-01-01

This paper explores the possibility that early childhood institutions can be, first and foremost, places of political practice--and specifically of democratic political practice. The case for the primacy of democratic political practice in early childhood institutions is made more urgent by two developments apparent in many countries today: the…

Public Internet Access Points (PIAPs) and Their Social Impact: A Case Study from Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Afacan, Gulgun; Er, Erkan; Arifoglu, Ali

2013-01-01

Building public Internet access points (PIAPs) is a significant contribution of governments towards achieving an information society. While many developing countries are investing great amounts to establish PIAPs today, people may not use PIAPs effectively. Yet, the successful implementation of PIAPs is the result of citizens' acceptance to use…

Development of a Short-Form Measure of Science and Technology Self-Efficacy Using Rasch Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lamb, Richard L.; Vallett, David; Annetta, Leonard

2014-01-01

Despite an increased focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in U.S. schools, today's students often struggle to maintain adequate performance in these fields compared with students in other countries (Cheek in "Thinking constructively about science, technology, and society education." State University of New…

Matters on Compensation of Moral Damage: Practical Aspects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akimbekova, Meruert A.; Akimbekova, Saida A.; Nusenov, Zholdasbek M.; Tlegenova, Fatima A.

2016-01-01

Matters on compensation of moral damage are one of the most controversial and topical in enforcement practice for today, especially in developing countries, such as Kazakhstan. This is because the matters of protection of the individual, his moral rights and benefits are the same priority as the protection of property rights. In this paper, the…

Improving Teacher Quality: Lessons from America's "No Child Left Behind"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Emma; Gorard, Stephen

2007-01-01

How developed countries train, recruit and retain their schoolteachers is an area of considerable interest in education today. In this paper we consider how the US is addressing the issue of teacher quality by holding schools and school districts accountable for ensuring that all teachers of core subjects are "highly qualified" by the…

Professional Counseling in Nigeria: Past, Present, and Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okocha, Aneneosa A. G.; Alika, Ijeoma H.

2012-01-01

The events that circumscribed the parameters of today's counseling in Nigeria are many and varied regarding their influence in shaping the development of the profession in the country. The authors review these events and the current status of counseling in Nigeria, including the challenges faced in the profession. Future trends and suggestions for…

[Control of scabies in the district of Ytre Nordhordland. An experiment within community medicine in the 1860's].

PubMed

Sandvik, H

1993-01-10

19th century Norway may be likened to the developing countries of today. Scabies was very prevalent, and traditional approaches to treatment were in vain. The poor peasant population would not spend money on such. Thomas Collett (1835-98), the local doctor in a rural district of western Norway, initiated a programme for community control of scabies. The local Board of Health agreed to purchase a large amount of sulphur ointment. 1/8 of a barrel of ointment was placed at the disposal of local teachers. The teachers were instructed to initiate treatment of school-children who were found to be infected with scabies. The household to which the child belonged was also to be treated, as well as the other children at the school. Gradually, the prevalence of scabies declined. Self-care increased, and eventually, the peasants ended up making their own sulphur ointment. Experiences and recommendations from developing countries of today agree with the strategy adopted by Collett. Individual medical treatment of cases and their contacts is too costly, and fails to reduce the total prevalence of scabies.

Comparative Analysis of Legislative Provision of Adult Education in the USA and Canada (Case Study: Professional Development of Tourism Employees)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Babushko, Svitlana

2014-01-01

Today Ukraine is in the process of establishing an integral base for adult education and the system of employees' professional development. Hence, the research of the experience of the countries with a fixed, ramified, but integral system of normative and juridical documents in the above-mentioned fields can be of great use. Addressing to the USA…

Robert Bartini and His Contribution to the Development of Transport and Aviation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Težak, Sergej

2017-10-01

After the First World War, the young Soviet Union (USSR) desperately needed new engineers and scientists who would provide the new country with development of modern industry and transportation. At that time, Western European countries had knowledge and experience, especially in the field of aviation. One of the young engineers was Robert Bartini, who was educated in Austria-Hungary and Italy, and graduated from Milan Polytechnic Institute. In 1923, he fled Italy to escape Fascists and emigrated in Soviet Union. This article is a brief description of aircraft designer Robert Bartini and his role in the development of the military, passenger and transport aviation. In addition, it presents his vision of the intercontinental and continental high-speed transport, which was his focus in the last years of his work and creation. He worked as a researcher and expert in the former Soviet Union, therefore, more detailed and relevant information on his work has been revealed to the public in recent years. In Russia, he is very popular as a researcher and developer. There are many books about him in Russian and Italian language, but not in English. Thus, his work is still quite unknown in the West. He was born in Kanjiza (today Serbia) in 1897, and spent his youth in Fiume (Rijeka, today Croatia).

Derisking Renewable Energy Investment. A Framework to Support Policymakers in Selecting Public Instruments to Promote Renewable Energy Investment in Developing Countries

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

Waissbein, Oliver; Glemarec, Yannick; Bayraktar, Hande

2013-03-15

This report introduces an innovative framework to assist policymakers to quantitatively compare the impact of different public instruments to promote renewable energy. The report identifies the need to reduce the high financing costs for renewable energy in developing countries as an important task for policymakers acting today. The framework is structured in four stages: (i) risk environment, (ii) public instruments, (iii) levelised cost and (iv) evaluation. To illustrate how the framework can support decision-making in practice, the report presents findings from illustrative case studies in four developing countries. It then draws on these results to discuss possible directions for enhancingmore » public interventions to scale-up renewable energy investment. UNDP is also releasing a financial tool for policymakers to accompany the framework. The financial tool is available for download on the UNDP website.« less

Culinary delights and travel? A review of zoonotic cestodiases and metacestodiases.

PubMed

Ito, Akira; Budke, Christine M

2014-01-01

Due to increased globalization, food-borne parasitic infections are becoming more prevalent worldwide, including in countries where these parasites and parasitic diseases had previously been well controlled or eradicated. Improved sanitation, health education, and establishment of appropriate food safety mechanisms can go a long way towards the control of many these infections. However, food-borne parasitic infections are still common diseases in developing countries, especially in rural areas. As many of today's travelers are looking to explore more distant locations and partake in the local cuisine, they may be at greater risk of acquiring a food-borne parasitic infection, including those caused by a number of adult and larval tapeworms. This review discusses fish and meat-borne tapeworms and zoonotic metacestodiases of public health importance to both developing and developed countries, with a focus on infection prevention in travelers. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The population problem: conceptions and misconceptions.

PubMed

Berelson, B

1971-01-01

Only 1 in about 110 sex acts results in a conception and 1 in 270 in a live birth. Of all conceptions, 40% result in live births, 5% in stillbirths, and 55% never develop. 1/3 of all known conceptions ends in abortion, spontaneous or induced. It appears that the population problem depends on a small fraction of the potential. Misconceptions of the problem are corrected, and it is emphasized that while no social problem facing the U.S. would be easier with a larger population, demographic factors do not cause all of the other problems. Increasing numbers are not as important as the rate of increase (2% annually worldwide). Today's population problem has been caused by a decreased death rate, not an increased birthrate. There are 2 kinds of countries in the world today: those with a high standard of living and low fertility and those with a low standard of living and high fertility. Most of the uninformed women of the world would not choose to have large numbers of children if they had a choice. Population density is not a problem in itself. Experts disagree, but it is improbable that large numbers of people will die of starvation in the next few decades. Environmental deterioration is more the result of modern economic and technological practices than of demographic factors. Efforts at fertility control are not aimed at minorities in this country and elsewhere. The poor are discriminated against in access to family planning services and abortion. Moslems of developing countries have higher fertility rates than Roman Catholics in developed countries. There would be many social costs if the U.S. were to achieve zero population growth in the near future. The population problem has implications for the future quality of life.

Kazakhstan and Russia: Experience and Prospects of Transfrontier Cooperation (1991-2015)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Issabayev, Nurlan Zh.; Sadykov, Tlegen S.; Seitkazina, Kuralay ?.; Bekmaganbetov, Umyrbai Zh.

2016-01-01

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan had to re-build their bilateral relations, and today this process continues. Both countries face up to a number of objective difficulties, such as crisis and the need to develop new foreign and domestic policy doctrines. Nevertheless, several bilateral…

Task-Based Assessment of Students' Computational Thinking Skills Developed through Visual Programming or Tangible Coding Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Djambong, Takam; Freiman, Viktor

2016-01-01

While today's schools in several countries, like Canada, are about to bring back programming to their curricula, a new conceptual angle, namely one of computational thinking, draws attention of researchers. In order to understand the articulation between computational thinking tasks in one side, student's targeted skills, and the types of problems…

The Role of Libraries in a Changing Academic Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skiadas, C. H.

This paper traces the roots of higher education from Ancient Greece to the first universities in European countries where the idea of upper education became centered on the interactive dialogue between a teacher and student. The report discusses the role of the university library today in an age of ever-developing technologies and ever-increasing…

Warranting Failure: The "System" that Breeds Poverty and Starves Public Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alexander, Kern; Salmon, Richard G.

2007-01-01

The inscription on the internal pedestal of the Statue of Liberty proclaiming "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses" today is an ideal of another age. Compared with those of other developing countries, U.S. poverty rates are extraordinarily high, as are the odds of remaining in poverty intergenerationally. No longer do…

Health Literacy and the Millennium Development Goals in Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evawoma-Enuku, Usiwoma; Oyitso, Mabel; Enuku, Christie Akpoigho

2010-01-01

In this paper, the authors examined health related challenges facing Nigeria. They argued that the relationship between literacy and health in today's knowledge-based economy further puts pressure on countries like Nigeria to raise its literacy rates if it is to compete in the global market. This line of thought is based on the fact that in…

Teaching International Business across Multiple Modes of Delivery: How to Maintain Equivalence in Learning Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drew, Antony

2014-01-01

The drivers of globalization are changing how, where, and when international business (IB) is being taught, and increasing student diversity. Concomitantly, education is becoming an important contributor to GDP in developed economies. Today, the same course may be taught at home to domestic and in-bound international students, in host countries,…

Strategies for Developing a Sustainable Learning Society: An Analysis of Lifelong Learning in Thailand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charungkaittikul, Suwithida; Henschke, John A.

2014-01-01

Today's world may be characterised as the dawn of the new millennium of the learning society, where knowledge is considered as a country's most valued asset and primary source of power. In the increasingly intense competition among international communities, Thailand has been respected for advancing the concept of transforming communities, cities…

Effective Literacy Strategies for Immigrant Students. Lessons in Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canadian Council on Learning, 2009

2009-01-01

Canada, like many developed countries faced with shrinking birth rates, has come to rely on immigration as a way of building and maintaining a skilled workforce. For a majority of today's immigrants, English or French is a second language and, when their children start school, their education proceeds in one of these second languages. While many…

Reshaping Computer Literacy Teaching in Higher Education: Identification of Critical Success Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Estelle; Goede, Roelien; Steyn, Tjaart

2011-01-01

Purpose: Acquiring computer skills is more important today than ever before, especially in a developing country. Teaching of computer skills, however, has to adapt to new technology. This paper aims to model factors influencing the success of the learning of computer literacy by means of an e-learning environment. The research question for this…

Educating the Next Generation of Makers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schepker, Nicole

2014-01-01

The field of manufacturing typically conjures images of dimly lit dirty and dangerous factories crowded with workers, the kind seen in photos of New York City's garment district in the early 1900s and in some developing countries today. Because of advances in technology, however, the field of manufacturing--what is made, how it is made, where and…

Negative Effect of the British Poor Vocational Education on Its Economic Development after the Second World War

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Yong

2007-01-01

England is the oldest nation of industry revolution and the earliest industrialized country in the world. With the colonization system breakdown and economic giants, the United States, Germany, Japan, etc. rising, today England has already lost former days of elegant appearance. The disadvantageous vocational education is one of essential factor…

Multilingualism and Assimilationism in Australia's Literacy-Related Educational Policies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schalley, Andrea C.; Guillemin, Diana; Eisenchlas, Susana A.

2015-01-01

Australia is a country of high linguistic diversity, with more than 300 languages spoken. Today, 19% of the population aged over 5 years speak a language other than English at home. Against this background, we examine government policies and prominent initiatives developed at national level in the past 30 years to address the challenge of offering…

Collaborative Initiative toward Developing River Forecasting in South America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cabrera, R.

2015-12-01

In the United States, river floods have been discussed as early as 1884. Following a disastrous flooding in 1903, Congress passed legislation and river and flood services became a separate division within the U.S. Weather Bureau. The first River Forecast Center started in 1946 and today the whole country is served by thirteen River Forecast Centers. News from Latin American and Caribbean Countries often report of devastating flooding. However, river forecast services are not fully developed yet. This presentation suggests the utilization of a multinational collaborative approach toward the development of river forecasts in order to mitigate flooding in South America. The benefit of an international strategy resides in the strength created by a team of professionals with different capabilities and expertise.

Some methodological aspects of ethics committees' expertise: the Ukrainian example.

PubMed

Pustovit, Svitlana V

2006-01-01

Today local, national and international ethics committees have become an effective means of social regulation in many European countries. Science itself is an important precondition for the development of bioethical knowledge and ethics expertise. Cultural, social, historical and religious preconditions can facilitate different forms and methods of ethics expertise in each country. Ukrainian ethics expertise has some methodological problems connected with its socio-cultural, historical, science and philosophy development particularities. In this context, clarification of some common legitimacies or methodological approaches to ethics committee (EC) phenomena such as globalization, scientization and the prioritization of an ethics paradigm are very important. On the other hand, elaborate study and critical analysis of international experience by Ukraine and other Eastern European countries will provide the integration of their local and national ethics expertises into a world bioethics ethos.

Pneumocystis and Pneumocystosis: first meeting of experts from Latin-American and Portuguese-speaking countries - a mini-review.

PubMed

Esteves, Francisco; Medrano, Francisco J; de Armas, Yaxsier; Wissmann, Gustavo; Calderón, Enrique J; Matos, Olga

2014-05-01

The Pneumocystis and Pneumocystosis: first meeting of experts from Latin-American and Portuguese-speaking countries was held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 24-26 October 2013. A total of 20 speakers from Latin America, Africa and Europe participated in the meeting. The epidemiological studies presented in this meeting begin to change the misconception that since the AIDS epidemic, Pneumocystis pneumonia (PcP) has become an infrequent disease, showing that today PcP remains a major opportunistic infection in HIV-infected patients in both developed and developing countries and an emerging problem in immunocompromised patients without HIV infection worldwide. PcP management remains a challenge. Right now, the combination of caspofungin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) is a promising therapeutic approach that needs to be assessed in controlled clinical trials.

Disclosing the truth to terminal cancer patients: a discussion of ethical and cultural issues.

PubMed

Kazdaglis, G A; Arnaoutoglou, C; Karypidis, D; Memekidou, G; Spanos, G; Papadopoulos, O

2010-04-01

One of the most difficult ethical dilemmas facing health care professionals working in oncology is whether, when, how and how much to tell terminal cancer patients about their diagnosis and prognosis. The aim of this article is to review the trends in this issue worldwide. While a majority of physicians in both developed and developing countries tell the truth more often today than in the past, the assumption that truth-telling is always beneficial to patients can be questioned. The issue of truth-telling is still approached differently in different countries and cultures and there is a need for an increased awareness of cultural differences to truth-telling among patients from ethnic minorities.

Post-1500 Population Flows and the Long Run Determinants of Economic Growth and Inequality

PubMed Central

Putterman, Louis; Weil, David N.

2013-01-01

We construct a matrix showing the share of the year 2000 population in every country that is descended from people in different source countries in the year 1500. Using the matrix to adjust indicators of early development so they reflect the history of a population’s ancestors rather than the history of the place they live today greatly improves the ability of those indicators to predict current GDP. The variance of early development history of a country’s inhabitants is a good predictor for current inequality, with ethnic groups originating in regions having longer histories of organized states tending to be at the upper end of a country’s income distribution. PMID:24478530

CEO is a vision of the future role and position of CIO in healthcare organizations.

PubMed

Moghaddasi, Hamid; Sheikhtaheri, Abbas

2010-12-01

Literature related to chief information officer (CIO) in the developed countries during the past 20 years has been reviewed to identify the future trends of the position. The literature shows that CIO is a growing position in the healthcare industry that has achieved much popularity because today's healthcare has a great focus on information management and technology and that CIO can be future powerful strategist for healthcare organizations. Therefore, a model for an ideal healthcare CIO based on lesson learned from literature was suggested. It seems that in the developed countries, CIOs will achieve many opportunities to come in the highest executive teams of healthcare organizations and may undertake CEO roles.

Can We Leapfrog? The Potential of Education Innovations to Rapidly Accelerate Progress. Skills for a Changing World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winthrop, Rebecca; McGivney, Eileen

2017-01-01

Today, examples of rapid, non-linear progress--sometimes called leapfrogging--are evident in a number of sectors. Often, these instances are most obvious in the developing world, where in telecommunications or banking, for example, whole phases of infrastructure and institution-building that other countries had to go through have been by-passed by…

Ethnic Identity Development in Schools among First Generation Immigrants in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Acar, Erkan; Yigit, Mehmet Fatih; Aslan, Dolgun

2016-01-01

Today, Americans are increasingly concerned about the matter of immigration in the United States. A growing number believe that immigrants are a burden to the country, taking jobs and housing and creating strains on the health care system. Many Americans are also worried about the cultural impact of the expanding number of newcomers to the U.S.…

Latin America Report.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-08-09

They acknowledged the importance of tourism to promote the economic integra- tion and development of the two countries and stated their intention to...adopt measures aimed at increasing tourism through coordinated and joint efforts by national authorities. This work will be done by a commission to...6 [Article by Anthony Forbes] [Excerpts] FOREIGN and Tourism Minister Clement Maynard said today that the governments of the Bahamas and other

An Examination of Physical and Mental Health Problems of the Homeless.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solarz, Andrea; Mowbray, Carol

Homelessness is a significant social problem in the United States and it has been estimated that there may be as many as 2.5 million homeless people in this country today. For these people, poverty, substance abuse, and harsh living conditions may further contribute to the development of physical and mental health problems. A study was conducted…

Integrating Technology in Early Literacy: A Snapshot of Community Innovation in Family Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cook, Shayna

2016-01-01

As a growing number of young children across the country are using media and interactive technology on a daily basis, the conversation has shifted from whether technology is appropriate to use at all to how it should be used to best support children's early language and literacy development. A new brief released today, Integrating Technology in…

Study of the Effectiveness of Multi-Cultural Education on the Attitude towards National Integration of High School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perveen, Shaheen

2014-01-01

The present endeavour enables the students to gain information and knowledge about different sub-cultures as well as to develop positive attitude towards national integration. A country lives and thrives in its cultural heritage. Culture is a treasure to be preserved, perpetuated and promoted. Today's students will be the future nation builders.…

[World population growth and the food supply].

PubMed

Huang, Y

1982-07-29

The general trend in the last several hundred years has been that the speed of growth in the food supply exceeds the speed of the population growth. For the time being, 2 major problems still exist. The 1st problem is that food production is still influenced by natural conditions. For example, abnormal weather conditions may cause regional food shortages. The 2nd problem is the imbalance of food consumption by the world population. This phenomenon exists between different social classes as well as between developed and developing countries. According to statistics released by the World Bank, 1 billion suffer from malnutrition today and most of them are in developing countries. In developed countries, about half of their increase in the food supply is for feed grains, and those countries follow the policy of reducing farm land for the purpose of maintaing stabl e grain prices. Up to the present time, grain prices have been unstable, and this has become a rather heavy economic burden for numerous developing countries. Many developing countries are trying to increase grain production by increasing their arable land and promoting their cultivating techniques. However, these countries are facing the problems of finding and adequate water supply, fertilizer, and pesticides. In addition, a rapid population growth in these countries has offset their endeavors in agriculture. In recent years, these counties have realized the necessity of birth control. The world population growth rate has decreased from 2% to about 1.7% in 1981. Birth control and an increase in the food supply will bring new hope to the world's problems of overpopulation and food supply.

Research on the Direction of China's Energy Development and Coping Strategies Based on the Trend of World Energy Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Lixin; Tao, Ye; Jiang, Yan; Ma, Ju

2018-06-01

To realize the modernization of the national economy, it is necessary to develop energy science and technology for China,which is third largest countries in the world.The rapid development of science and technology has promoted the continuous transformation of the global energy industry. By analyzing the trend of energy development in the world today, this paper discusses the challenges that the global energy development facing and the situation and tasks faced by China's energy sustainable development, and looks forward to China's strategies to cope with the development of the world's energy.

Early History of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease 1808-1980.

PubMed

Watson, R Ann; Pride, Neil B

2016-01-01

COPD has become a more popular research area in the last 3 decades, yet the first clear descriptions of acute and chronic bronchitis were in 1808. This brief history, comprehensively referenced, leads us through the early developments in respiratory physiology and their applications. It emphasises the early history of chronic bronchitis and emphysema in the 19(th) and early 20(th) centuries, long before the dominant effects of cigarette smoking emerged. This remains relevant to developing countries today.

Motion of a Moving Object

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

SpaceAge Control, Inc., was established in 1968 to design, develop and manufacture pilot protection devices in support of space-based and high-performance test aircraft programs. In 1970, the company was awarded a NASA contract to produce precision, small-format position transducers for aircraft flight control testing. The successful completion of this contract led to the development and production of a complete line of position transducers. Today the company has over 600 customers in 20 industries and over 30 countries.

Metal spectra as indicators of development.

PubMed

Graedel, T E; Cao, J

2010-12-07

We have assembled extensive information on the cycles of seven industrial metals in 49 countries, territories, or groups of countries, drawn from a database of some 200,000 material flows, and have devised analytical approaches to treat the suite of metals as composing an approach to a national "materials metabolism." We demonstrate that in some of the more developed countries, per capita metal use is more than 10 times the global average. Additionally, countries that use more than the per capita world average of any metal do so for all metals, and vice versa, and countries that are above global average rates of use are very likely to be above global average rates at all stages of metal life cycles from fabrication onward. We show that all countries are strongly dependent on international trade to supply the spectrum of nonrenewable resources that modern technology requires, regardless of their level of development. We also find that the rate of use of the spectrum of metals stock is highly correlated to per capita gross domestic product, as well as to the Human Development Index and the Global Competitiveness Innovation Index. The implication is that as wealth and technology increase in developing countries, strong demand will be created not for a few key resources, but across the entire spectrum of the industrial metals. Long-term metal demand can be estimated given gross domestic product projections; the results suggest overall metal flow into use in 2050 of 5-10 times today's level should supplies permit.

CTC Sentinel. Volume 5, Issue 10, October 2012

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-10-01

of the tactical precision that helped establish the organization’s criminal brand: one that connotes fury, force, and fear.7 Trevino’s Limits Today ...formidable and secretive support network in the country since 2007.26 Pumwani Riyadha Mosque Today , there are a number of extremist support...research, he could not identify a single terrorist attack using the diluted fertilizer type available on European markets today . The trial also shed

Girls' Access to Education in a Developing Country

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geissinger, Helen

1997-09-01

Papua New Guinea is a developing country which gained its independence from Australia in 1975. Many of its educational structures inherited from the time of the early missions and the colonial administration influence the practices of today. Women have not advanced in the new country as far as was prophesied in the early 1970s leading up to Independence. Although the current poor economic conditions have some effect on women's advancement, the difficulties they face in even obtaining a basic education form one of the major factors which hinder their progress. This paper describes a number of the barriers which prevent girls from accessing education at every level, from gaining enrolment in the first year of school to positioning themselves for university entry. Distance education provides one of the few "second chances" that young Papua New Guineans can gain, provided they can afford the fees and engage with the somewhat independent study required for success.

An Educology of Peace Education: Formulating a Strategy for the Promotion of Non-Violent Conflict Resolution in a Democracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mallum, Jane O.

2002-01-01

The world today is fraught with violence and conflicts. This state of affairs is made all the more dangerous by the development of nuclear technology and the possibility of dissemination of military applications of this technology to unstable countries and militant terrorists. At the same time, there has been a rapid diffusion of democratization…

The Productivity Push: System-Wide Reform Allows Arizona to Serve More Students. Lumina Foundation Focus[TM]. Summer 2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giegerich, Steve

2010-01-01

Today, the United States spends about twice as much on higher education as the average developed nation, but many other countries are doing a better job of graduating more students at substantially lower expense. To provide more high-quality degrees and credentials at lower cost, colleges and universities must become high-performing institutions.…

Preparing Our Youth for an Inclusive and Sustainable World: The OECD PISA Global Competence Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

OECD Publishing, 2018

2018-01-01

In 2015, 193 countries committed to achieving the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a shared vision of humanity that provides the missing piece of the globalisation puzzle. The extent to which that vision becomes a reality will depend on today's classrooms; and it is educators who hold the key to ensuring that the SDGs become a real…

Entwicklungen und Auswirkungen der Schulprofilierung an allgemeinbildenden Schulen in ausgewählten europäischen Ländern und Implementationsperspektiven für Deutschland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nonte, Sonja

2013-07-01

Developments and consequences of school profiling in general-education schools in selected European countries and perspectives for implementation in Germany - The development of a school programme, e.g. by way of forming a profile in the field of music or sports, is part of everyday school life in many European state and private schools today and even statutory in some countries and states. This paper focuses on the background and the significance of this development in school politics but also on the potential and the challenges which come with the profile formation of schools on an individual as well as systemic basis. Furthermore, the author introduces and discusses examples for the profile formation of schools and classes by looking at concrete projects. After that, recommendations are given for school programme work in individual schools. The focus is especially on German-speaking countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Anaesthesia in the obese child.

PubMed

Philippi-Höhne, Claudia

2011-03-01

The incidence of childhood obesity ranges today from approximately 8% to 17%, and is an increasing issue in developed and developing countries. This disease will become increasingly significant in paediatric anaesthesia. Obese children not only have anaesthesia-relevant co-existing diseases, that are, asthma and hypertension, but also have a higher incidence of anaesthesia-related complication. This review covers current definition and some epidemiology of childhood obesity. It summarises potential co-morbidities and provides details for preoperative evaluation, anaesthetic management and prevention of perioperative complications.

The Importance, Content and Teaching of the Political Geography Course in Social Studies Undergraduate Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ocal, Tulay

2016-01-01

Today, big countries and other countries inside their axes have entered power wars in regions where underground and aboveground sources are important. One of the characteristics of countries where these power wars take place is them not being able to understand the current world politics and elements of political geography. These countries cannot…

Europa Heute: Filmbegleitheft (Europe Today: Film Manual).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freudenstein, Reinhold; And Others

This teacher's guide to the German promotional film "Europe Today", suitable for use in advanced courses, concentrates on linguistic preparation required for full appreciation. The film focuses on the role of European countries as participating members of the Common Market. The manual includes information on the German film industry, a…

The U.S. Constitution in Today's World.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patrick, John J.

A comparative study of constitutions and governments in world history is a key to deeper understanding of the U.S. Constitution. While many countries have constitutions, the United States is among a minority of nations in today's world that has a constitutional government. Many nations' constitutions truly guarantee few protections of individual…

Economic Blues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stuart, Reginald

2009-01-01

Today, a national economy gone bust has derailed Black Americans' plans across the country. Gone are many of the economic gains, small as they were, achieved in the post-segregation era by millions of 1960s generation children and their children. Black America today is beset by job losses, business closures, pay cuts, furloughs, investment and…

[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.

Cross-Country Skiing Today.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caldwell, John

This book presents changes in cross country skiing which have taken place in the last several years and is directed toward both beginning and seasoned tour skiers. Discussed are the following topics: (1) the cross-country revolution (new fiberglass skis); (2) equipment (how to choose from the new waxless touring skis); (3) care of equipment; (4)…

Biology of rust resistance in forest trees: Proceedings of a NATO-IUFRO Advanced Study Institute; August 17-24, 1969

Treesearch

Richard T. Bingham; Raymond J. Hoff; Geral I. McDonald

1972-01-01

Around the world today is a steadily growing pressure on forest resources--pressure to produce the many goods and services that such lands provide. Highly developed countries and those striving for greater social and economic gains, both look to forests for the material wealth and environment to satisfy human needs. But as efforts increase to manipulate natural forests...

[Poliomyelitis in Landsteiner's time and today].

PubMed

Schwick, H G

1991-01-01

At a meeting of the Royal and Imperial Association of Physicians in Vienna on December 18, 1908 Dr. Karl Landsteiner reported on the successful experimental transmission of poliomyelitis from man to ape in a study which he undertook together with Erwin Popper. In a scientific article that was published shortly after the meeting, Landsteiner wrote that "the poliomyelitis virus belongs to the group of filterable micro-organisms". Soon, Landsteiner's results were confirmed by other colleagues. During a congress in Washington 1912 Landsteiner declared that the development of a vaccine against poliomyelitis might prove difficult but was certainly possible in his opinion. It took another 45 years before the first polio vaccine was available (1955 Salk) and another 5 years until the oral vaccine (1960 Sabin) was implemented. The incidence of poliomyelitis decreased dramatically in industrial countries as a result of vaccination. Today, poliomyelitis is still an enormous threat in developing countries. Together with many national and international institutions the WHO fights this situation very hard by means of vaccination campaigns. The incidence of side effects and insufficient reactions is small with both vaccines. New techniques in the field of molecular biology and a good knowledge of the poliovirus make it likely that further improvements on the vaccines which are currently available will take place.

The export of hazardous industries in 2015.

PubMed

Castleman, Barry

2016-01-19

In the 1970s, there were many reports of toxic hazards at corporate subsidiaries in the developing world that were no longer tolerated in the corporations' "home" countries. Following the chemical disaster in Bhopal, India, in 1984, leading corporations then announced that they applied uniform standards of worker and environmental protection worldwide. With globalization, corporations should also be obliged to take responsibility for their separate supplier, contractor and distributor companies, and licensees of their technology.The asbestos industry today consists of national corporations. Individual countries must overcome the influence of the asbestos-exporting countries and asbestos companies and stop building with asbestos, as recommended by WHO, ILO, and World Bank. WHO precautions for limiting governmental interaction with the tobacco industry should be applied in dealing with the asbestos industry.

Potential health effects of tobacco smoking in Uganda and how to overcome them through an appropraite communication strategy.

PubMed

Semakula, Henry M; Haq, Shah Md Atiqul

2010-06-01

This paper rigourolys analyses literature on tobacco smoking and provides a historical perspective of tobacco smoking and the prevalence of smoking in different parts of the world. The dangerous chemical ingredients in cigarettes and their associated health effects are indentified and rigouroulsy analysed. Later, this paper suggests a communication strategy which can be adopted to convey scientific evidence to the public about the dangers of smoking. The analyse of literature shows that today, tobacco is one of the greatest causes of preventable deaths in the world. Smoking causes various diseases like various types of cancer (Lung, Oral, Stomach, Kidney, Breast, Larynx, Pancreas, and Eophagus cancers). Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD), heart diseases, miscarriages, poor sperm quality, impotence, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and low birth weight. Significant evidence of such diseases has been observed in United States and South Africa which is one of the top smoking countries in Africa. Despite the existence of World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control as well as national laws restricting tobacco use in various countries, the rate of smoking is increasing at a tremendous state especially in developing countries among the adolescents. This means that many tobacco's future victims are today's children. The reason for the high rates of smoking is attribute to the complex marketing skills and strategies of tobacco companies which hinder tobacco smoking control programs. Therefore, if we are to achieve sustainable development as well as the Mellinium Development Goals, we should stand up jointly to stop the smoking habits among the people through collective efforts and collaborative campaigns. An appropriate communication strategy as suggested in this paper is required to counteract the persuasive smoking evil adverts of tobacco companies.

Advantages and Limitations of Usage of Open Educational Resources in Small Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krelja Kurelovic, Elena

2016-01-01

Educational resources in the competitive world of higher education were often considered as key intellectual property, so access to those resources was restricted to privileged groups of students and professors, which is unacceptable in today's networked society. Today, an increasing number of institutions and individuals share such digital…

Challenging Hegemonies in Online Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Godwin-Jones, Robert

2012-01-01

In Western countries today, instructed language learning in higher education normally includes use of the Web: as a resource in face-to-face classes, as an equal partner in instructional delivery in hybrid courses, or as the primary teaching and learning environment in distance learning. Most often today this is enabled through use of a learning…

Asia & Oceania Today: A Reproducible Atlas. 1995 Revised Edition. World Eagle's Today Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Independent Broadcasting Associates, Inc., Littleton, MA.

This book contains blank outline maps of the continent or region, tables, and graphics depicting various aspects of Asia and Oceania. Sections of the book include: (1) "The Land and Population Figures"; (2) "Cities and Countries"; (3) "People: Languages, Literacy, Ethnic groups, Demographic Statistics and Projections,…

Minimizing cross-cultural maladaptation: How minority status facilitates change in international acculturation.

PubMed

Volpone, Sabrina D; Marquardt, Dennis J; Casper, Wendy J; Avery, Derek R

2018-03-01

Culturally savvy organizations recognize that selecting and developing people who can be effective in a global workforce is important in today's business environment. Nevertheless, many companies struggle to identify and develop talent who are happy and successful working and living outside their home country. We examine 1 factor that may foster success in a host country-minority status in 1's home country-as a predictor of change in acculturation over time. Specifically, we draw on the conservation of resources model to suggest that international students who have been a member of more minority groups in their home country have unique experiences working with dissimilar others that offer advantages when acculturating to new cultures and novel situations. Then, change in host country acculturation is explored as a mechanism to explain how minority status in the home country relates to intentions to leave the host country and psychological well-being 6 months after entry. Two moderators (cultural intelligence, perceived diversity climate of the host institution) of these relationships are also examined. Results revealed that the relationship between minority status in the home country and change in host country acculturation was positive and stronger for those with higher cultural intelligence. Further, the relationship between change in host country acculturation and psychological well-being was positive when perceived diversity climate of the host institution was high, but was not significant when perceived diversity climate was low. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Healthcare and healthcare systems: inspiring progress and future prospects

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Background Healthcare systems globally have experienced intensive changes, reforms, developments, and improvement over the past 30 years. Multiple actors (governmental and non-governmental) and countries have played their part in the reformation of the global healthcare system. New opportunities are presenting themselves while multiple challenges still remain especially in developing countries. Better way to proceed would be to learn from historical patterns while we plan for the future in a technology-driven society with dynamic demographic, epidemiological and economic uncertainties. Methods A structured review of both peer-reviewed and gray literature on the topic was carried out. Results On the whole, people are healthier, doing better financially and live longer today than 30 years ago. The number of under-5 mortality worldwide has declined from 12.7 million in 1990 to 6.3 million in 2013. Infant and maternal mortality rates have also been reduced. However, both rates are still considered high in Africa and some Asian countries. The world’s population nearly doubled in these 30 years, from 4.8 billion in 1985 to 7.2 billion in 2015. The majority of the increasing population was coming from the least developed countries, i.e., 3.66 to 5.33 billion. The world will be short of 12.9 million health-care workers by 2035; today, that figure stands at 7.2 million. Health care expenditures among countries also show sharp differences. In high income countries, per person health expenditure is over USD 3,000 on average, while in poor countries, it is as low as USD 12, WHO estimate of minimum spending per person per year needed to provide basic, life-saving services is USD 44. The challenges faced by the global health system over the past 30 years have been increased in population and urbanization, behavioral changes, rise in chronic diseases, traumatic injuries, infectious diseases, specific regional conflicts and healthcare delivery security. Over the next 30 years, most of the world population growth will occur in the urban areas of poor countries. The rapid, unplanned and unsustainable style of urban development will make developing countries cities the key focal points for emerging environmental and health hazards. Changes will be seen in design, culture and practices of hospitals to better meet the needs of patients, families and providers. Top driving factors of global healthcare system for next 30 years will be leading causes of mortalities, non-health factors (impact of nutrition, sanitation and women’s empowerment), investment in health workforce and growth of medical tourism in future healthcare scenario. Conclusions Evaluating the patterns of previous 30 years and predicting the progress and challenges of future health system are no rocket science. Medical care will be more self-directed in a more tech-savvy population as information will be more accessible and user friendly with higher quality. Health driving factors such as clean water, sanitation and food will take the center stage in humanities struggle and even increase population size. PMID:28293581

Healthcare and healthcare systems: inspiring progress and future prospects.

PubMed

Durrani, Hammad

2016-01-01

Healthcare systems globally have experienced intensive changes, reforms, developments, and improvement over the past 30 years. Multiple actors (governmental and non-governmental) and countries have played their part in the reformation of the global healthcare system. New opportunities are presenting themselves while multiple challenges still remain especially in developing countries. Better way to proceed would be to learn from historical patterns while we plan for the future in a technology-driven society with dynamic demographic, epidemiological and economic uncertainties. A structured review of both peer-reviewed and gray literature on the topic was carried out. On the whole, people are healthier, doing better financially and live longer today than 30 years ago. The number of under-5 mortality worldwide has declined from 12.7 million in 1990 to 6.3 million in 2013. Infant and maternal mortality rates have also been reduced. However, both rates are still considered high in Africa and some Asian countries. The world's population nearly doubled in these 30 years, from 4.8 billion in 1985 to 7.2 billion in 2015. The majority of the increasing population was coming from the least developed countries, i.e., 3.66 to 5.33 billion. The world will be short of 12.9 million health-care workers by 2035; today, that figure stands at 7.2 million. Health care expenditures among countries also show sharp differences. In high income countries, per person health expenditure is over USD 3,000 on average, while in poor countries, it is as low as USD 12, WHO estimate of minimum spending per person per year needed to provide basic, life-saving services is USD 44. The challenges faced by the global health system over the past 30 years have been increased in population and urbanization, behavioral changes, rise in chronic diseases, traumatic injuries, infectious diseases, specific regional conflicts and healthcare delivery security. Over the next 30 years, most of the world population growth will occur in the urban areas of poor countries. The rapid, unplanned and unsustainable style of urban development will make developing countries cities the key focal points for emerging environmental and health hazards. Changes will be seen in design, culture and practices of hospitals to better meet the needs of patients, families and providers. Top driving factors of global healthcare system for next 30 years will be leading causes of mortalities, non-health factors (impact of nutrition, sanitation and women's empowerment), investment in health workforce and growth of medical tourism in future healthcare scenario. Evaluating the patterns of previous 30 years and predicting the progress and challenges of future health system are no rocket science. Medical care will be more self-directed in a more tech-savvy population as information will be more accessible and user friendly with higher quality. Health driving factors such as clean water, sanitation and food will take the center stage in humanities struggle and even increase population size.

Language Learning as a Struggle for Distinction in Today's Corporate Recruitment Culture: an Ethnographic Study of English Study Abroad Practices among South Korean Undergraduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jang, In Chull

2015-01-01

Young adults in South Korea are encouraged to constantly develop their skills and qualifications to meet the challenges posed by the job market in the country's neoliberal post-IMF crisis economy. This paper examines the ways in which changes in South Korea's labor market and corporate recruitment culture have affected the ideologies and practices…

Cancer Chemotherapy: Past, Present, and Future—Part II

PubMed Central

Wright, Jane C.

1984-01-01

Cancer is of major concern today because of its high mortality. It is estimated that 66 million people in this country will eventually develop cancer; 1983 estimates were 855,000 new cases and 440,000 deaths from cancer. Because of limitations of surgery and radiation therapy in effecting a cure for cancer, chemotherapy has become increasingly important. The developments in the chemical control of cancer in man are encouraging. This two-part paper* covers the historical milestones in the development of the chemical and hormonal control of cancer, present successes with the use of polychemotherapy, and the hopeful trend in research. PMID:6492179

Improving iSC performance through outsourcing - Considerations for using third-party service providers to increase innovation, capacity and efficiency.

PubMed

Wright, Martin; Forster, Gary; Beale, John

2017-04-19

Development partners and donors have encouraged and incentivized governments in developing countries to explore ways of working with third-party service suppliers to reduce costs and increase service delivery capacity. The distribution of vaccines and medicines has for a long time shown demand for outsourcing but public health systems have struggled to develop the expertise and capital assets necessary to manage such ventures. Existing transport and logistics capacity within public health systems, in particular, is well documented as being insufficient to support existing, let alone future immunization needs. Today, a number of countries are contracting party logistics providers (3PLs) to supplement the in-house distribution operations of public health systems. This commentary reflects on recent, leading examples of outsourcing initiatives to address critical gaps in transport and logistics. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

African swine fever virus: current state and future perspectives in vaccine and antiviral research.

PubMed

Zakaryan, Hovakim; Revilla, Yolanda

2016-03-15

African swine fever (ASF) is among the most significant of swine diseases for which no effective vaccines and antivirals are available. The disease, which is endemic in Africa, was introduced to Trans-Caucasian countries and the Russian Federation in 2007, where it remains prevalent today among domestic pigs and wild boars. Although some measures were implemented, ASF continues to pose a global risk for all countries, and thereby highlighting the importance of vaccine and antiviral research. In this review, an overview of research efforts toward the development of effective vaccines during the past decades is presented. As an alternative to vaccine development, the current state in antiviral research against ASFV is also presented. Finally, future perspectives in vaccine and antiviral research giving emphasis on some strategies that may allow researchers to develop effective countermeasures against ASF are discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An Informal Discussion on Internet Matters. Moral Construction for Children and Young People

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaoguang, Yang

2006-01-01

The social problems triggered by Internet are legion. Computer games and such high-tech achievements of the Internet that used to be regarded as "angels" are today frequently playing the role of "demons." As the times advance, Internet ethics have become a new challenge facing educational workers. Today, when our country is…

Quel commerce du bois dans le monde?

Treesearch

Joseph Buongiorno

2014-01-01

In today’s global economy, French forest product manufacturers are in direct competition with manufacturers of other countries. Which countries are dominant in international trade in forest products? What are the implications of global price changes on French trade in forest products? This chapter describes the place of France in global markets and how the country’s...

Cultural differences in Research project management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barbier, Michele

2016-04-01

Scientific Projects today have increased in complexity, requiring multidisciplinarity, and requiring a mix of diverse individuals from different countries who must be integrated into an effective project. Effective team building is one of the prime responsibilities of the project manager. When the project is supported by a funding, the integration and the implication of the different partners are quite easy. Particularly when partners are developing high-performing teams. However, management of research project requires further skills when the budget is not very high and/or when partners are from non-European countries and are not using the same vocabulary. The various cultures, values, beliefs and social usages, particularly with Mediterranean countries cause a special style of communication for an individual or group of individuals. This communication style participates in the success of the project and encompasses a lot of diplomatic skills which will be highlighted.

The link between national security and biometrics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Etter, Delores M.

2005-03-01

National security today requires identification of people, things and activities. Biometrics plays an important role in the identification of people, and indirectly, in the identification of things and activities. Therefore, the development of technology and systems that provide faster and more accurate biometric identification is critical to the defense of our country. In addition, the development of a broad range of biometrics is necessary to provide the range of options needed to address flexible and adaptive adversaries. This paper will discuss the importance of a number of critical areas in the development of an environment to support biometrics, including research and development, biometric education, standards, pilot projects, and privacy assurance.

Equipping K-4 Children to Speak Any Foreign Language with an Authentic Accent

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuckermann, Ghil'ad; Benmark, Gadi

2010-01-01

In today's rapidly changing globalizing world, it is hard to predict which of many languages a child can learn today will be most useful to them twenty and thirty years from now, when they enter a global work place, interact socially with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, and may face relocation opportunities to foreign countries. Some…

Energy Smart Guide to Campus Cost Savings: Today's Trends in Project Finance, Clean Fuel Fleets, Combined Heat& Power, Emissions Markets

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

Not Available

2003-07-01

The Energy Smart Guide to Campus Cost Savings covers today's trends in project finance, combined heat& power, clean fuel fleets and emissions trading. The guide is directed at campus facilities and business managers and contains general guidance, contact information and case studies from colleges and universities across the country.

A Study of Teachers' Paradigms of the "China Today" Module in Hong Kong under One Country and Two Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yau, Dick Tak-sang

2009-01-01

Background: During the period of British colonial rule, the nature of civic education in Hong Kong was characterized as denationalized, depoliticized and decontextualized. The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration substantially altered the nature of civic education. The "China Today" module of Liberal Studies (LS) was one of the results…

How Knowledge of Ancient Egyptian Women Can Influence Today's Gender Role: Does History Matter in Gender Psychology?

PubMed

Khalil, Radwa; Moustafa, Ahmed A; Moftah, Marie Z; Karim, Ahmed A

2016-01-01

A gender role is a set of societal norms dictating what types of behaviors are considered desirable or appropriate for a person based on their sex. However, socially constructed gender roles can lead to equal rights between genders but also to severe disadvantages and discrimination with a remarkable variety between different countries. Based on social indicators and gender statistics, "women in the Arab region are on average more disadvantaged economically, politically, and socially than women in other regions." According to Banduras' social learning theory, we argue that profound knowledge of the historical contributions of Ancient Egyptian female pioneers in science, arts, and even in ruling Egypt as Pharaohs can improve today's gender role in Egypt and Middle Eastern countries. Therefore, this article provides an elaborate review of the gender role of women in Ancient Egypt, outlining their prominence, influence, and admiration in ancient societies, and discusses the possible psychological impact of this knowledge on today's gender role. We suggest that future empirical research should investigate how enhancing the knowledge of women from Ancient Egypt can improve today's gender role in Egypt and the Middle East. Bandura's social learning theory is outlined as a possible framework for future research.

Changes in the Academe: Women in Dental Education.

PubMed

Lyon, Cindy; Vallee, Jessie

2017-01-01

More than 150 years ago, Lucy Hobbs became the first woman in the country to enter dental school. Today, women represent nearly half of the nation’s entering class, more than a third of the faculty and a growing number of administrative leaders, including deans. Evidence illustrates a developing pipeline toward greater numbers and strength of women in dental education, creating a far-reaching impact on teaching, learning and patient care in academia, practice and the profession.

Policies for English Language Teacher Education in Brazil Today: Preliminary Remarks (Políticas para la formación de profesores de inglés en el Brasil de hoy: primeras aproximaciones)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gimenez, Telma; Ferreira, Aparecida de Jesus; Alves Basso, Rosângela Aparecida; Carvalho Cruvinel, Roberta

2016-01-01

In the last decade Brazil has begun to tackle the educational challenges of a developing country with a young population. The scale of such a demand is a result of the social and cultural inequalities that have historically been existent. Recent official policies and programs have addressed this gap by promoting greater opportunities for teacher…

Health issues in the Arab American community. Commentary on the global epidemic of tobacco, a manufactured disease. What it looks like today and what's to come.

PubMed

Warner, Kenneth E

2007-01-01

An estimated 1.2 billion citizens of the world are smokers. In developing countries, half the males smoke. WHO projects a global smoking population of 1.6 billion by the end of the next two decades. Collectively, today the world's smokers annually consume nearly 1,000 cigarettes for every man, woman and child on the planet. Almost 5 million people die as a result of smoking, half during their productive working years, with half occurring in developing countries. Two decades hence, tobacco products will kill an estimated 10 million people every year, 70% of them in the world's poor nations. During the 20th century, smoking killed 100 million people. Without significant public health progress, cigarettes will claim the lives of an estimated one billion during the 21st century. Progress can be achieved, however, through the adoption and enforcement of effective tobacco control policies. Such policies are embedded in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world's first international health treaty. They include protecting nonsmokers from the hazards of secondhand smoke in all indoor workplaces and public places, banning tobacco advertising and sponsorship, raising tobacco taxes and eliminating the smuggling of untaxed cigarettes. The future health of the world's population rests on the success that will be achieved in global tobacco control.

Prioritizing environmental issues around the world: opinions from an international Central and Eastern European environmental health conference.

PubMed

Craft, Elena S; Donnelly, Kirby C; Neamtiu, Iulia; McCarty, Kathleen M; Bruce, Erica; Surkova, Irina; Kim, David; Uhnakova, Iveta; Gyorffy, Erika; Tesarova, Eva; Anderson, Beth

2006-12-01

As the next generation of scientists enters the field of environmental health, it is imperative that they view their contributions in the context of global environmental stewardship. In this commentary, a group of international graduate students facilitated by three experienced environmental health scientists present their views on what they consider to be the global environmental health concerns of today. This group convened initially in October 2004 at an international health conference in Prague, Czech Republic. In this report we identify perceived environmental health concerns that exist around the world, with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Additionally, we address these perceived problems and offers some potential solutions. At the meeting, students were invited to participate in two panel discussions. One group of young international scientists identified several significant global environmental health concerns, including air pollution, occupational hazards, and risk factors that may exacerbate current environmental health issues. The second panel determined that communication, education, and regulation were the mechanisms for addressing current environmental challenges. In this commentary we expand on the views presented at the meeting and represent the concerns of young investigators from nine different countries. We provide ideas about and support the exchange of information between developed and developing countries on how to handle the environmental health challenges that face the world today.

A developing country perspective on vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis.

PubMed

John, T Jacob

2004-01-01

When the Expanded Programme on Immunization was established and oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) was introduced for developing countries to use exclusively, national leaders of public health had no opportunity to make an informed choice between OPV and the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV). Today, as progress is made towards the goal of global eradication of poliomyelitis attributable to wild polioviruses, all developing countries where OPV is used face the risk of vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP). Until recently, awareness of VAPP has been poor and quantitative risk analysis scanty but it is now well known that the continued use of OPV perpetuates the risk of VAPP. Discontinuation or declining immunization coverage of OPV will increase the risk of emergence of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV) that re-acquire wild virus-like properties and may cause outbreaks of polio. To eliminate the risk of cVDPV, either very high immunization coverage must be maintained as long as OPV is in use, or IPV should replace OPV. Stopping OPV without first achieving high immunization coverage with IPV is unwise on account of the possibility of emergence of cVDPV. Increasing numbers of developed nations prefer IPV, and manufacturing capacities have not been scaled up, so its price remains prohibitively high and unaffordable by developing countries, where, in addition, large-scale field experience with IPV is lacking. Under these circumstances, a policy shift to increase the use of IPV in national immunization programmes in developing countries is a necessary first step; once IPV coverage reaches high levels (over 85%), the withdrawal of OPV may begin.

[Vaccines: producers in countries of the Southern hemisphere].

PubMed

Bertrand, J J

2007-08-01

Vaccine producers in southern hemisphere countries now contribute significantly to global output. In 2006 southern hemisphere countries accounted for more than 10% of the total worldwide production with a progression approximately 70% greater than all producers combined in the two-year period between 2004 and 2006. Though difficult to measure, production in volume is higher due to lower prices practiced in most of these countries. For many years before the 1980s, production was scattered among numerous limited-scale companies. Most were founded at the initiative of governments striving to cover the needs of the population for essential vaccines. A number of institutions and private structures such as Institut Pasteur Production, Connaught Laboratories, and Institut Merieux have also set up production facilities. Today's producers can be divided into two categories, i.e., local producers that produce mainly monovalent vaccines and worldwide producers with strong R&D investment programs. Local producers are located mainly in large southern hemisphere countries such as China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia as well as in eastern countries. For the most dynamic companies, international development is focused on southern hemisphere countries excluding North America and Europe. With the support international organization such as WHO, UNICEF and GAVI, alliances are now being formed and networks are being organized in an effort to ensure reliable supplies of high quality vaccines at affordable prices in developing countries. The contribution of these producers will increase for the greater benefit of the people living in the southern hemisphere.

Comparison of BMI and percentage of body fat of Indian and German children and adolescents.

PubMed

Janewa, Vanessa Schönfeld; Ghosh, Arnab; Scheffler, Christiane

2012-01-01

Today, serious health problems as overweight and obesity are not just constricted to the developed world, but also increase in the developing countries (Prentice 2006, Ramachandram et al. 2002). Focusing on this issue, BMI and percentage of body fat were compared in 2094 schoolchildren from two cross-sectional studies from India and Germany investigated in 2008 and 2009. The German children are in all age groups significantly taller, whereas the Indian children show higher values in BMI (e.g. 12 years: Indian: around 22 kg/m2; German: around 19 kg/m2) and in the percentage of body fat (e.g. 12 years: Indian: around 27%; German: around 18-20%) in most of the investigated age groups. The Indian children have significantly higher BMI between 10 and 13 (boys) respectively 14 years (girls). Indian children showed significant higher percentage of body fat between 10 and 15 years (boys) and between 8 and 16 years (girls). The difference in overweight between Indian and German children was strongest at 11 (boys) and 12 (girls) years: 70% of the Indian but 20% of the German children were classified as overweight. In countries such as India that undergo nutritional transition, a rapid increase in obesity and overweight is observed. In contrast to the industrialized countries, the risk of overweight in developing countries is associated with high socioeconomic status. Other reasons of the rapid increase of overweight in the developing countries caused by different environmental or genetic factors are discussed.

Higher Goals in Mathematics Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kolar-Begovic, Zdenka, Ed.; Kolar-Šuper, Ružica, Ed.; Ðurdevic Babic, Ivana, Ed.

2015-01-01

This monograph offers an overview of the current research work carried out in Croatia and the surrounding countries, and specifically an interesting insight in teaching and learning issues in these countries. The authors discuss the need of the general population for becoming good problem-solvers in society of today, which is characterised by…

Serbian Students: Empowered or Disempowered?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cuckovic, Biljana

2006-01-01

The higher education system in Serbia today is undergoing serious change, like other aspects of the country's social, political and economic life. Aligned with other neighboring countries that have emerged after the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia, as well, is on the road to European integration. The process of transition necessitated…

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

Williams, M.F.; Grant, C.W.; King, N.

Some Asian countries such as Myanmar, Vietnam, and Indonesia are still at very low electricity consumption rates per capita, while others, such as Malaysia and Taiwan, are at much higher rates. What all Asian countries have in common is rapid growth in the demand for electricity. If the rising demand for additional electricity is not met, economic growth will be curtailed. However, all Asian countries face a major challenge in funding and constructing the required additional generating capacity fast enough to meet demand. Finding this amount of new capital is not going to be easy, and there will be muchmore » competition for scarce funds. The environmental challenge may be even greater than the financing hurdle. To date, most generation capacity in Asia has been coal based, and a significant amount of that is low technology and without flue gas desulfurization. The effect on the environment is already apparent. One argument has been that developing countries cannot afford the same standards of environmental performance as developed countries. With the levels of pollution that exist today, the question should be, can they afford not to? It has been estimated that pollution in China costs US$100 billion/a and that US$20 billion has to be spent over the next decade just to prevent worsening of pollution.« less

From maternity to parental leave policies: women's health, employment, and child and family well-being.

PubMed

Kamerman, S B

2000-01-01

Pregnancy and maternity are increasingly viewed as social as well as individual risks that require health protection, employment protection and security, and protection against temporary loss of income. Begun more than a century ago in Germany, paid and job-protected maternity leaves from work were established in most countries initially out of concern for maternal and child physical health. Beginning in the 1960s, these policies have expanded to cover paternity and parental leaves following childbirth and adoption as well. Moreover, they have increasingly emerged as central to the emotional and psychological well-being of children as well as to the employment and economic security of their mothers and fathers. They are modest social policies, but are clearly an essential part of any country's child and family policy. No industrialized country today can be without such provision, and the United States is a distinct laggard in these developments.

An introduction to Chinese psychology--its historical roots until the present day.

PubMed

Higgins, Louise T; Zheng, Mo

2002-03-01

In this article the authors review the historical development of Chinese psychology. China's long history as a country immersed in the study of psychological issues is well known and has had an influence on developments in the field of psychology around the world. Modern Chinese psychology, however, was imported from the West and the Soviet Union and has been closely linked with China's social environment and changes of national policy. Today Chinese psychology is still in a preliminary stage. Despite difficulties that may impede its future development, the importance of psychology in the modernization of China has been widely recognized.

Youth of Today and the Democracy of Tomorrow. Polish Students' Attitudes toward Democracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marzecki, Radoslaw; Stach, Lukasz

2016-01-01

From the perspective of over 20 years into the transformation process in post-communist countries, it seems important to be able to pose questions about the future of democracy, and, in particular, its social foundations. These questions become all the more significant, when we come to realize that it is the attitudes of 'the young of today' that…

Rebuilding Iraq - The Danish Interagency Strategy

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-02-09

HDI ), Iraq dropped from position number 76 in 1990, to position 126 in 2000. No other country underwent a similar descent in the same period. In the...and mutually impressionable main tendencies in Iraq today: progress in the political process, endeavors to rebuild the country , and a continued...the country , and (3) a continued serious security situation including violent incidents especially in the central part of Iraq but also in other

A Review on the Rising Prevalence of International Standards: Threats or Opportunities for the Agri-Food Produce Sector in Developing Countries, with a Focus on Examples from the MENA Region.

PubMed

Faour-Klingbeil, Dima; Todd, Ewen C D

2018-03-03

Food safety standards are a necessity to protect consumers' health in today's growing global food trade. A number of studies have suggested safety standards can interrupt trade, bringing financial and technical burdens on small as well as large agri-food producers in developing countries. Other examples have shown that economical extension, key intermediaries, and funded initiatives have substantially enhanced the capacities of growers in some countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to meet the food safety and quality requirements, and improve their access to international markets. These endeavors often compensate for the weak regulatory framework, but do not offer a sustainable solution. There is a big gap in the food safety level and control systems between countries in the MENA region and those in the developed nations. This certainly has implications for the safety of fresh produce and agricultural practices, which hinders any progress in their international food trade. To overcome the barriers of legal and private standards, food safety should be a national priority for sustainable agricultural development in the MENA countries. Local governments have a primary role in adopting the vision for developing and facilitating the implementation of their national Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) standards that are consistent with the international requirements and adapted to local policies and environment. Together, the public and private sector's support are instrumental to deliver the skills and infrastructure needed for leveraging the safety and quality level of the agri-food chain.

Changing global essential medicines norms to improve access to AIDS treatment: lessons from Brazil.

PubMed

Nunn, A; Fonseca, E Da; Gruskin, S

2009-01-01

Brazil's large-scale, successful HIV/AIDS treatment programme is considered by many to be a model for other developing countries aiming to improve access to AIDS treatment. Far less is known about Brazil's important role in changing global norms related to international pharmaceutical policy, particularly international human rights, health and trade policies governing access to essential medicines. Prompted by Brazil's interest in preserving its national AIDS treatment policies during World Trade Organisation trade disputes with the USA, these efforts to change global essential medicines norms have had important implications for other countries, particularly those scaling up AIDS treatment. This paper analyses Brazil's contributions to global essential medicines policy and explains the relevance of Brazil's contributions to global health policy today.

How Alexander von Humboldt's life story can inspire innovative soil research in developing countries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouma, Johan

2017-09-01

The pioneering vision of Alexander von Humboldt of science and society of the early 1800s is still highly relevant today. His open mind and urge to make many measurements characterizing the interconnected web of life are crucial ingredients as we now face the worldwide challenge of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Case studies in the Philippines, Vietnam, Kenya, Niger, and Costa Rica demonstrate, in Alexander's spirit, interaction with stakeholders and attention to unique local conditions, applying modern measurement and modeling methods and allowing inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches. But relations between science and society are increasingly problematic, partly as a result of the information revolution and post-truth, fact-free thinking. Overly regulated and financially restricted scientific communities in so-called developed countries may stifle intellectual creativity. Researchers in developing countries are urged to leapfrog these problems in the spirit of Alexander von Humboldt as they further develop their scientific communities. Six suggestions to the science community are made with particular attention to soil science. (The Humboldt lecture, presented by the 2017 recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt lecture, Johan Bouma, can be accessed at http://client.cntv.at/egu2017/ml1.)

A hydrodynamic model for cooperating solidary countries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Luca, Roberto; Di Mauro, Marco; Falzarano, Angelo; Naddeo, Adele

2017-07-01

The goal of international trade theories is to explain the exchange of goods and services between different countries, aiming to benefit from it. Albeit the idea is very simple and known since ancient history, smart policy and business strategies need to be implemented by each subject, resulting in a complex as well as not obvious interplay. In order to understand such a complexity, different theories have been developed since the sixteenth century and today new ideas still continue to enter the game. Among them, the so called classical theories are country-based and range from Absolute and Comparative Advantage theories by A. Smith and D. Ricardo to Factor Proportions theory by E. Heckscher and B. Ohlin. In this work we build a simple hydrodynamic model, able to reproduce the main conclusions of Comparative Advantage theory in its simplest setup, i.e. a two-country world with country A and country B exchanging two goods within a genuine exchange-based economy and a trade flow ruled only by market forces. The model is further generalized by introducing money in order to discuss its role in shaping trade patterns. Advantages and drawbacks of the model are also discussed together with perspectives for its improvement.

The Potent Lever of Toil: Nursing Development and Exportation in the Postcolonial Philippines

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Although the colonial relationship between the Philippines and the United States precipitated nurse education and migration patterns that exist today, little is known about the factors that sustained them. During the first half of the twentieth century, for example, the Philippines trained its nurse workforce primarily for domestic use. After the country's independence in 1946, however, that practice reversed. Nurse education in the Philippines was driven largely by US market demand in tandem with local messages linking work and nationalism and explicit policies to send nurses abroad. As these ideologies and practices became firmly entrenched, nurse production not only exceeded the country's numerical requirements but focused largely on preparing practitioners for the health care needs of developed nations rather than the public health needs of the indigenous population. This historical trend has important present-day ramifications for the Philippines, whose continued exodus of nurses threatens its public health. PMID:20634458

Green dentistry, a metamorphosis towards an eco-friendly dentistry: a short communication.

PubMed

Rastogi, Varun; Sharma, Rachna; Yadav, Lalita; Satpute, Pranali; Sharma, Vandana

2014-07-01

Dentistry is most importantly and foremost a healing profession. In today's world, it is very necessary to understand the importance of being eco-friendly in every facet of our lives, including dental practice which has a huge impact on the environment due to the large amount of metallic waste generated by various dental procedures along with excessive use of water and electricity, which specifically emphasis the thrust to move towards 'Green dentistry'. Green dentistry is an innovative way of dental practice which is environment friendly and at the same time conserves money and time by reducing waste, conserving energy and decreasing pollution with the use of latest techniques and procedures. Green dentistry therefore, protects the environment and mankind from the hazards of rapid urbanisation in developing countries. The authors wish to emphasize the practice of eco-friendly, green dentistry in a developing country like India which needs to conserve resources and curb environmental pollution.

The population slide.

PubMed

Mukerjee, M

1998-12-01

The level of total fertility in Bangladesh has fallen from 7 in 1975 to 3 today, the sharpest fertility transition in South Asia. Fertility decline in Bangladesh and Nepal follows such transition occurring first in Sri Lanka, then in India. While in Western countries, levels of fertility began to fall once an advanced stage of development had been reached, these new declines in South Asia are not directly correlated with indicators of development such as increased literacy or the alleviation of poverty. Bangladesh has experienced major fertility decline despite being one of the world's 20 poorest countries. Fertility decline in Bangladesh may be attributed to a combination of an effective government family planning program, a general desire among Bangladesh's population to bear fewer children, reductions in mortality, the availability of microcredit, changes in women's status, and the provision of health and family planning information over the radio 6 hours per day.

Global English Teaching and Teacher Education: Praxis and Possibility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dogancay-Aktuna, Seran, Ed.; Hardman, Joel, Ed.

2008-01-01

Today's English language teaching goes beyond the norms of English spoken and taught in native-English-speaking countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, or Australia. Increasingly, a variety of countries have established, formally or informally, a kind of English unique to their own populations, and English language teachers within…

India Co2 Emissions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharan, S.; Diffenbaugh, N. S.

2010-12-01

Is there a way to find a balance between improving living conditions for the people on the margins and also reducing emissions while limiting our negative impacts on the climate? This is a critical question today because there are many arguments between developed and developing countries about who is responsible for global warming. Developed countries believe that it is the poor countries because they are not educated enough to know about how they are affecting the climate. While the developing countries hold wealthy nations responsible because they are using the most resources. However it is important to acknowledge the fact that if there was no gap in between the developed and developing countries our emissions total would be much higher. This “gap” has been a natural controlling factor in climate change. This is why I wanted to see if I could plot what it would look like if a developing country such as India were to produce emissions that the US or Switzerland or Norway are producing as developed countries. India has a population total of 1.1 billion compared to the US with only 298 million, Switzerland with 7.5 million, and Norway with 4.6 million people. When the population is compared to the emissions output in metric tons, per capita, India produced the least emissions out of these countries, 1.4 tons per person while having the second largest population in the world, while the US produced 19 tons per capita, Switzerland produced 5.6 and Norway produced 8.7 tons per capita in 2006. The emissions rate is growing every year and increases widely and globally. If India was producing emissions that equal Norway, Switzerland and the US the total emissions it would be producing annually would be 9 billion for Norway, 6 billion for Switzerland and 20 billion emissions for the US, all in the year 2006 alone. This shows how the balance between countries with huge populations and very little emission output and average population and high emission out put has created a balance in between the “developed” and developing countries. If India was producing the same amounts of emissions per capita as the it would have a total of 20 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions annually.

Science, technology, and society: a cross-disciplinary perspective. [15 papers

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

Spiegel-Roesing, I.; de Solla Price, D.

1977-01-01

Fifteen chapters (17 contributors from 9 disciplines and 6 different countries) look at the critical interdisciplinary questions that make up the spectrum of contemporary academic, policymaking, and social concern over scientific and technological development in today and tomorrow's world. The contents are: The Study of Science, Technology, and Society (SSTS): Recent Trends and Future Challenges, I. Spiegel-Rosing; Science Policy Studies and the Development of Science Policy, Jean-Jacques Salomon; Criticisms of Science, J. R. Ravetz; Sociology of the Scientific Research Community, M. J. Mulkay; Changing Perspectives in the Social History of Science, Roy MacLeod; Conditions of Technical Development, E. Layton; Economicsmore » of Research and Development, C. Freeman; Psychology of Science, R. Fisch; Models for the Development of Science, Gernot Bohme; Scientists, Technologists, and Political Power, Sanford A. Lakoff; Technology and Public Policy, D. Nelkin; Science, Technology, and Military Policy, Harvey M. Sapolsky; Science, Technology, and Foreign Policy, Brigette Schroeder-Gudehus; Science, Technology, and the International System, Eugene B. Skolnikoff; and Science Policy and Developing Countries, Ziauddin Sardar and Dawud G. Rosser-Owen. (MCW)« less

Sustainable Development Strategy for Russian Mineral Resources Extracting Economy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dotsenko, Elena; Ezdina, Natalya; Prilepskaya, Angelina; Pivnyk, Kirill

2017-11-01

The immaturity of strategic and conceptual documents in the sphere of sustainable development of the Russian economy had a negative impact on long-term strategic forecasting of its neo-industrialization. At the present stage, the problems of overcoming the mineral and raw material dependence, the negative structural shift of the Russian economy, the acceleration of the rates of economic growth, the reduction of technological gap from the developed countries become strategically in demand. The modern structure of the Russian economy, developed within the framework of the proposed market model, does not generate a sustainable type of development. It became obvious that in conditions of the market processes' entropy, without neo-industrial changes, the reconstruction of industry on a new convergence-technological basis and without increasing the share of high technology production the instability of macroeconomic system, the risks of environmental and economic security of Russia are growing. Therefore, today we need a transition from forming one industry development strategy to the national one that will take into account both the social and economic and environmental challenges facing Russia as a mineral resources extracting country.

No Nation Alone

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chase, Stuart

1976-01-01

Summarized are 13 major problems facing every country in the world today. Problems include: disarmament, population explosion, pollution, energy, conservation of natural resources, transportation, communications, and health. (SL)

Acoustoelectronics: History, Present State, and New Ideas for a New Era

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gulyaev, Yu. V.; Hickernell, F. S.

2005-02-01

The application of high-frequency acoustic devices to the enhancement of electronics saw an extraordinary growth in both Eastern and Western countries in the sixties and seventies. A major impetus for these developments was the tension existing between the Soviet Bloc countries in the east and the former Allied countries in the west. Government military spending on both sides provided funding to explore new acoustoelectronic concepts in universities, institutes, and major defense companies. The direct exchange of visits between scientists and engineers of the East and West was limited until the 1980s, when travel restrictions were lifted on both sides and authors that has previously only been names in the open literature became face-to-face contacts and enjoyed exchanges at conferences of mutual interest. This resulted in a new era of cooperative work between the East and West and a large number of device applications that are seen in electronic systems around the world today. This paper explores the major acoustoelectronic developments of the sixties and seventies from an eastern and western perspective.

Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS): A Trust-Based Network

PubMed Central

Phommasack, Bounlay; Jiraphongsa, Chuleeporn; Ko Oo, Moe; Bond, Katherine C.; Phaholyothin, Natalie; Suphanchaimat, Rapeepong; Ungchusak, Kumnuan; Macfarlane, Sarah B.

2013-01-01

The Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS) network was formally established in 2001 through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by six Ministers of Health of the countries in the Greater Mekong sub-region: Cambodia, China (Yunnan and Guangxi), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The main areas of focus of the network are to: i) improve cross-border infectious disease outbreak investigation and response by sharing surveillance data and best practices in disease recognition and reporting, and by jointly responding to outbreaks; ii) develop expertise in epidemiological surveillance across the countries; and iii) enhance communication between the countries. Comprised of senior health officials, epidemiologists, health practitioners, and other professionals, the MBDS has grown and matured over the years into an entity based on mutual trust that can be sustained into the future. Other regions have started emulating the network's pioneering work. In this paper, we describe the development of MBDS, the way in which it operates today, and some of its achievements. We present key challenges the network has faced and lessons its members have learned about how to develop sufficient trust for health and other professionals to alert each other to disease threats across national borders and thereby more effectively combat these threats. PMID:23362411

Changing disaster relief regimes in China: an analysis using four famines between 1876 and 1962.

PubMed

Fuller, Pierre

2015-10-01

Once afflicted by frequent episodes of famine, China--particularly the Chinese state--is growing in importance as a player in the overseas aid and development sector. This paper examines four famines in modern China-defined as the period since the First Opium War of 1839-42-to shed light on the changing nature of state involvement in disaster relief in the country, while also demonstrating the breadth and diversity of relief agency in the past. It makes the case that traditional disaster relief principles and methods were active well into the twentieth century, and that the statist model of today's People's Republic is not an essential characteristic of Chinese humanitarian organisation. Rather, the extent to which the Chinese state will continue to assume a dominant role in the country's re-emerging civic and charity sector is, as in earlier times, a function of the political developments and struggles that lie ahead. © 2015 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2015.

The present and future disease burden of hepatitis C virus infections with today's treatment paradigm - volume 3.

PubMed

Sibley, A; Han, K H; Abourached, A; Lesmana, L A; Makara, M; Jafri, W; Salupere, R; Assiri, A M; Goldis, A; Abaalkhail, F; Abbas, Z; Abdou, A; Al Braiki, F; Al Hosani, F; Al Jaberi, K; Al Khatry, M; Al Mulla, M A; Al Quraishi, H; Al Rifai, A; Al Serkal, Y; Alam, A; Alavian, S M; Alashgar, H I; Alawadhi, S; Al-Dabal, L; Aldins, P; Alfaleh, F Z; Alghamdi, A S; Al-Hakeem, R; Aljumah, A A; Almessabi, A; Alqutub, A N; Alswat, K A; Altraif, I; Alzaabi, M; Andrea, N; Babatin, M A; Baqir, A; Barakat, M T; Bergmann, O M; Bizri, A R; Blach, S; Chaudhry, A; Choi, M S; Diab, T; Djauzi, S; El Hassan, E S; El Khoury, S; Estes, C; Fakhry, S; Farooqi, J I; Fridjonsdottir, H; Gani, R A; Ghafoor Khan, A; Gheorghe, L; Gottfredsson, M; Gregorcic, S; Gunter, J; Hajarizadeh, B; Hamid, S; Hasan, I; Hashim, A; Horvath, G; Hunyady, B; Husni, R; Jeruma, A; Jonasson, J G; Karlsdottir, B; Kim, D Y; Kim, Y S; Koutoubi, Z; Liakina, V; Lim, Y S; Löve, A; Maimets, M; Malekzadeh, R; Matičič, M; Memon, M S; Merat, S; Mokhbat, J E; Mourad, F H; Muljono, D H; Nawaz, A; Nugrahini, N; Olafsson, S; Priohutomo, S; Qureshi, H; Rassam, P; Razavi, H; Razavi-Shearer, D; Razavi-Shearer, K; Rozentale, B; Sadik, M; Saeed, K; Salamat, A; Sanai, F M; Sanityoso Sulaiman, A; Sayegh, R A; Sharara, A I; Siddiq, M; Siddiqui, A M; Sigmundsdottir, G; Sigurdardottir, B; Speiciene, D; Sulaiman, A; Sultan, M A; Taha, M; Tanaka, J; Tarifi, H; Tayyab, G; Tolmane, I; Ud Din, M; Umar, M; Valantinas, J; Videčnik-Zorman, J; Yaghi, C; Yunihastuti, E; Yusuf, M A; Zuberi, B F; Schmelzer, J D

2015-12-01

The total number, morbidity and mortality attributed to viraemic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections change over time making it difficult to compare reported estimates from different years. Models were developed for 15 countries to quantify and characterize the viraemic population and forecast the changes in the infected population and the corresponding disease burden from 2014 to 2030. With the exception of Iceland, Iran, Latvia and Pakistan, the total number of viraemic HCV infections is expected to decline from 2014 to 2030, but the associated morbidity and mortality are expected to increase in all countries except for Japan and South Korea. In the latter two countries, mortality due to an ageing population will drive down prevalence, morbidity and mortality. On the other hand, both countries have already experienced a rapid increase in HCV-related mortality and morbidity. HCV-related morbidity and mortality are projected to increase between 2014 and 2030 in all other countries as result of an ageing HCV-infected population. Thus, although the total number of HCV countries is expected to decline in most countries studied, the associated disease burden is expected to increase. The current treatment paradigm is inadequate if large reductions in HCV-related morbidity and mortality are to be achieved. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Public Health & Nutrition in the Asia-Pacific: reflections on a quarter century.

PubMed

Cavalli-Sforza, Luca Tommaso

2015-01-01

Some reflections from work in the Asia Pacific Region, mostly with WHO, in the past 25 years, and the changes in nutrition seen in this time are shared. In 1988-89 I helped to start a Centre for Child Nutrition in Chengdu, Sichuan, through the Italian Development Cooperation. The nutritional problems in urban and rural China, 25 years ago, were similar to those elsewhere in the Region. Like China, these countries underwent rapid economic development and changes in health patterns, within two decades. The main problems for child nutrition had to do with infant feeding practices and less breastfeeding: anaemia, protein energy malnutrition and rickets were frequent. How did China and other countries tackle these and other nutrition problems? In the 1990s the global nutrition community started working on a problem-solving framework. In 1992, at the 1st FAO/WHO International Conference on Nutrition, 159 countries agreed to develop national nutrition plans. In 2014, 22 years later, FAO and WHO invited countries to review their national nutrition situation and plans. The epidemiological picture today is profoundly different. Many Asia-Pacific countries have achieved remarkable progress in socio-economic development, including malnutrition reduction. To reach the MDGs and the post-MDG goals being formulated, the remaining under-nutrition problems need to be alleviated, inequalities between sectors of society reduced, and also the growing threat of overweight/obesity and NCDs prevented and controlled. Assessing, monitoring and evaluating programmes to improve progress, now requires focusing not only on biological outcomes, but also on food security, programme process, and the policy environment.

Cardiovascular diseases in mega-countries: the challenges of the nutrition, physical activity and epidemiologic transitions, and the double burden of disease

PubMed Central

Barquera, Simon; Pedroza-Tobias, Andrea; Medina, Catalina

2016-01-01

Purpose of review There are today 11 mega-countries with more than 100 million inhabitants. Together these countries represent more than 60% of the world's population. All are facing noncommunicable chronic disease (NCD) epidemic where high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases are becoming the main public health concerns. Most of these countries are facing the double burden of malnutrition where undernutrition and obesity coexist, increasing the complexity for policy design and implementation. The purpose of this study is to describe diverse sociodemographic characteristics of these countries and the challenges for prevention and control in the context of the nutrition transition. Recent findings Mega-countries are mostly low or middle-income and are facing important epidemiologic, nutrition, and physical activity transitions because of changes in food systems and unhealthy lifestyles. NCDs are responsible of two-thirds of the 57 million global deaths annually. Approximately, 80% of these are in low and middle-income countries. Only developed countries have been able to reduce mortality rates attributable to recognized risk factors for NCDs, in particular high cholesterol and blood pressure. Summary Mega-countries share common characteristics such as complex bureaucracies, internal ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic heterogeneity, and complexities to implement effective health promotion and education policies across population. Priorities for action must be identified and successful lessons and experiences should be carefully analyzed and replicated. PMID:27389629

Malaysia mental health country profile.

PubMed

Parameshvara Deva, M

2004-01-01

Malaysia is a tropical country in the heart of south east Asia with a population of 24 million people of diverse ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds living in harmony in 330,000 km(2) of land on the Asian mainland and Borneo. Malaysia, which lies on the crossroads of trade between east and west Asia, has an ancient history as a centre of trading attracting commerce between Europe, west Asia, India and China. It has had influences from major powers that dominated the region throughout its history. Today the country, after independence in 1957, has embarked on an ambitious development project to make it a developed country by 2020. In this effort the economy has changed from one producing raw material to one manufacturing consumer goods and services and the colonial health system has been overhauled and social systems strengthened to provide better services for its people. The per capita income, which was under 1,000 US dollars at independence, has now passed 4,000 US dollars and continues to grow, with the economy largely based on strong exports that amount to over 100 billion US dollars. The mental health system that was based on institutional care in four mental hospitals at independence from British colonial rule in 1957 with no Malaysian psychiatrists is today largely based on over 30 general hospital psychiatric units spread throughout the country. With three local postgraduate training programmes in psychiatry and 12 undergraduate departments of psychiatry in the country--all started after independence--there is now a healthy development of mental health services. This is being supplemented by a newly established primary care mental health service that covers community mental health by integrating mental health into primary health care. Mental health care at the level of psychiatrists rests with about 140 psychiatrists most of whom had undertaken a four-year masters course in postgraduate psychiatry in Malaysia since 1973. However, there continues to be severe shortages of other professionals such as clinical psychologists and social workers in mental health services. There are a few specialists, and specialized services in child, adolescent, forensic, rehabilitative, liaison or research fields of mental health. In the area of services for women and children, as well as the disabled in the community, there are strong efforts to improve the care and provide services that are in keeping with a caring society. New legislation on these are being passed every year and the setting up of a Ministry for Women's Affairs is one such move in recent years. Mental health in Malaysia has been slow in developing but has in the past decade seen important strides to bring it on par with other branches of medicine.

A New Group about Teaching Turkish to Foreigners: Refugees and Refugee Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arslan, Akif

2011-01-01

In today's world for countries, teaching language and communication became an important issue for making these countries' cultures spread and making them powerful and effective in the global world. A way to make Turkey effective and well known is teaching Turkish and Turkish culture refugees are important opportunity for this. This study is one of…

Opportunities for School Psychologists Working with Children of Military Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sherman, Michelle D.; Glenn, Marshall Andrew

2011-01-01

Today's military families are a diverse, resilient group of brave Americans, and the country owes them a tremendous debt of gratitude. To date, over 2 million service members have been deployed in support of the Global War on Terrorism, many for multiple tours. For the first time in the country's history, there are more military dependents…

"Ayiti Cheri": Cultural Orientation of Early Adolescents in Rural Haiti

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferguson, Gail M.; Desir, Charlene; Bornstein, Marc H.

2014-01-01

Adolescents are an emerging population in Haiti, particularly after the deadly 2010 earthquake. The steady penetration of U.S. culture into this poor, disaster-prone country begs the question, Do today's adolescents possess a similar fondness for their home country, culture, and traditional family values as did Haitians of old? Or are they more…

Language Testing, "Integration" and Subtractive Multilingualism in Italy: Challenges for Adult Immigrant Second Language and Literacy Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Love, Stephanie V.

2015-01-01

Since Italy's unification in 1861, the establishment and diffusion of the standard Italian language at the expense of all other linguistic varieties has dominated language and education policy discourses. Today, as Italy has transformed from a country of mass "emigration" to a country of mass "immigration," the language…

Helminths and the IBD hygiene hypothesis.

PubMed

Weinstock, Joel V; Elliott, David E

2009-01-01

Helminths are parasitic animals that have evolved over 100,000,000 years to live in the intestinal track or other locations of their hosts. Colonization of humans with these organisms was nearly universal until the early 20th century. More than 1,000,000,000 people in less developed countries carry helminths even today. Helminths must quell their host's immune system to successfully colonize. It is likely that helminths sense hostile changes in the local host environment and take action to control such responses. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) probably results from an inappropriately vigorous immune response to contents of the intestinal lumen. Environmental factors strongly affect the risk for IBD. People living in less developed countries are protected from IBD. The "IBD hygiene hypothesis" states that raising children in extremely hygienic environments negatively affects immune development, which predisposes them to immunological diseases like IBD later in life. Modern day absence of exposure to intestinal helminths appears to be an important environmental factor contributing to development of these illnesses. Helminths interact with both host innate and adoptive immunity to stimulate immune regulatory circuitry and to dampen effector pathways that drive aberrant inflammation. The first prototype worm therapies directed against immunological diseases are now under study in the United States and various countries around the world. Additional studies are in the advanced planning stage.

Ethical issues in medical research in the developing world: a report on a meeting organised by Fondation Mérieux.

PubMed

Perrey, Christophe; Wassenaar, Douglas; Gilchrist, Shawn; Ivanoff, Bernard

2009-08-01

This paper reports on a multidisciplinary meeting held to discuss ethical issues in medical research in the developing world. Many studies, including clinical trials, are conducted in developing countries with a high burden of disease. Conditions under which this research is conducted vary because of differences in culture, public health, political, legal and social contexts specific to these countries. Research practices, including standards of care for participants, may vary as a result. It is therefore not surprising that ethical issues emerge. This meeting sought to identify and discuss these issues from the perspectives of the many actors in such research, including community representatives, with a view to finding ethical and pragmatic solutions to these issues. Dialogue between these actors was also promoted, with a view to identifying the need to develop such dialogue in future. Drawing from the experiences of the speakers, the colloquium attempted to outline some answers to several key questions characterising the field today. Experiences related to epidemiologic research, vaccine trials, drug trials, diagnostic tests and to some fundamental ethical issues in health research. Speakers were from different countries, disciplines and professions. The meeting provided a forum for consultation and debate between different ethics actors. Both encouraging findings and challenges emerged.

Electric service reliability cost/worth assessment in a developing country

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pandey, Mohan Kumar

Considerable work has been done in developed countries to optimize the reliability of electric power systems on the basis of reliability cost versus reliability worth. This has yet to be considered in most developing countries, where development plans are still based on traditional deterministic measures. The difficulty with these criteria is that they cannot be used to evaluate the economic impacts of changing reliability levels on the utility and the customers, and therefore cannot lead to an optimum expansion plan for the system. The critical issue today faced by most developing countries is that the demand for electric power is high and growth in supply is constrained by technical, environmental, and most importantly by financial impediments. Many power projects are being canceled or postponed due to a lack of resources. The investment burden associated with the electric power sector has already led some developing countries into serious debt problems. This thesis focuses on power sector issues facing by developing countries and illustrates how a basic reliability cost/worth approach can be used in a developing country to determine appropriate planning criteria and justify future power projects by application to the Nepal Integrated Electric Power System (NPS). A reliability cost/worth based system evaluation framework is proposed in this thesis. Customer surveys conducted throughout Nepal using in-person interviews with approximately 2000 sample customers are presented. The survey results indicate that the interruption cost is dependent on both customer and interruption characteristics, and it varies from one location or region to another. Assessments at both the generation and composite system levels have been performed using the customer cost data and the developed NPS reliability database. The results clearly indicate the implications of service reliability to the electricity consumers of Nepal, and show that the reliability cost/worth evaluation is both possible and practical in a developing country. The average customer interruption costs of Rs 35/kWh at Hierarchical Level I and Rs 26/kWh at Hierarchical Level II evaluated in this research work led to an optimum reserve margin of 7.5%, which is considerably lower than the traditional reserve margin of 15% used in the NPS. A similar conclusion may result in other developing countries facing difficulties in power system expansion planning using the traditional approach. A new framework for system planning is therefore recommended for developing countries which would permit an objective review of the traditional system planning approach, and the evaluation of future power projects using a new approach based on fundamental principles of power system reliability and economics.

Expected increase in staple crop imports in water-scarce countries in 2050

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chouchane, Hatem; Krol, Maarten; Hoekstra, Arjen

2017-04-01

Water scarcity is a major challenge in the coming decades. The increasing population and the changing pattern of water availability that results from global warming reduce the potential of sufficient food production in many countries over the world. Today, two thirds of the global population are already living under conditions of severe water scarcity at least one month of the year. This rises the importance of addressing the present and future relationship between water availability and food import in water-scarce countries. The net import of staple crops (barley, cassava, maize, millet and products, oats, potatoes, rice, rye, sorghum, soybeans, sweet potatoes, wheat and yams) is analysed in relation to water availability per capita for the period 1961-2010, considering five decadal averages. The relation found is used together with the low, medium and high population growth scenarios from the United Nations to project the staple crops import in water-scarce countries for the year 2050. Additionally, we investigate the uncertainties related to the three population scenarios. Results will help countries to better understand the impact of population growth and limited water resources on their future food trade. This study will provide a valuable supporting tool for policy makers towards more sustainable and water-efficient food production as targeted with the Sustainable Development Goals. Keywords: Water Availability, Food Import, Staple Crops, Water Scarcity, Water-Use Efficiency, Sustainable Development Goals.

Past and present engagement in space activities in Central and Eastern Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sagath, Daniel; Adriaensen, Maarten; Giannopapa, Christina

2018-07-01

Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have been facing different cooperation models in the last fifty years regarding space policy and industrial activities. The period before the 1990s provided these countries with a strong heritage of expertise in space engagement which after the fall of the 'Eastern Block' offered the basis for cooperation with the other European countries and organisations. The way space policy in the CEE region was shaped during the early period and the way collaboration is conducted today have not been fully analysed. The objective of this paper is to provide a holistic analysis of the evolution of past and present developments of the CEE countries in space activities. The main focus of this paper is given to the Intercosmos period before the 1990s and following that, the integration process of these countries to the European Space Agency (ESA). Additionally, the CEE countries have been engaging in cooperation with other space agencies in Europe and outside. The countries also participate through the EU and its two flagship programmes Galileo and Copernicus amongst others. Furthermore, this paper provides an overview of the ESA accession process established in the early 2000s as ESA responded to the increasing interest of the CEE countries to engage in cooperation in the field of space. The comparison of both, historical and recent developments on CEE countries in space activities, indicates that CEE region has the basis for integrating in the European space sector. Participation in ESA and collaboration with other space faring nations is needed to ensure successful transformation of both their scientific and industrial basis as well as their governance, to the evolving space sector while utilizing the heritage obtained through the past engagements.

The Cuban “Exception”: The Development of an Advanced Scientific System in an Underdeveloped Country

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baracca, Angelo

Science, education, politics, social development and economics are today considered to be highly interdependent. Although none of these factors can exist on their own, they have nevertheless often been considered in isolation from one other, or studies of their interactions have been confined to the consideration of more or less local contexts. When it comes to studying the history of physics in Cuba, however, it is not only inconceivable to separate scientific developments from their social, political, and cultural contexts. But, as this volume shows, the history of physics in Cuba cannot just focus on local contexts since it is closely entangled with global history, from colonialism to the Cold War.

Cancer Chemotherapy: Past, Present, and Future—Part I

PubMed Central

Wright, Jane C.

1984-01-01

Cancer is of major concern today because of its high mortality. It is estimated that 66 million people in this country will eventually develop cancer; 1983 estimates were 855,000 new cases and 440,000 deaths from cancer. Because of limitations of surgery and radiation therapy in effecting a cure for cancer, chemotherapy has become increasingly important. The developments in the chemical control of cancer in man are encouraging. This two-part paper covers the historical milestones in the development of the chemical and hormonal control of cancer, present successes with the use of polychemotherapy, and the hopeful trends in research. Part II will be published in a future issue of this journal. PMID:6381742

Technology transfer in human vaccinology: a retrospective review on public sector contributions in a privatizing science field.

PubMed

Hendriks, Jan

2012-09-28

As health intervention, vaccination has had a tremendous impact on reducing mortality and morbidity caused by infectious diseases. Traditionally vaccines were developed and made in the western, industrialised world and from there on gradually and with considerable delay became available for developing countries. Today that is beginning to change. Most vaccine doses are now produced in emerging economies, although industrialised countries still have a lead in vaccine development and in manufacturing innovative vaccines. Technology transfer has been an important mechanism for this increase in production capacity in emerging economies. This review looks back on various technology transfer initiatives and outlines the role of WHO and other public and private partners. It goes into a more detailed description of the role of the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. For many decades RIVM has been providing access to vaccine technology by capacity building and technology transfer initiatives not only through multilateral frameworks, but also on a bilateral basis including a major project in China in the 90 s of the previous century. Looking forward it is expected that, in a globalizing world, the ambition of BRICS countries to play a role in global health will lead to an increase of south-south technology transfers. Further, it is argued that push approaches including technology transfer from the public domain, connecting innovative enabling platforms with competent developing country vaccine manufacturers (DCVM), will be critical to ensure a sustainable supply of affordable and quality vaccines to national immunization programmes in developing countries. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Research in Nurse Education Today: do we meet our aims and scope?

PubMed

Long, Tony; Johnson, Martin

2002-01-01

All issues of Nurse Education Today between January 1996 and July 2001 were examined manually and categorized as 'research' or other forms of scholarship. A total of 356 articles were reviewed and 193 of these were considered to be some form of research. The prevalence of well known methods of data collection was noted and broad trends identified. Questionnaires, reflective diaries, Delphi surveys, focus groups and individual interviews formed the backbone of methods used in educational research. There was a marked absence of experimental work. Proportionally more UK based papers avoided inferential analysis than those from overseas. We show that 'research' in Nurse Education Today has become rather narrow. It rarely incorporates 'user' (client/patient) perspectives, and rarely (especially in the UK) uses more than one site for study. More papers which undertake comparison of nurse education between countries, which employ samples from more than one country, and which address the impact of findings from an international perspective should be sought in order to enhance this aspect of the diversity of the journal. Copyright 2002 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.

Changing global essential medicines norms to improve access to AIDS treatment: Lessons from Brazil

PubMed Central

Nunn, A.; Fonseca, E. Da; Gruskin, S.

2009-01-01

Brazil's large-scale, successful HIV/AIDS treatment programme is considered by many to be a model for other developing countries aiming to improve access to AIDS treatment. Far less is known about Brazil's important role in changing global norms related to international pharmaceutical policy, particularly international human rights, health and trade policies governing access to essential medicines. Prompted by Brazil's interest in preserving its national AIDS treatment policies during World Trade Organisation trade disputes with the USA, these efforts to change global essential medicines norms have had important implications for other countries, particularly those scaling up AIDS treatment. This paper analyses Brazil's contributions to global essential medicines policy and explains the relevance of Brazil's contributions to global health policy today. PMID:19333805

[Career guidance for registered nurse in the UK].

PubMed

Simón Melchor, Lucía; Simón Melchor, Alba

2014-04-01

Cuts in temporary contracts has had big consequences for newly qualified nurses with regards to finding employment. This cut in contracts has resulted in a doubling in the rate of unemployment in this profession. In the past nurses emigrated to other countries for purposes like knowledge of the language or to extend their training and experience, however today the emigration has become the only way out for many professional nurses. The reputation of nurses in Spain is recognised internationally, with the UK being one of the countries with the largest demand for Spanish nurses. Due to the great amount of job opportunities that are emerging in the UK, nurses need help and guidance in their careers, and also nurses need training in areas such as Professional Body, developing a curriculum, facing an interview etc...

PV solar electricity: status and future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoffmann, Winfried

2006-04-01

Within the four main market segments of PV solar electricity there are already three areas competitive today. These are off-grid industrial and rural as well as consumer applications. The overall growth within the past 8 years was almost 40 % p.a. with a "normal" growth of about 18 % p.a. for the first three market segments whereas the grid connected market increased with an astonishing 63 % p.a. The different growth rates catapulted the contribution of grid connected systems in relation to the total market from about one quarter 6 years ago towards more than three quarters today. The reason for this development is basically due to industry-politically induced market support programs in the aforementioned countries. It is quite important to outline under which boundary conditions grid connected systems will be competitive without support programs like the feed in tariff system in Germany, Spain and some more to come in Europe as well as investment subsidies in Japan, US and some other countries. It will be shown that in a more and more liberalized utility market worldwide electricity produced by PV solar electricity systems will be able to compete with their generating cost against peak power prices from utilities. The point of time for this competitiveness is mainly determined by the following facts: 1. Price decrease for PV solar electricity systems leading to an equivalent decrease in the generated cost for PV produced kWh. 2. Development of a truly liberalized electricity market. 3. Degree of irradiation between times of peak power demand and delivery of PV electricity. The first topic is discussed using price experience curves. Some explanations will be given to correlate the qualitative number of 20 % price decrease for doubling cumulative worldwide sales derived from the historic price experience curve with a more quantitative analysis based on our EPIA-Roadmap (productivity increase and ongoing improvements for existing technologies as well as development of new concepts to broaden the product portfolio in coming years). The second topic outlines the most likely development of liberalized electricity markets in various regions worldwide. It will be emphasized that in such markets the future prices for electricity will more and more reflect the different cost for bulk and peak power production. This will not only happen for industrial electricity customers - as already today in many countries - but also for private households. The third topic summarizes the existing data and facts by correlating peak power demand and prices traded in various stock exchange markets with delivered PV kWh. It will be shown that a high degree of correlation is existent. Combining the three topics and postulating reverse net metering the competitiveness of PV solar electricity as described is most likely to occur. The described price decrease of modules will also have a very positive impact on off-grid rural applications, mainly in 3rd world countries. It will be shown that this is strongly advanced due to the development of mini-grids starting from solar home systems - with mini grids looking very similar to on-grid applications in weak grid areas of nowadays electricity network.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: WILL THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES LEAD OR FOLLOW?

PubMed

Reichman, Jerome H

2009-01-31

Developing countries, particularly the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, should accommodate their national systems of innovation to the worldwide intellectual property (IP) regime emerging after the adoption of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in a way that maximizes global economic welfare in the foreseeable future. As many developed countries' experience demonstrates, badly configured, over-protectionist IP regimes stifle innovation by making inputs to future innovation too costly and too cumbersome to sustain over time. More carefully considered IP regimes, however, are an important way to protect innovative small- and medium-sized firms from predatory, larger competitors. The challenge is for emerging economies to capture the benefits of IP without importing the serious problems that developed countries have themselves failed to solve. Emerging economies can attain this balance by pursuing a policy of counter-harmonization in which they take advantage of existing exemptions in international agreements governing IP to establish regional, local, and international practices that promote more innovative, flexible uses of IP. Such practices include a research exemption for experimental uses of IP, government imposed nonexclusive licensing, anti-blocking provisions, an essential facilities doctrine, and compulsory licenses. Additional tools include an ex ante regime of compensatory liability rules for small scale innovation and sensible exceptions, particularly for science as well as general fair use provisions, to the exclusive rights of domestic copyright laws. Emerging economies will have to overcome strong economic pressure to accept more restrictive IP regimes as part of free trade agreements as well as a lack of technical expertise and internal government coordination. However, emerging economies have already accrued enough experience to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of various IP schemes and their own ability to tailor IP to local needs. Developing countries will need to take advantage of that experience and defend innovative practices at international dispute resolution forums. Through creative, determined efforts, the developing countries can avoid other countries' IP excesses while establishing the kind of IP norms that address the real conditions of creativity and innovation in today's digitally empowered universe of scientific discourse.

Who owns urban waste? Appropriation conflicts in emerging countries.

PubMed

Cavé, Jérémie

2014-09-01

Managing solid waste in developing cities is not an easy task and many public policies have failed to bring the expected results. It is here argued that comprehending the solid waste handling in the South implies reconsidering the proper definition of waste. Where does the product end and where does rubbish begin? The answer to this question is far from being obvious. Solid waste appears as a blurred concept. Such a thorny issue is all the more relevant today, as municipal solid waste management approaches in the developing world are being reformulated: dumping sites are banned, sanitary landfills are imposed, and separate collection is being introduced. The current sector transformations are here analysed through a novel theoretical analysis combined with an original qualitative and quantitative empirical work. Through two case-studies of one-million inhabitant cities from emerging countries, it is shown that if appropriation conflicts arise that is because the urban solid waste deposit in Southern countries can be defined as an impure public good. This issue does not only involve private service operators and informal wastepickers; several other actors covet the urban solid waste deposit's cream, that is, recyclable items. In emerging countries, huge industrial groups are starting to target domestic recyclable waste as an alternative for raw materials, which costs are increasing ever more. © The Author(s) 2014.

Research on the Ancient Mongolian Place-Name Along the Silk Road

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nashunwuritu; Baiyinbateer; Duoxi

2016-06-01

"Silk Road" is an ancient commercial trade channel connecting China with Asia, Africa and Europe and a major link of the economy, politics and culture of the East and West as well. In the 13th Century, with the westward expedition of Mongolian, the communication and integration of culture among different countries was accelerated, which led to many Mongolian place-names scattered in the countries along the silk-road, such as Khwarezmia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Kipchak, Persian, involving today's Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Serbia, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, India and many other countries and regions. The place-name is a kind of important factor that can represent the changes of culture, economic in history. We analyzed the current place-names in different countries or regions with different language to find out ancient Mongolian place-names, and marked the names on the digital map. Through the changes and transition of the place-name, we explored the development of Mongolian language changes itself, Mongolian blends with other languages, and furtherly reveal information of culture exchange.

The "new" military and income inequality: A cross national analysis.

PubMed

Kentor, Jeffrey; Jorgenson, Andrew K; Kick, Edward

2012-05-01

Military expenditures have escalated over the last three decades in both developed and less developed countries, without a corresponding expansion of military personnel. Spending has instead been directed towards hi-tech weaponry, what we refer to as the "new" military. We hypothesize that this new, increasingly capital-intensive military is no longer a pathway of upward mobility or employer of last resort for many uneducated, unskilled, or unemployed people, with significant consequences for those individuals and society as a whole. One such consequence, we argue, is an increase in income inequality. We test this hypothesis with cross-national panel models, estimated for 82 developed and less developed countries from 1970 to 2000. Findings indicate that military capital-intensiveness, as measured by military expenditures per soldier, exacerbates income inequality net of control variables. Neither total military expenditures/GDP nor military participation has a significant effect. It appears from these findings that today's "new" military establishment is abrogating its historical role as an equalizing force in society, with important policy implications. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sustainable development goals as the basis of university management towards global competitiveness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Utama, Yos Johan; Ambariyanto, Ambariyanto; Zainuri, Muhammad; Darsono, Darsono; Setyono, Budi; Widowati; Purnomo Putro, Sapto

2018-05-01

Sustainable Development Goals are international agreements of many countries under UN initiation that have certain goals and targets. Achieving these goals and targets of the SDG requires a broad and focused effort from various sectors including higher education. Some of the goals associated with higher education are education, sanitation, innovation and global partnership. Given that higher education is one of the main drivers of the progress of a country, it gives university opportunities to play a bigger role. In addition, the rapid development and changes that occur today also require universities to respond quickly and appropriately. This can be done by developing university management based on the principle of SDG. This paper provides a brief description of the strategies that higher education institutions can take, particularly in responding to the changing world and in achieving the target of the SDGs. Five strategis for the university to encourage faster achievement of the targeted SDGs are proposed, i.e. Improvement of higher education quality, improvement of higher education equity, improvement of sanitarian and environment, improvement of research and innovation, and global partnership.

Assessment of Costs for a Global Climate Fund Against Public Sector Disaster Risks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hochrainer-Stigler, Stefan; Mechler, Reinhard; Pflug, Georg; Williges, Keith

2013-04-01

National governments are key actors in managing climate variability and change, yet, many countries, faced with exhausted tax bases, high levels of indebtedness and limited donor assistance, have been unable to raise sufficient and timely capital to replace or repair damaged assets and restore livelihoods following major disasters exacerbating the impacts of disaster shocks on poverty and development. For weather extremes, which form a subset of the adaptation challenge and are supposed to increase in intensity and frequency with a changing climate, we conduct an assessment of the costs of managing and financing today's public sector risks on a global scale for more than 180 countries. A countries financial vulnerability is defined as a function of its financial resilience and its exposure to disaster risk. While disaster risk is estimated in terms of asset loss distributions based on catastrophe modeling approaches, financial resilience is operationalized as the public sector's ability to pay for relief to the affected population and support the reconstruction of affected assets and infrastructure for a given event. We consider governments financially vulnerable to disasters if they cannot access sufficient funding after a disaster to cover their liabilities. We operationalize this concept by the term resource gap, which we define the net loss associated with a disaster event after exhausting all possible ex-post and ex ante financing sources. Extending this approach for all possible disaster events, the risk that a resource gap will occur over a given time-span can be calculated for each country individually and dependent on the risk level different risk instruments may have to be applied. Furthermore, our estimates may inform decisions pertaining to a "climate insurance fund" absorbing "high level" country risks exceeding the ability of any given country to pay in the case of an extreme event. Our estimates relate to today's climate, yet we suggest that estimates of current climate variability and related risks, although also associated with substantial uncertainty, can be interpreted as a baseline for very uncertain future projections.

Social Change and Adult Education Research--Adult Education Research in Nordic Countries 1990/91.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linkoping Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Education and Psychology.

This yearbook contains papers that provide the reader with a general idea of the aspects and issues that interest Nordic researchers today and how they approach these problems. To provide a more uniform picture of the status of adult education in the different Nordic countries, four brief general surveys begin the book: "Adult Education…

Beyond the Limits of the European Higher Education Area: The Case of Belarus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gille-Belova, Olga

2015-01-01

All European Union (EU) member states and many former post-Soviet countries joined the Bologna Process without major obstacles during the 2000s and today belong to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The only European country which was refused membership in the EHEA was Belarus, whose demand was rejected in 2012. The case study of this…

The Social Progress Index in International Business Site Selection: Three Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pate, Sandra K.

2016-01-01

International businesses face a difficult task when trying to decide where to place or expand a business that could be located anywhere in the world. Each country is a complex system of human capabilities, technical systems, [infrastructure bases, laws, cultures and economic systems. How can a company know which country is best for it today, and…

An Impossible Dream? The Efficacy of Using Rankings to Improve the Perception of a Non-OECD Country's Educational System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foley, Chris J.

2008-01-01

Rankings have an increasing impact on higher education. Regardless of their true ability to judge a university's success or failure, rankings are used by students, their families, and, increasingly, policy makers to define the quality of institutions. Rankings have gone beyond comparisons among universities within individual countries: Today, they…

JPRS Report, Soviet Union, World Economy & International Relations, No. 9 September 1987

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-01-12

states have if in addition to the growing competition of beet sugar they are forced to reckon with the fact that today even corn sweeteners...policy of pressure. The reality today is such that (as graphically demon- strated at the Cancun meeting in 1981) the U.S. Admin- istration and, in ...markets of devel- oped capitalist countries no longer justify themselves as a means of competitive struggle and an increase in currency earnings. What

Enhancing the African bioethics initiative.

PubMed

Ogundiran, Temidayo O

2004-10-15

Medical ethics has existed since the time of Hippocrates. However, formal training in bioethics did not become established until a few decades ago. Bioethics has gained a strong foothold in health sciences in the developed world, especially in Europe and North America. The situation is quite different in many developing countries. In most African countries, bioethics - as established and practiced today in the west- is either non-existent or is rudimentary. Though bioethics has come of age in the developed and some developing countries, it is still largely "foreign" to most African countries. In some parts of Africa, some bioethics conferences have been held in the past decade to create research ethics awareness and ensure conformity to international guidelines for research with human participants. This idea has arisen in recognition of the genuine need to develop capacity for reviewing the ethics of research in Africa. It is also a condition required by external sponsors of collaborative research in Africa. The awareness and interest that these conferences have aroused need to be further strengthened and extended beyond research ethics to clinical practice. By and large, bioethics education in schools that train doctors and other health care providers is the hook that anchors both research ethics and clinical ethics. This communication reviews the current situation of bioethics in Africa as it applies to research ethics workshops and proposes that in spite of the present efforts to integrate ethics into biomedical research in Africa, much still needs to be done to accomplish this. A more comprehensive approach to bioethics with an all-inclusive benefit is to incorporate formal ethics education into health training institutions in Africa.

[The pioneer otolaryngologists in Eretz-Israel: 1911-1948].

PubMed

Golz, Avishay

2013-07-01

Until 1911 there was no ear nose and throat (ENT) specialist in Eretz-Israel. Dr. Moshe Sherman, an ENT specialist, disembarked at the port of Jaffa on August 4, 1911. He had trained in Moscow, and was the first otolaryngologist in the country. Between 1911 and 1948, over 100 otolaryngologists arrived in Eretz-Israel and were dispersed throughout the country from Safed and Tiberias in the North to Rehovot in the South. These physicians brought modern and advanced European medicine to Israel. Many left their imprint on the development of ENT medicine in the country, laying the foundations of today's otolaryngologic services both in clinical and academic spheres. ENT medicine, like other fields of medicine, evolved following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Many departments were opened and equipped with the best modern instruments and technology. Department heads are the pupils of our pioneer physicians. The memory of these talented and dedicated physicians should be remembered and cherished by their successors and all physicians in Israel.

Fisheries and aquaculture industries involvement to control product health and quality safety to satisfy consumer-driven objectives on retail markets in Europe.

PubMed

Roth, Eva; Rosenthal, Harald

2006-01-01

Over the past years the export of agricultural and fishery products from developing countries has substantially increased to markets within the OECD. Retailers and importers are expanding their international operations to meet consumer demands for year-round delivery of products. Moreover, consumers have become increasingly concerned about the safety of food, including those derived from aquatic resources [FAO/NACA/WHO Joint Study Group, 1999. Report food safety issues associated with products from aquaculture. WHO Technical Report Series No 883: VII, pp. 1-55]. Governments and leading businesses are responding by imposing new safety regulations and standards to the international food system (e.g. HACCP, EUREP-GAP), product liability and labeling [Reilly, A., Howgate, P., Käferstein, F., 1997. Safety hazards and the application of HACCP in aquaculture. In: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Fish Inspection and Quality Control: A Global Focus, Arlington, VA, 19-24 May 1996. Technomic Publishing, Lancaster, PA, pp. 353-373]. Initial concerns for imports of aquacultural products from developing to industrialized countries focussed on bacterial contamination [Buras, N. 1993. Microbial safety of produce from wastewater-fed aquaculture. In: Pullin, R.V.C., Rosenthal, H., MacLean, J.L.(Eds.), Proceedings of ICLARM Conferences, vol. 31, pp. 285-295]. Today, if trade opportunities are to be maintained, these countries must adapt to a full array of regulations and standards. This paper describes four scenarios in aquaculture and fishing product trade between developing countries and countries in the European Union.

Building Sustainable Capacity with University Partnerships

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harris, J. M.

2013-05-01

Universities can play an important role in building scientific and technical capacity by providing educational opportunities for local and regional populations in developing countries. These opportunities may be short term or long term through for example faculty exchanges, student exchanges, and collaborative teaching and research activities. As the demand for talented graduates expands in developing countries, local universities face competition for students, lecturers, and professors from the same industries and communities they serve. This competition is in many ways counterproductive to building the sustainable human resource that is needed to support local development, management, and governance. Such competition is particularly evident for top science and engineering students in energy rich countries. University partnerships, e.g., in particular those between universities in OECD countries and universities in developing countries, have an important role to play in bridging the gap between today's lack of capacity and a sustainable human resource for the future. Such university partnerships, however, face many challenges, some of which can be traced to organizational and cultural differences In this presentation, I will discuss how university partnerships are formed, some of the benefits to partners, and some pitfalls to avoid during implementation of university partnerships. The examples are taken from Stanford partnerships that involve geoscience and engineering, and will include representative goals and content of the example partnerships. These partnerships I'll describe are actually trilateral, with partners from two or more universities and a private company or government agency. I conclude the presentation with a brief discussion on multiculturalism, perhaps the most important consideration when planning a partnership between diverse organizations. Organizers of partnerships must recognize the fact that multiculturalism and diversity are assets that will foster prosperity and a better quality of life in developing countries for the communities served as well as the partners. Successful partnerships capture the potential multiculturalism offers to encourage new ways of learning, creativity, and innovation.

[Education and the rights of man. Press review: Mauritania].

PubMed

1999-12-01

We are now poised at the brink of a revolution in education, based upon a broadened and renewed concept of what defines education and apprenticeship. We have come to this point because of our realization during the 1990s that human rights are a key element of human development. Humanity recognizes today that human rights are indivisible and that the realization of one right leads to the reinforcement and promotion of another. Man has the right to education, freedom of speech and thought, and protection from torture. This is a very important concept for the developing world, where approximately 130 million children grow up without being properly educated. Governments are obligated to take the necessary measures to ensure that children receive a quality, basic education. Countries deficient in this domain often argue that they do not have enough resources to educate all of their populations, despite 30 years of evidence demonstrating how much developing countries can achieve in education with only limited means. Countries least advanced in achieving education for all have often inequitably invested more funds into higher education than into basic education. They have also failed to contain costs as scholastic coverage expanded. Efforts must be made to minimize the financial cost to parents of educating their children.

Population priorities: the challenge of continued rapid population growth.

PubMed

Turner, Adair

2009-10-27

Rapid population growth continues in the least developed countries. The revisionist case that rapid population could be overcome by technology, that population density was advantageous, that capital shallowing is not a vital concern and that empirical investigations had not proved a correlation between high population growth and low per capita income was both empirically and theoretically flawed. In the modern world, population density does not play the role it did in nineteenth-century Europe and rates of growth in some of today's least developed nations are four times than those in nineteenth-century Europe, and without major accumulation of capital per capita, no major economy has or is likely to make the low- to middle-income transition. Though not sufficient, capital accumulation for growth is absolutely essential to economic growth. While there are good reasons for objecting to the enforced nature of the Chinese one-child policy, we should not underestimate the positive impact which that policy has almost certainly had and will have over the next several decades on Chinese economic performance. And a valid reticence about telling developing countries that they must contain fertility should not lead us to underestimate the severely adverse impact of high fertility rates on the economic performance and prospects of many countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Ethical issues in research in low-income countries.

PubMed

Benatar, S R; Fleischer, T E

2007-06-01

During the twentieth century, spectacular developments in science, technology and medical practice coupled with economic growth have transformed health care and improved the lives of many people. Despite such progress, the world today is more inequitable than it was 50 years ago: disparities in wealth and health are widening inexorably, and infectious diseases are again becoming a major scourge and pose a threat to the lives of all. Hundreds of millions of people live in degrading poverty, with little, if any, access to health care. Recognition of this context in which much research takes place should sharpen our focus on the ethical requirements for research that could improve the health of a greater proportion of the world's population--one of the most pressing moral problems of our time. The intense debate on ethical dilemmas associated with an expanding programme of clinical research in developing countries has revealed much common ground, but has also left a residuum of controversy. We suggest that contested issues could be resolved by paying greater attention to different world views on the relationship between research and clinical care and by defining policies that both progressively improve the standard of care in research and link research to improved delivery of health care in developing countries.

Social theory and social class.

PubMed

Susser, I

1997-01-01

Concepts of class developed with the emergence of industrial society in the nineteenth century. For an understanding of current divisions, theories must reflect the advances of capitalism and the global economy that characterize the late twentieth century. In industrialized societies, reductions in the industrial workforce and the growth of finance, investment and real-estate industries worldwide have produced a new, largely female, service workforce. Large sectors of industry have departed in search of cheaper labour in poorer countries, which also have a rising number of women workers. In those areas, as a result, a new industrial workforce has emerged. Concomitantly, accumulation of land in less developed agricultural regions for production for the world market has led to an increase in mobile agricultural labour and a shift of landless labourers to the cities of less developed countries. In addition, both upward and downward mobility have occurred for individuals and groups in specific populations, as well as for particular diseases in developed and less developed countries. All these processes have precipitated fundamental changes in class, gender and family relationships and transformed the living conditions of populations in both developed and less developed societies. These changes have major implications for the patterns of health and disease in the world today. Objective measures of social change may be difficult to construct and use in epidemiological cancer research. Since questions of class and shifting social relations are directly implicated in the patterns of disease, they must be assessed in future research as accurately as possible.

Toxicovigilance Systems and Practices in Africa

PubMed Central

Bertrand, Pouokam Guy; Ahmed, Hatem Abdel Moniem; Ngwafor, Randolph; Frazzoli, Chiara

2016-01-01

African consumers and citizens are growingly aware of the wide range of toxic poisoning scenarios from different products and hazards. Recurrent episodes on poisoning that have been reported in Africa include toxic hazards in consumers’ products ranging from food to herbal medicine, drugs, and cosmetics. Chemical poisoning remains an issue that is overlooked by public health stakeholders in Africa. Available information on toxicovigilance systems and practices in African countries is reviewed in terms of increasing development, organization and articulation levels. Less than nine out of 54 African countries have a legally recognized toxicovigilance system. Of these, the majority have created toxicovigilance systems recently, and are facing many challenges in developing them, at regional and country levels. Basic structures for a good toxicovigilance system include a phone line service (available 24/7), and hospital facilities. Pesticides emerge as the hazard recognized by all of the toxicovigilance systems, and may represent a prototypic toxicant towards a toxicovigilance system that is inclusive of a wider spectrum of toxicological hazards for the protection of community health. Toxicovigilance today is more reactive than preventive in Africa, but some milestones are present that constitute some promising seminal efforts. PMID:29051419

[Induced abortion: a world perspective].

PubMed

Henshaw, S K

1987-01-01

This article presents current estimates of the number, rate, and proportion of abortions for all countries which make such data available. 76% of the world's population lives in countries where induced abortion is legal at least for health reasons. Abortion is legal in almost all developed countries. Most developing countries have some laws against abortion, but it is permitted at least for health reasons in the countries of 67% of the developing world's population. The other 33%--over 1 billion persons--reside mainly in subSaharan Africa, Latin America, and the most orthodox Muslim countries. By the beginning of the 20th century, abortion had been made illegal in most of the world, with rules in Africa, Asia, and Latin America similar to those in Europe and North America. Abortion legislation began to change first in a few industrialized countries prior to World War II and in Japan in 1948. Socialist European countries made abortion legal in the first trimester in the 1950s, and most of the industrialized world followed suit in the 1960s and 1970s. The worldwide trend toward relaxed abortion restrictions continues today, with governments giving varying reasons for the changes. Nearly 33 million legal abortions are estimated to be performed annually in the world, with 14 million of them in China and 11 million in the USSR. The estimated total rises to 40-60 million when illegal abortions added. On a worldwide basis some 37-55 abortions are estimated to occur for each 1000 women aged 15-44 years. There are probably 24-32 abortions per 100 pregnancies. The USSR has the highest abortion rate among developed countries, 181/1000 women aged 15-44, followed by Rumania with 91/1000, many of them illegal. The large number of abortions in some countries is due to scarcity of modern contraception. Among developing countries, China apparently has the highest rate, 62/1000 women aged 15-44. Cuba's rate is 59/1000. It is very difficult to calculate abortion rates in countries where the procedure is illegal. On the basis of hospital reports and other fragmentary information, the true rate appears to be relatively high in Latin America and the Far East. The abortion rate for Latin America in the mid-1970s was estimated at 65/1000 fertile aged women, and rates were believed to be higher in urban areas. Sub-Saharan Africa, where women desire very large families, apparently had the lowest rates. Up to 68% of pregnancies in the USSR, 57% in Rumania, and 55% in Japan may end in abortion. The proportion in developing countries ranged from 8% in Vietnam to 43% in China. Women undergoing abortion in developed countries tend to be young, childless, and single, while those in developing countries tend to be older, high parity, and married. Abortion mortality is still high in countries where large numbers of illegal abortions are performed by unqualified personnel, as in many parts of Latin America.

An international network of magnetic observatories

USGS Publications Warehouse

Love, Jeffrey J.; Chulliat, A.

2013-01-01

Since its formation in the late 1980s, the International Real-Time Magnetic Observatory Network (INTERMAGNET), a voluntary consortium of geophysical institutes from around the world, has promoted the operation of magnetic observatories according to modern standards [eg. Rasson, 2007]. INTERMAGNET institutes have cooperatively developed infrastructure for data exchange and management ads well as methods for data processing and checking. INTERMAGNET institute have also helped to expand global geomagnetic monitoring capacity, most notably by assisting magnetic observatory institutes in economically developing countries by working directly with local geophysicists. Today the INTERMAGNET consortium encompasses 57 institutes from 40 countries supporting 120 observatories (see Figures 1a and 1b). INTERMAGNET data record a wide variety of time series signals related to a host of different physical processes in the Earth's interiors and in the Earth's surrounding space environment [e.g., Love, 2008]. Observatory data have always had a diverse user community, and to meet evolving demand, INTERMAGNET has recently coordinated the introduction of several new data services.

Economics of vaccines revisited.

PubMed

Postma, Maarten J; Standaert, Baudouin A

2013-05-01

Performing a total health economic analysis of a vaccine newly introduced into the market today is a challenge when using the conventional cost-effectiveness analysis we normally apply on pharmaceutical products. There are many reasons for that, such as: the uncertainty in the total benefit (direct and indirect) to be measured in a population when using a cohort model; (1) appropriate rules about discounting the long-term impact of vaccines are absent jeopardizing therefore their value at the initial investment; (2) the presence of opposite contexts when introducing the vaccine in developed vs. the developing world with high benefits, low initial health care investment for the latter vs. marginal benefit and high cost for the former; with a corresponding paradox for the vaccine becoming very cost-effective in low income countries but rather medium in middle low to high middle income countries; (3) and the type of trial assessment for the newer vaccines is now often performed with immunogenicity reaction instead of clinical endpoints which still leaves questions on their real impact and their head-to-head comparison. (4.)

Review on space weather in Latin America. 1. The beginning from space science research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Denardini, Clezio Marcos; Dasso, Sergio; Gonzalez-Esparza, J. Americo

2016-11-01

The present work is the first of a three-part review on space weather in Latin America. It comprises the evolution of several Latin American institutions investing in space science since the 1960s, focusing on the solar-terrestrial interactions, which today is commonly called space weather. Despite recognizing advances in space research in all of Latin America, this review is restricted to the development observed in three countries in particular (Argentina, Brazil and Mexico), due to the fact that these countries have recently developed operational centers for monitoring space weather. The review starts with a brief summary of the first groups to start working with space science in Latin America. This first part of the review closes with the current status and the research interests of these groups, which are described in relation to the most significant works and challenges of the next decade in order to aid in the solving of space weather open issues.

Treatment at scale in Brazil: a physician's perspective.

PubMed

Schechter, Mauro

2007-07-01

In 1996, Brazil became the first developing country to provide universal access to antiretroviral therapy (ART), based on a strategy that utilizes an individualized approach to treatment and an open formulary. At the time, the number of patients in need of treatment was less than 15% of what it is today, there were six approved drugs for the treatment of HIV infection (compared with 25 today), and the life expectancy of patients was measured in months and years, not in decades. In recent years, preventable and treatable conditions such as cardiovascular diseases increased significantly faster as causes of death among HIV-infected individuals than in the general population. In the near future there will be a substantial increase in the number of patients in need of therapy and in the number of patients using more complex regimens who also have co-morbidities that impact prognosis. Brazil will thus need to expand its network of treatment facilities, increase its capacity to manage more complex clinical conditions, and decide on the proper balance of sophistication that will be required. As the Brazilian scientific output is not commensurate with its successes in the treatment and prevention of HIV infection, there is little empirical basis to inform decisions on how best to allocate finite resources. The Brazilian response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, universal access to ART in particular, is an example to other developing countries. The Brazilian experience also shows that operational research should be an integral part of programmes of access to treatment, if their long-term sustainability is to be ensured.

Career development in Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering: a student's roadmap.

PubMed

Abu-Faraj, Ziad O

2008-01-01

Bioengineering/biomedical engineering education has progressed since the late 1950s and is still evolving in leading academic institutions worldwide. Today, Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering is acclaimed as one of the most reputable fields within the global arena, and will likely be the catalyst for any future breakthroughs in Medicine and Biology. This paper provides a set of strategies and recommendations to be pursued by individuals aiming at planning and developing careers in this field. The paper targets the international student contemplating bioengineering/biomedical engineering as a career, with an underlying emphasis on the student within developing and transitional countries where career guidance is found deficient. The paper also provides a comprehensive definition of the field and an enumeration of its subdivisions.

International trade drives biodiversity threats in developing nations.

PubMed

Lenzen, M; Moran, D; Kanemoto, K; Foran, B; Lobefaro, L; Geschke, A

2012-06-06

Human activities are causing Earth's sixth major extinction event-an accelerating decline of the world's stocks of biological diversity at rates 100 to 1,000 times pre-human levels. Historically, low-impact intrusion into species habitats arose from local demands for food, fuel and living space. However, in today's increasingly globalized economy, international trade chains accelerate habitat degradation far removed from the place of consumption. Although adverse effects of economic prosperity and economic inequality have been confirmed, the importance of international trade as a driver of threats to species is poorly understood. Here we show that a significant number of species are threatened as a result of international trade along complex routes, and that, in particular, consumers in developed countries cause threats to species through their demand of commodities that are ultimately produced in developing countries. We linked 25,000 Animalia species threat records from the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List to more than 15,000 commodities produced in 187 countries and evaluated more than 5 billion supply chains in terms of their biodiversity impacts. Excluding invasive species, we found that 30% of global species threats are due to international trade. In many developed countries, the consumption of imported coffee, tea, sugar, textiles, fish and other manufactured items causes a biodiversity footprint that is larger abroad than at home. Our results emphasize the importance of examining biodiversity loss as a global systemic phenomenon, instead of looking at the degrading or polluting producers in isolation. We anticipate that our findings will facilitate better regulation, sustainable supply-chain certification and consumer product labelling.

ICTP: From a dream to a reality in 50+ years

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quevedo, F.

2017-03-01

For more than 50 years, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics has fostered the growth and sustainability of physics and mathematics in the developing world, benefitting hundreds of thousands of scientists. What began as a dream by its founder, Pakistani Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, has become a first-rate international research hub connecting scientists from all corners of the globe. As the social and economic situations in many developing countries has shifted, ICTP has responded with the creation of relevant research and training programmes that continue to boost science in disadvantaged parts of the world. Today, ICTP remains a beacon of hope for scientists who aspire to greatness.

Technologies for the development of West Nile virus vaccines.

PubMed

Ulbert, Sebastian; Magnusson, Sofia E

2014-01-01

West Nile virus (WNV), an emerging mosquito-borne and zoonotic flavivirus, continues to spread worldwide and represents a major problem for human and veterinary medicine. In recent years, severe outbreaks were observed in the USA and Europe with neighboring countries, and the virus is considered to be endemic in an increasing number of areas. Although most infections remain asymptomatic, WNV can cause severe, even fatal, neurological disease, which affects mostly the elderly and immunocompromised individuals. Several vaccines have been licensed in the veterinary sector, but no human vaccine is available today. This review summarizes recent strategies that are being followed to develop WNV vaccines with emphasis on technologies suitable for the use in humans.

ICTP: From a Dream to a Reality in 50+ Years

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quevedo, F.

For more than 50 years, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics has fostered the growth and sustainability of physics and mathematics in the developing world, benefitting hundreds of thousands of scientists. What began as a dream by its founder, Pakistani Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, has become a first-rate international research hub connecting scientists from all corners of the globe. As the social and economic situations in many developing countries has shifted, ICTP has responded with the creation of relevant research and training programmes that continue to boost science in disadvantaged parts of the world. Today, ICTP remains a beacon of hope for scientists who aspire to greatness.

Rethinking the Postgraduate Teaching Program and Examinations in Today's India.

PubMed

Abraham, Georgi; George, Tarun K

2015-07-01

Postgraduate medical education has undergone drastic changes in the developed and developing countries on par with advancements in technology. The Indian examination system which we imbibed from the British requires a rethinking and restructuring to keep pace with the changing trends shown by the Federation of the Royal Colleges of UK. In this manuscript we look at the strengths and weaknesses of different examination systems. We suggest changes in the theory examination which should be objectively based rather than the outdated essay and short notes. We discuss positive and proactive changes to reform our clinical examination system to enable a just and fair assessment of the candidate in a strictly time bound fashion.

100 million refugees. The world stabilizes through population stability.

PubMed

Sakaiya, T

1993-09-01

Global change has come about due to shifts in the business cycle, a new undeveloped paradigm to replace the Cold War, and a stabilization of expansion and development of modern industrial society. Japan has been transfixed with its own internal domestic affairs, but will feel the consequences of the Industrial Age nearing its end. Industrialization had relied on unlimited resources from the natural environment and the belief that a free-market economy would automatically lead to orderliness and a state of economic equilibrium. Population control has been an issue that has slid over the years as a priority status. In 1800, the population in developed countries was 4 times the population in developing countries; the reverse is becoming true. Mass migration was an unusual phenomena and not the problem it is today. There is a gap between population and productive capacity. Developed countries believed in humanitarian aid for refugees and impoverished peoples, but the numbers were unanticipated. There is no shame for war or civil unrest to drive boat people and hugh numbers to another country. The notion of nation state has changed. The boat people from Cuba were a beginning example of how governments were unconcerned about the loss of population. Afghanistan in 1979 was another example of refugees fleeing civil war. Iraq bombed the Kurds until there was no choice but to leave. Turkey was required to use troops to drive the Kurds back into Iraq. To increase aid indefinitely, or to send out more refugees than it takes in, or to use military forces to kill the invading refugees are not acceptable. An international framework with consensus from developed and developing countries is needed for dealing with mass migrations. Conventions adopted would have to be recognized as in each countries self-interest; disregard of the regulations would have to reflect significant disadvantages to a nation. Several issues are discussed as key in such a global framework: assuring productivity for all by absorbing some refugees, and developing new training programs for the private sector at home, and assuring development aid (technology, capital, markets). A self perpetuating cycle of growth and expansion must be set in motion. Infrastructure development must be replaced with stable employment in the home country.

78 FR 4154 - Identification of Foreign Countries Whose Nationals Are Eligible To Participate in the H-2A and H...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-01-18

... Whose Nationals Are Eligible To Participate in the H-2A and H-2B Nonimmigrant Worker Programs AGENCY... participate in the H-2A and H-2B programs for the coming year. The list published today includes one new..., ``Identification of Foreign Countries Whose Nationals Are Eligible to Participate in the H-2A Visa Program,'' and...

Translations on Eastern Europe, Political, Sociological, and Military Affairs, Number 1321

DTIC Science & Technology

1976-11-19

the people , have shifted increasingly to the forefront. After the Helsinki Conference, international imperialism made new attempts to misinterpret... people living in the socialist countries. The exchange of experience among the socialist countries, and their coordinat- ed course of action play an...result of violence against human nature, from which the people living under it had to be liberated. Today the picture that bourgeois ideology forms of

True Religion Cares for Orphans: Creating and Sustaining an Orphan Care Culture in the Local Churches in Rwanda a Phenomenological Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMillan, Mary Ann

2017-01-01

This research, a phenomenological study, examined four different local churches in Rwanda to identify the key strategies and methods used to establish an orphan care culture and ministry. Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California has partnered with the country of Rwanda to end the orphan crisis. As of today, 35 orphanages in the country of…

[Ebola and the global governance of health].

PubMed

Dentico, Nicoletta

2014-11-01

The high state of anxiety about Ebola virus and its possible spread in the Western world has seemingly changed the route of the disease, for which effective vaccines and medicines do not exist. The rapid spread of the virus provides a paradigmatic narrative about the failure of today's governance for health, grounded on a series of global initiatives focussed on pathologies prioritized by the donors' community, at the detriment of health promotion and the strengthening of health systems in countries. The Ebola crisis also delivers a powerful account about the consequences of the de-potentiation of the World Health Organization (WHO), once the leading organization in public health policy-making. Today, the WHO is increasingly weak technically, politically and financially. While the virus remains out of control, the WHO's capacity to play a role in accompanying the development of the new essential vaccines and in brokering the conditions for accessibility and availability of the new medical tools remains to be questioned.

Democratizing the world health organization.

PubMed

van de Pas, R; van Schaik, L G

2014-02-01

A progressive erosion of the democratic space appears as one of the emerging challenges in global health today. Such delimitation of the political interplay has a particularly evident impact on the unique public interest function of the World Health Organization (WHO). This paper aims to identify some obstacles for a truly democratic functioning of the UN specialized agency for health. The development of civil society's engagement with the WHO, including in the current reform proposals, is described. The paper also analyses how today's financing of the WHO--primarily through multi-bi financing mechanisms--risks to choke the agency's role in global health. Democratizing the public debate on global health, and therefore the role of the WHO, requires a debate on its future role and engagement at the country level. This desirable process can only be linked to national debates on public health, and the re-definition of health as a primary political and societal concern. Copyright © 2013 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Childhood blindness in the context of VISION 2020--the right to sight.

PubMed Central

Gilbert, C.; Foster, A.

2001-01-01

The major causes of blindness in children vary widely from region to region, being largely determined by socioeconomic development, and the availability of primary health care and eye care services. In high-income countries, lesions of the optic nerve and higher visual pathways predominate as the cause of blindness, while corneal scarring from measles, vitamin A deficiency, the use of harmful traditional eye remedies, and ophthalmia neonatorum are the major causes in low-income countries. Retinopathy of prematurity is an important cause in middle-income countries. Other significant causes in all countries are cataract, congenital abnormalities, and hereditary retinal dystrophies. It is estimated that, in almost half of the children who are blind today, the underlying cause could have been prevented, or the eye condition treated to preserve vision or restore sight. The control of blindness in children is a priority within the World Health Organization's VISION 2020 programme. Strategies need to be region specific, based on activities to prevent blindness in the community--through measles immunization, health education, and control of vitamin A deficiency--and the provision of tertiary-level eye care facilities for conditions that require specialist management. PMID:11285667

Enhancing the African bioethics initiative

PubMed Central

Ogundiran, Temidayo O

2004-01-01

Background Medical ethics has existed since the time of Hippocrates. However, formal training in bioethics did not become established until a few decades ago. Bioethics has gained a strong foothold in health sciences in the developed world, especially in Europe and North America. The situation is quite different in many developing countries. In most African countries, bioethics – as established and practiced today in the west- is either non-existent or is rudimentary. Discussion Though bioethics has come of age in the developed and some developing countries, it is still largely "foreign" to most African countries. In some parts of Africa, some bioethics conferences have been held in the past decade to create research ethics awareness and ensure conformity to international guidelines for research with human participants. This idea has arisen in recognition of the genuine need to develop capacity for reviewing the ethics of research in Africa. It is also a condition required by external sponsors of collaborative research in Africa. The awareness and interest that these conferences have aroused need to be further strengthened and extended beyond research ethics to clinical practice. By and large, bioethics education in schools that train doctors and other health care providers is the hook that anchors both research ethics and clinical ethics. Summary This communication reviews the current situation of bioethics in Africa as it applies to research ethics workshops and proposes that in spite of the present efforts to integrate ethics into biomedical research in Africa, much still needs to be done to accomplish this. A more comprehensive approach to bioethics with an all-inclusive benefit is to incorporate formal ethics education into health training institutions in Africa. PMID:15488145

Nuclear power for the future: Implications of some crisis scenarios

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

Turner, K.H.

1996-12-31

As energy issues have dropped from public awareness, electricity demand growth has remained low, deregulation has destabilized the utility decision process, and least-cost regulation has pointed utilities to gas-fired plants for those additions that are coming on-line, the nuclear power industry has begun to ask the question: What will cause nuclear energy to again compete as an option in new, domestic generating capacity additions? Since virtually all of today`s corporate and societal decisions are driven by short-term factors, the preceding question can be translated into: What crisis might occur that would project nuclear as the solution to an immediately perceivedmore » problem? Thus, an examination of scenarios that would project nuclear power into the country`s immediate consciousness is in order, along with an analysis of the implications for and challenges to the nuclear industry resulting therefrom. This paper undertakes such an analysis.« less

The Importance of Human Ecology at the Threshold of the Next Millennium: How Can Population Growth Be Stopped?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nentwig, W.

Ecology is defined as the set of complex interactions between the biotic and abiotic environments. Human ecology concerns principally the population ecology "only" of Homo sapiens, but it also includes all aspects of global ecology because humans are the most important species. Human demography is characterized by a recent decline in mortality and fertility rates. These demographic transitions have largely been completed in industrialized countries, but not in the 140 developing countries. Approximately 100 countries are following the same demographic pattern as industrialized countries, however with a time delay of several generations. China has effectively reduced its population increase by means that would be unacceptable in Western democracies. Some 44 developing countries still show increasing population growth and no detectable demographic transition in birth rate. Thus one part of the world shows limited (and, in the long run, shrinking) population growth, and another continues with a strong increase. All populations are limited in their development by their sustainability by their environment, for example, food and energy resources, and the extent of pollution which the use of these resources produces. It is argued that in the case of human population the limits of sustainability have already been reached with the 6 billion humans alive today, since at least 20% of these suffer from hunger, natural resources are overexploited, and biodiversity is threatened. In the coming 200years it is more likely that the total population will substantially oscillate rather than approach the predicted 12 billion. The most important goal of human ecology should therefore be to slow population growth as far as possible.

Medicine procurement and the use of flexibilities in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, 2001-2016.

PubMed

't Hoen, Ellen Fm; Veraldi, Jacquelyn; Toebes, Brigit; Hogerzeil, Hans V

2018-03-01

Millions of people, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, lack access to effective pharmaceuticals, often because they are unaffordable. The 2001 Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement and Public Health. The declaration recognized the implications of intellectual property rights for both new medicine development and the price of medicines. The declaration outlined measures, known as TRIPS flexibilities, that WTO Members can take to ensure access to medicines for all. These measures include compulsory licensing of medicines patents and the least-developed countries pharmaceutical transition measure. The aim of this study was to document the use of TRIPS flexibilities to access lower-priced generic medicines between 2001 and 2016. Overall, 176 instances of the possible use of TRIPS flexibilities by 89 countries were identified: 100 (56.8%) involved compulsory licences or public noncommercial use licences and 40 (22.7%) involved the least-developed countries pharmaceutical transition measure. The remainder were: 1 case of parallel importation; 3 research exceptions; and 32 non-patent-related measures. Of the 176 instances, 152 (86.4%) were implemented. They covered products for treating 14 different diseases. However, 137 (77.8%) concerned medicines for human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome or related diseases. The use of TRIPS flexibilities was found to be more frequent than is commonly assumed. Given the problems faced by countries today in procuring high-priced, patented medicines, the practical, legal pathway provided by TRIPS flexibilities for accessing lower-cost generic equivalents is increasingly important.

Medicine procurement and the use of flexibilities in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, 2001–2016

PubMed Central

Veraldi, Jacquelyn; Toebes, Brigit; Hogerzeil, Hans V

2018-01-01

Abstract Millions of people, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, lack access to effective pharmaceuticals, often because they are unaffordable. The 2001 Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement and Public Health. The declaration recognized the implications of intellectual property rights for both new medicine development and the price of medicines. The declaration outlined measures, known as TRIPS flexibilities, that WTO Members can take to ensure access to medicines for all. These measures include compulsory licensing of medicines patents and the least-developed countries pharmaceutical transition measure. The aim of this study was to document the use of TRIPS flexibilities to access lower-priced generic medicines between 2001 and 2016. Overall, 176 instances of the possible use of TRIPS flexibilities by 89 countries were identified: 100 (56.8%) involved compulsory licences or public noncommercial use licences and 40 (22.7%) involved the least-developed countries pharmaceutical transition measure. The remainder were: 1 case of parallel importation; 3 research exceptions; and 32 non-patent-related measures. Of the 176 instances, 152 (86.4%) were implemented. They covered products for treating 14 different diseases. However, 137 (77.8%) concerned medicines for human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome or related diseases. The use of TRIPS flexibilities was found to be more frequent than is commonly assumed. Given the problems faced by countries today in procuring high-priced, patented medicines, the practical, legal pathway provided by TRIPS flexibilities for accessing lower-cost generic equivalents is increasingly important. PMID:29531417

Reflections on a Heart Surgery Career with Insights for Western-Trained Medical Specialists in Developing Countries

PubMed Central

Kabbani, Sami S.

2011-01-01

Herein, I describe my experience (spanning 40 years) in helping to develop the specialty of cardiovascular surgery in Syria. Especially in the early years, the challenges were daunting. We initially performed thoracic, vascular, and closed-heart operations while dealing with inadequate facilities, bureaucratic delays, and poorly qualified personnel. After our independent surgical center was established in early 1976, we performed 1 open-heart and 1 closed-heart procedure per day. Open-heart procedures evolved from the few and simple to the multiple and complex, and we solved difficulties as they arose. Today, our cardiac surgical center occupies an entire 6-floor building. We have 12 cardiac surgeons, 10 surgical residents, a formal 6-year surgical residency program, a pediatric cardiac unit, an annual caseload of 1,600, and plans to double our productivity in 2 years. The tribulations of establishing sophisticated surgical programs in a developing country are offset by the variety of clinicopathologic conditions that are encountered, and even more so by the psychological rewards of overcoming adversity and serving a population in need. This account may prove to be insightful for Western-trained physicians who seek to develop specialized medical care in emerging societies. PMID:21841854

Cross-cultural use and development of virtual patients.

PubMed

Fors, Uno G H; Muntean, Valentin; Botezatu, Mihaela; Zary, Nabil

2009-08-01

Three major issues drive the cross-cultural use of virtual patients (VPs): an increased mobility of healthcare professionals, students and patients; limited resources for developing VPs; and emerging standards for the exchange of VPs across institutions. Many students are trained in countries other than where they were born. In addition, healthcare professionals often move between countries and are today meeting more and more patients from cultures different from their own. VPs can be used both for learning a new "medical" language as well as for illustrating different perspectives on illness in the new culture. Therefore, it may be important to develop cases reflecting patients from a wide variety of regions and cultures to prepare these professionals to understand both the background of these patients as well as the different medical conditions they may present. However, the benefits of using VPs may be limited at many universities by insufficient resources to develop all the VPs needed for their curricula. The option to acquire VPs from other universities may therefore be appealing, but as these may only be available in English, it is important to consider whether VPs reflecting the local illness panoramas and medical procedures are needed.

Reflections on a heart surgery career with insights for Western-trained medical specialists in developing countries.

PubMed

Kabbani, Sami S

2011-01-01

Herein, I describe my experience (spanning 40 years) in helping to develop the specialty of cardiovascular surgery in Syria. Especially in the early years, the challenges were daunting. We initially performed thoracic, vascular, and closed-heart operations while dealing with inadequate facilities, bureaucratic delays, and poorly qualified personnel. After our independent surgical center was established in early 1976, we performed 1 open-heart and 1 closed-heart procedure per day. Open-heart procedures evolved from the few and simple to the multiple and complex, and we solved difficulties as they arose. Today, our cardiac surgical center occupies an entire 6-floor building. We have 12 cardiac surgeons, 10 surgical residents, a formal 6-year surgical residency program, a pediatric cardiac unit, an annual caseload of 1,600, and plans to double our productivity in 2 years. The tribulations of establishing sophisticated surgical programs in a developing country are offset by the variety of clinicopathologic conditions that are encountered, and even more so by the psychological rewards of overcoming adversity and serving a population in need. This account may prove to be insightful for Western-trained physicians who seek to develop specialized medical care in emerging societies.

Management and Treatment of Human Lice

PubMed Central

Sangaré, Abdoul Karim; Doumbo, Ogobara K.

2016-01-01

Of the three lice (head, body, and pubic louse) that infest humans, the body louse is the species involved in epidemics of louse-borne typhus, trench fever, and relapsing fever, but all the three cause pediculosis. Their infestations occur today in many countries despite great efforts to maintain high standards of public health. In this review, literature searches were performed through PubMed, Medline, Google Scholar, and EBSCOhost, with key search words of “Pediculus humanus”, “lice infestation”, “pediculosis”, and “treatment”; and controlled clinical trials were viewed with great interest. Removing lice by hand or with a lice comb, heating infested clothing, and shaving the scalp were some of the oldest methods of controlling human lice. Despite the introduction of other resources including cresol, naphthalene, sulfur, mercury, vinegar, petroleum, and insecticides, the numbers of lice infestation cases and resistance have increased. To date, viable alternative treatments to replace insecticides have been developed experimentally in vitro. Today, the development of new treatment strategies such as symbiotic treatment and synergistic treatment (antibiotics + ivermectin) in vitro has proved effective and is promising. Here, we present an overview on managing and treating human lice and highlight new strategies to more effectively fight pediculosis and prevent resistance. PMID:27529073

[Alteration of biological rhythms causes metabolic diseases and obesity].

PubMed

Saderi, Nadia; Escobar, Carolina; Salgado-Delgado, Roberto

2013-07-16

The incidence of obesity worldwide has become a serious, constantly growing public health issue that reaches alarming proportions in some countries. To date none of the strategies developed to combat obesity have proved to be decisive, and hence there is an urgent need to address the problem with new approaches. Today, studies in the field of chronobiology have shown that our physiology continually adapts itself to the cyclical changes in the environment, regard-less of whether they are daily or seasonal. This is possible thanks to the existence of a biological clock in our hypothalamus which regulates the expression and/or activity of enzymes and hormones involved in regulating our metabolism, as well as all the homeostatic functions. It has been observed that this clock can be upset as a result of today's modern lifestyle, which involves a drop in physical activity during the day and the abundant ingestion of food during the night, among other factors, which together promote metabolic syndrome and obesity. Hence, the aim of this review is to summarise the recent findings that show the effect that altering the circadian rhythms has on the metabolism and how this can play a part in the development of metabolic diseases.

From Space Archeology to Serving the World Today: A 20-Year Journey from the Jungles of Guatemala to a Network of Satellite Remote Sensing Facilities Around the World

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Irwin, Daniel

2016-06-01

Earth observing satellites provide a 21st century capability to detect unrecorded archeological sites that are often invisible to the naked eye. This information can be used to understand issues in human settlement, environmental interaction, and the impact of climate change to past cultures. Archeologists want to know how ancient people successfully adapted to their environment and what factors may have led to their collapse or disappearance. Some cultures overextended the capacity of their landscape, causing destructive environmental effects which led to their demise. To avoid repeating mistakes of the past and adapt to challenges today, NASA and the US Agency for International Development (USAID)-- in partnership with leading regional organizations around the world--have implemented SERVIR. SERVIR is a joint development initiative to help countries use information provided by Earth observing satellites and geospatial technologies for managing climate risks and land use. SERVIR is improving awareness, increasing access to information, and supporting analysis to help people in Africa, Hindu Kush-Himalaya, Lower Mekong, and Mesoamerica manage challenges in the areas of food security, water resources, land use change, and natural disasters.

Management and Treatment of Human Lice.

PubMed

Sangaré, Abdoul Karim; Doumbo, Ogobara K; Raoult, Didier

2016-01-01

Of the three lice (head, body, and pubic louse) that infest humans, the body louse is the species involved in epidemics of louse-borne typhus, trench fever, and relapsing fever, but all the three cause pediculosis. Their infestations occur today in many countries despite great efforts to maintain high standards of public health. In this review, literature searches were performed through PubMed, Medline, Google Scholar, and EBSCOhost, with key search words of "Pediculus humanus", "lice infestation", "pediculosis", and "treatment"; and controlled clinical trials were viewed with great interest. Removing lice by hand or with a lice comb, heating infested clothing, and shaving the scalp were some of the oldest methods of controlling human lice. Despite the introduction of other resources including cresol, naphthalene, sulfur, mercury, vinegar, petroleum, and insecticides, the numbers of lice infestation cases and resistance have increased. To date, viable alternative treatments to replace insecticides have been developed experimentally in vitro. Today, the development of new treatment strategies such as symbiotic treatment and synergistic treatment (antibiotics + ivermectin) in vitro has proved effective and is promising. Here, we present an overview on managing and treating human lice and highlight new strategies to more effectively fight pediculosis and prevent resistance.

The project De Caldas International Project: An example of a large-scale radwaste isolation natural analogue study

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

Shea, M.

1995-09-01

The proper isolation of radioactive waste is one of today`s most pressing environmental issues. Research is being carried out by many countries around the world in order to answer critical and perplexing questions regarding the safe disposal of radioactive waste. Natural analogue studies are an increasingly important facet of this international research effort. The Pocos de Caldas Project represents a major effort of the international technical and scientific community towards addressing one of modern civilization`s most critical environmental issues - radioactive waste isolation.

Astronomy in Georgia - Present Status and Perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Todua, M.

2016-09-01

Astronomy in Georgia is generally represented in Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory found in 1932. It is one of the leading scientific institutes in the country. Main fields of research are solar system bodies (including near-Earth asteroids), various aspects of solar physics, stellar astronomy (including binary stars and open clusters), extragalactic objects (AGNs), theoretical astrophysics, cosmology, atmospheric and solar-terrestrial physics. Several telescopes are operational today, as well as the instruments for atmospheric studies. In 2007 the Observatory was integrated with Ilia State University, merging scientific research and education which facilitated the growth of a new generation of researchers. There are groups of astronomers and astrophysicists in other Georgian universities and institutions as well. Georgian scientists collaborate with research centers and universities worldwide. Research groups participate in various international scientific projects. The interest in astronomy in Georgia has been growing, which increases future perspectives of its development in the country.

Stabilisation and humanitarian access in a collapsed state: the Somali case.

PubMed

Menkhaus, Ken

2010-10-01

Somalia today is the site of three major threats: the world's worst humanitarian crisis; the longest-running instance of complete state collapse; and a robust jihadist movement with links to Al-Qa'ida. External state-building, counter-terrorism and humanitarian policies responding to these threats have worked at cross-purposes. State-building efforts that insist humanitarian relief be channelled through the nascent state in order to build its legitimacy and capacity undermine humanitarian neutrality when the state is a party to a civil war. Counter-terrorism policies that seek to ensure that no aid benefits terrorist groups have the net effect of criminalising relief operations in countries where poor security precludes effective accountability. This paper argues that tensions between stabilisation and humanitarian goals in contemporary Somalia reflect a long history of politicisation of humanitarian operations in the country. © 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2010.

How is MS-13 a Threat to US National Security?

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-02-12

the deportees had not committed any crimes in their home countries, local law enforcement did not hold them when they arrived in country. Gang...Early on most deportees were shipped south after spending time in jail, but today US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials report 70...of arrested gang members are deported before being actually charged with crimes.35 Some deportees perceive that hooking up with a gang is their

Education Relating to Foreign Cultures and Countries: People's Republic of China.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Junod, Sylvia

1979-01-01

Describes a project studying the culture of the People's Republic of China, including two seminars, an in-school experiment with the theme "China yesterday, China today," and three study tours in China focusing on education. (CK)

OUT Success Stories: Advanced Airfoils for Wind Turbines

DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

Jones, J.; Green, B.

2000-08-01

New airfoils have substantially increased the aerodynamic efficiency of wind turbines. It is clear that these new airfoils substantially increased energy output from wind turbines. Virtually all new blades built in this country today use these advanced airfoil designs.

Effect of the Prevalence of HIV/AIDS and the Life Expectancy Rate on Economic Growth in SSA Countries: Difference GMM Approach.

PubMed

Waziri, Salisu Ibrahim; Mohamed Nor, Norashidah; Raja Abdullah, Nik Mustapha; Adamu, Peter

2015-09-01

The productivity of countries around the globe is adversely affected by the health-related problems of their labour force. This study examined the effect of the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and life expectancy on the economic growth of 33 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over a period of 11 years (2002-2012). The study employed a dynamic panel approach as opposed to the static traditional approach utilised in the literature. The dynamic approach became eminent because of the fact that HIV/AIDS is a dynamic variable as its prevalence today depends on the previous years. The result revealed that HIV/AIDS is negatively correlated with economic growth in the region, with a coefficient of 0.014, and significant at the 1% level. That is, a 10% increase in HIV/AIDS prevalence leads to a 0.14% decrease in the GDP of the region. Tackling HIV/AIDS is therefore imperative to the developing Sub-Saharan African region and all hands must be on deck to end the menace globally.

Effect of the Prevalence of HIV/AIDS and the Life Expectancy Rate on Economic Growth in SSA Countries: Difference GMM Approach

PubMed Central

Waziri, Salisu Ibrahim; Nor, Norashidah Mohamed; Abdullah, Nik Mustapha Raja; Adamu, Peter

2016-01-01

The productivity of countries around the globe is adversely affected by the health-related problems of their labour force. This study examined the effect of the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and life expectancy on the economic growth of 33 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over a period of 11 years (2002–2012). The study employed a dynamic panel approach as opposed to the static traditional approach utilised in the literature. The dynamic approach became eminent because of the fact that HIV/AIDS is a dynamic variable as its prevalence today depends on the previous years. The result revealed that HIV/AIDS is negatively correlated with economic growth in the region, with a coefficient of 0.014, and significant at the 1% level. That is, a 10% increase in HIV/AIDS prevalence leads to a 0.14% decrease in the GDP of the region. Tackling HIV/AIDS is therefore imperative to the developing Sub-Saharan African region and all hands must be on deck to end the menace globally. PMID:26573032

Improvement in kidney transplantation in the Balkans after the Istanbul Declaration: where do we stand today?

PubMed Central

Spasovski, Goce; Busic, Mirela; Delmonico, Francis

2016-01-01

Due to the limited access to kidney transplantation (KTx) in developing countries, desperate patients have engaged in the purchase and sale of kidneys. In 2004, the World Health Assembly urged member states to protect the poor and vulnerable from being exploited through practices of illegal organ trafficking that had become widespread throughout the world. In 2008, the international transplant community convened a summit of transplant professionals, legal experts and ethicists to combat organ trafficking, transplant tourism and transplant commercialism that resulted in the Declaration of Istanbul (DOI). The South-Eastern Europe Health Network (SEEHN) represents a nine country multigovernmental collaboration on health systems. The Regional Health Development Centre on Organ Donation and Transplant Medicine (RHDC) was established in 2011 in Croatia to facilitate cooperation among south-eastern European countries to improve organ transplantation within the Balkan region. Since 2011, a collaboration between the RHDC, the Custodian Group of the DOI (DICG) and SEEHN professionals has enhanced strategic planning and definition of country-specific action plan priorities on organ donation and transplantation. Data of kidney transplantation provided in this report show a significant increase in transplantation activities in a 4-year period in Macedonia, Moldova, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Romania and Montenegro. The success of the donation and transplantation programmes was influenced by the engagement of key professionals and the establishment of organizational infrastructure with the implementation of an appropriate funding model. In conclusion, the DOI has provided an ethical framework for engagement of health professionals from south-eastern European countries. The newly established SEEHN RHDC as a technical coordinating body greatly contributed in building institutional capacity and strengthening regional collaboration between health authorities and professionals within these countries for improvement of transplant activities in the Balkans. PMID:26798481

Improvement in kidney transplantation in the Balkans after the Istanbul Declaration: where do we stand today?

PubMed

Spasovski, Goce; Busic, Mirela; Delmonico, Francis

2016-02-01

Due to the limited access to kidney transplantation (KTx) in developing countries, desperate patients have engaged in the purchase and sale of kidneys. In 2004, the World Health Assembly urged member states to protect the poor and vulnerable from being exploited through practices of illegal organ trafficking that had become widespread throughout the world. In 2008, the international transplant community convened a summit of transplant professionals, legal experts and ethicists to combat organ trafficking, transplant tourism and transplant commercialism that resulted in the Declaration of Istanbul (DOI). The South-Eastern Europe Health Network (SEEHN) represents a nine country multigovernmental collaboration on health systems. The Regional Health Development Centre on Organ Donation and Transplant Medicine (RHDC) was established in 2011 in Croatia to facilitate cooperation among south-eastern European countries to improve organ transplantation within the Balkan region. Since 2011, a collaboration between the RHDC, the Custodian Group of the DOI (DICG) and SEEHN professionals has enhanced strategic planning and definition of country-specific action plan priorities on organ donation and transplantation. Data of kidney transplantation provided in this report show a significant increase in transplantation activities in a 4-year period in Macedonia, Moldova, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Romania and Montenegro. The success of the donation and transplantation programmes was influenced by the engagement of key professionals and the establishment of organizational infrastructure with the implementation of an appropriate funding model. In conclusion, the DOI has provided an ethical framework for engagement of health professionals from south-eastern European countries. The newly established SEEHN RHDC as a technical coordinating body greatly contributed in building institutional capacity and strengthening regional collaboration between health authorities and professionals within these countries for improvement of transplant activities in the Balkans.

Nanotechnology: Development and challenges in Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joni, I. Made; Muthukannan, Vanitha; Hermawan, Wawan; Panatarani, Camellia

2018-02-01

Nanotechnology today is regarded as a revolutionary technology that can help to address the key needs related to energy, environment, health and agriculture in developing countries. This paper is a short review on the development and challenges of nanotechnology in Indonesia. Nanotechnology offers great potential benefits, there is emerging concerns arising from its novel physicochemical properties. The main applications of nanotechnology in the different sectors which is vital and its economic impact in Indonesia is also discussed. The achievment and development of nanotechnology including synthesis and dispersion of nanoparticles (NPs) and its applications in various fields is briefly addressed in Nanotehcnology and Graphene Research Center, Universitas Padjadjaran (Unpad). Despite significant progress in developmental goals, many challenges in the development of nanotechnology proccesing need to be resolved such as support infrastructure and evolution of new form of collaborative arrangements between various sectors and policies which is emerged as an important factor enabling development.

Nuclear fuels policy. Report of the Atlantic Council's Nuclear Fuels Policy Working Group

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

Not Available

1976-01-01

This Policy Paper recommends the actions deemed necessary to assure that future U.S. and non-Communist countries' nuclear fuels supply will be adequate, considering the following: estimates of modest growth in overall energy demand, electrical energy demand, and nuclear electrical energy demand in the U.S. and abroad, predicated upon the continuing trends involving conservation of energy, increased use of electricity, and moderate economic growth (Chap. I); possibilities for the development and use of all domestic resources providing energy alternatives to imported oil and gas, consonant with current environmental, health, and safety concerns (Chap. II); assessment of the traditional energy sources whichmore » provide current alternatives to nuclear energy (Chap. II); evaluation of realistic expectations for additional future energy supplies from prospective technologies: enhanced recovery from traditional sources and development and use of oil shales and synthetic fuels from coal, fusion and solar energy (Chap. II); an accounting of established nuclear technology in use today, in particular the light water reactor, used for generating electricity (Chap. III); an estimate of future nuclear technology, in particular the prospective fast breeder (Chap. IV); current and projected nuclear fuel demand and supply in the U.S. and abroad (Chaps. V and VI); the constraints encountered today in meeting nuclear fuels demand (Chap. VII); and the major unresolved issues and options in nuclear fuels supply and use (Chap. VIII). The principal conclusions and recommendations (Chap. IX) are that the U.S. and other industrialized countries should strive for increased flexibility of primary energy fuel sources, and that a balanced energy strategy therefore depends on the secure supply of energy resources and the ability to substitute one form of fuel for another.« less

Joint implementation: Biodiversity and greenhouse gas offsets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cutright, Noel J.

1996-11-01

One of the most pressing environmental issues today is the possibility that projected increases in global emissions of greenhouse gases from increased deforestation, development, and fossil-fuel combustion could significantly alter global climate patterns. Under the terms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in Rio de Janeiro during the June 1992 Earth Summit, the United States and other industrialized countries committed to balancing greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels in the year 2000. Included in the treaty is a provision titled “Joint Implementation,” whereby industrialized countries assist developing countries in jointly modifying long-term emission trends, either through emission reductions or by protecting and enhancing greenhouse gas sinks (carbon sequestration). The US Climate Action Plan, signed by President Clinton in 1993, calls for voluntary climate change mitigation measures by various sectors, and the action plan included a new program, the US Initiative on Joint Implementation. Wisconsin Electric decided to invest in a Jl project because its concept encourages creative, cost-effective solutions to environmental problems through partnering, international cooperation, and innovation. The project chosen, a forest preservation and management effort in Belize, will sequester more than five million tons of carbon dioxide over a 40-year period, will become economically selfsustaining after ten years, and will have substantial biodiversity benefits.

Teachers' Perceptions of STEM Education and Its Impact on Students' Math Self-Efficacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reyes-Elizondo, Alejandra

New technologies and their benefits have become the norm, while past technologies are often overlooked. In the developed world, it is easily assumed that everyone has access to electricity, yet more than 1 billion people worldwide still live without it today. Electricity impacts all aspects of life: education, health, economy, and income, to name a few. This paper seeks to understand the relationship between having access to electricity and health outcomes, focusing on maternal mortality; mortality for those under 5 years of age; and mortality from non-communicable diseases, in 84 low and lower-middle income countries. Analyzing 84 countries using data from 1996 to 2014, this paper aims to understand how electricity impacts particular health outcomes. The key findings show that while having access to electricity is significantly associated with a reduction in maternal mortality and mortality for those under 5, it is not significantly associated with mortality from non-communicable diseases. These results indicate that enhancing access to electricity is merely a vessel towards improving health outcomes, but is not a magic policy in its own right. From a policy perspective, these findings imply that increasing access to electricity does not negate efforts towards improving the provision of health care alongside climate friendly and sustainable ways of electricity generation in developing countries.

Romance tourism or female sex tourism?

PubMed

Bauer, Irmgard L

2014-01-01

Love, sex and the female traveller: romance tourism or female sex tourism? The phenomenon of women travelling in search of relationships with local men in developing countries has been studied for the last 20 years. However, it appears little known in travel medicine. Relevant literature was found through PubMed, Science Direct, ProQuest and Google Scholar. The reference lists of selected articles identified further sources. Historical records of women travellers to far-away countries abound. Then, as now, women not only searched for the erotic 'other' but made romance and sex the purpose of their trip. Today, increasing numbers of women travel to destinations in developing countries where sex with local men is the main attraction. This pastime raises concerns not only for the women themselves but for the local men involved as well as their sex partners and the local communities. Although more research is necessary, comparing the criteria that describe men travelling for sex and relationships and women travelling for sex and relationships appears to suggest that there is very little difference between the two, regardless of what the pursuit is called. Women looking for sex with local men are sex tourists, too. Recognition of this fact needs to influence the pre and post travel care of female travellers. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Women and health: the main questions.

PubMed

Oakley, A

1984-04-01

The dominant cultural message has been that doctors, not women, ensure health, and that men, not women, are biologically the more vulneralbe sex, with a mortality and physical morbidity record exceeding that of women from birth to death. Ther is therefore something paradoxical about women's relationship to health and health care. As providers of health and health care women are important through their role in the division of labor. In their domestic lives they provide health by attending to the physical needs of those with whom they live. Also within official health care systems women are important as providers of care. In Britain 75% of the workers in the National Health Service are women, but only about 20% of British doctors are women. As doctors, midwives, and nurses, women health care providers in Britain and most other so-called developed countries are concentrated in the lower status grades of health services. But today women's roles as health care providers in the home and as midwives are being eroded because of the changing role of women and because of advanced technology regarding childbearing. Th place of childbearing in women's lives has been a theme of debate of feminists. The extent of medical surveillance over pregnancy and birth is about 100% in most developed countries today, and in some European countries operative deliveries are now over 20%. In Britain about 1% of the public money spent on health, education, and social services is spent on services for young children, and although some other countries do better, the rule is still that mothers are themselves responsible for the children. Thus there is a contradiction; women are considered both irresponsible to make certain decisions at certain times in their lives, and are considered over-responsible for their children. In the privacy of the home, and as mothers, women are powerful, but in public they are not. Another aspect of this situation is the predomination of women over men in admissions to hospitals for psychiatric problems. This can be interpreted another way: when men and women present essentially the same symptoms to their doctors, the women are more likely to get a psychiatric diagnosis. Thus in a way health status is socially determined and therefore women take a wider degree of responsibility for their own health and health care decision making, and should continue to do so in the future, even if this means taking some of the responsiblitity away from medical professionals. Especially vulneralbe to unequal treatment by the medical professional are women having young children; these women are often regarded and/or treated as depressed. The emotional, political, and financial dependency of women's family welfare role is perhaps their greatest disablement today. In being carriers of society's unresolved problems of dependency in human relationships, women are not helped to articulate their own interests.

The way ahead--the new technology in an old society.

PubMed

Sharma, Manju; Swarup, Renu

2003-01-01

Biotechnology is one of the most important scientific and technological revolutions of the last century and has greatly benefited various aspects of human life. The potentials are enormous and many breakthroughs have already been achieved in the area of healthcare, food, agricultural products and environmental production. The developments in this important area provide immediate benefits to mankind and offer environmentally friendly technologies for sustainable development. The Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, set up in 1986, has played an important catalytic role in promoting this revolutionary field. Research and development, technology validation and demonstration, technology transfer, human resource development, setting up of Centers of Excellence and promoting industry-academia interactions have been some of the major achievements during the last 15 years. A unique feature of this Department is the strong interaction with scientists and institutes across the country to promote biotechnology research and development efforts for commercialization and also to benefit the rural population for socio-economic development. A large number of research institutes/universities and organizations across the country have been supported in the areas of agriculture, healthcare, environment and industry. In addition, basic research has also been an important thrust area. In order to ensure that the benefits of biotechnology reach the masses at large, a very stringent biosafety mechanism has been adopted. India is a country rich in biodiversity with two hot spots and has a strong base of expertise available in nearly all fields--thus biotechnology could flourish leading to a Bioindustrial Revolution. We are today poised to be the leaders in this field in the 21st Century.

Which PUB objectives in Africa? Which priorities?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karambiri, H.

2003-04-01

Today, the international co-operation in Africa is in crisis. A crisis due first to the deep world socio-economic upheavals which led to a reduction in public aid to development in the poor countries, and secondly to the revision of cooperation politics of developed countries which resulted in a progressive withdrawal of foreign institutions of research in many LDC. National governments no longer have means, nor necessary competences to ensure the follow-up and the maintenance of measurements networks; in addition, they are more and more withdrawing from research projects in Hydrology, to give priority to more sensitive sectors such as education, health, fight against hunger, etc…In this situation, what can be the role of PUB? We heard much speaking about LDC throughout PUB mission statement. Is this a lobbying to acquire financings from international institutions or a real willpower to solve crucial water problems of these countries and help them to wake up from their deep scientific sleep? PUB must promote a harmonious, a constant and a sustainable development of LDC populations, especially in Africa. This development must be done by the "bottom". It must be based on the expression of endogenous needs and a participative concerted approach. It is only in this way that PUB will be able to distinguish itself from other existing programs. The concept of "capacity building" has not to be the tree hiding the forest. It has to become a reality, which is daily lived and thought.

Venezuela 2000 restructures its electric power sector to ensure competitiveness

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

Alvarez, C.E.

1999-11-01

Today, it is well known that the countries that are best equipped to develop their production are not those with the most natural resources but those who have the best trained people, most technical resources and that base their development on competitiveness. The State model is, definitely, not one that offers the greatest advantages, and Venezuela is an example of this. Even when, thanks to the economic boom the country enjoyed in the 70s and 80s, it was able to cost the investments required to develop its infrastructure and to prepare a first class human contingent, over the long term,more » competition was discouraged and waste encouraged. The result was that, even when Venezuela had vast economic resources compared to its relatively small population, it was not able to become the exception to the rule and succeed in applying this model--now considered obsolete in many countries--indefinitely. Another model based on private ownership has begun to take its place, one that has made it possible to cost the increasingly large investments required, involves opening up these sectors to private capital, and uses the phenomenon of globalization--a major driving force behind competition and one that has wrought considerable change in all corners of the increasingly smaller planet. This paper describes the steps that different sectors in the country have been taking to implement this new model in the electric power sector, such as developing draft legislation for regulating the Sector, very shortly to culminate in the passing of an electric power law by Congress; opening up the Sector to private investors (privatization); dividing the electric power industry into four business units (generation, transmission, distribution and marketing); the electric power market; and other innovations currently being implemented.« less

Drug Discovery and Development of Antimalarial Agents: Recent Advances.

PubMed

Thota, Sreekanth; Yerra, Rajeshwar

2016-01-01

Malaria, a deadly infectious parasitic disease, is a major issue of public health in the world today and already produces serious economic constraints in the endemic countries. Most of the malarial infections and deaths are due to Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax species. The recent emergence of resistance necessitates the search for new antimalarial drugs, which overcome the resistance and act through new mechanisms. Although much effort has been directed towards the discovery of novel antimalarial drugs. 4-anilino quinolone triazines as potent antimalarial agents, their in silico modelling and bioevaluation as Plasmodium falciparum transketolase and β-hematin inhibitors has been reported. This review is primarily focused on the drug discovery of the recent advances in the development of antimalarial agents and their mechanism of action.

[Training of medical physicists in radiation therapy at the International Educational Center of the Association of Medical Physicists in Russia].

PubMed

Kostylev, V A; Lysenko, M N; Zhgutov, A V; Ulanov, D V; Kislyakova, M V; Kazantsev, P V; Kostylev, D V; Narkevich, B Y

2015-01-01

The efficiency of radiotherapy treatment for cancer patients and use of the state-of-the-art accelerator facilities, in the first place, depends on the qualification and number of medical physicists. The need for the training and continuing professional development (CPD) of medical radiation physicists in Russia and CIS countries has dramatically increased today. The article considers the system of refresher training which should provide the continuing professional development and advance training of medical radiation physicists. The authors analyze the experience of the International Educational Center of the Association of Medical Physicists in Russia involved in the CPD of medical physicists under the IAEA TC projects, RMAPO and N.N. Blokhin RCRC joint educational programs.

Living conditions in Iraq: 10 years after the US-led invasion

PubMed Central

Hassounah, S; Dubois, E; Abdalrahman, B; Raheem, M; Jamil, H; Majeed, A

2014-01-01

In the early 1980s, Iraq was a middle-income and rapidly developing country with a well-developed health system. A few decades later – after wars, sanctions and a violent sectarian upsurge – child and maternal health indicators have deteriorated, its poverty headcount index is at 22.9% and diseases such as cholera have remerged. Today Iraq is beset by chronic political deadlock and a complexity of economic challenges; accordingly, all aspects of life are suffering, including health. Irrespective of the monumental investment to improve components of the health system, via national and international efforts, the health status of the population can only advance through resounding and synergistic effort in other aspects of life affecting health: the social determinants of health. PMID:24833655

Validation of LOC-I interventions

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-08-13

The basic tenet of this paper is that todays national airspace systems, at least in advanced industrial countries, qualify as so-called Highly Reliable Systems (HRS). In an HRS, even the type of accident that causes the most fatalities is a rare e...

Bonding with Grandparents

MedlinePlus

... to kids. Such dedicated attention only improves a child's developmental and learning skills. Tips for Staying in Touch In today's world, though, families may be scattered across the country, and jam-packed school ... often. If your child's grandparents live nearby, make an effort to save ...

Population, petroleum, and politics: Mexico at the crossroads. Part 2. The potentials and problems of Mexican oil resources.

PubMed

Gallagher, C F

1980-01-01

The 2 most important factors which will influence Mexico's future economic development are the country's overpopulation problem and the manner in which the country's oil reserves are exploited. This document describes the historical development of Mexico's oil industry and the current struggle of the government to ensure that the oil resources contribute toward the sound economic development of the country. The government expropriated foreign oil companies in 1938 and today most of the oil operations in Mexico are conducted by the state controlled Pemex Company. In recent years extensive oil reserves were discovered in Mexico and the country is now in the position of having large oil reserves at a time when oil prices are increasing. Known crude oil reserves are estimated at 31 billion barrels; however, an unconfirmed report by Pemex in 1980 placed the known reserves at 50 billion barrels. In the past the management of Pemex was corrupt and inefficient and many top positions in the company were filled by retired politicians. The recent appointment of Jose Andres de Oteyza as Chairman of the Board and of Jorge Diaz Serrano as the Director-General should greatly improve Pemex operations. In developing the country's oil industry the government wants 1) to keep production low enough to offset inflation and to preserve the resource but 2) to produce enough oil so that the country has sufficient funds for investment and for operating needed social programs. The government may not be able to keep oil production down to acceptable levels. It may be forced to increase oil exports to compensate for its growing reliance on imported food and other imported products. In recent years Mexico's industrial productivity and its agricultural production declined. The government wants to avoid being placed in the position where it will be forced to trade large quantities of oil for needed food. The current government is promoting investment in agriculture and industrial development in an effort to reduce reliance on imports. Mexico's relationship with the U. S. in regard to migration and trade was also discussed.

Blood vessel classification into arteries and veins in retinal images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kondermann, Claudia; Kondermann, Daniel; Yan, Michelle

2007-03-01

The prevalence of diabetes is expected to increase dramatically in coming years; already today it accounts for a major proportion of the health care budget in many countries. Diabetic Retinopathy (DR), a micro vascular complication very often seen in diabetes patients, is the most common cause of visual loss in working age population of developed countries today. Since the possibility of slowing or even stopping the progress of this disease depends on the early detection of DR, an automatic analysis of fundus images would be of great help to the ophthalmologist due to the small size of the symptoms and the large number of patients. An important symptom for DR are abnormally wide veins leading to an unusually low ratio of the average diameter of arteries to veins (AVR). There are also other diseases like high blood pressure or diseases of the pancreas with one symptom being an abnormal AVR value. To determine it, a classification of vessels as arteries or veins is indispensable. As to our knowledge despite the importance there have only been two approaches to vessel classification yet. Therefore we propose an improved method. We compare two feature extraction methods and two classification methods based on support vector machines and neural networks. Given a hand-segmentation of vessels our approach achieves 95.32% correctly classified vessel pixels. This value decreases by 10% on average, if the result of a segmentation algorithm is used as basis for the classification.

The potential impact of plant biotechnology on the Millennium Development Goals.

PubMed

Yuan, Dawei; Bassie, Ludovic; Sabalza, Maite; Miralpeix, Bruna; Dashevskaya, Svetlana; Farre, Gemma; Rivera, Sol M; Banakar, Raviraj; Bai, Chao; Sanahuja, Georgina; Arjó, Gemma; Avilla, Eva; Zorrilla-López, Uxue; Ugidos-Damboriena, Nerea; López, Alberto; Almacellas, David; Zhu, Changfu; Capell, Teresa; Hahne, Gunther; Twyman, Richard M; Christou, Paul

2011-03-01

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are international development targets for the year 2015 that aim to achieve relative improvements in the standards of health, socioeconomic status and education in the world's poorest countries. Many of the challenges addressed by the MDGs reflect the direct or indirect consequences of subsistence agriculture in the developing world, and hence, plant biotechnology has an important role to play in helping to achieve MDG targets. In this opinion article, we discuss each of the MDGs in turn, provide examples to show how plant biotechnology may be able to accelerate progress towards the stated MDG objectives, and offer our opinion on the likelihood of such technology being implemented. In combination with other strategies, plant biotechnology can make a contribution towards sustainable development in the future although the extent to which progress can be made in today's political climate depends on how we deal with current barriers to adoption.

Challenge theme 7: Information support for management of border security and environmental protection: Chapter 9 in United States-Mexican Borderlands: Facing tomorrow's challenges through USGS science

USGS Publications Warehouse

Parcher, Jean W.; Page, William R.

2013-01-01

Historically, international borders were located far from the major political and economic capitals of their countries and rarely received adequate planning or infrastructure development. Today, as a result of global economics and increased movement of goods between nations, border regions play a much greater role in commerce, tourism, and transportation. For example, Mexico is the second largest destination for United States exports (Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute, 2009). The rapid population and economic growth along the United States–Mexican border, undocumented human border crossings, and the unique natural diversity of resources in the Borderlands present challenges for border security and environmental protection. Assessing risks and implementing sustainable growth policies to protect the environment and quality of life greatly increase in complexity when the issues cross an international border, where social services, environmental regulations, lifestyles, and cultural beliefs are unique for each country. Shared airsheds, water and biological resources, national security issues, and disaster management needs require an integrated binational approach to assess risks and develop binational management strategies.

Mobile Digital Applications for Farmers to Transform Agriculture Statistics from the Bottom Up

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, M. E.; Grace, K.; Sahajpal, R.; Nagol, J. R.

2017-12-01

As the global population continues to grow and become more wealthy, the amount of food humanity consumes should also grow, particularly in low income countries that are currently consuming significantly less per capita than is optimal. Reducing yield gaps in low income regions can increase overall agricultural production and pull populations conducting subsistence agriculture in rural areas out of poverty. Investment in the transformation of agricultural value chain to include low income farmers can have significant positive impacts on communities and individuals participating, as well as the resilience of the food system itself. A major obstacle to improving the effectiveness of policies and interventions in the rural agriculture sector is a lack of information about the socio-economic, agricultural production and environmental conditions experienced by farmers as they participate in agriculture. There is a significant lack of high quality statistics that can be used to develop effective agricultural development programs. In today's world of online mapping software, accurate global positioning systems that allow instant, affordable location retrieval and growing mobile connectivity, what is needed is community- or even field-level information. Given the enormous geographic, economic and cultural diversity of even small countries, why settle for national statistics? The kind of information that is needed is at the field and farmer level, not the country level. This paper reviews ways geospatial and information technology can be used to generate farmer-specific information across all countries participating in agriculture.

Chlamydia trachomatis today: treatment, detection, immunogenetics and the need for a greater global understanding of chlamydial disease pathogenesis

PubMed Central

Dean, Deborah

2012-01-01

Summary Chlamydia trachomatis is an important human pathogen causing a myriad of severe and debilitating diseases. While antibiotics have been a mainstay of treatment, there is increasing evidence for potential drug resistance, re-infection and persistent infections that require a reevaluation of treatment strategies. A critical need to address these issues will be a rapid, sensitive and cost-effect diagnostic that can be used for global screening, treatment and test-of-cure of infected individuals instead of empiric therapy that not only drives drug resistance but is not cost effective. This type of diagnostic would allow clinicians and researchers to evaluate the true incidence and prevalence of chlamydial infections in both developed and developing countries. There is extremely limited data on chlamydial sexually transmitted diseases (STD) in many developing countries including those in Central and South America. In addition, advancing our understanding of chlamydial disease pathogenesis will required an evaluation of host genetic susceptibility to infection and sequelae. We provide preliminary data on rates of chlamydial STDs and host genetic factors that predispose to infection among adolescent pregnant and non-pregnant commercial sex worker populations residing in Quito, Ecuador. PMID:20011691

Nursing education in Poland - The past and new development perspectives.

PubMed

Ślusarska, Barbara; Zarzycka, Danuta; Dobrowolska, Beata; Marcinowicz, Ludmiła; Nowicki, Grzegorz

2018-05-25

Professional nursing education in Poland began in 1911 in Kraków. Since then, the nursing education system has continued to change. From the establishment of the first professional nursing school, Poland experienced partition, war and the German occupation, short-lived independence, the Soviet regime and the regaining of its freedom, as well as the development of democracy processes. All of these events impacted on nurses' education. The current state of nursing training is determined by the requirements of the Council of the European Communities. Today, the challenge for nursing education in Poland is the permanent process of the country's education system's adjustment to the European Higher Education Area to ensure the quality of education and to support the mobility of students and academic teachers. Additionally, new competencies pertaining to nurse prescribing, which have been in force in Poland since 2016, will cause new changes to the under- and postgraduate programmes of nursing education. The aim of this study is to present the development of nursing education in Poland in the context of socio-political changes in the country and from the perspective of current nursing challenges worldwide. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

[Environmental and health impacts of wood combustion to produce heat and power].

PubMed

Valerio, Federico

2012-01-01

Toxic chemicals such as benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, and ultra fine particles were found in the smoke produced by wood combustion. Emission factors confirm that, to produce the same energy amount, many more pollutants are emitted by wood than by natural gas. Biomass burning produces a relevant deterioration of air quality inside and outside houses, notably due to emissions of fine and ultra fine dust (PM10, PM2.5) according to reviewed studies. Important improvements in emission quality are obtained with the use of more efficient household heating systems, both in developed and in developing countries. Numerous studies have assessed the possible health effects produced by wood smoke, providing sufficient evidence that the indoor exposure to wood smoke, even in developed countries, can have adverse effects on human health. In 2010 IARC classified wood smoke as a possible human carcinogen. In Europe, electricity generation from biomass combustion is increasing (12% each year) thanks to incentives provided to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and use of fossil fuels.Today adequate studies to assess the environmental and health effects of emissions from power plants fuelled by solid biomasses are still needed.

The Japan of Today, 1982.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo (Japan).

Following an introduction which discusses the history and geography of Japan, this book focuses on topics related to this country's government, economy, social conditions, and cultural life. Topics related to government include: constitution and emperor; legislature; executive power; judiciary system; foreign relations; and defense. Topics related…

The Road to Paperless

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Villano, Matt

2006-01-01

More and more colleges and universities today have discovered electronic record-keeping and record-sharing, made possible by document imaging technology. Across the country, schools such as Monmouth University (New Jersey), Washington State University, the University of Idaho, and Towson University (Maryland) are embracing document imaging. Yet…

Perception of the Professional Knowledge of and Education on the Medical Technology Products among the Pharmacists in the Baltic and Nordic Countries-A Cross-Sectional Exploratory Study.

PubMed

Volmer, Daisy; Sokirskaja, Aleksandra; Laaksonen, Raisa; Vainio, Kirsti; Sandler, Niklas; Halvorsen, Kjell H; Kjome, Reidun Lisbet Skeide; Gizurarson, Sveinbjörn; Muceniece, Ruta; Maurina, Baiba; Dauksiene, Jurgita; Ruuben, Lilian; Björnsdottir, Ingunn; Ratassepp, Tagne; Heinämäki, Jyrki

2016-10-13

With increased development of medical technology (MT), new challenges emerge related to education and training of pharmacists and other healthcare specialists. Currently, only a few universities in the EU promote MT education and research. The aim of this study was to evaluate the current status, views on, and need for the education on MT for the pharmacy students and practicing pharmacists in the Baltic and Nordic countries. The representatives of higher education institutions and community/hospital pharmacists from six Baltic and Nordic countries participated in a qualitative cross-sectional exploratory internet-based study from May to October 2014. Approximately two-third of the respondents considered professional knowledge about MT products important for pharmacists, but half of them had never participated in any MT courses. More practicing pharmacists than representatives of academia underlined the need for increased MT education for pharmacy students in the future. The pharmacists in the Baltic and Nordic countries consider the professional knowledge about MT as pertinent in their education and work. The limited number and status of MT courses available today, however, is a major concern among both pharmacy students and practicing pharmacists in these countries. In the future, increasing education combining theory and practice about MT products would be one possible solution to overcome this challenge.

Population success.

PubMed

1982-01-01

"The commitment to population programs is now widespread," says Rafael Salas, Executive Director of the UNFPA, in its report "State of World Population." About 80% of the total population of the developing world live in countries which consider their fertility levels too high and would like them reduced. An important impetus came from the World Conference of 1974. The Plan of Action from the conference projected population growth rates in developing countries of 2.0% by 1985. Today it looks as though this projection will be realized. While in 1969, for example, only 26 developing countries had programs aimed at lowering or maintaining fertility levels, by 1980 there were 59. The International Population Conference, recently announced by the UN for 1984, will, it is hoped, help sustain that momentum. Cuba is the country which has shown the greatest decline in birth rate so far. The birth rate fell 47% between 1965-1970 and 1975-1980. Next came China with a 34% decline in the same period. After these came a group of countries--each with populations of over 10 million--with declines of between 15 and 25%: Chile, Colombia, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. Though birth rates have been dropping significantly the decline in mortality rates over recent years has been less than was hoped for. The 1974 conference set 74 years as the target for the world's average expectation of life, to be reached by the year 2000. But the UN now predicts that the developing countries will have only reached 63 or 64 years by then. High infant and child mortality rates, particularly in Africa, are among the major causes. The report identifies the status of women as an important determinant of family size. Evidence from the UNFPA-sponsored World Fertility Survey shows that in general the fertility of women decreases as their income increases. It also indicates that women who have been educated and who work outside the home are likely to have smaller families. Access to contraceptives is, of course, a major influence on fertility decline. According to UNFPA some of the Latin American countries have the highest contraceptive use among developing countries. The countries of Asia come next and contraceptives are least used in sub-Saharan Africa where birth rates of 45/1000 are still common. The money for population programs, says the report, has come largely from developing countries themselves. A survey of 15 countries showed them to have contributed 67% out of their own budgets--the rest having come from external aid. And in programs aided by UNFPA the local input has been even higher. During 1979-1981 the developing countries themselves budgeted $4.6 for each dollar budgeted by UNFPA. The report also highlights some of the emerging problems for the next 2 decades--and which will be high on the agenda of the 1984 conference. These include "uncontrolled urban growth" in developing countries as well as an important change in overall population age structure as more and more old people survive. Aging populations are of particular concern to the developed countries but, as the report points out, even countries like China--which has achieved a steep drop in fertility and mortality--will face the problems of an aging population by the year 2000. full text

Experience reveals ways to minimize failures in rod-pumped wells

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

Patterson, J.C.; Bucaram, S.M.; Curfew, J.V.

From the experience gained over the past 25 years, ARCO Oil and Gas Co. has developed recommendations to reduce equipment failure in sucker-rod pumping installations. These recommendations include equipment selection and design, operating procedures, and chemical treatment. Equipment failure and its attendant costs are extremely important in today's petroleum industry. Because rod pumping is the predominant means of artificial lift, minimizing equipment failure in rod pumped wells can have a significant impact on profitability. This compilation of recommendations comes from field locations throughout the US and other countries. The goal is to address and solve problems on a well-by-well basis.

Metal stocks and sustainability

PubMed Central

Gordon, R. B.; Bertram, M.; Graedel, T. E.

2006-01-01

The relative proportions of metal residing in ore in the lithosphere, in use in products providing services, and in waste deposits measure our progress from exclusive use of virgin ore toward full dependence on sustained use of recycled metal. In the U.S. at present, the copper contents of these three repositories are roughly equivalent, but metal in service continues to increase. Providing today's developed-country level of services for copper worldwide (as well as for zinc and, perhaps, platinum) would appear to require conversion of essentially all of the ore in the lithosphere to stock-in-use plus near-complete recycling of the metals from that point forward. PMID:16432205

History of veterinary medicine in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Part III. Rippling effects of the 1896 rinderpest outbreak.

PubMed

Busayi, Rodgers Mlambo

2006-01-01

This paper looks at the rippling effects of the first and last 1896 rinderpest outbreak that occurred in Zimbabwe. Following the devastating effects of this outbreak, the Department of Veterinary Services remains on full alert. We conclude that since there has been no outbreak of this pandemic, it is logical to assert that the veterinary services of this country are doing a sterling job, given that there are countries in Africa today where the disease is smoldering.

Management of Adult Education Organisations in Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nafukho, Fredrick Muyia; Wawire, Nelson H. W.; Lam, Penina Mungania

2011-01-01

Adult education is now considered a mainstream academic discipline in several African countries, and its importance in today's knowledge and "ideas" economies is growing steadily. It is provided by organisations such as public universities, training colleges, corporate universities and employers. The successful operation of educational…

Teacher Cooperatives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawkins, Beth

2009-01-01

Twenty years ago, when the late Albert Shanker endorsed the notion of innovative schools operating outside conventional district bureaucracies, his aim was to put teachers at the helm. Today there are nearly 80 teacher-governed charter schools around the country. Although most are legally constituted as worker cooperatives, they better resemble…

Lessons in Self-Made Success: Programs Teach Business, Entrepreneurship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenfeld, Stuart; Pages, Erik

2008-01-01

Everyone admires entrepreneurs, and every region aspires to become entrepreneurial. Whether community colleges should teach entrepreneurship today--or support entrepreneurs--is a non-issue. Colleges want students, graduates, faculty, and administrators to be entrepreneurial. Other countries marvel at, and work to emulate, America's entrepreneurial…

Globalization and American Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merriman, William; Nicoletti, Augustine

2008-01-01

Globalization is a potent force in today's world. The welfare of the United States is tied to the welfare of other countries by economics, the environment, politics, culture, information, and technology. This paper identifies the implications of globalization for education, presents applications of important aspects of globalization that teachers…

Learning from Metaphors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lundegård, Iann

2015-01-01

Today an increasing number of countries around the world have acquired almost the same metaphorical speech about teaching and learning. These theories grown in the Western world are largely produced within the framework of psychology and individualistic oriented educational philosophy and fits with the ever-expanding financial growth paradigm.…

Assisting developing countries toward food self-reliance.

PubMed

Herdt, R W

1998-03-03

Per capita food availability in the developing world has increased by 20% since the early 1960s, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, and today the world has twice as many people but 150 million fewer hungry people than in 1960. The world agricultural system has not done too bad a job over the past 35 years. It is likely that global agricultural production will continue to at least match growth in food demand over the next decade, assuming no major weather anomalies. Continued support of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research and programs involving U.S. universities is important to sharing knowledge about agriculture with colleagues in the developing world. This paper explores the reasons for providing agricultural development assistance, the benefits to the United States that come from doing so, and the special challenges facing the world over the next few decades.

Public perception of hazardousness caused by current trends of municipal solid waste management

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

Al-Khatib, Issam A., E-mail: ikhatib@birzeit.edu; Kontogianni, Stamatia; Abu Nabaa, Hendya

Highlights: • Contribution to the scientific literature by examining the relationship between concern for the environment and waste disposal in the frame of household waste treatment mechanism specifically in developing countries. • The awareness of the citizens satisfaction level and the local existing capacities in developing countries significantly contribute to decision making on MSW management sustainability in Palestine and other developing countries when applied. • Identification of the differences and similarities among DC resulting to failures or success in WM field. - Abstract: Municipal solid waste (MSW) piling up is becoming a serious problem in all developing countries (DC) asmore » a result of inequitable waste collection and treatment. Citizens’ collaboration is partly based on understanding their views and their active involvement in MSW planning; on the other hand the assessment of the perception of hazardousness related with MSW is considered rather important as well since the identification of the weak points of the applied MWM strategy is eased and the level of required training is determined. Researchers implemented a case study in the West Bank (WB) and Gaza Strip (GS) regions of Palestine, taking into consideration previous researches in other developing countries. They reached to safe and useful conclusions regarding the parameters which mean the greatest in the waste management field as far as DC are concerned. Lack of skilled manpower, irregular collection services, inadequate equipment used for waste collection, inadequate legal provisions, and resource constraints are additional factors that are confirmed to be challenging the waste management scenarios in all DCs today. The research takes those factors under consideration but focuses on the educational gap and the results revealed interesting trends a significant relationship between respondent’s educational attainment and their awareness of hazardous waste (hazard perception); the results will indicate the measure taking required to avoid accidents occurred in those regions (burns from toxics, cuts from sharps, etc). National policy and legislation development based on the research outcomes will ensure equitable and accessible services are in place in order to move towards a healthier environment. Specialized health education and training programs on national scale are also needed to enhance awareness on hazardous waste.« less

A historical and socioeconomic analysis of occupational safety and health in India.

PubMed

Vilanilam, J V

1980-01-01

Workers in poor countries of the so-called Third World are more likely to be affected by the dangers of high technology than their counterparts in wealthier countries. Owing to their lack of education, most workers in the "developing" world are unaware of the hazards of their occupations. Moreover, their general backwardness in sanitation and nutrition and climatic proneness of their geographic region to epidemics cause diseases contracted from the work environment to be aggravated. occupational diseases are often misconstrued as diseases resulting from the general environment. Since unemployment in underdeveloped countries is of a very high order, workers are prepared to accept any job, irrespective of the dangers involved. Labor is cheap and easily replaceable, so employers see no need for improving occupational safety and health. Labor unions are mostly controlled by full-time politicians who consider health a political issue, especially when their party controls the country's government. The seriousness of all these factors is heightened by the existing socioeconomic order in poor countries, in which national medievalism and multinational modernism play a crucial role. In order to understand the prevailing socioeconomic order, one has to analyze the social structures of poor countries in the context of today's world economic structure. India is taken as an example of a "developing" country where all the above-mentioned factors and many others are in operation: backwardness of the worker; poor nutrition; lack of concern for public health; proneness to epidemics; and indifference on the part of employers, politicians, and unions toward occupational health; high unemployment, control of the local economy by multinational corporations; and control of the mass media by feudalistic vested interests. This article attempts to analyze the occupational health and safety issue in India from a historical perspective, and stresses the vital need of structural changes in various fields so that workers can have a safe and healthy working environment.

Dementia in Latin America: Epidemiological Evidence and Implications for Public Policy

PubMed Central

Custodio, Nilton; Wheelock, Ana; Thumala, Daniela; Slachevsky, Andrea

2017-01-01

Population aging is among the most important global transformations. Today, 12% of the world population is of age 60 and over and by the middle of this century this segment will represent 21.5%. The increase in population of those aged 80 and over, also referred to as the “oldest old” or the “very elderly”, will be even more pronounced, going from 1.7% of the population to 4.5% within the same period. Compared to European and North American countries, Latin America (LA) is experiencing this unprecedented demographic change at a significantly faster rate. Due to demographic and health transitions, the number of people with dementia will rise from 7.8 million in 2013 to over 27 million by 2050. Nowadays, the global prevalence of dementia in LA has reached 7.1%, with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) being the most frequent type. This level is similar to those found in developed countries; however, the dementia rate is twice as high as that of the 65–69 years age group in developed countries. In addition, the prevalence and incidence of dementia is higher among illiterate people. Mortality rates due to dementia have risen considerably. The burden and costs of the disease are high and must be covered by patients’ families. The prevention of dementia and the development of long-term care policies and plans for people with dementia in LA, which take into account regional differences and similarities, should be urgent priorities. PMID:28751861

Trajectories of development in Third World societies.

PubMed

Lenski, G

1985-01-01

A test of ecological-evolutionary theory shows that historic differences in the modes of production of Third World countries have important consequences for these countries today. Those with an agrarian heritage are more highly developed and enjoy higher rates of economic growth than those with a horticultural heritage. Horticultural societies are less developed than agrarian ones. Horticultural societies are ones in which the basic farming implements are the hoe and the digging stick, tools less powerful than the plow, which is the basic farming tool of agrarian societies. The authors examine 30 socioeconomic indicators for 77 Third World countries, of which 32 were classified as industrializing horticultural and 45 as industrializing agrarian. Industrializing agrarian societies have been much more successful in controlling their population growth than have industrializing horticultural societies. The data suggest that the 2 types of societies not only started out differently, but are still diverging, in both rates of population growth and in gross national product per capita. Most of the sample of horticultural societies were recently colonies, and many of the agrarian ones were not. Almost all of the horticultural societies are in sub-Saharan Africa, which gives rise to the question of whether these findings only reflect geographic factors. However, Papua-New Guinea and Haiti also show the same pattern of results. It may be that such material factors as climate, soil, and disease express themselves in different modes of production, showing that the past is not dead history but living material that influences the life of societies in later centuries.

Discrimination in the workplace, reported by people with major depressive disorder: a cross-sectional study in 35 countries

PubMed Central

Brouwers, E P M; Mathijssen, J; Van Bortel, T; Knifton, L; Wahlbeck, K; Van Audenhove, C; Kadri, N; Chang, Ch; Goud, B R; Ballester, D; Tófoli, LF; Bello, R; Jorge-Monteiro, M F; Zäske, H; Milaćić, I; Uçok, A; Bonetto, C; Lasalvia, A; Thornicroft, G; Van Weeghel, J

2016-01-01

Objective Whereas employment has been shown to be beneficial for people with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) across different cultures, employers’ attitudes have been shown to be negative towards workers with MDD. This may form an important barrier to work participation. Today, little is known about how stigma and discrimination affect work participation of workers with MDD, especially from their own perspective. We aimed to assess, in a working age population including respondents with MDD from 35 countries: (1) if people with MDD anticipate and experience discrimination when trying to find or keep paid employment; (2) if participants in high, middle and lower developed countries differ in these respects; and (3) if discrimination experiences are related to actual employment status (ie, having a paid job or not). Method Participants in this cross-sectional study (N=834) had a diagnosis of MDD in the previous 12 months. They were interviewed using the Discrimination and Stigma Scale (DISC-12). Analysis of variance and generalised linear mixed models were used to analyse the data. Results Overall, 62.5% had anticipated and/or experienced discrimination in the work setting. In very high developed countries, almost 60% of respondents had stopped themselves from applying for work, education or training because of anticipated discrimination. Having experienced workplace discrimination was independently related to unemployment. Conclusions Across different countries and cultures, people with MDD very frequently reported discrimination in the work setting. Effective interventions are needed to enhance work participation in people with MDD, focusing simultaneously on decreasing stigma in the work environment and on decreasing self-discrimination by empowering workers with MDD. PMID:26908523

Discrimination in the workplace, reported by people with major depressive disorder: a cross-sectional study in 35 countries.

PubMed

Brouwers, E P M; Mathijssen, J; Van Bortel, T; Knifton, L; Wahlbeck, K; Van Audenhove, C; Kadri, N; Chang, Ch; Goud, B R; Ballester, D; Tófoli, L F; Bello, R; Jorge-Monteiro, M F; Zäske, H; Milaćić, I; Uçok, A; Bonetto, C; Lasalvia, A; Thornicroft, G; Van Weeghel, J

2016-02-23

Whereas employment has been shown to be beneficial for people with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) across different cultures, employers' attitudes have been shown to be negative towards workers with MDD. This may form an important barrier to work participation. Today, little is known about how stigma and discrimination affect work participation of workers with MDD, especially from their own perspective. We aimed to assess, in a working age population including respondents with MDD from 35 countries: (1) if people with MDD anticipate and experience discrimination when trying to find or keep paid employment; (2) if participants in high, middle and lower developed countries differ in these respects; and (3) if discrimination experiences are related to actual employment status (ie, having a paid job or not). Participants in this cross-sectional study (N=834) had a diagnosis of MDD in the previous 12 months. They were interviewed using the Discrimination and Stigma Scale (DISC-12). Analysis of variance and generalised linear mixed models were used to analyse the data. Overall, 62.5% had anticipated and/or experienced discrimination in the work setting. In very high developed countries, almost 60% of respondents had stopped themselves from applying for work, education or training because of anticipated discrimination. Having experienced workplace discrimination was independently related to unemployment. Across different countries and cultures, people with MDD very frequently reported discrimination in the work setting. Effective interventions are needed to enhance work participation in people with MDD, focusing simultaneously on decreasing stigma in the work environment and on decreasing self-discrimination by empowering workers with MDD. 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/

Clinton administration forging population-foreign policy links.

PubMed

De Sherbinin, A

1994-12-01

In the US, the Clinton administration has renewed the link between global population and national security issues. These so-called "soft security issues" receive attention from the Under-Secretary of State for Global Affairs, Tim Wirth, and the senior director of the Global Environmental Affairs branch of the National Security Council, Eileen Claussen. Wirth and Claussen draft the US response to soft security issues such as environmental security, refugee and migration movements, political instability, and religious and ethnic conflict as well as the other nonmilitary threats of illegal drug trafficking, terrorism, and international organized crime. Population was first considered a foreign policy concern in the 1960s. By 1965, President Johnson decided that the US would provide family planning supplies and technical assistance to any country which asked for help. The initial justification for assuming a leading role in developing innovative population strategies for less developed countries was a humanitarian desire to forward economic development, the self-interest of maintaining access to resources, and concern that rapid growth produced more communists. Today the US remains concerned about resource access and economic development and is also wary of spill-over environmental effects, economic migration, diminished US trade opportunities, political asylum seekers and refugees, and increasing demand for US peacekeepers. It is also believed that rapid population growth leads to political destabilization. Critics of these views blame the development difficulties of less developed countries on poor governing decisions (inadequate institutions, trade barriers, or indifference). Women's reproductive rights advocates fear that using security as a rationale for population assistance could lead to restrictions on women's rights to choose the number and spacing of births. Despite such objections, the belief that population growth is an underlying problem in imploding states like Haiti, Rwanda, and Somalia has turned the attention of US policy-makers to these soft security issues.

Planetariums, theatres of the Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Acker, Agnès

2011-06-01

The history of this magic instrument is complex, and the teaching goal was never forgotten. Technological developments of the planetarium enable it now to treat the major topics of astronomy and astrophysics. But by simplifying too much or badly, one is likely to bring confusion in the spirits. The development of the planetarium is a continual challenge, as long as the scientific culture is not integrated perfectly in the cultural landscape. In several countries, planetariums link their knowledge and their know-how, for better resisting to economic difficulties, and better speaking about astronomy to their public. In particular the great project ALMA will be celebrated in a show for the International Year of Astronomy. Today's planetarium works as a theater for all sciences, and can issue a passport to the various scales of the universe

Emerging Trends in International Law Concerning Global Infectious Disease Control1

PubMed Central

2003-01-01

International cooperation has become critical in controlling infectious diseases. In this article, I examine emerging trends in international law concerning global infectious disease control. The role of international law in horizontal and vertical governance responses to infectious disease control is conceptualized; the historical development of international law regarding infectious diseases is described; and important shifts in how states, international institutions, and nonstate organizations use international law in the context of infectious disease control today are analyzed. The growing importance of international trade law and the development of global governance mechanisms, most prominently in connection with increasing access to drugs and other medicines in unindustrialized countries, are emphasized. Traditional international legal approaches to infectious disease control—embodied in the International Health Regulations—may be moribund. PMID:12643821

White-tailed deer in the southern forest habitat

Treesearch

Lowell K. Halls

1969-01-01

White-tailed deer were once nearly exterminated in the South. In the past several decades, however, improvements in game management and changes in land use patterns have enabled populations to recover. The deer today are more numerous than at any time since white men settled the country

76 FR 11931 - Women's History Month, 2011

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-03

... the course of our Nation's history. Today, women have reached heights their mothers and grandmothers... entrepreneurs and business leaders, and serve our country at the highest levels of government and our Armed..., we commemorate the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, a global celebration of the...

Erotic Pedagogy's Noble Lie.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goicoechea, David L.

1991-01-01

According to author Allan Bloom, problems in today's university stem from lack of belief in the university's vocation. The paper evaluates his Socratic solution which states the country must recover a belief in and response to the university's primary calling (the promotion of discussion and speculation in a Socratic manner). (SM)

Korean Affairs Report.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-10-14

secretary, of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, received a gift from Paola Ortiz, daughter of the manager of the Ecuadoran Voluntad ...received today Paola Ortiz, daughter of manager of the Ecuadoran " Voluntad " Publishing House Humberto, and her entour- age, on a visit to our country

The early history of dialysis for chronic renal failure in the United States: a view from Seattle.

PubMed

Blagg, Christopher R

2007-03-01

Forty-seven years have passed since the first patient started treatment for chronic renal failure by repeated hemodialysis (HD) at the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle in March 1960, and some 34 years have elapsed since the United States Congress passed legislation creating the Medicare End-Stage Renal Disease Program. Many nephrologists practicing today are unfamiliar with the history of the clinical and political developments that occurred during the 13 years between these 2 dates and that led to dialysis as we know it today in this country. This review briefly describes these events. Clinical developments following introduction of the Teflon shunt by Belding Scribner and Wayne Quinton included empirical observations leading to better understanding of HD and patient management, out-of-hospital dialysis by nurses, bioethical discussions of the problems of patient selection, home HD, improved dialysis technology, intermittent peritoneal dialysis, including automated equipment for home use and an effective peritoneal access catheter, the arteriovenous fistula for more reliable blood access, dialyzer reuse, the first for-profit dialysis units, understanding of many of the complications of treatment, the first considerations of dialysis adequacy, early development of other technologies, and more frequent HD. Political developments began less than 3 years after the first Seattle patient began dialysis, but it took another 10 years of intermittent activities before Congress acted on legislation to provide almost universal Medicare entitlement to patients with chronic kidney disease requiring dialysis or kidney transplantation.

The roles and values of wild foods in agricultural systems

PubMed Central

Bharucha, Zareen; Pretty, Jules

2010-01-01

Almost every ecosystem has been amended so that plants and animals can be used as food, fibre, fodder, medicines, traps and weapons. Historically, wild plants and animals were sole dietary components for hunter–gatherer and forager cultures. Today, they remain key to many agricultural communities. The mean use of wild foods by agricultural and forager communities in 22 countries of Asia and Africa (36 studies) is 90–100 species per location. Aggregate country estimates can reach 300–800 species (e.g. India, Ethiopia, Kenya). The mean use of wild species is 120 per community for indigenous communities in both industrialized and developing countries. Many of these wild foods are actively managed, suggesting there is a false dichotomy around ideas of the agricultural and the wild: hunter–gatherers and foragers farm and manage their environments, and cultivators use many wild plants and animals. Yet, provision of and access to these sources of food may be declining as natural habitats come under increasing pressure from development, conservation-exclusions and agricultural expansion. Despite their value, wild foods are excluded from official statistics on economic values of natural resources. It is clear that wild plants and animals continue to form a significant proportion of the global food basket, and while a variety of social and ecological drivers are acting to reduce wild food use, their importance may be set to grow as pressures on agricultural productivity increase. PMID:20713393

Nurses on the move: a global overview.

PubMed

Kingma, Mireille

2007-06-01

To look at nurse migration flows in the light of national nursing workforce imbalances, examine factors that encourage or inhibit nurse mobility, and explore the potential benefits of circular migration. The number of international migrants has doubled since 1970 and nurses are increasingly part of the migratory stream. Critical nursing shortages in industrialized countries are generating a demand that is fueling energetic international recruitment campaigns. Structural adjustments in the developing countries have created severe workforce imbalances and shortfalls often coexist with large numbers of unemployed health professionals. A nurse's motivation to migrate is multifactorial, not limited to financial incentives, and barriers exist that discourage or slow the migration process. The migration flows vary in direction and magnitude over time, responding to socioeconomic factors present in source and destination countries. The dearth of data on which to develop international health human resource policy remains. There is growing recognition, however, that migration will continue and that temporary migration will be a focus of attention in the years to come. Today's search for labor is a highly organized global hunt for talent that includes nurses. International migration is a symptom of the larger systemic problems that make nurses leave their jobs. Nurse mobility becomes a major issue only in a context of migrant exploitation or nursing shortage. Injecting migrant nurses into dysfunctional health systems-ones that are not capable of attracting and retaining staff domestically-will not solve the nursing shortage.

Les questions de migrations internationales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Samman, Mouna Liliane

1993-03-01

International migrations have growing implications for both countries of origin and countries of destination. In the latter, the presence of foreigners and of members of their families today creates problems of integration, causes argument and brings mounting xenophobia. Paralleling political, economic and social measures taken by public authorities to respond to these difficulties, education needs to assist in defusing the resulting social tensions by preparing the minds of learners and helping to develop new attitudes. In particular, when educational programmes address questions of international migration, these should be treated in the framework of historical evolution so that their real significance and their true temporal and spatial dimensions become apparent. It is also important that the growing interdependence between countries should be made plain, that national history should be placed in its international context, and that the true consequences of these developments should be made clear. In this context, learners need to be acquainted with Human Rights, thereby stressing universal moral values and the role of the individual. Lastly, questions relating to international migration are usually presented in the media in a selective and partial manner, and the young people who take in this information often accept the hasty judgments which are made of situations as proven facts. This is why all teaching about international migration needs to be considered or reconsidered in the light of the complementary or competing actions of the media.

Measures which host countries and countries of origin could adopt to promote the return of migrants.

PubMed

Debart, M H

1986-03-01

The immigration wave in the 1960s and 1970s brought scores of migrants to Europe. Most intended to work a few years in a foreign country and return to their homeland; however, poor economies in their own countries discouraged their return. At the same time, jobs became scarcer in their host countries. Several European countries today are resorting to measures designed to promote the return of migrants to their countries of origin. This paper outlines the two major options open to governments in their reintegration efforts. Option 1 requires instituting a definite reintegration policy. Public aid to promote reintegration may be provided. For example, the French give aid contingent upon the return of foreign workers in the labor force to the country of origin and not just upon their departure from the host country. Classical methods pay conpensation to the foreign worker; the problem then is to determine at what point to limit the funds. It must be decided whether or not unemployment benefits should be capitalized and whether or not to reimburse social security and old age contributions. It is also desirable for foreign workers to have access to a specialized organization which is able to advise them on setting up a project or business on their return; ideally, this organization should finance the project. Perhaps the best solution is to enlist participation of the governments of the countries of origin to make job openings known to their nationals desiring to return. Option 2 requires that reintegration be introduced into other economic and social programs. Returning foreign workers would be included as a factor in overall policy planning. Vocational training for return migrants could be proposed to job seekers as well as to dismissed workers. A portion of money used to finance housing projects could be earmarked for construction or reservation of housing in the country of origin. Bilateral vocational training programs can be addressed to nationals who want to return home. A portion of bilateral public development aid may also be used in support of reintegration projects. Finally, it should be possible to propose small development projects in the country of origin for nationals desiring to return.

Phone traffic as a measurement of agricultural events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martín, Samuel; Borondo, Javier; Morales, Alfredo; Losada, Juan Carlos; Tarquis, Ana M.; Benito, Rosa Maria

2015-04-01

Inspired by empirical studies of networked systems such as the Internet, social networks, and biological networks, researchers have in recent years developed a variety of techniques and models to help us understand or predict the behaviour of these systems (1). However, it has been recently when global food system has been seen as a complex web of production, processing, storage and transportation opening new challenges in their analysis. Agricultural activities in developing countries remain as important today as in the 1950s implying seasonal workers mobilization. The proliferation of mobile phones (MPs) offers an unprecedented tool to analyze human activity mapping. We would like to mention that in developed countries, the number of MP subscribers has surpassed the total population, with a penetration rate now reaching 121%, whereas in developing countries, it is as high as 90% and continuing to rise (2). As an example, we have analyzed the impact that agricultural activities, such as the growing of groundnut, have on Senegal. To this end we have analyzed the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series of the whole of Senegal and spotted the regions where groundnut is grown to identify the time period when this crop growth. By analyzing phone calls at each region of the country we found that a significant fraction of antennas exhibit two well defined peaks of activity corresponding with the begging and end of the growing season. Antennas located on regions identified as growing regions present this pattern. However, other antennas, located in non growing regions, such as Dakar, also present the two peaks pattern pointing out the synchronization between growing regions and key points in cities that emerges from the agricultural activity. References 1. Marta C. González, César A. Hidalgo and Albert-László Barabási (2008) Understanding individual human mobility patterns. Nature 453, 779-78. 2. International Telecommunication Union (2014) World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-2014): Final Report. (ITU, Dubai, United Arab Emirates).

Load shift potential of electric vehicles in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babrowski, Sonja; Heinrichs, Heidi; Jochem, Patrick; Fichtner, Wolf

2014-06-01

Many governments highly encourage electric mobility today, aiming at a high market penetration. This development would bring forth an impact on the energy system, which strongly depends on the driving and charging behavior of the users. While an uncontrolled immediate charging might strain the local grid and/or higher peak loads, there are benefits to be gained by a controlled charging. We examine six European mobility studies in order to display the effects of controlled and uncontrolled unidirectional charging. Taking into account country-specific driving patterns, we generate for each country a charging load curve corresponding to uncontrolled charging and consider the corresponding parking time at charging facilities in order to identify load shift potentials. The main results are that besides the charging power of the vehicles, the possibility to charge at the work place has a significant influence on the uncontrolled charging curve. Neither national nor regional differences are as significant. When charging is only possible at home, the vehicle availability at charging facilities during the day for all countries is at least 24%. With the additional possibility to charge at work, at least 45% are constantly available. Accordingly, we identified a big potential for load shifting through controlled charging.

Shifting subjects of health-care: placing "medical tourism" in the context of Malaysian domestic health-care reform.

PubMed

Ormond, Meghann

2011-01-01

"Medical tourism" has frequently been held to unsettle naturalised relationships between the state and its citizenry. Yet in casting "medical tourism" as either an outside "innovation" or "invasion," scholars have often ignored the role that the neoliberal retrenchment of social welfare structures has played in shaping the domestic health-care systems of the "developing" countries recognised as international medical travel destinations. While there is little doubt that "medical tourism" impacts destinations' health-care systems, it remains essential to contextualise them. This paper offers a reading of the emergence of "medical tourism" from within the context of ongoing health-care privatisation reform in one of today's most prominent destinations: Malaysia. It argues that "medical tourism" to Malaysia has been mobilised politically both to advance domestic health-care reform and to cast off the country's "underdeveloped" image not only among foreign patient-consumers but also among its own nationals, who are themselves increasingly envisioned by the Malaysian state as prospective health-care consumers.

Debate on the Chernobyl disaster: on the causes of Chernobyl overestimation.

PubMed

Jargin, Sergei V

2012-01-01

After the Chernobyl accident, many publications appeared that overestimated its medical consequences. Some of them are discussed in this article. Among the motives for the overestimation were anti-nuclear sentiments, widespread among some adherents of the Green movement; however, their attitude has not been wrong: nuclear facilities should have been prevented from spreading to overpopulated countries governed by unstable regimes and regions where conflicts and terrorism cannot be excluded. The Chernobyl accident has hindered worldwide development of atomic industry. Today, there are no alternatives to nuclear power: nonrenewable fossil fuels will become more and more expensive, contributing to affluence in the oil-producing countries and poverty in the rest of the world. Worldwide introduction of nuclear energy will become possible only after a concentration of authority within an efficient international executive. This will enable construction of nuclear power plants in optimally suitable places, considering all sociopolitical, geographic, geologic, and other preconditions. In this way, accidents such as that in Japan in 2011 will be prevented.

More attention should be paid to making the U. S. less vulnerable to foreign oil price and supply decisions

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

Staats, E.B.

1978-01-03

A report is presented in which GAO recommends that the secretaries of State and Energy present to the Congress by July 1, 1978, a plan for improving security of U.S. imported oil supplies at reasonable prices by U.S. policy initiatives directed toward changes in access terms, incentives for production in other than OPEC countries, and bilateral and multilateral approaches to OPEC and other nations. Ultimately, this country, as well as the rest of the world, will become independent of oil. This is necessarily true because oil is a finite commodity and will run out someday. Accordingly, national attention ought tomore » be directed to truly responsible concerns about how to achieve an orderly transition to an economy based upon alternative resources of energy. Today's policies must buy time and provide the petroleum supplies needed while other energy sources are developed and put in operation to replace them.« less

[Hepatitis E: a Third World's hepatitis found in Belgium].

PubMed

Seivert, M; Belaiche, J; Delwaide, J

2008-09-01

Hepatitis E virus is the second cause of acute viral hepatitis of oral-fecal origin in the world. This virus has a vast distribution throughout the world and manifests itself either in epidemic or endemic-sporadic form in many developing countries. Usually, the cases of HEV infection in industrialized countries are observed after a history of travel in an endemic area. However, an increasing number of cases have been attributed to a HEV zoonotic form transmitted by swine. HEV infection can lead to deadly fulminant hepatic failure in 1-4% in the common population, but the mortality incidence reaches 20% in case of third trimester pregnant women infection. The diagnosis of HEV infection can be made using serological tests but today, RT-PCR is considered as the gold standard test. Unfortunately, this technique is not widely available in Belgium yet. There is no treatment for HEV infection, only prophylactic measures as hygiene and sewage treatment can stop epidemics. Recently, a new vaccine, still in research phase, has showed promising outcomes.

Aspects of Morality and Law Enforcement in Today's Science in Post-Soviet Countries.

PubMed

Kliestikova, Jana; Kliestik, Tomas; Misankova, Maria; Corejova, Tatiana; Krizanova, Anna

2017-10-20

Many reports independently confirm that even more than a quarter of a century after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the results of research and development in those countries that were under its influence are insufficient in comparison to the rest of the world. Given that human intelligence is not distributed unevenly and that science is a powerful driving force for the future of an economy, there is a hidden problem, which, if it can be resolved, may release great economic potential. The first generation of researchers from Armenia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Slovakia and Ukraine, who successfully completed their education after the political revolution, were surveyed. The survey revealed many similarities with regards to ethics, but that there is mounting evidence that the main cause of the current situation is the state of the local legal systems. The conclusion was drawn that a conceptual change in staffing within the relevant legal systems is required to release potential and stimulate wealth creation.

Globalisation and global health governance: implications for public health.

PubMed

Kruk, Margaret E

2012-01-01

Globalisation is a defining economic and social trend of the past several decades. Globalisation affects health directly and indirectly and creates economic and health disparities within and across countries. The political response to address these disparities, exemplified by the Millennium Development Goals, has put pressure on the global community to redress massive inequities in health and other determinants of human capability across countries. This, in turn, has accelerated a transformation in the architecture of global health governance. The entrance of new actors, such as private foundations and multi-stakeholder initiatives, contributed to a doubling of funds for global health between 2000 and 2010. Today the governance of public health is in flux, with diminished leadership from multilateral institutions, such as the WHO, and poor coherence in policy and programming that undermines the potential for sustainable health gains. These trends pose new challenges and opportunities for global public health, which is centrally concerned with identifying and addressing threats to the health of vulnerable populations worldwide.

History and epidemiology of anabolic androgens in athletes and non-athletes.

PubMed

Kanayama, Gen; Pope, Harrison G

2018-03-15

The use of androgens, frequently referred to as anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), has grown into a worldwide substance abuse problem over the last several decades. Testosterone was isolated in the 1930s, and numerous synthetic androgens were quickly developed thereafter. Athletes soon discovered the dramatic anabolic effects of these hormones, and AAS spread rapidly through elite athletics and bodybuilding from the 1950s through the 1970s. However it was not until the 1980s that widespread AAS use emerged from the elite athletic world and into the general population. Today, the great majority of AAS users are not competitive athletes, but instead are typically young to middle-aged men who use these drugs primarily for personal appearance. AAS abuse has now become particularly prevalent in regions such as Scandinavia, the United States, Brazil, and British Commonwealth countries, but remains rare in countries such as China, Korea, and Japan - a pattern that reflects cultural differences in attitudes towards male muscularity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Bayesian Approach for Evaluation of Determinants of Health System Efficiency Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis and Beta Regression.

PubMed

Şenel, Talat; Cengiz, Mehmet Ali

2016-01-01

In today's world, Public expenditures on health are one of the most important issues for governments. These increased expenditures are putting pressure on public budgets. Therefore, health policy makers have focused on the performance of their health systems and many countries have introduced reforms to improve the performance of their health systems. This study investigates the most important determinants of healthcare efficiency for OECD countries using second stage approach for Bayesian Stochastic Frontier Analysis (BSFA). There are two steps in this study. First we measure 29 OECD countries' healthcare efficiency by BSFA using the data from the OECD Health Database. At second stage, we expose the multiple relationships between the healthcare efficiency and characteristics of healthcare systems across OECD countries using Bayesian beta regression.

The Road to a Green District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gutter, Rachel; Knupp, Emily

2011-01-01

Green design, green construction, and green operations for new buildings are rapidly becoming the norm for school districts throughout the country. Today, increased availability of green products and technology coupled with cost savings that are realized through an integrated design process mean that schools like Arabia Mountain High School in…

The Road to a Green District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gutter, Rachel; Knupp, Emily

2010-01-01

Green design, green construction and green operations for new buildings are rapidly becoming the norm for school districts throughout the country. Today, increased availability of green products and technology coupled with cost savings that are realized through an integrated design process mean that schools like Arabia Mountain High School can be…

Intercultural Training with Films

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roell, Christine

2010-01-01

Films are a great medium to use not only to practice English, but also to facilitate intercultural learning. Today English is a global language spoken by people from many countries and cultural backgrounds. Since culture greatly impacts communication, it is helpful for teachers to introduce lessons and activities that reveal how different…

Secondary School Counseling. Research Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Karen

2005-01-01

"Secondary school counselors are professional educators with a mental health perspective who understand and respond to the challenges presented by today's diverse student population" ("Why secondary school counselors?"). As times have changed, so has the role of the school counselor. In the early part of the 20th century when the country was…

Estimating Availability of Middle Level Skilled Manpower

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khanale, Prakash; Vaingankar, Anil

2006-01-01

The economic reform policies are being introduced in India in phases since 1990. It demands for competent middle level skilled manpower in country. By keeping this in mind, National Council for Education, Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi, India introduces a revised policy in 1992 and promotes vocational education. Today, several…

Japon: A la rencontre des Mondes (Japan: Worlds Meeting).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anan, Fumiyo; And Others

1993-01-01

In a program linking French, U.S., and Japanese secondary schools through telecommunications, Japanese students explained to their foreign peers, in French, the cultural conditions in their country at the time of Christopher Columbus and today. The real-time cultural contact and students' discovery of their communicative ability were program…

Latin America Today: An Atlas of Reproducible Pages. Revised Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

World Eagle, Inc., Wellesley, MA.

This document contains reproducible maps, charts and graphs of Latin America for use by teachers and students. The maps are divided into five categories (1) the land; (2) peoples, countries, cities, and governments; (3) the national economies, product, trade, agriculture, and resources; (4) energy, education, employment, illicit drugs, consumer…

The Greek Key: Getting Acquainted in Athens

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Augeri, Hunter; Efstathiou, Eirene; Michou, Maria; Sanders, Jan Motyka

2011-01-01

Greece conjures up images of idyllic island landscapes, turquoise seas and venerable mythic deeds set among majestic monuments. These notions are, moreover, often associated with a history, religious culture and language that are ancient. Tourist posters and national sentiment aside, today the Hellenic Republic is a country that is as much…

Raise the Bar on Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Englard, Lisa

2010-01-01

In a 1981 diagnostic test, the Ministry of Education in Singapore found its country facing a challenge: Only 46 percent of students in grades 2-4 could solve word problems that were presented without such key words as "altogether" or "left." Yet today, according to results from the Trends in International Mathematics and…

76 FR 55205 - National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, 2011

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-06

... childhood obesity in our country has tripled, and today a third of American children are overweight or obese... initiative incorporates childhood obesity prevention in its goals for increasing the health of all Americans... Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, 2011 #0; #0; #0; Presidential Documents #0; #0; #0;#0;Federal Register...

Cotton: a sustainable raw material for value-added nonwoven textiles

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Sustainability of the materials and services we use today and protection of our environment are very strong initiatives, worldwide. Cotton is an annually renewable cash crop that is critically important to national economies of many countries, including the United States which is the 3rd largest pr...

College Student Concerns: Perceptions of Student Affairs Practitioners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds, Amy L.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to increase awareness of the perceptions of student affairs professionals regarding the most frequent and challenging concerns facing college students today. Using the Delphi method, 159 entry-level and mid-level student affairs administrators from institutions across the country were surveyed about their perceptions…

The Singapore Armed Forces: Are Citizen-Soldiers Still Relevant Today?

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-14

Defence and Strategic Studies." Shangri - La Hotel , Singapore: IDSS, January 13, 2005. MINDEF. "News by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence... Introduction ............................................................................................................................... ! 1.1 Background of... INTRODUCTION Conscription will remain relevant for Singapore even as global trends indicate more countries are gravitating towards an All-Volunteer

Vietnam's Half-Hearted Welcome Home

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Overland, Martha Ann

2008-01-01

Twenty years ago, Vietnam's closed-door policy meant its students were restricted to the former Soviet-bloc countries. Today they study all over the world--about 6,000 are in the United States alone. In many cases, their tuition and living expenses are paid by foreign governments and private charitable organizations. Fulbright, the Ford…

Associations between urban landscape characteristics and Body Mass Index

EPA Science Inventory

Obesity is one of the major public-health concerns in many countries today. In the United States, more than 70% of the U.S. adults aged 20 and over are overweight or obese. The prevalence of obesity has been grown rapidly during the last three decades. Obesity prevalence is deter...

Lead poisoning: An overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gendel, Neil

1993-01-01

A problem that should be of great concern to all of us is the lead poisoning of children. First, I would like to present a short overview concerning the reasons everyone should care about lead poisoning, then discuss the history of lead poisoning, what is happening today across the country, and the future.

15th Annual Freight and Logistics Symposium : the future is front and center : the impacts of economic change on freight transportation.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-12-01

The U.S. transportation system stands at the center of virtually all economic : activity in the country today. Effects of a lengthy global recession are radically and : rapidly reshaping transportation priorities and needs. Now more than ever, freigh...

Science from the field to your shopping cart

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Today the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the in-house research division of USDA, has 2,100 scientists and 6,000 support personnel in over 90 locations throughout the US. The research done by ARS affects everyone in the country every day of the year. ARS research has gone into practically every...

Interface between Global Education and Multicultural Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Randall, Ruth E.; And Others

Today global education and multicultural education are vital as all countries in the world face complex issues in economic, political, and social interdependence. This paper examines the interface between global education and multicultural education as a potential answer of how to prepare students for effective participation in a culturally…

Mobile Learning: An Analysis of Student Preferences and Perceptions Surrounding Podcasting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCombs, Shawn William

2010-01-01

Today's learner arrives on our campuses with certain expectations, among them are technology innovation and availability, and the use of modern and efficient technology solutions to communicate and coexist. Meanwhile, institutions of higher learning across the country struggle with increased operating costs, decreasing legislative funding, and…

Technology transfer for ecosystem management

Treesearch

Tim O' Keefe

1995-01-01

In many parts of our country today, forest health and sustainability are important management questions. Some individuals and groups have observed that during the past century the emphasis in American forest management on commodity production has, in many cases, contributed to a unhealthy forest landscape. For example, the forestland in eastern Oregon has considerably...

75 FR 17025 - Cesar Chavez Day, 2010

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-04-05

..., organizing to demand fair pay, and sometimes risking their lives. Some, like Cesar Estrada Chavez, made it the cause of their lives. Today, on what would have been his 83rd birthday, we celebrate Cesar's... hope and a spirit of possibility in people around the world. His movement strengthened our country, and...

Practicing Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Shawna; Sternod, Brandon M.

2011-01-01

As a result of continuous global immigration to the United States, several microcultures coexist within the country. Today's classroom should provide an interface where individuals from different cultural backgrounds have the potential for sharing a rich place of learning--a place where the teacher embraces and celebrates individual differences,…

Teacher Education Futures: Today's Trends, Tomorrow's Expectations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aubusson, Peter; Schuck, Sandy

2013-01-01

Education is facing significant political and contextual challenges that will impact its future. This study employs a Delphi methodology to investigate teacher educators' views of current trends and their consequences for teacher education futures. Interviews were conducted with a sample of expert teacher educators drawn from eight countries. This…

Studying Three-Phase Supply in School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singhal, Amit Kumar; Arun, P.

2009-01-01

The power distributions of nearly all major countries have accepted three-phase distribution as a standard. With increasing power requirements of instrumentation today even a small physics laboratory requires a three-phase supply. While physics students are given an introduction to this in passing, no experimental work is done with three-phase…

Primary English Teacher Education in Europe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Enever, Janet

2014-01-01

While substantial attention has been given to the introduction of English from the very start of schooling in many European countries today, there remains an insufficient supply of motivated, well-prepared teachers available and willing to meet this demand. This article reviews current mechanisms in Europe aimed at supporting the provision of…

Emergy Accounting: Past, Present and Future.

EPA Science Inventory

One of the greatest problems facing all of the countries of the world today is how to put a fair value on the contributions that the environment makes to maintain the economic and social well being of their people. This is not an easy task, since fair value can only be determine...

TALIS 2013 Technical Report: Teaching and Learning International Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

OECD Publishing, 2013

2013-01-01

Effective teaching and teachers are key to producing high-performing students worldwide. So how can countries prepare teachers to face the diverse challenges in today's schools? The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) helps answer this question. TALIS asks teachers and schools about their working conditions and the learning…

Old, Black and Poor: Reports from Five Countries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chappell, Neena, Ed.; And Others

1995-01-01

This special issue provides international comparisons of black seniors in South Africa, Ghana, Jamaica, Bermuda, and the United States, focusing on policy and program issues. The challenge is to ensure true equality of opportunity so that black seniors in the future will not be in the disadvantaged position of today. (Author)

Sustainable solutions for solid waste management in Southeast Asian countries.

PubMed

Ngoc, Uyen Nguyen; Schnitzer, Hans

2009-06-01

Human activities generate waste and the amounts tend to increase as the demand for quality of life increases. Today's rate in the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEANs) is alarming, posing a challenge to governments regarding environmental pollution in the recent years. The expectation is that eventually waste treatment and waste prevention approaches will develop towards sustainable waste management solutions. This expectation is for instance reflected in the term 'zero emission systems'. The concept of zero emissions can be applied successfully with today's technical possibilities in the agro-based processing industry. First, the state-of-the-art of waste management in Southeast Asian countries will be outlined in this paper, followed by waste generation rates, sources, and composition, as well as future trends of waste. Further on, solutions for solid waste management will be reviewed in the discussions of sustainable waste management. The paper emphasizes the concept of waste prevention through utilization of all wastes as process inputs, leading to the possibility of creating an ecosystem in a loop of materials. Also, a case study, focusing on the citrus processing industry, is displayed to illustrate the application of the aggregated material input-output model in a widespread processing industry in ASEAN. The model can be shown as a closed cluster, which permits an identification of opportunities for reducing environmental impacts at the process level in the food processing industry. Throughout the discussion in this paper, the utilization of renewable energy and economic aspects are considered to adapt to environmental and economic issues and the aim of eco-efficiency. Additionally, the opportunities and constraints of waste management will be discussed.

Childlessness patterns in Taiwan.

PubMed

Poston Dl

1988-06-01

Taiwan is a newly developed and industrialized area, and along with Korea, Brazil, Argentina, and a few other countries, belongs in a special class of recently industrialized areas. Taiwan has been undergoing large-scale modernization since the 1950s when the Nationalist government 1st began to implement land reform programs and today is 1 of the showcase of newly developed areas of the world. Demographic transition theory shows that fertility is negatively associated with modernization. During the past 3 decades, fertility in Taiwan has followed this pattern in a dramatic manner. Studies of childlessness conducted in Western countries have shown also that as the modernizing influences continue, fertility declines, and childlessness increases as it becomes more and more voluntary. Subregions with the highest levels of modernization and the lowest fertility rates should therefore be characterized by the highest levels of childlessness, particularly among younger women, and vice versa. Given the levels of socioeconomic and demographic development in Taiwan and its subregions circa 1980, as well as its variability among the hsiens and major cities, the author would expect to find higher levels of childlessness in the more developed localities, and lower levels in the less developed subregions. This hypothesis is tested with data from the 1980 Census of Population and Housing: General Report, Taiwan--Fukien Area (Republic of China, 1982) and the 1980 Taiwan--Fukien Demographic Fact Book (Republic of China, 1980).

The impact of economic recession on maternal and infant mortality: lessons from history.

PubMed

Ensor, Tim; Cooper, Stephanie; Davidson, Lisa; Fitzmaurice, Ann; Graham, Wendy J

2010-11-24

The effect of the recent world recession on population health has featured heavily in recent international meetings. Maternal health is a particular concern given that many countries were already falling short of their MDG targets for 2015. We utilise 20th century time series data from 14 high and middle income countries to investigate associations between previous economic recession and boom periods on maternal and infant outcomes (1936 to 2005). A first difference logarithmic model is used to investigate the association between short run fluctuations in GDP per capita (individual incomes) and changes in health outcomes. Separate models are estimated for four separate time periods. The results suggest a modest but significant association between maternal and infant mortality and economic growth for early periods (1936 to 1965) but not more recent periods. Individual country data display markedly different patterns of response to economic changes. Japan and Canada were vulnerable to economic shocks in the post war period. In contrast, mortality rates in countries such as the UK and Italy and particularly the US appear little affected by economic fluctuations. The data presented suggest that recessions do have a negative association with maternal and infant outcomes particularly in earlier stages of a country's development although the effects vary widely across different systems. Almost all of the 20 least wealthy countries have suffered a reduction of 10% or more in GDP per capita in at least one of the last five decades. The challenge for today's policy makers is the design and implementation of mechanisms that protect vulnerable populations from the effects of fluctuating national income.

Facing the PA team growth problem in space programs: The Hermes approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernede, G.

1991-08-01

The increasing need for product assurance (PA) in space programs makes finding skilled and trained engineers willing to work in the PA field a top level difficulty. Few engineers are available and exchanging them from one project to another is not a solution. No reservoir of talent exists for the time being in Europe. Educational efforts have started in several countries to have product assurance techniques become part of basic engineering knowledge. These efforts will bring strong improvement compared to today's situation but not in time for programs such as Hermes. Peculiar solutions must be developed. Approaches used to solve this problem within the Hermes program are outlined.

Practical Use Of It In Traceability In Food Value Chains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ratcliff, Jon; Boddington, Michael

Traceability is today considered an essential requirement for the food value chain due to the need to provide consumers with accurate information in the event of food safety recalls, to provide assurance with regard the source and production systems for food products and in certain countries to comply with government legislation. Within an individual business traceability can be quite simple to implement, however, in a global trading market, traceability of the entire supply chain, including logistics is extremely complex. For this reason IT solutions such as TraceTracker have been developed which not only provide electronic solutions for complete traceability but also allow products to be tracked at any point in the supply chain.

Have the poor always been less likely to migrate? Evidence from inheritance practices during the age of mass migration☆

PubMed Central

Abramitzky, Ran; Boustan, Leah Platt; Eriksson, Katherine

2015-01-01

Using novel data on 50,000 Norwegian men, we study the effect of wealth on the probability of internal or international migration during the Age of Mass Migration (1850–1913), a time when the US maintained an open border to European immigrants. We do so by exploiting variation in parental wealth and in expected inheritance by birth order, gender composition of siblings, and region. We find that wealth discouraged migration in this era, suggesting that the poor could be more likely to move if migration restrictions were lifted today. We discuss the implications of these historical findings to developing countries. PMID:26609192

Impact of shale gas development on regional water quality.

PubMed

Vidic, R D; Brantley, S L; Vandenbossche, J M; Yoxtheimer, D; Abad, J D

2013-05-17

Unconventional natural gas resources offer an opportunity to access a relatively clean fossil fuel that could potentially lead to energy independence for some countries. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing make the extraction of tightly bound natural gas from shale formations economically feasible. These technologies are not free from environmental risks, however, especially those related to regional water quality, such as gas migration, contaminant transport through induced and natural fractures, wastewater discharge, and accidental spills. We review the current understanding of environmental issues associated with unconventional gas extraction. Improved understanding of the fate and transport of contaminants of concern and increased long-term monitoring and data dissemination will help manage these water-quality risks today and in the future.

The global tobacco disease pandemic: nature, causes, and cures.

PubMed

Warner, K E; Mackay, J

2006-01-01

Tobacco use kills 5 million citizens globally every year. The World Health Organization (WHO) projects that the number of deaths will double just 15 years from now. Tobacco will then constitute the leading cause of death in the developing world, as it already is in developed countries today. This paper describes the nature and extent of the tobacco pandemic, characteristics of the global tobacco industry, and national and international efforts to diminish the toll of tobacco. The review includes examination of the economic and political strategies employed by the multinational tobacco industry to increase cigarette consumption, as well as the policies that governments have adopted to combat smoking. The most promising development is the new Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, WHO's first-ever international health treaty. While aggressive tobacco control policies can and will diminish the toll of tobacco, the prospects for the foreseeable future appear grim.

Quantifying risk of death and disability associated with raised blood pressure.

PubMed

Elliott, P; Nichols, R; Chee, D

1999-01-01

Raised blood pressure is one of the most important underlying risk factors for morbidity and mortality in the world today, ranking alongside tobacco in estimates of the worldwide attributable burden of mortality. It is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease and the major risk factor for stroke. Taken together, the cardiovascular diseases are estimated to account for some 28% of all deaths in the world. Already many more of such deaths are occurring in the developing than the developed world, and this burden of disease is set to worsen as a result of demographic changes in the poorer countries, together with adoption of Western lifestyle. The development of unfavourable blood pressure patterns in populations is a key factor underlying this worldwide epidemic. Both primary prevention (for example through improved diet) and secondary prevention (through drug treatment and non-pharmacologic approaches) are needed.

Procurement of prescriber support systems.

PubMed

Kajbjer, Karin

2008-01-01

Supporting the process of medication selection and electronic management of prescriptions is a high priority issue in the eHealth strategies of many countries today. Procuring such systems can be quite difficult, especially if one should encourage suppliers from different countries to participate. The new ISO Technical Report 22,790 provides a new approach to facilitate this process by giving an international basis for specifying the functional characteristics desired. The paper describes the content of the report and discusses the procurement process in the light of the European public procurement directive and patient safety.

Negotiating the labyrinth of modernity's promise a paradigm analysis of energy poverty in peri-urban Kumasi, Ghana

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Odarno, Lily Ameley

Energy poverty in developing countries has been conventionally attributed to a lack of access to sufficient, sustainable and modern forms of energy (ESMAP 2001; Modi et al. 2006). Per this definition, Sub--Saharan Africa is the most energy poor region in the world today. In line with this, efforts at addressing energy poverty in the region have concentrated on the expansion of access to modern energy sources, particularly electricity. In spite of the implementation of diverse energy development interventions, access to modern energy services remains limited. That energy poverty remains one of the most pressing challenges in Sub--Saharan Africa today in spite of the many decades of energy development necessitates a candid and thorough re--evaluation of the questions that have been traditionally asked about this issue and the solutions that have been offered in response to it. Based on theoretical analyses and empirical studies in peri--urban Kumasi, Ghana, this study attempts to offer some of the much needed re--evaluations. Using Kuhn's paradigm approach as a conceptual tool, this dissertation identifies peri--urban energy poverty as a paradigm--scale conflict in the modern arrangement of energy--development relations. By emphasizing the importance of context and political economy in understanding energy poverty, the study proposes strategies for an alternative paradigm in which energy--development relations are fundamentally redefined; one which enlists appropriate knowledge, technologies, and institutions in addressing the needs of the energy poor in ways which promote environmental values, social equity and sustainable livelihoods.

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

The potential of genetically enhanced plants to address food insecurity.

PubMed

Christou, Paul; Twyman, Richard M

2004-06-01

Food insecurity is one of the most important social issues faced today, with 840 million individuals enduring chronic hunger and three billion individuals suffering from nutrient deficiencies. Most of these individuals are poverty stricken and live in developing countries. Strategies to address food insecurity must aim to increase agricultural productivity in the developing world in order to tackle poverty, and must provide long-term improvements in crop yields to keep up with demand as the world's population grows. Genetically enhanced plants provide one route to sustainable higher yields, either by increasing the intrinsic yield capability of crop plants or by protecting them from biotic and abiotic constraints. The present paper discusses a range of transgenic approaches that could increase agricultural productivity if applied on a large scale, including the introduction of genes that confer resistance to pests and diseases, or tolerance of harsh environments, and genes that help to lift the intrinsic yield capacity by increasing metabolic flux towards storage carbohydrates, proteins and oils. The paper also explores how the nutritional value of plants can be improved by genetic engineering. Transgenic plants, as a component of integrated strategies to relieve poverty and deliver sustainable agriculture to subsistence farmers in developing countries, could have a significant impact on food security now and in the future.

[Origin of animal experimentation legislation in the 19th century].

PubMed

Pocard, M

1999-01-01

The first legislation in the world, designed to protect animals used in research, was passed in England in 1876, and is still in force today. It is one of the strictest in Europe. At the same period, France had no such law, and was the country conducting the greatest amount of animal experimentation. Comparing, these two countries, in the middle of the 19th century, can account for this difference. The most important difference seems to be related to the theological question: are animals endowed with a soul? Saint Augustine, claimed, in the 4th century, perhaps because of an experiment with the centipede, that animals do not have a soul. In the 17th century, René Descartes, using a different philosophical system, reached a similar conclusion, in France. On the other hand, under the influence of Charles Darwin, England rejected the Roman Catholic conclusion, about the soul of animals. The industrial revolution, occurring earlier in England than in France, also changed the society, developing urban areas, where people were cut off from rural life and changing human relationships with animals. The industrial revolution enabled the development of the press, giving impetus to public opinion. These facts, combined with a caution of science, which was more developed in England than in France, brought about the first important "anti-doctor" campaign.

Remote sensing applied in natural hazards mitigation - experiences from the international UNESCO/IUGS GARS-Program 1984 - 2002

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bannert, D.

Worldwide resources of arable land, water, groundwater, forest and expanding human habitat are under increasing pressure almost anywhere. Especially the non- industrialised countries with their rapidly increasing population are facing severe problems from natural catastrophes such as landslides, volcanic and seismic hazards, soil degradation and shortage of water or flooding. Geo-environmental research can help to identify the causes for these events, define the rehabilitation and can lead to early warning systems. Remote sensing adds considerable knowledge by providing a wide variety of sensors applied form airborne and space platforms, the data of which, once analysed, can provide completely new observations on natural risk areas. The UNESCO/IUGS sponsored GARS Program since 1984 is conducting- joint research with institutions in industrialised and developing countries. As of today, more than 40 institutes and individuals worldwide have joined the GARS- Program. Results of their research are among others contributions toLandslide assessment qVolcanic risk qCoastal hazards qDesertification processes q Space organisations and financing institutions serving developing nations are requested to help to deploy new sensors to monitor geo-dynamic processes, providing free and direct data reception in all parts of the world in order to allow national institutes to develop their own early warning capabilities.

Utilizing Health Information Technology to Support Universal Healthcare Delivery: Experience of a National Healthcare System.

PubMed

Syed-Abdul, Shabbir; Hsu, Min-Huei; Iqbal, Usman; Scholl, Jeremiah; Huang, Chih-Wei; Nguyen, Phung Anh; Lee, Peisan; García-Romero, Maria Teresa; Li, Yu-Chuan Jack; Jian, Wen-Shan

2015-09-01

Recent discussions have focused on using health information technology (HIT) to support goals related to universal healthcare delivery. These discussions have generally not reflected on the experience of countries with a large amount of experience using HIT to support universal healthcare on a national level. HIT was compared globally by using data from the Ministry of the Interior, Republic of China (Taiwan). Taiwan has been providing universal healthcare since 1995 and began to strategically implement HIT on a national level at that time. Today the national-level HIT system is more extensive in Taiwan than in many other countries and is used to aid administration, clinical care, and public health. The experience of Taiwan thus can provide an illustration of how HIT can be used to support universal healthcare delivery. In this article we present an overview of some key historical developments and successes in the adoption of HIT in Taiwan over a 17-year period, as well as some more recent developments. We use this experience to offer some strategic perspectives on how it can aid in the adoption of large-scale HIT systems and on how HIT can be used to support universal healthcare delivery.

The deterioration of the food situation in the Third World and the capitalist system.

PubMed

Feder, E

1981-01-01

Hunger and malnutrition are today associated with the capitalist system. The evidence points to a further deterioration of the food situation in the Third World in the foreseeable future, as a result of massive capital and technology transfers from the rich capitalist countries to the underdeveloped agricultures operated by trans-national concerns or private investors, with the active support of development assistance agencies such as the World Bank. Contrary to the superficial predictions of the World Bank, for example, poverty is bound to increase and the purchasing power of the masses must decline. Particular attention must be paid to the supply of staple foods and the proletariat. This is threatened by a variety of factors, attributable to the operation of the capitalist system. Among them are the senseless waste of Third World resources caused by the foreign investors' insatiable thirst for the quick repatriation of super-profits and the increasing orientation of Third World agricultures toward high-value or export crops (which are usually the same), an orientation which is imposed upon them by the industrial countries' agricultural development strategies. Even self-sufficiency programs for more staple foods, such as the ill-reputed Green Revolution, predictably cannot be of long duration.

Deterrence and National Security in the Face of an Amorphous Threat

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

Werne, R

2001-01-05

The National Security threats that we face today and, in turn, the National Security . requirements, are more diverse and complex than they were during the Cold-War from 1945-1990. During that period, and bolstered by the experiences of World Wars I and II, US National Security policy was focused on the stabilization of post WW II country boundaries and containment of the Soviet block and China. The result was the bipolar world in which the nuclear and conventional forces of the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies ensured a measure of political stability through a military stalematemore » of world wide proportions. The practical result was that large scale changes in national borders were unlikely, but internal conflict within countries, and local conflicts between neighboring countries could still occur, albeit with participation from one or both of the Superpower camps. US National Security Policy was designed primarily for stabilization of the bipolar world on the military front and for competition with the Soviet Union and China on economic and political fronts. The collapse of the Soviet Union changed the global picture. The bipolar world and its military stalemate appear to be gone for the moment and the threat which was the foundation for US National Security policy has changed significantly. Some will argue that China has intentions of replacing the Soviet Union as a military superpower and thus recreate the bipolar world. Furthermore, Russia still has significant nuclear forces and has recently talked of lowering the nuclear threshold in an apparent attempt to make up for its weakened conventional forces. Clearly the threat of large scale nuclear war is much reduced, but not gone entirely. Having acknowledged the Chinese and Russian threats, what does the global picture look like today? The boundaries of most countries are secure but there are significant frictions, that have, or could lead, to armed conflict. Most of these are today's manifestations of long standing problems with no easy solution in sight. It can be argued that most local conflicts will be of no direct threat to US interests. However there are situations where local conflict can have significant international impact if left unchecked, For example localized conflict in the Middle East could affect oil supplies world wide, open conflict between China and Taiwan could draw in Japan and the United States, India and Pakistan have armed conflict over Kashmir threatening a nuclear exchange, and North Korea continues to be a concern with its long range missile and nuclear and CBW, development programs. There is also the problem of state sponsored or sanctioned terrorism against the US and its allies. As with Korea, a number of countries have been identified as having had, or still having active chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs along with strategic missile programs that would enable them to deliver warheads to the US mainland or similarly threaten US allies. Furthermore the problem of the clandestine delivery of a weapon of mass destruction designed to target US civilian population centers is very real. Such threats designed to deter US policy initiatives abroad, have been termed ''asymmetric'' warfare and appear to be an emerging capability in a number of countries.« less

Perception of the Professional Knowledge of and Education on the Medical Technology Products among the Pharmacists in the Baltic and Nordic Countries—A Cross-Sectional Exploratory Study

PubMed Central

Volmer, Daisy; Sokirskaja, Aleksandra; Laaksonen, Raisa; Vainio, Kirsti; Sandler, Niklas; Halvorsen, Kjell H.; Kjome, Reidun Lisbet Skeide; Gizurarson, Sveinbjörn; Muceniece, Ruta; Maurina, Baiba; Dauksiene, Jurgita; Ruuben, Lilian; Björnsdottir, Ingunn; Ratassepp, Tagne; Heinämäki, Jyrki

2016-01-01

With increased development of medical technology (MT), new challenges emerge related to education and training of pharmacists and other healthcare specialists. Currently, only a few universities in the EU promote MT education and research. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the current status, views on, and need for the education on MT for the pharmacy students and practicing pharmacists in the Baltic and Nordic countries. Methods: The representatives of higher education institutions and community/hospital pharmacists from six Baltic and Nordic countries participated in a qualitative cross-sectional exploratory internet-based study from May to October 2014. Results: Approximately two-third of the respondents considered professional knowledge about MT products important for pharmacists, but half of them had never participated in any MT courses. More practicing pharmacists than representatives of academia underlined the need for increased MT education for pharmacy students in the future. Conclusions: The pharmacists in the Baltic and Nordic countries consider the professional knowledge about MT as pertinent in their education and work. The limited number and status of MT courses available today, however, is a major concern among both pharmacy students and practicing pharmacists in these countries. In the future, increasing education combining theory and practice about MT products would be one possible solution to overcome this challenge. PMID:28970402

Sustainable development and next generation's health: a long-term perspective about the consequences of today's activities for food safety.

PubMed

Frazzoli, Chiara; Petrini, Carlo; Mantovani, Alberto

2009-01-01

Development is defined sustainable when it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Pivoting on social, environmental and economic aspects of food chain sustainability, this paper presents the concept of sustainable food safety based on the prevention of risks and burden of poor health for generations to come. Under this respect, the assessment of long-term, transgenerational risks is still hampered by serious scientific uncertainties. Critical issues to the development of a sustainable food safety framework may include: endocrine disrupters as emerging contaminants that specifically target developing organisms; toxicological risks assessment in Countries at the turning point of development; translating knowledge into toxicity indexes to support risk management approaches, such as hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP); the interplay between chemical hazards and social determinants. Efforts towards the comprehensive knowledge and management of key factors of sustainable food safety appear critical to the effectiveness of the overall sustainability policies.

AIDS and population "control".

PubMed

Piel, G

1994-02-01

Many people believe that the AIDS pandemic will end the population explosion, especially in Africa, where population growth is very high and poverty reigns. Africans make up 10 million of all 15 million HIV- infected persons worldwide. Yet, the proposition that AIDS will sole population explosion does not stand up to reason. About 200 million people in Africa will be HIV infected by 2010, but the loss of 200 million people would not slow population growth. The 14th century's Black Death killed more than 50% of the European population, but by 1750 Europe had reached the population size it would have reached without the Black Death. The 200 million people who died violent deaths between the start and end of the two World Wars did not stop world population growth from peaking in 1970 at about 2%. When Malthus made his prediction that human population would crash, the industrial revolution had already helped production outrun population growth. Today all industrial countries are either at or near zero population growth and have completed the demographic transition (from near zero growth in 1600 with high births and death rates and a 25-year life expectancy, to near zero growth in 1990s at low death and birth rates with a 75-year life expectancy). Mass education, sanitation, primary medicine, and the green revolution have already reduced death rates and increased life expectancy in developing countries. Thus, they have entered the first phase of the demographic transition. Some developing countries are in the second phase; birth rate decline For example, in India and China, fertility has fallen from 6 to 4 in India and is at 2.3 in China. The AIDS pandemic is a diversion of physical and human resources from helping developing countries pass through the demographic transition more quickly to achieve sustainable development. This delay is likely to effect a larger maximum population. The industrial revolution has shifted the key to stopping population growth the people dying to people living.

Colombia: reasons to create a national space agency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arenales-Vergara, Oscar A.

2004-01-01

All modern nations are concerned with their independence, whether political, economic, or intellectual. That is why we support countries which are in the process of development becoming actively involved in the international space scene. Indeed, having limitations in industrial and technological exchange, we feel excluded today from key fields which hold promise for our future. The present moment is one of serious crises in Colombia's history. This paper thus proposes to demonstrate how the nation could, in an atmosphere free from fratricidal conflicts, exploit its space capabilities. We do not limit our focus to the scientific field, but also consider the social, economic and cultural aspects. The results of this research delineate how Colombia could start a new optimistic phase of its development, joining the international space programs within the framework of agreements among the regional governments in Latin America.

Wealth, intelligence, politics and global fertility differentials.

PubMed

Meisenberg, Gerhard

2009-07-01

Demographic trends in today's world are dominated by large fertility differentials between nations, with 'less developed' nations having higher fertility than the more advanced nations. The present study investigates whether these fertility differences are related primarily to indicators of economic development, the intellectual level of the population, or political modernity in the form of liberal democracy. Results obtained with multiple regression, path models and latent variable models are compared. Both log-transformed GDP and measures of intelligence independently reduce fertility across all methods, whereas the effects of liberal democracy are weak and inconsistent. At present rates of fertility and mortality and in the absence of changes within countries, the average IQ of the young world population would decline by 1.34 points per decade and the average per capita income would decline by 0.79% per year.

Short-Stay Residential Experience: Residential Work by Secondary School Pupils.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schools Council, London (England).

Most secondary schools in Great Britain today have implemented residential courses. They have built, bought, or adapted premises ranging from derelict colleges to country houses for use as residential centers where students may spend from a few days to several weeks studying, working, or learning to use leisure time. This publication examines…

Identity Issues: Expatriate Professors Teaching and Researching in Qatar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romanowski, Michael H.; Nasser, Ramzi

2015-01-01

Today, academics are more transient, working outside their home countries, than at any other time in the history of academics especially in the Arab World were there is great demand for faculty members educated in Western' culture and academia. However, many of these professors face considerable social, professional and academic challenges in…

The View from the Veranda: Understanding Today's Colonial Student

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ogden, Anthony

2008-01-01

Like the steady stream of colonial families of decades past traveling to their country's dominions abroad, contemporary education abroad students are similar passengers on a powerful steamship bound for lands of new sounds, sights and wonders. Although their studies may be challenging and demanding, students are exhilarated with thoughts of new…

Learning Mathematics with Graphing Calculator: A Study of Students' Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reznichenko, Nataliya

2007-01-01

Assumptions: Today, when technology has taken its place in almost all classrooms in schools and colleges across the country, there is a need to know how technology "influences the mathematics that is taught and enhances students' learning" (NCTM, 2000, p. 24). Rationale: This presentation describes qualitative study which purpose was to…

A New Age for Algebra

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oishi, Lindsay

2011-01-01

"Solve for x." While many people first encountered this enigmatic instruction in high school, the last 20 years have seen a strong push to get students to take algebra in eighth grade or even before. Today, concerns about the economy highlight a familiar worry: American eighth-graders trailed their peers in five Asian countries on the…

The Challenges of Online Courses for the Instructor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Pearl

2013-01-01

Universities across the country are steadily increasing their use of online courses. Society's demand for lifelong learning will encourage the advancement of distance learning. Research tells us that today the average person changes careers every ten years. In addition, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that about 10% of workers change jobs…

An Historical Analysis of Character Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watz, Michael

2011-01-01

What is termed "character education" in today's world has been called many things throughout the history of education in this country. Character education has been both a formal and informal part of schools. Much of character education in the United States can be closely tied in its roots to the education of character in Europe, which…

Preparing Students for the Future--21st Century Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Velez, Alejandra

2012-01-01

The 21st century economy is driven by information and communication technologies (ICT). This change has made innovation, manufacturing and production of products and services, rather than manufacturing of material goods, the driving force of economies of leading countries (Wagner, 2008). Due to this shift, today's 21st century society and…

Capital Improvements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woods, Bob

2012-01-01

The two campuses that make up the West Valley-Mission Community College District (WVMCCD) in northern California's Santa Clara County share a history typical of many community colleges across the country. Its buildings were constructed in the 1960s and '70s, and like many public structures of that vintage, today they bear the ravages of time--in…

Curbing International Piracy of Intellectual Property. Policy Options for a Major Exporting Country.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffman, Gary M.; Marcou, George T.

This report of the International Piracy Project addresses three major topics: (1) The Costs and Complications of Piracy; (2) Rights Enforcement Today; and (3) Policy Options for Curbing Piracy. The first section discusses piracy of copyrights, patents, and other intellectual property, including economic losses and damage to the finances and…

Cocaine Trafficking Through West Africa: The Hybridized Illicit Network as an Emerging Transnational Threat

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-02-17

a country whose primary sources of legitimate income are cashew nuts and fish, the GDP was only about $900 million US dollars in 2008. 43 When the...of fish or cashew export businesses. Today, the Colombians live extravagantly in lavish villas with armed security guards. Local police and judges

Small Country, Big Business? New Zealand as Education Exporter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martens, Kerstin; Starke, Peter

2008-01-01

This paper discusses New Zealand's role in the global market for tertiary education. The internationalisation and liberalisation of education markets is progressing rapidly in today's globalising world, as reflected by the incorporation of education as a service into the GATS framework. Through the example of New Zealand as a case study for the…

Preparing Today for a Sustainable Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peoples, Robert

2009-01-01

Business leaders and their academic trainers must embrace the concept of sustainability to prepare future leaders with the understanding and tools necessary to make key decisions based on more than "just the numbers." The economic competitiveness of this country and the survival of our species require a deeper understanding of nature if we are to…

Do Economic Rewards Work?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wallace, Brian D.

2009-01-01

The love of learning--that intrinsic desire to gain knowledge and insight into new subjects--was once its own reward. That was altered decades ago when parents started using the proverbial "stick and carrot" to motivate their children to do well in school, or even just show up. Today, educators across the country have taken hold of this…

Multicultural Education in Social Studies Textbooks in South Korea and the United States: A Comparative Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Younghan

2013-01-01

Today, globalization has increased cross-border migration in many countries. The public school classroom in the United States has been getting more diverse, linguistically, culturally, racially, and ethnically. Classrooms in South Korea are also becoming linguistically, culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse because of the fast growth of…

An Impact Evaluation of the Resource Access Projects, 1981-1982.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Empson, Judith V.; And Others

In 1976, the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF) designed the Resource Access Project (RAP) to strengthen services that Head Start programs provide to handicapped preschool children. Today, 15 RAPs are sponsored by public and private agencies and universities throughout the country. The ACYF-funded network of projects links…

Natural Gas Transportation - Infrastructure Issues and Operational Trends

EIA Publications

2001-01-01

This report examines how well the current national natural gas pipeline network has been able to handle today's market demand for natural gas. In addition, it identifies those areas of the country where pipeline utilization is continuing to grow rapidly and where new pipeline capacity is needed or is planned over the next several years.

Facing the IT Talent Squeeze in a Networked Economy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joyce, Peter J.

2008-01-01

Ten years ago, Cisco began working with schools on a pilot initiative called the Cisco Networking Academy. Today, the Networking Academy program operates in more than 160 countries, comprising a network of more than 7,600 schools that teach the information technology skills essential in a global economy. Cisco Networking Academy has partnered with…

Higher Education and the American Workforce

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKiernan, Holiday Hart

2012-01-01

Without college-level learning, American workers simply won't have the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in today's global economy. The country's long-term economic recovery will rely on getting a greater number of high-quality degrees into the hands of a larger, more diverse pool of graduates. College and university governing boards that…

A Comparative Perspective of Knowledge Management via Social Media: India and China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Michelle; Rao, Pramila

2015-01-01

Purpose: This research paper aims to showcase current knowledge management (KM) practices via social media that is being adopted by organizations in India and China. India and China are considered leading economies in today's global market. Any understanding of management practices in these countries will help practitioners in doing businesses in…

Educating Young People in Multicultural Educational Environment of Higher Education Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yusupova, Gulnaz F.; Podgorecki, Józef; Markova, Nadezhda G.

2015-01-01

The issue is relevant today because there is the formation of culture of international relations between students in a multicultural educational environment. The article is aimed at multicultural education, which can minimize culture shock, increase and diversify the experience of cross-cultural communication between countries and peoples who are…

America Can Teach Asia a Lot about Science, Technology, and Math

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bharucha, Jamshed

2008-01-01

There is a sense of urgency in America today, reminiscent of the "space race" rhetoric of the cold-war era, that Americans must get their act together in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education because the Asians are coming. Many people believe that higher-education institutions in countries like China and…

Performance-Based Scholarships: What Have We Learned? Interim Findings from the PBS Demonstration. Policy Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patel, Reshma; Richburg-Hayes, Lashawn; de la Campa, Elijah; Rudd, Timothy

2013-01-01

In today's economy, employers' demand for an educated workforce is steadily rising. Policymakers, education leaders, and communities across the country recognize the need to improve college attendance and success, but are constrained by the current budgetary environment. Meanwhile students themselves face mounting college costs, and financial aid…

The Two Cultures Debate Today.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Ralph A.

1978-01-01

Discusses the "two cultures debate," initiated in 1959, which emphasized the moral obligation of rich countries to help poor ones, and the need to reform education in order to provide people with a common culture that included scientific literacy. Article examines reactions to the theory in 1959, directions the debate took, and status of the…

Education or Reputation? A Look at America's Top-Ranked Liberal Arts Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poliakoff, Michael; Alacbay, Armand

2014-01-01

ACTA [American Council of Trustees and Alumni] today released a report that examines the country's most prestigious liberal arts colleges. Despite endowments soaring as high as $1.8 billion, nearly all institutions increased tuition during the Great Recession to finance bloated administrative spending, with many college presidents enjoying…

Digital Booktalk: Digital Media for Reluctant Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gunter, Glenda; Kenny, Robert

2008-01-01

New learning and communications paradigms of today's learners are extending the definition of literacy and directly affecting how reading and writing skills are acquired (Leu, 2000). Mirroring an ever-expanding definition of literacy, new college and K-12 curricular programs that redefine digital media are popping up all over the country. Story is…

The Fourth World: A Challenge for Today and Tomorrow.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Edwin W.

The author reviews the history of international concerns regarding disabled persons, and suggests that a prime reason for society's discrimination and rejection of the disabled is fear. He describes the emphasis in the United States on rights and independence of disabled people and asserts that each country must build upon its own traditions,…

The Impact of a Student Response System on Academic Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunham, Victoria K.

2011-01-01

Today, the importance of learning mathematics and reading by students in our schools has been underscored by the introduction of various high-stakes testing regimens in all states across the country. The requirements mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) necessitated a response to intervention that introduced many difficult challenges…

Laboratory tests to assess optimal agricultural residue traits for an abrasive weed control system

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

One of the biggest challenges to organic agricultural production and herbicide resistant crops in industrialized countries today is the non-chemical control of weed plants. Studies of new tools and methods for weed control have been motivated by an increased consumer demand for organic produce and c...

Exploring Indiana's Private Education Sector. School Survey Series

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Catt, Andrew D.

2014-01-01

Indiana is at the national forefront on private school choice. With the broadest eligibility guidelines among the country's 22 other school voucher programs, Indiana's Choice Scholarship Program has seen enrollment more than double each year since being enacted in 2011. Today, when compared with voucher programs in 12 other states, Indiana has the…

Interactions of arsenate and arsenite with nanoparticles of zerovalent iron under anaerobic conditions (California)

EPA Science Inventory

Arsenic is a known carcinogen for humans. Even low levels of exposure for an extended period of time can cause cancer and sores internally and externally. Arsenic is found in wells and groundwater all over the world, and it is a huge health risk in many countries today. Previous...

78 FR 75207 - National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 2013

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-10

... honor the men and women who selflessly sacrificed for our country, and we show our enduring gratitude to... always do-- stronger than ever before. We also celebrate those who served and sacrificed on the home... strongest economy in history. Today, with solemn pride and reverence, let us remember those who fought and...

Analysing a "Neoliberal Moment" in English Higher Education Today

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canaan, Joyce E.

2010-01-01

English higher education, like other parts of the public sector and higher education in other countries, is currently undergoing considerable change as it is being restructured as if it were a market in which universities, departments and academics compete against one another. This restructuring is producing new processes of subjectivity that…

Reading the Big Picture: A Visual Literacy Curriculum for Today

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silverman, Karyn N.; Piedmont, Joy

2016-01-01

In schools around the country, students are increasingly asked to create visual representations of ideas and information. Slideshows, infographics, and websites have become nearly as common as text documents. Years are spent teaching students grammar and paragraph construction so that they can become strong written communicators, but rarely is the…

A Model for Competency Assessment of the Faculty in Islamic Azad University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mashinchi, Aliasghar; Hashemi, Seyed Ahmad; Khani, Kamran Mohammad

2017-01-01

Today country success in economic, social, political, cultural tendencies etc. … is approved to be the hostages and pawns of coherent and dynamic didactic system. The education and didactic programs for qualification improvement and dynamism need to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluation and scrutiny. Current study started with the goal of…

Picturing Equality: Exploring Civil Rights' Marches through Photographs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santoli, Susan; Vitulli, Paige; Giles, Rebecca

2015-01-01

Exploring controversial and difficult events and issues with young children can be challenging. The Civil Rights Movement is an abstract, perhaps remote, issue for young children today. However, it is an important part of our country's history and a theme worthy of study. This article suggests ways to use photographs to explore this mature subject…

Student Data Portfolios Give Students the Power to See Their Own Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cruz, Heather L.; Zambo, Debby

2013-01-01

Every day in classrooms across the country teachers are using district, state, and federal standards and assessments to prove their effectiveness, monitor students' progress, and understand students' strengths and needs. Jobs depend on student achievement, and in today's age of accountability, assessment scores define what students…

School Buildings in Today's Crisis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blyth, Alastair

2009-01-01

To get a picture of the impact of the current economic and financial crisis on educational building programmes so far, the OECD Centre for Effective Learning Environments (CELE) has been conducting a survey of member countries and regions. The survey focuses on three main issues: the impact of the crisis on publicly funded projects, the impact on…

Factors That Influence the Decision of Black Males to Seek Membership in a Historically White Fraternity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newsome, Kimberly

2009-01-01

Since the Civil Rights Movement, American higher education institutions have experienced a demographic shift toward greater racial diversity in their campus enrollment (Jones, 1987; Rendon & Hope, 1996; Sedlecek, 1987). Today's college students include students who are of nontraditional age, from different countries and possess diverse sexual…

Environmental Education through Inquiry and Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Markaki, Vassiliki

2014-01-01

In the transformative world of today, the role of environmental education has become a much-debated issue. The experience from various EU countries shows lack of a concrete policy for the advancement of those strategic skills that correspond to the identified need for the connection of environmental education to green career choices. This paper…

Teaching about Haiti. Caribbean Connection Series. Third Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sunshine, Catherine A.; Menkart, Deborah, Ed.

These materials are designed to help students bridge the gaps in the news and their textbooks about the country of Haiti and to provide suggestions for further research. The following framework is suggested for studying Haiti today: (1) Haiti's current crisis is best understood in historical perspective; (2) the U.S. government has heavily…

From Ivy League to NBA: A Great Urban High School Falls through the Hoop.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlson, Tucker

1993-01-01

Describes the history of education at Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C., the country's first African-American high school founded by ex-slaves in 1870. Argues that today the school emphasizes athletics over academics and that the source of decline has been holding students to lower standards. (JB)

On the Causes for and Countermeasures against Academic Corruption

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yongning, Yuan; Jian, Zhang; Haibo, Wang

2007-01-01

Combating corruption is an important condition for bringing about the flourishing of academic research. There are many reasons for the emergence and proliferation of academic corruption today. These are closely related to the long-term lack of training among our country's scholars in modern academic standards and the absence of an academic spirit…

From Language Learner to Language Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snow, Don

2007-01-01

Today, there are about four nonnative-speaking English teachers for every teacher who is a native speaker. More English teachers work in non-English-speaking settings than in English-speaking settings, and most are natives of the countries in which they teach. This volume focuses on the challenges faced by English teachers for whom English is a…

Youth Intervention for Peace Project: Burundi Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bigirindavyi, Jean-Paul

2004-01-01

The experience of Rwanda's genocide in 1994 shocked the world into disbelief as Western media finally focused their attention on the region's ongoing conflict. Yet little is being done today to prevent the reproduction of a parallel disaster in its twin country, Burundi, where similar conflict patterns may spark another intensely violent civil…

Vietnam: Education Financing. A World Bank Country Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

World Bank, Washington, DC.

This study examines the system of education and training in Vietnam and poses the question: what changes in educational policies will ensure that students who pass through the system today will acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for Vietnam to successfully complete the transition from a planned to a market economy? The report…

Access to Information and Freedom of Information Requests: Neglected Means of Data Production in the Social Sciences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walby, Kevin; Larsen, Mike

2012-01-01

Access to information (ATI) and freedom of information (FOI) mechanisms are now relevant features of governments in many liberal democracies today. Citizens, organizations, and permanent residents in several countries across the globe can request unpublished information from federal, provincial, state, county, and municipal government agencies.…

Global Reach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Carol; Halder, John; Woodin, Shawn

2010-01-01

One Indonesian student first learned of the program while working as a street vendor selling handicrafts in Jakarta. Today, she works for a television station in her native country as a newsperson and anchor. Another student was so impressed and gratified by his good fortune that he designed, promoted, and raised funds for a peace statue to erect…

GED Success: Case Study of an English Language Learner in Correctional Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Susanne

2017-01-01

Understanding the elements of educational success for adult English language learners (ELLs) is an important priority for correctional educators, especially today with an increased population of non-English speaking students in correctional schools throughout the country. There is a dearth of information, however, about incarcerated adult ELLs and…

"Sanmao, the Vagrant": Homeless Children of Yesterday and Today

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mo, Weimin; Shen, Wenju

2006-01-01

The intensifying globalization has made street survival more brutal and miserable for homeless children, especially in Third World countries. "Sanmao, the Vagrant" is a wordless picture book which tells of the adventures of a boy named Sanmao in streets of Shanghai during WWII. The essay analyzes how the artist's ingenious visual…

National Conference on Outdoor Leadership. 2008 Keynote Address

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Louv, Richard

2008-01-01

In this keynote address, Richard Louv laments that today's children lack direct connection to nature. Over the past 15 years, he interviewed families across the country about the changes in their lives, including their relationship with nature. With few exceptions, even in rural areas, parents say the same thing: Most children aren't playing…

Defense.gov Special Report: Veterans Day 2011

Science.gov Websites

Department of Defense Submit Search Veterans Day 2011 - Honoring our Nation's Veterans - 11.11.11 Sept. 26 deserve our country's gratitude - not just on Veterans Day, but every day." Defense Secretary Leon E . Story Leaders Participate in Vets Day Events WASHINGTON, Nov. 11, 2011 - Today's Arlington National

Redesigning Continuing Education in the Health Professions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Academies Press, 2010

2010-01-01

Today in the United States, the professional health workforce is not consistently prepared to provide high quality health care and assure patient safety, even as the nation spends more per capita on health care than any other country. The absence of a comprehensive and well-integrated system of continuing education (CE) in the health professions…

The Demography of Canada and the United States from the 1980s to the 2000s A Summary of Changes and a Statistical Assessment

PubMed Central

Barbieri, Magali; Ouellette, Nadine

2013-01-01

Canada and the United States have enjoyed vigorous population growth since the early 1980s. Although mortality is slightly higher in the United States than in Canada, this is largely offset by much higher fertility, with a total fertility rate at replacement level, compared with just 1.5 children per woman in Canada. The United States is also the world’s largest immigrant receiving country, although its immigration rate is only half that of Canada, where today one person in five is foreign-born, versus one in eight in the United States. Based on recent trends in fertility, mortality and international migration, the populations of these two North American countries will continue to grow over the next five decades, but at a progressively slower pace. The most acute demographic issue today is not, as in Europe, that of imminent population decline, but rather of the geographic and social inequalities which have increased steadily since the early 1980s and which are reflected in major fertility and health differentials between regions and social groups. PMID:24032004

[The theory of the demographic transition as a reference for demo-economic models].

PubMed

Genne, M

1981-01-01

The aim of the theory of demographic transition (TTD) is to better understand the behavior and interrelationship of economic and demographic variables. There are 2 types of demo-economic models: 1) the malthusian models, which consider demographic variables as pure exogenous variables, and 2) the neoclassical models, which consider demographic variables as strictly endogenous. If TTD can explore the behavior of exogenous and endogenous demographic variables, it cannot demonstrate neither the relation nor the order of causality among the various demographic and economic variables, but it is simply the theoretical framework of a complex social and economic phenomenon which started in Europe in the 19th Century, and which today can be extended to developing countries. There are 4 stages in the TTD; the 1st stage is characterized by high levels of fecundity and mortality; the 2nd stage is characterized by high fecundity levels and declining mortality levels; the 3rd stage is characterized by declining fecundity levels and low mortality levels; the 4th stage is characterized by low fertility and mortality levels. The impact of economic variables over mortality and birth rates is evident for mortality rates, which decline earlier and at a greater speed than birth rates. According to reliable mathematical predictions, around the year 1987 mortality rates in developing countries will have reached the low level of European countries, and growth rate will be only 1.5%. If the validity of demo-economic models has not yet been established, TTD has clearly shown that social and economic development is the factor which influences demographic expansion.

The current status and problems confronted in delivering precision medicine in Japan and Europe.

PubMed

Bando, Hideaki

Precision medicine has been defined as "a predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory health care service delivery model." Today, developments in next-generation sequencing and information technology have made precision medicine possible, with massive amounts of genetic, "omics," clinical, environmental, and lifestyle data now available. Unfortunately, differences in governmental support and health care regulations have resulted in heterogeneous progress among countries. In Japan, for example, precision cancer screening and treatments are increasingly being promoted, with collaboration among research, governmental, and pharmaceutical agencies taking place in the nationwide SCRUM-Japan cancer genome screening project. The missions of SCRUM-Japan are to deliver the most appropriate therapeutic agents to the most suitable patients, and to play key roles in the development of multiplex diagnostic products and new indications for targeted therapy. Starting in February 2015 and ending in March 2017, the aim is to enroll 4750 patients with cancer (2350 patients with lung cancer and 2400 patients with gastrointestinal tract cancer). Compared with other developed countries, investments in scientific innovation for biomedical and omics research are matched or even surpassed in Europe, but regulatory differences in each countries are a major hurdle to rapid implementation. Although market approval for pharmaceuticals is centralized through the European Medicines Agency, access to health care is heterogeneously regulated at national levels, which undermines the consistency, comparability, and quality of precision medicine for cancer patients in Europe. In this review, we focus on the current progress of precision medicine in Japan and Europe, and clarify the differences in progress and the hurdles faced moving forward. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Belgian commitment to pharmaceutical quality: a model policy to improve quality assurance of medicines available through humanitarian and development programs.

PubMed

Ravinetto, Raffaella; Roosen, Tim; Dujardin, Catherine

2018-01-01

Today, a combination of globalization of pharmaceutical production, lack of regulatory harmonization, and weakness of Medicines Regulatory Authorities, creates the "perfect conditions" for poor-quality medicine to circulate in the global market and to penetrate the less-regulated countries. Medicines regulation is the responsibility of the national regulatory authorities in the recipient country, but in the poorer countries, in practice, the responsibility of supply of quality-assured medicines is often taken by Non-Governmental Organizations and other implementers. But with some notable exceptions, many donors lack a pharmaceutical procurement policy with adequate quality requirements; and many implementers lack the skills and expertise needed to orient themselves in the complex web of global pharmaceutical supply. Thus, patients served by humanitarian or development programs may remain exposed to the risk of poor-quality medicines. When public money is used to purchase medicines for medical programs to be carried out overseas, adequate policies should be in place to assure that the same quality requirements are set that would be required for medicines marketed in the "donor" country. We will describe here a policy recently adopted in Belgium, i.e. the "Commitment to Quality Assurance for Pharmaceutical Products", signed in October 2017 by the Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Development Cooperation and 19 Belgian implementing agencies. By signing the new policy, the counterparts committed to ensure quality of medicines in the programs funded by Belgium's Official Development Assistance, and to build quality-assurance capacity in the recipient countries. Implementers are requested to integrate in their financing applications a section for pharmaceutical quality assurance, with a justified budget. They are also invited to consider how costs could be rationalized and mutualized by aligning the strengths of the various implementers. This model policy has the potential to be considered for adoption by other donors, to help to reduce the current multiple standards in pharmaceutical quality, and to contribute to protect vulnerable communities from the plague of poor-quality medicines. The online version of this article (10.1186/s40545-018-0136-z) contains an additional file, which is available to authorized users.

Human ecology and behavior and sexually transmitted bacterial infections.

PubMed Central

Holmes, K K

1994-01-01

The three direct determinants of the rate of spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are sexual behaviors, the mean duration of infectiousness, and the mean efficiency of sexual transmission of each STD. Underlying ecological and behavioral factors that operate through one or more of these direct determinants lie on a continuum, ranging from those most proximate back to those more remote (in time or mechanism) from the direct determinants. Most remote and least modifiable are the historical stages of economic development that even today conspicuously influence patterns of sexual behavior. Next are the distribution and changing patterns of climate, hygiene, and population density; the global population explosion and stages of the demographic transition; and ongoing changes in human physiology (e.g., menarche at younger age) and culture (e.g., later marriage). More proximate on the continuum are war, migration, and travel; and current policies for economic development and social welfare. Most recent or modifiable are technologic and commercial product development (e.g., oral contraceptives); circumcision, condom, spermicide, and contraception practices; patterns of illicit drug use that influence sexual behaviors; and the accessibility, quality, and use of STD health care. These underlying factors help explain why the curable bacterial STDs are epidemic in developing countries and why the United States is the only industrialized country that has failed to control bacterial STDs during the AIDS era. Images PMID:8146138

AIDS research in developing countries: do the ends justify the means?

PubMed

Clark, Peter A

2002-09-01

Concrete ethical standards for human research are clearly stipulated in both international and national codes of ethics, and are meant to protect human subjects, especially the most vulnerable. A recent clinical study conducted from 1994 to 1997 by Dr. Thomas C, Quinn, M.D. has fueled the debate raging in the scientific community regarding the ethics of clinical AIDS research in developing countries. Quinn's conducted a community-based, randomized, controlled study of 15,127 rural Ugandans to determine whether intermittent antibiotic treatment to reduce the prevalence of other sexually transmitted diseases would also reduce the rate of HIV transmission. Subsequently, the study identified 415 couples in which one partner was HIV positive and one was initially HIV negative and followed them prospectively for up to 30 months. Researchers were not permitted to inform the seronegative partner of the HIV status of the other partner. As a result, 90 of the initially HIV negative partners (21.7%) seroconverted during a follow-up period of 30 months. To allow for research studies in developing countries that are not permitted in the United States appears to make the Third World equivalent to a 'research sweat shop'. Developing nations offer easy access to patients, reduced costs, and less stringent regulations. This appears to create a double standard for medical research that is both ethically and humanly unacceptable, especially when other viable option exist. To allow relativism to seep into the international and national ethical standards will open the door to an idea that condones the possible abuse of those least able to protect themselves. Researchers have an ethical responsibility to uphold the integrity of these ethical standards. Failure to do so today may have a devastating impact on humanity in the future.

Current approaches toward production of secondary plant metabolites

PubMed Central

Hussain, Md. Sarfaraj; Fareed, Sheeba; Ansari, Saba; Rahman, Md. Akhlaquer; Ahmad, Iffat Zareen; Saeed, Mohd.

2012-01-01

Plants are the tremendous source for the discovery of new products with medicinal importance in drug development. Today several distinct chemicals derived from plants are important drugs, which are currently used in one or more countries in the world. Secondary metabolites are economically important as drugs, flavor and fragrances, dye and pigments, pesticides, and food additives. Many of the drugs sold today are simple synthetic modifications or copies of the naturally obtained substances. The evolving commercial importance of secondary metabolites has in recent years resulted in a great interest in secondary metabolism, particularly in the possibility of altering the production of bioactive plant metabolites by means of tissue culture technology. Plant cell and tissue culture technologies can be established routinely under sterile conditions from explants, such as plant leaves, stems, roots, and meristems for both the ways for multiplication and extraction of secondary metabolites. In vitro production of secondary metabolite in plant cell suspension cultures has been reported from various medicinal plants, and bioreactors are the key step for their commercial production. Based on this lime light, the present review is aimed to cover phytotherapeutic application and recent advancement for the production of some important plant pharmaceuticals. PMID:22368394

Deriving exposure limits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sliney, David H.

1990-07-01

Historically many different agencies and standards organizations have proposed laser occupational exposure limits (EL1s) or maximum permissible exposure (MPE) levels. Although some safety standards have been limited in scope to manufacturer system safety performance standards or to codes of practice most have included occupational EL''s. Initially in the 1960''s attention was drawn to setting EL''s however as greater experience accumulated in the use of lasers and some accident experience had been gained safety procedures were developed. It became clear by 1971 after the first decade of laser use that detailed hazard evaluation of each laser environment was too complex for most users and a scheme of hazard classification evolved. Today most countries follow a scheme of four major hazard classifications as defined in Document WS 825 of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The classifications and the associated accessible emission limits (AEL''s) were based upon the EL''s. The EL and AEL values today are in surprisingly good agreement worldwide. There exists a greater range of safety requirements for the user for each class of laser. The current MPE''s (i. e. EL''s) and their basis are highlighted in this presentation. 2. 0

A brief note on the history of psychosurgery in Japan.

PubMed

Nudeshima, Jiro; Taira, Takaomi

2017-09-01

In Japan, there has been no neurosurgical treatment for psychiatric disorders since the 1970s. Even deep brain stimulation (DBS) has not been studied or used for psychiatric disorders. Neurosurgery for psychiatric disorders has been thwarted by social taboos for many years, and psychiatrists today seem to simply ignore modern developments and therapies offered by neurosurgery such as DBS. As a result, most patients and their families do not know such "last-resort" options exist. Historically, as in other countries, frontal lobotomies were widely performed in Japan in the 1940s and 1950s, and some Japanese neurosurgeons used stereotactic methods for the treatment of psychiatric disorders until the 1960s. However, in the 1960s and 1970s such surgical treatments began to receive condemnation based on political judgment, rather than on medical and scientific evaluation. Protest campaigns at the time hinged on the prevailing political beliefs, forming a part of the new "left" movement against leading authorities across a wide range of societal institutions including medical schools. Finally, the Japanese Society for Psychiatry and Neurology banned the surgical treatment for psychiatric disorders in 1975. Even today, Japan's dark history continues to exert an enormous negative influence on neurosurgery for psychiatric disorders.

Long-Term Impacts of Precolonial Institutions, Geography and Ecological Diversity on Access to Public Infrastructure Services in Nigeria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Archibong, B.

2014-12-01

Do precolonial institutions, geography and ecological diversity affect population access to public infrastructure services over a century later? Can local leaders from historically centralized or 'conqueror' groups still influence access to public goods today? Do precolonial states located in ecologically diverse environments have better access to water, power and sanitation resources today? A growing body of literature examining the sources of the current state of African economic development has cited the enduring impacts of precolonial institutions and geography on contemporary African economic development using large sample cross-sectional analysis. In this paper, I focus on within country effects of local ethnic and political state institutions on access to public infrastructure services in present day Nigeria. Specifically, I combine information on the spatial distribution of ethnic states and ecological diversity in Nigeria circa mid 19th century and political states in Nigeria circa 1785 and 1850 with information, from a novel geocoded survey dataset, on access to public infrastructure at the local government level in present day Nigeria to examine the impact of precolonial state centralization on the current unequal access to public infrastructure services in Nigeria, accounting for the effects of ecological diversity and other geographic covariates. Some preliminary results show evidence for the long-term impacts of institutions, geography and ecological diversity on access to public infrastructure in Nigeria.

From the Cotton Fields to the Ties That Bind: Jim Pusack's Enduring Impact on Today's CALL Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Linda C.

2010-01-01

From 1981 to today, the encouragement Jim Pusack and his colleague Sue Otto gave faculty to develop and/or implement CALL into the curriculum has been vital to our L2 teaching evolution. This article describes how their efforts evolved over the last two and a half decades and the ties that bind their efforts with today's CALL development.

Driving a decade of change: HIV/AIDS, patents and access to medicines for all

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Since 2000, access to antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV infection has dramatically increased to reach more than five million people in developing countries. Essential to this achievement was the dramatic reduction in antiretroviral prices, a result of global political mobilization that cleared the way for competitive production of generic versions of widely patented medicines. Global trade rules agreed upon in 1994 required many developing countries to begin offering patents on medicines for the first time. Government and civil society reaction to expected increases in drug prices precipitated a series of events challenging these rules, culminating in the 2001 World Trade Organization's Doha Declaration on the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and Public Health. The Declaration affirmed that patent rules should be interpreted and implemented to protect public health and to promote access to medicines for all. Since Doha, more than 60 low- and middle-income countries have procured generic versions of patented medicines on a large scale. Despite these changes, however, a "treatment timebomb" awaits. First, increasing numbers of people need access to newer antiretrovirals, but treatment costs are rising since new ARVs are likely to be more widely patented in developing countries. Second, policy space to produce or import generic versions of patented medicines is shrinking in some developing countries. Third, funding for medicines is falling far short of needs. Expanded use of the existing flexibilities in patent law and new models to address the second wave of the access to medicines crisis are required. One promising new mechanism is the UNITAID-supported Medicines Patent Pool, which seeks to facilitate access to patents to enable competitive generic medicines production and the development of improved products. Such innovative approaches are possible today due to the previous decade of AIDS activism. However, the Pool is just one of a broad set of policies needed to ensure access to medicines for all; other key measures include sufficient and reliable financing, research and development of new products targeted for use in resource-poor settings, and use of patent law flexibilities. Governments must live up to their obligations to protect access to medicines as a fundamental component of the human right to health. PMID:21439089

Nurses on the Move: A Global Overview

PubMed Central

Kingma, Mireille

2007-01-01

Objective To look at nurse migration flows in the light of national nursing workforce imbalances, examine factors that encourage or inhibit nurse mobility, and explore the potential benefits of circular migration. Principal Findings The number of international migrants has doubled since 1970 and nurses are increasingly part of the migratory stream. Critical nursing shortages in industrialized countries are generating a demand that is fueling energetic international recruitment campaigns. Structural adjustments in the developing countries have created severe workforce imbalances and shortfalls often coexist with large numbers of unemployed health professionals. A nurse's motivation to migrate is multifactorial, not limited to financial incentives, and barriers exist that discourage or slow the migration process. The migration flows vary in direction and magnitude over time, responding to socioeconomic factors present in source and destination countries. The dearth of data on which to develop international health human resource policy remains. There is growing recognition, however, that migration will continue and that temporary migration will be a focus of attention in the years to come. Conclusions Today's search for labor is a highly organized global hunt for talent that includes nurses. International migration is a symptom of the larger systemic problems that make nurses leave their jobs. Nurse mobility becomes a major issue only in a context of migrant exploitation or nursing shortage. Injecting migrant nurses into dysfunctional health systems—ones that are not capable of attracting and retaining staff domestically—will not solve the nursing shortage. PMID:17489915

Nurses in the workplace: expectations and needs.

PubMed

DeCola, P R; Riggins, P

2010-09-01

It is important to understand nurses' attitudes toward their work environment. Prior studies in this area have been conducted. The interest was to identify a relative assessment of workplace challenges by studying nurses within developed and developing economies. A representative survey of 2203 nurses in 11 countries was conducted via a structured survey. Data from open-ended questions were content analysed and grouped thematically. The overall margin of error is +/-2.1% and +/-6.9% for country level results. Key findings included that 92% of nurses say they face time constraints and 96% say that spending more time with individual patients would have a significant impact on patient health. Forty-six per cent of nurses say their workload is worse today than it was 5 years ago. While only 53% of nurses say it is very likely they will be practising nursing in 5 years, national differences existed. Statistically significant parameters influencing the likelihood to stay in nursing included having greater independence and control over their practice area, sufficient staff, greater involvement in decisions impacting their work and patient care, and improved work-life balance. There is agreement across the surveyed countries regarding the existence of high workloads that are contributing to time constraints and the belief that patient outcomes are significantly impacted. These conditions contribute to nurses' lack of firm commitment to their profession. The systemic changes required to deliver quality health care to patients require these challenges to be addressed.

The Nuclear Renaissance — Implications on Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matzie, Regis A.

2007-03-01

The world demand for energy is growing rapidly, particularly in developing countries that are trying to raise the standard of living for billions of people, many of whom do not even have access to electricity. With this increased energy demand and the high and volatile price of fossil fuels, nuclear energy is experiencing resurgence. This so-called nuclear renaissance is broad based, reaching across Asia, the United States, Europe, as well as selected countries in Africa and South America. Some countries, such as Italy, that have actually turned away from nuclear energy are reconsidering the advisability of this design. This renaissance provides the opportunity to deploy more advanced reactor designs that are operating today, with improved safety, economy, and operations. In this keynote address, I will briefly present three such advanced reactor designs in whose development Westinghouse is participating. These designs include the advanced passive PWR, AP1000, which recently received design certification for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the Pebble Bed Modular reactor (PBMR) which is being demonstrated in South Africa; and the International Reactor Innovative and Secure (IRIS), which was showcased in the US Department of Energy's recently announced Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), program. The salient features of these designs that impact future requirements on quantitative nondestructive evaluations will be discussed. Such features as reactor vessel materials, operating temperature regimes, and new geometric configurations will be described, and mention will be made of the impact on quantitative nondestructive evaluation (NDE) approaches.

Juridical and sociocultural problems on the definition of a law concerning property, usage and access to genetic resources in Colombia.

PubMed

Calle, R

1996-04-01

The property, usage, and access to genetic resources, is today one of the primary topics in international business, as a result of the strategic importance of the resources for the biotechnology industry. Internationally, the sovereignty that each country has over its natural patrimony is recognized. However, the new laws of international marketing have obligated countries in the process of development, such as Colombia, to adopt and copy a concept of intellectual property on living resources that does not have anything to do with the country's sociocultural identity, and sometimes even does not take into account its material enjoyment. The new juridical movement that treats genetic resources as private property produces a cultural conflict between indigenous populations, Afro-Americans and peasants, because for them the genetic resources are an element of community life. In these communities, knowledge is freely transmitted; it is an understanding that they have to conserve their agricultural customs and the relationship that they have with the environment. They do not recognize the term "property' according to patenting laws. These elements have to be considered, respected, and guaranteed in the laws that recognize the genetic resources in the country. On the other hand, not even countries that are pioneers in biotechnological development can adopt a concept about patents that is in agreement with the particularities that the living materials possess. This is obviously the reason for the numerous discussions on the legal interpretation, as well as complicated debates in court. Confronting that situation, there are countries rich in biodiversity, such as Colombia, but which do not have a proper concept and are not economically strong in the international context. These countries have to copy inadequate protection policies that do not take into account all their rights. This paper describes some of the technical, juridical, and sociocultural difficulties which Colombia has to confront, in order to set a guideline on patenting living organisms, and on the access and usage of the genetic resources.

The Evolution and Expansion of Regional Disease Surveillance Networks and Their Role in Mitigating the Threat of Infectious Disease Outbreaks

PubMed Central

Bond, Katherine C.; Macfarlane, Sarah B.; Burke, Charlanne; Ungchusak, Kumnuan; Wibulpolprasert, Suwit

2013-01-01

We examine the emergence, development, and value of regional infectious disease surveillance networks that neighboring countries worldwide are organizing to control cross-border outbreaks at their source. The regional perspective represented in the paper is intended to serve as an instructive framework for others who decide to launch such networks as new technologies and emerging threats bring countries even closer together. Distinct from more formal networks in geographic regions designated by the World Health Organization (WHO), these networks usually involve groupings of fewer countries chosen by national governments to optimize surveillance efforts. Sometimes referred to as sub-regional, these “self-organizing” networks complement national and local government recognition with informal relationships across borders among epidemiologists, scientists, ministry officials, health workers, border officers, and community members. Their development over time reflects both incremental learning and growing connections among network actors; and changing disease patterns, with infectious disease threats shifting over time from local to regional to global levels. Not only has this regional disease surveillance network model expanded across the globe, it has also expanded from a mostly practitioner-based network model to one that covers training, capacity-building, and multidisciplinary research. Today, several of these networks are linked through Connecting Organizations for Regional Disease Surveillance (CORDS). We explore how regional disease surveillance networks add value to global disease detection and response by complementing other systems and efforts, by harnessing their power to achieve other goals such as health and human security, and by helping countries adapt to complex challenges via multi-sectoral solutions. We note that governmental commitment and trust among participating individuals are critical to the success of regional infectious disease surveillance networks. PMID:23362414

[Inequalities in access to care in Africa].

PubMed

Livinec, Bertrand; Milleliri, Jean-Marie; Rey, Jean-Loup; Saliou, Pierre

2013-05-01

Social inequalities in health are increasingly in the news in Africa. While appeals, international declarations and new strategies for health in Africa have succeeded one another over the years, we must admit that the health inequalities are increasing. It is perhaps time to take health out of its compartment and understand that it is one of the components of overall development and that we cannot act effectively against these health inequalities unless we also act on the pressing need to see all States (in the North and South) finally meet their financial commitments, demand of African leaders that they provide good government and fight against corruption, the leaders of African good government and a fight against corruption, and finally ensure that the strategies proposed in Africa focus on the health priorities of each country. If we mention the Scandinavian example, we must admit that the Nordic countries have demonstrated their capacity to obtain excellent results in health, to narrow social inequalities, and provide public transparency and aid to development. They constitute today an excellent example for most Western countries and for African countries - and also for African and western civil societies, which can be inspired by the concrete measures of transparency and strong public activity, which promote improvement in the overall statistics of their societies, in particular, in health. Accordingly we propose a new approach that looks at health statistics in the light of inequalities (especially via the Gini coefficient) and public transparency (especially via the benchmarks of perceived corruption). A New Deal for health in Africa is needed, and all the organization involved should be asked to act together for a holistic public health vision that will benefit the populations of Africa. Health cannot be separated from a political, ethical and equitable vision of society.

[Toward safe motherhood: a call for action].

PubMed

Mahler, H

1987-12-01

The most shocking fact about maternal health today is the difference between maternal mortality rates in developed and developing countries. In developed countries, mortality risks range from 1/4000 to 1/10,000, but in developing countries the risk may be 1/15 to 1/50. Most countries with high maternal mortality rates have inadequate vital registration systems. The magnitude of the maternal mortality problem was unknown until recently, when reliable statistics from Asia, Africa, and Latin America became available. Discrimination against females in education, nutrition, and other aspects of life is a more or less direct cause of maternal mortality. Maternal deaths often have their roots in the life of the woman before the pregnancy or even before the woman's birth. Persistent deficiencies of calcium, vitamin D, or iron may result in a constricted pelvis, eventually leading to death during labor. Chronic anemia may lead to death from hemorrhage. Risks resulting from adolescent pregnancy, maternal exhaustion due to closely spaced births and heavy physical labor during the reproductive years, procreation after age 35 and especially after age 40, and illegal induced abortion are all factors in high maternal mortality rates in developing countries. The only hope of providing access to essential maternal health services, family planning, and especially obstetrical services for life threatening emergencies to poor women living in remote areas is through primary health care. Local health care cannot exist in a vacuum; technical and administrative help is required from municipal centers. Fewer than 50% of the world's women receive trained care during deliveries. The consequences of unregulated fertility are particularly important as a determinant of maternal mortality. The World Health Organization family planning policy is based on recognition of family planning as an inseparable part of maternal and child health care. Longterm economic and social development and elimination of female illiteracy are other parts of the multiple strategy of controlling maternal mortality. 4 steps are essential in strategies to control maternal mortality: 1) providing adequate health and nutrition services for girls and family planning services for women 2) providing good prenatal nutrition and health care and identifying high risk women early in the pregnancy 3) assuring professional attention for all deliveries, and 4) providing access to obstetrical care for high risk deliveries and obstetrical emergencies. Some of the needed resources to make childbearing safer already exist in each country and can be strengthened by cooperative efforts between national and local governments, international assistance agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and families and communities of each region.

Body donations today and tomorrow: What is best practice and why?

PubMed

Riederer, Beat M

2016-01-01

There is considerable agreement that the use of human bodies for teaching and research remains important, yet not all universities use dissection to teach human gross anatomy. The concept of body donation has evolved over centuries and there are still considerable discrepancies among countries regarding the means by which human bodies are acquired and used for education and research. Many countries have well-established donation programs and use body dissection to teach most if not all human gross anatomy. In contrast, there are countries without donation programs that use unclaimed bodies or perhaps a few donated bodies instead. In several countries, use of cadavers for dissection is unthinkable for cultural or religious reasons. Against this background, successful donation programs are highlighted in the present review, emphasizing those aspects of the programs that make them successful. Looking to the future, we consider what best practice could look like and how the use of unclaimed bodies for anatomy teaching could be replaced. From an ethical point of view, countries that depend upon unclaimed bodies of dubious provenance are encouraged to use these reports and adopt strategies for developing successful donation programs. In many countries, the act of body donation has been guided by laws and ethical frameworks and has evolved alongside the needs for medical knowledge and for improved teaching of human anatomy. There will also be a future need for human bodies to ensure optimal pre- and post-graduate training and for use in biomedical research. Good body donation practice should be adopted wherever possible, moving away from the use of unclaimed bodies of dubious provenance and adopting strategies to favor the establishment of successful donation programs. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

eHealth in Denmark: a case study.

PubMed

Kierkegaard, Patrick

2013-12-01

Denmark is widely regarded as a leading country in terms of eHealth integration and healthcare delivery services. The push for eHealth adoption over that past 20 years in the Danish health sector has led to the deployment of multiple eHealth technologies. However, in reality the Danish healthcare suffers from eHealth system fragmentation which has led to eHealth's inability to reach full potential in delivering quality healthcare service. This paper will presents a case study of the current state of eHealth in the Danish healthcare system and discuss the current challenges the country is facing today.

From criminals to celebrities: perceptions of "the addict" in the print press from four European countries from nineties to today.

PubMed

Beccaria, Franca; Rolando, Sara; Hellman, Matilda; Bujalski, Michal; Lemmens, Paul

2015-03-01

The article reviews portrayals of "the addict" in press items from Italy, Finland, Poland, and The Netherlands. The dataset consists of 1,327 items from four national newspapers published in 1991, 1998, 2011. The portrayals varied according to country, period, and type of addiction problem. Results can be read as four cases where different conceptualizations ("the sinner," "the sick," "the social problem," "the criminal," and "the famous") assume diverse importance. These conceptual frames-of-reference are clearly neither unambiguous nor fixed. They are constantly modified and part of different trends.

Annuities and lifetime income: the Anglo-Saxon experience.

PubMed

Malik, Markus

2004-01-01

A number of western industrialized nations have found themselves in a similar position to the United States today: an aging population leading to increasing, and perhaps unsustainable, expenditures on a traditional social security system. This article examines the risks that individuals face in retirement, describes the role of annuities in addressing those risks and examines why annuitization rates are so low. It then reviews the pension structures in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand--countries with similar governmental and economic structures to those of the United States--and describes how these have impacted those countries' annuitization rates.

Jacob Hemet. Dentist to royalty and entrepreneur extraordinaire.

PubMed

Ring, Malvin E

2006-11-01

One of the most prominent dentists in late-18th century London was Jacob Hemet, member of a long family of dentists. He was appointed royal dentist to Queen Charlotte, wife of George the Third, and to George's favorite daughter, Amelia, and the Prince of Wales. He advertised widely, both in this country and in several European countries, including his native France. However, what makes him noteworthy is the fact that he was the very first person to patent a dentifrice and the first to use marketing techniques similar to those used by the foremost toothpaste manufacturers of today.

A Mathematical Model of Economic Population Dynamics in a Country That Has Optimal Zakat Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Subhan, M.

2018-04-01

Zakat is the main tools against two issues in Islamic economy: economic justice and helping the poor. However, no government of Islamic countries can solve the economic disparity today. A mathematical model could give some understanding about this phenomenon. The goal of this research is to obtain a mathematical model that can describe the dynamic of economic group population. The research is theoretical based on relevance references. From the analytical and numerical simulation, we conclude that well-manage zakat and full comitment of the wealthy can achieve wealth equilibrium that represents minimum poverty.

Strategic environmental assessment and national development plans in Turkey: Towards legal framework and operational procedure

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

Say, Nuriye Peker; Yuecel, Muzaffer

National development plans were started to be prepared in Turkey in 1963. These plans are mandatory for public investments and guiding principles for private investments. They have a quality which guides and sets objectives for other plans in the country. Therefore, they can be evaluated as the main reason of successes and failures of sectoral investments or the problems that they cause directly or indirectly. Turkey is undergoing rapid industrialization, urbanization and population growth, thus environmental problems are on the increase. Although Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been applied to individual investments in Turkey since 1993, natural environment has continuedmore » to be affected because of human activities. Today, parallel to the developments in the world, it has been discussed that it is necessary to strengthen project-level Environmental Assessment (EA) and to practice Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The interest in SEA, that is, EA at the level of proposed policies, plans and programs has grown significantly since 2000 in the country. Discussions and preparations have started about regulation which provides the legal and institutional framework for SEA in The Ministry of Environment and Forestry. However, since the scientific approach into the subject is very new in Turkey, it will take time to answer the questions about how and in what fields to practice. This research project aims at analyzing the possible practice opportunities of SEA in Turkey and the practicability of SEA into the National Five-Year Development Plan (FYDP) which is assumed at the highest level of planning hierarchy in the country. The research is conducted on two sections. In the first section, procedural approaches to SEA on national development plans are investigated and a framework for these approaches is adapted at the institutional level. In the second section, SEA form for energy sector in the development plans is developed. In this article, the findings related to the first part of the project are given.« less

Sustainable solutions for solid waste management in Southeast Asian countries

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

Uyen Nguyen Ngoc; Schnitzer, Hans

2009-06-15

Human activities generate waste and the amounts tend to increase as the demand for quality of life increases. Today's rate in the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEANs) is alarming, posing a challenge to governments regarding environmental pollution in the recent years. The expectation is that eventually waste treatment and waste prevention approaches will develop towards sustainable waste management solutions. This expectation is for instance reflected in the term 'zero emission systems'. The concept of zero emissions can be applied successfully with today's technical possibilities in the agro-based processing industry. First, the state-of-the-art of waste management in Southeast Asian countries will bemore » outlined in this paper, followed by waste generation rates, sources, and composition, as well as future trends of waste. Further on, solutions for solid waste management will be reviewed in the discussions of sustainable waste management. The paper emphasizes the concept of waste prevention through utilization of all wastes as process inputs, leading to the possibility of creating an ecosystem in a loop of materials. Also, a case study, focusing on the citrus processing industry, is displayed to illustrate the application of the aggregated material input-output model in a widespread processing industry in ASEAN. The model can be shown as a closed cluster, which permits an identification of opportunities for reducing environmental impacts at the process level in the food processing industry. Throughout the discussion in this paper, the utilization of renewable energy and economic aspects are considered to adapt to environmental and economic issues and the aim of eco-efficiency. Additionally, the opportunities and constraints of waste management will be discussed.« less

Today's scabies.

PubMed

Orkin, M

1975-08-25

In the past several years there has been a noticeable increase of scabies in the United States; the magnitude of this is not known. An expanding epidemic continues in most parts of the world. Scabies is frequently seen in many guises that may be difficult to diagnose: scabies in the clean, scabies incognito, nodular scabies, animal-transmitted scabies, scabies in infants, scabies with syphillis, and Norwegian scabies. If the diagnosis cannot be confirmed by identifying the mite, synthesis of suggestive features may establish the diagnosis. Recently adopted children from foreign countries, especially southeastern Asia, have had a high frequency of scabies, which may appear after the children arrive in the United States. Acute glomerulonephritis may develop in patients whose scabetic lesions are complicated by a Virulent nephritogenic streptococcal strain.

Postponing aging and prolonging life expectancy with the knowledge-based economy.

PubMed

Kristjuhan, Ulo

2012-04-01

People are interested in the aging phenomenon and hope that scientists are doing as much as they can to solve the mysteries of aging. However, this is not the case. A lot of knowledge is produced for local interests in curing specific disorders; aging is studied much less. Today's economy is undergoing a transition to a knowledge-based economy. Knowledge of aging should be integrated into the economies of contemporary societies. Aging research and intervention can ensure better health, primarily among middle-aged and older people, and prolong life. There are many reasons why postponing aging and rejuvenation research is not as widespread as it should be. Developed countries should create economic stimuli for such studies and intervention.

Review of mitral valve insufficiency: repair or replacement

PubMed Central

Madesis, Athanasios; Tsakiridis, Kosmas; Katsikogiannis, Nikolaos; Machairiotis, Nikolaos; Kougioumtzi, Ioanna; Kesisis, George; Tsiouda, Theodora; Beleveslis, Thomas; Koletas, Alexander; Zarogoulidis, Konstantinos

2014-01-01

Mitral valve (MV) dysfunction is the second-most common clinically significant form of valvular defect in adults. MV regurgitation occurs with the increasing frequency of degenerative changes of the aging process. Moreover, other causes of clinically significant MV regurgitation include cardiac ischemia, infective endocarditis and rhematic disease more frequently in less developed countries. Recent evidence suggests that the best outcomes after repair of severe degenerative mitral regurgitation (MR) are achieved in asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic patients, who are selected for surgery soon after diagnosis on the basis of echocardiography. This review will focus on the surgical management of mitral insufficiency according to its aetiology today and will give insight to some of the perspectives that lay in the future. PMID:24672698

Yough, literacy and participation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gillette, Arthur

1985-12-01

The number of illiterates in the world continues to grow. Simultaneously, there are few if any literacy efforts in the world today that do not depend upon the energies and skills (and sometimes ideas) of young people. Youth's participation in the provision of literacy, in some industrialized as well as in many developing countries, is classified according to three patterns: the project pattern, the programme pattern, and the campaign pattern. The project pattern is not seen to hold out the prospect of enabling youth to make serious inroads into growing illiteracy. Conversely, the campaign pattern seemed largely exceptional. Suggestions are made to draw on elements of both the project and the campaign patterns to show ways of enrichting, systematizing and generalizing the programme pattern.

Golden Rice--five years on the road--five years to go?

PubMed

Al-Babili, Salim; Beyer, Peter

2005-12-01

Provitamin A accumulates in the grain of Golden Rice as a result of genetic transformation. In developing countries, where vitamin A deficiency prevails, grain from Golden Rice is expected to provide this important micronutrient sustainably through agriculture. Since its original production, the prototype Golden Rice has undergone intense research to increase the provitamin A content, to establish the scientific basis for its carotenoid complement, and to better comply with regulatory requirements. Today, the current focus is on how to get Golden Rice effectively into the hands of farmers, which is a novel avenue for public sector research, carried out with the aid of international research consortia. Additional new research is underway to further increase the nutritional value of Golden Rice.

Availability of quality vaccines: policies of a non-government organization.

PubMed

Poore, P

1992-01-01

The availability of vaccines, or any other health service, depends upon, first, the existence of a reliable system of delivery, and the effective management of this system to reach the target population and, second, the acceptance by parents or guardians of the value of the vaccine in preventing death and disability in young children and their mothers. This system must be fully funded and resourced for the foreseeable future if the service is to be sustainable. Today the major obstacles to effective immunization of young children in developing countries is the inadequate, insecure and unpredictable availability of funds and their management. Unless these problems are addressed and solved, the immunization targets set by the World Health Assembly (WHA) will not be met.

[Anti-VEGF therapy resistance in neovascular age-related macular degeneration].

PubMed

Budzinskaya, M V; Plyukhova, A A; Sorokin, P A

With account to the increase in the elderly population in most of the developed countries, the WHO defines age-related macular degeneration (AMD) as one of the main causes of blindness in the world. A large percentage of disability is accounted for by exudative, or neovascular, form of AMD. Today, a total of 5 anti-VEGF drugs exist that are recommended for treatment of exudative AMD: pegaptanib, ranibizumab, bevacizumab, aflibercept, and conbercept. Despite significant progress in the treatment of neovascular AMD yielded by the introduction into clinical practice of anti-VEGF drugs, some patients report a lack (down to complete lack) of response with standard treatment patterns and even a decrease in treatment efficacy after repeated intravitreal injections.

Spent sealed radium sources conditioning in Latin America

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

Mourao, R.P.

1999-06-01

The management of spent sealed sources is considered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) one of the greatest challenges faced by nuclear authorities today, especially in developing countries. One of the Agency`s initiatives to tackle this problem is the Spent Radium Sources Conditioning Project, a worldwide project relying on the regional co-operation between countries. A team from the Brazilian nuclear research institute Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear (CDTN) was chosen as the expert team to carry out the operations in Latin America; since December 1996 radium sources have been safely conditioned in Uruguay, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Ecuador and Paraguay.more » A Quality Assurance Program was established, encompassing the qualification of the capsule welding process, written operational procedures referring to all major steps of the operation, calibration of monitors and information retrievability. A 200L carbon steel drum-based packaging concept was used to condition the sources, its cavity being designed to receive the lead shield device containing stainless steel capsules with the radium sources. As a result of these operations, a total amount of 2,897 mg of needles, tubes, medical applicators, standard sources for calibration, lightning rods, secondary wastes and contaminated objects were stored in proper conditions and are now under control of the nuclear authorities of the visited countries.« less

[The concept and importance of medical law].

PubMed

Jakovljević, Branislava; Segedi, Dimitrije

2006-01-01

Medical law is a scientific discipline which has not been affirmed in our country, but at law schools in many developed countries it has gained the status of a separate scientific discipline and today it is studied with multidisciplinary cooperation of Schools of Medicine, Schools of Dentistry and Schools of Pharmacy. Generally speaking, medical law concerns the rights and duties of the medical profession. The progress of scientific research and of new technology used in diagnostics and treatment, opens new fields in terms of responsibility. Most European countries have legal institutions in the field of health care. These include laws and legal acts, as well as codification of professional norms. Apart from the national law, there is also an international law concerning physisians. The World Health Organization and the World Association of Medical Doctors brought the following declarations: Declaration on Promotion of Patients' Rights, the Revised Lisbon Declaration on Patients' Rights, the Revised Helsinki Declaration on Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects and the Council of Europe's Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine. There is no national order of physicians in Serbia and Montenegro, because chambers of physicians with legal authority and mandatory membership have not been formed. The foundation of Chambers of Physicians of Vojvodina and Montenegro is the first step to goal achieving.

Can innovative health financing policies increase access to MDG-related services? Evidence from Rwanda.

PubMed

Sekabaraga, Claude; Diop, Francois; Soucat, Agnes

2011-11-01

Ensuring financial access to health services is a critical challenge for poor countries if they are to reach the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This article examines the case of Rwanda, a country which has championed innovative health care financing policies. Between 2000 and 2007, Rwanda has improved financial access for the poor, increased utilization of health services and reduced out-of-pocket payments for health care. Poor groups' utilization has increased for all health services, sometimes dramatically. Use of assisted deliveries, for example, increased from 12.1% to 42.7% among the poorest quintile; payments at the point of delivery have also been reduced; and catastrophic expenditures have declined. Part of these achievements is likely linked to innovative health financing policies, particularly the expansion of micro-insurance ('mutuelles') and performance-based financing. The paper concludes that the Rwanda experience provides a useful example of effective implementation of policies that reduce the financial barrier to health services, hereby contributing to the health MDGs. Today's main challenge is to build the sustainability of this system. Finally, the paper proposes a simple set of rigorous metrics to assess the impact of health financing policies and calls for implementing rigorous impact evaluation of health care financing policies in low-income countries.

Ethical Perspectives in Open and Distance Education System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anitha, C.; Harsha, T. S.

2013-01-01

Today, e-learning and various online education applications are used in many countries and educational institutions than ever before. Ethics deals with the principle governing ideal or good behavior, it focuses on what is right or what is wrong. Although in education, the ethical issues that they may be facing are not about of life and death…

California's "Gold Standard" for Higher Education Falls Upon Hard Times

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keller, Josh

2009-01-01

Few documents in higher education have enjoyed the influence or longevity of the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the 1960 law that transformed the state's public colleges and served as a blueprint for public systems across the country. Even today, almost 50 years after it was written, the master plan retains a mythic status in…

The Value Orientations of Today's Young People

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Semenov, V. E.

2008-01-01

In the process of the transformation of Russian society in the 1990s, the concept of upbringing just about disappeared from the sphere of education and youth policy in this country, as well as from the work of the mass media. The idea that labor training, patriotic indoctrination, and moral upbringing should be components of civic education, an…

Financing Traditionally Black Institutions of Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillespie, Bonnie J.

Black institutions of higher learning have traditionally been underfunded, and this problem is especially acute today. In view of this, the major objective of this paper is to glean, from a survey of the literature, the various methods of financing that are being used in colleges and universities throughout the country, with the hope that some of…

Innovative Educational Technology Programs in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trucano, Michael

2017-01-01

For many people, the use of technology in education constitutes a de facto "innovation." Whether or not this belief is actually accurate, or useful, is a legitimate question for discussion. That said, there is no denying that many of the educational innovations celebrated (or at least touted) today are enabled by the use of such…

Segregation 2.0: The New Generation of School Segregation in the 21st Century

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson Dorsey, Dana N.

2013-01-01

Students are more racially segregated in schools today than they were in the late 1960s and prior to the enforcement of court-ordered desegregation in school districts across the country. This special issue addresses the overarching theme of policies, practices, or roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders that may directly or indirectly…

School-Wide Positive Behavior Support: Effects on Academics and Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beckley Yeager, Roberta

2016-01-01

Acting out behaviors is a hindrance to learning across the country. The school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) model is a behaviorally-based systems approach to addressing problem behaviors in our school today. The problem this study is designed to address is the issue that student misbehaviors and disruptions cause a loss of valuable…

Jeb Bush's Impact Felt on K-12 Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cavanagh, Sean

2011-01-01

Jeb Bush left the Florida governor's office in 2007 with a legacy of having brought sweeping changes to his state's education system, through hard-edged policies that gave parents and students more choices and demanded more of schools. Today, that legacy seems poised to grow--and well beyond Florida. In state capitals across the country, numerous…

Today's Children. Creating a Future for a Generation in Crisis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamburg, David A.

This book argues that many U.S. children are at risk because of poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, poor health, illiteracy, racial prejudice, and the eruption of unprecedented levels of violence both in inner cities and across the country. It provides a comprehensive overview of the crises young children and adolescents face and the decisions that…

The Notion of Charter Schools and Its Feasibility in Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solak, Ekrem; Özaskin, Aysegül

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of Charter School system in Turkey, which was opened firstly in State of Minnesota of United States and was expanded to approximately 40 states in America today and also, in practice in some countries such as Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway. Charter Schools are…

International Education: Up Close and Personal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hargrove, Kathy

2012-01-01

India--the country of call centers and palaces, of monsoons and millions, of magnificent wealth and abject poverty--has fascinated travelers for thousands of years. Today India, along with China, is emerging as a strong business rival to the United States. The author has spent about 6 months during 2011 and 2012 in India as a visiting lecturer as…

Situating the Education of African Trinidadians within the Social and Historical Context of Trinidad and Tobago: Implications for Social Justice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nakhid, Camille; Barrow, Dorian; Broomes, Orlena

2014-01-01

Today, almost a century after gaining access to the country's most prestigious secondary schools, determining the academic achievement of African Trinidadian students remains a challenge as neither Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Education nor the Caribbean Examination Council, the regional agency responsible for administering standardized…

Thinking beyond the Playing Field: Leading Change in Your Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Groppel, Jack L.

2011-01-01

Today our country is facing an epidemic of inactivity and obesity, which has resulted in increased serious health complications, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease among others. Inactivity and obesity among youths are also associated with subpar academic performance. Prompt action is required if we are to have any real hope in…

Schooling the New Generation of German Citizens: A Comparison of Citizenship Curricula in Berlin and Baden-Wurttemberg

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faas, Daniel; Street, Alex

2011-01-01

In Germany, unlike other European countries, citizenship education has a long history. Since the Second World War, its role has evolved from promoting de-Nazification in the West and state socialism in the East to emphasising common citizenship in a multicultural society. Today, the federal states ("Bundeslander") are largely autonomous…

Montessori Infant and Toddler Programs: How Our Approach Meshes with Other Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Darla Ferris

2011-01-01

Today, Montessori infant & toddler programs around the country usually have a similar look and feel--low floor beds, floor space for movement, low shelves, natural materials, tiny wooden chairs and tables for eating, and not a highchair or swing in sight. But Montessori toddler programs seem to fall into two paradigms--one model seeming more…

Graduate School Programs Today: Relations between the University and Industry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griban'kova, A. A.

2012-01-01

Like their counterparts in other countries, Russian students increasingly are entering graduate schools with a view to being involved in the application of research beyond the academy. Under the conditions of the raw materials economy that has become dominant in Russia over the past two decades, however, the demand for innovation is limited and of…

Reinventing the High School Government Course: Rigor, Simulations, and Learning from Text

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, Walter C.; Lo, Jane C.

2016-01-01

The high school government course is arguably the main site of formal civic education in the country today. This article presents the curriculum that resulted from a multiyear study aimed at improving the course. The pedagogic model, called "Knowledge in Action," centers on a rigorous form of project-based learning where the projects are…

Fostering Partnerships between Education, Business and Industry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hyslop, Alisha

2009-01-01

The need for skilled workers to continually innovate and drive economic prosperity lends credence to the idea of planning for the future--and career and technical education (CTE) programs can be at the center of both today's economic recovery and the long-term future of the country's workforce. One way that these two needs can intersect is through…

Using Random Parameter Logit in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Institutions in Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiam, Chooi Chea; Loo, SzeWei

2015-01-01

Attention has been drawn to Open Distance Learning (ODL) as a mode for teaching and learning with the advancement in communication via the Internet. Education today has expanded the role of ICT in learning and knowledge generation, leveraging on Internet technology to transmit education across the country. Due to the advancement of technology and…

The Movie "The Secret Life of Words:" Implications for Counselors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cook, Katrina

2008-01-01

Torture still occurs at an alarming rate in the world today. Because many torture victims suffer silently in isolation instead of seeking help for their symptoms of posttraumatic stress, it is impossible to know how many lives have been impacted. However, as more and more torture victims seek asylum in countries such as the United States,…

Winning the Future: Improving Education for the Latino Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

The White House, 2011

2011-01-01

In his State of the Union, the President made it clear that the most important contest this country faces today is not between Democrats and Republicans, but with competitors around the world for the jobs and industries of our time. To win that contest and secure prosperity for all Americans, the nation must out-innovate, out-educate, and…

3 CFR 8870 - Proclamation 8870 of September 21, 2012. National Hunting and Fishing Day, 2012

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... and streams where generations of families have connected with the land around them, America's great outdoors have always played an important role in our national life. On National Hunting and Fishing Day, we... who have helped make our country what it is today. Fulfilling our role as environmental stewards in...

78 FR 46245 - National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, 2013

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-31

... Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, 2013 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation Today, America pauses to observe the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War--a conflict that... war, fighting far from home to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met. Most of...

From Engagement to Ecotone: Land-Grant Universities in the 21st Century

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, John Seely; Pendleton-Jullian, Ann; Adler, Richard

2010-01-01

In 2012, the country's land-grant colleges and universities will celebrate their sesquicentennial. This anniversary provides a good opportunity to consider how these distinctively American institutions have evolved over the past 150 years and how well they are doing today in preparing students for the 21st century. Resilience will be a key…

Science Cadre Training in Russia and Abroad (A Comparative Analysis)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ismailov, E. E.

2010-01-01

Today the scientific potential of any country, its science cadres, the volume and scale of the research being conducted, the number of science centers, the quality and subject matter of the research, the level of the material and technical equipment of its research laboratories, and other aspects constitute a most important factor in ensuring…

Evaluating the Roles of Technology in the Global Read Aloud Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carpenter, Jeffrey P.; Justice, Julie Ellison

2017-01-01

Computer applications readily available to many of today's teachers and students offer new possibilities for teaching and learning. One example of this can be found in the Global Read Aloud (GRA) project. Since its 2010 creation, more than one million PK-12 students from at least 60 countries have reportedly participated in the GRA, an annual…

Blossoms in the Dust: Street Children in Africa.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Velis, Jean-Pierre

For many African children today, the grim realities of everyday life are far removed from models of education based on traditional wisdom. Part of an attempt to draw the attention of a wide public to the situation of street children, this book focuses on the educational aspects of a problem from which no country is spared. The book focuses…

Multidisciplinary Cooperation by Students in a European University of Applied Sciences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamphorst, Jan Cornelis

2018-01-01

Today, multidisciplinary cooperation is an important objective of higher vocational education in Europe as well as other countries. The aim of this study was to explore how, and to what extent, fourth year bachelor students from different domains cooperate in multidisciplinary teams at two research centers. Data for 71 students were collected with…

An Analysis of the Relationship between Standardized Testing and Self-Regulated Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elliott, Mary R.

2016-01-01

Today's educational mission statements at national, state, and local levels revolve around much the same thing--preparing students with skills to compete and succeed on a global level. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2008) reports cognitive skills are significantly more important for the global economic success of a country, and in order…

Global Housing Prospects: The Resource Constraints. Worldwatch Paper 46.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stokes, Bruce

This paper examines worldwide housing problems. The rising prices of materials, energy, and land ensure that buying, building, and maintaining even the most elementary shelter today costs several times what it did a decade ago. People in industrial countries must spend an even larger share of their income if they want to buy a home. Those who…

Helping Students Make the Most of the Web. Spotlight Feature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dopke-Wilson, MariRae

2006-01-01

Better understanding the attitude and behaviors of students using the Internet for school work can provide valuable insight for today's school librarian. The Pew Internet & American Life Project conducted a qualitative study of Internet-using public middle and high school students drawn from across the country ranging from 12 to 17 years of age.…

Feeding the Future: The Global Emergence of School Lunch Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rutledge, Jennifer Geist

2009-01-01

My dissertation is motivated by a puzzle of international social policy and norm emergence and diffusion. Today, children in one hundred and forty-one countries receive free or subsidized school lunches. Yet less than a century ago, no state had a national child nutrition policy. Feeding children was clearly not considered a state responsibility a…

Discourse Analysis of Language Choice and Code-Switching: Classroom Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boztepe, Erman

2009-01-01

There is an ever-increasing trend in the world today to adopt English as the language of instruction in higher education. The increase is in part due to the views that such adoption constitutes the key to competitiveness in a globalized higher education market. Thus, a growing number of universities in non-English-speaking countries switch to…

Public-Private Partnership and Indian Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shiji, O.

2014-01-01

Today the requirements in higher education are vast and majority of the population in the country cannot afford higher education as their per capita income is very low. Neither the government nor the private sector alone can cater to the requirements of higher education. It is in this context, one should look at the scope, feasibility,…

Spicing up Your Curriculum: A Seven-Day Handball Unit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramos, Adolfo; Esslinger, Keri

2016-01-01

In today's physical education classroom, many teachers feel starved for fresh, innovative activities to teach. This article presents team handball (TH) as one such activity. Although TH is not a new activity (it was first played toward the end of the 19th century in countries such as Denmark, Germany and Sweden), for many students in the United…

Bosnia-Herzegovina's Higher Education System: Issues of Governance and Quality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tiplic, Dijana; Welle-Strand, Anne

2006-01-01

Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) is seen as an intriguing case. Often described as a "miniature" of the Balkans due to its demographic pattern, the country has been exposed to a number of dramatic events during the past fifteen years. Today, international actors administer it as a sort of "semi-protectorate" concept, the definition of…

Demographic Change and the Life Circumstances of Immigrant Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hernandez, Donald J.

2004-01-01

Several major demographic shifts over the past half-century have transformed who we are and how we live in this country in many ways. Most striking, however, is the fact that children today are much more likely to be members of ethnic or racial minority groups. Racial/ethnic minorities are destined, in aggregate, to become the numerical majority…

The Pre-K Debates: Current Controversies and Issues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zigler, Edward, Ed.; Gilliam, Walter S., Ed.; Barnett, W. Steven, Ed.

2011-01-01

Targeted or universal pre-K? Direct instruction or learning through play? These and other debates are heating up as more and more young children across the country gain access to pre-K programs. Now there's a single volume that spotlights today's most urgent pre-K debates, explores each one from all sides, and paves the way for sound, educated…

Teachers' Perceptions of Technology Integration in the United Arab Emirates School Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Almekhlafi, Abdurrahman Ghaleb; Almeqdadi, Farouq Ahmad

2010-01-01

Technology is a growing part of any society today. Educational technology has become a cornerstone for any country's efforts to improve students' performance at K-12 schools. It has become the focus of educators worldwide. However, research studies investigating technology integration, particularly at the United Arab Emirates (UAE) K-12 schools,…

Reading as a Value among Young Russian Intellectuals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borusiak, Liubov'

2012-01-01

It is acknowledged that the value of reading has gone down in today's Russian society, and this is rated as unequivocally negative. Instead of "the most well-read country in the world," Russia is now called a "society of TV viewers" by the some observers; it is not a nation of independent thinkers but passive objects of the…

Homelessness in the U.S.: A Historical Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Joseph; Tobin, Kerri

2014-01-01

In this article, the authors examine homelessness across time and examine, in an introductory way, homelessness today. The authors start by examining important themes that ribbon homelessness in America over the last 300 years. Next, they provide a period analysis of homelessness from the birth of the country through the late 1970s. In the last…

An Examination of Criminal Behavior among the Homeless.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solarz, Andrea

Homelessness is a significant social problem in the United States, with an estimated 2.5 million homeless people in this country today. While criminal activity may become a means for the homeless to obtain resources needed for basic survival, little is known about the level of criminal activity among the homeless or about the types of crimnal…

The Leadership Imperative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Technology & Learning, 2005

2005-01-01

It has been said that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. Here, the authors offer four views of the state of technology today and the challenges that lie ahead for education and the nation. According to Sudhir Halbhavi, if innovators truly care about making kids competitive in one's country and in the world, they will invest their…

Methods of Evaluating Child Welfare in Indian Country: An Illustration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Kathleen; Cross, Terry L.; John, Laura; Carter, Patricia; Pavkov, Thomas; Wang, Ching-Tung; Diaz, Javier

2011-01-01

The poor quality and quantity of data collected in tribal communities today reflects a lack of true community participation and commitment. This is especially problematic for evaluation studies, in which the needs and desires of the community should be the central focus. This challenge can be met by emphasizing indigenous methods and voice. The…

Seven Hypotheses on Language Loss Causes and Cures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, James

Objective evidence indicates that despite public fears and the claims of those who would make English the official language of the United States, it is not English, but minority tongues that are threatened in this country today. In the last 5 years, educators have noticed a sharp decline in native language skills among Native American children.…

Myths and the College Process, a Retrospective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sachs, Frank

2012-01-01

In 1973, the domestic climate was surprisingly similar to today in that the economy was bad, unemployment was high, an energy crisis was looming, and there was social and political unrest across the country. At that time, a college education was considered expensive, yet as is true now, education was seen as the doorway to economic opportunity.…

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landorf, Hilary

2012-01-01

A study of human rights prepares students for their role as global citizens and their study of practices in the world's countries that relate to the rights of human beings. Today, when one talks of human rights it is usually with reference to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). It is the task of teachers to give students the…

The 8th Annual AP[R] Report to the Nation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

College Board, 2012

2012-01-01

In classrooms around the country, AP (Advanced Placement) teachers are preparing students for tomorrow by teaching them how to think and learn today. AP students learn to construct solid arguments, test theories, and see many sides of an issue--the kind of thinking that solves tough problems both in and outside the classroom, in college and…

77 FR 58295 - National Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Week, 2012

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-19

... America A Proclamation During the 236 years since our fundamental rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit... members of the United States Armed Forces. Today's service members represent the latest in the long line of heroes who have answered their country's call, and their exceptional service in a post-9/11 world...

Why American Business Demands Twenty-First Century Learning: A Company Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knox, Allyson

2006-01-01

Today's knowledge economy requires that the citizenry and workforce be able to harness information and communication technologies in order to remain competitive on a global scale. As a result of new demands, the notion of digital literacy has become less a luxury and more an imperative for many countries, gaining significant momentum in the past…