Designing and Developing Game-Like Learning Experience in Virtual Worlds: Challenges and Design Decisions of Novice Instructional Designers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yilmaz, Turkan Karakus; Cagiltay, Kursat

2016-01-01

Many virtual worlds have been adopted for implementation within educational settings because they are potentially useful for building effective learning environments. Since the flexibility of virtual worlds challenges to obtain effective and efficient educational outcomes, the design of such platforms need more attention. In the present study, the…

The World Hypertension League: where now and where to in salt reduction

PubMed Central

Lackland, Daniel T.; Lisheng, Liu; Zhang, Xin-Hua; Nilsson, Peter M.; Niebylski, Mark L.

2015-01-01

High dietary salt is a leading risk for death and disability largely by causing increased blood pressure. Other associated health risks include gastric and renal cell cancers, osteoporosis, renal stones, and increased disease activity in multiple sclerosis, headache, increased body fat and Meniere’s disease. The World Hypertension League (WHL) has prioritized advocacy for salt reduction. WHL resources and actions include a non-governmental organization policy statement, dietary salt fact sheet, development of standardized nomenclature, call for quality research, collaboration in a weekly salt science update, development of a process to set recommended dietary salt research standards and regular literature reviews, development of adoptable power point slide sets to support WHL positions and resources, and critic of weak research studies on dietary salt. The WHL plans to continue to work with multiple governmental and non-governmental organizations to promote dietary salt reduction towards the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. PMID:26090335

Correlations between prefrontal neurons form a small-world network that optimizes the generation of multineuron sequences of activity

PubMed Central

Luongo, Francisco J.; Zimmerman, Chris A.; Horn, Meryl E.

2016-01-01

Sequential patterns of prefrontal activity are believed to mediate important behaviors, e.g., working memory, but it remains unclear exactly how they are generated. In accordance with previous studies of cortical circuits, we found that prefrontal microcircuits in young adult mice spontaneously generate many more stereotyped sequences of activity than expected by chance. However, the key question of whether these sequences depend on a specific functional organization within the cortical microcircuit, or emerge simply as a by-product of random interactions between neurons, remains unanswered. We observed that correlations between prefrontal neurons do follow a specific functional organization—they have a small-world topology. However, until now it has not been possible to directly link small-world topologies to specific circuit functions, e.g., sequence generation. Therefore, we developed a novel analysis to address this issue. Specifically, we constructed surrogate data sets that have identical levels of network activity at every point in time but nevertheless represent various network topologies. We call this method shuffling activity to rearrange correlations (SHARC). We found that only surrogate data sets based on the actual small-world functional organization of prefrontal microcircuits were able to reproduce the levels of sequences observed in actual data. As expected, small-world data sets contained many more sequences than surrogate data sets with randomly arranged correlations. Surprisingly, small-world data sets also outperformed data sets in which correlations were maximally clustered. Thus the small-world functional organization of cortical microcircuits, which effectively balances the random and maximally clustered regimes, is optimal for producing stereotyped sequential patterns of activity. PMID:26888108

A real-world approach to Evidence-Based Medicine in general practice: a competency framework derived from a systematic review and Delphi process.

PubMed

Galbraith, Kevin; Ward, Alison; Heneghan, Carl

2017-05-03

Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) skills have been included in general practice curricula and competency frameworks. However, GPs experience numerous barriers to developing and maintaining EBM skills, and some GPs feel the EBM movement misunderstands, and threatens their traditional role. We therefore need a new approach that acknowledges the constraints encountered in real-world general practice. The aim of this study was to synthesise from empirical research a real-world EBM competency framework for general practice, which could be applied in training, in the individual pursuit of continuing professional development, and in routine care. We sought to integrate evidence from the literature with evidence derived from the opinions of experts in the fields of general practice and EBM. We synthesised two sets of themes describing the meaning of EBM in general practice. One set of themes was derived from a mixed-methods systematic review of the literature; the other set was derived from the further development of those themes using a Delphi process among a panel of EBM and general practice experts. From these two sets of themes we constructed a real-world EBM competency framework for general practice. A simple competency framework was constructed, that acknowledges the constraints of real-world general practice: (1) mindfulness - in one's approach towards EBM itself, and to the influences on decision-making; (2) pragmatism - in one's approach to finding and evaluating evidence; and (3) knowledge of the patient - as the most useful resource in effective communication of evidence. We present a clinical scenario to illustrate how a GP might demonstrate these competencies in their routine daily work. We have proposed a real-world EBM competency framework for general practice, derived from empirical research, which acknowledges the constraints encountered in modern general practice. Further validation of these competencies is required, both as an educational resource and as a strategy for actual practice.

Virtual reality in the rehabilitation of people with intellectual disabilities: review.

PubMed

Standen, Penny J; Brown, David J

2005-06-01

Virtual reality (VR) possesses many qualities that give it rehabilitative potential for people with intellectual disabilities, both as an intervention and an assessment. It can provide a safe setting in which to practice skills that might carry too many risks in the real world. Unlike human tutors, computers are infinitely patient and consistent. Virtual worlds can be manipulated in ways the real world cannot be and can convey concepts without the use of language or other symbol systems. Published applications for this client group have all been as rehabilitative interventions. These are described in three groups: promoting skills for independent living, enhancing cognitive performance, and improving social skills. Five groups of studies are reviewed that utilize virtual technology to promote skills for independent living: grocery shopping, preparing food, orientation, road safety, and manufacturing skills. Fears that skills or habits learnt in a virtual setting would not transfer to the real world setting have not been supported by the available evidence, apart from those studies with people with autistic spectrum disorders. Future directions are in the development of more applications for independent living skills, exploring interventions for promoting motor and cognitive skills, and the developments of ecologically valid forms of assessment.

The Leading Edge: A Career Development Workshop Series for Young Adults. Participant Workbook.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canadian Career Development Foundation, Ottawa (Ontario).

This booklet is designed for participants in "The Leading Edge: A Career Development Workshop Series for Young Adults." It provides the 27 participant handouts for the six workshops in the series. The first in the series, "Setting the Stage: The Changing World of Work," is a workshop to clarify what is occurring in the world of…

The Development of a Small-World Network of Higher Education Students, Using a Large-Group Problem-Solving Method

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sousa, Fernando Cardoso; Monteiro, Ileana Pardal; Pellissier, René

2014-01-01

This article presents the development of a small-world network using an adapted version of the large-group problem-solving method "Future Search." Two management classes in a higher education setting were selected and required to plan a project. The students completed a survey focused on the frequency of communications before and after…

Less Developed Countries (LDCs) Facing Higher Education Curricula Reform Challenges in a "New World (Dis)Order"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilder, Eric

2011-01-01

In a previous article for "EJHE," I detailed Curricula Reform (CR) efforts in Higher Education (HE) in four (relatively) well developed regional and national settings (The EU, the USA, Hong Kong SAR China, and Singapore). I detailed the backdrop motivating the moves by policymakers to reform the curricula in such "world class"…

The Need for Integration of Technology in K-12 School Settings in Kenya, Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Momanyi, Lilian; Norby, RenaFaye; Strand, Sharon

2006-01-01

Many computer users around the world have access to the latest advances in technology and use of the World Wide Web (WWW or Web). However, for a variety of political, economic, and social reasons, some peoples of the world do not have access to these resources. The educational systems of developing countries have not completely missed the…

Motivation in Cross-Cultural Settings: A Papua New Guinea Psychometric Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Genevieve F.; O'Mara, Alison J.; McInerney, Dennis M.; Dowson, Martin

2006-01-01

There is a paucity of research on motivation and education in developing countries. Although psychological constructs relating to academic engagement and achievement have been identified and researched in a number of cross-cultural settings this body of research has rarely been extended to the developing world. The processes by which students from…

Plundering the poor: the role of the World Bank in the Third World.

PubMed

Feder, E

1983-01-01

The World Bank, the most important so-called development assistance agency, annually dispenses billions of dollars to Third World governments, ostensibly to "develop" their economics through a variety of loan projects. But even a superficial analysis reveals that the Bank is the perfect mechanism to help (i.e., subsidize) the large transnational corporations from the industrial countries to expand their industrial, commercial, and financial activities in the Third World, at the expense of the latter and particularly at the expense of the rural and urban proletariat. This article discusses Cheryl Payer's recent book, The World Bank: A Critical Analysis, in which she analyzes the Bank's role in the Third World and sets forth the major reasons why poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, as well as unemployment, and all the adverse social phenomena associated with them, are on the increase.

UN Global Action Programme and Education for Sustainable Development: A Critical Appraisal of the Evidence Base

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fischer, Daniel; Aubrecht, Elisabeth Lena; Brück, Maria; Ditges, Laura; Gathen, Lea; Jahns, Maximilian; Petersmann, Moritz; Rau, Jörn; Wellmann, Christiane

2015-01-01

The United Nations (UN) proclaimed the years 2005 to 2014 the World Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). As a follow up on the World Decade, the UN launched a Global Action Programme (GAP) that is designed to set the framework for international activities on ESD. The GAP focuses on five priority areas that are of high relevance…

Business Not as Usual: Developing Socially Conscious Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parris, Denise Linda; McInnis-Bowers, Cecilia

2017-01-01

Our objective was to design an introductory business course to shape the mind-sets and skill sets of the next generation of socially conscious practitioners--to help students develop a sense of self-efficacy built on the confidence that they can make a positive impact on the world using entrepreneurial thinking and action. Essentially, the focus…

Standard Setting Lessons Learned in the South African Context: Implications for International Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pitoniak, Mary J.; Yeld, Nan

2013-01-01

Criterion-referenced assessments have become more common around the world, with performance standards being set to differentiate different levels of student performance. However, use of standard setting methods developed in the United States may be complicated by factors related to the political and educational contexts within another country. In…

The Inter-Life project: researching the potential of art, design and virtual worlds as a vehicle for assisting young people with key life changes and transitions.

PubMed

Lally, Victor; Sclater, Madeleine

2013-06-01

Careers work in the twenty-first century faces a key challenge in terms of digital technologies: to evaluate their potential for careers work in challenging settings. Given the rapidity of developments, technologies require evaluation in research innovations and naturalistic settings. Virtual worlds offer potential for careers and guidance work, and the therapeutic domain. To illustrate this, we present examples in which young people explore their feelings and ideas, plans and difficulties, while preparing for film-making. During this they develop important life transition skills. We argue that the power of virtual worlds - to support emotional and cognitive engagement - could be utilised in practice settings. We conclude that they are serious candidates as digital tools in the careers and guidance domain. We need intermediate runaway objects which are less spectacular and more inviting… bringing together the big and the small, the impossible and the possible, the future-oriented activity level vision and the here and now consequential action. (Engeström, 2009, p. 305 and p. 328).

The Inter-Life project: researching the potential of art, design and virtual worlds as a vehicle for assisting young people with key life changes and transitions

PubMed Central

Lally, Victor; Sclater, Madeleine

2013-01-01

Careers work in the twenty-first century faces a key challenge in terms of digital technologies: to evaluate their potential for careers work in challenging settings. Given the rapidity of developments, technologies require evaluation in research innovations and naturalistic settings. Virtual worlds offer potential for careers and guidance work, and the therapeutic domain. To illustrate this, we present examples in which young people explore their feelings and ideas, plans and difficulties, while preparing for film-making. During this they develop important life transition skills. We argue that the power of virtual worlds – to support emotional and cognitive engagement – could be utilised in practice settings. We conclude that they are serious candidates as digital tools in the careers and guidance domain. We need intermediate runaway objects which are less spectacular and more inviting… bringing together the big and the small, the impossible and the possible, the future-oriented activity level vision and the here and now consequential action. (Engeström, 2009, p. 305 and p. 328) PMID:24009408

DEVELOPING A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF REAL-WORLD AUTOMOBILE EMISSIONS

EPA Science Inventory

Emission inventories are needed by EPA for air dispersion modeling, regional strategy development, regulation setting, air toxics risk assessment, and trend tracking. Therefore, it is extremely important that inventories be accurate and be updated frequently. The development an...

ICH: an exclusive club of drug regulatory agencies and drug companies imposing its rules on the rest of the world.

PubMed

2010-08-01

Under the pretext of harmonising regulatory requirements for marketing authorisation of new drugs, the drug regulatory agencies of the world's wealthiest countries and three pharmaceutical industry trade associations, joined together since 1990 in the ICH, are promoting their own interests by imposing their criteria for evaluating drugs on the whole world. The toxicity standards advocated by ICH sometimes promote faster, cheaper drug development over patient protection. The drug quality standards advocated by ICH sometimes increase manufacturing costs without providing any public health benefit. It would be preferable if the World Health Organization were in charge of setting standards for drug development, focusing on patients' interests.

The IAU Office of Astronomy Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mauduit, Jean-Christophe; Govender, K.

2014-01-01

The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the largest body of professional astronomers in the world, has set up the Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) in partnership with the South African National Research Foundation (NRF). The OAD is located at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Cape Town. Its mission is to realise the IAU's Strategic Plan, which aims to use astronomy as a tool for development. It focuses on the following three main areas: "Universities and Research", "Children and Schools" and "Public Outreach". Eighteen projects worldwide have been funded for 2013 and are currently under way. More will be starting in 2014. The OAD is also setting up regional nodes and language expertise centres around the world. This presentation will describe the ongoing activities of the OAD and plans for the future.

Critical care in resource-poor settings: lessons learned and future directions.

PubMed

Riviello, Elisabeth D; Letchford, Stephen; Achieng, Loice; Newton, Mark W

2011-04-01

Critical care faces the same challenges as other aspects of healthcare in the developing world. However, critical care faces an additional challenge in that it has often been deemed too costly or complicated for resource-poor settings. This lack of prioritization is not justified. Hospital care for the sickest patients affects overall mortality, and public health interventions depend on community confidence in healthcare to ensure participation and adherence. Some of the most effective critical care interventions, including rapid fluid resuscitation, early antibiotics, and patient monitoring, are relatively inexpensive. Although cost-effectiveness studies on critical care in resource-poor settings have not been done, evidence from the surgical literature suggests that even resource-intensive interventions can be cost effective in comparison to immunizations and human immunodeficiency virus care. In the developing world, where many critically ill patients are younger and have fewer comorbidities, critical care presents a remarkable opportunity to provide significant incremental benefit, arguably much more so than in the developed world. Key areas of consideration in developing critical care in resource-poor settings include: Personnel and training, equipment and support services, ethics, and research. Strategies for training and retaining skilled labor include tying education to service commitment and developing protocols for even complex processes. Equipment and support services need to focus on technologies that are affordable and sustainable. Ethical decision making must be based on data when possible and on transparent articulated policies always. Research should be performed in resource-poor settings and focus on needs assessment, prognostication, and cost effectiveness. The development of critical care in resource-poor settings will rely on the stepwise introduction of service improvements, leveraging human resources through training, a focus on sustainable technology, ongoing analysis of cost effectiveness, and the sharing of context-specific best practices. Although prevention, public health, and disease-specific agendas dominate many current conversations in global health, this is nonetheless a time ripe for the development of critical care. Leaders in global health funding hope to improve quality and length of life. Critical care is an integral part of the continuum of care necessary to make that possible.

Virtual Worlds, Virtual Literacy: An Educational Exploration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stoerger, Sharon

2008-01-01

Virtual worlds enable students to learn through seeing, knowing, and doing within visually rich and mentally engaging spaces. Rather than reading about events, students become part of the events through the adoption of a pre-set persona. Along with visual feedback that guides the players' activities and the development of visual skills, visual…

Tikkun Olam: A Model for Healing the World.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berman, Dene S.; Davis-Berman, Jennifer

1999-01-01

Discusses Tikkun Olam--the Jewish tenet of healing the world through individual good deeds--and its applicability to the practice of adventure therapy. Focuses on the therapeutic relationship, as it develops in group settings, and the role of adventure leaders and therapists in nourishing such relationships to provide a vehicle for healing or…

Machinima Interventions: Innovative Approaches to Immersive Virtual World Curriculum Integration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Middleton, Andrew John; Mather, Richard

2008-01-01

The educational value of Immersive Virtual Worlds (IVWs) seems to be in their social immersive qualities and as an accessible simulation technology. In contrast to these synchronous applications this paper discusses the use of educational machinima developed in IVW virtual film sets. It also introduces the concept of media intervention, proposing…

Why Can't I Play Here? The Classroom: A World in Miniature. Instructional Activities Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Witthuhn, Burton O.

Third in the elementary set of teacher-developed instructional activities for teaching geography, this activity investigates spatial allocation through discussion and observation of classroom arrangements. Classroom space allocated for the teacher's desk, aisles, study area, and trash cans illustrates real-world locational concepts of geography…

Economic Crisis and Inequality of Educational Opportunity in Latin America

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torche, Florencia

2010-01-01

Research in the industrialized world shows that the influence of family background on educational attainment has remained stable or declined over time. In contrast, very little is known about the developing world. Using high-quality data sets and a standard protocol, this article offers a comparative analysis of trends in educational…

Man in a Changing World.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fairfax County Schools, VA.

The sixth level of the social studies curriculum (Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia), "Man in a Changing World," is designed to maintain a balance between the study of concepts and the development of inquiry skills. Emphasis is given to the role of individual man in several social settings, past and present, Western and non-Western. The…

Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World): Handbook for Volunteers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peace Corps, Washington, DC. Information Collection and Exchange Div.

Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) began in Romania in 1995 as a weeklong leadership camp with the purpose of encouraging young women to become active citizens by building their self-esteem and confidence, increasing their self-awareness, and developing their skills in goal-setting, assertiveness, and career and life planning. Since that first…

Perils of using speed zone data to assess real-world compliance to speed limits.

PubMed

Chevalier, Anna; Clarke, Elizabeth; Chevalier, Aran John; Brown, Julie; Coxon, Kristy; Ivers, Rebecca; Keay, Lisa

2017-11-17

Real-world driving studies, including those involving speeding alert devices and autonomous vehicles, can gauge an individual vehicle's speeding behavior by comparing measured speed with mapped speed zone data. However, there are complexities with developing and maintaining a database of mapped speed zones over a large geographic area that may lead to inaccuracies within the data set. When this approach is applied to large-scale real-world driving data or speeding alert device data to determine speeding behavior, these inaccuracies may result in invalid identification of speeding. We investigated speeding events based on service provider speed zone data. We compared service provider speed zone data (Speed Alert by Smart Car Technologies Pty Ltd., Ultimo, NSW, Australia) against a second set of speed zone data (Google Maps Application Programming Interface [API] mapped speed zones). We found a systematic error in the zones where speed limits of 50-60 km/h, typical of local roads, were allocated to high-speed motorways, which produced false speed limits in the speed zone database. The result was detection of false-positive high-range speeding. Through comparison of the service provider speed zone data against a second set of speed zone data, we were able to identify and eliminate data most affected by this systematic error, thereby establishing a data set of speeding events with a high level of sensitivity (a true positive rate of 92% or 6,412/6,960). Mapped speed zones can be a source of error in real-world driving when examining vehicle speed. We explored the types of inaccuracies found within speed zone data and recommend that a second set of speed zone data be utilized when investigating speeding behavior or developing mapped speed zone data to minimize inaccuracy in estimates of speeding.

Motivating teachers in the developing world: Insights from research with English language teachers in Oman

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wyatt, Mark

2013-07-01

According to some commentators, targets set by the international community for bringing education to all children in developing countries are threatened by a teacher motivation crisis. For this crisis to be addressed, challenges to the motivation of teachers in such contexts need to be understood from perspectives both theoretical and comparative. Thus an analysis is required of the changes that have taken place particularly in countries whose education systems have developed rapidly in recent decades. Case studies of motivated teacher behaviour in such national contexts might be of relevance to educational reformers. Drawing upon the tenets of self-determination theory (SDT), this article begins by discussing the nature of the reported teacher motivation crisis in the developing world more generally. It then focuses on the Sultanate of Oman, highlighting recent historical developments there. Having thus set the scene, the author considers the extent to which negative environmental influences on teacher motivation in Oman have been addressed and then looks for evidence of intrinsic motivation in case studies of Omani English teachers. Returning to the developing world more generally, conclusions focus on how teachers' psychological needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness can be met through educational policies that reduce negative influences on teacher motivation and provide both inspiring professional development opportunities and work environments characterised by respect.

The use of gaming strategies in a transcultural setting.

PubMed

Gary, R; Marrone, S; Boyles, C

1998-01-01

Saudi Arabia's vast economic resources have enabled the development of state-of-the-art hospitals. Nurses recruited from around the world staff these hospitals creating one of the most multicultural practice settings in the world. Ethnic, educational, and experiential diversity; language and communication barriers; and alternative ways of knowing and learning challenge nurse educators to be more creative and explore opportunities for greater participation and learning among various cultural groups. Gaming, as a teaching-learning strategy for multicultural participants, affords the necessary flexibility and nonthreatening atmosphere which facilitates positive interactions among different, and often competing, communication patterns and learning styles. This article explores how and why gaming is as an effective educational strategy in a transcultural setting.

The Impact on Education of the World Wide Web.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hobbs, D. J.; Taylor, R. J.

This paper describes a project which created a set of World Wide Web (WWW) pages documenting the state of the art in educational multimedia design; a prototype WWW-based multimedia teaching tool--a podiatry test using HTML forms, 24-bit color images and MPEG video--was also designed, developed, and evaluated. The project was conducted between…

Attacking Poverty. World Development Report, 2000/2001.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

World Bank, Washington, DC.

This report seeks to expand the understanding of poverty and its causes and sets out actions to create to create a world free of poverty in all its dimensions. The report both builds on past thinking and strategy and substantially broadens and deepens what is judged to be necessary to meet the challenge of reducing poverty. It argues that major…

For the Birds!: Seeing, Being, and Creating the Bird World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russo, Michele

2008-01-01

Nature studies are an often overlooked part of healthy child development. Living in urban or suburban areas can present a big obstacle to studying the natural world with any authenticity or depth. Quite often, the only sense of nature children have is from picture books, stuffed animals, play sets, and nature programs on television and in…

JPRS Report, Soviet Union, World Economy & International Relations, No. 3, March 1987

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-06-15

Efficiency Promotion in Industry (pp 28-40) (E. Vilkhovchenko) (not translated) •Star Wars ’ and Washington’s Allies Western Europe on SDI (pp 41-48) (G...sets of complex problems. The first is the problem S war and peace, pollution of environment and the socio-economic gap between industrially...developed capitalist countries and the developing world. The second -has taken shape as a result of the evolution of state-monopolistic capitalism and

Prioritizing vaccines for developing world diseases.

PubMed

Saul, Allan; O'Brien, Katherine L

2017-01-20

A major disparity in the burden of health will need to be addressed to achieve the "Grand Convergence" by 2035. In particular people living in low and middle income countries have a much higher burden of infectious diseases. Although vaccines have been very effective in reducing the global burden of infectious disease, there are no registered vaccines to address 60% of the current burden of infectious disease, especially in developing countries. Thus there is a pressing need for new vaccines and for prioritizing vaccine development given that resources for developing new vaccines are strictly limited. As part of the GLOBAL HEALTH 2035: Mission Grand Convergence meeting one working group assessed the SMART vaccine algorithm as a mechanism for prioritizing vaccine development for diseases of priority in the developing world. In particular, the working group considered which criteria in the standard SMART set were considered "key" criteria and whether other criteria should be considered, when prioritizing vaccines for this important set of countries. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Are We on Our Way to Achieving the 2020 Goals for Schistosomiasis Morbidity Control Using Current World Health Organization Guidelines?

PubMed

Toor, Jaspreet; Alsallaq, Ramzi; Truscott, James E; Turner, Hugo C; Werkman, Marleen; Gurarie, David; King, Charles H; Anderson, Roy M

2018-06-01

Schistosomiasis remains an endemic parasitic disease affecting millions of people around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set goals of controlling morbidity to be reached by 2020, along with elimination as a public health problem in certain regions by 2025. Mathematical models of parasite transmission and treatment impact have been developed to assist in controlling the morbidity caused by schistosomiasis. These models can inform and guide implementation policy for mass drug administration programs, and help design monitoring and evaluation activities. We use these models to predict whether the guidelines set by the WHO are on track for achieving their 2020 goal for the control of morbidity, specifically for Schistosoma mansoni. We examine whether programmatic adaptations; namely increases in treatment coverage and/or expansion to adult inclusion in treatment, will improve the likelihood of reaching the WHO goals. We find that in low-prevalence settings, the goals are likely to be attainable under current WHO guidelines, but in moderate to high-prevalence settings, the goals are less likely to be achieved unless treatment coverage is increased and expanded to at least 85% for school-aged children and 40% for adults. To improve the likelihood of reaching the WHO goals, programmatic adaptations are required, particularly for moderate- to high-prevalence settings. Furthermore, improvements in adherence to treatment, potential development of candidate vaccines, and enhanced snail control and WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) measures will all assist in achieving the goals.

Modular Laboratories—Cost-Effective and Sustainable Infrastructure for Resource-Limited Settings

PubMed Central

Bridges, Daniel J.; Colborn, James; Chan, Adeline S. T.; Winters, Anna M.; Dengala, Dereje; Fornadel, Christen M.; Kosloff, Barry

2014-01-01

High-quality laboratory space to support basic science, clinical research projects, or health services is often severely lacking in the developing world. Moreover, the construction of suitable facilities using traditional methods is time-consuming, expensive, and challenging to implement. Three real world examples showing how shipping containers can be converted into modern laboratories are highlighted. These include use as an insectary, a molecular laboratory, and a BSL-3 containment laboratory. These modular conversions have a number of advantages over brick and mortar construction and provide a cost-effective and timely solution to offer high-quality, user-friendly laboratory space applicable within the developing world. PMID:25223943

World Ocean Circulation Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clarke, R. Allyn

1992-01-01

The oceans are an equal partner with the atmosphere in the global climate system. The World Ocean Circulation Experiment is presently being implemented to improve ocean models that are useful for climate prediction both by encouraging more model development but more importantly by providing quality data sets that can be used to force or to validate such models. WOCE is the first oceanographic experiment that plans to generate and to use multiparameter global ocean data sets. In order for WOCE to succeed, oceanographers must establish and learn to use more effective methods of assembling, quality controlling, manipulating and distributing oceanographic data.

Priority setting in guideline development: article 2 in Integrating and coordinating efforts in COPD guideline development. An official ATS/ERS workshop report.

PubMed

Atkins, David; Perez-Padilla, Rogelio; Macnee, William; Buist, A Sonia; Cruz, Alvaro A

2012-12-01

Professional societies, like many other organizations around the world, have recognized the need to use more rigorous processes to ensure that health care recommendations are informed by the best available research evidence. Priority setting is an essential component of developing clinical practice guidelines informed by the best available research evidence. It ensures that resources and attention are devoted to those areas in which clinical recommendations will provide the greatest benefit to patients, clinicians, and policy makers. This is the second of a series of 14 articles that methodologists and researchers from around the world prepared to advise guideline developers in respiratory and other diseases. This review focuses on priority setting, addressing five key questions. In this review, we addressed the following questions. (1) At which steps of guideline development should priorities be considered? (2) How do we create an initial list of potential topics within the guideline? (3) What criteria should be used to establish priorities? (4) What parties should be involved and what processes should be used to set priorities? (5)What are the potential challenges of setting priorities? We updated an existing review on priority setting, and searched PubMed and other databases of methodological studies for existing systematic reviews and relevant methodological research. We did not conduct systematic reviews ourselves. Our conclusions are based on available evidence, our own experience working with guideline developers, and workshop discussions. Existing literature on priority setting largely applies to identifying priorities for which guidelines to develop rather than setting priorities for recommendations within a guideline. Nonetheless, there is substantial consensus about the general factors that should be considered in setting priorities. These include the burdens and costs of illness, potential impact of a recommendation, identified deficits or weak points in practice, variation or uncertainty in practice, and availability of evidence. The input of a variety of stakeholders is useful in setting priorities, although informal consultation is used more often than formal methods. Processes for setting priorities remains poorly described in most guidelines.

Technical details in the structural development of Rohrbach seaplanes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mathias, Gotthold; Holzapfel, Adolf

1929-01-01

The recent trial flights and acceptance tests of the Rohrbach "Romar," the largest seaplane in the world, have yielded results fully confirming the principles followed in its development. Its take-off weight of 19,000 kg, its beating the world record for raising the greatest useful load to 2000 m by almost 2500 kg and its remarkable showing in the seaworthiness tests are the results of intelligent researches, the guiding principles of which are briefly set forth in this article.

Managing Ethical Challenges to Mental Health Research in Post-Conflict Settings.

PubMed

Chiumento, Anna; Khan, Muhammad Naseem; Rahman, Atif; Frith, Lucy

2016-04-01

Recently the World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted the need to strengthen mental health systems following emergencies, including natural and manmade disasters. Mental health services need to be informed by culturally attuned evidence that is developed through research. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish rigorous ethical research practice to underpin the evidence-base for mental health services delivered during and following emergencies. © 2015 The Authors. Developing World Bioethics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Management of intellectual property rights in India: An updated review

PubMed Central

Tiwari, R.; Tiwari, G.; Rai, A. K.; Srivastawa, Birendra

2011-01-01

The World Trade Organization's agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights set global minimum standards for the protection of intellectual property, substantially increasing and expanding intellectual property rights, and generated clear gains for the pharmaceutical industry and the developed world. The present review elaborates all aspects of Intellectual Property Rights in detail, along with their protection criteria. PMID:22470229

Taking Brief Strategic Family Therapy from Bench to Trench: Evidence Generation Across Translational Phases.

PubMed

Horigian, Viviana E; Anderson, Austen R; Szapocznik, José

2016-09-01

In this article, we review the research evidence generated over 40 years on Brief Strategic Family Therapy illustrating the NIH stages of intervention development and highlighting the translational process. Basic research (Stage 0) led to the discovery of the characteristics of the population and the nature of the problems that needed to be addressed. This step informed the selection of an intervention model that addressed the problems presented by the population, but in a fashion that was congruent with the population's culture, defined in terms of its value orientations. From this basic research, an intervention that integrated structural and strategic elements was selected and refined through testing (Stage I). The second stage of translation (Stage II) included efficacy trials of a specialized engagement module that responded to challenges to the provision of services. It also included several other efficacy trials that documented the effects of the intervention, mostly in research settings or with research therapists. Stages III/IV in the translational process led to the testing of the effectiveness of the intervention in real-world settings with community therapists and some oversight from the developer. This work revealed that an implementation/organizational intervention was required to achieve fidelity and sustainability of the intervention in real-world settings. The work is currently in Stage V in which new model development led to an implementation intervention that can ensure fidelity and sustainability. Future research will evaluate the effectiveness of the current implementation model in increasing adoption, fidelity, and long-term sustainability in real-world settings. © 2016 Family Process Institute.

Breast health in developing countries.

PubMed

Yip, C H; Taib, N A

2014-12-01

Breast cancer is one of the leading cancers world-wide. While the incidence in developing countries is lower than in developed countries, the mortality is much higher. Of the estimated 1 600 000 new cases of breast cancer globally in 2012, 794 000 were in the more developed world compared to 883 000 in the less developed world; however, there were 198 000 deaths in the more developed world compared to 324 000 in the less developed world (data from Globocan 2012, IARC). Survival from breast cancer depends on two main factors--early detection and optimal treatment. In developing countries, women present with late stages of disease. The barriers to early detection are physical, such as geographical isolation, financial as well as psychosocial, including lack of education, belief in traditional medicine and lack of autonomous decision-making in the male-dominated societies that prevail in the developing world. There are virtually no population-based breast cancer screening programs in developing countries. However, before any screening program can be implemented, there must be facilities to treat the cancers that are detected. Inadequate access to optimal treatment of breast cancer remains a problem. Lack of specialist manpower, facilities and anticancer drugs contribute to the suboptimal care that a woman with breast cancer in a low-income country receives. International groups such as the Breast Health Global Initiative were set up to develop economically feasible, clinical practice guidelines for breast cancer management to improve breast health outcomes in countries with limited resources.

Militant Extremist Mind-Set: Proviolence, Vile World, and Divine Power

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stankov, Lazar; Saucier, Gerard; Knezevic, Goran

2010-01-01

In the present article, the authors report on the development of a scale for the measurement of the militant extremist mind-set. A previous pilot study identified 56 statements selected from writings of various terrorist groups as well as from psychological, historical, and political texts on terrorism. These statements, together with measures of…

Pittsburgh Science Technology Society Project: Instruction Modules. Interrelationships Science--Technology--Society.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Brien, George, Ed.

This collection of instruction modules studies the interactions of science, technology, and society (STS) using five activity sets. The introduction module includes activities which show students the STS relationships in their world, develop good organizational skills, develop an understanding of who and what a scientist is, develop graphing…

Cultural Awareness and Competency Development in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leavitt, Lynda, Ed.; Wisdom, Sherrie, Ed.; Leavitt, Kelly, Ed.

2017-01-01

As the world becomes more globalized, student populations in university settings will continue to grow in diversity. To ensure students develop the cultural competence to adapt to new environments, universities and colleges must develop policies and programs to aid in the progression of cultural acceptance and understanding. "Cultural…

Teaching for Global Competence in a Rapidly Changing World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colvin, Richard Lee; Edwards, Virginia

2018-01-01

This new publication sets forward the PISA framework for global competence developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which aligns closely with the definition developed by the Center for Global Education at Asia Society. Based on the Center's extensive experience supporting educators in integrating global…

Hit and lead criteria in drug discovery for infectious diseases of the developing world.

PubMed

Katsuno, Kei; Burrows, Jeremy N; Duncan, Ken; Hooft van Huijsduijnen, Rob; Kaneko, Takushi; Kita, Kiyoshi; Mowbray, Charles E; Schmatz, Dennis; Warner, Peter; Slingsby, B T

2015-11-01

Reducing the burden of infectious diseases that affect people in the developing world requires sustained collaborative drug discovery efforts. The quality of the chemical starting points for such projects is a key factor in improving the likelihood of clinical success, and so it is important to set clear go/no-go criteria for the progression of hit and lead compounds. With this in mind, the Japanese Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund convened with experts from the Medicines for Malaria Venture, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative and the TB Alliance, together with representatives from the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, to set disease-specific criteria for hits and leads for malaria, tuberculosis, visceral leishmaniasis and Chagas disease. Here, we present the agreed criteria and discuss the underlying rationale.

The environment becomes a political issue. Highlights of the Brundtland Commission Report.

PubMed

1988-03-01

The Report of the Brundtland Commission (World Commission on Environment and Development) has been released by the UN. The Report points out that environmental survival requires development and development is only possible if the resources of the global environment are conserved. Although the UN and the World Bank must make commitments to development, each nation must devise its own strategy because development is inextricably linked to political, economic, and social factors such as poverty, overpopulation and the status of women. The Report makes 3 specific recommendations: 1) An independent body should be set up to assess global risks; 2) A universal declaration on environment and development should be made and followed by a convention; and 3) The UN General Assembly should set up a UN Program on Sustainable Development. The highest priority should be given to finding alternatives to nuclear energy as well as making the use of nuclear energy safer. Other major environmental problems include desertification, acid rain, the "greenhouse effect" and its impact on global climate and sea levels, and the destruction of the ozone layer with concomitant increase in cancer.

Changing practice: implications of the World Report on Disability for responding to communication disability in under-served populations.

PubMed

Wylie, Karen; McAllister, Lindy; Davidson, Bronwyn; Marshall, Julie

2013-02-01

The World Report on Disability provides a major challenge to the conceptualization and delivery of services for people with communication disabilities around the world. Many people, in both Majority and Minority World countries, receive limited or no support in relation to their communication disability. In this paper the prevalence of communication disability across the world (and the challenges to obtaining these data) are discussed, particularly in relation to disability more broadly. Populations that are under-served by speech-language pathology services in both Majority and Minority World countries are described. The paper describes organizational change theory and the potential it has, together with a biopsychosocial model of disability, to assist in understanding and influencing development of relevant services for people with communication disabilities (PWCD), particularly those who are under-served. Aspects of, and influences on, service delivery for PWCD are described. The need for novel ways of conceptualizing development of services, including population-based approaches, is highlighted. Finally, the challenges and opportunities for PWCD and for speech-language pathologists which arise from the nine recommendations of the World Report on Disability are considered and readers are encouraged to consider new and novel ways of developing equitable services for people with communication disabilities, in both majority and minority world settings.

Global pharmaceutical regulation: the challenge of integration for developing states.

PubMed

Pezzola, Anthony; Sweet, Cassandra M

2016-12-20

This paper has set out to map the state of pharmaceutical regulation in the developing world through the construction of cross-national indices drawing from World Health Organization data. The last two decades have been characterized by deep changes for the pharmaceutical sector, including the complete transformation of intellectual property systems at the behest of the World Trade Organization and the consolidation of global active ingredient suppliers in China and India. Although the rules for ownership of medicine have been set and globally implemented, we know surprisingly little about how the standards for market entrance and regulation of pharmaceutical products have changed at the national level. How standardized are national pharmaceutical market systems? Do we find homogeneity or variation across the developing world? Are their patterns for understanding why some countries have moved closer to one global norm for pharmaceutical regulation and others have developed hybrid models for oversight of this sector? Access to medicine is a core tool in public health. This paper gauges the levels of standards in public and private generics markets for developing countries building on national-level pharmaceutical market surveys for 78 countries to offer three indicators of market oversight: State Regulatory Infrastructure, Monitoring the Private Market and Public Quality Control. Identifying the different variables that affect a state's institutional capacity and current standard level offers new insights to the state of pharmaceuticals in the developing world. It is notable that there are very few (none at the time of this paper) studies that map out the new global terrain for pharmaceutical regulation in the post-TRIPS context. This paper uses item response theory to develop original indicators of pharmaceutical regulation. We find remarkable resistance to the implementation of global pharmaceutical norms for quality standards in developing states and in regulatory infrastructure. Human capacity across many developing countries remains limited. Most notably, variation among states is stark. Countries that have been leaders in establishing global norms do not appear to have influenced their neighbors in establishing regional patterns. Finally, in contrast to traditional theories of international norms diffusion, global standard-setters such as the United States or European Union appear to have surprisingly little influence on standard setting across our survey. Our research has implications for the framing of technical support on public health initiatives aimed at strengthening local public institutions in medicine and offers a new methodological approach for analyzing drug regulation systems in developing countries.

Modular laboratories--cost-effective and sustainable infrastructure for resource-limited settings.

PubMed

Bridges, Daniel J; Colborn, James; Chan, Adeline S T; Winters, Anna M; Dengala, Dereje; Fornadel, Christen M; Kosloff, Barry

2014-12-01

High-quality laboratory space to support basic science, clinical research projects, or health services is often severely lacking in the developing world. Moreover, the construction of suitable facilities using traditional methods is time-consuming, expensive, and challenging to implement. Three real world examples showing how shipping containers can be converted into modern laboratories are highlighted. These include use as an insectary, a molecular laboratory, and a BSL-3 containment laboratory. These modular conversions have a number of advantages over brick and mortar construction and provide a cost-effective and timely solution to offer high-quality, user-friendly laboratory space applicable within the developing world. © The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Air quality in developing world disaster and conflict zones--the case of post-earthquake Haiti.

PubMed

Davis, Mary E; Rappaport, Ann

2014-10-15

Data on air quality are remarkably limited in the poorest of the world's countries. This is especially true for post-conflict and disaster zones, where international relief efforts focus largely on more salient public health challenges such as water and sanitation, infectious diseases, and housing. Using post-earthquake Haiti as the example case, this commentary explores air quality challenges in the developing world, highlighting concerns related to infrastructure damage from post-conflict and disaster settings. We contend that there is a growing and presently unmet need for further research and attention from the global health community to address these issues. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Critical analysis of e-health readiness assessment frameworks: suitability for application in developing countries.

PubMed

Mauco, Kabelo Leonard; Scott, Richard E; Mars, Maurice

2018-02-01

Introduction e-Health is an innovative way to make health services more effective and efficient and application is increasing worldwide. e-Health represents a substantial ICT investment and its failure usually results in substantial losses in time, money (including opportunity costs) and effort. Therefore it is important to assess e-health readiness prior to implementation. Several frameworks have been published on e-health readiness assessment, under various circumstances and geographical regions of the world. However, their utility for the developing world is unknown. Methods A literature review and analysis of published e-health readiness assessment frameworks or models was performed to determine if any are appropriate for broad assessment of e-health readiness in the developing world. A total of 13 papers described e-health readiness in different settings. Results and Discussion Eight types of e-health readiness were identified and no paper directly addressed all of these. The frameworks were based upon varying assumptions and perspectives. There was no underlying unifying theory underpinning the frameworks. Few assessed government and societal readiness, and none cultural readiness; all are important in the developing world. While the shortcomings of existing frameworks have been highlighted, most contain aspects that are relevant and can be drawn on when developing a framework and assessment tools for the developing world. What emerged is the need to develop different assessment tools for the various stakeholder sectors. This is an area that needs further research before attempting to develop a more generic framework for the developing world.

Migrants' dreams and planners' nightmares: international labour migration in the Arab world and the growth of two sets of cities.

PubMed

Findlay, A M

1985-11-01

"The author investigates how trends in international labour migration in the Arab world have been paralleled by new directions in migration research....[She] seeks to evaluate why the urban impact of international migration is so great and outlines the considerable potential which exists for pursuing research on this aspect of urban development." excerpt

Integrated care as a means to improve primary care delivery for adults and adolescents in the developing world: a critical analysis of Integrated Management of Adolescent and Adult Illness (IMAI).

PubMed

Vasan, Ashwin; Ellner, Andrew; Lawn, Stephen D; Gove, Sandy; Anatole, Manzi; Gupta, Neil; Drobac, Peter; Nicholson, Tom; Seung, Kwonjune; Mabey, David C; Farmer, Paul E

2014-01-14

More than three decades after the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata enshrined the goal of 'health for all', high-quality primary care services remain undelivered to the great majority of the world's poor. This failure to effectively reach the most vulnerable populations has been, in part, a failure to develop and implement appropriate and effective primary care delivery models. This paper examines a root cause of these failures, namely that the inability to achieve clear and practical consensus around the scope and aims of primary care may be contributing to ongoing operational inertia. The present work also examines integrated models of care as a strategy to move beyond conceptual dissonance in primary care and toward implementation. Finally, this paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of a particular model, the World Health Organization's Integrated Management of Adolescent and Adult Illness (IMAI), and its potential as a guidepost toward improving the quality of primary care delivery in poor settings. Integration and integrated care may be an important approach in establishing a new paradigm of primary care delivery, though overall, current evidence is mixed. However, a number of successful specific examples illustrate the potential for clinical and service integration to positively impact patient care in primary care settings. One example deserving of further examination is the IMAI, developed by the World Health Organization as an operational model that integrates discrete vertical interventions into a comprehensive delivery system encompassing triage and screening, basic acute and chronic disease care, basic prevention and treatment services, and follow-up and referral guidelines. IMAI is an integrated model delivered at a single point-of-care using a standard approach to each patient based on the universal patient history and physical examination. The evidence base on IMAI is currently weak, but whether or not IMAI itself ultimately proves useful in advancing primary care delivery, it is these principles that should serve as the basis for developing a standard of integrated primary care delivery for adults and adolescents that can serve as the foundation for ongoing quality improvement. As integrated primary care is the standard of care in the developed world, so too must we move toward implementing integrated models of primary care delivery in poorer settings. Models such as IMAI are an important first step in this evolution. A robust and sustained commitment to innovation, research and quality improvement will be required if integrated primary care delivery is to become a reality in developing world.

Fast Multiscale Algorithms for Information Representation and Fusion

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-07-01

We are also developing convenient command-line invocation tools in addition to the previously developed APIs . Various real-world data sets...This knowledge is important in geolocation applications where knowing whether a received signal is line-of-sight or not is necessary for the

Capture the Moment: Using Digital Photography in Early Childhood Settings. Research in Practice Series

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walters, Kim

2006-01-01

The Research in Practice Series has been developed to provide practical, easy to read, up-to-date information and support to a growing national readership of early childhood workers. Digital photography opens a whole new world of communication within early childhood settings, giving scope for devising more effective ways of engaging children,…

Innovative Approaches to Funding the Millennium Development Goals. OECD Development Centre Policy Brief, No. 24

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reisen, Helmut

2004-01-01

At the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, world leaders adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which set targets for reducing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women by 20151. The need for additional development funding, if the MDGs are to be achieved by 2015, is…

Learning for Development: The Commonwealth of Learning and the Millennium Development Goals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Commonwealth of Learning, 2011

2011-01-01

World leaders, meeting at the United Nations in 2000, set eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that aim to transform the condition of humankind in the 21st century. These Goals now guide the policies of governments and the priorities of development agencies. These eight goals are: (1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; (2) Achieve…

Participation in Adult Education for Community Development: A Critical Discourse Analysis of "Training for Transformation"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krupar, Allyson M.; Prins, Esther

2016-01-01

Participation has become so central to adult education for community development that even the World Bank supports participatory programming. This article analyses how participation is conceptualised in "Training for Transformation" (TfT), a Freirean-inspired curriculum used in international community development settings. TfT seeks to…

A Framework and a Methodology for Developing Authentic Constructivist e-Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zualkernan, Imran A.

2006-01-01

Semantically rich domains require operative knowledge to solve complex problems in real-world settings. These domains provide an ideal environment for developing authentic constructivist e-learning environments. In this paper we present a framework and a methodology for developing authentic learning environments for such domains. The framework is…

Digital data to support development of a pesticide management plan for the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, Sioux County, North Dakota, and Corson County, South Dakota

USGS Publications Warehouse

Schaap, Bryan D.

2004-01-01

As part of a program to support development of pesticide management plans for Indian Reservations, the U.S. Geological Survey has been working in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to make selected information available to the Tribes or in a format easier for the Tribes to use.As a result of this program, four digital data sets related to the geology or hydrology of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation were produced as part of this report. The digital data sets are based on maps published in 1982 at the 1:250,000 scale in "Geohydrology of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, North and South Dakota," U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Investigations Atlas HA-644 by L.W. Howells. The digital data sets were created by 1) scanning the appropriate map to create an image file, 2) registering the image file to real-world coordinates, 3) creating a new image file rectified to real-world coordinates, and 4) digitizing of the features of interest using the rectified image as a guide. As digital data sets, the information can be used in a geographic information system in combination with other information to help develop a pesticide management plan.

IMF, World Bank programs hinder AIDS prevention.

PubMed

Denoon, D J

1995-07-10

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank structural adjustment programs (SAPs) imposed on developing nations in the 1980s inadvertently helped set the stage for the AIDS epidemic. These programs continue to hinder efforts to prevent HIV transmission. SAPs resulted in the following phenomena which place populations at risk of HIV infection: increased rural-urban migration of cheap labor sparked by a shift to an export-oriented economy, the development of transportation infrastructures in the 1980s to support the changed economy, increased migration and urbanization, and reduced government spending upon health and social services necessitated by the SAPs. For HIV transmission in developing countries to be substantially reduced, the SAP economic policies which may have promoted disease must be modified. An alternative development strategy must satisfy basic human needs such as food, housing, and transport; shift emphasis from the production of a small number of primary commodities for export to diversified agricultural production; support marginal producers and subsistence farmers; emphasize human resource development; end the top-down approach favored by the IMF and World Bank in favor of a truly cooperative development policy; alter the charters of the IMF and World Bank to permit the cancellation or restructuring of debt; and require AIDS Impact Reports of the IMF and World Bank.

A study of navigation in virtual space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Darken, Rudy; Sibert, John L.; Shumaker, Randy

1994-01-01

In the physical world, man has developed efficient methods for navigation and orientation. These methods are dependent on the high-fidelity stimuli presented by the environment. When placed in a virtual world which cannot offer stimuli of the same quality due to computing constraints and immature technology, tasks requiring the maintenance of position and orientation knowledge become laborious. In this paper, we present a representative set of techniques based on principles of navigation derived from real world analogs including human and avian navigation behavior and cartography. A preliminary classification of virtual worlds is presented based on the size of the world, the density of objects in the world, and the level of activity taking place in the world. We also summarize an informal study we performed to determine how the tools influenced the subjects' navigation strategies and behavior. We conclude that principles extracted from real world navigation aids such as maps can be seen to apply in virtual environments.

Integrating developed and developing world knowledge into global discussions and strategies for sustainability. 1. Science and technology.

PubMed

Mihelcic, James R; Zimmerman, Julie B; Ramaswami, Anu

2007-05-15

Sustainable development in both the developed and developing world has the common fundamental themes of advancing economic and social prosperity while protecting and restoring natural systems. While many recent efforts have been undertaken to transfer knowledge from the developed to the developing world to achieve a more sustainable future, indigenous knowledge that often originates in developing nations also can contribute significantly to this global dialogue. Selected case studies are presented to describe important knowledge, methodologies, techniques, principles, and practices for sustainable development emerging from developing countries in two critical challenge areas to sustainability: water and energy. These, with additional analysis and quantification, can be adapted and expanded for transfer throughout the developed and developing world in advancing sustainability. A common theme in all of the case studies presented is the integration of natural processes and material flows into the anthropogenic system. Some of these techniques, originating in rural settings, have recently been adapted for use in cities, which is especially important as the global trend of urban population growth accelerates. Innovations in science and technology, specifically applied to two critical issues of today, water and energy, are expected to fundamentally shift the type and efficiency of energy and materials utilized to advance prosperity while protecting and restoring natural systems.

A General Theory for the Fusion of Data.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-11-01

a real sense the developing a Grand Unified Theory of the Universe. problem of how to model the real world with all of its underscore this quest 1...al (6)h,g.k+l ’ P(Qh,gk+l With Ghg,k+lr ( S ) 8 hgk P(Wg.k+l ,hi?/O); (18)(over l (17,k.(IB)9.k.] dNg’k1 The basic internodal analysis is developed ...set c l t’ bility, developed rather complicated expressions ) o -set camp emene for combining conditional objects, not realizing the s (partial

A review of traffic-related air pollution exposure assessment studies in the developing world.

PubMed

Han, Xianglu; Naeher, Luke P

2006-01-01

Exposure assessment studies in the developing world are important. Although recent years have seen an increasing number of traffic-related pollution exposure studies, exposure assessment data on this topic are still limited. Differences among measuring methods and a lack of strict quality control in carrying out exposure assessment make it difficult to generalize and compare findings between studies. In this article, exposure assessment studies carried out in the developing world on several traffic-related air pollutants are reviewed. These pollutants include particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In addition, it discusses advantages and disadvantages of various monitoring methods (ambient fixed-site monitoring, microenvironment monitoring, and personal exposure assessment using portable samplers) for these pollutants in exposure assessment studies. Also included in this paper is a brief introduction of standards for these pollutants in ambient air or in occupational settings established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The review ends with a summary of the limitations and gaps in recent studies and suggestions for future research in the developing world.

Publishing biomedical journals on the World-Wide Web using an open architecture model.

PubMed Central

Shareck, E. P.; Greenes, R. A.

1996-01-01

BACKGROUND: In many respects, biomedical publications are ideally suited for distribution via the World-Wide Web, but economic concerns have prevented the rapid adoption of an on-line publishing model. PURPOSE: We report on our experiences with assisting biomedical journals in developing an online presence, issues that were encountered, and methods used to address these issues. Our approach is based on an open architecture that fosters adaptation and interconnection of biomedical resources. METHODS: We have worked with the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), as well as five other publishers. A set of tools and protocols was employed to develop a scalable and customizable solution for publishing journals on-line. RESULTS: In March, 1996, the New England Journal of Medicine published its first World-Wide Web issue. Explorations with other publishers have helped to generalize the model. CONCLUSIONS: Economic and technical issues play a major role in developing World-Wide Web publishing solutions. PMID:8947685

The transition to formal thinking in mathematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tall, David

2008-09-01

This paper focuses on the changes in thinking involved in the transition from school mathematics to formal proof in pure mathematics at university. School mathematics is seen as a combination of visual representations, including geometry and graphs, together with symbolic calculations and manipulations. Pure mathematics in university shifts towards a formal framework of axiomatic systems and mathematical proof. In this paper, the transition in thinking is formulated within a framework of `three worlds of mathematics'- the `conceptual-embodied' world based on perception, action and thought experiment, the `proceptual-symbolic' world of calculation and algebraic manipulation compressing processes such as counting into concepts such as number, and the `axiomatic-formal' world of set-theoretic concept definitions and mathematical proof. Each `world' has its own sequence of development and its own forms of proof that may be blended together to give a rich variety of ways of thinking mathematically. This reveals mathematical thinking as a blend of differing knowledge structures; for instance, the real numbers blend together the embodied number line, symbolic decimal arithmetic and the formal theory of a complete ordered field. Theoretical constructs are introduced to describe how genetic structures set before birth enable the development of mathematical thinking, and how experiences that the individual has met before affect their personal growth. These constructs are used to consider how students negotiate the transition from school to university mathematics as embodiment and symbolism are blended with formalism. At a higher level, structure theorems proved in axiomatic theories link back to more sophisticated forms of embodiment and symbolism, revealing the intimate relationship between the three worlds.

Union Type and Depressive Symptoms among Mexican Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmeer, Kammi K.; Kroeger, Rhiannon A.

2011-01-01

Diversity in union type is increasing around the world as cohabitation and higher order unions become more prevalent in developing and developed countries. This necessitates a more nuanced understanding of how different union types relate to individual well-being across social settings. In this study, the authors analyze nationally-representative…

Development of core SSR markers for Gossypium germplasm characterization

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

A set of 105 portable DNA markers were carefully developed to provide a common basis for systematic characterization of cotton germplasm collections in the U.S. and throughout the world. The 105 PCR-based SSR markers of different origins were evenly distributed on each of the 26 cotton chromosomes ...

Techniques for Enhancing Web-Based Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barbieri, Kathy; Mehringer, Susan

The Virtual Workshop is a World Wide Web-based set of modules on high performance computing developed at the Cornell Theory Center (CTC) (New York). This approach reaches a large audience, leverages staff effort, and poses challenges for developing interesting presentation techniques. This paper describes the following techniques with their…

Self-Rated Health and Mortality: Does the Relationship Extend to a Low Income Setting?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frankenberg, Elizabeth; Jones, Nathan R.

2004-01-01

Although a relationship between poor self-reported health status and excess mortality risk has been well-established for industrialized countries, almost no research considers developing countries. We use data from Indonesia to show that in a low-income setting, as in more advantaged parts of the world, individuals who perceive their health to be…

Using Naturalistic Data to Develop Simulator Scenarios

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-11-01

The establishment of large naturalistic driver data sets, most recently the Strategic : Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2), provides unique opportunities to observe driver : behavior under real-world conditions. In order to better understand the rela...

Using Impact Bonds to Achieve Early Childhood Development Outcomes in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gustafsson-Wright, Emily; Gardiner, Sophie

2016-01-01

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, or Global Goals) and their associated targets set out by the United Nations in 2015 explicitly seek to address some of the largest challenges facing children around the world. Early Childhood Development (ECD) interventions have been found to improve adult health and education levels, reduce crime, and…

Militant extremist mind-set: Proviolence, Vile World, and Divine Power.

PubMed

Stankov, Lazar; Saucier, Gerard; Knežević, Goran

2010-03-01

In the present article, the authors report on the development of a scale for the measurement of the militant extremist mind-set. A previous pilot study identified 56 statements selected from writings of various terrorist groups as well as from psychological, historical, and political texts on terrorism. These statements, together with measures of personality, social attitudes, values, and social cynicism, were administered to participants from 9 countries (N = 2,424). A series of exploratory factor analyses of 56 statements produced 3 factors: Proviolence, Vile World, and Divine Power. Correlations of these factors with external variables indicate that Divine Power is a traditional religiosity scale, whereas Proviolence and Vile World scales cannot be accounted for by the existing psychological constructs. The distribution of scores on the Proviolence scale is skewed, indicating that the majority of participants disapprove of this attitude. The authors also present means for the countries included in the analysis. Participants from Malaysia endorse Vile World and Divine Power statements stronger than participants from other countries. The 3 Asian countries (China, Korea, and Malaysia) endorse Proviolence more strongly than countries from other parts of the world. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Concept Systems and Ontologies: Recommendations for Basic Terminology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klein, Gunnar O.; Smith, Barry

This essay concerns the problems surrounding the use of the term ``concept'' in current ontology and terminology research. It is based on the constructive dialogue between realist ontology on the one hand and the world of formal standardization of health informatics on the other, but its conclusions are not restricted to the domain of medicine. The term ``concept'' is one of the most misused even in literature and technical standards which attempt to bring clarity. In this paper we propose to use the term ``concept'' in the context of producing defined professional terminologies with one specific and consistent meaning which we propose for adoption as the agreed meaning of the term in future terminological research, and specifically in the development of formal terminologies to be used in computer systems. We also discuss and propose new definitions of a set of cognate terms. We describe the relations governing the realm of concepts, and compare these to the richer and more complex set of relations obtaining between entities in the real world. On this basis we also summarize an associated terminology for ontologies as representations of the real world and a partial mapping between the world of concepts and the world of reality.

The Vision of Students Enrolled in European Technical Universities Regarding Tomorrow'S World

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duşe, Dan-Maniu; Nemeş, Cătălin

2014-11-01

Starting from Michael Rendell and his team's "Managing tomorrow's people", this paper sets out to build a possible future of leadership in European technical universities. We can ask ourselves if European technical universities could exist in a Blue, Green and Orange World. How would they look like and how efficient would "corporate" universities be, assuming that the Blue World would prevail in the next 10 years. What should their development strategies be and what labor markets would absorb its graduates? What if universities would be in the Green or Orange World? What leaders should they have then? Starting from these questions we try to construct possible scenarios for a European reality

Development and validation of a set of six adaptable prognosis prediction (SAP) models based on time-series real-world big data analysis for patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy: A multicenter case crossover study

PubMed Central

Kanai, Masashi; Okamoto, Kazuya; Yamamoto, Yosuke; Yoshioka, Akira; Hiramoto, Shuji; Nozaki, Akira; Nishikawa, Yoshitaka; Yamaguchi, Daisuke; Tomono, Teruko; Nakatsui, Masahiko; Baba, Mika; Morita, Tatsuya; Matsumoto, Shigemi; Kuroda, Tomohiro; Okuno, Yasushi; Muto, Manabu

2017-01-01

Background We aimed to develop an adaptable prognosis prediction model that could be applied at any time point during the treatment course for patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy, by applying time-series real-world big data. Methods Between April 2004 and September 2014, 4,997 patients with cancer who had received systemic chemotherapy were registered in a prospective cohort database at the Kyoto University Hospital. Of these, 2,693 patients with a death record were eligible for inclusion and divided into training (n = 1,341) and test (n = 1,352) cohorts. In total, 3,471,521 laboratory data at 115,738 time points, representing 40 laboratory items [e.g., white blood cell counts and albumin (Alb) levels] that were monitored for 1 year before the death event were applied for constructing prognosis prediction models. All possible prediction models comprising three different items from 40 laboratory items (40C3 = 9,880) were generated in the training cohort, and the model selection was performed in the test cohort. The fitness of the selected models was externally validated in the validation cohort from three independent settings. Results A prognosis prediction model utilizing Alb, lactate dehydrogenase, and neutrophils was selected based on a strong ability to predict death events within 1–6 months and a set of six prediction models corresponding to 1,2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 months was developed. The area under the curve (AUC) ranged from 0.852 for the 1 month model to 0.713 for the 6 month model. External validation supported the performance of these models. Conclusion By applying time-series real-world big data, we successfully developed a set of six adaptable prognosis prediction models for patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy. PMID:28837592

Historic Properties Report: Stratford Army Engine Plant, Connecticut.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-07-01

aircraft, Pan American began flights to Argentina, Hawaii, and New Zealand , and by August 1934 the Sikorsky S-42 airplane had set world records for...384;or a lengthy discussion of the Corsair , see William Green, Famous Fighters of the Second World War (Garden City, New York: Doubleday), pp. 79-92...manufacture the Corsair fighter plane. Presently, the Avco Lycoming Division uses the facility to develop and manufacture gas turbine engines. There are

Children and Development in the 1990s: A UNICEF Sourcebook on the Occasion of the World Summit for Children (New York, New York, September 20-30, 1990).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Children's Fund, New York, NY.

This eight-part sourcebook provides background information, data, and references relating to child welfare issues throughout the world. The book is organized around a set of goals for children in the 1990s. An introductory section provides an overview of these goals and strategies for achieving them, and discusses infant and child mortality,…

Moral agency, moral worth and the question of double standards in medical research in developing countries.

PubMed

Tangwa, G B

2001-11-01

International regulations governing medical research, healthcare and medical practice, are, obviously, meant to be guidelines and not detailed procedural rules of thumb that can be applied unreflectively without any danger of doing moral wrong. Moreover, such regulations are meant to apply internationally, and no set of straight-jacketed rules of thumb can conceivably apply to all societies and communities of the world, extremely diverse and differently situated as they are. The mark of a good international guideline or regulation, in my view, is that it should provide a clear principle of action that applies equally to all global communities and societies without seeking to foist the particular or momentary moral dilemmas, quandaries, obsessions and preoccupations of some on all. In this paper, I propose to argue that, because moral obligations are obligations only from the point of view of a particular moral agent, we should avoid making the peculiar problems of any particular moral agent(s) the obsessive concern of all moral agents, and that we need, in particular, to make appropriate distinctions between the ethics of developed world research in the developing world, collaborative or cooperative research between the developed and developing worlds, developed world research in the developed world and developing world research in the developing world. A consequence of looking at things this way is that, while it should be clear that there are ethical concerns, imperatives and obligations at all levels, different standards may and, in fact, cannot but be applied in different contexts at different levels, without resorting to the use of double standards, which can never be morally justified. Finally, I venture to propose a formula for a solemn pledge of moral integrity and noble intent, from the perspective of the agent, that is to say, the investigator, sponsor and funder of any research, to complement and balance the widely accepted informed consent requirement, from the perspective of the patient, the subject of any biomedical research.

"Keep All Thee 'Til the End": Reclaiming the Lifeworld for Patients in the Hospice Setting.

PubMed

West, Emily; Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Bregje; Philipsen, Hans; Higginson, Irene J; Pasman, H R W

2017-01-01

St Christopher's Hospice, London, was founded to provide specialist care to the incurably ill. We studied the dimensions of difference that set St Christopher's Hospice apart from hospital care of the dying, focusing on physical space and social organization. Material from 1953 to 1980 from the Cicely Saunders Archive was analyzed qualitatively. Through thematic analysis, quotes were found and analyzed using open coding. Five themes were developed. Themes identified were home/homelike, community, consideration of others, link with outside world, and privacy. The hospice philosophy functioned as the catalyst for the development of the physical environment of St Christopher's Hospice. Taking Habermas' concept of lifeworld, it seems that, in contrast to acute care, the need for hospice to formulate their own lifeworld to support and fully engage patients was central. As lifeworlds are culture sensitive, this underlines the need for variation in design and organization of hospices around the world.

Recruitment and Retention in Rural Nursing: It's Still an Issue!

PubMed

Kulig, Judith C; Kilpatrick, Kelley; Moffitt, Pertice; Zimmer, Lela

2015-06-01

A perennial issue for rural and remote communities in Canada and in other parts of the world is access to a healthcare delivery system including healthcare personnel to provide care to their residents. In total, 18% of Canadians live in rural locations but by proportion have fewer healthcare providers compared with urban settings. Relying on a recently completed documentary analysis of published reports and grey literature on rural and remote nursing practice from Canada and around the world, we recognize that recruitment and retention will be a recurring issue. However, a variety of programs and initiatives have been developed to address this age-old problem. A discussion is provided about educational opportunities, financial incentives and enhanced infrastructure that have been developed to address recruitment and retention challenges. Ongoing evaluations of each of these areas are necessary but require cooperation across provincial and national settings. Copyright © 2015 Longwoods Publishing.

Brucellosis in low-income and middle-income countries

PubMed Central

Rubach, Matthew P.; Halliday, Jo E.B.; Cleaveland, Sarah; Crump, John A.

2014-01-01

Purpose of review Human brucellosis is a neglected, underrecognized infection of widespread geographic distribution. It causes acute febrile illness and a potentially debilitating chronic infection in humans, and livestock infection has substantial socioeconomic impact. This review describes new information regarding the epidemiology of brucellosis in the developing world and advances in diagnosis and treatment. Recent findings The highest recorded incidence of human brucellosis occurs in the Middle East and Central Asia. Fever etiology studies demonstrate brucellosis as a cause of undifferentiated febrile illness in the developing world. Brucellosis is a rare cause of fever among returning travelers, but is more common among travelers returning from the Middle East and North Africa. Sensitive and specific rapid diagnostic tests appropriate for resource-limited settings have been validated. Randomized controlled trials demonstrate that optimal treatment for human brucellosis consists of doxycycline and an aminoglycoside. Decreasing the burden of human brucellosis requires control of animal brucellosis, but evidence to inform the design of control programs in the developing world is needed. Summary Brucellosis causes substantial morbidity in human and animal populations. While improvements in diagnostic options for resource-limited settings and stronger evidence for optimal therapy should enhance identification and treatment of human brucellosis, prevention of human disease through control in animals remains paramount. PMID:23963260

The development of video game enjoyment in a role playing game.

PubMed

Wirth, Werner; Ryffel, Fabian; von Pape, Thilo; Karnowski, Veronika

2013-04-01

This study examines the development of video game enjoyment over time. The results of a longitudinal study (N=62) show that enjoyment increases over several sessions. Moreover, results of a multilevel regression model indicate a causal link between the dependent variable video game enjoyment and the predictor variables exploratory behavior, spatial presence, competence, suspense and solution, and simulated experiences of life. These findings are important for video game research because they reveal the antecedents of video game enjoyment in a real-world longitudinal setting. Results are discussed in terms of the dynamics of video game enjoyment under real-world conditions.

Attack-Resistant Trust Metrics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levien, Raph

The Internet is an amazingly powerful tool for connecting people together, unmatched in human history. Yet, with that power comes great potential for spam and abuse. Trust metrics are an attempt to compute the set of which people are trustworthy and which are likely attackers. This chapter presents two specific trust metrics developed and deployed on the Advogato Website, which is a community blog for free software developers. This real-world experience demonstrates that the trust metrics fulfilled their goals, but that for good results, it is important to match the assumptions of the abstract trust metric computation to the real-world implementation.

Efficient Bulk Data Replication for the Earth System Grid

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

Sim, Alex; Gunter, Dan; Natarajan, Vijaya

2010-03-10

The Earth System Grid (ESG) community faces the difficult challenge of managing the distribution of massive data sets to thousands of scientists around the world. To move data replicas efficiently, the ESG has developed a data transfer management tool called the Bulk Data Mover (BDM). We describe the performance results of the current system and plans towards extending the techniques developed so far for the up- coming project, in which the ESG will employ advanced networks to move multi-TB datasets with the ulti- mate goal of helping researchers understand climate change and its potential impacts on world ecology and society.

[The Bulletin du cancer: the years before the First World War].

PubMed

Bernaudin, Jean-François

2013-12-01

Three years after its founding in 1909, the Association française pour l'étude du cancer is a major scientific society developing transdisciplinary debates particularly on innovative therapeutics in cancer, such as the developing use of radium. The Association at that time assembles together all the French medical elite. Reading the Bulletin offers a clear view of the brilliant monthly debates. First World War stopped the life of the Association for four years. After this break, the set up of dedicated centers for cancer treatment was responsible for a major turn in the Association's life.

One in the Dance: Musical Correlates of Group Synchrony in a Real-World Club Environment

PubMed Central

Ellamil, Melissa; Berson, Joshua; Wong, Jen; Buckley, Louis; Margulies, Daniel S.

2016-01-01

Previous research on interpersonal synchrony has mainly investigated small groups in isolated laboratory settings, which may not fully reflect the complex and dynamic interactions of real-life social situations. The present study expands on this by examining group synchrony across a large number of individuals in a naturalistic environment. Smartphone acceleration measures were recorded from participants during a music set in a dance club and assessed to identify how group movement synchrony covaried with various features of the music. In an evaluation of different preprocessing and analysis methods, giving more weight to front-back movement provided the most sensitive and reliable measure of group synchrony. During the club music set, group synchrony of torso movement was most strongly associated with pulsations that approximate walking rhythm (100–150 beats per minute). Songs with higher real-world play counts were also correlated with greater group synchrony. Group synchrony thus appears to be constrained by familiarity of the movement (walking action and rhythm) and of the music (song popularity). These findings from a real-world, large-scale social and musical setting can guide the development of methods for capturing and examining collective experiences in the laboratory and for effectively linking them to synchrony across people in daily life. PMID:27764167

One in the Dance: Musical Correlates of Group Synchrony in a Real-World Club Environment.

PubMed

Ellamil, Melissa; Berson, Joshua; Wong, Jen; Buckley, Louis; Margulies, Daniel S

2016-01-01

Previous research on interpersonal synchrony has mainly investigated small groups in isolated laboratory settings, which may not fully reflect the complex and dynamic interactions of real-life social situations. The present study expands on this by examining group synchrony across a large number of individuals in a naturalistic environment. Smartphone acceleration measures were recorded from participants during a music set in a dance club and assessed to identify how group movement synchrony covaried with various features of the music. In an evaluation of different preprocessing and analysis methods, giving more weight to front-back movement provided the most sensitive and reliable measure of group synchrony. During the club music set, group synchrony of torso movement was most strongly associated with pulsations that approximate walking rhythm (100-150 beats per minute). Songs with higher real-world play counts were also correlated with greater group synchrony. Group synchrony thus appears to be constrained by familiarity of the movement (walking action and rhythm) and of the music (song popularity). These findings from a real-world, large-scale social and musical setting can guide the development of methods for capturing and examining collective experiences in the laboratory and for effectively linking them to synchrony across people in daily life.

Preparing School Leaders for a Changing World: Case Studies of Exemplary Programs. School Leadership Study. Case Study Summaries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaPointe, Michelle, Ed.; Darling-Hammond, Linda, Ed.; Meyerson, Debra, Ed.

2007-01-01

In 2003, with funding from The Wallace Foundation, a national team of researchers organized by Stanford University and The Finance Project set out to find and examine a set of exemplary pre- and in-service professional development programs for principals, along with the policy contexts in which they operate. The purpose of the study was to…

World Geography. The Port of Baltimore Workplace Skills Development Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Sam

This set of learning modules was developed during a project to deliver workplace literacy instruction to individuals employed in the more than 50 businesses related to the activities of the Port of Baltimore. It is intended to accomplish the following objectives: familiarize students with basic concepts of geography; give students knowledge of…

Career Development Curriculum for Single Parents/Homemakers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malott, Karen; Taylor, Angela

This core curriculum, in use at the Homemaker ReEntry Center at Northern Kentucky University, provides three units of materials that teachers can use to help homemakers make the transition to the world of work. The first unit, on personal development, covers such topics such as self-esteem, self-awareness, goal setting, decision making, sex role…

Early Child Development in Resource-Poor Settings: Balancing Children's Material and Mental Needs--A Personal Account

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richter, Linda

2004-01-01

This article describes how an international group of infant-family researchers, practitioners, program directors, and advocates have helped the World Health Organization recognize the importance of caregiving relationships to children's survival, health, and development. When children lack contact and attachment to caregivers, they may fail to…

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A LOW COST, MULTIFUNCTION, REGIONALLY APPROPRIATE SOLAR OVEN FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IN LATIN AMERICA

EPA Science Inventory

In the average Latin American country, 45% of the population is below the poverty line and 36% live in rural settings (CIA World Factbook). For these sectors, solar ovens might represent their only affordable means of cooking and sterilization. Significant research efforts i...

Interval Neutrosophic Sets and Their Application in Multicriteria Decision Making Problems

PubMed Central

Zhang, Hong-yu; Wang, Jian-qiang; Chen, Xiao-hong

2014-01-01

As a generalization of fuzzy sets and intuitionistic fuzzy sets, neutrosophic sets have been developed to represent uncertain, imprecise, incomplete, and inconsistent information existing in the real world. And interval neutrosophic sets (INSs) have been proposed exactly to address issues with a set of numbers in the real unit interval, not just a specific number. However, there are fewer reliable operations for INSs, as well as the INS aggregation operators and decision making method. For this purpose, the operations for INSs are defined and a comparison approach is put forward based on the related research of interval valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IVIFSs) in this paper. On the basis of the operations and comparison approach, two interval neutrosophic number aggregation operators are developed. Then, a method for multicriteria decision making problems is explored applying the aggregation operators. In addition, an example is provided to illustrate the application of the proposed method. PMID:24695916

Interval neutrosophic sets and their application in multicriteria decision making problems.

PubMed

Zhang, Hong-yu; Wang, Jian-qiang; Chen, Xiao-hong

2014-01-01

As a generalization of fuzzy sets and intuitionistic fuzzy sets, neutrosophic sets have been developed to represent uncertain, imprecise, incomplete, and inconsistent information existing in the real world. And interval neutrosophic sets (INSs) have been proposed exactly to address issues with a set of numbers in the real unit interval, not just a specific number. However, there are fewer reliable operations for INSs, as well as the INS aggregation operators and decision making method. For this purpose, the operations for INSs are defined and a comparison approach is put forward based on the related research of interval valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IVIFSs) in this paper. On the basis of the operations and comparison approach, two interval neutrosophic number aggregation operators are developed. Then, a method for multicriteria decision making problems is explored applying the aggregation operators. In addition, an example is provided to illustrate the application of the proposed method.

The Development of Conceptions of the Right to Literacy in Traditional Rural Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Day, Kathryn Louise

2010-01-01

This study examined conceptions of the right to literacy in children, adolescents, and young adults living in rural Zulu villages in the mountains of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, as one instantiation of the development of conceptions of human rights in a developing world setting. Of human rights, literacy was chosen because of its familiarity to…

Science policy in the Arab world

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khasawnih, Sami A.

1986-03-01

The paper gives an overview of recent trends in the development of policies and technology in the Arab world. It describes the problems that Arab policy-makers must address in order to set the Arab world on the road to scientific and technological self-reliance, with special emphasis on the shortcomings of the Arab education system and the problem of the brain drain. It also discusses the development of Arab policies on science and technology in the context of the need to democratize Arab society as a prerequisite to real advancement. And finally it surveys the efforts that Arab policy-makers have made in recent years to formulate coherent inter-Arab policies on science and technology. Arab national policy on science and technology for development must be formulated in accordance with the concepts of international co-operation and take full advantage of the vehicles for co-operation that exist today.

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.

Survey of Approaches to Generate Realistic Synthetic Graphs

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

Lim, Seung-Hwan; Lee, Sangkeun; Powers, Sarah S

A graph is a flexible data structure that can represent relationships between entities. As with other data analysis tasks, the use of realistic graphs is critical to obtaining valid research results. Unfortunately, using the actual ("real-world") graphs for research and new algorithm development is difficult due to the presence of sensitive information in the data or due to the scale of data. This results in practitioners developing algorithms and systems that employ synthetic graphs instead of real-world graphs. Generating realistic synthetic graphs that provide reliable statistical confidence to algorithmic analysis and system evaluation involves addressing technical hurdles in a broadmore » set of areas. This report surveys the state of the art in approaches to generate realistic graphs that are derived from fitted graph models on real-world graphs.« less

Current Log-Periodic View on Future World Market Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drożdż, S.; Kwapień, J.; Oświęcimka, P.; Speth, J.

2008-09-01

Applicability of the concept of financial log-periodicity is discussed and encouragingly verified for various phases of the world stock markets development in the period 2000-2010. In particular, a speculative forecasting scenario designed in the end of 2004, that properly predicted the world stock market increases in 2007, is updated by setting some more precise constraints on the time of duration of the present long-term equity market bullish phase. A termination of this phase is evaluated to occur in around November 2009. In particular, on the way towards this dead-line, a Spring-Summer 2008 increase is expected. On the precious metals market a forthcoming critical time signal is detected at the turn of March/April 2008 which marks a tendency for at least a serious correction to begin.

Assessing MoDOT's Efforts to Provide the Right Transportation Solution.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2007-01-01

In their effort to provide a world-class transportation system that delights our customers, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has developed a Tracker system that assesses performance with tangible results. The set of goals inclu...

CaseWorld™: Interactive, media rich, multidisciplinary case based learning.

PubMed

Gillham, David; Tucker, Katie; Parker, Steve; Wright, Victoria; Kargillis, Christina

2015-11-01

Nurse educators are challenged to keep up with highly specialised clinical practice, emerging research evidence, regulation requirements and rapidly changing information technology while teaching very large numbers of diverse students in a resource constrained environment. This complex setting provides the context for the CaseWorld project, which aims to simulate those aspects of clinical practice that can be represented by e-learning. This paper describes the development, implementation and evaluation of CaseWorld, a simulated learning environment that supports case based learning. CaseWorld provides nursing students with the opportunity to view unfolding authentic cases presented in a rich multimedia context. The first round of comprehensive summative evaluation of CaseWorld is discussed in the context of earlier formative evaluation, reference group input and strategies for integration of CaseWorld with subject content. This discussion highlights the unique approach taken in this project that involved simultaneous prototype development and large scale implementation, thereby necessitating strong emphasis on staff development, uptake and engagement. The lessons learned provide an interesting basis for further discussion of broad content sharing across disciplines and universities, and the contribution that local innovations can make to global education advancement. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

World Food Conference: Issues and Preparation for Conference,

DTIC Science & Technology

1974-01-17

what appears to be a serious underestimating of the strength of the derived demand for feedgrains. However, before setting up a new model the FAO...or PCA D 14S In contrast to the developed part of the world where food supplies on the average are substantially above minimum calorie and protein ...1970 base, which incor- porates the probable progress to 1970 of the LDC’s (principally India and Pak- istan) in applying the High Yield Variety

[Development of standards for education and training in family and community medicine - contributions by WONCA IberoAmerica (CIMF)].

PubMed

Demarzo, Marcelo Marcos Piva; Marin, Anibal; Padula Anderson, Maria Inez; De Castro Filho, Eno Dias; Kidd, Michael

2011-02-01

The WONCA Education Working Party (WEP) is developing a set of standards for medical student education, postgraduate training in family medicine / general practice and continuing professional development for family doctors. At this point the contributions by WONCA world regions are very important, and for this reason the main objective of this report is to present the standards developed by the Iberoamerican WONCA Region (CIMF). To be comprehensive and effective, standards should reflect regional realities and so the contributions from CIMF may reinforce and strengthen the key initiative of WEP and the implementation of the standards throughout the world. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

Ensuring safe international trade: how are the roles and responsibilities evolving and what will the situation be in ten years' time?

PubMed

Brückner, G K

2011-04-01

The roles of the international standard-setting bodies that are mandated to facilitate safe trade, such as the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the International Plant Protection Convention and the World Trade Organization, are well documented, as are the roles of the international organisations responsible for global health issues: the OIE, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. However, developments in international trade, such as accelerating globalisation and the frequent emergence and re-emergence of diseases affecting both humans and animals, have brought new challenges and the need to reconsider the future roles of such organisations. New participants and new demands have also emerged to challenge these mandates, leading to potential areas of conflict. The need for countries to establish themselves as new trade partners, or to strengthen their positions while still maintaining safe trade, poses a challenge to standard-setting organisations, which must meet these demands while still remaining sensitive to the needs of developing countries. In this paper, the author describes and discusses some of these challenges and suggests how international organisations could evolve to confront such issues.

Development of the roadmap and guidelines for the prevention and management of high blood pressure in Africa: Proceedings of the PASCAR Hypertension Task Force meeting: Nairobi, Kenya, 27 October 2014.

PubMed

Dzudie, A; Ojji, D; Anisiuba, B C; Abdou, B A; Cornick, R; Damasceno, A; Kane, A L; Mocumbi, A O; Mohamed, A; Nel, G; Ogola, E; Onwubere, B; Otieno, H; Rainer, B; Schutte, A; Ali, I T; Twagirumukiza, M; Poulter, N; Mayosi, B

2015-01-01

Africa has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The economic changes are associated with a health transition characterised by a rise in cardiovascular risk factors and complications, which tend to affect the African population at their age of maximum productivity. Recent data from Africa have highlighted the increasing importance of high blood pressure in this region of the world. This condition is largely underdiagnosed and poorly treated, and therefore leads to stroke, renal and heart failure, and death. Henceforth, African countries are taking steps to develop relevant policies and programmes to address the issue of blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors in response to a call by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to reduce premature deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 25% by the year 2025 (25 × 25). The World Heart Federation (WHF) has developed a roadmap for global implementation of the prevention and management of raised blood pressure using a health system approach to help realise the 25 × 25 goal set by the WHO. As the leading continental organisation of cardiovascular professionals, the Pan-African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) aims to contextualise the roadmap framework of the WHF to the African continent through the PASCAR Taskforce on Hypertension. The Taskforce held a workshop in Kenya on 27 October 2014 to discuss a process by which effective prevention and control of hypertension in Africa may be achieved. It was agreed that a set of clinical guidelines for the management of hypertension are needed in Africa. The ultimate goal of this work is to develop a roadmap for implementation of the prevention and management of hypertension in Africa under the auspices of the WHF.

The influence of television on cultural values -- with special reference to Third World countries.

PubMed

Goonasekera, A

1987-01-01

In focusing on the influence of television on cultural values, particularly in third world countries, the discussion covers the impact of the technology of communication on cultural values, the impact of existing, that is traditional, cultural values on television, and the impact of television programs on cultural values. It is not a problem to set up a television transmitting station in any third world country; the hardware is manufactured in developed countries and assembled in a third world country by technicians of the television manufacturing company. The key question is whether the third world country that has acquired this modern piece of technology can put it into operation run it. The operation of a modern television station calls for 3 types of professionals: engineers and technicians, television journalists and producers, and managers and administrators. Consequently, if the host country is to benefit from this transfer of technology it needs to have a community of modern professionals. Also, for a culture to successfully utilize television, it is helpful if the other media of communication are developed. In sum, at the time of the introduction of television in third world countries, such countries should possess an advanced sector of education and mass media which could form the basis for initiating the multiplier effect for which television has the potential. When introducing television to a third world country, one further needs to be aware of the impact that traditional values may have on the utilization of this medium. It can work to entrench traditional inequities in social relationships in the name of cultural uniqueness, and from the perspective of disadvantaged minority groups it could be a form of "cultural imperialism." Thus, when introducing television, the governments of these countries need to consider fostering a set of values and norms that could assist in the modernization of these countries. These should be values that promote human social development, rather than paternalistic traditional values which work to keep the uniqueness of cultural groups. The import and dissemination of television programs from foreign countries emerges as the most visible form of cultural domination. The reason for the overdependence on imported programs are the high cost of local productions, the lack of trained staff, and the lack of will and determination on the part of the management of governments of third world countries. Successful cultural assimilation of television in third world countries depends on the cultural values that it helps to develop and foster in society.

The Tip of the Iceberg: The Quest for Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gordon, M. D.; Awad, N. F.

Much of the world in Asia, Latin America, and Africa is at an early stage of economic development similar to what the United States and other developed countries experienced many decades ago. Yet, much as their needs for hard and soft infrastructure, effective business practices, and an educated workforce parallel similar needs that underlay earlier development in the West, replicating Western development would overlook the hallmarks of the current century: widely available information and communications technology; a set of electronic linkages among the world; and a global business environment, to name just a few. Consequently, it should be possible to allow developing countries to use "leapfrog" technologies that were inconceivable decades ago to support their development. One means of identifying these opportunities is by matching traditional development needs with novel support by connecting previously unrelated literatures.

Comparative and sociological perspectives on Third World development and education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simkin, Keith

1981-12-01

Insofar as there has been any coherent theoretical basis for orthodox comparative education during the 1970's, it has derived from American modernisation theories of the 1960's. The weak explanatory power of these theories and the inability of most Third World countries to solve their educational problems have led to a growing pessimism about educational planning and increasing attention to nonformal, lifelong and distance education programs concerned with literacy and rural development. New intellectual currents during the 1970's created several alternatives to orthodox comparative education. The most important of these, based on dependency theory, has partly reduced the ethnocentrism of comparative research, but national traditions are still strongly entrenched. Comparative education based on either modernisation or dependency theories is still ill-equipped to provide Third World countries with either an understanding of the international context of their educational problems or an appropriate set of guidelines for educational planning. Both orthodox and radical varieties of comparative education are forms of cultural imperialism, against which Third World countries need to develop their own, more appropriate, traditions of comparative research.

ICF Core Set for Head and Neck Cancer: Do the Categories Discriminate Among Clinically Relevant Subgroups of Patients?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tschiesner, Uta; Oberhauser, Cornelia; Cieza, Alarcos

2011-01-01

The multidisciplinary assessment of functioning in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) according to the "ICF Core Set for Head and Neck Cancer" (ICF-HNC) was developed in an international and multi-disciplinary approach. The ICF-HNC is an application of the ICF that was adopted by the World Health Organization. The objective of this study was…

Simplified neutrosophic sets and their applications in multi-criteria group decision-making problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Juan-juan; Wang, Jian-qiang; Wang, Jing; Zhang, Hong-yu; Chen, Xiao-hong

2016-07-01

As a variation of fuzzy sets and intuitionistic fuzzy sets, neutrosophic sets have been developed to represent uncertain, imprecise, incomplete and inconsistent information that exists in the real world. Simplified neutrosophic sets (SNSs) have been proposed for the main purpose of addressing issues with a set of specific numbers. However, there are certain problems regarding the existing operations of SNSs, as well as their aggregation operators and the comparison methods. Therefore, this paper defines the novel operations of simplified neutrosophic numbers (SNNs) and develops a comparison method based on the related research of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. On the basis of these operations and the comparison method, some SNN aggregation operators are proposed. Additionally, an approach for multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) problems is explored by applying these aggregation operators. Finally, an example to illustrate the applicability of the proposed method is provided and a comparison with some other methods is made.

Effectiveness of medical equipment donations to improve health systems: how much medical equipment is broken in the developing world?

PubMed

Perry, Lora; Malkin, Robert

2011-07-01

It is often said that most of the medical equipment in the developing world is broken with estimates ranging up to 96% out of service. But there is little documented evidence to support these statements. We wanted to quantify the amount of medical equipment that was out of service in resource poor health settings and identify possible causes. Inventory reports were analyzed from 1986 to 2010, from hospitals in sixteen countries across four continents. The UN Human Development Index was used to determine which countries should be considered developing nations. Non-medical hospital equipment was excluded. This study examined 112,040 pieces of equipment. An average of 38.3% (42,925, range across countries: 0.83-47%) in developing countries was out of service. The three main causes were lack of training, health technology management, and infrastructure. We hope that the findings will help biomedical engineers with their efforts toward effective designs for the developing world and NGO's with efforts to design effective healthcare interventions.

Training and the Development of Curriculum Standards in On Farm Water Management: Pakistan, 1984-1985.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bergsma, Harold M.

The document describes the 18-month Phase I of the On Farm Management Project--supported by the World Bank and operated by Colorado State University and the Consortium for International Development--to design more systematic approaches to train people who will work in technical settings related to water management and irrigation channel…

Development and Integration of WWW-Based Services in an Existing University Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garofalakis, John; Kappos, Panagiotis; Tsakalidis, Athanasios; Tsaknakis, John; Tzimas, Giannis; Vassiliadis, Vassilios

This paper describes the experience and the problems solved in the process of developing and integrating advanced World Wide Web-based services into the University of Patras (Greece) system. In addition to basic network services (e.g., e-mail, file transfer protocol), the final system will integrate the following set of advanced services: a…

Navigating Difference: Development and Implementation of a Successful Cultural Competency Training for Extension and Outreach Professionals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deen, Mary Y.; Parker, Louise A.; Hill, Laura Griner; Huskey, Melynda; Whitehall, Anna P.

2014-01-01

As our world becomes more interconnected on international, domestic, and personal levels, our need to be more culturally competent increases (Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel, 2007; Ting-Toomey, 1999). Recognizing this need, Washington State University Extension sought to increase skills of its personnel by developing a set of cultural competencies…

Motivating Teachers in the Developing World: Insights from Research with English Language Teachers in Oman

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wyatt, Mark

2013-01-01

According to some commentators, targets set by the international community for bringing education to all children in developing countries are threatened by a teacher motivation crisis. For this crisis to be addressed, challenges to the motivation of teachers in such contexts need to be understood from perspectives both theoretical and comparative.…

Supporting Moral Development: The Virtues Project[TM

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Moor, Gerrit

2011-01-01

The Virtues Project[TM] was founded in Canada in 1991 by Linda Kavelin Popov, Dan Popov, and John Kavelin who were concerned about the level of violence among families and youth. In studying sacred traditions and cultures around the world, they identified a set of common virtues. These were used to develop a pedagogical model that has applications…

Advanced space system concepts and their orbital support needs (1980 - 2000). Volume 4: Detailed data. Part 2: Program plans and common support needs (a study of the commonality of space vehicle applications to future national needs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bekey, I.; Mayer, H. L.; Wolfe, M. G.

1976-01-01

The methodology of alternate world future scenarios is utilized for selecting a plausible, though not advocated, set of future scenarios each of which results in a program plan appropriate for the respective environment. Each such program plan gives rise to different building block and technology requirements, which are analyzed for common need between the NASA and the DoD for each of the alternate world scenarios. An essentially invariant set of system, building block, and technology development plans is presented at the conclusion, intended to allow protection of most of the options for system concepts regardless of what the actual future world environment turns out to be. Thus, building block and technology needs are derived which support: (1) each specific world scenario; (2) all the world scenarios identified in this study; or (3) generalized scenarios applicable to almost any future environment. The output included in this volume consists of the building blocks, i.e.: transportation vehicles, orbital support vehicles, and orbital support facilities; the technology required to support the program plans; identification of their features which could support the DoD and NASA in common; and a complete discussion of the planning methodology.

The Pharmacogenomics Research Network Translational Pharmacogenetics Program: Overcoming Challenges of Real-World Implementation

PubMed Central

Shuldiner, AR; Relling, MV; Peterson, JF; Hicks, JK; Freimuth, RR; Sadee, W; Pereira, NL; Roden, DM; Johnson, JA; Klein, TE

2013-01-01

The pace of discovery of potentially actionable pharmacogenetic variants has increased dramatically in recent years. However, the implementation of this new knowledge for individualized patient care has been slow. The Pharmacogenomics Research Network (PGRN) Translational Pharmacogenetics Program seeks to identify barriers and develop real-world solutions to implementation of evidence-based pharmacogenetic tests in diverse health-care settings. Dissemination of the resulting toolbox of “implementation best practices” will prove useful to a broad audience. PMID:23588301

Chronic airflow limitation in developing countries: burden and priorities

PubMed Central

Aït-Khaled, Nadia; Enarson, Donald A; Ottmani, Salah; Sony, Asma El; Eltigani, Mai; Sepulveda, Ricardo

2007-01-01

Respiratory disease has never received priority in relation to its impact on health. Estimated DALYs lost in 2002 were 12% globally (similar for industrialized and developing countries). Chronic airflow limitation (due mainly to asthma and COPD) alone affects more than 100 million persons in the world and the majority of them live in developing countries. International guidelines for management of asthma (GINA) and COPD (GOLD) have been adopted and their cost-effectiveness demonstrated in industrialized countries. As resources are scarce in developing countries, adaptation of these guidelines using only essential drugs is required. It remains for governments to set priorities. To make these choices, a set of criteria have been proposed. It is vital that the results of scientific investigations are presented in these terms to facilitate their use by decision-makers. To respond to this emerging public health problem in developing countries, WHO has developed 2 initiatives: “Practical Approach to Lung Health (PAL)” and the Global Alliance Against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD)”, and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (The Union) has launched a new initiative to increase affordability of essential asthma drugs for patients in developing countries termed the “Asthma Drug Facility” (ADF), which could facilitate the care of patients living in these parts of the world. PMID:18044686

Chronic airflow limitation in developing countries: burden and priorities.

PubMed

Aït-Khaled, Nadia; Enarson, Donald A; Ottmani, Salah; El Sony, Asma; Eltigani, Mai; Sepulveda, Ricardo

2007-01-01

Respiratory disease has never received priority in relation to its impact on health. Estimated DALYs lost in 2002 were 12% globally (similar for industrialized and developing countries). Chronic airflow limitation (due mainly to asthma and COPD) alone affects more than 100 million persons in the world and the majority of them live in developing countries. International guidelines for management of asthma (GINA) and COPD (GOLD) have been adopted and their cost-effectiveness demonstrated in industrialized countries. As resources are scarce in developing countries, adaptation of these guidelines using only essential drugs is required. It remains for governments to set priorities. To make these choices, a set of criteria have been proposed. It is vital that the results of scientific investigations are presented in these terms to facilitate their use by decision-makers. To respond to this emerging public health problem in developing countries, WHO has developed 2 initiatives: "Practical Approach to Lung Health (PAL)" and the Global Alliance Against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD)", and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (The Union) has launched a new initiative to increase affordability of essential asthma drugs for patients in developing countries termed the "Asthma Drug Facility" (ADF), which could facilitate the care of patients living in these parts of the world.

A real world dissemination and implementation of Transdiagnostic Behavior Therapy (TBT) for veterans with affective disorders.

PubMed

Gros, Daniel F; Szafranski, Derek D; Shead, Sarah D

2017-03-01

Dissemination and implementation of evidence-based psychotherapies is challenging in real world clinical settings. Transdiagnostic Behavior Therapy (TBT) for affective disorders was developed with dissemination and implementation in clinical settings in mind. The present study investigated a voluntary local dissemination and implementation effort, involving 28 providers participating in a four-hour training on TBT. Providers completed immediate (n=22) and six-month follow-up (n=12) training assessments and were encouraged to collect data on their TBT patients (delivery fidelity was not investigated). Findings demonstrated that providers endorsed learning of and interest in using TBT after the training. At six-months, 50% of providers reported using TBT with their patients and their perceived effectiveness of TBT to be very good to excellent. Submitted patient outcome data evidenced medium to large effect sizes. Together, these findings provide preliminary support for the effectiveness of a real world dissemination and implementation of TBT. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

International Search for Life in Ocean Worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sherwood, B.

2015-12-01

We now know that our solar system contains diverse "ocean worlds." One has abundant surface water and life; another had significant surface water in the distant past and has drawn significant exploration attention; several contain large amounts of water beneath ice shells; and several others evince unexpected, diverse transient or dynamic water-related processes. In this century, humanity will explore these worlds, searching for life beyond Earth and seeking thereby to understand the limits of habitability. Of our ocean worlds, Enceladus presents a unique combination of attributes: large reservoir of subsurface water already known to contain salts, organics, and silica nanoparticles originating from hydrothermal activity; and able to be sampled via a plume predictably expressed into space. These special circumstances immediately tag Enceladus as a key destination for potential missions to search for evidence of non-Earth life, and lead to a range of potential mission concepts: for orbital reconnaissance; in situ and returned-sample analysis of plume and surface-fallback material; and direct sulcus, vent, cavern, and ocean exploration. Each mission type can address a unique set of science questions, and would require a unique set of capabilities, most of which are not yet developed. Both the questions and the capability developments can be sequenced into a programmatic precedence network, the realization of which requires international cooperation. Three factors make this true: exploring remote oceans autonomously will cost a lot; the Outer Space Treaty governs planetary protection; and discovery of non-Earth life is an epochal human imperative. Results of current planning will be presented in AGU session 8599: how ocean-world science questions and capability requirements can be parsed into programmatically acceptable mission increments; how one mission proposed into the Discovery program in 2015 would take the next step on this path; the Decadal calendar of decision points and program options that will constrain ocean-world exploration through mid-century; and findings of the COSPAR Planetary Protection Panel colloquium for ocean-world exploration held in September 2015.

The Impact of Developing Technology on Media Communications.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacDonald, Lindsay W.

1997-01-01

Examines changes in media communications resulting from new information technologies: communications technologies (networks, World Wide Web, digital set-top box); graphic arts (digital photography, CD and digital archives, desktop design and publishing, printing technology); television and video (digital editing, interactive television, news and…

Visualization and interaction tools for aerial photograph mosaics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandes, João Pedro; Fonseca, Alexandra; Pereira, Luís; Faria, Adriano; Figueira, Helder; Henriques, Inês; Garção, Rita; Câmara, António

1997-05-01

This paper describes the development of a digital spatial library based on mosaics of digital orthophotos, called Interactive Portugal, that will enable users both to retrieve geospatial information existing in the Portuguese National System for Geographic Information World Wide Web server, and to develop local databases connected to the main system. A set of navigation, interaction, and visualization tools are proposed and discussed. They include sketching, dynamic sketching, and navigation capabilities over the digital orthophotos mosaics. Main applications of this digital spatial library are pointed out and discussed, namely for education, professional, and tourism markets. Future developments are considered. These developments are related to user reactions, technological advancements, and projects that also aim at delivering and exploring digital imagery on the World Wide Web. Future capabilities for site selection and change detection are also considered.

[Healthy Cities projects].

PubMed

Takano, Takehito

2002-05-01

This is a review article on "Healthy Cities". The Healthy Cities programme has been developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to tackle urban health and environmental issues in a broad way. It is a kind of comprehensive policy package to carry out individual projects and activities effectively and efficiently. Its key aspects include healthy public policy, vision sharing, high political commitment, establishment of structural organization, strategic health planning, intersectoral collaboration, community participation, setting approach, development of supportive environment for health, formation of city health profile, national and international networking, participatory research, periodic monitoring and evaluation, and mechanisms for sustainability of projects. The present paper covered the Healthy Cities concept and approaches, rapid urbanization in the world, developments of WHO Healthy Cities, Healthy Cities developments in the Western Pacific Region, the health promotion viewpoint, and roles of research.

Water for Two Worlds: Designing Terrestrial Applications for Exploration-class Sanitation Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adams, Constance; Andersson, Ingvar; Feighery, John

2004-01-01

At the United Nations Millennium Summit in September of 2000, the world leaders agreed on an ambitious agenda for reducing poverty and improving lives: the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a list of issues they consider highly pernicious, threatening to human welfare and, thereby, to global security and prosperity. Among the eight goals are included fundamental human needs such as the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, the promotion of gender equality, the reduction of child mortality and improvement of maternal health, and ensuring the sustainability of our shared environment. In order to help focus the efforts to meet these goals, the United Nations (UN) has established a set of eighteen concrete targets, each with an associated schedule. Among these is Target 10: "By 2015, reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water." A closely related target of equal dignity was agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, September 2002): "By 2015, reduce by half the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation." One of the greatest successes in the development of Exploration-class technologies for closed-loop, sustainable support of long-duration human space missions has been the work both ESA and NASA have done in bioregenerative water reclamation (WRS), and secondarily, in solid-waste management. Solid-waste and WRS systems tend to be combined in the commercial world into the field of sanitation, although as we will see, the most essential principles of sustainable terrestrial sanitation actually insist upon the separation of solid and liquid excreta. Seeing the potential synergy between the space program ALS technologies developed for Mars and the urgent needs of hundreds of millions of people for secure access to clean water here on Earth, we set out to organize the adaptation of these technologies to help the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) meet Target 10. In this paper, we will summarize the issues and results of the first "Water for Two Worlds" summit held in January of this year, describe,the status of the sustainable sanitation systems that are on the table for adaptation to widespread terrestrial use, and present fundamental strategies for forward work.

A Review of Pediatric Critical Care in Resource-Limited Settings: A Look at Past, Present, and Future Directions

PubMed Central

Turner, Erin L.; Nielsen, Katie R.; Jamal, Shelina M.; von Saint André-von Arnim, Amelie; Musa, Ndidiamaka L.

2016-01-01

Fifteen years ago, United Nations world leaders defined millenium development goal 4 (MDG 4): to reduce under-5-year mortality rates by two-thirds by the year 2015. Unfortunately, only 27 of 138 developing countries are expected to achieve MDG 4. The majority of childhood deaths in these settings result from reversible causes, and developing effective pediatric emergency and critical care services could substantially reduce this mortality. The Ebola outbreak highlighted the fragility of health care systems in resource-limited settings and emphasized the urgent need for a paradigm shift in the global approach to healthcare delivery related to critical illness. This review provides an overview of pediatric critical care in resource-limited settings and outlines strategies to address challenges specific to these areas. Implementation of these tools has the potential to move us toward delivery of an adequate standard of critical care for all children globally, and ultimately decrease global child mortality in resource-limited settings. PMID:26925393

COSPAR/PRBEM international working group activities report

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bourdarie, S.; Blake, B.; Cao, J. B.; Friedel, R.; Miyoshi, Y.; Panasyuk, M.; Underwood, C.

It is now clear to everybody that the current standard AE8 AP8 model for ionising particle specification in the radiation belts must be updated But such an objective is quite difficult to reach just as a reminder to develop AE8 AP8 model in the seventies was 10 persons full time for ten years It is clear that world-wide efforts must be combined because not any individual group has the human resource to perform these new models by themselves Under COSPAR umbrella an international group of expert well distributed around the world has been created to set up a common framework for everybody involved in this field Planned activities of the international group of experts are to - Define users needs - Provide guidelines for standard file format for ionising measurements - Set up guidelines to process in-situ data on a common basis - Decide in which form the new models will have to be - Centralise all progress done world-wide to advise the community - Try to organise world-wide activities as a project to ensure complementarities and more efficiencies between all efforts done Activities of this working group since its creation will be reported as well as future plans

The Design of Housing and Shelter Programs: The Social and Environmental Determinants of Inequalities

PubMed Central

Howden-Chapman, Philippa; Patel, Sheela

2007-01-01

Both developed and less developed countries are becoming increasingly urbanized. The earlier industrialized countries have developed more infrastructure to support the building of healthy housing, in neighborhoods that are strongly linked to municipal and global health initiatives, but to some degree housing and neighborhood issues vary only in degree between the developing and developed worlds. Overall, a billion people, a third of people living in urban areas, live in slums, where environmental determinants lead to disease. Although communicable diseases predominate in the developing world and have reemerged in the developed world, noncommunicable diseases are also growing disproportionately in the developing world. At a global level, the Millennium Development Goals explicitly focus on an integrated approach to slum upgrading. The per capita cost of slum upgrading is almost twice the cost of providing new affordable housing at the outset. It is argued that to improve health and well-being in the slums we need to have interventions that reduce urban poverty in the broadest sense and improve the deficiencies associated with slums. There is an urgent need to scale up the best-practice interventions. Examples are given of successful local community initiatives that have been set up under national strategies in Tanzania and by Indian women’s collectives that are globally linked and have helped develop housing and sanitation improvements. The unit costs for such interventions are within the reach of all the key stakeholders. Global commitment is the only missing link. PMID:17387617

The design of housing and shelter programs: the social and environmental determinants of inequalities.

PubMed

Sheuya, Shaaban; Howden-Chapman, Philippa; Patel, Sheela

2007-05-01

Both developed and less developed countries are becoming increasingly urbanized. The earlier industrialized countries have developed more infrastructure to support the building of healthy housing, in neighborhoods that are strongly linked to municipal and global health initiatives, but to some degree housing and neighborhood issues vary only in degree between the developing and developed worlds. Overall, a billion people, a third of people living in urban areas, live in slums, where environmental determinants lead to disease. Although communicable diseases predominate in the developing world and have reemerged in the developed world, noncommunicable diseases are also growing disproportionately in the developing world. At a global level, the Millennium Development Goals explicitly focus on an integrated approach to slum upgrading. The per capita cost of slum upgrading is almost twice the cost of providing new affordable housing at the outset. It is argued that to improve health and well-being in the slums we need to have interventions that reduce urban poverty in the broadest sense and improve the deficiencies associated with slums. There is an urgent need to scale up the best-practice interventions. Examples are given of successful local community initiatives that have been set up under national strategies in Tanzania and by Indian women's collectives that are globally linked and have helped develop housing and sanitation improvements. The unit costs for such interventions are within the reach of all the key stakeholders. Global commitment is the only missing link.

A Markov-Based Recommendation Model for Exploring the Transfer of Learning on the Web

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Yueh-Min; Huang, Tien-Chi; Wang, Kun-Te; Hwang, Wu-Yuin

2009-01-01

The ability to apply existing knowledge in new situations and settings is clearly a vital skill that all students need to develop. Nowhere is this truer than in the rapidly developing world of Web-based learning, which is characterized by non-sequential courses and the absence of an effective cross-subject guidance system. As a result, questions…

Multiple Perspectives on Integrated Education for Children with Disabilities in the Context of Early Childhood Centres in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lai, Yuk Ching; Gill, Judith

2014-01-01

The integration of children with disabilities in mainstream early childhood settings is a common practice in many developed and developing countries world-wide. A number of key points have been raised concerning such integration, including the increased attention to civil education about the rights of persons with disabilities, training for…

CFD Data Sets on the WWW for Education and Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Globus, Al; Lasinski, T. A. (Technical Monitor)

1995-01-01

The Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center has begun the development of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) data set archive on the World Wide Web (WWW) at URL http://www.nas.nasa.gov/NAS/DataSets/. Data sets are integrated with related information such as research papers, metadata, visualizations, etc. In this paper, four classes of users are identified and discussed: students, visualization developers, CFD practitioners, and management. Bandwidth and security issues are briefly reviewed and the status of the archive as of May 1995 is examined. Routine network distribution of data sets is likely to have profound implications for the conduct of science. The exact nature of these changes is subject to speculation, but the ability for anyone to examine the data, in addition to the investigator's analysis, may well play an important role in the future.

What makes a sustainability tool valuable, practical and useful in real-world healthcare practice? A mixed-methods study on the development of the Long Term Success Tool in Northwest London

PubMed Central

Lennox, Laura; Doyle, Cathal; Reed, Julie E

2017-01-01

Objectives Although improvement initiatives show benefits to patient care, they often fail to sustain. Models and frameworks exist to address this challenge, but issues with design, clarity and usability have been barriers to use in healthcare settings. This work aimed to collaborate with stakeholders to develop a sustainability tool relevant to people in healthcare settings and practical for use in improvement initiatives. Design Tool development was conducted in six stages. A scoping literature review, group discussions and a stakeholder engagement event explored literature findings and their resonance with stakeholders in healthcare settings. Interviews, small-scale trialling and piloting explored the design and tested the practicality of the tool in improvement initiatives. Setting National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care for Northwest London (CLAHRC NWL). Participants CLAHRC NWL improvement initiative teams and staff. Results The iterative design process and engagement of stakeholders informed the articulation of the sustainability factors identified from the literature and guided tool design for practical application. Key iterations of factors and tool design are discussed. From the development process, the Long Term Success Tool (LTST) has been designed. The Tool supports those implementing improvements to reflect on 12 sustainability factors to identify risks to increase chances of achieving sustainability over time. The Tool is designed to provide a platform for improvement teams to share their own views on sustainability as well as learn about the different views held within their team to prompt discussion and actions. Conclusion The development of the LTST has reinforced the importance of working with stakeholders to design strategies which respond to their needs and preferences and can practically be implemented in real-world settings. Further research is required to study the use and effectiveness of the tool in practice and assess engagement with the method over time. PMID:28947436

Individual differences in face-looking behavior generalize from the lab to the world.

PubMed

Peterson, Matthew F; Lin, Jing; Zaun, Ian; Kanwisher, Nancy

2016-05-01

Recent laboratory studies have found large, stable individual differences in the location people first fixate when identifying faces, ranging from the brows to the mouth. Importantly, this variation is strongly associated with differences in fixation-specific identification performance such that individuals' recognition ability is maximized when looking at their preferred location (Mehoudar, Arizpe, Baker, & Yovel, 2014; Peterson & Eckstein, 2013). This finding suggests that face representations are retinotopic and individuals enact gaze strategies that optimize identification, yet the extent to which this behavior reflects real-world gaze behavior is unknown. Here, we used mobile eye trackers to test whether individual differences in face gaze generalize from lab to real-world vision. In-lab fixations were measured with a speeded face identification task, while real-world behavior was measured as subjects freely walked around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus. We found a strong correlation between the patterns of individual differences in face gaze in the lab and real-world settings. Our findings support the hypothesis that individuals optimize real-world face identification by consistently fixating the same location and thus strongly constraining the space of retinotopic input. The methods developed for this study entailed collecting a large set of high-definition, wide field-of-view natural videos from head-mounted cameras and the viewer's fixation position, allowing us to characterize subjects' actually experienced real-world retinotopic images. These images enable us to ask how vision is optimized not just for the statistics of the "natural images" found in web databases, but of the truly natural, retinotopic images that have landed on actual human retinae during real-world experience.

Babies, Toddlers and the Media.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fenichel, Emily, Ed.

2001-01-01

"Zero to Three" is a single-focus bulletin of the National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families providing insight from multiple disciplines on the development of infants, toddlers, and their families. Noting that America's babies and toddlers live in a world full of television sets, VCRs, computers, videogames, and interactive…

Decision Making: Rational, Nonrational, and Irrational.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simon, Herbert A.

1993-01-01

Describes the current state of knowledge about human decision-making and problem-solving processes, explaining recent developments and their implications for management and management training. Rational goal-setting is the key to effective decision making and accomplishment. Bounded rationality is a realistic orientation, because the world is too…

Merging Two Futures Concepts: Issues Management and Policy Impact Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Renfro, William L.; Morrison, James L.

1982-01-01

Describes a workshop held during the 1982 World Future Society's Fourth General Assembly on the combined application of issues management and policy impact analysis. The workshop participants applied futures research, forecasting, goal-setting, and policy development techniques to future problems in educational policy. (AM)

Population Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Inst. of Child Health and Human Development (NIH), Bethesda, MD.

The scope of population research as carried on by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is set forth in this booklet. Population problems of the world, United States, and the individual are considered along with international population policies based on voluntary family planning programs. NICHD goals for biological…

Global Health Neurology: HIV/AIDS.

PubMed

Patel, Payal B; Spudich, Serena S

2018-04-01

With the advent of combination antiretroviral therapies, the mortality rate from HIV has declined, while the prevalence of long-term HIV-related neurologic complications continues to rise. Thirty-six million individuals are living with HIV around the world, many of whom reside in resource-limited settings. The majority of studies have focused on individuals residing in the developed world, while the impact of HIV disproportionately affects people living in developing countries. This review focuses on recent domestic and international studies regarding neurologic complications related to HIV, including opportunistic infections, peripheral neuropathy, cerebrovascular disease, and HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders, in light of the growing population affected by these conditions. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Testing and validating the CERES-wheat (Crop Estimation through Resource and Environment Synthesis-wheat) model in diverse environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Otter-Nacke, S.; Godwin, D. C.; Ritchie, J. T.

1986-01-01

CERES-Wheat is a computer simulation model of the growth, development, and yield of spring and winter wheat. It was designed to be used in any location throughout the world where wheat can be grown. The model is written in Fortran 77, operates on a daily time stop, and runs on a range of computer systems from microcomputers to mainframes. Two versions of the model were developed: one, CERES-Wheat, assumes nitrogen to be nonlimiting; in the other, CERES-Wheat-N, the effects of nitrogen deficiency are simulated. The report provides the comparisons of simulations and measurements of about 350 wheat data sets collected from throughout the world.

Portable, battery-operated, fluorescence field microscope for the developing world

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Andrew R.; Davis, Gregory; Pierce, Mark; Oden, Z. Maria; Richards-Kortum, Rebecca

2010-02-01

In many areas of the world, current methods for diagnosis of infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis involve microscopic evaluation of a patient specimen. Advances in fluorescence microscopy can improve diagnostic sensitivity and reduce time and expertise necessary to interpret diagnostic results. However, modern research-grade microscopes are neither available nor appropriate for use in many settings in the developing world. To address this need, we designed, fabricated, and tested a portable, battery-powered, bright field and fluorescence inverted field microscope, optimized for infrastructural constraints of the developing world. We characterized an initial prototype constructed with rapidprototyping techniques, which utilized low-cost, over-the-counter components such as a battery-powered LED flashlight as the light source. The microscope exhibited suitable spatial resolution (0.8 μm) in fluorescence mode to resolve M. tuberculosis bacilli. In bright field mode, malaria parasites were resolvable at 1000x magnification. The initial prototype cost 480 USD and we estimate that the microscope can be manufactured for 230 USD. While future studies are planned to evaluate ease-of-use and reliability, our current system serves as a proof of concept that combined fluorescence and bright field microscopy is possible in a low-cost and portable system.

The World Water Vision: From Developing a Vision to Action

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gangopadhyay, S.; Cosgrove, W.; Rijsberman, F.; Strzepek, K.; Strzepek, K.

2001-05-01

The World Water Vision exercise was initiated by the World Water Commission under the auspices of the World Water Council. The goal of the World Water Vision project was to develop a widely shared vision on the actions required to achieve a common set of water-related goals and the necessary commitment to carry out these actions. The Vision should be participatory in nature, including input from both developed and developing regions, with a special focus on the needs of the poor, women, youth, children and the environment. Three overall objectives were to: (i)raise awareness of water issues among both the general population and decision-makers so as to foster the necessary political will and leadership to tackle the problems seriously and systematically; (ii) develop a vision of water management for 2025 that is shared by water sector specialists as well as international, national and regional decision-makers in government, the private sector and civil society; and (iii) provide input to a Framework for Action to be elaborated by the Global Water Partnership, with steps to go from vision to action, including recommendations to funding agencies for investment priorities. This exercise was characterized by the principles of: (i) a participatory approach with extensive consultation; (ii) Innovative thinking; (iii) central analysis to assure integration and co-ordination; and (iv) emphasis on communication with groups outside the water sector. The primary activities included, developing global water scenarios that fed into regional consultations and sectoral consultations as water for food, water for people - water supply and sanitation, and water and environment. These consultations formulated the regional and sectoral visions that were synthesized to form the World Water Vision. The findings from this exercise were reported and debated at the Second World Water Forum and the Ministerial Conference held in The Hague, The Netherlands during April 2000. This paper reports on the process of producing a "global water vision" and the primary findings, recommendations, and follow-on activities.

Climate Change and Health under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway Framework

PubMed Central

Ebi, Kristie L.

2017-01-01

A growing body of literature addresses how climate change is likely to have substantial and generally adverse effects on population health and health systems around the world. These effects are likely to vary within and between countries and, importantly, will vary depending on different socioeconomic development patterns. Transitioning to a more resilient and sustainable world to prepare for and manage the effects of climate change is likely to result in better health outcomes. Sustained fossil fuel development will likely result in continued high burdens of preventable conditions, such as undernutrition, malaria, and diarrheal diseases. Using a new set of socioeconomic development trajectories, the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), along with the World Health Organization’s Operational Framework for Building Climate Resilient Health Systems, we extend existing storylines to illustrate how various aspects of health systems are likely to be affected under each SSP. We also discuss the implications of our findings on how the burden of mortality and the achievement of health-related Sustainable Development Goal targets are likely to vary under different SSPs. PMID:29267204

Strengthening the policy setting process for global malaria control and elimination.

PubMed

D'Souza, Bianca J; Newman, Robert D

2012-01-27

The scale-up of malaria control efforts in recent years, coupled with major investments in malaria research, has produced impressive public health impact in a number of countries and has led to the development of new tools and strategies aimed at further consolidating malaria control goals. As a result, there is a growing need for the malaria policy setting process to rapidly review increasing amounts of evidence. The World Health Organization Global Malaria Programme, in keeping with its mandate to set evidence-informed policies for malaria control, has convened the Malaria Policy Advisory Committee as a mechanism to increase the timeliness, transparency, independence and relevance of its recommendations to World Health Organization member states in relation to malaria control and elimination. The Malaria Policy Advisory Committee, composed of 15 world-renowned malaria experts, will meet in full twice a year, with the inaugural meeting scheduled for 31 January to 2 February 2012 in Geneva. Policy recommendations, and the evidence to support them, will be published within two months of every meeting as part of an open access Malaria Journal thematic series. This article is a prelude to that series and provides the global malaria community with the background and overview of the Committee and its terms of reference.

WWW creates new interactive 3D graphics and collaborative environments for medical research and education.

PubMed

Samothrakis, S; Arvanitis, T N; Plataniotis, A; McNeill, M D; Lister, P F

1997-11-01

Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) is the start of a new era for medicine and the World Wide Web (WWW). Scientists can use VRML across the Internet to explore new three-dimensional (3D) worlds, share concepts and collaborate together in a virtual environment. VRML enables the generation of virtual environments through the use of geometric, spatial and colour data structures to represent 3D objects and scenes. In medicine, researchers often want to interact with scientific data, which in several instances may also be dynamic (e.g. MRI data). This data is often very large and is difficult to visualise. A 3D graphical representation can make the information contained in such large data sets more understandable and easier to interpret. Fast networks and satellites can reliably transfer large data sets from computer to computer. This has led to the adoption of remote tale-working in many applications including medical applications. Radiology experts, for example, can view and inspect in near real-time a 3D data set acquired from a patient who is in another part of the world. Such technology is destined to improve the quality of life for many people. This paper introduces VRML (including some technical details) and discusses the advantages of VRML in application developing.

Counselling for HIV infection and AIDS: the past and the future.

PubMed

Green, J

1989-01-01

The history of counselling in HIV infection and AIDS is reviewed and the stages in the development of the area are set out. The way in which the area has developed in the West is related to local circumstances and the need for the development of models suited to local circumstances elsewhere in the world is stressed. There are many areas of of HIV/AIDS counselling where considerable uncertainty about the right approach remains, for instance with injecting drug users and with HIV-infected pregnant women. There is a great and largely unmet need for further research in the area and some of the questions which need to be addressed are set out.

The Space Weather Monitor Project: Bringing Hands-on Science to Students of the Developing World for the IHY2007

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scherrer, D. K.; Rabello-Soares, M. C.; Morrow, C.

2006-08-01

Stanford's Solar Center, Electrical Engineering Department, and local educators have developed inexpensive Space Weather Monitors that students around the world can use to track solar-induced changes to the Earth's ionosphere. Through the United Nations Basic Space Science Initiative (UNBSSI) and the IHY Education and Public Outreach Program, our Monitors are being deployed to 191 countries for the International Heliophysical Year, 2007. In partnership with Chabot Space and Science Center, we are designing and developing classroom and educator support materials to accompany the distribution. Materials will be culturally sensitive and will be translated into the six official languages of the United Nations (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish). Monitors will be provided free of charge to developing nations and can be set up anywhere there is access to power.

Sex, gender, and health biotechnology: points to consider

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Background Reproductive technologies have been extensively debated in the literature. As well, feminist economists, environmentalists, and agriculturalists have generated substantial debate and literature on gender. However, the implications for women of health biotechnologies have received relatively less attention. Surprisingly, while gender based frameworks have been proposed in the context of public health policy, practice, health research, and epidemiological research, we could identify no systematic framework for gender analysis of health biotechnology in the developing world. Discussion We propose sex and gender considerations at five critical stages of health biotechnology research and development: priority setting; technology design; clinical trials; commercialization, and health services delivery. Summary Applying a systematic sex and gender framework to five key process stages of health biotechnology research and development could be a first step towards unlocking the opportunities of this promising science for women in the developing world. PMID:19622163

Creating cloud-free Landsat ETM+ data sets in tropical landscapes: cloud and cloud-shadow removal

Treesearch

Sebastián Martinuzzi; William A. Gould; Olga M. Ramos Gonzalez

2007-01-01

Clouds and cloud shadows are common features of visible and infrared remotelysensed images collected from many parts of the world, particularly in humid and tropical regions. We have developed a simple and semiautomated method to mask clouds and shadows in Landsat ETM+ imagery, and have developed a recent cloud-free composite of multitemporal images for Puerto Rico and...

The social aspects of landscape change: protecting open space under the pressure of development

Treesearch

Paul H. Gobster; Susan I. Stewart; David N. Bengston

2004-01-01

The extent of developed land in many parts of the world has increased rapidly in recent decades, posing significant challenges to the protection of forests, agricultural lands, and other natural and culturally modified green areas in urban and rural settings. Sustaining these open spaces has long been seen as a critical issue economically, and it is now increasingly...

The five minds of a manager.

PubMed

Gosling, Jonathan; Mintzberg, Henry

2003-11-01

Managers are told: Be global and be local. Collaborate and compete. Change, perpetually, and maintain order. Make the numbers while nurturing your people. To be effective, managers need to consider the juxtapositions in order to arrive at a deep integration of these seemingly contradictory concerns. That means they must focus not only on what they have to accomplish but also on how they have to think. When the authors, respectively the director of the Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter in the U.K. and the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University in Montreal, set out to develop a masters program for practicing managers, they saw that they could not rely on the usual MBA educational structure, which divides the management world into discrete business functions such as marketing and accounting. They needed an educational structure that would encourage synthesis rather than separation. Managing, they determined, involves five tasks, each with its own mind-set: managing the self (the reflective mind-set); managing organizations (the analytic mind-set); managing context (the worldly mind-set); managing relationships (the collaborative mind-set); and managing change (the action mind-set). The program is built on the exploration and integration of those five aspects of the managerial mind. The authors say it has proved powerful in the classroom and insightful in practice. Imagine the mind-sets as threads and the manager as weaver. Effective performance means weaving each mind-set over and under the others to create a fine, sturdy cloth.

Guidelines for the use of chest radiographs in community-acquired pneumonia in children and adolescents.

PubMed

Andronikou, Savvas; Lambert, Elena; Halton, Jarred; Hilder, Lucy; Crumley, Iona; Lyttle, Mark D; Kosack, Cara

2017-10-01

National guidance from the United Kingdom and the United States on community-acquired pneumonia in children states that chest radiographs are not recommended routinely in uncomplicated cases. The main reason in the ambulatory setting is that there is no evidence of a substantial impact on clinical outcomes. However clinical practice and adherence to guidance is multifactorial and includes the clinical context (developed vs. developing world), the confidence of the attending physician, the changing incidence of complications (according to the success of immunisation programs), the availability of alternative imaging (and its relationship to perceived risks of radiation) and the reliability of the interpretation of imaging. In practice, chest radiographs are performed frequently for suspected pneumonia in children. Time pressures facing clinicians at the front line, difficulties in distinguishing which children require admission, restricted bed numbers for admissions, imaging-resource limitations, perceptions regarding risk from procedures, novel imaging modalities and the probability of other causes for the child's presentation all need to be factored into a guideline. Other drivers that often weigh in, depending on the setting, include cost-effectiveness and the fear of litigation. Not all guidelines designed for the developed world can therefore be applied to the developing world, and practice guidelines require regular review in the context of new information. In addition, radiologists must improve radiographic diagnosis of pneumonia, reach consensus on the interpretive terminology that clarifies their confidence regarding the presence of pneumonia and act to replace one imaging technique with another whenever there is proof of improved accuracy or reliability.

Development goals in the post-2015 world: whither Canada?

PubMed

Labonté, Ronald

2014-05-29

A new set of post-2015 development goals for the world is being negotiated. Several potential goals relating to sustainable development, poverty, the economy and health have been identified. Many of them have potential public health gains, although there are inadequacies in how several of them have been defined. In participating in finalization of these goals, Canada should strengthen its commitments to maternal/child health; promote its publicly funded health system as an important model for universal health coverage; incorporate stronger protections for public health in trade and investment treaties; use its foreign aid to help low- and middle-income countries build the transparent and progressive tax systems to mobilize domestic revenues for health; and promote global systems of taxation to prevent tax evasion and illicit capital flight.

World Federation of Pediatric Intensive Care and Critical Care Societies: Global Sepsis Initiative.

PubMed

Kissoon, Niranjan; Carcillo, Joseph A; Espinosa, Victor; Argent, Andrew; Devictor, Denis; Madden, Maureen; Singhi, Sunit; van der Voort, Edwin; Latour, Jos

2011-09-01

According to World Health Organization estimates, sepsis accounts for 60%-80% of lost lives per year in childhood. Measures appropriate for resource-scarce and resource-abundant settings alike can reduce sepsis deaths. In this regard, the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive Care and Critical Care Societies Board of Directors announces the Global Pediatric Sepsis Initiative, a quality improvement program designed to improve quality of care for children with sepsis. To announce the global sepsis initiative; to justify some of the bundles that are included; and to show some preliminary data and encourage participation. The Global Pediatric Sepsis Initiative is developed as a Web-based education, demonstration, and pyramid bundles/checklist tool (http://www.pediatricsepsis.org or http://www.wfpiccs.org). Four health resource categories are included. Category A involves a nonindustrialized setting with mortality rate <5 yrs and >30 of 1,000 children. Category B involves a nonindustrialized setting with mortality rate <5 yrs and <30 of 1,000 children. Category C involves a developing industrialized nation. In category D, developed industrialized nation are determined and separate accompanying administrative and clinical parameters bundles or checklist quality improvement recommendations are provided, requiring greater resources and tasks as resource allocation increased from groups A to D, respectively. In the vanguard phase, data for 361 children (category A, n = 34; category B, n = 12; category C, n = 84; category D, n = 231) were successfully entered, and quality-assurance reports were sent to the 23 participating international centers. Analysis of bundles for categories C and D showed that reduction in mortality was associated with compliance with the resuscitation (odds ratio, 0.369; 95% confidence interval, 0.188-0.724; p < .0004) and intensive care unit management (odds ratio, 0.277; 95% confidence interval, 0.096-0.80) bundles. The World Federation of Pediatric Intensive Care and Critical Care Societies Global Pediatric Sepsis Initiative is online. Success in reducing pediatric mortality and morbidity, evaluated yearly as a measure of global child health care quality improvement, requires ongoing active recruitment of international participant centers. Please join us at http://www.pediatricsepsis.org or http://www.wfpiccs.org.

Children & Television: Images in a Changing Sociocultural World.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, Gordon L.; Asamen, Joy Keiko

Television now plays a major role in the socialization of children. Set within a multicultural context, this book identifies the social and cultural impact of television on the psychosocial development of children. The book also analyzes major media organizations and projects policies, practices and research directions for the future. Following an…

Beyond the Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Phil, Ed.; Reinders, Hayo, Ed.

2011-01-01

This comprehensive exploration of theoretical and practical aspects of out-of-class teaching and learning, from a variety of perspectives and in various settings around the world, includes a theoretical overview of the field, 11 data-based case studies, and practical advice on materials development for independent learning. Contents of this book…

The Hunt for "Indigenous Criteria" in Assessing Communication in the Physiotherapy Workplace

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elder, Catherine; McNamara, Tim

2016-01-01

Gaining insights from domain experts into how they view communication in real world settings is recognized as an important authenticity consideration in the development of criteria to assess language proficiency for specific academic or occupational purposes. These "indigenous" criteria represent an articulation of the test construct and…

Diversity in Contemporary Picturebooks: A Content Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koss, Melanie D.

2015-01-01

Picturebooks are written artifacts that convey cultural messages and values about society and help children learn about their world. Books children read and interact with, including those used in classrooms and educational settings, can influence children's self-awareness (Chaudhri & Teale, 2013) and help them develop a positive self-identity…

Effects of Company Visits on Dutch Primary School Children's Attitudes toward Technical Professions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Post, Tim; Walma van der Molen, Juliette H.

2014-01-01

Technology-oriented company visits could potentially provide children with a stimulating "real-world" setting to develop more broad and positive images of and attitudes toward technology and technical professions. The present study was the first to explore whether children's images of and attitudes toward technology, technical…

Multimodal Self-Authoring across Bi/Multilingual Educator and Student Learning Spaces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valdez, Verónica E.; Omerbašic, Delila

2015-01-01

Drawing on sociocultural perspectives, this article illustrates the potential for extending figured worlds through cultural artifacts. Using thematic and multimodal analysis, the authors first compare how spaces of authoring were produced in two professional development settings: Proyecto Bilingüe and Critical Education Studies. Following one…

Globalisation, the Challenge of Educational Synchronisation and Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papastephanou, Marianna; Christou, Miranda; Gregoriou, Zelia

2013-01-01

In this article, we set out from the challenge that globalising synchronisation--usually exemplified by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and World Bank initiatives--presents for education to argue that the time-space compression effected by globalisation must educationally be dealt with with caution, critical vigilance and a…

Development and pilot study findings of the Delta Garden Study

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The purpose of this study was to explore how school–based gardening programs can affect health and related behaviors and to assess how such programs can be sustainable over time and replicated to more settings. Across the world, there has been a recent revitalization and reinvention of gardening eff...

The Paperless Music Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giebelhausen, Robin

2016-01-01

In an age where the world is becoming ever more aware of paper consumption, educators are turning toward technology to cut back on paper waste. Besides the environmental reasons, a paperless music classroom helps students develop their musicianship in new and exciting ways. This article will look at the considerations for setting up a paperless…

Corporate Ph.D.: Making the Grade in Business.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Groneman, Carol; Lear, Robert N.

Charting the ever-increasing integration of "academics" into the business world, this book uses specific examples to describe how the research and analytic skills developed in an academic setting can offer new approaches to problem solving in the business arena. Of use to employers, corporate headhunters and recruiters, and academics…

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…

Basic Education: Reflections on Participatory Curriculum Development and Planning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sachsenmeier, Peter, Ed.; And Others

Basic education as the first stage of lifelong education is emerging as a significant alternative to traditional education, especially for rural populations in Third World countries. Basic education is a set of interrelated ideas: community orientation of education, integration of formal, nonformal, and informal learning into lifelong learning,…

Considering the Challenges of Counselling Practice in Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Low, Poi Kee

2009-01-01

School counselling is developing rapidly in many countries around the World. As with any practice in a secondary setting, challenges and special issues are often identified, discussed, and managed. These can be categorized into four distinct domains: 1) Internal challenges, which include issues related to clientele groups, teachers' attitudes…

Developing a Transliteracies Framework for a Connected World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stornaiuolo, Amy; Smith, Anna; Phillips, Nathan C.

2017-01-01

This article introduces a transliteracies framework to conceptually account for the contingency and instability of literacy practices on the move and to offer a set of methodological tools for investigating these mobilities. Taking the paradox of mobility--the simultaneous restricting or regulation of movement that accompanies mobility--as its…

XML Schema Languages: Beyond DTD.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ioannides, Demetrios

2000-01-01

Discussion of XML (extensible markup language) and the traditional DTD (document type definition) format focuses on efforts of the World Wide Web Consortium's XML schema working group to develop a schema language to replace DTD that will be capable of defining the set of constraints of any possible data resource. (Contains 14 references.) (LRW)

War Nurseries: Lessons in Quality.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hurwitz, Sally C.

1998-01-01

Describes development of the Kaiser Child Service Centers at the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company (Portland, Oregon) during World War II, child-care centers created through the Lanham Act. Describes staff recruitment and the services provided. Maintains that the Kaiser Center set a new standard for child care and helped to shape the field of early…

Adapting Assessment Tasks to Support Three-Dimensional Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Underwood, Sonia M.; Posey, Lynmarie A.; Herrington, Deborah G.; Carmel, Justin H.; Cooper, Melanie M.

2018-01-01

As chemists, we understand that science is more than a set of disconnected facts. It is a way of investigating and understanding our natural world that involves things like asking questions, analyzing data, identifying patterns, constructing explanations, developing and using models, and applying core concepts to other situations. This paper uses…

Beyond Problem-Based Learning: Using Dynamic PBL in Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Overton, Tina L.; Randles, Christopher A.

2015-01-01

This paper describes the development and implementation of a novel pedagogy, dynamic problem-based learning. The pedagogy utilises real-world problems that evolve throughout the problem-based learning activity and provide students with choice and different data sets. This new dynamic problem-based learning approach was utilised to teach…

Algorithmic tools for interpreting vital signs.

PubMed

Rathbun, Melina C; Ruth-Sahd, Lisa A

2009-07-01

Today's complex world of nursing practice challenges nurse educators to develop teaching methods that promote critical thinking skills and foster quick problem solving in the novice nurse. Traditional pedagogies previously used in the classroom and clinical setting are no longer adequate to prepare nursing students for entry into practice. In addition, educators have expressed frustration when encouraging students to apply newly learned theoretical content to direct the care of assigned patients in the clinical setting. This article presents algorithms as an innovative teaching strategy to guide novice student nurses in the interpretation and decision making related to vital sign assessment in an acute care setting.

Setting priorities for teaching and learning: an innovative needs assessment for a new family medicine program in Lao PDR.

PubMed

Kanashiro, Jeanie; Hollaar, Gwen; Wright, Bruce; Nammavongmixay, Khamphong; Roff, Sue

2007-03-01

Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is a small, tropical, landlocked country in southeast Asia. It is one of the least developed countries in the region, and its socioeconomic indicators are among the lowest 25% in the world. The World Health Organization has long called for increased equity in primary health care access around the world. To meet this need in Lao PDR, the Family Medicine Specialist Program was developed, a Lao-generated postgraduate training program designed to produce community-oriented primary care practitioners to serve the rural, remote areas of Lao PDR, where 80% of the population lives. An innovative method of needs assessment was required to determine the health care priorities to be met by this new program. Through the use of a modified Delphi technique, local key leaders in medical education, clinical specialists, and teachers were consulted to develop prioritized objectives for the hospital-based curriculum of the program. By setting priorities for teaching and learning in the unique and needy circumstances of Lao PDR, a novel approach to curriculum planning in a low-income country was explored and ultimately formed the foundation of the new curriculum. This process served to direct the allocation of scarce resources during implementation of this groundbreaking program. More importantly, this model of needs assessment could potentially be used to customize medical curricula in other low-income countries facing challenges similar to those in Lao PDR.

Raising Questions About Capitalist Globalization and Universalizing Views on Women: A Transnational Feminist Critique of the World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development.

PubMed

Scheer, Victoria L; Stevens, Patricia E; Mkandawire-Valhmu, Lucy

2016-01-01

Nursing in the United States has embraced global health primarily from a clinical perspective, with emphasis on care delivery to populations in underserved, resource-poor settings. Less attention has been devoted to developing expertise about social, economic, and political contexts that produce ill health around the world. The purpose of this article is to offer a transnational feminist critique of the World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development and to illuminate implications such reports may have in the lives of the world's most marginalized women and girls. We examine the political economy idealized in the report, raising questions about the capitalist framework underpinning its agenda. Second, we examine the assumptive language used in the report, suggesting that it discursively constructs a problematic representation of women in low-income countries. We contend that the report perpetuates a hegemonic discourse of patriarchy and inequality for women in the Global South through the use of an uncontested economic framework and universalist reasoning. We conclude the article with discussion about a transformative policy making that could be more inclusive of the wisdoms, values, and everyday experiences of women living in the Global South and about the vital role nurses can play in advancing gender equity through their active collaboration in policy critique and policy formulation.

Preferential attachment in multiple trade networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foschi, Rachele; Riccaboni, Massimo; Schiavo, Stefano

2014-08-01

In this paper we develop a model for the evolution of multiple networks which is able to replicate the concentrated and sparse nature of world trade data. Our model is an extension of the preferential attachment growth model to the case of multiple networks. Countries trade a variety of goods of different complexity. Every country progressively evolves from trading less sophisticated to high-tech goods. The probabilities of capturing more trade opportunities at a given level of complexity and of starting to trade more complex goods are both proportional to the number of existing trade links. We provide a set of theoretical predictions and simulative results. A calibration exercise shows that our model replicates the same concentration level of world trade as well as the sparsity pattern of the trade matrix. We also discuss a set of numerical solutions to deal with large multiple networks.

Seismic Wave Propagation in Icy Ocean Worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stähler, Simon C.; Panning, Mark P.; Vance, Steven D.; Lorenz, Ralph D.; van Driel, Martin; Nissen-Meyer, Tarje; Kedar, Sharon

2018-01-01

Seismology was developed on Earth and shaped our model of the Earth's interior over the twentieth century. With the exception of the Philae lander, all in situ extraterrestrial seismological effort to date was limited to other terrestrial planets. All have in common a rigid crust above a solid mantle. The coming years may see the installation of seismometers on Europa, Titan, and Enceladus, so it is necessary to adapt seismological concepts to the setting of worlds with global oceans covered in ice. Here we use waveform analyses to identify and classify wave types, developing a lexicon for icy ocean world seismology intended to be useful to both seismologists and planetary scientists. We use results from spectral-element simulations of broadband seismic wavefields to adapt seismological concepts to icy ocean worlds. We present a concise naming scheme for seismic waves and an overview of the features of the seismic wavefield on Europa, Titan, Ganymede, and Enceladus. In close connection with geophysical interior models, we analyze simulated seismic measurements of Europa and Titan that might be used to constrain geochemical parameters governing the habitability of a sub-ice ocean.

The World Nuclear University Alumni Assembly

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

White-Horton, Jessica L; Lynch, Patrick D; Gilligan, Kimberly V

The World Nuclear University Summer Institute was established by the World Nuclear Association in 2005 as a program for future leaders in the nuclear field. Since the Summer Institute s inception in 2005, a total of some 800 fellows from more than 70 countries have participated in the program. In 2012, the World Nuclear University held its first ever alumni event at the IAEA in Vienna, Austria, and at that time, the precedent was set that the reunion would be held biennially. The 2014 alumni assembly was held at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from March 31 April 4, 2014. Themore » event offered three separate areas of opportunities for the participating alumni: professional development, leadership, and peer-to-peer engagement. The professional development consisted of training groups, while the leadership will involve discussions with invited leaders, including members of the Blue Ribbon Commission. The peer-to-peer engagement not only give past fellows a chance to reconnect with their own classmates, but it allowed for further international engagement, between the speakers and alumni, as well as between the classes themselves.« less

Breakthrough: Record-Setting Cavity

ScienceCinema

Ciovati, Gianluigi

2018-02-06

Gianluigi "Gigi" Ciovati, a superconducting radiofrequency scientist, discusses how scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Jefferson Lab in Newport News, VA, used ARRA funds to fabricate a niobium cavity for superconducting radiofrequency accelerators that has set a world record for energy efficiency. Jefferson Lab's scientists developed a new, super-hot treatment process that could soon make it possible to produce cavities more quickly and at less cost, benefitting research and healthcare around the world. Accelerators are critical to our efforts to study the structure of matter that builds our visible universe. They also are used to produce medical isotopes and particle beams for diagnosing and eradicating disease. And they offer the potential to power future nuclear power plants that produce little or no radioactive waste.around the world. Accelerators are critical to our efforts to study the structure of matter that builds our visible universe. They also are used to produce medical isotopes and particle beams for diagnosing and eradicating disease. And they offer the potential to power future nuclear power plants that produce little or no radioactive waste.

An international survey of cleaning and disinfection practices in the healthcare environment.

PubMed

Kenters, N; Gottlieb, T; Hopman, J; Mehtar, S; Schweizer, M L; Tartari, E; Huijskens, E G W; Voss, A

2018-06-18

Antimicrobial resistance has become an urgent global health priority. Basic hygiene practices and cleaning and disinfection of the hospital environment are key in preventing pathogen cross-transmission. To our knowledge no studies have assessed the worldwide differences in cleaning and disinfection practices in healthcare facilities. The electronic survey described here was developed in order to evaluate differences in healthcare facility cleaning practices around the world. The International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC, formerly ISC), Infection Prevention and Control work group developed a survey with 30 multiple-choice questions. The questions were designed to assess the current cleaning practices in healthcare settings around the world. A total of 110 healthcare professionals, representing 23 countries, participated in the online survey. In 96% of the facilities a written cleaning policy was present. Training of cleaning staff occurred in 70% of the facilities at the start of employment. Cleaning practices and monitoring of these practices varied. The survey enabled assessment and recognition of widely differing global practices in approaches to environmental cleaning and disinfection. Development of guideline recommendations for cleaning and disinfection could improve practices and set minimum standards worldwide. Copyright © 2018 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Antiviral therapeutics for the treatment of Ebola virus infection.

PubMed

Cardile, Anthony P; Downey, Lydia G; Wiseman, Perry D; Warren, Travis K; Bavari, Sina

2016-10-01

There have been significant developments in Ebola virus therapeutics. While the efficacy of several products was evaluated in the recent West Africa outbreak, a licensed treatment for EBOV disease remains elusive. Factors that negatively impacted the execution of clinical trials included an overall lack of world readiness to conduct clinical trials in an outbreak setting, ethical concerns limiting implementation of the randomized controlled trials in an outbreak setting, and a decline in case numbers by the time resources were mobilized to conduct clinical trials. We summarize relevant therapeutics that underwent clinical trials during the West Africa outbreak and highlight promising candidates under advanced development. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Visualization tool for the world ocean surface currents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kasyanov, S.; Nikitin, O.

2003-04-01

Fortran-based software for the world ocean surface currents visualization functioning on the Windows platform (95 and higher) has been developed. The software works with the global interpolated drifting buoys data set (1979-2002) from the WOCE Surface Velocity Program and the global bottom relief five-minute resolution data set (ETOPO5). These data sets loaded in binary form into operative memory of a PC (256 Mb or better more), together with the software compose the world ocean surface currents visualization tool. The tool allows researches to process data on-line in any region of the world ocean, display data in different visualization forms, calculate currents velocity statistics and save chosen images as graphic files. It provides displays of buoy movement (animation), maps of buoy trajectories, averaged (by prescribed time and space grid intervals) current vector and modulus fields, fields of current mean and eddy kinetic energies and their ratio, current steadiness coefficient and sea surface temperature. Any trajectory may be selected simply by clicking it on any summary map of trajectories (or by given buoy number). It may then be viewed and analyzed in detail, while graphs of velocity (components, module and vector) and water temperature variations along this trajectory may be displayed. The description of the previous version of the tool and some screen shots are available at http://zhurnal.ape.relarn.ru/articles/2001/154.pdf(in Russian) and will be available (in English) at http://csit.ugatu.ac.ru (CSIT '2001, Proceedings, v.2, p. 32-41, Nikitin O.P. et al).

A World Fit for Children: Millennium Development Goals; Special Session on Children Documents; The Convention on the Rights of the Child.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Children's Fund, New York, NY.

In May 2002, participants at the United Nations General Assembly's Special Session on Children committed to a set of specific goals for children and youth and a basic framework for meeting these goals. This report compiles the commitments that were part of the Special Session: (1) the Millennium Development Goals, earlier pledged to by all 189…

Development of disulfiram-loaded vaginal rings for the localised treatment of cervical cancer.

PubMed

Boyd, Peter; Major, Ian; Wang, Weiguang; McConville, Christopher

2014-11-01

Cervical cancer is the third most prevalent cancer in women and disproportionately affects those in low resource settings due to limited programs for screening and prevention. In the developed world treatment for the disease in the non-metastasised state usually takes the form of surgical intervention and/or radiotherapy. In the developing world such techniques are less widely available. This paper describes the development of an intravaginal ring for the localised delivery of a chemotherapeutic drug to the cervix that has the potential to reduce the need for surgical intervention and will also provide a novel anti-cancer therapy for women in low resource settings. Disulfiram has demonstrated antineoplastic action against prostate, breast and lung cancer. Both PEVA and silicone elastomer were investigated for suitability as materials in the manufacture of DSF eluting intravaginal rings. DSF inhibited the curing process of the silicone elastomer, therefore PEVA was chosen as the material to manufacture the DSF-loaded vaginal rings. The vaginal rings had an excellent content uniformity while the DSF remained stable throughout the manufacturing process. Furthermore, the rings provided diffusion controlled release of DSF at levels well in excess of the IC50 value for the HeLa cervical cancer cell line. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health core sets for hand conditions--results of the World Health Organization International Consensus process.

PubMed

Rudolf, Klaus-Dieter; Kus, Sandra; Chung, Kevin C; Johnston, Marie; LeBlanc, Monique; Cieza, Alarcos

2012-01-01

A formal decision-making and consensus process was applied to develop the first version of the International Classification on Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Sets for Hand Conditions. To convene an international panel to develop the ICF Core Sets for Hand Conditions (HC), preparatory studies were conducted, which included an expert survey, a systematic literature review, a qualitative study and an empirical data collection process involving persons with hand conditions. A consensus conference was convened in Switzerland in May 2009 that was attended by 23 healthcare professionals, who treat hand conditions, representing 22 countries. The preparatory studies identified a set of 743 ICF categories at the second, third or fourth hierarchical level. Altogether, 117 chapter-, second-, or third-level categories were included in the comprehensive ICF Core Set for HC. The brief ICF Core Set for HC included a total of 23 chapter- and second-level categories. A formal consensus process integrating evidence and expert opinion based on the ICF led to the formal adoption of the ICF Core Sets for Hand Conditions. The next phase of this ICF project is to conduct a formal validation process to establish its applicability in clinical settings.

Designing breathalyser technology for the developing world: how a single breath can fight the double disease burden.

PubMed

Krisher, Sarah; Riley, Alison; Mehta, Khanjan

2014-04-01

The meteoric rise in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases, alongside already high rates of infectious diseases, is exacerbating the 'double disease burden' in the developing world. There is a desperate need for affordable, accessible and ruggedized diagnostic tools that detect diseases early and direct patients to the correct channels. Breath analysis, the science of utilizing biomarkers in the breath for diagnostic measures, is growing rapidly, especially for use in clinical diagnostic settings. Breathalyser technologies are improving scientifically, but are not yet ready for productization and dissemination to address healthcare challenges. How does one ensure that these new biomedical devices will be suitable for use in developing communities? This article presents a comprehensive review of breath analysis technologies followed by a discussion on how such devices can be designed to conform with WHO's ASSURED criteria so as to reach and sustain in developing countries where they are needed the most.

The Role of Geoethics in Geohazards Mitigation: A YES Network Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

wang, Meng; Barich, Amel; Peppoloni, Silvia

2013-04-01

The YES Network is an international group of early career geoscientists from universities, geosciences organizations and companies, with over 3000 members from 121 countries. It has been founded in 2008 during the International Year of Planet Earth with the vision of "Promoting the Geosciences for Society". Until now, 42 National Chapters have been set up. The YES Network aims to build communication bridges between geologists, Policy makers, and Society in order to develop Geological Projects for sustainable development, international scientific collaborations, to bridge the ages between the geoscientists' generations, promote equity in the professional development of young and early career earth-scientists, etc. Concerning the Geoethics field, recently introduced into the Geosciences domain, the YES Network would like to raise the following ideas: The L'Aquila trial is a case for geoscientists to think about their freedom on research, their responsibility toward the society and their relationship with the public policy and medias. These points are crucial for the professional development of the young and early-career earth-scientists around the world. The YES Network is, therefore, setting up an open forum to collect ideas from all young and early-career scientists around the world on this topic in order to spread awareness among this growing part of the scientific community and help them act like an efficient part of it. There have been for a long time many debates about natural hazards both at regional and global level. It is the duty of the scientific community with the collaboration of policy makers to help mitigate the consequences of the natural disasters around the world. The YES Network is currently developing projects about these issues notably about in coastal Countries including geological mapping, Geohazards Reduction Scenarios, teaching programs for local populations. Earth sciences Education is slowing down in developed countries and growing very fast in some developing areas. In African countries, there is a very strong need for implementing this discipline in the sustainable development process. For this purpose, a balance is needed between Geoethics principles and the implementation of Earth Sciences into the policy making system to help an easier and fair involvement of the Earth-scientists community and promote equity in Earth-Science education and professional development for the YES members around the world.

Implementing Evidence-Based Programs: Lessons Learned from the Field

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powers, Jane; Maley, Mary; Purington, Amanda; Schantz, Karen; Dotterweich, Jutta

2015-01-01

Evidence-based programs (EBPs) are used in many health promotion efforts to ensure that the intended positive behavioral and health outcomes will be achieved. However, because EBPs are developed and tested in research settings, the contextual elements of real world implementation play an important role in their successful delivery in communities.…

Effective Integration of the World-Wide Web in Earth Science Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herbert, Bruce; Bednarz, Sarah; Boyd, Tom; Blake, Sally; Harder, Vicki; Sutter, Marilyn

The earth sciences is an evolving set of disciplines encompassing more than 30 specialties; however, earth scientists continue to be trained within the traditional disciplinary structure. Earth science education should focus not only on student acquisition and retention of factual knowledge, but also on the development of higher-order skills…

Training the Professional Interpreter for the Commercial and Legal Setting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Eleonora K.

The United States has been training interpreters only in the recent past, but the American penchant for technology has furthered the profession as a whole. Benchmarks in this process include machines introduced at the 1936 Paris World Fair and the Nuremberg trials, establishment of the United Nations, language services, development of the Division…

Measuring Beliefs about Suffering: Development of the Views of Suffering Scale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hale-Smith, Amy; Park, Crystal L.; Edmondson, Donald

2012-01-01

Efforts to measure religion have intensified, and many specific dimensions have been identified. However, although belief is a core dimension of all world religions, little attention has been given to assessment of religious beliefs. In particular, 1 essential set of religious beliefs, those concerning the reasons for human suffering, has remained…

Identifying Research Priorities for School Improvement in the Developing World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Read, Robyn; Fernandez-Hermosilla, Magdalena; Anderson, Stephen; Mundy, Karen

2016-01-01

This paper discusses a research agenda setting project conducted for an international non-governmental organization which aims to help create a regionally relevant, high-quality knowledge base on key education issues of policy and practice. Specifically, we illustrate how our team adapted the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHRNI)…

Collaboration through Role Play among Graduate Students in Educational Leadership in Distance Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Barbara B.; McClannon, Terry W.; Wallace, Paul R.

2014-01-01

This project addresses the challenge of preparing educational leaders for future roles in administration in K-12 schools. Through a project-based learning scenario set in a 3-D virtual world, graduate students in school administration and instructional technology worked together in simulated school teams to develop proposals for integrating…

Verification of the Integrity and Legitimacy of Academic Credential Documents in an International Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gollin, George D.

2009-01-01

The global demand for higher education currently exceeds the world's existing university capacity. This shortfall is likely to persist for the foreseeable future, raising concerns that frustrated students might choose to purchase fraudulent credentials from counterfeiters or diploma mills. International efforts to encourage the development of…

Development of Youth Digital Citizenship Scale and Implication for Educational Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Minjeong; Choi, Dongyeon

2018-01-01

Digital citizens need comprehensive knowledge and technological accessibility to the internet and digital world and teachers have a responsibility to lead them to become digital citizens. However, existing Digital Citizenship Scales contain too broad ranges and do not precisely focus on the target students, so teachers do not have clear criteria…

Best Practices for Twin Placement in School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lacina, Jan

2012-01-01

The children's book "Two Is for Twins" celebrates twins and illustrates the many "twos" in a child's world. The uniqueness of twos does not have to mean separate classrooms for twins in child development programs, preschool, or elementary school settings. With recent dramatic increases in the US twin population, how should educators address the…

Effectiveness Study of a CBT-Based Adolescent Coping with Depression Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garvik, Margit; Idsoe, Thormod; Bru, Edvin

2014-01-01

Even though the efficacy of group-based cognitive behavioural interventions is well established both for adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorders as well as for adolescents with depressive symptoms, in order to prevent further development, there has been a call for effectiveness studies in real world settings. This study investigated…

From Rights to Realities: Confronting the Challenge of Educating Persons with Disabilities in Developing Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beckman, Paula J.; Abera, Nicole; Sabella, Thomas; Podzimek, Kimberly; Joseph, Lenisa

2016-01-01

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been the catalyst for countless national policies around the world which focus on increased participation of individuals with disabilities in educational and community settings. Despite these national and international policies, most children with disabilities in developing…

The Federal Republic of Germany: A Land of Top-Ranking Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Preuss, Karl-Heinz, Ed.; Simen, Rolf H., Ed.

Research and technology in the Federal Republic of Germany enjoy international distinction in many fields; indeed, German achievements in highly important areas have set new standards and influenced research and development world wide. This applies in equal measure to the natural sciences, the humanities and, in particular, to the applied…

Developing a Reform-Minded Science Teaching Identity: The Role of Informal Science Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Avraamidou, Lucy

2014-01-01

Recommendations for reform in science education around the world set high goals for beginning elementary teachers. Concurrently, existing literature indicates a number of challenges that beginning elementary teachers face. In this paper an argument is put forward about the integration of informal science environments in elementary teacher…

Trade in the Ancient World--Evidence from a Shipwreck

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gersmehl, Phil

2018-01-01

This activity is part of a larger set of activities and presentations developed by the Michigan Geographic Alliance to help teachers meet the proposed Social Studies standards in 6th and 7th grade. The Michigan Geographic Alliance website also has explanatory presentations, supplementary maps, and readings. In this 10-20 minute intermediate…

Community Education Work Councils. Occasional Paper No. 17.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wirtz, Willard

The president of the National Manpower Institute discusses the possibility of establishing a new set of institutions--for the development and implementation of education-work and vocational education policy--not in the "world of education" but in broader community. He suggests that there be community education work councils, designed to serve as…

Of Elastic Clouds and Treebanks: New Opportunities for Content-Based and Data-Driven Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Godwin-Jones, Robert

2008-01-01

Creating effective electronic tools for language learning frequently requires large data sets containing extensive examples of actual human language use. Collections of authentic language in spoken and written forms provide developers the means to enrich their applications with real world examples. As the Internet continues to expand…

Globally Ready--or Not?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tucker, Marc

2016-01-01

To be prepared for the new world of work--one that outsourcing and automation have transformed--U.S. schools need to set a higher bar. Students need high-level cognitive skills, strong technical skills, character, good communications skills, a well-developed ethical frame, and the ability to relate to a wide range of people from all over the…

"Real World" Experiences Bring T and E Alive

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rust, Terrie

2011-01-01

Informal education (IE) refers to activities that occur outside the school setting, and that were not primarily developed for school use or as part of a school curriculum. Informal education is an important component of the teaching of technology and engineering education, adding relevance to student experiences. The practice of informal education…

Critical Thinking: Ethical Reasoning and Fairminded Thinking, Part I

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paul, Richard; Elder, Linda

2009-01-01

The development of ethical reasoning abilities is vitally important--both for living an ethical life and creating an ethical world. In this article, the authors set out some of the foundations of ethical reasoning. Their aim is to introduce some important intellectual tools and understandings for insightfully reasoning through ethical issues and…

Simulated Real-World Energy Impacts of a Thermally Sensitive Powertrain Considering Viscous Losses and Enrichment: Preprint

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

Wood, E.; Gonder, J.; Lopp, S.

It is widely understood that cold ambient temperatures increase vehicle fuel consumption due to heat transfer losses, increased friction (increased viscosity lubricants), and enrichment strategies (accelerated catalyst heating). However, relatively little effort has been dedicated to thoroughly quantifying these impacts across a large set of real world drive cycle data and ambient conditions. This work leverages experimental dynamometer vehicle data collected under various drive cycles and ambient conditions to develop a simplified modeling framework for quantifying thermal effects on vehicle energy consumption. These models are applied over a wide array of real-world usage profiles and typical meteorological data to developmore » estimates of in-use fuel economy. The paper concludes with a discussion of how this integrated testing/modeling approach may be applied to quantify real-world, off-cycle fuel economy benefits of various technologies.« less

Hypothetical Case and Scenario Description for International Transportation of Spent Nuclear Fuel.

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

Williams, Adam David; Osborn, Douglas; Jones, Katherine A.

To support more rigorous analysis on global security issues at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), there is a need to develop realistic data sets without using "real" data or identifying "real" vulnerabilities, hazards or geopolitically embarrassing shortcomings. In response, an interdisciplinary team led by subject matter experts in SNL's Center for Global Security and Cooperation (CGSC) developed a hypothetical case description. This hypothetical case description assigns various attributes related to international SNF transportation that are representative, illustrative and indicative of "real" characteristics of "real" countries. There is no intent to identify any particular country and any similarity with specific real-world eventsmore » is purely coincidental. To support the goal of this report to provide a case description (and set of scenarios of concern) for international SNF transportation inclusive of as much "real-world" complexity as possible -- without crossing over into politically sensitive or classified information -- this SAND report provides a subject matter expert-validated (and detailed) description of both technical and political influences on the international transportation of spent nuclear fuel. [PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK]« less

The Future of Virtual Worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bainbridge, William Sims; Lutters, Wayne; Rhoten, Diana; Lowood, Henry

This book, like the May 2008 conference in World of Warcraft, ends with projections toward what the future might hold for virtual worlds. Every chapter thus far has included speculations about future directions, even while standing on data from the past. This last chapter, like the final session of the conference on which it is based, incorporates comments from dozens of participants into a stream of ideas. We have edited selected comments together with the panel's contributions. Our intention is to provide a portal from this book into a wider virtual community comprising researchers and residents in virtual worlds. The discussion surveys many recent lines of development, some of which have already been surveyed in scientific and historical literature, or by journalists (Au 2008; Castronova 2007; Guest 2007; Ludlow and Wallace 2007). Yet, many of the topics here have not received such attention. Considered as a set of socio-technical innovations, virtual worlds are not just about technical possibilities; they also inspired the participants to consider the economic bases for investing in those possibilities and the novel cultural, social, and artistic forms virtual worlds might offer.

Patient and visitor violence towards staff on medical and psychiatric wards in India.

PubMed

Raveesh, B N; Lepping, Peter; Lanka, Sri V K; Turner, Jim; Krishna, Murali

2015-02-01

Patient and visitor violence (PVV) towards staff is common across health settings. It has negative effects on staff and treatment provision. Little data is available from the developing world. To examine the prevalence of PVV in India and make comparisons with the existing data. We administered an abbreviated version of the Survey of Violence Experienced by Staff (SOVES-A) in English in Mysore on medical and psychiatric wards. 249 staff participated. 16% of staff in psychiatric wards were subjected to some form of PVV in the past 4 weeks which is lower than in the developed world. 57% of staff on medical wards experienced PVV which is similar to the developed world. Patients and Visitors were almost equal sources of this violence. Verbal abuse was more common than threats and physical assaults. Training in aggression management may be a protective factor. PVV is a significant problem in India, especially on medical wards. Aggression management training may be a way to reduce the prevalence of PVV. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The nature of light: what are photons?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mead, Carver

2013-10-01

We are told that our present understanding of physical law was ushered in by the Quantum Revolution, which began around 1900 and was brought to fruition around 1930 with the formulation of modern Quantum Mechanics. The photon" was supposed to be the centerpiece of this revolution, conveying much of its conceptual avor. What happened during that period was a rather violent redirection of the prevailing world view in and around physics|a process that has still not settled. In this paper I critically review the evolution of the concepts involved, from the time of Maxwell up to the present day. At any given time, discussions in and around any given topic take place using a language that presupposes a world view or zeitgeist. The world view itself limits what ideas are expressible. We are all prisoners of the language we have created to develop our understanding to its present state. Thus the very concepts and ways of thinking that have led to progress in the past are often the source of blind spots that prevent progress into the future. The most insidious property of the world view at any point in time is that it involves assumptions that are not stated. In what follows we will have a number of occasions to point out the assumptions in the current world view, and to develop a new world view based on a quite di erent set of assumptions.

Statement of Ethics in Neurosurgery of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.

PubMed

Umansky, Felix; Black, Peter L; DiRocco, Concenzio; Ferrer, Enrique; Goel, Atul; Malik, Ghaus M; Mathiesen, Tiit; Mendez, Ivar; Palmer, James D; Juanotena, Jorge Rodriguez; Fraifeld, Shifra; Rosenfeld, Jeffrey V

2011-01-01

This Statement of Ethics in Neurosurgery was developed by the Committee for Ethics and Medico-Legal Affairs of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies to help neurosurgeons resolve problems in the treatment of individual patients and meet obligations to the larger society. This document is intended as a framework rather than a set of rules. It cannot cover every situation and should be used with flexibility. However, it is our intent that the fundamental principles enunciated here should serve as a guide in the day-to-day practice of neurosurgery. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Crystallography Open Databases and Preservation: a World-wide Initiative

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chateigner, Daniel

In 2003, an international team of crystallographers proposed the Crystallography Open Database (COD), a fully-free collection of crystal structure data, in the aim of ensuring their preservation. With nearly 250000 entries, this database represents a large open set of data for crystallographers, academics and industrials, located at five different places world-wide, and included in Thomson-Reuters’ ISI. As a large step towards data preservation, raw data can now be uploaded along with «digested» structure files, and COD can be questioned by most of the crystallography-linked industrial software. The COD initiative work deserves several other open developments.

Feasibility of task-specific brain-machine interface training for upper-extremity paralysis in patients with chronic hemiparetic stroke.

PubMed

Nishimoto, Atsuko; Kawakami, Michiyuki; Fujiwara, Toshiyuki; Hiramoto, Miho; Honaga, Kaoru; Abe, Kaoru; Mizuno, Katsuhiro; Ushiba, Junichi; Liu, Meigen

2018-01-10

Brain-machine interface training was developed for upper-extremity rehabilitation for patients with severe hemiparesis. Its clinical application, however, has been limited because of its lack of feasibility in real-world rehabilitation settings. We developed a new compact task-specific brain-machine interface system that enables task-specific training, including reach-and-grasp tasks, and studied its clinical feasibility and effectiveness for upper-extremity motor paralysis in patients with stroke. Prospective beforeâ€"after study. Twenty-six patients with severe chronic hemiparetic stroke. Participants were trained with the brain-machine interface system to pick up and release pegs during 40-min sessions and 40 min of standard occupational therapy per day for 10 days. Fugl-Meyer upper-extremity motor (FMA) and Motor Activity Log-14 amount of use (MAL-AOU) scores were assessed before and after the intervention. To test its feasibility, 4 occupational therapists who operated the system for the first time assessed it with the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) 2.0. FMA and MAL-AOU scores improved significantly after brain-machine interface training, with the effect sizes being medium and large, respectively (p<0.01, d=0.55; p<0.01, d=0.88). QUEST effectiveness and safety scores showed feasibility and satisfaction in the clinical setting. Our newly developed compact brain-machine interface system is feasible for use in real-world clinical settings.

DoD and Commercial Advanced Waveform Developments and Programs with Multiple Nunn-McCurdy Breaches. Volume 5

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-01-01

and insightful reviews of our report. It is a stron- ger document because of their efforts. xxi Abbreviations 2G second generation 3G third...in the commercial world. LTE includes a set of standards developed by 3GPP for mobile 3G and 4G mobile communications. The currently fielded...generation ( 2G ) digital mobile phone system, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). The GSM standard was developed by the European

Quality labeled faces in the wild (QLFW): a database for studying face recognition in real-world environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karam, Lina J.; Zhu, Tong

2015-03-01

The varying quality of face images is an important challenge that limits the effectiveness of face recognition technology when applied in real-world applications. Existing face image databases do not consider the effect of distortions that commonly occur in real-world environments. This database (QLFW) represents an initial attempt to provide a set of labeled face images spanning the wide range of quality, from no perceived impairment to strong perceived impairment for face detection and face recognition applications. Types of impairment include JPEG2000 compression, JPEG compression, additive white noise, Gaussian blur and contrast change. Subjective experiments are conducted to assess the perceived visual quality of faces under different levels and types of distortions and also to assess the human recognition performance under the considered distortions. One goal of this work is to enable automated performance evaluation of face recognition technologies in the presence of different types and levels of visual distortions. This will consequently enable the development of face recognition systems that can operate reliably on real-world visual content in the presence of real-world visual distortions. Another goal is to enable the development and assessment of visual quality metrics for face images and for face detection and recognition applications.

Medical Science Liaisons in Real-World Evidence Studies: Experience of AstraZeneca Russia.

PubMed

Suvorov, Nikolay; Karaseva, Vera; Stukalina, Ekaterina; Sanay, Elkhan; Petrakovskaya, Vera; Bulatov, Vladimir

2018-01-01

There is no doubt that real-world evidence studies have the potential to improve and accelerate the development and delivery of safe and cost-effective innovative medicines to patients as well as influence the way we approach health and health care. Real-world evidence studies are a great challenge in terms of development and conduct, so there should be a good collaboration between the study team and clinical sites at all times, resulting eventually in timely and efficient enrollment. Engaging the sites and key external experts as early as possible during feasibility and routine visits, as well as highlighting the science rationale behind AstraZeneca's portfolio at investigator meetings and during medical science liaison (MSL) interactions, can create a positive impact on physician perception of a particular study and prioritization of patient recruitment in such studies. Therefore, we would like to underline the important role of MSLs in the risk-based monitoring setting of real-world evidence studies, with special attention to the studies with complicated patient profiles, tough timelines, and/or seasonal factors. This approach will be used further for other real world evidence projects of AstraZeneca Russia MC to ensure timelines and budget deliverables are met for the generation of high-quality evidence and eventually better health care for all of us.

Water for Two Worlds: Designing Terrestrial Applications for Exploration-class Sanitation Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adams, Constance; Andersson, Ingvar; Feighery, John

2004-01-01

At the United Nations Millennium Summit in September of 2000, the world leaders agreed on an ambitious agenda for reducing poverty and improving lives: the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) , a list of issues they consider highly pernicious, threatening to human welfare and, thereby, to global security and prosperity. Among the eight goals are included fundamental human needs such as the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, the promotion of gender equality, the reduction of child mortality and improvement of maternal health, and ensuring the sustainability of our shared environment. In order to help focus the efforts to meet these goals, the United Nations (UN) has established a set of eighteen concrete targets, each with an associated schedule. Among these is Target 10: "By 2015, reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water." A closely related target of equal dignity was agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, September 2002): "By 2015, reduce by half the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation".

Coproducing Aboriginal patient journey mapping tools for improved quality and coordination of care.

PubMed

Kelly, Janet; Dwyer, Judith; Mackean, Tamara; O'Donnell, Kim; Willis, Eileen

2016-12-08

This paper describes the rationale and process for developing a set of Aboriginal patient journey mapping tools with Aboriginal patients, health professionals, support workers, educators and researchers in the Managing Two Worlds Together project between 2008 and 2015. Aboriginal patients and their families from rural and remote areas, and healthcare providers in urban, rural and remote settings, shared their perceptions of the barriers and enablers to quality care in interviews and focus groups, and individual patient journey case studies were documented. Data were thematically analysed. In the absence of suitable existing tools, a new analytical framework and mapping approach was developed. The utility of the tools in other settings was then tested with health professionals, and the tools were further modified for use in quality improvement in health and education settings in South Australia and the Northern Territory. A central set of patient journey mapping tools with flexible adaptations, a workbook, and five sets of case studies describing how staff adapted and used the tools at different sites are available for wider use.

A brief history of the multiverse.

PubMed

Linde, Andrei

2017-02-01

The theory of the inflationary multiverse changes the way we think about our place in the world. According to its most popular version, our world may consist of infinitely many exponentially large parts, exhibiting different sets of low-energy laws of physics. Since these parts are extremely large, the interior of each of them behaves as if it were a separate universe, practically unaffected by the rest of the world. This picture, combined with the theory of eternal inflation and anthropic considerations, may help to solve many difficult problems of modern physics, including the cosmological constant problem. In this article I will briefly describe this theory and provide links to the some hard to find papers written during the first few years of the development of the inflationary multiverse scenario.

A brief history of the multiverse

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Linde, Andrei

2017-02-01

The theory of the inflationary multiverse changes the way we think about our place in the world. According to its most popular version, our world may consist of infinitely many exponentially large parts, exhibiting different sets of low-energy laws of physics. Since these parts are extremely large, the interior of each of them behaves as if it were a separate universe, practically unaffected by the rest of the world. This picture, combined with the theory of eternal inflation and anthropic considerations, may help to solve many difficult problems of modern physics, including the cosmological constant problem. In this article I will briefly describe this theory and provide links to the some hard to find papers written during the first few years of the development of the inflationary multiverse scenario.

Atomic complex: a worldwide political history of nuclear energy

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

Goldschmidt, B.

The author presents a personal memoir of the effort to harness energy from the atom as well as telling the story of worldwide development, from its military use in the 1940s to its peaceful use of generating electricity in the world's 263 operating nuclear power plants. As a scientist turned statesman, Goldsmith reviews nearly half a century of worldwide political moves, countermoves, international intrigue, and manipulation. His perspective is portrayed against the personal backdrop of world leaders. Taking a pragmatic look at the nuclear world of today, he describes how the mistakes of the past set the tone for today'smore » nuclear problems. Goldsmith balances the terror due to nuclear weapons with the benefits nuclear energy can bring to an economically troubled and energy-starved population.« less

In-World Behaviors and Learning in a Virtual World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nadolny, Larysa; Childs, Mark

2014-01-01

Educational virtual worlds can give students opportunities that would not otherwise be possible in face-to-face settings. The SciEthics Interactive simulations allow learners to conduct scientific research and practice ethical decision-making within a virtual world. This study examined the in-world behaviors that identify students who perceive…

The impact of emerging technology on nursing care: warp speed ahead.

PubMed

Huston, Carol

2013-05-31

While myriad forces are changing the face of contemporary healthcare, one could argue that nothing will change the way nursing is practiced more than current advances in technology. Indeed, technology is changing the world at warp speed and nowhere is this more evident than in healthcare settings. This article identifies seven emerging technologies that will change the practice of nursing; three skill sets nurses will need to develop to acquire, use, and integrate these emerging technologies; and four challenges nurse leaders will face in integrating this new technology.

Automatic food detection in egocentric images using artificial intelligence technology.

PubMed

Jia, Wenyan; Li, Yuecheng; Qu, Ruowei; Baranowski, Thomas; Burke, Lora E; Zhang, Hong; Bai, Yicheng; Mancino, Juliet M; Xu, Guizhi; Mao, Zhi-Hong; Sun, Mingui

2018-03-26

To develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-based algorithm which can automatically detect food items from images acquired by an egocentric wearable camera for dietary assessment. To study human diet and lifestyle, large sets of egocentric images were acquired using a wearable device, called eButton, from free-living individuals. Three thousand nine hundred images containing real-world activities, which formed eButton data set 1, were manually selected from thirty subjects. eButton data set 2 contained 29 515 images acquired from a research participant in a week-long unrestricted recording. They included both food- and non-food-related real-life activities, such as dining at both home and restaurants, cooking, shopping, gardening, housekeeping chores, taking classes, gym exercise, etc. All images in these data sets were classified as food/non-food images based on their tags generated by a convolutional neural network. A cross data-set test was conducted on eButton data set 1. The overall accuracy of food detection was 91·5 and 86·4 %, respectively, when one-half of data set 1 was used for training and the other half for testing. For eButton data set 2, 74·0 % sensitivity and 87·0 % specificity were obtained if both 'food' and 'drink' were considered as food images. Alternatively, if only 'food' items were considered, the sensitivity and specificity reached 85·0 and 85·8 %, respectively. The AI technology can automatically detect foods from low-quality, wearable camera-acquired real-world egocentric images with reasonable accuracy, reducing both the burden of data processing and privacy concerns.

The Changing Academic Environment and Diversity in Students' Study Philosophy, Beliefs and Attitudes in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alauddin, Mohammad; Ashman, Adrian

2014-01-01

Student populations in higher education in Australia and elsewhere in the developed world have experienced significant diversity over the past two decades. The existing literature has provided limited clarity about the effects of this diversity on the dimensions underpinning students' study philosophy domain. Based on a large data set from a…

Serious Games: Video Games for Good?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanford, Kathy; Starr, Lisa J.; Merkel, Liz; Bonsor Kurki, Sarah

2015-01-01

As video games become a ubiquitous part of today's culture internationally, as educators and parents we need to turn our attention to how video games are being understood and used in informal and formal settings. Serious games have developed as a genre of video games marketed for educating youth about a range of world issues. At face value this…

Student Perceptions of a Recreation Trail Assignment as a Valuable Learning Experience for Geography Undergraduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mullens, Jo Beth

2016-01-01

Charging undergraduate geography students with the task of designing a recreational trail in their local community offers an engaging experiential opportunity with potential to advance geographic learning in a real-world setting. This article presents an assignment in which students were asked to develop a recreational trail proposal for an…

Commentary: Explicit Attention to Age and Gender Disparities is Key to Understanding Adolescent Experiences and Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blanc, Ann K.; Bruce, Judith

2013-01-01

This special issue addresses an ambitious set of concerns around the experience of adolescents in the majority world: expanded models of development, successful models of intervention, and the impact of globalization. The papers, which vary widely in both substance and methodology, make a substantial contribution to pushing forward the boundaries…

Design and Empirical Evaluation of Search Software for Legal Professionals on the WWW.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dempsey, Bert J.; Vreeland, Robert C.; Sumner, Robert G., Jr.; Yang, Kiduk

2000-01-01

Discussion of effective search aids for legal researchers on the World Wide Web focuses on the design and evaluation of two software systems developed to explore models for browsing and searching across a user-selected set of Web sites. Describes crawler-enhanced search engines, filters, distributed full-text searching, and natural language…

A Maturing Global Testing Regime Meets the World Economy: Test Scores and Economic Growth, 1960-2012

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamens, David H.

2015-01-01

This article considers the growth of the international testing regime. It discusses sources of growth and empirically examines two related sets of issues: (1) the stability of countries' achievement scores, and (2) the influence of those national scores on subsequent economic development over different time lags. The article suggests that…

Impact of Sexual Harassment on Women Undergraduates' Educational Experience in Anambra State of Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okeke, Carina Maris Amaka

2010-01-01

Sexual harassment in educational settings is a common problem globally. While it is well addressed in college and university campuses in most developed countries of the world through specific policies and mechanisms of enforcement, it remains a taboo topic in African colleges and universities particularly in Nigeria. This study investigated the…

Crossroads: Quality of Life in a Nuclear World. A High School Science Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

French, Dan; Phillips, Connie

One of a set of high school curricula on nuclear issues, this 10-day science unit helps students understand the interrelationship between the economy, the arms race, military spending, and the threat of nuclear war. Through activities such as role playing, discussion, brainstorming, and problem solving, students develop their ability to evaluate…

Crossroads: Quality of Life in a Nuclear World. A High School Social Studies Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

French, Dan; And Others

One of a set of high school curricula on nuclear issues, this 10-day social studies unit helps students understand the interrelationship of economics, the arms race, military spending, and the threat of nuclear war. Activities such as role plays, discussion, brainstorming, and problem solving develop students' abilities to evaluate issues and…

Civic Participation among Seventh-Grade Social Studies Students in Multi-User Virtual Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zieger, Laura; Farber, Matthew

2012-01-01

Technological advances on the Internet now enable students to develop participation skills in virtual worlds. Similar to controlling a character in a video game, multi-user virtual environments, or MUVEs, allow participants to interact with others in synchronous, online settings. The authors of this study created a link between MUVEs and…

Faces of Change. Five Rural Societies in Transition: Bolivia, Kenya, Afghanistan, Taiwan, China Coast.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Norman N., Ed.; Spitzer, Manon L., Ed.

The multidisciplinary film project focuses attention on what is happening to rural populations of the world, particularly among developing countries. The roles of women, education, social and economic systems, and the effects of modernization on values are themes explored in each of five rural settings--Bolivian highlands, northern Kenya, northern…

Development of Strategic International Industry Links to Promote Undergraduate Vocational Training and Postgraduate Research Programmes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abanteriba, Sylvester

2006-01-01

After centuries of protectionism in international trade, the course is inexorably set for trade amongst nations without borders. More and more countries are joining the World Trade Organization and companies are repositioning themselves for the conduct of their activities in an environment free from physical borders and national legislative…

CASE Fundraising in International Schools Report 2016. Findings from Data Collected for the Academic Year 2014-15

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Council for Advancement and Support of Education, 2016

2016-01-01

The CASE Fundraising in International Schools Survey (FRIS) provides a set of measurement standards for advancement programmes at international schools around the world. The survey was first conducted in 2009 among practitioners to trace the expansion and innovation of development and external relations initiatives in international schools. Given…

When Knowledge Is Not Enough: The Phenomenon of Goal Neglect in Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Towse, John N.; Lewis, Charlie; Knowles, Mark

2007-01-01

We argue that the concept of goal neglect can be fruitfully applied to understand children's potential problems in experimental tasks and real-world settings. We describe an assessment of goal neglect developed for administration to preschool children and report data on two measures derived from this task alongside the Dimensional Change Card Sort…

Uneven Commercialization: Contradiction and Conflict in the Identity and Practices of American Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kleinman, Daniel Lee; Osley-Thomas, Robert

2014-01-01

In this paper, drawing on magazines read by US academic leaders, we explore the spread of commercial language into the world of higher education. We ask whether commercial codes are taken for granted, considered routine, and common sense in academic settings. We develop a multidimensional approach, considering two practices, strategic planning and…

The Vietnamese Values System: A Blend of Oriental, Western and Socialist Values

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nguyen, Quynh Thi Nhu

2016-01-01

Values education has been discussed extensively in many parts of the world in the context of the dramatic changes associated with globalization which directly affects the set of human values. Vietnam is a developing country with an intermixture of cultural heritage and social-economic transformation. In order to achieve the goal of becoming a…

Understanding Peri-Urban Maize Production through an Examination of Household Livelihoods in the Toluca Metropolitan Area, Mexico

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lerner, Amy M.; Eakin, Hallie; Sweeney, Stuart

2013-01-01

The rates of urban growth globally continue to rise, especially in small and intermediary cities and peri-urban areas of the developing world. Communities in these settings share characteristics with rural areas, in terms of continued connections with agriculture, yet with an increasing reliance of non-agricultural employment which poses…

Understanding Practitioner Research as a Form of Life: An Eastern Interpretation of Exploratory Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Zongjie

2006-01-01

Allwright and colleagues around the world have been developing Exploratory Practice as an approach to practitioner research different from the familiar notion of teacher research. EP offers a set of principles devoted to understanding, in a collaborative mode, the quality of language classroom life. Several underlying points, such as "quality of…

Pointing Sets the Stage for Learning Language--and Creating Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldin-Meadow, Susan

2007-01-01

Tomasello, Carpenter, and Liszkowski (2007) have argued that pointing gestures do much more than single out objects in the world. Pointing gestures function as part of a system of shared intentionality even at early stages of development. As such, pointing gestures form the platform on which linguistic communication rests, paving the way for later…

Results for Learning Report 2012: Fostering Evidence-Based Dialogue to Monitor Access and Quality in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cortese, Lauren; Crouch, Luis; Pinto, Nancy; Salgado, Vania; Schmidt, Caroline; Soman, Kouassi; Thiam, Mamadou; Chaluda, Ania; Omoeva, Carina

2012-01-01

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) works with low-income countries around the world to help them provide basic education of good quality to all of their children. Countries develop education sector plans that set clear targets and commitments; their partners including donors, multilateral agencies, civil society and the private sector…

Teaching Avogadro's Hypothesis and Helping Students to See the World Differently

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Criswell, Brett

2008-01-01

Within the historical context of the development of chemistry, Avogadro's hypothesis represents a fundamental concept: It allowed Avogadro to explain Gay-Lussac's law of combining volumes and it allowed Cannizzaro to establish a more accurate set of atomic mass values. If students are going to understand the concept of relative atomic masses and…

Cancer Risks and Native Americans: The "Healthy Living in Two World's" Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weaver, H.; Jackson, K.

2012-01-01

Objective: This project collected data on cancer risk factors among urban Native American youth in the northeast to inform development of a prevention initiative. Design: Face to face interviews were conducted. Setting: Interviews were conducted in homes, at a social service agency, and in a private space at a Native American cultural event in…

Encouraging Free Play: Extramural Digital Game-Based Language Learning as a Complex Adaptive System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scholz, Kyle

2017-01-01

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games like World of Warcraft are ideally suited to encourage and facilitate second language development (SLD) in the extramural setting, but to what extent do the language learners' actual trajectories of gameplay contribute to SLD? With the current propensity to focus research in digital game-based…

Sliding U.S. Dollar Packs a Wallop to Wallets Worldwide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowman, Quinn

2008-01-01

The dollar, once one of the world's strongest currencies, has fallen dramatically in recent years--a development impacting attitudes from corporate boardrooms to the sets of music videos where artists are choosing to flash the euro over American cash. When measured against a collection of other leading worldwide currencies--like the European euro,…

Understanding Students' Adaptation to Graduate School: An Integration of Social Support Theory and Social Learning Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsay, Crystal Han-Huei

2012-01-01

The contemporary business world demands adaptive individuals (Friedman & Wyman, 2005). Adaptation is essential for any life transition. It often involves developing coping mechanisms, strategies, and seeking of social support. Adaptation occurs in many settings from moving to a new culture, taking a new job, starting or finishing an…

Continuing Education of Health Personnel. Report on a Working Group (Dublin, Ireland, October 18-21, 1976).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

World Health Organization, Copenhagen (Denmark). Regional Office for Europe.

Twenty-two members, drawn from different sectors of health service and educational systems of seventeen countries, comprised a working group of the World Health Organization (WHO) which was organized to consider the development of national systems of continuing education for the health professions. The working group first set out to define…

Investigating Participation in Advanced Level Mathematics: A Study of Student Drop-Out

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noyes, Andrew; Sealey, Paula

2012-01-01

There has, for some years, been a growing concern about participation in university-entrance level mathematics in England and across the developed world. Extensive statistical analyses present the decline but offer little to help us understand the causes. In this paper we explore a concern which cannot be explored through national data-sets,…

A Framework for Educating Health Professionals to Address the Social Determinants of Health

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Academies Press, 2016

2016-01-01

The World Health Organization defines the social determinants of health as "the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life." These forces and systems include economic policies, development agendas, cultural and social norms, social policies,…

Mind the Gap: Global Quality Norms, National Policy Interpretations and Local Praxis in Timor-Leste

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shah, Ritesh; Quinn, Marie

2016-01-01

Increasingly, the imperative for improving educational quality in schooling systems throughout the developing world is harnessed to a particular set of teaching and learning practices, such as child-centred, child-friendly or learner-centred pedagogy (LCP). Such was the case in Timor-Leste where, after independence, LCP was heavily promoted as a…

Ubiquitous Sensor Networking for Development (USN4D): an application to pollution monitoring.

PubMed

Bagula, Antoine; Zennaro, Marco; Inggs, Gordon; Scott, Simon; Gascon, David

2012-01-01

This paper presents a new Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) Architecture to be used in developing countries and reveals its usefulness by highlighting some of its key features. In complement to a previous ITU proposal, our architecture referred to as "Ubiquitous Sensor Network for Development (USN4D)" integrates in its layers features such as opportunistic data dissemination, long distance deployment and localisation of information to meet the requirements of the developing world. Besides describing some of the most important requirements for the sensor equipment to be used in a USN4D setting, we present the main features and experiments conducted using the "WaspNet" as one of the wireless sensor deployment platforms that meets these requirements. Furthermore, building upon "WaspNet" platform, we present an application to Air pollution Monitoring in the city of Cape Town, in South Africa as one of the first steps towards building community wireless sensor networks (CSN) in the developing world using off-the-shelf sensor equipment.

Head and neck surgical subspecialty training in Africa: Sustainable models to improve cancer care in developing countries.

PubMed

Fagan, Johannes J; Zafereo, Mark; Aswani, Joyce; Netterville, James L; Koch, Wayne

2017-03-01

Cancer poses a health crisis in the developing world where surgery is the mainstay of treatment for head and neck cancers. However, a shortage of surgeons with appropriate skills exists. How do we train head and neck surgeons in developing countries and avoid a brain drain? The ideal model provides appropriate affordable training leading to establishment of head and neck cancer centers that teach and train others. Different head and neck surgery training models are presented based on the personal experiences of the authors. Surgical exposure of head and neck fellows in Cape Town and (potentially) in Nairobi is benchmarked against programs in the United States. Surgical exposure in Cape Town is equivalent to that in the United States, but more appropriate to a developing world setting. Training can be achieved in a number of ways, which may be complimentary. Fellowship training is possible in developing countries. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 39: 605-611, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Ubiquitous Sensor Networking for Development (USN4D): An Application to Pollution Monitoring

PubMed Central

Bagula, Antoine; Zennaro, Marco; Inggs, Gordon; Scott, Simon; Gascon, David

2012-01-01

This paper presents a new Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) Architecture to be used in developing countries and reveals its usefulness by highlighting some of its key features. In complement to a previous ITU proposal, our architecture referred to as “Ubiquitous Sensor Network for Development (USN4D)” integrates in its layers features such as opportunistic data dissemination, long distance deployment and localisation of information to meet the requirements of the developing world. Besides describing some of the most important requirements for the sensor equipment to be used in a USN4D setting, we present the main features and experiments conducted using the “WaspNet” as one of the wireless sensor deployment platforms that meets these requirements. Furthermore, building upon “WaspNet” platform, we present an application to Air pollution Monitoring in the city of Cape Town, in South Africa as one of the first steps towards building community wireless sensor networks (CSN) in the developing world using off-the-shelf sensor equipment. PMID:22368476

The Human Behavioral Ecology of Contemporary World Issues : Applications to Public Policy and International Development.

PubMed

Tucker, Bram; Rende Taylor, Lisa

2007-09-01

Human behavioral ecology (HBE) began as an attempt to explain human economic, reproductive, and social behavior using neodarwinian theory in concert with theory from ecology and economics, and ethnographic methods. HBE has addressed subsistence decision-making, cooperation, life history trade-offs, parental investment, mate choice, and marriage strategies among hunter-gatherers, herders, peasants, and wage earners in rural and urban settings throughout the world. Despite our rich insights into human behavior, HBE has very rarely been used as a tool to help the people with whom we work. This article introduces a special issue of Human Nature which explores the application of HBE to significant world issues through the design and critique of public policy and international development projects. The articles by Tucker, Shenk, Leonetti et al., and Neil were presented at the 104th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) in Washington, D.C., in December 2005, in the first organized session of the nascent Evolutionary Anthropology Section (EAS). We conclude this introduction by summarizing some theoretical challenges to applying HBE, and ways in which evolutionary anthropologists can contribute to solving tough world issues.

The epidemiology of smoking: health consequences and benefits of cessation.

PubMed

Fagerström, Karl

2002-01-01

Tobacco use is the single most important preventable health risk in the developed world, and an important cause of premature death worldwide. Smoking causes a wide range of diseases, including many types of cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, and peptic ulcer disease. In addition, smoking during pregnancy adversely affects fetal and neonatal growth and development. Recent decades have seen a massive expansion in tobacco use in the developing world and accelerating growth in smoking among women in the developed world. Globally, smoking-related mortality is set to rise from 3 million annually (1995 estimate) to 10 million annually by 2030, with 70% of these deaths occurring in developing countries. Many of the adverse health effects of smoking are reversible, and smoking cessation treatments represent some of the most cost effective of all healthcare interventions. Although the greatest benefit accrues from ceasing smoking when young, even quitting in middle age avoids much of the excess healthcare risk associated with smoking. In order to improve smoking cessation rates, effective behavioural and pharmacological treatments, coupled with professional counselling and advice, are required. Since smoking duration is the principal risk factor for smoking-related morbidity, the treatment goal should be early cessation and prevention of relapse.

LAMMR world data base documentation support and demonstrations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chin, R.; Beaudet, P.

1980-01-01

The primary purpose of the World Surface Map is to provide the LAMMR subsystem with world surface type classifications that are used to set up LAMMR LEVEL II process control. This data base will be accessed solely by the LAMMR subsystem. The SCATT and ALT subsystems will access the data base indirectly through the T sub b (Brightness Temperature) Data Bank, where the surface types were updated from a priori to current classification, and where the surface types were organized on an orbital subtrack basis. The single most important factor in the design of the World Surface Maps is the ease of access to the information while the complexity of generating these maps is of lesser importance because their generation is a one-time, off-line process. The World Surface Map provides storage of information with a resolution of 7 km necessary to set flags concerning the earth's features with a different set of maps for each month of the year.

On the origin of life in the zinc world. 2. Validation of the hypothesis on the photosynthesizing zinc sulfide edifices as cradles of life on Earth.

PubMed

Mulkidjanian, Armen Y; Galperin, Michael Y

2009-08-24

The accompanying article (A.Y. Mulkidjanian, Biology Direct 4:26) puts forward a detailed hypothesis on the role of zinc sulfide (ZnS) in the origin of life on Earth. The hypothesis suggests that life emerged within compartmentalized, photosynthesizing ZnS formations of hydrothermal origin (the Zn world), assembled in sub-aerial settings on the surface of the primeval Earth. If life started within photosynthesizing ZnS compartments, it should have been able to evolve under the conditions of elevated levels of Zn2+ ions, byproducts of the ZnS-mediated photosynthesis. Therefore, the Zn world hypothesis leads to a set of testable predictions regarding the specific roles of Zn2+ ions in modern organisms, particularly in RNA and protein structures related to the procession of RNA and the "evolutionarily old" cellular functions. We checked these predictions using publicly available data and obtained evidence suggesting that the development of the primeval life forms up to the stage of the Last Universal Common Ancestor proceeded in zinc-rich settings. Testing of the hypothesis has revealed the possible supportive role of manganese sulfide in the primeval photosynthesis. In addition, we demonstrate the explanatory power of the Zn world concept by elucidating several points that so far remained without acceptable rationalization. In particular, this concept implies a new scenario for the separation of Bacteria and Archaea and the origin of Eukarya. The ability of the Zn world hypothesis to generate non-trivial veritable predictions and explain previously obscure items gives credence to its key postulate that the development of the first life forms started within zinc-rich formations of hydrothermal origin and was driven by solar UV irradiation. This concept implies that the geochemical conditions conducive to the origin of life may have persisted only as long as the atmospheric CO2 pressure remained above ca. 10 bar. This work envisions the first Earth biotopes as photosynthesizing and habitable areas of porous ZnS and MnS precipitates around primeval hot springs. Further work will be needed to provide details on the life within these communities and to elucidate the primordial (bio)chemical reactions. This article was reviewed by Arcady Mushegian, Eugene Koonin, and Patrick Forterre. For the full reviews, please go to the Reviewers' reports section.

On the origin of life in the Zinc world. 2. Validation of the hypothesis on the photosynthesizing zinc sulfide edifices as cradles of life on Earth

PubMed Central

Mulkidjanian, Armen Y; Galperin, Michael Y

2009-01-01

Background The accompanying article (A.Y. Mulkidjanian, Biology Direct 4:26) puts forward a detailed hypothesis on the role of zinc sulfide (ZnS) in the origin of life on Earth. The hypothesis suggests that life emerged within compartmentalized, photosynthesizing ZnS formations of hydrothermal origin (the Zn world), assembled in sub-aerial settings on the surface of the primeval Earth. Results If life started within photosynthesizing ZnS compartments, it should have been able to evolve under the conditions of elevated levels of Zn2+ ions, byproducts of the ZnS-mediated photosynthesis. Therefore, the Zn world hypothesis leads to a set of testable predictions regarding the specific roles of Zn2+ ions in modern organisms, particularly in RNA and protein structures related to the procession of RNA and the "evolutionarily old" cellular functions. We checked these predictions using publicly available data and obtained evidence suggesting that the development of the primeval life forms up to the stage of the Last Universal Common Ancestor proceeded in zinc-rich settings. Testing of the hypothesis has revealed the possible supportive role of manganese sulfide in the primeval photosynthesis. In addition, we demonstrate the explanatory power of the Zn world concept by elucidating several points that so far remained without acceptable rationalization. In particular, this concept implies a new scenario for the separation of Bacteria and Archaea and the origin of Eukarya. Conclusion The ability of the Zn world hypothesis to generate non-trivial veritable predictions and explain previously obscure items gives credence to its key postulate that the development of the first life forms started within zinc-rich formations of hydrothermal origin and was driven by solar UV irradiation. This concept implies that the geochemical conditions conducive to the origin of life may have persisted only as long as the atmospheric CO2 pressure remained above ca. 10 bar. This work envisions the first Earth biotopes as photosynthesizing and habitable areas of porous ZnS and MnS precipitates around primeval hot springs. Further work will be needed to provide details on the life within these communities and to elucidate the primordial (bio)chemical reactions. Reviewers This article was reviewed by Arcady Mushegian, Eugene Koonin, and Patrick Forterre. For the full reviews, please go to the Reviewers' reports section. PMID:19703275

Tackling some of the most intricate geophysical challenges via high-performance computing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khosronejad, A.

2016-12-01

Recently, world has been witnessing significant enhancements in computing power of supercomputers. Computer clusters in conjunction with the advanced mathematical algorithms has set the stage for developing and applying powerful numerical tools to tackle some of the most intricate geophysical challenges that today`s engineers face. One such challenge is to understand how turbulent flows, in real-world settings, interact with (a) rigid and/or mobile complex bed bathymetry of waterways and sea-beds in the coastal areas; (b) objects with complex geometry that are fully or partially immersed; and (c) free-surface of waterways and water surface waves in the coastal area. This understanding is especially important because the turbulent flows in real-world environments are often bounded by geometrically complex boundaries, which dynamically deform and give rise to multi-scale and multi-physics transport phenomena, and characterized by multi-lateral interactions among various phases (e.g. air/water/sediment phases). Herein, I present some of the multi-scale and multi-physics geophysical fluid mechanics processes that I have attempted to study using an in-house high-performance computational model, the so-called VFS-Geophysics. More specifically, I will present the simulation results of turbulence/sediment/solute/turbine interactions in real-world settings. Parts of the simulations I present are performed to gain scientific insights into the processes such as sand wave formation (A. Khosronejad, and F. Sotiropoulos, (2014), Numerical simulation of sand waves in a turbulent open channel flow, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 753:150-216), while others are carried out to predict the effects of climate change and large flood events on societal infrastructures ( A. Khosronejad, et al., (2016), Large eddy simulation of turbulence and solute transport in a forested headwater stream, Journal of Geophysical Research:, doi: 10.1002/2014JF003423).

Older Adults' Current and Potential Uses of Information Technologies in a Changing World: A Theoretical Perspective.

PubMed

Backonja, Uba; Hall, Amanda K; Thielke, Stephen

2014-12-01

Technologies have become a major force in people's lives. They change how people interact with the environment, even as the environment changes. We propose that technology use in the setting of changing environments is motivated by essential needs and tensions experienced by the individual. We apply three developmental and behavioral theories (Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and Bronfenbrenner's ecological model) to explain technology-related behaviors among older adults. We consider how technology use has addressed and can address major ecological changes, in three areas: health promotion, natural disasters, and disparities. We propose that considering these theories can help researchers and developers ensure that technologies will help promote a healthier world for older adults. © The Author(s) 2015.

Older Adults’ Current and Potential Uses of Information Technologies in a Changing World: A Theoretical Perspective

PubMed Central

Backonja, Uba; Hall, Amanda K.; Thielke, Stephen

2015-01-01

Technologies have become a major force in people’s lives. They change how people interact with the environment, even as the environment changes. We propose that technology use in the setting of changing environments is motivated by essential needs and tensions experienced by the individual. We apply three developmental and behavioral theories (Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model) to explain technology-related behaviors among older adults. We consider how technology use has addressed and can address major ecological changes, in three areas: health promotion, natural disasters, and disparities. We propose that considering these theories can help researchers and developers ensure that technologies will help promote a healthier world for older adults. PMID:26215298

Challenges of Ophthalmic Care in the Developing World

PubMed Central

Sommer, Alfred; Taylor, Hugh R.; Ravilla, Thulasiraj D.; West, Sheila; Lietman, Thomas M.; Keenan, Jeremy D.; Chiang, Michael F.; Robin, Alan L.; Mills, Richard P.

2014-01-01

Global blindness exacts an enormous financial and social cost on developing countries. Reducing the prevalence of blindness globally requires a set of strategies that are different from those typically employed in developed countries. This was the subject of the 2013 Knapp symposium at the American Ophthalmological Society Annual Meeting, and this article summarizes the presentations of epidemiologists, health care planners, and ophthalmologists. It explores a range of successful strategies from the multinational Vision 2020 Initiative to disease-specific schemes in cataract, trachoma control, infectious corneal ulceration, cytomegalovirus retinitis, and retinopathy of prematurity. In each example, the importance of an attitudinal set towards the public health becomes clear. There is reason for optimism in the struggle against global blindness, in large measure because of innovative programs like those described here. PMID:24604415

Setting Housing Standards to Improve Global Health

PubMed Central

Howden-Chapman, Philippa; Roebbel, Nathalie

2017-01-01

Developing World Health Organization international guidelines is a highly formal process. Yet the resulting guidelines, which Member States are encouraged, but not required to adopt, are a powerful way of developing rigorous policy and fostering implementation. Using the example of the housing and health guidelines, which are currently being finalised, this paper outlines the process for developing WHO guidelines. This includes: forming a Guidelines Review Group that represents all regions of the world, and ensures gender balance and technical expertise; identifying key health outcomes of interest; commissioning systematic reviews of the evidence; assessing the evidence; and formulating recommendations. The strength of each recommendation is assessed based on the quality of the evidence, along with consideration of issues such as equity, acceptability, and feasibility of the implementation of the recommendation. The proposed housing guidelines will address: cold and hot indoor temperatures, home injuries, household crowding, accessibility and access to active travel infrastructure. PMID:29232827

Delineating Tree Types in a Complex Tropical Forest Setting Using High Resolution Multispectral Satellite Imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cross, M.

2016-12-01

An improved process for the identification of tree types from satellite imagery for tropical forests is needed for more accurate assessments of the impact of forests on the global climate. La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica was the tropical forest area selected for this particular study. WorldView-3 imagery was utilized because of its high spatial, spectral and radiometric resolution, its availability, and its potential to differentiate species in a complex forest setting. The first-step was to establish confidence in the high spatial and high radiometric resolution imagery from WorldView-3 in delineating tree types within a complex forest setting. In achieving this goal, ASD field spectrometer data were collected of specific tree species to establish solid ground control within the study site. The spectrometer data were collected from the top of each specific tree canopy utilizing established towers located at La Selva Biological Station so as to match the near-nadir view of the WorldView-3 imagery. The ASD data was processed utilizing the spectral response functions for each of the WorldView-3 bands to convert the ASD data into a band specific reflectivity. This allowed direct comparison of the ASD spectrometer reflectance data to the WorldView-3 multispectral imagery. The WorldView-3 imagery was processed to surface reflectance using two standard atmospheric correction procedures and the proprietary DigitalGlobe Atmospheric Compensation (AComp) product. The most accurate correction process was identified through comparison to the spectrometer data collected. A series of statistical measures were then utilized to access the accuracy of the processed imagery and which imagery bands are best suited for tree type identification. From this analysis, a segmentation/classification process was performed to identify individual tree type locations within the study area. It is envisioned the results of this study will improve traditional forest classification processes, provide more accurate assessments of species density and distribution, facilitate a more accurate biomass estimate of the tropical forest which will impact the accuracy of tree carbon storage estimates, and ultimately assist in developing a better overall characterization of tropical rainforest dynamics.

Data Literacy: Real-World Learning through Problem-Solving with Data Sets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erwin, Robin W., Jr.

2015-01-01

The achievement of deep learning by secondary students requires teaching approaches that draw students into task commitment, integrated curricula, and analytical thinking. By using real-world data sets in project based instructional units, teachers can guide students in analyzing, interpreting, and reporting quantitative data. Working with…

Real World Graph Connectivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lind, Joy; Narayan, Darren

2009-01-01

We present the topic of graph connectivity along with a famous theorem of Menger in the real-world setting of the national computer network infrastructure of "National LambdaRail". We include a set of exercises where students reinforce their understanding of graph connectivity by analysing the "National LambdaRail" network. Finally, we give…

Viewing the World: Visual Inquiry in International Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munn, Jean Correll

2012-01-01

This teaching note describes a course, Viewing the World: Visual Inquiry in International Settings, which the author taught in the Czech Republic in 2009. Five students successfully completed the course, which consisted of designing a project, collecting and analyzing visual data, presenting findings, and writing a final report of a qualitative…

Scientific challenges and opportunities in developing novel vaccines for the emerging and developing markets: New Technologies in Emerging Markets, October 16th-18th 2012, World Vaccine Congress, Lyon.

PubMed

Kochhar, Sonali

2013-04-01

Vaccines have had a major role in enhancing the quality of life and increasing life expectancy. Despite these successes and the development of new vaccine technologies, there remain multiple infectious diseases including AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis that require effective prophylactic vaccines. New and traditional technologies have a role in the development and delivery of the new vaccine candidates. The scientific challenges, opportunities and funding models for developing vaccines for low resource settings are highlighted here.

Dynamic Domains in Data Production Planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Golden, Keith; Pang, Wanlin

2005-01-01

This paper discusses a planner-based approach to automating data production tasks, such as producing fire forecasts from satellite imagery and weather station data. Since the set of available data products is large, dynamic and mostly unknown, planning techniques developed for closed worlds are unsuitable. We discuss a number of techniques we have developed to cope with data production domains, including a novel constraint propagation algorithm based on planning graphs and a constraint-based approach to interleaved planning, sensing and execution.

The "Performance of Rotavirus and Oral Polio Vaccines in Developing Countries" (PROVIDE) study: description of methods of an interventional study designed to explore complex biologic problems.

PubMed

Kirkpatrick, Beth D; Colgate, E Ross; Mychaleckyj, Josyf C; Haque, Rashidul; Dickson, Dorothy M; Carmolli, Marya P; Nayak, Uma; Taniuchi, Mami; Naylor, Caitlin; Qadri, Firdausi; Ma, Jennie Z; Alam, Masud; Walsh, Mary Claire; Diehl, Sean A; Petri, William A

2015-04-01

Oral vaccines appear less effective in children in the developing world. Proposed biologic reasons include concurrent enteric infections, malnutrition, breast milk interference, and environmental enteropathy (EE). Rigorous study design and careful data management are essential to begin to understand this complex problem while assuring research subject safety. Herein, we describe the methodology and lessons learned in the PROVIDE study (Dhaka, Bangladesh). A randomized clinical trial platform evaluated the efficacy of delayed-dose oral rotavirus vaccine as well as the benefit of an injectable polio vaccine replacing one dose of oral polio vaccine. This rigorous infrastructure supported the additional examination of hypotheses of vaccine underperformance. Primary and secondary efficacy and immunogenicity measures for rotavirus and polio vaccines were measured, as well as the impact of EE and additional exploratory variables. Methods for the enrollment and 2-year follow-up of a 700 child birth cohort are described, including core laboratory, safety, regulatory, and data management practices. Intense efforts to standardize clinical, laboratory, and data management procedures in a developing world setting provide clinical trials rigor to all outcomes. Although this study infrastructure requires extensive time and effort, it allows optimized safety and confidence in the validity of data gathered in complex, developing country settings. © The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Water quality guidelines for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area: a basis for development and preliminary values.

PubMed

Moss, Andrew; Brodie, Jon; Furnas, Miles

2005-01-01

The Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality (ANZECC Guidelines) provide default national guideline values for a wide range of indicators of relevance to the protection of the ecological condition of natural waters. However, the ANZECC Guidelines also place a strong emphasis on the need to develop more locally relevant guidelines. Using a structured framework, this paper explores indicators and regional data sets that can be used to develop more locally relevant guidelines for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA). The paper focuses on the water quality impacts of adjacent catchments on the GBRWHA with the key stressors addressed being nutrients, sediments and agricultural chemicals. Indicators relevant to these stressors are discussed including both physico-chemical pressure indicators and biological condition indicators. Where adequate data sets are available, guideline values are proposed. Generally, data were much more readily available for physico-chemical pressure indicators than for biological condition indicators. Specifically, guideline values are proposed for the major nutrients nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) and for chlorophyll-a. More limited guidelines are proposed for sediment related indicators. For most agricultural chemicals, the ANZECC Guidelines are likely to remain the default of choice for some time but it is noted that there is data in the literature that could be used to develop more locally relevant guidelines.

Paper-based analytical devices for clinical diagnosis: recent advances in the fabrication techniques and sensing mechanisms

PubMed Central

Sher, Mazhar; Zhuang, Rachel; Demirci, Utkan; Asghar, Waseem

2017-01-01

Introduction There is a significant interest in developing inexpensive portable biosensing platforms for various applications including disease diagnostics, environmental monitoring, food safety, and water testing at the point-of-care (POC) settings. Current diagnostic assays available in the developed world require sophisticated laboratory infrastructure and expensive reagents. Hence, they are not suitable for resource-constrained settings with limited financial resources, basic health infrastructure, and few trained technicians. Cellulose and flexible transparency paper-based analytical devices have demonstrated enormous potential for developing robust, inexpensive and portable devices for disease diagnostics. These devices offer promising solutions to disease management in resource-constrained settings where the vast majority of the population cannot afford expensive and highly sophisticated treatment options. Areas covered In this review, the authors describe currently developed cellulose and flexible transparency paper-based microfluidic devices, device fabrication techniques, and sensing technologies that are integrated with these devices. The authors also discuss the limitations and challenges associated with these devices and their potential in clinical settings. Expert commentary In recent years, cellulose and flexible transparency paper-based microfluidic devices have demonstrated the potential to become future healthcare options despite a few limitations such as low sensitivity and reproducibility. PMID:28103450

Paper-based analytical devices for clinical diagnosis: recent advances in the fabrication techniques and sensing mechanisms.

PubMed

Sher, Mazhar; Zhuang, Rachel; Demirci, Utkan; Asghar, Waseem

2017-04-01

There is a significant interest in developing inexpensive portable biosensing platforms for various applications including disease diagnostics, environmental monitoring, food safety, and water testing at the point-of-care (POC) settings. Current diagnostic assays available in the developed world require sophisticated laboratory infrastructure and expensive reagents. Hence, they are not suitable for resource-constrained settings with limited financial resources, basic health infrastructure, and few trained technicians. Cellulose and flexible transparency paper-based analytical devices have demonstrated enormous potential for developing robust, inexpensive and portable devices for disease diagnostics. These devices offer promising solutions to disease management in resource-constrained settings where the vast majority of the population cannot afford expensive and highly sophisticated treatment options. Areas covered: In this review, the authors describe currently developed cellulose and flexible transparency paper-based microfluidic devices, device fabrication techniques, and sensing technologies that are integrated with these devices. The authors also discuss the limitations and challenges associated with these devices and their potential in clinical settings. Expert commentary: In recent years, cellulose and flexible transparency paper-based microfluidic devices have demonstrated the potential to become future healthcare options despite a few limitations such as low sensitivity and reproducibility.

Inquiry-based Science Activities Using The Infrared Zoo and Infrared Yellowstone Resources at Cool Cosmos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Daou, D.; Gauthier, A.

2003-12-01

Inquiry-based activities that utilize the Cool Cosmos image galleries have been designed and developed by K12 teachers enrolled in The Invisible Universe Online for Teachers course. The exploration activities integrate the Our Infrared World Gallery (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/our_ir_world_gallery.html) with either the Infrared Zoo gallery (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/ir_zoo/index.html) or the Infrared Yellowstone image http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/ir_yellowstone/index.html) and video (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/videos/ir_yellowstone/index.html) galleries. Complete instructor guides have been developed for the activities and will be presented by the authors in poster and CD form. Although the activities are written for middle and highschool learners, they can easily be adapted for college audiences. The Our Infrared World Gallery exploration helps learners think critically about visible light and infrared light as they compare sets of images (IR and visible light) of known objects. For example: by taking a regular photograph of a running faucet, can you tell if it is running hot or cold water? What new information does the IR image give you? The Infrared Zoo activities encourage learners to investigate the differences between warm and cold blooded animals by comparing sets of IR and visible images. In one activity, learners take on the role of a pit viper seeking prey in various desert and woodland settings. The main activities are extended into the real world by discussing and researching industrial, medical, and societal applications of infrared technologies. The Infrared Yellowstone lessons give learners a unique perspective on Yellowstone National Park and it's spectacular geologic and geothermal features. Infrared video technology is highlighted as learners make detailed observations about the visible and infrared views of the natural phenomena. The "Cool Cosmos" EPO activities are coordinated and managed by the SIRTF Science Center, based at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center on the campus of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. You can find Cool Cosmos at http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/

Translational bioinformatics: linking the molecular world to the clinical world.

PubMed

Altman, R B

2012-06-01

Translational bioinformatics represents the union of translational medicine and bioinformatics. Translational medicine moves basic biological discoveries from the research bench into the patient-care setting and uses clinical observations to inform basic biology. It focuses on patient care, including the creation of new diagnostics, prognostics, prevention strategies, and therapies based on biological discoveries. Bioinformatics involves algorithms to represent, store, and analyze basic biological data, including DNA sequence, RNA expression, and protein and small-molecule abundance within cells. Translational bioinformatics spans these two fields; it involves the development of algorithms to analyze basic molecular and cellular data with an explicit goal of affecting clinical care.

Practical guidelines for setting up neurosurgery skills training cadaver laboratory in India.

PubMed

Suri, Ashish; Roy, Tara Sankar; Lalwani, Sanjeev; Deo, Rama Chandra; Tripathi, Manjul; Dhingra, Renu; Bhardwaj, Daya Nand; Sharma, Bhawani Shankar

2014-01-01

Though the necessity of cadaver dissection is felt by the medical fraternity, and described as early as 600 BC, in India, there are no practical guidelines available in the world literature for setting up a basic cadaver dissection laboratory for neurosurgery skills training. Hands-on dissection practice on microscopic and endoscopic procedures is essential in technologically demanding modern neurosurgery training where ethical issues, cost constraints, medico-legal pitfalls, and resident duty time restrictions have resulted in lesser opportunities to learn. Collaboration of anatomy, forensic medicine, and neurosurgery is essential for development of a workflow of cadaver procurement, preservation, storage, dissection, and disposal along with setting up the guidelines for ethical and legal concerns.

Towards Open-World Person Re-Identification by One-Shot Group-Based Verification.

PubMed

Zheng, Wei-Shi; Gong, Shaogang; Xiang, Tao

2016-03-01

Solving the problem of matching people across non-overlapping multi-camera views, known as person re-identification (re-id), has received increasing interests in computer vision. In a real-world application scenario, a watch-list (gallery set) of a handful of known target people are provided with very few (in many cases only a single) image(s) (shots) per target. Existing re-id methods are largely unsuitable to address this open-world re-id challenge because they are designed for (1) a closed-world scenario where the gallery and probe sets are assumed to contain exactly the same people, (2) person-wise identification whereby the model attempts to verify exhaustively against each individual in the gallery set, and (3) learning a matching model using multi-shots. In this paper, a novel transfer local relative distance comparison (t-LRDC) model is formulated to address the open-world person re-identification problem by one-shot group-based verification. The model is designed to mine and transfer useful information from a labelled open-world non-target dataset. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms both non-transfer learning and existing transfer learning based re-id methods.

World-wide precision airports for SVS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schiefele, Jens; Lugsch, Bill; Launer, Marc; Baca, Diana

2004-08-01

Future cockpit and aviation applications require high quality airport databases. Accuracy, resolution, integrity, completeness, traceability, and timeliness [1] are key requirements. For most aviation applications, attributed vector databases are needed. The geometry is based on points, lines, and closed polygons. To document the needs for aviation industry RTCA and EUROCAE developed in a joint committee, the DO-272/ED-99 document. It states industry needs for data features, attributes, coding, and capture rules for Airport Mapping Databases (AMDB). This paper describes the technical approach Jeppesen has taken to generate a world-wide set of three-hundred AMDB airports. All AMDB airports are DO-200A/ED-76 [1] and DO-272/ED-99 [2] compliant. Jeppesen airports have a 5m (CE90) accuracy and an 10-3 integrity. World-wide all AMDB data is delivered in WGS84 coordinates. Jeppesen continually updates the databases.

Bridging the Research-to-Practice Gap in Autism Intervention: An Application of Diffusion of Innovation Theory

PubMed Central

Mandell, David S.

2011-01-01

There is growing evidence that efficacious interventions for autism are rarely adopted or successfully implemented in public mental health and education systems. We propose applying diffusion of innovation theory to further our understanding of why this is the case. We pose a practical set of questions that administrators face as they decide about the use of interventions. Using literature from autism intervention and dissemination science, we describe reasons why efficacious interventions for autism are rarely adopted, implemented, and maintained in community settings, all revolving around the perceived fit between the intervention and the needs and capacities of the setting. Finally, we suggest strategies for intervention development that may increase the probability that these interventions will be used in real-world settings. PMID:20717714

Approaches to Vaccination Among Populations in Areas of Conflict

PubMed Central

Nnadi, Chimeremma; Etsano, Andrew; Uba, Belinda; Ohuabunwo, Chima; Melton, Musa; Nganda, Gatei wa; Esapa, Lisa; Bolu, Omotayo; Mahoney, Frank; Vertefeuille, John; Wiesen, Eric; Durry, Elias

2017-01-01

Vaccination is an important and cost-effective disease prevention and control strategy. Despite progress in vaccine development and immunization delivery systems worldwide, populations in areas of conflict (hereafter, “conflict settings”) often have limited or no access to lifesaving vaccines, leaving them at increased risk for morbidity and mortality related to vaccine-preventable disease. Without developing and refining approaches to reach and vaccinate children and other vulnerable populations in conflict settings, outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease in these settings may persist and spread across subnational and international borders. Understanding and refining current approaches to vaccinating populations in conflict and humanitarian emergency settings may save lives. Despite major setbacks, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has made substantial progress in vaccinating millions of children worldwide, including those living in communities affected by conflicts and other humanitarian emergencies. In this article, we examine key strategic and operational tactics that have led to increased polio vaccination coverage among populations living in diverse conflict settings, including Nigeria, Somalia, and Pakistan, and how these could be applied to reach and vaccinate populations in other settings across the world. PMID:28838202

A New Generation: A New Model of Education in the 21st Century

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Deborah L.

2012-01-01

As technology evolves and the world becomes more interconnected, a new set of skills have become necessary to be successful in the workplace. Schools need to develop and modernize in order to prepare students to be competitive in the changing global economy. The purpose of this case study was to identify the programs and practices that promote the…

Collboard: Fostering New Media Literacies in the Classroom through Collaborative Problem Solving Supported by Digital Pens and Interactive Whiteboards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alvarez, Claudio; Salavati, Sadaf; Nussbaum, Miguel; Milrad, Marcelo

2013-01-01

Education systems worldwide must strive to support the teaching of a set of New Media Literacies (NMLs). These literacies respond to the need for educating human capital within participatory cultures in a highly technologized world. In this paper, we present Collboard, a constructivist problem solving activity for fostering the development of…

What's Wrong with Bribery? An Example Utilizing Access to Safe Drinking Water

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dhooge, Lucien J.

2013-01-01

This case study examines the role of bribery in the global marketplace through an example involving access to safe drinking water in the developing world. Parts II and III set out the objectives and methods of classroom delivery for the case study. Part IV is the background reading relating to bribery with particular emphasis on the Foreign…

Key Information-Problem Solving Skills to Learn in Secondary Education: A Qualitative, Multi-Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Argelagós, Esther; Pifarré, Manoli

2016-01-01

Internet has become one of the most important information sources for students' personal and academic life. In addition, the World Wide Web is receiving increased attention in education because of its potential to support new forms of learning. However, using the information from the net for learning requires the development of a set of abilities…

Develop Training Standards for Undergraduate Students with Major Public Administration at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Sehiemy, Zainab Abdul-Rahman; Gheith, Nervana Abdul-Rahman

2015-01-01

Recently, public administration graduates are exposed to new set of challenges because of globalization, virtual world and using modern technology as a base of all today's dealings. It imposes PAD at faculty of economic and administration faculty to prepare its students to confront these changes in organizations in the community. Therefore, the…

Practical Work in Science: Misunderstood and Badly Used?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osborne, Jonathan

2015-01-01

This article argues that the role of practical work in science is overemphasised and misunderstood. Science is distinguished by the fact that it is a set of ideas about the material world and not by empirical enquiry. The latter is only one of six styles of reasoning that have been used to develop scientific ideas. The lack of clarity around the…

Macroeconomics, (Adult) Education, and Poverty Eradication in Southern Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nhamo, Senia; Nhamo, Godwell

2006-01-01

The Millennium Summit held in New York in September 2000 outlined the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The first of these involves the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, setting two targets: halving by 2015 the percentage of the world's populace in 1990 with income less than US-$1 a day (i.e., cutting this percentage from 27.9 to 14%);…

A Window into Different Cultural Worlds: Young Children's Everyday Activities in the United States, Brazil, and Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tudge, Jonathan R. H.; Doucet, Fabienne; Odero, Dolphine; Sperb, Tania M.; Piccinini, Cesar A.; Lopes, Rita S.

2006-01-01

A powerful means to understand young children's normative development in context is to examine their everyday activities. The daily activities of 79 children (3 years old) were observed, for 20 hr each, in their usual settings. Children were selected from 4 cultural groups: European American and African American (Greensboro, United States), Luo…

A Cost Analysis of Web-Enhanced Training to Reduce Alcohol Sales to Intoxicated Bar Patrons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Page, Timothy F.; Nederhoff, Dawn M.; Ecklund, Alexandra M.; Horvath, Keith J.; Nelson, Toben F.; Erickson, Darin J.; Toomey, Traci L.

2015-01-01

Objective: The purpose of this study was to document the development and testing costs of the Enhanced Alcohol Risk Management (eARM) intervention, a web enhanced training program to prevent alcohol sales to intoxicated bar patrons and to estimate its implementation costs in a "real world", non-research setting. Methods: Data for this…

A New Roman World: Using Virtual Reality Technology as a Critical Teaching Tool.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuo, Elaine W.; Levis, Marc R.

The purpose of this study is to examine how technology, namely virtual reality (VR), can be developed as a critical pedagogical tool. More specifically, the study explores whether the use of VR can challenge the traditional lecture format and make the classroom a more student-centered environment. In this instance, VR is defined as a set of…

The Benefits of Student-Led, Peer-Reviewed Journals in Enhancing Students' Engagement with the Academy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uigín, Dorothy Ní; Higgins, Noelle; McHale, Belinda

2015-01-01

Universities are under ever-increasing pressure from employers to provide some form of interaction with the real world, in order to develop student knowledge and to expand their skill sets (Gott, 1995), while academics are constantly looking for new ways to enhance students' engagement with the Academy. In this context, student-led journals have…

Email Opens up a World of Possibilities; The Great Turning Point; Rankings for Sale: Payola on the Information Highway? Or Payments for Good Shelf Space; Beware the Grey Flannel Trojan Horse.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morton, Emily; McKenzie, Jamie

2001-01-01

Includes four articles that discuss issues relating to use of the Internet in classroom settings. Topics include the use of email; curriculum rich strategies that require professional and program development; ranking search engines; and beneficial business partnerships with schools. (LRW)

A High-Value, Low-Cost Bubble Continuous Positive Airway Pressure System for Low-Resource Settings: Technical Assessment and Initial Case Reports

PubMed Central

Brown, Jocelyn; Machen, Heather; Kawaza, Kondwani; Mwanza, Zondiwe; Iniguez, Suzanne; Lang, Hans; Gest, Alfred; Kennedy, Neil; Miros, Robert; Richards-Kortum, Rebecca; Molyneux, Elizabeth; Oden, Maria

2013-01-01

Acute respiratory infections are the leading cause of global child mortality. In the developing world, nasal oxygen therapy is often the only treatment option for babies who are suffering from respiratory distress. Without the added pressure of bubble Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (bCPAP) which helps maintain alveoli open, babies struggle to breathe and can suffer serious complications, and frequently death. A stand-alone bCPAP device can cost $6,000, too expensive for most developing world hospitals. Here, we describe the design and technical evaluation of a new, rugged bCPAP system that can be made in small volume for a cost-of-goods of approximately $350. Moreover, because of its simple design—consumer-grade pumps, medical tubing, and regulators—it requires only the simple replacement of a <$1 diaphragm approximately every 2 years for maintenance. The low-cost bCPAP device delivers pressure and flow equivalent to those of a reference bCPAP system used in the developed world. We describe the initial clinical cases of a child with bronchiolitis and a neonate with respiratory distress who were treated successfully with the new bCPAP device. PMID:23372661

Case study: the Argentina Road Safety Project: lessons learned for the decade of action for road safety, 2011-2020.

PubMed

Raffo, Veronica; Bliss, Tony; Shotten, Marc; Sleet, David; Blanchard, Claire

2013-12-01

This case study of the Argentina Road Safety Project demonstrates how the application of World Bank road safety project guidelines focused on institution building can accelerate knowledge transfer, scale up investment and improve the focus on results. The case study highlights road safety as a development priority and outlines World Bank initiatives addressing the implementation of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury's recommendations and the subsequent launch of the Decade of Action for Road Safety, from 2011-2020. The case study emphasizes the vital role played by the lead agency in ensuring sustainable road safety improvements and promoting the shift to a 'Safe System' approach, which necessitated the strengthening of all elements of the road safety management system. It summarizes road safety performance and institutional initiatives in Argentina leading up to the preparation and implementation of the project. We describe the project's development objectives, financing arrangements, specific components and investment staging. Finally, we discuss its innovative features and lessons learned, and present a set of supplementary guidelines, both to assist multilateral development banks and their clients with future road safety initiatives, and to encourage better linkages between the health and transportation sectors supporting them.

The health systems funding platform and World Bank legacy: the gap between rhetoric and reality

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Global health partnerships created to encourage funding efficiencies need to be approached with some caution, with claims for innovation and responsiveness to development needs based on untested assumptions around the potential of some partners to adapt their application, funding and evaluation procedures within these new structures. We examine this in the case of the Health Systems Funding Platform, which despite being set up some three years earlier, has stalled at the point of implementation of its key elements of collaboration. While much of the attention has been centred on the suspension of the Global Fund’s Round 11, and what this might mean for health systems strengthening and the Platform more broadly, we argue that inadequate scrutiny has been made of the World Bank’s contribution to this partnership, which might have been reasonably anticipated based on an historical analysis of development perspectives. Given the tensions being created by the apparent vulnerability of the health systems strengthening agenda, and the increasing rhetoric around the need for greater harmonization in development assistance, an examination of the positioning of the World Bank in this context is vital. PMID:23497327

Advanced consequence management program: challenges and recent real-world implementations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graser, Tom; Barber, K. S.; Williams, Bob; Saghir, Feras; Henry, Kurt A.

2002-08-01

The Enhanced Consequence Management, Planning and Support System (ENCOMPASS) was developed under DARPA's Advanced Consequence Management program to assist decision-makers operating in crisis situations such as terrorist attacks using conventional and unconventional weapons and natural disasters. ENCOMPASS provides the tools for first responders, incident commanders, and officials at all levels to share vital information and consequently, plan and execute a coordinated response to incidents of varying complexity and size. ENCOMPASS offers custom configuration of components with capabilities ranging from map-based situation assessment, situation-based response checklists, casualty tracking, and epidemiological surveillance. Developing and deploying such a comprehensive system posed significant challenges for DARPA program management, due to an inherently complex domain, a broad spectrum of customer sites and skill sets, an often inhospitable runtime environment, demanding development-to-deployment transition requirements, and a technically diverse and geographically distributed development team. This paper introduces ENCOMPASS and explores these challenges, followed by an outline of selected ENCOMPASS deployments, demonstrating how ENCOMPASS can enhance consequence management in a variety real world contexts.

Is universal health coverage the practical expression of the right to health care?

PubMed

Ooms, Gorik; Latif, Laila A; Waris, Attiya; Brolan, Claire E; Hammonds, Rachel; Friedman, Eric A; Mulumba, Moses; Forman, Lisa

2014-02-24

The present Millennium Development Goals are set to expire in 2015 and their next iteration is now being discussed within the international community. With regards to health, the World Health Organization proposes universal health coverage as a 'single overarching health goal' for the next iteration of the Millennium Development Goals.The present Millennium Development Goals have been criticised for being 'duplicative' or even 'competing alternatives' to international human rights law. The question then arises, if universal health coverage would indeed become the single overarching health goal, replacing the present health-related Millennium Development Goals, would that be more consistent with the right to health? The World Health Organization seems to have anticipated the question, as it labels universal health coverage as "by definition, a practical expression of the concern for health equity and the right to health".Rather than waiting for the negotiations to unfold, we thought it would be useful to verify this contention, using a comparative normative analysis. We found that--to be a practical expression of the right to health--at least one element is missing in present authoritative definitions of universal health coverage: a straightforward confirmation that international assistance is essential, not optional.But universal health coverage is a 'work in progress'. A recent proposal by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network proposed universal health coverage with a set of targets, including a target for international assistance, which would turn universal health coverage into a practical expression of the right to health care.

Documenting historical data and accessing it on the World Wide Web

Treesearch

Malchus B. Baker; Daniel P. Huebner; Peter F. Ffolliott

2000-01-01

New computer technologies facilitate the storage, retrieval, and summarization of watershed-based data sets on the World Wide Web. These data sets are used by researchers when testing and validating predictive models, managers when planning and implementing watershed management practices, educators when learning about hydrologic processes, and decisionmakers when...

Evaluation of Micronutrient Sensors for Food Matrices in Resource-Limited Settings: A Systematic Narrative Review.

PubMed

Waller, Anna W; Lotton, Jennifer L; Gaur, Shashank; Andrade, Jeanette M; Andrade, Juan E

2018-06-21

In resource-limited settings, mass food fortification is a common strategy to ensure the population consumes appropriate quantities of essential micronutrients. Food and government organizations in these settings, however, lack tools to monitor the quality and compliance of fortified products and their efficacy to enhance nutrient status. The World Health Organization has developed general guidelines known as ASSURED (Affordable, Sensitive, Specific, User-friendly, Rapid and Robust, Equipment-free, and Deliverable to end-users) to aid the development of useful diagnostic tools for these settings. These guidelines assume performance aspects such as sufficient accuracy, reliability, and validity. The purpose of this systematic narrative review is to examine the micronutrient sensor literature on its adherence towards the ASSURED criteria along with accuracy, reliability, and validation when developing micronutrient sensors for resource-limited settings. Keyword searches were conducted in three databases: Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus and were based on 6-point inclusion criteria. A 16-question quality assessment tool was developed to determine the adherence towards quality and performance criteria. Of the 2,365 retrieved studies, 42 sensors were included based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. Results showed that improvements to the current sensor design are necessary, especially their affordability, user-friendliness, robustness, equipment-free, and deliverability within the ASSURED criteria, and accuracy and validity of the additional criteria to be useful in resource-limited settings. Although it requires further validation, the 16-question quality assessment tool can be used as a guide in the development of sensors for resource-limited settings. © 2018 Institute of Food Technologists®.

Primary care clinicians' recognition and management of depression: a model of depression care in real-world primary care practice.

PubMed

Baik, Seong-Yi; Crabtree, Benjamin F; Gonzales, Junius J

2013-11-01

Depression is prevalent in primary care (PC) practices and poses a considerable public health burden in the United States. Despite nearly four decades of efforts to improve depression care quality in PC practices, a gap remains between desired treatment outcomes and the reality of how depression care is delivered. This article presents a real-world PC practice model of depression care, elucidating the processes and their influencing conditions. Grounded theory methodology was used for the data collection and analysis to develop a depression care model. Data were collected from 70 individual interviews (60 to 70 min each), three focus group interviews (n = 24, 2 h each), two surveys per clinician, and investigators' field notes on practice environments. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed for analysis. Surveys and field notes complemented interview data. Seventy primary care clinicians from 52 PC offices in the Midwest: 28 general internists, 28 family physicians, and 14 nurse practitioners. A depression care model was developed that illustrates how real-world conditions infuse complexity into each step of the depression care process. Depression care in PC settings is mediated through clinicians' interactions with patients, practice, and the local community. A clinician's interactional familiarity ("familiarity capital") was a powerful facilitator for depression care. For the recognition of depression, three previously reported processes and three conditions were confirmed. For the management of depression, 13 processes and 11 conditions were identified. Empowering the patient was a parallel process to the management of depression. The clinician's ability to develop and utilize interactional relationships and resources needed to recognize and treat a person with depression is key to depression care in primary care settings. The interactional context of depression care makes empowering the patient central to depression care delivery.

Implementing Implementation Science: An Approach for HIV Prevention, Care and Treatment Programs.

PubMed

Lambdin, Barrot H; Cheng, Ben; Peter, Trevor; Mbwambo, Jessie; Apollo, Tsitsi; Dunbar, Megan; Udoh, Ifeoma C; Cattamanchi, Adithya; Geng, Elvin H; Volberding, Paul

2015-01-01

Though great progress has been realized over the last decade in extending HIV prevention, care and treatment in some of the least resourced settings of the world, a substantial gap remains between what we know works and what we are actually achieving in HIV programs. To address this, leaders have called for the adoption of an implementation science framework to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of HIV programs. Implementation science (IS) is a multidisciplinary scientific field that seeks generalizable knowledge about the magnitude of, determinants of and strategies to close the gap between evidence and routine practice for health in real-world settings. We propose an IS approach that is iterative in nature and composed of four major components: 1) Identifying Bottlenecks and Gaps, 2) Developing and Implementing Strategies, 3) Measuring Effectiveness and Efficiency, and 4) Utilizing Results. With this framework, IS initiatives draw from a variety of disciplines including qualitative and quantitative methodologies in order to develop new approaches responsive to the complexities of real world program delivery. In order to remain useful for the changing programmatic landscape, IS research should factor in relevant timeframes and engage the multi-sectoral community of stakeholders, including community members, health care teams, program managers, researchers and policy makers, to facilitate the development of programs, practices and polices that lead to a more effective and efficient global AIDS response. The approach presented here is a synthesis of approaches and is a useful model to address IS-related questions for HIV prevention, care and treatment programs. This approach, however, is not a panacea, and we will continue to learn new ways of thinking as we move forward to close the implementation gap.

Implementing Implementation Science: An Approach for HIV Prevention, Care and Treatment Programs

PubMed Central

Lambdin, Barrot H.; Cheng, Ben; Peter, Trevor; Mbwambo, Jessie; Apollo, Tsitsi; Dunbar, Megan; Udoh, Ifeoma C.; Cattamanchi, Adithya; Geng, Elvin H.; Volberding, Paul

2015-01-01

Though great progress has been realized over the last decade in extending HIV prevention, care and treatment in some of the least resourced settings of the world, a substantial gap remains between what we know works and what we are actually achieving in HIV programs. To address this, leaders have called for the adoption of an implementation science framework to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of HIV programs. Implementation science (IS) is a multidisciplinary scientific field that seeks generalizable knowledge about the magnitude of, determinants of and strategies to close the gap between evidence and routine practice for health in real-world settings. We propose an IS approach that is iterative in nature and composed of four major components: 1) Identifying Bottlenecks and Gaps, 2) Developing and Implementing Strategies, 3) Measuring Effectiveness and Efficiency, and 4) Utilizing Results. With this framework, IS initiatives draw from a variety of disciplines including qualitative and quantitative methodologies in order to develop new approaches responsive to the complexities of real world program delivery. In order to remain useful for the changing programmatic landscape, IS research should factor in relevant timeframes and engage the multi-sectoral community of stakeholders, including community members, health care teams, program managers, researchers and policy makers, to facilitate the development of programs, practices and polices that lead to a more effective and efficient global AIDS response. The approach presented here is a synthesis of approaches and is a useful model to address IS-related questions for HIV prevention, care and treatment programs. This approach, however, is not a panacea, and we will continue to learn new ways of thinking as we move forward to close the implementation gap. PMID:25986374

Participatory methods for research prioritization in primary care: an analysis of the World Café approach in Ireland and the USA.

PubMed

MacFarlane, Anne; Galvin, Rose; O'Sullivan, Madeleine; McInerney, Chris; Meagher, Eoghan; Burke, Daniel; LeMaster, Joseph W

2017-06-01

There are increasing imperatives for patients and members of the public to engage as partners in identifying health research priorities. The use of participatory methods to engage stakeholders in health care in research prioritization is not commonly reported. This article analyses the use of World Cafés as a participatory method for research prioritization with marginalized communities in Ireland and the USA. The principles of purposeful and snowball sampling were followed in both settings and a diverse range of community and health care stakeholders participated (n = 63 Ireland and n = 55 USA). The principles for a classic World Café were employed but there were novel features in each setting as well. Stewart et al.'s (Patients' and clinicians' research priorities. Health Expect 2011; 14: 439-48, conceptual framework for patient engagement was adapted and used to comparatively analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the World Cafés, focusing on agenda setting, engagement with research processes, interactional features and outputs. Design principles for World Cafés were found to align with high-quality patient engagement for research prioritization in both settings. They served to facilitate meaningful collaboration among stakeholder groups in research prioritization (research agenda setting) and explored research priorities (engagement with research). The café ambience, emphasis on hospitality and self-facilitation created an environment for dialogues within and across participating groups (interactional features). There was a commitment to follow-up actions with reference to possible subsequent research (outputs). The World Café is a valuable, participatory, flexible method that can be used with community and health care stakeholders for research prioritization with marginalized communities. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

The World Report on Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bickenbach, Jerome

2011-01-01

The World Report on Disability, a joint endeavor of the World Health Organization and the World Bank, launched in June 2011, is an astonishing achievement that will set the standard for disability studies research for evidence-informed policy for years to come. The product of collaborative and participatory work between organizations of persons…

A New Simulation Framework for Autonomy in Robotic Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flueckiger, Lorenzo; Neukom, Christian

2003-01-01

Autonomy is a key factor in remote robotic exploration and there is significant activity addressing the application of autonomy to remote robots. It has become increasingly important to have simulation tools available to test the autonomy algorithms. While indus1;rial robotics benefits from a variety of high quality simulation tools, researchers developing autonomous software are still dependent primarily on block-world simulations. The Mission Simulation Facility I(MSF) project addresses this shortcoming with a simulation toolkit that will enable developers of autonomous control systems to test their system s performance against a set of integrated, standardized simulations of NASA mission scenarios. MSF provides a distributed architecture that connects the autonomous system to a set of simulated components replacing the robot hardware and its environment.

Developmental Idealism: The Cultural Foundations of World Development Programs

PubMed Central

Thornton, Arland; Dorius, Shawn F.; Swindle, Jeffrey

2015-01-01

This paper extends theory and research concerning cultural models of development beyond family and demographic matters to a broad range of additional factors, including government, education, human rights, daily social conventions, and religion. Developmental idealism is a cultural model—a set of beliefs and values—that identifies the appropriate goals of development and the ends for achieving these goals. It includes beliefs about positive cause and effect relationships among such factors as economic growth, educational achievement, health, and political governance, as well as strong values regarding many attributes, including economic growth, education, small families, gender equality, and democratic governance. This cultural model has spread from its origins among the elites of northwest Europe to elites and ordinary people throughout the world. Developmental idealism has become so entrenched in local, national, and global social institutions that it has now achieved a taken-for-granted status among many national elites, academics, development practitioners, and ordinary people around the world. We argue that developmental idealism culture has been a fundamental force behind many cultural clashes within and between societies, and continues to be an important cause of much global social change. We suggest that developmental idealism should be included as a causal factor in theories of human behavior and social change. PMID:26457325

Evaluation about the performance of E-government based on interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy set.

PubMed

Zhang, Shuai; Yu, Dejian; Wang, Yan; Zhang, Wenyu

2014-01-01

The evaluation is an important approach to promote the development of the E-Government. Since the rapid development of E-Government in the world, the E-Government performance evaluation has become a hot issue in the academia. In this paper, we develop a new evaluation method for the development of the E-Government based on the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy set which is a powerful technique in expressing the uncertainty of the real situation. First, we extend the geometric Heronian mean (GHM) operator to interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy environment and proposed the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy GHM (IIFGHM) operator. Then, we investigate the relationships between the IIFGHM operator and some existing ones, such as generalized interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy HM (GIIFHM) and interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy weighted Bonferoni mean operator. Furthermore, we validate the effectiveness of the proposed method using a real case about the E-Government evaluation in Hangzhou City, China.

Food commodity pipeline management in transitional settings: challenges and lessons learned from the first USAID food development program in South Sudan

PubMed Central

Tappis, Hannah; Doocy, Shannon; Amoako, Stephen

2013-01-01

ABSTRACT Despite decades of support for international food assistance programs by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Food for Peace, relatively little is known about the commodity pipeline and management issues these programs face in post-conflict and politically volatile settings. Based on an audit of the program's commodity tracking system and interviews with 13 key program staff, this case study documents the experiences of organizations implementing the first USAID-funded non-emergency (development) food assistance program approved for Sudan and South Sudan. Key challenges and lessons learned in this experience about food commodity procurement, transport, and management may help improve the design and implementation of future development food assistance programs in a variety of complex, food-insecure settings around the world. Specifically, expanding shipping routes in complex political situations may facilitate reliable and timely commodity delivery. In addition, greater flexibility to procure commodities locally, rather than shipping U.S.-procured commodities, may avoid unnecessary shipping delays and reduce costs. PMID:25276532

Validation of the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Vocational Rehabilitation From the Perspective of Physical Therapists: International Delphi Survey.

PubMed

Kaech Moll, Veronika M; Escorpizo, Reuben; Portmann Bergamaschi, Ruth; Finger, Monika E

2016-08-01

The Comprehensive ICF Core Set for vocational rehabilitation (VR) is a list of essential categories on functioning based on the World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), which describes a standard for interdisciplinary assessment, documentation, and communication in VR. The aim of this study was to examine the content validity of the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for VR from the perspective of physical therapists. A 3-round email survey was performed using the Delphi method. A convenience sample of international physical therapists working in VR with work experience of ≥2 years were asked to identify aspects they consider as relevant when evaluating or treating clients in VR. Responses were linked to the ICF categories and compared with the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for VR. Sixty-two physical therapists from all 6 WHO world regions responded with 3,917 statements that were subsequently linked to 338 ICF categories. Fifteen (17%) of the 90 categories in the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for VR were confirmed by the physical therapists in the sample. Twenty-two additional ICF categories were identified that were not included in the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for VR. Vocational rehabilitation in physical therapy is not well defined in every country and might have resulted in the small sample size. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized to all physical therapists practicing in VR. The content validity of the ICF Core Set for VR is insufficient from solely a physical therapist perspective. The results of this study could be used to define a physical therapy-specific set of ICF categories to develop and guide physical therapist clinical practice in VR. © 2016 American Physical Therapy Association.

Trade, TRIPS, and pharmaceuticals.

PubMed

Smith, Richard D; Correa, Carlos; Oh, Cecilia

2009-02-21

The World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) set global minimum standards for the protection of intellectual property, substantially increasing and expanding intellectual-property rights, and generated clear gains for the pharmaceutical industry and the developed world. The question of whether TRIPS generates gains for developing countries, in the form of increased exports, is addressed in this paper through consideration of the importance of pharmaceuticals in health-care trade, outlining the essential requirements, implications, and issues related to TRIPS, and TRIPS-plus, in which increased restrictions are imposed as part of bilateral free-trade agreements. TRIPS has not generated substantial gains for developing countries, but has further increased pharmaceutical trade in developed countries. The unequal trade between developed and developing countries (ie, exporting and importing high-value patented drugs, respectively) raises the issue of access to medicines, which is exacerbated by TRIPS-plus provisions, although many countries have not even enacted provision for TRIPS flexibilities. Therefore this paper focuses on options that are available to the health community for negotiation to their advantage under TRIPS, and within the presence of TRIPS-plus.

Impact Assessment and Forecasts of Information and Telecommunications Technologies Applied to Education and Training: Volume III--Annex & Glossary. Analysis of Key Issues for the Orientation of the Work of Sector Actors in the Framework of DELTA.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Commission of the European Communities, Brussels (Belgium).

This annex to the main report, the third volume in a three volume set, is based on a study performed by the DELTA (Developing European Learning through Technological Advance) unit in parallel with the projects underway in the research and development Exploratory Action. It provides an assessment of the world situation in flexible and distance…

Ordinal regression models to describe tourist satisfaction with Sintra's world heritage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mouriño, Helena

2013-10-01

In Tourism Research, ordinal regression models are becoming a very powerful tool in modelling the relationship between an ordinal response variable and a set of explanatory variables. In August and September 2010, we conducted a pioneering Tourist Survey in Sintra, Portugal. The data were obtained by face-to-face interviews at the entrances of the Palaces and Parks of Sintra. The work developed in this paper focus on two main points: tourists' perception of the entrance fees; overall level of satisfaction with this heritage site. For attaining these goals, ordinal regression models were developed. We concluded that tourist's nationality was the only significant variable to describe the perception of the admission fees. Also, Sintra's image among tourists depends not only on their nationality, but also on previous knowledge about Sintra's World Heritage status.

'Mind the gap' between the development of therapeutic innovations and the clinical practice in oncology: A proposal of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) to optimise cancer clinical research.

PubMed

Kempf, Emmanuelle; Bogaerts, Jan; Lacombe, Denis; Liu, Lifang

2017-11-01

In Europe, most of the cancer clinical research dedicated to therapeutic innovations aims primarily at regulatory approval. Once an anticancer drug enters the common market, each member state determines its real-world use based on its own criteria: pricing, reimbursement and clinical indications. Such an innovation-centred clinical research landscape might neglect patient-relevant issues in real-world setting, such as comparative effectiveness of distinct treatment options or long-term safety monitoring. The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) advocates reforming the current 'innovation-centred' system to a truly 'patient-centred' paradigm with systematically coordinated applied clinical research in conjunction with drug development, featuring the following strategy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Smart Sampling and HPC-based Probabilistic Look-ahead Contingency Analysis Implementation and its Evaluation with Real-world Data

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

Chen, Yousu; Etingov, Pavel V.; Ren, Huiying

This paper describes a probabilistic look-ahead contingency analysis application that incorporates smart sampling and high-performance computing (HPC) techniques. Smart sampling techniques are implemented to effectively represent the structure and statistical characteristics of uncertainty introduced by different sources in the power system. They can significantly reduce the data set size required for multiple look-ahead contingency analyses, and therefore reduce the time required to compute them. High-performance-computing (HPC) techniques are used to further reduce computational time. These two techniques enable a predictive capability that forecasts the impact of various uncertainties on potential transmission limit violations. The developed package has been tested withmore » real world data from the Bonneville Power Administration. Case study results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the applications developed.« less

The quadruple squeeze: defining the safe operating space for freshwater use to achieve a triply green revolution in the anthropocene.

PubMed

Rockström, Johan; Karlberg, Louise

2010-05-01

Humanity has entered a new phase of sustainability challenges, the Anthropocene, in which human development has reached a scale where it affects vital planetary processes. Under the pressure from a quadruple squeeze-from population and development pressures, the anthropogenic climate crisis, the anthropogenic ecosystem crisis, and the risk of deleterious tipping points in the Earth system-the degrees of freedom for sustainable human exploitation of planet Earth are severely restrained. It is in this reality that a new green revolution in world food production needs to occur, to attain food security and human development over the coming decades. Global freshwater resources are, and will increasingly be, a fundamental limiting factor in feeding the world. Current water vulnerabilities in the regions in most need of large agricultural productivity improvements are projected to increase under the pressure from global environmental change. The sustainability challenge for world agriculture has to be set within the new global sustainability context. We present new proposed sustainability criteria for world agriculture, where world food production systems are transformed in order to allow humanity to stay within the safe operating space of planetary boundaries. In order to secure global resilience and thereby raise the chances of planet Earth to remain in the current desired state, conducive for human development on the long-term, these planetary boundaries need to be respected. This calls for a triply green revolution, which not only more than doubles food production in many regions of the world, but which also is environmentally sustainable, and invests in the untapped opportunities to use green water in rainfed agriculture as a key source of future productivity enhancement. To achieve such a global transformation of agriculture, there is a need for more innovative options for water interventions at the landscape scale, accounting for both green and blue water, as well as a new focus on cross-scale interactions, feed-backs and risks for unwanted regime shifts in the agro-ecological landscape.

Reframing undergraduate medical education in global health: Rationale and key principles from the Bellagio Global Health Education Initiative.

PubMed

Peluso, Michael J; van Schalkwyk, Susan; Kellett, Anne; Brewer, Timothy F; Clarfield, A Mark; Davies, David; Garg, Bishan; Greensweig, Tobin; Hafler, Janet; Hou, Jianlin; Maley, Moira; Mayanja-Kizza, Harriet; Pemba, Senga; Jenny Samaan, Janette; Schoenbaum, Stephen; Sethia, Babulal; Uribe, Juan Pablo; Margolis, Carmi Z; Rohrbaugh, Robert M

2017-06-01

Global health education (GHE) continues to be a growing initiative in many medical schools across the world. This focus is no longer limited to participants from high-income countries and has expanded to institutions and students from low- and middle-income settings. With this shift has come a need to develop meaningful curricula through engagement between educators and learners who represent the sending institutions and the diverse settings in which GHE takes place. The Bellagio Global Health Education Initiative (BGHEI) was founded to create a space for such debate and discussion and to generate guidelines towards a universal curriculum for global health. In this article, we describe the development and process of our work and outline six overarching principles that ought to be considered when adopting an inclusive approach to GHE curriculum development.

Fine motor skills and early comprehension of the world: two new school readiness indicators.

PubMed

Grissmer, David; Grimm, Kevin J; Aiyer, Sophie M; Murrah, William M; Steele, Joel S

2010-09-01

Duncan et al. (2007) presented a new methodology for identifying kindergarten readiness factors and quantifying their importance by determining which of children's developing skills measured around kindergarten entrance would predict later reading and math achievement. This article extends Duncan et al.'s work to identify kindergarten readiness factors with 6 longitudinal data sets. Their results identified kindergarten math and reading readiness and attention as the primary long-term predictors but found no effects from social skills or internalizing and externalizing behavior. We incorporated motor skills measures from 3 of the data sets and found that fine motor skills are an additional strong predictor of later achievement. Using one of the data sets, we also predicted later science scores and incorporated an additional early test of general knowledge of the social and physical world as a predictor. We found that the test of general knowledge was by far the strongest predictor of science and reading and also contributed significantly to predicting later math, making the content of this test another important kindergarten readiness indicator. Together, attention, fine motor skills, and general knowledge are much stronger overall predictors of later math, reading, and science scores than early math and reading scores alone.

Developing self-regulation in early childhood☆

PubMed Central

Rothbart, Mary K.; Tang, Yiyuan

2014-01-01

Studies using fMRI at rest and during task performance have revealed a set of brain areas and their connections that can be linked to the ability of children to regulate their thoughts, actions and emotions. Higher self-regulation has also been related favorable outcomes in adulthood. These findings have set the occasion for methods of improving self-regulation via training. A tool kit of such methods is now available. It remains to be seen if educators will use these new findings and tools to forge practical methods for improving the lives of the world's children. PMID:24563845

Health care workers and researchers traveling to developing-world clinical settings: disease transmission risk and mitigation.

PubMed

Kortepeter, Mark G; Seaworth, Barbara J; Tasker, Sybil A; Burgess, Timothy H; Coldren, Rodney L; Aronson, Naomi E

2010-12-01

With the recent emphasis on funding and training opportunities for global health and humanitarian aid and the increased interest in the field, many health care workers and medical researchers are traveling from resource-replete to resource-limited settings. This type of travel brings unique disease risks not routinely considered for the business or vacationing traveler. This review provides practical advice for this special population of travelers, targeted to specific health care-related risks (needlestick, hemorrhagic fever viruses, severe viral respiratory disease, and tuberculosis), with suggestions for risk mitigation.

Enhanced flight symbology for wide-field-of-view helmet-mounted displays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogers, Steven P.; Asbury, Charles N.; Szoboszlay, Zoltan P.

2003-09-01

A series of studies was conducted to improve the Army aviator's ability to perform night missions by developing innovative symbols that capitalize on the advantages of new wide field-of-view (WFOV) helmet-mounted displays (HMDs). The most important outcomes of the research were two new symbol types called the Cylinder and the Flight Path Predictor. The Cylinder provides a large symbolic representation of real-world orientation that enables pilots to maintain the world frame of reference even if the visibility of the world is lost due to dust, smoke, snow, or inadvertent instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). Furthermore, the Cylinder is peripherally presented, supporting the "ambient" visual mode so that it does not require the conscious attention of the viewer. The Flight Path Predictor was developed to show the predicted flight path of a maneuvering aircraft using earth-referenced HMD symbology. The experimental evidence and the pilot interview results show that the new HMD symbology sets are capable of preventing spatial disorientation, improving flight safety, enhancing flight maneuver precision, and reducing workload so that the pilot can more effectively perform the critical mission tasks.

Fast Open-World Person Re-Identification.

PubMed

Zhu, Xiatian; Wu, Botong; Huang, Dongcheng; Zheng, Wei-Shi

2018-05-01

Existing person re-identification (re-id) methods typically assume that: 1) any probe person is guaranteed to appear in the gallery target population during deployment (i.e., closed-world) and 2) the probe set contains only a limited number of people (i.e., small search scale). Both assumptions are artificial and breached in real-world applications, since the probe population in target people search can be extremely vast in practice due to the ambiguity of probe search space boundary. Therefore, it is unrealistic that any probe person is assumed as one target people, and a large-scale search in person images is inherently demanded. In this paper, we introduce a new person re-id search setting, called large scale open-world (LSOW) re-id, characterized by huge size probe images and open person population in search thus more close to practical deployments. Under LSOW, the under-studied problem of person re-id efficiency is essential in addition to that of commonly studied re-id accuracy. We, therefore, develop a novel fast person re-id method, called Cross-view Identity Correlation and vErification (X-ICE) hashing, for joint learning of cross-view identity representation binarisation and discrimination in a unified manner. Extensive comparative experiments on three large-scale benchmarks have been conducted to validate the superiority and advantages of the proposed X-ICE method over a wide range of the state-of-the-art hashing models, person re-id methods, and their combinations.

Abstraction and art.

PubMed Central

Gortais, Bernard

2003-01-01

In a given social context, artistic creation comprises a set of processes, which relate to the activity of the artist and the activity of the spectator. Through these processes we see and understand that the world is vaster than it is said to be. Artistic processes are mediated experiences that open up the world. A successful work of art expresses a reality beyond actual reality: it suggests an unknown world using the means and the signs of the known world. Artistic practices incorporate the means of creation developed by science and technology and change forms as they change. Artists and the public follow different processes of abstraction at different levels, in the definition of the means of creation, of representation and of perception of a work of art. This paper examines how the processes of abstraction are used within the framework of the visual arts and abstract painting, which appeared during a period of growing importance for the processes of abstraction in science and technology, at the beginning of the twentieth century. The development of digital platforms and new man-machine interfaces allow multimedia creations. This is performed under the constraint of phases of multidisciplinary conceptualization using generic representation languages, which tend to abolish traditional frontiers between the arts: visual arts, drama, dance and music. PMID:12903659

Abstraction and art.

PubMed

Gortais, Bernard

2003-07-29

In a given social context, artistic creation comprises a set of processes, which relate to the activity of the artist and the activity of the spectator. Through these processes we see and understand that the world is vaster than it is said to be. Artistic processes are mediated experiences that open up the world. A successful work of art expresses a reality beyond actual reality: it suggests an unknown world using the means and the signs of the known world. Artistic practices incorporate the means of creation developed by science and technology and change forms as they change. Artists and the public follow different processes of abstraction at different levels, in the definition of the means of creation, of representation and of perception of a work of art. This paper examines how the processes of abstraction are used within the framework of the visual arts and abstract painting, which appeared during a period of growing importance for the processes of abstraction in science and technology, at the beginning of the twentieth century. The development of digital platforms and new man-machine interfaces allow multimedia creations. This is performed under the constraint of phases of multidisciplinary conceptualization using generic representation languages, which tend to abolish traditional frontiers between the arts: visual arts, drama, dance and music.

What makes a sustainability tool valuable, practical and useful in real-world healthcare practice? A mixed-methods study on the development of the Long Term Success Tool in Northwest London.

PubMed

Lennox, Laura; Doyle, Cathal; Reed, Julie E; Bell, Derek

2017-09-24

Although improvement initiatives show benefits to patient care, they often fail to sustain. Models and frameworks exist to address this challenge, but issues with design, clarity and usability have been barriers to use in healthcare settings. This work aimed to collaborate with stakeholders to develop a sustainability tool relevant to people in healthcare settings and practical for use in improvement initiatives. Tool development was conducted in six stages. A scoping literature review, group discussions and a stakeholder engagement event explored literature findings and their resonance with stakeholders in healthcare settings. Interviews, small-scale trialling and piloting explored the design and tested the practicality of the tool in improvement initiatives. National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care for Northwest London (CLAHRC NWL). CLAHRC NWL improvement initiative teams and staff. The iterative design process and engagement of stakeholders informed the articulation of the sustainability factors identified from the literature and guided tool design for practical application. Key iterations of factors and tool design are discussed. From the development process, the Long Term Success Tool (LTST) has been designed. The Tool supports those implementing improvements to reflect on 12 sustainability factors to identify risks to increase chances of achieving sustainability over time. The Tool is designed to provide a platform for improvement teams to share their own views on sustainability as well as learn about the different views held within their team to prompt discussion and actions. The development of the LTST has reinforced the importance of working with stakeholders to design strategies which respond to their needs and preferences and can practically be implemented in real-world settings. Further research is required to study the use and effectiveness of the tool in practice and assess engagement with the method over time. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Data set for reporting of ovary, fallopian tube and primary peritoneal carcinoma: recommendations from the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR).

PubMed

McCluggage, W Glenn; Judge, Meagan J; Clarke, Blaise A; Davidson, Ben; Gilks, C Blake; Hollema, Harry; Ledermann, Jonathan A; Matias-Guiu, Xavier; Mikami, Yoshiki; Stewart, Colin J R; Vang, Russell; Hirschowitz, Lynn

2015-08-01

A comprehensive pathological report is essential for optimal patient management, cancer staging and prognostication. In many countries, proforma reports are used but these vary in their content. The International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR) is an alliance formed by the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, the Royal College of Pathologists of the United Kingdom, the College of American Pathologists, the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and the European Society of Pathology, with the aim of developing an evidence-based reporting data set for each cancer site. This will reduce the global burden of cancer data set development and reduplication of effort by different international institutions that commission, publish and maintain standardised cancer reporting data sets. The resultant standardisation of cancer reporting will benefit not only those countries directly involved in the collaboration but also others not in a position to develop their own data sets. We describe the development of a cancer data set by the ICCR expert panel for the reporting of primary ovarian, fallopian tube and peritoneal carcinoma and present the 'required' and 'recommended' elements to be included in the report with an explanatory commentary. This data set encompasses the recent International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists staging system for these neoplasms and the updated World Health Organisation Classification of Tumours of the Female Reproductive Organs. The data set also addresses issues about site assignment of the primary tumour in high-grade serous carcinomas and proposes a scoring system for the assessment of tumour response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The widespread implementation of this data set will facilitate consistent and accurate data collection, comparison of epidemiological and pathological parameters between different populations, facilitate research and hopefully will result in improved patient management.

Data Set for the Reporting of Carcinomas of the Cervix: Recommendations From the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR).

PubMed

McCluggage, W Glenn; Judge, Meagan J; Alvarado-Cabrero, Isabel; Duggan, Máire A; Horn, Lars-Christian; Hui, Pei; Ordi, Jaume; Otis, Christopher N; Park, Kay J; Plante, Marie; Stewart, Colin J R; Wiredu, Edwin K; Rous, Brian; Hirschowitz, Lynn

2018-05-01

A comprehensive pathologic report is essential for optimal patient management, cancer staging and prognostication. In many countries, proforma reports are used but the content of these is variable. The International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting is an alliance formed by the Royal Colleges of Pathologists of Australasia and the United Kingdom, the College of American Pathologists, the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and the European Society of Pathology, for the purpose of developing standardized, evidence-based reporting data sets for each cancer site. This will reduce the global burden of cancer data set development and reduplication of effort by different international institutions that commission, publish and maintain standardized cancer-reporting data sets. The resultant standardization of cancer-reporting benefits not only those countries directly involved in the collaboration but also others not in a position to develop their own data sets. We describe the development of an evidence-based cancer data set by the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting expert panel for the reporting of primary cervical carcinomas and present the "required" and "recommended" elements to be included in the pathology report as well as an explanatory commentary. This data set encompasses the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and Union for International Cancer Control staging systems for cervical neoplasms and the updated World Health Organization classification of gynecologic tumors. The data set also addresses controversial issues such as tumor grading and measurement, including measurement of multifocal carcinomas. The widespread implementation of this data set will facilitate consistent and accurate data collection, comparison of epidemiological and pathologic parameters between different populations, facilitate research, and hopefully result in improved patient management.

[Animal experimentation, computer simulation and surgical research].

PubMed

Carpentier, Alain

2009-11-01

We live in a digital world In medicine, computers are providing new tools for data collection, imaging, and treatment. During research and development of complex technologies and devices such as artificial hearts, computer simulation can provide more reliable information than experimentation on large animals. In these specific settings, animal experimentation should serve more to validate computer models of complex devices than to demonstrate their reliability.

America in the World. Materials for Using American Issues Forum in the American History Classroom, Topic VII.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New York State Education Dept., Albany. Bureau of Secondary Curriculum Development.

This booklet of secondary level classroom strategies was developed as one in a set of materials for studying American history in light of issues identified by the American Issues Forum. Divided into four sections, the materials emphasize the meaning of the American dream, implications of belonging to a worldwide economic system, the role of the…

Britain Between the Wars: The Historical Context of Bowlby's Theory of Attachment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newcombe, Nora; Lerner, Jeffrey C.

John Bowlby's theory of attachment is examined in the cultural and historical context in which it was developed. Bowlby trained as a psychiatrist in England during the 1920's and published the WHO report in 1951. Thus the origins of his theory can be related to events set in motion by the First World War and occurring during the interwar period…

New Faces, New Places: A 4-H Science Learning Program in Urban Out-of-School Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barker, Walter A.; Killian, Eric; Evans, William P.

2010-01-01

Young people in the U.S. are falling behind their peers in the rest of the developed world in science, technology, engineering, and math. The Program for International Student Assessment study, conducted every three years, ranked the U.S. 24th in math and science out of 29 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development…

Biological challenges to effective vaccines in the developing world

PubMed Central

Grassly, Nicholas C.; Kang, Gagandeep; Kampmann, Beate

2015-01-01

The reason for holding a meeting to discuss biological challenges to vaccines is simple: not all vaccines work equally well in all settings. This special issue reviews the performance of vaccines in challenging environments, summarizes current thinking on the reasons why vaccines underperform and considers what approaches are necessary to understand the heterogeneity in responses and to improve vaccine immunogenicity and efficacy. PMID:25964451

Evaluation of an Integrated Multi-Task Machine Learning System with Humans in the Loop

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

machine learning components natural language processing, and optimization...was examined with a test explicitly developed to measure the impact of integrated machine learning when used by a human user in a real world setting...study revealed that integrated machine learning does produce a positive impact on overall performance. This paper also discusses how specific machine learning components contributed to human-system

Victoria's Leading Edge: Australian State Puts Human Capital at the Heart of its Improvement Plans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

von Frank, Valerie

2013-01-01

Principal Wilma Culton's professional development in the last few years has had her setting out for Singapore, conferencing in Canada, and bopping over to Berlin to check out what experts and the best educators around the world know about helping kids learn. The head of a primary school just outside Melbourne, Australia, Culton is a prime example…

Improving Transportability of a Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Intervention for Anxiety in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Results from a US-Canada Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reaven, Judy; Blakeley-Smith, Audrey; Beattie, Tricia L.; Sullivan, April; Moody, Eric J.; Stern, Jessica A; Hepburn, Susan L.; Smith, Isabel M.

2015-01-01

Anxiety disorders frequently co-occur in youth with autism spectrum disorders. In addition to developing efficacious treatments for anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorders, it is important to examine the transportability of these treatments to real-world settings. Study aims were to (a) train clinicians to deliver Facing Your Fears:…

Multi-Sensor Information Integration and Automatic Understanding

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-11-01

also produced a real-time implementation of the tracking and anomalous behavior detection system that runs on real- world data – either using real-time...surveillance and airborne IED detection . 15. SUBJECT TERMS Multi-hypothesis tracking , particle filters, anomalous behavior detection , Bayesian...analyst to support decision making with large data sets. A key feature of the real-time tracking and behavior detection system developed is that the

Reading the Word and Reading the World: Introducing Extensive Literature Reading Programs in Awassa College of Teacher Education and Its Partner Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charles, Paul Michael

2011-01-01

Extensive literature reading is a controversial area within EFL, both in terms of its effectiveness, and potential contribution to linguistic and cultural imperialism. This article considers the role of extensive literature reading in L2 acquisition from both innatist and critical perspectives. Set in the context of a development project at Awassa…

Politexting: A Phenomenological Examination of the Information and Communication Technology Employed by Nigerian Legislators in Communicating with Their Constituents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olaore, Oladeji J.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study is to create and develop a set of communication strategies that will assist elected representatives in Nigeria in communicating effectively with their constituents. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has changed the face of the world, and its impact is manifest in every facet of our lives. The introduction of…

Guided by Theory, Informed by Practice: Training and Support for the Good Behavior Game, a Classroom-Based Behavior Management Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poduska, Jeanne M.; Kurki, Anja

2014-01-01

Moving evidence-based practices for classroom behavior management into real-world settings is a high priority for education and public health. This article describes the development and use of a model of training and support for the Good Behavior Game (GBG), one of the few preventive interventions shown to have positive outcomes for elementary…

Open-set speaker identification with diverse-duration speech data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karadaghi, Rawande; Hertlein, Heinz; Ariyaeeinia, Aladdin

2015-05-01

The concern in this paper is an important category of applications of open-set speaker identification in criminal investigation, which involves operating with short and varied duration speech. The study presents investigations into the adverse effects of such an operating condition on the accuracy of open-set speaker identification, based on both GMMUBM and i-vector approaches. The experiments are conducted using a protocol developed for the identification task, based on the NIST speaker recognition evaluation corpus of 2008. In order to closely cover the real-world operating conditions in the considered application area, the study includes experiments with various combinations of training and testing data duration. The paper details the characteristics of the experimental investigations conducted and provides a thorough analysis of the results obtained.

Using Electronic Medical Records to Assess the Effectiveness of Pharmacotherapy in Pain: A Review of Recent Observational Studies.

PubMed

Biltaji, Eman; Tak, Casey; Ma, Junjie; Ruiz-Negron, Natalia; Bellows, Brandon K

2016-09-01

Pain disorders affect a large number of individuals throughout the world and are costly. Although randomized clinical trials assess the efficacy (i.e., how well treatments work in controlled settings) of pain pharmacotherapy, clinical trials do not assess effectiveness (i.e., how well treatments work in real-world settings). The number of observational studies that use real-world data to assess the effectiveness of medications is increasing rapidly in many disease areas. It is important for clinicians to understand how real-world data may be used to assess the effectiveness of medications. This paper aims to review the current body of literature assessing the effectiveness of pain pharmacotherapy using medical records. To do this, a literature search was conducted to identify papers published between January 2013 and September 2015 that examined the effectiveness of pain pharmacotherapy using electronic medical records. The search found only three papers meeting these criteria, which were described, reviewed, and critiqued in this paper. Electronic medical records are an underutilized source of data to assess pain outcomes in real-world settings. Although there are many methodological challenges in using these data, there is also great opportunity to impact clinical practice and explore the real-world effectiveness of pharmacotherapy used in pain management.

Choosing Important Health Outcomes for Comparative Effectiveness Research: An Updated Review and Identification of Gaps.

PubMed

Gorst, Sarah L; Gargon, Elizabeth; Clarke, Mike; Smith, Valerie; Williamson, Paula R

2016-01-01

The COMET (Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials) Initiative promotes the development and application of core outcome sets (COS), including relevant studies in an online database. In order to keep the database current, an annual search of the literature is undertaken. This study aimed to update a previous systematic review, in order to identify any further studies where a COS has been developed. Furthermore, no prioritization for COS development has previously been undertaken, therefore this study also aimed to identify COS relevant to the world's most prevalent health conditions. The methods used in this updated review followed the same approach used in the original review and the previous update. A survey was also sent to the corresponding authors of COS identified for inclusion in this review, to ascertain what lessons they had learnt from developing their COS. Additionally, the COMET database was searched to identify COS that might be relevant to the conditions with the highest global prevalence. Twenty-five reports relating to 22 new studies were eligible for inclusion in the review. Further improvements were identified in relation to the description of the scope of the COS, use of the Delphi technique, and the inclusion of patient participants within the development process. Additionally, 33 published and ongoing COS were identified for 13 of the world's most prevalent conditions. The development of a reporting guideline and minimum standards should contribute towards future improvements in development and reporting of COS. This study has also described a first approach to identifying gaps in existing COS, and to priority setting in this area. Important gaps have been identified, on the basis of global burden of disease, and the development and application of COS in these areas should be considered a priority.

The World Health Organization and Global Health Governance: post-1990.

PubMed

Lidén, J

2014-02-01

This article takes a historical perspective on the changing position of WHO in the global health architecture over the past two decades. From the early 1990s a number of weaknesses within the structure and governance of the World Health Organization were becoming apparent, as a rapidly changing post Cold War world placed more complex demands on the international organizations generally, but significantly so in the field of global health. Towards the end of that decade and during the first half of the next, WHO revitalized and played a crucial role in setting global health priorities. However, over the past decade, the organization has to some extent been bypassed for funding, and it lost some of its authority and its ability to set a global health agenda. The reasons for this decline are complex and multifaceted. Some of the main factors include WHO's inability to reform its core structure, the growing influence of non-governmental actors, a lack of coherence in the positions, priorities and funding decisions between the health ministries and the ministries overseeing development assistance in several donor member states, and the lack of strong leadership of the organization. Copyright © 2013 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Semantic and syntactic interoperability in online processing of big Earth observation data.

PubMed

Sudmanns, Martin; Tiede, Dirk; Lang, Stefan; Baraldi, Andrea

2018-01-01

The challenge of enabling syntactic and semantic interoperability for comprehensive and reproducible online processing of big Earth observation (EO) data is still unsolved. Supporting both types of interoperability is one of the requirements to efficiently extract valuable information from the large amount of available multi-temporal gridded data sets. The proposed system wraps world models, (semantic interoperability) into OGC Web Processing Services (syntactic interoperability) for semantic online analyses. World models describe spatio-temporal entities and their relationships in a formal way. The proposed system serves as enabler for (1) technical interoperability using a standardised interface to be used by all types of clients and (2) allowing experts from different domains to develop complex analyses together as collaborative effort. Users are connecting the world models online to the data, which are maintained in a centralised storage as 3D spatio-temporal data cubes. It allows also non-experts to extract valuable information from EO data because data management, low-level interactions or specific software issues can be ignored. We discuss the concept of the proposed system, provide a technical implementation example and describe three use cases for extracting changes from EO images and demonstrate the usability also for non-EO, gridded, multi-temporal data sets (CORINE land cover).

Semantic and syntactic interoperability in online processing of big Earth observation data

PubMed Central

Sudmanns, Martin; Tiede, Dirk; Lang, Stefan; Baraldi, Andrea

2018-01-01

ABSTRACT The challenge of enabling syntactic and semantic interoperability for comprehensive and reproducible online processing of big Earth observation (EO) data is still unsolved. Supporting both types of interoperability is one of the requirements to efficiently extract valuable information from the large amount of available multi-temporal gridded data sets. The proposed system wraps world models, (semantic interoperability) into OGC Web Processing Services (syntactic interoperability) for semantic online analyses. World models describe spatio-temporal entities and their relationships in a formal way. The proposed system serves as enabler for (1) technical interoperability using a standardised interface to be used by all types of clients and (2) allowing experts from different domains to develop complex analyses together as collaborative effort. Users are connecting the world models online to the data, which are maintained in a centralised storage as 3D spatio-temporal data cubes. It allows also non-experts to extract valuable information from EO data because data management, low-level interactions or specific software issues can be ignored. We discuss the concept of the proposed system, provide a technical implementation example and describe three use cases for extracting changes from EO images and demonstrate the usability also for non-EO, gridded, multi-temporal data sets (CORINE land cover). PMID:29387171

Introduction. Information, knowledge and technology.

PubMed

MacFarlane, Alistair G J

2003-08-15

Technology is the sum of the ways in which social groups manipulate order in the world to achieve their ends. It enables our active engagement with the world. Technology is central to our present well-being and vital for our future survival. As such it needs a coherent world view, a conceptual framework which will enable the fundamental problems that it poses for society to be approached in an illuminating way. Furthermore, such an approach, while remaining convincing, must not be overwhelmed by an ever-increasing welter of specialization and diversity of application. It is the purpose of the set of papers presented here to examine some key aspects of such a conceptual framework; not in the sense of offering a fully worked out philosophy of technology--that would be a huge and complex undertaking--but rather by considering some key topics. Subsidiary aims are to survey important relevant areas, to identify key sources that can provide access points for further study, and to consider some possible future developments. Major, coherent domains of activity are characterized by a few, fundamental, extensively used and essentially unifying concepts. Technology is such a domain, and its fundamental concepts are information, knowledge and agency. The following sections give a synoptic overview of the material presented in this theme issue, and set it within a wider context.

The Real-World Problem of Care Coordination: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study with Patients Living with Advanced Progressive Illness and Their Unpaid Caregivers

PubMed Central

Daveson, Barbara A.; Harding, Richard; Shipman, Cathy; Mason, Bruce L.; Epiphaniou, Eleni; Higginson, Irene J.; Ellis-Smith, Clare; Henson, Lesley; Munday, Dan; Nanton, Veronica; Dale, Jeremy R.; Boyd, Kirsty; Worth, Allison; Barclay, Stephen; Donaldson, Anne; Murray, Scott

2014-01-01

Objectives To develop a model of care coordination for patients living with advanced progressive illness and their unpaid caregivers, and to understand their perspective regarding care coordination. Design A prospective longitudinal, multi-perspective qualitative study involving a case-study approach. Methods Serial in-depth interviews were conducted, transcribed verbatim and then analyzed through open and axial coding in order to construct categories for three cases (sites). This was followed by continued thematic analysis to identify underlying conceptual coherence across all cases in order to produce one coherent care coordination model. Participants Fifty-six purposively sampled patients and 27 case-linked unpaid caregivers. Settings Three cases from contrasting primary, secondary and tertiary settings within Britain. Results Coordination is a deliberate cross-cutting action that involves high-quality, caring and well-informed staff, patients and unpaid caregivers who must work in partnership together across health and social care settings. For coordination to occur, it must be adequately resourced with efficient systems and services that communicate. Patients and unpaid caregivers contribute substantially to the coordination of their care, which is sometimes volunteered at a personal cost to them. Coordination is facilitated through flexible and patient-centered care, characterized by accurate and timely information communicated in a way that considers patients’ and caregivers’ needs, preferences, circumstances and abilities. Conclusions Within the midst of advanced progressive illness, coordination is a shared and complex intervention involving relational, structural and information components. Our study is one of the first to extensively examine patients’ and caregivers’ views about coordination, thus aiding conceptual fidelity. These findings can be used to help avoid oversimplifying a real-world problem, such as care coordination. Avoiding oversimplification can help with the development, evaluation and implementation of real-world coordination interventions for patients and their unpaid caregivers in the future. PMID:24788451

The Social Development Summit and the developing countries.

PubMed

Barnabas, A P; Kulkarni, P D; Nanavatty, M C; Singh, R R

1996-01-01

This article discusses some concerns of the 1996 UN Summit on Social Development. Conference organizers identified the three key conference issues as poverty alleviation, social integration of the marginalized and disadvantaged, and expansion of productive employment. The goal of a "society for all" means dealing with the increasing differences between rich and poor countries, the survival of weaker economies in a competitive market system, wide variations in consumption patterns between countries, attainment of political stability while respecting ethnic identity, the rise in social problems among countries with a high human development index, and increasing joblessness. The Human Development Report for 1994 emphasizes human security. Social development is not the equivalent of human resource development nor a side issue of economic growth. The integration of ethnic groups poses social and political problems. There remains a question about what political system and culture would be best for social integration. Developed countries define poverty as the inability of people and government to provide resources and necessary services for people's productive activity. Poverty in developing countries is blamed on colonialism. Globally, developed countries control 71% of world trade. Sharing resources to meet basic needs throughout the world is not an operational ideal. The highest 20% of income earners receive 83% of the world income. The culture of poverty is the strategy used by the poor to survive. Welfare is not an end in itself but does enable the poor to improve their conditions. Development that focuses on productive employment is uncertain. Developed and developing countries do not share similar perceptions of human rights. There is a question as to who should set the priorities for social development. Sustainable social development is related to preservation of natural resources, control of population growth, and promotion of social security.

Management of haemophilia in the developing world.

PubMed

Srivastava, A; Chuansumrit, A; Chandy, M; Duraiswamy, G; Karagus, C

1998-07-01

The problems with management of haemophilia in developing countries are poor awareness, inadequate diagnostic facilities and scarce factor concentrates for therapy. The priorities in establishing services for haemophilia include training care providers, setting up care centres, initiating a registry, educating affected people and their families about the condition, providing low-cost factor concentrates, improving social awareness and developing a comprehensive care team. A coagulation laboratory capable of reliably performing clotting times with correction studies using normal pooled, FVIII and FIX deficient patient plasma and factor assay is most essential for diagnosis. More advanced centralized laboratories are also needed. Molecular biology techniques for mutation detection and gene tracking should be established in each country for accurate carrier detection and antenatal diagnosis. Different models of haemophilia care exists. In India, there is no support from the government. Services, including import of factor concentrates, are organized by the Haemophilia Federation of India, with support from other institutions. Haemophilia is managed with minimal replacement therapy (about 2000 i.u./PWH/year). In Malaysia, where the system is fully supported by the government, facilities are available at all public hospitals and moderate levels of factor concentrates are available 'on-demand' (about 11,000 i.u./PWH/year) at the hospitals. Haemophilia care in South Africa is provided through major public hospitals. Intermediate purity factor concentrates are locally produced (about 12,000 i.u./PWH/year) at low cost. The combined experience in the developing world in providing haemophilia services should be used to define standards for care and set achievable goals.

Development of a Mandarin-English Bilingual Speech Recognition System for Real World Music Retrieval

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Qingqing; Pan, Jielin; Lin, Yang; Shao, Jian; Yan, Yonghong

In recent decades, there has been a great deal of research into the problem of bilingual speech recognition-to develop a recognizer that can handle inter- and intra-sentential language switching between two languages. This paper presents our recent work on the development of a grammar-constrained, Mandarin-English bilingual Speech Recognition System (MESRS) for real world music retrieval. Two of the main difficult issues in handling the bilingual speech recognition systems for real world applications are tackled in this paper. One is to balance the performance and the complexity of the bilingual speech recognition system; the other is to effectively deal with the matrix language accents in embedded language**. In order to process the intra-sentential language switching and reduce the amount of data required to robustly estimate statistical models, a compact single set of bilingual acoustic models derived by phone set merging and clustering is developed instead of using two separate monolingual models for each language. In our study, a novel Two-pass phone clustering method based on Confusion Matrix (TCM) is presented and compared with the log-likelihood measure method. Experiments testify that TCM can achieve better performance. Since potential system users' native language is Mandarin which is regarded as a matrix language in our application, their pronunciations of English as the embedded language usually contain Mandarin accents. In order to deal with the matrix language accents in embedded language, different non-native adaptation approaches are investigated. Experiments show that model retraining method outperforms the other common adaptation methods such as Maximum A Posteriori (MAP). With the effective incorporation of approaches on phone clustering and non-native adaptation, the Phrase Error Rate (PER) of MESRS for English utterances was reduced by 24.47% relatively compared to the baseline monolingual English system while the PER on Mandarin utterances was comparable to that of the baseline monolingual Mandarin system. The performance for bilingual utterances achieved 22.37% relative PER reduction.

Flood damage curves for consistent global risk assessments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Moel, Hans; Huizinga, Jan; Szewczyk, Wojtek

2016-04-01

Assessing potential damage of flood events is an important component in flood risk management. Determining direct flood damage is commonly done using depth-damage curves, which denote the flood damage that would occur at specific water depths per asset or land-use class. Many countries around the world have developed flood damage models using such curves which are based on analysis of past flood events and/or on expert judgement. However, such damage curves are not available for all regions, which hampers damage assessments in those regions. Moreover, due to different methodologies employed for various damage models in different countries, damage assessments cannot be directly compared with each other, obstructing also supra-national flood damage assessments. To address these problems, a globally consistent dataset of depth-damage curves has been developed. This dataset contains damage curves depicting percent of damage as a function of water depth as well as maximum damage values for a variety of assets and land use classes (i.e. residential, commercial, agriculture). Based on an extensive literature survey concave damage curves have been developed for each continent, while differentiation in flood damage between countries is established by determining maximum damage values at the country scale. These maximum damage values are based on construction cost surveys from multinational construction companies, which provide a coherent set of detailed building cost data across dozens of countries. A consistent set of maximum flood damage values for all countries was computed using statistical regressions with socio-economic World Development Indicators from the World Bank. Further, based on insights from the literature survey, guidance is also given on how the damage curves and maximum damage values can be adjusted for specific local circumstances, such as urban vs. rural locations, use of specific building material, etc. This dataset can be used for consistent supra-national scale flood damage assessments, and guide assessment in countries where no damage model is currently available.

The ‘unskilled and unaware’ effect is linear in a real-world setting

PubMed Central

Sawdon, Marina; Finn, Gabrielle

2014-01-01

Self-assessment ability in medical students and practising physicians is generally poor, yet essential for academic progress and professional development. The aim of this study was to determine undergraduate medical students' ability to self-assess their exam performance accurately in a real-world, high-stakes exam setting, something not previously investigated. Year 1 and Year 2 medical students (n = 74) participated in a self-assessment exercise. Students predicted their exam grade (%) on the anatomy practical exam. This exercise was completed online immediately after the exam. Students' predicted exam grades were correlated with their actual attained exam grades using a Pearson's correlation. Demographic data were analysed using an independent t-test. A negative correlation was found between students' overall predicted and attained exam grades (P < 0.0001). There was a significant difference between the students' predicted grades and actual grades in the bottom, 3rd and top (P < 0.0001), but not 2nd quartiles of participants. There was no relationship between the students' entry status into medical school and self-assessment ability (Year 1: P = 0.112; Year 2: P = 0.236) or between males and females (Year 1: P = 0.174). However, a relationship was determined for these variables in Year 2 (P = 0.022). The number of hours of additional self-directed learning undertaken did not influence students' self-assessment in both years. Our results demonstrate the ‘unskilled and unaware’ phenomenon in a real-world, high-stakes and practice-related setting. Students in all quartiles were unable to self-assess their exam performance, except for a group of mid-range students in the 2nd quartile. Poor performers were shown to overestimate their ability and, conversely, high achievers to underestimate their performance. We present evidence of a strong, significant linear relationship between medical students' ability to self-assess their performance in an anatomy practical exam, and their actual performance; in a real world setting. Despite the limited ability to self-assess reported in the literature, our results may inform approaches to revalidation, which currently frequently rely on an ability to self-assess. PMID:23781887

Diffusion of novel healthcare technologies to resource poor settings.

PubMed

Malkin, Robert; von Oldenburg Beer, Kim

2013-09-01

A new product has completed clinical trials in a distant, resource poor hospital using a few dozen prototypes. The data looks great. The novel medical device solves a widely felt problem. The next goal is to integrate the device into the country's healthcare system and spread the device to other countries. But how? In order to be widely used, the device must be manufactured and distributed. One option is to license the intellectual property (IP) to an interested third party, if one can be found. However, it is possible to manage the manufacturing and distribution without licensing. There are at least two common means for manufacturing a novel medical device targeted to resource poor settings: (a) formal (contract) manufacturing and (b) informal (local) manufacturing. There are three primary routes to diffusion of novel medical devices in the developing world: (1) local distributors (2) direct international sales and (3) international donations. Perhaps surprisingly, the least effective mechanism is direct importation through donation. The most successful mechanism, the method used by nearly all working medical devices in resource-poor settings, is the use of contract manufacturing and a local distributor. This article is written for the biomedical innovator and entrepreneur who wishes to make a novel healthcare technology or product available and accessible to healthcare providers and patients in the developing world. There are very few documented cases and little formal research in this area. To this end, this article describes and explores the manufacturing and distribution options in order to provide insights into when and how each can be applied to scale up a novel technology to make a difference in a resource poor setting.

A Bayesian approach to in silico blood-brain barrier penetration modeling.

PubMed

Martins, Ines Filipa; Teixeira, Ana L; Pinheiro, Luis; Falcao, Andre O

2012-06-25

The human blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a membrane that protects the central nervous system (CNS) by restricting the passage of solutes. The development of any new drug must take into account its existence whether for designing new molecules that target components of the CNS or, on the other hand, to find new substances that should not penetrate the barrier. Several studies in the literature have attempted to predict BBB penetration, so far with limited success and few, if any, application to real world drug discovery and development programs. Part of the reason is due to the fact that only about 2% of small molecules can cross the BBB, and the available data sets are not representative of that reality, being generally biased with an over-representation of molecules that show an ability to permeate the BBB (BBB positives). To circumvent this limitation, the current study aims to devise and use a new approach based on Bayesian statistics, coupled with state-of-the-art machine learning methods to produce a robust model capable of being applied in real-world drug research scenarios. The data set used, gathered from the literature, totals 1970 curated molecules, one of the largest for similar studies. Random Forests and Support Vector Machines were tested in various configurations against several chemical descriptor set combinations. Models were tested in a 5-fold cross-validation process, and the best one tested over an independent validation set. The best fitted model produced an overall accuracy of 95%, with a mean square contingency coefficient (ϕ) of 0.74, and showing an overall capacity for predicting BBB positives of 83% and 96% for determining BBB negatives. This model was adapted into a Web based tool made available for the whole community at http://b3pp.lasige.di.fc.ul.pt.

Multi-layered reasoning by means of conceptual fuzzy sets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Takagi, Tomohiro; Imura, Atsushi; Ushida, Hirohide; Yamaguchi, Toru

1993-01-01

The real world consists of a very large number of instances of events and continuous numeric values. On the other hand, people represent and process their knowledge in terms of abstracted concepts derived from generalization of these instances and numeric values. Logic based paradigms for knowledge representation use symbolic processing both for concept representation and inference. Their underlying assumption is that a concept can be defined precisely. However, as this assumption hardly holds for natural concepts, it follows that symbolic processing cannot deal with such concepts. Thus symbolic processing has essential problems from a practical point of view of applications in the real world. In contrast, fuzzy set theory can be viewed as a stronger and more practical notation than formal, logic based theories because it supports both symbolic processing and numeric processing, connecting the logic based world and the real world. In this paper, we propose multi-layered reasoning by using conceptual fuzzy sets (CFS). The general characteristics of CFS are discussed along with upper layer supervision and context dependent processing.

NASA Planetary Visualization Tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hogan, P.; Kim, R.

2004-12-01

NASA World Wind allows one to zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth, leveraging the combination of high resolution LandSat imagery and SRTM elevation data to experience Earth in visually rich 3D, just as if they were really there. NASA World Wind combines LandSat 7 imagery with Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) elevation data, for a dramatic view of the Earth at eye level. Users can literally fly across the world's terrain from any location in any direction. Particular focus was put into the ease of usability so people of all ages can enjoy World Wind. All one needs to control World Wind is a two button mouse. Additional guides and features can be accessed though a simplified menu. Navigation is automated with single clicks of a mouse as well as the ability to type in any location and automatically zoom to it. NASA World Wind was designed to run on recent PC hardware with the same technology used by today's 3D video games. NASA World Wind delivers the NASA Blue Marble, spectacular true-color imagery of the entire Earth at 1-kilometer-per-pixel. Using NASA World Wind, you can continue to zoom past Blue Marble resolution to seamlessly experience the extremely detailed mosaic of LandSat 7 data at an impressive 15-meters-per-pixel resolution. NASA World Wind also delivers other color bands such as the infrared spectrum. The NASA Scientific Visualization Studio at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has produced a set of visually intense animations that demonstrate a variety of subjects such as hurricane dynamics and seasonal changes across the globe. NASA World Wind takes these animations and plays them directly on the world. The NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) produces a set of time relevant planetary imagery that's updated every day. MODIS catalogs fires, floods, dust, smoke, storms and volcanic activity. NASA World Wind produces an easily customized view of this information and marks them directly on the globe. When one of these color coded markers are clicked, it downloads the full image and displays it in the full context of its location on Earth. MODIS images are publication quality material at resolutions up to 250-meters-per-pixel. NASA World Wind provides a full catalog of countries, capitals, counties, cities, towns, and even historical references. The names appear dynamically, increasing in number as the user zooms in. World Wind is capable of browsing through and displaying GLOBE data based on any date one wishes planetary data for. That means one can download today's (or any previous day's) temperature across the world, or rainfall, barometric pressure, cloud cover, or even the GLOBE students' global distribution of collected data. This program is free and available for further development via the NASA Open Source Agreement guidelines.

Identifying important life stages for monitoring and assessing risks from exposures to environmental contaminants: results of a World Health Organization review.

PubMed

Cohen Hubal, Elaine A; de Wet, Thea; Du Toit, Lilo; Firestone, Michael P; Ruchirawat, Mathuros; van Engelen, Jacqueline; Vickers, Carolyn

2014-06-01

In this paper, we summarize exposure-related issues to consider in determining the most appropriate age ranges and life stages for risk assessment. We then propose a harmonized set of age bins for monitoring and assessing risks from exposures to chemicals for global use. The focus is on preconception through adolescence, though the approach should be applicable to additional life stages. A two-tiered set of early life age groups is recommended. The first tier involves the adoption of guidance similar to the childhood age groups recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, whereas the second tier consolidates some of those age groups to reduce the burden of developing age-specific exposure factors for different regions. While there is no single "correct" means of choosing a common set of age groups to use internationally in assessing early life exposure and risk, use of a set of defined age groups is recommended to facilitate comparisons of potential exposures and risks around the globe, the collection of data and analyses of aggregate exposure and cumulative risk. Application of these age groups for robust assessment of exposure and risk for specific populations will require region-specific exposure factors as well as local environmental monitoring data. Copyright © 2013 World Health Organization. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

20 CFR 404.1302 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... on September 16, 1940, with a country with which the United States was at war during the World War II... under a program or pension system set up by the agency or instrumentality. Post-World War II period... detailed definition of the World War II veteran and a post-World War II veteran, see §§ 404.1310 and 404...

20 CFR 404.1302 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... on September 16, 1940, with a country with which the United States was at war during the World War II... under a program or pension system set up by the agency or instrumentality. Post-World War II period... detailed definition of the World War II veteran and a post-World War II veteran, see §§ 404.1310 and 404...

20 CFR 404.1302 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... on September 16, 1940, with a country with which the United States was at war during the World War II... under a program or pension system set up by the agency or instrumentality. Post-World War II period... detailed definition of the World War II veteran and a post-World War II veteran, see §§ 404.1310 and 404...

20 CFR 404.1302 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... on September 16, 1940, with a country with which the United States was at war during the World War II... under a program or pension system set up by the agency or instrumentality. Post-World War II period... detailed definition of the World War II veteran and a post-World War II veteran, see §§ 404.1310 and 404...

Critical Education for Systemic Change: A World-Systems Analysis Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffiths, Tom G.

2015-01-01

This paper both draws on, and seeks to apply, world-systems analysis to a broad, critical education project that builds mass schooling's potential contribution to the process of world-systemic change. In short, this is done by first setting out the world-systems analysis account of the current state, and period of transition, of the capitalist…

The Next 25 Years: Crises and Challenges.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amara, Roy

Within the next 25 years each major world problem will continue to grow and challenge the finest minds for equitable solutions. Yet the core world issue, from which most other problems stem, is the maintenance of an equitable and dynamic equilibrium between world populations and world resources. We are faced with a set of challenges stemming from…

The prevalence of stillbirths: a systematic review

PubMed Central

Say, Lale; Donner, Allan; Gülmezoglu, A Metin; Taljaard, Monica; Piaggio, Gilda

2006-01-01

Background Stillbirth rate is an important indicator of access to and quality of antenatal and delivery care. Obtaining overall estimates across various regions of the world is not straightforward due to variation in definitions, data collection methods and reporting. Methods We conducted a systematic review of a range of pregnancy-related conditions including stillbirths and performed meta-analysis of the subset of studies reporting stillbirth rates. We examined variation across rates and used meta-regression techniques to explain observed variation. Results We identified 389 articles on stillbirth prevalence among the 2580 included in the systematic review. We included 70 providing 80 data sets from 50 countries in the meta-analysis. Pooled prevalence rates show variation across various subgroup categories. Rates per 100 births are higher in studies conducted in less developed country settings as compared to more developed (1.17 versus 0.50), of inadequate quality as compared to adequate (1.12 versus 0.66), using sub-national sample as compared to national (1.38 versus 0.68), reporting all stillbirths as compared to late stillbirths (0.95 versus 0.63), published in non-English as compared to English (0.91 versus 0.59) and as journal articles as compared to non-journal (1.37 versus 0.67). The results of the meta-regression show the significance of two predictor variables – development status of the setting and study quality – on stillbirth prevalence. Conclusion Stillbirth prevalence at the community level is typically less than 1% in more developed parts of the world and could exceed 3% in less developed regions. Regular reviews of stillbirth rates in appropriately designed and reported studies are useful in monitoring the adequacy of care. Systematic reviews of prevalence studies are helpful in explaining sources of variation across rates. Exploring these methodological issues will lead to improved standards for assessing the burden of reproductive ill-health. PMID:16401351

Economic evaluations of non-communicable disease interventions in developing countries: a critical review of the evidence base

PubMed Central

Mulligan, Jo-Ann; Walker, Damian; Fox-Rushby, Julia

2006-01-01

Background Demographic projections suggest a major increase in non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality over the next two decades in developing countries. In a climate of scarce resources, policy-makers need to know which interventions represent value for money. The prohibitive cost of performing multiple economic evaluations has generated interest in transferring the results of studies from one setting to another. This paper aims to bridge the gap in the current literature by critically evaluating the available published data on economic evaluations of NCD interventions in developing countries. Methods We identified and reviewed the methodological quality of 32 economic evaluations of NCD interventions in developing countries. Developing countries were defined according to the World Bank classification for low- and lower middle-income countries. We defined NCDs as the 12 categories listed in the 1993 World Bank report Investing in Health. English language literature was searched for the period January 1984 and January 2003 inclusive in Medline, Science Citation Index, HealthStar, NHS Economic Evaluation Database and Embase using medical subheading terms and free text searches. We then assessed the quality of studies according to a set of pre-defined technical criteria. Results We found that the quality of studies was poor and resource allocation decisions made by local and global policy-makers on the basis of this evidence could be misleading. Furthermore we have identified some clear gaps in the literature, particularly around injuries and strategies for tackling the consequences of the emerging tobacco epidemic. Conclusion In the face of poor evidence the role of so-called generalised cost-effectiveness analyses has an important role to play in aiding public health decision-making at the global level. Further research is needed to investigates the causes of variation among cost, effects and cost-effectiveness data within and between settings. Such analyses still need to take a broad view, present data in a transparent manner and take account of local constraints. PMID:16584546

Pediatric sepsis in the developing world: challenges in defining sepsis and issues in post-discharge mortality.

PubMed

Wiens, Matthew O; Kumbakumba, Elias; Kissoon, Niranjan; Ansermino, J Mark; Ndamira, Andrew; Larson, Charles P

2012-01-01

Sepsis represents the progressive underlying inflammatory pathway secondary to any infectious illness, and ultimately is responsible for most infectious disease-related deaths. Addressing issues related to sepsis has been recognized as an important step towards reducing morbidity and mortality in developing countries, where the majority of the 7.5 million annual deaths in children under 5 years of age are considered to be secondary to sepsis. However, despite its prevalence, sepsis is largely neglected. Application of sepsis definitions created for use in resource-rich countries are neither practical nor feasible in most developing country settings, and alternative definitions designed for use in these settings need to be established. It has also been recognized that the inflammatory state created by sepsis increases the risk of post-discharge morbidity and mortality in developed countries, but exploration of this issue in developing countries is lacking. Research is urgently required to characterize better this potentially important issue.

TOPICAL PROBLEMS: The phenomenological theory of world population growth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kapitza, Sergei P.

1996-01-01

Of all global problems world population growth is the most significant. Demographic data describe this process in a concise and quantitative way in its past and present. Analysing this development it is possible by applying the concepts of systems analysis and synergetics, to work out a mathematical model for a phenomenological description of the global demographic process and to project its trends into the future. Assuming self-similarity as the dynamic principle of development, growth can be described practically over the whole of human history, assuming the growth rate to be proportional to the square of the number of people. The large parameter of the theory and the effective size of a coherent population group is of the order of 105 and the microscopic parameter of the phenomenology is the human lifespan. The demographic transition — a transition to a stabilised world population of some 14 billion in a foreseeable future — is a systemic singularity and is determined by the inherent pattern of growth of an open system, rather than by the lack of resources. The development of a quantitative nonlinear theory of the world population is of interest for interdisciplinary research in anthropology and demography, history and sociology, for population genetics and epidemiology, for studies in evolution of humankind and the origin of man. The model also provides insight into the stability of growth and the present predicament of humankind, and provides a setting for discussing the main global problems.

Internet-mediated psychotherapy: Are we ready for the ethical challenges?

PubMed

Satalkar, Priya; Shrivastava, Shivanshu; Desousa, Avinash

2015-01-01

Advances in information and communication technology have facilitated the development of online psychotherapy. This form of psychotherapy would provide the developing world with better access to professional mental healthcare services. At the same time, it is prudent to carefully consider the various ethical, legal and regulatory issues involved in online psychotherapy. This paper highlights the major ethical issues involved in the use of online psychotherapy, whether conducted via e-mail, chat rooms or interactive video, and identifies practical solutions for the ethical dilemmas that exist. Many authors and organisations have expressed their opinions on the subject, but no consensus has evolved. The advice offered to psychologists is mostly skewed and the scarcity of literature available to those considering expanding their practice to include online psychotherapy is certainly a source of vexation. While reviewing the existing literature, this paper seeks to describe and discuss the major ethical issues in this area, particularly in India, but many of these issues will be equally applicable to any developing world settings.

Learning and recognition of on-premise signs from weakly labeled street view images.

PubMed

Tsai, Tsung-Hung; Cheng, Wen-Huang; You, Chuang-Wen; Hu, Min-Chun; Tsui, Arvin Wen; Chi, Heng-Yu

2014-03-01

Camera-enabled mobile devices are commonly used as interaction platforms for linking the user's virtual and physical worlds in numerous research and commercial applications, such as serving an augmented reality interface for mobile information retrieval. The various application scenarios give rise to a key technique of daily life visual object recognition. On-premise signs (OPSs), a popular form of commercial advertising, are widely used in our living life. The OPSs often exhibit great visual diversity (e.g., appearing in arbitrary size), accompanied with complex environmental conditions (e.g., foreground and background clutter). Observing that such real-world characteristics are lacking in most of the existing image data sets, in this paper, we first proposed an OPS data set, namely OPS-62, in which totally 4649 OPS images of 62 different businesses are collected from Google's Street View. Further, for addressing the problem of real-world OPS learning and recognition, we developed a probabilistic framework based on the distributional clustering, in which we proposed to exploit the distributional information of each visual feature (the distribution of its associated OPS labels) as a reliable selection criterion for building discriminative OPS models. Experiments on the OPS-62 data set demonstrated the outperformance of our approach over the state-of-the-art probabilistic latent semantic analysis models for more accurate recognitions and less false alarms, with a significant 151.28% relative improvement in the average recognition rate. Meanwhile, our approach is simple, linear, and can be executed in a parallel fashion, making it practical and scalable for large-scale multimedia applications.

A comparison between medicine from an African (Ubuntu) and Western philosophy.

PubMed

Prinsloo, E D

2001-03-01

I consider the Ubuntu way of caring for the sick in terms of the Ubuntu world-view by systematizing the scattered views. I argue that this world-view is underpinned by the regulative concept of sharing and that caring in Ubuntu-thinking can only be understood correctly in terms of sharing. I substantiate my exposition in terms of what Africans themselves claim Ubuntu is and relate its meaning to African thinking in general. I consider the uniqueness of this world-view by showing how an African thinker compares it to Western World-views on causality and critically consider these comparisons. I apply this world-view to African medicine and evaluate the Ubuntu idea of causes in medicine in comparison with causality in Western thinking by considering the two frameworks of medical care in terms of their viability respectively. I conclude that causal patterns in medicine are controversial in both thinkings but argue that it sets the framework for intercultural communication that can lead both to a better understanding of each other and to some positive developments in medicine. These ways of dealing with the topic represents the significance of this article as an addition to existing knowledge.

Global water dynamics: issues for the 21st century.

PubMed

Simonovic, Slobodan P

2002-01-01

The WorldWater system dynamics model has been developed for modeling the global world water balance and capturing the dynamic character of the main variables affecting water availability and use in the future. Despite not being a novel approach, system dynamics offers a new way of addressing complex systems. WorldWater simulations are clearly demonstrating the strong feedback relation between water availability and different aspects of world development. Results of numerous simulations are contradictory to the assumption made by many global modelers that water is not an issue on the global scale. Two major observations can be made from early simulations: (a) the use of clean water for dilution and transport of wastewater, if not dealt with in other ways, imposes a major stress on the global world water balance; and (b) water use by different sectors is demonstrating quite different dynamics than predicted by classical forecasting tools and other water-models. Inherent linkages between water quantity and quality sectors with food, industry, persistent pollution, technology, and non-renewable resources sectors of the model create shoot and collapse behavior in water use dynamics. This paper discusses a number of different water-related scenarios and their implications on the global water balance. In particular, two extreme scenarios (business as usual - named "Chaos", and unlimited desalination - named "Ocean") are presented in the paper. Based on the conclusions derived from these two extreme cases a set of more moderate and realistic scenarios (named "Conservation") is proposed and their consequences on the global water balance are evaluated.

Architecture of marine food webs: To be or not be a 'small-world'.

PubMed

Marina, Tomás Ignacio; Saravia, Leonardo A; Cordone, Georgina; Salinas, Vanesa; Doyle, Santiago R; Momo, Fernando R

2018-01-01

The search for general properties in network structure has been a central issue for food web studies in recent years. One such property is the small-world topology that combines a high clustering and a small distance between nodes of the network. This property may increase food web resilience but make them more sensitive to the extinction of connected species. Food web theory has been developed principally from freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, largely omitting marine habitats. If theory needs to be modified to accommodate observations from marine ecosystems, based on major differences in several topological characteristics is still on debate. Here we investigated if the small-world topology is a common structural pattern in marine food webs. We developed a novel, simple and statistically rigorous method to examine the largest set of complex marine food webs to date. More than half of the analyzed marine networks exhibited a similar or lower characteristic path length than the random expectation, whereas 39% of the webs presented a significantly higher clustering than its random counterpart. Our method proved that 5 out of 28 networks fulfilled both features of the small-world topology: short path length and high clustering. This work represents the first rigorous analysis of the small-world topology and its associated features in high-quality marine networks. We conclude that such topology is a structural pattern that is not maximized in marine food webs; thus it is probably not an effective model to study robustness, stability and feasibility of marine ecosystems.

An inventory of four-dimensional data sets for the earth sciences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gregory, Terri

1989-01-01

The wide variety of data available to the diligent researcher and the myriad paths to obtaining it are emphasized. This inventory is an attempt to make accessible much of the four-dimensional data available in the world. In this quick-look catalog are listed separate data sets (Data Sets sections), sources of data including centers and large data bases (Sources section), and some data expected to be available in the future (Future Data section). In the Data Sets section, individual data sets are arranged alphabetically by institution, with those archived in the U.S.A. listed first, followed by those found elsewhere. The Sources section includes large data bases, centers, and directories. Sources are arranged alphabetically by country. This section is followed by a Future Data section which is a collection of data sets, experiments, and other future developments of which we are cognizant. A collection of further information and order blanks provided by some of the archiving institutions are presented in the appendix.

VHub - Cyberinfrastructure for volcano eruption and hazards modeling and simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valentine, G. A.; Jones, M. D.; Bursik, M. I.; Calder, E. S.; Gallo, S. M.; Connor, C.; Carn, S. A.; Rose, W. I.; Moore-Russo, D. A.; Renschler, C. S.; Pitman, B.; Sheridan, M. F.

2009-12-01

Volcanic risk is increasing as populations grow in active volcanic regions, and as national economies become increasingly intertwined. In addition to their significance to risk, volcanic eruption processes form a class of multiphase fluid dynamics with rich physics on many length and time scales. Risk significance, physics complexity, and the coupling of models to complex dynamic spatial datasets all demand the development of advanced computational techniques and interdisciplinary approaches to understand and forecast eruption dynamics. Innovative cyberinfrastructure is needed to enable global collaboration and novel scientific creativity, while simultaneously enabling computational thinking in real-world risk mitigation decisions - an environment where quality control, documentation, and traceability are key factors. Supported by NSF, we are developing a virtual organization, referred to as VHub, to address this need. Overarching goals of the VHub project are: Dissemination. Make advanced modeling and simulation capabilities and key data sets readily available to researchers, students, and practitioners around the world. Collaboration. Provide a mechanism for participants not only to be users but also co-developers of modeling capabilities, and contributors of experimental and observational data sets for use in modeling and simulation, in a collaborative environment that reaches far beyond local work groups. Comparison. Facilitate comparison between different models in order to provide the practitioners with guidance for choosing the "right" model, depending upon the intended use, and provide a platform for multi-model analysis of specific problems and incorporation into probabilistic assessments. Application. Greatly accelerate access and application of a wide range of modeling tools and related data sets to agencies around the world that are charged with hazard planning, mitigation, and response. Education. Provide resources that will promote the training of the next generation of volcanologists and hazards specialists such that modeling and simulation form part of a tripartite foundation of approaches, alongside observational data and experimentation. Adaptation. Conduct ongoing, rigorous self-assessment to study the impact of the virtual organization and promote continual adaptation to optimize its impact, as well as to understand emergent collective learning and collaborative patterns. VHub development is just beginning and we are very interested in input from the community and the addition of new partners to the effort. Current partners include A. Costa, A. Neri, W. Marzocchi, R.S.J. Sparks, S.J. Cronin, S. Takarada, Joan Marti, J.-C. Komorowski, T.H. Druitt, T. Koyaguchi, J.L. Macias, and S. Dartevelle.

Biobanking in a Constantly Developing Medical World

PubMed Central

Ciurea, Marius Eugen; Purcaru, Stefana Oana; Tache, Daniela Elise; Tataranu, Ligia Gabriela; Lupu, Mihaela; Dricu, Anica

2013-01-01

Biobank is a very sophisticated system that consists of a programmed storage of biological material and corresponding data. Biobanks are created to be used in medical research, in clinical and translational medicine, and in healthcare. In the past 20 years, a large number of biobanks have been set up around the world, to support the modern research directions in medicine such as omix and personalized medicine. More recently, embryonic and adult stem cell banks have been developed. Stem cell banking was reported to be required for medical research as well as clinical transplant applications. The quality of the samples stored in a biobank is very important. The standardization is also important; the biological material stored in a biobank must be processed in a manner that allows compatibility with other biobanks that preserve samples in the same field. In this paper, we review some issues related to biobanks purposes, quality, harmonization, and their financial and ethical aspects. PMID:24174912

Forensic archaeology and anthropology : An Australian perspective.

PubMed

Oakley, Kate

2005-09-01

Forensic archaeology is an extremely powerful investigative discipline and, in combination with forensic anthropology, can provide a wealth of evidentiary information to police investigators and the forensic community. The re-emergence of forensic archaeology and anthropology within Australia relies on its diversification and cooperation with established forensic medical organizations, law enforcement forensic service divisions, and national forensic boards. This presents a unique opportunity to develop a new multidisciplinary approach to forensic archaeology/anthropology within Australia as we hold a unique set of environmental, social, and cultural conditions that diverge from overseas models and require different methodological approaches. In the current world political climate, more forensic techniques are being applied at scenes of mass disasters, genocide, and terrorism. This provides Australian forensic archaeology/anthropology with a unique opportunity to develop multidisciplinary models with contributions from psychological profiling, ballistics, sociopolitics, cultural anthropology, mortuary technicians, post-blast analysis, fire analysis, and other disciplines from the world of forensic science.

Is universal health coverage the practical expression of the right to health care?

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

The present Millennium Development Goals are set to expire in 2015 and their next iteration is now being discussed within the international community. With regards to health, the World Health Organization proposes universal health coverage as a ‘single overarching health goal’ for the next iteration of the Millennium Development Goals. The present Millennium Development Goals have been criticised for being ‘duplicative’ or even ‘competing alternatives’ to international human rights law. The question then arises, if universal health coverage would indeed become the single overarching health goal, replacing the present health-related Millennium Development Goals, would that be more consistent with the right to health? The World Health Organization seems to have anticipated the question, as it labels universal health coverage as “by definition, a practical expression of the concern for health equity and the right to health”. Rather than waiting for the negotiations to unfold, we thought it would be useful to verify this contention, using a comparative normative analysis. We found that – to be a practical expression of the right to health – at least one element is missing in present authoritative definitions of universal health coverage: a straightforward confirmation that international assistance is essential, not optional. But universal health coverage is a ‘work in progress’. A recent proposal by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network proposed universal health coverage with a set of targets, including a target for international assistance, which would turn universal health coverage into a practical expression of the right to health care. PMID:24559232

French perspectives on psychiatric classification.

PubMed

Crocq, Marc-Antoine

2015-03-01

This article reviews the role of the French schools in the development of psychiatric nosology. Boissier de Sauvages published the first French treatise on medical nosology in 1763. Until the 1880s, French schools held a pre-eminent position in the development of psychiatric concepts. From the 1880s until World War I, German-speaking schools exerted the most influence, featuring the work of major figures such as Emil Kraepelin and Eugen Bleuler. French schools were probably hampered by excessive administrative and cultural centralization. Between the 1880s and the 1930s, French schools developed diagnostic categories that set them apart from international classifications. The main examples are Bouffée Délirante, and the complex set of chronic delusional psychoses (CDPs), including chronic hallucinatory psychosis. CDPs were distinguished from schizophrenia by the lack of cognitive deterioration during evolution. Modern French psychiatry is now coming into line with international classification, such as DSM-5 and the upcoming ICD-11.

French perspectives on psychiatric classification

PubMed Central

Crocq, Marc-Antoine

2015-01-01

This article reviews the role of the French schools in the development of psychiatric nosology. Boissier de Sauvages published the first French treatise on medical nosology in 1763. Until the 1880s, French schools held a pre-eminent position in the development of psychiatric concepts. From the 1880s until World War I, German-speaking schools exerted the most influence, featuring the work of major figures such as Emil Kraepelin and Eugen Bleuler. French schools were probably hampered by excessive administrative and cultural centralization. Between the 1880s and the 1930s, French schools developed diagnostic categories that set them apart from international classifications. The main examples are Bouffée Délirante, and the complex set of chronic delusional psychoses (CDPs), including chronic hallucinatory psychosis. CDPs were distinguished from schizophrenia by the lack of cognitive deterioration during evolution. Modern French psychiatry is now coming into line with international classification, such as DSM-5 and the upcoming ICD-11. PMID:25987863

Geothermal Potential of the Cascade and Aleutian Arcs, with Ranking of Individual Volcanic Centers for their Potential to Host Electricity-Grade Reservoirs

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

Shevenell, Lisa; Coolbaugh, Mark; Hinz, Nick

This project brings a global perspective to volcanic arc geothermal play fairway analysis by developing statistics for the occurrence of geothermal reservoirs and their geoscience context worldwide in order to rank U.S. prospects. The focus of the work was to develop play fairways for the Cascade and Aleutian arcs to rank the individual volcanic centers in these arcs by their potential to host electricity grade geothermal systems. The Fairway models were developed by describing key geologic factors expected to be indicative of productive geothermal systems in a global training set, which includes 74 volcanic centers world-wide with current power production.more » To our knowledge, this is the most robust geothermal benchmark training set for magmatic systems to date that will be made public.« less

Single dose treatment of malaria - current status and perspectives.

PubMed

Mischlinger, Johannes; Agnandji, Selidji T; Ramharter, Michael

2016-07-01

Despite increased international efforts for control and ultimate elimination, malaria remains a major health problem. Currently, artemisinin-based combination therapies are the treatment of choice for uncomplicated malaria exhibiting high efficacy in clinical trial settings in sub-Saharan Africa. However, their administration over a three-day period is associated with important problems of treatment adherence resulting in markedly reduced effectiveness of currently recommended antimalarials under real world settings. Antimalarial drug candidates and antimalarial drug combinations currently under advanced clinical development for the indication as single dose antimalarial therapy. Expert commentary: Several new drug candidates and combinations are currently undergoing pivotal proof-of-concept studies or clinical development programmes. The development of a single dose combination therapy would constitute a breakthrough in the control of malaria. Such an innovative treatment approach would simultaneously close the effectiveness gap of current three-day therapies and revolutionize population based interventions in the context of malaria elimination campaigns.

Corruption and stock market development: A quantitative approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolgorian, Meysam

2011-11-01

Studying the relation between corruption and economic factors and examining its consequences for economic development have attracted many economists and physicists in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of stock market development on corruption. Analyzing a data set of corruption and stock market development measures such as market capitalization and total value of share trading for 46 countries around the world for the period 2007-2009, we examine the dependence of the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) on stock market development. Our findings suggest that there exists a power-law dependence between corruption and stock market development. We also observe a negative relation between level of corruption and financial system improvement.

Lessons learned in transitioning to an open systems environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boland, Dillard E.; Green, David S.; Steger, Warren L.

1994-01-01

Software development organizations, both commercial and governmental, are undergoing rapid change spurred by developments in the computing industry. To stay competitive, these organizations must adopt new technologies, skills, and practices quickly. Yet even for an organization with a well-developed set of software engineering models and processes, transitioning to a new technology can be expensive and risky. Current industry trends are leading away from traditional mainframe environments and toward the workstation-based, open systems world. This paper presents the experiences of software engineers on three recent projects that pioneered open systems development for NASA's Flight Dynamics Division of the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).

Point-of-Care Diagnostics in Low-Resource Settings and Their Impact on Care in the Age of the Noncommunicable and Chronic Disease Epidemic.

PubMed

Weigl, Bernhard H; Neogi, Tina; McGuire, Helen

2014-06-01

The emergence of point-of-care (POC) diagnostics specifically designed for low-resource settings coupled with the rapid increase in need for routine care of patients with chronic diseases should prompt reconsideration of how health care can be delivered most beneficially and cost-effectively in developing countries. Bolstering support for primary care to provide rapid and appropriate integrated acute and chronic care treatment may be a possible solution. POC diagnostics can empower local and primary care providers and enable them to make better clinical decisions. This article explores the opportunity for POC diagnostics to strengthen primary care and chronic disease diagnosis and management in a low-resource setting (LRS) to deliver appropriate, consistent, and integrated care. We analyze the requirements of resource-appropriate chronic disease care, the characteristics of POC diagnostics in LRS versus the developed world, the many roles of diagnostics in the care continuum in LRS, and the process and economics of developing LRS-compatible POC diagnostics. © 2013 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

An inventory of undiscovered Canadian mineral resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Labovitz, M. L.; Griffiths, J. C.

1982-01-01

Unit regional value (URV) and unit regional weight are area standardized measures of the expected value and quantity, respectively, of the mineral resources of a region. Estimation and manipulation of the URV statistic is the basis of an approach to mineral resource evaluation. Estimates of the kind and value of exploitable mineral resources yet to be discovered in the provinces of Canada are used as an illustration of the procedure. The URV statistic is set within a previously developed model wherein geology, as measured by point counting geologic maps, is related to the historical record of mineral resource production of well-developed regions of the world, such as the 50 states of the U.S.A.; these may be considered the training set. The Canadian provinces are related to this training set using geological information obtained in the same way from geologic maps of the provinces. The desired predictions of yet to be discovered mineral resources in the Canadian provinces arise as a consequence. The implicit assumption is that regions of similar geology, if equally well developed, will produce similar weights and values of mineral resources.

Jump as Far as You Can [Problem Solvers: Problem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bofferding, Laura; Yigit, Melike

2013-01-01

The standing long jump was an Olympic event until 1912. In 1904, Ray Ewry set the world record for the longest standing long jump, which was about 11.5 feet, or 138 inches. Although the standing long jump is no longer an Olympic event, the Norwegians still include it in their National Competition, and Arne Tvervaag set a new world record at about…

Learning User Preferences for Sets of Objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

desJardins, Marie; Eaton, Eric; Wagstaff, Kiri L.

2006-01-01

Most work on preference learning has focused on pairwise preferences or rankings over individual items. In this paper, we present a method for learning preferences over sets of items. Our learning method takes as input a collection of positive examples--that is, one or more sets that have been identified by a user as desirable. Kernel density estimation is used to estimate the value function for individual items, and the desired set diversity is estimated from the average set diversity observed in the collection. Since this is a new learning problem, we introduce a new evaluation methodology and evaluate the learning method on two data collections: synthetic blocks-world data and a new real-world music data collection that we have gathered.

A Signal-Detection Analysis of Fast-and-Frugal Trees

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luan, Shenghua; Schooler, Lael J.; Gigerenzer, Gerd

2011-01-01

Models of decision making are distinguished by those that aim for an optimal solution in a world that is precisely specified by a set of assumptions (a so-called "small world") and those that aim for a simple but satisfactory solution in an uncertain world where the assumptions of optimization models may not be met (a so-called "large world"). Few…

Reframing the HIV/AIDS debate in developing countries I: setting the scene.

PubMed

Couper, I D

2004-01-01

In 2001, it was estimated that 4.7 million South Africans were living with HIV/AIDS. Prevalence figures have risen steadily over the past 10 years in most African countries, and in only a few, like Uganda, does the epidemic show signs of waning. In Africa, the status of the obese has risen enormously. If you're fat, you don't have AIDS. The epidemic is fuelled by many factors. These include: a lack of basic education about HIV risk; migrant labour disrupting family stability; polygamous marriages; patriarchal practices; and a lack of basic human rights, including being able to refuse intercourse, for women. Health care systems struggle and fail to cope with overwhelming demands, and the scale of the human loss risks dehumanising carers and health workers. Doctors evolve coping strategies, as do health systems and governments. Aid from the Western world has, until recently, been tokenistic in scale. HIV/AIDS in Africa is substantially a result of the socioeconomic and political realities of the past and present, and is related to the continued exploitation of developing countries by developed nations. This article was the introductory paper in the 'HIV/AIDS in the Developing World workshop' of the 2003 WONCA World Rural Health Congress, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The concluding 'Santiago de Compostela Statement on HIV/AIDS' was adopted at the congress, and is offered here as a suggested way forward.

Managing Ethical Challenges to Mental Health Research in Post‐Conflict Settings

PubMed Central

Khan, Muhammad Naseem; Rahman, Atif; Frith, Lucy

2015-01-01

Abstract Recently the World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted the need to strengthen mental health systems following emergencies, including natural and manmade disasters. Mental health services need to be informed by culturally attuned evidence that is developed through research. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish rigorous ethical research practice to underpin the evidence‐base for mental health services delivered during and following emergencies. PMID:25580875

Health Care Workers and Researchers Traveling to Developing-World Clinical Settings: Disease Transmission Risk and Mitigation

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-01

viruses can be transmitted by needlestick, such as dengue virus and other hemorrhagic fever viruses. Other potential disease risks include syphilis...Infectious Dis- eases [ 11]. All hemorrhagic fever viruses except dengue virus are known to infect via artificially produced aerosols in a laboratory en...specific health care-related risks (needlestick, hemorrhagic fever viruses, severe viral respiratory disease, and tuberculosis), with suggestions

Development of Virtual Auditory Interfaces

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-03-01

reference to compare the sound in the VE with the real 4. Lessons from the Entertainment Industry world experience. The entertainment industry has...systems are currently being evaluated. even though we have the technology to create astounding The first system uses a portable Sony TCD-D8 DAT audio...data set created a system called "Fantasound" which wrapped the including sound recordings and sound measurements musical compositions and sound

Big Data in the Service of Educator Learning: What Should Be Done with Collected Online Professional Learning Information?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Brian, Mary M.

2016-01-01

The concern over big data and ramifications of its use permeates many, if not all, aspects of life in the 21st century. With the advent of online learning, another area of concern, one that directly impacts the world of education, has been added: the use of data within online professional development settings. In this article, we examine the type…

JPRS Report, Science & Technology. China: Energy.

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-12-24

desulfurization tech- nology at the present time. The wet method technology accounts for 86 percent of all of the world’s flue gas desulfurization facilities...Limestone-gypsum wet method desulfurization tech- nology Huaneng’s Luohuang Power Plant has already imported two sets of 360MW generator boiler flue gas ...Circulating Fluidized-Bed Technology Development [LinZhaokui, Wang Dun’en, et al; DONGLIGONGCHENG, 15 Oct 92] 27 Selection of Flue

Chemical markup, XML, and the world wide web. 6. CMLReact, an XML vocabulary for chemical reactions.

PubMed

Holliday, Gemma L; Murray-Rust, Peter; Rzepa, Henry S

2006-01-01

A set of components (CMLReact) for managing chemical and biochemical reactions has been added to CML. These can be combined to support most of the strategies for the formal representation of reactions. The elements, attributes, and types are formally defined as XMLSchema components, and their semantics are developed. New syntax and semantics in CML are reported and illustrated with 10 examples.

An Examination of the Interaction between Modelling and Its Relationship with Construction Kits: Lessons from the Past and for the Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parkinson, Eric F.

2004-01-01

Construction kits have played a significant part in nurturing the growth and development of the minds and manipulation-based skills of children (and adults) in formal and non-formal education settings. These kits have origins rooted in the representation of the built world and now have a diversity of form and function, including technical versions…

Large-scale road safety programmes in low- and middle-income countries: an opportunity to generate evidence.

PubMed

Hyder, Adnan A; Allen, Katharine A; Peters, David H; Chandran, Aruna; Bishai, David

2013-01-01

The growing burden of road traffic injuries, which kill over 1.2 million people yearly, falls mostly on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite this, evidence generation on the effectiveness of road safety interventions in LMIC settings remains scarce. This paper explores a scientific approach for evaluating road safety programmes in LMICs and introduces such a road safety multi-country initiative, the Road Safety in 10 Countries Project (RS-10). By building on existing evaluation frameworks, we develop a scientific approach for evaluating large-scale road safety programmes in LMIC settings. This also draws on '13 lessons' of large-scale programme evaluation: defining the evaluation scope; selecting study sites; maintaining objectivity; developing an impact model; utilising multiple data sources; using multiple analytic techniques; maximising external validity; ensuring an appropriate time frame; the importance of flexibility and a stepwise approach; continuous monitoring; providing feedback to implementers, policy-makers; promoting the uptake of evaluation results; and understanding evaluation costs. The use of relatively new approaches for evaluation of real-world programmes allows for the production of relevant knowledge. The RS-10 project affords an important opportunity to scientifically test these approaches for a real-world, large-scale road safety evaluation and generate new knowledge for the field of road safety.

Challenges and priorities in the management of HIV/HBV and HIV/HCV coinfection in resource-limited settings.

PubMed

Easterbrook, Philippa; Sands, Anita; Harmanci, Hande

2012-05-01

Liver disease due to chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is now emerging as an increasing cause of morbidity and mortality in human immunodeficiency virus- (HIV-) infected persons in resource-limited settings (RLS). Existing management guidelines have generally focused on care in tertiary level facilities in developed countries. Less than half of low-income countries have guidance, and in those that do, there are important omissions or disparities in recommendations. There are multiple challenges to delivery of effective hepatitis care in RLS, but the most important remains the limited access to antiviral drugs and diagnostic tests. In 2010, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a comprehensive approach for the prevention, control, and management of viral hepatitis. We describe activities at the World Health Organization (WHO) in three key areas: the establishment of a global hepatitis Program and interim strategy; steps toward the development of global guidance on management of coinfection for RLS; and the WHO prequalification program of HBV and HCV diagnostic assays. We highlight key research gaps and the importance of applying the lessons learned from the public health scale-up of ART to hepatitis care. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

A reusable anatomically segmented digital mannequin for public health communication.

PubMed

Fujieda, Kaori; Okubo, Kosaku

2016-01-01

The ongoing development of world wide web technologies has facilitated a change in health communication, which has now become bi-directional and encompasses people with diverse backgrounds. To enable an even greater role for medical illustrations, a data set, BodyParts3D, has been generated and its data set can be used by anyone to create and exchange customised three-dimensional (3D) anatomical images. BP3D comprises more than 3000 3D object files created by segmenting a digital mannequin in accordance with anatomical naming conventions. This paper describes the methodologies and features used to generate an anatomically correct male mannequin.

Peace through health II: a framework for medical student education.

PubMed

Arya, Neil

2004-01-01

The world's first university course in Peace through Health (PtH) recently finished at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. Medical students and academic staff in Canada and Europe have expressed interest in developing this course for other medical schools. Seven medical students were selected to do an unofficial 'audit' in return for 'in kind' work, developing the course materials for the web and adaptation to the medical curriculum. This article sets out the goals and structure of the course as a guide for similar teaching models.

Outcome of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Cancers in Low-Resource Settings: Challenges and Opportunities.

PubMed

Chaturvedi, Pankaj; Singhavi, Hitesh; Malik, Akshat; Nair, Deepa

2018-06-01

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) are amongst the most common cancers in certain parts of the world. Low-income and low middle- income countries make up 65% of newly diagnosed HNSCC cases annually and account for about 75% of HNSCC global mortality. These countries also suffer from a significant shortage of skilled labor, equipment, and health facilities. This article discusses the burden of HNSCCs in developing countries and the differences in outcomes compared with developed countries. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Science education and literacy: imperatives for the developed and developing world.

PubMed

Webb, Paul

2010-04-23

This article explores current language-based research aimed at promoting scientific literacy and examines issues of language use in schools, particularly where science teaching and learning take place in teachers' and learners' second language. Literature supporting the premise that promoting reading, writing, and talking while "doing science" plays a vital role in effective teaching and learning of the subject is highlighted. A wide range of studies suggest that, whether in homogenous or language-diverse settings, science educators can make a significant contribution to both understanding science and promoting literacy.

Old World megadroughts and pluvials during the Common Era.

PubMed

Cook, Edward R; Seager, Richard; Kushnir, Yochanan; Briffa, Keith R; Büntgen, Ulf; Frank, David; Krusic, Paul J; Tegel, Willy; van der Schrier, Gerard; Andreu-Hayles, Laia; Baillie, Mike; Baittinger, Claudia; Bleicher, Niels; Bonde, Niels; Brown, David; Carrer, Marco; Cooper, Richard; Čufar, Katarina; Dittmar, Christoph; Esper, Jan; Griggs, Carol; Gunnarson, Björn; Günther, Björn; Gutierrez, Emilia; Haneca, Kristof; Helama, Samuli; Herzig, Franz; Heussner, Karl-Uwe; Hofmann, Jutta; Janda, Pavel; Kontic, Raymond; Köse, Nesibe; Kyncl, Tomáš; Levanič, Tom; Linderholm, Hans; Manning, Sturt; Melvin, Thomas M; Miles, Daniel; Neuwirth, Burkhard; Nicolussi, Kurt; Nola, Paola; Panayotov, Momchil; Popa, Ionel; Rothe, Andreas; Seftigen, Kristina; Seim, Andrea; Svarva, Helene; Svoboda, Miroslav; Thun, Terje; Timonen, Mauri; Touchan, Ramzi; Trotsiuk, Volodymyr; Trouet, Valerie; Walder, Felix; Ważny, Tomasz; Wilson, Rob; Zang, Christian

2015-11-01

Climate model projections suggest widespread drying in the Mediterranean Basin and wetting in Fennoscandia in the coming decades largely as a consequence of greenhouse gas forcing of climate. To place these and other "Old World" climate projections into historical perspective based on more complete estimates of natural hydroclimatic variability, we have developed the "Old World Drought Atlas" (OWDA), a set of year-to-year maps of tree-ring reconstructed summer wetness and dryness over Europe and the Mediterranean Basin during the Common Era. The OWDA matches historical accounts of severe drought and wetness with a spatial completeness not previously available. In addition, megadroughts reconstructed over north-central Europe in the 11th and mid-15th centuries reinforce other evidence from North America and Asia that droughts were more severe, extensive, and prolonged over Northern Hemisphere land areas before the 20th century, with an inadequate understanding of their causes. The OWDA provides new data to determine the causes of Old World drought and wetness and attribute past climate variability to forced and/or internal variability.

Participatory action research methodology in disaster research: results from the World Trade Center evacuation study.

PubMed

Gershon, Robyn R M; Rubin, Marcie S; Qureshi, Kristine A; Canton, Allison N; Matzner, Frederick J

2008-10-01

Participatory action research (PAR) methodology is an effective tool in identifying and implementing risk-reduction interventions. It has been used extensively in occupational health research, but not, to our knowledge, in disaster research. A PAR framework was incorporated into the World Trade Center evacuation study, which was designed to identify the individual, organizational, and structural (environmental) factors that affected evacuation from the World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2 on September 11, 2001. PAR teams-comprising World Trade Center evacuees, study investigators, and expert consultants-worked collaboratively to develop a set of recommendations designed to facilitate evacuation from high-rise office buildings and reduce risk of injury among evacuees. Two PAR teams worked first separately and then collectively to identify data-driven strategies for improvement of high-rise building evacuation. The teams identified interventions targeting individual, organizational, and structural (environmental) barriers to safe and rapid evacuation. PAR teams were effective in identifying numerous feasible and cost-effective strategies for improvement of high-rise emergency preparedness and evacuation. This approach may have utility in other workplace disaster prevention planning and response programs.

Enhanced learning of natural visual sequences in newborn chicks.

PubMed

Wood, Justin N; Prasad, Aditya; Goldman, Jason G; Wood, Samantha M W

2016-07-01

To what extent are newborn brains designed to operate over natural visual input? To address this question, we used a high-throughput controlled-rearing method to examine whether newborn chicks (Gallus gallus) show enhanced learning of natural visual sequences at the onset of vision. We took the same set of images and grouped them into either natural sequences (i.e., sequences showing different viewpoints of the same real-world object) or unnatural sequences (i.e., sequences showing different images of different real-world objects). When raised in virtual worlds containing natural sequences, newborn chicks developed the ability to recognize familiar images of objects. Conversely, when raised in virtual worlds containing unnatural sequences, newborn chicks' object recognition abilities were severely impaired. In fact, the majority of the chicks raised with the unnatural sequences failed to recognize familiar images of objects despite acquiring over 100 h of visual experience with those images. Thus, newborn chicks show enhanced learning of natural visual sequences at the onset of vision. These results indicate that newborn brains are designed to operate over natural visual input.

Is “morphodynamic equilibrium” an oxymoron?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zhou, Zeng; Coco, Giovanni; Townend, Ian; Olabarrieta, Maitane; van der Wegen, Mick; Gong, Zheng; D'Alpaos, Andrea; Gao, Shu; Jaffe, Bruce E.; Gelfenbaum, Guy R.; He, Qing; Wang, Yaping; Lanzoni, Stefano; Wang, Zhengbing; Winterwerp, Han; Zhang, Changkuan

2017-01-01

Morphodynamic equilibrium is a widely adopted yet elusive concept in the field of geomorphology of coasts, rivers and estuaries. Based on the Exner equation, an expression of mass conservation of sediment, we distinguish three types of equilibrium defined as static and dynamic, of which two different types exist. Other expressions such as statistical and quasi-equilibrium which do not strictly satisfy the Exner conditions are also acknowledged for their practical use. The choice of a temporal scale is imperative to analyse the type of equilibrium. We discuss the difference between morphodynamic equilibrium in the “real world” (nature) and the “virtual world” (model). Modelling studies rely on simplifications of the real world and lead to understanding of process interactions. A variety of factors affect the use of virtual-world predictions in the real world (e.g., variability in environmental drivers and variability in the setting) so that the concept of morphodynamic equilibrium should be mathematically unequivocal in the virtual world and interpreted over the appropriate spatial and temporal scale in the real world. We draw examples from estuarine settings which are subject to various governing factors which broadly include hydrodynamics, sedimentology and landscape setting. Following the traditional “tide-wave-river” ternary diagram, we summarize studies to date that explore the “virtual world”, discuss the type of equilibrium reached and how it relates to the real world.

Urbanisation and child health in resource poor settings with special reference to under-five mortality in Africa.

PubMed

Garenne, Michel

2010-06-01

The health of children improved dramatically worldwide during the 20th century, although with major contrasts between developed and developing countries, and urban and rural areas. The quantitative evidence on urban child health from a broad historical and comparative perspective is briefly reviewed here. Before the sanitary revolution, urban mortality tended to be higher than rural mortality. However, after World War I, improvements in water, sanitation, hygiene, nutrition and child care resulted in lower urban child mortality in Europe. Despite a similar mortality decline, urban mortality in developing countries since World War II has been generally lower than rural mortality, probably because of better medical care, higher socio-economic status and better nutrition in urban areas. However, higher urban mortality has recently been seen in the slums of large cities in developing countries as a result of extreme poverty, family disintegration, lack of hygiene, sanitation and medical care, low nutritional status, emerging diseases (HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis) and other health hazards (environmental hazards, accidents, violence). These emerging threats need to be addressed by appropriate policies and programmes.

A Radiation Laboratory Curriculum Development at Western Kentucky University

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barzilov, Alexander P.; Novikov, Ivan S.; Womble, Phil C.

2009-03-01

We present the latest developments for the radiation laboratory curriculum at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Western Kentucky University. During the last decade, the Applied Physics Institute (API) at WKU accumulated various equipment for radiation experimentation. This includes various neutron sources (computer controlled d-t and d-d neutron generators, and isotopic 252 Cf and PuBe sources), the set of gamma sources with various intensities, gamma detectors with various energy resolutions (NaI, BGO, GSO, LaBr and HPGe) and the 2.5-MeV Van de Graaff particle accelerator. XRF and XRD apparatuses are also available for students and members at the API. This equipment is currently used in numerous scientific and teaching activities. Members of the API also developed a set of laboratory activities for undergraduate students taking classes from the physics curriculum (Nuclear Physics, Atomic Physics, and Radiation Biophysics). Our goal is to develop a set of radiation laboratories, which will strengthen the curriculum of physics, chemistry, geology, biology, and environmental science at WKU. The teaching and research activities are integrated into real-world projects and hands-on activities to engage students. The proposed experiments and their relevance to the modern status of physical science are discussed.

The WHO/PEPFAR collaboration to prepare an operations manual for HIV prevention, care, and treatment at primary health centers in high-prevalence, resource-constrained settings: defining laboratory services.

PubMed

Spira, Thomas; Lindegren, Mary Lou; Ferris, Robert; Habiyambere, Vincent; Ellerbrock, Tedd

2009-06-01

The expansion of HIV/AIDS care and treatment in resource-constrained countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, has generally developed in a top-down manner. Further expansion will involve primary health centers where human and other resources are limited. This article describes the World Health Organization/President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief collaboration formed to help scale up HIV services in primary health centers in high-prevalence, resource-constrained settings. It reviews the contents of the Operations Manual developed, with emphasis on the Laboratory Services chapter, which discusses essential laboratory services, both at the center and the district hospital level, laboratory safety, laboratory testing, specimen transport, how to set up a laboratory, human resources, equipment maintenance, training materials, and references. The chapter provides specific information on essential tests and generic job aids for them. It also includes annexes containing a list of laboratory supplies for the health center and sample forms.

Use of intraocular lenses in cataract surgery in developing countries: memorandum from a WHO meeting.

PubMed Central

1991-01-01

Visual loss or disability from cataract represents a massive public health and socioeconomic problem in most developing countries. At present, some 13.5 million cases require treatment and this number will increase, as most countries in the Third World are unable to cope with both the backlog and new cases. Cataract extraction with intraocular lens (IOL) implantation is now the established and preferred method in industrialized countries. The introduction of IOLs in developing countries, however, depends on their having adequately trained manpower and facilities (equipment and supplies, including IOLs) for surgery. This will inevitably increase the cost per operated case which, despite the scarce resources for cataract surgery in many developing countries, may be justified by the improved restoration of the patient's vision. Experience has led to the following generic designs for IOLs: the one-piece or three-piece C-loop polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) posterior chamber lens, which is the current favourite; and, the flexible or rigid one-piece all-PMMA anterior chamber lens, which is a valid alternative in many situations. Further scientific evaluation of the use of these lenses in a wide variety of settings in developing countries is required. Operations research is also needed in order better to define and standardize the various steps and procedures in the surgical and post-operative management of IOL implantation in Third World settings. Meanwhile, the following should be available to ensure safe and good quality cataract surgery using IOLs in developing countries: properly trained surgeons; the needed facilities and equipment with regular supplies; a good quality lens of appropriate design; and the necessary means for careful follow-up of operated patients. PMID:1786616

Play Therapy in Elementary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landreth, Garry L.; Ray, Dee C.; Bratton, Sue C.

2009-01-01

Because the child's world is a world of action and activity, play therapy provides the psychologist in elementary-school settings with an opportunity to enter the child's world. In the play therapy relationship, toys are like the child's words and play is the child's language. Therefore, children play out their problems, experiences, concerns, and…

American High Schools Can Be World Class.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chalker, Donald M.; Haynes, Richard M.; Smith, Mark

1999-01-01

Compares characteristics of high school educational systems from 10 countries with exemplary educational systems. Describes a resulting set of world class standards and observes the acceptance or rejection of these standards in the United States. Discusses world class practices in American high schools. Offers a starter agenda for delivering world…

The Two World Histories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunn, Ross E.

2008-01-01

In the arenas where the two world histories have taken shape, educators vigorously debate among themselves intellectual, pedagogical, and policy issues surrounding world history as a school subject. The people in each arena tend to share, despite internal disagreements, a common set of premises and assumptions for ordering the discussion of world…

Spatial Information Processing: Standards-Based Open Source Visualization Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hogan, P.

2009-12-01

. Spatial information intelligence is a global issue that will increasingly affect our ability to survive as a species. Collectively we must better appreciate the complex relationships that make life on Earth possible. Providing spatial information in its native context can accelerate our ability to process that information. To maximize this ability to process information, three basic elements are required: data delivery (server technology), data access (client technology), and data processing (information intelligence). NASA World Wind provides open source client and server technologies based on open standards. The possibilities for data processing and data sharing are enhanced by this inclusive infrastructure for geographic information. It is interesting that this open source and open standards approach, unfettered by proprietary constraints, simultaneously provides for entirely proprietary use of this same technology. 1. WHY WORLD WIND? NASA World Wind began as a single program with specific functionality, to deliver NASA content. But as the possibilities for virtual globe technology became more apparent, we found that while enabling a new class of information technology, we were also getting in the way. Researchers, developers and even users expressed their desire for World Wind functionality in ways that would service their specific needs. They want it in their web pages. They want to add their own features. They want to manage their own data. They told us that only with this kind of flexibility, could their objectives and the potential for this technology be truly realized. World Wind client technology is a set of development tools, a software development kit (SDK) that allows a software engineer to create applications requiring geographic visualization technology. 2. MODULAR COMPONENTRY Accelerated evolution of a technology requires that the essential elements of that technology be modular components such that each can advance independent of the other elements. World Wind therefore changed its mission from providing a single information browser to enabling a whole class of 3D geographic applications. Instead of creating a single program, World Wind is a suite of components that can be selectively used in any number of programs. World Wind technology can be a part of any application, or it can be a window in a web page. Or it can be extended with additional functionalities by application and web developers. World Wind makes it possible to include virtual globe visualization and server technology in support of any objective. The world community can continually benefit from advances made in the technology by NASA in concert with the world community. 3. OPEN SOURCE AND OPEN STANDARDS NASA World Wind is NASA Open Source software. This means that the source code is fully accessible for anyone to freely use, even in association with proprietary technology. Imagery and other data provided by the World Wind servers reside in the public domain, including the data server technology itself. This allows others to deliver their own geospatial data and to provide custom solutions based on users specific needs.

World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) guidelines for biological treatment of schizophrenia - a short version for primary care.

PubMed

Hasan, Alkomiet; Falkai, Peter; Wobrock, Thomas; Lieberman, Jeffrey; Glenthøj, Birte; Gattaz, Wagner F; Thibaut, Florence; Möller, Hans-Jürgen

2017-06-01

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder and many patients are treated in primary care settings. Apart from the pharmacological management of disease-associated symptoms, the detection and treatment of side effects is of the utmost importance in clinical practice. The purpose of this publication is to offer relevant evidence-based recommendations for the biological treatment of schizophrenia in primary care. This publication is a short and practice-oriented summary of Parts I-III of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) Guidelines for Biological Treatment of Schizophrenia. The recommendations were developed by the authors and consented by a task force of international experts. Guideline recommendations are based on randomized-controlled trials and supplemented with non-randomized trials and meta-analyses where necessary. Antipsychotics of different chemical classes are the first-line pharmacological treatments for schizophrenia. Specific circumstances (e.g., suicidality, depression, substance dependence) may need additional treatment options. The pharmacological and non-pharmacological management of side effects is of crucial importance for the long-term treatment in all settings of the healthcare system. This summary of the three available evidence-based guidelines has the potential to support clinical decisions and can improve treatment of schizophrenia in primary care settings.

Story Time From Space — Astronomy and Astronauts Together in the Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bennett, Jeffrey

2015-08-01

Story Time From Space is an exciting new program in which astronauts aboard the International Space Station combine two key educational activities: (1) reading aloud science-based stories for children and (2) conducting specially built science demonstrations designed to reinforce science lessons from the stories. Both activity types are videotaped, with the videos to be posted freely on the web for access by classrooms (and individuals) around the world. Longer term plans include the creation of downloadable activities to take the lessons further. While the stories tend to focus on elementary ages, the demos are more sophisticated and can be used for middle school, high school, and even college. The first set of five books has been aboard the ISS since January 2014, with readings videotaped so far for all books in English and selected books in German and Japanese; the science demos are scheduled for launch this summer, followed by a second set of books in the fall. The first set of books, written by the presenter, focus heavily on astronomy and space science. In this presentation, I will introduce the program, how it can be used in classrooms around the world, and plans for its future development. The in-progress web site is www.storytimefromspace.com.

Vision based obstacle detection and grouping for helicopter guidance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sridhar, Banavar; Chatterji, Gano

1993-01-01

Electro-optical sensors can be used to compute range to objects in the flight path of a helicopter. The computation is based on the optical flow/motion at different points in the image. The motion algorithms provide a sparse set of ranges to discrete features in the image sequence as a function of azimuth and elevation. For obstacle avoidance guidance and display purposes, these discrete set of ranges, varying from a few hundreds to several thousands, need to be grouped into sets which correspond to objects in the real world. This paper presents a new method for object segmentation based on clustering the sparse range information provided by motion algorithms together with the spatial relation provided by the static image. The range values are initially grouped into clusters based on depth. Subsequently, the clusters are modified by using the K-means algorithm in the inertial horizontal plane and the minimum spanning tree algorithms in the image plane. The object grouping allows interpolation within a group and enables the creation of dense range maps. Researchers in robotics have used densely scanned sequence of laser range images to build three-dimensional representation of the outside world. Thus, modeling techniques developed for dense range images can be extended to sparse range images. The paper presents object segmentation results for a sequence of flight images.

Mobile fiber-optic sensor for detection of oral and cervical cancer in the developing world.

PubMed

Yu, Bing; Nagarajan, Vivek Krishna; Ferris, Daron G

2015-01-01

Oral and cervical cancers are a growing global health problem that disproportionately impacts women and men living in the developing world. The high death rate in developing countries is largely due to the fact that these countries do not have the appropriate medical infrastructure and resources to support the organized screening and diagnostic programs that are available in the developed world. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) with a fiber-optic probe can noninvasively quantify the optical properties of epithelial tissues and has shown the potential as a cost-effective, easy-to-use, and sensitive tool for diagnosis of early precancerous changes in the cervix and oral cavity. However, current fiber-optic DRS systems have not been designed to be robust and reliable for use in developing countries. They are subject to various sources of systematic or random errors, arising from the uncontrolled probe-tissue interface and lack of real-time calibration, use bulky and expensive optical components, and require extensive training. This chapter describes a portable DRS device that is specifically designed for detection of oral and cervical cancers in resource-poor settings. The device uses an innovative smart fiber-optic probe to eliminate operator bias, state-of-the-art photonics components to reduce size and power consumption, and automated software to reduce the need of operator training. The size and cost of the smart fiber-optic DRS system may be further reduced by incorporating a smartphone based spectrometer.

Outstanding Universal Values of the Korean Archipelago Getbol: Its potential for World Heritage Nomination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woo, K. S.; Chun, S. S.; Moon, K. O.

2017-12-01

The `Korean Archipelago Getbol (KAG; Getbol means tidal flat deposits in Korean)' has developed due to the decreasing accommodation space during the Holocene sea-level rise on the broad epicontinental shelf of the southeastern part of the Yellow Sea. Sedimentation and evolution show a variety of quite distinctive tidal flat patterns with intertidal and subtidal drainage systems depending upon the location and orientation of rocky shores. The following KAG`s Outstanding Universal Values are suggested to support the WH: 1) It is the unique coastal sedimentary environment formed by special geological and oceanographic setting in the world. It is the only place in the world where tide-controlled sedimentation processes have produced special tidal flats surrounding numerous rocky islands on a broad epicontinental shelf near convergent tectonic boundary. Macrotidal currents combined with waves and typhoons in this semi-closed oceanographic setting have provided unique geological and oceanographic conditions for their formation. 2) It diplays the most dynamic and complicated, but stable coastal depositional system in the world. Even though the property has been constantly influenced by strong microtidal currents combined with East Asian Monsoon climate (winter erosion and summer deposition) with occasional typhoons during summer, Getbol has maintained its stable depositional system and tidal flat sediments have been accumulated for the past 9,000 years. Sufficient supply of suspended load through Geumgang River provides sustainable depositional system within the property. Complicated island-topography also produced the most complicated and divese depositional systems as well as the deepest tidal channels in the world. (3) The KAG shows the thickest tidal flat sediments protected by numerous islands. Aggradation of tidal sediments has caught up with the rapid Holocene sealevel rise and produced the thickest tidal flat sediments in the world. As a results, numerous former islands of relatively elevated areas have been vanished and hidden. In addition, the KAG shows a complete story of geological, ecological and conservational integrity (the wholeness and intactness). Thus, we strongly believe that the KAG has great potential to be inscribed on a World Heritage List for the criterion (viii).

Classification of functioning and impairment: the development of ICF core sets for autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Bölte, Sven; de Schipper, Elles; Robison, John E; Wong, Virginia C N; Selb, Melissa; Singhal, Nidhi; de Vries, Petrus J; Zwaigenbaum, Lonnie

2014-02-01

Given the variability seen in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), accurate quantification of functioning is vital to studying outcome and quality of life in affected individuals. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a comprehensive, universally accepted framework for the description of health-related functioning. ICF Core Sets are shortlists of ICF categories that are selected to capture those aspects of functioning that are most relevant when describing a person with a specific condition. In this paper, the authors preview the process for developing ICF Core Sets for ASD, a collaboration with the World Health Organization and the ICF Research Branch. The ICF Children and Youth version (ICF-CY) was derived from the ICF and designed to capture the specific situation of the developing child. As ASD affects individuals throughout the life span, and the ICF-CY includes all ICF categories, the ICF-CY will be used in this project ("ICF(-CY)" from now on). The ICF(-CY) categories to be included in the ICF Core Sets for ASD will be determined at an ICF Core Set Consensus Conference, where evidence from four preparatory studies (a systematic review, an expert survey, a patient and caregiver qualitative study, and a clinical cross-sectional study) will be integrated. Comprehensive and Brief ICF Core Sets for ASD will be developed with the goal of providing useful standards for research and clinical practice and generating a common language for functioning and impairment in ASD in different areas of life and across the life span. © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Evaluation about the Performance of E-Government Based on Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set

PubMed Central

Zhang, Shuai; Wang, Yan

2014-01-01

The evaluation is an important approach to promote the development of the E-Government. Since the rapid development of E-Government in the world, the E-Government performance evaluation has become a hot issue in the academia. In this paper, we develop a new evaluation method for the development of the E-Government based on the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy set which is a powerful technique in expressing the uncertainty of the real situation. First, we extend the geometric Heronian mean (GHM) operator to interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy environment and proposed the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy GHM (IIFGHM) operator. Then, we investigate the relationships between the IIFGHM operator and some existing ones, such as generalized interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy HM (GIIFHM) and interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy weighted Bonferoni mean operator. Furthermore, we validate the effectiveness of the proposed method using a real case about the E-Government evaluation in Hangzhou City, China. PMID:24707196

The Child's View of the World: The Origin of Moon, Sun and Stars.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monteiro, M. T. de Lima; And Others

A study evaluated the world view of children from a third world low-income family setting. A secondary aim of the study was to see if the developmental stages of world concept formation, first described by Piaget in 1929, were present in the children studied. Ten 5- to 12-year-old Brazilian children were interviewed concerning the origins of the…

Teaching Poetry in TESOL Teacher Education: Heightened Attention to Language as Well as to Cultural and Political Critique through Poetry Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cahnmann-Taylor, Melisa; Bleyle, Susan; Hwang, Yohan; Zhang, Kuo

2017-01-01

Teachers of World English are no longer charged with teaching a fixed set of grammar rules and lexical choices but with teaching creative ways to navigate varieties of English and other world languages according to a wide set of contextual variables. Although there is a great deal of advocacy for teaching creativity and strategy in TESOL…

Including patients in core outcome set development: issues to consider based on three workshops with around 100 international delegates.

PubMed

Young, Bridget; Bagley, Heather

2016-01-01

This commentary article describes three interactive workshops that explored how patients can contribute to decisions about what outcomes are measured in clinical trials across the world. Outcomes like quality of life, side-effects and pain are used in trials to measure whether a treatment is effective. Here, we outline how research groups are increasingly coming together to develop 'core outcomes sets' for particular conditions. Core outcome sets are lists of agreed outcomes. Their use will help in identifying which treatments are effective by enabling people to compare the findings of different clinical trials in the same condition. Currently, it is often very difficult to make these comparisons because different studies often measure different outcomes. Delegates attending the workshops included patients, clinicians and researchers. They discussed ways of making core outcome set development more meaningful and accessible for patients, and ensuring that they have a genuine say in the development process. This article summarises these discussions and concludes by identifying three distinctive challenges in securing patient input to core outcome set development: the process and objectives can seem far removed from the immediate concerns of patients, difficulties can arise in securing patient input on an international scale, and difficulties can also arise in bringing multiple stakeholder groups together to achieve consensus. While patient participation, involvement and engagement in core outcome set development can draw on lessons from other research areas, these distinctive challenges point to the need for distinctive solutions to enable meaningful patient input to core outcome set development. Background This article describes three workshops that explored how patients can contribute to decisions about what outcomes are measured in clinical trials. People need evidence about what treatments are best for particular health conditions. The strongest evidence comes from systematic reviews comparing outcomes across different studies of treatments for a particular condition. However, it is often difficult to do these comparisons because the different studies-even though they have all investigated the same condition-often measure different outcomes. To tackle this problem, research teams are increasingly coming together to develop core outcome sets (COS) for particular conditions or treatments. The goal is that across the world, all the research teams working on the same condition or treatment will then use the COS in their research. Main body We report on three interactive workshops that explored how patients and the public can contribute to decision making about what outcomes should be included in a COS. About 100 international delegates, including researchers, clinicians and patients, attended the workshops. The workshops were held in the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada as part of the COMET (Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials) Initiative annual meetings. Patients who had some experience as research advisors, collaborators, partners or co-ordinators facilitated the workshops together with a researcher. Notes made during each workshop informed the preparation of this article. Workshop discussion focussed on ways of making core outcome set development more meaningful and accessible for patients. Delegates wanted patients to have a genuine say, alongside other stakeholders, in what outcomes are included in COS. Delegates felt that key to ensuring this is recognising that patient participation in COS development alone is not enough, and that patients will also need to be involved in the design of COS development studies. Conclusion We conclude by pointing to some distinctive challenges in including patients in COS development. While the COS development community can draw on the lessons learnt from other research areas about patient participation, involvement and engagement, the distinctive challenges that arise in COS development point to the need for some distinctive solutions too.

Supervised toothbrushing programs in primary schools and early childhood settings: A scoping review.

PubMed

Dickson-Swift, V; Kenny, A; Gussy, M; de Silva, A M; Farmer, J; Bracksley-O'Grady, S

2017-12-01

In this article we report the findings of a scoping review that aimed to identify and summarise the range of programs and guidelines available for toothbrushing programs in schools and early childhood settings. Dental caries is one of the most common preventable diseases affecting children worldwide. Untreated caries can impact on child health and wellbeing, development, socialisation and school attendance. Supervised toothbrushing programs in schools and other early childhood settings can be effective in improving the oral health of young children. There is limited understanding of the salient issues to consider when developing such programs or how they are best implemented in real world settings. A scoping review methodology was utilised to provide a summary of the guidelines and programs available. Key search terms were developed, mapped and utilised to identify guidelines and programs across 6 databases and key search engines. We located 26 programs and guidelines that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the review. These were collated and summarised across key countries and critical aspects of program development and implementation were identified. Toothbrush type and storage, toothpaste strength and method of dispensing, toothbrush storage, staff training and parental consent are key considerations that varied widely. Guidelines for supervised toothbrushing programs vary within and across countries due to differences in water fluoridation and availability of low fluoride toothpastes. The results of this review provide critical information to be considered when establishing and implementing toothbrushing programs in these settings. Copyright© 2017 Dennis Barber Ltd.

The United Nations and One Health: the International Health Regulations (2005) and global health security.

PubMed

Nuttall, I; Miyagishima, K; Roth, C; de La Rocque, S

2014-08-01

The One Health approach encompasses multiple themes and can be understood from many different perspectives. This paper expresses the viewpoint of those in charge of responding to public health events of international concern and, in particular, to outbreaks of zoonotic disease. Several international organisations are involved in responding to such outbreaks, including the United Nations (UN) and its technical agencies; principally, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO); UN funds and programmes, such as the United Nations Development Programme, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund; the UN-linked multilateral banking system (the World Bank and regional development banks); and partner organisations, such as the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). All of these organisations have benefited from the experiences gained during zoonotic disease outbreaks over the last decade, developing common approaches and mechanisms to foster good governance, promote policies that cut across different sectors, target investment more effectively and strengthen global and national capacities for dealing with emerging crises. Coordination among the various UN agencies and creating partnerships with related organisations have helped to improve disease surveillance in all countries, enabling more efficient detection of disease outbreaks and a faster response, greater transparency and stakeholder engagement and improved public health. The need to build more robust national public human and animal health systems, which are based on good governance and comply with the International Health Regulations (2005) and the international standards set by the OIE, prompted FAO, WHO and the OIE to join forces with the World Bank, to provide practical tools to help countries manage their zoonotic disease risks and develop adequate resources to prevent and control disease outbreaks, particularly at the animal source. All these efforts contribute to the One Health agenda.

The Agriculture Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosenzweig, C.

2010-12-01

The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) is a distributed climate-scenario simulation exercise for historical model intercomparison and future climate change conditions with participation of multiple crop and world agricultural trade modeling groups around the world. The goals of AgMIP are to improve substantially the characterization of risk of hunger and world food security due to climate change and to enhance adaptation capacity in both developing and developed countries. Historical period results will spur model improvement and interaction among major modeling groups, while future period results will lead directly to tests of adaptation and mitigation strategies across a range of scales. AgMIP will consist of a multi-scale impact assessment utilizing the latest methods for climate and agricultural scenario generation. Scenarios and modeling protocols will be distributed on the web, and multi-model results will be collated and analyzed to ensure the widest possible coverage of agricultural crops and regions. AgMIP will place regional changes in agricultural production in a global context that reflects new trading opportunities, imbalances, and shortages in world markets resulting from climate change and other driving forces for food supply. Such projections are essential inputs from the Vulnerability, Impacts, and Adaptation (VIA) research community to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment (AR5), now underway, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. They will set the context for local-scale vulnerability and adaptation studies, supply test scenarios for national-scale development of trade policy instruments, provide critical information on changing supply and demand for water resources, and elucidate interactive effects of climate change and land use change. AgMIP will not only provide crucially-needed new global estimates of how climate change will affect food supply and hunger in the agricultural regions of the world, but it will also build the capabilities of developing countries to estimate how climate change will affect their supply and demand for food.

Examination of Anomalous World Experience: A Report on Reliability.

PubMed

Conerty, Joseph; Skodlar, Borut; Pienkos, Elizabeth; Zadravek, Tina; Byrom, Greg; Sass, Louis

2017-01-01

The EAWE (Examination of Anomalous World Experience) is a newly developed, semi-structured interview that aims to capture anomalies of subjectivity, common in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, that pertain to experiences of the lived world, including space, time, people, language, atmosphere, and certain existential attitudes. By contrast, previous empirical studies of subjective experience in schizophrenia have focused largely on disturbances in self-experience. To assess the reliability of the EAWE, including internal consistency and interrater reliability. In the course of developing the EAWE, two distinct studies were conducted, one in the United States and the other in Slovenia. Thirteen patients diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum or mood disorders were recruited for the US study. Fifteen such patients were recruited for the Slovenian study. Two live interviewers conducted the EAWE in the US. The Slovenian interviews were completed by one live interviewer with a second rater reviewing audiorecordings of the interview. Internal consistency and interrater reliability were calculated independently for each study, utilizing Cronbach's α, Spearman's ρ, and Cohen's κ. Each study yielded high internal consistency (Cronbach's α >0.82) and high interrater reliability for total EAWE scores (ρ > 0.83; average κ values were at least 0.78 for each study, with EAWE domain-specific κ not lower than 0.73). The EAWE, containing world-oriented inquiries into anomalies in subjective experience, has adequate reliability for use in a clinical or research setting. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Understanding Is Key: An Analysis of Factors Pertaining to Trust in a Real-World Automation System.

PubMed

Balfe, Nora; Sharples, Sarah; Wilson, John R

2018-06-01

This paper aims to explore the role of factors pertaining to trust in real-world automation systems through the application of observational methods in a case study from the railway sector. Trust in automation is widely acknowledged as an important mediator of automation use, but the majority of the research on automation trust is based on laboratory work. In contrast, this work explored trust in a real-world setting. Experienced rail operators in four signaling centers were observed for 90 min, and their activities were coded into five mutually exclusive categories. Their observed activities were analyzed in relation to their reported trust levels, collected via a questionnaire. The results showed clear differences in activity, even when circumstances on the workstations were very similar, and significant differences in some trust dimensions were found between groups exhibiting different levels of intervention and time not involved with signaling. Although the empirical, lab-based studies in the literature have consistently found that reliability and competence of the automation are the most important aspects of trust development, understanding of the automation emerged as the strongest dimension in this study. The implications are that development and maintenance of trust in real-world, safety-critical automation systems may be distinct from artificial laboratory automation. The findings have important implications for emerging automation concepts in diverse industries including highly automated vehicles and Internet of things.

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

Valin, Hugo; Sands, Ronald; van der Mensbrugghe, Dominique

Understanding the capacity of agricultural systems to feed the world population under climate change requires a good prospective vision on the future development of food demand. This paper reviews modeling approaches from ten global economic models participating to the AgMIP project, in particular the demand function chosen and the set of parameters used. We compare food demand projections at the horizon 2050 for various regions and agricultural products under harmonized scenarios. Depending on models, we find for a business as usual scenario (SSP2) an increase in food demand of 59-98% by 2050, slightly higher than FAO projection (54%). The prospectivemore » for animal calories is particularly uncertain with a range of 61-144%, whereas FAO anticipates an increase by 76%. The projections reveal more sensitive to socio-economic assumptions than to climate change conditions or bioenergy development. When considering a higher population lower economic growth world (SSP3), consumption per capita drops by 9% for crops and 18% for livestock. Various assumptions on climate change in this exercise do not lead to world calorie losses greater than 6%. Divergences across models are however notable, due to differences in demand system, income elasticities specification, and response to price change in the baseline.« less

The gender gap in mobility: a global cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Mechakra-Tahiri, Samia Djemâa; Freeman, Ellen E; Haddad, Slim; Samson, Elodie; Zunzunegui, Maria Victoria

2012-08-02

Several studies have demonstrated that women have greater mobility disability than men. The goals of this research were: 1) to assess the gender gap in mobility difficulty in 70 countries; 2) to determine whether the gender gap is explained by sociodemographic and health factors; 3) to determine whether the gender gap differs across 6 regions of the world with different degrees of gender equality according to United Nations data. Population-based data were used from the World Health Survey (WHS) conducted in 70 countries throughout the world. 276,647 adults aged 18 years and over were recruited from 6 world regions. Mobility was measured by asking the level of difficulty people had moving around in the last 30 days and then creating a dichotomous measure (no difficulty, difficulty). The human development index and the gender-related development index for each country were obtained from the United Nations Development Program website. Poisson regression with Taylor series linearized variance estimation was used. Women were more likely than men to report mobility difficulty (38% versus 27%, P < 0.0001). The age-adjusted prevalence rate ratio for female gender was 1.35 (95% CI 1.31-1.38). The addition of education, marital status, and urban versus rural setting reduced the prevalence rate ratio to 1.30 (95% CI 1.26-1.33). The addition of the presence of back pain, arthritis, angina, depressive symptoms, and cognitive difficulties further reduced the prevalence rate ratio to 1.12 (95% CI 1.09-1.15). There was statistical interaction on the multiplicative scale between female gender and region (P < 0.01). The Eastern Mediterranean region, which had the greatest loss of human development due to gender inequality, showed the largest gender gap in mobility difficulty, while the Western Pacific region, with the smallest loss of human development due to gender inequality, had the smallest gender gap in mobility difficulty. These are the first world-wide data to examine the gender gap in mobility. Differences in chronic diseases are the main reasons for this gender gap. The gender gap seems to be greater in regions with the largest loss of human development due to gender inequality.

'Wasteaware' benchmark indicators for integrated sustainable waste management in cities.

PubMed

Wilson, David C; Rodic, Ljiljana; Cowing, Michael J; Velis, Costas A; Whiteman, Andrew D; Scheinberg, Anne; Vilches, Recaredo; Masterson, Darragh; Stretz, Joachim; Oelz, Barbara

2015-01-01

This paper addresses a major problem in international solid waste management, which is twofold: a lack of data, and a lack of consistent data to allow comparison between cities. The paper presents an indicator set for integrated sustainable waste management (ISWM) in cities both North and South, to allow benchmarking of a city's performance, comparing cities and monitoring developments over time. It builds on pioneering work for UN-Habitat's solid waste management in the World's cities. The comprehensive analytical framework of a city's solid waste management system is divided into two overlapping 'triangles' - one comprising the three physical components, i.e. collection, recycling, and disposal, and the other comprising three governance aspects, i.e. inclusivity; financial sustainability; and sound institutions and proactive policies. The indicator set includes essential quantitative indicators as well as qualitative composite indicators. This updated and revised 'Wasteaware' set of ISWM benchmark indicators is the cumulative result of testing various prototypes in more than 50 cities around the world. This experience confirms the utility of indicators in allowing comprehensive performance measurement and comparison of both 'hard' physical components and 'soft' governance aspects; and in prioritising 'next steps' in developing a city's solid waste management system, by identifying both local strengths that can be built on and weak points to be addressed. The Wasteaware ISWM indicators are applicable to a broad range of cities with very different levels of income and solid waste management practices. Their wide application as a standard methodology will help to fill the historical data gap. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Developing global indicators for quality of maternal and newborn care: a feasibility assessment

PubMed Central

Smith, Helen; Mathai, Matthews; Roos, Nathalie; van den Broek, Nynke

2017-01-01

Abstract Objective To assess the feasibility of applying the World Health Organization’s proposed 15 indicators of quality of care for maternal and newborn health at health-facility level in low- and middle-income settings. Methods Six of the indicators are about maternal health, five are for newborn health and four are general cross-cutting indicators. We used data collected routinely in facility registers and obtained as part of facility assessments from 963 health-care facilities specializing in maternity services in 10 countries in Africa and Asia. We made a feasibility assessment of the availability of data and the clarity of indicator definitions and identified additional information and data collection processes needed to apply the proposed indicators in real-life settings. Findings Of the indicators evaluated, 10 were clearly defined, of which four could be applied directly in the field and six would require revisions to operationalize them. The other five indicators require further development, with one of them being ready for implementation by using information readily available in registers and four requiring further information before deployment. For indicators that measure coverage of care or availability of services or products, there is a need to further strengthen measurement. Information on emergency obstetric complications was not recorded in a standard manner, thus limiting the reliability of the information. Conclusion While some of the proposed indicators can already be applied, other indicators need to be refined or will need additional sources and methods of data collection to be applied in real-world settings. PMID:28603311

Specification of parameters for development of a spatial database for drought monitoring and famine early warning in the African Sahel

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rochon, Gilbert L.

1989-01-01

Parameters were described for spatial database to facilitate drought monitoring and famine early warning in the African Sahel. The proposed system, referred to as the African Drought and Famine Information System (ADFIS) is ultimately recommended for implementation with the NASA/FEMA Spatial Analysis and Modeling System (SAMS), a GIS/Dymanic Modeling software package, currently under development. SAMS is derived from FEMA'S Integration Emergency Management Information System (IEMIS) and the Pacific Northwest Laborotory's/Engineering Topographic Laboratory's Airland Battlefield Environment (ALBE) GIS. SAMS is primarily intended for disaster planning and resource management applications with the developing countries. Sources of data for the system would include the Developing Economics Branch of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, the World Bank, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine's Famine Early Warning Systems (FEWS) Project, the USAID's Foreign Disaster Assistance Section, the World Resources Institute, the World Meterological Institute, the USGS, the UNFAO, UNICEF, and the United Nations Disaster Relief Organization (UNDRO). Satellite imagery would include decadal AVHRR imagery and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values from 1981 to the present for the African continent and selected Landsat scenes for the Sudan pilot study. The system is initially conceived for the MicroVAX 2/GPX, running VMS. To facilitate comparative analysis, a global time-series database (1950 to 1987) is included for a basic set of 125 socio-economic variables per country per year. A more detailed database for the Sahelian countries includes soil type, water resources, agricultural production, agricultural import and export, food aid, and consumption. A pilot dataset for the Sudan with over 2,500 variables from the World Bank's ANDREX system, also includes epidemiological data on incidence of kwashiorkor, marasmus, other nutritional deficiencies, and synergistically-related infectious diseases.

Hearing loss in the developing world: evaluating the iPhone mobile device as a screening tool.

PubMed

Peer, S; Fagan, J J

2015-01-01

Developing countries have the world's highest prevalence of hearing loss, and hearing screening programmes are scarce. Mobile devices such as smartphones have potential for audiometric testing. To evaluate the uHear app using an Apple iPhone as a possible hearing screening tool in the developing world, and to determine accuracy of certain hearing thresholds that could prove useful in early detection of hearing loss for high-risk populations in resource-poor communities. This was a quasi-experimental study design. Participants recruited from the Otolaryngology Clinic, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, completed a uHear test in three settings--waiting room (WR), quiet roon (QR) and soundproof room (SR). Thresholds were compared with formal audiograms. Twenty-five patients were tested (50 ears). The uHear test detected moderate or worse hearing loss (pure-tone average (PTA) > 40 dB accurately with a sensitivity of 100% in all three environments. Specificity was 88% (SR), 73% (QR) and 68% (WR). Its was highly accurate in detecting high-frequency hearing loss (2 000, 4 000, 6 000 Hz) in the QR and SR with 'good' and 'very good' kappa values, showing statistical significance (p < 0.05). It was moderately accurate in low-frequency hearing loss (250, 500, 1 000 Hz) in the SR, and poor in the QR and WR. Using the iPhone, uHear is a feasible screening test to rule out significant hearing loss (PTA > 40 dB). It is highly sensitive for detecting threshold changes at high frequencies, making it reasonably well suited to detect presbycusis and ototoxic hearing loss from HIV, tuberculosis therapy and chemotherapy. Portability and ease of use make it appropriate to use in developing world communities that lack screening programmes.

Development of the International Spinal Cord Injury Activities and Participation Basic Data Set.

PubMed

Post, M W; Charlifue, S; Biering-Sørensen, F; Catz, A; Dijkers, M P; Horsewell, J; Noonan, V K; Noreau, L; Tate, D G; Sinnott, K A

2016-07-01

Consensus decision-making process. The objective of this study was to develop an International Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Activities and Participation (A&P) Basic Data Set. International working group. A committee of experts was established to select and define A&P data elements to be included in this data set. A draft data set was developed and posted on the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS) and American Spinal Injury Association websites and was also disseminated among appropriate organizations for review. Suggested revisions were considered, and a final version of the A&P Data Set was completed. Consensus was reached to define A&P and to incorporate both performance and satisfaction ratings. Items that were considered core to each A&P domain were selected from two existing questionnaires. Four items measuring activities were selected from the Spinal Cord Independence Measure III to provide basic data on task execution in activities of daily living. Eight items were selected from the Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique to provide basic data on the frequency of participation. An additional rating of satisfaction on a three-point scale for each item completes the total of 24 A&P variables. Collection of the International SCI A&P Basic Data Set variables in all future research on SCI outcomes is advised to facilitate comparison of results across published studies from around the world. Additional standardised instruments to assess activities of daily living or participation can be administered, depending on the purpose of a particular study.

Mental Footnotes. Knowledge Constructivism From Logical Thinking and Personal Beliefs to Social Rationality and Spiritual Freedom.

PubMed

Vilchez, Jose Luis

2018-03-10

Cognition is an efficient but limited system that deals with mundane tasks. Daily life demands the system to save energy in order to be able to solve other more relevant tasks. Reasoning out every single problem would immeasurably increase our mental load and fatigue. Our minds avoid this waste of resources by taking shortcuts when reasoning. Outputs from previous episodes of reasoning turn into pieces of implicit information. These outputs go on to constitute the meanings that we give to things or circumstances, which in turn become the general framework where other reasonings occur. These implicit meanings determine the manner in which we represent our social environment and, therefore, our emotions and behaviors. These "mental footnotes" set the way in which we contemplate and conceive the world and deal with reality. World order capitalizes on the mechanisms of the mind to control and guide humanity. The better we understand these processes, the better we can control and restructure them. Academic psychology often ignores the power of the discipline to set humankind free from those meanings that restrict spiritual and human development.

Global Health Initiatives of the International Oncology Community.

PubMed

Al-Sukhun, Sana; de Lima Lopes, Gilberto; Gospodarowicz, Mary; Ginsburg, Ophira; Yu, Peter Paul

2017-01-01

Cancer has become one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where 60% of the world's total new cases are diagnosed. The challenge for effective control of cancer is multifaceted. It mandates integration of effective cancer prevention, encouraging early detection, and utilization of resource-adapted therapeutic and supportive interventions. In the resource-constrained setting, it becomes challenging to deliver each service optimally, and efficient allocation of resources is the best way to improve the outcome. This concept was translated into action through development of resource-stratified guidelines, pioneered by the Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI), and later adopted by most oncology societies in an attempt to help physicians deliver the best possible care in a limited-resource setting. Improving outcome entails collaboration between key stakeholders, including the pharmaceutical industry, local and national health authorities, the World Health Organization (WHO), and other nonprofit, patient-oriented organizations. Therefore, we started to observe global health initiatives-led by ASCO, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), and the WHO-to address these challenges at the international level. This article discusses some of these initiatives.

Index-based groundwater vulnerability mapping models using hydrogeological settings: A critical evaluation

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

Kumar, Prashant, E-mail: prashantkumar@csio.res.in; Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research—CSIO, Chandigarh 160030; Bansod, Baban K.S.

2015-02-15

Groundwater vulnerability maps are useful for decision making in land use planning and water resource management. This paper reviews the various groundwater vulnerability assessment models developed across the world. Each model has been evaluated in terms of its pros and cons and the environmental conditions of its application. The paper further discusses the validation techniques used for the generated vulnerability maps by various models. Implicit challenges associated with the development of the groundwater vulnerability assessment models have also been identified with scientific considerations to the parameter relations and their selections. - Highlights: • Various index-based groundwater vulnerability assessment models havemore » been discussed. • A comparative analysis of the models and its applicability in different hydrogeological settings has been discussed. • Research problems of underlying vulnerability assessment models are also reported in this review paper.« less

Examining relational empowerment for elementary school students in a yPAR program.

PubMed

Langhout, Regina Day; Collins, Charles; Ellison, Erin Rose

2014-06-01

This paper joins relational empowerment, youth empowerment, and Bridging Multiple Worlds frameworks to examine forms of relational empowerment for children in two intermediary institutions-school and a youth participatory action research after-school program (yPAR ASP). Participants were twelve children, most of whom were Latina/o and from im/migrant families, enrolled in a yPAR ASP for 2 years. A mixed-method approach was utilized; we analyzed children's interviews, self-defined goals, and their social networks to examine their experiences of relational empowerment. We conclude that children experienced each of the five relational empowerment factors-collaborative competence, bridging social divisions, facilitating others' empowerment, mobilizing networks, and passing on a legacy-in the yPAR ASP setting, and some factors in school. These experiences, however, were more pronounced in the yPAR ASP setting. Additionally, social network analyses revealed that a small but meaningful percentage of actors bridged worlds, especially home and family, but by year 2, also school and the yPAR ASP. Finally, most helpers for school-based goals came from school, but a sizable number came from family, friends, and home worlds, and by year 2, also came from the yPAR ASP. Implications range from theoretical to methodological development, including the use of social network analysis as a tool to descriptively examine relational power in context.

Effects of eliminating psychiatric rehabilitation from the secure levels of a mental-health service system.

PubMed

Tarasenko, Melissa; Sullivan, Mary; Ritchie, A Jocelyn; Spaulding, William D

2013-11-01

Psychiatric rehabilitation (PR) is widely recognized as a treatment approach and an array of evidence-based practices effective for promoting the recovery of people with serious mental illness (SMI). However, its use in institutional settings is not widespread for unclear reasons. Policymakers may sometimes believe the superiority of PR in controlled research does not apply in the real world, for various reasons. This study exploits an unusual set of real-world circumstances surrounding the closure of a well-developed PR program in a state hospital. The program was closed after a period of mental-health services reform that significantly augmented the surrounding community-service system. The PR program was converted to conventional medical-institutional model-treatment units with no reduction in beds or funding within the state hospital. A database composed of public documents was used to analyze the consequences of the closing. Within the institution, the consequences included a persistent presence of long-term difficult-to-discharge patients, a slowed discharge rate, a net increase in the hospital's per capita treatment costs, and higher use of restraint/seclusion. Effects were also detectable in the surrounding mental-health service system, including degraded outcome of community-based step-down services and increased pressure on emergency/crisis services. The consequences of closing the program are consistent with expectations based on research, and demonstrate danger in assuming that real world exigencies obviate research findings.

[Conceptual Development in Cognitive Science. Part II].

PubMed

Fierro, Marco

2012-03-01

Cognitive science has become the most influential paradigm on mental health in the late 20(th) and the early 21(st) centuries. In few years, the concepts, problem approaches and solutions proper to this science have significantly changed. Introduction and discussion of the fundamental concepts of cognitive science divided in four stages: Start, Classic Cognitivism, Connectionism, and Embodying / Enacting. The 2(nd) Part of the paper discusses the above mentioned fourth stage and explores the clinical setting, especially in terms of cognitive psychotherapy. The embodying/enacting stage highlights the role of the body including a set of determined evolutionary movements which provide a way of thinking and exploring the world. The performance of cognitive tasks is considered as a process that uses environmental resources that enhances mental skills and deploys them beyond the domestic sphere of the brain. On the other hand, body and mind are embedded in the world, thus giving rise to cognition when interacting, a process known as enacting. There is a close connection between perception and action, hence the interest in real-time interactions with the world rather than abstract reasoning. Regarding clinics, specifically the cognitive therapy, there is little conceptual discussion maybe due to good results from practice that may led us to consider that theoretical foundations are firm and not problem-raising. Copyright © 2012 Asociación Colombiana de Psiquiatría. Publicado por Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

The real-world problem of care coordination: a longitudinal qualitative study with patients living with advanced progressive illness and their unpaid caregivers.

PubMed

Daveson, Barbara A; Harding, Richard; Shipman, Cathy; Mason, Bruce L; Epiphaniou, Eleni; Higginson, Irene J; Ellis-Smith, Clare; Henson, Lesley; Munday, Dan; Nanton, Veronica; Dale, Jeremy R; Boyd, Kirsty; Worth, Allison; Barclay, Stephen; Donaldson, Anne; Murray, Scott

2014-01-01

To develop a model of care coordination for patients living with advanced progressive illness and their unpaid caregivers, and to understand their perspective regarding care coordination. A prospective longitudinal, multi-perspective qualitative study involving a case-study approach. Serial in-depth interviews were conducted, transcribed verbatim and then analyzed through open and axial coding in order to construct categories for three cases (sites). This was followed by continued thematic analysis to identify underlying conceptual coherence across all cases in order to produce one coherent care coordination model. Fifty-six purposively sampled patients and 27 case-linked unpaid caregivers. Three cases from contrasting primary, secondary and tertiary settings within Britain. Coordination is a deliberate cross-cutting action that involves high-quality, caring and well-informed staff, patients and unpaid caregivers who must work in partnership together across health and social care settings. For coordination to occur, it must be adequately resourced with efficient systems and services that communicate. Patients and unpaid caregivers contribute substantially to the coordination of their care, which is sometimes volunteered at a personal cost to them. Coordination is facilitated through flexible and patient-centered care, characterized by accurate and timely information communicated in a way that considers patients' and caregivers' needs, preferences, circumstances and abilities. Within the midst of advanced progressive illness, coordination is a shared and complex intervention involving relational, structural and information components. Our study is one of the first to extensively examine patients' and caregivers' views about coordination, thus aiding conceptual fidelity. These findings can be used to help avoid oversimplifying a real-world problem, such as care coordination. Avoiding oversimplification can help with the development, evaluation and implementation of real-world coordination interventions for patients and their unpaid caregivers in the future.

Science of Nowcasting Olympic Weather for Vancouver 2010 (SNOW-V10): a World Weather Research Programme Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isaac, G. A.; Joe, P. I.; Mailhot, J.; Bailey, M.; Bélair, S.; Boudala, F. S.; Brugman, M.; Campos, E.; Carpenter, R. L.; Crawford, R. W.; Cober, S. G.; Denis, B.; Doyle, C.; Reeves, H. D.; Gultepe, I.; Haiden, T.; Heckman, I.; Huang, L. X.; Milbrandt, J. A.; Mo, R.; Rasmussen, R. M.; Smith, T.; Stewart, R. E.; Wang, D.; Wilson, L. J.

2014-01-01

A World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) project entitled the Science of Nowcasting Olympic Weather for Vancouver 2010 (SNOW-V10) was developed to be associated with the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games conducted between 12 February and 21 March 2010. The SNOW-V10 international team augmented the instrumentation associated with the Winter Games and several new numerical weather forecasting and nowcasting models were added. Both the additional observational and model data were available to the forecasters in real time. This was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate existing capability in nowcasting and to develop better techniques for short term (0-6 h) nowcasts of winter weather in complex terrain. Better techniques to forecast visibility, low cloud, wind gusts, precipitation rate and type were evaluated. The weather during the games was exceptionally variable with many periods of low visibility, low ceilings and precipitation in the form of both snow and rain. The data collected should improve our understanding of many physical phenomena such as the diabatic effects due to melting snow, wind flow around and over terrain, diurnal flow reversal in valleys associated with daytime heating, and precipitation reductions and increases due to local terrain. Many studies related to these phenomena are described in the Special Issue on SNOW-V10 for which this paper was written. Numerical weather prediction and nowcast models have been evaluated against the unique observational data set now available. It is anticipated that the data set and the knowledge learned as a result of SNOW-V10 will become a resource for other World Meteorological Organization member states who are interested in improving forecasts of winter weather.

Evaluation of Government Quality Assurance Oversight for DoD Acquisition Programs

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-11-03

W. Edwards Deming , Joseph M. Juran,” July 1992, the Aerospace Standard (AS) 9100, and an industrially recognized quality management handbook... Deming , Joseph M. Juran,” July 1992, and Juran’s Quality Handbook (5th Edition). The Navy TQLO publication summarizes the best practices developed by...world renowned quality management experts who have set quality management best practices for more than 50 years ; Philip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming , and

Analyzing the Effects of the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-01

otherwise, an ICD is developed. The ICD is the first key document that JCIDS contributes to the acquisition system. This document feeds into the MSA...WSARA is the initiator of bottom-line change, if not the catalyst for changes that occur. . The bottom line in the corporate world is profit. For a...combat engineering, force sustainment, petroleum and water, sets, kits, outfits and tools, test 22 measurement and diagnostic equipment, and

Sri Lanka-Canada School Library & Information Services Program Components: A School Library Study Tour (Lower Fraser Valley Mainland, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, September 22-October 3, 2001). Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Gerald R., Ed.

The Government of Sri Lanka entered in an agreement with IDA (International Development Association) (World Bank) to undertake the implementation of a set of reforms recommended by a number of study panels appointed for this purpose. These recommendations were classified under eight components and the General Education Project II (GEP II) was…

Stoicism and Civic Duty. Grade 7 Model Lesson for Standard 7.1. World History and Geography: Medieval and Early Modern Times. California History-Social Science Course Models.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zachlod, Michelle, Ed.

California State Standard 7.1 is delineated in the following manner: "Students analyze the causes and effects of the vast expansion and ultimate disintegration of the Roman Empire." One important legacy of ancient Rome is the foundation it set for the development of modern democracies. The Roman Stoics built upon the Greek Stoic model by…

Toward natural selection in virtual reality.

PubMed

Sherstyuk, Andrei; Vincent, Dale; Treskunov, Anton

2010-01-01

Here we describe a vision of VR games that combine the best features of gaming and VR: large, persistent worlds experienced in photorealistic settings with full immersion. For example, Figure 1 illustrates a hypothetical immersive VR game that could be developed using current technologies, including real-time, cinematic-quality graphics; a panoramic head-mounted display (HMD); and wide-area tracking. We also examine the gap between available VR and gaming technologies, and offer solutions for bridging it.

Korean Affairs Report.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-05-29

been caught by the fascist jackals ’ atrocious tentacle are not safe. In particular» it is common practice in South Korea that those who live justly are...a golden market with an extraordinary growth rate. The bold development of our country’s semiconductor industry is predicated on the realization...million sets during the coming 12 months. According to industry sources on the 27th, the world VTR market is a golden market, with yearly sales of

Towards Gender Equality in Basic Education: Major Challenges in Meeting Dakar EFA Goals. Regional Seminar in Asia (Kyoto, Japan, November 28-30, 2001).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Bangkok (Thailand). Regional Office for Education in Asia and the Pacific.

A regional UNESCO seminar aimed to follow up on the goals set at the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000 and to contribute to the "Ten Year UN Girls' Education Initiative" (UNGEI). The seminar established three primary aims: (1) to develop a regional cooperation mechanism or network of Education for All (EFA) gender focal points, to…

Multi-criteria decision analysis of breast cancer control in low- and middle- income countries: development of a rating tool for policy makers.

PubMed

Venhorst, Kristie; Zelle, Sten G; Tromp, Noor; Lauer, Jeremy A

2014-01-01

The objective of this study was to develop a rating tool for policy makers to prioritize breast cancer interventions in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs), based on a simple multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach. The definition and identification of criteria play a key role in MCDA, and our rating tool could be used as part of a broader priority setting exercise in a local setting. This tool may contribute to a more transparent priority-setting process and fairer decision-making in future breast cancer policy development. First, an expert panel (n = 5) discussed key considerations for tool development. A literature review followed to inventory all relevant criteria and construct an initial set of criteria. A Delphi study was then performed and questionnaires used to discuss a final list of criteria with clear definitions and potential scoring scales. For this Delphi study, multiple breast cancer policy and priority-setting experts from different LMICs were selected and invited by the World Health Organization. Fifteen international experts participated in all three Delphi rounds to assess and evaluate each criterion. This study resulted in a preliminary rating tool for assessing breast cancer interventions in LMICs. The tool consists of 10 carefully crafted criteria (effectiveness, quality of the evidence, magnitude of individual health impact, acceptability, cost-effectiveness, technical complexity, affordability, safety, geographical coverage, and accessibility), with clear definitions and potential scoring scales. This study describes the development of a rating tool to assess breast cancer interventions in LMICs. Our tool can offer supporting knowledge for the use or development of rating tools as part of a broader (MCDA based) priority setting exercise in local settings. Further steps for improving the tool are proposed and should lead to its useful adoption in LMICs.

An Analysis of a Video Game

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allain, Rhett; Williams, Richard

2009-02-01

Suppose we had a brand new world to study—a world that possibly works with a different set of principles, a non-Newtonian world. Maybe this world is Newtonian, maybe it isn't. This world exists in video games, and it is open for exploration. Most video games try to incorporate realistic physics, but sometimes this does not happen. The obvious approach is to look at the source code for the game, but this would not allow students to apply analysis techniques.

Targeted therapies and adverse drug reactions in oncology: the role of clinical pharmacist in pharmacovigilance.

PubMed

Fornasier, G; Taborelli, M; Francescon, S; Polesel, J; Aliberti, M; De Paoli, P; Baldo, P

2018-05-21

Background The majority of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reported in the summary of product characteristics (SPCs) are based on pivotal clinical trials, performed under controlled conditions and with selected patients. Objectives (1) to observe ADRs in the real-world setting and to evaluate if the supervision of the pharmacist impacts on the management of ADRs and on the satisfaction of patients; (2) to sensitise health professionals and patients on the need to increase the reporting of ADRs, in compliance with Pharmacovigilance. Setting CRO Aviano, Italian National Cancer Institute. Method From February 2013 to April 2015, we conducted an observational study enrolling 154 patients (≥ 18 years) undergoing treatment with at least one of ten targeted-therapies included in the study. Main outcome ADR reporting in the real-world setting. Patient satisfaction with clinical pharmacist support. Results Reported ADRs in the real setting do not always correspond with data described in the respective SPCs. Unknown ADRs were also identified such as hyperglycaemia with lenalidomide and sorafenib; and hypomagnesaemia with bevacizumab. We also observed a 124.3% increase in spontaneous reports. Conclusion This study shows the high value of active pharmacovigilance programs, and our results might be a starting point for developing a randomised trial which should aim to demonstrate the impact of the pharmacist on improving patient's adherence and in measuring the difference in ADRs reports in the different arms followed or not by the pharmacist.

The International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE): design and methods.

PubMed

Katzmarzyk, Peter T; Barreira, Tiago V; Broyles, Stephanie T; Champagne, Catherine M; Chaput, Jean-Philippe; Fogelholm, Mikael; Hu, Gang; Johnson, William D; Kuriyan, Rebecca; Kurpad, Anura; Lambert, Estelle V; Maher, Carol; Maia, José; Matsudo, Victor; Olds, Tim; Onywera, Vincent; Sarmiento, Olga L; Standage, Martyn; Tremblay, Mark S; Tudor-Locke, Catrine; Zhao, Pei; Church, Timothy S

2013-09-30

The primary aim of the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE) was to determine the relationships between lifestyle behaviours and obesity in a multi-national study of children, and to investigate the influence of higher-order characteristics such as behavioural settings, and the physical, social and policy environments, on the observed relationships within and between countries. The targeted sample included 6000 10-year old children from 12 countries in five major geographic regions of the world (Europe, Africa, the Americas, South-East Asia, and the Western Pacific). The protocol included procedures to collect data at the individual level (lifestyle, diet and physical activity questionnaires, accelerometry), family and neighborhood level (parental questionnaires), and the school environment (school administrator questionnaire and school audit tool). A standard study protocol was developed for implementation in all regions of the world. A rigorous system of training and certification of study personnel was developed and implemented, including web-based training modules and regional in-person training meetings. The results of this study will provide a robust examination of the correlates of adiposity and obesity in children, focusing on both sides of the energy balance equation. The results will also provide important new information that will inform the development of lifestyle, environmental, and policy interventions to address and prevent childhood obesity that may be culturally adapted for implementation around the world. ISCOLE represents a multi-national collaboration among all world regions, and represents a global effort to increase research understanding, capacity and infrastructure in childhood obesity.

Quantification of Urbanization in Relation to Chronic Diseases in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Foster, Charlie; Hutchinson, Lauren; Arambepola, Carukshi

2008-01-01

During and beyond the twentieth century, urbanization has represented a major demographic shift particularly in the developed world. The rapid urbanization experienced in the developing world brings increased mortality from lifestyle diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. We set out to understand how urbanization has been measured in studies which examined chronic disease as an outcome. Following a pilot search of PUBMED, a full search strategy was developed to identify papers reporting the effect of urbanization in relation to chronic disease in the developing world. Full searches were conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and GLOBAL HEALTH. Of the 868 titles identified in the initial search, nine studies met the final inclusion criteria. Five of these studies used demographic measures (such as population density) at an area level to measure urbanization. Four studies used more complicated summary measures of individual and area level data (such as distance from a city, occupation, home and land ownership) to define urbanization. The papers reviewed were limited by using simple area level summary measures (e.g., urban rural dichotomy) or having to rely on preexisting data at the individual level. Further work is needed to develop a measure of urbanization that treats urbanization as a process and which is sensitive enough to track changes in “urbanicity” and subsequent emergence of chronic disease risk factors and mortality. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article doi:10.1007/s11524-008-9325-4 contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. PMID:18931915

Ground-Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) from a global dataset: the PEERPEER NGA equations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boore, David M.; Akkar, Sinan; Gulkan, Polat; van Eck, Torild

2011-01-01

The PEER NGA ground-motion prediction equation s (GMPEs) were derived by five developer teams over several years, resulting in five sets of GMPEs. The teams used various subsets of a global database of ground motions and metadata from shallow earthquakes in tectonically active regions in the development of the equations. Since their publication, the predicted motions from these GMPEs have been compared with data from various parts of the world – data that largely were not used in the development of the GMPEs. The comparisons suggest that the NGA GMPEs are applicable globally for shallow earthquakes in tectonically active regions.

USSR Report, International Affairs

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-04-08

include above all the European Economic Community (EEC), a major economic grouping in the capitalist world . In setting up the EEC its participants...not be able to withstand the competition of the other imperi- alist powers and maintain its positions in the capitalist world . At present the...15 per cent. It is indicative that with Western Europe’s relative weight in the world export topping one-third, its share in the world export of

Hierarchical Spatio-Temporal Probabilistic Graphical Model with Multiple Feature Fusion for Binary Facial Attribute Classification in Real-World Face Videos.

PubMed

Demirkus, Meltem; Precup, Doina; Clark, James J; Arbel, Tal

2016-06-01

Recent literature shows that facial attributes, i.e., contextual facial information, can be beneficial for improving the performance of real-world applications, such as face verification, face recognition, and image search. Examples of face attributes include gender, skin color, facial hair, etc. How to robustly obtain these facial attributes (traits) is still an open problem, especially in the presence of the challenges of real-world environments: non-uniform illumination conditions, arbitrary occlusions, motion blur and background clutter. What makes this problem even more difficult is the enormous variability presented by the same subject, due to arbitrary face scales, head poses, and facial expressions. In this paper, we focus on the problem of facial trait classification in real-world face videos. We have developed a fully automatic hierarchical and probabilistic framework that models the collective set of frame class distributions and feature spatial information over a video sequence. The experiments are conducted on a large real-world face video database that we have collected, labelled and made publicly available. The proposed method is flexible enough to be applied to any facial classification problem. Experiments on a large, real-world video database McGillFaces [1] of 18,000 video frames reveal that the proposed framework outperforms alternative approaches, by up to 16.96 and 10.13%, for the facial attributes of gender and facial hair, respectively.

GIS learning tool for world's largest earthquakes and their causes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chatterjee, Moumita

The objective of this thesis is to increase awareness about earthquakes among people, especially young students by showing the five largest and two most predictable earthquake locations in the world and their plate tectonic settings. This is a geographic based interactive tool which could be used for learning about the cause of great earthquakes in the past and the safest places on the earth in order to avoid direct effect of earthquakes. This approach provides an effective way of learning for the students as it is very user friendly and more aligned to the interests of the younger generation. In this tool the user can click on the various points located on the world map which will open a picture and link to the webpage for that point, showing detailed information of the earthquake history of that place including magnitude of quake, year of past quakes and the plate tectonic settings that made this place earthquake prone. Apart from knowing the earthquake related information students will also be able to customize the tool to suit their needs or interests. Students will be able to add/remove layers, measure distance between any two points on the map, select any place on the map and know more information for that place, create a layer from this set to do a detail analysis, run a query, change display settings, etc. At the end of this tool the user has to go through the earthquake safely guidelines in order to be safe during an earthquake. This tool uses Java as programming language and uses Map Objects Java Edition (MOJO) provided by ESRI. This tool is developed for educational purpose and hence its interface has been kept simple and easy to use so that students can gain maximum knowledge through it instead of having a hard time to install it. There are lots of details to explore which can help more about what a GIS based tool is capable of. Only thing needed to run this tool is latest JAVA edition installed in their machine. This approach makes study more fun and interactive while educating students about a very important natural disaster which has been threatening us in recent years. This tool has been developed to increase awareness of the cause and effect of earthquake and how to be safe if that kind of disaster happens.

A concept paper: using the outcomes of common surgical conditions as quality metrics to benchmark district surgical services in South Africa as part of a systematic quality improvement programme.

PubMed

Clarke, Damian L; Kong, Victor Y; Handley, Jonathan; Aldous, Colleen

2013-07-31

The fourth, fifth and sixth Millennium Development Goals relate directly to improving global healthcare and health outcomes. The focus is to improve global health outcomes by reducing maternal and childhood mortality and the burden of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Specific targets and time frames have been set for these diseases. There is, however, no specific mention of surgically treated diseases in these goals, reflecting a bias that is slowly changing with emerging consensus that surgical care is an integral part of primary healthcare systems in the developing world. The disparities between the developed and developing world in terms of wealth and social indicators are reflected in disparities in access to surgical care. Health administrators must develop plans and strategies to reduce these disparities. However, any strategic plan that addresses deficits in healthcare must have a system of metrics, which benchmark the current quality of care so that specific improvement targets may be set.This concept paper outlines the role of surgical services in a primary healthcare system, highlights the ongoing disparities in access to surgical care and outcomes of surgical care, discusses the importance of a systems-based approach to healthcare and quality improvement, and reviews the current state of surgical care at district hospitals in South Africa. Finally, it proposes that the results from a recently published study on acute appendicitis, as well as data from a number of other common surgical conditions, can provide measurable outcomes across a healthcare system and so act as an indicator for judging improvements in surgical care. This would provide a framework for the introduction of collection of these outcomes as a routine epidemiological health policy tool.

Roads to Health in Developing Countries: Understanding the Intersection of Culture and Healing.

PubMed

Ibeneme, S; Eni, G; Ezuma, A; Fortwengel, G

2017-01-01

The most important attribute to which all human beings aspire is good health because it enables us to undertake different forms of activities of daily living. The emergence of scientific knowledge in Western societies has enabled scientists to explore and define several parameters of health by drawing boundaries around factors that are known to influence the attainment of good health. For example, the World Health Organization defined health by taking physical and psychological factors into consideration. Their definition of health also included a caveat that says, "not merely the absence of sickness." This definition has guided scientists and health care providers in the Western world in the development of health care programs in non-Western societies. However, ethnomedical beliefs about the cause(s) of illness have given rise to alternative theories of health, sickness, and treatment approaches in the developing world. Thus, there is another side to the story. Much of the population in developing countries lives in rural settings where the knowledge of health, sickness, and care has evolved over centuries of practice and experience. The definition of health in these settings tends to orient toward cultural beliefs, traditional practices, and social relationships. Invariably, whereas biomedicine is the dominant medical system in Western societies, traditional medicine-or ethnomedicine-is often the first port of call for patients in developing countries. The 2 medical systems represent, and are influenced by, the cultural environment in which they exist. On one hand, biomedicine is very effective in the treatment of objective, measurable disease conditions. On the other hand, ethnomedicine is effective in the management of illness conditions or the experience of disease states. Nevertheless, an attempt to supplant 1 system of care with another from a different cultural environment could pose enormous challenges in non-Western societies. In general, we, as human beings, are guided in our health care decisions by past experiences, family and friends, social networks, cultural beliefs, customs, tradition, professional knowledge, and intuition. No medical system has been shown to address all of these elements; hence, the need for collaboration, acceptance, and partnership between all systems of care in cultural communities. In developing countries, the roads to health are incomplete without an examination of the intersection of culture and healing. Perhaps mutual exclusiveness rather inclusiveness of these 2 dominant health systems is the greatest obstacle to health in developing countries.

The role of the World Data Centers in handling ocean climate data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Webster, Ferris

1992-01-01

The World Data Center System, set up for the International Geophysical Year in 1957, is an international network of data centers that links data contributors to data users in the geosciences. It includes means for the synthesis, analysis, and preparation of data products. It was set up in response to the needs of the international scientific community, and is still overseen by non-governmental scientific organizations. Because it is freely available to researchers in all countries, the World Data Center System has a special role to play in support of ocean climate research and monitoring programs. The World Data Centers face a number of challenges today. Apathy is probably the greatest, since many scientists take the system for granted. There is need to improve access and exploit new technology. The system must establish new links to assure continuity in a world with political changes. The multidisciplinary needs of global change research will demand capabilities for data and information management that go beyond the traditional emphasis on geophysics.

Magsat vector magnetometer calibration using Magsat geomagnetic field measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lancaster, E. R.; Jennings, T.; Morrissey, M.; Langel, R. A.

1980-01-01

From the time of its launch on Oct. 30, 1979 into a nearly polar, Sun synchronous orbit, until it reentered the Earth's atmosphere on June 11, 1980, Magsat measured and transmitted more than three complete sets of global magnetic field data. The data obtained from the mission will be used primarily to compute a currently accurate model of the Earth's main magnetic field, to update and refine world and regional magnetic charts, and to develop a global scalar and vector crustal magnetic anomaly map. The in-flight calibration procecure used for 39 vector magnetometer system parameters is described as well as results obtained from some data sets and the numerical studies designed to evaluate the results.

Using string invariants for prediction searching for optimal parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bundzel, Marek; Kasanický, Tomáš; Pinčák, Richard

2016-02-01

We have developed a novel prediction method based on string invariants. The method does not require learning but a small set of parameters must be set to achieve optimal performance. We have implemented an evolutionary algorithm for the parametric optimization. We have tested the performance of the method on artificial and real world data and compared the performance to statistical methods and to a number of artificial intelligence methods. We have used data and the results of a prediction competition as a benchmark. The results show that the method performs well in single step prediction but the method's performance for multiple step prediction needs to be improved. The method works well for a wide range of parameters.

Microfluidic technology for molecular diagnostics.

PubMed

Robinson, Tom; Dittrich, Petra S

2013-01-01

Molecular diagnostics have helped to improve the lives of millions of patients worldwide by allowing clinicians to diagnose patients earlier as well as providing better ongoing therapies. Point-of-care (POC) testing can bring these laboratory-based techniques to the patient in a home setting or to remote settings in the developing world. However, despite substantial progress in the field, there still remain many challenges. Progress in molecular diagnostics has benefitted greatly from microfluidic technology. This chapter aims to summarise the more recent advances in microfluidic-based molecular diagnostics. Sections include an introduction to microfluidic technology, the challenges of molecular diagnostics, how microfluidic advances are working to solve these issues, some alternative design approaches, and detection within these systems.

Integrating Global Hydrology Into Graduate Engineering Education and Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Griffis, V. W.

2007-12-01

Worldwide, polluted water affects the health of 1.2 billion people and contributes to the death of 15 million children under five every year. In addition poor environmental quality contributes to 25 per cent of all preventable ill health in the world. To address some of these problems, at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, the world community set the goal of halving, by the year 2015, the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Solving sanitation and water resource management problems in any part of the world presents an interdisciplinary, complex challenge. However, when we attempt to solve these problems in an international context, our technical approaches must be tempered with cultural sensitivity and extraordinary management strategies. To meet this challenge, Michigan Tech has developed a unique global partnership with the U.S. Peace Corps to address our acknowledgement of the importance of placing engineering solutions in a global context. The program has graduated 30 students. Program enrollment is now over 30 and over 20 countries have hosted our students. The objective of this presentation is to demonstrate how this unique partnership can be integrated with graduate engineering education and research and also show how such a program may attract a more diverse student population into engineering. All graduate students enrolled in our Master's International Program in Civil and Environmental Engineering must complete specific coursework requirements before departing for their international experience. In CE5993 (Field Engineering in the Developing World) students learn to apply concepts of sustainable development and appropriate technology in the developing world. In FW5770 (Rural Community Development Planning and Analysis) students learn how one involves a community in the decision making process. A common theme in both courses is the role of woman in successful development projects. Technical specialization allows a student to take coursework in hydrology, water planning and management, and water quality engineering. The 2-3 semester residence on campus is then followed by three months of cultural, language, and technical training with the Peace Corps. After training students complete two years of service in the Peace Corps, typically working as a water/sanitation engineer while also completing a research project related to their Peace Corps experience. Some unique aspects of the Peace Corps experience is that it provides students with cultural awareness, language proficiency, community organizing skills, skills in consensus building and sustainable development, appreciation for technology that is economically and culturally sensitive, and a long-term field experience to develop an indepth overseas research project. Perhaps one of the greatest aspects of the Peace Corps experience is it provides students a basis to consider the social, economic, and environmental limitations of water projects in the developing world. Some examples of research projects that have been integrated into this program are: (a) culturally appropriate watershed planning and management, (b) technical capacity building of water supply systems, and (c) life cycle thinking approach applied to water and sanitation projects.

A global reference database of crowdsourced cropland data collected using the Geo-Wiki platform.

PubMed

Laso Bayas, Juan Carlos; Lesiv, Myroslava; Waldner, François; Schucknecht, Anne; Duerauer, Martina; See, Linda; Fritz, Steffen; Fraisl, Dilek; Moorthy, Inian; McCallum, Ian; Perger, Christoph; Danylo, Olha; Defourny, Pierre; Gallego, Javier; Gilliams, Sven; Akhtar, Ibrar Ul Hassan; Baishya, Swarup Jyoti; Baruah, Mrinal; Bungnamei, Khangsembou; Campos, Alfredo; Changkakati, Trishna; Cipriani, Anna; Das, Krishna; Das, Keemee; Das, Inamani; Davis, Kyle Frankel; Hazarika, Purabi; Johnson, Brian Alan; Malek, Ziga; Molinari, Monia Elisa; Panging, Kripal; Pawe, Chandra Kant; Pérez-Hoyos, Ana; Sahariah, Parag Kumar; Sahariah, Dhrubajyoti; Saikia, Anup; Saikia, Meghna; Schlesinger, Peter; Seidacaru, Elena; Singha, Kuleswar; Wilson, John W

2017-09-26

A global reference data set on cropland was collected through a crowdsourcing campaign using the Geo-Wiki crowdsourcing tool. The campaign lasted three weeks, with over 80 participants from around the world reviewing almost 36,000 sample units, focussing on cropland identification. For quality assessment purposes, two additional data sets are provided. The first is a control set of 1,793 sample locations validated by students trained in satellite image interpretation. This data set was used to assess the quality of the crowd as the campaign progressed. The second data set contains 60 expert validations for additional evaluation of the quality of the contributions. All data sets are split into two parts: the first part shows all areas classified as cropland and the second part shows cropland average per location and user. After further processing, the data presented here might be suitable to validate and compare medium and high resolution cropland maps generated using remote sensing. These could also be used to train classification algorithms for developing new maps of land cover and cropland extent.

A global reference database of crowdsourced cropland data collected using the Geo-Wiki platform

PubMed Central

Laso Bayas, Juan Carlos; Lesiv, Myroslava; Waldner, François; Schucknecht, Anne; Duerauer, Martina; See, Linda; Fritz, Steffen; Fraisl, Dilek; Moorthy, Inian; McCallum, Ian; Perger, Christoph; Danylo, Olha; Defourny, Pierre; Gallego, Javier; Gilliams, Sven; Akhtar, Ibrar ul Hassan; Baishya, Swarup Jyoti; Baruah, Mrinal; Bungnamei, Khangsembou; Campos, Alfredo; Changkakati, Trishna; Cipriani, Anna; Das, Krishna; Das, Keemee; Das, Inamani; Davis, Kyle Frankel; Hazarika, Purabi; Johnson, Brian Alan; Malek, Ziga; Molinari, Monia Elisa; Panging, Kripal; Pawe, Chandra Kant; Pérez-Hoyos, Ana; Sahariah, Parag Kumar; Sahariah, Dhrubajyoti; Saikia, Anup; Saikia, Meghna; Schlesinger, Peter; Seidacaru, Elena; Singha, Kuleswar; Wilson, John W

2017-01-01

A global reference data set on cropland was collected through a crowdsourcing campaign using the Geo-Wiki crowdsourcing tool. The campaign lasted three weeks, with over 80 participants from around the world reviewing almost 36,000 sample units, focussing on cropland identification. For quality assessment purposes, two additional data sets are provided. The first is a control set of 1,793 sample locations validated by students trained in satellite image interpretation. This data set was used to assess the quality of the crowd as the campaign progressed. The second data set contains 60 expert validations for additional evaluation of the quality of the contributions. All data sets are split into two parts: the first part shows all areas classified as cropland and the second part shows cropland average per location and user. After further processing, the data presented here might be suitable to validate and compare medium and high resolution cropland maps generated using remote sensing. These could also be used to train classification algorithms for developing new maps of land cover and cropland extent. PMID:28949323

A global reference database of crowdsourced cropland data collected using the Geo-Wiki platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laso Bayas, Juan Carlos; Lesiv, Myroslava; Waldner, François; Schucknecht, Anne; Duerauer, Martina; See, Linda; Fritz, Steffen; Fraisl, Dilek; Moorthy, Inian; McCallum, Ian; Perger, Christoph; Danylo, Olha; Defourny, Pierre; Gallego, Javier; Gilliams, Sven; Akhtar, Ibrar Ul Hassan; Baishya, Swarup Jyoti; Baruah, Mrinal; Bungnamei, Khangsembou; Campos, Alfredo; Changkakati, Trishna; Cipriani, Anna; Das, Krishna; Das, Keemee; Das, Inamani; Davis, Kyle Frankel; Hazarika, Purabi; Johnson, Brian Alan; Malek, Ziga; Molinari, Monia Elisa; Panging, Kripal; Pawe, Chandra Kant; Pérez-Hoyos, Ana; Sahariah, Parag Kumar; Sahariah, Dhrubajyoti; Saikia, Anup; Saikia, Meghna; Schlesinger, Peter; Seidacaru, Elena; Singha, Kuleswar; Wilson, John W.

2017-09-01

A global reference data set on cropland was collected through a crowdsourcing campaign using the Geo-Wiki crowdsourcing tool. The campaign lasted three weeks, with over 80 participants from around the world reviewing almost 36,000 sample units, focussing on cropland identification. For quality assessment purposes, two additional data sets are provided. The first is a control set of 1,793 sample locations validated by students trained in satellite image interpretation. This data set was used to assess the quality of the crowd as the campaign progressed. The second data set contains 60 expert validations for additional evaluation of the quality of the contributions. All data sets are split into two parts: the first part shows all areas classified as cropland and the second part shows cropland average per location and user. After further processing, the data presented here might be suitable to validate and compare medium and high resolution cropland maps generated using remote sensing. These could also be used to train classification algorithms for developing new maps of land cover and cropland extent.