2,110 research outputs found

    Corporate social responsibility and climate change: the case of oil and gas industry of Nigeria

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    The thesis contributes to the literature on social accounting, accountability, and reporting by providing insights into the perspectives of multinational and indigenous oil and gas corporations in Nigeria regarding climate change, particularly the link between gas flaring and its impact on the environment and local communities. The use of interpretive research methods and the application of climate justice theory provide a unique theoretical lens to challenge existing policies and practices and engage with stakeholders holistically and transparently. The study highlights the inadequacy of current corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) practices in addressing climate change challenges and the need for corporations to adopt an ethics or climate justice approach in their actions and reporting, supported by policy instruments to ensure compliance. Empirical evidence shows that corporations in this industry ride on increasing demand for fossil fuels, lax regulation and monitoring of the industry, vulnerability and powerlessness of local communities to take undue advantage of the communities. However, they use some CSR programmes, remote from real solutions to gas flaring or climate change challenges, to pacify community stakeholders and sustain or improve corporate legitimacy. An intentional commitment by the corporations, including imbibing ethics or climate justice lens, and backed by strict and mandatory policy instruments is essential for addressing gas-flaring-induced climate challenges

    Requirements for market entry of gene drive-modified mosquitoes for control of vector-borne diseases: analogies to other biologic and biotechnology products

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    Gene drive-modified mosquitoes (GDMMs) are proposed as new tools for control and elimination of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases, and promising results have been observed from testing conducted in containment. Although still at an early stage of development, it is important to begin now to consider approval procedures and market entry strategies for the eventual implementation of GDMMs in the context of disease control programs, as these could impact future research plans. It is expected that, as for other types of new products, those seeking to bring GDMMs to market will be required to provide sufficient information to allow the regulator(s) to determine whether the product is safe and effective for its proposed use. There already has been much emphasis on developing requirements for the biosafety components of the “safe and effective” benchmark, largely concerned with their regulation as genetically modified organisms. Other potential approval requirements have received little attention, however. Although GDMMs are expected to be implemented primarily in the context of public health programs, any regulatory analogies to other public health products, such as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, or chemical pesticides, must take into account the characteristics of live mosquito products. Typical manufacturing standards related to product identity, potency or quality will need to be adapted to GDMMs. Valuable lessons can be drawn from the regulatory approval processes for other whole organism and genetically modified (GM) organism products. Supply chain requirements, such as scale of production, location and design of production facilities, and methods of distribution and delivery, will be dependent upon the characteristics of the particular GDMM product, the conditions of use, and the region to be served. Plans for fulfilling supply chain needs can build upon experience in the development of other live insect products for use in public health and agriculture. Implementation of GDMMs would benefit from additional research on enabling technologies for long-term storage of mosquito life stages, efficient mass production, and area-wide delivery of GDMMs. Early consideration of these practical requirements for market entry will help to mitigate downstream delays in the development of these promising new technologies

    2023-2024 Catalog

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    The 2023-2024 Governors State University Undergraduate and Graduate Catalog is a comprehensive listing of current information regarding:Degree RequirementsCourse OfferingsUndergraduate and Graduate Rules and Regulation

    Abstract Book of the II Congress of the Latin American Society for Vector Ecology

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    Recopilación de los resúmenes de las conferencias, simposios, paneles de discusión y "turbo talks" ofrecidos en el II Congreso de la Sociedad Latinoamericana de Ecología de Vectores (LA SOVE), realizado entre el 29 de octubre y el 3 de noviembre de 2022 en la ciudad de La Plata (Buenos Aires, Argentina).Sociedad Latinoamericana de Ecología de Vectores (LA SOVE

    Resilience and food security in a food systems context

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    This open access book compiles a series of chapters written by internationally recognized experts known for their in-depth but critical views on questions of resilience and food security. The book assesses rigorously and critically the contribution of the concept of resilience in advancing our understanding and ability to design and implement development interventions in relation to food security and humanitarian crises. For this, the book departs from the narrow beaten tracks of agriculture and trade, which have influenced the mainstream debate on food security for nearly 60 years, and adopts instead a wider, more holistic perspective, framed around food systems. The foundation for this new approach is the recognition that in the current post-globalization era, the food and nutritional security of the world’s population no longer depends just on the performance of agriculture and policies on trade, but rather on the capacity of the entire (food) system to produce, process, transport and distribute safe, affordable and nutritious food for all, in ways that remain environmentally sustainable. In that context, adopting a food system perspective provides a more appropriate frame as it incites to broaden the conventional thinking and to acknowledge the systemic nature of the different processes and actors involved. This book is written for a large audience, from academics to policymakers, students to practitioners

    Modern meat: the next generation of meat from cells

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    Modern Meat is the first textbook on cultivated meat, with contributions from over 100 experts within the cultivated meat community. The Sections of Modern Meat comprise 5 broad categories of cultivated meat: Context, Impact, Science, Society, and World. The 19 chapters of Modern Meat, spread across these 5 sections, provide detailed entries on cultivated meat. They extensively tour a range of topics including the impact of cultivated meat on humans and animals, the bioprocess of cultivated meat production, how cultivated meat may become a food option in Space and on Mars, and how cultivated meat may impact the economy, culture, and tradition of Asia

    Prevalence, years lived with disability, and trends in anaemia burden by severity and cause, 1990–2021 : findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

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    Funding Information: This project was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. S Afzal acknowledges support from the Department of Community Medicine and Epidemiology, King Edward Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan. A Ahmad acknowledges Shaqra University, Shaqra, Saudi Arabia for supporting this work. A Badawi is supported by the Public Health Agency of Canada. L Belo acknowledges the support from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia in the scope of the project UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 of UCIBIO and the project LA/P/0140/2020 of i4HB. A Fatehizadeh acknowledges support from the Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. S Gaihre acknowledges the Institute of Applied Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK for their institutional support. J C Glasbey is supported by a National Institute for Health and Care Research Doctoral Research Fellowship (NIHR300175). V K Gupta acknowledges funding support from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia. S Hussain was supported by Operational Program Research, Development and Education project Postdoc2MUNI (number CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/18_053/0016952). S M S Islam is funded by the NHMRC and has received funding from the National Heart Foundation of Australia. N Joseph acknowledges support from the Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India. H Kandel is supported by a Kornhauser Research Fellowship at The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Y J Kim was supported by the Research Management Centre, Xiamen University Malaysia, Sepang, Malaysia (grant numbers XMUMRF/2020-C6/ITCM/0004]. S L Koulmane Laxminarayana acknowledges institutional support from Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India. K Krishan acknowledges non-financial support from UGC Centre of Advanced Study, CAS II, Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. I Landires acknowledges support from Sistema Nacional de Investigación, which is supported by Panama's Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación. K Latief acknowledges funding from Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan for doctoral education during the conduct of this review. D C Malta acknowledges support from Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (CNPq), Brazil. L Monasta received support from the Italian Ministry of Health (Ricerca Corrente 34/2017) as payments made to the Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy. A Ortiz was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III RICORS programme to RICORS2040 (RD21/0005/0001) funded by European Union – NextGenerationEU, Mecanismo para la Recuperación y la Resiliencia and SPACKDc PMP21/00109, FEDER funds. J R Padubidri, A Shetty, B S K Shetty, P H Shetty, and B Unnikrishnan acknowledge the support given by Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India. T Palicz acknowledges support from the National Research, Development and Innovation Office in Hungary (RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00006, Data-Driven Health Division of National Laboratory for Health Security). G Pereira was supported with funding from NHMRC Project and Investigator Grants (1099655 and 1173991). Z Z Piracha acknowledges the International Center of Medical Sciences Research, Islamabad, Pakistan. Z Quazi Syed acknowledges support from the South Asia Infant Feeding Research Network and Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research, Wardha, India. A Rahman acknowledges Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia. U Saeed acknowledges the International Center of Medical Sciences Research, Islamabad, Pakistan. A M Samy acknowledges the support from Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt and the Egyptian Fulbright Mission Program. P A Shah acknowledges the support from Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, part of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore, India. M R Tovani-Palone acknowledges support from Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, India. D Vervoort is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. X Xu is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Heart Foundation of Australia (award number 102597) and Scientia Program at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia. C Yu acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 82173626). Funding Information: This project was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. S Afzal acknowledges support from the Department of Community Medicine and Epidemiology, King Edward Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan. A Ahmad acknowledges Shaqra University, Shaqra, Saudi Arabia for supporting this work. A Badawi is supported by the Public Health Agency of Canada. L Belo acknowledges the support from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia in the scope of the project UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 of UCIBIO and the project LA/P/0140/2020 of i4HB. A Fatehizadeh acknowledges support from the Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. S Gaihre acknowledges the Institute of Applied Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK for their institutional support. J C Glasbey is supported by a National Institute for Health and Care Research Doctoral Research Fellowship (NIHR300175). V K Gupta acknowledges funding support from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia. S Hussain was supported by Operational Program Research, Development and Education project Postdoc2MUNI (number CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/18_053/0016952). S M S Islam is funded by the NHMRC and has received funding from the National Heart Foundation of Australia. N Joseph acknowledges support from the Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India. H Kandel is supported by a Kornhauser Research Fellowship at The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Y J Kim was supported by the Research Management Centre, Xiamen University Malaysia, Sepang, Malaysia (grant numbers XMUMRF/2020-C6/ITCM/0004]. S L Koulmane Laxminarayana acknowledges institutional support from Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India. K Krishan acknowledges non-financial support from UGC Centre of Advanced Study, CAS II, Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. I Landires acknowledges support from Sistema Nacional de Investigación, which is supported by Panama's Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación. K Latief acknowledges funding from Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan for doctoral education during the conduct of this review. D C Malta acknowledges support from Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (CNPq), Brazil. L Monasta received support from the Italian Ministry of Health (Ricerca Corrente 34/2017) as payments made to the Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy. A Ortiz was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III RICORS programme to RICORS2040 (RD21/0005/0001) funded by European Union – NextGenerationEU, Mecanismo para la Recuperación y la Resiliencia and SPACKDc PMP21/00109, FEDER funds. J R Padubidri, A Shetty, B S K Shetty, P H Shetty, and B Unnikrishnan acknowledge the support given by Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India. T Palicz acknowledges support from the National Research, Development and Innovation Office in Hungary (RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00006, Data-Driven Health Division of National Laboratory for Health Security). G Pereira was supported with funding from NHMRC Project and Investigator Grants (1099655 and 1173991). Z Z Piracha acknowledges the International Center of Medical Sciences Research, Islamabad, Pakistan. Z Quazi Syed acknowledges support from the South Asia Infant Feeding Research Network and Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research, Wardha, India. A Rahman acknowledges Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia. U Saeed acknowledges the International Center of Medical Sciences Research, Islamabad, Pakistan. A M Samy acknowledges the support from Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt and the Egyptian Fulbright Mission Program. P A Shah acknowledges the support from Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, part of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore, India. M R Tovani-Palone acknowledges support from Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, India. D Vervoort is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. X Xu is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Heart Foundation of Australia (award number 102597) and Scientia Program at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia. C Yu acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 82173626).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

    Economic Evaluation of Fertility Treatment: Advancing the Research Agenda

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    Infertility affects 1 in 6 couples and >180 million people worldwide. It represents an increasingly important public health problem, amplified by the continuing global trend to later childbearing. Fertility treatment including in vitro fertilization (IVF) is not suited to traditional health technology assessment (HTA) methods, because its value is derived by its ability to create life, rather than extend, improve, or save existing lives. Consequently, there is a lack of guidance, and satisfactory HTA methods to determine whether fertility treatment provides good value for money. Moreover, the ever-increasing demand for elective egg freezing (EEF) to preserve female fertility poses additional challenges for economic assessments. This thesis describes 5 studies that move the research agenda forward for guiding the economic evaluation of fertility treatment. Study 1, a systematic review, identified and quantified 5 methodological categories for value-of-statistical-life elicitation. Based on these categories, Study 2 investigated methods for eliciting the value of a statistical baby (VSB) and concluded that discrete choice experiments (DCEs) are the most appropriate method in a fertility treatment context. Study 3 applied DCE outputs to derive a VSB estimate, which was used to assess value for money of publicly funded IVF in a cost-benefit analysis, finding that at least 5 IVF cycles likely provide good value for women <42 years. Study 4 elicited patient preferences for fertility treatment based on a DCE and Study 5 performed an incentive-compatible lab experiment to assess the impact of patient and treatment characteristics on the demand for IVF and EEF. Both experiments indicate that the demand for fertility treatment is price-inelastic and unresponsive to income level, which might explain why women continue fertility treatment once they have commenced despite their financial capacity. This research makes several methodological contributions and provides an evidence base to assess the public investment in fertility treatment. Overall, patients and society were found to value fertility treatment highly. New knowledge generated includes: (1) identifying the number of cost-beneficial IVF cycles by female age; (2) quantifying price and income elasticities for IVF and EEF; (3) bridging the gap between the proliferation of DCEs and policy by applying DCE outputs to HTA; and (4) demonstrating that government funding decisions can be explored in a lab experiment

    ADAPTING AND IMPLEMENTING GROUP POSTPARTUM AND WELL-CHILD CARE AT CLINICS IN BLANTYRE DISTRICT, MALAWI

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    Background: Persistently elevated rates of maternal and infant mortality and morbidities in Malawi indicate the need for increased quality of maternal and well-child care services. The first-year postpartum sets the stage for long-term health for the childbearing parent and infant. Innovative strategies are needed to advance care models that integrates and addresses both maternal and infant needs. Integrated group postpartum and well-child care offers a promising strategy to improve maternal and infant health outcomes in Malawi. The purpose of this study was to adapt an established program and co-design an integrated group postpartum and well-child care model and evaluate its implementation outcomes in Blantyre District, Malawi. Methods: We used a mixed methods design and the Human-Centered, Evidence-Driven Adaptive Design (AHEAD) framework to guide this study. Following the five steps of the AHEAD framework we: 1) defined the problem and assembled a team through integrative and scoping reviews of the literature; 2) reviewed the evidence and sought inspiration through interviews with women and health care workers; 3) synthesized the data through rigorous data analyses; 4) developed guiding principles and ideated to co-create a group postpartum and well-child care prototype through incubator sessions with women and health care workers; and 5) evaluated the prototype through pilot sessions of the 6-visit model adapted for the Malawian context through structured observation, surveys, and focus groups evaluating implementation outcomes. Results: For Step 1 we completed literature reviews which confirmed that group care offers a promising strategy to improve health outcomes for Malawian women and their children. For Steps 2-4 we completed 20 interviews and 6 incubator sessions with women and health care workers. All participants reported a desire for group care in the postpartum period. Health promotion priorities identified by participants were hygiene, breastfeeding, family planning, nutrition, and mental health. Findings from the interviews and incubator sessions guided the development of a 6-visit model prototype to be delivered over the first 12 months postpartum corresponding to the Malawian child vaccination schedule. The prototype included an implementation structure, facilitator’s guide (curriculum), and clinical assessment guidelines. For Step 5 we piloted the prototype and tested each session once at each clinic for a total of 18 pilot sessions with 41 women/infant dyads. Nineteen health care workers across the three clinics co-facilitated group sessions. Both women and health care workers reported group postpartum and well-child care was highly acceptable, appropriate, and feasible across clinics. Fidelity to the group care model was high. Challenges in implementing group sessions were identified. Conclusions: This integrated group postpartum and well-child care model is a potentially transformative approach to a neglected area of the care continuum by integrating maternal health in to well-child care to meet the needs of Malawian women and infants during the postpartum period. This model has promise for improving multiple maternal and child health outcomes. Due to these promising results, we recommend future research examine the effectiveness of the model on maternal and child health outcomes in Malawi and other low resource settings
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