Tackling resistance: Emerging antimalarials and new parasite targets in the era of elimination [version 1; referees: 2 approved]

Malaria remains a significant contributor to global human mortality, and roughly half the world’s population is at risk for infection with Plasmodium spp. parasites. Aggressive control measures have reduced the global prevalence of malaria significantly over the past decade. However, resistance to available antimalarials continues to spread, including resistance to the widely used artemisinin-based combination therapies. Novel antimalarial compounds and therapeutic targets are greatly needed. This review will briefly discuss several promising current antimalarial development projects, including artefenomel, ferroquine, cipargamin, SJ733, KAF156, MMV048, and tafenoquine. In addition, we describe recent large-scale genetic and resistance screens that have been instrumental in target discovery. Finally, we highlight new antimalarial targets, which include essential transporters and proteases. These emerging antimalarial compounds and therapeutic targets have the potential to overcome multi-drug resistance in ongoing efforts toward malaria elimination

A Guide to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data

Provides an overview of the home mortgage application data lenders are required to report and explains how to analyze trends in neighborhood investment, buyers' racial and economic composition, disparities in home loan access, and subprime lending

Suggested criteria for evaluating systems engineering methodologies

Systems engineering is the application of mathematical and scientific principles to practical ends in the life-cycle of a system. A methodology for systems engineering is a carefully developed, relatively complex procedure or process for applying these mathematical and scientific principles. There are many systems engineering methodologies (or possibly many versions of a few methodologies) currently in use in government and industry. These methodologies are usually designed to meet the needs of a particular organization. It has been observed, however, that many technical and non-technical problems arise when inadequate systems engineering methodologies are applied by organizations to their systems development projects. Various criteria for evaluating systems engineering methodologies are discussed. Such criteria are developed to assist methodology-users in identifying and selecting methodologies that best fit the needs of the organization

In the balance: report of a research study exploring information for weight management

This paper uses findings from a research study called Net.Weight to examine the concepts of interaction, information quality and Internet-based information from the perspective of people engaged in managing their weight. The Net.Weight study was a two-year project funded by the British government 19s Department of Health and located in the city of Brighton and Hove. It examined the potential for increased, innovative and effective uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support the self management of weight. The study had several inter-related research strands and the findings discussed in the paper emerged primarily from participatory learning workshops and evaluative interviews. The paper demonstrates that the interaction between people is an important aspect of the information process, which is often neglected in the literature. It suggests that exploring the user-user dimension might add to the understanding of information effectiveness. It also suggests that an approach to information and health literacy which includes a social as well as an individual perspective is necessary. On quality assessment, it supports findings from other studies that organisational authority is a key measure of reliability for lay users and that quality assessment tools have a limited role in the assessment process. The Net.Weight participants embraced the Internet as a medium for weight management information only when it added value to their existing information and weight management practices and when it could be integrated into their everyday lives

Financial accountability, pharmacists and doctors: control issues in a professional context

The reforming of the UK National Health Service (NHS), in response to pressure on financial resources, has led to the reshaping of healthcare professionals' roles. Within NHS hospitals, clinicians traditionally have held a dominant position in terms of decision making with regard to the use of resources and clinical autonomy. However, the changing environment now faced by hospital clinicians, in the form of increasing financial, legal and regulatory complexities is having an impact on their power base as managerial and accounting control becomes a key element in the changes advocated by healthcare reformers. Some have argued that these changes challenge the power and autonomy of clinicians and their relationships with other healthcare professionals and society; perhaps best exemplified by the increasing role of clinical pharmacists in prescribing decisions. In the past, pharmacy as a health care function has been termed a marginal or quasi-profession due to its apparent inability to promote and control its existence. Traditional professional and jurisdictional boundaries militated against a closer working relationship between pharmacists and clinicians, contributing to this marginalisation.This thesis investigates the impact that NPM initiatives and increases in financial accountability have had on the pharmacy and the medical professions. It will be shown that, over the last 25 years or so, there have been significant developments in hospital pharmaceutical services which have served to erode the professional boundaries through the emergence of specialist pharmacy services and clinical pharmacists that operate in the clinical setting. The findings demonstrate that, clinical pharmacists, whose specialism is to assist the clinicians in safe, economic and effective use of medicines by optimizing pharmaceutical factors, are increasingly being utilized and regarded as an essential function within the hospital setting. Indeed it has been suggested by both parties that as clinicians increasingly feel the pressure of financial constraints that pharmacy's involvement in clinical decisions and prescribing practice should continue to increase.This research, therefore, illuminates the erosion of professional boundaries within healthcare as a result of NPM initiatives and increased financial accountability. In particular it focuses upon the changing relationship between pharmacy and the medical profession. The baseline for this study is the period between the Conservatives government reign under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher to the end of New Labour's term in office. The empirical findings generate valuable information that helps to explain and aid our understanding of the professional relationships of clinical pharmacists and clinicians in the current drive towards the rationalisation of prescribing and cost containment procedures. It further, shows how changes in financial accountability have served as a catalyst in the erosion of professional boundaries between the two professions