Governance and Policy Coordination : the Case of Birth Registration in Peru

The Paper explores coordination through the lens of civil registration and vital statistics, with particular reference to birth registration in Peru. It focuses on the role that coordination can play in making birth registration function effectively. While the capacity of governments to deliver the function of birth registration is central to this paper, the role that understanding coordination can play in improving public services is examined, especially services for children. The capacity to register the births of children is a long-standing function of governments, and can be seen as a test of government effectiveness. In Peru, backward mapping showed that the trails from local and district registrars to the government registration organization (RENIEC) stopped almost immediately. This seems to point towards the centralized structure and top-down approach of RENIEC; to sustain its achievements to date and to reach the final three per cent of unregistered births it should consider incentivizing and empowering local and community administrations

Insoluble drug delivery

Particles of water insoluble biologically active compounds, particularly water-insoluble drugs, with an average size of 100 nm to about 300 nm, are prepared by dissolving the compound in a solution then spraying the solution into compressed gaz, liquid or supercritical fluid in the presence of appropriate surface modifiers.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

Insoluble drug delivery

Particles of water insoluble biologically active compounds, particularly water-insoluble drugs, with an average size of 100 nm to about 300 nm, are prepared by dissolving the compound in a solution then spraying the solution into compressed gaz, liquid or supercritical fluid in the presence of appropriate surface modifiers.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

Evaluation at scale of microbiome-derived metabolites as biomarker of flavan-3-ol intake in epidemiological studies.

The accurate assessment of dietary intake is crucial to investigate the effect of diet on health. Currently used methods, relying on self-reporting and food composition data, are known to have limitations and might not be suitable to estimate the intake of many bioactive food components. An alternative are nutritional biomarkers, which can allow an unbiased assessment of intake. They require a careful evaluation of their suitability, including: (a) the availability of a precise, accurate and robust analytical method, (b) their specificity (c) a consistent relationship with actual intake. We have evaluated human metabolites of a microbiome-derived flavan-3-ol catabolite, 5-(3',4'-dihydroxyphenyl)-[gamma]-valerolactone (gVL), as biomarker of flavan-3-ol intake in large epidemiological studies. Flavan-3-ols are widely consumed plant bioactives, which have received considerable interest due to their potential ability to reduce CVD risk. The availability of authentic standards allowed the development of a validated high-throughput method suitable for large-scale studies. In dietary intervention studies, we could show that gVL metabolites are specific for flavan-3-ols present in tea, fruits, wine and cocoa-derived products, with a strong correlation between intake and biomarker (Spearman's r = 0.90). This biomarker will allow for the first time to estimate flavan-3-ol intake and further investigation of associations between intake and disease risk

RESCUE-ESE identifies candidate exonic splicing enhancers in vertebrate exons.

ABSTRACT A typical gene contains two levels of information: a sequence that encodes a particular protein and a host of other signals that are necessary for the correct expression of the transcript. While much attention has been focused on the effects of sequence variation on the amino acid sequence, variations that disrupt gene processing signals can dramatically impact gene function. A variation that disrupts an exonic splicing enhancer (ESE), for example, could cause exon skipping which would result in the exclusion of an entire exon from the mRNA transcript. RESCUE-ESE, a computational approach used in conjunction with experimental validation, previously identified 238 candidate ESE hexamers in human genes. The RESCUE-ESE method has recently been implemented in three additional species: mouse, zebrafish and pufferfish. Here we describe an online ESE analysis tool (http://genes.mit.edu/burgelab/ rescue-ese/) that annotates RESCUE-ESE hexamers in vertebrate exons and can be used to predict splicing phenotypes by identifying sequence changes that disrupt or alter predicted ESEs

A Plan to Facilitate the Early Career Development of Minority Scholars in the Health Sciences

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1937191100374817

Revisiting the 'Missing Middle' in English Sub-National Governance

In the light of the new Coalition Government’s proposed ‘rescaling’ of sub-national governance away from the regional level, it is an opportune time to re-consider the strength and weaknesses of the city or sub-regional approach to economic development and to search, once more, for the ‘missing middle’ in English Governance. In this context, the article initially assesses the case for city or sub regions as tiers of economic governance, before examining the lessons to be learnt from the experiences of the existing city regions in the North East of England. It argues that while contemporary plans to develop Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) can be usefully considered within the context of the emerging city regional developments under the previous Labour Governments, a number of important challenges remain, particularly in relation to ensuring accountable structures of governance, a range of appropriate functions, adequate funding, and comprehensive coverage across a variety of sub-regional contexts. While the proposals of the new Government create the necessary ‘space’ to develop sub-regional bodies and offer genuine opportunities for both city and county LEPs, the scale of the sub-regional challenge should not be underestimated, particularly given the context of economic recession and major reductions in the public sector

The Effectiveness of Lower-Limb Wearable Technology for Improving Activity and Participation in Adult Stroke Survivors: A Systematic Review

Background: With advances in technology, the adoption of wearable devices has become a viable adjunct in poststroke rehabilitation. Regaining ambulation is a top priority for an increasing number of stroke survivors. However, despite an increase in research exploring these devices for lower limb rehabilitation, little is known of the effectiveness. Objective: This review aims to assess the effectiveness of lower limb wearable technology for improving activity and participation in adult stroke survivors. Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of lower limb wearable technology for poststroke rehabilitation were included. Primary outcome measures were validated measures of activity and participation as defined by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Databases searched were MEDLINE, Web of Science (Core collection), CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library. The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool was used to assess the methodological quality of the RCTs. Results: In the review, we included 11 RCTs with collectively 550 participants at baseline and 474 participants at final follow-up including control groups and participants post stroke. Participants' stroke type and severity varied. Only one study found significant between-group differences for systems functioning and activity. Across the included RCTs, the lowest number of participants was 12 and the highest was 151 with a mean of 49 participants. The lowest number of participants to drop out of an RCT was zero in two of the studies and 19 in one study. Significant between-group differences were found across three of the 11 included trials. Out of the activity and participation measures alone, P values ranged from P=.87 to P≤.001. Conclusions: This review has highlighted a number of reasons for insignificant findings in this area including low sample sizes, appropriateness of the RCT methodology for complex interventions, a lack of appropriate analysis of outcome data, and participant stroke severity

Evaluation of (−)-epicatechin metabolites as recovery biomarker of dietary flavan-3-ol intake

Abstract: Data from dietary intervention studies suggest that intake of (−)-epicatechin mediates beneficial vascular effects in humans. However, population-based investigations are required to evaluate associations between habitual intake and health and these studies rely on accurate estimates of intake, which nutritional biomarkers can provide. Here, we evaluate a series of structurally related (−)-epicatechin metabolites (SREM), particularly (−)-epicatechin-3′-glucuronide, (−)-epicatechin-3′-sulfate and 3′-O-methyl-(−)-epicatechin-5-sulfate (SREMB), as flavan-3-ol and (−)-epicatechin intake. SREMB in urine proved to be a specific indicator of (−)-epicatechin intake, showing also a strong correlation with the amount of (−)-epicatechin ingested (R2: 0.86 (95% CI 0.8l; 0.92). The median recovery of (−)-epicatechin as SREMB in 24 h urine was 10% (IQR 7–13%) and we found SREMB in the majority of participants of EPIC Norfolk (83% of 24,341) with a mean concentration of 2.4 ± 3.2 µmol/L. Our results show that SREMB are suitable as biomarker of (−)-epicatechin intake. According to evaluation criteria from IARC and the Institute of Medicine, the results obtained support use of SREMB as a recovery biomarker to estimate actual intake of (−)-epicatechin