Analyzing Recent Coronary Heart Disease Mortality Trends in Tunisia between 1997 and 2009.

BACKGROUND: In Tunisia, Cardiovascular Diseases are the leading causes of death (30%), 70% of those are coronary heart disease (CHD) deaths and population studies have demonstrated that major risk factor levels are increasing. OBJECTIVE: To explain recent CHD trends in Tunisia between 1997 and 2009. METHODS: DATA SOURCES: Published and unpublished data were identified by extensive searches, complemented with specifically designed surveys. ANALYSIS: Data were integrated and analyzed using the previously validated IMPACT CHD policy model. Data items included: (i)number of CHD patients in specific groups (including acute coronary syndromes, congestive heart failure and chronic angina)(ii) uptake of specific medical and surgical treatments, and(iii) population trends in major cardiovascular risk factors (smoking, total cholesterol, systolic blood pressure (SBP), body mass index (BMI), diabetes and physical inactivity). RESULTS: CHD mortality rates increased by 11.8% for men and 23.8% for women, resulting in 680 additional CHD deaths in 2009 compared with the 1997 baseline, after adjusting for population change. Almost all (98%) of this rise was explained by risk factor increases, though men and women differed. A large rise in total cholesterol level in men (0.73 mmol/L) generated 440 additional deaths. In women, a fall (-0.43 mmol/L), apparently avoided about 95 deaths. For SBP a rise in men (4 mmHg) generated 270 additional deaths. In women, a 2 mmHg fall avoided 65 deaths. BMI and diabetes increased substantially resulting respectively in 105 and 75 additional deaths. Increased treatment uptake prevented about 450 deaths in 2009. The most important contributions came from secondary prevention following Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) (95 fewer deaths), initial AMI treatments (90), antihypertensive medications (80) and unstable angina (75). CONCLUSIONS: Recent trends in CHD mortality mainly reflected increases in major modifiable risk factors, notably SBP and cholesterol, BMI and diabetes. Current prevention strategies are mainly focused on treatments but should become more comprehensive

The Obliteration of Truth by Management: Badiou, St. Paul and the Question of Economic Managerialism in Education

This paper considers the questions that Badiou’s theory of the subject poses to cultures of economic managerialism within education. His argument that radical change is possible, for people and the situations they inhabit, provides a stark challenge to the stifling nature of much current educational climate. In 'Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism', Badiou describes the current universalism of capitalism, monetary homogeneity and the rule of the count. Badiou argues that the politics of identity are all too easily subsumed by the prerogatives of the marketplace and unable to present, therefore, a critique of the status quo. These processes are, he argues, without the potential for truth. What are the implications of Badiou’s claim that education is the arranging of ‘the forms of knowledge in such a way that truth may come to pierce a hole in them’ (Badiou, 2005, p. 9)? In this paper, I argue that Badiou’s theory opens up space for a kind of thinking about education that resists its colonisation by cultures of management and marketisation and leads educationalists to consider the emancipatory potential of education in a new light

Effective Lagrangian for self-interacting scalar field theories in curved spacetime

We consider a self-interacting scalar field theory in a slowly varying gravitational background field. Using zeta-function regularization and heat-kernel techniques, we derive the one-loop effective Lagrangian up to second order in the variation of the background field and up to quadratic terms in the curvature tensors. Specializing to different spacetimes of physical interest, the influence of the curvature on the phase transition is considered.Comment: 14 pages, LaTex, UTF 29

Use of evidence to support healthy public policy: a policy effectiveness-feasibility loop

Public policy plays a key role in improving population health and in the control of diseases, including non-communicable diseases. However, an evidence-based approach to formulating healthy public policy has been difficult to implement, partly on account of barriers that hinder integrated work between researchers and policy-makers. This paper describes a “policy effectiveness–feasibility loop” (PEFL) that brings together epidemiological modelling, local situation analysis and option appraisal to foster collaboration between researchers and policy-makers. Epidemiological modelling explores the determinants of trends in disease and the potential health benefits of modifying them. Situation analysis investigates the current conceptualization of policy, the level of policy awareness and commitment among key stakeholders, and what actually happens in practice, thereby helping to identify policy gaps. Option appraisal integrates epidemiological modelling and situation analysis to investigate the feasibility, costs and likely health benefits of various policy options. The authors illustrate how PEFL was used in a project to inform public policy for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in four parts of the eastern Mediterranean. They conclude that PEFL may offer a useful framework for researchers and policy-makers to successfully work together to generate evidence-based policy, and they encourage further evaluation of this approach

Free and self-interacting scalar fields in the presence of conical singularities

Free and self-interacting scalar fields in the presence of conical singularities are analized in some detail. The role of such a kind of singularities on free and vacuum energy and also on the one-loop effective action is pointed out using $\zeta$-function regularization and heat-kernel techniques.Comment: 20 Pages, RevTex, UTF30

Common and unique neural activations in autobiographical, episodic, and semantic retrieval

This study sought to explore the neural correlates that underlie autobiographical, episodic, and semantic memory. Autobiographical memory was defined as the conscious recollection of personally relevant events, episodic memory as the recall of stimuli presented in the laboratory, and semantic memory as the retrieval of factual information and general knowledge about the world. Our objective was to delineate common neural activations, reflecting a functional overlap, and unique neural activations, reflecting functional dissociation of these memory processes. We conducted an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study in which we utilized the same pictorial stimuli but manipulated retrieval demands to extract autobiographical, episodic, or semantic memories. The results show a functional overlap of the three types of memory retrieval in the inferior frontal gyrus, the middle frontal gyrus, the caudate nucleus, the thalamus, and the lingual gyrus. All memory conditions yielded activation of the left medial-temporal lobe; however, we found a functional dissociation within this region. The anterior and superior areas were active in episodic and semantic retrieval, whereas more posterior and inferior areas were active in autobiographical retrieval. Unique activations for each memory type were also delineated, including medial frontal increases for autobiographical, right middle frontal increases for episodic, and right inferior temporal increases for semantic retrieval. These findings suggest a common neural network underlying all declarative memory retrieval, as well as unique neural contributions reflecting the specific properties of retrieved memories