An overview of current pharmacy impact on immunisation: A global report

The role of pharmacists in immunisation and vaccination varies across the world; in some countries pharmacists are primarily involved in ensuring the safe supply and dispensing of vaccines, as well as advocating for immunisation, while in other countries they are empowered to play a more active role, as they are legally authorised to administer vaccinations, manage patients’ vaccination schedules and/or organise vaccinations activities and campaigns. It is estimated that ten million lives per year could be saved by increasing access to medicines and vaccinations. Community pharmacists are therefore in a strong position to provide a major contribution to public health due to their accessibility, distribution and available medicines expertise. Pharmacists are also highly trusted healthcare professionals and can therefore significantly improve communication channels and provide public reassurance on product quality. We conducted a survey, disseminated to 137 FIP member organisations, to gather a better understanding of the current role of pharmacists in immunisation across the world and the impact of these activities. We also provide here a closer look at the immunisation activities undertaken in eleven different countries and territories presented as case studies. Vaccination policies vary across the world; the legal authority to perform immunisation activities currently varies significantly across countries and the integration of community pharmacies and pharmacists in national vaccination policies tends to develop as a gradual process over time. Strategic and integrated partnerships between healthcare professionals are increasingly common and the role of pharmacists as educators, facilitators and immunisers is becoming more readily recognised. Several countries authorise vaccination in pharmacies and/or by pharmacists (for example in Argentina, Australia, Philippines, South Africa, UK and USA); this practice has been initiated, in the majority of the cases, with pharmacy-based vaccinations against influenza and then expanded to include other vaccines from the immunisation schedule. In most cases, it is associated with specific requirements such as pharmacist training, management of vaccination records and specifications on premises, equipment and waste management. Based on the sample of countries presented in this report, 940 million people live in countries where over 193,000 community-pharmacies can potentially offer access to vaccination services. In this sample alone, we further estimate that currently, pharmacist-administered vaccination services have the potential to reach a total global population of 655 million. These estimates are based on our sample of 45 countries and territories; the potential in health gain to have pharmacy-led outreach to global populations is clear and this report suggests that community-based pharmacies are safe and high quality vaccination centres. Providing direct administration of vaccines, using pharmacists and pharmacies, is a highly effective public health strategy for health systems and healthcare planners, complementing the existing service offerings for immunisation. Pharmacists are trusted healthcare professionals and as such can offer strong advocacy for building societal trust in vaccines as essential medicines. Added to this is the pharmacy-based opportunity for promoting immunisation in communities linked with the easy access to vaccination that community pharmacies bring and the outreach opportunities for healthcare planners. On the technical side, and highly significant, is the medicines expertise embedded in the vaccination supply chain and storage of cold-chain products; the safety and quality assurance that society demands of vaccines also has significant input from pharmacists. Pharmacists offer convenience, product safety, advocacy support and an overall highly impactful contribution to the public health challenges of immunisation and vaccination policies. The continuing trend to authorise pharmacists to provide direct access to immunisation allows policy makers to ensure additional resilience for national public health systems. Unexpected outbreaks of preventable communicable disease (from influenza to events such as H1N1) will happen again, somewhere, at some time, and pharmacists should be considered as invaluable contributors, together with our healthcare professional colleagues, in the delivery, access and administration of vaccines also during emergencies

Effects of physics beyond the standard model on the neutrino charge radius: an effective Lagrangian approach

In this work, we look for possible new physics effects on the electromagnetic charge and anapole form factors, $f_Q(q^2)$ and $f_A(q^2)$, for a massless Dirac neutrino, when these quantities are calculated in the context of an effective electroweak Yang-Mills theory, which induces the most general $SU_L(2)$--invariant Lorentz tensor structure of nonrenormalizable type for the $WW\gamma$ vertex. It is found that in this context, besides the standard model contribution, the additional contribution to $f_{Q}(q^2)$ and $f_{A}(q^2)$ ($f_{Q}^{O_W}(q^2)$ and $f_{A}^{O_W}(q^2)$, respectively) are gauge independent and finite functions of $q^2$ after adopting a renormalization scheme. These form factors, $f_{Q}^{O_W}(q^2)$ and $f_{A}^{O_W}(q^2)$, get contribution at the one loop level only from the proper neutrino electromagnetic vertex. Besides, the relation $f_{Q}^{eff}(q^2)=q^2f_{A}^{eff}(q^2)$ ($f_{Q}^{eff}(q^2)=f_{Q}^{SM}(q^2)+f_{Q}^{O_W}(q^2)$, $f_{A}^{eff}(q^2)=f_{A}^{SM}(q^2)+f_{A}^{O_W}(q^2)$) is still fulfilled and hence the relation $a_{\nu}^{eff} = ^{eff} /6$ ($a_{\nu}^{eff} = a_{\nu}^{SM}+ a_{\nu}^{O_W}$, $^{eff} = ^{SM}+< r^2_{\nu} > ^{O_W}$)is gotten, just as in the SM. Using the experimental constraint on the anomalous $WW\gamma$ vertex, a value for the additional contribution to the charge radius of |^{O_W}| \lsim 10^{-34} cm^2 is obtained, which is one order of magnitude lower than the SM value.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Suitability of leguminous cover crop pollens as food source for the green lacewing Chrysoperla externa (Hagen) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae).

Diversification of crops with species that provide suitable pollen for predators may reduce pest population on crops by enhancing predator effectiveness. In this paper we evaluated the suitability of leguminous cover crop pollens to the predatory green lacewing Chrysoperla externa (Hagen). The predator is commonly found in coffee agroecosystems and the plant species tested were pigeon pea and sunn hemp, which are used in organic coffee systems. Newly emerged females and males of C. externa were reared on diets containing pollen of pigeon pea, sunn hemp, or castor bean, used as a control. The reproductive success of C. externa was evaluated when females fed the pollen species and when honey was added to the diets, to verify the predator need for an extra carbohydrate source. Similar intrinsic growth rates were found for females fed on pigeon pea pollen and on sunn hemp pollen but these rates increased significantly when honey was added to the diets. Females fed with pigeon pea pollen plus honey and with sunn hemp pollen plus honey had higher intrinsic growth rates than those fed with castor bean pollen plus honey. Females fed on castor bean pollen only or on honey only, did not oviposit. Leguminous pollen species were equally suitable for C. externa especially when they were complemented with honey. The results suggest that to successfully enhance predator effectiveness, organic coffee plantation should be diversified with plant providing pollen in combination with plant providing nectar

Behavioral aspects and predation of seeds of Cardiospermum grandiflorum Swartz (Sapindaceae) by Cissoanthonomus tuberculipennis Hustache (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

For the first time in Brazil, the weevil Cissoanthonomus tuberculipennis Hustache, 1939 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) are reported preying on seeds of Cardiospermum grandiflorum Swartz (Sapindaceae). Observations are presented on oviposition and larval behavior, pupation site, and adult emergence. Photos of host plant, egg, larva, pupa and adult are provided

Heavy boson production through the collision of an ultrahigh-energy neutrino on a target nucleon

We discuss W and Z production through the deep inelastic neutrino-nucleon scattering in the context of the standard model SU(3)x SU(2)x U(1) of the strong and electroweak interactions. We find the cross section rates for the process neutrino + nucleon --> lepton(-) + W(+) + X for the case of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos colliding on a target nucleon.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure

Factores lingüísticos asociados al rendimiento escolar en niños y niñas indígenas del primer ciclo escolar de escuelas primarias bilingües

La lengua materna es el principal medio de comunicación del niño indígena maya para vincularse con su ambiente escolar, por ello la escuela debe considerar sus formas de vida y tradiciones culturales y apoyarse en maestros bilingües bien preparados. En esta investigación, realizada a 37 alumnos, 31 padres de familia, y tres docentes de escuelas primarias bilingües de los municipios de Calkiní y Hecelchakán del estado de Campeche (México) durante el ciclo escolar 2001-2002, el principal propósito fue analizar el uso de la lengua maya en el contexto escolar y familiar, para relacionar los factores lingüísticos asociados a la calidad y eficacia escolar representado por el rendimiento escolar asimismo, analizar la influencia del docente. Se determinó que la lengua materna del niño, el apoyo que reciben por parte de padres y profesores para aprender maya y español, así como el uso que le dan a ambas lenguas en diversas situaciones comunicativas son factores favorecedores del rendimiento escolar, al comparar estos indicadores con las notas obtenidas en ambas asignaturas. Asimismo se determino la importancia de la participación del profesor/bilingüe al elaborar un diagnóstico inicial de sus alumnos y realizar una planificación de sus actividades escolares considerando el aprendizaje de la lengua Maya

Cell-based therapies for stroke : promising solution or dead end?

The introduction of recanalization procedures has revolutionized acute stroke management, although the narrow time window, strict eligibility criteria and logistical limitations still exclude the majority of patients from treatment. In addition, residual deficits are present in many patients who undergo therapy, preventing their return to premorbid status. Hence, there is a strong need for novel, and ideally complementary, approaches to stroke management. In preclinical experiments, cell-based treatments have demonstrated beneficial effects in the subacute and chronic stages following stroke [1; 2; 3] and therefore are considered a promising option to supplement current clinical practice. At the same time, great progress has been made in developing clinically feasible delivery and monitoring protocols [4]. However, efficacy results initially reported in clinical studies fell short of expectations [5] raising concerns that cell treatment might eventually share the ‘dead end fate’ of many previous experimental stroke therapies. This Research Topic reviews some of the latest and most innovative studies to summarize the state of the art in translational cell treatments for stroke

An X-Ray Study of the Supernova Remnant G290.1-0.8

G290.1-0.8 (MSH 11-61A) is a supernova remnant (SNR) whose X-ray morphology is centrally bright. However, unlike the class of X-ray composite SNRs whose centers are dominated by nonthermal emission, presumably driven by a central pulsar, we show that the X-ray emission from G290.1-0.8 is thermal in nature, placing the remnant in an emerging class which includes such remnants as W44, W28, 3C391, and others. The evolutionary sequence which leads to such X-ray properties is not well understood. Here we investigate two scenarios for such emission: evolution in a cloudy interstellar medium, and early-stage evolution of a remnant into the radiative phase, including the effects of thermal conduction. We construct models for these scenarios in an attempt to reproduce the observed center-filled X-ray properties of G290.1-0.8, and we derive the associated age, energy, and ambient density conditions implied by the models. We find that for reasonable values of the explosion energy, the remnant age is of order (1 - 2) x 10^{4} yr. This places a fairly strong constraint on any association between G290.1-0.8 and PSR J1105-610, which would require an anomalously large velocity for the pulsar.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, ApJ, accepte