The Philippine Health Institutions: Some Problems, Approaches and Policy Issues

This paper presents a brief analysis of the current situation of Philippine health institutions using secondary data. It locates the different types of health institutions, describes its major problems, discusses recent approaches these institutions have adopted to improve delivery of health care services and extricates policy-related issues and data gaps from available literature.health sector, hospitals, hospital care, health centers

In vitro models for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Emerging platforms and their applications

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) represents a global healthcare challenge, affecting 1 in 4 adults, and death rates are predicted to rise inexorably. The progressive form of NAFLD, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), can lead to fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. However, no medical treatments are licensed for NAFLD-NASH. Identifying efficacious therapies has been hindered by the complexity of disease pathogenesis, a paucity of predictive preclinical models and inadequate validation of pharmacological targets in humans. The development of clinically relevant in vitro models of the disease will pave the way to overcome these challenges. Currently, the combined application of emerging technologies (e.g., organ-on-a-chip/microphysiological systems) and control engineering approaches promises to unravel NAFLD biology and deliver tractable treatment candidates. In this review, we will describe advances in preclinical models for NAFLD-NASH, the recent introduction of novel technologies in this space, and their importance for drug discovery endeavors in the future

A data-driven approach to decode metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), defined by the presence of liver steatosis together with at least one out of five cardiometabolic factors, is the most common cause of chronic liver disease worldwide, affecting around one in three people. Yet the clinical presentation of MASLD and the risk of progression to cirrhosis and adverse clinical outcomes is highly variable. It therefore represents both a global public health threat and a precision medicine challenge. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is being investigated in MASLD to develop reproducible, quantitative, and automated methods to enhance patient stratification and to discover new biomarkers and therapeutic targets in MASLD. This review details the different applications of AI and machine learning algorithms in MASLD, particularly in the context of analyzing electronic health record, digital pathology, and imaging data. Additionally, it also describes how specific MASLD consortia are leveraging multimodal data sources to spark research breakthroughs in the field. Using a new national level ‘data commons’ (SteatoSITE) as an exemplar, the opportunities as well as the technical challenges of large-scale databases in MASLD research are highlighted

Assessing market incentive policies in Kenya with a food security and nutrition perspective: a macro-microsimulation approach

Kenya, such as other African countries, is particularly concerned about the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal #2 (SDG #2: zero hunger), and its associated consequences for the society. Empirical evidence about food security and nutrition in Kenya accounts for deficiencies in food access, food sufficiency and food quality at the household level. These deficiencies are among others the causes of all forms of malnutrition (stunting, wasting and overweight), which can lead to cognitive impairment, limited immunity to diseases, low educational performance, increased risk of chronic disease and even mortality cases of children in this country. To solve the food security and nutrition problems in Kenya is a challenging issue because of the different dimensions to be tackled (economic, environmental, educational, health and sanitation) and also because of the heterogeneity that characterizes households (income and food expenditure, education level of households’ head, regional sanitation coverage, access to potable water / waste water system, etc.). In the recent past, the Government of Kenya supported the construction of a roughly €1.1 billion fertilizer plant in Eldoret in the framework of a fertilizer cost reduction strategy aiming at stabilizing fertilizer prices and making fertilizer more accessible through local manufacturing, blending and bulk procurement. Increasing the domestic production of fertilizers should reduce the price of fertilizer, making them more accessible for farmers. Co-authors of this report, employing the STatic Applied General Equilibrium for DEVelopment (STAGE-DEV) Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, calibrated on a Social Accounting Matrix Kenya 2014, evaluated the impact on food security of the creation of the fertiliser plant together with three additional policy scenarios (market access, extension and subsidies removal). For the purpose of this study, we developed a macro-micro simulation model, based on the previously developed CGE and policy scenarios and on microsimulations using the Kenya Integrated Household Budged Survey 2015/2016. The objective is to produce new set of food security indicators using macro-micro model linkages and it is purely methodological. The policy results, which should be taken with some caution, are discussed in terms of initial economic (per capita income), food security (household dietary diversity and dietary energy consumption) and children’s nutritional (stunting, wasting) status at the household level. Furthermore, national results are disaggregated by metropolitan areas (Nairobi and Mombasa) and the rest of urban and rural zones of the country. Main results suggest that increasing fertilizers’ availability coupled with increasing market access through the improvement of infrastructures and the reduction of transport costs (market access scenario) will increase overall purchasing power. Supporting pro-poor growth, this development will benefit the most those households with lower diet diversity and higher stunting rates. This policy scenario also leads to the largest increases in diet energy consumption, with similar distributive results as for the purchasing power impact. Increasing fertilizers’ availability paired with improving crops productivity in agricultural practices (extension scenario) leads to the largest increase in energy consumption, particularly from fats in the diet, among households with low diet diversity. Average protein and carbohydrate consumption at national level increase the most within the market access scenario. The results confirm the findings of the previous report. Increasing fertilizer availability in Kenya is not enough to improve food security in the country. The contribution of complementary policies, such as increasing the market access for fertilizers and agriculture by improving the rural infrastructure or improving the extension services to train small-holder farmers about fertilizer and land use, that give farmers better access to input and output markets is needed.JRC.D.4-Economics of Agricultur

Chronological control and centennial-scale climatic subdivisions of the Last Glacial Termination in the western Mediterranean region

The Last Glacial Termination is marked by changing environmental conditions affected by abrupt and rapid climate oscillations, such as Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1), which is characterized by extremely low sea surface temperatures (SST) and significant changes in northern hemisphere terrestrial landscape (e.g., vegetation) and human dispersion. Previous studies show that overall cold/dry conditions occurred during HS1, but the lack of high-resolution records precludes whether climate was stable or instead characterized by instability. A high-resolution paleoclimatic record from the Padul wetland (southern Iberian Peninsula), supported by a high-resolution chronology and contrasted with other records from southern Europe and the Mediterranean region, shows 1) that the age boundaries of HS1 in this area occurred at similar to 18.0 kyr BP (median age = 17,970 cal yr BP; mean age = 18,030 +/- 330 cal yr BP) and similar to 15.2 kyr BP (median age = 15,210 cal yr BP; mean age = 15,200 +/- 420 cal yr BP) and 2) that climate during HS1 was non-stationary and centennial-scale variability in moisture is superimposed on this overall cold climatic period. In this study, we improve the pollen sampling resolution with respect to previous studies on the same Padul-15-05 sedimentary core and suggest a novel subdivision of HS1 in 7 sub-phases, including: i) 3 sub-phases (a.1-a.3) during an arid early phase (HS1a; similar to 18.4-17.2 kyr BP), ii) a relatively humid middle phase (HS1b; similar to 17.2-16.9 kyr BP), and iii) 3 sub-phases (c.1-c.3) during an arid late phase (HS1c; similar to 16.9-15.7 kyr BP). This climatic subdivision is regionally supported by SST oscillations from the Mediterranean Sea, suggesting a strong land-sea coupling. A cyclostratigraphic analysis of pollen data between 20 and 11 kyr BP indicates that the climate variability and the proposed subdivisions characterized by similar to 2000 and similar to 800-yr periodicities could be related to solar forcing controlling climate in this area. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Sobre el número máximo de factores frecuentes distintos en una cadena de símbolos

Las cadenas de sımbolos, como fuente de informacion, siempre han sido un recurso del que poder extraer conocimiento y, actualmente, el numero de aplicaciones y casos reales que las usan sigue creciendo, de forma que avances en este ambito repercutiran en multiples disciplinas. En esta comunicacion se estudia la complejidad del problema de descubrir factores (subcadenas) frecuentes en cadenas de sımbolos de longitud n, añadiendo la caracterıstica de que dicha busqueda pueda estar dirigida por un soporte (frecuencia) k mınimo que deben alcanzar dichos factores. Se analiza como afecta este resultado a algoritmos conocidos para este problema y se calcula de manera efectiva el numero maximo de factores k-frecuentes en una cadena. Se llega a demostrar que, aunque la complejidad en general es cuadratica en la longitud n de la cadena, si el soporte k es al menosraiz(n), la complejidad es lineal en n. Ese soporte es suficientemente interesante.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Este trabajo ha sido parcialmente financiado por el I Plan Propio de Investigacion y Transferencia de la Universidad de Malaga

Kinetics of Transesterification of Safflower Oil to Obtain Biodiesel Using Heterogeneous Catalysis

The kinetics of the transesterification of safflower oil and methanol catalyzed by K2O/NaX was studied and modeled. The influence of the oil-methanol initial molar ratio and amount of catalyst were investigated to achieve a maximum triglycerides conversion (99%) and a final methyl esters content of 94% ± 1. A kineticmodel based on an Eley– Rideal mechanism was found to best fit the experimental data when assuming methanol adsorption as determining step. Other models derived from Langmuir – Hinshelwood – Hougen –Watson (LHHW) mechanisms were rejected based on statistical analysis, mechanistic considerations and physicochemical interpretation of the estimated parameters

The Holocene Cedrus pollen record from Sierra Nevada (S Spain), a proxy for climate change in N Africa

Comprehending the effects of climate variability and disturbance on forested ecosystems is paramount to successfully managing forest environments under future climate scenarios (e.g., global warming, aridi-fication increase). Changes in fossil pollen abundance in sedimentary archives record past vegetation dynamics at regional scales, mainly related to climate changes and, in the last few millennia, to human impact. Pollen records can thus provide long databases with information on how the environment reacted to climate change before the historical record. In this study, we synthesized fossil pollen data from seven sites from the Sierra Nevada in southern Spain to investigate the response of forests in the western Mediterranean area to millennial-scale climate changes and to human impact during the Holocene. In particular, here we focused on Cedrus pollen abundances, which most-likely originated from Northern Africa and were carried to Sierra Nevada by wind. Cedrus pollen has received little attention in the Iberian Peninsula palynological records, for it occurs in low concentrations and has an African source, and thus this article explores the potential to reconstruct its past history and climate. Although Cedrus abundances are generally lower than 1% in the studied pollen samples, a comparison with North African (Moroccan) Cedrus pollen records shows similar trends at long- and short-term time-scales. Therefore, this record could be used as a proxy for changes in this forest species in North Africa. As observed in the Sierra Nevada synthetic record, the increasing trend of Cedrus pollen during the Middle and Late Holocene closely correlates with decreasing summer insolation. This would have produced overall cooler annual temperatures in Northern Africa (Middle Atlas and Rif Mountains) as well as lower summer evaporation, benefiting the growth of this cool-adapted montane tree species while increasing available moisture during the summer, which is critical for this water-demanding species. Millennial-scale variability also characterizes the Sierra Nevada Cedrus synthetic pollen record. Cedrus abundance oscillations co-vary with well-known millennial-scale climatic variability that controlled cedar abundance and altitudinal distribution in montane areas of N Africa. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Climatic control on the Holocene hydrology of a playa-lake system in the western Mediterranean

Evaporitic lakes such as playa-lakes are characteristic of many arid regions and are unique environments with respect to fauna and flora, while being very vulnerable to climate and environmental fluctuations and threatened by the current global change scenario. Water balance oscillations in these systems can trigger the precipitation or dissolution of different evaporitic minerals, negatively impacting local biodiversity and economic activities. Here, we study the sedimentary record of a small saline pond from a playa-lake complex in southwestern Iberia in order to reconstruct the paleohydrological evolution of this area and assess potential anthropogenic disturbances. The different proxies studied in the-11.9 ky old sedimentary record of the Laguna de la Ballestera suggest that the greatest lake extension and the highest water levels occurred during the Early Holocene, pointing to the wettest period of the record. Climate transitioned towards more arid conditions during the Middle Holocene, and even more dramatically during the Late Holocene. In this last stage the wetland surface and the water level largely diminished and gypsum precipitation gradually increased pointing towards a negative precipitation/ evapotranspiration balance and lowest water levels. Summer desiccation likely occurred under this scenario, especially after-1.0-0.9 cal ky BP coeval with the Medieval Climate Anomaly, when gypsum content started to rise abruptly. However, this significant gypsum precipitation was only associated with a massive drop in the siliciclastic content and scarce carbonates (dolomite and calcite) during the last-400 years. This evidence suggests a shift from a (semi) permanent to a temporal/seasonal hydrological regime. The environmental evolution of this wetland responded to the general climatic evolution of the western Mediterranean during the Holocene, being mostly controlled by changes in insolation. Our data also show that the environmental response of the studied wetland to natural climate variations was only significantly disturbed by human activities since the 20th century, especially in the second half of the century, deduced by abrupt fluctuations in the siliciclastic, gypsum and organic content in the sediments, as well as by the enhanced sedimentary accumulation rates, probably as a response to changes in the hydroperiod of the lake and in the catchment land use.Peer reviewe