Submission to the United Nations Secretary General's High Level Panel on Access to Medicines

Much of the current debate on health care goals, medical innovation and trade rules focuses on the misalignment between the need to provide incentives to innovation – mainly through a tight intellectual property (IPR) regime – and the resulting negative consequences in terms of access to medicines. While this clash is certainly crucial, this contribution focuses on a different aspect of the misalignment between innovation and access, concerning essential drugs and generics rather than brand new, innovative drugs. This contribution argues that the promotion of domestic drug production and innovative capabilities in low and middle income countries, and notably on the Sub-Saharan African subcontinent, can may constitute an important step towards achieving significant improvements in public health – as a human right that includes access to essential medicines. We provide background and evidence for this argument. We then draw out policy implications, arguing that increased policy coherence between health policies for medicines access and public health, and industrial and trade policies for Africa-based pharmaceutical production and innovation, are both feasible and beneficial, generating synergies between improved medicines access and local industrial innovation

Three-way ordinal non symmetrical correspondence analysis for the evaluation of the patient satisfaction

In some recent articles, emphasis has been given to the partition of the Goodman-Kruskal’s tau index using orthogonal polynomials for the study of the non symmetrical relations in three-way contingency tables. New graphical techniques that consider such a partition and allow for the analysis of asymmetric relationships have been proposed, including three-way ordinal non symmetrical correspondence analysis (Simonetti, 2003). Such a procedure takes into account the presence of an ordinal predictor and response variables. In this paper we demonstrate the applicability of such a technique for the patient satisfaction evaluation

On Fuzzy Regression Adapting Partial Least Squares

Partial Least Squared (PLS) regression is a model linking a dependent variable y to a set of X (numerical or categorical) explanatory variables. It can be obtained as a series of simple and multiple regressions of simple and multiple regressions. PLS is an alternative to classical regression model when there are many variables or the variables are correlated. On the other hand, an alternative method to regression in order to model data has been studied is called Fuzzy Linear Regression (FLR). FLR is one of the modelling techniques based on fuzzy set theory. It is applied to many diversified areas such as engineering, biology, finance and so on. Development of FLR follows mainly two paths. One of which depends on improving the parameter estimation methods. This enables to compute more reliable and more accurate parameter estimation in fuzzy setting. Second of which is related to applying these methods to data, which usually do not follow strict assumptions. The application point of view of FLR has not been examined widely except outlier case. For example, it has not been widely examined how FLR behaves under the multivariate case. To overcome such a problem in classic setting, one of the methods that are practically useful is PLS. In this paper, FLR is examined based on application point of view when it has several explanatory variables by adapting PLS

Exploring the anti-biofilm activity of cinnamic acid derivatives in Candida albicans

Some compounds, characterized by phenylethenyl moiety, such as methyl cinnamate and caffeic acid phenethyl ester, are able to inhibit C. albicans biofilm formation. On these bases, and as a consequence of our previous work, we synthesized a series of cinnamoyl ester and amide derivatives in order to evaluate them for the activity against C. albicans biofilm and planktonically grown cells. The most active compounds 7 and 8 showed ⩾50% biofilm inhibition concentrations (BMIC50) of 2 μg/mL and 4 μg/mL respectively, against C. albicans biofilm formation; otherwise, 7 showed an interesting activity also against mature biofilm, with BMIC50 of 8 μg/m

Urban architecture as <i>connective</i>-<i>collective</i> intelligence: which spaces of interaction?

During the twentieth century, with the advent of industrial society and globalization, the language of planning changed according to the shifts in construction and use of physical space. By borrowing terms and spatial forms from biology and cybernetics, industrial society and globalization increased the original semantic connotations. Moving from cognitive sciences, this paper outlines the definition of architecture as connective-collective intelligence and presents its implication in urban design. Spontaneous and commercial initiatives are redefining the communication form of urban life, affecting the procedures of the transmission of traditional knowledge. This approach to building environment is moving towards a complex multichannel interaction, involving both the individual and the collective experiences of space and technology. In describing some signs of that process, the authors outline new features that are changing the concept of sustainability in urban design

Tractor cabin ergonomics analyses by means of Kinect motion capture technology

Kinect is the de facto standard for real-time depth sensing and motion capture cameras. The sensor is here proposed for exploiting body tracking during driving operations. The motion capture system was developed taking advantage of the Microsoft software development kit (SDK), and implemented for real-time monitoring of body movements of a beginner and an expert tractor drivers, on different tracks (straight and with curves) and with different driving conditions (manual and assisted steering). Tests show how analyses can be done not only in terms of absolute movements, but also in terms of relative shifts, allowing for quantification of angular displacements or rotations

Combination of pharmacotherapy and lidocaine analgesic block of the peripheral trigeminal branches for trigeminal neuralgia: a pilot study

Classical trigeminal neuralgia (CTN) is treated predominantly by pharmacotherapy but side effects and unsuccessful occurs. The current study was carried out to evaluate the therapeutic effect of combination of pharmacotherapy and lidocaine block. Thirteen patients with CTN managed with pharmacotherapy were recruited and assigned either to no additional treatment (Group I) or to additional analgesic block (Group II). The primary endpoint was the reduction in the frequency of pain episodes in a month assessed at 30 and 90 days. Comparisons of measurements of pain, general health and depression scales were secondary endpoints. The results from the follow-up visits at 30 and 90 days showed the Group II to have larger reduction in the frequency of pain and exhibited a bigger improvement in the scores of the pain, general health and depression scales. The results from this preliminary study suggest a clinical benefit of the combination of pharmacotherapy and lidocaine block

Italian Lycium barbarum L. Berry: Chemical Characterization and Nutraceutical Value:

Lycium barbarum L. has received considerable attention in recent years also in western countries because of the interesting healthy value of these berries. In this paper, goji samples cultivated in Southern Italy were analyzed for their chemical composition and nutritional profile in order to characterize fruits of Italian origin and to increase the awareness about their nutraceutical value. Lipid fraction was characterized by high percentages of unsaturated fatty acids, in particular oleic and linoleic acids, and very low values of atherogenic and thrombogenic indexes (0.1 and 0.2, respectively). In addition, goji berry was an interesting source of phytosterols (41.5 mg/100 g), essentially represented by β-sitosterol. Carotenoid analysis showed the presence of zeaxanthin, in esterified form, with high content of zeaxanthin dipalmitate (277.9 mg/100 g). Finally, in vitro antioxidant capacity and phenolic compounds were investigated. The results suggested that goji hydro-alcoholic extract possessed the ability to scavenge free radicals. Phenolic acids were clearly the most abundant compounds followed by flavonols and favanols. The results reported in this study confirm that Italian L. barbarum berry is a rich source of bioactive molecules with nutraceutical properties