USF binding sequences from the HS4 insulator element impose early replication timing on a vertebrate replicator

The nuclear genomes of vertebrates show a highly organized program of DNA replication where GC-rich isochores are replicated early in S-phase, while AT-rich isochores are late replicating. GC-rich regions are gene dense and are enriched for active transcription, suggesting a connection between gene regulation and replication timing. Insulator elements can organize independent domains of gene transcription and are suitable candidates for being key regulators of replication timing. We have tested the impact of inserting a strong replication origin flanked by the β-globin HS4 insulator on the replication timing of naturally late replicating regions in two different avian cell types, DT40 (lymphoid) and 6C2 (erythroid). We find that the HS4 insulator has the capacity to impose a shift to earlier replication. This shift requires the presence of HS4 on both sides of the replication origin and results in an advance of replication timing of the target locus from the second half of S-phase to the first half when a transcribed gene is positioned nearby. Moreover, we find that the USF transcription factor binding site is the key cis-element inside the HS4 insulator that controls replication timing. Taken together, our data identify a combination of cis-elements that might constitute the basic unit of multi-replicon megabase-sized early domains of DNA replication

The use of Goal Attainment Scaling in a community health promotion initiative with seniors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Evaluating collaborative community health promotion initiatives presents unique challenges, including engaging community members and other stakeholders in the evaluation process, and measuring the attainment of goals at the collective community level. Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) is a versatile, under-utilized evaluation tool adaptable to a wide range of situations. GAS actively involves all partners in the evaluation process and has many benefits when used in community health settings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of GAS as a potential means of measuring progress and outcomes in community health promotion and community development projects. GAS methodology was used in a local community of seniors (n = 2500; mean age = 76 ± 8.06 SD; 77% female, 23% male) to a) collaboratively set health promotion and community partnership goals and b) objectively measure the degree of achievement, over- or under-achievement of the established health promotion goals. Goal attainment was measured in a variety of areas including operationalizing a health promotion centre in a local mall, developing a sustainable mechanism for recruiting and training volunteers to operate the health promotion centre, and developing and implementing community health education programs. Goal attainment was evaluated at 3 monthly intervals for one year, then re-evaluated again at year 2.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>GAS was found to be a feasible and responsive method of measuring community health promotion and community development progress. All project goals were achieved at one year or sooner. The overall GAS score for the total health promotion project increased from 16.02 at baseline (sum of scale scores = -30, average scale score = -2) to 54.53 at one year (sum of scale scores = +4, average scale score = +0.27) showing project goals were achieved above the expected level. With GAS methodology an amalgamated score of 50 represents the achievement of goals at the expected level.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>GAS provides a "participatory", flexible evaluation approach that involves community members, research partners and other stakeholders in the evaluation process. GAS was found to be "user-friendly" and readily understandable by seniors and other community partners not familiar with program evaluation.</p

Measuring capacity building in communities: a review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although communities have long been exhorted to make efforts to enhance their own health, such approaches have often floundered and resulted in little or no health benefits when the capacity of the community has not been adequately strengthened. Thus being able to assess the capacity building process is paramount in facilitating action in communities for social and health improvement. The current review aims to i) identify all domains used in systematically documented frameworks developed by other authors to assess community capacity building; and ii) to identify the dimensions and attributes of each of the domains as ascribed by these authors and reassemble them into a comprehensive compilation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Relevant published articles were identified through systematic electronic searches of selected databases and the examination of the bibliographies of retrieved articles. Studies assessing capacity building or community development or community participation were selected and assessed for methodological quality, and quality in relation to the development and application of domains which were identified as constituents of community capacity building. Data extraction and analysis were undertaken using a realist synthesis approach.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Eighteen articles met the criteria for this review. The various domains to assess community capacity building were identified and reassembled into nine comprehensive domains: "learning opportunities and skills development", "resource mobilization", "partnership/linkages/networking", "leadership", "participatory decision-making", "assets-based approach", "sense of community", "communication", and "development pathway". Six sub-domains were also identified: "shared vision and clear goals", "community needs assessment", "process and outcome monitoring", "sustainability", "commitment to action" and "dissemination".</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The set of domains compiled in this review serve as a foundation for community-based work by those in the field seeking to support and nurture the development of competent communities. Further research is required to examine the robustness of capacity domains over time and to examine capacity development in association with health or other social outcomes.</p

The architecture and effect of participation: a systematic review of community participation for communicable disease control and elimination. Implications for malaria elimination

Community engagement and participation has played a critical role in successful disease control and elimination campaigns in many countries. Despite this, its benefits for malaria control and elimination are yet to be fully realized. This may be due to a limited understanding of the influences on participation in developing countries as well as inadequate investment in infrastructure and resources to support sustainable community participation. This paper reports the findings of an atypical systematic review of 60 years of literature in order to arrive at a more comprehensive awareness of the constructs of participation for communicable disease control and elimination and provide guidance for the current malaria elimination campaign.Evidence derived from quantitative research was considered both independently and collectively with qualitative research papers and case reports. All papers included in the review were systematically coded using a pre-determined qualitative coding matrix that identified influences on community participation at the individual, household, community and government/civil society levels. Colour coding was also carried out to reflect the key primary health care period in which community participation programmes originated. These processes allowed exhaustive content analysis and synthesis of data in an attempt to realize conceptual development beyond that able to be achieved by individual empirical studies or case reports.Of the 60 papers meeting the selection criteria, only four studies attempted to determine the effect of community participation on disease transmission. Due to inherent differences in their design, interventions and outcome measures, results could not be compared. However, these studies showed statistically significant reductions in disease incidence or prevalence using various forms of community participation. The use of locally selected volunteers provided with adequate training, supervision and resources are common and important elements of the success of the interventions in these studies. In addition, qualitative synthesis of all 60 papers elucidates the complex architecture of community participation for communicable disease control and elimination which is presented herein.The current global malaria elimination campaign calls for a health systems strengthening approach to provide an enabling environment for programmes in developing countries. In order to realize the benefits of this approach it is vital to provide adequate investment in the 'people' component of health systems and understand the multi-level factors that influence their participation. The challenges of strengthening this component of health systems are discussed, as is the importance of ensuring that current global malaria elimination efforts do not derail renewed momentum towards the comprehensive primary health care approach. It is recommended that the application of the results of this systematic review be considered for other diseases of poverty in order to harmonize efforts at building 'competent communities' for communicable disease control and optimising health system effectiveness

Vital statistics relating to the practice of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) in the United Kingdom

Purpose of research: To examine the practice of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) in the UK and provide information which can serve as baseline data for monitoring changes and future developments in HIA. A survey of HIA practitioners was conducted using semi-structured questionnaires. Results: • 42% of the 103 HIAs were rapid assessments, 33% were intermediate, and 25% were comprehensive appraisals. • While 70% of the HIAs were conducted prospectively, 23% were concurrent, and 7% were retrospective assessments. • 64% of the 52 practitioners were employed in the public sector, 13% in the academia and research sector, 10% were employed in the private sector, 6% were self employed and the remaining 7% were working in other sectors of the British economy. Conclusions: The majority of the HIAs investigated in this study were rapid and prospective assessments, which were mostly commissioned by government agencies. Additionally, the majority of the HIA practitioners were employed in the public sector of the UK economy

Strategies and incentives for enhancing the application of health impact assessment (HIA) in Nigeria: a view from those who should know

In consonance with the paradigm shift from curative to more preventive healthcare, there has been an increasing application of health impact assessment (HIA) in many developed countries. However, progress towards the integration of HIA into public policy in many developing countries has been comparatively very slow. This article is a primary research to evaluate the barriers and motivational factors; and to proffer effective strategies and incentives for enhancing the application of HIA in health and development policies in Nigeria. Semi-structured questionnaires were designed and primarily disseminated online to a random sample of health and non-health professionals, public service workers, policy-makers and business entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Additional questionnaires were also hand-delivered. Inferential statistics was used in the analysis of the 510 responses that were received. The findings show that 71% of the respondents had never heard about HIA, and 80.7% of those who were aware of HIA had not received any form of HIA training. However, 86.6% of the informed group strongly agreed that HIA is a necessary tool for effective public health delivery, indicating a high level of motivation and expectations about the contributions that HIA can make towards improving public health in Nigeria. It is therefore important to raise the level of awareness and training of HIA practitioners, and also political commitment for HIA. Similarly, the HIA process should be people-centred, emphasise on corporate social responsibilities and also focus on the determinants of communicable diseases in order to be relevant and sustainable in Nigeria

Assessing participation in a community-based health planning and services programme in Ghana

Background Community participation is increasingly seen as a pre-requisite for successful health service uptake. It is notoriously difficult to assess participation and little has been done to advance tools for the assessment of community participation. In this paper we illustrate an approach that combines a 'social psychology of participation' (theory) with 'spider-grams' (method) to assess participation and apply it to a Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) programme in rural Ghana. Methods We draw on data from 17 individual in-depth interviews, two focus group discussions and a community conversation with a mix of service users, providers and community health committee members. It was during the community conversation that stakeholders collectively evaluated community participation in the CHPS programme and drew up a spider-gram. Results Thematic analysis of our data shows that participation was sustained through the recognition and use of community resources, CHPS integration with pre-existing community structures, and alignment of CHPS services with community interests. However, male dominance and didactic community leadership and management styles undermined real opportunities for broad-based community empowerment, particularly of women, young people and marginalised men. Conclusion We conclude that combining the 'spider-gram' tool and the 'social psychology of participation' framework provide health professionals with a useful starting point for assessing community participation and developing recommendations for more participatory and empowering health care programmes

Mutation of USF elements abolishes replication timing control.

<p>Replication timing profiles of DT40 chromosomal alleles following targeted integration of insulator containing transgenes. (A) Analysis of two transgenic lines containing the <i>IL-2R</i> transgene flanked by two copies of FIV as described in <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001277#pbio-1001277-g006" target="_blank">Figure 6B</a>, except that the FIV sites carry E-box mutations known to disrupt USF binding. The sequences of wild type FIV (FIV WT) and mutated FIV (FIV mut) are shown; bases footprinted by USF binding are underlined and the degenerate E-box motif is boxed. (B) Analysis of two transgenic lines containing the <i>IL-2R</i> transgene flanked on one side by four copies of FIV. The differences in late or early replication (ΔL and ΔE) at the target site following transgene integration are shown.</p

The replication timing shift affects only the replicon located inside the transgene.

<p>Replication timing profiles surrounding DT40 chromosomal alleles following transgene integration into both alleles. (A) Schematic representation of the transgenic locus containing the <i>IL-2R</i> transgene flanked by two copies of the FIV USF binding site linked to the <i>β-actin</i> blasticidin resistance transgene on one allele and puromycin resistance transgene on the other. Primer pairs used are located at the top of the figure, and their positions relative to the site of insertion are indicated. The global replication forks' directions deduced from panel B are shown. (B) Analysis of replication timing at the integration site and over a ∼300 kb region surrounding the transgene integration site in two clonal cell lines. The differences in late or early replication (ΔL and ΔE) at flanking regions compared with the integration site (With) are shown.</p