The utilisation of health research in policy-making: Concepts, examples and methods of assessment

The importance of health research utilisation in policy-making, and of understanding the mechanisms involved, is increasingly recognised. Recent reports calling for more resources to improve health in developing countries, and global pressures for accountability, draw greater attention to research-informed policy-making. Key utilisation issues have been described for at least twenty years, but the growing focus on health research systems creates additional dimensions. The utilisation of health research in policy-making should contribute to policies that may eventually lead to desired outcomes, including health gains. In this article, exploration of these issues is combined with a review of various forms of policy-making. When this is linked to analysis of different types of health research, it assists in building a comprehensive account of the diverse meanings of research utilisation. Previous studies report methods and conceptual frameworks that have been applied, if with varying degrees of success, to record utilisation in policy-making. These studies reveal various examples of research impact within a general picture of underutilisation. Factors potentially enhancing utilisation can be identified by exploration of: priority setting; activities of the health research system at the interface between research and policy-making; and the role of the recipients, or 'receptors', of health research. An interfaces and receptors model provides a framework for analysis. Recommendations about possible methods for assessing health research utilisation follow identification of the purposes of such assessments. Our conclusion is that research utilisation can be better understood, and enhanced, by developing assessment methods informed by conceptual analysis and review of previous studies

Methodological issues in epidemiological studies of periodontitis - how can it be improved?

Background: This position paper was commissioned by the European Association of Dental Public Health, which has established six working groups to investigate the current status of six topics related to oral public health. One of these areas is epidemiology of periodontal diseases. Methods: Two theses "A systematic review of definitions of periodontitis and the methods that have been used to identify periodontitis" [1] and "Factors affecting community oral health care needs and provision" [2] formed the starting point for this position paper. Additional relevant and more recent publications were retrieved through a MEDLINE search. Results: The literature reveals a distinct lack of consensus and uniformity in the definition of periodontitis within epidemiological studies. There are also numerous differences in the methods used. The consequence is that data from studies using differing case definitions and differing survey methods are not easily interpretable or comparable. The limitations of the widely used Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Need (CPITN) and its more recent derivatives are widely recognized. Against this background, this position paper reviews the current evidence base, outlines existing problems and suggests how epidemiology of periodontal diseases may be improved. Conclusions: The remit of this working group was to review and discuss the existing evidence base of epidemiology of periodontal diseases and to identify future areas of work to further enhance it

Deschloroclozapine, a potent and selective chemogenetic actuator enables rapid neuronal and behavioral modulations in mice and monkeys

The chemogenetic technology designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) afford remotely reversible control of cellular signaling, neuronal activity and behavior. Although the combination of muscarinic-based DREADDs with clozapine-N-oxide (CNO) has been widely used, sluggish kinetics, metabolic liabilities and potential off-target effects of CNO represent areas for improvement. Here, we provide a new high-affinity and selective agonist deschloroclozapine (DCZ) for muscarinic-based DREADDs. Positron emission tomography revealed that DCZ selectively bound to and occupied DREADDs in both mice and monkeys. Systemic delivery of low doses of DCZ (1 or 3 μg per kg) enhanced neuronal activity via hM3Dq within minutes in mice and monkeys. Intramuscular injections of DCZ (100 μg per kg) reversibly induced spatial working memory deficits in monkeys expressing hM4Di in the prefrontal cortex. DCZ represents a potent, selective, metabolically stable and fast-acting DREADD agonist with utility in both mice and nonhuman primates for a variety of applications

Building connectomes using diffusion MRI: why, how and but

Why has diffusion MRI become a principal modality for mapping connectomes in vivo? How do different image acquisition parameters, fiber tracking algorithms and other methodological choices affect connectome estimation? What are the main factors that dictate the success and failure of connectome reconstruction? These are some of the key questions that we aim to address in this review. We provide an overview of the key methods that can be used to estimate the nodes and edges of macroscale connectomes, and we discuss open problems and inherent limitations. We argue that diffusion MRI-based connectome mapping methods are still in their infancy and caution against blind application of deep white matter tractography due to the challenges inherent to connectome reconstruction. We review a number of studies that provide evidence of useful microstructural and network properties that can be extracted in various independent and biologically-relevant contexts. Finally, we highlight some of the key deficiencies of current macroscale connectome mapping methodologies and motivate future developments