Background report on Private Sector Development in Latin America, the post communist countries of Europe and Asia, the Middle East and North Africa

After a long period in which state-led development was the dominant economic paradigm, since the 1980s private sector development has been the focus for economic policy makers. It is probably no coincidence that economic growth, stagnant for a few decades in much of the developing world, took off in the 1990s after this policy shift, and has generally remained high (in spite of a wave of crises and recessions in the late 1990s and early 2000s). Privatization has made a great deal of progress in the developing world, particularly in Latin America, though the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have lagged somewhat. One of the main lessons for privatization policy makers in MENA countries from the experience in other regions is that merely transferring assets from the state to the private sector is not enough to ensure improved social welfare; competition and the institutional environment are also very important. With respect to the latter, much attention has focused in recent years on improvements in the business environment, which are necessary to spur entrepreneurship and encouragement movement from the informal economy into the formal sector. In this area the post-communist countries have been leaders; while Latin America and the MENA region have also seen significant improvement, they still lag behind the new European Union member states as well as some of the post-Soviet states (although the MENA region performs very well with respect to the protection of property rights). The area where the MENA region needs improvement most drastically is in the financial sector. Although rich in savings, it performs very poorly in these countries with respect to the provision of credit to the private sector (particularly small and medium-sized enterprises), largely due to the insufficient level of competition in the sector. We conclude with some speculation regarding possible scenarios for development between now and 2030

A Longitudinal Examination of Mobile App Usage in Medical Students

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine both the usefulness of librarian instruction on mobile apps and student preference for mobile apps during 3rd and 4th year clinical rotations. Methods: An electronic RedCap survey was administered to students for the purpose of gathering baseline information on library-provided mobile apps and instruction. This brief survey was given to 3rd year medical students at the beginning of this school year (2021-2022) with a second follow-up survey scheduled for later in the academic year. (spring 22) The students were asked questions about their mobile app usage and preferences as well as how often they reach out to librarians for assistance. The follow-up survey will assess any changes in preferences for or comfort with apps and will monitor any changes to the number of self-reported interactions with library staff. Results: Results of the initial survey confirmed that students are largely comfortable with the technical aspects of mobile app use both in and outside of the medical sphere; however, they may require more guidance on app content to determine which apps are most useful for researching different topics or different styles of questions. DynaMed was chosen by students as their favorite medical mobile app so far likely due to its wide coverage of topics and content. While the library instruction session increased student confidence with using medical mobile apps, students showed a lack of history of contacting librarians for assistance. Conclusions: This survey confirms librarian suspicions that students may require guidance not on how to use apps, but on which apps are recommended for use in which scenarios. Although students report that library instruction is beneficial for their understanding of app use, they also report that they do not frequently ask librarians for assistance. This may be due to various reasons such as student insecurity, lack of perceived time, or lack of understanding about which questions may be asked or what apps to ask questions about. The follow-up survey will gather information on these topics and will seek to address student knowledge of which apps to use in different clinical scenarios as well as whether contact with librarians has increased or whether faculty recommendations in clinical settings change student app preferences

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Using Consumer Health Information to Meet the Needs of the Underserved

Librarians can be major contributors at multihealth profession community outreach efforts. East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine Library (ETSU QCOML) partnered with the Remote Area Medical Group (RAM) at two health expeditions in northeastern Tennessee to provide consumer health information to the people who came to the event for medical, dental, and vision care. A booth staffed by library workers that utilized MedlinePlus.gov was set up at each event. Preselected handouts were used along with online searching. The library booth was able to provide consumer health information to 1,310 people. By participating in this event, it allowed not only the library workers to assist the public with consumer health questions but also exposed other health care professionals to what medical librarians can do to directly help patients