Is the Supercourse useful for Latin America?

BACKGROUND: The success of the Supercourse showed that the effort was needed in Latin America. But would a Spanish language version be better for the region? METHODS: Google Analytics was used to determine website usage. A custom evaluation form was created to get user feedback on the usefulness of both the English language and Spanish language Supercouse lectures. RESULTS: Over a year's span from June 2009 to June 2010 there were 257,403 unique visits and 448,939 page views. The overall average rating of lectures was 4.87 with the Spanish language lectures getting even higher ratings. CONCLUSION: Supercourse lectures in Spanish were a great success in Latin America. This success shows the need for this information and similar success could be found in Central Asia

Is the Supercourse useful for Latin America?

Abstract BACKGROUND: The success of the Supercourse showed that the effort was needed in Latin America. But would a Spanish language version be better for the region

The Central Asian Journal of Global Health to Increase Scientific Productivity.

The WHO Collaborating Center at the University of Pittsburgh, USA partnering with Nazarbayev University, developed the Central Asian Journal of Global Health (CAJGH, cajgh.pitt.edu) in order to increase scientific productivity in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Scientists in this region often have difficulty publishing in upper tier English language scientific journals due to language barriers, high publication fees, and a lack of access to mentoring services. CAJGH seeks to help scientists overcome these challenges by providing peer-reviewed publication free of change with English and research mentoring services available to selected authors. CAJGH began as a way to expand the Supercourse scientific network (www.pitt.edu/~super1) in the Central Asian region in order to rapidly disseminate educational materials. The network began with approximately 60 individuals in five Central Asian countries and has grown to over 1,300 in a few short years. The CAJGH website receives nearly 900 visits per month. The University of Pittsburgh's "open access publishing system" was utilized to create CAJGH in 2012. There are two branches of the CAJGH editorial board: Astana (at the Center for Life Sciences, Nazarbayev University) and Pittsburgh (WHO Collaborating Center). Both are comprised of leading scientists and expert staff who work together throughout the review and publication process. Two complete issues have been published since 2012 and a third is now underway. Even though CAJGH is a new journal, the editorial board uses a rigorous review process; fewer than 50% of all submitted articles are forwarded to peer review or accepted for publication. Furthermore, in 2014, CAJGH will apply to be cross referenced in PubMed and Scopes. CAJGH is one of the first English language journals in the Central Asian region that reaches a large number of scientists. This journal fills a unique niche that will assist scientists in Kazakhstan and Central Asia publish their research findings and share their knowledge with others around the region and the world

SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity are associated with genetic variants affecting gene expression in a variety of tissues

Variability in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity between individuals is partly due to genetic factors. Here, we identify 4 genomic loci with suggestive associations for SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and 19 for COVID-19 disease severity. Four of these 23 loci likely have an ethnicity-specific component. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) signals in 11 loci colocalize with expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) associated with the expression of 20 genes in 62 tissues/cell types (range: 1:43 tissues/gene), including lung, brain, heart, muscle, and skin as well as the digestive system and immune system. We perform genetic fine mapping to compute 99% credible SNP sets, which identify 10 GWAS loci that have eight or fewer SNPs in the credible set, including three loci with one single likely causal SNP. Our study suggests that the diverse symptoms and disease severity of COVID-19 observed between individuals is associated with variants across the genome, affecting gene expression levels in a wide variety of tissue types

A first update on mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19

peer reviewe

The Global Health Network and globalization of higher education

[This item is a preserved copy and is not necessarily the most recent version. To view the current item, visit http://www.jmir.org/1999/suppl1/e5/ ] : : The year 2001 and the next millennium will soon be upon us. The major gains in health in the 20th century were primarily the result of improvements in public health including sanitation and immunization. Global health improvements will occur in the 21st century through improvements in information (in particular health training). We will describe a new paradigm for transnational training, the supercourse. In the next century global lecture-shareware training will take place, with Deming based quality control systems on the Internet. Faculty will thus share their best, most passionate lectures on the internet. During the past 100 years there has been a 25-year increase in life expectancy. It has been estimated that 24 of the 25 years were the result of prevention. Most prevention activity is sharing of information. We are working with leaders from WHO, the World Bank, IBM, NASA, PAHO to create a discipline called telepreventive medicine. This is the application of low band with information systems (the Internet) to large numbers of well people to prevent disease. One of the most important aspect of this work is the establishment globalisation of prevention education; the Supercourse. Question: What is the best way to improve health training/research? Answer: Improve the lectures. Question: How do we improve health training/research lectures: Answer: Have academic faculty worldwide share their lectures: Question: Will faculty share lectures? Answer: Yes, The Supercourse has 1107 faculty from 101 countries who created a Library of Lectures with 110 lectures on the Internet with quality control, and cutting edge cognitive design. This is being shared worldwide. We are developing a "Library of Lectures" with passionate lectures in public health from across the world such as seen here from South Africa. We propose to expand this to all areas of research in health. Our program consists of: Shareware: A Global faculty is developing and sharing their best, most passionate lectures. This benefits all. The experienced faculty member can beef up their lectures that are not cutting edge. New instructors reduce preparation time and improve their lectures, as they can employ state of the art lectures from others. Faculty in developing countries have access to current public health information for the first time. The concept is that of a library of lectures for all to use is in many ways similar to that of "shareware" on the computer. Statistical Quality Assurance: We have established a Deming Model of statistical quality control to monitor lectures over time Supporting the teachers: The Library of Lectures consists of exciting lectures by public health experts in the field. The classroom teacher "takes" them out for free like a library book. There is no direct teaching of students from a distance, rather the concept of the system is to provide cutting edge material for all faculty to present. Hypertext comic book: The lectures are icon driven, and the students can go deep into the Internet for more information through hyperlinks. It is based upon PowerPoint for ease of usage Presentation Speed: We have discovered technologies to speed access to lectures world wide Text books: The British Medical Association has put 2 current text books on line for us Multilingual: For global use, this must be multilingual, the first lecture is in 8 languages Voice-Sound Video: We are using state of the art Internet voice-video systems. We soon will be using "clickable" voice video We have published over 68 papers in leading medical journals including the Lancet, British Medical Journal, Nature Medicine among others. We are working with PAHO to put mirrored servers into every medical school in the Americas this year, with 5 years we should reach globally all medical schools. WHO has developed a Supercourse. Initial pilot studies reveal that 2500 individuals will see each lecture each year, which is 50 times that of our classroom teaching. We have beta tested lectures in 2 centers in Japan and one in South Africa with very positive results. We are now developing a Chinese Heritage course

A review of the recent epidemiological data on the worldwide incidence of type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetes mellitus

Nearly 70 registries from more than 40 countries have collected and published incidence data of childhood Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus up to the end of the 1980s. The majority of incidence data comes from regions of high incidence i.e. from Europe and North America. All these published data facilitate the descriptive comparison of incidence and variation of the occurrence of Type 1 diabetes roughly throughout the northern hemisphere. The aim of this paper is to review and compare the most recent epidemiology data on the incidence of Type 1 diabetes among children under the age of 15 years. A clear difference in incidence appeared between northern and southern hemisphere with no countries below the equator having an incidence greater than 15.0 per 100,000. In contrast above the equator the disease is common. Between continents the variation in incidence showed that the lowest incidences were found in Asia, followed by Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), South and North America, and the highest rates were in Europe. The incidence varied from 0.6 per 100,000 in Korea and Mexico to 35.3 per 100,000 in Finland showing prominent worldwide variation in incidence of Type 1 diabetes. The largest intracontinental variation in incidence appeared in Europe, varying from the highest in Finland to the lowest (4.6 per 100,000) in northern Greece. The highest incidence in the world was in northern Europe, but within the continent scale there were some striking exceptions from the overall level of incidence.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS

Gaps continue in firearm Surveillance: Evidence from a large U.S. city Bureau of Police

Word Count: 330 While the broad relationship between violence, poor health outcomes and firearms is well-established, there is limited research in the public health field on the source of guns collected by police departments, many of which are used for violent crime that results in injury or death. This data could be valuable for purposes of improving surveillance around violent crime and health outcomes as well as for evaluating prevention strategies and future programs that aim to reduce gun violence. The objectives of this study are to describe how guns come into police possession, identify the primary source of these guns, determine how guns leave possession of lawful owners, and determine disposition of guns and perpetrators. In order to meet the objectives, we analyzed data on 762 cases in which a gun was recovered by the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Firearm Tracking Unit (FTU). Descriptive analyses were conducted. Most cases involve a single perpetrator. Traffic stop and street patrol accounted for 31% of method of recovery. Most perpetrators were carrying a gun that did not belong to them – 79%. More than 30% of the guns recovered were reported stolen by owners when the FTU contacted them. For 44% of the guns, whether the gun was stolen was either unknown or not able to be determined. In most cases, individual owners did not know how they lost possession of their firearm (62 percent). Currently there is no way to track firearms from a legal purchase into hands that do not have legal ownership even through official police data. A large number of guns recovered are taken from persons who are not the lawful owner of the gun. In the majority of cases, the guns were privately owned, as opposed to being traced back to a dealer. How the guns left the possession of their lawful owners is unknown, and collecting this data proves to be challenging. Future studies should be conducted to assess the pathway in which guns travel from legal to illegal ownership