The Arab Human Rights Position in the Light of International Law

The depressing circumstances of contemporary political life in the Arab world has led me to make this study, aiming to examine the position of Arab countries in the light of their obligations under international law, by analysis of the instruments of international human rights law which recognise and aim to protect certain rights and freedoms. I intend to examine the status of those instruments whether at the national, regional or international level. I will examine the Arab governments' legal position according to international institutions and the instruments, in particular, to what extent they recognize them and subject to what restrictions. I will review whether those rules and instruments are acceptable to all the Arabs and if Arab states have made relevant reservations or derogations. The purpose of this analysis is to assess the extent to which the Arab individual's rights and freedoms are protected, and the legal remedy available to him, in the light of international human rights law, as well as in the regional and national provisions which aim to achieve protection of human rights. I examine different concepts of human rights and other international issues related to them, including the Islamic concept of international law and human rights, as in the conte.J1lporary Arab world religion continues to be a significant factor

Meeting the Emerging Public Health Needs of Persons With Blood Disorders

In its decades-long history, the Division of Blood Disorders (DBD) at CDC has evolved from a patient-focused, services-supporting entity at inception, to one of the world leaders in the practice of public health to improve the lives of people at risk for or affected by nonmalignant blood disorders. The DBD’s earliest public health activities consisted of working with care providers in a network of hemophilia treatment centers to provide AIDS risk reduction services to people with hemophilia. Because this infectious disease threat has been reduced over time as a result of the development of safer treatment products, the DBD—under the auspices of congressional appropriations guidance—has expanded its core activities to encompass blood disorders other than hemophilia, including hemoglobinopathies such as thalassemia and sickle cell disease, and Diamond Blackfan anemia. Simultaneously, in transitioning to a greater public health role, the DBD has expanded its network of partners to new consumer and professional organizations, as well as state and other federal health agencies. The DBD has also developed and maintains many surveillance and registry activities beyond the Universal Data Collection system aimed at providing a better understanding of the health status, health needs, and health-related quality of life of people with nonmalignant blood disorders. The DBD has integrated applicable components of the Essential Services of Public Health successfully to promote and advance the agenda of blood disorders in public health

Fully fabric high impedance surface-enabled antenna for wearable medical applications

The compact and robust high-impedance surface (HIS) integrated with the antenna is designed to operate at a frequency of 2.45 GHz for wearable applications. They are made of highly flexible fabric material. The overall size is $45\times \,\,45\times 2.4$ mm3 which equivalent to $0.37\lambda \text{o}\times 0.37\lambda \text{o}\times 0.02$ mm3. The value of using HIS lies in protecting the human body from harmful radiation and maintaining the performance of the antenna, which may be affected by the high conductivity of the human body. Besides, setting the antenna on the human body by itself detunes the frequency, but by adding HIS, it becomes robust and efficient for body loading and deformation. Integrated antenna with HIS demonstrates excellent performance, such as a gain of 7.47 dBi, efficiency of 71.8% and FBR of 10.8 dB. It also reduces the SAR below safety limits. The reduction is more than 95%. Therefore, the presented design was considered suitable for wearable applications. Further study was also performed to show the useful of placing antenna over HIS compared to the use of perfect electric conductor (PEC). The integrated design was also investigated with the worst case of varying the permittivity of body equivalent model which shows excellent performance in term of reflection coefficient and SAR levels. Hence, the integrated antenna with HIS is mechanically robust to human body tissue loading, and it is highly appropriate for body-worn applications

Metabolism of the dual FLT-3/Aurora kinase inhibitor CCT241736 in preclinical and human in vitro models: Implication for the choice of toxicology species.

CCT241736 is a dual fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3)/Aurora kinase inhibitor in development for the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia. The successful development of any new drug relies on adequate safety testing including preclinical toxicology studies. Selection of an appropriate preclinical species requires a thorough understanding of the compound's metabolic clearance and pathways, as well as other pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic considerations. In addition, elucidation of the metabolising enzymes in human facilitates improved clinical prediction based on population pharmacokinetics and can inform drug-drug interaction studies. Intrinsic clearance (CLint) determination and metabolite profiling of CCT241736 in human and four preclinical species (dog, minipig, rat and mouse) was undertaken in cryopreserved hepatocytes and liver microsomes. Recombinant human cytochrome P450 bactosomes (rCYP) were utilised to provide reaction phenotyping data and support prediction of metabolic pathways. CCT241736 exhibited low CLint in both hepatocytes and liver microsomes of human, dog, minipig and rat, but considerably higher CLint in mouse. CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 were identified as the major enzymes responsible for biotransformation of CCT241736 in human, exclusively forming five out of seven metabolites. Minipig showed greatest similarity to human with regard to both overall metabolic profile and abundance of specific metabolites relative to parent compound, and is therefore proposed as the most appropriate toxicological species. The greatest disparity was observed between human and dog. Based on metabolic profile, either mouse or rat is a suitable rodent species for toxicology studies

An urban perinatal health programme of strategies to improve perinatal health

Promotion of a healthy pregnancy is a top priority of the health care policy in many European countries. Perinatal mortality is an important indicator of the success of this policy. Recently, it was shown that the Netherlands has relatively high perinatal death rates when compared to other European countries. This is in particular true for large cities where perinatal mortality rates are 20-50% higher than elsewhere. Consequently in the Netherlands, there is heated debate on how to tackle these problems. Without the introduction of measures throughout the entire perinatal health care chain, pregnancy outcomes are difficult to improve. With the support of health care professionals, the City of Rotterdam and the Erasmus University Medical Centre have taken the initiative to develop an urban perinatal health programme called 'Ready for a Baby'. The main objective of this municipal 10-year programme is to improve perinatal health and to reduce perinatal mortality in all districts to at least the current national average of 10 per 1000. Key elements are the understanding of the mechanisms of the large health differences between women living in deprived and nondeprived urban areas. Risk guided care, orientation towards shared-care and improvement of collaborations between health care professionals shapes the interventions that are being developed. Major attention is given to the development of methods to improve risk-selection before and during pregnancy and methods to reach low-educated and immigrant groups

Preconception Care in International Settings

Objectives: This literature review briefly describes international programs, policies, and activities related to preconception care and resulting pregnancy outcomes. Methods: Electronic databases were searched and findings supplemented with secondary references cited in the original articles as well as textbook chapters, declarations, reports, and recommendations. Results: Forty-two articles, book chapters, declarations, and other published materials were reviewed. Policies, programs, and recommendations related to preconceptional health promotion exist worldwide and comprise a readily identifiable component of historic and modern initiatives pertaining to women's health, reproductive freedom, and child survival. Conclusions: The integration of preconception care services within a larger maternal and child health continuum of care is well aligned with a prevention-based approach to enhancing global health

Targeting the EIF2AK1 Signaling Pathway Rescues Red Blood Cell Production in SF3B1 Mutant Myelodysplastic Syndromes With Ringed Sideroblasts

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Economic integration and security in the Middle East and North Africa: what prospects for a liberal peace?

Since the late 1980s governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have created commercial institutions in order to promote regional economic integration. The primary aim of this policy has been regarded as the promotion of economic welfare gains at the national level. A second, albeit less-emphasized goal, has been to promote regional peace through economic interdependence. This study examines the prospects for a liberal peace in the MENA by analyzing two stages of the commercial institutional peace. Firstly, the study considers whether commercial institutions have promoted intra-regional trade in the MENA. Secondly, it examines if economic interaction has had an impact on promoting peace within the region. Twenty states are considered here and the unit of analysis is the dyad-year over a 25-year period from 1990-2014. This study finds that commercial institutions in the MENA have only a limited positive correlation with trade volume and while there is a direct positive correlation between economic integration and peace in the region, this is quite limited. These findings suggest that the conclusions made by previous studies that demonstrate a direct positive correlation between commercial institutions (and economic integration more generally) and peace, may be less applicable to some regions such as MENA