Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Multidrug Resistance (MDR): Overview of Current Approaches, Consortia and Intellectual Property Issues

The supply of new diagnostics and treatments is insufficient to keep up with the increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and multidrug resistance (MDR) as older medicines are used more widely and microbes develop resistance to them. At the same time, significant quantities of antibiotics are used on patients and animals that do not need them, while others who do need them lack access. Effective responses to AMR/MDR require effort by both the public and private sectors to develop and disseminate new diagnostics, vaccines and treatments on a global scale, as well as to adapt them to local needs. This calls for good governance to identify priorities, raise awareness and ensure effective stewardship at global, regional and national levels to minimize the development of resistance. Failure to act appropriately in one country will adversely impact all countries as resistance travels fast. Based on a review of recent literature, this WIPO Global Challenges Report includes a broad overview of current approaches and consortia designed to meet the challenge of research and development (R&D) investment for new treatments. It also examines patent applications by both the public and the private sectors as an indicator of innovative activity. This report finds that there is a need to address the unique market challenges and specific uncertainties associated with the development of new diagnostics and treatments, where current approaches are not optimal. An effective global framework that achieves the necessary political support while ensuring effective local implementation is crucial. There is an opportunity to complement this work by formulating mechanisms that drive innovation for results to incentivize success, while feeding expertise and experience into stewardship and access efforts. Intellectual property (IP) could be used in a constructive manner as one element in any reward or prize system for AMR/MDR R&D – both in terms of providing an incentive and governance

U.S. NEW ENGLAND GROUNDFISH MANAGEMENT UNDER THE MAGNUSON-STEVENS FISHERY CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT ACT

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Refugee and Development in Tanzania: An Exploration of benefits of Refugee Presence on Local Communities A case of North Western Tanzania

Since its independence, Tanzania has been the location of choice for many refugees in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa. As one of the most impoverished countries in the world, mass refugee migrations such as those experienced in the 1990s alter Tanzania’s own plight for social and economic development. This study explores the effects that refugees have had upon host communities’ economy in North Western Tanzania. The study has shown that there is a variety of evidence to prove both positive and negative effects. Although in contrary to many attestations of most scholarly literatures the study has shown that the benefits that the refugees provide are greater than the liability that they pose. According to the findings of this study the presence of refugees in Tanzania has been shown to increase the economic capacity through infrastructure and employment opportunities. In addition, the influx has also increased the volume of trade and amount of income to host communities.  A balance sheet is created in order to appraise the relative economic effects that the refugees have caused throughout the years. Such a balance sheet should be considered in the development and implementation of future refugee policies to ensure appropriate treatment of the refugees and the host population in addition to supporting national economic growth. Key words: Refugee, Development, Local communities, livelihood strategy, North Western Tanzani

Influence of electric power generator variables on indoor air quality in residential buildings

The study assessed the influence of electric power generator variables on the quality of air in indoor environment of buildings. A quantitative survey method was adopted for the study. Kaduna metropolis was the study area grouped into twelve (12) clusters; and six (6) households were purposively selected from each of the cluster for the survey. A total of 72 households that operate electric power generators for power supply in buildings participated in the study. IMR1400 combustible gas analyzer was used to measure 432 samples of air pollutants' concentration in the 72 households (6 per household). SPSS version 15 was used to correlate the generator variables with the air pollutants measured. The results showed that the characteristics of generator age (at 0.05 significance level) at all the clusters were similar unlike the generator capacities which were different in few clusters. It was also observed that all the generator distances away from the building indoor were the same except for Sabon Tasha. For the indoor air pollutants concentration, carbon monoxide (CO) concentration for all the clusters were the same, while few of the clusters have similar concentration of Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and half of the clusters have the same oxides of nitrogen (NOx) concentrations. The mean CO concentration recorded in the indoor was 6.18ppm less than the WHO limit (10ppm), while the mean SO2 concentration was 0.17ppm higher than the WHO limit of 0.01ppm and the mean NOx concentration was 0.14ppm higher than the WHO limit (0.04 to 0.06ppm). The results also showed that the indoor CO concentration (at 0.05 significant level) has no relationship with generator age, capacity and distance. Also, SO2 and NOx have no significance relationship with the age, capacity and distance. It was concluded that the generator age and capacity did not influence the indoor air pollutants concentrations but the generator distance from the building influenced the emission of CO in the building indoors. It was recommended that studies on the indoor gaseous pollutants concentration and the generator distance from the building should be intensified.Keywords: Building indoor environment, air pollutants, households, IMR 1400, electric power generato

State estimation of in-flight aircraft centre of gravity

For all types of aircraft (civil, military, manned, unmanned) the aircraft designer specifies a safe range for the centre of gravity (cg) of the aircraft and designs the aircraft to operate safely within these limits. Changes to the cg may affect aircraft stability, performance and fuel economy so it is an important system parameter. Changes to the in-flight cg position have traditionally been estimated by calculating fuel burn and from that calculating the change in weight and hence change in cg. Other techniques to estimate in-flight aircraft cg are included in the literature review. The motivation for additional cg estimation techniques arise from the potential benefits they offer to a Flight Control System (FCS). These benefits include the potential for improved fault detection and an improved FCS design with better aircraft performance and fuel economy. State estimation using Kalman filters has been used since the 1960 s in many fields of application including the aerospace industry. This thesis will introduce the concept of using state estimation to detect the unexpected angular acceleration associated with a cg change. This state estimation concept is applied to a linear Phantom aircraft model and then to a complex non-linear aircraft model of a delta-canard military aircraft, called ADMIRE. The most common state estimation approach used with non-linear systems is the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), but an alternative approach is proposed in which the pitching and roll moment coefficient derivatives are selectively modified based upon the aircraft angle of attack, speed and altitude. Both longitudinal and lateral cg estimators are described and examples of their performance are provided and compared with an EKF version of the estimator. A discrete version of the estimator is also described and used with a hardware fuel rig. Faults are applied to the fuel rig and it is proposed that the estimator could aid the fault diagnosis. In a real implementation the aircraft will not be precisely modelled, therefore a sequence of robustness tests are included to identify the critical aircraft parameters affecting the estimator. The results show that a cg estimator based upon a Kalman filter, and using a selective coefficient correction approach, can satisfy the performance requirements specified by the industrial sponsor, BAE Systems

The Growing of Islamic Fundamentalism in Tanzania: Are the rising religious tensions ripping Tanzania apart?

For many years now Tanzania has maintained a record of been a peaceful nation in the great lake region. The national unity, political stability and social cohesion that the country has been enjoying all this years did not come by coincidence. The founders of this nation have done quite a great deal in maintaining the today’s unity and harmony. The situation that the country has been proud of is indeed the product of political culture cultivated over time by the founders of this great nation. From the beginning there was a strong emphasis of equal access to social services and opportunities amongst Christians and Muslims such as education, employment as well as participation in national affairs for both Muslim and Christian. The founders of this nation did that because they recognized the potential dangers of religious discord. Contrarily to country expectations today elements of discontent and violent attacks are recurring among Christian and Muslims. Impliedly this tells us that we must have gone wrong somewhere. This paper is therefore an attempt to show where did we go wrong and provide some recommendations accordingly. As a general message the paper emphasizes that it is high time the Tanzanian government stop pretending that all is well and approach the Muslim plight seriously and objectively. Any structural injustices that probably exist according to Muslim as well as Christians should be properly analysed and handled accordingly. Key words: Islamic Fundamentalism, religious tension, Muslim and Christian, United Republic of Tanzani

Sally : You Brought The Sunshine To Our Alley

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/2415/thumbnail.jp

A single weekly Kt/Vurea target for peritoneal dialysis patients does not provide an equal dialysis dose for all

Copyright © 2016 International Society of Nephrology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Dialysis adequacy is traditionally based on urea clearance, adjusted for total body volume (Kt/Vurea), and clinical guidelines recommend a Kt/Vurea target for peritoneal dialysis. We wished to determine whether adjusting dialysis dose by resting and total energy expenditure would alter the delivered dialysis dose. The resting and total energy expenditures were determined by equations based on doubly labeled isotopic water studies and adjusted Kturea for resting energy expenditure and total energy expenditure in 148 peritoneal dialysis patients (mean age, 60.6 years; 97 male [65.5%]; 54 diabetic [36.5%]). The mean resting energy expenditure was 1534 kcal/d, and the total energy expenditure was 1974 kcal/day. Using a weekly target Kt/V of 1.7, Kt was calculated using V measured by bioimpedance and the significantly associated (r = 0.67) Watson equation for total body water. Adjusting Kt for resting energy expenditure showed a reduced delivered dialysis dose (ml/kcal per day) for women versus men (5.5 vs. 6.2), age under versus over 65 years (5.6 vs. 6.4), weight 80 kg (5.8 vs. 6.1), low versus high comorbidity (5.9 vs. 6.2), all of which were significant. Adjusting for the total energy expenditure showed significantly reduced dosing for those employed versus not employed (4.3 vs. 4.8), a low versus high frailty score (4.5 vs. 5.0) and nondiabetic versus diabetic (4.6 vs. 4.9). Thus, the current paradigm for a single target Kt/Vurea for all peritoneal dialysis patients does not take into account energy expenditure and metabolic rate and may lead to lowered dialysis delivery for the younger, more active female patient.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Applying Graph Theory to Examine the Dynamics of Student Discussions in Small-Group Learning.

Group work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses is an effective means of improving student outcomes, and many different factors can influence the dynamics of student discussions and, ultimately, the success of collaboration. The substance and dynamics of group discussions are commonly examined using qualitative methods such as discourse analysis. To complement existing work in the literature, we developed a quantitative methodology that uses graph theory to map the progression of talk-turns of discussions within a group. We observed groups of students working with peer facilitators to solve problems in biological sciences, with three iterations of data collection and two major refinements of graph theory calculations. Results include general behaviors based on the turns in which different individuals talk and graph theory parameters to quantify group characteristics. To demonstrate the potential utility of the methodology, we present case studies with distinct patterns: a centralized group in which the peer facilitator behaves like an authority figure, a decentralized group in which most students talk their fair share of turns, and a larger group with subgroups that have implications for equity, diversity, and inclusion. Together, these results demonstrate that our adaptation of graph theory is a viable quantitative methodology to examine group discussions