The Role of Multilateral Finance and the Environment: A View from the World Bank

Dr. Steer and Mr. Mason begin by noting that since fundingfor the Rio Earth Summit agreements has not been forthcoming, multilateralfinanciailn stitutions (MFIs) have taken responsibilityf or advancing the environmental agenda set forth at the Summit. Dr. Steer and Mr. Mason note that MFIs furnish three crucial functions in implementing the global environmental agenda. First, MFIs are able to target investments in developing countries that involve important environmental issues. Second, MFIs are able to support policy reforms within developing countries to ensure environmental standards and issues are properly addressed. Finally, MFIs can multiply a small amount offunding into a significant amount. While developing countries are beginning to acknowledge the relationship between economic progress and environmental sustainability, MFIs, according to Dr. Steer and Mr. Mason, are presented with several challenges to continue advocating this relationshipf or the future

Prospective surveillance of invasive group a streptococcal disease, Fiji, 2005-2007.

We undertook a prospective active surveillance study of invasive group A streptococcal (GAS) disease in Fiji over a 23-month period, 2005-2007. We identified 64 cases of invasive GAS disease, which represents an average annualized all-ages incidence of 9.9 cases/100,000 population per year (95% confidence interval [CI] 7.6-12.6). Rates were highest in those >65 years of age and in those <5 years, particularly in infants, for whom the incidence was 44.9/100,000 (95% CI 18.1-92.5). The case-fatality rate was 32% and was associated with increasing age and underlying coexisting disease, including diabetes and renal disease. Fifty-five of the GAS isolates underwent emm sequence typing; the types were highly diverse, with 38 different emm subtypes and no particular dominant type. Our data support the view that invasive GAS disease is common in developing countries and deserves increased public health attention

Emerging Digital Technologies in Patient Care: Dealing with connected, intelligent medical device vulnerabilities and failures in the healthcare sector

The integration of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) into clinical routines is significantly impacting organisational preparedness at the point of care, raising concerns not only about the resilience of the healthcare infrastructure, but also about how physicians, clinicians, and healthcare professionals respond to, manage, and reduce new risks associated with connected and intelligent medical devices in the interest of patient safety and care. The following report summarises findings from the workshop entitled Emerging Digital Technologies in Patient Care: Dealing with Connected, Intelligent Medical Device Vulnerabilities and Failures in the Healthcare Sector, held on 23 February 2023 at Goodenough College, London. The workshop was organised by members of the Reg-MedTech project, funded by the PETRAS National Centre of Excellence in IoT Systems Cybersecurity (EPSRC grant number EP/S035362/1), in collaboration with project partners at the BSI, the UK’s National Standards Body. Since October 2021, the Reg-MedTech project has investigated the extent to which current regulatory frameworks and standards address the critical cybersecurity, data governance, and algorithmic integrity risks posed by connected and intelligent medical devices. A critical finding from its ongoing research has been the need to develop standards, regulations, and policies that are better informed by the experiences of physicians, clinicians, and healthcare professionals dealing with software-based medical devices or software as a medical device (SaMD) in their day-to-day practice

Opportunities to improve the utilisation of granulated coals for blast furnace injection

Coal injection plays an important role to the economic success of ironmaking by substituting a portion of the coke input and improving the blast furnace productivity. Manufacturers are looking at opportunities to increase their coal selection options by using higher proportions of technically challenging lower volatile matter content coals; this paper investigates the kinetics, devolatilisation and burnout of these in granulated coal blends using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and a drop tube furnace (DTF). The char residue from the semi-anthracitic low volatile coal selected for this blending investigation had a much reduced reactivity at higher conversions which affected the blends in different ways. Burnout of the blends with the low volatile bituminous coals was improved by fragmentation of the granulated particles, but at longer residence times the lower reactivity of the more structurally ordered carbon in the semi anthracitic coal dominated. In contrast, the higher volatile coals showed improvements at low residence times corresponding to rapid volatile loss, but also showed non-additive blend improvement at longer residence times which may be explained by the more obvious presence of included minerals and the higher K/Al ratios associated with illite mineral phases known to improve burnout

User-centered development of a Virtual Research Environment to support collaborative research events

This paper discusses the user-centred development process within the Collaborative Research Events on the Web (CREW) project, funded under the JISC Virtual Research Environments (VRE) programme. After presenting the project, its aims and the functionality of the CREW VRE, we focus on the user engagement approach, grounded in the method of co-realisation. We describe the different research settings and requirements of our three embedded user groups and the respective activities conducted so far. Finally we elaborate on the main challenges of our user engagement approach and end with the project’s next steps