GenomeGraphs: integrated genomic data visualization with R.

BackgroundBiological studies involve a growing number of distinct high-throughput experiments to characterize samples of interest. There is a lack of methods to visualize these different genomic datasets in a versatile manner. In addition, genomic data analysis requires integrated visualization of experimental data along with constantly changing genomic annotation and statistical analyses.ResultsWe developed GenomeGraphs, as an add-on software package for the statistical programming environment R, to facilitate integrated visualization of genomic datasets. GenomeGraphs uses the biomaRt package to perform on-line annotation queries to Ensembl and translates these to gene/transcript structures in viewports of the grid graphics package. This allows genomic annotation to be plotted together with experimental data. GenomeGraphs can also be used to plot custom annotation tracks in combination with different experimental data types together in one plot using the same genomic coordinate system.ConclusionGenomeGraphs is a flexible and extensible software package which can be used to visualize a multitude of genomic datasets within the statistical programming environment R

Efficiency of primary care in rural Burkina Faso: A two-stage DEA analysis

Background: Providing health care services in Africa is hampered by severe scarcity of personnel, medical supplies and financial funds. Consequently, managers of health care institutions are called to measure and improve the efficiency of their facilities in order to provide the best possible services with their resources. However, very little is known about the efficiency of health care facilities in Africa and instruments of performance measurement are hardly applied in this context. Objective: This study determines the relative efficiency of primary care facilities in Nouna, a rural health district in Burkina Faso. Furthermore, it analyses the factors influencing the efficiency of these institutions. Methodology: We apply a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based on data from a comprehensive provider and household information system. In the first stage, the relative efficiency of each institution is calculated by a traditional DEA model. In the second stage, we identify the reasons for being inefficient by regression technique. Results: The DEA projections suggest that inefficiency is mainly a result of poor utilization of health care facilities as they were either too big or the demand was too low. Regression results showed that distance is an important factor influencing the efficiency of a health care institution Conclusions: Compared to the findings of existing one-stage DEA analyses of health facilities in Africa, the share of relatively efficient units is slightly higher. The difference might be explained by a rather homogenous structure of the primary care facilities in the Burkina Faso sample. The study also indicates that improving the accessibility of primary care facilities will have a major impact on the efficiency of these institutions. Thus, health decision-makers are called to overcome the demand-side barriers in accessing health care

Assessing the efficiency of rural health centres in Burkina Faso: an application of Data Envelopment Analysis

Background: Effective health care provision benefits from the support of measurement techniques. Contrary to the situation in industrialised countries efficiency analyses in the health care sector in Africa are a very recent phenomenon. Hardly any of the existing studies was conducted at the level of primary care. Aim: The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to evaluate the relative efficiency of health centres in rural Burkina Faso and (2) to investigate reasons for inefficient performance. Methods: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied. To account for the situation in that country, the output-oriented approach was used in connection with different returns to scale assumptions. To identify the spatial effect of the catchment area on efficiency the Tobit model was applied. Results: According to constant returns to scale, 14 health centres were relatively efficient. The DEA projections suggest that the inefficient units were too big to be efficient. Tobit regression showed that the relatively efficient health centres are located close to villages in their catchment area. Conclusions: For ethical reasons it is not appropriate to try to improve the efficiency of health centres by closing some of them. Their efficiency can be improved and lives can be saved if access to health centres is enhanced

The Contribution of Pastoral Institutes for an Inculturated and Contextualized Ministry

This article focuses on the contribution of pastoral institutes for an inculturated and contextualized ministry in the non-Western local churches. The treated pastoral institutes in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania have played an outstanding role in implementing the communion ecclesiology of Vatican II in their respective local churches by moving towards an inculturated Christian faith and church and a contextualized Christian and ecclesial praxis. By following the Vatican II appeal to read and scrutinize the signs of the times, they played a catalytic function in the local non-Western churches to evangelize and to develop a meaningful ministry and participatory community approach, not only for ordained ministers but also for the major part of God’s people, the lait