Determining Stress Tolerance of H. dujardini Subjected to Extreme Conditions

Nicole Valentine, Luis Rivera, Kathleen Engelmann's poster on tardigrades and their tolerance to radiation & extreme temperatures and the ability to study that tolerance in a lab

Exploring models for the roles of health systems' responsiveness and social determinants in explaining universal health coverage and health outcomes

Background: Intersectoral perspectives of health are present in the rhetoric of the sustainable development goals. Yet its descriptions of systematic approaches for an intersectoral monitoring vision, joining determinants of health, and barriers or facilitators to accessing healthcare services are lacking. Objective: To explore models of associations between health outcomes and health service coverage, and health determinants and health systems responsiveness, and thereby to contribute to monitoring, analysis, and assessment approaches informed by an intersectoral vision of health. Design: The study is designed as a series of ecological, cross-country regression analyses, covering between 23 and 57 countries with dependent health variables concentrated on the years 2002-2003. Countries cover a range of development contexts. Health outcome and health service coverage dependent variables were derived from World Health Organization (WHO) information sources. Predictor variables representing determinants are derived from the WHO and World Bank databases; variables used for health systems' responsiveness are derived from the WHOWorld Health Survey. Responsiveness is a measure of acceptability of health services to the population, complementing financial health protection. Results: Health determinants' indicators - access to improved drinking sources, accountability, and average years of schooling - were statistically significant in particular health outcome regressions. Statistically significant coefficients were more common for mortality rate regressions than for coverage rate regressions. Responsiveness was systematically associated with poorer health and health service coverage. With respect to levels of inequality in health, the indicator of responsiveness problems experienced by the unhealthy poor groups in the population was statistically significant for regressions on measles vaccination inequalities between rich and poor. For the broader determinants, the Gini mattered most for inequalities in child mortality; education mattered more for inequalities in births attended by skilled personnel. Conclusions: This paper adds to the literature on comparative health systems research. National and international health monitoring frameworks need to incorporate indicators on trends in and impacts of other policy sectors on health. This will empower the health sector to carry out public health practices that promote health and health equity

Atenas Artisan's Cooperative

The objective of this project was to create a viable income for stay-at-home mothers and wives in Atenas, Costa Rica, by organizing a cooperative which could market their handicraft products in formal markets. Before the start of this project, these women had been selling their products in informal markets to earn supplemental income for their families. The husband is typically the principle household earner, but many men are not earning enough money in their jobs to adequately provide for their families. Many women would like to earn a viable income to help provide for their families but either lack the necessary skills to work outside the home or are unable to do so due to their household and childcare responsibilities. In response, women in Atenas have been addressing this issue by sewing, painting, and making handicrafts that are sold to friends and neighbors to earn money. Supplemental income earned from these handicrafts is often insubstantial however, averaging at around 5% of the family monthly income. This project assisted 20 women in organizing into a cooperative which is acting as a mechanism to market their products on the local and international markets as well as seek funding and obtain small business loans. The cooperative structure also acts as a social network for community involvement and greater voice in local politics. The cooperative project has enabled these women to transform their lives through bringing about economic, social, and political change. To date these women have succeeded in forming the cooperative structure which enables them to make their products from home while attending weekly meetings that consist of skills training, information, and networking. Under the cooperative name, these women have been able to add value to their products by marketing them as a social investment in the women of the community and their families. This marketing strategy has allowed these women to reach niche international handicraft and artisan markets. The cooperative is in the process of partnering with several key US based organizations to sell their products abroad, as well as tapping into existing markets in Costa Rica. (Author abstract)Valentine, N. (2007). Atenas Artisan's Cooperative. Retrieved from http://academicarchive.snhu.eduMaster of Science (M.S.)School of Community Economic Developmen

Mental Health Screening: Pennsylvania\u27s Experience In Juvenile Detention

Describes the Juvenile Detention Centers Association of Pennsylvania\u27s project to examine the mental health needs of detained youths

Measuring Client-Centered Health Care Using the Universal World Health Organization Concept of “Health System Responsiveness” : Methods and applications

The responsiveness of a health system as a concept was defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and leading scientists as the health system’s ability to meet the universal, legitimate expectations of its users (or clients, patients) with regards to non-medical aspects of the way they are treated and the environment (or setting) within which they are treated. This thesis describes how the WHO developed a method to measure the responsiveness concept through assessing the client-experiences of any patient or client in a health care system. The challenge was to achieve universality in measurement feasibility and validity, to enable comparisons of health systems between countries across the globe, and across diverse parts of the health system e.g. mental health care and child birth. A set of 106 WHO household surveys, with approximately 258,000 respondents and 83 countries, analyzed with psychometric and regression methods proved the scientific credibility and viability of this concept and its measurement. With interview questionnaires, the voice of the client or patient can be recorded irrespective of country, culture, or personal education, socio-economic or health background. A secondary finding was that the data show convincingly that inequality of health outcome - known to exist in all developed countries - is paralleled by inequality in the process of care, that is, the degree to which the health system takes care of issues like dignity, communication, confidentiality, prompt attention (access) and basic quality of amenities. The method was valid in specific applications as shown in the Netherlands: a survey could be derived to measure patient experiences in birth care (the “ReproQ”). These findings call for health institutions to take steps to improve their client focus, becoming more responsiveness to the user’s needs for respectful, communicative treatment, with quality amenities and timely responses. As health is a human right, it is the responsibility of the state to develop responsiveness standards and ensure that all providers, public and private, are compliant. Researchers and health authorities should standardise measurement instruments and approaches to ensure that quality of care from the users’ perspective is comparable across different types of private and public sector providers. This will help to ensure greater transparency and accountability of health care insurers and providers to the oversight authorities and to their clients

Técnicas de resina composta injetável

Introdução: A técnica de resina composta injetável, técnica recente, semidireta, para restaurações dos dentes anteriores, utiliza uma chave de silicone transparente, Silicone Índex, para a transferência precisa e previsível de um enceramento de diagnóstico, Wax-up, sem necessidade de preparação dentária. Objetivos: Este trabalho visa investigar, com base na literatura um novo procedimento restaurador, explicar o seu interesse e protocolo de utilização, averiguar as suas vantagens, as suas limitações e ainda, analisar as principais indicações desta técnica. Materiais e Métodos: Pesquisa realizada na base de dados PubMed utilizando a combinação de diferentes palavras-chave. A pesquisa identificou 807 estudos, dos quais 20 foram considerados relevantes para este estudo. Esses estudos forneceram dados importantes, nomeadamente sobre a técnica das resinas compostas injetáveis, os materiais empregues, o procedimento, e as suas vantagens e desvantagens. Discussão: A técnica é descrita através de diferentes casos clínicos selecionados para a reabilitação oral funcional e estética do setor anterior. Demonstra inúmeras vantagens como, ser um procedimento mais rápido e mais económico, ser uma técnica precisa e reprodutível, que pode ser aplicada em diferentes situações clínicas como, discromias, diastemas, fraturas ou outras alterações do sorriso. Conclusão: Esta técnica oferece uma boa alternativa clínica, mas não pode ser considerada um substituto das técnicas convencionais, uma vez que, existem poucos casos documentados de follow-up, o que impossibilita a determinação da longevidade deste tipo de tratamento. Ainda, a resina composta injetável, tem demonstrado propriedades mecânicas inferiores aos compósitos convencionais, como na estabilidade cromática após um ano de tratamento e a necessidade de várias sessões de polimento. Assim, os pacientes podem obter resultados previsíveis com custo, esforço e tempo reduzidos, bem como a possibilidade de reversão do processo, permitindo outro tipo de abordagem futura.Introduction: The injectable composite resin technique, a recent, semi-direct technique for restorations of anterior teeth, uses a transparent silicone key “silicone index” for the precise and predictable transfer of a diagnostic wax-up, without the need for dental preparation. Objectives: The aim of this work was to discover a new solution to manage restorative procedures, explain the interest and procedure of using injectable composites, verify the economic, temporal, reliable and reproducible advantages, confirm its limitations and analyze the indications of this technique. Materials and Methods: Search conducted in the PubMed database using a combination of different keywords. The search identified 807 studies, of which 20 were considered relevant for this study. These studies provided important data, namely about the technique of injectable composite resins, the materials used, the procedure, and its advantages and disadvantages. Discussion: The technique is described through different clinical cases selected for functional and aesthetic oral rehabilitation of the anterior sector. It shows many advantages, being a faster and more economical procedure, as well as being an accurate and reproducible technique that can be applied in different clinical situations such as, dyschromias, diastemas, fractures, or other smile alterations. Conclusion: This technique offers a good clinical alternative but cannot be considered a substitute for conventional techniques, since there are few documented follow-up cases, which makes it impossible to determine the longevity of this type of treatment. Furthermore, injectable composite resins have shown inferior mechanical properties to conventional composites, such as chromatic stability after one year of treatment and the need for several polishing sessions. Thus, patients can achieve predictable results with reduced cost, effort, and time, as well as the possibility of reversing the process, allowing another type of future approach

An evaluation of expenditure in the private health care sector and its reporting in the national accounts of South Africa

Bibliography: pages 94-102.There is currently much work underway internationally to improve the accuracy and to refine the detail of accounting for health care expenditures. This research was initiated by the increasing activity in the field of national health accounting, as well as by previous research indicating that the Reserve Bank might be underestimating private health care expenditure in the national accounts. The Reserve Bank estimate of health care expenditure is important as it is the only complete and regularly produced estimate of private sector health care expenditure for South Africa. It was posited that an independent estimation of private health care expenditure would show that its magnitude is underestimated in the expenditure estimates published by the Reserve Bank for the national accounts. This thesis was upheld by the results of the research. The thesis estimate of private health care expenditure was R15 billion, 39% higher than the Reserve Bank estimate available at the time. It was also 21% higher than the final Reserve Bank estimate published in December 1995. The methodology used to derive the thesis estimate involved a survey of national income accounting concepts and guidelines embodied in the internationally used publication, the 1993 System of National Accounts. Primary data was collected from a wide range of institutions in the South African health sector. Secondary data sources were also consulted in several instances. In particular, the Registrar of Medical Schemes was consulted for medical scheme expenditure estimates as they constitute the largest portion of private sector health care expenditure in South Africa. The thesis estimate was then calculated for a single year according to the 1993 System of National Accounts guidelines. The year chosen was the government financial year from April 1992 to March 1993. The year was chosen to coincide with the year chosen for a national health expenditure review. In the presentation of the results, the estimate was broken down in separate "sources" and "uses" matrices, which are being used internationally to present national health accounting information. From the comparison of the Reserve Bank and thesis expenditure estimates, one of the most important recommendations that emerged was that the Reserve Bank should consult a wider range of expenditure data sources, more timeously and regularly. In particular, it was suggested that the Reserve Bank should negotiate earlier access to the data held by the Registrar of Medical Schemes, as well as cross-check household survey data with independent estimates of out-of-pocket and statutory scheme health care expenditure. In addition to providing a new benchmark estimate for private sector health care expenditure in the government financial year 1992/93, the breakdown of the estimate into matrices provides a framework that could be used as the basis for the development of more detailed satellite national health accounts, in accordance with 1993 SNA standards

The invasive colonial ascidian Didemnum vexillum on Georges Bank - Ecological effects and genetic identification

Since the discovery of the invasive colonial tunicate Didemnum vexillum Kott, 2002 on Georges Bank in 2002, research has focused on investigating the spread of the tunicate invasion, evaluating its potential impact on the benthic community, identifying it to species level, and determining its region of origin. The percent cover of Didemnum vexillum, measured from bottom photographs, ranges from 0-100% in individual photos and between 0-79% when averaged within photo transects. Individual photos represent an area of the seabed measuring ~ 0.39 m2 while photo transects range from ~ 700-1000 meters in length. Hydroids are the second most abundant epifaunal taxon. The macrofauna identified in bottom photo analysis comprises 21 different taxa, of which burrowing and non-burrowing anemones are the most numerous. Our detailed analysis of bottom photographs suggests that Didemnum vexillum is able to out-compete other epifaunal and macrofaunal taxa. An Analysis of Similarity (ANOSIM) test on macrofauna abundance data collected with a Naturalist dredge from 1994 to 2006, indicates that Didemnum vexillum has had a significant impact on the species composition of the benthic community. The abundance of two polychaete species, Nereis zonata Malmgren, 1867 and Harmothoe extenuata Grube, 1840, increased significantly in infested areas compared with uninfested areas, according to two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). We found four distinct nucleotide sequences of the 18s rDNA gene among 17 samples of Didemnum species, three from Georges Bank and one from New Zealand. Two of the Georges Bank sequences were identified as Didemnum albidum Verrill, 1871, a species native to the northeast United States. The third sequence represents the invasive Didemnum vexillum from Georges Bank, and the fourth sequence an undescribed species from New Zealand (not D. vexillum)