Can Non-State Certification Systems Bolster State-Centered Efforts to Promote Sustainable Development through the Clean Development Mechanism

Increasing economic globalization has coincided with the emergence and escalating influence of non-state actors and organizations in domestic and international policymaking, from shaping policy agendas to promoting private authority. The latter phenomenon has arisen, at least in part, from a critique of states\u27 failures to adopt effective and enduring environmental policies. Rather than contest command and control institutions, non-state strategies embrace market approaches built around incentives and price mechanisms. Several forms of non-state authority have emerged, including corporate social responsibility, provision of information through labeling, and self-reporting

Staying on Track from Paris: Advancing the Key Elements of the Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement adopted in December 2015 provides essential building blocks for universal action to address climate change. Now, much work is needed to breathe life into the provisions and commitments of the Agreement in order to realize the globally agreed vision to limit temperature rise, build the ability to adapt to climate impacts, and align financial flows toward zerocarbon and climate-resilient development. The Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) must continue to cooperate effectively to unpack and clarify the key tasks and activities outlined in the Agreement in order to provide a well-defined pathway to implementation. This paper takes an in-depth look at the Paris Agreement, highlighting important outcomes and the tasks and activities that now need to be undertaken to elaborate and develop the critical rules and processes under the Agreement. Ensuring that these rules and processes are strong and effective will be essential to promoting ambitious climate action and accelerating it in the coming years

A Novel Concept for a Positron Emission Tomography Scanner

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) allows physicians and researchers to visualize metabolic data in the human body and is widely used in cancer and neurological imaging. Traditional PET scanners consist of a thin ring of scintillators coupled to photo detectors but these scanners often take long periods of time to acquire an image, are very costly, and are too complex to fit inside other machinery such as MRI. In response to this, we are building a novel PET detector that utilizes non-traditional scintillators and photo detectors in an attempt to significantly decrease cost, allow combined PET/MRI modalities and reduce scan time

A dose-ranging study in older adults to compare the safety and immunogenicity profiles of MF59®-adjuvanted and non-adjuvanted seasonal influenza vaccines following intradermal and intramuscular administration

Strategies to optimize responses to seasonal influenza vaccination in older adults include the use of adjuvants, higher antigen doses, and intradermal delivery. In this study adults aged >= 65 years (n = 450) received a single dose of 1 of 2 non-adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine (TIV) formulations administered intradermally (ID), both containing 6 mu g of A/H1N1 and B, differing in A/H3N2 content (6 mu g or 12 mu g), or a single dose of 1 of 8 TIV formulations administered intramuscularly (IM) all containing 15 mu g of A/H1N1 and B, differing in A/H3N2 hemagglutinin (HA) content (15 mu g or 30 mu g) and/or in MF59 (R) adjuvant content (0%, 25%, 50%, or 100% of the standard dose). This paper focuses on the comparisons of low-dose non-adjuvanted ID, full-dose non-adjuvanted IM and full-dose MF59-adjuvanted IM formulations (n = 270). At day 22 post-vaccination, at least one European licensure immunogenicity criterion was met by all groups against all 3 strains; however, all three criteria were met against all 3 vaccine strains by the low-dose non-adjuvanted ID and the full-dose MF59-adjuvanted IM groups only. The full-dose MF59-adjuvanted IM group elicited significantly higher immune response vs. the low-dose non-adjuvanted ID formulations for most comparisons. The full-dose MF59 adjuvanted IM groups were associated with increased pain at the site of injection (P < 0.01) compared to the ID groups, and the low-dose non-adjuvanted ID groups were associated with increased erythema, induration, and swelling at the injection site (P < 0.0001) and unsolicited AEs compared with the IM groups. There were no differences between IM and ID groups in the frequencies of subjects experiencing solicited systemic reactions. Overall, while MF59 adjuvantation increased pain at the site of injection, and intradermal delivery increased unsolicited adverse events, erythema, induration, and swelling at the injection site, both strategies of vaccination strongly enhanced the immunogenicity of seasonal influenza vaccine in older adults compared with conventional non-adjuvanted intramuscular delivery

The Use and Efficacy of Comics in Healthcare: A Scoping Review in Graphic Medicine

Background: Graphic medicine is defined as the “interaction between the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare”. We seek to understand the ways in which comics are currently being employed in healthcare settings and what effects, if any, these practices have on physician, patient, and their experiences and health outcomes. Methods: Our scoping review is following the six-stage methodology laid out by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) in order to map the field – an appropriate methodology, as graphic medicine is a relatively new field that thus far lacks clear boundaries. We built, tested, and conducted searches in six databases: (1) PubMed, (2) CINAHL, (3) SCOPUS, (4) ERIC, (5) Web of Science (Core), and (6) Google Scholar. Preliminary Findings: Search results netted 5,097 unique citations, which highlights a clear problem with current indexing of comics in medical databases, as at least 80% of the citations were in fact NOT comics at all. In-depth screening and analysis of relevant results is ongoing. Potential Impact: Graphic medicine shows potential as a tool in medical and patient education and may help bridge the health literacy gap. Next Steps: Our next steps include synthesis of relevant studies and ongoing hand-searching for results outside of typical scholarly publications. Questions for the MTL Community: How might you make use of comics in your practice and/or praxis

The role of 39 psoriasis risk variants on age of psoriasis onset.

Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple genetic risk factors for psoriasis, but data on their association with age of onset have been marginally explored. The goal of this study was to evaluate known risk alleles of psoriasis for association with age of psoriasis onset in three well-defined case-only cohorts totaling 1,498 psoriasis patients. We selected 39 genetic variants from psoriasis GWAS and tested these variants for association with age of psoriasis onset in a meta-analysis. We found that rs10484554 and rs12191877 near HLA-C and rs17716942 near IFIH1 were associated with age of psoriasis onset with false discovery rate &lt; 0.05. The association between rs17716942 and age of onset was not replicated in a fourth independent cohort of 489 patients (P = 0.94). The imputed HLA-C∗06:02 allele demonstrated a much stronger association with age of psoriasis onset than rs10484554 and rs12191877. We conclude that despite the discovery of numerous psoriasis risk alleles, HLA-C∗06:02 still plays the most important role in determining the age of onset of psoriasis. Larger studies are needed to evaluate the contribution of other risk alleles, including IFIH1, to age of psoriasis onset

Opportunities and Barriers for Truck Platooning on Norwegian Rural Freight Routes

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A Novel Concept for a Positron Emission Tomography Scanner

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) allows physicians and researchers to visualize metabolic data in the human body and is widely used in cancer and neurological imaging. Traditional PET scanners consist of a thin ring of scintillators coupled to photo detectors but these scanners often take long periods of time to acquire an image, are very costly, and are too complex to fit inside other machinery such as MRI. In response to this, we are building a novel PET detector that utilizes non-traditional scintillators and photo detectors in an attempt to significantly decrease cost, allow combined PET/MRI modalities and reduce scan time