Foreign aid

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tarp, Finn

2008-01-01

Foreign aid has evolved significantly since the Second World War in response to a dramatically changing global political and economic context. This article (a) reviews this process and associated trends in the volume and distribution of foreign aid; (b) reviews the goals, principles and instituti......Foreign aid has evolved significantly since the Second World War in response to a dramatically changing global political and economic context. This article (a) reviews this process and associated trends in the volume and distribution of foreign aid; (b) reviews the goals, principles...... and institutions of the aid system; and (c) discusses whether aid has been effective. While much of the original optimism about the impact of foreign aid needed modification, there is solid evidence that aid has indeed helped further growth and poverty reduction...

Computer-aided global breast MR image feature analysis for prediction of tumor response to chemotherapy: performance assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Aghaei, Faranak; Tan, Maxine; Hollingsworth, Alan B.; Zheng, Bin; Cheng, Samuel

2016-03-01

Dynamic contrast-enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) has been used increasingly in breast cancer diagnosis and assessment of cancer treatment efficacy. In this study, we applied a computer-aided detection (CAD) scheme to automatically segment breast regions depicting on MR images and used the kinetic image features computed from the global breast MR images acquired before neoadjuvant chemotherapy to build a new quantitative model to predict response of the breast cancer patients to the chemotherapy. To assess performance and robustness of this new prediction model, an image dataset involving breast MR images acquired from 151 cancer patients before undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy was retrospectively assembled and used. Among them, 63 patients had "complete response" (CR) to chemotherapy in which the enhanced contrast levels inside the tumor volume (pre-treatment) was reduced to the level as the normal enhanced background parenchymal tissues (post-treatment), while 88 patients had "partially response" (PR) in which the high contrast enhancement remain in the tumor regions after treatment. We performed the studies to analyze the correlation among the 22 global kinetic image features and then select a set of 4 optimal features. Applying an artificial neural network trained with the fusion of these 4 kinetic image features, the prediction model yielded an area under ROC curve (AUC) of 0.83+/-0.04. This study demonstrated that by avoiding tumor segmentation, which is often difficult and unreliable, fusion of kinetic image features computed from global breast MR images without tumor segmentation can also generate a useful clinical marker in predicting efficacy of chemotherapy.

Europe's Shifting Response to HIV/AIDS: From Human Rights to Risk Management.

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Smith, Julia

2016-12-01

Despite a history of championing HIV/AIDS as a human rights issue, and a rhetorical commitment to health as a human right, European states and institutions have shifted from a rights-based response to a risk management approach to HIV/AIDS since the economic recession of 2008. An interdisciplinary perspective is applied to analyze health policy changes at the national, regional, and global levels by drawing on data from key informant interviews, and institutional and civil society documents. It is demonstrated that, in the context of austerity measures, member states such as the UK and Greece reduced commitments to rights associated with HIV/AIDS; at the regional level, the EU failed to develop rights-based approaches to address the vulnerabilities and health care needs of key populations affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly migrants and sex workers; and at the global level, the EU backtracked on commitments to global health and is prioritizing the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies over the human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. The focus within and from the EU is on containment, efficiency, and cost reduction. The rights of those most affected are no longer prioritized.

HIV/AIDS: global trends, global funds and delivery bottlenecks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hadingham Jacqui

2005-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Globalisation affects all facets of human life, including health and well being. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has highlighted the global nature of human health and welfare and globalisation has given rise to a trend toward finding common solutions to global health challenges. Numerous international funds have been set up in recent times to address global health challenges such as HIV. However, despite increasingly large amounts of funding for health initiatives being made available to poorer regions of the world, HIV infection rates and prevalence continue to increase world wide. As a result, the AIDS epidemic is expanding and intensifying globally. Worst affected are undoubtedly the poorer regions of the world as combinations of poverty, disease, famine, political and economic instability and weak health infrastructure exacerbate the severe and far-reaching impacts of the epidemic. One of the major reasons for the apparent ineffectiveness of global interventions is historical weaknesses in the health systems of underdeveloped countries, which contribute to bottlenecks in the distribution and utilisation of funds. Strengthening these health systems, although a vital component in addressing the global epidemic, must however be accompanied by mitigation of other determinants as well. These are intrinsically complex and include social and environmental factors, sexual behaviour, issues of human rights and biological factors, all of which contribute to HIV transmission, progression and mortality. An equally important factor is ensuring an equitable balance between prevention and treatment programmes in order to holistically address the challenges presented by the epidemic.

Global health and national borders: the ethics of foreign aid in a time of financial crisis.

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Johri, Mira; Chung, Ryoa; Dawson, Angus; Schrecker, Ted

2012-06-28

The governments and citizens of the developed nations are increasingly called upon to contribute financially to health initiatives outside their borders. Although international development assistance for health has grown rapidly over the last two decades, austerity measures related to the 2008 and 2011 global financial crises may impact negatively on aid expenditures. The competition between national priorities and foreign aid commitments raises important ethical questions for donor nations. This paper aims to foster individual reflection and public debate on donor responsibilities for global health. We undertook a critical review of contemporary accounts of justice. We selected theories that: (i) articulate important and widely held moral intuitions; (ii) have had extensive impact on debates about global justice; (iii) represent diverse approaches to moral reasoning; and (iv) present distinct stances on the normative importance of national borders. Due to space limitations we limit the discussion to four frameworks. Consequentialist, relational, human rights, and social contract approaches were considered. Responsibilities to provide international assistance were seen as significant by all four theories and place limits on the scope of acceptable national autonomy. Among the range of potential aid foci, interventions for health enjoyed consistent prominence. The four theories concur that there are important ethical responsibilities to support initiatives to improve the health of the worst off worldwide, but offer different rationales for intervention and suggest different implicit limits on responsibilities. Despite significant theoretical disagreements, four influential accounts of justice offer important reasons to support many current initiatives to promote global health. Ethical argumentation can complement pragmatic reasons to support global health interventions and provide an important foundation to strengthen collective action.

Global health and national borders: the ethics of foreign aid in a time of financial crisis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johri Mira

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The governments and citizens of the developed nations are increasingly called upon to contribute financially to health initiatives outside their borders. Although international development assistance for health has grown rapidly over the last two decades, austerity measures related to the 2008 and 2011 global financial crises may impact negatively on aid expenditures. The competition between national priorities and foreign aid commitments raises important ethical questions for donor nations. This paper aims to foster individual reflection and public debate on donor responsibilities for global health. Methods We undertook a critical review of contemporary accounts of justice. We selected theories that: (i articulate important and widely held moral intuitions; (ii have had extensive impact on debates about global justice; (iii represent diverse approaches to moral reasoning; and (iv present distinct stances on the normative importance of national borders. Due to space limitations we limit the discussion to four frameworks. Results Consequentialist, relational, human rights, and social contract approaches were considered. Responsibilities to provide international assistance were seen as significant by all four theories and place limits on the scope of acceptable national autonomy. Among the range of potential aid foci, interventions for health enjoyed consistent prominence. The four theories concur that there are important ethical responsibilities to support initiatives to improve the health of the worst off worldwide, but offer different rationales for intervention and suggest different implicit limits on responsibilities. Conclusions Despite significant theoretical disagreements, four influential accounts of justice offer important reasons to support many current initiatives to promote global health. Ethical argumentation can complement pragmatic reasons to support global health interventions and provide an important

Responses to the global HIV and AIDS pandemic: a study of the role of faith-based organisations in Lesotho.

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Olowu, Dejo

2015-01-01

This article attempts to establish the key contribution by people of faith to the global HIV pandemic response, using Lesotho as a case study. Particular focus is paid to the work of selected religious organisations in Lesotho in this context, assessing their capacities to coordinate an effective HIV and AIDS action at the grassroots levels through education, health care, development, and social service activities. Empirical evaluations and findings regarding the level and quality of faith-based engagement in this field establish the basic premise of this article, namely, that faith-based organisations are contributing energy, expertise, and experience in order to achieve the commitment of the global commitment to advance universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, and support. Although the article is particularly focused on the Lesotho context, its tremendous implications for simulated studies and approaches across Sub-Saharan Africa are accentuated.

Foreign aid

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tarp, Finn

2008-01-01

Foreign aid has evolved significantly since the Second World War in response to a dramatically changing global political and economic context. This article (a) reviews this process and associated trends in the volume and distribution of foreign aid; (b) reviews the goals, principles...

Aid, Environment and Climate Change

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arndt, Thomas Channing; Tarp, Finn

2017-01-01

Aid and aid institutions constitute an important element of the global response to interlinked global developmental and environmental challenges. As such, these institutions are now being drawn into new arenas beyond the traditional focus on improving the livelihoods of poor people in low-income ...

Canada's international response to HIV during times of global transition: a qualitative inquiry.

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Nixon, Stephanie

2011-04-01

Canada's international response to HIV may be under threat given CIDA's new aid priorities that appear to exclude health. Drivers of this recent priority shift have been the influence of global aid trends among public sector donors and changes within the global HIV milieu itself. However, this is not the first time Canada has shifted in response to these two global trends. The era from 2000-2004 also witnessed dramatic changes in both the HIV field and in global thinking around international aid. As such, this article presents an evaluation of the Government of Canada's international response to HIV during the first era of transition (2000-2004) in order to derive lessons for decision-making around HIV in the current climate of change. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 key informants with expertise regarding Canada's international response to HIV over time. Analysis involved multiple readings of transcripts to identify descriptive codes and establish intimacy with the data. Descriptive codes were then collapsed into thematic categories using a process of inductive reasoning. Canada's international response to HIV was perceived to be exemplary at times (e.g. seminal funding to WHO's "3-by-5" strategy), but also inconsistent (e.g., underutilized technical assistance capacity) and non-strategic (e.g., contradiction between investing in training health providers while poaching professionals to bolster Canada's workforce). Lessons from the 2000-2004 era of transition focus on strategic investments, the inextricable connection between HIV and development and strategy coherence. These results highlight that it is more constructive to ensure that Canadian development responses in all areas engage with both the upstream drivers of HIV as well as the impacts of the epidemic itself in order to achieve the greatest results from international investment and the most effective contributions to the lives of the people that these endeavours seek to

Accounts from the field: a public relations perspective on global AIDS/HIV.

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Bardhan, Nilanjana R

2002-01-01

This study is a theoretical as well as empirical exploration of the power and cultural differentials that mark and construct various intersecting discourses, specifically media discourse, on global AIDS/HIV. It applies the language and concepts of public relations to understand how the press coverage of the pandemic is associated with the variables that impact the newsmaking process as well as the public and policy implications of macro news frames generated over time. Theoretical work in the areas of agenda setting and news framing also instruct the conceptual framework of this analysis. Narrative analysis is used as a methodology to qualitatively analyze three pools of accounts-from people either living with AIDS/HIV, involved in AIDS/HIV work, or discursively engaged in the media construction of the pandemic; from transnational wire service journalists who cover the issue at global and regional levels; and policy shapers and communicators who are active at the global level. These three communities of respondents represent important stakeholders in the AIDS/HIV issue. The findings are analyzed from a public relations standpoint. Perhaps the most important finding of this study is that the public relations approaches used to address AIDS/HIV related issues need to be grounded in context-specific research and communicative practices that bring out the lived realities of AIDS/HIV at grassroots levels. The findings also posit that those situated at critical junctions between various stakeholders need to cultivate a finely balanced understanding of the etic and emic intersections and subjectivities of global/local AIDS/HIV.

Shifting the burden: the private sector's response to the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

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Rosen, Sydney; Simon, Jonathon L.

2003-01-01

As the economic burden of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) increases in sub-Saharan Africa, allocation of the burden among levels and sectors of society is changing. The private sector has more scope to avoid the economic burden of AIDS than governments, households, or nongovernmental organizations, and the burden is being systematically shifted away from the private sector. Common practices that transfer the burden to households and government include pre-employment screening, reductions in employee benefits, restructured employment contracts, outsourcing of low skilled jobs, selective retrenchments, and changes in production technologies. Between 1997 and 1999 more than two-thirds of large South African employers reduced the level of health care benefits or increased employee contributions. Most firms also have replaced defined-benefit retirement funds, which expose the firm to large annual costs but provide long-term support for families, with defined-contribution funds, which eliminate risks to the firm but provide little for families of younger workers who die of AIDS. Contracting out previously permanent jobs is also shielding firms from benefit and turnover costs, effectively shifting the responsibility to care for affected workers and their families to households, nongovernmental organizations, and the government. Many of these changes are responses to globalization that would have occurred in the absence of AIDS, but they are devastating for the households of employees with HIV/AIDS. We argue that the shift in the economic burden of AIDS is a predictable response by business to which a deliberate public policy response is needed. Countries should make explicit decisions about each sector's responsibilities if a socially desirable allocation is to be achieved. PMID:12751421

Shifting the burden: the private sector's response to the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosen, Sydney; Simon, Jonathon L

2003-01-01

As the economic burden of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) increases in sub-Saharan Africa, allocation of the burden among levels and sectors of society is changing. The private sector has more scope to avoid the economic burden of AIDS than governments, households, or nongovernmental organizations, and the burden is being systematically shifted away from the private sector. Common practices that transfer the burden to households and government include pre-employment screening, reductions in employee benefits, restructured employment contracts, outsourcing of low skilled jobs, selective retrenchments, and changes in production technologies. Between 1997 and 1999 more than two-thirds of large South African employers reduced the level of health care benefits or increased employee contributions. Most firms also have replaced defined-benefit retirement funds, which expose the firm to large annual costs but provide long-term support for families, with defined-contribution funds, which eliminate risks to the firm but provide little for families of younger workers who die of AIDS. Contracting out previously permanent jobs is also shielding firms from benefit and turnover costs, effectively shifting the responsibility to care for affected workers and their families to households, nongovernmental organizations, and the government. Many of these changes are responses to globalization that would have occurred in the absence of AIDS, but they are devastating for the households of employees with HIV/AIDS. We argue that the shift in the economic burden of AIDS is a predictable response by business to which a deliberate public policy response is needed. Countries should make explicit decisions about each sector's responsibilities if a socially desirable allocation is to be achieved.

Corporate social responsibility in public health: A case-study on HIV/AIDS epidemic by Johnson & Johnson company in Africa

OpenAIRE

Chattu, Vijay Kumar

2015-01-01

HIV/AIDS has claimed millions of lives in the global workforce and continues to remain a threat to many businesses. An estimated 36.5 million of working people are living with HIV; the global workforce has lost 28 million people from AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic. In the absence of access to treatment, this number could grow to 74 million by 2015. The epidemic continues to affect the working population through absenteeism, sickness and death. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) i...

Globalization and its methodological discontents: Contextualizing globalization through the study of HIV/AIDS

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

There remains considerable discontent between globalization scholars about how to conceptualize its meaning and in regards to epistemological and methodological questions concerning how we can come to understand how these processes ultimately operate, intersect and transform our lives. This article argues that to better understand what globalization is and how it affects issues such as global health, we must take a differentiating approach, which focuses on how the multiple processes of globalization are encountered and informed by different social groups and with how these encounters are experienced within particular contexts. The article examines the heuristic properties of qualitative field research as a means to help better understand how the intersections of globalization are manifested within particular locations. To do so, the article focuses on three recent case studies conducted on globalization and HIV/AIDS and explores how these cases can help us to understand the contextual permutations involved within the processes of globalization. PMID:21861895

Globalization and its methodological discontents: Contextualizing globalization through the study of HIV/AIDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Labonté Ronald

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract There remains considerable discontent between globalization scholars about how to conceptualize its meaning and in regards to epistemological and methodological questions concerning how we can come to understand how these processes ultimately operate, intersect and transform our lives. This article argues that to better understand what globalization is and how it affects issues such as global health, we must take a differentiating approach, which focuses on how the multiple processes of globalization are encountered and informed by different social groups and with how these encounters are experienced within particular contexts. The article examines the heuristic properties of qualitative field research as a means to help better understand how the intersections of globalization are manifested within particular locations. To do so, the article focuses on three recent case studies conducted on globalization and HIV/AIDS and explores how these cases can help us to understand the contextual permutations involved within the processes of globalization.

Globalizing queer? AIDS, homophobia and the politics of sexual identity in India.

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Kole, Subir K

2007-07-11

Queerness is now global. Many emerging economies of the global South are experiencing queer mobilization and sexual identity politics raising fundamental questions of citizenship and human rights on the one hand; and discourses of nationalism, cultural identity, imperialism, tradition and family-values on the other. While some researchers argue that with economic globalization in the developing world, a Western, hegemonic notion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) identity has been exported to traditional societies thereby destroying indigenous sexual cultures and diversities, other scholars do not consider globalization as a significant factor in global queer mobilization and sexual identity politics. This paper aims at exploring the debate around globalization and contemporary queer politics in developing world with special reference to India. After briefly tracing the history of sexual identity politics, this paper examines the process of queer mobilization in relation to emergence of HIV/AIDS epidemic and forces of neoliberal globalization. I argue that the twin-process of globalization and AIDS epidemic has significantly influenced the mobilization of queer communities, while simultaneously strengthening right wing "homophobic" discourses of heterosexist nationalism in India.

South-South Cooperation, North-South Aid and the Prospect of International Aid Architecture

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Meibo Huang

2015-12-01

Full Text Available South-South Cooperation (SSC and North-South Aid (NSA arise from different historical conditions and there are great differences between their philosophies, principles and paradigms. Against the background of a changing global environment, developed countries realized that the original development aid architecture must be reformed on one hand, and that developing countries are increasingly important in the aid architecture on the other. Hence, Western donors began to rethink their aid principles and methods, and accepted the concept of development effectiveness gradually, an attempt to establish global development forum and global partnership including emerging donors, beneficiary countries, civil society and the private sector. Nevertheless, being developing countries themselves, emerging donors are faced with unsolved domestic poverty issues and imperfect aid management institutions, which means that the emerging donors are unable to take a dominant position in the current aid architecture. Hence, the future dialogue and cooperation between traditional and emerging donors should feature the principle that the responsibilities taken by each party are collective but not identical, with developing countries bearing the main responsibilities in promoting poverty reduction and economic development in developing countries. They should be mutually tolerant about the different philosophies and share useful experiences. Moreover, emerging donors should promote development capacity building in recipient countries through win-win cooperation and solve their domestic development issues at the same time.

Aid and development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tarp, Finn

2006-01-01

evolved since World War II in response to a dramatically changing global political and economic context. I review the aid process and associated trends in the volume and distribution of aid and categorize some of the key goals, principles and institutions of the aid system. The evidence on whether aid has...... been effective in furthering economic growth and development is discussed in some detail. I add perspective and identify some critical unresolved issues. I finally turn to the current development debate and discuss some key concerns, I believe should be kept in mind in formulating any agenda for aid...

Globalizing queer? AIDS, homophobia and the politics of sexual identity in India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kole Subir K

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Queerness is now global. Many emerging economies of the global South are experiencing queer mobilization and sexual identity politics raising fundamental questions of citizenship and human rights on the one hand; and discourses of nationalism, cultural identity, imperialism, tradition and family-values on the other. While some researchers argue that with economic globalization in the developing world, a Western, hegemonic notion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT identity has been exported to traditional societies thereby destroying indigenous sexual cultures and diversities, other scholars do not consider globalization as a significant factor in global queer mobilization and sexual identity politics. This paper aims at exploring the debate around globalization and contemporary queer politics in developing world with special reference to India. After briefly tracing the history of sexual identity politics, this paper examines the process of queer mobilization in relation to emergence of HIV/AIDS epidemic and forces of neoliberal globalization. I argue that the twin-process of globalization and AIDS epidemic has significantly influenced the mobilization of queer communities, while simultaneously strengthening right wing "homophobic" discourses of heterosexist nationalism in India.

Understanding the response of large South African companies to HIV/AIDS.

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Dickinson, D; Stevens, M

2005-07-01

This paper provides a framework analysing the response of South African companies to HIV/AIDS. Drawing on three case studies of companies, each with over 20,000 South African-based employees, we identify six 'drivers' that influence corporate behaviour regarding HIV/AIDS: legal requirements, voluntary regulation, business costs, social pressures, visibility of the disease, and individuals within companies. We suggest that costs calculations, while possibly underestimating indirect and macro-implications, are not key in driving company responses to HIV/AIDS. The law and voluntary regulation have influenced, but not determined, the response of companies to HIV/AIDS. Social pressures on companies are of importance, but the scale and complexity of need in South Africa has seen the deflecting of this driver. Of greater reference in determining responses has been the social pressure of other companies' responses. The general visibility of the AIDS epidemic is also a significant factor in explaining companies' responses to HIV/AIDS. Moreover, the visibility of HIV/AIDS within companies has influenced the responses of often relatively weak, internal agents who have been attempting to drive companies' HIV/AIDS programmes. We conclude that external drivers--legal requirements, economic performance, and social pressures--have framed corporate responses to HIV/AIDS to a degree, but have generally been weak. Moreover, there has been relatively little synergy between these external drivers and the internal drivers--voluntary regulation, visibility, and company HIV/AIDS 'champions'--that could propel companies into pro-active, bold responses to HIV/AIDS.

Financing the response to AIDS: some fiscal and macroeconomic considerations.

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Haacker, Markus

2008-07-01

This article examines the international response to AIDS from a fiscal perspective: first the financing of the international response to AIDS, especially the role of external financing, and second, a more comprehensive perspective on the costs of the national response to AIDS relevant for fiscal policy. The second half of the article focuses on the effectiveness of the response to AIDS. We find that there is little basis for concerns about macroeconomic constraints to scaling up, in light of the moderate scale of AIDS-related aid flows relative to overall aid. Regarding sectoral constraints, the picture is more differentiated. Many countries with high prevalence rates have also achieved high rates of access to treatment, but most of these are middle-income countries. Our econometric analysis credits external aid as a key factor that has enabled higher-prevalence countries to cope with the additional demands for health services. At the same time, gross domestic product per capita and health sector capacities are important determinants of access to treatment.

National and subnational HIV/AIDS coordination: are global health initiatives closing the gap between intent and practice?

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Rukhadze Natia

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A coordinated response to HIV/AIDS remains one of the 'grand challenges' facing policymakers today. Global health initiatives (GHIs have the potential both to facilitate and exacerbate coordination at the national and subnational level. Evidence of the effects of GHIs on coordination is beginning to emerge but has hitherto been limited to single-country studies and broad-brush reviews. To date, no study has provided a focused synthesis of the effects of GHIs on national and subnational health systems across multiple countries. To address this deficit, we review primary data from seven country studies on the effects of three GHIs on coordination of HIV/AIDS programmes: the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR, and the World Bank's HIV/AIDS programmes including the Multi-country AIDS Programme (MAP. Methods In-depth interviews were conducted at national and subnational levels (179 and 218 respectively in seven countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, between 2006 and 2008. Studies explored the development and functioning of national and subnational HIV coordination structures, and the extent to which coordination efforts around HIV/AIDS are aligned with and strengthen country health systems. Results Positive effects of GHIs included the creation of opportunities for multisectoral participation, greater political commitment and increased transparency among most partners. However, the quality of participation was often limited, and some GHIs bypassed coordination mechanisms, especially at the subnational level, weakening their effectiveness. Conclusions The paper identifies residual national and subnational obstacles to effective coordination and optimal use of funds by focal GHIs, which these GHIs, other donors and country partners need to collectively address.

AIDS: A theological and pastoral response

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G. G. Miller

1990-03-01

Full Text Available The anticipated A.I.D.S. crisis in Southern Africa presents an opportunity for the Christian church to respond positively rather than merely to react negatively. This requires both a theological understanding and a pastoral response. Theologically, A.I.D.S. may be seen as an object lesson in the interrelation of natural, personal and historical evil. Although both the Old Testament and the New Testament warn against a simplistic doctrine of individual retribution, there are also several different ways in which the A.I.D.S. crisis may indeed in some particular cases be seen as a judgement of God while in other cases it is rather a horrifying event. Other relevant issues include matters relating to justification and sanctification and the wider ethical issues of discrimination and human rights, of "public" and "private" morality. The Church's pastoral response should include both "corrective" education to remove irrational and fearful ignorance and also "preventative" education to encourage a monogamous lifestyle. Pastoral ministry must be "redemptive", appropriate to the varying needs of persons with A.I.D.S., of their families and friends and of professional care-providers. The Church cannot ignore the A.I.D.S. crisis, but must respond to it both Biblically and pastorally.

Aligning faith-based and national HIV/AIDS prevention responses? Factors influencing the HIV/AIDS prevention policy process and response of faith-based NGOs in Tanzania.

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Morgan, Rosemary; Green, Andrew; Boesten, Jelke

2014-05-01

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) have a long tradition of providing HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation services in Africa. The overall response of FBOs, however, has been controversial, particularly in regard to HIV/AIDS prevention and FBO's rejection of condom use and promotion, which can conflict with and negatively influence national HIV/AIDS prevention response efforts. This article reports the findings from a study that explored the factors influencing the HIV/AIDS prevention policy process within faith-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of different faiths. These factors were examined within three faith-based NGOs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania-a Catholic, Anglican and Muslim organization. The research used an exploratory, qualitative case-study approach, and employed a health policy analysis framework, examining the context, actor and process factors and how they interact to form content in terms of policy and its implementation within each organization. Three key factors were found to influence faith-based NGOs' HIV/AIDS prevention response in terms of both policy and its implementation: (1) the faith structure in which the organizations are a part, (2) the presence or absence of organizational policy and (3) the professional nature of the organizations and its actors. The interaction between these factors, and how actors negotiate between them, was found to shape the organizations' HIV/AIDS prevention response. This article reports on these factors and analyses the different HIV/AIDS prevention responses found within each organization. By understanding the factors that influence faith-based NGOs' HIV/AIDS prevention policy process, the overall faith-based response to HIV/AIDS, and how it corresponds to national response efforts, is better understood. It is hoped that by doing so the government will be better able to identify how to best work with FBOs to meet national HIV/AIDS prevention targets, improving the overall role of FBOs in the fight against

Aid and Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tarp, Finn

evolved since World War II in response to a dramatically changing global political and economic context. I review the aid process and associated trends in the volume and distribution of aid and categorize some of the key goals, principles and institutions of the aid system. The evidence on whether aid has...... been effective in furthering economic growth and development is discussed in some detail. I add perspective and identify some critical unresolved issues. I finally turn to the current development debate and discuss some key concerns, which I believe should be kept in mind in formulating any agenda...

Estimates of global HIV/AIDS mortality, prevalence and incidence rates, and their association with the Human Development Index

OpenAIRE

Kamyar Mansori; Erfan Ayubi; Fatemeh Khosravi Shadmani; Shiva Mansouri Hanis; Somayeh Khazaei; Mohadeseh Sani; Yousef Moradi; Salman Khazaei; Abolfazl Mohammadbeigi

2017-01-01

Background: HIV/AIDS is one of greatest global public health concerns today due to the high incidence, prevalence and mortality rates. The aim of this research was investigate and estimate the global HIV/AIDS mortality, prevalence and incidence rates, and explore their associations with the Human Development Index. Methods: The global age-standardized rates of mortality, prevalence and incidence of HIV/AIDS were obtained from the UNAIDS for different countries in 2015. The human developm...

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: 10 years on.

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Hanefeld, Johanna

2014-02-01

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund or GFATM) is a private public partnership aimed at leveraging and providing funding for the three focal diseases outlined in its title. Set up in 2002, the fund was part of a new 'breed' of players in the field of global health, combining skills from bilateral and multilateral agencies with private sector and civil society. Highly innovative in its structure and funding model, the Global Fund's secretariat in Geneva provides grants directly to one or more organisations - not just governments - in recipient countries. Despite great successes, including scaling up treatment for AIDS to reach 4.2 million people, the fund has been the subject of intense debate. This includes discussion of its impact on health systems and allegations of financial irregularities among recipients in four countries. The organisation has now emerged with a new strategy, funding model and executive director. This paper charts its history, discusses some of the challenges faced, drawing on fieldwork conducted by the author in 2007-08, and reflects on recent changes and the road ahead.

76 FR 35507 - Assistance to Southern Sudan and the United States Contribution to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-17

... Contribution to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) for Fiscal Year 2009... the United States Leadership against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003, as amended, for... the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003, as amended by...

The Impact of Global Institutions on National Health HIV/AIDS Policy Making in Developing Countries

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Zhanat Mokushev

2013-09-01

Full Text Available This article explores the relationship of global institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, World Bank, and individual developing countries in social health policy making in terms of HIV and AIDS. We examine the role of IGOs and NGOs in regarding to HIV/AIDS issues then analyse the TRIPs agreement as a tool for developing countries to negotiate with International organisations in global health policy decisions.

Human Rights in the Fourth Decade of the HIV/AIDS Response: An Inspiring Legacy and Urgent Imperative.

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Enoch, Jamie; Piot, Peter

2017-12-01

More than 35 years since the HIV/AIDS pandemic began, HIV continues to cause almost two million new infections each year, and the "end of AIDS" by 2030 remains elusive. 1 Violations of human rights continue to fuel high rates of new infections among key populations and a generalized epidemic in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile, as political shifts worldwide threaten not only HIV funding but also progress toward the globalization of human rights, civil society mobilization and advocacy founded firmly on human rights principles have a more vital role to play than ever. Encouragingly, there are numerous examples of successful integration of human rights-based approaches into HIV prevention and treatment initiatives, and evidence increasingly demonstrates that norms enshrining the respect, protection, and fulfillment of human rights can translate into improved public health. 2 This essay will succinctly trace the historic emergence of human rights as an issue at the heart of the HIV/AIDS response; it will then provide examples of progress and setbacks in recent years and consider the potential for rights promotion to address the structural drivers of HIV. Finally, it will consider how the primacy of human rights in HIV/AIDS has affected other fields of global health and will highlight the continuing imperative to work with civil society to protect and promote human rights to reduce the burden of HIV/AIDS.

The 'end of AIDS' project: Mobilising evidence, bureaucracy, and big data for a final biomedical triumph over AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

Leclerc-Madlala, Suzanne; Broomhall, Lorie; Fieno, John

2017-12-04

Efforts are currently underway by major orchestrators and funders of the global AIDS response to realise the vision of achieving an end to AIDS by 2030. Unlike previous efforts to provide policy guidance or to encourage 'best practice' approaches for combatting AIDS, the end of AIDS project involves the promotion of a clear set of targets, tools, and interventions for a final biomedical solution to the epidemic. In this paper, we examine the bureaucratic procedures of one major AIDS funder that helped to foster a common vision and mission amongst a global AIDS community with widely divergent views on how best to address the epidemic. We focus on the methods, movements, and materials that are central to the project of ending AIDS, including those related to biomedical forms of evidence and big data science. We argue that these approaches have limitations and social scientists need to pay close attention to the end of AIDS project, particularly in contexts where clinical interventions might transform clinical outcomes, but where the social, economic, and cultural determinants of HIV and AIDS remain largely intact and increasingly obscured.

Participation, decentralisation and déjà vu: Remaking democracy in response to AIDS?

Science.gov (United States)

Kenworthy, Nora J

2014-01-01

Participation, decentralisation and community partnership have served as prominent motifs and driving philosophies in the global scale-up of HIV programming. Given the fraught histories of these ideas in development studies, it is surprising to encounter their broad appeal as benchmarks and moral practices in global health work. This paper examines three intertwined, government-endorsed projects to deepen democratic processes of HIV policy-making in Lesotho: (1) the 'Gateway Approach' for decentralising and coordinating local HIV responses; (2) the implementation of a community council-driven priority-setting process; and (3) the establishment of community AIDS councils. Taken together, these efforts are striking and well intentioned, but nonetheless struggle in the face of powerful global agendas to establish meaningful practices of participation and decentralisation. Examining these efforts shows that HIV scale-up conveys formidable lessons for citizens about the politics of global health and their place in the world. As global health initiatives continue to remake important dimensions of political functioning, practitioners, agencies and governments implementing similar democratising projects may find the warnings of earlier development critics both useful and necessary.

The impact of the global economic crisis on HIV and AIDS ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This investigation sought to ascertain the extent to which the global economic crisis of 2008–2009 affected the delivery of HIV/AIDS-related services directed at pregnant and lactating mothers, children living with HIV and children orphaned through HIV in Zambia. Using a combined macroeconomic analysis and a multiple ...

What does sustainability mean in the HIV and AIDS response?

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Oberth, Gemma; Whiteside, Alan

2016-01-01

Immense progress has been made in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Achieving and exceeding the AIDS targets for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was accomplished, in large part, due to an unprecedented financial investment from the international community. Following an $800 million dip in donor disbursements in 2010, the discourse has since shifted to the need for greater sustainability of funding. But what does sustainability mean? Current efforts focus heavily on fiscal imperatives such as increasing domestic funding. This is important - needs are increasing at a faster rate than donor funding, especially with increased treatment coverage. The problem is that measures of financial sustainability tell very little about the actual sustainability of specific programmes, disease trajectories or enabling environments. Recognising that current definitions of sustainability lack clarity and depth, we offer a new six-tenet conceptualisation of what sustainability means in the HIV and AIDS response: (1) financial, (2) epidemiological, (3) political, (4) structural, (5) programmatic, and (6) human rights. Based on these, we examine examples of donor transitions for their approach to sustainability, including PEPFAR in South Africa, the Global Fund in Eastern Europe, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in India (Avahan). We conclude that sustainability must be understood within a broader framework beyond funding stability. We also recommend that certain interventions, such as programming for key populations, may have to continue to receive external support even if affected countries can afford to pay.

HIV/AIDS response in Rivers State, Nigeria: an evaluation of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Over the years Rivers State of Nigeria has witnessed a rising trend in HIV/AIDS infection. In 2006, the State Action Committee on AIDS commenced the implementation of a Strategic Response Plan to prevent and mitigate the effect of HIV/AIDS by 2009. Aim : To verify the extent of achievement of the Strategic ...

A situation-response model for intelligent pilot aiding

Science.gov (United States)

Schudy, Robert; Corker, Kevin

1987-01-01

An intelligent pilot aiding system needs models of the pilot information processing to provide the computational basis for successful cooperation between the pilot and the aiding system. By combining artificial intelligence concepts with the human information processing model of Rasmussen, an abstraction hierarchy of states of knowledge, processing functions, and shortcuts are developed, which is useful for characterizing the information processing both of the pilot and of the aiding system. This approach is used in the conceptual design of a real time intelligent aiding system for flight crews of transport aircraft. One promising result was the tentative identification of a particular class of information processing shortcuts, from situation characterizations to appropriate responses, as the most important reliable pathway for dealing with complex time critical situations.

Mutual aid in oil spill response: The Alaskan north slope model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McKenzie, B.; Ingram, N.

1993-01-01

The Alaskan Arctic Region provides one of the world's most remote and challenging environments in which to mount an oil spill response. To facilitate the timeliness and appropriateness of the response, Alaska Clean Seas (ACS) and the operators of the North Slope oil fields have implemented a mutual aid concept for spill response. The concept is based upon each operator on the North Slope maintaining its own inventory of personnel [a spill response team (SRT)] and equipment that is available on short notice to respond to a spill. If the spill exceeds the responsible operator's resources, additional resources can be obtained from other operators and/or ACS through mutual aid. Individuals from diverse organizations are brought together in a mutual aid event. To allow different organizations to function effectively in a multi-organizational environment, a common management structure was required. The structure chosen for the North Slope was the incident command system (ICS). A key concern when discussing mutual aid is the provision of indemnification from liability for responders. For the North Slope, ACS and its member companies are indemnified when responding to a spill through provisions in the ACS charter and the ACS response action contract

Introduction to a Special Issue of the Journal of Immunological Methods: Building global resource programs to support HIV/AIDS clinical trial studies.

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Sanchez, Ana M; Denny, Thomas N; O'Gorman, Maurice

2014-07-01

This Special Issue of the Journal of Immunological Methods includes 16 manuscripts describing quality assurance activities related to virologic and immunologic monitoring of six global laboratory resource programs that support international HIV/AIDS clinical trial studies: Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD); Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI); External Quality Assurance Program Oversight Laboratory (EQAPOL); HIV Vaccine Trial Network (HVTN); International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI); and Immunology Quality Assessment (IQA). The reports from these programs address the many components required to develop comprehensive quality control activities and subsequent quality assurance programs for immune monitoring in global clinical trials including: all aspects of processing, storing, and quality assessment of PBMC preparations used ubiquitously in HIV clinical trials, the development and optimization of assays for CD8 HIV responses and HIV neutralization, a comprehensive global HIV virus repository, and reports on the development and execution of novel external proficiency testing programs for immunophenotyping, intracellular cytokine staining, ELISPOT and luminex based cytokine measurements. In addition, there are articles describing the implementation of Good Clinical Laboratory Practices (GCLP) in a large quality assurance laboratory, the development of statistical methods specific for external proficiency testing assessment, a discussion on the ability to set objective thresholds for measuring rare events by flow cytometry, and finally, a manuscript which addresses a framework for the structured reporting of T cell immune function based assays. It is anticipated that this series of manuscripts covering a wide range of quality assurance activities associated with the conduct of global clinical trials will provide a resource for individuals and programs involved in improving the harmonization, standardization, accuracy, and sensitivity of

The task of the HIV translator: transforming global AIDS knowledge in an awareness workshop.

Science.gov (United States)

Wardlow, Holly

2012-01-01

The globalization of standardized knowledge about HIV and AIDS depends in part on local AIDS awareness educators who receive training from national and international organizations and then, ideally, disseminate what they have learned. In this article I analyze textual and observational data from a five-day introductory AIDS awareness workshop in rural Papua New Guinea. Although the instructor adhered to the handbook provided by the National AIDS Council for much of the information, she departed from it significantly when informing participants about the "root causes" of HIV's spread and in giving them advice about prevention. I explicate where her extratextual knowledge came from as well as its overall message to target audiences. I suggest that textual silences in AIDS awareness handbooks can motivate local HIV translators to embark on a kind of semiosis-the ongoing production of new, hybrid knowledge about HIV.

Aid alignment for global health research: the role of HIROs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Viergever Roderik F

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract The lack of a mechanism that aligns financial flows for global health research towards public health priorities limits the impact of health research on health and health equity. Collaborative groups of health research funders appear to be particularly well situated to ameliorate this situation and to initiate discussion on aid alignment for global health research. One such group is the Heads of International Research Organizations (HIROs, which brings together a large number of major government and philanthropic funders of biomedical research. Surprisingly, there is hardly any information publicly available on HIROs' objectives, or on how it aims to achieve more harmonization in the field of research for health. Greater transparency on HIROs' objectives and on its current efforts towards addressing the gap between global health research needs and investments would be desirable, given the enormous potential benefits of more coordination by this group.

Information and communication: a library's local response to HIV/AIDS in Zambia.

Science.gov (United States)

Kanyengo, Christine Wamunyima

2010-03-01

To document and describe the University of Zambia Medical library's responses to the fight against HIV/AIDS in Zambia. The methodology adopted was a case study approach combined with an analysis of the literature such as annual reports and official documents. This was augmented by personal reflections of the author having worked at the Medical Library. The University of Zambia Medical library has over the years instituted and implemented HIV/AIDS information provision programmes that include the provision of information in various formats -- print or electronic and, in addition, capacity building in HIV/AIDS information literacy skills. A library's social responsibility calls for it to be part of national responses to crises that arise in society. As HIV/AIDS has affected every aspect of Zambian society prevention, treatment, care and support there is an understanding that the library's role should be using the critical and strategic resource at its disposal - information -- as part of their contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS. In this context, libraries should source, collect, organize and disseminate information on HIV/AIDS in a way that is easily accessible to researchers, HIV/AIDS programme implementation agencies and the ordinary public.

Pharmaceutical industry's corporate social responsibility towards HIV/AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

Khanna, Arun Kumar

2006-01-01

The pharmaceutical industry has a corporate social responsibility (CSR) towards HIV/AIDS. Measures taken to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS, availability and accessibility of potent and patient-friendly FDCs / Kits for adults and children will go a long way in increasing awareness and acceptance of this disease and its therapy. This will improve adherence, lower resistance and facilitate better disease management. This article discusses some of the CSR initiatives and their scope.

THE ROLE OF NAVIGATIONAL AIDS IN FLIGHT SAFETY MANAGEMENT WITHIN ICAO GLOBAL AIR NAVIGATION PLAN

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Vadim V. Vurobyov

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The development of the global civil aviation is provided on the basis of the ICAO Communication and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management Concept, which has determined the basic strategy for further commercial flight management effectiveness improvement. On the basis of this concept a Global Air Navigation Plan has been developed by ICAO recently. The core strategies of CNS/ATM concept were specified and combined into so-called blocks. Thus the term Global Aviation System block upgrade has been introduced. At the same time, GANP states that the introduction of new procedures and flight management systems will inevitably affect flight safety. Accordingly, there is a task of flight safety management level maintaining, or even increasing within the Global Air Navigation Plan implementation. Various air navigational aids play a significant role in the process as they are directly associated with the new systems and structures introduction.This breeds the new global challenge of flight safety management level change assessment during the introduction of new procedures and systems connected with the use of both navigational aids and instruments. Some aspects of this problem solution are covered in the article.

European Union and EDCTP strategy in the global context: recommendations for preventive HIV/AIDS vaccines research

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lehner, Thomas; Hoelscher, Michael; Clerici, Mario; Gotch, Frances; Pedneault, Louise; Tartaglia, Jim; Gray, Clive; Mestecky, Jiri; Sattentau, Quentin; van de Wijgert, Janneke; Toure, Coumba; Osmanov, Saladin; Schmidt, Reinold E.; Debre, Patrice; Romaris, Manuel; Hoeveler, Arnd; Di Fabio, Simonetta

2005-01-01

The European Commission (EC) has strong commitments and recognises the need to continue to ensure that HIV/AIDS research efforts receive global attention. The EC is facing this challenge in a global context and has made substantial investments together with European Developing Countries Clinical

Visual impairment secondary to congenital glaucoma in children: visual responses, optical correction and use of low vision AIDS

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Maria Aparecida Onuki Haddad

2009-01-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Congenital glaucoma is frequently associated with visual impairment due to optic nerve damage, corneal opacities, cataracts and amblyopia. Poor vision in childhood is related to global developmental problems, and referral to vision habilitation/rehabilitation services should be without delay to promote efficient management of the impaired vision. OBJECTIVE: To analyze data concerning visual response, the use of optical correction and prescribed low vision aids in a population of children with congenital glaucoma. METHOD: The authors analyzed data from 100 children with congenital glaucoma to assess best corrected visual acuity, prescribed optical correction and low vision aids. RESULTS: Fifty-five percent of the sample were male, 43% female. The mean age was 6.3 years. Two percent presented normal visual acuity levels, 29% mild visual impairment, 28% moderate visual impairment, 15% severe visual impairment, 11% profound visual impairment, and 15% near blindness. Sixty-eight percent received optical correction for refractive errors. Optical low vision aids were adopted for distance vision in 34% of the patients and for near vision in 6%. A manual monocular telescopic system with 2.8 × magnification was the most frequently prescribed low vision aid for distance, and for near vision a +38 diopter illuminated stand magnifier was most frequently prescribed. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Careful low vision assessment and the appropriate prescription of optical corrections and low vision aids are mandatory in children with congenital glaucoma, since this will assist their global development, improving efficiency in daily life activities and promoting social and educational inclusion.

[Sexual responsibility: a key concept in the prevention of AIDS, abortion and adolescent pregnancies].

Science.gov (United States)

Luco, A

1992-01-01

Worldwide, approximately 300,000 people have AIDS, and there are 50-100 infections for each case. Responsible sexual behavior is crucial for prevention, since sexual transmission is the principal route of contracting AIDS. The major causes of maternal mortality in the 15-39 year age group in Latin America are complications from induced abortion which is also responsible for 40% of global maternal mortality, i.e., 200,000 women die because of induced abortion complications out of 500,000 women who succumb to pregnancy- and birth-related caused annually. In the 1980s 38% of deaths in Chile were related to abortion of women who died in reproductive age. In developing countries almost 50% of hospital admissions occur because of abortion sequelae. Infant mortality is higher in 20-year old mothers giving birth compared with the 20-29 age group. 40,000 children are born/year in Chile to mothers 20. In 1980 these births made up 16.7% of all births. 45% of births of mothers 20 are illegitimate. These young mothers are often unprepared for the parental role: 80% of children hospitalized for malnutrition were children of adolescent mothers according to a survey. The Catholic Church's view opposing contraceptives and sexuality outside of marriage conflicts with contemporary opinion backed by mass media favoring sexuality as leading to personal enrichment and advocating contraception. More than 60% of boys and more than 30% of girls start sexual relations 20. Young people do not use contraceptives because of misinformation, difficulty in getting appropriate information, and male machismo. AIDS prevention mandate sex education stressing responsible sexuality with abstinence, condom use, and monogamy.

Foreign aid, economic globalization, and pollution

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lim, S.; Menaldo, V.; Prakash, A.

This paper explores how trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) condition the effect of foreign aid on environmental protection in aid-recipient countries. We suggest that (1) environmental protection should be viewed as a public good and (2) all else equal, resource flows from abroad (via aid,

HIV and AIDS in South Africa: a social and moral responsibility in shaping organisational action

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Renitha Rampersad

2013-04-01

Full Text Available In recent years, the interest in corporate social responsibility issues has shown an increase. Worldwide problems, especially those related to HIV/AIDS, caught public attention towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR themes. In a country with more people living with HIV/AIDS than in any other nation (UNAIDS 2007, prevention and treatment is critical. HIV/AIDS is seen to be threatening the communities in which businesses are functioning and is further threatening the business itself. This article examines the moral and social responsibility of the corporate sector in its effort to deal with the issue of HIV/AIDS. Big business leaders have recognized the threat of HIV/AIDS to the workplace and have positioned responses towards the disease from an ethical, legal and cost-effective business perspective; however the response from small to medium businesses is relatively weak. This article conveys a descriptive critique, based on bibliographic research on Corporate Social Responsibility, HIV/AIDS and related concepts.

The NIAID Division of AIDS enterprise information system: integrated decision support for global clinical research programs

Science.gov (United States)

Gupta, Nitin; Varghese, Suresh; Virkar, Hemant

2011-01-01

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Division of AIDS (DAIDS) Enterprise Information System (DAIDS-ES) is a web-based system that supports NIAID in the scientific, strategic, and tactical management of its global clinical research programs for HIV/AIDS vaccines, prevention, and therapeutics. Different from most commercial clinical trials information systems, which are typically protocol-driven, the DAIDS-ES was built to exchange information with those types of systems and integrate it in ways that help scientific program directors lead the research effort and keep pace with the complex and ever-changing global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Whereas commercially available clinical trials support systems are not usually disease-focused, DAIDS-ES was specifically designed to capture and incorporate unique scientific, demographic, and logistical aspects of HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and vaccine research in order to provide a rich source of information to guide informed decision-making. Sharing data across its internal components and with external systems, using defined vocabularies, open standards and flexible interfaces, the DAIDS-ES enables NIAID, its global collaborators and stakeholders, access to timely, quality information about NIAID-supported clinical trials which is utilized to: (1) analyze the research portfolio, assess capacity, identify opportunities, and avoid redundancies; (2) help support study safety, quality, ethics, and regulatory compliance; (3) conduct evidence-based policy analysis and business process re-engineering for improved efficiency. This report summarizes how the DAIDS-ES was conceptualized, how it differs from typical clinical trial support systems, the rationale for key design choices, and examples of how it is being used to advance the efficiency and effectiveness of NIAID's HIV/AIDS clinical research programs. PMID:21816958

Investing for Impact: The Global Fund Approach to Measurement of AIDS Response.

Science.gov (United States)

Jain, Suman; Zorzi, Nathalie

2017-07-01

The Global Fund raises and invests nearly US$4 billion a year to support programs run in more than 140 countries. The Global Fund strategy 2012-2016 is focused on "Investing for Impact". In order to accomplish this, timely and accurate data are needed to inform strategies and prioritize activities to achieve greater coverage with quality services. Monitoring and evaluation is intrinsic to the Global Fund's system of performance-based funding. The Global Fund invests in strengthening measurement and reporting of results at all stages of the grant cycle. The Global Fund approach to measurement is based on three key principles-(1) simplified reporting: the Global Fund has updated its measurement guidance to focus on impact, coverage and quality with the use of a harmonized set of indicators. (2) Supporting data systems-based on a common framework developed and supported by partners, it promotes investment in five common data systems: routine reporting including HMIS; Surveys-population based and risk group surveys; Analysis, reviews and transparency; Administrative and financial data sources; and, Vital registration systems. (3) Strengthen data use: the Global Fund funding encourages use of data at all levels-national, subnational and site level. Countries do not automatically prioritize M&E but when guidance, tools and investments are available, there is high level utilization of M&E systems in program design, planning, implementation, and results reporting. An in-depth analysis of the available data helps the Global Fund and countries to direct investments towards interventions where impact could be achieved and focus on target population groups and geographic areas that are most affected.

75 FR 41685 - Implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-16

.... The actions we take now will build upon a legacy of global leadership, national commitment, and... our national response to HIV/AIDS. Today I am releasing a National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United..., moreover, is not enough. Success will require the commitment of all parts of society, including businesses...

Corporate social responsibility in public health: A case-study on HIV/AIDS epidemic by Johnson & Johnson company in Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Chattu, Vijay Kumar

2015-01-01

HIV/AIDS has claimed millions of lives in the global workforce and continues to remain a threat to many businesses. An estimated 36.5 million of working people are living with HIV; the global workforce has lost 28 million people from AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic. In the absence of access to treatment, this number could grow to 74 million by 2015. The epidemic continues to affect the working population through absenteeism, sickness and death. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an obligation that corporates have toward their employees, community and society. A review and documentation of one such CSR by Johnson & Johnson (a multinational company) for HIV/AIDS in Africa is presented here. Johnson & Johnson Company is involved in numerous projects around the world to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The company is working to fight the spread of the disease and improve the quality of life for those living with the illness through various donations of its products and sponsorship of local programs. This case study also highlights different categories of CSR activities such as Cause Promotion, Cause related Marketing, Corporate Philanthropy, Corporate Social Marketing, Corporate Volunteering and Socially responsible business practices, which are discussed with specific examples from different countries in Africa. Conclusions: CSR of any business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical & discretionary expectation placed on the organization by society at a given point of time. CSR is therefore the obligation that corporations have toward their stakeholders and society in general which horizons beyond what is prescribed by law or union contracts. Johnson & Johnson has a proved history of being committed to caring for people and a good example of a company with a long history of citizenship and sustainability. PMID:25810667

Corporate social responsibility in public health: A case-study on HIV/AIDS epidemic by Johnson & Johnson company in Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Chattu, Vijay Kumar

2015-01-01

HIV/AIDS has claimed millions of lives in the global workforce and continues to remain a threat to many businesses. An estimated 36.5 million of working people are living with HIV; the global workforce has lost 28 million people from AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic. In the absence of access to treatment, this number could grow to 74 million by 2015. The epidemic continues to affect the working population through absenteeism, sickness and death. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an obligation that corporates have toward their employees, community and society. A review and documentation of one such CSR by Johnson & Johnson (a multinational company) for HIV/AIDS in Africa is presented here. Johnson & Johnson Company is involved in numerous projects around the world to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The company is working to fight the spread of the disease and improve the quality of life for those living with the illness through various donations of its products and sponsorship of local programs. This case study also highlights different categories of CSR activities such as Cause Promotion, Cause related Marketing, Corporate Philanthropy, Corporate Social Marketing, Corporate Volunteering and Socially responsible business practices, which are discussed with specific examples from different countries in Africa. CSR of any business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical & discretionary expectation placed on the organization by society at a given point of time. CSR is therefore the obligation that corporations have toward their stakeholders and society in general which horizons beyond what is prescribed by law or union contracts. Johnson & Johnson has a proved history of being committed to caring for people and a good example of a company with a long history of citizenship and sustainability.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights: integration as a holistic and rights-based response to HIV/AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

Barroso, Carmen; Sippel, Serra

2011-11-01

For decades, donors, governments, and civil society have recognized the importance of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in efforts to alleviate poverty and advance gender equality and women's rights. More recently, in the battle against HIV/AIDS--and given the unique challenges the pandemic presents for health and development--the global community has acknowledged the benefits of synergizing sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS interventions. However, the United States has been slow to incorporate lessons learned from the international experience when it comes to integrating HIV/AIDS, SRHR, and gender equality in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This article highlights the importance of SRHR and lessons learned from SRHR-HIV integration to inform U.S. domestic and global AIDS strategies and interventions. Copyright © 2011 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From a global crisis to the 'end of AIDS': New epidemics of signification.

Science.gov (United States)

Kenworthy, Nora; Thomann, Matthew; Parker, Richard

2017-08-22

In the past decade, discourses about AIDS have taken a remarkable, and largely unquestioned, turn. Whereas mobilisations for treatment scale-up during the 2000s were premised on perceptions of an 'epidemic out of control', we have repeatedly been informed in more recent years that an end to AIDS is immanent. This new discourse and its resulting policies are motivated by post-recession financial pressures, a changing field of global institutions, and shifting health and development priorities. These shifts also reflect a biomedical triumphalism in HIV prevention and treatment, whereby shorter term, privatised, technological, and 'cost-effective' interventions are promoted over long-term support for antiretroviral treatment. To explore these changes, we utilise Treichler's [(1987). How to have theory in an epidemic: Cultural chronicles of AIDS. Durham, NC: Duke University Press] view of AIDS as an 'epidemic of signification' to develop a review of 'End of AIDS' discourses in recent years. We use this review to investigate the political and philanthropic interests served by efforts to rebrand and re-signify the epidemic. We also hold up these discourses against the realities of treatment access in resource-poor countries, where 'Ending AIDS' has not heralded the end of an epidemic per se, but rather the end of external support for treatment programmes, highlighting new difficulties for sustaining treatment in this new era of the epidemic.

Human Rights and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Science.gov (United States)

Jürgens, Ralf; Lim, Hyeyoung; Timberlake, Susan; Smith, Matthew

2017-01-01

Abstract The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created to greatly expand access to basic services to address the three diseases in its name. From its beginnings, its governance embodied some human rights principles: civil society is represented on its board, and the country coordination mechanisms that oversee funding requests to the Global Fund include representatives of people affected by the diseases. The Global Fund’s core strategies recognize that the health services it supports would not be effective or cost-effective without efforts to reduce human rights-related barriers to access and utilization of health services, particularly those faced by socially marginalized and criminalized persons. Basic human rights elements were written into Global Fund grant agreements, and various technical support measures encouraged the inclusion in funding requests of programs to reduce human rights-related barriers. A five-year initiative to provide intensive technical and financial support for the scaling up of programs to reduce these barriers in 20 countries is ongoing. PMID:29302175

Tactical and strategic decision-making aids for nuclear power plant emergency response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cain, D.G.

1987-01-01

This paper examines the prospective role of computer-based decision aids for nuclear power plant emergency response. The role of these systems is subordinate to human activities, but in a complementary manner these systems process decision logic more accurately and foster a more thorough understanding of emergency situations than might other wise be possible. Within this context two decision support systems being developed are discussed. Both of these systems utilize technology derived from artificial intelligence, focussing on two different facets of emergency response. An automated emergency operating procedures (EOP) tracking expert system is described as a tactical aid for control room operator response. A reactor emergency action level monitor (REALM) expert system is proposed as a strategic decision aid for site emergency response. The discrimination between tactical and strategic decision-making is an intrinsic part of this examination

Insurance of professional responsibility at medical aid rendering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abyzova N.V.

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The article discusses the necessity of adoption of professional responsibility insurance act into the public health service. It is considered as the basic mechanism of compensation in case of damage to a patient at medical aid rendering

Contributions of international cooperation projects to the HIV/AIDS response in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Jiangping; Liu, Hui; Li, Hui; Wang, Liqiu; Guo, Haoyan; Shan, Duo; Bulterys, Marc; Korhonen, Christine; Hao, Yang; Ren, Minghui

2010-12-01

For 20 years, China has participated in 267 international cooperation projects against the HIV/AIDS epidemic and received ∼526 million USD from over 40 international organizations. These projects have played an important role by complementing national efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS in China. The diverse characteristics of these projects followed three phases over 20 years. Initially, stand-alone projects provided technical support in surveillance, training or advocacy for public awareness. As the epidemic spread across China, projects became a part of the comprehensive and integrated national response. Currently, international best practices encourage the inclusion of civil society and non-governmental organizations in an expanded response to the epidemic. Funding from international projects has accounted for one-third of the resources provided for the HIV/AIDS response in China. Beyond this strong financial support, these programmes have introduced best practices, accelerated the introduction of AIDS policies, strengthened capacity, improved the development of grassroots social organizations and established a platform for communication and experience sharing with the international community. However, there are still challenges ahead, including integrating existing resources and exploring new programme models. The National Centre for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention (NCAIDS) in China is consolidating all international projects into national HIV prevention, treatment and care activities. International cooperation projects have been an invaluable component of China's response to HIV/AIDS, and China has now been able to take this information and share its experiences with other countries with the help of these same international programmes.

HIV/AIDS Globalization and Vulnerability | IDRC - International ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Still, the linkages between HIV/AIDS, economic growth, poverty and ... in Mexico City (AIDS 2008) and the International AIDS Economics Network (IAEN) colloquiums. ... countries, and indeed around the world, are under continued reform.

Towards Promoting An African Medical System: A critique of government responses to claims of a cure for HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, 1986-2007

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. B. Amusa

2013-05-01

Full Text Available The HIV/AIDS epidemic has been described as the greatest health challenge of our era. Aside from Highly Active Antiretroviral Treatment (HAART, the virus has defied any other form of permanent cure or disease control. The continents of Africa and Asia are the worst-hit areas by the scourge of the pandemic. Yet in Africa, there have been claims of HIV/AIDS being cured by African indigenous medical practitioners. Our paper examines the official responses of the Federal Government of Nigeria to such claims. We will examine the emergence and national responses to the epidemic in Nigeria and assess the government’s contempt for the efforts of indigenous medical practitioners in the quest for a viable cure. We conclude by asserting that until African governments realize, recognize and appropriate indigenous medical achievements into mainstream health strategy and policy, Africa will not only remain at the periphery of global health systems but will also continue to be ravaged by HIV/AIDS.

Electrochemical Characterization of Escherichia coli Adaptive Response Protein AidB

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Sean J. Elliott

2012-12-01

Full Text Available When exposed to known DNA-damaging alkylating agents, Escherichia coli cells increase production of four DNA repair enzymes: Ada, AlkA, AlkB, and AidB. The role of three enzymes (Ada, AlkA, and AlkB in repairing DNA lesions has been well characterized, while the function of AidB is poorly understood. AidB has a distinct cofactor that is potentially related to the elusive role of AidB in adaptive response: a redox active flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD. In this study, we report the thermodynamic redox properties of the AidB flavin for the first time, both for free protein and in the presence of potential substrates. We find that the midpoint reduction potential of the AidB flavin is within a biologically relevant window for redox chemistry at −181 mV, that AidB significantly stabilizes the flavin semiquinone, and that small molecule binding perturbs the observed reduction potential. Our electrochemical results combined with structural analysis allow for fresh comparisons between AidB and the homologous acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase (ACAD family of enzymes. AidB exhibits several discrepancies from ACADs that suggest a novel catalytic mechanism distinct from that of the ACAD family enzymes.

Responsibility without Guilt: A Youngian Approach to Responsibility for Global Injustice

OpenAIRE

McKeown, M. C.

2015-01-01

What responsibilities do individuals have in relation to global injustice? Iris Young argues that all agents “connected” to global structural injustice bear political responsibility, rather than moral responsibility; the difference being that political responsibility is non-blameworthy, shared and forward-looking, whereas moral responsibility entails blameworthiness, isolates particular agents for censure and is backward-looking. Thus, individuals are not guilty of wrongdoing but they bear re...

The global security perspective on the effects of executive cognitive function on complex behavioral screening intervention and HIV/AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Suk-Hee

2010-11-01

The purpose of this quantitative study is to understand the global security perspective on the effects of executive cognitive function (ECF) on Complex Behavioral Screening Intervention and HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is as much a social, political, economic, and cultural problem as a biomedical one. HIV/AIDS is associated centrally with the collapse not just of communities and families but potentially of states, with some of the largest public health interventions ever and enormous questions about governance, a huge population of orphans, and deep questions about intergenerational relations and cultural transmission. This study also is to develop a screening instrument that improves quality of life for individuals with executive cognitive impairments and behavior problems in our communities and the global society.

The effects of national and international HIV/AIDS funding and governance mechanisms on the development of civil-society responses to HIV/AIDS in East and Southern Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Kevin J; Birdsall, Karen

2010-01-01

The study takes stock of the exponential growth in the number of new civil-society organisations (CSOs) working in the HIV/AIDS field in East and Southern Africa during the period 1996-2004. We researched this development through a survey of 439 CSOs in six countries and case studies focused on the evolution of community responses to HIV/AIDS in specific communities in eight countries. We describe the types of CSOs that emerged, their relationships with governments and donors, and their activities, organisational characteristics and funding requirements. The data presented show that the vision of social mobilisation of HIV/AIDS responses through community-level organisations has faced strong external challenges. Evidence from survey data, national HIV/AIDS spending assessments and case studies shows that in some respects the changing international aid environment undermines the prospects for development of the civil-society sector's contributions in HIV/AIDS responses. Of particular interest is to understand how the "Three Ones" and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness have reshaped international funding for HIV/AIDS responses. There has been relatively little attention paid to the impact of the new management and funding modalities--including national performance frameworks, general budget support, joint funding arrangements and basket funds--on civil-society agencies at the forefront of community HIV/AIDS responses. Evidence is presented to show that in important respects the new modalities limit the unique contribution that CSOs can make to national HIV/AIDS responses. It is also shown that the drive to rapidly intensify the scale of HIV/AIDS responses has involved using community organisations as service providers for externally formulated programmes. We discuss this as a strong threat to the development of sustainable civil-society economies as well as to CSOs' diversity and responsiveness. The ways in which CSOs are responding to these challenges are

Promoting Global Health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margaret A. Winker, MD

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of MCH and AIDS (IJMA is a member of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME. The Editorial Board of IJMA believes it is important that the statement on promoting global health and this accompanying editorial is brought to the attention of our readers. Medical journal editors have a social responsibility to promote global health by publishing, whenever possible, research that furthers health worldwide.

Multi-Sector Participation In The National Response To Prevent And Address The Hiv/Aids Epidemic In The Republic Of Cuba, 2007-2008

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Isora Ramos Valle

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The development of a strong national response involving multiple sectors—including civil society—is an essential aspect of the social management of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The goals of this response are to control the epidemic and improve the quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS; this includes combating stigma and discrimination, as well as ensuring due compliance with the law. Cuba has a national program to prevent and control HIV/AIDS. Since 2003 Cuba’s national program has received material and financial support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Program evaluation is carried out by an independent team at ENSAP (National School of Public Health. This paper reports on results of one part of that evaluation: an assessment of the agencies and sectors who made up the organized social and national response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The evaluation primarily used qualitative analyses of the activities and tasks proposed by sectors in their 2006-2008 work plans. Visits were made to the provinces of Ciudad de la Habana, Matanzas, and Holguín. Qualitative techniques included in-depth interviews, semi-structured interviews, observation, and review of documentary evidence of all kinds (videos, reports, minutes, protocols, results of social research, and radio broadcast messages and varied depending on the particular features of each sector. We noted improvements in multi-sector participation in the prevention and response to the national HIV/AIDS epidemic. Conscious of their role, sectors generally carried out their programmed activities and had improved their organization, planning, and systematization; integration among the sectors was also better. These local initiatives provided evidence of a multi-sector response characterized by autonomy, emotional involvement, and an identification with the goals of the project; this went beyond simply meeting targets. Cross-sector work showed a marked increase and a

Solidarity and AIDS: introduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Krieger, N

1991-01-01

Perhaps more than any other disease in recent history, AIDS has taught a cruel and crucial lesson: the constraints on our response to this epidemic are as deep as our denial, as entrenched as the inequities that permeate our society, as circumscribed as our knowledge, and as unlimited as our compassion and our commitment to human rights. Elaborating on these themes, the final three articles in this Special Section on AIDS consider three widely divergent yet intimately connected topics: AIDS in Cuba, AIDS in Brazil, and global AIDS prevention in the 1990s. Together, they caution that if we persist in treating AIDS as a problem only of "others," no country will be spared the social and economic devastation that promises to be the cost of our contempt and our folly. Solidarity is not an option; it is a necessity. Without conscious recognition of the worldwide relationship between health, human rights, and social inequalities, our attempts to abate the spread of AIDS--and to ease the suffering that follows in its wake--most surely will fall short of our goals. Finally, as we mourn our dead, we must take to heart the words of Mother Jones, and "fight like hell for living." This is the politics of survival.

IGO-NGO relations and HIV / AIDS: innovation or stalemate?

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Jonsson, C; Soderholm, P

1995-01-01

This paper is concerned with the emergence of transnational cooperative structures in response to AIDS. Of chief concern are efforts to create and maintain links among and between intergovernmental organizations (IGO) in the UN system and the many heterogenous organizations usually included under the nongovernmental organization (NGO) label. After discussing the nature of the AIDS issue, the authors focus upon the various ways of framing the AIDS issue and the effort by the Global Program on AIDS to coordinate IGO and NGO activities. In closing, they identify lessons and insights of broader applicability emanating from the AIDS case. The paper discusses the nature of AIDS, AIDS as a medical problem, AIDS as a human rights problem, AIDS as a socioeconomic problem, forging IGO-NGO links, an international NGO forum, informal networking, NGOs and AIDS-related foreign assistance, representation, formal versus informal coordination, costs of network building, degree of organization, and expertise.

Designing global collective action in population and HIV/AIDS programs, 1983-2002: has anything changed?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Dalen, H.P.

2008-01-01

The 1994 International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo established goals for the expansion of assistance in matters of reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. This global effort marked a structural break in principle from the past, but did it also change funding behavior? Panel

The effects of global health initiatives on country health systems: a review of the evidence from HIV/AIDS control.

Science.gov (United States)

Biesma, Regien G; Brugha, Ruairí; Harmer, Andrew; Walsh, Aisling; Spicer, Neil; Walt, Gill

2009-07-01

This paper reviews country-level evidence about the impact of global health initiatives (GHIs), which have had profound effects on recipient country health systems in middle and low income countries. We have selected three initiatives that account for an estimated two-thirds of external funding earmarked for HIV/AIDS control in resource-poor countries: the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, the World Bank Multi-country AIDS Program (MAP) and the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This paper draws on 31 original country-specific and cross-country articles and reports, based on country-level fieldwork conducted between 2002 and 2007. Positive effects have included a rapid scale-up in HIV/AIDS service delivery, greater stakeholder participation, and channelling of funds to non-governmental stakeholders, mainly NGOs and faith-based bodies. Negative effects include distortion of recipient countries' national policies, notably through distracting governments from coordinated efforts to strengthen health systems and re-verticalization of planning, management and monitoring and evaluation systems. Sub-national and district studies are needed to assess the degree to which GHIs are learning to align with and build the capacities of countries to respond to HIV/AIDS; whether marginalized populations access and benefit from GHI-funded programmes; and about the cost-effectiveness and long-term sustainability of the HIV and AIDS programmes funded by the GHIs. Three multi-country sets of evaluations, which will be reporting in 2009, will answer some of these questions.

Chile: educational game, "Learning about AIDS: the Responsibility of All".

Science.gov (United States)

1993-01-01

For more than 10 years, People's Health Education (EPES) has developed educational materials which call upon target audiences to integrate their practical experiences into a collective learning process based upon games. The methodology and materials aim to meet the needs of the most underprivileged sections of the population. EPES produced "Learning about AIDS: the responsibility of all," a game which can be used as it is or adapted to meet the needs of differing groups. The objectives of the game are to provide basic information on AIDS; to facilitate the expression of ideas, beliefs, and myths about AIDS; to promote forums for discussion in order to exchange opinions and views on sexuality and AIDS; to create awareness on how AIDS affects the community; and to create awareness of the need to prevent the disease. Played in couples to strengthen the level of interpersonal communication on such issues, the game is played because AIDS is a fact of everyday life which is affecting the community, because learning about AIDS will help people to protect themselves and their communities from the disease and groundless associated fears, and because open discussion is needed to help prevent more people from becoming infected with HIV.

Developing and implementing global gender policy to reduce HIV and AIDS in low- and middle-income countries: policy makers' perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Olinyk, Shannon; Gibbs, Andrew; Campbell, Catherine

2014-09-01

Gender inequalities have been recognised as central to the HIV epidemic for many years. In response, a range of gender policies have been developed in attempts to mitigate the impact and transform gender relations. However, the effects of these policies have been less than successful. In March 2010 the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) launched the Agenda for accelerated country level action on women, girls, gender equality and HIV (the Agenda), an operational plan on how to integrate women, girls and gender equality into the HIV response. This paper explores the perspectives of those involved in developing and implementing the Agenda to understand its strengths and limitations. In-depth one-on-one interviews were conducted with 16 individuals involved in the development and implementation of the Agenda. The data were analysed using thematic network analysis. Facilitators of the Agenda centred on the Agenda's ability to create political space for women and girls within the global HIV/AIDS response and the collaborative process of developing the Agenda. Barriers to the implementation and development of the Agenda include the limited financial and non-financial resources, the top-down nature of the Agenda's development and implementation and a lack of political will from within UNAIDS to implement it. We suggest that the Agenda achieved many goals, but its effect was constrained by a wide range of factors.

A moment in time: AIDS and business.

Science.gov (United States)

Bloom, D E; Rosenfield, A

2000-09-01

Business has transformed the planet. But this gives it new responsibilities. People now expect business leaders to lead--and not just respond when things go wrong. HIV/AIDS is a global problem, with over 16.3 million people now thought to have died of the disease (Global Summary of HIV/AIDS Epidemic, UNAIDS, December 1999). Without action now, the pandemic will worsen, health services will come under relentless pressure and the number of people dying will increase exponentially. So why should business sit up and take notice? First: money. AIDS is slowly strangling many businesses and economies--and in a global market, everyone eventually suffers. Without profit, there is no business--so the business community needs to act to protect its bottom line. Second: people. Over 80% of those dying are in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Businesses are losing workers and customers, and human networks that have taken decades to build. Third: imagination. Business is inventive, creative and fast-moving. It has the opportunity to use these strengths for the benefit of the wider community. It's time to pit business ideas (and some money, too) against the threat of AIDS. The course of the AIDS epidemic is not inevitable. The world's businesses have the skills and intensity to make a measurable difference, especially if they find public sector and NGO partners with whom they share a vision. A focused, coordinated, results-driven effort will hit AIDS hard. The HIV virus moves fast (and is mutating all the time). Business has the opportunity to make a difference. It must grasp this opportunity. And grasp if fast.

The (Mis)appropriation of HIV/AIDS advocacy strategies in Global Mental Health: towards a more nuanced approach.

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Howell, Alison; Mills, China; Rushton, Simon

2017-07-01

Mental health is increasingly finding a place on global health and international development agendas. Advocates for Global Mental Health (GMH), and international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, argue that treatments available in high-income countries should also be made available in low- and middle-income countries. Such arguments are often made by comparing mental health to infectious diseases, including the relative disease and economic burdens they impose, and pointing to the applicability of the right to access treatment for mental health, not only infectious diseases. HIV/AIDS advocacy in particular has been held up by GMH advocates as offering an appropriate strategy for generating global commitment. There is a need to assess how health issues are framed not only in relation to social goods outside of health (such as human rights, security or development), but also in relation to other health or disease models, and how health policy and practice is shaped as a result. The article debates the merits and consequences of likening mental health to HIV/AIDS, and identifies four major problems with the model for GMH advocacy being developed through these analogies: 1. An inappropriately universalizing global approach to context-specific problems; 2. A conception of human rights that focuses on the right to access treatment at the expense of the right to refuse it; 3. A tendency to treat poverty as a psychiatric issue, rather than recognizing that mental distress can be the result of poverty and other forms of inequality; 4. The prioritization of destigmatization of disease over social justice models. There are significant problems with the wholesale adoption of an (often simplified) version of HIV/AIDS advocacy as a model for GMH. Yet critical engagement with the important and nuanced differences between HIV/AIDS and mental health may nevertheless point to some possibilities for productive engagement and cross

Intervening in global markets to improve access to HIV/AIDS treatment: an analysis of international policies and the dynamics of global antiretroviral medicines markets.

Science.gov (United States)

Waning, Brenda; Kyle, Margaret; Diedrichsen, Ellen; Soucy, Lyne; Hochstadt, Jenny; Bärnighausen, Till; Moon, Suerie

2010-05-25

Universal access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in low- and middle-income countries faces numerous challenges: increasing numbers of people needing ART, new guidelines recommending more expensive antiretroviral (ARV) medicines, limited financing, and few fixed-dose combination (FDC) products. Global initiatives aim to promote efficient global ARV markets, yet little is known about market dynamics and the impact of global policy interventions. We utilize several data sources, including 12,958 donor-funded, adult first-line ARV purchase transactions, to describe the market from 2002-2008. We examine relationships between market trends and: World Health Organization (WHO) HIV/AIDS treatment guidelines; WHO Prequalification Programme (WHO Prequal) and United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals; and procurement policies of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (GFATM), US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and UNITAID. WHO recommended 7, 4, 24, and 6 first-line regimens in 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2009 guidelines, respectively. 2009 guidelines replaced a stavudine-based regimen ($88/person/year) with more expensive zidovudine- ($154-260/person/year) or tenofovir-based ($244-465/person/year) regimens. Purchase volumes for ARVs newly-recommended in 2006 (emtricitabine, tenofovir) increased >15-fold from 2006 to 2008. Twenty-four generic FDCs were quality-approved for older regimens but only four for newer regimens. Generic FDCs were available to GFATM recipients in 2004 but to PEPFAR recipients only after FDA approval in 2006. Price trends for single-component generic medicines mirrored generic FDC prices. Two large-scale purchasers, PEPFAR and UNITAID, together accounted for 53%, 84%, and 77% of market volume for abacavir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir, respectively, in 2008. PEPFAR and UNITAID purchases were often split across two manufacturers. Global initiatives facilitated the creation of fairly efficient markets

The impact of HIV/AIDS on children's educational outcome: a critical review of global literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Yan; Li, Xiaoming; Sherr, Lorraine

2012-01-01

The number of children losing one or both parents to HIV/AIDS has continued to rise in the past decade, with most of them being school-aged children. This study reviews global literature on the effects of HIV/AIDS (e.g., parental HIV-related illness or death) on children's schooling. Systematic review procedures generated 23 studies for examination. Existing studies show educational disadvantages among children affected by AIDS in various educational outcomes, including school enrollment and attendance, school behavior and performance, school completion, and educational attainment. A number of individual and contextual factors potentially moderate or mediate the effect of HIV/AIDS on children's education. These factors include gender of child, pattern of parental loss (maternal vs. paternal vs. dual), living arrangement (relationship with caregivers, gender of the household head), and household poverty. Current literature indicates limitations in number and scope of existing studies and in educational outcome measurements. There is a lack of studies with longitudinal design and data collection from multiple sources (e.g., students, teachers, caregivers), and a lack of studies on the relationship between psychosocial well-being of children affected by AIDS and their educational outcomes. Future studies need to employ more rigorous methodology and incorporate both individual and contextual factors for children affected by AIDS in various regions. More efforts are needed to design and implement culturally appropriate and context-specific approaches to improve the educational outcomes of children affected by AIDS.

General Assembly pledges support for war against AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

1988-03-01

At a special meeting held in October 1987, the World Health Organization called for a concerted, international response to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Announced was the creation of a WHO Global Commission on AIDS comprised of experts in health, social, economic, legal, ethical, and biomedical fields who will advise WHO officials of developments in various aspects of the disease. Member States were united in terms of the need for open communication and support of WHO efforts to combat AIDS. By December 1987, 129 countries had reported 73,747 AIDS cases to WHO and another 3 million new cases are likely to develop by 1982. The WHO strategy is based on several concepts: 1) even in the absence of a vaccine, AIDS is controllable through widespread education; 2) longterm commitment to eradication is necessary; 3) AIDS prevention and control must be integrated into national health systems; and 4) international cooperation, coordination, and leadership is vital. National AIDS committees have been established in over 100 countries.

Doing global science a guide to responsible conduct in the global research enterprise

CERN Document Server

InterAcademy Partnership

2016-01-01

This concise introductory guide explains the values that should inform the responsible conduct of scientific research in today's global setting. Featuring accessible discussions and ample real-world scenarios, Doing Global Science covers proper conduct, fraud and bias, the researcher's responsibilities to society, communication with the public, and much more. The book places special emphasis on the international and highly networked environment in which modern research is done, presenting science as an enterprise that is being transformed by globalization, interdisciplinary research projects, team science, and information technologies. Accessibly written by an InterAcademy Partnership committee comprised of leading scientists from around the world, Doing Global Science is required reading for students, practitioners, and anyone concerned about the responsible conduct of science today.

A common agenda of global challenges. Japan and U.S. pool resources to tackle global issues including population and HIV / AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

1998-05-01

The Common Agenda for Cooperation in Global Perspective is a bilateral partnership established in 1993 between the US and Japan to address important global challenges of the 21st century such as global health and human development, including population and HIV/AIDS, global stability, protection of the global environment, and the advancement of science and technology. On the fifth anniversary of the agenda, representatives of the Japan and the US governments, international organizations, and private sectors discussed ways to further promote US-Japan cooperation under the agenda at a meeting held in Tokyo during March 12-13. Participants of the Common Agenda Open Forum also reviewed efforts made by Japan and the US under the agenda to address population and the environment. Forum participants focused upon developing new ideas for future cooperation between the governments, the private sector, and other nations, especially in the areas of health and the environment. The meeting was jointly organized by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the US Department of State. Attention was also given during talks to diminishing international assistance budgets worldwide.

Research Notes ~ Combating HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Nigeria: Responses from National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Terhemba Nom Ambe-Uva

2007-11-01

Full Text Available Universities have come under serious attack because of their lackluster response to HIV/AIDS. This article examines the response of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN and its strategic responses in combating HIV/AIDS epidemic. This is achieved by examining NOUN’s basic structures that position the University to respond to the epidemic; and second, by assessing HIV/AIDS strategies and policy framework the University has put in place. An interpretative epistemological stance was used for this study, and a qualitative research involving focus group discussion (FGD and analysis of secondary data was carried out. Results showed that NOUN has identified the impact the epidemic has on the university, although it has yet to institutionalize an HIV/AIDS policy. NOUN’s Draft Service Charter, however, has identified the fight against HIV/AIDS as a core mandate of the University, and the introduction of HIV/AIDS certification programs can be viewed as proactive policies in response to the epidemic. Results of this study are discussed in terms of their relevance to future research and the impact such policy frameworks may have on combating the epidemic, both within the University and the wider community.

Improving the long-term sustainability of health aid: are Global Health Partnerships leading the way?

Science.gov (United States)

Dodd, Rebecca; Lane, Christopher

2010-09-01

Over the last decade development assistance for health has more than doubled. This increase provides an unprecedented opportunity to scale up health services, and in doing so, achieve the health Millennium Development Goals. However, sustaining scaling up will in turn require sustainable donor support until domestic health financing can substitute for it. The provision of long-term predictable finance is of particular concern in health because the bulk of costs are recurrent and many interventions require sustained, multi-year support to be successful. This is also true for health systems strengthening efforts. As the bulk of new aid resources flow through Global Health Partnerships (GHPs), their ability to make long-term commitments is critical to health systems development. In order to better understand the constraints that prevent development partners from making long-term commitments of health aid, the World Health Organization reviewed the practices of seven major health partners in committing development assistance funds over the long term. The review found increasing evidence of long-term commitments of aid for health in each of the seven agencies. The GHPs and their funders have been at the forefront of this trend, pioneering many of the new approaches. The study concludes that all partners have scope to improve the duration of aid within existing rules and regulations, and that the main constraints to doing so are political. Predictability is even more of a concern in current global economic circumstances, as access to resources begins to be squeezed. In this context it is important that we learn from GHPs, which have successfully tested innovative approaches to both raising and disbursing health funds. The prospects for change associated with the new administration in the United States-the largest health donor and the most unpredictable, but also a major supporter of GHPs-make this task even more urgent.

Is man responsible for global warming?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Legendre, A.

2009-01-01

According to politicians, ecologists and mass media, it is now certain that with our CO 2 emissions, we are all responsible for a major global warming to come with dramatic consequences. But, is this affirmation indisputable? Are we all responsible for the rise of sea level and the summer thawing of the arctic ice shelf? Is this expected global warming without precedent? And is CO 2 , necessary for life, the cause of our misfortune? The answers commonly claimed are maybe more complex in reality and the climate question more subtle than it looks like. This book tries to decode the wheels of the climate machine and the share of human responsibility in climate change. (J.S.)

Intervening in global markets to improve access to HIV/AIDS treatment: an analysis of international policies and the dynamics of global antiretroviral medicines markets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hochstadt Jenny

2010-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Universal access to antiretroviral therapy (ART in low- and middle-income countries faces numerous challenges: increasing numbers of people needing ART, new guidelines recommending more expensive antiretroviral (ARV medicines, limited financing, and few fixed-dose combination (FDC products. Global initiatives aim to promote efficient global ARV markets, yet little is known about market dynamics and the impact of global policy interventions. Methods We utilize several data sources, including 12,958 donor-funded, adult first-line ARV purchase transactions, to describe the market from 2002-2008. We examine relationships between market trends and: World Health Organization (WHO HIV/AIDS treatment guidelines; WHO Prequalification Programme (WHO Prequal and United States (US Food and Drug Administration (FDA approvals; and procurement policies of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (GFATM, US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR and UNITAID. Results WHO recommended 7, 4, 24, and 6 first-line regimens in 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2009 guidelines, respectively. 2009 guidelines replaced a stavudine-based regimen ($88/person/year with more expensive zidovudine- ($154-260/person/year or tenofovir-based ($244-465/person/year regimens. Purchase volumes for ARVs newly-recommended in 2006 (emtricitabine, tenofovir increased >15-fold from 2006 to 2008. Twenty-four generic FDCs were quality-approved for older regimens but only four for newer regimens. Generic FDCs were available to GFATM recipients in 2004 but to PEPFAR recipients only after FDA approval in 2006. Price trends for single-component generic medicines mirrored generic FDC prices. Two large-scale purchasers, PEPFAR and UNITAID, together accounted for 53%, 84%, and 77% of market volume for abacavir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir, respectively, in 2008. PEPFAR and UNITAID purchases were often split across two manufacturers. Conclusions Global initiatives

India’s AIDS response: the missing voices of persons with disabilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Satendra Singh

2015-01-01

Full Text Available India has the third largest number of people living with HIV in the world. The UNAIDS Gap report has identified twelve risk groups that are especially vulnerable and have been left behind from the national AIDS response. Of these twelve, one is persons with disabilities. Disability is both a public health issue and a human rights issue; persons with disabilities are the world’s largest minority. Low awareness, sexual abuse, and lack of access to health services are the major reasons for people with disabilities being vulnerable. While the gap report is a landmark report, in that it compartmentalizes the risk groups, disability cannot be looked at in isolation. Since any of the other risk groups may include persons with disabilities, the issue is a complex one meriting greater attention. The National AIDS Control Organization has completely ignored this group of persons. To efficiently close the gap, an integrated and disability-inclusive HIV response is needed so that people with different types of disabilities, their caretakers, healthcare professionals and society are empowered to fight the collective battle against HIV/AIDS.

Mental health first aid responses of the public: results from an Australian national survey

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Kitchener Betty A

2005-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The prevalence of mental disorders is so high that members of the public will commonly have contact with someone affected. How they respond to that person (the mental health first aid response may affect outcomes. However, there is no information on what members of the public might do in such circumstances. Methods In a national survey of 3998 Australian adults, respondents were presented with one of four case vignettes and asked what they would do if that person was someone they had known for a long time and cared about. There were four types of vignette: depression, depression with suicidal thoughts, early schizophrenia, and chronic schizophrenia. Verbatim responses to the open-ended question were coded into categories. Results The most common responses to all vignettes were to encourage professional help-seeking and to listen to and support the person. However, a significant minority did not give these responses. Much less common responses were to assess the problem or risk of harm, to give or seek information, to encourage self-help, or to support the family. Few respondents mentioned contacting a professional on the person's behalf or accompanying them to a professional. First aid responses were generally more appropriate in women, those with less stigmatizing attitudes, and those who correctly identified the disorder in the vignette. Conclusions There is room for improving the range of mental health first aid responses in the community. Lack of knowledge of mental disorders and stigmatizing attitudes are important barriers to effective first aid.

Macroeconomic Issues in Foreign Aid

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjertholm, Peter; Laursen, Jytte; White, Howard

foreign aid, macroeconomics of aid, gap models, aid fungibility, fiscal response models, foreign debt,......foreign aid, macroeconomics of aid, gap models, aid fungibility, fiscal response models, foreign debt,...

Gender differentiation in community responses to AIDS in rural Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Kanyamurwa, J M; Ampek, G T

2007-01-01

AIDS has been reported in Africa to push households into poverty and chronic food insecurity. At the same time there are reports of significant household resilience to AIDS. This study explored how a mature epidemic in rural Uganda has affected rural farming households. It focused on gender differences in the experience of AIDS and, in particular, household capabilities to sustain livelihoods. The study compared the vulnerability of male- and female-headed households in relation to their ability to mitigate human resource losses, as well as their access to natural and physical resources, to social networks and to finance capital for production. The findings suggest that when rural households are affected by AIDS, depleting productive resources and directing resources towards immediate needs, there are gender differences in responses to, and in impacts of, the epidemic due to the different resources available to male- and female- headed households. Female-headed households were found to be more vulnerable to AIDS than male-headed counterparts. Women's remarriage opportunities were lower than men's, they faced greater risk of losing control over land and livestock and they accessed less state and private sector support. Women-headed households were more dependent on livelihood support from non-governmental organizations, which were found to provide both welfare and credit support to female-headed households affected by AIDS. Women were found to play an important role in social networks and resources at community level but themselves received little support from many formal community networks and services.

HIV, AIDS, and the Future

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AIDS prevention project among women in Uruguay.

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Pesce, L

1993-01-01

The recommendations of a staff member of the Paulina Luisi Movement and member of the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights were six-fold. Being a woman was considered a risk factor for AIDS. AIDS and HIV infection prevention must concentrate on prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). 1) Women's organizations have the responsibility for sensitizing health professionals about STDs and AIDS and break the "culture of silence." 2) Women's health focus must actively include prevention of AIDS/HIV. 3) The Pap test must be included routinely as part of public and individual health services and conducted with high quality standards. 4) The flow of communication about women's health issues must be initiated between health professionals and women advocates with the objective of changing concepts and attitudes and of developing complementary strategies. 5) The strategy of promoting condom use and quality information does not address the larger issue of discrimination against women. Gender relations between spouses and between patient and doctor must be based on responsibility, reciprocity, and autonomy. Strategies must aim to combat the negativity in society that prevents responsible gender relations. 6) Professional women who have an awareness of gender issues must be engaged in international and governmental institutions with decision making power. Sex and women's health have been lesser priorities. The health system has responded to women as "objects" rather than subjects of attention. Women's position sexually and socially makes them more vulnerable to AIDS and HIV infections, which may be transmitted through a single sexual contact. STDs increase the risk of AIDS. Latin American women feel shame about STDS, while men respond to STDs as a condition of their sexual virility or potency. Treatment of STDS, much less AIDS prevention, is inadequate. The health system must stop treating women as objects and give them their right to health.

Tracking Global Fund HIV/AIDS resources used for sexual and reproductive health service integration: case study from Ethiopia.

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Mookherji, Sangeeta; Ski, Samantha; Huntington, Dale

2015-05-27

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria (GF) strives for high value for money, encouraging countries to integrate synergistic services and systems strengthening to maximize investments. The GF needs to show how, and how much, its grants support more than just HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) has been part of HIV/AIDS grants since 2007. Previous studies showed the GF PBF system does not allow resource tracking for SRH integration within HIV/AIDS grants. We present findings from a resource tracking case study using primary data collected at country level. Ethiopia was the study site. We reviewed data from four HIV/AIDS grants from January 2009-June 2011 and categorized SDAs and activities as directly, indirectly, or not related to SRH integration. Data included: GF PBF data; financial, performance, in-depth interview and facility observation data from Ethiopia. All HIV/AIDS grants in Ethiopia support SRH integration activities (12-100%). Using activities within SDAs, expenditures directly supporting SRH integration increased from 25% to 66% for the largest HIV/AIDS grant, and from 21% to 34% for the smaller PMTCT-focused grant. Using SDAs to categorize expenditures underestimated direct investments in SRH integration; activity-based categorization is more accurate. The important finding is that primary data collection could not resolve the limitations in using GF GPR data for resource tracking. The remedy is to require existing activity-based budgets and expenditure reports as part of PBF reporting requirements, and make them available in the grant portfolio database. The GF should do this quickly, as it is a serious shortfall in the GF guiding principle of transparency. Showing high value for money is important for maximizing impact and replenishments. The Global Fund should routinely track HIV/AIDs grant expenditures to disease control, service integration, and overall health systems strengthening. The current PBF system

Physicians Mutual Aid Group: A Response to AIDS-Related Burnout.

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Garside, Bruce

1993-01-01

Describes origins and functioning of physician's mutual aid group for physicians providing primary care to people with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Offers suggestions related to overcoming resistance physicians might have to participating in such a group and reviews modalities that were helpful in facilitating participants' ability…

Sex Behaviour Change in Response to the HIV/AIDS Threat among ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Sex Behaviour Change in Response to the HIV/AIDS Threat among University ... active, and prior studies have documented an appreciable knowledge of the HIV ... Design: A cross sectional descriptive survey of selfreported sexual behaviour ...

Introduction: Framing 'Post-AIDS' and Global Health Discourses in 2015 and Beyond.

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O'Connell, Gráinne

2017-05-19

This special issue, entitled "Post-AIDS' and Global Health Discourses: Interdisciplinary Perspectives,' emerged from a one day Medical Humanities symposium at the Leeds Centre for Medical Humanities, at the University of Leeds, England, on February 27th 2015. This special issue focusses on the perceived deprioritising of HIV and AIDS in the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, that were launched in 2015. The SDGs function as policy benchmarks for all entities within the United Nations system and they supersede the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, which expired in 2015. As the word millennium indicates, the MDGs were launched in 2000 and 2015 was designated as the benchmark year when the successes and shortcomings of the MDGs would be critically assessed. One key difference between the MDGs and the SDGs, which D'Ambruoso foregrounds (2013), is that the writing process underpinning the SDGs involved lengthy consultations, and feedback, with communities and health care practitioners around the world. By contrast, because the MDGs were mainly written by government officials, policy makers and health care practitioners without consulting wider communities, the processes underpinning the SDGs consultations are more inclusive than the MDGs. What is most critical about the SDGs for this special issue, however, is that they reflect a clear shift away from 'HIV exceptionalism' and towards what critics have described as 'post-AIDS' rhetoric, specifically when one compares the MDG health goal 6 and the SDG health goal 3.

Forced Migration and Global Responsibility for Health

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Bozorgmehr, Kayvan; Razum, Oliver

2017-01-01

Forced migration has become a world-wide phenomenon in the past century, affecting increasing numbers of countries and people. It entails important challenges from a global health perspective. Leppold et al have critically discussed the Japanese interpretation of global responsibility for health in the context of forced migration. This commentary complements their analysis by outlining three priority areas of global health responsibility for European Union (EU) countries. We highlight important stages of the migration phases related to forced migration and propose three arguments. First, the chronic neglect of the large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the discourses on the "refugee crisis" needs to be corrected in order to develop sustainable solutions with a framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Second, protection gaps in the global system of protection need to be effectively closed to resolve conflicts with border management and normative global health frameworks. Third, effective policies need to be developed and implemented to meet the health and humanitarian needs of forced migrants; at the same time, the solidarity crisis within the EU needs to be overcome. These stakes are high. EU countries, being committed to global health, should urgently address these areas. PMID:28812838

A global, incremental development method for a web-based prostate cancer treatment decision aid and usability testing in a Dutch clinical setting.

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Cuypers, Maarten; Lamers, Romy Ed; Kil, Paul Jm; The, Regina; Karssen, Klemens; van de Poll-Franse, Lonneke V; de Vries, Marieke

2017-07-01

Many new decision aids are developed while aspects of existing decision aids could also be useful, leading to a sub-optimal use of resources. To support treatment decision-making in prostate cancer patients, a pre-existing evidence-based Canadian decision aid was adjusted to Dutch clinical setting. After analyses of the original decision aid and routines in Dutch prostate cancer care, adjustments to the decision aid structure and content were made. Subsequent usability testing (N = 11) resulted in 212 comments. Care providers mainly provided feedback on medical content, and patients commented most on usability and summary layout. All participants reported that the decision aid was comprehensible and well-structured and would recommend decision aid use. After usability testing, final adjustments to the decision aid were made. The presented methods could be useful for cultural adaptation of pre-existing tools into other languages and settings, ensuring optimal usage of previous scientific and practical efforts and allowing for a global, incremental decision aid development process.

AIDS in the developing countries.

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Tinker, J

1988-01-01

world as well as negative effects on tourism. The global underclass will be disproportionately affected by AIDS as the blacks and Hispanics already are in New York and Miami. Thus far, the reaction of donor countries to the World Health Organization's (WHO) appeal for funds to fight the battle against AIDS has been excellent. The global strategy of WHO places priority on national campaigns, but none of the national campaigns will be effective unless linked to similar actions in other nations to form a vigorous international program. The US has a special responsibility to provide international leadership on AIDS. The US is the world leader in AIDS research and has the bulk of the virus research capacity. Further, no country can come close to matching US experience in dealing with AIDS through "safe sex" education campaigns.

Human rights and global business: the evolving notion of corporate civil responsibility

OpenAIRE

Bachmann, Sascha-Dominik

2010-01-01

Global market participation of corporations often leads to a conflict of duties: the duty to its customers and shareholder to “do business” vs. the duty to protect the populations affected by these business operations. Today, in a reality where gross human rights violations are not only committed by states and individuals but increasingly by multinational corporations (MNCs) by aiding and abetting the actual perpetrators in the states where MNCs operate, the global recession has aggravated th...

How Brazil outpaced the United States when it came to AIDS: the politics of civic infiltration, reputation, and strategic internationalization.

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Gómez, Eduardo J

2011-04-01

Using a temporal approach dividing the reform process into two periods, this article explains how both Brazil and the United States were slow to respond to AIDS. However, Brazil eventually outpaced the United States in its response due to international rather than democratic pressures. Since the early 1990s, Brazil's success has been attributed to "strategic internationalization": the concomitant acceptance and rejection of global pressure for institutional change and antiretroviral treatment, respectively. The formation of tripartite partnerships among donors, AIDS officials, and nongovernmental organizations has allowed Brazil to avoid foreign aid dependency, while generating ongoing incentives for influential AIDS officials to incessantly pressure Congress for additional funding. Given the heightened international media attention, concern about Brazil's reputation has contributed to a high level of political commitment. By contrast, the United States' more isolationist relationship with the international community, its focus on leading the global financing of AIDS efforts, and the absence of tripartite partnerships have prevented political leaders from adequately responding to the ongoing urban AIDS crisis. Thus, Brazil shows that strategically working with the international health community for domestic rather than international influence is vital for a sustained and effective response to AIDS.

Globalization, financial capitalism, and corporate social responsibility: Structural tensions

OpenAIRE

David Barbosa Ramírez; Christian Medina López; Myriam Vargas López

2014-01-01

Globalization and financial capitalism keep a synergy in a global context whose problems such as environmental degradation, social inequity, economic crises and corruption are intensified. Corporate Social Responsibility emerges as a mechanism that seeks to mitigate some of these problems, although its effectiveness and impact today are challenged. The system which globalization, financial capitalism and social responsibility are a part of, is currently facing a number of structural tensions ...

What if "Form" Was the Aid? Possible Opportunities for Renewed Neighbourliness in Aid Relationships

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Sanga, Kabini

2016-01-01

For Pacific Islands' peoples, relationships are of enduring importance. Yet, in spite of decades of aid giving and receiving, relationships in Pacific aid communities have predominantly been indifferent. In an era of global challenges, a new Oceania Education aid community is called to journey together to the common good through relational…

Aid is dead. Long live aid!

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Jean-Michel Severino

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The concepts, targets, tools, institutions and modes of operation of official development assistance have been overtaken by the pace of change in a world marked by the combined momentum of demography, technology and economic growth.Aid can however recover, as social consequences of the globalization call for new forms of regulation. It will then be necessary to modify and diversify our target-setting processes, to update operating procedures, and to find better ways of measuring policy implementation. Aid volumes will certainly continue to grow, and we must transform the way aid is financed. Public and private aid stakeholders must recognize the importance of these transformations and be ready to support them, by questioning the methods as well as the objectives of the policies they are implementing. Otherwise, they will severely impede the emergence of the policies we need if we are to build a better world.

Governing AIDS through aid to civil society: Global solutions meet ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The aim of this article is to explore how international donors influence civil society organisations (CSOs) in Mozambique through funding mechanisms, the creation of partnerships, or inclusion in targeted programmes. The main focus is the relationship between donors and AIDS non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

[Judicial and medical/legal aspects of the responsibility of workers appointed to carry out first aid].

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Caprioli, L C; Ciavarella, M; Sacco, A

2005-01-01

One of the innovations introduced by law 626/94 [the Italian law on occupational health and safety of workers] is the obligation of the employer to designate workers responsible for first aid. To identify and discuss the duties, the role and the medical and legal responsibility of workers appointed to carry out first aid measures. Analysis of legislation and current practice concerning medical and legal responsibility in first aid procedures. The worker appointed to carry out first aid measures is, by virtue of his appointment, obliged to take action. Therefore, he could commit an illegitimate act both by "acting" and by "omitting" to carry out a duty that is his responsibility. In the first case the worker could be accused of committing an unpremeditated criminal offence when his actions involve negligence, imprudence, inexperience or violation of regulations concerning his duties. A "serious criminal offence" is committed when the most elementary rules of diligence, prudence and skill are violated; the offence is "slight" when negligence, imprudence or inexperience are involved in particularly complex situations. The reference parameter for inexperience is not a first aid volunteer, nor a member of the public, but a worker designated to carry out first aid possessing "average" attitudes, training and ability. Briefly, a guilty error by the appointed worker consists of the following: i) the professional conduct of the operator was clearly wrong, serious and unjustifiable; ii) the operator clearly omitted doing his/her duty; iii) the consequence of the error is physical personal damage. The observations made clearly illustrate the delicacy of the tasks of the worker appointed to carry out first aid measures. Essential elements for minimizing wrong and/or negligent conduct are appropriate choice of the designated workers and their adequate training.

Culturally Responsive: Art Education in a Global Era

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Lai, Alice

2012-01-01

Facing the era of globalization, culturally responsive art teachers must recognize that students' home culture, including local artistic expression, is inevitably influenced by global forces. They should strive to engage with students systems and issues of globalization and its impact on their community culture and art. In this article, the author…

Human Resources Practitioners’ Perceptions Of Their Role And Responsibility In Managing HIV/Aids In Industry

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C. DE W. van Wyk

2006-11-01

Full Text Available The central question to be examined revolved around an analysis of the perceptions of Human Resources Practitioners regarding their role and responsibility in the management of HIV/AIDS in industry. A convenience sample of HR Practitioners was used in a cross-sectional design. A questionnaire measuring the constructs of managing HIV/AIDS in industry, as well as a biographical questionnaire was administered. The questionnaire proved to be reliable. A Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0,82 and 0,71 was obtained. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Results indicated that HR Practitioners experienced and perceived significant differences with regard to the implementation of their companies’ policy formation and -implementation, training needs of managers and employees, mentoring/ coaching -approaches and other AIDS-related issues in terms of their perceptions regarding the management of HIV/AIDS. The findings revealed a gap of knowledge on managing HIV/AIDS existing among HR Practitioners at all levels. While some HR Practitioners had a detailed knowledge of the disease and its prevention, others were ignorant about it, but agreed that the management of HIV/AIDS can be seen as an integral part of their daily role and responsibility in industry. Recommendations were proposed for future research, policy making and practice in the area of HIV/AIDS and the management thereof.

Black churches and HIV/AIDS: factors influencing congregations’ responsiveness to social issues.

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Fulton, Brad R

2011-01-01

The ambivalent response of many black churches to current social issues has caused some scholars to question the centrality of black churches within African-American communities. Using a nationally representative sample of black congregations, this study engages the debate about the institutional centrality of black churches by focusing on their response to HIV/AIDS. Although many congregational studies treat black churches as a monolithic whole, this analysis identifies heterogeneity among black churches that shapes their responsiveness to social issues. Contrary to prior claims, a congregation's liberal-conservative ideological orientation does not significantly affect its likelihood of having an HIV/AIDS program. Beyond assessing churches’ internal characteristics, this study uses institutional theory to analyze churches as open systems that can be influenced by their surrounding environment. It demonstrates that externally engaged congregations are significantly more likely to have a program. These results indicate that black churches maintain institutional centrality by engaging their external environment.

An alternative mechanism for international health aid: evaluating a Global Social Protection Fund.

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Basu, Sanjay; Stuckler, David; McKee, Martin

2014-01-01

Several public health groups have called for the creation of a global fund for 'social protection'-a fund that produces the international equivalent of domestic tax collection and safety net systems to finance care for the ill and disabled and related health costs. All participating countries would pay into a global fund based on a metric of their ability to pay and withdraw from the common pool based on a metric of their need for funds. We assessed how alternative strategies and metrics by which to operate such a fund would affect its size and impact on health system financing. Using a mathematical model, we found that common targets for health funding in low-income countries require higher levels of aid expenditures than presently distributed. Some mechanisms exist that may incentivize reduction of domestic health inequalities, and direct most funds towards the poorest populations. Payments from high-income countries are also likely to decrease over time as middle-income countries' economies grow.

An assessment of government policy response to HIV/AIDS in Ghana

African Journals Online (AJOL)

emphasis on the linkages between economic development, urban ... of policy response by counter-balancing the level of .... show high prevalence in the eastern and Volta regions ..... subjects such as English language, agriculture, life skills, ..... Work! USAID/Mobile Task Team on HIV/AIDS in Education,Accra. Claypoole, C.

Chronicity, crisis, and the 'end of AIDS'.

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Sangaramoorthy, Thurka

2018-01-11

In biomedical, public health, and popular discourses, the 'end of AIDS' has emerged as a predominant way to understand the future of HIV research and prevention. This approach is predicated on structuring and responding to HIV in ways that underscore its presumed lifelong nature. In this article, I examine the phenomenon of HIV chronicity that undergirds the 'end of AIDS' discourse. In particular, I explore how the logic of HIV chronicity, induced by technological advances in treatment and global financial and political investments, intensifies long-term uncertainty and prolonged crisis. Focusing on over 10 years of anthropological and public health research in the United States, I argue that HIV chronicity, and subsequently, the 'end of AIDS' discourse, obscure the on-going HIV crisis in particular global communities, especially among marginalised and ageing populations who live in under-resourced areas. By tracing the 'end of AIDS' discourse in my field sites and in other global locations, I describe how HIV chronicity signals a continuing global crisis and persistent social precarity rather than a 'break' with a hopeless past or a promising future free from AIDS.

HIV / AIDS

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... Relations Cyber Infrastructure Computational Biology Equal Employment Opportunity Ethics Global Research Office of Mission Integration and Financial Management Strategic Planning Workforce Effectiveness Workplace Solutions Technology Transfer Intellectual Property Division of AIDS ...

Mortality changes after grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria: an econometric analysis from 1995 to 2010.

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Yan, Isabel; Korenromp, Eline; Bendavid, Eran

2015-09-28

Since its founding in 2002, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (Global Fund) has become the dominant multilateral health financier in low- and middle-income countries. The health impact of the Global Fund remains unknown because existing evaluations measure intermediate outcomes or do not account for preexisting and counterfactual trends. We conducted an econometric analysis of data from all countries eligible to receive Global Fund grants from 1995 to 2010, prior to and during the Global Fund's activities. We analyzed three outcomes: all-cause adult (15-59 years), all-cause under-five, and malaria-specific under-five mortality. Our main exposure was a continuous longitudinal measure of Global Fund disbursements per capita. We used panel fixed effect regressions, and analyzed mortality trends controlling for health spending, health worker density (a measure of health system capacity), gross domestic product, urbanization, and country fixed-effects. We find that following Global Fund disbursements, adult mortality rate declined by 1.4 % per year faster with every $10 per capita increase in disbursements (p = 0.005). Similarly, malaria-specific under-five mortality declined by 6.9 % per year faster (p = 0.033) with every $10 high per capita Global Fund disbursements. However, we find no association between Global Fund support and all-cause under-five mortality. These findings were consistent after subanalyses by baseline HIV prevalence, adjusting for effects of concurrent health aid from other donors, and varying time lags between funding and mortality changes. Grants from the Global Fund are closely related to accelerated reductions in all-cause adult mortality and malaria-specific under-five mortality. However, up to 2010 the Global Fund has not measurably contributed to reducing all-cause under-five mortality.

Managing Corporate Responsibility Globally and Locally

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brown, Dana; Knudsen, Jette Steen

2012-01-01

Corporate Responsibility (CR) is today an essential component of corporate global strategy. CR can bolster the institutional context for market expansion fill institutional voids or facilitate market entry as a component of non-market strategy. Yet, in fulfilling these functions, CR may need...... to be highly sensitive to local contexts. How can transnational firms organize CR so as to maximize efficiencies from globalization and to minimize the fragmentation of corporate organizational cultures? provide a framework for analyzing the way that corporations coordinate global and local functions. We build...... on this framework in a case study of Novo Nordisk and its approach to determining global and local CR policies and procedures with regard to its China and US subsidiaries. Our findings suggest that it is important for companies to define a common set of organizational norms. In addition, CR need to be sensitive...

Building a durable response to HIV/AIDS: implications for health systems.

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Atun, Rifat; Bataringaya, Jacqueline

2011-08-01

The remarkable rise in investments for HIV control programs in 2003-2010 enabled an unprecedented expansion of access to HIV services in low-income and middle-income countries. By the end of 2010, more than 5.2 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), which transformed HIV infection, once a death sentence, into a long-term illness. The rapid expansion in the number of persons receiving ART means that health systems must continue to provide acute life-saving care for those with advanced HIV/AIDS although also providing chronic care services to expanding cohorts of more stable patients who are doing well on ART. This expansion also means a transition from an emergency response to the epidemic, characterized by a public health approach, to a more integrated and durable approach to HIV prevention, care, and treatment services that fosters individualized care for those requiring long-term antiretroviral treatment. Yet most low-income and middle-income countries, which have weak health systems, are poorly prepared to make this transition. In this article, we highlight the challenges health systems face in developing a sustained and durable response to HIV/AIDS. The article analyses the readiness of health systems to combine rapid expansion of ART access with long-term treatment and continuity of care for a growing cohort of patients. We argue that effective management of a transition from an emergency AIDS response to long-term programatic strategies will require a paradigm shift that enables leveraging investments in HIV to build sustainable health systems for managing large cohorts of patients receiving ART although meeting the immediate needs of those who remain without access to HIV treatment and care.

Global issues in pediatric nutrition: AIDS.

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Ball, C S

1998-10-01

Nutrition is a final common pathway in chronic disease, and weight loss is a major manifestation of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). In sub-Saharan Africa, studies have shown that 25% of children with malnutrition have human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, although patterns of malnutrition are indistinguishable from those who are HIV negative. Breast-feeding increases the risk of vertical transmission, and the overall risk versus benefit needs continuing careful consideration in relation to local mortality from gastroenteritis and malnutrition. Chronic diarrhea is much more common in HIV-infected children in Africa and may have a multiplicity of causes, including infection with adherent forms of Escherichia coli, protozoa, and even direct HIV infection of intestinal mucosal cells. The HIV wasting syndrome produces reduction in bioelectrical impedence, fat, lean body mass, and body cell mass, but the changes can be predicted from equations used in starvation states. Micronutrients may be important, but observed changes may be due to immune mediator activation, rather than malnutrition. Calorie supplementation is beneficial when delivered by any route, but is likely to produce the greatest positive change when CD4 counts are highest in relation to calorie intake. Paradoxically, HIV-infected children may be obese early in the disease until AIDS develops. There is an inextricable link between disease and nutritional status. In children with AIDS wasting syndrome, a low CD4 count and high viral load are likely so that effective antiviral treatment may ultimately produce the greatest improvement in health, including nutritional status.

Cell Cycle Regulates Nuclear Stability of AID and Determines the Cellular Response to AID.

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Quy Le

2015-09-01

Full Text Available AID (Activation Induced Deaminase deaminates cytosines in DNA to initiate immunoglobulin gene diversification and to reprogram CpG methylation in early development. AID is potentially highly mutagenic, and it causes genomic instability evident as translocations in B cell malignancies. Here we show that AID is cell cycle regulated. By high content screening microscopy, we demonstrate that AID undergoes nuclear degradation more slowly in G1 phase than in S or G2-M phase, and that mutations that affect regulatory phosphorylation or catalytic activity can alter AID stability and abundance. We directly test the role of cell cycle regulation by fusing AID to tags that destabilize nuclear protein outside of G1 or S-G2/M phases. We show that enforced nuclear localization of AID in G1 phase accelerates somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination, and is well-tolerated; while nuclear AID compromises viability in S-G2/M phase cells. We identify AID derivatives that accelerate somatic hypermutation with minimal impact on viability, which will be useful tools for engineering genes and proteins by iterative mutagenesis and selection. Our results further suggest that use of cell cycle tags to regulate nuclear stability may be generally applicable to studying DNA repair and to engineering the genome.

Global health diplomacy, national integration, and regional development through the monitoring and evaluation of HIV/AIDS programs in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Samoa.

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Kevany, Sebastian; Gildea, Amy; Garae, Caleb; Moa, Serafi; Lautusi, Avaia

2015-04-27

The South Pacific countries of Vanuatu, Samoa, and Papua New Guinea have ascended rapidly up the development spectrum in recent years, refining an independent and post-colonial economic and political identity that enhances their recognition on the world stage. All three countries have overcome economic, political and public health challenges in order to stake their claim to sovereignty. In this regard, the contributions of national and international programs for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, with specific reference to their monitoring and evaluation (M&E) aspects, have contributed not just to public health, but also to broader political and diplomatic goals such as 'nation-building'. This perspective describes the specific contributions of global health programs to the pursuit of national integration, development, and regional international relations, in Vanuatu, Samoa and Papua New Guinea, respectively, based on in-country M&E activities on behalf of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) during 2014 and 2015. Key findings include: (1) that global health programs contribute to non-health goals; (2) that HIV/AIDS programs promote international relations, decentralized development, and internal unity; (3) that arguments in favour of the maintenance and augmentation of global health funding may be enhanced on this basis; and (4) that "smart" global health approaches have been successful in South Pacific countries. © 2015 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

Globalization, financial capitalism, and corporate social responsibility: Structural tensions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Barbosa Ramírez

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Globalization and financial capitalism keep a synergy in a global context whose problems such as environmental degradation, social inequity, economic crises and corruption are intensified. Corporate Social Responsibility emerges as a mechanism that seeks to mitigate some of these problems, although its effectiveness and impact today are challenged. The system which globalization, financial capitalism and social responsibility are a part of, is currently facing a number of structural tensions that contribute to the analysis, understanding and solving of the mentioned problems. This paper identifies and analyzes four of the aforementioned structural tensions.

Conceptualizing psychological processes in response to globalization: Components, antecedents, and consequences of global orientations.

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Chen, Sylvia Xiaohua; Lam, Ben C P; Hui, Bryant P H; Ng, Jacky C K; Mak, Winnie W S; Guan, Yanjun; Buchtel, Emma E; Tang, Willie C S; Lau, Victor C Y

2016-02-01

The influences of globalization have permeated various aspects of life in contemporary society, from technical innovations, economic development, and lifestyles, to communication patterns. The present research proposed a construct termed global orientation to denote individual differences in the psychological processes of acculturating to the globalizing world. It encompasses multicultural acquisition as a proactive response and ethnic protection as a defensive response to globalization. Ten studies examined the applicability of global orientations among majority and minority groups, including immigrants and sojourners, in multicultural and relatively monocultural contexts, and across Eastern and Western cultures. Multicultural acquisition is positively correlated with both independent and interdependent self-construals, bilingual proficiency and usage, and dual cultural identifications. Multicultural acquisition is promotion-focused, while ethnic protection is prevention-focused and related to acculturative stress. Global orientations affect individuating and modest behavior over and above multicultural ideology, predict overlap with outgroups over and above political orientation, and predict psychological adaptation, sociocultural competence, tolerance, and attitudes toward ethnocultural groups over and above acculturation expectations/strategies. Global orientations also predict English and Chinese oral presentation performance in multilevel analyses and the frequency and pleasantness of intercultural contact in cross-lagged panel models. We discuss how the psychological study of global orientations contributes to theory and research on acculturation, cultural identity, and intergroup relations. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Biodiversity and global change. Adaptative responses to global change: results and prospective. IFB-GICC restitution colloquium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Despres, L.; Hossaert-Mckey, M.; Martin, J.F.; Pont, D.; Valero, M.; Chave, J.; Benizri, E.; Amiaud, B.; Boury-Esnault, N.; Fritz, H.; Lavelle, P.; Martin, F.; Poulet, S.; Blanchard, F.; Cheddadi, R.; Dupouey, J.L.; Hulle, M.; Michaux, J.; Souissi, S.; Bridault, A.; Dambrine, E.; Gomez, B.; Thevenard, F.; Legendre, S.; Suc, J.P.; Zeitoun, V.; Bezancon, G.; Frascaria-Lacoste, N.; Ponsard, S.; Bourguet, D.; Vigne, J.D.; Doyen, L.; Joly, P.; Gourlet-Fleury, S.; Garnier, E.; Lebaron, Ph.; Boulinier, Th.; Chuine, I.; Jiguet, F.; Couvet, D.; Soussana, J.F.; Weimerskirsch, H.; Grosbois, V.; Bretagnolle, V.

2006-01-01

Global change is the consequence of the worldwide human print on ecology. The uncontrolled use of fossil fuels, the urbanization, the intensifying of agriculture, the homogenization of life styles and cultures, the homogenization of fauna and vegetation, the commercial trades, the bio-invasions, the over-exploitation of resources and the emergence of new economic powers (China, India, Brazil..) represent an adaptative dynamics of interactions which affects the overall biosphere and the adaptative capacities and the future of all species. Biodiversity is an ecological and societal insurance against the risks and uncertainties linked with global change. The French institute of biodiversity (IFB) has created a working group in charge of a study on global change and biodiversity, in particular in terms of: speed and acceleration of processes, interaction between the different organization levels of the world of living, scale changes, and adaptative capacities. 38 projects with an interdisciplinary approach have been retained by the IFB and the Ministry of ecology and sustainable development. The conclusion of these projects were presented at this restitution colloquium and are summarized in this document. The presentations are organized in 7 sessions dealing with: global changes and adaptation mechanisms; functional responses to global changes; spatial responses to global changes; temporal responses to global changes; selective answers to global changes; available tools and ecological services; scenarios and projections. (J.S.)

How a new funding model will shift allocations from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

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Fan, Victoria Y; Glassman, Amanda; Silverman, Rachel L

2014-12-01

Policy makers deciding how to fund global health programs in low- and middle-income countries face important but difficult questions about how to allocate resources across countries. In this article we present a typology of three allocation methodologies to align allocations with priorities. We then apply our typology to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. We examined the Global Fund's historical HIV allocations and its predicted allocations under a new funding model that creates an explicit allocation methodology. We found that under the new funding model, substantial shifts in the Global Fund's portfolio are likely to result from concentrating resources in countries with more HIV cases and lower per capita incomes. For example, South Africa, which had 15.8 percent of global HIV cases in 2009, could see its Global Fund HIV funding more than triple, from historic levels that averaged 3.0 percent to 9.7 percent of total Global Fund allocations. The new funding model methodology is expected, but not guaranteed, to improve the efficiency of Global Fund allocations in comparison to historical practice. We conclude with recommendations for the Global Fund and other global health donors to further develop their allocation methodologies and processes to improve efficiency and transparency. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

Development of the U.S. Geological Survey's PAGER system (Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response)

Science.gov (United States)

Wald, D.J.; Earle, P.S.; Allen, T.I.; Jaiswal, K.; Porter, K.; Hearne, M.

2008-01-01

The Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) System plays a primary alerting role for global earthquake disasters as part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) response protocol. We provide an overview of the PAGER system, both of its current capabilities and our ongoing research and development. PAGER monitors the USGS’s near real-time U.S. and global earthquake origins and automatically identifies events that are of societal importance, well in advance of ground-truth or news accounts. Current PAGER notifications and Web pages estimate the population exposed to each seismic intensity level. In addition to being a useful indicator of potential impact, PAGER’s intensity/exposure display provides a new standard in the dissemination of rapid earthquake information. We are currently developing and testing a more comprehensive alert system that will include casualty estimates. This is motivated by the idea that an estimated range of possible number of deaths will aid in decisions regarding humanitarian response. Underlying the PAGER exposure and loss models are global earthquake ShakeMap shaking estimates, constrained as quickly as possible by finite-fault modeling and observed ground motions and intensities, when available. Loss modeling is being developed comprehensively with a suite of candidate models that range from fully empirical to largely analytical approaches. Which of these models is most appropriate for use in a particular earthquake depends on how much is known about local building stocks and their vulnerabilities. A first-order country-specific global building inventory has been developed, as have corresponding vulnerability functions. For calibrating PAGER loss models, we have systematically generated an Atlas of 5,000 ShakeMaps for significant global earthquakes during the last 36 years. For many of these, auxiliary earthquake source and shaking intensity data are also available. Refinements to the loss models are ongoing

Phylogenetic responses of forest trees to global change.

Science.gov (United States)

Senior, John K; Schweitzer, Jennifer A; O'Reilly-Wapstra, Julianne; Chapman, Samantha K; Steane, Dorothy; Langley, Adam; Bailey, Joseph K

2013-01-01

In a rapidly changing biosphere, approaches to understanding the ecology and evolution of forest species will be critical to predict and mitigate the effects of anthropogenic global change on forest ecosystems. Utilizing 26 forest species in a factorial experiment with two levels each of atmospheric CO2 and soil nitrogen, we examined the hypothesis that phylogeny would influence plant performance in response to elevated CO2 and nitrogen fertilization. We found highly idiosyncratic responses at the species level. However, significant, among-genetic lineage responses were present across a molecularly determined phylogeny, indicating that past evolutionary history may have an important role in the response of whole genetic lineages to future global change. These data imply that some genetic lineages will perform well and that others will not, depending upon the environmental context.

Music and hearing aids.

Science.gov (United States)

Madsen, Sara M K; Moore, Brian C J

2014-10-31

The signal processing and fitting methods used for hearing aids have mainly been designed to optimize the intelligibility of speech. Little attention has been paid to the effectiveness of hearing aids for listening to music. Perhaps as a consequence, many hearing-aid users complain that they are not satisfied with their hearing aids when listening to music. This issue inspired the Internet-based survey presented here. The survey was designed to identify the nature and prevalence of problems associated with listening to live and reproduced music with hearing aids. Responses from 523 hearing-aid users to 21 multiple-choice questions are presented and analyzed, and the relationships between responses to questions regarding music and questions concerned with information about the respondents, their hearing aids, and their hearing loss are described. Large proportions of the respondents reported that they found their hearing aids to be helpful for listening to both live and reproduced music, although less so for the former. The survey also identified problems such as distortion, acoustic feedback, insufficient or excessive gain, unbalanced frequency response, and reduced tone quality. The results indicate that the enjoyment of listening to music with hearing aids could be improved by an increase of the input and output dynamic range, extension of the low-frequency response, and improvement of feedback cancellation and automatic gain control systems. © The Author(s) 2014.

Music and Hearing Aids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sara M. K. Madsen

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The signal processing and fitting methods used for hearing aids have mainly been designed to optimize the intelligibility of speech. Little attention has been paid to the effectiveness of hearing aids for listening to music. Perhaps as a consequence, many hearing-aid users complain that they are not satisfied with their hearing aids when listening to music. This issue inspired the Internet-based survey presented here. The survey was designed to identify the nature and prevalence of problems associated with listening to live and reproduced music with hearing aids. Responses from 523 hearing-aid users to 21 multiple-choice questions are presented and analyzed, and the relationships between responses to questions regarding music and questions concerned with information about the respondents, their hearing aids, and their hearing loss are described. Large proportions of the respondents reported that they found their hearing aids to be helpful for listening to both live and reproduced music, although less so for the former. The survey also identified problems such as distortion, acoustic feedback, insufficient or excessive gain, unbalanced frequency response, and reduced tone quality. The results indicate that the enjoyment of listening to music with hearing aids could be improved by an increase of the input and output dynamic range, extension of the low-frequency response, and improvement of feedback cancellation and automatic gain control systems.

The water footprint of food aid

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jackson, Nicole; Konar, Megan; Hoekstra, Arjen Ysbert

2015-01-01

Food aid is a critical component of the global food system, particularly when emergency situations arise. For the first time, we evaluate the water footprint of food aid. To do this, we draw on food aid data from theWorld Food Programme and virtual water content estimates from WaterStat. We find

Psychological Impact of AIDS on Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Belfer, Myron L.

There are at least three aspects to the psychological impact of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) on children. First is the psychological response of the child with AIDS; second, the response of the child in a group at high risk for AIDS; and third, the psychological response of children in general to the perceived threat from AIDS.…

A review of the response to HIV/AIDS in Trinidad and Tobago: 1983 ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Christine Laptiste

2014-01-03

Jan 3, 2014 ... basic knowledge of human behaviour, behavioural and emotional responses .... ing changes in the epidemic and AIDS-related morbidity and mortality. ..... The role of culture in the communication of health messages is critical.

HIV/AIDS, chronic diseases and globalisation.

Science.gov (United States)

Colvin, Christopher J

2011-08-26

HIV/AIDS has always been one of the most thoroughly global of diseases. In the era of widely available anti-retroviral therapy (ART), it is also commonly recognised as a chronic disease that can be successfully managed on a long-term basis. This article examines the chronic character of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and highlights some of the changes we might expect to see at the global level as HIV is increasingly normalised as "just another chronic disease". The article also addresses the use of this language of chronicity to interpret the HIV/AIDS pandemic and calls into question some of the consequences of an uncritical acceptance of concepts of chronicity.

Dynamical response of the Arctic winter stratosphere to global warming

Science.gov (United States)

Karpechko, A.; Manzini, E.

2017-12-01

Climate models often simulate dynamical warming of the Arctic stratosphere as a response to global warming in association with a strengthening of the deep branch of the Brewer-Dobson circulation; however until now, no satisfactory mechanism for such a response has been suggested. Here we investigate the role of stationary planetary waves in the dynamical response of the Arctic winter stratosphere circulation to global warming by analysing simulations performed with atmosphere-only Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) models driven by prescribed sea surface temperatures (SSTs). We focus on December-February (DJF) because this is the period when the troposphere and stratosphere are strongly coupled. When forced by increased SSTs, all the models analysed here simulate Arctic stratosphere dynamical warming, mostly due to increased upward propagation of quasi-stationary wave number 1, as diagnosed by the meridional eddy heat flux. By analysing intermodel spread in the response we show that the stratospheric warming and increased wave flux to the stratosphere correlate with the strengthening of the zonal winds in subtropics and mid-latitudes near the tropopause- a robust response to global warming. These results support previous studies of future Arctic stratosphere changes and suggest a dynamical warming of the Arctic wintertime polar vortex as the most likely response to global warming.

Improving Aid Effectiveness or Transforming the Global Capitalist System

Science.gov (United States)

Ginsburg, Mark

2010-01-01

In the introduction to his article, "Aid, Development, and Education," Klees (2010) poses the question, has the "hundreds of billions of dollars in international aid... loaned to [or otherwise targeted to "assist"] developing countries through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms... helped?" He then posits the question to be "too complicated to…

HIV/AIDS Treatment

Science.gov (United States)

... Relations Cyber Infrastructure Computational Biology Equal Employment Opportunity Ethics Global Research Office of Mission Integration and Financial Management Strategic Planning Workforce Effectiveness Workplace Solutions Technology Transfer Intellectual Property Division of AIDS ...

Global prevention, funding, accountability debated in fight against HIV / AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

1999-10-18

World leaders, physicians, economists, governmental health organizations, and pharmaceutical manufacturers attended the Third International Conference on Healthcare Resource Allocation for HIV/AIDS and Other Life-threatening Illnesses in Vienna, Austria. The conference participants discussed the economic, ethical, and human rights issues underlying health care resource allocation. Some highlights of the meeting included: the prevention strategies in fighting AIDS virus; the use of high medical ethical standards; the affordability and accessibility of essential therapies; the economic aspects affecting the medical assistance mechanisms; the need to improve the pharmaceutical industry; the need to improve HIV/AIDS care access in developing countries; promoting the development of HIV/AIDS vaccines; and developing rapid diagnosis of HIV.

HIV/AIDS AND THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS

African Journals Online (AJOL)

OLUDURO

Arguably, no religion is free from this epidemic ...... 89 There have been documented reports in Burundi and Malaysia of couples offering fake HIV/AIDS ..... Sidibé M 2010 Having faith: The global challenge of HIV and AIDS (Speech delivered.

Global Citizenship Incorporated: Competing Responsibilities in the Education of Global Citizens

Science.gov (United States)

Hartung, Catherine

2017-01-01

Interest in the education of young people to be 'responsible global citizens' has grown exponentially since the turn of the century, led by increasingly diverse networks of sectors, including government, community, business and philanthropy. These networks now have a significant influence on education policy and practice, indicative of wider…

HIV/AIDS knowledge among men who have sex with men: applying the item response theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Gomes, Raquel Regina de Freitas Magalhães; Batista, José Rodrigues; Ceccato, Maria das Graças Braga; Kerr, Lígia Regina Franco Sansigolo; Guimarães, Mark Drew Crosland

2014-04-01

To evaluate the level of HIV/AIDS knowledge among men who have sex with men in Brazil using the latent trait model estimated by Item Response Theory. Multicenter, cross-sectional study, carried out in ten Brazilian cities between 2008 and 2009. Adult men who have sex with men were recruited (n = 3,746) through Respondent Driven Sampling. HIV/AIDS knowledge was ascertained through ten statements by face-to-face interview and latent scores were obtained through two-parameter logistic modeling (difficulty and discrimination) using Item Response Theory. Differential item functioning was used to examine each item characteristic curve by age and schooling. Overall, the HIV/AIDS knowledge scores using Item Response Theory did not exceed 6.0 (scale 0-10), with mean and median values of 5.0 (SD = 0.9) and 5.3, respectively, with 40.7% of the sample with knowledge levels below the average. Some beliefs still exist in this population regarding the transmission of the virus by insect bites, by using public restrooms, and by sharing utensils during meals. With regard to the difficulty and discrimination parameters, eight items were located below the mean of the scale and were considered very easy, and four items presented very low discrimination parameter (items contributed to the inaccuracy of the measurement of knowledge among those with median level and above. Item Response Theory analysis, which focuses on the individual properties of each item, allows measures to be obtained that do not vary or depend on the questionnaire, which provides better ascertainment and accuracy of knowledge scores. Valid and reliable scales are essential for monitoring HIV/AIDS knowledge among the men who have sex with men population over time and in different geographic regions, and this psychometric model brings this advantage.

Aid, social policy, and development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Addison, Tony; Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel; Tarp, Finn

This paper discusses past and current social policy strategies in the international aid architecture. From the 1990s, aid strategy and policy shifted to put a stronger emphasis on human development. This accelerated with the Millennium Development Goals and will continue under the Sustainable...... Development Goals, which have even more ambitious targets. The paper also assesses some of the concerns associated with the ‘Paris-style’ aid modalities, and discusses major challenges for the future global development agenda....

Mandela calls for greater commitment and leadership in fighting AIDS. The World Economic Forum -- Policy and business in a world of HIV / AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

Macinnis R

1997-01-01

The 27th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on February 3, 1997, was attended by 2000 political and financial leaders of countries and businesses around the world. The forum is the world's largest annual gathering of economic and political dignitaries. In his address to the forum, Nelson Mandela, president of South Africa, called for a global effort against AIDS and a strengthening of the world's political and business leaders' commitment against HIV/AIDS. The disease is creating global economic problems by affecting people in their prime productive and reproductive years. Mandela criticized political leaders for their limited actions in addressing the AIDS pandemic and called upon the world's business community to support government AIDS programs and help people affected by AIDS. All sectors and all spheres of society must be involved as equal partners in the war against HIV/AIDS, for neither the health sector nor government can meet the challenge on its own. If current HIV/AIDS trends continue in South Africa, AIDS will cost the country 1% of its domestic gross product by the year 2005, and up to 75% of the country's budget will be consumed by direct health costs related to HIV/AIDS. At a panel discussion preceding President Mandela's address, Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, argued that the AIDS pandemic could have a devastating effect upon the global economy and urged business leaders to take strong action against the disease.

We are all people living with AIDS: myths and realities of AIDS in Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Daniel, H

1991-01-01

Although AIDS was expected in Brazil, no serious efforts were undertaken to prevent AIDS from taking root. Irresponsible press and media coverage highlighted the spread of AIDS within the gay community of the United States, creating an aura of immunity in Brazil to what was characterized as a "foreign" disorder. When AIDS did surface in 1983, the official response was to adopt an abstract, inappropriate, and ideological "Western" model, in which only stigmatized "others" and "minorities" were at risk of HIV infection. Brazilian health authorities subsequently downplayed the significance of the sale of contaminated blood in HIV transmission, and likewise ignored the rising rates of AIDS among Brazil's one unarguable majority group: the poor. An analysis of efforts to force the "facts" of AIDS to fit a false model's predictions leads to a clearer definition of the broader context of the Brazilian epidemic: we all are people living with AIDS, precisely because we live in this age of AIDS; it is sheer folly to discriminate against persons infected by HIV and to obstruct their participation in efforts to curtail the epidemic's spread; and the necessary response to AIDS is solidarity, not because it is poetic, but because no other response will suffice.

Response of religious groups to HIV/AIDS as a sexually transmitted infection in Trinidad

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Genrich Gillian L

2005-11-01

challenged to promote a clear and consistent response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic; a response that may reflect personal experiences and respect religious doctrine in the context of sex and sexuality. The study suggests that (1 religious leaders could improve their role in the fight against HIV/AIDS with education and sensitization-specifically aimed at dismantling the myths about HIV transmission, and the stereotyping of susceptible sub-populations, and (2 a consultative dialogue between PWHAs and religious leaders is pivotal to a successful faith-based HIV intervention in Trinidad.

[Educational and training issues in occupational first aid: the requisites for the teachers of the workers responsible for first aid].

Science.gov (United States)

Sacco, A; Ciavarella, M; Trevisan, A; Monteforte, Gabriella; De Santis, A

2005-01-01

The inter-ministerial decree (D.I.) 388/03 (the Italian law on first aid in the workplace) attaches particular importance to the organization of first aid and to the content of the teaching and training of designated workers, specifying teaching objectives, programme and duration of courses. However it provides less details on the requirements and qualifications of the teachers and trainers. To discuss this topic in the light of the guidelines contained in the literature and the existing legislation. We used the specific references of literature and legislation concerning first aid training of designated workers. The objectives and the content of the training courses call for a high level of professional competence and approach. Therefore, training of designated workers should be planned and carried out in accordance with the training standards used for the teaching and training of the so-called "lay rescuers". The need to achieve high training standards for workers responsible for first aid at the workplace is to a large extent justified by the difficulty of the role of employees. This need follows the current tendency in regulations to guarantee adequate and up-dated training also for other agents operating within the system of workplace prevention. In this context the occupational physician plays a significant role in the training programmes for designated workers.

IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY DISCLOSURE ON GLOBAL PRODUCTION NETWORK

OpenAIRE

Le Bo; Dan Shen; Jin Jun Bo

2014-01-01

This paper aims to discuss effectiveness of social responsibility disclosure in promoting global production network. Through a critical review on the theoretical development from supply chain to global production network, the global supply chain management of Apple Inc., as a case, is investigated, with focus on corporate and NGOs’ social disclosure on the environmental and labor rights' issues of its suppliers in China. The paper concludes that effectiveness of corporate social disclosure on...

Global low-carbon transition and China's response strategies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jian-Kun He

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The Paris Agreement establishes a new mechanism for post-2020 global climate governance, and sets long-term goals for global response to climate change, which will accelerate worldwide low-carbon transformation of economic development pattern, promote the revolutionary reform of energy system, boost a fundamental change in the mode of social production and consumption, and further the civilization of human society from industrial civilization to eco-civilization. The urgency of global low-carbon transition will reshape the competition situation of world's economy, trade and technology. Taking the construction of eco-civilization as a guide, China explores green and low-carbon development paths, establishes ambitious intended nationally determined contribution (INDC targets and action plans, advances energy production and consumption revolution, and speeds up the transformation of economic development pattern. These strategies and actions not only confirm to the trend of the world low-carbon transition, but also meet the intrinsic requirements for easing the domestic resources and environment constraints and realizing sustainable development. They are multi-win-win strategies for promotion of economic development and environmental protection and mitigation of carbon emissions. China should take the global long-term emission reduction targets as a guide, and formulate medium and long-term low-carbon development strategy, build the core competitiveness of low-carbon advanced technology and development pattern, and take an in-depth part in global governance so as to reflect the responsibility of China as a great power in constructing a community of common destiny for all mankind and addressing global ecological crisis.

Posttraumatic stress disorder among refugees: Measurement invariance of Harvard Trauma Questionnaire scores across global regions and response patterns.

Science.gov (United States)

Rasmussen, Andrew; Verkuilen, Jay; Ho, Emily; Fan, Yuyu

2015-12-01

Despite the central role of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in international humanitarian aid work, there has been little examination of the measurement invariance of PTSD measures across culturally defined refugee subgroups. This leaves mental health workers in disaster settings with little to support inferences made using the results of standard clinical assessment tools, such as the severity of symptoms and prevalence rates. We examined measurement invariance in scores from the most widely used PTSD measure in refugee populations, the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ; Mollica et al., 1992), in a multinational and multilingual sample of asylum seekers from 81 countries of origin in 11 global regions. Clustering HTQ responses to justify grouping regional groups by response patterns resulted in 3 groups for testing measurement invariance: West Africans, Himalayans, and all others. Comparing log-likelihood ratios showed that while configural invariance seemed to hold, metric and scalar invariance did not. These findings call into question the common practice of using standard cut-off scores on PTSD measures across culturally dissimilar refugee populations. In addition, high correlation between factors suggests that the construct validity of scores from North American and European measures of PTSD may not hold globally. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Social responsibility standards and global environmental accountability : a developing country perspective

OpenAIRE

Bhanu Murthy, K.V.

2007-01-01

This paper argues that accountability, responsibility and governance go hand in hand. Evolving standards is a part of governance. Unless such a global perspective is adopted “Social Responsibility and the implications for Developing Countries”, which is the theme for this workshop, cannot be unraveled. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how Social Responsibility Standards and their relation to environmental sustainability cannot be addressed without relating it to Global Environmental ...

From GRID to gridlock: the relationship between scientific biomedical breakthroughs and HIV/AIDS policy in the US Congress.

Science.gov (United States)

Platt, Matthew B; Platt, Manu O

2013-11-27

From the travel ban on people living with HIV (PLHIV) to resistance to needle exchange programmes, there are many examples where policy responses to HIV/AIDS in the United States seem divorced from behavioural, public health and sociological evidence. At its root, however, the unknowns about HIV/AIDS lie at biomedical science, and scientific researchers have made tremendous progress over the past 30 years of the epidemic by using antiretroviral therapy to increase the life expectancy of PLHIV almost to the same level as non-infected individuals; but a relationship between biomedical science discoveries and congressional responses to HIV/AIDS has not been studied. Using quantitative approaches, we directly examine the hypothesis that progress in HIV/AIDS biomedical science discoveries would have a correlative relationship with congressional response to HIV/AIDS from 1981 to 2010. This study used original data on every bill introduced, hearing held and law passed by the US Congress relating to HIV/AIDS over 30 years (1981-2010). We combined congressional data with the most cited and impactful biomedical research scientific publications over the same time period as a metric of biomedical science breakthroughs. Correlations between congressional policy and biomedical research were then analyzed at the aggregate and individual levels. Biomedical research advancements helped shape both the level and content of bill sponsorship on HIV/AIDS, but they had no effect on other stages of the legislative process. Examination of the content of bills and biomedical research indicated that science helped transform HIV/AIDS bill sponsorship from a niche concern of liberal Democrats to a bipartisan coalition when Republicans became the majority party. The trade-off for that expansion has been an emphasis on the global epidemic to the detriment of domestic policies and programmes. Breakthroughs in biomedical science did associate with the number and types of HIV/AIDS bills introduced

Transitioning hearing aid users with severe and profound loss to a new gain/frequency response: benefit, perception, and acceptance.

Science.gov (United States)

Convery, Elizabeth; Keidser, Gitte

2011-03-01

Adults with severe and profound hearing loss tend to be long-term, full-time users of amplification who are highly reliant on their hearing aids. As a result of these characteristics, they are often reluctant to update their hearing aids when new features or signal-processing algorithms become available. Due to the electroacoustic constraints of older devices, many severely and profoundly hearing-impaired adults continue to wear hearing aids that provide more low- and mid-frequency gain and less high-frequency gain than would be prescribed by the National Acoustic Laboratories' revised formula with profound correction factor (NAL-RP). To investigate the effect of a gradual change in gain/frequency response on experienced hearing-aid wearers with moderately severe to profound hearing loss. Double-blind, randomized controlled trial. Twenty-three experienced adult hearing-aid users with severe and profound hearing loss participated in the study. Participants were selected for inclusion in the study if the gain/frequency response of their own hearing aids differed significantly from their NAL-RP prescription. Participants were assigned either to a control or to an experimental group balanced for aided ear three-frequency pure-tone average (PTA) and age. Participants were fitted with Siemens Artis 2 SP behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids that were matched to the gain/frequency response of their own hearing aids for a 65 dB SPL input level. The experimental group progressed incrementally to their NAL-RP targets over the course of 15 wk, while the control group maintained their initial settings throughout the study. Aided speech discrimination testing, loudness scaling, and structured questionnaires were completed at 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 wk postfitting. A paired comparison between the old and new gain/frequency responses was completed at 1 and 15 wk postfitting. Statistical analysis was conducted to examine differences between the experimental and control groups and changes

A critical historical analysis of the South African Catholic Church's HIV/AIDS response between 2000 and 2005.

Science.gov (United States)

Joshua, Stephen Muoki

2010-12-01

The South African HIV and AIDS experience is unique in many ways considering the country's delayed and robust epidemic, the apartheid context, and successive HIV-denialist government regimes. While the struggle for democracy may have overshadowed the enormity of the unfolding HIV epidemic, there was also a delay in constructive religious responses to it early on. In 1990, HIV/AIDS was declared a Catholic institutional focus, and by 2000 the Church had established the largest system of care and treatment in the country besides that of the government. However, the Catholic Church suffered severe criticism on account of its anti-condom policy to HIV prevention. As a result, the institutional Church underwent both organisational and ideological changes in an attempt to adapt to the contextual challenges brought about by HIV and AIDS. Informed by archival collections and oral sources, this article endeavours to critically analyse the HIV/AIDS-related care and treatment activities of the Catholic Church in South Africa between 2000 and 2005. It argues that the complex interplay between HIV and AIDS, the controversy about condom use, and the availability of antiretroviral therapy, accompanied by church activists' multiple engagements with these issues, changed the Church's institutional HIV/AIDS response at that time, in effect transforming the Catholic Church in South Africa into a substantial health asset and agent. However, its stance against the use of condoms for HIV prevention, informed by a larger religious tradition on sexuality, proved to be a health liability.

AIDS and human rights.

Science.gov (United States)

Tarantola, D; Mann, J

1995-01-01

HIV/AIDS is a health problem that is inseparable from individual and collective behavior and social forces, particularly linked with societal respect for human rights and dignity. In its second decade, the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to thrive. Where organized communities have access to adequate information, education, and services, the incidence of infection has begun to decline. Elsewhere, HIV continues to reach new populations and new geographic areas. Lessons learned in more than a decade of prevention work point to new directions for expanding national responses, at a time when the UNAIDS program, to be launched in January 1996, offers opportunities for innovative, broad-based, coordinated, and expanded global action. Prevention activities have shown that the spread of HIV can be effectively reduced. Public health interventions, including providing information and applying prevention methods, reduce the probability of infection, the risk of transmission, and the chances of not accessing appropriate care or support once infection has set in. These are proximal interventions that yield the short-term benefits of the decline of incidence and improved quality and duration of life for those infected. Societal vulnerability translates today into the focus the pandemic has on individuals, communities, and nations that are disadvantaged, marginalized, or discriminated against for reasons of gender, age, race, sexual orientation, economic status, or cultural, religious, or political affiliation. A fully expanded response to HIV/AIDS requires a combination of risk-reduction (proximal) and contextual interventions--those directed at reducing vulnerability through social change to enable people to exert control over their own health. Contextual actions can be implemented in the short term (changing laws, policies, practices that discriminate, promoting human rights, developing the most vulnerable communities) and in the long term (cultural changes, gender equality in

An introduction to family-centred services for children affected by HIV and AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

Richter, Linda

2010-06-23

Family-centred services in the context of HIV/AIDS acknowledge a broad view of a "family system" and ideally include comprehensive treatment and care, community agencies and coordinated case management. The importance of family-centred care for children affected by HIV/AIDS has been recognized for some time. There is a clear confluence of changing social realities and the needs of children in families affected by HIV and AIDS, but a change of paradigm in rendering services to children through families, in both high-prevalence and concentrated epidemic settings, has been slow to emerge.Despite a wide variety of model approaches, interventions, whether medical or psychosocial, still tend to target individuals rather than families. It has become clear that an individualistic approach to children affected by HIV and AIDS leads to confusion and misdirection of the global, national and local response. The almost exclusive focus on orphans, defined initially as a child who had lost one or both parents to AIDS, has occluded appreciation of the broader impact on children exposed to risk in other ways and the impact of the epidemic on families, communities and services for children. In addition, it led to narrowly focused, small-scale social welfare and case management approaches with little impact on government action, global and national policy, integration with health and education interventions, and increased funding.National social protection programmes that strengthen families are now established in several countries hard hit by AIDS, and large-scale pilots are underway in others. These efforts are supported by international and national development agencies, increasingly by governments and, more recently, by UNAIDS and the global AIDS community.There is no doubt that this is the beginning of a road and that there is still a long way to go, including basic research on families, family interventions, and effectiveness and costs of family-centred approaches. It is also

The United Nations Global Compact Progress Reports as Management Control Instruments for Social Responsibility at Spanish Universities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amber Wigmore-Álvarez

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Sustainability and social responsibility (SR have emerged as a new way of managing all types of organizations. It is necessary that the resulting policy be integrated transversely in the control processes. The environment is especially demanding of higher education institutions (HEIs and universities when it comes to behaving in a socially responsible manner due to their great influence in society. Many universities have adhered to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC principles to prove their commitment and gain legitimacy. The Communication on Progress (COP is a management tool that helps to understand the level of implementation of the principles. Furthermore, COP analysis aids in establishing a process of continuous improvement in the management of the impacts that institutions have on their stakeholders. The aim of this study was to analyze the Spanish universities that have joined the Global Compact. Through a descriptive methodology, we identified the aspects that reflect this commitment and how this is integrated into their operational and educational processes. The results have shown that it is necessary to promote the integration of different international initiatives to guide the SR of universities. There are deficiencies in their SR management systems that prevent them from being more transparent, and it was found that in some cases, they are not aware of the implications the commitment can have in developed countries.

Developing Globalization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Annette Skovsted

2017-01-01

This chapter is the first qualitative micro case study of one aspect of globalization: personal networks as a concrete outcome of development assistance spending. The empirical findings related in this paper present circumstantial evidence that Japanese foreign aid has contributed to globalization...

Corporate social responsibility in the new global economy

OpenAIRE

Lindfelt, Lise-Lotte

2002-01-01

This paper is a discussion of the rights and responsibilities of global corporations. Multinational and transnational corporations of the new economy face a serious difficulty in being ethical today. The environment is subject to the enormous influence of material monism and ethics becomes at times a question of profits. This paper discusses a few aspects on ethical marketing strategies, the use of ethical codes and corporate survival under the pressures of increasing globalization. The purpo...

Model-based synthesis of locally contingent responses to global market signals

Science.gov (United States)

Magliocca, N. R.

2015-12-01

Rural livelihoods and the land systems on which they depend are increasingly influenced by distant markets through economic globalization. Place-based analyses of land and livelihood system sustainability must then consider both proximate and distant influences on local decision-making. Thus, advancing land change theory in the context of economic globalization calls for a systematic understanding of the general processes as well as local contingencies shaping local responses to global signals. Synthesis of insights from place-based case studies of land and livelihood change is a path forward for developing such systematic knowledge. This paper introduces a model-based synthesis approach to investigating the influence of local socio-environmental and agent-level factors in mediating land-use and livelihood responses to changing global market signals. A generalized agent-based modeling framework is applied to six case-study sites that differ in environmental conditions, market access and influence, and livelihood settings. The largest modeled land conversions and livelihood transitions to market-oriented production occurred in sties with relatively productive agricultural land and/or with limited livelihood options. Experimental shifts in the distributions of agents' risk tolerances generally acted to attenuate or amplify responses to changes in global market signals. Importantly, however, responses of agents at different points in the risk tolerance distribution varied widely, with the wealth gap growing wider between agents with higher or lower risk tolerance. These results demonstrate model-based synthesis is a promising approach to overcome many of the challenges of current synthesis methods in land change science, and to identify generalized as well as locally contingent responses to global market signals.

The Idea of a Socially Responsible Global Citizen and its Ethical and Philosophical Basis

OpenAIRE

Isao, Takagi

2012-01-01

An idea of a socially responsible global citizen is required to the emerging global community in order to make it with diversity, sustainability, prosperity, equity and justice. The ethical basis and qualities of a socially responsible global citizen could be provided through introducing some ideas and philosophy consisting of responsible well-being by R. Chambers and philosophy of value creation, global citizenship and creative coexistence by D. Ikeda. Ultimately a comprehensive framework fo...

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's investments in harm reduction through the rounds-based funding model (2002-2014).

Science.gov (United States)

Bridge, Jamie; Hunter, Benjamin M; Albers, Eliot; Cook, Catherine; Guarinieri, Mauro; Lazarus, Jeffrey V; MacAllister, Jack; McLean, Susie; Wolfe, Daniel

2016-01-01

Harm reduction is an evidence-based, effective response to HIV transmission and other harms faced by people who inject drugs, and is explicitly supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In spite of this, people who inject drugs continue to have poor and inequitable access to these services and face widespread stigma and discrimination. In 2013, the Global Fund launched a new funding model-signalling the end of the previous rounds-based model that had operated since its founding in 2002. This study updates previous analyses to assess Global Fund investments in harm reduction interventions for the duration of the rounds-based model, from 2002 to 2014. Global Fund HIV and TB/HIV grant documents from 2002 to 2014 were reviewed to identify grants that contained activities for people who inject drugs. Data were collected from detailed grant budgets, and relevant budget lines were recorded and analysed to determine the resources allocated to different interventions that were specifically targeted at people who inject drugs. 151 grants for 58 countries, plus one regional proposal, contained activities targeting people who inject drugs-for a total investment of US$ 620 million. Two-thirds of this budgeted amount was for interventions in the "comprehensive package" defined by the United Nations. 91% of the identified amount was for Eastern Europe and Asia. This study represents an updated, comprehensive assessment of Global Fund investments in harm reduction from its founding (2002) until the start of the new funding model (2014). It also highlights the overall shortfall of harm reduction funding, with the estimated global need being US$ 2.3 billion for harm reduction in 2015 alone. Using this baseline, the Global Fund must carefully monitor its new funding model and ensure that investments in harm reduction are maintained or scaled-up. There are widespread concerns regarding the withdrawal from middle-income countries where harm reduction remains

2016 RAD-AID Conference on International Radiology for Developing Countries: Gaps, Growth, and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Science.gov (United States)

Mollura, Daniel J; Soroosh, Garshasb; Culp, Melissa P

2017-06-01

The 2016 RAD-AID Conference analyzed the accelerated global activity in the radiology community that is transforming medical imaging into an effective spearhead of health care capacity building in low- and middle-income countries. Global health efforts historically emphasized disaster response, crisis zones, and infectious disease outbreaks. However, the projected doubling of cancer and cardiovascular deaths in developing countries in the next 15 years and the need for higher technology screening and diagnostic technologies in low-resource regions, as articulated by the United Nations' new Sustainable Development Goals of 2016, is heightening the role of radiology in global health. Academic US-based radiology programs with RAD-AID chapters achieved a threefold increase in global health project offerings for trainees in the past 5 years. RAD-AID's nonprofit radiology volunteer corps continue to grow by more than 40% yearly, with a volunteer base of 5,750 radiology professionals, serving in 23 countries, donating close to 20,000 pro bono hours globally in 2016. As a high-technology specialty interfacing with nearly all medical and surgical disciplines, radiology underpins vital health technology infrastructure, such as digital imaging archives, electronic medical records, and advanced diagnosis and treatment, essential for long-term future health care capacity in underserved areas of the world. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Poor understanding? Challenges to Global Development Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Buchanan

2018-03-01

Full Text Available As members of a global community, we cohabit a metaphorically shrinking physical environment, and are increasingly connected one to another, and to the world, by ties of culture, economics, politics, communication and the like. Education is an essential component in addressing inequalities and injustices concerning global rights and responsibilities. The increasing multicultural nature of societies locally, enhanced access to distal information, and the work of charitable organisations worldwide are some of the factors that have contributed to the interest in, and need for, understanding global development education. The project on which this paper reports sought answers to the question: to what extent and in what ways can a semester-long subject enhance and extend teacher education students’ understandings of and responses to global inequalities and global development aid? In the course of the project, a continuum model emerged, as follows: Indifference or ignorance ➝ pity and charity ➝ partnership and development among equals. In particular, this paper reports on some of the challenges and obstacles that need to be addressed in order to enhance pre-service teachers’ understandings of global development education. The study, conducted in Australia, has implications for global development education in other developed nations.

HIV and AIDS Data Hub for Asia Pacific: a regional tool to support strategic information needs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ye Yu Shwe

2012-09-01

Full Text Available The 2011 global commitments towards controlling HIV made by Asia-Pacific countries require considerable improvement in strategic information and response tracking. The HIV and AIDS Data Hub can serve as an important tool for stakeholders with its regional database of subnational indicators, web site and data synthesis capacity.

Individual Responsibility for Promoting Global Health: The Case for a New Kind of Socially Conscious Consumption.

Science.gov (United States)

Hassoun, Nicole

2016-06-01

The problems of global health are truly terrible. Millions suffer and die from diseases like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. One way of addressing these problems is via a Global Health Impact labeling campaign (http://global-health-impact.org/). If even a small percentage of consumers promote global health by purchasing Global Health Impact products, the incentive to use this label will be substantial. One might wonder, however, whether consumers are morally obligation to purchase any these goods or whether doing so is even morally permissible. This paper suggests that if the proposal is implemented, purchasing Global Health Impact labelled goods is at least morally permissible, if not morally required. Its argument should, moreover, be of much more general interest to those considering different kinds of ethical consumption. © 2016 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics.

Resource flows and levels of spending for the response to HIV and AIDS in Belarus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amico Peter

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Belarus has a focused HIV epidemic concentrated among injecting drug users, female sex workers and men who have sex with men. However, until 2008, Belarus had no way of evaluating HIV spending priorities. In 2008, Belarus committed to undertaking a comprehensive National AIDS Spending Assessment (NASA in order to analyze HIV spending priorities. NASA was used to 'follow the money' from the funding sources to agents and providers, and eventually to beneficiary populations. Findings Belarus spent the majority of its funding on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections and on securing the blood supply. International donors and NGOs working within Belarus spent the majority of their funding on preventative activities for high risk groups while Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (GFATM solely funded antiretroviral treatment. Conclusions The data and experience obtained through conducting NASA will help build capacity for future resource tracking activities for HIV and other health priorities. This experience established the foundation for enhanced and future consistent quality-reporting of National Health Accounts. Monitoring the flow of resources for Belarus' HIV response provides valuable strategic information that can improve operations and planning as well as mobilize greater resources. NASA offers Belarusian policy makers an overview of HIV activities that merit their priority attention. In addition, the findings from Belarus are particularly relevant for the rest of the Commonwealth of Independent States due to their similar epidemiological profiles and centrally planned systems. The Belarusian government faces future challenges, especially in increasing public investments in HIV prevention for female sex workers and their clients, men who have sex with men, and among intravenous drug users.

Aiding and Abetting: The Responsibility of Business Leaders under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caspar Plomp

2014-08-01

Full Text Available While no business leaders have yet been charged before the International Criminal Court (ICC, such future proceedings will typically be conducted with reference to the accessorial mode of liability of aiding and abetting, under Article 25(3(c of the Rome Statute of the ICC. There exist diverse and competing interpretations of Article 25(3(c. This paper aims to advocate the creation of a dominant interpretation of Article 25(3(c and, consequently, to the clarification of the potential responsibility of business leaders who aid or abet crimes under the jurisdiction of the Rome Statute, in two ways. First, it asks whether Article 25(3(c can be interpreted in harmony with the dominant practice on aiding and abetting in international criminal law generally. Second, it presents a case study on the provision of arms by the Russian corporation Rosoboronexport to the Syrian government, which is likely to have committed crimes against humanity since March 2011 and war crimes since mid-2012. The theoretical conclusions are applied to a discussion on the potential criminal responsibility of the Director General of Rosoboronexport for aiding and abetting the commission of international crimes by high-level Syrian officials.

Responsibility of international organizations under international law for the acts of global health public-private partnerships

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Clarke, L.C.

2011-01-01

Public-private partnerships governing global health are making progress in relation to the prevention and treatment of diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. This progress should not be underestimated as these partnerships are making strides above and beyond efforts of either the public

Is man responsible for global warming?; L'homme est-il responsable du rechauffement climatique?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Legendre, A

2009-07-01

According to politicians, ecologists and mass media, it is now certain that with our CO{sub 2} emissions, we are all responsible for a major global warming to come with dramatic consequences. But, is this affirmation indisputable? Are we all responsible for the rise of sea level and the summer thawing of the arctic ice shelf? Is this expected global warming without precedent? And is CO{sub 2}, necessary for life, the cause of our misfortune? The answers commonly claimed are maybe more complex in reality and the climate question more subtle than it looks like. This book tries to decode the wheels of the climate machine and the share of human responsibility in climate change. (J.S.)

Securitizing HIV/AIDS: a game changer in state-societal relations in China?

Science.gov (United States)

Lo, Catherine Yuk-Ping

2018-05-16

-focused NGOs in China generated by the international securitization efforts is largely limited. An internal and external factor was identified to verify the argument, namely (1) the reduction of international financial commitments, as well as (2) the fragmentation of HIV/AIDS-focused NGO community in China. This article shows that international securitization weakened with the rise of Chinese commitment on HIV/AIDS interventions. In other words, HIV/AIDS-related responses delivered by the national government are no longer checked by the global mechanism of HIV/AIDS; thus it is unclear whether these NGOs would remain of interest as partners for the government. The fragmentation of the HIV/AIDS community would further hinder the development, preventing from NGOs with the same interest forming alliances to call for changes in current political environment. Such restriction on the concerted efforts of HIV/AIDS-related NGOs in China would make achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to foster stronger partnerships between the government and civil society difficult, which in turn hindering the realization of ending HIV/AIDS in the world by 2030.

Études par pays dans le cadre du HIV/AIDS Monitor | CRDI - Centre ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Trickle or a Flood: Commitments and Disbursement for HIV/AIDS from the Global Fund, PEPFAR, and the World Bank's Multi-Country AIDS Program (MAP). Téléchargez le PDF. Documents. Overview of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Téléchargez le PDF. Documents. An Overview of the World ...

Hearing Aids Communication

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Globally, hearing loss is the second most frequent disability. About 80% of the persons affected by hearing loss do not use hearing aids. The goal of this edited volume is to present a theoretically founded, interdisciplinary approach geared at understanding and improving social interaction...

Assessing Tuition and Student Aid Strategies: Using Price-Response Measures to Simulate Pricing Alternatives.

Science.gov (United States)

St. John, Edward P.

1994-01-01

A study used price-response measures from recent national studies to assess college and university pricing (tuition and student aid) alternatives in diverse institutional settings. It is concluded that such analyses are feasible. Analysis indicated limits to "Robin Hood" pricing patterns are predominant in private colleges. Consideration…

Benefit of Analog, Programmable and Digital Hearing Aids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jamileh Fatahi

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Background and Aims: As the hearing aid technology progressively promotes toward replacing analog hearing aids with digital and programmable ones, comparison of the patient satisfaction of those kinds of hearing aids by means of a valuable tool seems so necessary. So, the aim of this study was to compare self-reported benefit of analog, digitally controlled programmable and digital hearing aids for reducing disability caused by hearing impairment in mild to severe sensorineural hearing impaired persons. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 90 persons with mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss dividing into three groups: 43 subjects were fitted with digital, 15 with programmable, 32 with analog hearing aids. After pure tone audiometry, Abbreviated profile of hearing aid benefit (APHAB was completed before and one month after using hearing aids to determine the benefit of them. Results: Global APHAB mean scores for digital, programmable and analog hearing aids were 49.05, 33.19 and 39.53, respectively. Ease of Communication subscale mean scores were 53.46 for digitals, 37.66 for programmables and 39.09 for analogs. Background noise subscale mean scores for digital programmable and analog hearing aids were 46.36, 25.53 and 35.31, respectively. Global and also both subscale mean scores showed significant difference between digital hearing aids and programmable and analog ones. There was no significant difference between reverberation subscale mean scores of three groups. Conclusion: It seems digital hearing aids may be more beneficial to reduce disability caused by hearing loss than analog and programmable hearing aids are.

Terrestrial Feedbacks Incorporated in Global Vegetation Models through Observed Trait-Environment Responses

Science.gov (United States)

Bodegom, P. V.

2015-12-01

Most global vegetation models used to evaluate climate change impacts rely on plant functional types to describe vegetation responses to environmental stresses. In a traditional set-up in which vegetation characteristics are considered constant within a vegetation type, the possibility to implement and infer feedback mechanisms are limited as feedback mechanisms will likely involve a changing expression of community trait values. Based on community assembly concepts, we implemented functional trait-environment relationships into a global dynamic vegetation model to quantitatively assess this feature. For the current climate, a different global vegetation distribution was calculated with and without the inclusion of trait variation, emphasizing the importance of feedbacks -in interaction with competitive processes- for the prevailing global patterns. These trait-environmental responses do, however, not necessarily imply adaptive responses of vegetation to changing conditions and may locally lead to a faster turnover in vegetation upon climate change. Indeed, when running climate projections, simulations with trait variation did not yield a more stable or resilient vegetation than those without. Through the different feedback expressions, global and regional carbon and water fluxes were -however- strongly altered. At a global scale, model projections suggest an increased productivity and hence an increased carbon sink in the next decades to come, when including trait variation. However, by the end of the century, a reduced carbon sink is projected. This effect is due to a downregulation of photosynthesis rates, particularly in the tropical regions, even when accounting for CO2-fertilization effects. Altogether, the various global model simulations suggest the critical importance of including vegetation functional responses to changing environmental conditions to grasp terrestrial feedback mechanisms at global scales in the light of climate change.

Environmental variation and population responses to global change

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lawson, Callum R.; Vindenes, Yngvild; Bailey, Liam; van de Pol, Martijn

2015-01-01

Species' responses to environmental changes such as global warming are affected not only by trends in mean conditions, but also by natural and human-induced environmental fluctuations. Methods are needed to predict how such environmental variation affects ecological and evolutionary processes, in

The Master Hearing Aid

Science.gov (United States)

Curran, James R.

2013-01-01

As early as the 1930s the term Master Hearing Aid (MHA) described a device used in the fitting of hearing aids. In their original form, the MHA was a desktop system that allowed for simulated or actual adjustment of hearing aid components that resulted in a changed hearing aid response. Over the years the MHA saw many embodiments and contributed to a number of rationales for the fitting of hearing aids. During these same years, the MHA was viewed by many as an inappropriate means of demonstrating hearing aids; the audio quality of the desktop systems was often superior to the hearing aids themselves. These opinions and the evolution of the MHA have molded the modern perception of hearing aids and the techniques used in the fitting of hearing aids. This article reports on a history of the MHA and its influence on the fitting of hearing aids. PMID:23686682

Biodiversity and global change. Adaptative responses to global change: results and prospective. IFB-GICC restitution colloquium; Biodiversite et changement global. Reponses adaptatives au changement global: resultats et prospective. Colloque de restitution IFB-GICC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Despres, L; Hossaert-Mckey, M; Martin, J F; Pont, D; Valero, M; Chave, J; Benizri, E; Amiaud, B; Boury-Esnault, N; Fritz, H; Lavelle, P; Martin, F; Poulet, S; Blanchard, F; Cheddadi, R; Dupouey, J L; Hulle, M; Michaux, J; Souissi, S; Bridault, A; Dambrine, E; Gomez, B; Thevenard, F; Legendre, S; Suc, J P; Zeitoun, V; Bezancon, G; Frascaria-Lacoste, N; Ponsard, S; Bourguet, D; Vigne, J D; Doyen, L; Joly, P; Gourlet-Fleury, S; Garnier, E; Lebaron, Ph; Boulinier, Th; Chuine, I; Jiguet, F; Couvet, D; Soussana, J F; Weimerskirsch, H; Grosbois, V; Bretagnolle, V

2006-07-01

Global change is the consequence of the worldwide human print on ecology. The uncontrolled use of fossil fuels, the urbanization, the intensifying of agriculture, the homogenization of life styles and cultures, the homogenization of fauna and vegetation, the commercial trades, the bio-invasions, the over-exploitation of resources and the emergence of new economic powers (China, India, Brazil..) represent an adaptative dynamics of interactions which affects the overall biosphere and the adaptative capacities and the future of all species. Biodiversity is an ecological and societal insurance against the risks and uncertainties linked with global change. The French institute of biodiversity (IFB) has created a working group in charge of a study on global change and biodiversity, in particular in terms of: speed and acceleration of processes, interaction between the different organization levels of the world of living, scale changes, and adaptative capacities. 38 projects with an interdisciplinary approach have been retained by the IFB and the Ministry of ecology and sustainable development. The conclusion of these projects were presented at this restitution colloquium and are summarized in this document. The presentations are organized in 7 sessions dealing with: global changes and adaptation mechanisms; functional responses to global changes; spatial responses to global changes; temporal responses to global changes; selective answers to global changes; available tools and ecological services; scenarios and projections. (J.S.)

An ongoing tragedy: the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Science.gov (United States)

Desai, B T

1989-01-01

The AIDS epidemic has, to date, had only a minimal impact in India; however, given the low health status of the population and the lack of adequate health care facilities, the emergence of AIDS on a wider scale would be devastating. India's human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositivity rate now stands at about 2-3/1000 people tested. In what is suspected to be a racially motivated move, the Government of India has embarked on testing all foreign students (most of whom are from Africa) for HIV and is returning all those who test seropositive to their countries of origin. Of concern is the steady increase in HIV infection in professional blood donors (1.5/1000 in late 1988). Mandatory screening of donated blood is prohibitively expensive in India, and none of the 9 companies that manufacture blood products in India test their donors for HIV infection. Another concern is the finding that 1 of every 6 prostitutes in Bombay is infected with HIV. The response of the Indian Government to the AIDS threat has tended to be punitive toward AIDS victims rather than based on a sound preventive strategy. For example, the 1989 AIDS Prevention Bill forces individuals who are infected with HIV to reveal their past sexual partners, empowers authorities to hospitalize AIDS victims and drug addicts, and contains no provisions to protect the human and civil rights of AIDS victims. The mass media have treated AIDS in a sensationalized manner rather than presenting scientific information about the prevention and transmission of the disease. It is essential that the Government of India--and all world governments--realize that punitive measures will do little to reduce the spread of AIDS. Needed, instead, is a global prevention and control effort based on generosity and compassion.

A spirited response: Malaysia's AIDS activists woo Muslim clerics.

Science.gov (United States)

Oorjitham, S

1999-11-05

Islamic clerics, scholars, activists, and other authorities in Malaysia decided to lay in education for everyone as a solution to the AIDS epidemic in their country. In addition, they called on the community to be caring towards sufferers, which they believe is the way of Islam. This resolution was agreed upon during a meeting wherein religious officials recognized their role in AIDS prevention by equipping people with spiritual values and teaching everyone compassion. The resolution, however, has challenged the orthodoxy in some Islamic circles where AIDS is regarded as a "manifestation of God's punishment" which has consequently scared off many Muslim sufferers from approaching religious bodies. Religious advisers also admits that their call for full information about prevention, from urging abstinence and marital fidelity to promoting the use of condoms, still needs to be supported by individual state authorities. Among the AIDS council's future plans are to set up an information booth at a Kuala Lumpur mosque and to raise awareness in state religious departments through a booklet entitled AIDS Education Through Imams.

Challenges in Meeting HIV/AIDS Counselling Needs in Nigeria

Science.gov (United States)

Gesinde, Abiodun M.

2012-01-01

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is recognized globally as the greatest health challenge of the present generation. It is widely acknowledged to be the foremost killer disease in Africa. Since the first AIDS case was publicly announced in 1986, the astronomical increase in victims has been a matter of concern. The rates of HIV/AIDS infection indicate that…

Safe Abortion and the Global Political Economy of Reproductive Rights

OpenAIRE

Barbara B Crane

2005-01-01

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) advocates are joining the call for global economic justice, while drawing attention to the neglect of SRHR in the Millennium Development Goals. At the same time, abortion and other core SRHR issues are coming to the fore in specialized and influential arenas concerned with HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, humanitarian response, and human rights. A strategic response is required from the SRHR movement. Development (2005) 48, 85–91. doi:10.10...

International Monetary Fund and aid displacement.

Science.gov (United States)

Stuckler, David; Basu, Sanjay; McKee, Martin

2011-01-01

Several recent papers find evidence that global health aid is being diverted to reserves, education, military, or other sectors, and is displacing government spending. This is suggested to occur because ministers of finance have competing, possibly corrupt, priorities and deprive the health sector of resources. Studies have found that development assistance for health routed to governments has a negative impact on health spending and that similar assistance routed to private nongovernmental organizations has a positive impact. An alternative hypothesis is that World Bank and IMF macro-economic policies, which specifically advise governments to divert aid to reserves to cope with aid volatility and keep government spending low, could be causing the displacement of health aid. This article evaluates whether aid displacement was greater when countries undertook a new borrowing program from the IMF between 1996 and 2006. As found in existing studies, for each $1 of development assistance for health, about $0.37 is added to the health system. However, evaluating IMF-borrowing versus non-IMF-borrowing countries reveals that non-borrowers add about $0.45 whereas borrowers add less than $0.01 to the health system. On average, health system spending grew at about half the speed when countries were exposed to the IMF than when they were not. It is important to take account of the political economy of global health finance when interpreting data on financial flows.

Photosynthesis–irradiance parameters of marine phytoplankton: synthesis of a global data set

OpenAIRE

Bouman, HA; Platt, T; Doblin, M; Figueiras, FG; Gudmundsson, K; Gudfinnsson, HG; Huang, B; Hickman, A; Hiscock, M; Jackson, T; Lutz, VA; Melin, F; Rey, F; Pepin, P; Segura, V

2018-01-01

The photosynthetic performance of marine phytoplankton varies in response to a variety of factors, environmental and taxonomic. One of the aims of the MArine primary Production: model Parameters from Space (MAPPS) project of the European Space Agency is to assemble a global database of photosynthesis–irradiance (P-E) parameters from a range of oceanographic regimes as an aid to examining the basin-scale variability in the photophysiological response of marine phytoplankto...

Globalisation of tobacco industry influence and new global responses

Science.gov (United States)

Yach, D.; Bettcher, D.

2000-01-01

The globalisation of tobacco marketing, trade, research, and industry influence represents a major threat to public health worldwide. Drawing upon tobacco industry strategy documents prepared over several decades, this paper will demonstrate how the tobacco industry operates as a global force, regarding the world as its operating market by planning, developing, and marketing its products on a global scale. The industry has used a wide range of methods to buy influence and power, and penetrate markets across the world. It has an annual turnover of almost US$400 billion. In contrast, until recently tobacco control lacked global leadership and strategic direction and had been severely underfunded. As part of moving towards a more sustainable form of globalisation, a global enabling environment linked to local actions should focus on the following strategies: global information management; development of nationally and locally grounded action; global regulation, legal instruments, and foreign policy; and establishment of strong partnerships with purpose. As the vector of the tobacco epidemic, the tobacco industry's actions fall far outside of the boundaries of global corporate responsibility. Therefore, global and local actions should not provide the tobacco industry with the two things that it needs to ensure its long term profitability: respectability and predictability.


Keywords: globalisation of tobacco marketing PMID:10841858

[Facing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Mexico: the response of the health sector].

Science.gov (United States)

Gutiérrez, Juan Pablo; López-Zaragoza, José Luis; Valencia-Mendoza, Atanacio; Pesqueira, Eduardo; Ponce-de-León, Samuel; Bertozzi, Stefano M

2004-01-01

To analyze the challenges and accomplishments of the Mexican health system as it faced the HIV/AIDS epidemic over the 20 years since discovery of the virus. A review of the relevant literature was done. The topics revised were: HIV/AIDS epidemiology, the early response of the health system and civil society, prevention and risk behaviors, care and treatment, and financing and resources allocation. In Mexico a rapid initial public response surely contributed to containing any early spread of the epidemic to select populations; whether that spread will continue to be contained is an open question. Sexual risk practices remain high not only among traditional risk populations but also among youth. Even though the epidemic remains concentrated in Mexico, principally among MSM and IDU, only 13% of public HIV prevention funds are directed to key populations at especially high risk of becoming infected or infecting others. In recent years antiretroviral coverage has increased rapidly with funding increasing from 30 to 367 million pesos from 2001 to 2003 and coverage now approaching 100%. Of all health spending on HIV/AIDS in the public sector, 82.4% is spent by the social security institutes and 17.6% by the Ministry of Health. The former provides medical care to about half of PLHA while the latter, in addition to caring for the other half, supports the large majority of prevention expenses. One of the challenges faced by the health system which has largely achieved universal antiretroviral coverage is how to provide quality care with appropriate monitoring, promotion of adherence and recognition and treatment of resistance and adverse effects--without dramatically increasing costs.

Trajectories of Japanese and South Korean Environmental Aid

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tonami, Aki; Müller, Anders Riel

2014-01-01

Environmental aid has become a major component of development aid. We analyzed the contingent characters of environmental aid of Japan and South Korea using the definition of Williams, which regards aid policy as donor driven and autobiographical of the donor agencies and societies from which...... they sprang. Both Japan and South Korea consider environmental aid as an important tool of their diplomacy. A combination of a moral obligation and domestic, international, political, and economic interests underpin both countries’ environmental aid policy. Seen from the stated policies and practices, both...... countries use accounts of their past as once- developing countries trying to catch up in their aid narrative. In this manner, the environmental aid of Japan and South Korea is autobiographic, reflecting their interpretation of their own development history and position in global politics....

Combining observations and models to reduce uncertainty in the cloud response to global warming

Science.gov (United States)

Norris, J. R.; Myers, T.; Chellappan, S.

2017-12-01

Currently there is large uncertainty on how subtropical low-level clouds will respond to global warming and whether they will act as a positive feedback or negative feedback. Global climate models substantially agree on what changes in atmospheric structure and circulation will occur with global warming but greatly disagree over how clouds will respond to these changes in structure and circulation. An examination of models with the most realistic simulations of low-level cloudiness indicates that the model cloud response to atmospheric changes associated with global warming is quantitatively similar to the model cloud response to atmospheric changes at interannual time scales. For these models, the cloud response to global warming predicted by multilinear regression using coefficients derived from interannual time scales is quantitatively similar to the cloud response to global warming directly simulated by the model. Since there is a large spread among cloud response coefficients even among models with the most realistic cloud simulations, substitution of coefficients derived from satellite observations reduces the uncertainty range of the low-level cloud feedback. Increased sea surface temperature associated with global warming acts to reduce low-level cloudiness, which is partially offset by increased lower tropospheric stratification that acts to enhance low-level cloudiness. Changes in free-tropospheric relative humidity, subsidence, and horizontal advection have only a small impact on low-level cloud. The net reduction in subtropical low-level cloudiness increases absorption of solar radiation by the climate system, thus resulting in a weak positive feedback.

Trends in AIDS Deaths, New Infections and ART Coverage in the Top 30 Countries with the Highest AIDS Mortality Burden; 1990–2013

Science.gov (United States)

Granich, Reuben; Gupta, Somya; Hersh, Bradley; Williams, Brian; Montaner, Julio; Young, Benjamin; Zuniga, José M.

2015-01-01

Background Antiretroviral therapy (ART) prevents human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease progression, mortality and transmission. We assess the impact of expanded HIV treatment for the prevention of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)-related deaths and simulate four treatment scenarios for Nigeria and South Africa. Methods For 1990–2013, we used the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) database to examine trends in AIDS deaths, HIV incidence and prevalence, ART coverage, annual AIDS death rate, AIDS death-to-treatment and HIV infections to treatment ratios for the top 30 countries with the highest AIDS mortality burden and compare them with data from high-income countries. We projected the 1990–2020 AIDS deaths for Nigeria and South Africa using four treatment scenarios: 1) no ART; 2) maintaining current ART coverage; 3) 90% ART coverage based on 2013 World Health Organization (WHO) ART guidelines by 2020; and 4) reaching the United Nations 90-90-90 Target by 2020. Findings In 2013, there were 1.3 million (1.1 million–1.6 million) AIDS deaths in the top 30 countries representing 87% of global AIDS deaths. Eight countries accounted for 58% of the global AIDS deaths; Nigeria and South Africa accounted for 27% of global AIDS deaths. The highest death rates per 1000 people living with HIV were in Central African Republic (91), South Sudan (82), Côte d’Ivoire (75), Cameroon (72) and Chad (71), nearly 8–10 times higher than the high-income countries. ART access in 2013 has averted as estimated 1,051,354 and 422,448 deaths in South Africa and Nigeria, respectively. Increasing ART coverage in these two countries to meet the proposed UN 90-90-90 Target by 2020 could avert 2.2 and 1.2 million deaths, respectively. Interpretation Over the past decade the expansion of access to ART averted millions of deaths. Reaching the proposed UN 90-90-90 Target by 2020 will prevent additional morbidity, mortality and HIV transmission. Despite progress

Coordinated approaches to quantify long-term ecosystem dynamics in response to global change

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Y.; Melillo, J.; Niu, S.

2011-01-01

a coordinated approach that combines long-term, large-scale global change experiments with process studies and modeling. Long-term global change manipulative experiments, especially in high-priority ecosystems such as tropical forests and high-latitude regions, are essential to maximize information gain......Many serious ecosystem consequences of climate change will take decades or even centuries to emerge. Long-term ecological responses to global change are strongly regulated by slow processes, such as changes in species composition, carbon dynamics in soil and by long-lived plants, and accumulation...... to be the most effective strategy to gain the best information on long-term ecosystem dynamics in response to global change....

Who pays for cooperation in global health? A comparative analysis of WHO, the World Bank, the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Science.gov (United States)

Clinton, Chelsea; Sridhar, Devi

2017-07-15

In this report we assess who pays for cooperation in global health through an analysis of the financial flows of WHO, the World Bank, the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The past few decades have seen the consolidation of influence in the disproportionate roles the USA, UK, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have had in financing three of these four institutions. Current financing flows in all four case study institutions allow donors to finance and deliver assistance in ways that they can more closely control and monitor at every stage. We highlight three major trends in global health governance more broadly that relate to this development: towards more discretionary funding and away from core or longer-term funding; towards defined multi-stakeholder governance and away from traditional government-centred representation and decision-making; and towards narrower mandates or problem-focused vertical initiatives and away from broader systemic goals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quantifying global soil carbon losses in response to warming.

Science.gov (United States)

Crowther, T W; Todd-Brown, K E O; Rowe, C W; Wieder, W R; Carey, J C; Machmuller, M B; Snoek, B L; Fang, S; Zhou, G; Allison, S D; Blair, J M; Bridgham, S D; Burton, A J; Carrillo, Y; Reich, P B; Clark, J S; Classen, A T; Dijkstra, F A; Elberling, B; Emmett, B A; Estiarte, M; Frey, S D; Guo, J; Harte, J; Jiang, L; Johnson, B R; Kröel-Dulay, G; Larsen, K S; Laudon, H; Lavallee, J M; Luo, Y; Lupascu, M; Ma, L N; Marhan, S; Michelsen, A; Mohan, J; Niu, S; Pendall, E; Peñuelas, J; Pfeifer-Meister, L; Poll, C; Reinsch, S; Reynolds, L L; Schmidt, I K; Sistla, S; Sokol, N W; Templer, P H; Treseder, K K; Welker, J M; Bradford, M A

2016-11-30

The majority of the Earth's terrestrial carbon is stored in the soil. If anthropogenic warming stimulates the loss of this carbon to the atmosphere, it could drive further planetary warming. Despite evidence that warming enhances carbon fluxes to and from the soil, the net global balance between these responses remains uncertain. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of warming-induced changes in soil carbon stocks by assembling data from 49 field experiments located across North America, Europe and Asia. We find that the effects of warming are contingent on the size of the initial soil carbon stock, with considerable losses occurring in high-latitude areas. By extrapolating this empirical relationship to the global scale, we provide estimates of soil carbon sensitivity to warming that may help to constrain Earth system model projections. Our empirical relationship suggests that global soil carbon stocks in the upper soil horizons will fall by 30 ± 30 petagrams of carbon to 203 ± 161 petagrams of carbon under one degree of warming, depending on the rate at which the effects of warming are realized. Under the conservative assumption that the response of soil carbon to warming occurs within a year, a business-as-usual climate scenario would drive the loss of 55 ± 50 petagrams of carbon from the upper soil horizons by 2050. This value is around 12-17 per cent of the expected anthropogenic emissions over this period. Despite the considerable uncertainty in our estimates, the direction of the global soil carbon response is consistent across all scenarios. This provides strong empirical support for the idea that rising temperatures will stimulate the net loss of soil carbon to the atmosphere, driving a positive land carbon-climate feedback that could accelerate climate change.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of first aid and factors associated ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Globally, there are small proportions of drivers with first aid skills and even those trained do not practice it well. In Africa, the proportions of drivers with first aid skills were found to be much smaller. Evidences show that widespread first-aid training is important for successful pre-hospital care when accident ...

Dermatology and HIV/AIDS in Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jenny Hu

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Human immunodeficiency virus and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS have greatly complicated dermatologic disease and the required care in most regions of Africa. Opportunistic infections, ectoparasites, Kaposi sarcoma, and skin manifestations of systemic infections are exceedingly common in patients with HIV/AIDS. Dermatologists have contributed significantly to our knowledge base about HIV/AIDS and have played an important educational role regarding the clinical manifestations historically. Because of the increased burden of skin disease in Africa due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic we must redouble our efforts to provide dermatology education to care providers in Africa. We review the burden of skin disease in Africa, how it relates to HIV/AIDS and global infectious disease, current educational strategies in Africa to address this need, and suggest potential solutions to move these efforts forward.

Global Scale Periodic Responses in Saturn’s Magnetosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Xianzhe; Kivelson, Margaret G.

2017-10-01

Despite having an axisymmetric internal magnetic field, Saturn’s magnetosphere exhibits periodic modulations in a variety of properties at periods close to the planetary rotation period. While the source of the periodicity remains unidentified, it is evident from Cassini observations that much of Saturn’s magnetospheric structure and dynamics is dominated by global-scale responses to the driving source of the periodicity. We have developed a global MHD model in which a rotating field-aligned current system is introduced by imposing vortical flows in the high-latitude ionosphere in order to simulate the magnetospheric periodicities. The model has been utilized to quantitatively characterize various periodic responses in the magnetosphere, such as the displacement of the magnetopause and bow shock and flapping of the tail plasma sheet, all of which show quantitative agreement with Cassini observations. One of our model predictions is periodic release of plasmoids in the tail that occurs preferentially in the midnight-to-dawn local time sector during each rotation cycle. Here we present detailed analysis of the periodic responses seen in our simulations focusing on the properties of plasmoids predicted by the model, including their spatial distribution, occurrence frequency, and mass loss rate. We will compare these modeled parameters with published Cassini observations, and discuss their implications for interpreting in-situ measurements.

The role of the Technical Review Panel of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: an analysis of grant recommendations.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmidt-Traub, Guido

2018-04-01

The independent Technical Review Panel (TRP) of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is a unique mechanism to review funding proposals and to provide recommendations on their funding. Its functioning and performance have received little attention in the scientific literature. We aimed to identify predictors for TRP recommendations, whether these were in line with the Global Fund's ambition to give priority to countries most in need, and whether they correlated with grant performance. We combined data on proposals and applications under the Rolling Continuation Channel, TRP recommendations and grant implementation during the rounds-based mechanism (2002-2010) with country characteristics. Ordered logistic and OLS regressions were used to identify predictors for per-capita funding requests, TRP recommendations, Global Fund funding and grant performance ratings. We tested for financial suppression of large funding proposals and whether fragile or English-speaking countries performed differently from other countries. We found that funding requests and TRP recommendations were consistent with disease burden, but independent of other country characteristics. Countries with larger populations requested less funding per capita, but there is no evidence of financial suppression by the TRP. Proposals from fragile countries were as likely to be recommended as proposals from other countries, and resulting grants performed equally well except for lower performance of HIV/AIDS grants. English-speaking countries obtained more funding for TB and malaria than other countries. In conclusion, the independent TRP acted in line with the guiding principles of the Global Fund to direct funding to countries most in need without ex ante country allocation. The Global Fund appears to have promoted learning on how to design and implement large-scale programs in fragile and non-fragile countries. Other pooled financing mechanisms may consider TRP operating principles to

Soil bacterial community responses to global changes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bergmark, Lasse

competing and very contrasting plant types (Calluna and Deschampsia) dominated the vegetation. This led to Manuscript 3 where the impact and responses of the climate change manipulations on the microbial community composition was investigated under the contrasting vegetation types. Our results show a high......Soil bacteria and archaea are essential for ecosystem functioning and plant growth through their degradation of organic matter and turnover of nutrients. But since the majority of soil bacteria and archaea are unclassified and “nonculturable” the functionality of the microbial community and its...... overall importance for ecosystem function in soil is poorly understood. Global change factors may affect the diversity and functioning of soil prokaryotes and thereby ecosystem functioning. To gain a better understanding of the effects of global changes it is of fundamental importance to classify...

Load and Global Response of Ships

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Jørgen Juncher

The present monograph covers wave load and global structural response for ships. It is primary written as a textbook for students with an introductionary background in naval architecture and a basic knowledge of statistics and strength of materials. The subjects are treated in details starting from...... first principles. The aim has been to derive and present the necessary theoretical framework for predicting the extreme loads and the corresponding hull girder stresses the ship may be subjected to during its operational lifetime.Although some account is given to reliabiity analysis, the present...

[Analysis on funds application of community based organizations involved in HIV/AIDS response and government financial investment in China, 2014].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, G; Zhu, Y X; Wang, P; Liu, P; Li, J F; Sha, S; Yang, W Z; Li, H

2017-03-06

Objective: To understand the government financial investments to community based organizations (CBO) involved in HIV/AIDS Control and Prevention of China and its influencing factors. Methods: Questionnaire of the situation of CBO involved in HIV/AIDS control and prevention were designed, and filled by the staff of Provincial Health Administrative Departments of 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). The research focused on the fields of CBO involved in HIV/AIDS response in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), including intervention on HIV/AIDS high risk population (female sex worker (FSW), man who sex with man (MSM), drug user (DU) and case management and care for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH)). 29 valid questionnaires were collecting, with Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regions not filled. Questionnaire included financial supports from local governments, transfer payment from central government for CBO involved in HIV/AIDS response in 2014, and unit cost for CBO involved in HIV/AIDS control and prevention. Multivariate analysis was conducted on the project application and financial investment of community based organizations involved in HIV/AIDS control and prevention in 2014. Results: The total amount of CBO to apply for participation in AIDS prevention and control was 64 482 828 Yuan in 2014. The actual total amount of investment was 50 616 367 Yuan, The investment came from the central government funding, the provincial level government funding, the prefecture and county level government funding investment and other sources of funding. 22 of 28 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) received the funds from the central government finance, and median of investment funds 500 000 Yuan. 15 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) gained the funds from the provincial government finance, and median of investment funds 350 000 Yuan. 12 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) got the funds

Assessing business responses to HIV / AIDS in Kenya.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, M; Wangombe, J

1995-01-01

A consulting firm conducted interviews with managers of 16 businesses in 3 Kenyan cities, representatives of 2 trade unions, focus groups with workers at 13 companies, and an analysis of financial/labor data from 4 companies. It then did a needs assessment. The business types were light industry, manufacturing companies, tourism organizations, transport firms, agro-industrial and plantation businesses, and the service industry. Only one company followed all the workplace policy principles recommended by the World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization. Six businesses required all applicants and/or employees to undergo HIV testing. All their managers claimed that they would not discriminate against HIV-infected workers. Many workers thought that they would be fired if they were--or were suspected to be--HIV positive. Lack of a non-discrimination policy brings about worker mistrust of management. 11 companies had some type of HIV/AIDS education program. All the programs generated positive feedback. The main reasons for not providing HIV/AIDS education for the remaining 5 companies were: no employee requests, fears that it would be taboo, and assumptions that workers could receive adequate information elsewhere. More than 90% of all companies distributed condoms. 60% offered sexually transmitted disease diagnosis and treatment. About 33% offered counseling. Four companies provided volunteer HIV testing. Almost 50% of companies received financial or other external support for their programs. Most managers thought AIDS to be a problem mainly with manual staff and not with professional staff. Almost all businesses offered some medical benefits. The future impact of HIV/AIDS would be $90/employee/year (by 2005, $260) due to health care costs, absenteeism, retraining, and burial benefits. The annual costs of a comprehensive workplace HIV/AIDS prevention program varied from $18 to $54/worker at one company.

Types of HIV/AIDS Antiretroviral Drugs

Science.gov (United States)

... Relations Cyber Infrastructure Computational Biology Equal Employment Opportunity Ethics Global Research Office of Mission Integration and Financial Management Strategic Planning Workforce Effectiveness Workplace Solutions Technology Transfer Intellectual Property Division of AIDS ...

AIDS prevention and college students: male and female responses to "fear-provoking" messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, K; LaTour, M S

1991-01-01

This study was designed to examine the effects of fear appeals in AIDS prevention messages and to determine whether or not males and females differ in their response to these appeals. MANOVA results from a sample of 179 junior and senior business students at a mid-Atlantic urban university indicate that significant differences in message effects were associated with type of appeal, gender of the respondent, and the interaction between appeal and gender.

Women and AIDS: introduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Krieger, N; Margo, G

1991-01-01

Around the world, more and more women--principally poor women of color--are being diagnosed with and are dying of AIDS, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Yet, effective and appropriate prevention programs for women are sorely missing from the global program to control AIDS. To help us understand why this gap exists, and what we must do to close it, the three articles in this issue focus on women and AIDS. Examining the situation in such countries as Zimbabwe and South Africa, as well as in other economically underdeveloped and developed regions, the authors argue that women with the least control over their bodies and their lives are at greatest risk of acquiring AIDS. For example, the high rate of infection among women in Africa cannot be understood apart from the legacy of colonialism (including land expropriation and the forced introduction of a migrant labor system) and the insidious combination of traditional and European patriarchal values. Only by recognizing the socioeconomic and cultural determinants of both disease and sexual behavior, and only by incorporating these insights into our AIDS prevention programs, will we be able to curb the spread of this lethal disease.

The Water Footprint of Food Aid

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicole Jackson

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Food aid is a critical component of the global food system, particularly when emergency situations arise. For the first time, we evaluate the water footprint of food aid. To do this, we draw on food aid data from theWorld Food Programme and virtual water content estimates from WaterStat. We find that the total water footprint of food aid was 10 km3 in 2005, which represents approximately 0.5% of the water footprint of food trade and 2.0% of the water footprint of land grabbing (i.e., water appropriation associated with large agricultural land deals. The United States is by far the largest food aid donor and contributes 82% of the water footprint of food aid. The countries that receive the most water embodied in aid are Ethiopia, Sudan, North Korea, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Notably, we find that there is significant overlap between countries that receive food aid and those that have their land grabbed. Multivariate regression results indicate that donor water footprints are driven by political and environmental variables, whereas recipient water footprints are driven by land grabbing and food indicators.

Generating Global Brand Equity through Corporate Social Responsibility to Key Stakeholders

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Torres Lacomba, Anna; Atribo, Jo; Bijmolt, Tammo H.A.

2010-01-01

In this paper we argue that socially responsible policies have positive short-term and long-term impact on equity of global brands. We find that corporate social responsibility towards all stakeholders, whether primary (customers, shareholders, employees and suppliers) or secondary (community), have

Global health and foreign policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Feldbaum, Harley; Lee, Kelley; Michaud, Joshua

2010-01-01

Health has long been intertwined with the foreign policies of states. In recent years, however, global health issues have risen to the highest levels of international politics and have become accepted as legitimate issues in foreign policy. This elevated political priority is in many ways a welcome development for proponents of global health, and it has resulted in increased funding for and attention to select global health issues. However, there has been less examination of the tensions that characterize the relationship between global health and foreign policy and of the potential effects of linking global health efforts with the foreign-policy interests of states. In this paper, the authors review the relationship between global health and foreign policy by examining the roles of health across 4 major components of foreign policy: aid, trade, diplomacy, and national security. For each of these aspects of foreign policy, the authors review current and historical issues and discuss how foreign-policy interests have aided or impeded global health efforts. The increasing relevance of global health to foreign policy holds both opportunities and dangers for global efforts to improve health.

Global Health and Foreign Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Feldbaum, Harley; Lee, Kelley; Michaud, Joshua

2010-01-01

Health has long been intertwined with the foreign policies of states. In recent years, however, global health issues have risen to the highest levels of international politics and have become accepted as legitimate issues in foreign policy. This elevated political priority is in many ways a welcome development for proponents of global health, and it has resulted in increased funding for and attention to select global health issues. However, there has been less examination of the tensions that characterize the relationship between global health and foreign policy and of the potential effects of linking global health efforts with the foreign-policy interests of states. In this paper, the authors review the relationship between global health and foreign policy by examining the roles of health across 4 major components of foreign policy: aid, trade, diplomacy, and national security. For each of these aspects of foreign policy, the authors review current and historical issues and discuss how foreign-policy interests have aided or impeded global health efforts. The increasing relevance of global health to foreign policy holds both opportunities and dangers for global efforts to improve health. PMID:20423936

Wits University's response to HIV/AIDS: flagship programme or ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

HIV/AIDS is a threat to the creation of human capital and development prospects in southern Africa and South Africa. The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) is a well-regarded institution of higher education in Johannesburg. This paper outlines the university's qualified failure to implement its HIV/AIDS Policy through a ...

Responses of Seasonal Precipitation Intensity to Global Warming

Science.gov (United States)

Lan, Chia-Wei; Lo, Min-Hui; Chou, Chia

2016-04-01

Under global warming, the water vapor increases with rising temperature at the rate of 7%/K. Most previous studies focus on the spatial differences of precipitation and suggest that wet regions become wetter and dry regions become drier. Our recent studies show a temporal disparity of global precipitation, which the wet season becomes wetter and dry season becomes drier; therefore, the annual range increases. However, such changes in the annual range are not homogeneous globally, and in fact, the drier trend over the ocean is much larger than that over the land, where the dry season does not become drier. Such precipitation change over land is likely because of decreased omega at 500hPa (more upward motion) in the reanalysis datasets from 1980 to 2013. The trends of vertical velocity and moist static energy profile over the increased precipitation regions become more unstable. The instability is most likely attributed to the change in specific humility below 400hPa. Further, we will use Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) archives to investigate whether the precipitation responses in dry season are different between the ocean and land under global warming.

Determining a cost effective intervention response to HIV/AIDS in Peru

Science.gov (United States)

Aldridge, Robert W; Iglesias, David; Cáceres, Carlos F; Miranda, J Jaime

2009-01-01

Background The HIV epidemic in Peru is still regarded as concentrated - sentinel surveillance data shows greatest rates of infection in men who have sex with men, while much lower rates are found in female sex workers and still lower in the general population. Without an appropriate set of preventive interventions, continuing infections could present a challenge to the sustainability of the present programme of universal access to treatment. Determining how specific prevention and care strategies would impact on the health of Peruvians should be key in reshaping the national response. Methods HIV/AIDS prevalence levels for risk groups with sufficient sentinel survey data were estimated. Unit costs were calculated for a series of interventions against HIV/AIDS which were subsequently inputted into a model to assess their ability to reduce infection transmission rates. Interventions included: mass media, voluntary counselling and testing; peer counselling for female sex workers; peer counselling for men who have sex with men; peer education of youth in-school; condom provision; STI treatment; prevention of mother to child transmission; and highly active antiretroviral therapy. Impact was assessed by the ability to reduce rates of transmission and quantified in terms of cost per DALY averted. Results Results of the analysis show that in Peru, the highest levels of HIV prevalence are found in men who have sex with men. Cost effectiveness varied greatly between interventions ranging from peer education of female commercial sex workers at $US 55 up to $US 5,928 (per DALY averted) for prevention of mother to child transmission. Conclusion The results of this work add evidence-based clarity as to which interventions warrant greatest consideration when planning an intervention response to HIV in Peru. Cost effectiveness analysis provides a necessary element of transparency when facing choices about priority setting, particularly when the country plans to amplify its

Determining a cost effective intervention response to HIV/AIDS in Peru

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cáceres Carlos F

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The HIV epidemic in Peru is still regarded as concentrated - sentinel surveillance data shows greatest rates of infection in men who have sex with men, while much lower rates are found in female sex workers and still lower in the general population. Without an appropriate set of preventive interventions, continuing infections could present a challenge to the sustainability of the present programme of universal access to treatment. Determining how specific prevention and care strategies would impact on the health of Peruvians should be key in reshaping the national response. Methods HIV/AIDS prevalence levels for risk groups with sufficient sentinel survey data were estimated. Unit costs were calculated for a series of interventions against HIV/AIDS which were subsequently inputted into a model to assess their ability to reduce infection transmission rates. Interventions included: mass media, voluntary counselling and testing; peer counselling for female sex workers; peer counselling for men who have sex with men; peer education of youth in-school; condom provision; STI treatment; prevention of mother to child transmission; and highly active antiretroviral therapy. Impact was assessed by the ability to reduce rates of transmission and quantified in terms of cost per DALY averted. Results Results of the analysis show that in Peru, the highest levels of HIV prevalence are found in men who have sex with men. Cost effectiveness varied greatly between interventions ranging from peer education of female commercial sex workers at $US 55 up to $US 5,928 (per DALY averted for prevention of mother to child transmission. Conclusion The results of this work add evidence-based clarity as to which interventions warrant greatest consideration when planning an intervention response to HIV in Peru. Cost effectiveness analysis provides a necessary element of transparency when facing choices about priority setting, particularly when the country

Local and global responses in complex gene regulation networks

Science.gov (United States)

Tsuchiya, Masa; Selvarajoo, Kumar; Piras, Vincent; Tomita, Masaru; Giuliani, Alessandro

2009-04-01

An exacerbated sensitivity to apparently minor stimuli and a general resilience of the entire system stay together side-by-side in biological systems. This apparent paradox can be explained by the consideration of biological systems as very strongly interconnected network systems. Some nodes of these networks, thanks to their peculiar location in the network architecture, are responsible for the sensitivity aspects, while the large degree of interconnection is at the basis of the resilience properties of the system. One relevant feature of the high degree of connectivity of gene regulation networks is the emergence of collective ordered phenomena influencing the entire genome and not only a specific portion of transcripts. The great majority of existing gene regulation models give the impression of purely local ‘hard-wired’ mechanisms disregarding the emergence of global ordered behavior encompassing thousands of genes while the general, genome wide, aspects are less known. Here we address, on a data analysis perspective, the discrimination between local and global scale regulations, this goal was achieved by means of the examination of two biological systems: innate immune response in macrophages and oscillating growth dynamics in yeast. Our aim was to reconcile the ‘hard-wired’ local view of gene regulation with a global continuous and scalable one borrowed from statistical physics. This reconciliation is based on the network paradigm in which the local ‘hard-wired’ activities correspond to the activation of specific crucial nodes in the regulation network, while the scalable continuous responses can be equated to the collective oscillations of the network after a perturbation.

Managing global responsibility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saur, K. [Five Winds International, Donzdorf (Germany)

2004-07-01

The electronics industry in particular is a global industry. Local and regional solutions require a globally applicable product design and use global value chains. Operating in increasingly integrated material and product loops offers a unique solution to not only providing markets with compatible solutions, but also offer a chance to significantly reduce the environmental footprint of the industry. Product lifespan extension in emerging economies, utilization of local market needs, utilize available and affordable labour forces and creating wealth and capacity in developing countries may serve as a way to make industry more sustainable and successful. Both the supply side and the product end of life management need to be considered in this global industry. Intelligent solution support the dematerialization and material throughput and help creating markets and build wealth. Critical success factors include knowledge management, capacity building, developing infrastructure. This paper presents a discussion on a solutions oriented approach towards product life cycle management and stewardship combined with sustainable production and consumption considerations, support the industries aspirations and the UNEP Life Cycle Initiative's mission in a perfect manner. The aim of this paper is to offer approaches and develop ideas how economic viable and sustainable solutions can be developed. (orig.)

Corporate Social Responsibility in Supply Chains of Global Brands: A Boundaryless Responsibility? Clarifications, Exceptions and Implications

OpenAIRE

Amaeshi, K.; Nnodim, P.; Osuji, O.

2008-01-01

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly becoming a popular business concept in developed economies. As typical of other business concepts, it is on its way to globalization through practices and structures of the globalized capitalist world order, typified in Multinational Corporations (MNCs). However, CSR often sits uncomfortably in this capitalist world order, as MNCs are often challenged by the global reach of their supply chains and the possible irresponsible practices inher...

Trends and EIE higher education response to the current global technical challenges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poboroniuc, Marian; Livint, Gheorghe; Friesel, Anna

2014-01-01

Education Institutions (SALEIE), an EU supported project, gathers together a global team aiming to provide higher education models in the EIE disciplines that can respond to the key global technical challenges. This paper deals with findings within the SALEIE project's work package WP3 (Global Challenges......), namely: state-of-the-art in implementation of the Bologna recommendation for Bachelor and Master, technical challenges that the EIE higher education faces nowadays, and existing models in EIE higher education and their degree of response to key global technical challenges....

Attitude of Lesotho health care workers towards HIV/AIDS and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

EB

Background: The impact and management of HIV/AIDS in Lesotho in the context of disaster management was investigated. Objectives: ... Key words: Disaster management, HIV/AIDS, Lesotho, population, health care workers ..... Food and Agricultural Organisation: Lesotho ... a global review of disaster reduction initiatives.

Developing Global Building Exposure for Disaster Forecasting, Mitigation, and Response

Science.gov (United States)

Huyck, C. K.

2016-12-01

Nongovernmental organizations and governments are recognizing the importance of insurance penetration in developing countries to mitigate the tremendous setbacks that follow natural disasters., but to effectively manage risk stakeholders must accurately quantify the built environment. Although there are countless datasets addressing elements of buildings, there are surprisingly few that are directly applicable to assessing vulnerability to natural disasters without skewing the spatial distribution of risk towards known assets. Working with NASA center partners Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University in New York (http://www.ciesin.org), ImageCat have developed a novel method of developing Global Exposure Data (GED) from EO sources. The method has been applied to develop exposure datasets for GFDRR, CAT modelers, and aid in post-earthquake allocation of resources for UNICEF.

Diplomatic advantages and threats in global health program selection, design, delivery and implementation: development and application of the Kevany Riposte.

Science.gov (United States)

Kevany, Sebastian

2015-05-27

Global health programs, as supported by organizations such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), stand to make significant contributions to international medical outcomes. Traditional systems of monitoring and evaluation, however, fail to capture downstream, indirect, or collateral advantages (and threats) of intervention selection, design, and implementation from broader donor perspectives, including those of the diplomatic and foreign policy communities, which these programs also generate. This paper describes the development a new métier under which assessment systems designed to consider the diplomatic value of global health initiatives are described and applied based on previously-identified "Top Ten" criteria. The "Kevany Riposte" and the "K-Score" were conceptualized based on a retrospective and collective assessment of the author's participation in the design, implementation and delivery of a range of global health interventions related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Responses and associated scores reframe intervention worth or value in terms of global health diplomacy criteria such as "adaptability", "interdependence", "training," and "neutrality". Response options ranged from "highly advantageous" to "significant potential threat". Global health initiatives under review were found to generate significant advantages from the diplomatic perspective. These included (1) intervention visibility and associations with donor altruism and prestige, (2) development of international non-health collaborations and partnerships, (3) adaptability and responsiveness of service delivery to local needs, and (4) advancement of broader strategic goals of the international community. Corresponding threats included (1) an absence of formal training of project staff on broader political and international relations roles and responsibilities, (2) challenges to recipient cultural and religious practices

Aid, Social Policy, and Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Addison, Tony; Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel; Tarp, Finn

2015-01-01

Development Goals (MDGs) and will continue under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which have even more ambitious targets. The paper also assesses some of the concerns associated with the ‘Paris-style’ aid modalities, and discusses major challenges for the future global development agenda....

Traditional Healing, Biomedicine and the Treatment of HIV/AIDS: Contrasting South African and Native American Experiences

Science.gov (United States)

Flint, Adrian

2015-01-01

Traditional healing remains an important aspect of many people’s engagement with healthcare and, in this, responses to the treatment of HIV/AIDS are no different. However, given the gravity of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, there has been much debate as to the value of traditional healing in this respect. Accordingly, this paper explores the extent to which meaningful accommodation between the biomedical and traditional sectors is possible (and/or even desirable). It does this through a consideration of Native American and South African experiences, looking at how the respective groups, in which medical pluralism is common, have addressed the issue of HIV/AIDS. The paper points to the importance of developing “culturally appropriate” forms of treatment that emphasise complementary rather than adversarial engagement between the traditional and biomedical systems and how policymakers can best facilitate this. PMID:25903057

Traditional Healing, Biomedicine and the Treatment of HIV/AIDS: Contrasting South African and Native American Experiences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian Flint

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Traditional healing remains an important aspect of many people’s engagement with healthcare and, in this, responses to the treatment of HIV/AIDS are no different. However, given the gravity of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, there has been much debate as to the value of traditional healing in this respect. Accordingly, this paper explores the extent to which meaningful accommodation between the biomedical and traditional sectors is possible (and/or even desirable. It does this through a consideration of Native American and South African experiences, looking at how the respective groups, in which medical pluralism is common, have addressed the issue of HIV/AIDS. The paper points to the importance of developing “culturally appropriate” forms of treatment that emphasise complementary rather than adversarial engagement between the traditional and biomedical systems and how policymakers can best facilitate this.

International institutions, global health initiatives and the challenge of sustainability: lessons from the Brazilian AIDS programme.

Science.gov (United States)

Le Loup, G; Fleury, S; Camargo, K; Larouzé, B

2010-01-01

The sustainability of successful public health programmes remains a challenge in low and middle income settings. These programmes are often subjected to mobilization-demobilization cycle. Indeed, political and organizational factors are of major importance to ensure this sustainability. The cooperation between the World Bank and the Brazilian AIDS programme highlights the role of international institutions and global health initiatives (GHI), not only to scale up programmes but also to guarantee their stability and sustainability, at a time when advocacy is diminishing and vertical programmes are integrated within health systems. This role is critical at the local level, particularly when economic crisis may hamper the future of public health programmes. Political and organizational evolution should be monitored and warnings should trigger interventions of GHI before the decline of these programmes.

A AIDS de nossos dias: quem é o responsável? The AIDS of our days: who is responsible?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vilma Cardoso Regato

2004-04-01

Full Text Available Investiga-se a problemática da AIDS, com apoio na teoria das perspectivas divergentes (Jones & Nisbett, 1972 e na crença no mundo justo (Lerner, 1975. Pretende-se demonstrar que a interpretação desse evento vitimador pode variar ao se considerar a pessoa infectada (o ator, que adota causas externas ou o médico (o observador, que usa causas internas ao ator; que atores e observadores diferem quanto à crença no mundo justo; e que as respostas de combate à doença dependem da atribuição feita pelos pacientes. Participaram da pesquisa 191 portadores de HIV/AIDS e 200 médicos, que responderam ao questionário de atribuição de causalidade e à escala de crença no mundo justo. Os resultados evidenciaram diferenças nas atribuições de atores e observadores nas direções preconizadas e o importante papel mediador da atividade atributiva no enfrentamento do infortúnio. Discute-se a utilidade dos achados para a prática dos profissionais de saúde que lidam com os soropositivos.The problem of AIDS is investigated with the support on the theory of divergent perspectives (Jones & Nisbett, 1972 and the belief in a just world (Lerner, 1975. It is intended to demonstrate that the interpretation of this victimizing event may vary when considering the infected person (the actor, who adopts outside causes or the doctor (the observer, who uses internal causes to the actor; that actors and observers differ as to the belief in a just world; and that the coping responses to the disease depend on the attribution made by the patients. 191 HIV/AIDS patients and 200 doctors participated in the research, answering the questionnaire on causal attribution and the belief in a just world scale. The results put in evidence differences in the attribution of actors and observers in the expected directions and the important mediating role of the attributive activity in facing the affliction. The usefulness of these findings to a better understanding of the

Scaling up towards international targets for AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria: contribution of global fund-supported programs in 2011-2015.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Itamar Katz

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: The paper projects the contribution to 2011-2015 international targets of three major pandemics by programs in 140 countries funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the largest external financier of tuberculosis and malaria programs and a major external funder of HIV programs in low and middle income countries. DESIGN: Estimates, using past trends, for the period 2011-2015 of the number of persons receiving antiretroviral (ARV treatment, tuberculosis case detection using the internationally approved DOTS strategy, and insecticide-treated nets (ITNs to be delivered by programs in low and middle income countries supported by the Global Fund compared to international targets established by UNAIDS, Stop TB Partnership, Roll Back Malaria Partnership and the World Health Organisation. RESULTS: Global Fund-supported programs are projected to provide ARV treatment to 5.5-5.8 million people, providing 30%-31% of the 2015 international target. Investments in tuberculosis and malaria control will enable reaching in 2015 60%-63% of the international target for tuberculosis case detection and 30%-35% of the ITN distribution target in sub-Saharan Africa. CONCLUSION: Global Fund investments will substantially contribute to the achievement by 2015 of international targets for HIV, TB and malaria. However, additional large scale international and domestic financing is needed if these targets are to be reached by 2015.

THE CHANGING FACE OF FOOD AID | Oshaug | African Journal of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Issues discussed are for example food aid in relation to human insecurity and humanitarian crisis, poverty, need for institutional reform, World Trade Organization (WTO) and mounting globalization, World Food Program, Food Aid Convention, humanitarian law, human rights and codes of conduct with emphasis on ...

A Conceptual Framework for Responsive Global Engagement in Communication Sciences and Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

Hyter, Yvette D.

2014-01-01

The field of speech-language pathology needs a conceptual framework to guide the provision of services in a globalized world. Proposed in this article is a conceptual framework designed to facilitate responsive global engagement for professionals such as speech-language pathologists, who are increasingly serving diverse populations around the…

El Nino/Southern Oscillation response to global warming.

Science.gov (United States)

Latif, M; Keenlyside, N S

2009-12-08

The El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, originating in the Tropical Pacific, is the strongest natural interannual climate signal and has widespread effects on the global climate system and the ecology of the Tropical Pacific. Any strong change in ENSO statistics will therefore have serious climatic and ecological consequences. Most global climate models do simulate ENSO, although large biases exist with respect to its characteristics. The ENSO response to global warming differs strongly from model to model and is thus highly uncertain. Some models simulate an increase in ENSO amplitude, others a decrease, and others virtually no change. Extremely strong changes constituting tipping point behavior are not simulated by any of the models. Nevertheless, some interesting changes in ENSO dynamics can be inferred from observations and model integrations. Although no tipping point behavior is envisaged in the physical climate system, smooth transitions in it may give rise to tipping point behavior in the biological, chemical, and even socioeconomic systems. For example, the simulated weakening of the Pacific zonal sea surface temperature gradient in the Hadley Centre model (with dynamic vegetation included) caused rapid Amazon forest die-back in the mid-twenty-first century, which in turn drove a nonlinear increase in atmospheric CO(2), accelerating global warming.

Earth Science Data and Models for Improved Targeting of Humanitarian Aid

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Molly E.

2011-01-01

Humanitarian assistance to developing countries has long focused on countries that have political, economic and strategic interest to the United States. Recent changes in global security concerns have heightened the perception that humanitarian action is becoming increasingly politicized. This is seen to be largely driven by the 'global war on terror' along with a push by donors and the United Nations for closer integration between humanitarian action and diplomatic, military and other spheres of engagement in conflict and crisis-affected states (HPG 2010). As we enter an era of rising commodity prices and increasing uncertainty in global food production due to a changing climate, scientific data and analysis will be increasingly important to improve the targeting of humanitarian assistance. Earth science data enables appropriate humanitarian response to complex food emergencies that arise in regions outside the areas of current strategic and security focus. As the climate changes, new places will become vulnerable to food insecurity and will need emergency assistance. Earth science data and multidisciplinary models will enable an information-based comparison of need that goes beyond strategic and political considerations to identify new hotspots of food insecurity as they emerge. These analyses will improve aid targeting and timeliness while reducing strategic risk by highlighting new regions at risk of crisis in a rapidly changing world. Improved targeting with respect to timing and location could reduce cost while increasing the likelihood that those who need aid get it.

A Robust Response of Precipitation to Global Warming from CMIP5 Models

Science.gov (United States)

Lau, K. -M.; Wu, H. -T.; Kim, K. -M.

2012-01-01

How precipitation responds to global warming is a major concern to society and a challenge to climate change research. Based on analyses of rainfall probability distribution functions of 14 state-of-the-art climate models, we find a robust, canonical global rainfall response to a triple CO2 warming scenario, featuring 100 250% more heavy rain, 5-10% less moderate rain, and 10-15% more very light or no-rain events. Regionally, a majority of the models project a consistent response with more heavy rain events over climatologically wet regions of the deep tropics, and more dry events over subtropical and tropical land areas. Results suggest that increased CO2 emissions induce basic structural changes in global rain systems, increasing risks of severe floods and droughts in preferred geographic locations worldwide.

Monitoring HIV-Related Laws and Policies: Lessons for AIDS and Global Health in Agenda 2030.

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Torres, Mary Ann; Gruskin, Sofia; Buse, Kent; Erkkola, Taavi; Bendaud, Victoria; Alfvén, Tobias

2017-07-01

The National Commitments and Policy Instrument (NCPI) has been used to monitor AIDS-related laws and policies for over 10 years. What can be learnt from this process? Analyses draw on NCPI questionnaires, NCPI responses, the UNAIDS Law Database, survey data and responses to a 2014 survey on the NCPI. The NCPI provides the first and only systematic data on country self-reported national HIV laws and policies. High NCPI reporting rates and survey responses suggest the majority of countries consider the process relevant. Combined civil society and government engagement and reporting is integral to the NCPI. NCPI experience demonstrates its importance in describing the political and legal environment for the HIV response, for programmatic reviews and to stimulate dialogue among stakeholders, but there is a need for updating and in some instances to complement results with more objective quantitative data. We identify five areas that need to be updated in the next iteration of the NCPI and argue that the NCPI approach is relevant to participatory monitoring of targets in the health and other goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

USAID steps up anti-AIDS program.

Science.gov (United States)

1991-01-01

This article considers the epidemic proportion of AIDS in developing countries, and discusses the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) reworked and intensified strategy for HIV infection and AIDS prevention and control over the next 5 years. Developing and launching over 650 HIV and AIDS activities in 74 developing countries since 1986, USAID is the world's largest supporter of anti-AIDS programs. Over $91 million in bilateral assistance for HIV and AIDS prevention and control have been committed. USAID has also been the largest supporter of the World Health Organization's Global Program on AIDS since 1986. Interventions have included training peer educators, working to change the norms of sex behavior, and condom promotion. Recognizing that the developing world will increasingly account for an ever larger share of the world's HIV-infected population, USAID announced an intensified program of estimated investment increasing to approximately $400 million over a 5-year period. Strategy include funding for long-term, intensive interventions in 10-15 priority countries, emphasizing the treatment of other sexually transmitted diseases which facilitate the spread of HIV, making AIDS-related policy dialogue an explicit component of the Agency's AIDS program, and augmenting funding to community-based programs aimed at reducing high-risk sexual behaviors. The effect of AIDS upon child survival, adult mortality, urban populations, and socioeconomic development in developing countries is discussed. Program examples are also presented.

Brazil's fight against AIDS and its implications for global health governance.

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Wogart, J P; Calcagnotto, G

2006-01-01

The paper traces Brazil's efforts to fight AIDS in the last 20 years. The analysis concentrates on the efforts to combat and prevent the deadly infectious disease through ingenious efforts of private citizens, government agencies, national and international NGOs, which challenged multinational companies, international organizations and foreign governments. While the investigation led to a positive evaluation of the joint efforts in managing the threat, it is made clear that the fight against the HIV/AIDS virus is far from over in Brazil and will have to be strengthened on the local, national and international level.

Global Earth Response to Loading by Ocean Tide Models

Science.gov (United States)

Estes, R. H.; Strayer, J. M.

1979-01-01

Mathematical and programming techniques to numerically calculate Earth response to global semidiurnal and diurnal ocean tide models were developed. Global vertical crustal deformations were evaluated for M sub 2, S sub 2, N sub 2, K sub 2, K sub 1, O sub 1, and P sub 1 ocean tide loading, while horizontal deformations were evaluated for the M sub 2 tidal load. Tidal gravity calculations were performed for M sub 2 tidal loads, and strain tensor elements were evaluated for M sub 2 loads. The M sub 2 solution used for the ocean tide included the effects of self-gravitation and crustal loading.

Political Parties and Social Policy Responses to Global Economic Crises

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Starke, Peter; Kaasch, Alexandra; van Hooren, Franca

2014-01-01

Based on empirical findings froma comparative study onwelfare state responses to the four major economic shocks (the 1970s oil shocks, the early 1990s recession, the 2008 financial crisis) in four OECD countries, this article demonstrates that, in contrast to conventional wisdom, policy responses...... to global economic crises vary significantly across countries. What explains the cross-national and within-case variation in responses to crises?We discuss several potential causes of this pattern and argue that political parties and the party composition of governments can play a key role in shaping crisis...

What does sustainability mean in the HIV and AIDS response ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Immense progress has been made in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Achieving and exceeding the AIDS targets for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was accomplished, in large part, due to an unprecedented financial investment from the international community. Following an $800 million dip in donor ...

Social responsibility and global health: lessons from the Rio Olympics Zika controversy.

Science.gov (United States)

Hellmann, Fernando; Rohde, Luzilena de Souza Prudêncio; Verdi, Marta; Garrafa, Volnei; Manchola-Castillo, Camilo

2018-03-30

The outbreak of Zika virus infection in the Americas and its possible association with microcephaly raised several concerns among global health authorities regarding the organisation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games scheduled for August and September 2016, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It generated an international controversy over the continuation of the Games with debates on the ethical principle of social responsibility. Based on the principles of social responsibility and health in the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights, the present comment ponders on the application of such principles in the context of mega-events and global health.

Assessing the impact of homelessness on HIV/AIDS transmission dynamics

OpenAIRE

C.P. Bhunu

2015-01-01

Care for the people living with HIV/AIDS is more than the provision of antiretroviral therapy. The effects of homelessness on HIV/AIDS transmission are captured through a mathematical model. The mathematical model is rigorously analyzed. The disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable when the reproduction number is less than unity. Results from the analysis of the reproduction number suggests that homelessness enhances both HIV transmission and progression to the AIDS stage. T...

Kansas Nursing Home Medication Aide Curriculum. Revised.

Science.gov (United States)

Bartel, Myrna J.; Fornelli, Linda K.

This curriculum guide is designed to aid Kansas instructors in conducting a course for teaching nursing home medication aides. Covered first are various introductory topics such as the role and responsibilities of medication aides, pharmacodynamics, forms in which medication is now available, common medical abbreviations, mathematics and weights…

Études par pays dans le cadre du HIV/AIDS Monitor | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Le HIV/AIDS Monitor a pour objectif d'accroître l'efficacité de trois grandes initiatives, à savoir celles du Fonds mondial de lutte contre le sida, la tuberculose et le paludisme, du President's Emergency Plan for Aids et de la Banque mondiale. Sous la ... Overview of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

HIV / AIDS in China: migrant population, drug injection responsible for increased transmission.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, J

1998-01-01

By 2000, China will have 1.2 million people infected with HIV and 33,000 people with AIDS. While HIV infection has been reported from almost all provinces and occupational groups in the country, HIV prevalence is highest among IV drug users in Yunnan province. The major source of infection elsewhere in China is through the receipt of tainted blood products and heterosexual intercourse. A National AIDS Committee was formed in October 1986 to advise the government on AIDS policy, and since 1990 to coordinate all AIDS prevention activities. The National Strategies Plan for AIDS/STD Prevention in China during 1996-2000 was prepared in 1995. China's in-country migrant labor population may become the most vulnerable to HIV infection. There are currently about 120 million migrant workers in China, of whom about half are registered, nonpermanent residents working in the fastest developing regions. The open nature of China's economy relative to recent past decades has made it difficult to monitor and control internal migration. Floating populations are the most difficult to reach with preventive health education and they tend to be deprived of access of health care. 61.4% of the migrant population is male and 40% are aged 20-24 years. China's traditional trade routes may be a factor in HIV infection. HIV/AIDS epidemiology, the synergy of STDs and AIDS in China, the international partnership in HIV/AIDS prevention in China, the role of international nongovernmental organizations in China, Hong Kong's contribution to AIDS prevention in China, awareness of the problems associated with HIV infection in China, and the challenges for AIDS-related work in China are discussed.

Evaluation of the British Columbia AIDS Information Line.

Science.gov (United States)

Parsons, D C; Bell, M A; Gilchrist, L D

1991-01-01

We evaluated implementation of the British Columbia AIDS Information Line during its initial 15 weeks of operation. Data collected during daily operation of the line included call frequency, caller characteristics, response patterns, caller concerns and community referrals. Information on activities and resources required to implement the AIDS Line was also assembled. The study concluded that the advertising campaign sponsored by the provincial government and other AIDS-related media events had a strong impact on the frequency of calls made to the AIDS Line. However, the effect of both advertising and media events was of relatively short duration, suggesting that utilization of an AIDS information line is dependent on continuing promotional activities. The evaluation results demonstrate the importance of continuous collection of data online utilization, to track public awareness of and response to AIDS-related issues, and to facilitate planning of public education.

Social representation of hearing aids: cross-cultural study in India, Iran, Portugal, and the United Kingdom

Science.gov (United States)

Manchaiah, Vinaya; Danermark, Berth; Vinay; Ahmadi, Tayebeh; Tomé, David; Krishna, Rajalakshmi; Germundsson, Per

2015-01-01

Background The current study was aimed at understanding the social representation of hearing aids in India, Iran, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. We also compared these results to explore the cross-cultural differences and similarities among these countries. Methods The study involved a cross-sectional design, and the data were collected from four different countries using the snowball sampling method. Data were analyzed using a content analysis to identify the most-similar categories of responses reported, a co-occurrences analysis to see which of these categories are reported commonly, and a chi-square analysis to study if there was any association between positive, neutral, and negative connotations among participants in different countries. Results The current study revealed four different social representations of hearing aids from India, Iran, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, and also a global index. Conclusion The study results provide very useful insights into how hearing aids are represented in the society. These findings may have important implications for public education and also for manufacturers from the viewpoint of designing and marketing hearing aids in different countries. PMID:26504376

Cosmopolitan Species As Models for Ecophysiological Responses to Global Change: The Common Reed Phragmites australis

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Franziska Eller

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Phragmites australis is a cosmopolitan grass and often the dominant species in the ecosystems it inhabits. Due to high intraspecific diversity and phenotypic plasticity, P. australis has an extensive ecological amplitude and a great capacity to acclimate to adverse environmental conditions; it can therefore offer valuable insights into plant responses to global change. Here we review the ecology and ecophysiology of prominent P. australis lineages and their responses to multiple forms of global change. Key findings of our review are that: (1 P. australis lineages are well-adapted to regions of their phylogeographic origin and therefore respond differently to changes in climatic conditions such as temperature or atmospheric CO2; (2 each lineage consists of populations that may occur in geographically different habitats and contain multiple genotypes; (3 the phenotypic plasticity of functional and fitness-related traits of a genotype determine the responses to global change factors; (4 genotypes with high plasticity to environmental drivers may acclimate or even vastly expand their ranges, genotypes of medium plasticity must acclimate or experience range-shifts, and those with low plasticity may face local extinction; (5 responses to ancillary types of global change, like shifting levels of soil salinity, flooding, and drought, are not consistent within lineages and depend on adaptation of individual genotypes. These patterns suggest that the diverse lineages of P. australis will undergo intense selective pressure in the face of global change such that the distributions and interactions of co-occurring lineages, as well as those of genotypes within-lineages, are very likely to be altered. We propose that the strong latitudinal clines within and between P. australis lineages can be a useful tool for predicting plant responses to climate change in general and present a conceptual framework for using P. australis lineages to predict plant responses

[A Colombian institutional response to Colombian children infected with HIV/AIDS].

Science.gov (United States)

Barrios Acosta, Miguel Eduardo; Díaz Amaya, Javier Guillermo; Koller, Sílvia Helena

2013-02-01

Children with HIV/AIDS is a social issue,the approach to which transcends the health sector. The normative, political, institutional and service sector responses have specificities related to children. A proposed approach is based on the following points: health care, nutrition, education, family-socioeconomic status, psychosocial repercussions, protection, housing, stigmatization and discrimination. Based on these guidelines,a survey was conducted of an institutional responseapplying the Bioecological Model of Human Development. Life of children in the institution is described and analyzed. A group of 31 children and 30 adults participated in this ethnographic study. The institutional response concerning health, nutrition, education and basic care, is satisfactory. The main weaknesses identified were nondisclosure of the diagnosis, stigmatization and discrimination, institutionalization validation, psychoemotional repercussions and stigmatization management, and the research budget. The children acknowledge that the institution satisfies their basic-needs and disapprove of some stigmatizing and coercive practices. The reintegration of the children with their families is recommended as a future strategy based on evidence that shows it has better bio-psychosocial results and lower costs.

Communication context of Roll Back Malaria and HIV and AIDS ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

With malaria endemic and HIV and AIDS transmuting into a pandemic, the disease burden posed by the two have made them the focus of national and global attention. This necessitated a comparative scrutiny of the communication component of the Roll Back Malaria and HIV and AIDS programmes in Nigeria; and the ...

Will surface winds weaken in response to global warming?

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Jian; Foltz, Gregory R.; Soden, Brian J.; Huang, Gang; He, Jie; Dong, Changming

2016-12-01

The surface Walker and tropical tropospheric circulations have been inferred to slow down from historical observations and model projections, yet analysis of large-scale surface wind predictions is lacking. Satellite measurements of surface wind speed indicate strengthening trends averaged over the global and tropical oceans that are supported by precipitation and evaporation changes. Here we use corrected anemometer-based observations to show that the surface wind speed has not decreased in the averaged tropical oceans, despite its reduction in the region of the Walker circulation. Historical simulations and future projections for climate change also suggest a near-zero wind speed trend averaged in space, regardless of the Walker cell change. In the tropics, the sea surface temperature pattern effect acts against the large-scale circulation slow-down. For higher latitudes, the surface winds shift poleward along with the eddy-driven mid-latitude westerlies, resulting in a very small contribution to the global change in surface wind speed. Despite its importance for surface wind speed change, the influence of the SST pattern change on global-mean rainfall is insignificant since it cannot substantially alter the global energy balance. As a result, the precipitation response to global warming remains ‘muted’ relative to atmospheric moisture increase. Our results therefore show consistency between projections and observations of surface winds and precipitation.

Education about HIV/AIDS--Theoretical Underpinnings for a Practical Response

Science.gov (United States)

Miedema, Esther A. J.; Maxwell, Claire; Aggleton, Peter

2011-01-01

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)- and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related education is seen by many as central to increasing young people's awareness of, as well as decreasing their vulnerability to, HIV. There is less agreement, however, on the central goals of HIV- and AIDS-related education and the form it might best take. This…

Psychiatric interventions for AIDS-spectrum disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Perry, S W; Markowitz, J

1986-10-01

Although the medical and psychosocial problems posed by acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) are unique, interventions to treat AIDS-related psychiatric disorders are currently available. The depression, delirium, and denial that occur in medically hospitalized patients with AIDS respond to standard psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological approaches. Outpatients with AIDS or AIDS-related complex benefit from clarification, abreaction, and support if the therapist accepts the regression associated with the sick role, focuses initially on somatic rather than on psychological concerns, and overcomes unwarranted fears of contagion. Patients with AIDS-related dementia are helped considerably by early diagnosis and planning, and patients with antibodies to the AIDS virus require a psycho-educational approach that includes stress inoculation and problem-solving techniques. The authors describe the above interventions as well as common countertransference responses that impede their implementation.

Traditional healers, HIV/AIDS and company programmes in South ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Traditional healers' diverse and fluid beliefs about HIV and AIDS are ... healing practices could be promoted in workplace responses to HIV/AIDS. ... as help coordinate a wider and more effective response to the HIV epidemic in South Africa.

Assessing the impact of homelessness on HIV/AIDS transmission dynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C.P. Bhunu

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Care for the people living with HIV/AIDS is more than the provision of antiretroviral therapy. The effects of homelessness on HIV/AIDS transmission are captured through a mathematical model. The mathematical model is rigorously analyzed. The disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable when the reproduction number is less than unity. Results from the analysis of the reproduction number suggests that homelessness enhances both HIV transmission and progression to the AIDS stage. This is further supported by numerical simulations which show that some elements of homelessness (lack of entertainment enhances HIV/AIDS transmission.

Teaching wilderness first aid in a remote First Nations community: the story of the Sachigo Lake Wilderness Emergency Response Education Initiative.

Science.gov (United States)

Born, Karen; Orkin, Aaron; VanderBurgh, David; Beardy, Jackson

2012-01-01

To understand how community members of a remote First Nations community respond to an emergency first aid education programme. A qualitative study involving focus groups and participant observation as part of a community-based participatory research project, which involved the development and implementation of a wilderness first aid course in collaboration with the community. Twenty community members participated in the course and agreed to be part of the research focus groups. Three community research partners validated and reviewed the data collected from this process. These data were coded and analysed using open coding. Community members responded to the course in ways related to their past experiences with injury and first aid, both as individuals and as members of the community. Feelings of confidence and self-efficacy related access to care and treatment of injury surfaced during the course. Findings also highlighted how the context of the remote First Nations community influenced the delivery and development of course materials. Developing and delivering a first aid course in a remote community requires sensitivity towards the response of participants to the course, as well as the context in which it is being delivered. Employing collaborative approaches to teaching first aid can aim to address these unique needs. Though delivery of a first response training programme in a small remote community will probably not impact the morbidity and mortality associated with injury, it has the potential to impact community self-efficacy and confidence when responding to an emergency situation.

AID Biology: A pathological and clinical perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Choudhary, Meenal; Tamrakar, Anubhav; Singh, Amit Kumar; Jain, Monika; Jaiswal, Ankit; Kodgire, Prashant

2018-01-02

Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), primarily expressed in activated mature B lymphocytes in germinal centers, is the key factor in adaptive immune response against foreign antigens. AID is responsible for producing high-affinity and high-specificity antibodies against an infectious agent, through the physiological DNA alteration processes of antibody genes by somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class-switch recombination (CSR) and functions by deaminating deoxycytidines (dC) to deoxyuridines (dU), thereby introducing point mutations and double-stranded chromosomal breaks (DSBs). The beneficial physiological role of AID in antibody diversification is outweighed by its detrimental role in the genesis of several chronic immune diseases, under non-physiological conditions. This review offers a comprehensive and better understanding of AID biology and its pathological aspects, as well as addresses the challenges involved in AID-related cancer therapeutics, based on various recent advances and evidence available in the literature till date. In this article, we discuss ways through which our interpretation of AID biology may reflect upon novel clinical insights, which could be successfully translated into designing clinical trials and improving patient prognosis and disease management.

Educating for Responsible Global Citizenship.

Science.gov (United States)

Drake, Christine

1987-01-01

Discusses geographical illiteracy in the United States and the problems of inadequate international awareness and poor understanding of major global issues. Examines what citizens should know, why they should care, and what people should do about the lack of global knowledge. Presents a list of 57 references dealing with global issues. (GEA)

Mean-state SST Response to global warming caused by the ENSO Nonlinearity

Science.gov (United States)

Kohyama, T.; Hartmann, D. L.

2017-12-01

The majority of the models that participated in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) exhibit El Niño-like trends under global warming. GFDL-ESM2M, however, is an exception that exhibits a La Niña-like response with strengthened trade winds. Our previous studies have shown that this La Niña-like trend could be a physically consistent warming response, and we proposed the Nonlinear ENSO Warming Suppression (NEWS) mechanism to explain this La Niña-like response to global warming. The most important necessary condition of NEWS is the ENSO skewness (El Niños are stronger than La Niñas). Most CMIP5 models do not reproduce the observed ENSO skewness, while GFDL-ESM2M exhibits the realistic ENSO skewness, which suggests that, despite being in the minority, the La Niña-like trend of GFDL-ESM2M could be a plausible equatorial Pacific response to warming. In this study, we introduce another interesting outlier, MIROC5, which reproduces the observed skewness, yet exhibits an El Niño-like response. By decomposing the source of the ENSO nonlinearity into the following three components: "SST anomalies modulate winds", "winds excite oceanic waves", and "oceanic waves modulate the subsurface temperature", we show that the large inter-model spread of the third component appears to explain the most important cause of the poor reproducibility of the ENSO nonlinearity in CMIP5 models. It is concluded that the change in the response of subsurface temperature to oceanic waves is the primary explanation for the different warming response of GFDL-ESM2M and MIROC5. Our analyses suggest that the difference of the warming response are caused by difference in the climatological thermal stratification. This study may shed new light on the fundamental question of why observed ENSO has a strong skewness and on the implications of this skewed ENSO for the mean-state sea surface temperature response to global warming.

Globalization, Public Policy, and "Knowledge Gap": Ethiopian Youth and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic

Science.gov (United States)

Fetene, Getnet Tizazu; Dimitriadis, Greg

2010-01-01

Set against trans- or supra-national policy initiatives which have framed the HIV/AIDS pandemic as in part a pedagogical issue, this paper critically explores local understandings of sexual practices (generally) as well as of HIV/AIDS (more specifically) among young people in the sub-Saharan African country of Ethiopia. Ethiopia has the third…

The New Realities of Global Health: Dynamics and Obstacles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marine Buissonnière

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Published by Palgrave MacmillanThe past 15 years have seen the arrival of new actors in the field of global health and an increase in development aid in the healthcare sector. These actors have claimed a significant share of the additional public and private resources available becoming the driving force in this new paradigm, often at the expense of traditional institutions, which have gradually lost their policy hegemony. Making choices and formulating policies on the matter of healthcare have ceased to be the sole prerogative of the institutions that had hitherto held the mandate and the responsibility for doing so. Entire areas of the healthcare sector are now dominated by private funders, which have become the de facto decision-makers on public health policy. This new situation raises fundamental questions about governance and accountability. Who decides policy? How are decisions made? All too often, countries in receipt of aid continue to suffer from inadequate coordination between donors and from the lack of a common agenda. With this in mind, it is worth exploring a number of ways of ensuring that global healthcare policies best reflect the beneficiary countries’ actual needs and aspirations.

HIV and AIDS among adolescents who use drugs: opportunities for drug policy reform within the sustainable development agenda.

Science.gov (United States)

Tinasti, Khalid

2018-02-01

The international community's commitment to halve by 2015 the HIV transmission among people who inject drugs has not only been largely missed, instead new HIV infections have increased by 30%. Moreover, drug injection remains one of the drivers of new HIV infections due to punitive responses and lack of harm reduction resourcing. In the midst of this situation, adolescents are a forgotten component of the global response to illegal drugs and their link with HIV infection. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present an opportunity to achieve the global objective of ending AIDS among adolescents who use drugs, by addressing the structural vulnerabilities they face be they economic, social, criminal, health-related or environmental. The implementation of the SDGs presents an opportunity to address the horizontal nature of drug policy and to efficiently address the drugs-adolescents-HIV risk nexus. Adolescent-focused drug policies are linked to goals 1, 3, 4, 10, 16 and 17. Goals 3 and 16 are the most relevant; the targets of the latter link to the criminalization of drug use and punitive policy environments and their impact on adolescents' health and HIV transmission risks. Moreover, it presents an opportunity to include adolescent needs that are missing in the three drug control conventions (1961, 1971 and 1988), and link them with the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Finally, the six principles to deliver on sustainable development are also an opportunity to divert adolescents who use drugs away from criminalization and punitive environments in which their vulnerability to HIV is greater. Addressing HIV among adolescents who use drugs is an extremely complex policy issue depending on different sets of binding and non-binding commitments, interventions and stakeholders. The complexity requires a horizontal response provided by the SDGs framework, starting with the collection of disaggregated data on this specific subgroup. Ending

First-aid boxes - Reminder

CERN Multimedia

GS Department

2010-01-01

With a view to ensuring optimum use of the first-aid boxes on the CERN site, we should like to remind you of various changes introduced in March 2009: The TSO of the buildings concerned is responsible for the first-aid boxes, including checking their contents.   First-aid boxes may be restocked ONLY at the CERN stores (SCEM No. 54.99.80). This is no longer possible at the Infirmary. The associated cost is charged to the Departments.   First-aid boxes should be used only for mild injuries. All other cases should be referred to the Medical Service Infirmary (Bldg. 57 – ground-floor, tel. 73802) between 8.00 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. or to the Fire and Rescue Service (tel. 74444). N.B.: This information does not apply to the red emergency first-aid boxes in the underground areas or to the emergency kits for use in the event of being splashed with hydrofluoric acid.

Determinants of burn first aid knowledge: Cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Wallace, Hilary J; O'Neill, Tomas B; Wood, Fiona M; Edgar, Dale W; Rea, Suzanne M

2013-09-01

This study investigated demographic factors, experience of burn/care and first aid course attendance as factors influencing burn first aid knowledge. A cross-sectional study was undertaken using convenience sampling of members of sporting and recreation clubs. The main outcome measure was the proportion of correct responses to multiple-choice questions relating to four burn scenarios: (1) scald, (2) contact burn, (3) ignited clothing, and (4) chemical burn. A total of 2602 responses were obtained. Large gaps (30-50% incorrect answers) were identified in burn first aid knowledge across all scenarios. 15% more individuals gave correct answers if they had attended a first aid course compared to those who had not (pfirst aid knowledge. Gender and age were significant predictors of first aid course attendance, with males and younger (≤25 years) and older (≥65 years) age-groups less likely to have attended a first aid course. In this sample, first aid training undertaken within the last 5 years with a specific burns component was associated with enhanced burn first aid knowledge. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

Automatic and deliberate affective associations with sexual stimuli in women with lifelong vaginismus before and after therapist-aided exposure treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Melles, Reinhilde J; ter Kuile, Moniek M; Dewitte, Marieke; van Lankveld, Jacques J D M; Brauer, Marieke; de Jong, Peter J

2014-03-01

The intense fear response to vaginal penetration in women with lifelong vaginismus, who have never been able to experience coitus, may reflect negative automatic and deliberate appraisals of vaginal penetration stimuli which might be modified by exposure treatment. The aim of this study is to examine whether (i) sexual stimuli elicit relatively strong automatic and deliberate threat associations in women with vaginismus, as well as relatively negative automatic and deliberate global affective associations, compared with symptom-free women; and (ii) these automatic and more deliberate attitudes can be modified by therapist-aided exposure treatment. A single target Implicit Association Test (st-IAT) was used to index automatic threat associations, and an Affective Simon Task (AST) to index global automatic affective associations. Participants were women with lifelong vaginismus (N = 68) and women without sexual problems (N = 70). The vaginismus group was randomly allocated to treatment (n = 34) and a waiting list control condition (n = 34). Indices of automatic threat were obtained by the st-IAT and automatic global affective associations by the AST, visual analogue scales (VAS) were used to assess deliberate appraisals of the sexual pictures (fear and global positive affect). More deliberate fear and less global positive affective associations with sexual stimuli were found in women with vaginismus. Following therapist-aided exposure treatment, the strength of fear was strongly reduced, whereas global positive affective associations were strengthened. Automatic associations did not differ between women with and without vaginismus and did not change following treatment. Relatively stronger negative (threat or global affect) associations with sexual stimuli in vaginismus appeared restricted to the deliberate level. Therapist-aided exposure treatment was effective in reducing subjective fear of sexual penetration stimuli and led to more global positive affective

The AID-induced DNA damage response in chromatin

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Daniel, Jeremy A; Nussenzweig, André

2013-01-01

Chemical modifications to the DNA and histone protein components of chromatin can modulate gene expression and genome stability. Understanding the physiological impact of changes in chromatin structure remains an important question in biology. As one example, in order to generate antibody diversity...... with somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination, chromatin must be made accessible for activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID)-mediated deamination of cytosines in DNA. These lesions are recognized and removed by various DNA repair pathways but, if not handled properly, can lead to formation...... of oncogenic chromosomal translocations. In this review, we focus the discussion on how chromatin-modifying activities and -binding proteins contribute to the native chromatin environment in which AID-induced DNA damage is targeted and repaired. Outstanding questions remain regarding the direct roles...

Global biodiversity, stoichiometry and ecosystem function responses to human-induced C-N-P imbalances

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Carnicer, Jofre; Sardans, Jordi; Stefanescu, Constanti; Ubach, Andreu; Bartrons, Mireia; Asensio, Dolores; Penuelas, Josep

2015-01-01

Global change analyses usually consider biodiversity as a global asset that needs to be preserved. Biodiversity is frequently analysed mainly as a response variable affected by diverse environmental drivers. However, recent studies highlight that gradients of biodiversity are associated with gradual

Vida/SIDA: A Grassroots Response to AIDS in Chicago's Puerto Rican Community

Science.gov (United States)

Sanabria, Roberto

2004-01-01

Chicago's Puerto Rican community in West Town had a unique reaction to the spread of AIDS within its limits. They created their own institutions and tackled the epidemic themselves. In its infancy, Vida/SIDA, which translates as Life/AIDS, was solely an alternative health clinic for people with AIDS. Free of charge, it provided services such as…

Estimating Effective Subsidy Rates of Student Aid Programs

OpenAIRE

Stacey H. CHEN

2008-01-01

Every year millions of high school students and their parents in the US are asked to fill out complicated financial aid application forms. However, few studies have estimated the responsiveness of government financial aid schemes to changes in financial needs of the students. This paper identifies the effective subsidy rate (ESR) of student aid, as defined by the coefficient of financial needs in the regression of financial aid. The ESR measures the proportion of subsidy of student aid under ...

Do special constables in London feel that they are adequately prepared to meet their first aid responsibilities? A qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Chandan, Joht Singh; Meakin, Richard

2016-01-29

This study's aims were to explore the views of special constables in the London metropolitan police force concerning their obligations and skills as first aiders. The metropolitan police force provides police officers to act as first responders to emergency calls made by the public. Special constables act with the same powers and responsibility as police officers and are required to deal with incidents involving medical emergencies. West London Police Station. Fifteen special constables entered and completed the study. A qualitative study involving semistructured interviews, participant observation, and reflective work. The outcome measures were the themes derived from the 'thematic framework approach' to analysis. Four main themes were identified. (1) 'Our responsibility?'--Special constables felt they had a responsibility, but were unsure of the origin of this responsibility, with many feeling it stemmed from public expectation. (2) 'Confidence'--Special constables had mixed feelings regarding their confidence in first aid scenarios and many felt that more could be done to improve their confidence. (3) 'Training needs'--Many felt the current training system was lacking in several ways including regularity, teaching and content. (4) 'Personal first aid knowledge'--Special constables were disappointed with their past performances. Owing to the small size of this study, the conclusions are limited; however, if the findings are confirmed by larger studies, they suggest the need to improve the confidence of special constables in first aid situations. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Vulnerable to HIV / AIDS. Migration.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez, I

1998-01-01

This special report discusses the impact of globalization, patterns of migration in Southeast Asia, gender issues in migration, the links between migration and HIV/AIDS, and spatial mobility and social networks. Migrants are particularly marginalized in countries that blame migrants for transmission of infectious and communicable diseases and other social ills. Effective control of HIV/AIDS among migrant and native populations requires a multisectoral approach. Programs should critically review the privatization of health care services and challenge economic models that polarize the rich and the poor, men and women, North and South, and migrant and native. Programs should recognize the equality between locals and migrants in receipt of health services. Countermeasures should have input from migrants in order to reduce the conditions that increase vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Gender-oriented research is needed to understand women's role in migration. Rapid assessment has obscured the human dimension of migrants' vulnerability to HIV. Condom promotion is not enough. Migration is a major consequence of globalization, which holds the promise, real or imagined, of prosperity for all. Mass migration can be fueled by explosive regional developments. In Southeast Asia, migration has been part of the process of economic development. The potential to emigrate increases with greater per capita income. "Tiger" economies have been labor importers. Safe sex is not practiced in many Asian countries because risk is not taken seriously. Migrants tend to be used as economic tools, without consideration of social adjustment and sex behavior among singles.

Heterogeneous global crop yield response to biochar: a meta-regression analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crane-Droesch, Andrew; Torn, Margaret S; Abiven, Samuel; Jeffery, Simon

2013-01-01

Biochar may contribute to climate change mitigation at negative cost by sequestering photosynthetically fixed carbon in soil while increasing crop yields. The magnitude of biochar’s potential in this regard will depend on crop yield benefits, which have not been well-characterized across different soils and biochars. Using data from 84 studies, we employ meta-analytical, missing data, and semiparametric statistical methods to explain heterogeneity in crop yield responses across different soils, biochars, and agricultural management factors, and then estimate potential changes in yield across different soil environments globally. We find that soil cation exchange capacity and organic carbon were strong predictors of yield response, with low cation exchange and low carbon associated with positive response. We also find that yield response increases over time since initial application, compared to non-biochar controls. High reported soil clay content and low soil pH were weaker predictors of higher yield response. No biochar parameters in our dataset—biochar pH, percentage carbon content, or temperature of pyrolysis—were significant predictors of yield impacts. Projecting our fitted model onto a global soil database, we find the largest potential increases in areas with highly weathered soils, such as those characterizing much of the humid tropics. Richer soils characterizing much of the world’s important agricultural areas appear to be less likely to benefit from biochar. (letter)

Global transcriptional responses of Bacillus subtilis to xenocoumacin 1.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, T; Zeng, H; Qiu, D; Yang, X; Wang, B; Chen, M; Guo, L; Wang, S

2011-09-01

To determine the global transcriptional response of Bacillus subtilis to an antimicrobial agent, xenocoumacin 1 (Xcn1). Subinhibitory concentration of Xcn1 applied to B. subtilis was measured according to Hutter's method for determining optimal concentrations. cDNA microarray technology was used to study the global transcriptional response of B. subtilis to Xcn1. Real-time RT-PCR was employed to verify alterations in the transcript levels of six genes. The subinhibitory concentration was determined to be 1 μg ml(-1). The microarray data demonstrated that Xcn1 treatment of B. subtilis led to more than a 2.0-fold up-regulation of 480 genes and more than a 2.0-fold down-regulation of 479 genes (q ≤ 0.05). The transcriptional responses of B. subtilis to Xcn1 were determined, and several processes were affected by Xcn1. Additionally, cluster analysis of gene expression profiles after treatment with Xcn1 or 37 previously studied antibiotics indicated that Xcn1 has similar mechanisms of action to protein synthesis inhibitors. These microarray data showed alterations of gene expression in B. subtilis after exposure to Xcn1. From the results, we identified various processes affected by Xcn1. This study provides a whole-genome perspective to elucidate the action of Xcn1 as a potential antimicrobial agent. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Applied Microbiology © 2011 The Society for Applied Microbiology.

How do you build hope and strength? Bringing effective HIV/AIDS ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2011-02-25

Feb 25, 2011 ... IDRC-supported researchers are working with the Government of Free ... “The AIDS issue has become more than a health issue, much more than a ... for nearly 70% of all global HIV infections and 90% of deaths from AIDS. .... student named Donald Ray was studying rural settlement schemes in Zambia.

MOBIC: Designing a Travel Aid for Blind and Elderly People

Science.gov (United States)

Petrie, Helen; Johnson, Valerie; Strothotte, Thomas; Raab, Andreas; Fritz, Steffi; Michel, Rainer

This paper presents the research for the development of a new travel aid to increase the independent mobility of blind and elderly travellers. This aid will build on the technologies of geographical information systems (GIS) and the Global Positioning System (GPS). The MOBIC Travel Aid (MOTA) consists of two interrelated components: the MOBIC Pre-journey System (MOPS) to assist users in planning journeys and the MOBIC Outdoor System (MOODS) to execute these plans by providing users with orientation and navigation assistance during journeys. The MOBIC travel aid is complementary to primary mobility aids such as the long cane or guide dog. Results of a study of user requirements are presented and their implications for the initial design of the system are discussed.

Community-based first aid: a program report on the intersection of community-based participatory research and first aid education in a remote Canadian Aboriginal community.

Science.gov (United States)

VanderBurgh, D; Jamieson, R; Beardy, J; Ritchie, S D; Orkin, A

2014-01-01

Community-based first aid training is the collaborative development of locally relevant emergency response training. The Sachigo Lake Wilderness Emergency Response Education Initiative was developed, delivered, and evaluated through two intensive 5-day first aid courses. Sachigo Lake First Nation is a remote Aboriginal community of 450 people in northern Ontario, Canada, with no local paramedical services. These courses were developed in collaboration with the community, with a goal of building community capacity to respond to medical emergencies. Most first aid training programs rely on standardized curriculum developed for urban and rural contexts with established emergency response systems. Delivering effective community-based first aid training in a remote Aboriginal community required specific adaptations to conventional first aid educational content and pedagogy. Three key lessons emerged during this program that used collaborative principles to adapt conventional first aid concepts and curriculum: (1) standardized approaches may not be relevant nor appropriate; (2) relationships between course participants and the people they help are relevant and important; (3) curriculum must be attentive to existing informal and formal emergency response systems. These lessons may be instructive for the development of other programs in similar settings.

Linking above and belowground responses to global change at community and ecosystem scales.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Antoninka, Anita [Northern Arizona University; Wolf, Julie [Northern Arizona University; Bowker, Matt [Northern Arizona University; Classen, Aimee T [ORNL; JohnsonPhD, Dr Nancy C [Northern Arizona University

2009-01-01

Cryptic belowground organisms are difficult to observe and their responses to global changes are not well understood. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that interactions among above- and belowground communities may mediate ecosystem responses to global change. We used grassland mesocosms to manipulate the abundance of one important group of soil organisms, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, and to study community and ecosystem responses to CO2 and N enrichment. After two growing seasons, biomass responses of plant communities were recorded, and soil community responses were measured using microscopy, phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) and community-level physiological profiles (CLPP). Ecosystem responses were examined by measuring net primary production (NPP), evapotranspiration, total soil organic matter (SOM), and extractable mineral N. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the causal relationships among treatments and response variables. We found that while CO2 and N tended to directly impact ecosystem functions (evapotranspiration and NPP, respectively), AM fungi indirectly impacted ecosystem functions by strongly influencing the composition of plant and soil communities. For example, the presence of AM fungi had a strong influence on other root and soil fungi and soil bacteria. We found that the mycotrophic status of the dominant plant species in the mesocosms determined whether the presence of AM fungi increased or decreased NPP. Mycotrophic grasses dominated the mesocosm communities during the first growing season, and thus, the mycorrhizal treatments had the highest NPP. In contrast, non-mycotrophic forbs were dominant during the second growing season and thus, the mycorrhizal treatments had the lowest NPP. The composition of the plant community strongly influenced soil N; and the composition of the soil organisms strongly influenced SOM accumulation in the mesocosms. These results show how linkages between above- and belowground communities

Generating global brand equity through corporate social responsibility to key stakeholders

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Torres, Anna; Bijmolt, Tammo H. A.; Tribo, Josep A.; Verhoef, Peter

In this paper, we argue that corporate social responsibility (CSR) to various stakeholders (customers, shareholders, employees, suppliers, and community) has a positive effect on global brand equity (BE). In addition, policies aimed at satisfying community interests help reinforce the credibility of

Why HIV/AIDS should be treated as exceptional: arguments from ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

African Journal of AIDS Research ... The idea that HIV and AIDS gets too much attention and funding emerged in 2008 with a call to end 'AIDS exceptionalism.' This article outlines a short history of AIDS exceptionalism — the idea that HIV and AIDS require a response above and beyond 'normal' health interventions and is ...

Title: Freshwater phytoplankton responses to global warming.

Science.gov (United States)

Wagner, Heiko; Fanesi, Andrea; Wilhelm, Christian

2016-09-20

Global warming alters species composition and function of freshwater ecosystems. However, the impact of temperature on primary productivity is not sufficiently understood and water quality models need to be improved in order to assess the quantitative and qualitative changes of aquatic communities. On the basis of experimental data, we demonstrate that the commonly used photosynthetic and water chemistry parameters alone are not sufficient for modeling phytoplankton growth under changing temperature regimes. We present some new aspects of the acclimation process with respect to temperature and how contrasting responses may be explained by a more complete physiological knowledge of the energy flow from photons to new biomass. We further suggest including additional bio-markers/traits for algal growth such as carbon allocation patterns to increase the explanatory power of such models. Although carbon allocation patterns are promising and functional cellular traits for growth prediction under different nutrient and light conditions, their predictive power still waits to be tested with respect to temperature. A great challenge for the near future will be the prediction of primary production efficiencies under the global change scenario using a uniform model for phytoplankton assemblages. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

‘Shameless Woman’ and ‘Responsible Traitor’: Problematizing Gender Representations in Official HIV/AIDS Television Advertisements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dagmar Estermann Meyer

2004-01-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses the views of public health workers from the Family Health Program of Porto Alegre/RS on the HIV/AIDS television advertisements which played a role in the official HIV/ AIDS prevention campaigns in Brazil from 1994 to 2000. The aim of this discussion is to contribute to the critical reading of this sort of educative enterprise, with attention to the gender relations represented in such advertisements. Working from a cultural analysis perspective, the authors analyze the discourses that constitute two representations: the ‘shameless woman’ and the ‘responsible traitor’. The authors argue that these representations are produced, among other manners, through the very knowledge that informs the prevention campaigns, and that these representations end up reinforcing behaviors and gender and sexual practices that they intend to transform or to sever.

HIV/AIDS and its implications – a global threat that medicine alone cannot cure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lazarus, Jeff; Liljestrand, Jerker; Barnett, Anthony

2006-01-01

with HIV/AIDS. There are some 4.1 million new cases every year, and though the recent rapid expansion of antiretroviral treatment will prolong the lives of millions, there is no immediate prospect of a vaccine or cure. Thus, though still at an early stage, the pandemic is often described as ‘a long......-wave event’, with ramifications that will persist for decades. In this article, we review the relationship between HIV/AIDS and development, social stability and security. After considering the societal implications of HIV/AIDS control – with special attention to gender issues, human rights...

The grand illusion? corporate social responsibility in global garment production networks

OpenAIRE

Starmanns, M

2010-01-01

This PhD aims to generate a better understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in global production networks. CSR is an umbrella term that deals with voluntary activities undertaken by companies and that indicate an ethos to act responsibly in society. This research focuses on CSR practices that aim towards improving working conditions in outsourced production factories by implementing so-called social standards, which often derive from core norms of the International Labour Organi...

Oral manifestations among people living with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fabian, F M; Kahabuka, F K; Petersen, P E

2009-01-01

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of various oral and peri-oral manifestations in people living with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. METHODS: A cross sectional study. A total of 187 persons with HIV infection were recruited from non-governmental organisations serving people living...... associated with low body mass index (BMI). CONCLUSION: This community survey carried out in an African sub-Saharan country showed that oral lesions are frequent among people living with HIV/AIDS. As emphasised by the World Health Organization Global Oral Health Programme, national HIV/AIDS programmes should...

Predicting the Responses of Soil Nitrite-Oxidizers to Multi-Factorial Global Change: A Trait-Based Approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Le Roux, Xavier; Bouskill, Nicholas J.; Niboyet, Audrey

2016-01-01

Soil microbial diversity is huge and a few grams of soil contain more bacterial taxa than there are bird species on Earth. This high diversity often makes predicting the responses of soil bacteria to environmental change intractable and restricts our capacity to predict the responses of soil...... functions to global change. Here, using a long-term field experiment in a California grassland, we studied the main and interactive effects of three global change factors (increased atmospheric CO2 concentration, precipitation and nitrogen addition, and all their factorial combinations, based on global...

Women Living with HIV in Rural Areas. Implementing a Response using the HIV and AIDS Risk Assessment and Reduction Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah Bandali

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The global fight against HIV is progressing; however, women living in rural areas particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA continue to face the devastating consequences of HIV and AIDS. Lack of knowledge and geographical barriers to HIV services are compounded by gender norms often limiting the negotiation of safe sexual practices among women living in rural areas. This paper discusses findings from a qualitative study conducted in rural areas of Mozambique examining factors that influenced women to engage in HIV risk-reduction practices. The findings from this study led to the emergence of an HIV and AIDS risk assessment and reduction (HARAR model, which is described in detail. The model helps in understanding gender-related factors influencing men and women to engage in risk-reduction practices, which can be used as a framework in other settings to design more nuanced and contextual policies and programs.

Mentoring health researchers globally: Diverse experiences, programmes, challenges and responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, Donald C; Johnson, Nancy; Mejia, Raul; McCullough, Hazel; Turcotte-Tremblay, Anne-Marie; Barnoya, Joaquin; Falabella Luco, María Soledad

2016-10-01

Mentoring experiences and programmes are becoming increasingly recognised as important by those engaged in capacity strengthening in global health research. Using a primarily qualitative study design, we studied three experiences of mentorship and eight mentorship programmes for early career global health researchers based in high-income and low- and middle-income countries. For the latter, we drew upon programme materials, existing unpublished data and more formal mixed-method evaluations, supplemented by individual email questionnaire responses. Research team members wrote stories, and the team assembled and analysed them for key themes. Across the diverse experiences and programmes, key emergent themes included: great mentors inspire others in an inter-generational cascade, mentorship is transformative in personal and professional development and involves reciprocity, and finding the right balance in mentoring relationships and programmes includes responding creatively to failure. Among the challenges encountered were: struggling for more level playing fields for new health researchers globally, changing mindsets in institutions that do not have a culture of mentorship and building collaboration not competition. Mentoring networks spanning institutions and countries using multiple virtual and face-to-face methods are a potential avenue for fostering organisational cultures supporting quality mentorship in global health research.

Review of decision aids for nuclear-plant operators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kisner, R.A.

1983-01-01

Responses to various computer-based operational aids varied widely in detail, thus forcing distillation of the salient features of many operational aids from information sources other than the initial questionnaire. These sources included technical and management presentations, technical papers and reports, personal discussions, taped responses, sales brochures, system specifications and schematics, and other documents. The data base is dynamic, not static, owing to the nature of current trends in operational aid development. The information contained in it is subject to review and revision by the developing organizations. More systems are pending review and entry into the data base; hence the list is incomplete

Forest responses to tropospheric ozone and global climate change: an analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kickert, R N; Krupa, S V

1990-01-01

In this paper an analysis is provided on: what we know, what we need to know, and what we need to do, to further our understanding of the relationships between tropospheric ozone (O(3)), global climate change and forest responses. The relationships between global geographic distributions of forest ecosystems and potential geographic regions of high photochemical smog by the year 2025 AD are described. While the emphasis is on the effects of tropospheric O(3) on forest ecosystems, discussion is presented to understand such effects in the context of global climate change. One particular strong point of this paper is the audit of published surface O(3) data by photochemical smog region that reveals important forest/woodland geographic regions where little or no O(3) data exist even though the potential threat to forests in those regions appears to be large. The concepts and considerations relevant to the examination of ecosystem responses as a whole, rather than simply tree stands alone are reviewed. A brief argument is provided to stimulate the modification of the concept of simple cause and effect relationships in viewing total ecosystems. Our knowledge of O(3) exposure and its effects on the energy, nutrient and hydrological flow within the ecosystem are described. Modeling strategies for such systems are reviewed. A discussion of responses of forests to potential multiple climatic changes is provided. An important concept in this paper is that changes in water exchange processes throughout the hydrological cycle can be used as early warning indicators of forest responses to O(3). Another strength of this paper is the integration of information on structural and functional processes of ecosystems and their responses to O(3). An admitted weakness of this analysis is that the information on integrated ecosystem responses is based overwhelmingly on the San Bernardino Forest ecosystem research program of the 1970s because of a lack of similar studies. In the final

Public Policy Responses to the Global Financial and Economic Crisis

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article aims to assess the impact of the global fi nancial and economic crisis on two sectors in South Africa, namely, the automobile sector and the textile and clothing sector. It also examines the role of public policy in responding to that crisis. Its main objective is to determine whether or not those responses were ...

Personality and the subjective assessment of hearing aids.

Science.gov (United States)

Cox, R M; Alexander, G C; Gray, G

1999-01-01

Relatively little is known about the influence of patients' personality features on the responses they make to self-assessment items used to measure the outcome of a hearing aid fitting. If the personality of the hearing aid wearer has a significant influence on self-report outcome data, it would be important to explore the relevant personality variables and to be cognizant of their effects when using subjective outcome data to justify decisions about clinical services or other matters. This investigation explored the relationship between several personality attributes and responses to the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB). It found that more extroverted patients tend to report more hearing aid benefit in all speech communication situations. In addition, patients with a more external locus of control tend to have more negative reactions to loud environmental sounds, both with and without amplification. Anxiety also played a small additional role in determining APHAB responses. Although personality variables were found to explain a relatively small amount of the variance in APHAB responses (usually around 10%), these outcomes should alert practitioners and researchers to the potential effects of personality variables in all self-report data.

Using Remote Sensing Mapping and Growth Response to Environmental Variability to Aide Aquatic Invasive Plant Management

Science.gov (United States)

Bubenheim, David L.; Schlick, Greg; Genovese, Vanessa; Wilson, Kenneth D.

2018-01-01

Management of aquatic weeds in complex watersheds and river systems present many challenges to assessment, planning and implementation of management practices for floating and submerged aquatic invasive plants. The Delta Region Areawide Aquatic Weed Project (DRAAWP), a USDA sponsored area-wide project, is working to enhance planning, decision-making and operational efficiency in the California Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Satellite and airborne remote sensing are used map (area coverage and biomass density), direct operations, and assess management impacts on plant communities. Archived satellite records enable review of results following previous climate and management events and aide in developing long-term strategies. Examples of remote sensing aiding effectiveness of aquatic weed management will be discussed as well as areas for potential technological improvement. Modeling at local and watershed scales using the SWAT modeling tool provides insight into land-use effects on water quality (described by Zhang in same Symposium). Controlled environment growth studies have been conducted to quantify the growth response of invasive aquatic plants to water quality and other environmental factors. Environmental variability occurs across a range of time scales from long-term climate and seasonal trends to short-term water flow mediated variations. Response time for invasive species response are examined at time scales of weeks, day, and hours using a combination of study duration and growth assessment techniques to assess water quality, temperature (air and water), nitrogen, phosphorus, and light effects. These provide response parameters for plant growth models in response to the variation and interact with management and economic models associated with aquatic weed management. Plant growth models are to be informed by remote sensing and applied spatially across the Delta to balance location and type of aquatic plant, growth response to altered environments and

The impact of the International Monetary Fund's macroeconomic policies on the AIDS pandemic.

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Brook K

2010-01-01

Expansion of funding for HIV/AIDS, especially treatment, is under attack over concerns about cost effectiveness and financial constraints. The International Monetary Fund is deeply implicated in the history of the AIDS pandemic, the underlying weakness of health systems, and the ideology of constrained resources that underlies most attacks on AIDS funding. The IMF imposed structural violence on developing countries in the 1980s and 1990s through neoliberal and macroeconomic reforms that intensified individual and communal vulnerability to infection and dismantled already weak health systems. This same macroeconomic fundamentalism has recently been repackaged and renamed. IMF fundamentalist policies continue to prioritize low inflation, constricted government spending, robust foreign currency reserves, and prompt repayment of debt at the expense of investments in health and more expansionary, pro-growth and job-creation policies. Several recent surveys have concluded that the IMF reluctantly relaxed overly restrictive policy prescriptions in response to the global economic crisis, but this relaxation was temporary at best and only extended to countries previously acceding to IMF orthodoxy. AIDS activists are campaigning for billions of dollars to fulfill the promise of universal access. If IMF pressures persist, developing countries will continue to undermine the additionality of donor health financing by substituting donor for domestic financing, refusing to invest in recurrent costs for medicines and health workers, and neglecting needed investments in health infrastructure and health system strengthening.

National poverty reduction strategies and HIV/AIDS governance in Malawi: a preliminary study of shared health governance.

Science.gov (United States)

Wachira, Catherine; Ruger, Jennifer Prah

2011-06-01

The public health and development communities understand clearly the need to integrate anti-poverty efforts with HIV/AIDS programs. This article reports findings about the impact of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process on Malawi's National HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework (NSF). In this article we ask, how does the PRSP process support NSF accountability, participation, access to information, funding, resource planning and allocation, monitoring, and evaluation? In 2007, we developed and conducted a survey of Malawian government ministries, United Nations agencies, members of the Country Coordination Mechanism, the Malawi National AIDS Commission (NAC), and NAC grantees (N = 125, 90% response rate), seeking survey respondents' retrospective perceptions of NSF resource levels, participation, inclusion, and governance before, during, and after Malawi's PRSP process (2000-2004). We also assessed principle health sector and economic indicators and budget allocations for HIV/AIDS. These indicators are part of a new conceptual framework called shared health governance (SHG), which seeks congruence among the values and goals of different groups and actors to reflect a common purpose. Under this framework, global health policy should encompass: (i) consensus among global, national, and sub-national actors on goals and measurable outcomes; (ii) mutual collective accountability; and (iii) enhancement of individual and group health agency. Indicators to assess these elements included: (i) goal alignment; (ii) adequate resource levels; (iii) agreement on key outcomes and indicators for evaluating those outcomes; (iv) meaningful inclusion and participation of groups and institutions; (v) special efforts to ensure participation of vulnerable groups; and (vi) effectiveness and efficiency measures. Results suggest that the PRSP process supported accountability for NSF resources. However, the process may have marginalized key stakeholders, potentially undercutting the

Estimates of global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and mortality of HIV, 1980-2015 : the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wang, Haidong; Wolock, Tim M.; Carter, Austin; Nguyen, Grant; Kyu, Hmwe Hmwe; Gakidou, Emmanuela; Hay, Simon I.; Mills, Edward J.; Trickey, Adam; Msemburi, William; Coates, Matthew M.; Mooney, Meghan D.; Fraser, Maya S.; Sligar, Amber; Salomon, Joshua; Larson, Heidi J.; Friedman, Joseph; Abajobir, Amanuel Alemu; Abate, Kalkidan Hassen; Abbas, Kaja M.; Abd El Razek, Mohamed Magdy; Abd-Allah, Foad; Abdulle, Abdishakur M.; Abera, Semaw Ferede; Abubakar, Ibrahim; Abu-Raddad, Laith J.; Abu-Rmeileh, Niveen M. E.; Abyu, Gebre Yitayih; Adebiyi, Akindele Olupelumi; Adedeji, Isaac Akinkunmi; Adelekan, Ademola Lukman; Adofo, Koranteng; Adou, Arsene Kouablan; Ajala, Oluremi N.; Akinyemiju, Tomi F.; Akseer, Nadia; Al Lami, Faris Hasan; Al-Aly, Ziyad; Alam, Khurshid; Alam, Noore K. M.; Alasfoor, Deena; Aldhahri, Saleh Fahed S.; Aldridge, Robert William; Alegretti, Miguel Angel; Aleman, Alicia V.; Alemu, Zewdie Aderaw; Alfonso-Cristancho, Rafael; Ali, Raghib; Amare, Azmeraw T.; Hoek, Hans W.

Background Timely assessment of the burden of HIV/AIDS is essential for policy setting and programme evaluation. In this report from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015 (GBD 2015), we provide national estimates of levels and trends of HIV/AIDS incidence, prevalence, coverage of antiretroviral

Female Secondary School Adolescents' Sexual Behavior and School Based HIV/AIDS Education Program

Science.gov (United States)

Inyang, Mfrekemfon P.

2013-01-01

Most adolescents engage in indiscriminate sexual experimentations. This practice exposes them to the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndromes (AIDS) are among the deadly diseases that exist globally. Twice as many girls, compared to boys…

Police must join the fast track to end AIDS by 2030.

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Crofts, Nick; Patterson, David

2016-01-01

World leaders have committed to ending AIDS by 2030, but stigma and discrimination remain significant obstacles. In particular, police are critical, front-line determinants of risk for many people living with HIV (PLHIV) and members of other key affected populations (KAPs). The negative impact of adverse police behaviours and practices on HIV risk is well documented, and these risks undermine global efforts to end AIDS. Far less well documented, and less common, are attempts to ameliorate this impact by working to change police behaviours. This Special Issue seeks to help redress this imbalance by presenting a selection of original, provocative and important interventions from academics, police officers and other stakeholders concerned with documenting the potential for constructive, progressive and evidence-based approaches to the reduction of HIV risk. We recommend urgent boosting of efforts and funding to engage police in the HIV response. Among other strategies, this needs sustainable funding of programmes and their evaluation, and increased and continuing advocacy and education at all levels to match policy and law reform.

Avaliação das metas de recursos previstos na declaração sobre HIV/Aids das Nações Unidas Evaluation of the United Nations Declaration on HIV/AIDS resource targets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luciana Teixeira

2006-04-01

Full Text Available O estudo teve por objetivo avaliar as metas do capítulo sobre recursos da Declaração de Compromisso da UNGASS. A premissa adotada é que para alcançar tais metas é preciso envidar esforços em três frentes: redução de custos de insumos e serviços; aumento da eficiência no acesso e no uso dos financiamentos; e canalização de novos recursos. Foram analisados os dados provenientes de estudos sobre Contas Nacionais em HIV/Aids para a América Latina e Caribe e informações disponíveis na literatura recente sobre a situação global do fluxo de recursos para o HIV/Aids. O conceito econômico de bem público global permeia o artigo. Foram discutidos os fatores que exercerão fortes pressões sobre o financiamento, exigindo a adoção de novas estratégias, tais como: as dificuldades para se manter a mesma tendência declinante nos custos de itens de peso no gasto com a epidemia no Brasil, a incorporação de milhares de pessoas que necessitam de tratamento anti-retroviral a cada ano, o aumento da sobrevida dos pacientes e a ampliação da testagem necessária para o controle do HIV/Aids. Conclui-se que visando garantir a alocação de mais recursos para a luta contra a Aids, faz-se necessário que a discussão sobre financiamento enfoque não apenas o aumento da participação de recursos para a Aids no âmbito do Ministério da Saúde, mas principalmente o incremento de recursos para a saúde como um todo. Quanto aos recursos externos, o reconhecimento de que o controle da epidemia é um bem público global deverá possibilitar aumentos na assistência oficial para o desenvolvimento.This study evaluates the targets of the United Nations Declaration on HIV/AIDS Resource Targets, the attainment of which are premised on promoting three fronts: reduction of material and services costs, increased efficiency in access to and management of funds, and the channeling of new funds. Data were derived from studies of National Accounts of HIV/AIDS

Evolutionary History Underlies Plant Physiological Responses to Global Change Since the Last Glacial Maximum

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Becklin, K. M.; Medeiros, J. S.; Sale, K. R.; Ward, J. K.

2014-12-01

Assessing family and species-level variation in physiological responses to global change across geologic time is critical for understanding factors that underlie changes in species distributions and community composition. Ancient plant specimens preserved within packrat middens are invaluable in this context since they allow for comparisons between co-occurring plant lineages. Here we used modern and ancient plant specimens preserved within packrat middens from the Snake Range, NV to investigate the physiological responses of a mixed montane conifer community to global change since the last glacial maximum. We used a conceptual model to infer relative changes in stomatal conductance and maximum photosynthetic capacity from measures of leaf carbon isotopes, stomatal characteristics, and leaf nitrogen content. Our results indicate that most of the sampled taxa decreased stomatal conductance and/or photosynthetic capacity from glacial to modern times. However, plant families differed in the timing and magnitude of these physiological responses. Additionally, leaf-level responses were more similar within plant families than within co-occurring species assemblages. This suggests that adaptation at the level of leaf physiology may not be the main determinant of shifts in community composition, and that plant evolutionary history may drive physiological adaptation to global change over recent geologic time.

HIV/AIDS communication in four Nigerian mainstream newspapers.

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Okidu, Onjefu

2014-01-01

One consensus in discussions on HIV/AIDS communication in low and middle income countries (LMICs) is the need for communication models to focus on activity rather than cognitive indicators in order to achieve desired improvements in health behaviors and outcomes. Past failures of HIV/AIDS communication efforts in LMICs have been attributed to emphasis on cognitive indicators. This study analyses HIV/AIDS communication models in Nigerian newspapers. Data were obtained through analysis of manifest content of four Nigerian papers issued between 2002 and 2004. Frequency, prominence and space dedicated to HIV/AIDS-related topics were measured. Descriptive statistics were used to highlight the frequency and percentage of cognitive- and activity-oriented information on HIV/AIDS. A total of 464 HIV/AIDS-related articles were identified. Fifty-nine percent (274) of articles were activity-oriented. Over half of articles were news stories. No news story made front and back pages lead. There were only nine editorials on HIV/AIDS. This study shows that the activity model of HIV/AIDS communication dominates the four Nigerian mainstream newspapers studied. However, it is worth noting the limited number of editorials and feature articles, which have the capacity to stimulate debate and foster a social environment in which AIDS is addressed in a spirit of openness. For a country that has the third largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS globally, one would expect the mass media to deliberately play an instrumental and a more active role in the battle against the disease by engaging in in-depth contextual discourse on HIV/AIDS.

Global Analysis of Ecosystem Evapotranspiration Response to Precipitation Deficits

Science.gov (United States)

He, Bin; Wang, Haiyan; Guo, Lanlan; Liu, Junjie

2017-12-01

Changes in ecosystem evapotranspiration (ET) due to precipitation deficits (PD) can relieve or aggravate soil moisture shortages, thus impacting drought severity. Previous findings have conflicted with regard to response of ET to PD. The present study relies on a global land ET synthesis data set (ETsyn) and observations from eddy-covariance towers (ETobs) to thoroughly examine the sensitivity of ET to PD, which is represented by the standardized precipitation index. There was a contrast in the response to PD between arid and humid ecosystems. ETsyn of arid ecosystems was typically reduced promptly in response to a reduction of precipitation, while ETsyn in humid ecosystems experienced a two-staged change: First, there was an enhancement, and then a reduction associated with persisting PD. Compared with ETsyn, ETobs suggests the occurrence of a more significant ET transition in response to PD. In arid ecosystems, ET typically negatively correlated with low PD, but this was limited by a large PD. Findings from this study are crucial for understanding the role of ET in drought evolution.

The implications of aid as a financial flow amidst global imbalances

NARCIS (Netherlands)

A.M. Fischer (Andrew Martín)

2011-01-01

textabstractWithout denying the potential for publically-funded redistribution, as is done by market-advocates, we must acknowledge that the existing international aid architecture has largely failed in its purpose of inducing any significant degree of wealth redistribution between North and South,

National HIV/AIDS mortality, prevalence, and incidence rates are associated with the Human Development Index.

Science.gov (United States)

Lou, Li-Xia; Chen, Yi; Yu, Chao-Hui; Li, You-Ming; Ye, Juan

2014-10-01

HIV/AIDS is a worldwide threat to human health with mortality, prevalence, and incidence rates varying widely. We evaluated the association between the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and national socioeconomic development. We obtained global age-standardized HIV/AIDS mortality, prevalence, and incidence rates from World Health Statistics Report of the World Health Organization. The human development indexes (HDIs) of 141 countries were obtained from a Human Development Report. Countries were divided into 4 groups according to the HDI distribution. We explored the association between HIV/AIDS epidemic and HDI information using Spearman correlation analysis, regression analysis, and the Kruskal-Wallis test. HIV/AIDS mortality, prevalence, and incidence rates were inversely correlated with national HDI (r = -0.675, -0.519, and -0.398, respectively; P birth, mean years of schooling, expected years of schooling, and gross national income per capita). Low HDI countries had higher HIV/AIDS mortality, prevalence, and incidence rates than that of medium, high, and very high HDI countries. Quantile regression results indicated that HDI had a greater negative effect on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in countries with more severe HIV/AIDS epidemic. Less-developed countries are likely to have more severe HIV/AIDS epidemic. There is a need to pay more attention to HIV/AIDS control in less-developed countries, where lower socioeconomic status might have accelerated the HIV/AIDS epidemic more rapidly. Copyright © 2014 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Self-Instructional Course in Student Financial Aid Administration. Module 4: The Roles and Responsibilities of the Financial Aid Office. Second Edition.

Science.gov (United States)

Washington Consulting Group, Inc., Washington, DC.

The fourth module in a self-instructional course for student financial aid administrator neophytes provides an introduction to the management of federal financial aid programs authorized by the Higher Education Act Title IV with an emphasis on the role of the financial aid office. Areas covered in Module 4 include how to recognize the basic areas…

Global Health after Pentecost: Toward Theological Reflection as a Religious Health Asset

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew T Bersagel Braley

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This article examines the recent turn on the part of global health leaders to Christian communities as allies in the response to the HIV pandemic. A cursory survey of this turn highlights how global health leaders have used the language of religious health assets to revalue the activities of faith-based organizations, including Christian churches. In this way, religious health assets — tangible and intangible — become valuable if they can be rendered intelligible and appreciated using the existing lexicon and logic of global health. As a result, the primary activity of religious entities in partnerships with global health institutions is limited to conforming their practices to the best practices of HIV programs. But a closer examination of this revaluation reveals how it obscures a distinctive dimension of Christian participation, namely, critical theological reflection. The current turn to religion as a global health ally presents an opportunity to reimagine the spaces in which complex social phenomena are described, interpreted, and responded to. Christians live into the role of co-participants in these spaces when they seek to develop a greater competence for engaging the complex arena of global health policy and programming. This competence emerges from demonstrating understanding of the empirical context in which global health is carried out as well as showing in an imaginative and compelling manner how the theological resources from their own tradition illumine the patterns and processes of human suffering. We have a unique presence and reach within communities. We have unique structures and programmes that are already in place. We are available. We are reliable. And we are sustainable. We were there long before AIDS came and we will still be there when AIDS goes away. Rev. Canon Gideon Byamugisha1

The end of AIDS: Possibility or pipe dream? A tale of transitions ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Globally, in the last 20 years health has improved. In this generally optimistic setting HIV and AIDS accounts for the fastest growing burden of disease. The data show the bulk of this is experienced in Southern Africa. In this region, HIV and AIDS (and tuberculosis [TB]) peaks among young adults. Women carry the greater ...

Clouds and the extratropical circulation response to global warming in a hierarchy of global atmosphere models

Science.gov (United States)

Voigt, A.

2017-12-01

Climate models project that global warming will lead to substantial changes in extratropical jet streams. Yet, many quantitative aspects of warming-induced jet stream changes remain uncertain, and recent work has indicated an important role of clouds and their radiative interactions. Here, I will investigate how cloud-radiative changes impact the zonal-mean extratropical circulation response under global warming using a hierarchy of global atmosphere models. I will first focus on aquaplanet setups with prescribed sea-surface temperatures (SSTs), which reproduce the model spread found in realistic simulations with interactive SSTs. Simulations with two CMIP5 models MPI-ESM and IPSL-CM5A and prescribed clouds show that half of the circulation response can be attributed to cloud changes. The rise of tropical high-level clouds and the upward and poleward movement of midlatitude high-level clouds lead to poleward jet shifts. High-latitude low-level cloud changes shift the jet poleward in one model but not in the other. The impact of clouds on the jet operates via the atmospheric radiative forcing that is created by the cloud changes and is qualitatively reproduced in a dry Held-Suarez model, although the latter is too sensitive because of its simplified treatment of diabatic processes. I will then show that the aquaplanet results also hold when the models are used in a realistic setup that includes continents and seasonality. I will further juxtapose these prescribed-SST simulations with interactive-SST simulations and show that atmospheric and surface cloud-radiative interactions impact the jet poleward jet shifts in about equal measure. Finally, I will discuss the cloud impact on regional and seasonal circulation changes.

First aid in the dental practice: an overview.

Science.gov (United States)

Jevon, P

2016-06-24

First aid encompasses a wide range of scenarios ranging from simple reassurance following a minor mishap to dealing with a life-threatening emergency. Dentists may need to provide first aid in their dental practice to a patient, relative or member of staff. This article provides an overview to first aid in the dental practice, including priorities, responsibilities when providing first aid, assessment of the environment and the casualty (primary survey &secondary survey). The new A3 'First Aid in the Workplace' poster is now available and is included as an insert in this issue (BDJ Vol. 220, Issue 12).

Unequal ‘Partners’. AIDS, Academia, and the Rise of Global Health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johanna T. Crane

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The last decade has seen the proliferation of “global health” departments, centers, programs, and majors across top research universities in North America and Europe. This trend has been particularly pronounced in the United States, where it is connected to America′s new role as a major sponsor of HIV treatment in Africa. This paper describes the rise of “global health” as a research, funding, and training priority within U.S. academic medicine, and the increasing desirability of “global health partnerships” with institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. Leading spokespersons emphasize that “partnership” with poor nations is central to the mission of global health, an ethic that distinguishes it from older, more paternalistic traditions of international health and tropical medicine. However, at the same time, the field of academic global health depends on steep inequalities for its very existence, as it is the opportunity to work in impoverished, low-tech settings with high disease burdens that draws North American researchers and clinicians to global health programs and ensures their continued funding. This paradox – in which inequality is both a form of suffering to be redressed and a professional, knowledge-generating, opportunity to be exploited – makes the partnerships to which global health aspires particularly challenging.

Nuevos retos y oportunidades en un mundo globalizado: análisis político de la respuesta al VIH/Sida en México New challenges and opportunities in a globalized world: a political analysis of the response to HIV/AIDS in Mexico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Torres-Ruiz

2006-09-01

Full Text Available Este trabajo, síntesis de una investigación más amplia sobre la economía política del VIH/Sida en México, analiza la distinción entre globalismo neo-liberal (agenda ideológica y mayormente económica y globalización (fenómeno mundial y multidimensional. Sostiene que la existencia de alternativas al paradigma neo-liberal es resultado de circunstancias político-económicas y sociales concretas de la realidad mexicana en el contexto de la globalización que han originado la formulación de políticas públicas relativamente más incluyentes. Se enfatiza en el contraste entre redes de políticas públicas excluyentes, como las que han caracterizado el proceso de reformas económicas estructurales o la re-estructuración del financiamiento de los sistemas de salud, y redes de políticas públicas con trabajo en VIH/Sida que se caracterizan por ser más incluyentes y democráticas. Como se discutirá, ambos tipos de redes funcionan tanto en México como en el ámbito global.This work is a synthesis of an investigation into the political economics of HIV/AIDS in Mexico within the context of globalization. It is based on a distinction between what is defined as neo-liberal globalism (an ideological and overwhelmingly economic agenda and globalization (a worldwide, multidimensional phenomenon. The core argument is that the existence of real alternatives to the neo-liberal paradigm results from a series of political, economic and social circumstances which are very real in Mexico today in the context of globalization, which have given rise to a rather more inclusive policy-making process. Special emphasis is given to the contrast between exclusive public policy systems, such as those seen in the process of structural economic reforms or the re-structuring of the financing of healthcare systems, and public policy systems which work with HIV/AIDS, which tend to be more inclusive and democratic. Both types of system operate in Mexico and in other

El Niño/Southern Oscillation response to global warming

Science.gov (United States)

Latif, M.; Keenlyside, N. S.

2009-01-01

The El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, originating in the Tropical Pacific, is the strongest natural interannual climate signal and has widespread effects on the global climate system and the ecology of the Tropical Pacific. Any strong change in ENSO statistics will therefore have serious climatic and ecological consequences. Most global climate models do simulate ENSO, although large biases exist with respect to its characteristics. The ENSO response to global warming differs strongly from model to model and is thus highly uncertain. Some models simulate an increase in ENSO amplitude, others a decrease, and others virtually no change. Extremely strong changes constituting tipping point behavior are not simulated by any of the models. Nevertheless, some interesting changes in ENSO dynamics can be inferred from observations and model integrations. Although no tipping point behavior is envisaged in the physical climate system, smooth transitions in it may give rise to tipping point behavior in the biological, chemical, and even socioeconomic systems. For example, the simulated weakening of the Pacific zonal sea surface temperature gradient in the Hadley Centre model (with dynamic vegetation included) caused rapid Amazon forest die-back in the mid-twenty-first century, which in turn drove a nonlinear increase in atmospheric CO2, accelerating global warming. PMID:19060210

Lessons for the control of AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

Weller, T H

1987-11-15

A balanced perspective that places acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the context of the social needs of a global society is needed to overcome the hysteria and stigmatizing that presently surrounds this public health issue. The migration of poor, rural, sexually active young people to urban centers in the Third World has clearly played a role in the dissemination of AIDS and other infectious diseases. It is necessary, however, to examine the major cause of such population movement--private enterprise. Migrant workers are used to perform menial jobs in the urban labor force. Another cause of population movements is war and political repression. The fact that young people are becoming increasingly mobile has serious implications for the control of AIDS, and this phenomenon cannot be addressed without looking at its causes. Similarly, the disproportionate mortality of minorities- -seen in the AIDS epidemic as well--calls for discrimination. To prevent and control AIDS, the 1st step is to increase understanding of its natural history and epidemiology. Then, lessons must be learned from successful public health programs rooted in a primary health care system, including the Expanded Program on Immunization and oral rehydration campaigns. Although funds should not be diverted from such programs to combat AIDS, their logistic structure should be studied. Above all, however, it must be kept in mind that the constructive influence of health education will be thwarted as long as social inequities remain.

On the Road to HIV/AIDS Competence in the Household: Building a Health-Enabling Environment for People Living with HIV/AIDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caroline Masquillier

2015-03-01

Full Text Available When aiming to provide chronic disease care within the context of human resource shortages, we should not only consider the responsibility of the individual person living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA but also the capacity of the social environment to actively encourage a lifestyle that fosters health. In this social environment, extensive efforts are thus required to increase HIV/AIDS knowledge, reduce stigma, stimulate HIV testing, improve health care-seeking behavior, and encourage safe sexual practices—described in the literature as the need for AIDS competence. In accordance with socio-ecological theory, one cannot restrict the research focus to communities, as AIDS competence studies should also incorporate the intermediate household level. In responding to this research need, the aim of this article is to conceptualize an “HIV/AIDS competent household” based on qualitative interviews and focus group discussions conducted in a township on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Our results show that a household’s supportive response to disclosure allows a patient to live openly as HIV positive in the household concerned. This may mark the start of the road to HIV/AIDS competence in the household, meaning the PLWHA receives sustainable support throughout the care continuum and positive living becomes the norm for the PLWHA and his or her household. A feedback loop might also be created in which other household members are encouraged to be tested and to disclose their status, which is an important step towards a sustainable response to HIV/AIDS-related challenges. Despite the fact that this road to HIV/AIDS competence at the household level is fragile and prone to various barriers, this article shows that the household has the potential to be a health-enabling environment for PLWHA.

Postcolonial constructions of HIV/AIDS: meaning, culture, and structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Sastry, Shaunak; Dutta, Mohan J

2011-01-01

As a field of inquiry, postcolonial health communication seeks to apprehend processes implicated in the construction of "primitive" versus "modern" with respect to issues of health. In the case of HIV/AIDS, the sociocultural representations of the disease have a profound impact on how the disease is configured medically and symbolically in dominant cultural imagination. Postcolonial constructions of disease are mobilized around the political and economic interests of the dominant power structures in global spaces. In this article, a thematic analysis of the constructions of HIV/AIDS in India in the mainstream U.S. news media was conducted. A corpus of news articles from the Lexis-Nexis database was created with the keywords "HIV," "AIDS," and "India." Three themes emerged from the study: (a) India as a site of biomedical control; (b) the economic logics of HIV/AIDS; and (c) AIDS, development, and the "Third World." Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Forced Migration and Global Responsibility for Health; Comment on “Defining and Acting on Global Health: The Case of Japan and the Refugee Crisis”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kayvan Bozorgmehr

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Forced migration has become a world-wide phenomenon in the past century, affecting increasing numbers of countries and people. It entails important challenges from a global health perspective. Leppold et al have critically discussed the Japanese interpretation of global responsibility for health in the context of forced migration. This commentary complements their analysis by outlining three priority areas of global health responsibility for European Union (EU countries. We highlight important stages of the migration phases related to forced migration and propose three arguments. First, the chronic neglect of the large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs in the discourses on the “refugee crisis” needs to be corrected in order to develop sustainable solutions with a framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs. Second, protection gaps in the global system of protection need to be effectively closed to resolve conflicts with border management and normative global health frameworks. Third, effective policies need to be developed and implemented to meet the health and humanitarian needs of forced migrants; at the same time, the solidarity crisis within the EU needs to be overcome. These stakes are high. EU countries, being committed to global health, should urgently address these areas.

Global Ecosystem Response Types Derived from the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index and FPAR3g Series

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ivits, Eva; Horion, Stéphanie Marie Anne F; Fensholt, Rasmus

2014-01-01

Observing trends in global ecosystem dynamics is an important first step, but attributing these trends to climate variability represents a further step in understanding Earth system changes. In the present study, we classified global Ecosystem Response Types (ERTs) based on common spatio-temporal......Observing trends in global ecosystem dynamics is an important first step, but attributing these trends to climate variability represents a further step in understanding Earth system changes. In the present study, we classified global Ecosystem Response Types (ERTs) based on common spatio...... were observed in Asia and North America. These ERTs complement traditional pixel based methods by enabling the combined assessment of the location, timing, duration, frequency and severity of climatic and vegetation anomalies with the joint assessment of wetting and drying climatic conditions. The ERTs...

Hearing Aid with Visual Indicator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2004-01-01

The invention comprises a hearing aid, which has a casing containing a signal receiving part for receiving an audio signal, an audio transducer for providing an audio signal to the user, a signal transmission path between the signal receiving part and the audio transducer, whereby a battery...... is provided for powering the signal receiving part, the signal path and the audio transducer, and where further means are provided for assessing the function of the hearing aid and for generating an electrical indication signal which indicates the function of the hearing aid and where further means...... are provided for intermittently generating a power signal in response to the electrical indication signal and where means are provided for converting the power signal into a light signal, such that the light signal is visible from outside the hearing aid....

Women and AIDS caregiving: women's work?

Science.gov (United States)

Songwathana, P

2001-01-01

In this ethnographic study, I examine personal, kinship, and social obligations and the role of women in the traditional Thai family. Under what circumstances do women take on the responsibility to care or not care, and how do they cope with the disease and care when they are also infected? Fifteen women who were afflicted or affected by HIV/AIDS participated in in-depth interviews and participant observations. Analysis employed mainly qualitative methods following Spradley. I show that women who are responsible for caring for both themselves and others, including members of their immediate families or extended family members, face a double jeopardy by virtue of their inferior role and status. When HIV-infected women experience illness, sometimes they feel split; they are incapable of functioning normally, yet they are obligated to do "What they've got to do." Women as carers feel that they have to care because they want to free someone else from suffering despite the fact that they are also suffering. Women roles as family carers seem to be both psychologically and socially constructed. AIDS care is not just a labour of love, but also is done in the spirit of work following Buddhist beliefs of karma and metta. In conclusion, traditional, persistent gender imbalances and inequalities influence women's sexuality, vulnerability, responsibility, and caregiving. When women become infected with HIV and sick with AIDS, their quality of life drops because of the physical, psychological, cultural value, and economic burdens of care they face. AIDS then necessitates rather than prevents women from fulfilling their multiple roles. Consequently, there is a need for greater support especially among Thai women who are afflicted and affected with AIDS.

Putting the t in tools: a roadmap for implementation of new global and regional transgender guidance.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolf, R Cameron; Adams, Darrin; Dayton, Robyn; Verster, Annette; Wong, Joe; Romero, Marcela; Mazin, Rafael; Settle, Edmund; Sladden, Tim; Keatley, JoAnne

2016-01-01

Transgender (trans) activists and global health partners have collaborated to develop new tools and guidance for assessing and addressing HIV and other health needs within trans populations. Trans women experience a heavy burden of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), high incidence of violence and difficulties accessing gender-affirming services. At the same time, little has been published on trans men's health, HIV issues, needs and experiences. Young trans people are especially marginalized and vulnerable, with few programmes and services specifically tailored to their needs. Trans-specific data and guidance are needed to adapt the global response to HIV to meet the needs of the trans population. While the needs of this group have only recently received attention, global, regional and other technical guidance documents are being developed to address these gaps. Regional blueprints for comprehensive care for trans people in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia and the Pacific are now available. These tools - supported by the Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization, US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the United Nations Development Programme, in collaboration with regional trans groups - provide a contextual map, indicating opportunities for interventions in health, HIV, violence, stigma and discrimination, social protection and human rights. Global guidance includes the World Health Organization's Policy Brief: Transgender People and HIV, and the interagency publication, Implementing Comprehensive HIV and STI Programmes with Transgender People. Community empowerment and capacity building are the focus of the new tools for global and regional transgender guidance. The goal is to strengthen and ensure community-led responses to the HIV challenge in trans populations. This article describes the new tools and guidance and considers the steps needed to use them to appropriately support and engage transgender

The regions and global warming: Impacts and response strategies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

To date, much of the attention given to global warming in scientific research as well as in policy development has focused on the global picture. International negotiations and agreements to stabilize, and eventually reduce, greenhouse gas emissions are very important. By themselves, however, they are not sufficient to address global warming. Regional strategies are also needed. They can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and they will be the most effective way to mitigate the consequences of global warming. Adaptive strategies must respond to local and regional conditions. In many countries, subnational jurisdictions such as states and provinces or community organizations can already take effective actions without direction from their national government or waiting for international agreements. An important factor in defining regional approaches is the disparate consequences of climate change for developed and developing areas. Different strategies will also be needed for industrial and agricultural regions. Wealthy industrial regions may be better able to develop capital-intensive, adaptive infrastructure than regions with fewer discretionary resources where people are more vulnerable to the vagaries of weather patterns. On the other hand, regions that rely on indigenous knowledge and local resources may be better equipped to make incremental adaptations and more willing to modify life-styles. Ultimately, all climate change effects are experienced in specific places and effective response depends upon local action. We recognize that individual localities cannot solve a problem of global proportions by acting alone. However, a regional strategy can supplement international and national action and be the focal point for addressing risks in the unique social and economic context of a particular area. These meetings discussions dealt with the impacts and implications of climate change on such things as agriculture, forestry, and policy

Building African Capacity for HIV/AIDS Prevention Trials

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Canada-Africa Prevention Trials Network : Building African Capacity for HIV/AIDS Prevention Trials. The Canada-Africa Prevention Trials Network (CAPT Network) was formed through a capacity building grant from the Global Health Research Initiative (GHRI). The Network comprises eight African centres (four in Uganda, ...

Terrestrial ecosystem responses to global change: A research strategy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-09-01

Uncertainty about the magnitude of global change effects on terrestrial ecosystems and consequent feedbacks to the atmosphere impedes sound policy planning at regional, national, and global scales. A strategy to reduce these uncertainties must include a substantial increase in funding for large-scale ecosystem experiments and a careful prioritization of research efforts. Prioritization criteria should be based on the magnitude of potential changes in environmental properties of concern to society, including productivity; biodiversity; the storage and cycling of carbon, water, and nutrients; and sensitivity of specific ecosystems to environmental change. A research strategy is proposed that builds on existing knowledge of ecosystem responses to global change by (1) expanding the spatial and temporal scale of experimental ecosystem manipulations to include processes known to occur at large scales and over long time periods; (2) quantifying poorly understood linkages among processes through the use of experiments that manipulate multiple interacting environmental factors over a broader range of relevant conditions than did past experiments; and (3) prioritizing ecosystems for major experimental manipulations on the basis of potential positive and negative impacts on ecosystem properties and processes of intrinsic and/or utilitarian value to humans and on feedbacks of terrestrial ecosystems to the atmosphere.

Global health and global health ethics

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Benatar, S. R; Brock, Gillian

2011-01-01

...? What are our responsibilities and how can we improve global health? Global Health and Global Health Ethics addresses these questions from the perspective of a range of disciplines, including medicine, philosophy and the social sciences...

Human Rights and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: How Does a Large Funder of Basic Health Services Meet the Challenge of Rights-Based Programs?

Science.gov (United States)

Jürgens, Ralf; Csete, Joanne; Lim, Hyeyoung; Timberlake, Susan; Smith, Matthew

2017-12-01

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created to greatly expand access to basic services to address the three diseases in its name. From its beginnings, its governance embodied some human rights principles: civil society is represented on its board, and the country coordination mechanisms that oversee funding requests to the Global Fund include representatives of people affected by the diseases. The Global Fund's core strategies recognize that the health services it supports would not be effective or cost-effective without efforts to reduce human rights-related barriers to access and utilization of health services, particularly those faced by socially marginalized and criminalized persons. Basic human rights elements were written into Global Fund grant agreements, and various technical support measures encouraged the inclusion in funding requests of programs to reduce human rights-related barriers. A five-year initiative to provide intensive technical and financial support for the scaling up of programs to reduce these barriers in 20 countries is ongoing.

Mobile health information system: a mobile app. to aid health ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Mobile health information system: a mobile app. to aid health workers relate health information. ... Global Journal of Mathematical Sciences ... phones in delivering vital health information and effective fieldwork reporting is of significance.

Investigation of internal feedback in hearing aids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Friis, Lars

2009-01-01

with vibroacoustic transmission from the receiver to the microphones often occur during the use of hearing aids. This transmission causes feedback at certain critical gain levels where it produces a loud uncomfortable squealing. Consequently feedback often constitutes the limiting factor for the maximum obtainable...... gain in the hearing aid and it therefore represents a critical design problem. Feedback in hearing aids is usually divided into external and internal feedback. External feedback is caused by the leakage of sound from the ear canal whereas internal feedback is due to transmission of sound and vibrations...... internally in the hearing aid. As a result of reducing the size of hearing aids, manufacturers have experienced an increase in internal feedback problems. The main objective of the present thesis is therefore to examine the vibroacoustic mechanisms responsible for internal feedback in hearing aids...

Consultation on AIDS and the workplace.

Science.gov (United States)

1988-12-01

The 1988 Consultation on Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and the Workplace, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), addressed 3 issues: 1) risk factors associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in the workplace, 2) the response of businesses and workers to the AIDS epidemic, and 3) use of the workplace for AIDS education. There is no evidence to suggest that HIV can be transmitted by casual, person-to-person contact in the workplace. The central policy issue for businesses concerns protection of the human rights of workers with HIV infection. Most workers with HIV/AIDS want to continue working as long as they are able to, and they should be enabled to contribute their creativity and productivity in a supportive occupational setting. Consistent policies and procedures should be developed at national and enterprise levels before HIV-related questions arise in the workplace. Such policies should be communicated to all concerned, continually reviewed in the light of scientific and epidemiologic evidence, monitored for their successful implementation, and evaluated for their effectiveness. Pre-employment HIV/AIDS screening, whether for assessment of fitness to work or for insurance purposes, should not be required and raises serious concerns about discrimination. Moreover, there should be no obligation on the worker's part to inform his or her employer if HIV infection develops. Information and educational activities at the workplace are essential to create the climate of collective responsibility and mutual understanding required to protect individuals with HIV or AIDS from stigmatization and discrimination by co-workers, employers or clients, and unions.

Monitoring Natural Events Globally in Near Real-Time Using NASA's Open Web Services and Tools

Science.gov (United States)

Boller, Ryan A.; Ward, Kevin Alan; Murphy, Kevin J.

2015-01-01

Since 1960, NASA has been making global measurements of the Earth from a multitude of space-based missions, many of which can be useful for monitoring natural events. In recent years, these measurements have been made available in near real-time, making it possible to use them to also aid in managing the response to natural events. We present the challenges and ongoing solutions to using NASA satellite data for monitoring and managing these events.

A brief history of South Africa's response to AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

Simelela, N P; Venter, W D F

2014-03-01

The story of the AIDS response in South Africa over the past 4 years is one of great progress after almost a decade of complex and tragic denialism that united the world and civil society in a way not seen since the opposition to apartheid. Today the country can boast > 2 million people on antiretroviral therapy, far and away the largest number in the world. Prevention efforts appear to be yielding results. The estimated number of annual new HIV infections declined by 79 000 between 2011 and 2012. New HIV infections among adults aged 15-49 years are projected to decline by 48% by 2016, from 414,000 (2010) to -215,000 (2016). The national incidence rate has reached its lowest level since the disease was first declared an epidemic in 1992, translating into reductions in both infant and under-5 mortality and an increase in life expectancy from 56 to 60 years over the period 2009-2011 alone. This is largely thanks to a civil society movement that was prepared to pose a rights-based challenge to a governing party in denial, and to brave health officials, politicians and clinicians working in a hostile system to bring about change.

Addressing Global Health, Development, and Social Inequalities through Research and Policy Analyses: the International Journal of MCH and AIDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Romuladus E. Azuine, DrPH, RN

2012-11-01

Full Text Available One year after the birth of the International Journal of MCH and AIDS (IJMA, we continue to share the passion to document, and shine the light on the myriads of global health issues that debilitate developing countries.Although the focus of IJMA is on the social determinants of health and disease as well as on the disparities in the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases affecting infants, children, women, adults, and families in developing countries, we would like to encourage our fellow researchers and policy makers in both the developing and developed countries to consider submitting work that examines cross-national variations in heath and social inequalities.Such a global focus allows us to identify and understand social, structural, developmental, and health policy determinants underlying health inequalities between nations.Global assessment of health and socioeconomic patterns reaffirms the role of broader societal-level factors such as human development, gender inequality, gross national product, income inequality, and healthcare infrastructure as the fundamental determinants of health inequalities between nations.This is also confirmed by our analysis of the WHO data that shows a strong negative association between levels of human development and infant and maternal mortality rates.Focusing on socioeconomic, demographic, and geographical inequalities within a developing country, on the other hand, should give us a sense of how big the problem of health inequity is within its own borders.Such an assessment, then, could lead to development of policy solutions to tackle health inequalities that are unique to that country.

United States Foreign Aid Policy for the 21st Century

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Tisson, John

2004-01-01

.... The policy shift appears to be directly related to the Global War on Terrorism and acknowledges that foreign aid can play an important role in mitigating developmental deficits that can result in instability...

Fly-By medical care: Conceptualizing the global and local social responsibilities of medical tourists and physician voluntourists

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Background Medical tourism is a global health practice where patients travel abroad to receive health care. Voluntourism is a practice where physicians travel abroad to deliver health care. Both of these practices often entail travel from high income to low and middle income countries and both have been associated with possible negative impacts. In this paper, we explore the social responsibilities of medical tourists and voluntourists to identify commonalities and distinctions that can be used to develop a wider understanding of social responsibility in global health care practices. Discussion Social responsibility is a responsibility to promote the welfare of the communities to which one belongs or with which one interacts. Physicians stress their social responsibility to care for the welfare of their patients and their domestic communities. When physicians choose to travel to another county to provide medical care, this social responsibility is expanded to this new community. Patients too have a social responsibility to use their community's health resources efficiently and to promote the health of their community. When these patients choose to go abroad to receive medical care, this social responsibility applies to the new community as well. While voluntourists and medical tourists both see the scope of their social responsibilities expand by engaging in these global practices, the social responsibilities of physician voluntourists are much better defined than those of medical tourists. Guidelines for engaging in ethical voluntourism and training for voluntourists still need better development, but medical tourism as a practice should follow the lead of voluntourism by developing clearer norms for ethical medical tourism. Summary Much can be learned by examining the social responsibilities of medical tourists and voluntourists when they engage in global health practices. While each group needs better guidance for engaging in responsible forms of these practices

Fly-By medical care: Conceptualizing the global and local social responsibilities of medical tourists and physician voluntourists

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Crooks Valorie A

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Medical tourism is a global health practice where patients travel abroad to receive health care. Voluntourism is a practice where physicians travel abroad to deliver health care. Both of these practices often entail travel from high income to low and middle income countries and both have been associated with possible negative impacts. In this paper, we explore the social responsibilities of medical tourists and voluntourists to identify commonalities and distinctions that can be used to develop a wider understanding of social responsibility in global health care practices. Discussion Social responsibility is a responsibility to promote the welfare of the communities to which one belongs or with which one interacts. Physicians stress their social responsibility to care for the welfare of their patients and their domestic communities. When physicians choose to travel to another county to provide medical care, this social responsibility is expanded to this new community. Patients too have a social responsibility to use their community's health resources efficiently and to promote the health of their community. When these patients choose to go abroad to receive medical care, this social responsibility applies to the new community as well. While voluntourists and medical tourists both see the scope of their social responsibilities expand by engaging in these global practices, the social responsibilities of physician voluntourists are much better defined than those of medical tourists. Guidelines for engaging in ethical voluntourism and training for voluntourists still need better development, but medical tourism as a practice should follow the lead of voluntourism by developing clearer norms for ethical medical tourism. Summary Much can be learned by examining the social responsibilities of medical tourists and voluntourists when they engage in global health practices. While each group needs better guidance for engaging in

Fly-By medical care: Conceptualizing the global and local social responsibilities of medical tourists and physician voluntourists.

Science.gov (United States)

Snyder, Jeremy; Dharamsi, Shafik; Crooks, Valorie A

2011-04-06

Medical tourism is a global health practice where patients travel abroad to receive health care. Voluntourism is a practice where physicians travel abroad to deliver health care. Both of these practices often entail travel from high income to low and middle income countries and both have been associated with possible negative impacts. In this paper, we explore the social responsibilities of medical tourists and voluntourists to identify commonalities and distinctions that can be used to develop a wider understanding of social responsibility in global health care practices. Social responsibility is a responsibility to promote the welfare of the communities to which one belongs or with which one interacts. Physicians stress their social responsibility to care for the welfare of their patients and their domestic communities. When physicians choose to travel to another county to provide medical care, this social responsibility is expanded to this new community. Patients too have a social responsibility to use their community's health resources efficiently and to promote the health of their community. When these patients choose to go abroad to receive medical care, this social responsibility applies to the new community as well. While voluntourists and medical tourists both see the scope of their social responsibilities expand by engaging in these global practices, the social responsibilities of physician voluntourists are much better defined than those of medical tourists. Guidelines for engaging in ethical voluntourism and training for voluntourists still need better development, but medical tourism as a practice should follow the lead of voluntourism by developing clearer norms for ethical medical tourism. Much can be learned by examining the social responsibilities of medical tourists and voluntourists when they engage in global health practices. While each group needs better guidance for engaging in responsible forms of these practices, patients are at a

Adoption of Technology as a Response Strategy to Globalization: A Study of Manufacturing Firms in Kenya

OpenAIRE

Solomon Kinyanjui; Margaret A. Oloko; Hazel G. Gachunga; Beatrice G. Gathondu

2014-01-01

Globalization affects local and international firms in many ways. Studies have shown that factors in the internal as well as external environments of firms influence the rate to which globalization will affect them. On the local scene however, no known studies have been done on the response of manufacturing firms to counter globalization. In addition, since the concept of globalization is multidimensional and its influence is varied in nature, this study aimed at investigating how manufacturi...

The financial crisis and global health: the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) policy response.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruckert, Arne; Labonté, Ronald

2013-09-01

In this article, we interrogate the policy response of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the global financial crisis, and discuss the likely global health implications, especially in low-income countries. In doing so, we ask if the IMF has meaningfully loosened its fiscal deficit targets in light of the economic challenges posed by the financial crisis and adjusted its macro-economic policy advice to this new reality; or has the rhetoric of counter-cyclical spending failed to translate into additional fiscal space for IMF loan-recipient countries, with negative health consequences? To answer these questions, we assess several post-crisis IMF lending agreements with countries requiring financial assistance, and draw upon recent academic studies and civil society reports examining policy conditionalities still being prescribed by the IMF. We also reference recent studies examining the health impacts of these conditionalities. We demonstrate that while the IMF has been somewhat more flexible in its crisis response than in previous episodes of financial upheaval, there has been no meaningful rethinking in the application of dominant neoliberal macro-economic policies. After showing some flexibility in the initial crisis response, the IMF is pushing for excessive contraction in most low and middle-income countries. We conclude that there remains a wide gap between the rhetoric and the reality of the IMF's policy and programming advice, with negative implications for global health.

Projections of global mortality and burden of disease from 2002 to 2030.

Science.gov (United States)

Mathers, Colin D; Loncar, Dejan

2006-11-01

also assumes increased prevention activity, HIV/AIDS deaths are projected to drop to 3.7 million in 2030. Total tobacco-attributable deaths are projected to rise from 5.4 million in 2005 to 6.4 million in 2015 and 8.3 million in 2030 under our baseline scenario. Tobacco is projected to kill 50% more people in 2015 than HIV/AIDS, and to be responsible for 10% of all deaths globally. The three leading causes of burden of disease in 2030 are projected to include HIV/AIDS, unipolar depressive disorders, and ischaemic heart disease in the baseline and pessimistic scenarios. Road traffic accidents are the fourth leading cause in the baseline scenario, and the third leading cause ahead of ischaemic heart disease in the optimistic scenario. Under the baseline scenario, HIV/AIDS becomes the leading cause of burden of disease in middle- and low-income countries by 2015. These projections represent a set of three visions of the future for population health, based on certain explicit assumptions. Despite the wide uncertainty ranges around future projections, they enable us to appreciate better the implications for health and health policy of currently observed trends, and the likely impact of fairly certain future trends, such as the ageing of the population, the continued spread of HIV/AIDS in many regions, and the continuation of the epidemiological transition in developing countries. The results depend strongly on the assumption that future mortality trends in poor countries will have a relationship to economic and social development similar to those that have occurred in the higher-income countries.

Projections of global mortality and burden of disease from 2002 to 2030.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Colin D Mathers

2006-11-01

reaches 80% by 2012. Under the optimistic scenario, which also assumes increased prevention activity, HIV/AIDS deaths are projected to drop to 3.7 million in 2030. Total tobacco-attributable deaths are projected to rise from 5.4 million in 2005 to 6.4 million in 2015 and 8.3 million in 2030 under our baseline scenario. Tobacco is projected to kill 50% more people in 2015 than HIV/AIDS, and to be responsible for 10% of all deaths globally. The three leading causes of burden of disease in 2030 are projected to include HIV/AIDS, unipolar depressive disorders, and ischaemic heart disease in the baseline and pessimistic scenarios. Road traffic accidents are the fourth leading cause in the baseline scenario, and the third leading cause ahead of ischaemic heart disease in the optimistic scenario. Under the baseline scenario, HIV/AIDS becomes the leading cause of burden of disease in middle- and low-income countries by 2015. CONCLUSIONS: These projections represent a set of three visions of the future for population health, based on certain explicit assumptions. Despite the wide uncertainty ranges around future projections, they enable us to appreciate better the implications for health and health policy of currently observed trends, and the likely impact of fairly certain future trends, such as the ageing of the population, the continued spread of HIV/AIDS in many regions, and the continuation of the epidemiological transition in developing countries. The results depend strongly on the assumption that future mortality trends in poor countries will have a relationship to economic and social development similar to those that have occurred in the higher-income countries.

Projections of Global Mortality and Burden of Disease from 2002 to 2030

Science.gov (United States)

Mathers, Colin D; Loncar, Dejan

2006-01-01

. Under the optimistic scenario, which also assumes increased prevention activity, HIV/AIDS deaths are projected to drop to 3.7 million in 2030. Total tobacco-attributable deaths are projected to rise from 5.4 million in 2005 to 6.4 million in 2015 and 8.3 million in 2030 under our baseline scenario. Tobacco is projected to kill 50% more people in 2015 than HIV/AIDS, and to be responsible for 10% of all deaths globally. The three leading causes of burden of disease in 2030 are projected to include HIV/AIDS, unipolar depressive disorders, and ischaemic heart disease in the baseline and pessimistic scenarios. Road traffic accidents are the fourth leading cause in the baseline scenario, and the third leading cause ahead of ischaemic heart disease in the optimistic scenario. Under the baseline scenario, HIV/AIDS becomes the leading cause of burden of disease in middle- and low-income countries by 2015. Conclusions These projections represent a set of three visions of the future for population health, based on certain explicit assumptions. Despite the wide uncertainty ranges around future projections, they enable us to appreciate better the implications for health and health policy of currently observed trends, and the likely impact of fairly certain future trends, such as the ageing of the population, the continued spread of HIV/AIDS in many regions, and the continuation of the epidemiological transition in developing countries. The results depend strongly on the assumption that future mortality trends in poor countries will have a relationship to economic and social development similar to those that have occurred in the higher-income countries. PMID:17132052

North-South Commerce and Oficial Development Aid: Some Contradictory Evidence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arcadi Oliveres Boadella

1998-04-01

Full Text Available That, traditionally, North-South commerce is unfavorably tilted towards the interests of the former is not new: but how is a countries official Aid for Development implicated in the equation? This two-pronged relationship is the subject of the article, which, based on statistics from 1988 to 1995, underlines the importance of the global petroleum trade in the balance between Spainís contribution to Aid for Development and Spainish commercialimport-export gains with countries in the South. By using petroleum as a key ingredient in analyzing the overall relationship, the author demonstrates the quantitative deterioration of Spainish Aid for Development during this period which, in constant prices, revealsthat only in 1991 did the Aid for Development show favorable results for the countries of the South vis a vis the commercial relationship.

The role of major donors in health aid to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Haewon; Ahn, Deborah Y; Choi, Soyoung; Kim, Youngchan; Choi, Hyunju; Park, Sang Min

2013-05-01

We investigated the major trends in health aid financing in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) by identifying the primary donor organizations and examining several data sources to track overall health aid trends. We collected gross disbursements from bilateral donor countries and international organizations toward the DPRK according to specific health sectors by using the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development creditor reporting system database and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs financial tracking service database. We analyzed sources of health aid to the DPRK from the Republic of Korea (ROK) using the official records from the ROK's Ministry of Unification. We identified the ROK, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) as the major donor entities not only according to their level of health aid expenditures but also their growing roles within the health sector of the DPRK. We found that health aid from the ROK is comprised of funding from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, private organizations, local governments, and South Korean branches of international organizations such as WHO and UNICEF. We also distinguished medical equipment aid from developmental aid to show that the majority of health aid from the ROK was developmental aid. This study highlights the valuable role of the ROK in the flow of health aid to the DPRK, especially in light of the DPRK's precarious international status. Although global health aid from many international organizations has decreased, organizations such as GFATM and UNFPA continue to maintain their focus on reproductive health and infectious diseases.

Early AIDS dementia complex

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mountz, J.M.; Speed, N.M.; Adams, K.; Schwartz, J.A.; Gross, M.D.; Ostrow, D.G.

1988-01-01

A frequent complication of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is AIDS dementia complex (ADC). The authors evaluated seven patients with AIDS (aged 28-55 years, all male) for ADC by psychiatric evaluation, neuropsychological testing, CT scanning, and IMP-SPECT. Six of seven patients exhibited cognitive or behavioral abnormalities. Neuropsychological testing showed general deficits but no cases of explicit dementia. SPECT showed marked abnormalities in two cases: posterior temporal-parietal diminution of tracer uptake in one case (posterior/anterior=0.81) and marked right/left subcortical asymmetry (1.17) in the other. In three additional cases there was asymmetric tracer uptake in the subcortical and parietal regions. CT findings were normal in all seven cases. The authors conclude that functional imaging with the use of IMP-SPECT may be a useful method to follow ADC progression and response to therapy

HIV / AIDS and the law.

Science.gov (United States)

1997-09-01

Since HIV is sexually transmitted, people living with AIDS and HIV (PWA/PHA) risk being stigmatized as immoral and promiscuous and they are often discriminated against in society. To this effect, the South African AIDS Law Project and Lawyers for Human Rights have developed a comprehensive resource manual detailing human rights with a special emphasis on issues relevant to PWA/PHA. The concept of the manual aimed to look at the legal and human rights questions that have been raised by the HIV/AIDS epidemic; inform people living with HIV/AIDS about their rights and the law; provide people working in businesses, trade unions, and nongovernmental organization with information about correct and incorrect responses to HIV/AIDS; and give victims of discrimination ideas on how to fight back. This manual initially introduces basic facts about HIV and AIDS and then describes the legal system and the Bill of Rights within the new South African Constitution. The main areas of focus in the manual include: 1) patient's medical rights, 2) employment rights, 3) women's rights, 4) the rights of lesbians and gay men, 5) the rights of youth and children, 6) the rights of prisoners, 7) social support for PWA, 8) HIV/AIDS and insurance law, 9) power of attorney and making wills, 10) criminal law, and 11) legal remedies, such as using the law to protect one's rights.

Vulnerability and risk perception in the management of HIV/AIDS: Public priorities in a global pandemic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Tsasis

2008-11-01

Full Text Available Peter Tsasis1,2, N. Nirupama21School of Health Policy and Management, 2School of Administrative Studies, York University, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaAbstract: Understanding the way perception of risk is shaped and constructed is crucial in understanding why it has been so difficult to mitigate the spread of HIV/AIDS. This paper uses the Pressure and Release (PAR model, used to predict the onset of natural disasters as the conceptual framework. It substitutes vulnerability and risk perception as the trigger factors in the model, in making the case that HIV/AIDS can be characterized as a slow onset disaster. The implications are that vulnerability must be managed and reduced by addressing root causes, dynamic pressures, and unsafe conditions that contribute to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. HIV/AIDS programs must be culturally appropriate and work toward influencing risk perception, while addressing social norms and values that negatively impact vulnerable populations. By impacting cultural and social expectations, individuals will be able to more readily adopt safer sex behaviors. The development of policies and programs addressing the issues in context, as opposed to individual behaviors alone, allows for effective public health intervention. This may have implications for public health measures implemented for combating the spread of HIV/AIDS.Keywords: vulnerability, risk perception, HIV/AIDS, public health intervention

Artistic activities and cultural activism as responses to HIV/AIDS in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Science.gov (United States)

Pietrzyk, Susan

2009-12-01

Over the last two decades both the number and types of civil-society-led organisations involved in addressing HIV and AIDS have increased dramatically. In many cases, the work undertaken is thoughtfully researched, appropriately focused, and as a result produces positive outcomes. Yet questions can be raised about what civil society engagements involve, particularly at a micro level. An important element concerns the role of the arts in efforts to understand and address HIV and AIDS. This article examines ways that insight, analysis, and action around HIV and AIDS have unfolded through the purview of artistic activities undertaken by cultural activists in Harare, Zimbabwe-that is, arts-oriented engagements occurring beyond the boundaries of formally structured organisations. Artistic expressions, which often concern lived experiences, make clear the complex circumstances surrounding HIV and AIDS, and at the same time seek to act upon those circumstances. Understanding and addressing HIV and AIDS requires more than one form of knowledge. Drawing on data from 21 months of ethnographic research in Harare, I examine artistic expressions as legitimate forms of knowledge and as strategies for intervention.

Capacity Building for HIV/AIDS Prevention Trials | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is funding the Africa HIV/AIDS Prevention Trials Capacity Building Program under the umbrella of the Global Health Research Initiative (GHRI). The aim of the program is to build the capacity of African researchers and institutions to conduct anticipated clinical trials ...

A Canonical Response in Rainfall Characteristics to Global Warming: Projections by IPCC CMIP5 Models

Science.gov (United States)

Lau, William K. M.; Wu, H. T.; Kim, K. M.

2012-01-01

Changes in rainfall characteristics induced by global warming are examined based on probability distribution function (PDF) analysis, from outputs of 14 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), CMIP (5th Coupled Model Intercomparison Project) models under various scenarios of increased CO2 emissions. Results show that collectively CMIP5 models project a robust and consistent global and regional rainfall response to CO2 warming. Globally, the models show a 1-3% increase in rainfall per degree rise in temperature, with a canonical response featuring large increase (100-250 %) in frequency of occurrence of very heavy rain, a reduction (5-10%) of moderate rain, and an increase (10-15%) of light rain events. Regionally, even though details vary among models, a majority of the models (>10 out of 14) project a consistent large scale response with more heavy rain events in climatologically wet regions, most pronounced in the Pacific ITCZ and the Asian monsoon. Moderate rain events are found to decrease over extensive regions of the subtropical and extratropical oceans, but increases over the extratropical land regions, and the Southern Oceans. The spatial distribution of light rain resembles that of moderate rain, but mostly with opposite polarity. The majority of the models also show increase in the number of dry events (absence or only trace amount of rain) over subtropical and tropical land regions in both hemispheres. These results suggest that rainfall characteristics are changing and that increased extreme rainfall events and droughts occurrences are connected, as a consequent of a global adjustment of the large scale circulation to global warming.

Asymmetric responses to simulated global warming by populations of Colobanthus quitensis along a latitudinal gradient

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ian S. Acuña-Rodríguez

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The increase in temperature as consequence of the recent global warming has been reported to generate new ice-free areas in the Antarctic continent, facilitating the colonization and spread of plant populations. Consequently, Antarctic vascular plants have been observed extending their southern distribution. But as the environmental conditions toward southern localities become progressively more departed from the species’ physiological optimum, the ecophysiological responses and survival to the expected global warming could be reduced. However, if processes of local adaptation are the main cause of the observed southern expansion, those populations could appear constrained to respond positively to the expected global warming. Using individuals from the southern tip of South America, the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula, we assess with a long term experiment (three years under controlled conditions if the responsiveness of Colobanthus quitensis populations to the expected global warming, is related with their different foliar traits and photoprotective mechanisms along the latitudinal gradient. In addition, we tested if the release of the stress condition by the global warming in these cold environments increases the ecophysiological performance. For this, we describe the latitudinal pattern of net photosynthetic capacity, biomass accumulation, and number of flowers under current and future temperatures respective to each site of origin after three growing seasons. Overall, was found a clinal trend was found in the foliar traits and photoprotective mechanisms in the evaluated C. quitensis populations. On the other hand, an asymmetric response to warming was observed for southern populations in all ecophysiological traits evaluated, suggesting that low temperature is limiting the performance of C. quitensis populations. Our results suggest that under a global warming scenario, plant populations that inhabiting cold zones at

Asymmetric responses to simulated global warming by populations of Colobanthus quitensis along a latitudinal gradient.

Science.gov (United States)

Acuña-Rodríguez, Ian S; Torres-Díaz, Cristian; Hereme, Rasme; Molina-Montenegro, Marco A

2017-01-01

The increase in temperature as consequence of the recent global warming has been reported to generate new ice-free areas in the Antarctic continent, facilitating the colonization and spread of plant populations. Consequently, Antarctic vascular plants have been observed extending their southern distribution. But as the environmental conditions toward southern localities become progressively more departed from the species' physiological optimum, the ecophysiological responses and survival to the expected global warming could be reduced. However, if processes of local adaptation are the main cause of the observed southern expansion, those populations could appear constrained to respond positively to the expected global warming. Using individuals from the southern tip of South America, the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula, we assess with a long term experiment (three years) under controlled conditions if the responsiveness of Colobanthus quitensis populations to the expected global warming, is related with their different foliar traits and photoprotective mechanisms along the latitudinal gradient. In addition, we tested if the release of the stress condition by the global warming in these cold environments increases the ecophysiological performance. For this, we describe the latitudinal pattern of net photosynthetic capacity, biomass accumulation, and number of flowers under current and future temperatures respective to each site of origin after three growing seasons. Overall, was found a clinal trend was found in the foliar traits and photoprotective mechanisms in the evaluated C. quitensis populations. On the other hand, an asymmetric response to warming was observed for southern populations in all ecophysiological traits evaluated, suggesting that low temperature is limiting the performance of C. quitensis populations. Our results suggest that under a global warming scenario, plant populations that inhabiting cold zones at high latitudes could

Public Health Control Measures in Response to Global Pandemics and Drug Resistance.

Science.gov (United States)

Price, Polly J

2015-01-01

These teaching materials provide problem-based exercises exploring the specific powers of governments to implement control measures in response to communicable disease. Topics include global pandemic disease and, in the United States, legal issues in tuberculosis control. © 2015 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

Forced Migration and Global Responsibility for Health Comment on "Defining and Acting on Global Health: The Case of Japan and the Refugee Crisis".

Science.gov (United States)

Bozorgmehr, Kayvan; Razum, Oliver

2016-11-05

Forced migration has become a world-wide phenomenon in the past century, affecting increasing numbers of countries and people. It entails important challenges from a global health perspective. Leppold et al have critically discussed the Japanese interpretation of global responsibility for health in the context of forced migration. This commentary complements their analysis by outlining three priority areas of global health responsibility for European Union (EU) countries. We highlight important stages of the migration phases related to forced migration and propose three arguments. First, the chronic neglect of the large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the discourses on the "refugee crisis" needs to be corrected in order to develop sustainable solutions with a framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Second, protection gaps in the global system of protection need to be effectively closed to resolve conflicts with border management and normative global health frameworks. Third, effective policies need to be developed and implemented to meet the health and humanitarian needs of forced migrants; at the same time, the solidarity crisis within the EU needs to be overcome. These stakes are high. EU countries, being committed to global health, should urgently address these areas. © 2017 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Does financial aid help or harm developing countries: Case of Albania

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Eglantina Hysa

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Development aid is a financial aid given by governments, NGOs, global and regional unions, or private entities to support the development of developing countries, as a consequence also of Albania as one of them. Its main reason is decreasing poverty and encouraging development. Many literatures reveal evidences of the impact these financial aids have on the economic growth of a country. This paper creates a link between the research done and the practice by making a detailed description of the phenomena and making clear how the effects are derived. It further analyzes the economic development of Albania in terms of net income during the last 30 years, and the corresponding financial aid allocation for each year. Starting with the interpretation of the financial aid amount allocated each year; this research paper also extends the information regarding the fields of economy where this aid is invested. The descriptive statistics shows that financial aid has noticeably increased from year to year and its impact on the economy as well.

Islamic perspectives on HIV/AIDS and antiretroviral treatment: the case of Nigeria.

Science.gov (United States)

Balogun, Amusa Saheed

2010-12-01

Some religious reactions to the HIV epidemic in Africa unwittingly contributed to the expansion of the epidemic in its early years. This was because many religious people regarded the emergence of HIV and AIDS as divine punishment for man's sins as a result of people's sexual promiscuity. Some also opposed public promotion of the use of condoms for HIV prevention. However, religious bodies have made positive contributions to HIV/AIDS responses in many African countries in recent times. Though Christian bodies are taking the lead in faith-based responses to HIV and AIDS in Africa, Islamic bodies have also been major partners in HIV/AIDS interventions in several countries. Against this background, this article examines some Islamic perceptions of HIV and AIDS, and especially the impact of antiretroviral treatment (ART) for people living with HIV in Africa, with particular emphasis on Nigeria. In spite of the emergence of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in Africa, Islam still emphasises the prevention of new infections and care for people living with HIV or AIDS. The article discusses basic issues associated with ARVs, such as health, sickness, life-prolongation and death, from an Islamic viewpoint, as well as some Islamic measures to prevent HIV-risk-taking behaviours in an era of ARVs. It also looks at the nature and extent of Islamic involvement in the national HIV/AIDS response in Nigeria. The paper concludes that while Islam sees HIV and AIDS and other diseases as 'tests' from Allah, the religion is not opposed to ART. Thus, efforts need to be intensified by Islamic bodies and Muslim leaders in Nigeria for an improved response to HIV and AIDS in the country.

AIDS and its effects on the advancement of women.

Science.gov (United States)

1989-01-01

This document gives an overview of the worldwide spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), the means of its prevention, and its effects on women who are not infected. It also explains how the AIDS virus is not spread, and why it is important not to be afraid of those infected with the AIDS virus. It stresses the need for information at a time when a vaccine or cure are not yet available, and education is the only means of prevention. The global mobilization being conducted to fight the AIDS crisis is discussed. Different ways in which women are at risk to infection by the HIV virus are reviewed, especially the subordination of women. This denies them the same education, legal rights, training, health, and independent incomes, all of which reduces their chance for access to information about AIDS. It considers risk of being infected by a partner, from a blood transfusion, increased susceptibility in someone who already has a sexually transmitted disease, increased susceptibility in a woman who has been circumcised, risk of infection from rape, and how women are coerced into prostitution, putting them at risk for AIDS. It also covers HIV infection and contraception, the danger to professional health-care workers, transmission of HIV infection from mother-to-infant, and discrimination that is AIDS-related. Women who are not infected are impacted by AIDS because they suffer stress as caretakers. The document also discusses the social and economic consequences of AIDS.

HIV/AIDS communication in South Africa: A reflection on the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

being of young women, globally, and in South Africa, in particular. Young women constitute a significantly higher percentage of people living with HIV/AIDS in comparison to their male counterparts. Although statistical evidence suggests a decline ...

Section on AIDS: the politics of survival. Introduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Krieger, N; Margo, G

1990-01-01

In one short decade, the politics of AIDS has become the politics of survival. In a world whose social order is changing before our eyes, AIDS insistently brings new meaning to the age-old question of what it is we must do to survive--as individuals, as families, as communities, as nations, as members of an interdependent world. The goal of this Special Section is to promote frank discussion, from an explicitly progressive perspective, of what it will take to stop the AIDS epidemic and deal with the devastation it has already wrought. Articles by AIDS researchers, service providers, and activists from around the world will address the numerous social, political, economic, and cultural factors that affect both the spread of AIDS and the social response to the epidemic. Topics to be considered in this and future issues of the Journal include: AIDS and community survival in the United States; women and AIDS, particularly in economically underdeveloped countries; the politics and economics of AIDS interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean; and the growing international AIDS industry.

Control of corruption, democratic accountability, and effectiveness of HIV/AIDS official development assistance.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Hwa-Young; Yang, Bong-Ming; Kang, Minah

2016-01-01

Despite continued global efforts, HIV/AIDS outcomes in developing countries have not made much progress. Poor governance in recipient countries is often seen as one of the reasons for ineffectiveness of aid efforts to achieve stated objectives and desired outcomes. This study examines the impact of two important dimensions of governance - control of corruption and democratic accountability - on the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS official development assistance. An empirical analysis using dynamic panel Generalized Method of Moments estimation was conducted on 2001-2010 datasets. Control of corruption and democratic accountability revealed an independent effect and interaction with the amount of HIV/AIDS aid on incidence of HIV/AIDS, respectively, while none of the two governance variables had a significant effect on HIV/AIDS prevalence. Specifically, in countries with accountability level below -2.269, aid has a detrimental effect on incidence of HIV/AIDS. The study findings suggest that aid programs need to be preceded or at least accompanied by serious efforts to improve governance in recipient countries and that democratic accountability ought to receive more critical attention.

STRATEGI PENGORGANISASIAN LEMBAGA KESEHATAN NAHDLATUL ULAMA (LKNU DALAM PENGELOLAAN PROGRAM HIV/AIDS (Studi Kasus Pengelolaan Dana Hibah Global Fund AIDS di Indonesia

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Henri Puteranto

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The problems of managing HIV/AIDS programs arises when religious social organizations run the program. Religious organizations are required to run the program effectively. However, the implementation is not easy since they have to faced the “body of knowledge” of HIV/AIDS programs. Therefore, the ability of the organization to undertake this program is crucial. Religious organizations have a role to still keep the significance of religious values, at the same time to avoid conflct with the strategies possessed in HIV programs. This study explores three issues in the Health Organization of Nahdlatul Ulama, the interaction of values and norms, efforts to establish the organization legitimacy, and the ability to perform knowledge management. Qualitative research methods is used to explore the three issues mentioned above. The study results showed that the Health Organization of Nahdlatul Ulama as a socioreligious organization is able to answer sensitive issues in HIV/AIDS programs to reduce stigma and discrimination, building of organization legitimacy and conducting of knowledge management effectively

HAART in HIV/AIDS Treatments: Future Trends.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Da-Yong; Wu, Hong-Ying; Yarla, Nagendra Sastry; Xu, Bin; Ding, Jian; Lu, Ting-Ren

2018-01-01

AIDS (acquired immune deficient syndrome) is a deadly human viral infectious disease caused by HIV (human immune-deficient virus) infection. Almost every AIDS patient losses his/her life before mid 1990s. AIDS was once the 1st disease killer in US (1993). After one decade hard work, antiviral drug cocktails-high active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) have been invented for almost all HIV infection treatments. Due to the invention of HAART, 80-90% HIV/AIDS patients still effectively response to HAART for deadly AIDS episode controls and life saving. Yet, this type of HIV therapeutics is incurable. HIV/AIDS patients need to take HAART medications regularly and even life-long. To counteract this therapeutic drawback, more revolutionary efforts (different angles of therapeutic modes/attempts) are urgently needed. In this article, the major progresses and drawbacks of HIV/AIDS chemotherapy (HAART) to HIV/AIDS patients have been discussed. Future trends (updating pathogenesis study, next generations of drug developments, new drug target discovery, different scientific disciplinary and so on) are highlighted. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Design and operation of the national home health aide survey: 2007-2008.

Science.gov (United States)

Bercovitz, Anita; Moss, Abigail J; Sengupta, Manisha; Harris-Kojetin, Lauren D; Squillace, Marie R; Emily, Rosenoff; Branden, Laura

2010-03-01

This report provides an overview of the National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS), the first national probability survey of home health aides. NHHAS was designed to provide national estimates of home health aides who provided assistance in activities of daily living (ADLs) and were directly employed by agencies that provide home health and/or hospice care. This report discusses the need for and objectives of the survey, the design process, the survey methods, and data availability. METHODS NHHAS, a multistage probability sample survey, was conducted as a supplement to the 2007 National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS). Agencies providing home health and/or hospice care were sampled, and then aides employed by these agencies were sampled and interviewed by telephone. Survey topics included recruitment, training, job history, family life, client relations, work-related injuries, and demographics. NHHAS was virtually identical to the 2004 National Nursing Assistant Survey of certified nursing assistants employed in sampled nursing homes with minor changes to account for differences in workplace environment and responsibilities. RESULTS From September 2007 to April 2008, interviews were completed with 3,416 aides. A public-use data file that contains the interview responses, sampling weights, and design variables is available. The NHHAS overall response rate weighted by the inverse of the probability of selection was 41 percent. This rate is the product of the weighted first-stage agency response rate of 57 percent (i.e., weighted response rate of 59 percent for agency participation in NHHCS times the weighted response rate of 97 percent for agencies participating in NHHCS that also participated in NHHAS) and the weighted second-stage aide response rate of 72 percent to NHHAS.

Expanding the generation and use of economic and financial data to improve HIV program planning and efficiency: a global perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Holmes, Charles B; Atun, Rifat; Avila, Carlos; Blandford, John M

2011-08-01

Cost information is needed at multiple levels of health care systems to inform the public health response to HIV. To date, most attention has been paid to identifying the cost drivers of providing antiretroviral treatment, and these data have driven interventions that have been successful in reducing drug and human resource costs. The need for further cost information, especially for less well-studied areas such as HIV prevention, is particularly acute given global budget constraints and ongoing efforts to extract the greatest possible value from money spent on the response. Cost information can be collected from multiple perspectives and levels of the health care system (site, program, and national levels), and it is critical to choose the appropriate methodology in order to generate the appropriate information for decision-making. Organizations such as United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and other organizations are working together to bridge the divide between the fields of economics and HIV program implementation by accelerating the collection of cost data and building further local demand and capacity for their use.

An Analysis of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism in the Context of Corporate Social Responsibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Buzar Stipe

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The author analyzes the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism in the context of corporate social responsibility and the need for discussing this topic in ethical codes within the business and tourism sector. The text first offers an overview of the fundamental ethical concepts in business ethics and corporate social responsibility and briefly conceptualizes the relationship between these two fields. At the end, the author analyzes the content of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism with emphasis on the elements pertaining to corporate social responsibility, after which he offers a critical opinion about the contribution of the aforemntioned code.

DEVELOPMENT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY UNDER AGGRAVATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ISSUES

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N. Grazhevska

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the role and importance of corporate social responsibility as an important mechanism for overcoming the crisis of the welfare state and to mitigate the social problems caused by the world globalization processes. The experience of post-socialist countries, the Baltic States and Ukraine in this field is analyzed and barriers to effective implementation of CSR in the national economy are identified. The priority of the state policy to promote socially responsible business behavior in Ukraine is proved.

Can AIDS stigma be reduced to poverty stigma? Exploring Zimbabwean children's representations of poverty and AIDS

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, C; Skovdal, M; Mupambireyi, Z; Madanhire, C; Robertson, L; Nyamukapa, C A; Gregson, S

2012-01-01

Objective We use children's drawings to investigate social stigmatization of AIDS-affected and poverty-affected children by their peers, in the light of suggestions that the stigmatization of AIDS-affected children might derive more from the poverty experienced by these children than from their association with AIDS. Methods A qualitative study, in rural Zimbabwe, used draw-and-write techniques to elicit children's (10–12 years) representations of AIDS-affected children (n= 30) and poverty-affected children (n= 33) in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Results Representations of children affected by AIDS and by poverty differed significantly. The main problems facing AIDS-affected children were said to be the psychosocial humiliations of AIDS stigma and children's distress about sick relatives. Contrastingly, poverty-affected children were depicted as suffering from physical and material neglect and deprivation. Children affected by AIDS were described as caregivers of parents whom illness prevented from working. This translated into admiration and respect for children's active contribution to household survival. Poverty-affected children were often portrayed as more passive victims of their guardians' inability or unwillingness to work or to prioritize their children's needs, with these children having fewer opportunities to exercise agency in response to their plight. Conclusions The nature of children's stigmatization of their AIDS-affected peers may often be quite distinct from poverty stigma, in relation to the nature of suffering (primarily psychosocial and material respectively), the opportunities for agency offered by each affliction, and the opportunities each condition offers for affected children to earn the respect of their peers and community. We conclude that the particular nature of AIDS stigma offers greater opportunities for stigma reduction than poverty stigma. PMID:21985490

Can AIDS stigma be reduced to poverty stigma? Exploring Zimbabwean children's representations of poverty and AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, C; Skovdal, M; Mupambireyi, Z; Madanhire, C; Robertson, L; Nyamukapa, C A; Gregson, S

2012-09-01

We use children's drawings to investigate social stigmatization of AIDS-affected and poverty-affected children by their peers, in the light of suggestions that the stigmatization of AIDS-affected children might derive more from the poverty experienced by these children than from their association with AIDS. A qualitative study, in rural Zimbabwe, used draw-and-write techniques to elicit children's (10-12 years) representations of AIDS-affected children (n= 30) and poverty-affected children (n= 33) in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Representations of children affected by AIDS and by poverty differed significantly. The main problems facing AIDS-affected children were said to be the psychosocial humiliations of AIDS stigma and children's distress about sick relatives. Contrastingly, poverty-affected children were depicted as suffering from physical and material neglect and deprivation. Children affected by AIDS were described as caregivers of parents whom illness prevented from working. This translated into admiration and respect for children's active contribution to household survival. Poverty-affected children were often portrayed as more passive victims of their guardians' inability or unwillingness to work or to prioritize their children's needs, with these children having fewer opportunities to exercise agency in response to their plight. The nature of children's stigmatization of their AIDS-affected peers may often be quite distinct from poverty stigma, in relation to the nature of suffering (primarily psychosocial and material respectively), the opportunities for agency offered by each affliction, and the opportunities each condition offers for affected children to earn the respect of their peers and community. We conclude that the particular nature of AIDS stigma offers greater opportunities for stigma reduction than poverty stigma. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

"We talk of AIDS because we love life": a stakeholder assessment of HIV/AIDS organizations in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Science.gov (United States)

Spaulding, Alicen B; Brieger, William R

This stakeholder assessment of HIV/AIDS service providing institutions in Argentina offers insights into the HIV/AIDS crisis in Spanish-speaking Latin America from an institutional level and makes recommendations for strengthening the work and functioning of these institutions. This stakeholder assessment was conducted to determine how HIV/AIDS prevention and management in Argentina affects and is affected by relevant HIV/AIDS institutions. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 key leaders of organizations working in HIV/AIDS prevention in Buenos Aires including non-governmental, governmental, and academic institutions. Analyses of interviewee comments are presented according to four major themes: network connections, program resources, perceptions of success, and challenges. Key findings include the need for strengthening formal networks, increasing the involvement of other non-AIDS related social institutions in promoting HIV prevention, finding more sustainable funding options, working more effectively with the public sector to create policies and regulations favorable to the HIV/AIDS field, and addressing the lack of perceived susceptibility to HIV/AIDS in Argentine culture. From leaders' comments, recommendations are made for strengthening the HIV/AIDS network among key institutions including adapting the UNAIDS "Three Ones" principal to create one crosssector office responsible for coordinating HIV/AIDS work, formalizing agreements with institutions outside of Buenos Aires, increasing the role of schools in HIV/AIDS awareness, and designing programs that address lack of perceived susceptibility to HIV/AIDS among Argentines.

Less pretension, more ambition: Development policy in times of globalization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Lieshout, P.; Went, R.; Kremer, M.

2010-01-01

In recent years, development aid has become the subject of much discussion. This urged the WRR to examine in detail what form development aid should take in the era of globalization. On the basis of interviews with experts and an extensive literature survey, the WRR produced a report presenting

Dedicated health systems strengthening of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria: an analysis of grants.

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Victoria Y; Tsai, Feng-Jen J; Shroff, Zubin C; Nakahara, Branden; Vargha, Nabil; Weathers, Scott

2017-01-01

This study aims to understand the determinants of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria's dedicated channel for health systems strengthening (HSS) funding across countries and to analyze their health system priorities expressed in budgets and performance indicators. We obtained publicly available data for disease-specific and HSS grants from the Global Fund over 2004-2013 prior to the new funding model. Regression analysis was employed to assess the determinants of dedicated HSS funding across 111 countries. Documents for 27 dedicated HSS grants including budgets and performance indicators were collected, and activities were analyzed by health system functions. HSS funding per capita is significantly associated with TB and HIV funding per capita, but not per capita income and health worker density. Of 27 dedicated HSS grants, 11 had line-item budgets publicly available, in which health workforce and medical products form the majority (89% or US$132 million of US$148 million) of funds. Yet these areas accounted for 41.7% (215) of total 516 performance indicators. Health worker densities were not correlated with HSS funding, despite the emphasis on health workforce in budgets and performance indicators. Priorities in health systems in line-item budgets differ from the numbers of indicators used. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Premature emphysema in AIDS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuhlman, J.E.; Fishman, E.K.; Zerhouni, E.A.; Knowles, M.

1988-01-01

The CT scans of 55 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were reviewed for evidence of pulmonary emphysema. While the average age of patients in this series was 38 years, 25 of the 55 patients, or 45%, demonstrated CT evidence of emphysema. CT findings suggestive of emphysema included areas of low-attenuation, blebs and/or vascular disruption. The authors conclude there is an increased incidence of CT-detectable pulmonary emphysema that is premature for age in patients with AIDS. Destruction of pulmonary parenchyma may represent the response of the lung to repeated pulmonary infections or may be a direct result of the human immunodeficiency virus

Exploring Opportunities for Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

that this programme was mainly meant to spread messages of HIV/AIDS ... communication skills, responsible decision-making, and assertiveness; and it should ... of responsible citizenship and in nurturing creative and emotional development.

Reducing Deviance Through Youths' Mutual Aid Group Dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheung, Chau-kiu; Ngai, Steven Sek-yum

2016-01-01

The mutual aid group, as supported by the social worker, emerges to play a vital role in helping group members reduce their deviance or behavioral problem. However, how the collaboration of the group and social worker accomplishes the reduction has remained uncharted. Based on social capital theory, mutual aid and cohesion within the group and social workers' specific aid for the group are likely responsible for the reduction. The test of such hypotheses relies on a two-wave panel survey of the members of 60 mutual aid groups who had deviant behavioral problems, located in Hong Kong, China. These groups had 241 youths completing both initial and 1-year follow-up surveys. Results manifested the direct or unconditional contributions of mutual aid, group cohesion, and social workers' specific aid to reducing deviance. Hence, social workers can enhance the effectiveness of the mutual aid group in reducing youths' deviance. © The Author(s) 2014.

Representations of HIV/AIDS management in South African newspapers.

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Catherine; Gibbs, Andy

2008-07-01

In South Africa, numerous strong policy statements emphasise the importance of involving communities in HIV/AIDS management, yet in practice such involvement tends to be tokenistic and minimal. Social representations in the public sphere constitute the symbolic dimension within which responses to HIV and AIDS are conceptualised and transformed into action. Through an analysis of newspaper articles, we explore the dominant representations of HIV/AIDS management circulating in the South African public sphere and examine how community engagement is depicted. We highlight the way media representations reflect narrow understandings of HIV and AIDS as a predominantly medical problem, while depicting HIV/AIDS management as a top-down activity dominated by prominent individuals, such as national leaders, health professionals and philanthropists, thus marginalising the role played by communities, who are often depicted as passive recipients of interventions by active outsiders. These representations fail to reflect the key role played by members of grassroots communities in responding to the HIV epidemic. Such representations provide flawed conceptual tools for shaping responses to the epidemic, given that HIV-related programmes are unlikely to have optimal outcomes unless they resonate with the perceived needs and interests of their target communities, as we contend that effective HIV/AIDS management is best achieved through active participation by communities in HIV/AIDS management strategies. We discuss the implications of a more 'civic-minded journalism.'

The end of the era of generosity? Global health amid economic crisis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Garrett Laurie

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract In the past decade donor commitments to health have increased by 200 percent. Correspondingly, there has been a swell of new players in the global health landscape. The unprecedented, global response to a single disease, HIV/AIDS, has been responsible for a substantial portion of this boon. Numerous health success have followed this windfall of funding and attention, yet the food, fuel, and economic crises of 2008 have shown the vulnerabilities of health and development initiatives focused on short term wins and reliant on a constant flow of foreign funding. For too long, the international community has responded to global health and development challenges with emergency solutions that often reflect the donor's priorities, values, and political leanings, rather than funding durable health systems that can withstand crises. Progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals has stalled in many countries. Disease specific initiatives have weakened health systems and limited efforts to improve maternal and child health. As we enter this era of scarce resources, there is a need to return to the foundations of the Alma Ata Declaration signed thirty years ago with the goal of providing universal access to primary healthcare. The global health community must now objectively evaluate how we can most effectively respond to the crises of 2008 and take advantage of this moment of extraordinary attention for global health and translate it into long term, sustainable health improvements for all.

An Analysis of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism in the Context of Corporate Social Responsibility

OpenAIRE

Buzar Stipe

2015-01-01

The author analyzes the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism in the context of corporate social responsibility and the need for discussing this topic in ethical codes within the business and tourism sector. The text first offers an overview of the fundamental ethical concepts in business ethics and corporate social responsibility and briefly conceptualizes the relationship between these two fields. At the end, the author analyzes the content of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism with emphasis...

United Nations Global Compact as a Corporate Social Responsibility Mechanism: A Case Study of Krüger A/S

OpenAIRE

Bereng, Reitumetse Esther

2017-01-01

Abstract: Over the years, copious research has been done on variety of voluntary sustainable development initiatives including Corporate Social Responsibility. This research takes a different route to Corporate Social Responsibility, by looking into this voluntary initiative through the spectrum of the United Nations Global Compact. It looks into the United Nations Global Compact as a mechanism for Corporate Social Responsibility in order to find out the true motives behind Krüger A/S engagin...

Global Transcriptomic Analysis of the Response of Corynebacterium glutamicum to Vanillin.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Can; Pan, Junfeng; Yang, Xiaobing; Guo, Chenghao; Ding, Wei; Si, Meiru; Zhang, Yi; Shen, Xihui; Wang, Yao

2016-01-01

Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant and renewable resource for biofuels and bio-based chemicals. Vanillin is one of the major phenolic inhibitors in biomass production using lignocellulose. To assess the response of Corynebacterium glutamicum to vanillin stress, we performed a global transcriptional response analysis. The transcriptional data showed that the vanillin stress not only affected the genes involved in degradation of vanillin, but also differentially regulated several genes related to the stress response, ribosome/translation, protein secretion, and the cell envelope. Moreover, deletion of the sigH or msrA gene in C. glutamicum resulted in a decrease in cell viability under vanillin stress. These insights will promote further engineering of model industrial strains, with enhanced tolerance or degradation ability to vanillin to enable suitable production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass.

The corporate social responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry: idealism without illusion and realism without resignation.

Science.gov (United States)

Leisinger, Klaus M

2005-10-01

In recent years society has come to expect more from the "socially-responsible" company and the global HIV/AIDS pandemic in particular has resulted in some critics saying that the "Big Pharma" companies have not been living up to their social responsibilities. Corporate social responsibility can be understood as the socio-economic product of the organizational division of labor in complex modern society. Global poverty and poor health conditions are in the main the responsibilities of the world's national governments and international governmental organizations, which possess society's mandate and appropriate organizational capabilities. Private enterprises have neither the societal mandate nor the organizational capabilities to feed the poor or provide health care to the sick in their home countries or in the developing world. Nevertheless, private enterprises do have responsibilities to society that can be categorized as what they must do, what they ought do, and what they can do.

The Global Fund's resource allocation decisions for HIV programmes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Avdeeva, Olga; Lazarus, Jeff; Aziz, Mohamed Abdel

2011-01-01

Between 2002 and 2010, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's investment in HIV increased substantially to reach US$12 billion. We assessed how the Global Fund's investments in HIV programmes were targeted to key populations in relation to disease burden and national income....

HIV/AIDS awareness and risk behavior among students in Semey, Kazakhstan: a cross-sectional survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahlm Clas

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Until recently, young people in Kazakhstan have been only moderately affected by the global HIV epidemic. Today, however, the HIV epidemic in Central Asia is one of the most rapidly increasing epidemics in the world. It is mainly concentrated to vulnerable groups such as intravenous drug users, sex workers, the purchasers of sexual services and the financially marginalized. Young, sexually active people may however be the gateway for the epidemic to the general population, and knowledge about their attitudes and behavior is therefore important in planning preventive measures. Methods To gather information about young students and their attitudes and knowledge about HIV/AIDS, we collected 600 structured questionnaires and made 23 semi-structured interviews among three groups of students. Response rate was 99%. Results Almost 99% of the respondents had heard of HIV/AIDS, and 89% could identify ways to protect oneself against sexually transmitted HIV/AIDS. The main routes of transmission, sexual contact without condom and intravenous drug use, were both identified by 97% of the students. Twenty-five percent of the female students and 75% of the male students had had one or more sexual partners. More than 30% of the young men had purchased sex, and homosexuality was widely stigmatized. Conclusion Risks for the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people in Kazakhstan include prostitution as well as stigmatization of the HIV positive and of homosexuals. Protective factors are good knowledge about risks and protection, and opportunities to talk and gather information about sexuality and HIV/AIDS.

The World Bank and Fragile States: Dynamics of Cooperation and Aid Structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Solomatin A.

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The eradication of extreme poverty in fragile states is one of the central problems of global governance at the present time. Development of these states is hindered by instability, weak public and social institutions or ongoing conflicts and violence. The World Bank is a key partner of fragile states, which account for almost a third of the world’s population. This article is a continuation of research exploring the evolution of conceptual and practical approaches by the World Bank to cooperation with fragile states. Its methodology is based on a multilevel analysis of the securitization of foreign aid as proposed by J. Lind and J. Howell of the London School of Economics. The main focus of this examination is on the dynamics of the change of scale and structure of the World Bank’s aid to fragile states in comparison with global armed trends of providing aid to fragile states as well. This article concludes that statements about the priority of the Bank’s work in fragile states have not yet been realized in practice. The Bank remains committed to the standard approach to working with this group of recipients, which involves serious risks. The World Bank leans toward supporting projects in fragile states which increases volatility and reduces aid predictability. This trend undermines the development potentials of recipient states. Attention is drawn to political factors influencing aid flows to fragile states and particularly to the tendency of increasing the share of aid provided to fragile states through multi donor trust funds rather than through the mechanisms of the International Development Association (IDA. This trend indicates that the Bank is no longer a central point of aid distribution to the recipients, pointing to the lack of trust of donor states in the existing mechanisms and rules of aid distribution. It also reveals the expanding role of donors’ strategic interests in the process of choosing recipients of World Bank aid.

Physicians and AIDS care: does knowledge influence their attitude ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Adequate knowledge, positive attitude, and feeling of comfort are important factors in providing compassionate care to patients. The purpose of this study was to assess physicians' knowledge, attitude and global comfort in caring for patients with AIDS (PWA), to determine the sociodemographic variables that could influence ...

First aid on field management in youth football.

Science.gov (United States)

Krutsch, Werner; Voss, Andreas; Gerling, Stephan; Grechenig, Stephan; Nerlich, Michael; Angele, Peter

2014-09-01

Sufficient first aid equipment is essential to treat injuries on football fields. Deficits in first aid on field are still present in youth football. Injury pattern in youth football over one season and first aid equipment in youth football were analyzed, retrospectively. PRICE and ABC procedure served as basic principles in emergency management to assess the need for first aid equipment on field. Considering financial limits and adapted on youth football injuries, sufficient first aid equipment for youth football was configured. 84% of 73 participating youth football teams had their own first aid kit, but the majority of them were insufficiently equipped. Team coaches were in 60% of all youth teams responsible for using first aid equipment. The injury evaluation presented 922 injuries to 1,778 youth players over one season. Frequently presented types of injury were contusions and sprains of the lower extremity. Based on the analyzed injury data in youth football, first aid equipment with 90 € is sufficient for 100% of all occurred youth football injuries. Current first aid equipment in youth football is insufficient. Scientific-based first aid equipment with 90 € is adequate to serve all injuries. Football coaches need education in first aid management.

Ethical Challenges Facing Greenland in the Present Era of Globalization: Towards Global Responsibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacob Dahl Rendtorff

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Recently, the developments of ethics and politics in the Arctic region have again become an issue for international discussion. One main issue is the problem of climate change and sustainability of the Arctic region. This problem is linked to the issue of exploitation of natural resources in the Arctic region, not at least in Greenland. Indeed, the general issue is how we should define ethics of the environment and sustainability as a general principle for the Arctic region. It is important to discuss what is at stake and how we define the problem in relation to the different participating stakeholders. This paper deals with these problems as a case for global ethics and it proposes a vision of ethical and political responsibility for sustainable development in order to deal with such problems.

Measuring the Impact of the Human Rights on Health in Global Health Financing.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Sara L M

2015-12-10

In response to new scientific developments, UNAIDS, WHO, and global health financing institutions have joined together to promote a "fast-track" global scale-up of testing and treatment programs. They have set ambitious targets toward the goal of ending the three diseases by 2030. These numerical indicators, based on infectious disease modeling, can assist in measuring countries' progressive realization of the right to health. However, they only nominally reference the catastrophic impact that human rights abuses have on access to health services; they also do not measure the positive impact provided by law reform, legal aid, and other health-related human rights programs. Drawing on experience at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has incorporated expanded stakeholder consultation and human rights programming into its grants, the article argues that addressing human rights barriers to access is often an ad hoc activity occurring on the sidelines of a health grantmaking process that has focused on the scale-up of biomedical programs to meet global health indicators. To ensure that these biomedical programs have impact, UN agencies and health financing mechanisms must begin to more systematically and proactively integrate human rights policy and practice into their modeling and measurement tools. Copyright © 2015 Davis. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

African Journal of AIDS Research - Vol 13, No 3 (2014)

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Developing and implementing global gender policy to reduce HIV and AIDS in low- and middle -income countries: Policy makers' perspectives · EMAIL FULL TEXT EMAIL FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT. Shannon Olinyk, Andrew Gibbs, Catherine Campbell.

Factors influencing global antiretroviral procurement prices.

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Wirtz, Veronika J; Forsythe, Steven; Valencia-Mendoza, Atanacio; Bautista-Arredondo, Sergio

2009-11-18

Antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) are one of the most costly parts of HIV/AIDS treatment. Many countries are struggling to provide universal access to ARVs for all people living with HIV and AIDS. Although substantial price reductions of ARVs have occurred, especially between 2002 and 2008, achieving sustainable access for the next several decades remains a major challenge for most low- and middle-income countries. The objectives of the present study were twofold: first, to analyze global ARV prices between 2005 and 2008 and associated factors, particularly procurement methods and key donor policies on ARV procurement efficiency; second, to discuss the options of procurement processes and policies that should be considered when implementing or reforming access to ARV programs. An ARV-medicines price-analysis was carried out using the Global Price Reporting Mechanism from the World Health Organization. For a selection of 12 ARVs, global median prices and price variation were calculated. Linear regression models for each ARV were used to identify factors that were associated with lower procurement prices. Logistic regression models were used to identify the characteristics of those countries which procure below the highest and lowest direct manufactured costs. Three key factors appear to have an influence on a country's ARV prices: (a) whether the product is generic or not; (b) the socioeconomic status of the country; (c) whether the country is a member of the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative. Factors which did not influence procurement below the highest direct manufactured costs were HIV prevalence, procurement volume, whether the country belongs to the least developed countries or a focus country of the United States President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. One of the principal mechanisms that can help to lower prices for ARV over the next several decades is increasing procurement efficiency. Benchmarking prices could be one useful tool to achieve this.

Political economy of decentralising HIV and AIDS treatment services to primary healthcare facilities in three Nigerian states.

Science.gov (United States)

Mbachu, Chinyere; Onwujekwe, Obinna; Ezumah, Nkoli; Ajayi, Olayinka; Sanwo, Olusola; Uzochukwu, Benjamin

2016-09-01

Decentralisation is defined as the dispersion, distribution or transfer of resources, functions and decision-making power from a central authority to regional and local authorities. It is usually accompanied by assignment of accountability and responsibility for results. Fundamental to understanding decentralisation is learning what motivates central governments to give up power and resources to local governments, and the practical significance of this on their positions regarding decentralisation. This study examined key political and institutional influences on role-players' capacity to support decentralisation of HIV and AIDS treatment services to primary healthcare facilities, and implications for sustainability. In-depth interviews were conducted with 55 purposively selected key informants, drawn from three Nigerian states that were at different stages of decentralising HIV and AIDS treatment services to primary care facilities. Key informants represented different categories of role-players involved in HIV and AIDS control programmes. Thematic framework analysis of data was done. Support for decentralisation of HIV and AIDS treatment services to primary healthcare facilities was substantial among different categories of actors. Political factors such as the local and global agenda for health, political tenure and party affiliations, and institutional factors such as consolidation of decision-making power and improvements in career trajectories, influenced role-players support for decentralisation of HIV and AIDS treatment services. It is feasible and acceptable to decentralise HIV and AIDS treatment services to primary healthcare facilities, to help improve coverage. However, role-players' support largely depends on how well the reform aligns with political structures and current institutional practices.

Framing of AIDS in Africa: press-state relations, HIV/AIDS news, and journalistic advocacy in four sub-Saharan Anglophone newspapers.

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D'Angelo, Paul; Pollock, John C; Kiernicki, Kristen; Shaw, Donna

2013-01-01

This study offers the first systematic analysis of the impact of press-state relations, or media systems, on the HIV/AIDS news agenda in African news coverage. The premise is that media systems play a determining role in the degree to which journalists can independently advocate for social change when covering HIV/AIDS. Drawing on comparative research, four sub-Saharan countries were categorized into two media systems: Contained Democratic (South Africa, Nigeria) and Repressive Autocratic (Zimbabwe, Kenya). A sample of HIV/AIDS stories (n = 393) published from 2002-2007 in each country's leading Anglophone newspaper was content analyzed. Across all coverage, the topic of social costs was framed more for the responsibility borne by nongovernmental agents than governmental agents. In Contained Democratic media systems, however, story emphasis shifted toward government agents taking responsibility for addressing the social costs of HIV/AIDS. Prevention campaigns were framed more as progress than decline across all newspapers; however, campaigns were reported as being more efficacious in Contained Democratic systems than in Repressive Autocratic systems. No impact of media system on framing of medical developments was found. Results show the value of comparative analysis in understanding the agenda-setting process: with greater emphasis on positive efficacy and government initiative, the news agenda in Contained Democratic media systems can facilitate stronger positive societal-level responses than the news agenda in Repressive Autocratic media systems.

Global Transcriptome Analysis of Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes in Response to Zika Virus Infection.

Science.gov (United States)

Etebari, Kayvan; Hegde, Shivanand; Saldaña, Miguel A; Widen, Steven G; Wood, Thomas G; Asgari, Sassan; Hughes, Grant L

2017-01-01

Zika virus (ZIKV) of the Flaviviridae family is a recently emerged mosquito-borne virus that has been implicated in the surge of the number of microcephaly instances in South America. The recent rapid spread of the virus led to its declaration as a global health emergency by the World Health Organization. The virus is transmitted mainly by the mosquito Aedes aegypti , which is also the vector of dengue virus; however, little is known about the interactions of the virus with the mosquito vector. In this study, we investigated the transcriptome profiles of whole A. aegypti mosquitoes in response to ZIKV infection at 2, 7, and 14 days postinfection using transcriptome sequencing. Results showed changes in the abundance of a large number of transcripts at each time point following infection, with 18 transcripts commonly changed among the three time points. Gene ontology analysis revealed that most of the altered genes are involved in metabolic processes, cellular processes, and proteolysis. In addition, 486 long intergenic noncoding RNAs that were altered upon ZIKV infection were identified. Further, we found changes of a number of potential mRNA target genes correlating with those of altered host microRNAs. The outcomes provide a basic understanding of A. aegypti responses to ZIKV and help to determine host factors involved in replication or mosquito host antiviral response against the virus. IMPORTANCE Vector-borne viruses pose great risks to human health. Zika virus has recently emerged as a global threat, rapidly expanding its distribution. Understanding the interactions of the virus with mosquito vectors at the molecular level is vital for devising new approaches in inhibiting virus transmission. In this study, we embarked on analyzing the transcriptional response of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to Zika virus infection. Results showed large changes in both coding and long noncoding RNAs. Analysis of these genes showed similarities with other flaviviruses, including

Preventive HIV/AIDS education through physical education: reflections from Zambia.

Science.gov (United States)

Njelesani, Donald

2011-01-01

Governments, UN agencies and international and local NGOs have mounted a concerted effort to remobilise sport as a vehicle for broad, sustainable social development. This resonates with the call for sport to be a key component in national and international development objectives. Missing in these efforts is an explicit focus on physical education within state schools, which still enroll most children in the global South. This article focuses on research into one of the few instances where physical education within the national curriculum is being revitalised as part of the growing interest in leveraging the appeal of sport and play as means to address social development challenges such as HIV/AIDS. It examines the response to the Zambian government's 2006 Declaration of Mandatory Physical Education (with a preventive education focus on HIV/AIDS) by personnel charged with its implementation and illustrates weaknesses within the education sector. The use of policy instruments such as decrees/mandates helps ensure the mainstreaming of physical education in development. However, the urgency required to respond to new mandates, particularly those sanctioned by the highest levels of government, can result in critical pieces of the puzzle being ignored, thereby undermining the potential of physical education (and sport) within development.

Globalization and Health: Exploring the opportunities and constraints for health arising from globalization

Science.gov (United States)

Yach, Derek

2005-01-01

The tremendous benefits which have been conferred to almost 5 billion people through improved technologies and knowledge highlights the concomitant challenge of bringing these changes to the 1 billion people living mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia who are yet to benefit. There is a growing awareness of the need to reduce human suffering and of the necessary participation of governments, non-government organizations and industry within this process. This awareness has recently translated into new funding mechanisms to address HIV/Aids and vaccines, a global push for debt relief and better trade opportunities for the poorest countries, and recognition of how global norms that address food safety, infectious diseases and tobacco benefit all. 'Globalization and Health' will encourage an exchange of views on how the global architecture for health governance needs to changes in the light of global threats and opportunities. PMID:15847700

Globalization and Health: Exploring the opportunities and constraints for health arising from globalization.

Science.gov (United States)

Yach, Derek

2005-04-22

The tremendous benefits which have been conferred to almost 5 billion people through improved technologies and knowledge highlights the concomitant challenge of bringing these changes to the 1 billion people living mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia who are yet to benefit. There is a growing awareness of the need to reduce human suffering and of the necessary participation of governments, non-government organizations and industry within this process. This awareness has recently translated into new funding mechanisms to address HIV/Aids and vaccines, a global push for debt relief and better trade opportunities for the poorest countries, and recognition of how global norms that address food safety, infectious diseases and tobacco benefit all. 'Globalization and Health' will encourage an exchange of views on how the global architecture for health governance needs to changes in the light of global threats and opportunities.

The global response to HIV in men who have sex with men.

Science.gov (United States)

Beyrer, Chris; Baral, Stefan D; Collins, Chris; Richardson, Eugene T; Sullivan, Patrick S; Sanchez, Jorge; Trapence, Gift; Katabira, Elly; Kazatchkine, Michel; Ryan, Owen; Wirtz, Andrea L; Mayer, Kenneth H

2016-07-09

Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) continue to have disproportionately high burdens of HIV infection in countries of low, middle, and high income in 2016. 4 years after publication of a Lancet Series on MSM and HIV, progress on reducing HIV incidence, expanding sustained access to treatment, and realising human rights gains for MSM remains markedly uneven and fraught with challenges. Incidence densities in MSM are unacceptably high in countries as diverse as China, Kenya, Thailand, the UK, and the USA, with substantial disparities observed in specific communities of MSM including young and minority populations. Although some settings have achieved sufficient coverage of treatment, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and human rights protections for sexual and gender minorities to change the trajectory of the HIV epidemic in MSM, these are exceptions. The roll-out of PrEP has been notably slow and coverage nowhere near what will be required for full use of this new preventive approach. Despite progress on issues such as marriage equality and decriminalisation of same-sex behaviour in some countries, there has been a marked increase in anti-gay legislation in many countries, including Nigeria, Russia, and The Gambia. The global epidemic of HIV in MSM is ongoing, and global efforts to address it remain insufficient. This must change if we are ever to truly achieve an AIDS-free generation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Shared Rights--Shared Responsibilities. European Consultation on Collaboration between Government Sectors, Nongovernmental Organizations and Ethnic Minority Organizations in AIDS Prevention, Support and Care (London, United Kingdom, October 5-9, 1995).

Science.gov (United States)

Naz Foundation, London (England).

A consultation was sponsored by the European Commission, the World Health Organization's Global Programme on AIDS, and the United Kingdom Department of Health to explore the specific needs of ethnic minority communities in European countries for culturally and linguistically appropriate Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune…

A perturbed martingale approach to global optimization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sarkar, Saikat [Computational Mechanics Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012 (India); Roy, Debasish, E-mail: royd@civil.iisc.ernet.in [Computational Mechanics Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012 (India); Vasu, Ram Mohan [Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012 (India)

2014-08-01

A new global stochastic search, guided mainly through derivative-free directional information computable from the sample statistical moments of the design variables within a Monte Carlo setup, is proposed. The search is aided by imparting to the directional update term additional layers of random perturbations referred to as ‘coalescence’ and ‘scrambling’. A selection step, constituting yet another avenue for random perturbation, completes the global search. The direction-driven nature of the search is manifest in the local extremization and coalescence components, which are posed as martingale problems that yield gain-like update terms upon discretization. As anticipated and numerically demonstrated, to a limited extent, against the problem of parameter recovery given the chaotic response histories of a couple of nonlinear oscillators, the proposed method appears to offer a more rational, more accurate and faster alternative to most available evolutionary schemes, prominently the particle swarm optimization. - Highlights: • Evolutionary global optimization is posed as a perturbed martingale problem. • Resulting search via additive updates is a generalization over Gateaux derivatives. • Additional layers of random perturbation help avoid trapping at local extrema. • The approach ensures efficient design space exploration and high accuracy. • The method is numerically assessed via parameter recovery of chaotic oscillators.

Investing to end epidemics: the role of the Global Fund to control TB by 2030.

Science.gov (United States)

Kunii, Osamu; Yassin, Mohammed A; Wandwalo, Eliud

2016-03-01

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria provides over three-quarters of all international financing towards TB programs with US$4.7 billion disbursed, supporting provision of treatment for 13.2 million patients with smear-positive TB and 210 000 patients with multidrug-resistant TB in over 100 countries since 2002. In 2013, the Global Fund launched a new funding model that, among others, is advancing strategic investments to maximize impact, addressing 'missing' TB cases, enhancing a synergistic response to TB/HIV dual epidemics, and building resilient and sustainable systems for health. A new Global Fund Strategy is under development through consultation with various stakeholders, with which the Global Fund will work to play a more catalytic role and foster innovations to end the TB epidemic. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Global warming: Economic policy responses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dornbusch, R.; Poterba, J.M.

1991-01-01

This volume contains the proceedings of a conference that brought together economic experts from Europe, the US, Latin America, and Japan to evaluate key issues in the policy debate in global warming. The following issues are at the center of debates on alternative policies to address global warming: scientific evidence on the magnitude of global warming and the extent to which it is due to human activities; availability of economic tools to control the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, and how vigorously should they be applied; and political economy considerations which influence the design of an international program for controlling greenhouse gases. Many perspectives are offered on the approaches to remedying environmental problems that are currently being pursued in Europe and the Pacific Rim. Deforestation in the Amazon is discussed, as well as ways to slow it. Public finance assessments are presented of both the domestic and international policy issues raised by plans to levy a tax on the carbon emissions from various fossil fuels. Nine chapters have been processed separately for inclusion in the appropriate data bases

IN DEFENCE OF RATIONAL AIDS ACTIVISM OpInIOn

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2008-06-19

Jun 19, 2008 ... community involvement beyond the tokenism of identity politics. ... Yet there are some AIDS activists whose actions and .... responsible for this delay in answering a critical question in AIDS .... an entrepreneur who has established multinational .... African social scientist who was an investigator in the.

Response to: Practice of first aid in burn related injuries in a developing country.

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Benjamin; Amin, Kavit; Khor, Wee Sim; Khwaja, Nadeem

2015-12-01

Traditional remedies for burns first aid are rarely compliant with current best practice. Greater Manchester is one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the UK. Our burns centre has noted the prevalent use of traditional remedies over recognised first aid prior to presentation. We review traditional burns remedies and highlight the importance of burns first aid education that is accessible to migrant communities. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

Assessment of laboratory test utilization for HIV/AIDS care in urban ...