Serious Games for Health: Features, Challenges, Next Steps.

Science.gov (United States)

Blumberg, Moderators Fran C; Burke, Lauren C; Hodent, Participants Celia; Evans, Michael A; Lane, H Chad; Schell, Jesse

2014-10-01

As articles in this journal have demonstrated over the past 3 years, serious game development continues to flourish as a vehicle for formal and informal health education. How best to characterize a "serious" game remains somewhat elusive in the literature. Many researchers and practitioners view serious games as capitalizing on computer technology and state-of-the-art video graphics as an enjoyable means by which to provide and promote instruction and training, or to facilitate attitude change among its players. We invited four distinguished researchers and practitioners to further discuss with us how they view the characteristics of serious games for health, how those characteristics differ from those for academic purposes, the challenges posed for serious game development among players of different ages, and next steps for the development and empirical examination of the effectiveness of serious games for players' psychological and physical well-being.

Pose-Invariant Face Recognition via RGB-D Images.

Science.gov (United States)

Sang, Gaoli; Li, Jing; Zhao, Qijun

2016-01-01

Three-dimensional (3D) face models can intrinsically handle large pose face recognition problem. In this paper, we propose a novel pose-invariant face recognition method via RGB-D images. By employing depth, our method is able to handle self-occlusion and deformation, both of which are challenging problems in two-dimensional (2D) face recognition. Texture images in the gallery can be rendered to the same view as the probe via depth. Meanwhile, depth is also used for similarity measure via frontalization and symmetric filling. Finally, both texture and depth contribute to the final identity estimation. Experiments on Bosphorus, CurtinFaces, Eurecom, and Kiwi databases demonstrate that the additional depth information has improved the performance of face recognition with large pose variations and under even more challenging conditions.

Overcoming Family Planning Challenges in Africa: Toward Meeting ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

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Overcoming Family Planning Challenges in Africa: Toward Meeting. Unmet Need ... The challenges posed are greater in ... Gaps in meeting women's needs persist especially ..... WHO. Everybody's business: Strengthening health systems to.

Multi-task pose-invariant face recognition.

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Ding, Changxing; Xu, Chang; Tao, Dacheng

2015-03-01

Face images captured in unconstrained environments usually contain significant pose variation, which dramatically degrades the performance of algorithms designed to recognize frontal faces. This paper proposes a novel face identification framework capable of handling the full range of pose variations within ±90° of yaw. The proposed framework first transforms the original pose-invariant face recognition problem into a partial frontal face recognition problem. A robust patch-based face representation scheme is then developed to represent the synthesized partial frontal faces. For each patch, a transformation dictionary is learnt under the proposed multi-task learning scheme. The transformation dictionary transforms the features of different poses into a discriminative subspace. Finally, face matching is performed at patch level rather than at the holistic level. Extensive and systematic experimentation on FERET, CMU-PIE, and Multi-PIE databases shows that the proposed method consistently outperforms single-task-based baselines as well as state-of-the-art methods for the pose problem. We further extend the proposed algorithm for the unconstrained face verification problem and achieve top-level performance on the challenging LFW data set.

Human action recognition based on estimated weak poses

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Gong, Wenjuan; Gonzàlez, Jordi; Roca, Francesc Xavier

2012-12-01

We present a novel method for human action recognition (HAR) based on estimated poses from image sequences. We use 3D human pose data as additional information and propose a compact human pose representation, called a weak pose, in a low-dimensional space while still keeping the most discriminative information for a given pose. With predicted poses from image features, we map the problem from image feature space to pose space, where a Bag of Poses (BOP) model is learned for the final goal of HAR. The BOP model is a modified version of the classical bag of words pipeline by building the vocabulary based on the most representative weak poses for a given action. Compared with the standard k-means clustering, our vocabulary selection criteria is proven to be more efficient and robust against the inherent challenges of action recognition. Moreover, since for action recognition the ordering of the poses is discriminative, the BOP model incorporates temporal information: in essence, groups of consecutive poses are considered together when computing the vocabulary and assignment. We tested our method on two well-known datasets: HumanEva and IXMAS, to demonstrate that weak poses aid to improve action recognition accuracies. The proposed method is scene-independent and is comparable with the state-of-art method.

The challenge of gun control for mental health advocates.

Science.gov (United States)

Pandya, Anand

2013-09-01

Mass shootings, such as the 2012 Newtown massacre, have repeatedly led to political discourse about limiting access to guns for individuals with serious mental illness. Although the political climate after such tragic events poses a considerable challenge to mental health advocates who wish to minimize unsympathetic portrayals of those with mental illness, such media attention may be a rare opportunity to focus attention on risks of victimization of those with serious mental illness and barriers to obtaining psychiatric care. Current federal gun control laws may discourage individuals from seeking psychiatric treatment and describe individuals with mental illness using anachronistic, imprecise, and gratuitously stigmatizing language. This article lays out potential talking points that may be useful after future gun violence.

Enrichment and assessment of the health risks posed by heavy metals in PM1 in Changji, Xinjiang, China.

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Liu, Yu Y; Shen, Ya X; Liu, Cheng; Liu, Hao F

2017-04-16

The present study aims to investigate the influence of human activity on heavy metals in a typical arid urban area of China and assess human health risks posed by heavy metals in PM 1 (particles <1.0 μm in diameter) for different people. In this paper, Changji (Xinjiang, China) was selected as the study area, and samples were collected from March 2014 to March 2015. A total 14 elements in PM 1 were quantified using ICP-MS. An enrichment factor (EF) was used to assess the influence of human activity on the contamination of these metals. The results indicated that Mn was not enriched; Co, Cu, Cr, Ni, Tl, and V were slightly enriched; Mo, Pb, and Sb were moderately enriched; and Ag, As, and Cd were strongly enriched. To assess the health risks associated with inhaling PM 1 , the risk assessment code and loss in life expectancy based on the individual metals were calculated. The results showed that the elements Ag, Cu, Mo, Pb, Sb, Tl, and V in PM 1 posed low levels of non-carcinogenic risks, but these metals may still pose risks to certain susceptible populations. In addition, the results also showed that As, Co, and Cr posed an appreciable carcinogenic risk, while Cd and Ni posed low levels of carcinogenic risk. The total predicted loss of life expectancy caused by the three metals As, Co, and Ni was 63.67 d for the elderly, 30.95 d for adult males, 26.62 d for adult females, and 48.22 d for children. Therefore, the safety of the elderly and children exposed to PM 1 should be given more attention than the safety of adults. The results from this study demonstrate that the health risks posed by heavy metals in PM 1 in Changji, Xinjiang, China should be examined.

Public health challenges and emerging diseases: the case of São Paulo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Silva Luiz Jacintho da

2001-01-01

Full Text Available The author discusses the challenges posed by emerging infectious diseases in 100 years of public health in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. With an advanced and organized public health system, São Paulo responded to the emergence of infectious diseases by creating research institutions and control programs. The late 19th century witnessed the first modern research institution in microbiology, in response to the bubonic plague. A changing economy led to constant changes in ecosystems. The late 20th century presents a wide array of both emerging and rapidly changing infectious diseases. The present situation calls for creative solutions. Ecosystem analysis and more agile epidemiological surveillance are seen as the best alternatives.

Head pose estimation algorithm based on deep learning

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Cao, Yuanming; Liu, Yijun

2017-05-01

Head pose estimation has been widely used in the field of artificial intelligence, pattern recognition and intelligent human-computer interaction and so on. Good head pose estimation algorithm should deal with light, noise, identity, shelter and other factors robustly, but so far how to improve the accuracy and robustness of attitude estimation remains a major challenge in the field of computer vision. A method based on deep learning for pose estimation is presented. Deep learning with a strong learning ability, it can extract high-level image features of the input image by through a series of non-linear operation, then classifying the input image using the extracted feature. Such characteristics have greater differences in pose, while they are robust of light, identity, occlusion and other factors. The proposed head pose estimation is evaluated on the CAS-PEAL data set. Experimental results show that this method is effective to improve the accuracy of pose estimation.

Metals and metalloids in PM10 in Nandan County, Guangxi, China, and the health risks posed.

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Guo, Guanghui; Song, Bo; Xia, Deshang; Yang, Zijie; Wang, Fopeng

2018-03-16

Intense mining, smelting, and tailing activities of polymetallic ore deposits have affected the environment in Nandan County, Guangxi, China. Samples of particulates with aerodynamic diameters low or equal 10 μm (PM 10 ) were collected in Nandan County to investigate the concentrations of and health risks posed by 17 metals and metalloids in the PM 10 . The metal and metalloid concentrations were lower than those found in other industrial cities. The mean Cr concentration was 7.48 ng/m 3 . Significant higher metal and metalloid concentrations were found in PM 10 from mining areas (Dachang and Chehe) than from the control area (Liuzhai) (p metalloids in PM 10 at all the sites were low, but the non-carcinogenic risks posed to children by all the metals and metalloids together exceeded the safe level (i.e., risk value > 1). The carcinogenic risks posed by Cd, Ni, and Pb were negligible at all sites, while As, Co, and Cr posed potential carcinogenic risks to the residents.

Challenges HIV/AIDS poses on the nursing workforce in rural health ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The nurses also indicated that they get very limited support from managers. The effects of all these culminate to a stressed and burnout workforce that is detrimental to health care in the region. Recommendations focused on supporting nurses to cope with caring through provision of work-based support programmes.

[Adoption of new technologies by health services: the challenge of analyzing relevant factors].

Science.gov (United States)

Trindade, Evelinda

2008-05-01

The exponential increase in the incorporation of health technologies has been considered a key factor in increased expenditures by the health sector. Such decisions involve multiple levels and stakeholders. Decentralization has multiplied the decision-making levels, with numerous difficult choices and limited resources. The interrelationship between stakeholders is complex, in creative systems with multiple determinants and confounders. The current review discusses the interaction between the factors influencing the decisions to incorporate technologies by health services, and proposes a structure for their analysis. The application and intensity of these factors in decision-making and the incorporation of products and programs by health services shapes the installed capacity of local and regional networks and modifies the health system. Empirical observation of decision-making and technology incorporation in Brazilian health services poses an important challenge. The structured recognition and measurement of these variables can assist proactive planning of health services.

Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Web Academy Webinar: An Introduction to Lithium Batteries and the Challenges that they Pose to the Waste and Recycling Industry

Science.gov (United States)

This is a webinar page for the Sustainable Management of Materials (SMM) Web Academy webinar titled, An Introduction to Lithium Batteries and the Challenges that they Pose to the Waste and Recycling Industry.

Transdisciplinary Higher Education—A Challenge for Public Health Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandra Krettek

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper highlights and discusses issues associated with transdisciplinary teaching and suggests ways to overcome the challenges posed by different epistemologies, methods, and ethical positions. Our own transdisciplinary teaching experience in public health helped us identify some important questions including (i what is transdisciplinary research in practice, and does methods triangulation yield more valid results?, (ii from a teaching perspective, how do biopsychosocial and medical research differ?, (iii what is the difference between deductive and inductive research, and does each discipline represent a different ethical position?, and (iv does pure inductive research lack theories, and does it require a hypothesis—a “rule of thumb”—on how to proceed? We also suggest ways to facilitate and enhance transdisciplinary teaching, focusing on what unites us and not on what sets us apart, openly underlining and highlighting our differences. Using diverse methodologies, a newly educated transdisciplinary workforce will likely extend current knowledge and facilitate solutions for complex public health issues.

In-the-wild facial expression recognition in extreme poses

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Fei; Zhang, Qian; Zheng, Chi; Qiu, Guoping

2018-04-01

In the computer research area, facial expression recognition is a hot research problem. Recent years, the research has moved from the lab environment to in-the-wild circumstances. It is challenging, especially under extreme poses. But current expression detection systems are trying to avoid the pose effects and gain the general applicable ability. In this work, we solve the problem in the opposite approach. We consider the head poses and detect the expressions within special head poses. Our work includes two parts: detect the head pose and group it into one pre-defined head pose class; do facial expression recognize within each pose class. Our experiments show that the recognition results with pose class grouping are much better than that of direct recognition without considering poses. We combine the hand-crafted features, SIFT, LBP and geometric feature, with deep learning feature as the representation of the expressions. The handcrafted features are added into the deep learning framework along with the high level deep learning features. As a comparison, we implement SVM and random forest to as the prediction models. To train and test our methodology, we labeled the face dataset with 6 basic expressions.

Reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health in Pakistan: challenges and opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhutta, Zulfiqar A; Hafeez, Assad; Rizvi, Arjumand; Ali, Nabeela; Khan, Amanullah; Ahmad, Faatehuddin; Bhutta, Shereen; Hazir, Tabish; Zaidi, Anita; Jafarey, Sadequa N

2013-06-22

Globally, Pakistan has the third highest burden of maternal, fetal, and child mortality. It has made slow progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 and in addressing common social determinants of health. The country also has huge challenges of political fragility, complex security issues, and natural disasters. We undertook an in-depth analysis of Pakistan's progress towards MDGs 4 and 5 and the principal determinants of health in relation to reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition. We reviewed progress in relation to new and existing public sector programmes and the challenges posed by devolution in Pakistan. Notwithstanding the urgent need to tackle social determinants such as girls' education, empowerment, and nutrition in Pakistan, we assessed the effect of systematically increasing coverage of various evidence-based interventions on populations at risk (by residence or poverty indices). We specifically focused on scaling up interventions using delivery platforms to reach poor and rural populations through community-based strategies. Our model indicates that with successful implementation of these strategies, 58% of an estimated 367,900 deaths (15,900 maternal, 169,000 newborn, 183,000 child deaths) and 49% of an estimated 180,000 stillbirths could be prevented in 2015. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Rise of Post-truth Populism in Pluralist Liberal Democracies: Challenges for Health Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Speed, Ewen; Mannion, Russell

2017-01-01

Recent years have witnessed the rise of populism and populist leaders, movements and policies in many pluralist liberal democracies, with Brexit and the election of Trump the two most recent high profile examples of this backlash against established political elites and the institutions that support them. This new populism is underpinned by a post-truth politics which is using social media as a mouthpiece for ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ with the intention of inciting fear and hatred of ‘the other’ and thereby helping to justify discriminatory health policies for marginalised groups. In this article, we explore what is meant by populism and highlight some of the challenges for health and health policy posed by the new wave of post-truth populism. PMID:28812811

Methods for the economic evaluation of changes to the organisation and delivery of health services: principal challenges and recommendations.

Science.gov (United States)

Meacock, Rachel

2018-04-20

There is a requirement for economic evaluation of health technologies seeking public funding across Europe. Changes to the organisation and delivery of health services, including changes to health policy, are not covered by such appraisals. These changes also have consequences for National Health Service (NHS) funds, yet undergo no mandatory cost-effectiveness assessment. The focus on health technologies may have occurred because larger-scale service changes pose more complex challenges to evaluators. This paper discusses the principal challenges faced when performing economic evaluations of changes to the organisation and delivery of health services and provides recommendations for overcoming them. The five principal challenges identified are as follows: undertaking ex-ante evaluation; evaluating impacts in terms of quality-adjusted life years; assessing costs and opportunity costs; accounting for spillover effects; and generalisability. Of these challenges, methods for estimating the impact on costs and quality-adjusted life years are those most in need of development. Methods are available for ex-ante evaluation, assessing opportunity costs and examining generalisability. However, these are rarely applied in practice. The general principles of assessing the cost-effectiveness of interventions should be applied to all NHS spending, not just that involving health technologies. Advancements in this area have the potential to improve the allocation of scarce NHS resources.

Robust head pose estimation via supervised manifold learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Chao; Song, Xubo

2014-05-01

Head poses can be automatically estimated using manifold learning algorithms, with the assumption that with the pose being the only variable, the face images should lie in a smooth and low-dimensional manifold. However, this estimation approach is challenging due to other appearance variations related to identity, head location in image, background clutter, facial expression, and illumination. To address the problem, we propose to incorporate supervised information (pose angles of training samples) into the process of manifold learning. The process has three stages: neighborhood construction, graph weight computation and projection learning. For the first two stages, we redefine inter-point distance for neighborhood construction as well as graph weight by constraining them with the pose angle information. For Stage 3, we present a supervised neighborhood-based linear feature transformation algorithm to keep the data points with similar pose angles close together but the data points with dissimilar pose angles far apart. The experimental results show that our method has higher estimation accuracy than the other state-of-art algorithms and is robust to identity and illumination variations. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Health recommender systems: concepts, requirements, technical basics and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiesner, Martin; Pfeifer, Daniel

2014-03-03

During the last decades huge amounts of data have been collected in clinical databases representing patients' health states (e.g., as laboratory results, treatment plans, medical reports). Hence, digital information available for patient-oriented decision making has increased drastically but is often scattered across different sites. As as solution, personal health record systems (PHRS) are meant to centralize an individual's health data and to allow access for the owner as well as for authorized health professionals. Yet, expert-oriented language, complex interrelations of medical facts and information overload in general pose major obstacles for patients to understand their own record and to draw adequate conclusions. In this context, recommender systems may supply patients with additional laymen-friendly information helping to better comprehend their health status as represented by their record. However, such systems must be adapted to cope with the specific requirements in the health domain in order to deliver highly relevant information for patients. They are referred to as health recommender systems (HRS). In this article we give an introduction to health recommender systems and explain why they are a useful enhancement to PHR solutions. Basic concepts and scenarios are discussed and a first implementation is presented. In addition, we outline an evaluation approach for such a system, which is supported by medical experts. The construction of a test collection for case-related recommendations is described. Finally, challenges and open issues are discussed.

Health Recommender Systems: Concepts, Requirements, Technical Basics and Challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Wiesner

2014-03-01

Full Text Available During the last decades huge amounts of data have been collected in clinical databases representing patients’ health states (e.g., as laboratory results, treatment plans, medical reports. Hence, digital information available for patient-oriented decision making has increased drastically but is often scattered across different sites. As as solution, personal health record systems (PHRS are meant to centralize an individual’s health data and to allow access for the owner as well as for authorized health professionals. Yet, expert-oriented language, complex interrelations of medical facts and information overload in general pose major obstacles for patients to understand their own record and to draw adequate conclusions. In this context, recommender systems may supply patients with additional laymen-friendly information helping to better comprehend their health status as represented by their record. However, such systems must be adapted to cope with the specific requirements in the health domain in order to deliver highly relevant information for patients. They are referred to as health recommender systems (HRS. In this article we give an introduction to health recommender systems and explain why they are a useful enhancement to PHR solutions. Basic concepts and scenarios are discussed and a first implementation is presented. In addition, we outline an evaluation approach for such a system, which is supported by medical experts. The construction of a test collection for case-related recommendations is described. Finally, challenges and open issues are discussed.

The Rise of Post-truth Populism in Pluralist Liberal Democracies: Challenges for Health Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ewen Speed

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Recent years have witnessed the rise of populism and populist leaders, movements and policies in many pluralist liberal democracies, with Brexit and the election of Trump the two most recent high profile examples of this backlash against established political elites and the institutions that support them. This new populism is underpinned by a post-truth politics which is using social media as a mouthpiece for ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ with the intention of inciting fear and hatred of ‘the other’ and thereby helping to justify discriminatory health policies for marginalised groups. In this article, we explore what is meant by populism and highlight some of the challenges for health and health policy posed by the new wave of post-truth populism.

Opportunities and challenges in conducting secondary analysis of HIV programmes using data from routine health information systems and personal health information.

Science.gov (United States)

Gloyd, Stephen; Wagenaar, Bradley H; Woelk, Godfrey B; Kalibala, Samuel

2016-01-01

HIV programme data from routine health information systems (RHIS) and personal health information (PHI) provide ample opportunities for secondary data analysis. However, these data pose unique opportunities and challenges for use in health system monitoring, along with process and impact evaluations. Analyses focused on retrospective case reviews of four of the HIV-related studies published in this JIAS supplement. We identify specific opportunities and challenges with respect to the secondary analysis of RHIS and PHI data. Challenges working with both HIV-related RHIS and PHI included missing, inconsistent and implausible data; rapidly changing indicators; systematic differences in the utilization of services; and patient linkages over time and different data sources. Specific challenges among RHIS data included numerous registries and indicators, inconsistent data entry, gaps in data transmission, duplicate registry of information, numerator-denominator incompatibility and infrequent use of data for decision-making. Challenges specific to PHI included the time burden for busy providers, the culture of lax charting, overflowing archives for paper charts and infrequent chart review. Many of the challenges that undermine effective use of RHIS and PHI data for analyses are related to the processes and context of collecting the data, excessive data requirements, lack of knowledge of the purpose of data and the limited use of data among those generating the data. Recommendations include simplifying data sources, analysis and reporting; conducting systematic data quality audits; enhancing the use of data for decision-making; promoting routine chart review linked with simple patient tracking systems; and encouraging open access to RHIS and PHI data for increased use.

Pose estimation of industrial objects towards robot operation

Science.gov (United States)

Niu, Jie; Zhou, Fuqiang; Tan, Haishu; Cao, Yu

2017-10-01

With the advantages of wide range, non-contact and high flexibility, the visual estimation technology of target pose has been widely applied in modern industry, robot guidance and other engineering practices. However, due to the influence of complicated industrial environment, outside interference factors, lack of object characteristics, restrictions of camera and other limitations, the visual estimation technology of target pose is still faced with many challenges. Focusing on the above problems, a pose estimation method of the industrial objects is developed based on 3D models of targets. By matching the extracted shape characteristics of objects with the priori 3D model database of targets, the method realizes the recognition of target. Thus a pose estimation of objects can be determined based on the monocular vision measuring model. The experimental results show that this method can be implemented to estimate the position of rigid objects based on poor images information, and provides guiding basis for the operation of the industrial robot.

?You?re dealing with an emotionally charged individual??: an industry perspective on the challenges posed by medical tourists? informal caregiver-companions

OpenAIRE

Casey, Victoria; Crooks, Valorie A; Snyder, Jeremy; Turner, Leigh

2013-01-01

Background Patients engage in medical tourism when they privately obtain a medical care abroad. Previous research shows that many medical tourists travel abroad with friends and family members who provide support and assistance. Meanwhile, very little is known about this important stakeholder group, referred to here as caregiver-companions. In this article we examine the challenges that can be posed by caregiver-companions and the overall practice of informal caregiving in medical tourism ...

Single leg balancing in ballet: effects of shoe conditions and poses.

Science.gov (United States)

Lobo da Costa, Paula H; Azevedo Nora, Fernanda G S; Vieira, Marcus Fraga; Bosch, Kerstin; Rosenbaum, Dieter

2013-03-01

The purpose of this study was to describe the effects of lower limb positioning and shoe conditions on stability levels of selected single leg ballet poses performed in demi-pointe position. Fourteen female non-professional ballet dancers (mean age of 18.4±2.8 years and mean body mass index of 21.5±2.8kg/m(2)) who had practiced ballet for at least seven years, without any musculoskeletal impairment volunteered to participate in this study. A capacitive pressure platform allowed for the assessment of center of pressure variables related to the execution of three single leg ballet poses in demi pointé position: attitude devant, attitude derriére, and attitude a la second. Peak pressures, contact areas, COP oscillation areas, anterior-posterior and medio-lateral COP oscillations and velocities were compared between two shoe conditions (barefoot versus slippers) and among the different poses. Barefoot performances produced more stable poses with significantly higher plantar contact areas, smaller COP oscillation areas and smaller anterior-posterior COP oscillations. COP oscillation areas, anterior-posterior COP oscillations and medio-lateral COP velocities indicated that attitude a la second is the least challenging and attitude derriére the most challenging pose. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Challenges posed by diversity in Academic institutions as they implement Information Literacy: the experiences of Makerere University Library in Uganda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Faith Beatrice Akiteng

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Over the years, academic libraries have been conducting information literacy (IL programmes for their users. This paper shares Makerere University Library's experience in implementing IL programmes at Makerere University and other academic institutions of learning in Uganda. The findings of this paper are based on the IL sessions' evaluation forms, together with the authors' experiences as instructors. A sample of one thousand (1000 participants' evaluation feedback forms was used in assessing the IL sessions conducted by Makerere University Library in two years (2008-2009. The evaluation focused on the duration and relevancy of training, nature of content, its organization; the instructors, new skills participants gained and how they hoped to pass them to others. Initial findings indicate that IL sessions are highly regarded with repeated recommendations for increased duration and frequency of information literacy sessions in different universities. The various challenges posed by diversity are explained as follows: Difference in age groups arise because admissions to the various universities cater for direct entrants from high school and mature age entrants'. Students also come from different social backgrounds that dictate the standard of schools they attend i.e.; urban schools where education standards are high and skills such as using computers are imparted visa-a-vis the rural schools where such skills are not imparted. To the IL instructor, this implies conducting the training with patience and extending the time allocated for each session in order to impart the basic ICT skills prior to imparting the IL skills. Internationalization on the other hand is not a very big challenge because the proportion of foreign students is small and their ICT skills are moderate. Gender aspects and the diverse disciplines of research in the Ugandan universities also pose challenges when conducting IL sessions in that the groups handled at a time are

Challenges that Preventive Conservation poses to the Cultural Heritage documentation field

Science.gov (United States)

Van Balen, K.

2017-08-01

This contribution examines the challenges posed to the cultural heritage documentation community (the CIPA community and others) in implementing a preventive conservation approach of the built heritage in today's society. The "DNA" of Preventive Conservation. Various authors so far support the argument that preventive conservation is an effective way to respond to the challenges society faces with the preservation of its Cultural Heritage (Van Balen, 2013). A few decades of experiences with the application of preventive conservation in the field of immovable heritage in the form of Monumentenwacht in The Netherland and in Flanders have shown that a good monitoring of the state of preservation with a strong push for maintenance activities contributes to more preservation of authenticity, to more cost-effective preservation and to empowering society in dealing with heritage preservation. (Cebron, 2008) An analysis of these and similar experiences demonstrates that these "Monumentenwacht" activities represent only a part of what could be named a preventive conservation system. Other fields in which prevention is advocated for its higher efficiency, show the importance of system thinking in the development of improved strategies. Applying this approach to the field of the immovable heritage, referring to the initial results shown by the Monumentenwacht practices, it becomes clear that different dimension are at stake simultaneously: the preservation of authenticity or integrity, the management of resources and the connection with society. It shows that the analysis of challenges in heritage preservation and the development of strategies is à priori multifaceted and therefor has a certain level of complexity. The sustainability of the preservation of cultural heritage buildings and sites can be measured according to its multiple economic, social, environmental and cultural support. The Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe report shows that the more diverse the support

Challenges that Preventive Conservation poses to the Cultural Heritage documentation field

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Van Balen

2017-08-01

Full Text Available This contribution examines the challenges posed to the cultural heritage documentation community (the CIPA community and others in implementing a preventive conservation approach of the built heritage in today’s society. The “DNA” of Preventive Conservation. Various authors so far support the argument that preventive conservation is an effective way to respond to the challenges society faces with the preservation of its Cultural Heritage (Van Balen, 2013. A few decades of experiences with the application of preventive conservation in the field of immovable heritage in the form of Monumentenwacht in The Netherland and in Flanders have shown that a good monitoring of the state of preservation with a strong push for maintenance activities contributes to more preservation of authenticity, to more cost-effective preservation and to empowering society in dealing with heritage preservation. (Cebron, 2008 An analysis of these and similar experiences demonstrates that these “Monumentenwacht” activities represent only a part of what could be named a preventive conservation system. Other fields in which prevention is advocated for its higher efficiency, show the importance of system thinking in the development of improved strategies. Applying this approach to the field of the immovable heritage, referring to the initial results shown by the Monumentenwacht practices, it becomes clear that different dimension are at stake simultaneously: the preservation of authenticity or integrity, the management of resources and the connection with society. It shows that the analysis of challenges in heritage preservation and the development of strategies is à priori multifaceted and therefor has a certain level of complexity. The sustainability of the preservation of cultural heritage buildings and sites can be measured according to its multiple economic, social, environmental and cultural support. The Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe report shows that the

Body-part templates for recovery of 2D human poses under occlusion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Poppe, Ronald Walter; Poel, Mannes; Perales, F.J.; Fisher, R.B.

2008-01-01

Detection of humans and estimation of their 2D poses from a single image are challenging tasks. This is especially true when part of the observation is occluded. However, given a limited class of movements, poses can be recovered given the visible body-parts. To this end, we propose a novel template

eHealth Recruitment Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Debbe; Canada, Ashanti; Bhatt, Riddhi; Davis, Jennifer; Plesko, Lisa; Baranowski, Tom; Cullen, Karen; Zakeri, Issa

2006-01-01

Little is known about effective eHealth recruitment methods. This paper presents recruitment challenges associated with enrolling African-American girls aged 8-10 years in an eHealth obesity prevention program, their effect on the recruitment plan, and potential implications for eHealth research. Although the initial recruitment strategy was…

The Far Right Challenge Comment on "The Rise of Post-truth Populism in Pluralist Liberal Democracies: Challenges for Health Policy".

Science.gov (United States)

Halikiopoulou, Daphne

2017-07-11

Speed and Mannion make a good case that the rise of populism poses significant challenges for health policy. This commentary suggests that the link between populism and health policy should be further nuanced in four ways. First, a deconstruction of the term populism itself and a focus on the far right dimension of populist politics; second, a focus on the supply side and more specifically the question of nationalism and the 'national preference'; third, the dynamics of party competition during economic crisis; and fourth the question of policy, and more specifically the extent to which certain labour market policies are able to mediate demand for the far right. © 2018 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.

Addressing the psychosocial and communication challenges posed by radiological/nuclear terrorism: key developments since NCRP Report No. 138.

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, Steven M

2005-11-01

One of the most innovative aspects of NCRP Report No. 138 (Management of Terrorist Incidents Involving Radioactive Material) was the high priority it accorded to psychosocial and communication issues. While previous discussions of radiological and nuclear terrorism had occasionally referred to these topics, NCRP Report No. 138 was the first report of its kind to recognize the profound challenges posed by these issues and to place them at the heart of preparedness and response efforts. In the years since the report's release, a host of important developments have taken place in relation to psychosocial and communication issues. This paper reviews key changes and advances in five broad areas: (1) training exercises, (2) policy and guidance development, (3) findings on hospital and clinician needs, (4) survey research on public perceptions of radiological terrorism, and (5) risk communication for radiological and nuclear terrorism situations. The article concludes with a discussion of continuing psychosocial and communication challenges, including critical areas needing further attention as the nation moves to meet the threat of terrorism involving radioactive materials.

Problem Posing

OpenAIRE

Šilhavá, Marie

2009-01-01

This diploma thesis concentrates on problem posing from the students' point of view. Problem posing can be either seen as a teaching method which can be used in the class, or it can be used as a tool for researchers or teachers to assess the level of students' understanding of the topic. In my research, I compare three classes, one mathematics specialist class and two generalist classes, in their ability of problem posing. As an assessment tool it seemed that mathemathics specialists were abl...

Incomplete Markets and Imperfect Institutions: Some Challenges Posed by Trust for Contemporary Health Care and Health Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Schlesinger, Mark; Gray, Bradford H

2016-08-01

As contemporary health policy promotes evidence-based practices using targeted incentives, policy makers may lose track of vital aspects of care that are difficult to measure. For more than a half century, scholars have recognized that these latter aspects play a crucial role in high-quality care and equitable health system performance but depend on the potentially frail reed of providers' trustworthiness: that is, their commitment to facets and outcomes of care not easily assessed by external parties. More recently, early experience with pay for performance in health settings suggests that enhancing financial rewards for the measurable undermines providers' commitment to the unmeasurable, degrading the trustworthiness of their practices. Reformers have looked to revised professional norms or reorganized practice arrangements to bolster the intrinsic motivations required for trustworthiness. We suggest here that these responses are likely to prove inadequate. We propose that they be complemented by a renewed policy-making commitment to nonprofit ownership among health care providers, insurers, and integrated delivery systems. We identify some of the concerns raised in the past with ownership-based policies and propose a set of responses. If these are pursued in combination, they hold the promise of a sustainable ownership-based policy reform for the United States. Copyright © 2016 by Duke University Press.

Top DoD Management Challenges, Fiscal Year 2018

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Providing Effective, Comprehensive, and Cost Effective Health Care 10. Identifying and Implementing Efficiencies in the DoD INSPECTOR GENERAL...8: Ensuring Ethical Conduct ................ 64 Challenge 9: Providing Effective, Comprehensive, and Cost Effective Health  Care...eroding ISIS physical caliphate in Iraq. INFLUENCE OF RUSSIA AND IRAN IN SYRIA In March 2017, General Votel testified that Iran poses the greatest

Web-based Visualisation of Head Pose and Facial Expressions Changes:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kalliatakis, Grigorios; Vidakis, Nikolaos; Triantafyllidis, Georgios

2016-01-01

Despite significant recent advances in the field of head pose estimation and facial expression recognition, raising the cognitive level when analysing human activity presents serious challenges to current concepts. Motivated by the need of generating comprehensible visual representations from...... and accurately estimate head pose changes in unconstrained environment. In order to complete the secondary process of recognising four universal dominant facial expressions (happiness, anger, sadness and surprise), emotion recognition via facial expressions (ERFE) was adopted. After that, a lightweight data...

Viral hepatitis in Latin America and the Caribbean: a public health challenge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Núria Díez-Padrisa

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Viral hepatitis (VH is an emergent concern in public health agendas worldwide. More than one million people die annually from hepatitis and 57% and 78% of global cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma cases, respectively, are caused by VH. The burden of disease caused by hepatitis in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC is high. Data on hepatitis has been collected in several countries, but more accurate and comparable studies are needed. Hepatitis B vaccination and screening of donated blood are routine practices in the region. However, integrated policies covering prevention and control of disease caused by all types of hepatitis viruses are scarce. Existing preventive measures need to be reinforced. Attention must be paid to at-risk populations, awareness campaigns, and water and food safety. Affordable access to diagnosis and treatment, population screening, referral to health services and monitoring of positive cases are among the main challenges currently posed by VH in LAC. The World Health Organization framework and Pan American Health Organization regional strategy, defined in response to resolution WHA63.18 of the World Health Assembly, may help to overcome these difficulties. Successful experiences in the fight against hepatitis in some LAC countries may also provide very interesting solutions for the region.

Examining the Links between Challenging Behaviors in Youth with ASD and Parental Stress, Mental Health, and Involvement: Applying an Adaptation of the Family Stress Model to Families of Youth with ASD

Science.gov (United States)

Schiltz, Hillary K.; McVey, Alana J.; Magnus, Brooke; Dolan, Bridget K.; Willar, Kirsten S.; Pleiss, Sheryl; Karst, Jeffrey; Carson, Audrey M.; Caiozzo, Christina; Vogt, Elisabeth; Van Hecke, Amy Vaughan

2018-01-01

Raising a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) poses unique challenges that may impact parents' mental health and parenting experiences. The current study analyzed self-report data from 77 parents of youth with ASD. A serial multiple mediation model revealed that parenting stress (SIPA) and parental mental health (BAI and BDI-II) appears to…

Kazakhstan's Environment-Health system, a Big Data challenge

Science.gov (United States)

Vitolo, Claudia; Bella Gazdiyeva, Bella; Tucker, Allan; Russell, Andrew; Ali, Maged; Althonayan, Abraham

2016-04-01

Kazakhstan has witnessed a remarkable economic development in the past 15 years, becoming an upper-middle-income country. However it is still widely regarded as a developing nation, partially because of its population's low life expectancy which is 5 years below the average in similar economies. The environment is in a rather fragile state, affected by soil, water, air pollution, radioactive contamination and climate change. However, Kazakhstan's government is moving towards clean energy and environmental protection and calling on scientists to help prioritise investments. The British Council-funded "Kazakhstan's Environment-Health Risk Analysis (KEHRA)" project is one of the recently launched initiatives to support Kazakhstan healthier future. The underlying hypothesis of this research is that the above mentioned factors (air/water/soil pollution, etc.) affecting public health almost certainly do not act independently but rather trigger and exacerbate each other. Exploring the environment-health links in a multi-dimensional framework is a typical Big Data problem, in which the volume and variety of the data needed poses technical as well as scientific challenges. In Kazakhstan, the complexities related to managing and analysing Big Data are worsened by a number of obstacles at the data acquisition step: most of the data is not in digital form, spatial and temporal attributes are often ambiguous and the re-use and re-purpose of the information is subject to restrictive licenses and other mechanisms of control. In this work, we document the first steps taken towards building an understanding of the complex environment-health system in Kazakhstan, using interactive visualisation tools to identify and compare hot-spots of pollution and poor health outcomes, Big Data and web technologies to collect, manage and explore available information. In the future, the knowledge acquired will be modelled to develop evidence-based recommendation systems for decision makers in

BRIC Health Systems and Big Pharma: A Challenge for Health Policy and Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodwin, Victor G; Fabre, Guilhem; Ayoub, Rafael F

2018-01-02

BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India, and China - represent 40% of the world's population, including a growing aging population and middle class with an increasing prevalence of chronic disease. Their healthcare systems increasingly rely on prescription drugs, but they differ from most other healthcare systems because healthcare expenditures in BRIC nations have exhibited the highest revenue growth rates for pharmaceutical multinational corporations (MNCs), Big Pharma. The response of BRIC nations to Big Pharma presents contrasting cases of how governments manage the tensions posed by rising public expectations and limited resources to satisfy them. Understanding these tensions represents an emerging area of research and an important challenge for all those who work in the field of health policy and management (HPAM). © 2018 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.

Perspective projection for variance pose face recognition from camera calibration

Science.gov (United States)

Fakhir, M. M.; Woo, W. L.; Chambers, J. A.; Dlay, S. S.

2016-04-01

Variance pose is an important research topic in face recognition. The alteration of distance parameters across variance pose face features is a challenging. We provide a solution for this problem using perspective projection for variance pose face recognition. Our method infers intrinsic camera parameters of the image which enable the projection of the image plane into 3D. After this, face box tracking and centre of eyes detection can be identified using our novel technique to verify the virtual face feature measurements. The coordinate system of the perspective projection for face tracking allows the holistic dimensions for the face to be fixed in different orientations. The training of frontal images and the rest of the poses on FERET database determine the distance from the centre of eyes to the corner of box face. The recognition system compares the gallery of images against different poses. The system initially utilises information on position of both eyes then focuses principally on closest eye in order to gather data with greater reliability. Differentiation between the distances and position of the right and left eyes is a unique feature of our work with our algorithm outperforming other state of the art algorithms thus enabling stable measurement in variance pose for each individual.

Full Body Pose Estimation During Occlusion using Multiple Cameras

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fihl, Preben; Cosar, Serhan

people is a very challenging problem for methods based on pictorials structure as for any other monocular pose estimation method. In this report we present work on a multi-view approach based on pictorial structures that integrate low level information from multiple calibrated cameras to improve the 2D...

'Being appropriately unusual': a challenge for nurses in health-promoting conversations with families.

Science.gov (United States)

Benzein, Eva Gunilla; Hagberg, Margaretha; Saveman, Britt-Inger

2008-06-01

This study describes the theoretical assumptions and the application for health-promoting conversations, as a communication tool for nurses when talking to patients and their families. The conversations can be used on a promotional, preventive and healing level when working with family-focused nursing. They are based on a multiverse, salutogenetic, relational and reflecting approach, and acknowledge each person's experience as equally valid, and focus on families' resources, and the relationship between the family and its environment. By posing reflective questions, reflection is made possible for both the family and the nurses. Family members are invited to tell their story, and they can listen to and learn from each other. Nurses are challenged to build a co-creating partnership with families in order to acknowledge them as experts on how to lead their lives and to use their own expert knowledge in order to facilitate new meanings to surface. In this way, family health can be enhanced.

Health seeking behaviour and challenges in utilising health facilities ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... and long distance to health facilities. Conclusions: There is potential to increase access to health care in rural areas by increasing the frequency of mobile clinic services and strengthening the community health worker strategy. Key words: Health seeking behaviour, Rural community, Health facilities, Challenges, Uganda ...

Health Journalism: Health Reporting Status and Challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Keshvari, Mahrokh; Yamani, Niko; Adibi, Peyman; Shahnazi, Hossein

2018-01-01

Media play crucial role in disseminating health information. Due to the importance of accurate health news reports, and the national need to professionalism in health journalism, this study aimed to investigate the characteristics of health journalists, and health reporting status and the challenges involved. Using consensus sampling, this descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on all health news reporters in Isfahan (34 journalists) in 2015-2016. Data collection was done via a researcher-made questionnaire. Content validity of the questionnaire was determined by qualitative method and based on the opinions of six experts. The test-retest reliability coefficient was 98.0. Data analysis was done by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 16 and descriptive statistics and content analysis were used for analyzing the responses to two open questions. Among 34 journalists, 56% were women and 44% men; the majority of journalists (65%) had no specialized training on health reporting, 35% of journalists were not able to understand the health issues, and the knowledge of medical terminology in 59% of them was moderate to low. The most important required skill for reporters was the ability to interpret medical research reports (88%), 97% were eager to participate in specialized health education. Our study showed that health journalists lacked knowledge and specialized training for dissemination of health news. This has brought about serious challenges. Thus, development and implementation of training courses in close collaboration with educational department of the Ministry of Health and news programs professionals at Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting is highly recommended.

Immigration and Health: Law, Policy, and Ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Parmet, Wendy E; Sainsbury-Wong, Lorianne; Prabhu, Maya

2017-03-01

Immigration poses numerous challenges for health professionals and public health lawyers. This article reviews these challenges. We begin by offering some background on immigration and health and then explain some of the reasons why immigrants are less likely than natives to have health insurance. Next we turn to a discussion of some of the particular challenges relating to the health care of refugees. We conclude by analyzing and rejecting some of the arguments that are made for discriminating against immigrants with respect to the provision of public health benefits and services.

Dealing with Health and Health Care System Challenges in China: assessing health determinants and health care reforms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

H. Zhang (Hao)

2017-01-01

markdownabstractThis dissertation investigates the challenges faced by China around 2010 in two domains – population health and the health care system. Specifically, chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to health challenges, explaining the female health disadvantage in later life and assessing the effect

Genomics as public health? Community genetics and the challenge of personalised medicine in Cuba.

Science.gov (United States)

Gibbon, Sahra

2009-08-01

Making use of a comparative perspective on the emergence of 'breast cancer genetics' in the different cultural context of the UK and Cuba, this article examines the tensions between the modern promise of genomics as personalised medicine and a commitment to public health. Focusing primarily on the Cuba context and drawing on ethnographic research as part of a collaborative project working with genetic professionals and publics, the article examines the particular technologies, identities and socialities at stake in an emerging and evolving field of genetic medicine. It highlights how long-standing continuities in the commitment to the equitable provision of public health, particularly as this relates to 'family medicine', are central to understanding the scope and expansion of 'community genetics' interventions, even when at the level of local practice, public health is also now subject to the unequal dynamics of economic necessity through the working out of 'lo informal'. Illuminating the different ways agency, risk, responsibility, citizenship and activism get configured by and between publics and health professionals in Cuba, the article reveals the challenges and opportunities posed by predictive genomic medicine in relation to the dynamic and shifting terrain of public health.

South African Academic Health--the future challenge.

Science.gov (United States)

van Zyl, G J

2004-02-01

In South Africa, significant changes in Academic Health have taken place since the first democratic elections in 1994. Academic Health came from a separated academic hospital, departmental-based curriculum and research focussed on achievement, and an abundance of money, to a position of integrated service delivery with specific reference to primary health care, separation of service levels, a new integrated curriculum, research focussed according to the need and contract research, and financial constraints with limited budgets. The management of this change is a task challenging the manager in all fields of Academic Health. Leaders need to know their environment and organisation to be able to manage change. Academic Health centres are experiencing major changes as a result of the effects of managed care, reduced rate and growing expenditure on health services. In addition to restructuring of the clinical services, Academic Health centres are being challenged to sustain their academic mission and priorities in the face of resource constraints. In order to tackle these challenges, institutions need physicians in administrative positions at all levels who can provide leadership and thoughtful managerial initiatives. The future challenge for managers focuses on service delivery, research, health education and training, Academic Health management, professionalism and financial management.

Urban mental health: Challenges and perspectives

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Okkels, Niels

2018-01-01

Purpose of review: To provide an update on urban mental health and highlight the challenges that require urgent attention. Recent findings: The majority of the world's population live in towns and urbanization is expected to increase in all areas of the world. Challenges to mental health in urban...... services. Fast and unstructured urbanization, such as that seen in many developing countries, further exacerbates these challenges. There are promising initiatives emerging including initiatives to end homelessness, to improve access to green areas in urban environments, to provide emergency psychiatric...

Public health challenges in sun protection.

Science.gov (United States)

Eide, Melody J; Weinstock, Martin A

2006-01-01

Sunscreens are a popular choice for protection from ultraviolet radiation, and hence, important components in the public health campaign to reduce the burden of skin cancer. Public health messages in skin cancer prevention have been used effectively in educational campaigns. The benefits of sunscreen extend beyond skin cancer prevention into other aspects of health and disease prevention: sunscreen decreases the risk for sunburn during physical activity outdoors and seems not to increase the risk for osteoporosis. Public health efforts have laid a solid foundation on which to face the continuing challenge of promoting and developing effective public health campaigns and health policies that encourage sunscreen use, sun protection, and the primary prevention of skin cancer. In this article, the controversies, concerns, and challenges of sunscreen use as it relates to public health are discussed.

A review of cooperative and uncooperative spacecraft pose determination techniques for close-proximity operations

Science.gov (United States)

Opromolla, Roberto; Fasano, Giancarmine; Rufino, Giancarlo; Grassi, Michele

2017-08-01

The capability of an active spacecraft to accurately estimate its relative position and attitude (pose) with respect to an active/inactive, artificial/natural space object (target) orbiting in close-proximity is required to carry out various activities like formation flying, on-orbit servicing, active debris removal, and space exploration. According to the specific mission scenario, the pose determination task involves both theoretical and technological challenges related to the search for the most suitable algorithmic solution and sensor architecture, respectively. As regards the latter aspect, electro-optical sensors represent the best option as their use is compatible with mass and power limitation of micro and small satellites, and their measurements can be processed to estimate all the pose parameters. Overall, the degree of complexity of the challenges related to pose determination largely varies depending on the nature of the targets, which may be actively/passively cooperative, uncooperative but known, or uncooperative and unknown space objects. In this respect, while cooperative pose determination has been successfully demonstrated in orbit, the uncooperative case is still under study by universities, research centers, space agencies and private companies. However, in both the cases, the demand for space applications involving relative navigation maneuvers, also in close-proximity, for which pose determination capabilities are mandatory, is significantly increasing. In this framework, a review of state-of-the-art techniques and algorithms developed in the last decades for cooperative and uncooperative pose determination by processing data provided by electro-optical sensors is herein presented. Specifically, their main advantages and drawbacks in terms of achieved performance, computational complexity, and sensitivity to variability of pose and target geometry, are highlighted.

Yoga Poses Increase Subjective Energy and State Self-Esteem in Comparison to 'Power Poses'.

Science.gov (United States)

Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka; Lantos, Dorottya; Bowden, Deborah

2017-01-01

Research on beneficial consequences of yoga focuses on the effects of yogic breathing and meditation. Less is known about the psychological effects of performing yoga postures. The present study investigated the effects of yoga poses on subjective sense of energy and self-esteem. The effects of yoga postures were compared to the effects of 'power poses,' which arguably increase the sense of power and self-confidence due to their association with interpersonal dominance (Carney et al., 2010). The study tested the novel prediction that yoga poses, which are not associated with interpersonal dominance but increase bodily energy, would increase the subjective feeling of energy and therefore increase self-esteem compared to 'high power' and 'low power' poses. A two factorial, between participants design was employed. Participants performed either two standing yoga poses with open front of the body ( n = 19), two standing yoga poses with covered front of the body ( n = 22), two expansive, high power poses ( n = 21), or two constrictive, low power poses ( n = 20) for 1-min each. The results showed that yoga poses in comparison to 'power poses' increased self-esteem. This effect was mediated by an increased subjective sense of energy and was observed when baseline trait self-esteem was controlled for. These results suggest that the effects of performing open, expansive body postures may be driven by processes other than the poses' association with interpersonal power and dominance. This study demonstrates that positive effects of yoga practice can occur after performing yoga poses for only 2 min.

The Rise of Post-truth Populism in Pluralist Liberal Democracies: Challenges for Health Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Speed, Ewen; Mannion, Russell

2017-02-12

Recent years have witnessed the rise of populism and populist leaders, movements and policies in many pluralist liberal democracies, with Brexit and the election of Trump the two most recent high profile examples of this backlash against established political elites and the institutions that support them. This new populism is underpinned by a post-truth politics which is using social media as a mouthpiece for 'fake news' and 'alternative facts' with the intention of inciting fear and hatred of 'the other' and thereby helping to justify discriminatory health policies for marginalised groups. In this article, we explore what is meant by populism and highlight some of the challenges for health and health policy posed by the new wave of post-truth populism. © 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.

Predicting binding poses and affinities for protein - ligand complexes in the 2015 D3R Grand Challenge using a physical model with a statistical parameter estimation

Science.gov (United States)

Grudinin, Sergei; Kadukova, Maria; Eisenbarth, Andreas; Marillet, Simon; Cazals, Frédéric

2016-09-01

The 2015 D3R Grand Challenge provided an opportunity to test our new model for the binding free energy of small molecules, as well as to assess our protocol to predict binding poses for protein-ligand complexes. Our pose predictions were ranked 3-9 for the HSP90 dataset, depending on the assessment metric. For the MAP4K dataset the ranks are very dispersed and equal to 2-35, depending on the assessment metric, which does not provide any insight into the accuracy of the method. The main success of our pose prediction protocol was the re-scoring stage using the recently developed Convex-PL potential. We make a thorough analysis of our docking predictions made with AutoDock Vina and discuss the effect of the choice of rigid receptor templates, the number of flexible residues in the binding pocket, the binding pocket size, and the benefits of re-scoring. However, the main challenge was to predict experimentally determined binding affinities for two blind test sets. Our affinity prediction model consisted of two terms, a pairwise-additive enthalpy, and a non pairwise-additive entropy. We trained the free parameters of the model with a regularized regression using affinity and structural data from the PDBBind database. Our model performed very well on the training set, however, failed on the two test sets. We explain the drawback and pitfalls of our model, in particular in terms of relative coverage of the test set by the training set and missed dynamical properties from crystal structures, and discuss different routes to improve it.

Animated pose templates for modeling and detecting human actions.

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Benjamin Z; Nie, Bruce X; Liu, Zicheng; Zhu, Song-Chun

2014-03-01

family of optimization methods known as the Concave-Convex Procedure (CCCP) that converge to a local optimal solution. The inference algorithm consists of two components: 1) Detecting top candidates for the pose templates, and 2) computing the sequence of pose templates. Both are done by dynamic programming or, more precisely, beam search. In experiments, we demonstrate that this method is capable of discovering salient poses of actions as well as interactions with contextual objects. We test our method on several public action data sets and a challenging outdoor contextual action data set collected by ourselves. The results show that our model achieves comparable or better performance compared to state-of-the-art methods.

Qualitative Assessment of Challenges in Tuberculosis Control in West Gojjam Zone, Northwest Ethiopia: Health Workers’ and Tuberculosis Control Program Coordinators’ Perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Senedu B. Gebreegziabher

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Weak health systems pose many barriers to effective tuberculosis (TB control. This study aimed at exploring health worker’s and TB control program coordinator’s perspectives on health systems challenges facing TB control in West Gojjam Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Methods. This was a qualitative descriptive study. Eight in-depth interviews with TB control program coordinators and two focus group discussions among 16 health workers were conducted. Purposive sampling was used to recruit study participants. Thematic analysis was used to identify and analyse main themes. Results. We found that intermittent interruptions of laboratory reagents and anti-TB drugs supplies, absence of trained and motivated health workers, poor TB data documentation, lack of adherence to TB treatment guideline, and lack of access to TB diagnostic tools at peripheral health institutions were challenges facing the TB control program performance in the study zone. Conclusions. Ensuring uninterrupted supply of anti-TB drugs and laboratory reagents to all health institutions is essential. Continuous refresher training of health workers on standard TB care and data handling and developing and implementing a sound retention strategy to attract and motivate health professionals to work in rural areas are necessary interventions to improve the TB control program performance in the study zone.

National level maternal health decisions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koduah, A.

2016-01-01

Maternal and neonatal deaths and morbidity still pose an enormous challenge for health authorities in Ghana, a lower middle income country. Despite massive investments in maternal and neonatal health and special attention through Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4

Challenges in Infective Endocarditis.

Science.gov (United States)

Cahill, Thomas J; Baddour, Larry M; Habib, Gilbert; Hoen, Bruno; Salaun, Erwan; Pettersson, Gosta B; Schäfers, Hans Joachim; Prendergast, Bernard D

2017-01-24

Infective endocarditis is defined by a focus of infection within the heart and is a feared disease across the field of cardiology. It is frequently acquired in the health care setting, and more than one-half of cases now occur in patients without known heart disease. Despite optimal care, mortality approaches 30% at 1 year. The challenges posed by infective endocarditis are significant. It is heterogeneous in etiology, clinical manifestations, and course. Staphylococcus aureus, which has become the predominant causative organism in the developed world, leads to an aggressive form of the disease, often in vulnerable or elderly patient populations. There is a lack of research infrastructure and funding, with few randomized controlled trials to guide practice. Longstanding controversies such as the timing of surgery or the role of antibiotic prophylaxis have not been resolved. The present article reviews the challenges posed by infective endocarditis and outlines current and future strategies to limit its impact. Copyright © 2017 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Boneless Pose Editing and Animation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bærentzen, Jakob Andreas; Hansen, Kristian Evers; Erleben, Kenny

2007-01-01

In this paper, we propose a pose editing and animation method for triangulated surfaces based on a user controlled partitioning of the model into deformable parts and rigid parts which are denoted handles. In our pose editing system, the user can sculpt a set of poses simply by transforming...... the handles for each pose. Using Laplacian editing, the deformable parts are deformed to match the handles. In our animation system the user can constrain one or several handles in order to define a new pose. New poses are interpolated from the examples poses, by solving a small non-linear optimization...... problem in order to obtain the interpolation weights. While the system can be used simply for building poses, it is also an animation system. The user can specify a path for a given constraint and the model is animated correspondingly....

Health system challenges to integration of mental health delivery in primary care in Kenya--perspectives of primary care health workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, Rachel; Othieno, Caleb; Okeyo, Stephen; Aruwa, Julyan; Kingora, James; Jenkins, Ben

2013-09-30

Health system weaknesses in Africa are broadly well known, constraining progress on reducing the burden of both communicable and non-communicable disease (Afr Health Monitor, Special issue, 2011, 14-24), and the key challenges in leadership, governance, health workforce, medical products, vaccines and technologies, information, finance and service delivery have been well described (Int Arch Med, 2008, 1:27). This paper uses focus group methodology to explore health worker perspectives on the challenges posed to integration of mental health into primary care by generic health system weakness. Two ninety minute focus groups were conducted in Nyanza province, a poor agricultural region of Kenya, with 20 health workers drawn from a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the impact of a mental health training programme for primary care, 10 from the intervention group clinics where staff had received the training programme, and 10 health workers from the control group where staff had not received the training). These focus group discussions suggested that there are a number of generic health system weaknesses in Kenya which impact on the ability of health workers to care for clients with mental health problems and to implement new skills acquired during a mental health continuing professional development training programmes. These weaknesses include the medicine supply, health management information system, district level supervision to primary care clinics, the lack of attention to mental health in the national health sector targets, and especially its absence in district level targets, which results in the exclusion of mental health from such district level supervision as exists, and the lack of awareness in the district management team about mental health. The lack of mental health coverage included in HIV training courses experienced by the health workers was also striking, as was the intensive focus during district supervision on HIV to the detriment of other

Laser Remediation of Threats Posed by Small Orbital Debris

Science.gov (United States)

Fork, Richard L.; Rogers, Jan R.; Hovater, Mary A.

2012-01-01

The continually increasing amount of orbital debris in near Earth space poses an increasing challenge to space situational awareness. Recent collisions of spacecraft caused abrupt increases in the density of both large and small debris in near Earth space. An especially challenging class of threats is that due to the increasing density of small (1 mm to 10 cm dimension) orbital debris. This small debris poses a serious threat since: (1) The high velocity enables even millimeter dimension debris to cause serious damage to vulnerable areas of space assets, e.g., detector windows; (2) The small size and large number of debris elements prevent adequate detection and cataloguing. We have identified solutions to this threat in the form of novel laser systems and novel ways of using these laser systems. While implementation of the solutions we identify is challenging we find approaches offering threat mitigation within time frames and at costs of practical interest. We base our analysis on the unique combination of coherent light specifically structured in both space and time and applied in novel ways entirely within the vacuum of space to deorbiting small debris. We compare and contrast laser based small debris removal strategies using ground based laser systems with strategies using space based laser systems. We find laser systems located and used entirely within space offer essential and decisive advantages over groundbased laser systems.

Improved pose and affinity predictions using different protocols tailored on the basis of data availability

Science.gov (United States)

Prathipati, Philip; Nagao, Chioko; Ahmad, Shandar; Mizuguchi, Kenji

2016-09-01

The D3R 2015 grand drug design challenge provided a set of blinded challenges for evaluating the applicability of our protocols for pose and affinity prediction. In the present study, we report the application of two different strategies for the two D3R protein targets HSP90 and MAP4K4. HSP90 is a well-studied target system with numerous co-crystal structures and SAR data. Furthermore the D3R HSP90 test compounds showed high structural similarity to existing HSP90 inhibitors in BindingDB. Thus, we adopted an integrated docking and scoring approach involving a combination of both pharmacophoric and heavy atom similarity alignments, local minimization and quantitative structure activity relationships modeling, resulting in the reasonable prediction of pose [with the root mean square deviation (RMSD) values of 1.75 Å for mean pose 1, 1.417 Å for the mean best pose and 1.85 Å for the mean all poses] and affinity (ROC AUC = 0.702 at 7.5 pIC50 cut-off and R = 0.45 for 180 compounds). The second protein, MAP4K4, represents a novel system with limited SAR and co-crystal structure data and little structural similarity of the D3R MAP4K4 test compounds to known MAP4K4 ligands. For this system, we implemented an exhaustive pose and affinity prediction protocol involving docking and scoring using the PLANTS software which considers side chain flexibility together with protein-ligand fingerprints analysis assisting in pose prioritization. This protocol through fares poorly in pose prediction (with the RMSD values of 4.346 Å for mean pose 1, 4.69 Å for mean best pose and 4.75 Å for mean all poses) and produced reasonable affinity prediction (AUC = 0.728 at 7.5 pIC50 cut-off and R = 0.67 for 18 compounds, ranked 1st among 80 submissions).

The effect of risk perception on public preferences and willingness to pay for reductions in the health risks posed by toxic cyanobacterial blooms.

Science.gov (United States)

Hunter, Peter D; Hanley, Nick; Czajkowski, Mikołaj; Mearns, Kathryn; Tyler, Andrew N; Carvalho, Laurence; Codd, Geoffrey A

2012-06-01

Mass populations of toxin-producing cyanobacteria are an increasingly common occurrence in inland and coastal waters used for recreational purposes. These mass populations pose serious risks to human and animal health and impose potentially significant economic costs on society. In this study, we used contingent valuation (CV) methods to elicit public willingness to pay (WTP) for reductions in the morbidity risks posed by blooms of toxin-producing cyanobacteria in Loch Leven, Scotland. We found that 55% of respondents (68% excluding protest voters) were willing to pay for a reduction in the number of days per year (from 90, to either 45 or 0 days) that cyanobacteria pose a risk to human health at Loch Leven. The mean WTP for a risk reduction was UK£9.99-12.23/household/year estimated using a logistic spike model. In addition, using the spike model and a simultaneous equations model to control for endogeneity bias, we found the respondents' WTP was strongly dependent on socio-demographic characteristics, economic status and usage of the waterbody, but also individual-specific attitudes and perceptions towards health risks. This study demonstrates that anticipated health risk reductions are an important nonmarket benefit of improving water quality in recreational waters and should be accounted for in future cost-benefit analyses such as those being undertaken under the auspices of the European Union's Water Framework Directive, but also that such values depend on subjective perceptions of water-related health risks and general attitudes towards the environment. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Challenges to Public Health

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

First page Back Continue Last page Graphics. Challenges to Public Health. Tracing of the infection. Isolation of patients to stop spread. Laboratory diagnosis. Hospitalization &Treatment. Stock pile & supply of drugs. Planning & mitigation. Information to public. Support to SEARO countries.

Challenges to Native American health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Noren, J; Kindig, D; Sprenger, A

1998-01-01

Native American health care programs face complex and unprecedented challenges resulting from the increased assumption of clinical operations by tribal authorities, shortfalls in Federal funding, modifications in state and Federal health and welfare programs, and intensifying involvement with managed care organizations. These challenges are further complicated by service populations that are increasing at a faster rate than the growth in funding. The authors conducted onsite surveys of 39 Native American health programs in 10 states in order to assess the organizational and management problems they faced. The trend toward transfer of health programs from the Indian Health Service to tribal operation seems likely to continue and accelerate. The survey results indicate that in order for programs to be effective in the long run, they will need to be guided by skilled managers able to adapt to these powerful changes in the health care environment.

Transportability of tertiary qualifications and CPD: A continuing challenge for the global health workforce

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saltman Deborah C

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In workforces that are traditionally mobile and have long lead times for new supply, such as health, effective global indicators of tertiary education are increasingly essential. Difficulties with transportability of qualifications and cross-accreditation are now recognised as key barriers to meeting the rapidly shifting international demands for health care providers. The plethora of mixed education and service arrangements poses challenges for employers and regulators, let alone patients; in determining equivalence of training and competency between individuals, institutions and geographical locations. Discussion This paper outlines the shortfall of the current indicators in assisting the process of global certification and competency recognition in the health care workforce. Using Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD data we highlight how International standardisation in the tertiary education sector is problematic for the global health workforce. Through a series of case studies, we then describe a model which enables institutions to compare themselves internally and with others internationally using bespoke or prioritised parameters rather than standards. Summary The mobility of the global health workforce means that transportability of qualifications is an increasing area of concern. Valid qualifications based on workplace learning and assessment requires at least some variables to be benchmarked in order to judge performance.

Pose-invariant face recognition using Markov random fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, Huy Tho; Chellappa, Rama

2013-04-01

One of the key challenges for current face recognition techniques is how to handle pose variations between the probe and gallery face images. In this paper, we present a method for reconstructing the virtual frontal view from a given nonfrontal face image using Markov random fields (MRFs) and an efficient variant of the belief propagation algorithm. In the proposed approach, the input face image is divided into a grid of overlapping patches, and a globally optimal set of local warps is estimated to synthesize the patches at the frontal view. A set of possible warps for each patch is obtained by aligning it with images from a training database of frontal faces. The alignments are performed efficiently in the Fourier domain using an extension of the Lucas-Kanade algorithm that can handle illumination variations. The problem of finding the optimal warps is then formulated as a discrete labeling problem using an MRF. The reconstructed frontal face image can then be used with any face recognition technique. The two main advantages of our method are that it does not require manually selected facial landmarks or head pose estimation. In order to improve the performance of our pose normalization method in face recognition, we also present an algorithm for classifying whether a given face image is at a frontal or nonfrontal pose. Experimental results on different datasets are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

THE CHALLENGES OF SCHOOL-BASED YOUTH SUICIDE PREVENTION: EXPERIENCES AND PERCEPTIONS OF MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOLS.

Science.gov (United States)

Woolf, Maryke; Bantjes, Jason; Kagee, Ashraf

2015-01-01

Youth suicidal behaviour poses a significant public health concern. Mental health care professionals working in schools have an important role to play in youth suicide prevention initiatives, although little is known of the experiences of this group of professionals in the developing world. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of mental health professionals working in South African schools and document their insights, attitudes and beliefs regarding youth suicidal behaviour. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven school-based mental health care professionals and data were analysed using Thematic Analysis. Participants reported that they relied on a reactive strategy by responding to youths who were in crisis. They were challenged by a lack of support from faculty staff, lack of access to resources, and heavy caseloads. Findings highlight the need for a proactive and collaborative approach to suicide prevention among mental health care professionals, teachers and parents in South African schools and improved training and supervision.

Are universities preparing nurses to meet the challenges posed by the Australian mental health care system?

Science.gov (United States)

Wynaden, D; Orb, A; McGowan, S; Downie, J

2000-09-01

The preparedness of comprehensive nurses to work with the mentally ill is of concern to many mental health professionals. Discussion as to whether current undergraduate nursing programs in Australia prepare a graduate to work as a beginning practitioner in the mental health area has been the centre of debate for most of the 1990s. This, along with the apparent lack of interest and motivation of these nurses to work in the mental health area following graduation, remains a major problem for mental health care providers. With one in five Australians now experiencing the burden of a major mental illness, the preparation of a nurse who is competent to work with the mentally ill would appear to be a priority. The purpose of the present study was to determine third year undergraduate nursing students' perceived level of preparedness to work with mentally ill clients. The results suggested significant differences in students' perceived level of confidence, knowledge and skills prior to and following theoretical and clinical exposure to the mental health area. Pre-testing of students before entering their third year indicated that the philosophy of comprehensive nursing: integration, although aspired to in principle, does not appear to occur in reality.

Mental health challenges among adolescents living with HIV.

Science.gov (United States)

Vreeman, Rachel C; McCoy, Brittany M; Lee, Sonia

2017-05-16

Mental health is a critical and neglected global health challenge for adolescents infected with HIV. The prevalence of mental and behavioural health issues among HIV-infected adolescents may not be well understood or addressed as the world scales up HIV prevention and treatment for adolescents. The objective of this narrative review is to assess the current literature related to mental health challenges faced by adolescents living with HIV, including access to mental health services, the role of mental health challenges during transition from paediatric to adult care services and responsibilities, and the impact of mental health interventions. For each of the topics included in this review, individual searches were run using Medline and PubMed, accompanied by scans of bibliographies of relevant articles. The topics on which searches were conducted for HIV-infected adolescents include depression and anxiety, transition from paediatric to adult HIV care and its impact on adherence and mental health, HIV-related, mental health services and interventions, and the measurement of mental health problems. Articles were included if the focus was consistent with one of the identified topics, involved HIV-infected adolescents, and was published in English. Mental and behavioural health challenges are prevalent in HIV-infected adolescents, including in resource-limited settings where most of them live, and they impact all aspects of HIV prevention and treatment. Too little has been done to measure the impact of mental health challenges for adolescents living with HIV, to evaluate interventions to best sustain or improve the mental health of this population, or to create healthcare systems with personnel or resources to promote mental health. Mental health issues should be addressed proactively during adolescence for all HIV-infected youth. In addition, care systems need to pay greater attention to how mental health support is integrated into the care management for HIV

Health care in China: improvement, challenges, and reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Chen; Rao, Keqin; Wu, Sinan; Liu, Qian

2013-02-01

Over the past 2 decades, significant progress has been made in improving the health-care system and people's health conditions in China. Following rapid economic growth and social development, China's health-care system is facing new challenges, such as increased health-care demands and expenditure, inefficient use of health-care resources, unsatisfying implementation of disease management guidelines, and inadequate health-care insurance. Facing these challenges, the Chinese government carried out a national health-care reform in 2009. A series of policies were developed and implemented to improve the health-care insurance system, the medical care system, the public health service system, the pharmaceutical supply system, and the health-care institution management system in China. Although these measures have shown promising results, further efforts are needed to achieve the ultimate goal of providing affordable and high-quality care for both urban and rural residents in China. This article not only covers the improvement, challenges, and reform of health care in general in China, but also highlights the status of respiratory medicine-related issues.

Improving local health through community health workers in Cambodia: challenges and solutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozano, Kim; Simkhada, Padam; Thann, Khem; Khatri, Rose

2018-01-06

Volunteer community health workers (CHWs) are an important link between the public health system and the community. The 'Community Participation Policy for Health' in Cambodia identifies CHWs as key to local health promotion and as a critical link between district health centres and the community. However, research on the challenges CHWs face and identifying what is required to optimise their performance is limited in the Cambodian context. This research explores the views of CHWs in rural Cambodia, on the challenges they face when implementing health initiatives. Qualitative methodology was used to capture the experiences of CHWs in Kratie and Mondulkiri provinces. Two participatory focus groups with CHWs in Mondulkiri and ten semi-structured interviews in Kratie were conducted. Results from both studies were used to identify common themes. Participants were CHWs, male and female, from rural Khmer and Muslim communities and linked with seven different district health centres. Findings identify that CHWs regularly deliver health promotion to communities. However, systemic, personal and community engagement challenges hinder their ability to function effectively. These include minimal leadership and support from local government, irregular training which focuses on verticalised health programmes, inadequate resources, a lack of professional identity and challenges to achieving behaviour change of community members. In addition, the CHW programme is delivered in a fragmented way that is largely influenced by external aid objectives. When consulted, however, CHWs demonstrate their ability to develop realistic practical solutions to challenges and barriers. The fragmented delivery of the CHW programme in Cambodia means that government ownership is minimal. This, coupled with the lack of defined core training programme or adequate resources, prevents CHWs from reaching their potential. CHWs have positive and realistic ideas on how to improve their role and, subsequently

Six challenges in the eradication of infectious diseases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petra Klepac

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Eradication and elimination are increasingly a part of the global health agenda. Once control measures have driven infection to low levels, the ecology of disease may change posing challenges for eradication efforts. These challenges vary from identifying pockets of susceptibles, improving monitoring during and after the endgame, to quantifying the economics of disease eradication versus sustained control, all of which are shaped and influenced by processes of loss of immunity, susceptible build-up, emergence of resistance, population heterogeneities and non-compliance with control measures. Here we discuss how modelling can be used to address these challenges.

Climate Change and Public Health Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Jason A; Vargo, Jason; Hoverter, Sara Pollock

2017-03-01

Climate change poses real and immediate impacts to the public health of populations around the globe. Adverse impacts are expected to continue throughout the century. Emphasizing co-benefits of climate action for health, combining adaptation and mitigation efforts, and increasing interagency coordination can effectively address both public health and climate change challenges.

Migrated esophageal stent posing a challenge for ventilation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nita D'souza

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Self-expandable esophageal stents are being commonly used for palliative treatment in advanced esophageal cancer patients to relieve dysphagia, prevent tracheoesophageal fistula, and facilitate symptomatic betterment. The modern covered stents reduce the ingrowth of the tumor but have seen an increase in the incidence of stent migrations. We report a rather complicated presentation of an esophageal stent for esophageal dilatation and a challenging management of a difficult tracheostomy.

National health inequality monitoring: current challenges and opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Hosseinpoor, Ahmad Reza; Bergen, Nicole; Schlotheuber, Anne; Boerma, Ties

National health inequality monitoring needs considerably more investment to realize equity-oriented health improvements in countries, including advancement towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Following an overview of national health inequality monitoring and the associated resource requirements, we highlight challenges that countries may encounter when setting up, expanding or strengthening national health inequality monitoring systems, and discuss opportunities and key initiatives that aim to address these challenges. We provide specific proposals on what is needed to ensure that national health inequality monitoring systems are harnessed to guide the reduction of health inequalities.

Pose Estimation of Interacting People using Pictorial Structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fihl, Preben; Moeslund, Thomas B.

2010-01-01

Pose estimation of people have had great progress in recent years but so far research has dealt with single persons. In this paper we address some of the challenges that arise when doing pose estimation of interacting people. We build on the pictorial structures framework and make important...... contributions by combining color-based appearance and edge information using a measure of the local quality of the appearance feature. In this way we not only combine the two types of features but dynamically find the optimal weighting of them. We further enable the method to handle occlusions by searching...... a foreground mask for possible occluded body parts and then applying extra strong kinematic constraints to find the true occluded body parts. The effect of applying our two contributions are show through both qualitative and quantitative tests and show a clear improvement on the ability to correctly localize...

Health technology assessment in Iran: challenges and views

Science.gov (United States)

Olyaeemanesh, Alireza; Doaee, Shila; Mobinizadeh, Mohammadreza; Nedjati, Mina; Aboee, Parisa; Emami-Razavi, Seyed Hassan

2014-01-01

Background: Various decisions have been made on technology application at all levels of the health system in different countries around the world. Health technology assessment is considered as one of the best scientific tools at the service of policy- makers. This study attempts to investigate the current challenges of Iran’s health technology assessment and provide appropriate strategies to establish and institutionalize this program. Methods: This study was carried out in two independent phases. In the first, electronic databases such as Medline (via Pub Med) and Scientific Information Database (SID) were searched to provide a list of challenges of Iran’s health technology assessment. The views and opinions of the experts and practitioners on HTA challenges were studied through a questionnaire in the second phase which was then analyzed by SPSS Software version 16. This has been an observational and analytical study with a thematic analysis. Results: In the first phase, seven papers were retrieved; from which, twenty- two HTA challenges in Iran were extracted by the researchers; and they were used as the base for designing a structured questionnaire of the second phase. The views of the experts on the challenges of health technology assessment were categorized as follows: organizational culture, stewardship, stakeholders, health system management, infrastructures and external pressures which were mentioned in more than 60% of the cases and were also common in the views. Conclusion: The identification and prioritization of HTA challenges which were approved by those experts involved in the strategic planning of the Department of Health Technology Assessment will be a step forward in the promotion of an evidence- based policy- making and in the production of comprehensive scientific evidence. PMID:25695015

The art of problem posing

CERN Document Server

Brown, Stephen I

1990-01-01

Updated and expanded, this second edition satisfies the same philosophical objective as the first -- to show the importance of problem posing. Although interest in mathematical problem solving increased during the past decade, problem posing remained relatively ignored. The Art of Problem Posing draws attention to this equally important act and is the innovator in the field. Special features include: * an exploration ofthe logical relationship between problem posing and problem solving * a special chapter devoted to teaching problem posing as a separate course * sketches, drawings, diagrams, and cartoons that illustrate the schemes proposed * a special section on writing in mathematics.

Managing a scarce resource: addressing critical health workforce challenges.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Giepmans. P.; Dussault, G.; Batenburg, R.; Frich, J.; Olivers, R.; Sermeus, W.

2013-01-01

With health care services significantly changing, the challenge is to initiate innovative, situational and integrated workforce forecasting and planning. Many health systems require a shift in mindset to move to the planning of skill mixes for health care professionals. This implies great challenges

Responding to Public Health Emergencies on Tribal Lands: Jurisdictional Challenges and Practical Solutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnard, Justin B

2015-01-01

Response to public health emergencies on tribal lands poses a unique challenge for state and tribal public health officials. The complexity and intensely situation-specific nature of federal Indian jurisprudence leaves considerable question as to which government entity, state or tribal, has jurisdiction on tribal lands to undertake basic emergency measures such as closure of public spaces, quarantine, compulsory medical examination, and investigation. That jurisdictional uncertainty, coupled with cultural differences and an often troubled history of tribal-state relations, threatens to significantly impede response to infectious disease outbreaks or other public health emergencies on tribal lands. Given that tribal communities may be disproportionately impacted by public health emergencies, it is critical that tribal, state, and local governments engage with each other in coordinated planning for public health threats. This Article is offered as a catalyst for such planning efforts. The Article identifies some of the most pressing jurisdictional issues that may confront governments responding to a public health emergency on tribal lands, with the aim of highlighting the nature of the problem and the need for action. The Article goes on to examine the most promising means of addressing jurisdictional uncertainty: intergovernmental agreements. Already utilized in many areas of shared interest between tribe and state, intergovernmental agreements offer neighboring state, local, and tribal governments a vehicle for delineating roles and authorities in an emergency, and may lay the groundwork for sharing resources. The Article surveys various representative tribal public health intergovernmental agreements, and concludes with suggestions for tribes and state or local governments looking to craft their own agreements.

Pose tracking for augmented reality applications in outdoor archaeological sites

Science.gov (United States)

Younes, Georges; Asmar, Daniel; Elhajj, Imad; Al-Harithy, Howayda

2017-01-01

In recent years, agencies around the world have invested huge amounts of effort toward digitizing many aspects of the world's cultural heritage. Of particular importance is the digitization of outdoor archaeological sites. In the spirit of valorization of this digital information, many groups have developed virtual or augmented reality (AR) computer applications themed around a particular archaeological object. The problem of pose tracking in outdoor AR applications is addressed. Different positional systems are analyzed, resulting in the selection of a monocular camera-based user tracker. The limitations that challenge this technique from map generation, scale, anchoring, to lighting conditions are analyzed and systematically addressed. Finally, as a case study, our pose tracking system is implemented within an AR experience in the Byblos Roman theater in Lebanon.

Challenges posed by diversity: looking at language and assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kari Smith

2010-09-01

Full Text Available It is common in many institutions of higher education to have a diverse student population with respect to language and culture in addition to diversity in ability and talent. For many students the language of instruction is not their first language, a situation which offers numerous challenges for the students as well as for the hosting universities. Students have different reasons to undertake an education in a foreign language, a fact which requires higher education institutions to be flexible in addressing the needs of these students. Thus assessment becomes a major challenge. This presentation discusses gains and losses related to studying in an additional language with a special focus on assessment issues. A small study carried out in Israel among Arab and Jewish students of English as a foreign language is presented to illustrate issues discussed. The presentation concludes with a few recommendations.

Challenges posed by tick-borne rickettsiae: eco-epidemiology and public health implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Eremeeva, Marina E; Dasch, Gregory A

2015-01-01

Rickettsiae are obligately intracellular bacteria that are transmitted to vertebrates by a variety of arthropod vectors, primarily by fleas and ticks. Once transmitted or experimentally inoculated into susceptible mammals, some rickettsiae may cause febrile illness of different morbidity and mortality, and which can manifest with different types of exhanthems in humans. However, most rickettsiae circulate in diverse sylvatic or peridomestic reservoirs without having obvious impacts on their vertebrate hosts or affecting humans. We have analyzed the key features of tick-borne maintenance of rickettsiae, which may provide a deeper basis for understanding those complex invertebrate interactions and strategies that have permitted survival and circulation of divergent rickettsiae in nature. Rickettsiae are found in association with a wide range of hard and soft ticks, which feed on very different species of large and small animals. Maintenance of rickettsiae in these vector systems is driven by both vertical and horizontal transmission strategies, but some species of Rickettsia are also known to cause detrimental effects on their arthropod vectors. Contrary to common belief, the role of vertebrate animal hosts in maintenance of rickettsiae is very incompletely understood. Some clearly play only the essential role of providing a blood meal to the tick while other hosts may supply crucial supplemental functions for effective agent transmission by the vectors. This review summarizes the importance of some recent findings with known and new vectors that afford an improved understanding of the eco-epidemiology of rickettsiae; the public health implications of that information for rickettsial diseases are also described. Special attention is paid to the co-circulation of different species and genotypes of rickettsiae within the same endemic areas and how these observations may influence, correctly or incorrectly, trends, and conclusions drawn from the surveillance of

Special Article Ethics and Electronic Health Information Technology ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objectives: The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), and the National Identification Authority (NIA), pose ethical challenges to the physician-patient relationship due to interoperability. This paper explores (1) the national legislation on Electronic Health Information Technology (EHIT), (2) the ethics of information ...

Perturbation-Based Regularization for Signal Estimation in Linear Discrete Ill-posed Problems

KAUST Repository

Suliman, Mohamed Abdalla Elhag; Ballal, Tarig; Al-Naffouri, Tareq Y.

2016-01-01

Estimating the values of unknown parameters from corrupted measured data faces a lot of challenges in ill-posed problems. In such problems, many fundamental estimation methods fail to provide a meaningful stabilized solution. In this work, we propose a new regularization approach and a new regularization parameter selection approach for linear least-squares discrete ill-posed problems. The proposed approach is based on enhancing the singular-value structure of the ill-posed model matrix to acquire a better solution. Unlike many other regularization algorithms that seek to minimize the estimated data error, the proposed approach is developed to minimize the mean-squared error of the estimator which is the objective in many typical estimation scenarios. The performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated by applying it to a large set of real-world discrete ill-posed problems. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms a set of benchmark regularization methods in most cases. In addition, the approach also enjoys the lowest runtime and offers the highest level of robustness amongst all the tested benchmark regularization methods.

Perturbation-Based Regularization for Signal Estimation in Linear Discrete Ill-posed Problems

KAUST Repository

Suliman, Mohamed Abdalla Elhag

2016-11-29

Estimating the values of unknown parameters from corrupted measured data faces a lot of challenges in ill-posed problems. In such problems, many fundamental estimation methods fail to provide a meaningful stabilized solution. In this work, we propose a new regularization approach and a new regularization parameter selection approach for linear least-squares discrete ill-posed problems. The proposed approach is based on enhancing the singular-value structure of the ill-posed model matrix to acquire a better solution. Unlike many other regularization algorithms that seek to minimize the estimated data error, the proposed approach is developed to minimize the mean-squared error of the estimator which is the objective in many typical estimation scenarios. The performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated by applying it to a large set of real-world discrete ill-posed problems. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms a set of benchmark regularization methods in most cases. In addition, the approach also enjoys the lowest runtime and offers the highest level of robustness amongst all the tested benchmark regularization methods.

Pose Space Surface Manipulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yusuke Yoshiyasu

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Example-based mesh deformation techniques produce natural and realistic shapes by learning the space of deformations from examples. However, skeleton-based methods cannot manipulate a global mesh structure naturally, whereas the mesh-based approaches based on a translational control do not allow the user to edit a local mesh structure intuitively. This paper presents an example-driven mesh editing framework that achieves both global and local pose manipulations. The proposed system is built with a surface deformation method based on a two-step linear optimization technique and achieves direct manipulations of a model surface using translational and rotational controls. With the translational control, the user can create a model in natural poses easily. The rotational control can adjust the local pose intuitively by bending and twisting. We encode example deformations with a rotation-invariant mesh representation which handles large rotations in examples. To incorporate example deformations, we infer a pose from the handle translations/rotations and perform pose space interpolation, thereby avoiding involved nonlinear optimization. With the two-step linear approach combined with the proposed multiresolution deformation method, we can edit models at interactive rates without losing important deformation effects such as muscle bulging.

Conventional Wisdom versus Actual Outcomes: Challenges in the Conduct of an Ebola Vaccine Trial in Liberia during the International Public Health Emergency.

Science.gov (United States)

Larson, Gregg S; Baseler, Beth R; Hoover, Marie L; Pierson, Jerome F; Tegli, Jemee K; Johnson, Melvin P; Kieh, Mark W S; McNay, Laura A; Njoh, Wissedi Sio

2017-07-01

Clinical trials are challenging endeavors. Planning and implementing an investigational vaccine trial in Liberia, in the midst of an Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic that World Health Organization classified a public health emergency of international concern, presented extraordinary challenges. Normally, years of preparation and a litany of tasks lay the groundwork for a successful, randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled trial focused on safety and efficacy. Difficult research settings, unpredictable events, and other unique circumstances can add complexity. The setting in Liberia was especially problematic due to an infrastructure still badly damaged following a lengthy civil war and a very fragile health-care system that was further devastated by the EVD outbreak. The Partnership for Research on Vaccines in Liberia I EVD vaccine trial was planned and implemented in less than 3 months by a Liberian and U.S. research partnership, and its Phase II substudy was fully enrolled 3 months later. Contrasting conventional wisdom with trial outcomes offers an opportunity to compare early assumptions, barriers encountered, and adaptive strategies used, with end results. Understanding what was learned can inform future trial responses when disease outbreaks, especially in resource-poor locations with minimal infrastructure, pose a significant threat to public health.

The challenges posed by radiation and radionuclide releases to the environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Wenning, Richard J; Apitz, Sabine E; Backhaus, Thomas; Barnthouse, Lawrence; Batley, Graeme; Brooks, Bryan; Chapman, Peter M; Griffin, Michael; Kapustka, Lawrence; Landis, Wayne; Leung, Kenneth M Y; Linkov, Igor; Seager, Thomas P; Suter, Glenn; Tannenbaum, Lawrence

2011-07-01

The recent accident at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant in Japan (also known as Fukushima Daiichi) captured the world's attention and re-invigorated concerns about the safety of nuclear power technology. The Editors of Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management invited experts in the field to describe the primary issues associated with the control and release of radioactive materials to the environment, particularly those that are of importance to the health of the human populations and the ecological systems that populate our planet. This collection of invited short commentaries aims to inform on the safety of nuclear power plants damaged by natural disasters and provide a primer on the potential environmental impacts. The intent of these invited commentaries is not to fuel the excitement and fears about the Fukushima Daiichi incident; rather, it is to collect views and comments from some of the world's experts on the broad science and policy challenges raised by this event, and to provide high-level views on the science issues that surround this situation in order to improve our collective ability to avoid or at least minimize the consequences of future events. Copyright © 2011 SETAC.

eHealth recruitment challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Debbe; Canada, Ashanti; Bhatt, Riddhi; Davis, Jennifer; Plesko, Lisa; Baranowski, Tom; Cullen, Karen; Zakeri, Issa

2006-11-01

Little is known about effective eHealth recruitment methods. This paper presents recruitment challenges associated with enrolling African-American girls aged 8-10 years in an eHealth obesity prevention program, their effect on the recruitment plan, and potential implications for eHealth research. Although the initial recruitment strategy was literature-informed, it failed to enroll the desired number of girls within a reasonable time period. Therefore, the recruitment strategy was reformulated to incorporate principles of social marketing and traditional marketing techniques. The resulting plan included both targeted, highly specific strategies (e.g., selected churches), and more broad-based approaches (e.g., media exposure, mass mailings, radio advertisements). The revised plan enabled recruitment goals to be attained. Media appeared to be particularly effective at reaching the intended audience. Future research should identify the most effective recruitment strategies for reaching potential eHealth audiences.

Automatic generation of statistical pose and shape models for articulated joints.

Science.gov (United States)

Xin Chen; Graham, Jim; Hutchinson, Charles; Muir, Lindsay

2014-02-01

Statistical analysis of motion patterns of body joints is potentially useful for detecting and quantifying pathologies. However, building a statistical motion model across different subjects remains a challenging task, especially for a complex joint like the wrist. We present a novel framework for simultaneous registration and segmentation of multiple 3-D (CT or MR) volumes of different subjects at various articulated positions. The framework starts with a pose model generated from 3-D volumes captured at different articulated positions of a single subject (template). This initial pose model is used to register the template volume to image volumes from new subjects. During this process, the Grow-Cut algorithm is used in an iterative refinement of the segmentation of the bone along with the pose parameters. As each new subject is registered and segmented, the pose model is updated, improving the accuracy of successive registrations. We applied the algorithm to CT images of the wrist from 25 subjects, each at five different wrist positions and demonstrated that it performed robustly and accurately. More importantly, the resulting segmentations allowed a statistical pose model of the carpal bones to be generated automatically without interaction. The evaluation results show that our proposed framework achieved accurate registration with an average mean target registration error of 0.34 ±0.27 mm. The automatic segmentation results also show high consistency with the ground truth obtained semi-automatically. Furthermore, we demonstrated the capability of the resulting statistical pose and shape models by using them to generate a measurement tool for scaphoid-lunate dissociation diagnosis, which achieved 90% sensitivity and specificity.

Statistical Model-Based Face Pose Estimation

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

GE Xinliang; YANG Jie; LI Feng; WANG Huahua

2007-01-01

A robust face pose estimation approach is proposed by using face shape statistical model approach and pose parameters are represented by trigonometric functions. The face shape statistical model is firstly built by analyzing the face shapes from different people under varying poses. The shape alignment is vital in the process of building the statistical model. Then, six trigonometric functions are employed to represent the face pose parameters. Lastly, the mapping function is constructed between face image and face pose by linearly relating different parameters. The proposed approach is able to estimate different face poses using a few face training samples. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate its efficiency and accuracy.

Surety of the nation`s critical infrastructures: The challenge restructuring poses to the telecommunications sector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cox, R.; Drennen, T.E.; Gilliom, L.; Harris, D.L.; Kunsman, D.M.; Skroch, M.J.

1998-04-01

The telecommunications sector plays a pivotal role in the system of increasingly connected and interdependent networks that make up national infrastructure. An assessment of the probable structure and function of the bit-moving industry in the twenty-first century must include issues associated with the surety of telecommunications. The term surety, as used here, means confidence in the acceptable behavior of a system in both intended and unintended circumstances. This paper outlines various engineering approaches to surety in systems, generally, and in the telecommunications infrastructure, specifically. It uses the experience and expectations of the telecommunications system of the US as an example of the global challenges. The paper examines the principal factors underlying the change to more distributed systems in this sector, assesses surety issues associated with these changes, and suggests several possible strategies for mitigation. It also studies the ramifications of what could happen if this sector became a target for those seeking to compromise a nation`s security and economic well being. Experts in this area generally agree that the U. S. telecommunications sector will eventually respond in a way that meets market demands for surety. Questions remain open, however, about confidence in the telecommunications sector and the nation`s infrastructure during unintended circumstances--such as those posed by information warfare or by cascading software failures. Resolution of these questions is complicated by the lack of clear accountability of the private and the public sectors for the surety of telecommunications.

Shared Electronic Health Record Systems: Key Legal and Security Challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Christiansen, Ellen K; Skipenes, Eva; Hausken, Marie F; Skeie, Svein; Østbye, Truls; Iversen, Marjolein M

2017-11-01

Use of shared electronic health records opens a whole range of new possibilities for flexible and fruitful cooperation among health personnel in different health institutions, to the benefit of the patients. There are, however, unsolved legal and security challenges. The overall aim of this article is to highlight legal and security challenges that should be considered before using shared electronic cooperation platforms and health record systems to avoid legal and security "surprises" subsequent to the implementation. Practical lessons learned from the use of a web-based ulcer record system involving patients, community nurses, GPs, and hospital nurses and doctors in specialist health care are used to illustrate challenges we faced. Discussion of possible legal and security challenges is critical for successful implementation of shared electronic collaboration systems. Key challenges include (1) allocation of responsibility, (2) documentation routines, (3) and integrated or federated access control. We discuss and suggest how challenges of legal and security aspects can be handled. This discussion may be useful for both current and future users, as well as policy makers.

e-Health Cloud: Opportunities and Challenges

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Jameela Al-Jaroodi

2012-07-01

Full Text Available As the costs of healthcare services rise and healthcare professionals are becoming scarce and hard to find, it is imminent that healthcare organizations consider adopting health information technology (HIT systems. HIT allows health organizations to streamline many of their processes and provide services in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. The latest technological trends such as Cloud Computing (CC provide a strong infrastructure and offer a true enabler for HIT services over the Internet. This can be achieved on a pay-as-you-use model of the “e-Health Cloud” to help the healthcare industry cope with current and future demands yet keeping their costs to a minimum. Despite its great potential, HIT as a CC model has not been addressed extensively in the literature. There are no apparent frameworks which clearly encompass all viable schemes and interrelationships between HIT and CC. Therefore, analyzing and comparing the effectiveness of such schemes is important. In this paper we introduce the concept of “e-Health Cloud” highlighting many of its constituents and proposing building an e-health environment and elucidating many of the challenges confronting the success of the e-Health Cloud. We will also discuss different possible solutions to address challenges such as security and privacy.

Consistent Treatment of Variables and Causation Poses a Challenge for Behavioral Research Methods: A Commentary on Nesselroade and Molenaar (2016).

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Markus, Keith A

2016-01-01

Nesselroade and Molenaar presented the ideographic filter as a proposal for analyzing lawful regularities in behavioral research. The proposal highlights an inconsistency that poses a challenge for behavioral research more generally. One can distinguish a broadly Humean approach from a broadly non-Humean approach as they relate to variables and to causation. Nesselroade and Molenaar rejected a Humean approach to latent variables that characterizes them as nothing more than summaries of their manifest indicators. By contrast, they tacitly accepted a Humean approach to causes characterized as nothing more than summaries of their manifest causal effects. A non-Humean treatment of variables coupled with a Humean treatment of causation creates a theoretical tension within their proposal. For example, one can interpret the same model elements as simultaneously representing both variables and causes. Future refinement of the ideographic filter proposal to address this tension could follow any of a number of strategies.

Collaborative Random Faces-Guided Encoders for Pose-Invariant Face Representation Learning.

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Shao, Ming; Zhang, Yizhe; Fu, Yun

2018-04-01

Learning discriminant face representation for pose-invariant face recognition has been identified as a critical issue in visual learning systems. The challenge lies in the drastic changes of facial appearances between the test face and the registered face. To that end, we propose a high-level feature learning framework called "collaborative random faces (RFs)-guided encoders" toward this problem. The contributions of this paper are three fold. First, we propose a novel supervised autoencoder that is able to capture the high-level identity feature despite of pose variations. Second, we enrich the identity features by replacing the target values of conventional autoencoders with random signals (RFs in this paper), which are unique for each subject under different poses. Third, we further improve the performance of the framework by incorporating deep convolutional neural network facial descriptors and linking discriminative identity features from different RFs for the augmented identity features. Finally, we conduct face identification experiments on Multi-PIE database, and face verification experiments on labeled faces in the wild and YouTube Face databases, where face recognition rate and verification accuracy with Receiver Operating Characteristic curves are rendered. In addition, discussions of model parameters and connections with the existing methods are provided. These experiments demonstrate that our learning system works fairly well on handling pose variations.

Web-based visualisation of head pose and facial expressions changes: monitoring human activity using depth data

OpenAIRE

Kalliatakis, Grigorios; Vidakis, Nikolaos; Triantafyllidis, Georgios

2017-01-01

Despite significant recent advances in the field of head pose estimation and facial expression recognition, raising the cognitive level when analysing human activity presents serious challenges to current concepts. Motivated by the need of generating comprehensible visual representations from different sets of data, we introduce a system capable of monitoring human activity through head pose and facial expression changes, utilising an affordable 3D sensing technology (Microsoft Kinect sensor)...

Emerging and Reemerging Diseases in the World Health Organization (WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region—Progress, Challenges, and WHO Initiatives

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Evans Buliva

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR of the World Health Organization (WHO continues to be a hotspot for emerging and reemerging infectious diseases and the need to prevent, detect, and respond to any infectious diseases that pose a threat to global health security remains a priority. Many risk factors contribute in the emergence and rapid spread of epidemic diseases in the Region including acute and protracted humanitarian emergencies, resulting in fragile health systems, increased population mobility, rapid urbanization, climate change, weak surveillance and limited laboratory diagnostic capacity, and increased human–animal interaction. In EMR, several infectious disease outbreaks were detected, investigated, and rapidly contained over the past 5 years including: yellow fever in Sudan, Middle East respiratory syndrome in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, cholera in Iraq, avian influenza A (H5N1 infection in Egypt, and dengue fever in Yemen, Sudan, and Pakistan. Dengue fever remains an important public health concern, with at least eight countries in the region being endemic for the disease. The emergence of MERS-CoV in the region in 2012 and its continued transmission currently poses one of the greatest threats. In response to the growing frequency, duration, and scale of disease outbreaks, WHO has worked closely with member states in the areas of improving public health preparedness, surveillance systems, outbreak response, and addressing critical knowledge gaps. A Regional network for experts and technical institutions has been established to facilitate support for international outbreak response. Major challenges are faced as a result of protracted humanitarian crises in the region. Funding gaps, lack of integrated approaches, weak surveillance systems, and absence of comprehensive response plans are other areas of concern. Accelerated efforts are needed by Regional countries, with the continuous

Emerging and Reemerging Diseases in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region-Progress, Challenges, and WHO Initiatives.

Science.gov (United States)

Buliva, Evans; Elhakim, Mohamed; Tran Minh, Nhu Nguyen; Elkholy, Amgad; Mala, Peter; Abubakar, Abdinasir; Malik, Sk Md Mamunur Rahman

2017-01-01

The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) of the World Health Organization (WHO) continues to be a hotspot for emerging and reemerging infectious diseases and the need to prevent, detect, and respond to any infectious diseases that pose a threat to global health security remains a priority. Many risk factors contribute in the emergence and rapid spread of epidemic diseases in the Region including acute and protracted humanitarian emergencies, resulting in fragile health systems, increased population mobility, rapid urbanization, climate change, weak surveillance and limited laboratory diagnostic capacity, and increased human-animal interaction. In EMR, several infectious disease outbreaks were detected, investigated, and rapidly contained over the past 5 years including: yellow fever in Sudan, Middle East respiratory syndrome in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, cholera in Iraq, avian influenza A (H5N1) infection in Egypt, and dengue fever in Yemen, Sudan, and Pakistan. Dengue fever remains an important public health concern, with at least eight countries in the region being endemic for the disease. The emergence of MERS-CoV in the region in 2012 and its continued transmission currently poses one of the greatest threats. In response to the growing frequency, duration, and scale of disease outbreaks, WHO has worked closely with member states in the areas of improving public health preparedness, surveillance systems, outbreak response, and addressing critical knowledge gaps. A Regional network for experts and technical institutions has been established to facilitate support for international outbreak response. Major challenges are faced as a result of protracted humanitarian crises in the region. Funding gaps, lack of integrated approaches, weak surveillance systems, and absence of comprehensive response plans are other areas of concern. Accelerated efforts are needed by Regional countries, with the continuous support of WHO, to

Pengenalan Pose Tangan Menggunakan HuMoment

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Dina Budhi Utami

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Computer vision yang didasarkan pada pengenalan bentuk memiliki banyak potensi dalam interaksi manusia dan komputer. Pose tangan dapat dijadikan simbol interaksi manusia dengan komputer seperti halnya pada penggunaan berbagai pose tangan pada bahasa isyarat. Berbagai pose tangan dapat digunakan untuk menggantikan fungsi mouse, untuk mengendalikan robot, dan sebagainya. Penelitian ini difokuskan pada pembangunan sistem pengenalan pose tangan menggunakan HuMoment. Proses pengenalan pose tangan dimulai dengan melakukan segmentasi citra masukan untuk menghasilkan citra ROI (Region of Interest yaitu area telapak tangan. Selanjutnya dilakukan proses deteksi tepi. Kemudian dilakukan ekstraksi nilai HuMoment. Nilai HuMoment dikuantisasikan ke dalam bukukode yang dihasilkan dari proses pelatihan menggunakan K-Means. Proses kuantisasi dilakukan dengan menghitung nilai Euclidean Distance terkecil antara nilai HuMomment citra masukan dan bukukode. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, nilai akurasi sistem dalam mengenali pose tangan adalah 88.57%.

Digital health and the challenge of health systems transformation.

Science.gov (United States)

Alami, Hassane; Gagnon, Marie-Pierre; Fortin, Jean-Paul

2017-01-01

Information and communication technologies have transformed all sectors of society. The health sector is no exception to this trend. In light of "digital health", we see multiplying numbers of web platforms and mobile health applications, often brought by new unconventional players who produce and offer services in non-linear and non-hierarchal ways, this by multiplying access points to services for people. Some speak of a "uberization" of healthcare. New realities and challenges have emerged from this paradigm, which question the abilities of health systems to cope with new business and economic models, governance of data and regulation. Countries must provide adequate responses so that digital health, based increasingly on disruptive technologies, can benefit for all.

Restaurant challenge offers healthful meal options and builds diabetes awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Blair, Angela M; Drass, Janice A; Stone, Marylou; Rhoades, Deborah; Baldwin, Susan A; Russ, Kelsey M

2011-01-01

The Frederick Restaurant Challenge is an innovative project based on a collaborative effort among community organizations and partners designed to offer delicious healthful meal options at local restaurants during the month of November for American Diabetes Month. Local restaurants were challenged to participate and submitted recipes for healthful meals to the Frederick County Diabetes Coalition for review by registered dietitians. Diners voted on meals to determine the challenge winner(s), and were eligible to win prizes as well. Publicity prior to and during the month was effective in creating positive news about healthful meals when eating out, raised awareness about diabetes, and provided restaurants with desirable advertising opportunities. Feedback from restaurants and diners was overwhelmingly positive. The purpose of this article is to describe this successful low-budget project to encourage its replication in local communities. The Frederick Restaurant Challenge proved to be a very successful, innovative, low-budget project that met its intended goals: to develop healthful meal options for people with diabetes (or for anyone wishing to eat healthier); to demonstrate that healthful food can taste delicious; and to encourage restaurants to continue offering healthful options on their menus beyond the challenge month. Community interventions such as the Frederick Restaurant Challenge offer unique and important strategies for affecting change and raising awareness not only for people with diabetes but also for the entire community.

Lost in Translation? Challenges and Opportunities for Raising Health and Safety Awareness among a Multinational Workforce in the United Arab Emirates

Science.gov (United States)

Cooling, Robert Fletcher; Aw, Tar-Ching

2012-01-01

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has experienced tremendous economic and industrial growth in the petroleum, airline, maritime and construction sectors, especially since the discovery of oil reserves. Mass recruitment of low skilled or unskilled laborers from less-developed countries has been utilized to satisfy the manpower demands of these fast paced industrial developments. Such workforce recruitment has created an unusual populace demographic, with the total UAE population estimated at 8.3 million, composed of 950,000 Emiratis, with the remainder being multinational expatriate workers, with varying educational qualifications, work experience, religious beliefs, cultural practices, and native languages. These unique characteristics pose a challenge for health and safety professionals tasked with ensuring the UAE workforce adheres to specific occupational health and safety procedures. The paper discusses two case studies that employ a novel multimedia approach to raising health and safety awareness among a multinational workforce. PMID:23251846

A deep learning approach for pose estimation from volumetric OCT data.

Science.gov (United States)

Gessert, Nils; Schlüter, Matthias; Schlaefer, Alexander

2018-05-01

Tracking the pose of instruments is a central problem in image-guided surgery. For microscopic scenarios, optical coherence tomography (OCT) is increasingly used as an imaging modality. OCT is suitable for accurate pose estimation due to its micrometer range resolution and volumetric field of view. However, OCT image processing is challenging due to speckle noise and reflection artifacts in addition to the images' 3D nature. We address pose estimation from OCT volume data with a new deep learning-based tracking framework. For this purpose, we design a new 3D convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture to directly predict the 6D pose of a small marker geometry from OCT volumes. We use a hexapod robot to automatically acquire labeled data points which we use to train 3D CNN architectures for multi-output regression. We use this setup to provide an in-depth analysis on deep learning-based pose estimation from volumes. Specifically, we demonstrate that exploiting volume information for pose estimation yields higher accuracy than relying on 2D representations with depth information. Supporting this observation, we provide quantitative and qualitative results that 3D CNNs effectively exploit the depth structure of marker objects. Regarding the deep learning aspect, we present efficient design principles for 3D CNNs, making use of insights from the 2D deep learning community. In particular, we present Inception3D as a new architecture which performs best for our application. We show that our deep learning approach reaches errors at our ground-truth label's resolution. We achieve a mean average error of 14.89 ± 9.3 µm and 0.096 ± 0.072° for position and orientation learning, respectively. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Health literacy, health communication challenges, and cancer screening among rural Native Hawaiian and Filipino Women

Science.gov (United States)

Sentell, Tetine; Cruz, May Rose Dela; Heo, Hyun Hee; Braun, Kathryn

2013-01-01

Native Hawaiians and Filipinos are disproportionately impacted by cancer, and are less likely to participate in cancer screening than whites. Limited information exists about health information pathways and health communication challenges as they relate to cancer screening in these groups. Six focus groups (n=77) of Native Hawaiian and Filipino women age 40+ years were conducted to investigate these research gaps. Participants noted many health information challenges. Challenges were both practical and interpersonal and included both written and oral health communication. Practical challenges included “big” words, complexity of terms, and lack of plain English. Interpersonal issues included doctors rushing, doctors not assessing comprehension, and doctors treating respondents as patients not people. Women noted that they would often not ask questions even when they knew they did not understand because they did not want the provider to think negatively of them. Overarching themes to improve cancer communication gaps included: (1) the importance of family and community in health information dissemination; (2) the key role women play in interpreting health information for others; (3) the importance of personal experience and relationships to the salience of health information; and (4) the desire for local cultural relevance in health communication. Findings are discussed in light of the 2010 National Action Plan for Health Literacy. PMID:23536194

Gender-Specific Health Challenges Facing Women

Science.gov (United States)

... with facebook share with twitter share with linkedin Gender-Specific Health Challenges Facing Women Global Research Global ... adverse reactions to the drugs. Women also suffer gender-specific consequences of HIV, including recurrent vaginal yeast ...

Grandparent caregiving among rural African Americans in a community in the American South: challenges to health and wellbeing.

Science.gov (United States)

Clottey, Emmanuel N; Scott, Alison J; Alfonso, Moya L

2015-01-01

as well as their grandchildren's. Financial scarcity added to their vulnerability to poor health outcomes, especially when caregivers would forego purchase of medications or visits to the doctor because of expenses related to their grandchildren. In addition, lack of child care made health appointments and hospitalizations logistically difficult. Emotional strain was common as grandparent caregivers struggled to protect their grandchildren in communities where rates of drug use, HIV, and incarceration were high. Caregivers worried about their mortality and the related consequences for their grandchildren. Chronic stress, which is linked to a number of poor health outcomes, was self-reported by most rural grandparent caregivers. In this study, the challenges of rural grandparent caregiving among African American women posed multiple threats to health and wellbeing. Further research is needed, in different rural contexts and with different caregiver populations, to more thoroughly examine the health risks of grandparent caregiving. In addition, the development of multi-faceted interventions and programs will be critical to meeting the needs of rural grandparent caregivers. A few models for such programs exist, although resource shortfalls have often limited their impact.

Mickey Mouse poses with a portrait of Ronald McNair

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

In the gymnasium of Ronald McNair Magnet School in Cocoa, Fla., Mickey Mouse poses with a portrait of NASA astronaut Ronald McNair. The portrait was presented to the school by Walt Disney World during a tribute to McNair. The school had previously been renamed for the fallen astronaut who was one of a crew of seven who lost their lives during an accident following launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger in January 1986.

Towards Horizon 2020: challenges and advances for clinical mental health research – outcome of an expert survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

van der Feltz-Cornelis CM

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Christina M van der Feltz-Cornelis,1–3 Jim van Os,4,6 Susanne Knappe,5 Gunter Schumann,6 Eduard Vieta,7 Hans-Ulrich Wittchen,5 Shôn W Lewis,8 Iman Elfeddali,2,9 Kristian Wahlbeck,10,11 Donald Linszen,4 Carla Obradors-Tarragó,12,13 Josep Maria Haro12–141Trimbos Instituut, Utrecht, 2Tilburg University, Tranzo Department, Tilburg, 3GGz Breburg, Tilburg, 4Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, Euron, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, the Netherlands; 5Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy and Center for Epidemiology and Longitudinal Studies, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany; 6Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, UK; 7Institute of Neuroscience, Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, IDIBAPS, CIBERSAM, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; 8School of Community-Based Medicine, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; 9Department of Health Promotion/School of Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands; 10The Nordic School of Public Health, Gothenburg, Sweden; 11National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland; 12Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, Madrid, 13Research and Development Unit, Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Fundació Sant Joan de Déu, Sant Boi de Llobregat, 14Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, SpainBackground: The size and increasing burden of disease due to mental disorders in Europe poses substantial challenges to its population and to the health policy of the European Union. This warrants a specific research agenda concerning clinical mental health research as one of the cornerstones of sustainable mental health research and health policy in Europe. The aim of this research was to identify the top priorities needed to address the main challenges in clinical research for mental disorders.Methods: The research was conducted as an

What does public health ethics tell (or not tell) us about intervening in non-communicable diseases?

Science.gov (United States)

Upshur, Ross

2013-03-01

Obesity has been described as pandemic and a public health crisis. It has been argued that concerted research efforts are needed to enhance our understanding and develop effective interventions for the complex and multiple dimensions of the health challenges posed by obesity. This would provide a secure evidence base in order to justify clinical interventions and public policy. This paper critically examines these claims through the examination of models of public health and public health ethics. I argue that the concept of an effective public health intervention is unclear and underdeveloped and, as a consequence, normative frameworks reliant on meeting the effectiveness criterion may miss morally salient dimensions of the problems. I conclude by arguing for the need to consider both an ecological model of public health and inclusion of a critical public health ethics perspective for an adequate account of the public health challenges posed by obesity.

Challenges in mental health nursing: current opinion

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Sabella D

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Donna Sabella, Theresa Fay-Hillier College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA Abstract: The current mental health care system in the US continues to struggle with providing adequate care and services to all that require it due to limited resources, biases from both other professions and the public, and the complexities of treatment of many of those individuals or populations that suffer from mental illness. Mental health nurses, also referred to as psychiatric nurses, are impacted by those same biases, limited resources, and complexities in their role. This paper provides a brief history of mental health nursing and a discussion of the current challenges faced within the profession. It will also include how the public's perception of both those who have mental illness and those who treat it is based on the sensationalism of those who are violent, and misunderstanding of current treatments. It is imperative that mental health nurses continue to define and educate other health care professionals as well as the general public of the role of the mental health nurse and those who suffer from mental illness. Unfortunately, some of the same bias that was present in the 1930s remains today, but perhaps with perseverance and education it will not continue into the future. Keywords: mental health, psychiatric nursing, pre- licensure, post-licensure challenges, professional obstacles, public perception

CHALLENGES IN REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE OF ADOLESCENTS IN SLOVENIA

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Bojana Pinter

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Background: Slovenia is one of the most successful European countries in the prevention of adolescent pregnancy and the country with a relative early sexual engagement of adolescents. Every year new generations of adolescents are entering puberty, thus reproductive health care of adolescents should be our continuous priority. Methods: The most important challenges in reproductive health care of adolescents in Slovenia are early sexual engagement of adolescents, low double method use at sexual intercourse and inadequate detection of sexually transmitted infections. Possible responses should be found on a micro-level of physician (recognition of a new role of physician, promotion of ABC ap- proach and on a macro-level of society (development of national strategy of reproductive health care, introduction of systematic sexuality education in the schools. Conclusions: Challenges in reproductive health care of adolescents are several and possible responses are integral. A response on challenges demand that every physician recognizes his/her new role and develops his/her competency. Responses on challenges will be feasible with inter- connection of physicians with other physicians and professionals and with collaboration of profession and politics.

Problem posing reflections and applications

CERN Document Server

Brown, Stephen I

2014-01-01

As a result of the editors' collaborative teaching at Harvard in the late 1960s, they produced a ground-breaking work -- The Art Of Problem Posing -- which related problem posing strategies to the already popular activity of problem solving. It took the concept of problem posing and created strategies for engaging in that activity as a central theme in mathematics education. Based in part upon that work and also upon a number of articles by its authors, other members of the mathematics education community began to apply and expand upon their ideas. This collection of thirty readings is a tes

Does intake of trace elements through urban gardening in Copenhagen pose a risk to human health?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Warming, Marlies; Hansen, Mette G.; Holm, Peter E.; Magid, Jakob; Hansen, Thomas H.; Trapp, Stefan

2015-01-01

This study investigates the potential health risk from urban gardening. The concentrations of the trace elements arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn) in five common garden crops from three garden sites in Copenhagen were measured. Concentrations (mg/kg dw) of As were 0.002–0.21, Cd 0.03–0.25, Cr < 0.09–0.38, Cu 1.8–8.7, Ni < 0.23–0.62, Pb 0.05–1.56, and Zn 10–86. Generally, elemental concentrations in the crops do not reflect soil concentrations, nor exceed legal standards for Cd and Pb in food. Hazard quotients (HQs) were calculated from soil ingestion, vegetable consumption, measured trace element concentrations and tolerable intake levels. The HQs for As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn do not indicate a health risk through urban gardening in Copenhagen. Exposure to Pb contaminated sites may lead to unacceptable risk not caused by vegetable consumption but by unintentional soil ingestion. - Highlights: • We measured trace metal concentrations in urban soil and vegetables. • We calculated hazard quotients (HQs) to determine the human health risk. • Consumption of urban vegetables does not result in HQs exceeding unity. • Unintentional ingestion of contaminated soil causes a risk to the human health. - Consumption of vegetables grown in Copenhagen does not pose a risk to the human health, while unintentional ingestion of contaminated soil remains a risk factor with respect to lead

Digital health and the challenge of health systems transformation

Science.gov (United States)

Gagnon, Marie-Pierre; Fortin, Jean-Paul

2017-01-01

Information and communication technologies have transformed all sectors of society. The health sector is no exception to this trend. In light of “digital health”, we see multiplying numbers of web platforms and mobile health applications, often brought by new unconventional players who produce and offer services in non-linear and non-hierarchal ways, this by multiplying access points to services for people. Some speak of a “uberization” of healthcare. New realities and challenges have emerged from this paradigm, which question the abilities of health systems to cope with new business and economic models, governance of data and regulation. Countries must provide adequate responses so that digital health, based increasingly on disruptive technologies, can benefit for all. PMID:28894741

Mobile mental health: a challenging research agenda.

Science.gov (United States)

Olff, Miranda

2015-01-01

The field of mobile health ("m-Health") is evolving rapidly and there is an explosive growth of psychological tools on the market. Exciting high-tech developments may identify symptoms, help individuals manage their own mental health, encourage help seeking, and provide both preventive and therapeutic interventions. This development has the potential to be an efficient cost-effective approach reducing waiting lists and serving a considerable portion of people globally ("g-Health"). However, few of the mobile applications (apps) have been rigorously evaluated. There is little information on how valid screening and assessment tools are, which of the mobile intervention apps are effective, or how well mobile apps compare to face-to-face treatments. But how feasible is rigorous scientific evaluation with the rising demands from policy makers, business partners, and users for their quick release? In this paper, developments in m-Health tools-targeting screening, assessment, prevention, and treatment-are reviewed with examples from the field of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder. The academic challenges in developing and evaluating m-Health tools are being addressed. Evidence-based guidance is needed on appropriate research designs that may overcome some of the public and ethical challenges (e.g., equity, availability) and the market-driven wish to have mobile apps in the "App Store" yesterday rather than tomorrow.

Deliberative democracy in health care: current challenges and future prospects.

Science.gov (United States)

Safaei, Jalil

2015-01-01

There is a vast body of literature on deliberative, participative, or engaged democracy. In the area of health care there is a rapidly expanding literature on deliberative democracy as embodied in various notions of public engagement, shared decision-making (SDM), patient-centered care, and patient/care provider autonomy over the past few decades. It is useful to review such literature to get a sense of the challenges and prospects of introducing deliberative democracy in health care. This paper reviews the key literature on deliberative democracy and SDM in health care settings with a focus on identifying the main challenges of promoting this approach in health care, and recognizing its progress so far for mapping out its future prospects in the context of advanced countries. Several databases were searched to identify the literature pertinent to the subject of this study. A total of 56 key studies in English were identified and reviewed carefully for indications and evidence of challenges and/or promising avenues of promoting deliberative democracy in health care. Time pressure, lack of financial motivation, entrenched professional interests, informational imbalance, practical feasibility, cost, diversity of decisions, and contextual factors are noted as the main challenges. As for the prospects, greater clarity on conception of public engagement and policy objectives, real commitment of the authorities to public input, documenting evidence of the effectiveness of public involvement, development of patient decision supports, training of health professionals in SDM, and use of multiple and flexible methods of engagement leadership suited to specific contexts are the main findings in the reviewed literature. Seeking deliberative democracy in health care is both challenging and rewarding. The challenges have been more or less identified. However, its prospects are potentially significant. Such prospects are more likely to materialize if deliberative democracy is

[Health literacy as one of the contemporary public health challenges].

Science.gov (United States)

Iwanowicz, Eliza

2009-01-01

One of the fundamental public health challenges in the 21st century should be the improvement of people's health literacy, namely the understanding of health messages. The acquired high level of health literacy means that one knows how and where information concerning health determinants can be found, is able to assess it critically and in favorable conditions even modify them, which seems to be of particular importance from the perspective of heath promotion, prevention or treatment of diseases. Therefore, for professionals in these fields, knowledge of ways how to improve health literacy, as well as awareness of related benefits and the consequences of its poor level, seems to be indispensable. Thus, the aim of this paper is to explain the term of "health literacy", its determinants and implications.

Framing global health: the governance challenge.

Science.gov (United States)

McInnes, Colin; Kamradt-Scott, Adam; Lee, Kelley; Reubi, David; Roemer-Mahler, Anne; Rushton, Simon; Williams, Owain David; Woodling, Marie

2012-01-01

With the emergence of global health comes governance challenges which are equally global in nature. This article identifies some of the initial limitations in analyses of global health governance (GHG) before discussing the focus of this special supplement: the framing of global health issues and the manner in which this impacts upon GHG. Whilst not denying the importance of material factors (such as resources and institutional competencies), the article identifies how issues can be framed in different ways, thereby creating particular pathways of response which in turn affect the potential for and nature of GHG. It also identifies and discusses the key frames operating in global health: evidence-based medicine, human rights, security, economics and development.

Open science initiatives: challenges for public health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Holzmeyer, Cheryl

2018-03-07

While academic open access, open data and open science initiatives have proliferated in recent years, facilitating new research resources for health promotion, open initiatives are not one-size-fits-all. Health research particularly illustrates how open initiatives may serve various interests and ends. Open initiatives not only foster new pathways of research access; they also discipline research in new ways, especially when associated with new regimes of research use and peer review, while participating in innovation ecosystems that often perpetuate existing systemic biases toward commercial biomedicine. Currently, many open initiatives are more oriented toward biomedical research paradigms than paradigms associated with public health promotion, such as social determinants of health research. Moreover, open initiatives too often dovetail with, rather than challenge, neoliberal policy paradigms. Such initiatives are unlikely to transform existing health research landscapes and redress health inequities. In this context, attunement to social determinants of health research and community-based local knowledge is vital to orient open initiatives toward public health promotion and health equity. Such an approach calls for discourses, norms and innovation ecosystems that contest neoliberal policy frameworks and foster upstream interventions to promote health, beyond biomedical paradigms. This analysis highlights challenges and possibilities for leveraging open initiatives on behalf of a wider range of health research stakeholders, while emphasizing public health promotion, health equity and social justice as benchmarks of transformation.

Generalized Hough transform based time invariant action recognition with 3D pose information

Science.gov (United States)

Muench, David; Huebner, Wolfgang; Arens, Michael

2014-10-01

Human action recognition has emerged as an important field in the computer vision community due to its large number of applications such as automatic video surveillance, content based video-search and human robot interaction. In order to cope with the challenges that this large variety of applications present, recent research has focused more on developing classifiers able to detect several actions in more natural and unconstrained video sequences. The invariance discrimination tradeoff in action recognition has been addressed by utilizing a Generalized Hough Transform. As a basis for action representation we transform 3D poses into a robust feature space, referred to as pose descriptors. For each action class a one-dimensional temporal voting space is constructed. Votes are generated from associating pose descriptors with their position in time relative to the end of an action sequence. Training data consists of manually segmented action sequences. In the detection phase valid human 3D poses are assumed as input, e.g. originating from 3D sensors or monocular pose reconstruction methods. The human 3D poses are normalized to gain view-independence and transformed into (i) relative limb-angle space to ensure independence of non-adjacent joints or (ii) geometric features. In (i) an action descriptor consists of the relative angles between limbs and their temporal derivatives. In (ii) the action descriptor consists of different geometric features. In order to circumvent the problem of time-warping we propose to use a codebook of prototypical 3D poses which is generated from sample sequences of 3D motion capture data. This idea is in accordance with the concept of equivalence classes in action space. Results of the codebook method are presented using the Kinect sensor and the CMU Motion Capture Database.

Mobile health data collection at primary health care in Ethiopia: a feasible challenge.

Science.gov (United States)

Medhanyie, Araya Abrha; Moser, Albine; Spigt, Mark; Yebyo, Henock; Little, Alex; Dinant, GeertJan; Blanco, Roman

2015-01-01

Feasibility assessment of mobile health (mHealth) data collection at primary health care in Ethiopia. A total of 14 health workers were recruited from 12 primary health care facilities to use smartphones, installed with customized data collection application and electronic maternal health care forms for assessing pregnant women's health for 6 months. Qualitative approaches comprising in-depth interviews and field notes were used to document the users' perception and experience in using the application and forms. All health workers had never had previous exposure to smartphones and electronic forms, but they got used to them easily. Over 6 months, all health workers completed a total of 952 patient records using the forms on smartphones. Health workers' acceptability and demand for the application and forms were high. In introducing the application, nontechnical challenges were more difficult to solve than technical challenges. Introducing an mHealth application at primary health care for routine collection of health data relevant to maternal health at a small scale was feasible. Nonetheless, implementing a system of assigning unique and consistent patient identifier, standardization of health services, and improving mobile network coverage would be prerequisites for scaled-up usage of such an application. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reproductive health care for asylum-seeking women - a challenge for health professionals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zemp Elisabeth

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Dealing with pregnancy, childbirth and the care of newborn babies is a challenge for female asylum seekers and their health care providers. The aim of our study was to identify reproductive health issues in a population of women seeking asylum in Switzerland, and to examine the care they received. The women were insured through a special Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO and were attending the Women's Clinic of the University Hospital in Basel. We also investigated how the health professionals involved perceived the experience of providing health care for these patients. Methods A mixed methods approach combined the analysis of quantitative descriptive data and qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews with health care providers and from patients' files. We analysed the records of 80 asylum-seeking patients attending the Women's Clinic insured through an HMO. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 care providers from different professional groups. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively. Qualitative data analysis was guided by Grounded Theory. Results The principal health problems among the asylum seekers were a high rate of induced abortions (2.5 times higher than in the local population, due to inadequate contraception, and psychosocial stress due to the experience of forced migration and their current difficult life situation. The language barriers were identified as a major difficulty for health professionals in providing care. Health care providers also faced major emotional challenges when taking care of asylum seekers. Additional problems for physicians were that they were often required to act in an official capacity on behalf of the authorities in charge of the asylum process, and they also had to make decisions about controlling expenditure to fulfil the requirements of the HMO. They felt that these decisions sometimes conflicted with their duty towards the patient. Conclusion

Factoring health equations comment on "do you recommend an interdisciplinary field to your graduate student?".

Science.gov (United States)

Rhodes, Michael Grant

2013-08-01

The International Journal of Health Policy and Management (IJHPM) is a new journal that aims to stimulate not only inter-disciplinary research relating to health, but even an entire new generation of such journals. The challenges of improving human health worldwide clearly suggest 'why' such a journal is needed, but 'how' bridges and junctions across fields of study towards this end might be found poses other questions. From the agnosticism of many sciences with respect to human health, to the great faith others place in more esoteric movements for human well-being, both suggest finding common factors in the many equations that affect human health. Particularly, as it is typically defined professionally, it might pose more fundamental challenges than those which appear first. However, the first editorial and edition quietly assure that the journal is in good hands, and that the search for a new generation of journals has begun.

Evaluating health risks posed by heavy metals to humans consuming blood cockles (Anadara granosa) from the Upper Gulf of Thailand.

Science.gov (United States)

Sudsandee, Suntorn; Tantrakarnapa, Kraichat; Tharnpoophasiam, Prapin; Limpanont, Yanin; Mingkhwan, Ratchaneekorn; Worakhunpiset, Suwalee

2017-06-01

There is global concern about heavy metal contamination in the environment. Adverse health effects can be caused by heavy metals in contaminated food and water. Therefore, environmental monitoring studies and risk assessments should be conducted periodically. In this study, we measured levels of Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn in blood cockles (Anadara granosa) collected from three locations in the Upper Gulf of Thailand. Hazard quotients and hazard indices were calculated to evaluate the health risks posed by heavy metals in consumed blood cockles. Heavy metal concentrations in all of the blood cockle samples were lower than the relevant food standards. The hazard quotients and hazard indices were heavy metals in blood cockles over a human lifetime.

Power distribution faced with the challenges posed by competition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angelier, J.P.; Hadjsaid, N.; Sabonnadiere, J.C.

2009-01-01

The introduction of liberalization, the increasing share of decentralized electricity generation, the aging of electrical infrastructures, ambitious generation objectives and technological evolution are the key drivers that require substantial investments in the distribution grid. The most urgent challenges are to adapt the network architecture and operation, modernize and improve metering equipment, renovate existing facilities. The Energy Regulatory Commission sets the price to be paid by users of the distribution grid; this price is set rather low, in order to encourage the system operator to make productivity gains. But resultant low income may deprive the operator of the financial resources needed to adapt the system to the new conditions. (authors)

Mental health in Asia: social improvements and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Tseng, W S; Ebata, K; Kim, K I; Krahl, W; Kua, E H; Lu, Q; Shen, Y; Tan, E S; Yang, M J

2001-01-01

Remarkable improvements in economic conditions and a considerable upgrade in the quality of life have been observed in many parts of Asia during the past several decades. At the same time, many mental health challenges face the people of Asia. Various social mental health indexes are reviewed here, with available data from China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and other Asian societies. The data are compared with data from the United States, Australia in the Pacific Rim, and some other Western countries to examine patterns of similarity or difference between East and West in the process of modernization. Common trends in mental health issues associated with rapid sociocultural change observed in different Asian societies are discussed, as well as the relative shortage of mental health personnel available in many Asian societies. It is emphasized that, in addition to expanding psychiatric services, there is an even more urgent need to promote mental health knowledge and concern through education in the general population. Mental health needs to be cultivated and maintained by social forces and cultural strengths. It is stressed that there is a challenge for Asian people to advance mental health beyond economic development in the 21st century.

Challenges for Multilevel Health Disparities Research in a Transdisciplinary Environment

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Holmes, John H.; Lehman, Amy; Hade, Erinn; Ferketich, Amy K.; Sarah, Gehlert; Rauscher, Garth H.; Abrams, Judith; Bird, Chloe E.

2008-01-01

Numerous factors play a part in health disparities. Although health disparities are manifested at the level of the individual, other contexts should be considered when investigating the associations of disparities with clinical outcomes. These contexts include families, neighborhoods, social organizations, and healthcare facilities. This paper reports on health disparities research as a multilevel research domain from the perspective of a large national initiative. The Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities (CPHHD) program was established by the NIH to examine the highly dimensional, complex nature of disparities and their effects on health. Because of its inherently transdisciplinary nature, the CPHHD program provides a unique environment in which to perform multilevel health disparities research. During the course of the program, the CPHHD centers have experienced challenges specific to this type of research. The challenges were categorized along three axes: sources of subjects and data, data characteristics, and multilevel analysis and interpretation. The CPHHDs collectively offer a unique example of how these challenges are met; just as importantly, they reveal a broad range of issues that health disparities researchers should consider as they pursue transdisciplinary investigations in this domain, particularly in the context of a large team science initiative. PMID:18619398

Health seeking behaviour and challenges in utilising health facilities in Wakiso district, Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Musoke, David; Boynton, Petra; Butler, Ceri; Musoke, Miph Boses

2014-12-01

The health seeking behaviour of a community determines how they use health services. Utilisation of health facilities can be influenced by the cost of services, distance to health facilities, cultural beliefs, level of education and health facility inadequacies such as stock-out of drugs. To assess the health seeking practices and challenges in utilising health facilities in a rural community in Wakiso district, Uganda. The study was a cross sectional survey that used a structured questionnaire to collect quantitative data among 234 participants. The sample size was obtained using the formula by Leslie Kish. While 89% of the participants were aware that mobile clinics existed in their community, only 28% had received such services in the past month. The majority of participants (84%) did not know whether community health workers existed in their community. The participants' health seeking behaviour the last time they were sick was associated with age (p = 0.028) and occupation (p = 0.009). The most significant challenges in utilising health services were regular stock-out of drugs, high cost of services and long distance to health facilities. There is potential to increase access to health care in rural areas by increasing the frequency of mobile clinic services and strengthening the community health worker strategy.

The competitive challenge in banking

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boot, A.W.A.; Schmeits, A.

2005-01-01

The increasingly competitive environment poses challenges to bankers. This paper emphasizes relationship banking as a prime source of the banks' comparative advantage. The proliferation of transaction-oriented banking (trading and financial market activities) does however seriously challenge

Four Challenges That Global Health Networks Face

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeremy Shiffman

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Global health networks, webs of individuals and organizations with a shared concern for a particular condition, have proliferated over the past quarter century. They differ in their effectiveness, a factor that may help explain why resource allocations vary across health conditions and do not correspond closely with disease burden. Drawing on findings from recently concluded studies of eight global health networks—addressing alcohol harm, early childhood development (ECD, maternal mortality, neonatal mortality, pneumonia, surgically-treatable conditions, tobacco use, and tuberculosis—I identify four challenges that networks face in generating attention and resources for the conditions that concern them. The first is problem definition: generating consensus on what the problem is and how it should be addressed. The second is positioning: portraying the issue in ways that inspire external audiences to act. The third is coalition-building: forging alliances with these external actors, particularly ones outside the health sector. The fourth is governance: establishing institutions to facilitate collective action. Research indicates that global health networks that effectively tackle these challenges are more likely to garner support to address the conditions that concern them. In addition to the effectiveness of networks, I also consider their legitimacy, identifying reasons both to affirm and to question their right to exert power.

The health and health system of South Africa: historical roots of current public health challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Coovadia, Hoosen; Jewkes, Rachel; Barron, Peter; Sanders, David; McIntyre, Diane

2009-09-05

The roots of a dysfunctional health system and the collision of the epidemics of communicable and non-communicable diseases in South Africa can be found in policies from periods of the country's history, from colonial subjugation, apartheid dispossession, to the post-apartheid period. Racial and gender discrimination, the migrant labour system, the destruction of family life, vast income inequalities, and extreme violence have all formed part of South Africa's troubled past, and all have inexorably affected health and health services. In 1994, when apartheid ended, the health system faced massive challenges, many of which still persist. Macroeconomic policies, fostering growth rather than redistribution, contributed to the persistence of economic disparities between races despite a large expansion in social grants. The public health system has been transformed into an integrated, comprehensive national service, but failures in leadership and stewardship and weak management have led to inadequate implementation of what are often good policies. Pivotal facets of primary health care are not in place and there is a substantial human resources crisis facing the health sector. The HIV epidemic has contributed to and accelerated these challenges. All of these factors need to be addressed by the new government if health is to be improved and the Millennium Development Goals achieved in South Africa.

Challenges towards Realization of Health Care Sector Goals of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Human resource for health (HRH) is an essential building block for effective and efficient health care system. In Tanzania this component is faced by many challenges which in synergy with others make the health care system inefficient. In vision 2025 the country recognizes the importance of the health care ...

Exemplar-based human action pose correction.

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Wei; Deng, Ke; Bai, Xiang; Leyvand, Tommer; Guo, Baining; Tu, Zhuowen

2014-07-01

The launch of Xbox Kinect has built a very successful computer vision product and made a big impact on the gaming industry. This sheds lights onto a wide variety of potential applications related to action recognition. The accurate estimation of human poses from the depth image is universally a critical step. However, existing pose estimation systems exhibit failures when facing severe occlusion. In this paper, we propose an exemplar-based method to learn to correct the initially estimated poses. We learn an inhomogeneous systematic bias by leveraging the exemplar information within a specific human action domain. Furthermore, as an extension, we learn a conditional model by incorporation of pose tags to further increase the accuracy of pose correction. In the experiments, significant improvements on both joint-based skeleton correction and tag prediction are observed over the contemporary approaches, including what is delivered by the current Kinect system. Our experiments for the facial landmark correction also illustrate that our algorithm can improve the accuracy of other detection/estimation systems.

Six challenges in modelling for public health policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C.J.E. Metcalf

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The World Health Organisation's definition of public health refers to all organized measures to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong life among the population as a whole (World Health Organization, 2014. Mathematical modelling plays an increasingly important role in helping to guide the most high impact and cost-effective means of achieving these goals. Public health programmes are usually implemented over a long period of time with broad benefits to many in the community. Clinical trials are seldom large enough to capture these effects. Observational data may be used to evaluate a programme after it is underway, but have limited value in helping to predict the future impact of a proposed policy. Furthermore, public health practitioners are often required to respond to new threats, for which there is little or no previous data on which to assess the threat. Computational and mathematical models can help to assess potential threats and impacts early in the process, and later aid in interpreting data from complex and multifactorial systems. As such, these models can be critical tools in guiding public health action. However, there are a number of challenges in achieving a successful interface between modelling and public health. Here, we discuss some of these challenges.

Deliberative democracy in health care: current challenges and future prospects

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Safaei J

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Jalil Safaei Department of Economics, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, CanadaBackground: There is a vast body of literature on deliberative, participative, or engaged democracy. In the area of health care there is a rapidly expanding literature on deliberative democracy as embodied in various notions of public engagement, shared decision-making (SDM, patient-centered care, and patient/care provider autonomy over the past few decades. It is useful to review such literature to get a sense of the challenges and prospects of introducing deliberative democracy in health care.Objective: This paper reviews the key literature on deliberative democracy and SDM in health care settings with a focus on identifying the main challenges of promoting this approach in health care, and recognizing its progress so far for mapping out its future prospects in the context of advanced countries.Method: Several databases were searched to identify the literature pertinent to the subject of this study. A total of 56 key studies in English were identified and reviewed carefully for indications and evidence of challenges and/or promising avenues of promoting deliberative democracy in health care.Results: Time pressure, lack of financial motivation, entrenched professional interests, informational imbalance, practical feasibility, cost, diversity of decisions, and contextual factors are noted as the main challenges. As for the prospects, greater clarity on conception of public engagement and policy objectives, real commitment of the authorities to public input, documenting evidence of the effectiveness of public involvement, development of patient decision supports, training of health professionals in SDM, and use of multiple and flexible methods of engagement leadership suited to specific contexts are the main findings in the reviewed literature.Conclusion: Seeking deliberative democracy in health care is both challenging and rewarding. The

What Butterfly Effect? The Contextual Differences in Public Perceptions of the Health Risk Posed by Climate Change

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James W. Stoutenborough

2015-08-01

Full Text Available One of the most difficult aspects of persuading the public to support climate change policy is the lack of recognition that climate change will likely have a direct impact on an individual’s life. Anecdotal evidence and arguments within the media suggest that those who are skeptical of climate change are more likely to believe that the negative externalities associated with climate change will be experienced by others, and, therefore, are not a concern to that individual. This project examines public perceptions of the health risk posed by climate change. Using a large national public opinion survey of adults in the United States, respondents were asked to evaluate the health risk for themselves, their community, the United States, and the world. The results suggest that individuals evaluate the risk for each of these contexts differently. Statistical analyses are estimated to identify the determinants of each risk perception to identify their respective differences. The implications of these findings on support for climate change policy are discussed.

Applying a framework for assessing the health system challenges to scaling up mHealth in South Africa

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Leon Natalie

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Mobile phone technology has demonstrated the potential to improve health service delivery, but there is little guidance to inform decisions about acquiring and implementing mHealth technology at scale in health systems. Using the case of community-based health services (CBS in South Africa, we apply a framework to appraise the opportunities and challenges to effective implementation of mHealth at scale in health systems. Methods A qualitative study reviewed the benefits and challenges of mHealth in community-based services in South Africa, through a combination of key informant interviews, site visits to local projects and document reviews. Using a framework adapted from three approaches to reviewing sustainable information and communication technology (ICT, the lessons from local experience and elsewhere formed the basis of a wider consideration of scale up challenges in South Africa. Results Four key system dimensions were identified and assessed: government stewardship and the organisational, technological and financial systems. In South Africa, the opportunities for successful implementation of mHealth include the high prevalence of mobile phones, a supportive policy environment for eHealth, successful use of mHealth for CBS in a number of projects and a well-developed ICT industry. However there are weaknesses in other key health systems areas such as organisational culture and capacity for using health information for management, and the poor availability and use of ICT in primary health care. The technological challenges include the complexity of ensuring interoperability and integration of information systems and securing privacy of information. Finally, there are the challenges of sustainable financing required for large scale use of mobile phone technology in resource limited settings. Conclusion Against a background of a health system with a weak ICT environment and limited implementation capacity, it remains

Development partner support to the health sector at the local level in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study had the following objectives: 1) To present a theoretical model for assessing funding commitments by health development partners in a specified region; 2) to ... This weakness poses a major challenge on development partner investments in health, leading to duplication of efforts and resulting in stagnant disease ...

Globalisation and its implications for health care and nursing practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Bradbury-Jones, Caroline

Globalisation describes the increasing economic and social interdependence between countries. This article examines globalisation in terms of the opportunities and threats it poses to health, in particular increasing rates of non-communicable diseases. Nursing is challenged with responding to the changing health needs of the global population that have arisen as a result of globalisation.

Camera pose estimation for augmented reality in a small indoor dynamic scene

Science.gov (United States)

Frikha, Rawia; Ejbali, Ridha; Zaied, Mourad

2017-09-01

Camera pose estimation remains a challenging task for augmented reality (AR) applications. Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM)-based methods are able to estimate the six degrees of freedom camera motion while constructing a map of an unknown environment. However, these methods do not provide any reference for where to insert virtual objects since they do not have any information about scene structure and may fail in cases of occlusion of three-dimensional (3-D) map points or dynamic objects. This paper presents a real-time monocular piece wise planar SLAM method using the planar scene assumption. Using planar structures in the mapping process allows rendering virtual objects in a meaningful way on the one hand and improving the precision of the camera pose and the quality of 3-D reconstruction of the environment by adding constraints on 3-D points and poses in the optimization process on the other hand. We proposed to benefit from the 3-D planes rigidity motion in the tracking process to enhance the system robustness in the case of dynamic scenes. Experimental results show that using a constrained planar scene improves our system accuracy and robustness compared with the classical SLAM systems.

Enrichment of foods with omega-3 fatty acids: A multidisciplinary challenge

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Charlotte

2010-01-01

Enrichment of foods with marine omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) poses a multidisciplinary challenge to food industry and academia. Although our knowledge about possible health effects of omega-3 PUFA has increased tremendously during the last 30 years, there is still a lot to be learned...... about these healthy fatty acids. Moreover, consumer acceptance and lipid oxidation of omega-3 PUFA-enriched food are other major challenges that the food industry meet when developing omega-3-enriched foods. Two examples on multidisciplinary research projects to overcome some of these challenges...... are given in this article together with cases studies illustrating how lipid oxidation can be prevented in a range of different omega-3-enriched foods....

Challenges and Opportunities of Implementing District-based Health Information System in Ethiopia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mengiste, Shegaw Anagaw

2005-01-01

This paper has analyzed the challenges of sustainability and scalability of HIS. The empirical analysis was conducted in a backward and disadvantaged region of Ethiopia. An ongoing process of HISP (Health Information System Program) was addressed and the main challenges in the implementation...... of sustainable and scalable district-based health information system in the context of Primary Health Care (PHC) sector in Ethiopia were identified. Human resource, infrastructure, and HIS related problems are the main challenges hindering the implementation of sustainable and scalable district-based health...... information systems in the region....

Global Health Governance Challenges 2016 - Are We Ready?

Science.gov (United States)

Kickbusch, Ilona

2016-02-29

The year 2016 could turn out to be a turning point for global health, new political realities and global insecurities will test governance and financing mechanisms in relation to both people and planet. But most importantly political factors such as the global power shift and "the rise of the rest" will define the future of global health. A new mix of health inequity and security challenges has emerged and the 2015 humanitarian and health crises have shown the limits of existing systems. The global health as well as the humanitarian system will have to prove their capacity to respond and reform. The challenge ahead is deeply political, especially for the rising political actors. They are confronted with the consequences of a model of development that has neglected sustainability and equity, and was built on their exploitation. Some direction has been given by the path breaking international conferences in 2015. Especially the agreement on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris agreement on climate change will shape action. Conceptually, we will need a different understanding of global health and its ultimate goals - the health of people can no longer be seen separate from the health of the planet and wealth measured by parameters of growth will no longer ensure health. © 2016 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

Contextual factors and challenges to e-health literacy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bolanle A. Olaniran

2015-12-01

Full Text Available We live in a digital world or digital era. Hence, People will argue that not only do information communication technologies (ICTs make e-health possible but rather that it is an innovation advance whose time has come. Notwithstanding, e-health while hoping to create well needed improvement in health care, it is rife with certain challenges which are not limited to e-health literacy. However, this paper looks specifically at e-health literacy. The paper, in particular overviews e-health while addressing the impacts of key contextual factors that impacts e-health and e-health literacy regarding the propensity to adopt and use e-health in LEDCs.

Concentrations of and health risks posed by polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans around industrial sites in Hebei Province, China

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Han, Ying; Liu, Wenbin; Hansen, Hans Chr. Bruun

2016-01-01

Sintering and steel production as the main emission sources of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) may affect environment and human health. The concentrations, profiles, and distributions of PCDD/Fs in soil samples from around four typical sintering and steel production...... plants in Hebei Province, China, were determined. Forty-six soil samples were collected at distances from 500 to 9000 m from industrial plant chimneys. The concentrations of total 17 2,3,7,8-substituted PCDD/F congeners in the soil samples from sites A, B, C, and D were in the range 11-130, 13-284, 2...... will be exposed to low amounts of PCDD/Fs in soil from around the industrial sites, and this exposure will pose potential health risks for the local population living at distances of less than 1000 m from nearest stack but will have no high health risks for people living further away. These results...

Current challenges in health economic modeling of cancer therapies: a research inquiry.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Jeffrey D; Foley, Kathleen A; Russell, Mason W

2014-05-01

The demand for economic models that evaluate cancer treatments is increasing, as healthcare decision makers struggle for ways to manage their budgets while providing the best care possible to patients with cancer. Yet, after nearly 2 decades of cultivating and refining techniques for modeling the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of cancer therapies, serious methodologic and policy challenges have emerged that question the adequacy of economic modeling as a sound decision-making tool in oncology. We sought to explore some of the contentious issues associated with the development and use of oncology economic models as informative tools in current healthcare decision-making. Our objective was to draw attention to these complex pharmacoeconomic concerns and to promote discussion within the oncology and health economics research communities. Using our combined expertise in health economics research and economic modeling, we structured our inquiry around the following 4 questions: (1) Are economic models adequately addressing questions relevant to oncology decision makers; (2) What are the methodologic limitations of oncology economic models; (3) What guidelines are followed for developing oncology economic models; and (4) Is the evolution of oncology economic modeling keeping pace with treatment innovation? Within the context of each of these questions, we discuss issues related to the technical limitations of oncology modeling, the availability of adequate data for developing models, and the problems with how modeling analyses and results are presented and interpreted. There is general acceptance that economic models are good, essential tools for decision-making, but the practice of oncology and its rapidly evolving technologies present unique challenges that make assessing and demonstrating value especially complex. There is wide latitude for improvement in oncology modeling methodologies and how model results are presented and interpreted. Complex technical and

Dr. David Brown poses with a portrait of Ronald McNair

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

In the gymnasium of Ronald McNair Magnet School in Cocoa, Fla., Dr. David Brown, a NASA astronaut, poses with a portrait of NASA astronaut Ronald McNair. The portrait was presented to the school by Walt Disney World during a tribute to McNair. The school had previously been renamed for the fallen astronaut who was one of a crew of seven who lost their lives during an accident following launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger in January 1986.

Students’ Creativity: Problem Posing in Structured Situation

Science.gov (United States)

Amalina, I. K.; Amirudin, M.; Budiarto, M. T.

2018-01-01

This is a qualitative research concerning on students’ creativity on problem posing task. The study aimed at describing the students’ creative thinking ability to pose the mathematics problem in structured situations with varied condition of given problems. In order to find out the students’ creative thinking ability, an analysis of mathematics problem posing test based on fluency, novelty, and flexibility and interview was applied for categorizing students’ responses on that task. The data analysis used the quality of problem posing and categorized in 4 level of creativity. The results revealed from 29 secondary students grade 8, a student in CTL (Creative Thinking Level) 1 met the fluency. A student in CTL 2 met the novelty, while a student in CTL 3 met both fluency and novelty and no one in CTL 4. These results are affected by students’ mathematical experience. The findings of this study highlight that student’s problem posing creativity are dependent on their experience in mathematics learning and from the point of view of which students start to pose problem.

Grand Challenges Canada: inappropriate emphasis and missed opportunities in global health research?

Science.gov (United States)

Larson, Charles P; Haddad, Slim; Birn, Anne-Emanuelle; Cole, Donald C; Labonte, Ronald; Roberts, Janet Hatcher; Schrecker, Ted; Sellen, Daniel; Zakus, David

2011-01-01

In May 2010, Grand Challenges Canada (GCC) was launched with the mandate to identify global challenges in health that could be supported through the Government of Canada's Development Innovations Fund (DIF: $225 million over five years). The GCC offers a potentially excellent mechanism for taking Canada's participation in global health challenges "to a higher level". Recent GCC announcements raise new questions about the emphasis being placed on technological discovery or "catalytic" research. Missing so far are opportunities that the Fund could offer in order to support innovative research addressing i) health systems strengthening, ii) more effective delivery of existing interventions, and iii) policies and programs that address broader social determinants of health. The Canadian Grand Challenges announced to date risk pushing to the sidelines good translational and implementation science and early career-stage scientists addressing important social, environmental and political conditions that affect disease prevalence, progress and treatment; and the many unresolved challenges faced in bringing to scale proven interventions within resource-constrained health systems. We wish to register our concern at the apparent prioritization of biotechnical innovation research and the subordination of the social, environmental, economic and political context in which human health is either protected or eroded.

Patient monitoring in mobile health: opportunities and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohammadzadeh, Niloofar; Safdari, Reza

2014-01-01

In most countries chronic diseases lead to high health care costs and reduced productivity of people in society. The best way to reduce costs of health sector and increase the empowerment of people is prevention of chronic diseases and appropriate health activities management through monitoring of patients. To enjoy the full benefits of E-health, making use of methods and modern technologies is very important. This literature review articles were searched with keywords like Patient monitoring, Mobile Health, and Chronic Disease in Science Direct, Google Scholar and Pub Med databases without regard to the year of publications. Applying remote medical diagnosis and monitoring system based on mobile health systems can help significantly to reduce health care costs, correct performance management particularly in chronic disease management. Also some challenges are in patient monitoring in general and specific aspects like threats to confidentiality and privacy, technology acceptance in general and lack of system interoperability with electronic health records and other IT tools, decrease in face to face communication between doctor and patient, sudden interruptions of telecommunication networks, and device and sensor type in specific aspect. It is obvious identifying the opportunities and challenges of mobile technology and reducing barriers, strengthening the positive points will have a significant role in the appropriate planning and promoting the achievements of the health care systems based on mobile and helps to design a roadmap for improvement of mobile health.

Nursing challenges for universal health coverage: a systematic review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariana Cabral Schveitzer

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives to identify nursing challenges for universal health coverage, based on the findings of a systematic review focused on the health workforce' understanding of the role of humanization practices in Primary Health Care. Method systematic review and meta-synthesis, from the following information sources: PubMed, CINAHL, Scielo, Web of Science, PsycInfo, SCOPUS, DEDALUS and Proquest, using the keyword Primary Health Care associated, separately, with the following keywords: humanization of assistance, holistic care/health, patient centred care, user embracement, personal autonomy, holism, attitude of health personnel. Results thirty studies between 1999-2011. Primary Health Care work processes are complex and present difficulties for conducting integrative care, especially for nursing, but humanizing practices have showed an important role towards the development of positive work environments, quality of care and people-centered care by promoting access and universal health coverage. Conclusions nursing challenges for universal health coverage are related to education and training, to better working conditions and clear definition of nursing role in primary health care. It is necessary to overcome difficulties such as fragmented concepts of health and care and invest in multidisciplinary teamwork, community empowerment, professional-patient bond, user embracement, soft technologies, to promote quality of life, holistic care and universal health coverage.

Six challenges in modelling for public health policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Metcalf, C J E; Edmunds, W J; Lessler, J

2015-03-01

The World Health Organisation's definition of public health refers to all organized measures to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong life among the population as a whole (World Health Organization, 2014). Mathematical modelling plays an increasingly important role in helping to guide the most high impact and cost-effective means of achieving these goals. Public health programmes are usually implemented over a long period of time with broad benefits to many in the community. Clinical trials are seldom large enough to capture these effects. Observational data may be used to evaluate a programme after it is underway, but have limited value in helping to predict the future impact of a proposed policy. Furthermore, public health practitioners are often required to respond to new threats, for which there is little or no previous data on which to assess the threat. Computational and mathematical models can help to assess potential threats and impacts early in the process, and later aid in interpreting data from complex and multifactorial systems. As such, these models can be critical tools in guiding public health action. However, there are a number of challenges in achieving a successful interface between modelling and public health. Here, we discuss some of these challenges. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Plain language: a strategic response to the health literacy challenge.

Science.gov (United States)

Stableford, Sue; Mettger, Wendy

2007-01-01

Low health literacy is a major challenge confronting American and international health organizations. Research in the past decade has documented the prevalence of limited literacy and limited health literacy skills among adults worldwide. This creates a major policy challenge: how to create text-based health information - a common method of health communication - that is accessible to the public. Plain language is a logical, flexible response. While touted by American, Canadian, and European health policy makers, adoption and promotion of plain language standards and skills in health-focused organizations have lagged. Most text-based health information continues to be too hard for most adults to read. Barriers to more rapid diffusion of plain language are reflected in a set of myths perpetuated by critics. These myths are identified and refuted. While plain language is only one of many broad-based solutions needed to address low health literacy, the benefits to everyone demand increased use by health organizations.

Public Health Achievements and Challenges: Symposium of the University of Mostar Faculty of Health Studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Ravlija, Jelena; Vasilj, Ivan; Babic, Dragan; Marijanovic, Inga

2017-05-01

Public health is an important area of health care that reflects the readiness of the state and society to provide the welfare of all citizens through the promotion of health and the preservation of a healthy environment - factors that directly affect the health of the population. The field of public health is very broad and its concept is changing over time, being defined in a narrower and wider sense. In short, public health is a science and practice that aims at ensuring the conditions in which people can preserve and improve their health and prevent health damage. The third millennium brings its specifics, needs and priorities according to challenges public health is faced by in the twenty-first century: the economic crisis, rising inequality, population aging, rising rates of chronic diseases, migration, urbanization, ecosystem change, climate change, etc. The role of public health is to protect, improve health, prevent diseases and injuries. Such a public health approach implies a multisectoral work focusing on "wider health determinants", and within this activity experts from various medical and non-medical profiles, whose field of public health is concerned, can be found. The development of inter-departmental co-operation skills contributes to a better understanding of health professionals and professionals of other profiles, and facilitates common, synergistic actions in addressing public health problems in the community. Symposium on Public Health Achievements and Challenges organized by the University of Mostar Faculty of Health Studies is just another indication of the obligation, the need and the desire for professional and scientific contribution to the fight for better health. Our faculty has so far organized other numerous symposia, and the aim of this symposium is to present public health achievements and challenges in our surrounding in order to protect, improve health, prevent diseases and injuries in a modern way.

Electronic health systems: challenges faced by hospital-based providers.

Science.gov (United States)

Agno, Christina Farala; Guo, Kristina L

2013-01-01

The purpose of this article is to discuss specific challenges faced by hospitals adopting the use of electronic medical records and implementing electronic health record (EHR) systems. Challenges include user and information technology support; ease of technical use and software interface capabilities; compliance; and financial, legal, workforce training, and development issues. Electronic health records are essential to preventing medical errors, increasing consumer trust and use of the health system, and improving quality and overall efficiency. Government efforts are focused on ways to accelerate the adoption and use of EHRs as a means of facilitating data sharing, protecting health information privacy and security, quickly identifying emerging public health threats, and reducing medical errors and health care costs and increasing quality of care. This article will discuss physician and nonphysician staff training before, during, and after implementation; the effective use of EHR systems' technical features; the selection of a capable and secure EHR system; and the development of collaborative system implementation. Strategies that are necessary to help health care providers achieve successful implementation of EHR systems will be addressed.

Changing patterns of inpatient respiratory care services over a decade at the Cleveland Clinic: challenges posed and proposed responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Orens, Douglas K; Kester, Lucy; Konrad, Dale J; Stoller, James K

2005-08-01

Changing characteristics of hospitalized patients over the last decade have created challenges for all health-care providers in delivering optimal care. In the specific case of respiratory care, trends that hospitalized patients have generally become sicker over time and that average lengths of stay have generally become shorter have posed the challenge of meeting demands for more services delivered with greater immediacy. We undertook the current analysis to assess how the delivery of respiratory care services at a tertiary-care academic medical center, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation Hospital, has evolved over the decade 1991 to 2001. In this observational study, we examined concurrent departmental trends and speculated that the capability to increase clinical activity with maintained or improved clinical outcomes, preserved costs, and a lower turnover rate among respiratory therapists reflects features of the professional environment within our Section of Respiratory Therapy. This analysis compares patterns of respiratory care service delivery in two 5-year intervals: from 1991 to 1996 and from 1996 to 2001. Data were collected using a respiratory care information-management system and an inpatient hospital information system, which track the volume and actual cost of services provided. These analyses accounted for the actual time-based cost of the services, including labor (with benefits), necessary equipment and supplies, medications, and equipment maintenance and depreciation. Hospital case-mix index values were determined according to guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as the weighted average of resource allocation scores assigned to diagnosis-related-group categories of hospitalized patients. From 1991 to 2001, there were important expansions in the scope of respiratory care practice by our Section of Respiratory Care, while the volume of respiratory care services delivered per year increased 1.96-fold (from 339,600 to 665

Challenges of Health Games in the Social Network Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Paredes, Hugo; Pinho, Anabela; Zagalo, Nelson

2012-04-01

Virtual communities and their benefits have been widely exploited to support patients, caregivers, families, and healthcare providers. The complexity of the social organization evolved the concept of virtual community to social networks, exploring the establishment of ties and relations between people. These technological platforms provide a way to keep up with one's connections network, through a set of communication and interaction tools. Games, as social interactive technologies, have great potential, ensuring a supportive community and thereby reducing social isolation. Serious social health games bring forward several research challenges. This article examines the potential benefits of the triad "health-serious games-social networks" and discusses some research challenges and opportunities of the liaison of serious health games and social networks.

Health challenges in Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

Science.gov (United States)

Adambekov, Shalkar; Kaiyrlykyzy, Aiym; Igissinov, Nurbek; Linkov, Faina

2016-01-01

The Central Asian region, which encompasses Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan, is an interesting geographic region with a rich history dating back to the Silk Road, Mongol conquests and expansion of the Russian Empire. However, from a public health viewpoint, the Central Asian region is under-investigated, and many public health challenges exist, as countries of Central Asia inherited the centralised medical systems practiced in the Soviet Union, and are currently undergoing rapid transitions. A large number of low and middle-income countries around the world, including countries of Central Asia, face a double burden of chronic and infectious disease. This essay focuses on the exploration of the most important public health challenges in the Central Asian region, including limited scientific productivity, the double burden of chronic and infectious disease, the need for healthcare reform and the reduction in care variation. Central Asia has a large number of medical schools, medical centres, and emerging research institutes that can be used to foster a change in medical and public health practice in the region. 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/

Winners, losers, and posers: The effect of power poses on testosterone and risk-taking following competition.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Kristopher M; Apicella, Coren L

2017-06-01

A contribution to a special issue on Hormones and Human Competition. The effect of postural power displays (i.e. power poses) on hormone levels and decision-making has recently been challenged. While Carney et al. (2010) found that holding brief postural displays of power leads to increased testosterone, decreased cortisol and greater economic risk taking, this failed to replicate in a recent high-powered study (Ranehill et al. 2015). It has been put forward that subtle differences in social context may account for the differences in results. Power displays naturally occur within the context of competitions, as do changes in hormones, and researchers have yet to examine the effects of poses within this ecologically relevant context. Using a large sample of 247 male participants, natural winners and losers of a physical competition were randomly assigned to hold a low, neutral or high-power postural display. We found no main effect of pose type on testosterone, cortisol, risk or feelings of power. Winners assigned to a high-power pose had a relative, albeit small, rise in testosterone compared to winners who held neutral or low-power poses. For losers, we found little evidence that high-power poses lead to increased testosterone relative to those holding neutral or low-powered poses. If anything, the reverse was observed - losers had a reduction in testosterone after holding high-power poses. To the extent that changes in testosterone modulate social behaviors adaptively, it is possible that the relative reduction in testosterone observed in losers taking high-powered poses is designed to inhibit further "winner-like" behavior that could result in continued defeat and harm. Still, effects were small, multiple comparisons were made, and the results ran counter to our predictions. We thus treat these conclusions as preliminary. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Challenges of an integrative and personalised health care for health economics and the insurance system].

Science.gov (United States)

Schoch, Goentje-Gesine; Würdemann, E

2014-11-01

"Stratifying medicine" is a topic of increasing importance in the public health system. There are several questions related to "stratifying medicine". This paper reconsiders definitions, opportunities and risks related to "stratifying medicine" as well as the main challenges of "stratifying medicine" from the perspective of a public health insurance. The application of the term and the definition are important points to discuss. Terms such as "stratified medicine", "personalised medicine" or "individualised medicine" are used. The Techniker Krankenkasse prefers "stratifying medicine", because it usually means a medicine that tailors therapy to specific groups of patients by biomarkers. OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS: "Stratifying medicine" is associated with various hopes, e. g., the avoidance of ineffective therapies and early detection of diseases. But "stratifying medicine" also carries risks, such as an increase in the number of cases by treatment of disease risks, a duty for health and the weakening of the criteria of evidence-based medicine. The complexity of "stratifying medicine" is a big challenge for all involved parties in the health system. A lot of interrelations are still not completely understood. So the statutory health insurance faces the challenge of making innovative therapy concepts accessible in a timely manner to all insured on the one hand but on the other hand also to protect the community from harmful therapies. Information and advice to patients related to "stratifying medicine" is of particular importance. The equitable distribution of fees for diagnosis and counselling presents a particular challenge. The solidarity principle of public health insurance may be challenged by social and ethical issues of "stratifying medicine". "Stratifying medicine" offers great potential to improve medical care. However, false hopes must be avoided. Providers and payers should measure chances and risks of "stratifying medicine" together for the welfare of the

Structural interface parameters are discriminatory in recognising near-native poses of protein-protein interactions.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sony Malhotra

Full Text Available Interactions at the molecular level in the cellular environment play a very crucial role in maintaining the physiological functioning of the cell. These molecular interactions exist at varied levels viz. protein-protein interactions, protein-nucleic acid interactions or protein-small molecules interactions. Presently in the field, these interactions and their mechanisms mark intensively studied areas. Molecular interactions can also be studied computationally using the approach named as Molecular Docking. Molecular docking employs search algorithms to predict the possible conformations for interacting partners and then calculates interaction energies. However, docking proposes number of solutions as different docked poses and hence offers a serious challenge to identify the native (or near native structures from the pool of these docked poses. Here, we propose a rigorous scoring scheme called DockScore which can be used to rank the docked poses and identify the best docked pose out of many as proposed by docking algorithm employed. The scoring identifies the optimal interactions between the two protein partners utilising various features of the putative interface like area, short contacts, conservation, spatial clustering and the presence of positively charged and hydrophobic residues. DockScore was first trained on a set of 30 protein-protein complexes to determine the weights for different parameters. Subsequently, we tested the scoring scheme on 30 different protein-protein complexes and native or near-native structure were assigned the top rank from a pool of docked poses in 26 of the tested cases. We tested the ability of DockScore to discriminate likely dimer interactions that differ substantially within a homologous family and also demonstrate that DOCKSCORE can distinguish correct pose for all 10 recent CAPRI targets.

Health Behavior Change Challenge: Understanding Stages of Change

Science.gov (United States)

Sullivan, Claire F.

2011-01-01

This semester-long activity requires students to reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses in attempting to take on a personally meaningful health behavior change challenge. This assignment affords them the opportunity to take a deeper look at theory and health concepts learned throughout the semester and to see how it has informed their own…

Deinstitutionalization: Its Impact on Community Mental Health Centers and the Seriously Mentally Ill

Science.gov (United States)

Kliewer, Stephen P.; McNally Melissa; Trippany, Robyn L.

2009-01-01

Deinstitutionalization has had a significant impact on the mental health system, including the client, the agency, and the counselor. For clients with serious mental illness, learning to live in a community setting poses challenges that are often difficult to overcome. Community mental health agencies must respond to these specific needs, thus…

Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme: an assessment of problems and challenges

OpenAIRE

Danquah, Jones Kwame Adom

2017-01-01

Despite impressive progress since 2003, huge challenges remain in the effort to improve health outcomes in Ghana and achieve related goals concerning universal coverage, basic needs, equity, inclusion, risk protection and reaching poor and marginalized groups. One of these challenges is how health should be financed – who should pay how much and through what arrangements, given the reality that the services and other actions needed to attain desired health results inevitably involve costs tha...

Oral health in Libya: addressing the future challenges | Peeran ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Libya is a vast country situated in North Africa, having a relatively better functioning economy with a scanty population. This article is the first known attempt to review the current state of oral health care in Libya and to explore the present trends and future challenges. Libyan health system, oral health care, and human ...

Technologies for HIV prevention and care: challenges for health services.

Science.gov (United States)

Maksud, Ivia; Fernandes, Nilo Martinez; Filgueiras, Sandra Lucia

2015-09-01

This article aims to consider some relevant challenges to the provision of "new prevention technologies" in health services in a scenario where the "advances" in the global response to AIDS control are visible. We take as material for analysis the information currently available on the HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), treatment as prevention (TASP) and over the counter. The methodology consisted of the survey and analysis of the Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS: MEDLINE, LILACS, WHOLIS, PAHO, SciELO) articles that addressed the issue of HIV prevention and care in the context of so-called new prevention technologies. The results of the studies show that there is assistance on the ground of clinics for the treatment of disease responses, but there are several challenges related to the sphere of prevention. The articles list some challenges regarding to management, organization of services and the attention given by health professionals to users. The current context shows evidence of the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy in reducing the risk of HIV transmission, but the challenges for the provision of preventive technologies in health services permeate health professionals and users in their individual dimensions and health services in organizational and structural dimension. Interventions should be made available in a context of community mobilization; there should be no pressure on people to make HIV testing, antiretroviral treatment or for prevention. In the management is responsible for the training of health professionals to inform, clarify and make available to users, partners and family information about the new antiretroviral use strategies.

Conceiving Human Interaction by Visualising Depth Data of Head Pose Changes and Emotion Recognition via Facial Expressions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kalliatakis, Grigorios; Stergiou, A.G.; Vidakis, Nikolaos

2017-01-01

Affective computing in general and human activity and intention analysis in particular comprise a rapidly-growing field of research. Head pose and emotion changes present serious challenges when applied to player’s training and ludology experience in serious games, or analysis of customer

Addressing socioeconomic and political challenges posed by climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Fernando, Harindra Joseph; Klaic, Zvjezdana Bencetic

2011-08-01

NATO Advanced Research Workshop: Climate Change, Human Health and National Security; Dubrovnik, Croatia, 28-30 April 2011; Climate change has been identified as one of the most serious threats to humanity. It not only causes sea level rise, drought, crop failure, vector-borne diseases, extreme events, degradation of water and air quality, heat waves, and other phenomena, but it is also a threat multiplier wherein concatenation of multiple events may lead to frequent human catastrophes and intranational and international conflicts. In particular, urban areas may bear the brunt of climate change because of the amplification of climate effects that cascade down from global to urban scales, but current modeling and downscaling capabilities are unable to predict these effects with confidence. These were the main conclusions of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) sponsored by the NATO Science for Peace and Security program. Thirty-two invitees from 17 counties, including leading modelers; natural, political, and social scientists; engineers; politicians; military experts; urban planners; industry analysts; epidemiologists; and health care professionals, parsed the topic on a common platform.

Pose Planning for the Feed Support System of FAST

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rui Yao

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A six-cable driven parallel manipulator and an A-B rotator in the feed support system of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST are adopted for realizing the position and pose of nine feeds. The six-cable driven parallel manipulator is a flexible mechanism, which may not be stably controlled due to a small cable tension. The A-B rotator is a rigid mechanism, and its stability and accuracy can be improved by small pose angle. Based on the different characteristics, a pose planning function is presented. The optimization target of the pose planning function is to get the smallest pose angle of the A-B rotator, and the constraint condition can reflect the controllability of the six-cable driven parallel manipulator. Then, the pose planning realization process of the feed support system is proposed. Based on the pose planning method, optimized pose angles of the feed support system for the nine feeds are obtained, which suggests that the pose angle of the six-cable driven parallel manipulator changes from 0° to 14° and the pose angle of the A-B rotator changes from 0° to 26.4°.

Commentary: Pediatric eHealth Interventions: Common Challenges During Development, Implementation, and Dissemination

Science.gov (United States)

Steele, Ric G.; Connelly, Mark A.; Palermo, Tonya M.; Ritterband, Lee M.

2014-01-01

Objective To provide an overview of common challenges that pediatric eHealth researchers may encounter when planning, developing, testing, and disseminating eHealth interventions along with proposed solutions for addressing these challenges. Methods The article draws on the existing eHealth literature and the authors’ collective experience in pediatric eHealth research. Results and conclusions The challenges associated with eHealth interventions and their proposed solutions are multifaceted and cut across a number of areas from eHealth program development through dissemination. Collaboration with a range of individuals (e.g., multidisciplinary colleagues, commercial entities, primary stakeholders) is the key to eHealth intervention success. To ensure adequate resources for design, development, and planning for sustainability, a number of public and private sources of funding are available. A study design that addresses ethical concerns and security issues is critical to ensure scientific integrity and intervention dissemination. Table I summarizes key issues to consider during eHealth intervention development, testing, and dissemination. PMID:24816766

Challenges of implementing routine health behavior change support in a children's hospital setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Elwell, Laura; Powell, Jane; Wordsworth, Sharon; Cummins, Carole

2014-07-01

Evidence indicates that health behavior change initiatives are often not implemented successfully. This qualitative study aims to understand the barriers and facilitators to implementation of health behavior change brief advice into routine practice in an acute children's hospital setting. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with health professionals working at a UK children's hospital (n=33). Participants were purposively sampled to incorporate a range of specialties, job roles and training. An inductive thematic framework analysis identified two emergent themes. These capture the challenges of implementing routine health behavior change support in a children's hospital setting: (1) 'health professional knowledge, beliefs and behaviors' and (2) 'patient and family related challenges'. This study enhances findings from previous research by outlining the challenges pediatric health professionals face in relation to supporting health behavior change. Challenges include failure to assume responsibility, low confidence, prioritization of the health provider relationship with patients and families, health provider and patient knowledge, and low patient and family motivation. Skills-based behavior change training is needed for pediatric health professionals to effectively support health behavior change. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Remote sensing of ecosystem health: opportunities, challenges, and future perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zhaoqin; Xu, Dandan; Guo, Xulin

2014-11-07

Maintaining a healthy ecosystem is essential for maximizing sustainable ecological services of the best quality to human beings. Ecological and conservation research has provided a strong scientific background on identifying ecological health indicators and correspondingly making effective conservation plans. At the same time, ecologists have asserted a strong need for spatially explicit and temporally effective ecosystem health assessments based on remote sensing data. Currently, remote sensing of ecosystem health is only based on one ecosystem attribute: vigor, organization, or resilience. However, an effective ecosystem health assessment should be a comprehensive and dynamic measurement of the three attributes. This paper reviews opportunities of remote sensing, including optical, radar, and LiDAR, for directly estimating indicators of the three ecosystem attributes, discusses the main challenges to develop a remote sensing-based spatially-explicit comprehensive ecosystem health system, and provides some future perspectives. The main challenges to develop a remote sensing-based spatially-explicit comprehensive ecosystem health system are: (1) scale issue; (2) transportability issue; (3) data availability; and (4) uncertainties in health indicators estimated from remote sensing data. However, the Radarsat-2 constellation, upcoming new optical sensors on Worldview-3 and Sentinel-2 satellites, and improved technologies for the acquisition and processing of hyperspectral, multi-angle optical, radar, and LiDAR data and multi-sensoral data fusion may partly address the current challenges.

Remote Sensing of Ecosystem Health: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhaoqin Li

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Maintaining a healthy ecosystem is essential for maximizing sustainable ecological services of the best quality to human beings. Ecological and conservation research has provided a strong scientific background on identifying ecological health indicators and correspondingly making effective conservation plans. At the same time, ecologists have asserted a strong need for spatially explicit and temporally effective ecosystem health assessments based on remote sensing data. Currently, remote sensing of ecosystem health is only based on one ecosystem attribute: vigor, organization, or resilience. However, an effective ecosystem health assessment should be a comprehensive and dynamic measurement of the three attributes. This paper reviews opportunities of remote sensing, including optical, radar, and LiDAR, for directly estimating indicators of the three ecosystem attributes, discusses the main challenges to develop a remote sensing-based spatially-explicit comprehensive ecosystem health system, and provides some future perspectives. The main challenges to develop a remote sensing-based spatially-explicit comprehensive ecosystem health system are: (1 scale issue; (2 transportability issue; (3 data availability; and (4 uncertainties in health indicators estimated from remote sensing data. However, the Radarsat-2 constellation, upcoming new optical sensors on Worldview-3 and Sentinel-2 satellites, and improved technologies for the acquisition and processing of hyperspectral, multi-angle optical, radar, and LiDAR data and multi-sensoral data fusion may partly address the current challenges.

Remote Sensing of Ecosystem Health: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zhaoqin; Xu, Dandan; Guo, Xulin

2014-01-01

Maintaining a healthy ecosystem is essential for maximizing sustainable ecological services of the best quality to human beings. Ecological and conservation research has provided a strong scientific background on identifying ecological health indicators and correspondingly making effective conservation plans. At the same time, ecologists have asserted a strong need for spatially explicit and temporally effective ecosystem health assessments based on remote sensing data. Currently, remote sensing of ecosystem health is only based on one ecosystem attribute: vigor, organization, or resilience. However, an effective ecosystem health assessment should be a comprehensive and dynamic measurement of the three attributes. This paper reviews opportunities of remote sensing, including optical, radar, and LiDAR, for directly estimating indicators of the three ecosystem attributes, discusses the main challenges to develop a remote sensing-based spatially-explicit comprehensive ecosystem health system, and provides some future perspectives. The main challenges to develop a remote sensing-based spatially-explicit comprehensive ecosystem health system are: (1) scale issue; (2) transportability issue; (3) data availability; and (4) uncertainties in health indicators estimated from remote sensing data. However, the Radarsat-2 constellation, upcoming new optical sensors on Worldview-3 and Sentinel-2 satellites, and improved technologies for the acquisition and processing of hyperspectral, multi-angle optical, radar, and LiDAR data and multi-sensoral data fusion may partly address the current challenges. PMID:25386759

A combined vision-inertial fusion approach for 6-DoF object pose estimation

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Juan; Bernardos, Ana M.; Tarrío, Paula; Casar, José R.

2015-02-01

The estimation of the 3D position and orientation of moving objects (`pose' estimation) is a critical process for many applications in robotics, computer vision or mobile services. Although major research efforts have been carried out to design accurate, fast and robust indoor pose estimation systems, it remains as an open challenge to provide a low-cost, easy to deploy and reliable solution. Addressing this issue, this paper describes a hybrid approach for 6 degrees of freedom (6-DoF) pose estimation that fuses acceleration data and stereo vision to overcome the respective weaknesses of single technology approaches. The system relies on COTS technologies (standard webcams, accelerometers) and printable colored markers. It uses a set of infrastructure cameras, located to have the object to be tracked visible most of the operation time; the target object has to include an embedded accelerometer and be tagged with a fiducial marker. This simple marker has been designed for easy detection and segmentation and it may be adapted to different service scenarios (in shape and colors). Experimental results show that the proposed system provides high accuracy, while satisfactorily dealing with the real-time constraints.

2D Methods for pose invariant face recognition

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mokoena, Ntabiseng

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The ability to recognise face images under random pose is a task that is done effortlessly by human beings. However, for a computer system, recognising face images under varying poses still remains an open research area. Face recognition across pose...

"Hedge Your Bets": Technology's Role in Young Gay Men's Relationship Challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

McKie, Raymond M; Milhausen, Robin R; Lachowsky, Nathan J

2017-01-01

Technology is playing an increasingly pervasive role among young gay men in the process of meeting potential romantic or sexual partners. We investigated challenges posed by technology related to young gay men's relationships. Focus groups (n = 9) of young gay men aged 18-24 (n = 43) were transcribed verbatim, and thematic analysis was used to identify two major themes regarding challenges to relationship development and maintenance. Subthemes include unrealistic expectations of relationships, inauthentic self-presentation online, sexual primacy over romance, increased opportunities for infidelity, and jealousy. The implications of this study for sexual education and sexual health promotion are discussed.

Mobile mental health: a challenging research agenda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miranda Olff

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The field of mobile health (“m-Health” is evolving rapidly and there is an explosive growth of psychological tools on the market. Exciting high-tech developments may identify symptoms, help individuals manage their own mental health, encourage help seeking, and provide both preventive and therapeutic interventions. This development has the potential to be an efficient cost-effective approach reducing waiting lists and serving a considerable portion of people globally (“g-Health”. However, few of the mobile applications (apps have been rigorously evaluated. There is little information on how valid screening and assessment tools are, which of the mobile intervention apps are effective, or how well mobile apps compare to face-to-face treatments. But how feasible is rigorous scientific evaluation with the rising demands from policy makers, business partners, and users for their quick release? In this paper, developments in m-Health tools—targeting screening, assessment, prevention, and treatment—are reviewed with examples from the field of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder. The academic challenges in developing and evaluating m-Health tools are being addressed. Evidence-based guidance is needed on appropriate research designs that may overcome some of the public and ethical challenges (e.g., equity, availability and the market-driven wish to have mobile apps in the “App Store” yesterday rather than tomorrow.

The nucleolus is well-posed

Science.gov (United States)

Fragnelli, Vito; Patrone, Fioravante; Torre, Anna

2006-02-01

The lexicographic order is not representable by a real-valued function, contrary to many other orders or preorders. So, standard tools and results for well-posed minimum problems cannot be used. We prove that under suitable hypotheses it is however possible to guarantee the well-posedness of a lexicographic minimum over a compact or convex set. This result allows us to prove that some game theoretical solution concepts, based on lexicographic order are well-posed: in particular, this is true for the nucleolus.

Real-Time Head Pose Estimation on Mobile Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jianfeng Ren

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Many computer vision applications such as augmented reality require head pose estimation. As far as the real-time implementation of head pose estimation on relatively resource limited mobile platforms is concerned, it is required to satisfy real-time constraints while maintaining reasonable head pose estimation accuracy. The introduced head pose estimation approach in this paper is an attempt to meet this objective. The approach consists of the following components: Viola-Jones face detection, color-based face tracking using an online calibration procedure, and head pose estimation using Hu moment features and Fisher linear discriminant. Experimental results running on an actual mobile device are reported exhibiting both the real- time and accuracy aspects of the developed approach.

Different perspectives on the key challenges facing rural health: The challenges of power and knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Malatzky, Christina; Bourke, Lisa

2018-05-25

To examine the effects of dominant knowledge in rural health, including how they shape issues central to rural health. In particular, this article examines the roles of: (i) deficit knowledge of rural health workforce; (ii) dominant portrayals of generalism; and (iii) perceptions of inferiority about rural communities in maintaining health disparities between rural- and metropolitan-based Australians. A Foucauldian framework is applied to literature, evidence, case studies and key messages in rural health. Three scenarios are used to provide practical examples of specific knowledge that is prioritised or marginalised. The analysis of three areas in rural health identifies how deficit knowledge is privileged despite it undermining the purpose of rural health. First, deficit knowledge highlights the workforce shortage rather than the type of work in rural practice or the oversupply of workforce in metropolitan areas. Second, the construction of generalist practice as less skilled and more monotonous undermines other knowledge that it is diverse and challenging. Third, dominant negative stereotypes of rural communities discourage rural careers and highlight undesirable aspects of rural practice. The privileging of deficit knowledge pertaining to rural health workforce, broader dominant discourses of generalism and the nature of rural Australian communities reproduces many of the key challenges in rural health today, including persisting health disparities between rural- and metropolitan-based Australians. To disrupt the operations of power that highlight deficit knowledge and undermine other knowledge, we need to change the way in which rural health is currently constructed and understood. © 2018 National Rural Health Alliance Ltd.

The Istanbul declaration for global health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paulo M. Buss

2010-03-01

Full Text Available More than 2,300 public health professionals from around the world attended the 12th World Public Health Congress, in Istanbul, between April 27th and May 1st, 2009. Participants from 120 countries from all corners of the globe advocated for different disciplines and composed an eclectic and propitious audience for a profound discussion on the part each individual – as well as national associations, at the country level, and the Federation, at the global level – plays in facing the challenges currently posed to the field of Public Health.

Health and health-care systems in southeast Asia: diversity and transitions.

Science.gov (United States)

Chongsuvivatwong, Virasakdi; Phua, Kai Hong; Yap, Mui Teng; Pocock, Nicola S; Hashim, Jamal H; Chhem, Rethy; Wilopo, Siswanto Agus; Lopez, Alan D

2011-01-29

Southeast Asia is a region of enormous social, economic, and political diversity, both across and within countries, shaped by its history, geography, and position as a major crossroad of trade and the movement of goods and services. These factors have not only contributed to the disparate health status of the region's diverse populations, but also to the diverse nature of its health systems, which are at varying stages of evolution. Rapid but inequitable socioeconomic development, coupled with differing rates of demographic and epidemiological transitions, have accentuated health disparities and posed great public health challenges for national health systems, particularly the control of emerging infectious diseases and the rise of non-communicable diseases within ageing populations. While novel forms of health care are evolving in the region, such as corporatised public health-care systems (government owned, but operating according to corporate principles and with private-sector participation) and financing mechanisms to achieve universal coverage, there are key lessons for health reforms and decentralisation. New challenges have emerged with rising trade in health services, migration of the health workforce, and medical tourism. Juxtaposed between the emerging giant economies of China and India, countries of the region are attempting to forge a common regional identity, despite their diversity, to seek mutually acceptable and effective solutions to key regional health challenges. In this first paper in the Lancet Series on health in southeast Asia, we present an overview of key demographic and epidemiological changes in the region, explore challenges facing health systems, and draw attention to the potential for regional collaboration in health. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Women's Health – A Continuing Challenge in Developing Countries

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Patrick Erah

Pharmacotherapy Group,. Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin,. Benin City, Nigeria. All rights reserved. Available online at http://www.tjpr.org. Editorial. Women's Health – A Continuing Challenge in. Developing Countries. For justifiable reasons, the health of women in developing countries is presently an important.

Challenges in conducting qualitative research in health: A conceptual paper

Science.gov (United States)

Khankeh, Hamidreza; Ranjbar, Maryam; Khorasani-Zavareh, Davoud; Zargham-Boroujeni, Ali; Johansson, Eva

2015-01-01

Background: Qualitative research focuses on social world and provides the tools to study health phenomena from the perspective of those experiencing them. Identifying the problem, forming the question, and selecting an appropriate methodology and design are some of the initial challenges that researchers encounter in the early stages of any research project. These problems are particularly common for novices. Materials and Methods: This article describes the practical challenges of using qualitative inquiry in the field of health and the challenges of performing an interpretive research based on professional experience as a qualitative researcher and on available literature. Results: One of the main topics discussed is the nature of qualitative research, its inherent challenges, and how to overcome them. Some of those highlighted here include: identification of the research problem, formation of the research question/aim, and selecting an appropriate methodology and research design, which are the main concerns of qualitative researchers and need to be handled properly. Insights from real-life experiences in conducting qualitative research in health reveal these issues. Conclusions: The paper provides personal comments on the experiences of a researcher in conducting pure qualitative research in the field of health. It offers insights into the practical difficulties encountered when performing qualitative studies and offers solutions and alternatives applied by these authors, which may be of use to others. PMID:26793245

Breast Cancer in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: An Emerging and Challenging Epidemic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arafat Tfayli

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Breast cancer is a major health care problem that affects more than one million women yearly. While it is traditionally thought of as a disease of the industrialized world, around 45% of breast cancer cases and 55% of breast cancer deaths occur in low and middle income countries. Managing breast cancer in low income countries poses a different set of challenges including access to screening, stage at presentation, adequacy of management and availability of therapeutic interventions. In this paper, we will review the challenges faced in the management of breast cancer in low and middle income countries.

Group Health Coaching: Strengths, Challenges, and Next Steps

Science.gov (United States)

Wolever, Ruth Q.; Manning, Linda; Elam, Roy; Moore, Margaret; Frates, Elizabeth Pegg; Duskey, Heidi; Anderson, Chelsea; Curtis, Rebecca L.; Masemer, Susan; Lawson, Karen

2013-01-01

There is great need for cost effective approaches to increase patient engagement and improve health and well-being. Health and wellness coaching has recently demonstrated great promise, but the majority of studies to date have focused on individual coaching (ie, one coach with one client). Newer initiatives are bringing a group coaching model from corporate leadership development and educational settings into the healthcare arena. A group approach potentially increases cost-effective access to a larger number of clients and brings the possible additional benefit of group support. This article highlights some of the group coaching approaches currently being conducted across the United States. The group coaching interventions included in this overview are offered by a variety of academic and private sector institutions, use both telephonic and in-person coaching, and are facilitated by professionally trained health and wellness coaches as well as trained peer coaches. Strengths and challenges experienced in these efforts are summarized, as are recommendations to address those challenges. A working definition of “Group Health and Wellness Coaching” is proposed, and important next steps for research and for the training of group coaches are presented. PMID:24416678

Group health coaching: strengths, challenges, and next steps.

Science.gov (United States)

Armstrong, Colin; Wolever, Ruth Q; Manning, Linda; Elam, Roy; Moore, Margaret; Frates, Elizabeth Pegg; Duskey, Heidi; Anderson, Chelsea; Curtis, Rebecca L; Masemer, Susan; Lawson, Karen

2013-05-01

There is great need for cost effective approaches to increase patient engagement and improve health and well-being. Health and wellness coaching has recently demonstrated great promise, but the majority of studies to date have focused on individual coaching (ie, one coach with one client). Newer initiatives are bringing a group coaching model from corporate leadership development and educational settings into the healthcare arena. A group approach potentially increases cost-effective access to a larger number of clients and brings the possible additional benefit of group support. This article highlights some of the group coaching approaches currently being conducted across the United States. The group coaching interventions included in this overview are offered by a variety of academic and private sector institutions, use both telephonic and in-person coaching, and are facilitated by professionally trained health and wellness coaches as well as trained peer coaches. Strengths and challenges experienced in these efforts are summarized, as are recommendations to address those challenges. A working definition of "Group Health and Wellness Coaching" is proposed, and important next steps for research and for the training of group coaches are presented.

Nutritional and health challenges of pastoralist populations in Kenya ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper examines nutritional and health challenges facing pastoralists who inhabit fragile rangelands and are one of the most nutritionally vulnerable population groups in Kenya. The review is based on a synthesis of literature on pastoralist food security, nutrition and health status and livelihoods in Kenya's rangelands.

Obesity, Complexity, and the Role of the Health System

OpenAIRE

Frood, Sarah; Johnston, Lee M.; Matteson, Carrie L.; Finegood, Diane T.

2013-01-01

As obesity continues to increase throughout the world, there is still no well-defined solution to the issue. Reducing obesity poses a significant challenge for the health care system because it is a complex problem with numerous interconnections and elements. The complexity of obesity challenges traditional primary care practices that have been structured to address simple or less complicated conditions. Systems thinking provides a way forward for clinicians that are discouraged or overwhelme...

Face pose tracking using the four-point algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Fung, Ho Yin; Wong, Kin Hong; Yu, Ying Kin; Tsui, Kwan Pang; Kam, Ho Chuen

2017-06-01

In this paper, we have developed an algorithm to track the pose of a human face robustly and efficiently. Face pose estimation is very useful in many applications such as building virtual reality systems and creating an alternative input method for the disabled. Firstly, we have modified a face detection toolbox called DLib for the detection of a face in front of a camera. The detected face features are passed to a pose estimation method, known as the four-point algorithm, for pose computation. The theory applied and the technical problems encountered during system development are discussed in the paper. It is demonstrated that the system is able to track the pose of a face in real time using a consumer grade laptop computer.

A cross docking pipeline for improving pose prediction and virtual screening performance

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Ashutosh; Zhang, Kam Y. J.

2018-01-01

Pose prediction and virtual screening performance of a molecular docking method depend on the choice of protein structures used for docking. Multiple structures for a target protein are often used to take into account the receptor flexibility and problems associated with a single receptor structure. However, the use of multiple receptor structures is computationally expensive when docking a large library of small molecules. Here, we propose a new cross-docking pipeline suitable to dock a large library of molecules while taking advantage of multiple target protein structures. Our method involves the selection of a suitable receptor for each ligand in a screening library utilizing ligand 3D shape similarity with crystallographic ligands. We have prospectively evaluated our method in D3R Grand Challenge 2 and demonstrated that our cross-docking pipeline can achieve similar or better performance than using either single or multiple-receptor structures. Moreover, our method displayed not only decent pose prediction performance but also better virtual screening performance over several other methods.

Forthcoming Challenges in Mycotoxins Toxicology Research for Safer Food-A Need for Multi-Omics Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Dellafiora, Luca; Dall'Asta, Chiara

2017-01-04

The presence of mycotoxins in food represents a severe threat for public health and welfare, and poses relevant research challenges in the food toxicology field. Nowadays, food toxicologists have to provide answers to food-related toxicological issues, but at the same time they should provide the appropriate knowledge in background to effectively support the evidence-based decision-making in food safety. Therefore, keeping in mind that regulatory actions should be based on sound scientific findings, the present opinion addresses the main challenges in providing reliable data for supporting the risk assessment of foodborne mycotoxins.

Progress and challenges of disaster health management in China: a scoping review.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Shuang; Clark, Michele; Hou, Xiang-Yu; Zang, Yuli; FitzGerald, Gerard

2014-01-01

Despite the importance of an effective health system response to various disasters, relevant research is still in its infancy, especially in middle- and low-income countries. This paper provides an overview of the status of disaster health management in China, with its aim to promote the effectiveness of the health response for reducing disaster-related mortality and morbidity. A scoping review method was used to address the recent progress of and challenges to disaster health management in China. Major health electronic databases were searched to identify English and Chinese literature that were relevant to the research aims. The review found that since 2003 considerable progress has been achieved in the health disaster response system in China. However, there remain challenges that hinder effective health disaster responses, including low standards of disaster-resistant infrastructure safety, the lack of specific disaster plans, poor emergency coordination between hospitals, lack of portable diagnostic equipment and underdeveloped triage skills, surge capacity, and psychological interventions. Additional challenges include the fragmentation of the emergency health service system, a lack of specific legislation for emergencies, disparities in the distribution of funding, and inadequate cost-effective considerations for disaster rescue. One solution identified to address these challenges appears to be through corresponding policy strategies at multiple levels (e.g. community, hospital, and healthcare system level).

eHealth and Global Health: Investments Opportunities and Challenges for Industry in Developing Countries

Science.gov (United States)

Iluyemi, Adesina; Briggs, Jim

eHealth investments from developed countries to developing countries are expected to follow the emerging trend of eHealth for meeting global health problems. However, eHealth industry from developed countries will need to learn to make this impending venture a ‘win-win’ situation with profitable return on investments. This short paper highlights some of these challenges that must be overcome in order to achieve these objectives.

Portraying Reflexivity in Health Services Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Rae, John; Green, Bill

2016-09-01

A model is proposed for supporting reflexivity in qualitative health research, informed by arguments from Bourdieu and Finlay. Bourdieu refers to mastering the subjective relation to the object at three levels-the overall social space, the field of specialists, and the scholastic universe. The model overlays Bourdieu's levels of objectivation with Finlay's three stages of research (pre-research, data collection, and data analysis). The intersections of these two ways of considering reflexivity, displayed as cells of a matrix, pose questions and offer prompts to productively challenge health researchers' reflexivity. Portraiture is used to show how these challenges and prompts can facilitate such reflexivity, as illustrated in a research project. © The Author(s) 2016.

Challenges in managing and sustaining urban slum health ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Challenges in managing and sustaining urban slum health programmes in Kenya. ... These were hardly implemented in the projects, according to the data gathered. ... Conclusion: Land and income were big issues according to the responses.

Ethical issues in maternal and child health nursing: challenges ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Methods: This is a literature review on ethical issues in maternal and child health nursing, challenges faced by maternal and child health nurses and strategies for decision making. Literatures related to the topic was gathered from pertinent literature, completed research works and published articles retrieved from searches ...

Finding a balance: health promotion challenges of military women.

Science.gov (United States)

Agazio, Janice Griffin; Buckley, Kathleen M

2010-09-01

In this study, we explored what may determine, or predict, United States military women's health promotion behaviors. Using a descriptive correlational design grounded in Pender's Health Promotion model, 491 military women completed instruments measuring their demographic variables, perception of health, definition of health, self-efficacy, and interpersonal influences to determine the significant factors affecting participation in health promotion activities. The outcome indicated that self-efficacy and interpersonal influences were the most influential in determining health promotion. This research illuminates some of the challenges working women face in meeting health promotion activities and how best to support their ability to participate in healthy behaviors.

Skill Levels of Prospective Physics Teachers on Problem Posing

Science.gov (United States)

Cildir, Sema; Sezen, Nazan

2011-01-01

Problem posing is one of the topics which the educators thoroughly accentuate. Problem posing skill is defined as an introvert activity of a student's learning. In this study, skill levels of prospective physics teachers on problem posing were determined and their views on problem posing were evaluated. To this end, prospective teachers were given…

Key challenges of human resources for health in India

OpenAIRE

Priya Sinha

2016-01-01

Background and Objective Since independence the efforts have been to strengthen the health infrastructure, its accessibility and coverage. The human resources for health have been an important determinant for system but it has received significance recently. Even government expenditure on health has remained at not more than 1% of Gross Domestic Product which is very less as compared to world standard. Now the biggest challenge is the shortage of skilled human resource for health at all le...

Profile of men's health in Malaysia: problems and challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Tong, Seng Fah; Low, Wah Yun; Ng, Chirk Jenn

2011-01-01

Men's health concerns have evolved from the traditional andrology and male sexual health to a more holistic approach that encompasses male psychological, social and physical health. The poor state of health in men compared to their female counterparts is well documented. A review of the epidemiological data from Malaysia noted a similar trend in which men die at higher rates in under 1 and above 15 years old groups and most disease categories compared to women. In Malaysia, the main causes of death in men are non-communicable diseases and injuries. Risk factors, such as risk-taking behaviour, smoking and hypertension, are prevalent and amenable to early interventions. Erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation and prostate disorders are also prevalent. However, many of these morbidities go unreported and are not diagnosed early; therefore, opportunities for early intervention are missed. This reflects poor health knowledge and inadequate health-care utilisation among Malaysian men. Their health-seeking behaviour has been shown to be strongly influenced by family members and friends. However, more research is needed to identify men's unmet health-care needs and to develop optimal strategies for addressing them. Because the Malaysian population is aging and there is an increase in sedentary lifestyles, optimizing men's health will remain a challenge unless effective measures are implemented. The existing male-unfriendly health-care system and the negative influence of masculinity on men's health behaviour must be addressed. A national men's health policy based on a male-friendly approach to health-care delivery is urgently needed to provide a framework for addressing these challenges. PMID:21358664

Profile of men's health in Malaysia: problems and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Tong, Seng Fah; Low, Wah Yun; Ng, Chirk Jenn

2011-07-01

Men's health concerns have evolved from the traditional andrology and male sexual health to a more holistic approach that encompasses male psychological, social and physical health. The poor state of health in men compared to their female counterparts is well documented. A review of the epidemiological data from Malaysia noted a similar trend in which men die at higher rates in under 1 and above 15 years old groups and most disease categories compared to women. In Malaysia, the main causes of death in men are non-communicable diseases and injuries. Risk factors, such as risk-taking behaviour, smoking and hypertension, are prevalent and amenable to early interventions. Erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation and prostate disorders are also prevalent. However, many of these morbidities go unreported and are not diagnosed early; therefore, opportunities for early intervention are missed. This reflects poor health knowledge and inadequate health-care utilisation among Malaysian men. Their health-seeking behaviour has been shown to be strongly influenced by family members and friends. However, more research is needed to identify men's unmet health-care needs and to develop optimal strategies for addressing them. Because the Malaysian population is aging and there is an increase in sedentary lifestyles, optimizing men's health will remain a challenge unless effective measures are implemented. The existing male-unfriendly health-care system and the negative influence of masculinity on men's health behaviour must be addressed. A national men's health policy based on a male-friendly approach to health-care delivery is urgently needed to provide a framework for addressing these challenges.

Immigrants and health system challenges to TB control in Oman

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fochsen Grethe

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background During the past three decades, Oman has made significant progress in controlling TB within it's borders. However, the national TB control program elimination target has yet to be reached. This study aims to explore the perceived roles played by the immigrant population and the private health sector in relation to TB control in Oman. Methods We conducted seventeen interviews with different health care providers. The verbatim transcripts were processed using content analysis. Results Three main themes emerged. Firstly the threat of repatriation faced by underprivileged expatriates, secondly the criticized and forgotten private health sector as a key player and thirdly the user and provider barriers faced by Omani patients in the Omani public health system. Conclusions The study has identified some of the challenges and barriers to TB control in Oman. These challenges are mainly related to unintended negative consequences arising from the current repatriation policy of immigrants and to and the lack of involvement of the private sector in TB control. TB control strategies designed to address these challenges are needed, for Oman to reach its TB elimination targets.

Promoting better integration of health information systems: best practices and challenges

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Michelsen, K.; Brand, H.; Achterberg, P.; Wilkinson, J.

2015-01-01

Health Evidence Network Synthesis Report [Promoting better integration of health information systems: best practices and challenges K Michelsen, H Brand, P Achterberg, J Wilkinson - 2015 ... Authors Kai Michelsen Department of International Health, Maastricht University Maastricht,

Pose Estimation with a Kinect for Ergonomic Studies: Evaluation of the Accuracy Using a Virtual Mannequin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pierre Plantard

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Analyzing human poses with a Kinect is a promising method to evaluate potentials risks of musculoskeletal disorders at workstations. In ecological situations, complex 3D poses and constraints imposed by the environment make it difficult to obtain reliable kinematic information. Thus, being able to predict the potential accuracy of the measurement for such complex 3D poses and sensor placements is challenging in classical experimental setups. To tackle this problem, we propose a new evaluation method based on a virtual mannequin. In this study, we apply this method to the evaluation of joint positions (shoulder, elbow, and wrist, joint angles (shoulder and elbow, and the corresponding RULA (a popular ergonomics assessment grid upper-limb score for a large set of poses and sensor placements. Thanks to this evaluation method, more than 500,000 configurations have been automatically tested, which would be almost impossible to evaluate with classical protocols. The results show that the kinematic information obtained by the Kinect software is generally accurate enough to fill in ergonomic assessment grids. However inaccuracy strongly increases for some specific poses and sensor positions. Using this evaluation method enabled us to report configurations that could lead to these high inaccuracies. As a supplementary material, we provide a software tool to help designers to evaluate the expected accuracy of this sensor for a set of upper-limb configurations. Results obtained with the virtual mannequin are in accordance with those obtained from a real subject for a limited set of poses and sensor placements.

Local Feature Learning for Face Recognition under Varying Poses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Duan, Xiaodong; Tan, Zheng-Hua

2015-01-01

In this paper, we present a local feature learning method for face recognition to deal with varying poses. As opposed to the commonly used approaches of recovering frontal face images from profile views, the proposed method extracts the subject related part from a local feature by removing the pose...... related part in it on the basis of a pose feature. The method has a closed-form solution, hence being time efficient. For performance evaluation, cross pose face recognition experiments are conducted on two public face recognition databases FERET and FEI. The proposed method shows a significant...... recognition improvement under varying poses over general local feature approaches and outperforms or is comparable with related state-of-the-art pose invariant face recognition approaches. Copyright ©2015 by IEEE....

Health claims on foods: challenge for clinical research companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Essi Sarkkinen

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Background The Nutrition and Health Claim Regulation 1924/2006/EC, together with EFSA guidances on the scientific requirements for different type of health claims, is setting the basis for health claim substantiation in the EU. Aim The aim of this presentation is to bring up the key challenges that the food industry and clinical research organizations are facing when meeting these requirements. Results and discussion Key issues in clinical research planning to meet the requirements set for the health claim substantiation are: (1 Selection of right outcome markers since the selection of outcome marker defines actually the formulation of the health claim to be used on food or food ingredient. (2 Selection of right target population since that determines the target consumer group for the food with a health claim. (3 Selection of dose regime and food matrices used since these largely determine the conditions set for the use of the health claim. One of the major challenges in health claim substantiation is the deviant approach to risk factors or biomarkers. From the regulation point of view, a single risk factor approach is emphasized, but from the clinical and scientific point of view the pattern of different risk markers or biomarkers could, in some cases, be a more relevant choice to reflect the final health outcome. This is especially the case in the nutrition and health area because we are often dealing with weak but multiple health effects of certain food items or ingredients. Also the lack of validated well-established biomarkers potent to be affected by diet is a challenge in health claim substantiation.The selection of right target population is often a compromise between choosing a more potential target group to obtain efficacy (i.e. risk factors elevated vs. patient groups and choosing a rationale to generalize the results to wider population (target consumer group.The selection of optimal dosing regime and matrices for a clinical study is

Health Policy and Management: In Praise of Political Science; Comment on “On Health Policy and Management (HPAM: Mind the Theory-Policy Practice Gap”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David J Hunter

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Health systems have entered a third era embracing whole systems thinking and posing complex policy and management challenges. Understanding how such systems work and agreeing what needs to be put in place to enable them to undergo effective and sustainable change are more pressing issues than ever for policy-makers. The theory-policy-practice-gap and its four dimensions, as articulated by Chinitz and Rodwin, is acknowledged. It is suggested that insights derived from political science can both enrich our understanding of the gap and suggest what changes are needed to tackle the complex challenges facing health systems.

Challenges and Opportunities for Advancing Work on Climate Change and Public Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Gould, Solange; Rudolph, Linda

2015-12-09

Climate change poses a major threat to public health. Strategies that address climate change have considerable potential to benefit health and decrease health inequities, yet public health engagement at the intersection of public health, equity, and climate change has been limited. This research seeks to understand the barriers to and opportunities for advancing work at this nexus. We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews (N = 113) with public health and climate change professionals and thematic analysis. Barriers to public health engagement in addressing climate change include individual perceptions that climate change is not urgent or solvable and insufficient understanding of climate change's health impacts and programmatic connections. Institutional barriers include a lack of public health capacity, authority, and leadership; a narrow framework for public health practice that limits work on the root causes of climate change and health; and compartmentalization within and across sectors. Opportunities include integrating climate change into current public health practice; providing inter-sectoral support for climate solutions with health co-benefits; and using a health frame to engage and mobilize communities. Efforts to increase public health sector engagement should focus on education and communications, building leadership and funding, and increasing work on the shared root causes of climate change and health inequities.

Challenges and Opportunities for Advancing Work on Climate Change and Public Health

Science.gov (United States)

Gould, Solange; Rudolph, Linda

2015-01-01

Climate change poses a major threat to public health. Strategies that address climate change have considerable potential to benefit health and decrease health inequities, yet public health engagement at the intersection of public health, equity, and climate change has been limited. This research seeks to understand the barriers to and opportunities for advancing work at this nexus. We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews (N = 113) with public health and climate change professionals and thematic analysis. Barriers to public health engagement in addressing climate change include individual perceptions that climate change is not urgent or solvable and insufficient understanding of climate change’s health impacts and programmatic connections. Institutional barriers include a lack of public health capacity, authority, and leadership; a narrow framework for public health practice that limits work on the root causes of climate change and health; and compartmentalization within and across sectors. Opportunities include integrating climate change into current public health practice; providing inter-sectoral support for climate solutions with health co-benefits; and using a health frame to engage and mobilize communities. Efforts to increase public health sector engagement should focus on education and communications, building leadership and funding, and increasing work on the shared root causes of climate change and health inequities. PMID:26690194

Populism, Exclusion, Post-truth. Some Conceptual Caveats Comment on "The Rise of Post-truth Populism in Pluralist Liberal Democracies: Challenges for Health Policy".

Science.gov (United States)

De Cleen, Benjamin

2017-07-15

In their editorial, Speed and Mannion identify two main challenges "the rise of post-truth populism" poses for health policy: the populist threat to inclusive healthcare policies, and the populist threat to well-designed health policies that draw on professional expertise and research evidence. This short comment suggests some conceptual clarifications that might help in thinking through more profoundly these two important issues. It argues that we should approach right-wing populism as a combination of a populist down/up (people/elite) axis with an exclusionary nationalist in/out (member/non-member) axis. And it raises some questions regarding the equation between populism, demagogy and the rejection of expertise and scientific knowledge. © 2018 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.

Status of Environmental Management Initiatives to Accelerate the Reduction of Environmental Risks and Challenges Posed by the Legacy of the Cold War

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-01-01

Fifty years of nuclear weapons production and energy research in the United States during the Cold War generated large amounts of radioactive wastes, spent nuclear fuel (SNF), excess plutonium and uranium, thousands of contaminated facilities, and contaminated soil and groundwater. During most of that half century, the Nation did not have the environmental regulatory structure or nuclear waste cleanup technologies that exist today. The result was a legacy of nuclear waste that was stored and disposed of in ways now considered unacceptable. Cleaning up and ultimately disposing of these wastes is the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In 1989, DOE established the Office of Environmental Management (EM) to solve the large scale and technically challenging risks posed by the world's largest nuclear cleanup. This required EM to build a new nuclear cleanup infrastructure, assemble and train a technically specialized workforce, and develop the technologies and tools required to safely decontaminate, disassemble, stabilize, disposition, and remediate unique radiation hazards. The sites where nuclear activities produced legacy waste and contamination include the original Manhattan Project sites--Los Alamos, New Mexico; Hanford, Washington; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee--as well as major Cold War sites, such as Savannah River Site, South Carolina; the Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho; Rocky Flats Plant, Colorado; and Fernald, Ohio. Today EM has responsibility for nuclear cleanup activities at 21 sites covering more than two million acres in 13 states, and employs more than 30,000 Federal and contractor employees, including scientists, engineers and hazardous waste technicians. This cleanup poses unique, technically complex problems, which must be solved under the most hazardous of conditions, and which will require billions of dollars a year for several more decades. The EM program focus during its first 10 years was on managing the most urgent risks and

Status of Environmental Management Initiatives to Accelerate the Reduction of Environmental Risks and Challenges Posed by the Legacy of the Cold War

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

2009-01-01

Fifty years of nuclear weapons production and energy research in the United States during the Cold War generated large amounts of radioactive wastes, spent nuclear fuel (SNF), excess plutonium and uranium, thousands of contaminated facilities, and contaminated soil and groundwater. During most of that half century, the Nation did not have the environmental regulatory structure or nuclear waste cleanup technologies that exist today. The result was a legacy of nuclear waste that was stored and disposed of in ways now considered unacceptable. Cleaning up and ultimately disposing of these wastes is the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In 1989, DOE established the Office of Environmental Management (EM) to solve the large scale and technically challenging risks posed by the world's largest nuclear cleanup. This required EM to build a new nuclear cleanup infrastructure, assemble and train a technically specialized workforce, and develop the technologies and tools required to safely decontaminate, disassemble, stabilize, disposition, and remediate unique radiation hazards. The sites where nuclear activities produced legacy waste and contamination include the original Manhattan Project sites--Los Alamos, New Mexico; Hanford, Washington; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee--as well as major Cold War sites, such as Savannah River Site, South Carolina; the Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho; Rocky Flats Plant, Colorado; and Fernald, Ohio. Today EM has responsibility for nuclear cleanup activities at 21 sites covering more than two million acres in 13 states, and employs more than 30,000 Federal and contractor employees, including scientists, engineers and hazardous waste technicians. This cleanup poses unique, technically complex problems, which must be solved under the most hazardous of conditions, and which will require billions of dollars a year for several more decades. The EM program focus during its first 10 years was on managing the most urgent risks and

Environmental, health, and safety effects of engineered nanomaterials: challenges and research needs

Science.gov (United States)

Fairbrother, Howard

2010-04-01

The number of technologies and consumer products that incorporate engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) has grown rapidly. Indeed, ENMs such as carbon nanotubes and nano-silver, are revolutionizing many commercial technologies and have already been incorporated into more than 800 commercial products, including polymer composites, cell phone batteries, sporting equipment and cosmetics. The global market for ENMs has grown steadily from 7.5 billion in 2003 to 12.7 billion in 2008. Over the next five years, their market value is expected to exceed $27 billion. This surge in demand has been responsible for a corresponding increase in the annual production rates of ENMs. For example, Bayer anticipates that single and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT and MWNT) production rates will reach 3,000 tons/yr by 2012. Inevitably, some of these synthetic materials will enter the environment either from incidental release during manufacture and transport, or following use and disposal. Consequently, intense scientific research is now being directed towards understanding the environmental, health and safety (EHS) risks posed by ENMs. I will highlight some of the key research challenges and needs in this area, include (i) developing structure-property relationships that will enable physicochemical properties of ENMs to be correlated with environmentally relevant behavior (e.g. colloidal properties, toxicity), (ii) determining the behavior of nanoproducts, and (iii) developing analytical techniques capable of detecting and quantifying the concentration of ENMs in the environment.

Person-Independent Head Pose Estimation Using Biased Manifold Embedding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sethuraman Panchanathan

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Head pose estimation has been an integral problem in the study of face recognition systems and human-computer interfaces, as part of biometric applications. A fine estimate of the head pose angle is necessary and useful for several face analysis applications. To determine the head pose, face images with varying pose angles can be considered to be lying on a smooth low-dimensional manifold in high-dimensional image feature space. However, when there are face images of multiple individuals with varying pose angles, manifold learning techniques often do not give accurate results. In this work, we propose a framework for a supervised form of manifold learning called Biased Manifold Embedding to obtain improved performance in head pose angle estimation. This framework goes beyond pose estimation, and can be applied to all regression applications. This framework, although formulated for a regression scenario, unifies other supervised approaches to manifold learning that have been proposed so far. Detailed studies of the proposed method are carried out on the FacePix database, which contains 181 face images each of 30 individuals with pose angle variations at a granularity of 1∘. Since biometric applications in the real world may not contain this level of granularity in training data, an analysis of the methodology is performed on sparsely sampled data to validate its effectiveness. We obtained up to 2∘ average pose angle estimation error in the results from our experiments, which matched the best results obtained for head pose estimation using related approaches.

To Strike a Pose: No Stereotype Backlash for Power Posing Women

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miriam Rennung

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Power posing, the adoption of open and powerful postures, has effects that parallel those of actual social power. This study explored the social evaluation of adopting powerful versus powerless body postures in men and women regarding perceived warmth, competence, and the likelihood of eliciting admiration, envy, pity, and contempt. Previous findings suggest that the display of power by women may have side effects due to gender stereotyping, namely reduced warmth ratings and negative emotional reactions. An experiment (N = 2,473 asked participants to rate pictures of men and women who adopted high-power or low-power body postures. High-power posers were rated higher on competence, admiration, envy, and contempt compared to low-power posers, whereas the opposite was true for pity. There was no impact of power posing on perceived warmth. Contrary to expectations, the poser’s gender did not moderate any of the effects. These findings suggest that nonverbal displays of power do influence fundamental dimensions of social perception and their accompanying emotional reactions but result in comparably positive and negative evaluations for both genders.

Citizen Science for public health.

Science.gov (United States)

Den Broeder, Lea; Devilee, Jeroen; Van Oers, Hans; Schuit, A Jantine; Wagemakers, Annemarie

2016-12-23

Community engagement in public health policy is easier said than done. One reason is that public health policy is produced in a complex process resulting in policies that may appear not to link up to citizen perspectives. We therefore address the central question as to whether citizen engagement in knowledge production could enable inclusive health policy making. Building on non-health work fields, we describe different types of citizen engagement in scientific research, or 'Citizen Science'. We describe the challenges that Citizen Science poses for public health, and how these could be addressed. Despite these challenges, we expect that Citizen Science or similar approaches such as participatory action research and 'popular epidemiology' may yield better knowledge, empowered communities, and improved community health. We provide a draft framework to enable evaluation of Citizen Science in practice, consisting of a descriptive typology of different kinds of Citizen Science and a causal framework that shows how Citizen Science in public health might benefit both the knowledge produced as well as the 'Citizen Scientists' as active participants. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Health care delivery in Malaysia: changes, challenges and champions

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Susan; Beh, LooSee; Nordin, Rusli Bin

2011-01-01

Since 1957, there has been major reorganization of health care services in Malaysia. This article assesses the changes and challenges in health care delivery in Malaysia and how the management in health care processes has evolved over the years including equitable health care and health care financing. The health care service in Malaysia is changing towards wellness service as opposed to illness service. The Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH), being the main provider of health services, may need to manage and mobilize better health care services by providing better health care financing mechanisms. It is recommended that partnership between public and private sectors with the extension of traditional medicine complementing western medicine in medical therapy continues in the delivery of health care. PMID:28299064

eHEALTH SERVICES AND TECHNOLOGY: CHALLENGES FOR CO-DEVELOPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hannele Hyppönen

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The promises of ICT have been poorly redeemed in health care; many projects have failed. This article conceptualizes the co-construction of services and technologies in order to help future practitioners in the field to understand and find solutions to the challenges in ICT-enhanced service change. The conceptualization is created by structuring the findings of a case study with the help of theoretical concepts. The conceptualization then is implemented in another case to study its potential for finding challenges and suggesting solutions. Both cases demonstrate challenges for codevelopment that contributed to poor project outcomes. Participants in eHealth projects need a better understanding of development as the parallel shaping of multiple objects. They need better skills in managing the change process and a better understanding of methods for collaboration throughout the development. The projects would benefit from networking with actors who have adequate understanding of the process as a whole and of methods of codevelopment.

Commentary: pediatric eHealth interventions: common challenges during development, implementation, and dissemination.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yelena P; Steele, Ric G; Connelly, Mark A; Palermo, Tonya M; Ritterband, Lee M

2014-07-01

To provide an overview of common challenges that pediatric eHealth researchers may encounter when planning, developing, testing, and disseminating eHealth interventions along with proposed solutions for addressing these challenges. The article draws on the existing eHealth literature and the authors' collective experience in pediatric eHealth research. The challenges associated with eHealth interventions and their proposed solutions are multifaceted and cut across a number of areas from eHealth program development through dissemination. Collaboration with a range of individuals (e.g., multidisciplinary colleagues, commercial entities, primary stakeholders) is the key to eHealth intervention success. To ensure adequate resources for design, development, and planning for sustainability, a number of public and private sources of funding are available. A study design that addresses ethical concerns and security issues is critical to ensure scientific integrity and intervention dissemination. Table I summarizes key issues to consider during eHealth intervention development, testing, and dissemination. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

THE QATAR HEALTH SYSTEM: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

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Shaher ALSHAMARI

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Qatar’s healthcare system is comparatively new and has experienced noteworthy developments over its brief history. In this paper, our aim is to look at the unique challenges this small nation has faced in building that system. This paper will describe the accomplishments of Qatar’s medical authorities and the challenges they faced. It will also compare public and private healthcare providers. Today, the government of Qatar has financed all the health care for this rapidly-developing, multicultural nation, but it is now planning to introduce medical insurance. This report of its experience will benefit other nations wanting to develop their own healthcare systems.

[Mental health in Chile and Finland: Challenges and lessons].

Science.gov (United States)

Retamal C, Pedro; Markkula, Niina; Peña, Sebastián

2016-07-01

This article analyses and compares the epidemiology of mental disorders and relevant public policies in Chile and Finland. In Chile, a specific mental health law is still lacking. While both countries highlight the role of primary care, Finland places more emphasis on participation and recovery of service users. Comprehensive mental health policies from Finland, such as a successful suicide prevention program, are presented. Both countries have similar prevalence of mental disorders, high alcohol consumption and high suicide rates. In Chile, the percentage of total disease burden due to psychiatric disorders is 13% and in Finland 14%. However, the resources to address these issues are very different. Finland spends 4.5% of its health budget on mental health, while in Chile the percentage is 2.2%. This results in differences in human resources and service provision. Finland has five times more psychiatric outpatient visits, four times more psychiatrists, triple antidepressant use and twice more clinical guidelines for different psychiatric conditions. In conclusion, both countries have similar challenges but differing realities. This may help to identify gaps and potential solutions for public health challenges in Chile. Finland’s experience demonstrates the importance of political will and long-term vision in the construction of mental health policies.

Globalisation and global health governance: implications for public health.

Science.gov (United States)

Kruk, Margaret E

2012-01-01

Globalisation is a defining economic and social trend of the past several decades. Globalisation affects health directly and indirectly and creates economic and health disparities within and across countries. The political response to address these disparities, exemplified by the Millennium Development Goals, has put pressure on the global community to redress massive inequities in health and other determinants of human capability across countries. This, in turn, has accelerated a transformation in the architecture of global health governance. The entrance of new actors, such as private foundations and multi-stakeholder initiatives, contributed to a doubling of funds for global health between 2000 and 2010. Today the governance of public health is in flux, with diminished leadership from multilateral institutions, such as the WHO, and poor coherence in policy and programming that undermines the potential for sustainable health gains. These trends pose new challenges and opportunities for global public health, which is centrally concerned with identifying and addressing threats to the health of vulnerable populations worldwide.

An analysis of the health status of the United Arab Emirates: the ‘Big 4’ public health issues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tar-Ching Aw

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Background: The United Arab Emirates (UAE is a rapidly developing country composed of a multinational population with varying educational backgrounds, religious beliefs, and cultural practices, which pose a challenge for population-based public health strategies. A number of public health issues significantly contribute to morbidity and mortality in the UAE. This article summarises the findings of a panel of medical and public health specialists from UAE University and various government health agencies commissioned to report on the health status of the UAE population. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted to retrieve peer-reviewed articles on health in the UAE, and unpublished data were provided by government health authorities and local hospitals. Results: The panel reviewed and evaluated all available evidence to list and rank (1=highest priority the top four main public health issues: 1 Cardiovascular disease accounted for more than 25% of deaths in 2010; 2 Injury caused 17% of mortality for all age groups in 2010; 3 Cancer accounted for 10% of all deaths in 2010, and the incidence of all cancers is projected to double by 2020; and 4 Respiratory disorders were the second most common non-fatal condition in 2010. Conclusion: The major public health challenges posed by certain personal (e.g. ethnicity, family history, lifestyle, occupational, and environmental factors associated with the development of chronic disease are not isolated to the UAE; rather, they form part of a global health problem, which requires international collaboration and action. Future research should focus on population-based public health interventions that target the factors associated with the development of various chronic diseases.

An analysis of the health status of the United Arab Emirates: the ‘Big 4’ public health issues

Science.gov (United States)

Loney, Tom; Aw, Tar-Ching; Handysides, Daniel G.; Ali, Raghib; Blair, Iain; Grivna, Michal; Shah, Syed M.; Sheek-Hussein, Mohamud; El-Sadig, Mohamed; Sharif, Amer A.; El-Obaid, Yusra

2013-01-01

Background The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a rapidly developing country composed of a multinational population with varying educational backgrounds, religious beliefs, and cultural practices, which pose a challenge for population-based public health strategies. A number of public health issues significantly contribute to morbidity and mortality in the UAE. This article summarises the findings of a panel of medical and public health specialists from UAE University and various government health agencies commissioned to report on the health status of the UAE population. Methods A systematic literature search was conducted to retrieve peer-reviewed articles on health in the UAE, and unpublished data were provided by government health authorities and local hospitals. Results The panel reviewed and evaluated all available evidence to list and rank (1=highest priority) the top four main public health issues: 1) Cardiovascular disease accounted for more than 25% of deaths in 2010; 2) Injury caused 17% of mortality for all age groups in 2010; 3) Cancer accounted for 10% of all deaths in 2010, and the incidence of all cancers is projected to double by 2020; and 4) Respiratory disorders were the second most common non-fatal condition in 2010. Conclusion The major public health challenges posed by certain personal (e.g. ethnicity, family history), lifestyle, occupational, and environmental factors associated with the development of chronic disease are not isolated to the UAE; rather, they form part of a global health problem, which requires international collaboration and action. Future research should focus on population-based public health interventions that target the factors associated with the development of various chronic diseases. PMID:23394856

Health risks posed to infants in rural China by exposure to short- and medium-chain chlorinated paraffins in breast milk.

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Dan; Gao, Li-Rong; Zheng, Ming-Hui; Li, Jing-Guang; Zhang, Lei; Wu, Yong-Ning; Qiao, Lin; Tian, Qi-Chang; Huang, Hui-Ting; Liu, Wen-Bin; Su, Gui-Jin; Liu, Guo-Rui

2017-06-01

Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are complex mixtures of synthetic chemicals found widely in environmental matrices. Short-chain CPs (SCCPs) are candidate persistent organic pollutants under the Stockholm Convention. There should be great concern about human exposure to SCCPs. Data on CP concentrations in human breast milk is scarce. This is the first study in which background SCCP and medium-chain CP (MCCP) body burdens in the general rural population of China have been estimated and health risks posed to nursing infants by CPs in breast milk assessed. The concentrations of 48 SCCP and MCCP formula congeners were determined in 24 pooled human milk samples produced from 1412 individual samples from eight provinces in 2007 and 16 provinces in 2011. The samples were analyzed by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography electron capture negative ionization high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The median SCCP and MCCP concentrations were 303 and 35.7ngg -1 lipid weight, respectively, for the 2007 samples and 360 and 45.4ngg -1 lipid weight, respectively, for the 2011 samples. The C 10 and C 14 homologs were the dominant CP carbon-chain-length groups, contributing 51% and 82% of the total SCCP and MCCP concentrations, respectively. There are probably multiple CP sources to the general Chinese population and numerous exposure pathways. The median estimated daily SCCP and MCCP intakes for nursing infants were 1310 and 152ngkg -1 d -1 , respectively, in 2007 and 1520 and 212ngkg -1 d -1 , respectively, in 2011. SCCPs do not currently pose significant risks to infants in China. However, it is necessary to continuously monitor CP concentrations and health risks because CP concentrations in Chinese human breast milk are increasing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Leadership survey. An evaluation of health care executives' challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Thrall, T H; Hoppszallern, S

2001-01-01

Locating and keeping employees represents one of the greatest challenges facing health care leaders today. This is a key finding of the third Leadership Survey of executives in physician practices, managed care organizations and hospitals. The survey is sponsored by the Medical Group Management Association and Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. Other significant results: Practices put the most emphasis on teamwork, training and staff development as methods to combat labor shortages; practice executives count adequacy of reimbursements and physician productivity as top leadership challenges, along with the availability of qualified workers; practices choose print advertising and the addition of new products and services as the best ways for them to build market share.

Decision-Making Behaviour under the Mental Health Act 1983 and Its Impact on Mental Health Tribunals: An English Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicola Glover-Thomas

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In England and Wales, the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA 1983 provides the legal framework which governs decisions made concerning the care and treatment of those suffering from mental disorders, where they may pose a risk to themselves or others. The perspective of the patient and the care provider may conflict and can be a source of tension and challenge within mental health law. Through access to a mental health tribunal, patients are offered the apparatus to review and challenge their detention. With detention rates under the mental health legislation rising exponentially, this is having a knock-on effect upon tribunal application numbers. As there is a legal requirement to review all cases of individuals detained under the MHA 1983, understanding the key drivers for this increase in detention is essential in order to understand how to better manage both detention rates and the upsurge in tribunal caseloads. With the increase in overall activity, mental health tribunal workloads present significant practical challenges and has downstream cost implications.

Lessons Learned and Challenges in Building a Filipino Health Coalition

Science.gov (United States)

Aguilar, David E.; Abesamis-Mendoza, Noilyn; Ursua, Rhodora; Divino, Lily Ann M.; Cadag, Kara; Gavin, Nicholas P.

2010-01-01

In recent years, community-based coalitions have become an effective channel to addressing various health problems within specific ethnic communities. The purpose of this article is twofold: (a) to describe the process involved in building the Kalusugan Coalition (KC), a Filipino American health coalition based in New York City, and (b) to highlight the lessons learned and the challenges from this collaborative venture. The challenges described also offer insights on how the coalition development process can be greatly affected by the partnership with an academic institution on a community-based research project. Because each cultural group has unique issues and concerns, the theoretical framework used by KC offers creative alternatives to address some of the challenges regarding coalition infrastructures, leadership development, unexpected change of coalition dynamics, and cultural nuances. PMID:19098260

Health policy making for street children: challenges and strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdi, Fatemeh; Saeieh, Sara Esmaelzadeh; Roozbeh, Nasibeh; Yazdkhasti, Mansoureh

2017-08-17

Background The phenomenon of street children is a bio-psychological and social issue that not only harms children, but also endangers the health of a society. In line with the national programs for the development and promotion of street children's health in Iran, health policy making and essential strategies for this group of children will be presented in this paper. This paper will discuss the main issues and challenges of street children's health and, also, health policy and guidelines for this population. Methods In this review study, the keywords; street children, health, challenges, policy, and health policy making were searched through PubMed, SID, Iranmedex, World Health Organization (WHO), Emro, the Cochran Library, Medline and Google scholar to collect data. The search resulted in 84 related resources from which 48 cases that were more relevant to this research and covered the issue more comprehensively, were used. All data published during 2002-2015 have been included in this paper. Results Key concepts including street children and their health, health policy, strategies to improve the health of street children, health policy approaches for street children, the WHO's strategies, and social support program for street children must be considered in the health policy making processes for street children, as precise identification of the relevant information makes planning more effective in health policy making for this group of children. Conclusion The phenomenon of street children is a growing problem in the world and it has turned into a serious concern in many countries including Iran. The findings of this study can be used for identifying necessary measures in order to use research outcomes more effectively in policy making processes and reforming street children's health policies in Iran.

Challenges confronting health care workers in government's ARV ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Challenges confronting health care workers in government's ARV rollout: rights and responsibilities. ... Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal/Potchefstroomse Elektroniese Regsblad ... Unless the rights of HCWs are recognised and their needs adequately addressed, the best laid plans of government will be at risk.

Dr. David Brown poses with students at Ronald McNair Middle School

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

Dr. David Brown (right), a NASA astronaut, poses with students in the gymnasium of Ronald McNair Magnet School in Cocoa, Fla. From left, the students are Kristin Rexford, Danitra Anderson, Dominique Smith, Fallon Davis, and Qiana Taylor. Brown was at the school to attend a tribute to NASA astronaut Ronald McNair. The school had previously been renamed for the fallen astronaut who was one of a crew of seven, who lost their lives during an accident following launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger in January 1986.

Informing Sexual Health Intervention Development in India: Perspectives of Daughters, Mothers, and Service Providers in Mumbai

Science.gov (United States)

Adelson, Emiliya; Maitra, Shubhada; Nastasi, Bonnie K.

2017-01-01

In India, girls face many challenges that pose a threat to their sexual health and psychological well-being. The authors explore sexual health from the perspectives of adolescent girls, mothers of adolescent girls, and service providers. Focus groups and interview data were analyzed to understand the unique and shared perspectives of stakeholders.…

University Students' Problem Posing Abilities and Attitudes towards Mathematics.

Science.gov (United States)

Grundmeier, Todd A.

2002-01-01

Explores the problem posing abilities and attitudes towards mathematics of students in a university pre-calculus class and a university mathematical proof class. Reports a significant difference in numeric posing versus non-numeric posing ability in both classes. (Author/MM)

Students’ Mathematical Creative Thinking through Problem Posing Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Ulfah, U.; Prabawanto, S.; Jupri, A.

2017-09-01

The research aims to investigate the differences in enhancement of students’ mathematical creative thinking ability of those who received problem posing approach assisted by manipulative media and students who received problem posing approach without manipulative media. This study was a quasi experimental research with non-equivalent control group design. Population of this research was third-grade students of a primary school in Bandung city in 2016/2017 academic year. Sample of this research was two classes as experiment class and control class. The instrument used is a test of mathematical creative thinking ability. Based on the results of the research, it is known that the enhancement of the students’ mathematical creative thinking ability of those who received problem posing approach with manipulative media aid is higher than the ability of those who received problem posing approach without manipulative media aid. Students who get learning problem posing learning accustomed in arranging mathematical sentence become matter of story so it can facilitate students to comprehend about story

Level of environmental threat posed by horticultural trade in Cactaceae.

Science.gov (United States)

Novoa, Ana; Le Roux, Johannes J; Richardson, David M; Wilson, John R U

2017-10-01

Ornamental horticulture has been identified as an important threat to plant biodiversity and is a major pathway for plant invasions worldwide. In this context, the family Cactaceae is particularly challenging because it is considered the fifth most threatened large taxonomic group in the world; several species are among the most widespread and damaging invasive species; and Cactaceae is one of the most popular horticultural plant groups. Based on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna and the 11 largest online auction sites selling cacti, we documented the international cactus trade. To provide an in-depth look at the dynamics of the industry, we surveyed the businesses involved in the cactus trade in South Africa (a hotspot of cactus trade and invasions). We purchased seeds of every available species and used DNA barcoding to identify species to the genus level. Although <20% of this trade involved threatened species and <3% involved known invasive species, many species were identified by a common name. However, only 0.02% of the globally traded cacti were collected from wild populations. Despite a large commercial network, all South African imports (of which 15% and 1.5% were of species listed as threatened and invasive, respectively) came from the same source. With DNA barcoding, we identified 24% of the species to genus level. Based on our results, we believe that if trade restrictions are placed on the small proportion of cacti that are invasive and there is no major increase in harvesting of native populations, then the commercial trade in cactus poses a negligible environmental threat. However, there are currently no effective methods for easily identifying which cacti are traded, and both the illicit harvesting of cacti from the wild and the informal trade in invasive taxa pose on-going conservation challenges. © 2017 Society for Conservation Biology.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGE AND HEALTH SECURITY IN CHINA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Wuyi

2010-01-01

Full Text Available China has achieved impressive rapid development over the past 30 years. But China also faces the challenge of environmental change resulting from rapid economic growth and the attendant risks to human health. In this paper we described the environmental change and health risk in China from evident fluctuation of China’s climate, major changes in natural hydrological condition, raw materials and energy demand, changes of disease epidemic pattern related to climate change and ecosystem damage, new health risk raised by rapid urbanization and rural environmental quality degradation. The suggestion and countermeasures were discussed.

The Marihuana Dilemma: Challenge to Commanders.

Science.gov (United States)

The marihuana dilemma poses a major challenge to commanders in the US Army today. The problem was analyzed as to the characteristics of the drug...available to commanders to meet the challenge. The essay concludes that marihuana should not be legalized; drug users or former drug users should not be

Occupational Health: Meeting the Challenges of the Next 20 Years

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Harrison

2016-06-01

Conclusion: The future strategic direction for occupational health will be informed by a needs analysis and a consideration of where it should be positioned within future healthcare provision. What are the occupational health workforce implications of the vision for occupational health provision? New challenges and new ways of working will necessitate a review of the competence and capacity of the occupational health workforce, with implications for future workforce planning.

Bringing Wellness to Schools: Opportunities and Challenges to Mental Health Integration in School Health Centers

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Karen; Guo, Sisi; Ijadi-Maghsoodi, Roya; Puffer, Maryjane; Kataoka, Sheryl H.

2016-01-01

Objective School-based health centers (SBHCs) reduce mental health access-to-care barriers and improve educational outcomes for youth. This qualitative study evaluates the innovations and challenges of a unique network of SBHCs in a large, urban school district, as they attempt to integrate health, mental health, and educational services. Methods The 43 participants sampled included mental health providers, primary care providers, and care coordinators at 14 SBHCs. Semi-structured interviews with each participant were audio-recorded and transcribed. Themes were identified and coded using Atlas.ti 5.1, and collapsed into three domains: Operations, Partnership, and Engagement. Results Interviews revealed provider models ranging from single agencies offering both health and mental health services to co-located services. Sites with the Health Agency providing at least some mental health services reported more mental health screenings. Many sites utilized SBHC coordinators and coordination team meetings to facilitate relationships between schools and Health Agency and Community Mental Health Clinic providers. Partnership challenges included confidentiality policies and staff turnover. Participants also highlighted student and parent engagement, through culturally sensitive services, peer health advocates, and “drop-in” lunches. Conclusions Staffing and operational models are critical in the success of health-mental health-education integration. Among the provider models observed, the combined health and mental health provider model offered the most integrated services. Despite barriers, providers and schools have begun to implement novel solutions for operational problems and family engagement in mental health services. Implications for future SBHCs as an integrated model are described. PMID:27417895

Electronic health records challenges in design and implementation

CERN Document Server

Sittig, Dean F

2013-01-01

This book provides an overview of the challenges in electronic health records (EHR) design and implementation along with an introduction to the best practices that have been identified over the past several years. The book examines concerns surrounding EHR use and proposes eight examples of proper EHR use. It discusses the complex strategic planning that accompanies the systemic organizational changes associated with EHR programs and highlights key lessons learned regarding health information-including technology errors and risk management concerns.

Health Promotion Challenges at Sea - a Danish Case

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjarnø, Lulu

HEALTH PROMOTOIN CHALLENGES AT SEA - A DANISH CASE L Hjarnoe, Centre for Maritime Health and Safety, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark INTRODUCTION: For the past 15 years the need for health promotion initiatives in the maritime sector has become more and more evident. Thus...... previous studies have documented increased mortality and morbidity (incidences) among seafarers, not only due to accidents but also to lifestyle like cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and diseases related to alcohol. These diseases are related to factors like alcohol consumption, obesity, physical...... inactivity and smoking, which for the latter three are factors highly represented in the maritime industry. The aim of this study is to identify the current health status of seafarers and to detect, strengths and weaknesses of health promotion interventions implemented in this target group. METHODS: A 1 year...

Manifolds for pose tracking from monocular video

Science.gov (United States)

Basu, Saurav; Poulin, Joshua; Acton, Scott T.

2015-03-01

We formulate a simple human-pose tracking theory from monocular video based on the fundamental relationship between changes in pose and image motion vectors. We investigate the natural embedding of the low-dimensional body pose space into a high-dimensional space of body configurations that behaves locally in a linear manner. The embedded manifold facilitates the decomposition of the image motion vectors into basis motion vector fields of the tangent space to the manifold. This approach benefits from the style invariance of image motion flow vectors, and experiments to validate the fundamental theory show reasonable accuracy (within 4.9 deg of the ground truth).

Psychosocial health challenges of the elderly in Nigeria: a narrative ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Globally, national health systems are challenged to build successful aging models to prepare for biomedical, psychological and social changes. The integral component of psychosocial health in overall quality of life and well-being, however, is underscored and requires greater focus. Changing demographics ...

A Teacher Tablet Toolkit to meet the challenges posed by 21st ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The course, as outcome, is presented as a Teacher Tablet Toolkit, designed to meet the challenges inherent to the 21st century rural technology enhanced teaching and learning environment. The paper documents and motivates design decisions, derived from literature and adapted through three iterations of a Design ...

Health Policy and Management: in praise of political science. Comment on "On Health Policy and Management (HPAM): mind the theory-policy-practice gap".

Science.gov (United States)

Hunter, David J

2015-03-12

Health systems have entered a third era embracing whole systems thinking and posing complex policy and management challenges. Understanding how such systems work and agreeing what needs to be put in place to enable them to undergo effective and sustainable change are more pressing issues than ever for policy-makers. The theory-policy-practice-gap and its four dimensions, as articulated by Chinitz and Rodwin, is acknowledged. It is suggested that insights derived from political science can both enrich our understanding of the gap and suggest what changes are needed to tackle the complex challenges facing health systems. © 2015 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

Health care providers under pressure: making the most of challenging times.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Scott B; Robinson, Phillip J

2010-01-01

Whether the slowing economic recovery, tight credit markets, increasing costs, or the uncertainty surrounding health care reform, the health care industry faces some sizeable challenges. These factors have put considerable strain on the industry's traditional financing options that the industry has relied on in the past--bonds, banks, finance companies, private equity, venture capital, real estate investment trusts, private philanthropy, and grants. At the same time, providers are dealing with rising costs, lower reimbursement rates, shrinking demand for elective procedures, higher levels of charitable care and bad debt, and increased scrutiny of tax-exempt hospitals. Providers face these challenges against a back ground of uncertainty created by health care reform.

The lighter side of advertising: investigating posing and lighting biases.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Nicole A; Burkitt, Jennifer A; Patrick, Regan E; Elias, Lorin J

2008-11-01

People tend to display the left cheek when posing for a portrait; however, this effect does not appear to generalise to advertising. The amount of body visible in the image and the sex of the poser might also contribute to the posing bias. Portraits also exhibit lateral lighting biases, with most images being lit from the left. This effect might also be present in advertisements. A total of 2801 full-page advertisements were sampled and coded for posing direction, lighting direction, sex of model, and amount of body showing. Images of females showed an overall leftward posing bias, but the biases in males depended on the amount of body visible. Males demonstrated rightward posing biases for head-only images. Overall, images tended to be lit from the top left corner. The two factors of posing and lighting biases appear to influence one another. Leftward-lit images had more leftward poses than rightward, while the opposite occurred for rightward-lit images. Collectively, these results demonstrate that the posing biases in advertisements are dependent on the amount of body showing in the image, and that biases in lighting direction interact with these posing biases.

Creating Nurturing Environments: A Science-Based Framework for Promoting Child Health and Development within High-Poverty Neighborhoods

Science.gov (United States)

Komro, Kelli A.; Flay, Brian R.; Biglan, Anthony

2011-01-01

Living in poverty and living in areas of concentrated poverty pose multiple risks for child development and for overall health and wellbeing. Poverty is a major risk factor for several mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders, as well as for other developmental challenges and physical health problems. In this paper, the Promise Neighborhoods…

Science–policy challenges for biodiversity, public health and urbanization: examples from Belgium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keune, H; De Blust, G; Van den Berge, K; Brosens, D; Van Herzele, A; Simoens, I; Kretsch, C; Gilbert, M; Linard, C; Flandroy, L; Versteirt, V; Hartig, T; De Keersmaecker, L; Eggermont, H; Dessein, J; Vanwambeke, S; Prieur-Richard, A H; Wittmer, H; Martens, P; Mathijs, E

2013-01-01

Internationally, the importance of a coordinated effort to protect both biodiversity and public health is more and more recognized. These issues are often concentrated or particularly challenging in urban areas, and therefore on-going urbanization worldwide raises particular issues both for the conservation of living natural resources and for population health strategies. These challenges include significant difficulties associated with sustainable management of urban ecosystems, urban development planning, social cohesion and public health. An important element of the challenge is the need to interface between different forms of knowledge and different actors from science and policy. We illustrate this with examples from Belgium, showcasing concrete cases of human–nature interaction. To better tackle these challenges, since 2011, actors in science, policy and the broader Belgian society have launched a number of initiatives to deal in a more integrated manner with combined biodiversity and public health challenges in the face of ongoing urbanization. This emerging community of practice in Belgium exemplifies the importance of interfacing at different levels. (1) Bridges must be built between science and the complex biodiversity/ecosystem–human/public health–urbanization phenomena. (2) Bridges between different professional communities and disciplines are urgently needed. (3) Closer collaboration between science and policy, and between science and societal practice is needed. Moreover, within each of these communities closer collaboration between specialized sections is needed. (letter)

Ethical challenges in connection with the use of coercion: a focus group study of health care personnel in mental health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Hem, Marit Helene; Molewijk, Bert; Pedersen, Reidar

2014-12-04

In recent years, the attention on the use of coercion in mental health care has increased. The use of coercion is common and controversial, and involves many complex ethical challenges. The research question in this study was: What kind of ethical challenges related to the use of coercion do health care practitioners face in their daily clinical work? We conducted seven focus group interviews in three mental health care institutions involving 65 multidisciplinary participants from different clinical fields. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. We analysed the material applying a 'bricolage' approach. Basic ethical principles for research ethics were followed. We received permission from the hospitals' administrations and all health care professionals who participated in the focus group interviews. Health care practitioners describe ethical dilemmas they face concerning formal, informal and perceived coercion. They provide a complex picture. They have to handle various ethical challenges, not seldom concerning questions of life and death. In every situation, the dignity of the patient is at stake when coercion is considered as morally right, as well as when coercion is not the preferred intervention. The work of the mental health professional is a complicated "moral enterprise". The ethical challenges deserve to be identified and handled in a systematic way. This is important for developing the quality of health care, and it is relevant to the current focus on reducing the use of coercion and increasing patient participation. Precise knowledge about ethical challenges is necessary for those who want to develop ethics support in mental health care. Better communication skills among health care professionals and improved therapeutic relationships seem to be vital. A systematic focus on ethical challenges when dealing with coercion is an important step forward in order to improve health care in the mental health field.

Transforming public health education in India through networking and collaborations: opportunities and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, Anjali; Zodpey, Sanjay P

2013-01-01

A competent and motivated health workforce is indispensable to achieve the best health outcomes possible through given available resources and circumstances. However, apart from the shortages and unequal distribution, the workforce has fallen short of responding to the public health challenges of 21 st century also because of primarily the traditional training of health professionals. Although, health professionals have made enormous contributions to health and development over the past century, the 20 th century educational strategies are unfit to tackle 21 st century challenges. One of the key recommendations of the Lancet Commission on Education of Health Professionals is to improve health through reforms of professional education by establishing networks and partnerships which takes advantage of information and communication linkages. The primary goal of this manuscript is to highlight the potential of networks and partnerships in advancing the agenda of educational reforms to revitalize public health education in India. It outlines the current status and expanding scope of public health education in India, existing networks of public health professionals and public health education institutions in the country, and opportunities, advantages and challenges for such networks. Although, we have networks of individuals and institutions in the country, there potential to bring about change has still not being utilized fully and effectively. Immediate collaborative efforts could be directed towards designing and adaptation of competency driven curriculum frameworks suitable of addressing public health challenges of 21 st century, shifting the current focus of curriculum to multidisciplinary public health outlook, developing accreditation mechanisms for both the programs and institutions, engaging in creating job opportunities and designing career pathways for public health professionals in public and private sector. These efforts could certainly be facilitated

Coupled bias-variance tradeoff for cross-pose face recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Annan; Shan, Shiguang; Gao, Wen

2012-01-01

Subspace-based face representation can be looked as a regression problem. From this viewpoint, we first revisited the problem of recognizing faces across pose differences, which is a bottleneck in face recognition. Then, we propose a new approach for cross-pose face recognition using a regressor with a coupled bias-variance tradeoff. We found that striking a coupled balance between bias and variance in regression for different poses could improve the regressor-based cross-pose face representation, i.e., the regressor can be more stable against a pose difference. With the basic idea, ridge regression and lasso regression are explored. Experimental results on CMU PIE, the FERET, and the Multi-PIE face databases show that the proposed bias-variance tradeoff can achieve considerable reinforcement in recognition performance.

Zoonotic pathogens from feral swine that pose a significant threat to public health.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, V R; Bowen, R A; Bosco-Lauth, A M

2018-06-01

The natural fecundity of suids, great ability to adapt to new habitats and desire for local hunting opportunities leading to translocation of feral pigs to regions where they are not yet established have all been instrumental in the home range expansion of feral swine. Feral swine populations in the United States continue to expand, wreaking havoc on agricultural lands, further compromising threatened and endangered species, and posing a microbiological threat to humans, domestic livestock and companion animals. This manuscript thoroughly reviews zoonotic diseases of concern including brucellosis, bovine tuberculosis, leptospirosis, enteric pathogens, both Salmonella spp. and shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, and hepatitis E. These pathogens are not a comprehensive list of microbes that are capable of infecting both humans and feral swine, but rather have been selected as they are known to infect US feral swine, direct transmission between wild suids and humans has previously been documented, or they have been shown to be readily transmitted during processing or consumption of feral swine pork. Humans that interact directly or indirectly with feral swine are at much higher risk for the development of a number of zoonotic pathogens. Numerous case reports document transmission events from feral swine and wild boar to humans, and the resulting diseases may be mild and self-limiting, chronic or fatal. Individuals that interact with feral swine should take preventative measures to minimize the risk of disease transmission and all meat should be thoroughly cooked. Additionally, public health campaigns to increase knowledge of the risks associated with feral swine are imperative. © 2018 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

Physical Health Problems and Environmental Challenges Influence Balancing Behaviour in Laying Hens.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephanie LeBlanc

Full Text Available With rising public concern for animal welfare, many major food chains and restaurants are changing their policies, strictly buying their eggs from non-cage producers. However, with the additional space in these cage-free systems to perform natural behaviours and movements comes the risk of injury. We evaluated the ability to maintain balance in adult laying hens with health problems (footpad dermatitis, keel damage, poor wing feather cover; n = 15 using a series of environmental challenges and compared such abilities with those of healthy birds (n = 5. Environmental challenges consisted of visual and spatial constraints, created using a head mask, perch obstacles, and static and swaying perch states. We hypothesized that perch movement, environmental challenges, and diminished physical health would negatively impact perching performance demonstrated as balance (as measured by time spent on perch and by number of falls of the perch and would require more exaggerated correctional movements. We measured perching stability whereby each bird underwent eight 30-second trials on a static and swaying perch: with and without disrupted vision (head mask, with and without space limitations (obstacles and combinations thereof. Video recordings (600 Hz and a three-axis accelerometer/gyroscope (100 Hz were used to measure the number of jumps/falls, latencies to leave the perch, as well as magnitude and direction of both linear and rotational balance-correcting movements. Laying hens with and without physical health problems, in both challenged and unchallenged environments, managed to perch and remain off the ground. We attribute this capacity to our training of the birds. Environmental challenges and physical state had an effect on the use of accelerations and rotations to stabilize themselves on a perch. Birds with physical health problems performed a higher frequency of rotational corrections to keep the body centered over the perch, whereas, for both

Physical Health Problems and Environmental Challenges Influence Balancing Behaviour in Laying Hens.

Science.gov (United States)

LeBlanc, Stephanie; Tobalske, Bret; Quinton, Margaret; Springthorpe, Dwight; Szkotnicki, Bill; Wuerbel, Hanno; Harlander-Matauschek, Alexandra

2016-01-01

With rising public concern for animal welfare, many major food chains and restaurants are changing their policies, strictly buying their eggs from non-cage producers. However, with the additional space in these cage-free systems to perform natural behaviours and movements comes the risk of injury. We evaluated the ability to maintain balance in adult laying hens with health problems (footpad dermatitis, keel damage, poor wing feather cover; n = 15) using a series of environmental challenges and compared such abilities with those of healthy birds (n = 5). Environmental challenges consisted of visual and spatial constraints, created using a head mask, perch obstacles, and static and swaying perch states. We hypothesized that perch movement, environmental challenges, and diminished physical health would negatively impact perching performance demonstrated as balance (as measured by time spent on perch and by number of falls of the perch) and would require more exaggerated correctional movements. We measured perching stability whereby each bird underwent eight 30-second trials on a static and swaying perch: with and without disrupted vision (head mask), with and without space limitations (obstacles) and combinations thereof. Video recordings (600 Hz) and a three-axis accelerometer/gyroscope (100 Hz) were used to measure the number of jumps/falls, latencies to leave the perch, as well as magnitude and direction of both linear and rotational balance-correcting movements. Laying hens with and without physical health problems, in both challenged and unchallenged environments, managed to perch and remain off the ground. We attribute this capacity to our training of the birds. Environmental challenges and physical state had an effect on the use of accelerations and rotations to stabilize themselves on a perch. Birds with physical health problems performed a higher frequency of rotational corrections to keep the body centered over the perch, whereas, for both health categories

Formulas in inverse and ill-posed problems

CERN Document Server

Anikonov, Yu E

1997-01-01

The Inverse and Ill-Posed Problems Series is a series of monographs publishing postgraduate level information on inverse and ill-posed problems for an international readership of professional scientists and researchers. The series aims to publish works which involve both theory and applications in, e.g., physics, medicine, geophysics, acoustics, electrodynamics, tomography, and ecology.

Health Inequalities and Active Aging: What Can Social Workers Do?

OpenAIRE

Won Min, Jong

2013-01-01

The ongoing Eurozone crisis brought Spain harsh austerity measures of higher tax and cuts in medical care and social services. The growing economic hardship may lead to greater economic inequality. Income inequality, in turn, could cause inequitable health differences in population, called “health inequalities.” All of the events pose great challenges and risk to older adults, and threatens their efforts toward achieving healthy and active aging in Spain. This paper provides an ov...

Climate change and health: new challenges for epidemiology and public health

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pascal, Mathilde; Beaudeau, Pascal; Laaidi, Karine; Pirard, Philippe; Vautard, Robert

2015-01-01

Climate change contributes to a rapid and deep modification of the environment. In the same time, other factors such as population increase, ageing or urbanization increase the vulnerability to various environmental and health risks. Chains of complex interactions are impacting populations' health and well-being. Developing prevention measures is an asset to reduce the health impacts of present climate change (through adaptation measures) and to limit the intensity of future impacts (through mitigation measures). Mitigation will result in major changes in several sectors, for instance housing, transports or agriculture. Taking into account the potential health impacts is important to avoid choices impairing human health, and to maximize health co-benefits. In this paper we propose a reflection on how present and future climate change in France challenges epidemiology and public health in the next few years. While many questions remain unanswered, there is a consensus on the importance of the links between climate change and human health, that can be summarized into three points: 1) climate change already impacts human health, 2) adaptation and mitigation are needed to reduce those impacts, 3) adaptation and mitigation can rely on immediate measures that would be beneficial for health and for climate. An integrated and interdisciplinary approach is essential to tackle the complexity of the issue, of its implications for public health, for research, surveillance and intervention. (authors)

Ms. Rodriquez and Mickey Mouse pose with a portrait of Ronald McNair

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

In the gymnasium of Ronald McNair Magnet School in Cocoa, Fla., Ms. Maria Rodriguez, an Walt Disney World Ambassador, and Mickey Mouse pose with a portrait of NASA astronaut Ronald McNair. The portrait was presented to the school by Walt Disney World during a tribute to McNair. The school had previously been renamed for the fallen astronaut, who was one of a crew of seven who lost their lives during an accident following launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger in January 1986.

Health challenges in South African automotive companies: Wellness in the workplace

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Meyer-Weitz

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Orientation: In South Africa, workplace programmes in the automotive industry focus predominantly on occupational health and safety and HIV and AIDS. The implementation of focused workplace interventions might be hampered when companies are not convinced that the condition (i.e. HIV and AIDS is the main negative health influencing factor responsible for increased production costs. Research purpose: The study investigated the health influencing conditions perceived to negatively impact company production costs and related interventions. Motivation for the study: Apart from HIV and AIDS, little information is available about the health challenges in the South African workplace and focused HIV and AIDS programmes might only partly respond to the key health challenges of workplaces. The inter-relatedness of various risky lifestyle factors linked to health conditions necessitates a comprehensive health promotion approach. Research approach, design and method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted amongst 74 companies selected through stratified random sampling. Non-parametric tests were conducted to investigate the health influencing factors perceived to impact production costs, the monitoring thereof, extent of containment and the implementation of interventions in terms of company size and ownership. Main findings: The health factors perceived to have a moderate to large impact were HIV and AIDS, smoking, alcohol use, stress, back and neck ache and tuberculosis, also reported to be better monitored and managed by medium and large organisations. Small organisations reported a smaller impact, fewer efforts and less success. HIV and AIDS programmes were more evident in large companies and those with wellness programmes (52%. Workplace programmes enabled better monitoring and managing of impacting health conditions. Smaller organisations were not convinced of the benefits of interventions in addressing health challenges. Practical

Fast human pose estimation using 3D Zernike descriptors

Science.gov (United States)

Berjón, Daniel; Morán, Francisco

2012-03-01

Markerless video-based human pose estimation algorithms face a high-dimensional problem that is frequently broken down into several lower-dimensional ones by estimating the pose of each limb separately. However, in order to do so they need to reliably locate the torso, for which they typically rely on time coherence and tracking algorithms. Their losing track usually results in catastrophic failure of the process, requiring human intervention and thus precluding their usage in real-time applications. We propose a very fast rough pose estimation scheme based on global shape descriptors built on 3D Zernike moments. Using an articulated model that we configure in many poses, a large database of descriptor/pose pairs can be computed off-line. Thus, the only steps that must be done on-line are the extraction of the descriptors for each input volume and a search against the database to get the most likely poses. While the result of such process is not a fine pose estimation, it can be useful to help more sophisticated algorithms to regain track or make more educated guesses when creating new particles in particle-filter-based tracking schemes. We have achieved a performance of about ten fps on a single computer using a database of about one million entries.

Integrating an Academic Electronic Health Record: Challenges and Success Strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Herbert, Valerie M; Connors, Helen

2016-08-01

Technology is increasing the complexity in the role of today's nurse. Healthcare organizations are integrating more health information technologies and relying on the electronic health record for data collection, communication, and decision making. Nursing faculty need to prepare graduates for this environment and incorporate an academic electronic health record into a nursing curriculum to meet student-program outcomes. Although the need exists for student preparation, some nursing programs are struggling with implementation, whereas others have been successful. To better understand these complexities, this project was intended to identify current challenges and success strategies of effective academic electronic health record integration into nursing curricula. Using Rogers' 1962 Diffusion of Innovation theory as a framework for technology adoption, a descriptive survey design was used to gain insights from deans and program directors of nursing schools involved with the national Health Informatics & Technology Scholars faculty development program or Cerner's Academic Education Solution Consortium, working to integrate an academic electronic health record in their respective nursing schools. The participants' experiences highlighted approaches used by these schools to integrate these technologies. Data from this project provide nursing education with effective strategies and potential challenges that should be addressed for successful academic electronic health record integration.

Human Resources for Health Challenges in Nigeria and Nurse Migration.

Science.gov (United States)

Salami, Bukola; Dada, Foluke O; Adelakun, Folake E

2016-05-01

The emigration of sub-Saharan African health professionals to developed Western nations is an aspect of increasing global mobility. This article focuses on the human resources for health challenges in Nigeria and the emigration of nurses from Nigeria as the country faces mounting human resources for health challenges. Human resources for health issues in Nigeria contribute to poor population health in the country, alongside threats from terrorism, infectious disease outbreaks, and political corruption. Health inequities within Nigeria mirror the geographical disparities in human resources for health distribution and are worsened by the emigration of Nigerian nurses to developed countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. Nigerian nurses are motivated to emigrate to work in healthier work environments, improve their economic prospects, and advance their careers. Like other migrant African nurses, they experience barriers to integration, including racism and discrimination, in receiving countries. We explore the factors and processes that shape this migration. Given the forces of globalization, source countries and destination countries must implement policies to more responsibly manage migration of nurses. This can be done by implementing measures to retain nurses, promote the return migration of expatriate nurses, and ensure the integration of migrant nurses upon arrival in destination countries. © The Author(s) 2016.

Mental health care in Nepal: current situation and challenges for development of a district mental health care plan.

Science.gov (United States)

Luitel, Nagendra P; Jordans, Mark Jd; Adhikari, Anup; Upadhaya, Nawaraj; Hanlon, Charlotte; Lund, Crick; Komproe, Ivan H

2015-01-01

Globally mental health problems are a serious public health concern. Currently four out of five people with severe mental illness in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) receive no effective treatment. There is an urgent need to address this enormous treatment gap. Changing the focus of specialist mental health workers (psychiatrists and psychologists) from only service delivery to also designing and managing mental health services; building clinical capacity of the primary health care (PHC) workers, and providing supervision and quality assurance of mental health services may help in scaling up mental health services in LMICs. Little is known however, about the mental health policy and services context for these strategies in fragile-state settings, such as Nepal. A standard situation analysis tool was developed by the PRogramme for Improving Mental health carE (PRIME) consortium to systematically analyze and describe the current gaps in mental health care in Nepal, in order to inform the development of a district level mental health care plan (MHCP). It comprised six sections; general information (e.g. population, socio-economic conditions); mental health policies and plans; mental health treatment coverage; district health services; and community services. Data was obtained from secondary sources, including scientific publications, reports, project documents and hospital records. Mental health policy exists in Nepal, having been adopted in 1997, but implementation of the policy framework has yet to begin. In common with other LMICs, the budget allocated for mental health is minimal. Mental health services are concentrated in the big cities, with 0.22 psychiatrists and 0.06 psychologists per 100,000 population. The key challenges experienced in developing a district level MHCP included, overburdened health workers, lack of psychotropic medicines in the PHC, lack of mental health supervision in the existing system, and lack of a coordinating body in the Ministry

Using the Electronic Health Record in Nursing Research: Challenges and Opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Samuels, Joanne G; McGrath, Robert J; Fetzer, Susan J; Mittal, Prashant; Bourgoine, Derek

2015-10-01

Changes in the patient record from the paper to the electronic health record format present challenges and opportunities for the nurse researcher. Current use of data from the electronic health record is in a state of flux. Novel data analytic techniques and massive data sets provide new opportunities for nursing science. Realization of a strong electronic data output future relies on meeting challenges of system use and operability, data presentation, and privacy. Nurse researchers need to rethink aspects of proposal development. Joining ongoing national efforts aimed at creating usable data output is encouraged as a means to affect system design. Working to address challenges and embrace opportunities will help grow the science in a way that answers important patient care questions. © The Author(s) 2015.

Transfer between Pose and Illumination Training in Face Recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Chang Hong; Bhuiyan, Md. Al-Amin; Ward, James; Sui, Jie

2009-01-01

The relationship between pose and illumination learning in face recognition was examined in a yes-no recognition paradigm. The authors assessed whether pose training can transfer to a new illumination or vice versa. Results show that an extensive level of pose training through a face-name association task was able to generalize to a new…

Emerging health issues: the widening challenge for population health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

McMichael, Anthony J; Butler, Colin D

2006-12-01

The spectrum of tasks for health promotion has widened since the Ottawa Charter was signed. In 1986, infectious diseases still seemed in retreat, the potential extent of HIV/AIDS was unrecognized, the Green Revolution was at its height and global poverty appeared less intractable. Global climate change had not yet emerged as a major threat to development and health. Most economists forecast continuous improvement, and chronic diseases were broadly anticipated as the next major health issue. Today, although many broadly averaged measures of population health have improved, many of the determinants of global health have faltered. Many infectious diseases have emerged; others have unexpectedly reappeared. Reasons include urban crowding, environmental changes, altered sexual relations, intensified food production and increased mobility and trade. Foremost, however, is the persistence of poverty and the exacerbation of regional and global inequality. Life expectancy has unexpectedly declined in several countries. Rather than being a faint echo from an earlier time of hardship, these declines could signify the future. Relatedly, the demographic and epidemiological transitions have faltered. In some regions, declining fertility has overshot that needed for optimal age structure, whereas elsewhere mortality increases have reduced population growth rates, despite continuing high fertility. Few, if any, Millennium Development Goals (MDG), including those for health and sustainability, seem achievable. Policy-makers generally misunderstand the link between environmental sustainability (MDG #7) and health. Many health workers also fail to realize that social cohesion and sustainability--maintenance of the Earth's ecological and geophysical systems--is a necessary basis for health. In sum, these issues present an enormous challenge to health. Health promotion must address population health influences that transcend national boundaries and generations and engage with the

Intermarriage, children of mixed parentage and mental health

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Singla, Rashmi; Bang, Helene

in the mixed parentage population. The terms ‘mixed parentage’; ‘biracial’, ‘mixed ethnicity’ are used to describe offspring of parents of different ‘races’/ ethnicity. Identity formation is crucial for mixed parentage children who challenge the ‘white /black binary’ and essentialising of the ‘race’, which has...... recently received increasing attention in the UK and the USA. This paper deals primarily with the mental health with focus on the identity formation among mixed parentage children, although most manage to achieve integrated identities, some experience identity conflicts. The latter pose a growing challenge...

Neoliberalism and indigenous knowledge: Māori health research and the cultural politics of New Zealand's "National Science Challenges".

Science.gov (United States)

Prussing, Erica; Newbury, Elizabeth

2016-02-01

In 2012-13 the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in New Zealand rapidly implemented a major restructuring of national scientific research funding. The "National Science Challenges" (NSC) initiative aims to promote greater commercial applications of scientific knowledge, reflecting ongoing neoliberal reforms in New Zealand. Using the example of health research, we examine the NSC as a key moment in ongoing indigenous Māori advocacy against neoliberalization. NSC rhetoric and practice through 2013 moved to marginalize participation by Māori researchers, in part through constructing "Māori" and "science" as essentially separate arenas-yet at the same time appeared to recognize and value culturally distinctive forms of Māori knowledge. To contest this "neoliberal multiculturalism," Māori health researchers reasserted the validity of culturally distinctive knowledge, strategically appropriated NSC rhetoric, and marshalled political resources to protect Māori research infrastructure. By foregrounding scientific knowledge production as an arena of contestation over neoliberal values and priorities, and attending closely to how neoliberalizing tactics can include moves to acknowledge cultural diversity, this analysis poses new questions for social scientific study of global trends toward reconfiguring the production of knowledge about health. Study findings are drawn from textual analysis of MBIE documents about the NSC from 2012 to 2014, materials circulated by Māori researchers in the blogosphere in 2014, and ethnographic interviews conducted in 2013 with 17 Māori health researchers working at 7 sites that included university-based research centers, government agencies, and independent consultancies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An improved silhouette for human pose estimation

Science.gov (United States)

Hawes, Anthony H.; Iftekharuddin, Khan M.

2017-08-01

We propose a novel method for analyzing images that exploits the natural lines of a human poses to find areas where self-occlusion could be present. Errors caused by self-occlusion cause several modern human pose estimation methods to mis-identify body parts, which reduces the performance of most action recognition algorithms. Our method is motivated by the observation that, in several cases, occlusion can be reasoned using only boundary lines of limbs. An intelligent edge detection algorithm based on the above principle could be used to augment the silhouette with information useful for pose estimation algorithms and push forward progress on occlusion handling for human action recognition. The algorithm described is applicable to computer vision scenarios involving 2D images and (appropriated flattened) 3D images.

Pose estimation for mobile robots working on turbine blade

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ma, X.D.; Chen, Q.; Liu, J.J.; Sun, Z.G.; Zhang, W.Z. [Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing Technology, Ministry of Education, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

2009-03-11

This paper discussed a features point detection and matching task technique for mobile robots used in wind turbine blade applications. The vision-based scheme used visual information from the robot's surrounding environment to match successive image frames. An improved pose estimation algorithm based on a scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) was developed to consider the characteristics of local images of turbine blades, pose estimation problems, and conditions. The method included a pre-subsampling technique for reducing computation and bidirectional matching for improving precision. A random sample consensus (RANSAC) method was used to estimate the robot's pose. Pose estimation conditions included a wide pose range; the distance between neighbouring blades; and mechanical, electromagnetic, and optical disturbances. An experimental platform was used to demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm. 20 refs., 6 figs.

Temporal subtraction of chest radiographs compensating pose differences

Science.gov (United States)

von Berg, Jens; Dworzak, Jalda; Klinder, Tobias; Manke, Dirk; Kreth, Adrian; Lamecker, Hans; Zachow, Stefan; Lorenz, Cristian

2011-03-01

Temporal subtraction techniques using 2D image registration improve the detectability of interval changes from chest radiographs. Although such methods are well known for some time they are not widely used in radiologic practice. The reason is the occurrence of strong pose differences between two acquisitions with a time interval of months to years in between. Such strong perspective differences occur in a reasonable number of cases. They cannot be compensated by available image registration methods and thus mask interval changes to be undetectable. In this paper a method is proposed to estimate a 3D pose difference by the adaptation of a 3D rib cage model to both projections. The difference between both is then compensated for, thus producing a subtraction image with virtually no change in pose. The method generally assumes that no 3D image data is available from the patient. The accuracy of pose estimation is validated with chest phantom images acquired under controlled geometric conditions. A subtle interval change simulated by a piece of plastic foam attached to the phantom becomes visible in subtraction images generated with this technique even at strong angular pose differences like an anterior-posterior inclination of 13 degrees.

The emergence of precision therapeutics: New challenges and opportunities for Canada's health leaders.

Science.gov (United States)

Slater, Jim; Shields, Laura; Racette, Ray J; Juzwishin, Donald; Coppes, Max

2015-11-01

In the era of personalized and precision medicine, the approach to healthcare is quickly changing. Genetic and other molecular information are being increasingly demanded by clinicians and expected by patients for prevention, screening, diagnosis, prognosis, health promotion, and treatment of an increasing number of conditions. As a result of these developments, Canadian health leaders must understand and be prepared to lead the necessary changes associated with these disruptive technologies. This article focuses on precision therapeutics but also provides background on the concepts and terminology related to personalized and precision medicine and explores Canadian health leadership and system issues that may pose barriers to their implementation. The article is intended to inspire, educate, and mobilize Canadian health leaders to initiate dialogue around the transformative changes necessary to ready the healthcare system to realize the benefits of precision therapeutics. © 2015 Collège canadien des leaders en santé

Challenges posed to the European pharmaceutical regulatory system by highly personalized medicines.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, John D; Feldschreiber, Peter

2014-03-01

The European pharmaceutical regulatory system has not yet been challenged by issues related to highly personalized medicines such as those to be found with active substances that affect RNA biochemistry. We review the current status of RNA-based pharmacology and present three possible case histories. The implications for the European pharmaceutical regulatory system are discussed. © 2013 The British Pharmacological Society.

Challenges to promoting health for amateur athletes through anti-doping policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Henning, April

2017-01-01

Anti-doping regulations are intended, at least in part, to promote the health of athletes. While most anti-doping efforts target elite and professional competitors, there have been recent moves by sport governing bodies to expand anti-doping testing to include amateur athletes. Drawing on previous critiques of anti-doping policies and illustrating cases, this article outlines five of the challenges to health promotion of applying the current detect and ban model to the amateur level of sport. I argue that the current approach is not effective and, in some ways, may undermine the goal of health promotion at the amateur level. In order to address these challenges, I propose alternative, health-centred strategies that focus on athlete empowerment and choice through critical awareness of a variety of substances, associated risks and rewards, and the role of expertise in decision-making.

Non-standard and improperly posed problems

CERN Document Server

Straughan, Brian; Ames, William F

1997-01-01

Written by two international experts in the field, this book is the first unified survey of the advances made in the last 15 years on key non-standard and improperly posed problems for partial differential equations.This reference for mathematicians, scientists, and engineers provides an overview of the methodology typically used to study improperly posed problems. It focuses on structural stability--the continuous dependence of solutions on the initial conditions and the modeling equations--and on problems for which data are only prescribed on part of the boundary.The book addresses continuou

Health sector reform in South Asia: new challenges and constraints.

Science.gov (United States)

Islam, Anwar; Tahir, M Zaffar

2002-05-01

In early 1990s, Jamison, Mosley and others concluded that a profound demographic and consequent epidemiological transition is taking place in developing countries. According to this classical model, by the year 2015, infectious diseases will account for only about 20% of deaths in developing countries as chronic diseases become more pronounced. These impending demographic and epidemiological transitions were to dominate the health sector reform agenda in developing countries. Following an analysis of fertility, mortality and other demographic and epidemiological data from South Asian and other developing countries, the paper argues that the classical model is in need of re-evaluation. A number of new 'challenges' have complicated the classical interplay of demographic and epidemiological factors. These new challenges include continuing population growth in some countries, rapid unplanned urbanization, the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa (and its impending threat in South Asia), and globalization and increasing marginalisation of developing countries. While the traditional lack of investment in human development makes the developing countries more vulnerable to the vicissitudes of globalization, increasing economic weakness of their governments forces them to retreat further from the social sector. Pockets of poverty and deprivation, therefore, persist giving rise to three simultaneous burdens for South Asia and much of the rest of the developing world: continuing communicable diseases, increasing burden of chronic diseases, and increasing demand for both primary and tertiary levels of health care services. While these complex factors, on the one hand, underscore the need for health sector reform, on the other, they make the task much more difficult and challenging. The paper emphasizes the need to revisit the classical model of demographic and epidemiological transition. It is argued that the health sector in developing countries must be aware of and

Bariatric surgery for obese children and adolescents: a review of the moral challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Hofmann, Bjørn

2013-04-30

Bariatric surgery for children and adolescents is becoming widespread. However, the evidence is still scarce and of poor quality, and many of the patients are too young to consent. This poses a series of moral challenges, which have to be addressed both when considering bariatric surgery introduced as a health care service and when deciding for treatment for young individuals. A question based (Socratic) approach is applied to reveal underlying moral issues that can be relevant to an open and transparent decision making process. A wide range of moral issues with bariatric surgery for children and adolescents is identified in the literature. There is a moral imperative to help obese minors avoiding serious health problems, but there is little high quality evidence on safety, outcomes, and cost-effectiveness for bariatric surgery in this group. Lack of maturity and family relations poses a series of challenges with autonomy, informed consent, assent, and assessing the best interest of children and adolescents. Social aspects of obesity, such as medicalization, prejudice, and discrimination, raise problems with justice and trust in health professionals. Conceptual issues, such as definition of obesity and treatment end-points, present moral problems. Hidden interests of patients, parents, professionals, industry, and society need to be revealed. Performing bariatric surgery for obese children and adolescents in order to discipline their behavior warrants reflection and caution. More evidence on outcomes is needed to be able to balance benefits and risks, to provide information for a valid consent or assent, and to advise minors and parents.

Getting Australia more active: challenges and opportunities for health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Hills, A P; Street, S J; Harris, N

2014-04-01

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that regular physical activity promotes health and assists in the prevention of non-communicable diseases but this is presently curtailed by low and unhealthy participation rates in Australia and comparable industrialised countries. Compounding the problem is knowledge that physical inactivity is independently associated with poor health outcomes. Despite physical activity being described as public health's 'best bet' or 'best buy', motivating individuals and groups to adopt and maintain physical activity continues to be a major challenge for health professionals. Global advocacy for prevention efforts must be operationalised through national to local strategies to promote and support physical activity in multiple settings including the home, schools and workplace. The Australian health promotion community has and continues to play a leadership role in physical activity promotion. However, there is an urgent need to continue to promote the importance of physical activity, along with its pivotal role in the prevention of non-communicable diseases, alongside related agendas including healthy diets, tobacco control and environmental sustainability. This commentary overviews the contemporary status of physical activity promotion in Australia and identifies key challenges and opportunities moving forward.

Hospital management autonomy in Chile: the challenges for human resources in health.

Science.gov (United States)

Méndez, Claudio A; Torres A, M Cristina

2010-04-01

In Latin America, some health sector reforms have included steps to the implementation of autonomous hospitals. In Chile, the health system is implementing a reform that introduces a network of self-managed institutions. These organizations will be high complexity centers that involve greater technical diversity, cost centers and mechanisms to evaluate users' satisfaction. For human resources in health, the implementation of these centers creates challenges in the planning of service provision and a change from the traditional management style of the teams to one based on networks. These challenges include the estimation of gaps in medical specialists and in other professions in the health sector. In order to be successful with self-management, Chile needs to establish universal and local policies that address training and the organization of health service provisioning in these institutions.

Method of orthogonally splitting imaging pose measurement

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Na; Sun, Changku; Wang, Peng; Yang, Qian; Liu, Xintong

2018-01-01

In order to meet the aviation's and machinery manufacturing's pose measurement need of high precision, fast speed and wide measurement range, and to resolve the contradiction between measurement range and resolution of vision sensor, this paper proposes an orthogonally splitting imaging pose measurement method. This paper designs and realizes an orthogonally splitting imaging vision sensor and establishes a pose measurement system. The vision sensor consists of one imaging lens, a beam splitter prism, cylindrical lenses and dual linear CCD. Dual linear CCD respectively acquire one dimensional image coordinate data of the target point, and two data can restore the two dimensional image coordinates of the target point. According to the characteristics of imaging system, this paper establishes the nonlinear distortion model to correct distortion. Based on cross ratio invariability, polynomial equation is established and solved by the least square fitting method. After completing distortion correction, this paper establishes the measurement mathematical model of vision sensor, and determines intrinsic parameters to calibrate. An array of feature points for calibration is built by placing a planar target in any different positions for a few times. An terative optimization method is presented to solve the parameters of model. The experimental results show that the field angle is 52 °, the focus distance is 27.40 mm, image resolution is 5185×5117 pixels, displacement measurement error is less than 0.1mm, and rotation angle measurement error is less than 0.15°. The method of orthogonally splitting imaging pose measurement can satisfy the pose measurement requirement of high precision, fast speed and wide measurement range.

Challenges of Refugee Health Care: Perspectives of Medical Interpreters, Case Managers, and Pharmacists

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabiana Kotovicz

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Our objective was to identify perceived challenges in the provision of health care for refugees from the perspective of medical interpreters, case managers, and pharmacists working with refugee patients in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Methods: Two 60-minute focus groups were performed exploring challenges in refugee health care using a literature-based semi-structured protocol. Focus groups were transcribed and de-identified prior to independent analysis by two of the investigators. Using a memoing-process qualitative approach, major concepts, cross-cutting themes, and subthemes were established and ultimately developed a narrative. The project protocol was approved as not human subject research by the local institutional review board. Results: Four overarching themes regarding health care for refugee patients were identified: 1 difficulty balancing the dynamic of autonomy versus support for refugees; 2 educational needs of refugee families outpacing available resources; 3 challenges for refugees developing trust; and 4 diversity of cultures, education levels, and experiences among refugee families. Language barriers in accessing health care services and insufficient time to meet educational needs of refugees were major challenges outside of the clinic visit setting. Poor health literacy and difficulties communicating health needs and building trust within the interactive triad of refugee, physician, and interpreter impacted clinic visits. Conclusions: Refugee patients and other participants in refugee care work to navigate a complicated path to equitable health care for a vulnerable population. Continued pursuit of strategies that increase time allocation, education, and support for all parties are needed as we seek to improve health outcomes for newly arrived refugee families.

Psychiatric Genomics and Mental Health Treatment: Setting the Ethical Agenda.

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Camillia; Dunn, Michael; Parker, Michael

2017-04-01

Realizing the benefits of translating psychiatric genomics research into mental health care is not straightforward. The translation process gives rise to ethical challenges that are distinctive from challenges posed within psychiatric genomics research itself, or that form part of the delivery of clinical psychiatric genetics services. This article outlines and considers three distinct ethical concerns posed by the process of translating genomic research into frontline psychiatric practice and policy making. First, the genetic essentialism that is commonly associated with the genomics revolution in health care might inadvertently exacerbate stigma towards people with mental disorders. Secondly, the promises of genomic medicine advance a narrative of individual empowerment. This narrative could promote a fatalism towards patients' biology in ways that function in practice to undermine patients' agency and autonomy, or, alternatively, a heightened sense of subjective genetic responsibility could become embedded within mental health services that leads to psychosocial therapeutic approaches and the clinician-patient therapeutic alliance being undermined. Finally, adopting a genomics-focused approach to public mental health risks shifting attention away from the complex causal relationships between inequitable socio-economic, political, and cultural structures and negative mental health outcomes. The article concludes by outlining a number of potential pathways for future ethics research that emphasizes the importance of examining appropriate translation mechanisms, the complementarity between genetic and psychosocial models of mental disorder, the implications of genomic information for the clinician-patient relationship, and funding priorities and resource allocation decision making in mental health.

Health system challenges to integration of mental health delivery in primary care in Kenya- perspectives of primary care health workers

OpenAIRE

Jenkins, Rachel; Othieno, Caleb; Okeyo, Stephen; Aruwa, Julyan; Kingora, James; Jenkins, Ben

2013-01-01

Background Health system weaknesses in Africa are broadly well known, constraining progress on reducing the burden of both communicable and non-communicable disease (Afr Health Monitor, Special issue, 2011, 14-24), and the key challenges in leadership, governance, health workforce, medical products, vaccines and technologies, information, finance and service delivery have been well described (Int Arch Med, 2008, 1:27). This paper uses focus group methodology to explore health worker perspecti...

Opportunities and challenges to promoting oral health in primary schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Gill, P; Chestnutt, I G; Channing, D

2009-09-01

Inequalities in oral health in areas of socio-economic disadvantage are well recognised. As children spend a considerable proportion of their lives in education, schools can play a significant role in promoting children's health and oral health. However, to what extent schools are able to do this is unclear. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate opportunities and challenges to promoting oral health in primary schools. A purposive sample of 20 primary schools from socially and economically disadvantaged areas of Cardiff, UK were selected to participate in this qualitative study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with head teachers or their nominated deputies. General awareness of health and oral health was good, with all schools promoting the consumption of fruit, water and milk and discouraging products such as carbonated drinks and confectionaries. Health promotion schemes wereimplemented primarily to improve the health of the children, although schools felt they also offered the potential to improve classroom behaviour and attendance. However, oral health was viewed as a separate entity to general health and perceived to be inadequately promoted. Successful health promotion schemes were also influenced by the attitudes of headteachers. Most schools had no or limited links with local dental services and, or oral health educators, although such input, when it occurred, was welcomed and highly valued. Knowledge of how to handle dental emergencies was limited and only two schools operated toothbrushing schemes, although all expressed an interest in such programmes. This study identified a positive predisposition to promoting health in primary schools. The challenge for the dental team, however, is to promote and integrate oral health into mainstream health promotion activities in schools. The paper also makes recommendations for further research.

NETWORKS OF HEALTH CARE: A CHALLENGE TO SUS MANAGEMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Camila Dubow

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The article proposes a critical reflection, based on national law, scholarly, scientific, on the current development of Networks of Health Care, as a strategy for strengthening the Single Health System (SUS. Are weighted inefficiency of traditional ways of organizing care and management, the challenge of Network Health Care for comprehensive care and management mechanisms used in this process. The work provides subsidies for the care practices and health management are reflected, pointing strategies that result in disruptions of paradigms through a refocusing of attention in existing models. For networks of health care can be consolidated, is fundamental to political sensitivity of health managers with a commitment to build a new model of care, through the struggle to consolidate the SUS and the realization of the principles of universality, comprehensiveness and equity.

Challenges of monitoring reproductive health services: a case study ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Challenges of monitoring reproductive health services: a case study of antenatal clinics in Kinondoni municipality, Dar Es Salaam. ... was descriptive cross sectional employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. The sample population included nurse-midwives who manage ANC clinics in Kinondoni Municipality.

Meeting global health challenges through operational research and management science.

Science.gov (United States)

Royston, Geoff

2011-09-01

This paper considers how operational research and management science can improve the design of health systems and the delivery of health care, particularly in low-resource settings. It identifies some gaps in the way operational research is typically used in global health and proposes steps to bridge them. It then outlines some analytical tools of operational research and management science and illustrates how their use can inform some typical design and delivery challenges in global health. The paper concludes by considering factors that will increase and improve the contribution of operational research and management science to global health.

Mental health problems among individuals with persistent health challenges from adolescence to young adulthood: a population-based longitudinal study in Norway

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sølvi Helseth

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Persistent health challenges are increasing throughout the world. It has been shown that adolescents with persistent health challenges are at greater risk of having mental health problems than their healthy peers. However, these studies are mainly cross-sectional, and little is known about the transition to adulthood. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine how mental health problems in adolescents and young adults with persistent health challenges vary during adolescence and in the transition to young adulthood. Methods The study used longitudinal and time-series data from the “Young in Norway” study. A sample of adolescents was prospectively followed from adolescence to young adulthood with measures at four different time points (n = 3,087; T1–T4: 2921 adolescents (12–19 years participated at T1 and T2, while 2448 young adults participated at T3 and T4. Persistent health challenges, age, gender, mental health problems and parental socio-economic status were measured in the longitudinal survey. Regression models were applied to estimate associations between persistent health challenges (understood as having a chronic health condition or disability and mental health problems during adolescence and young adulthood. Different models were tested for chronic health conditions and disability. Results Adolescents with disability had higher scores for depressive and anxiety symptoms, loneliness and self-concept instability, and lower scores for self-worth, appearance satisfaction, scholastic competence and social acceptance compared with adolescents without disability. In young adulthood, there were also significant associations between disability and most mental health problems. The longitudinal associations between chronic health conditions and mental health problems during adolescence and young adulthood showed that significant associations between chronic health conditions and mental health problems were only

Intercultural communication in health care: challenges and solutions in work rehabilitation practices and training: a comprehensive review.

Science.gov (United States)

Côté, Daniel

2013-01-01

The purpose of this comprehensive literature review it to explore cross-cultural issues in occupational rehabilitation and work disability prevention. A literature review on cross-cultural issues was performed in medicine, health sciences, and social sciences databases (PubMed, Ingenta, Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, Ergonomics Abstract, Google Scholar, OSH Update and the Quebec Workers' Compensation Board data base). A total of 27 documents published until 2010 in English or French were selected and analyzed. Cross-cultural issues in occupational rehabilitation show that representations of pain, communication and therapist-patient relationship and intercultural competence could be presented as the major topics covered in the selected literature. As for the general topic of immigrant workers and OSH, barriers were identified revealing personal, relational, contextual and structural levels that put immigrant and minority workers in situation of vulnerability (ex. linguistic and cultural barriers, lack of knowledge of the system, precarious work or exposition to higher risk hazards, etc.). Cultural issues in occupational rehabilitation put less attention to work-related contextual factors but emphasized on attitude and pain behaviours, perceptions of illness and appropriate treatment, therapist-patient relationship and cultural competences among OT professionals. The growth of immigration in countries such as Canada poses a real challenge to the delivery of health care and rehabilitation services. Despite growing concerns in providing culturally appropriate heath cares, intervention models, tools and training tools are still lacking in occupational rehabilitation and disability management. Nevertheless, cultural competence seems to be a promising concept to be implemented in work rehabilitation and disability management.

Consumer Health Insurance Shopping Behavior and Challenges: Lessons From Two State-Based Marketplaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Sinaiko, Anna D; Kingsdale, Jon; Galbraith, Alison A

2017-07-01

Selecting a health plan in a health insurance exchange is a critical decision, yet consumers are known to face challenges with health plan choice. We surveyed new enrollees in two state-based exchanges in 2015 to investigate how a nonelderly, primarily low-income population chose their health plans and the implications of shopping behavior for early experiences in their plans. Financial considerations were most important to enrollees. Prior Medicaid enrollees and the uninsured were more likely to have multiple shopping challenges (e.g., difficulty identifying the best or most affordable plan, fair/poor experience, unmet need for help) than enrollees with prior employer coverage (42.9% vs. 32.5% vs. 16.4%, respectively, p Shopping challenges were associated with difficulty finding a doctor, understanding coverage, and getting questions answered. Assistance targeting enrollees who previously had Medicaid or lacked insurance could improve both shopping experiences and downstream outcomes in plans.

Hand hygiene management among nurses: collective health challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

João Manuel Graveto

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Objective: To describe the determining factors in hand hygiene management among nurses and identify associated collective health challenges. Method: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Data were collected using a questionnaire that was applied in four internal medicine units of a hospital of reference in Portugal. Results: The sample was composed of 50 nurses aged 26 to 55 years (mean age of 34.88 years; 80% were women, 58% had a Bachelor’s degree, and had 5-30 years of nursing practice (X̄ =11.94;±5.92. The vast majority of nurses (90% reported complying with the existing recommendations on hand hygiene in pre-established moments. However, none of the nurses were able to identify all the moments for hand hygiene using water and soap or alcohol-based handrub. Conclusion: This study shows that continuous training, adequate materials/structures in the units, and redesigned administration/supervision practices are determining factors to achieve higher levels of adherence to hand hygiene among nurses, as well as increased quality and safety in care delivery, which is a current collective health challenge.

Telecommuting: Occupational health considerations for employee health and safety.

Science.gov (United States)

Healy, M L

2000-06-01

1. Information technology has moved "work" out of a centralized location. Employees who telecommute pose significant challenges and considerations for the practice of occupational health nursing. 2. Employer and employee benefits associated with telecommuting are reportedly associated with high levels of job satisfaction. However, the occupational health and safety risks of this new work environment need to be fully assessed and understood. 3. The ergonomic controls to minimize the risk of repetitive motion injuries are the same for both office and home locations. Additional attention need to be paid to implementing risk controls for other physical hazards and psychosocial considerations, as well as personal safety and security issues. 4. The scope of occupational health nursing practice needs to remain dynamic, recognizing the impact new technologies have on the workplace, to continue to meet the needs of the changing workplace.

Postmodern Critiques Still Challenge the Study of Religion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Paldam, Ella

2013-01-01

In this introduction, I argue that the postmodern challenge analyzed by Armin W. Geertz in his paper from 2000 still poses a fundamental challenge in the contemporary study of religion. My own field studies among the Chumash Indians of South-central California in 2010 illustrate how postmodernity...

THE CHALLENGES OF SCHOOL-BASED YOUTH SUICIDE PREVENTION: EXPERIENCES AND PERCEPTIONS OF MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOLS

OpenAIRE

Woolf, Maryke; Bantjes, Jason; Kagee, Ashraf

2015-01-01

Youth suicidal behaviour poses a significant public health concern. Mental health care professionals working in schools have an important role to play in youth suicide prevention initiatives, although little is known of the experiences of this group of professionals in the developing world. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of mental health professionals working in South African schools and document their insights, attitudes and beliefs regarding youth suicidal behaviour. I...

What Are the Professional, Political, and Ethical Challenges of Co-Creating Health Care Systems?

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Guddi; Owens, John; Cribb, Alan

2017-11-01

Co-creation is seen by many as a means of meeting the multiple challenges facing contemporary health care systems by involving institutions, professionals, patients, and stakeholders in new roles, relationships, and collaborative practices. While co-creation has the potential to positively transform health care systems, it generates a number of political and ethical challenges that should not be overlooked. We suggest that those involved in envisioning and implementing co-creation initiatives pay close attention to significant questions of equity, power, and justice and to the fundamental challenge of securing a common vision of the aims of and agendas for health care systems. While such initiatives present significant opportunities for improvement, they need to be viewed in light of their accompanying professional, political, and ethical challenges. © 2017 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.

Multi-view 3D Human Pose Estimation in Complex Environment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hofmann, K.M.; Gavrila, D.M.

2012-01-01

We introduce a framework for unconstrained 3D human upper body pose estimation from multiple camera views in complex environment. Its main novelty lies in the integration of three components: single-frame pose recovery, temporal integration and model texture adaptation. Single-frame pose recovery

Challenges in Developing Health Promoting Schools’ Project: Application of Global Traits in Local Realm

OpenAIRE

Behrouz Fathi; Hamid Allahverdipour; Abdolreza Shaghaghi; Ahmad Kousha; Ali Jannati

2014-01-01

Background: Despite the importance of student health and school hygiene as an aspect of the infrastructure of community health, few feasibility studies have been conducted on school health programs in developing countries. This study examined possible barriers to and challenges of such programs from the executive perspective in East Azerbaijan Province in Iran. Methods: This qualitative study used the content analysis approach to recognize barriers to and challenges of healt...

Contactless and pose invariant biometric identification using hand surface.

Science.gov (United States)

Kanhangad, Vivek; Kumar, Ajay; Zhang, David

2011-05-01

This paper presents a novel approach for hand matching that achieves significantly improved performance even in the presence of large hand pose variations. The proposed method utilizes a 3-D digitizer to simultaneously acquire intensity and range images of the user's hand presented to the system in an arbitrary pose. The approach involves determination of the orientation of the hand in 3-D space followed by pose normalization of the acquired 3-D and 2-D hand images. Multimodal (2-D as well as 3-D) palmprint and hand geometry features, which are simultaneously extracted from the user's pose normalized textured 3-D hand, are used for matching. Individual matching scores are then combined using a new dynamic fusion strategy. Our experimental results on the database of 114 subjects with significant pose variations yielded encouraging results. Consistent (across various hand features considered) performance improvement achieved with the pose correction demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed approach for hand based biometric systems with unconstrained and contact-free imaging. The experimental results also suggest that the dynamic fusion approach employed in this work helps to achieve performance improvement of 60% (in terms of EER) over the case when matching scores are combined using the weighted sum rule.

Economic opportunities and challenges posed by China for Mexico and Central America

OpenAIRE

Dussel Peters, Enrique

2005-01-01

"This study offers a basis for understanding China's performance from a Latin American perspective, and stressing the massive economic opportunities and challenges, and particularly for Central America and Mexico. Moreover, the document assesses in detail the macroeconomic, trade and employment policy and institutional changes in China and its potential effects in Central America and Mexico. These effects are analyzed in the Chinese, Central American, Mexican and US market in general, but als...

Ethical Issues in Maternal and Child Health Nursing: Challenges ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2016-06-28

Jun 28, 2016 ... and neonatal nurses, face ethical issues possibly because of their ... Aim: To identify the ethical issues related to maternal and child care, the challenges faced by ...... Lucas V.A. The business of women's health care. In: E.T. ...

The Fukushima radiological emergency and challenges identified for future public health responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Charles W

2012-05-01

On 11 March 2011, northern Japan was rocked by first a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the eastern coast and then an ensuing tsunami. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex was hit by these twin disasters, and a cascade of events was initiated that led to radionuclide releases causing widespread radioactive contamination of residential areas, agricultural land, and coastal waters. Radioactive material from Japan was subsequently transmitted to locations around the globe, including the U.S. The levels of radioactive material that arrived in the U.S. were never large enough to be a concern for health effects, but the presence of this material in the environment was enough to create a public health emergency in the U.S. The radiation safety and public health communities in the U.S. are identifying challenges they faced in responding to this incident. This paper discusses three of those challenges: (1) The growing shortage of trained radiation subject matter experts in the field of environmental transport and dosimetry of radionuclides; (2) the need to begin expressing all radiation-related quantities in terms of the International System of Units; and (3) the need to define when a radiation dose is or is not one of "public health concern." This list represents only a small subset of the list of challenges being identified by public health agencies that responded to the Fukushima incident. However, these three challenges are fundamental to any radiological emergency response. Addressing them will have a significant positive impact on how the U.S. responds to the next radiological emergency.

Women health extension workers: Capacities, opportunities and challenges to use eHealth to strengthen equitable health systems in Southern Ethiopia.

Science.gov (United States)

Dusabe-Richards, John N; Tesfaye, Hayley Teshome; Mekonnen, Jarso; Kea, Aschenaki; Theobald, Sally; Datiko, Daniel G

2016-12-27

This study assesses the feasibility of female health extension workers (HEWs) using eHealth within their core duties, supporting both the design and capacity building for an eHealth system project focussed initially on tuberculosis, maternal child health, and gender equity. Health extension workers, Health Centre Heads, District Health Officers, Zonal Health Department and Regional Health Bureau representatives in Southern Ethiopia. The study was undertaken in Southern Ethiopia with three districts in Sidama zone (population of 3.5 million) and one district in Gedeo zone (control zone with similar health service coverage and population density). Mixed method baseline data collection was undertaken, using quantitative questionnaires (n = 57) and purposively sampled qualitative face-to-face semi-structured interviews (n = 10) and focus group discussions (n = 3). Themes were identified relating to HEW commitment and role, supervision, and performance management. The Health Management Information System (HMIS) was seen as important by all participants, but with challenges of information quality, accuracy, reliability and timeliness. Participants' perceptions varied by group regarding the purpose and benefits of HMIS as well as the potential of an eHealth system. Mobile phones were used regularly by all participants. eHealth technology presents a new opportunity for the Ethiopian health system to improve data quality and community health. Front-line female HEWs are a critical bridge between communities and health systems. Empowering HEWs, supporting them and responding to the challenges they face will be an important part of ensuring the sustainability and responsiveness of eHealth strategies. Findings have informed the subsequent eHealth technology design and implementation, capacity strengthening approach, supervision, and performance management approach.

Administrative Challenges to the Integration of Oral Health With Primary Care

Science.gov (United States)

Maxey, Hannah L.; Randolph, Courtney; Gano, Laura; Kochhar, Komal

2017-01-01

Inadequate access to preventive oral health services contributes to oral health disparities and is a major public health concern in the United States. Federally Qualified Health Centers play a critical role in improving access to care for populations affected by oral health disparities but face a number of administrative challenges associated with implementation of oral health integration models. We conducted a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis with health care executives to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of successful oral health integration in Federally Qualified Health Centers. Four themes were identified: (1) culture of health care organizations; (2) operations and administration; (3) finance; and (4) workforce. PMID:27218701

Application of GIS technology in public health: successes and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Fletcher-Lartey, Stephanie M; Caprarelli, Graziella

2016-04-01

The uptake and acceptance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology has increased since the early 1990s and public health applications are rapidly expanding. In this paper, we summarize the common uses of GIS technology in the public health sector, emphasizing applications related to mapping and understanding of parasitic diseases. We also present some of the success stories, and discuss the challenges that still prevent a full scope application of GIS technology in the public health context. Geographical analysis has allowed researchers to interlink health, population and environmental data, thus enabling them to evaluate and quantify relationships between health-related variables and environmental risk factors at different geographical scales. The ability to access, share and utilize satellite and remote-sensing data has made possible even wider understanding of disease processes and of their links to the environment, an important consideration in the study of parasitic diseases. For example, disease prevention and control strategies resulting from investigations conducted in a GIS environment have been applied in many areas, particularly in Africa. However, there remain several challenges to a more widespread use of GIS technology, such as: limited access to GIS infrastructure, inadequate technical and analytical skills, and uneven data availability. Opportunities exist for international collaboration to address these limitations through knowledge sharing and governance.

Methods of RVD object pose estimation and experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Shang, Yang; He, Yan; Wang, Weihua; Yu, Qifeng

2007-11-01

Methods of measuring a RVD (rendezvous and docking) cooperative object's pose from monocular and binocular images respectively are presented. The methods solve the initial values first and optimize the object pose parameters by bundle adjustment. In the disturbance-rejecting binocular method, chosen measurement system parameters of one camera's exterior parameters are modified simultaneously. The methods need three or more cooperative target points to measure the object's pose accurately. Experimental data show that the methods converge quickly and stably, provide accurate results and do not need accurate initial values. Even when the chosen measurement system parameters are subjected to some amount of disturbance, the binocular method manages to provide fairly accurate results.

Operationalizing the One Health approach: the global governance challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Kelley; Brumme, Zabrina L

2013-10-01

While there has been wide-ranging commitment to the One Health approach, its operationalisation has so far proven challenging. One Health calls upon the human, animal and environmental health sectors to cross professional, disciplinary and institutional boundaries, and to work in a more integrated fashion. At the global level, this paper argues that this vision is hindered by dysfunctions characterising current forms of global health governance (GHG), namely institutional proliferation, fragmentation, competition for scarce resources, lack of an overarching authority, and donor-driven vertical programmes. This has contributed, in part, to shortcomings in how One Health has been articulated to date. An agreed operational definition of One Health among key global institutions, efforts to build One Health institutions from the ground up, comparative case studies of what works or does not work institutionally, and high-level global support for research, training and career opportunities would all help to enable One Health to help remedy, and not be subsumed by, existing dysfunctions in GHG.

Single-frame 3D human pose recovery from multiple views

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hofmann, M.; Gavrila, D.M.

2009-01-01

We present a system for the estimation of unconstrained 3D human upper body pose from multi-camera single-frame views. Pose recovery starts with a shape detection stage where candidate poses are generated based on hierarchical exemplar matching in the individual camera views. The hierarchy used in

Turkish Primary School Teachers' Opinions about Problem Posing

Science.gov (United States)

Kilic, Cigdem

2013-01-01

Problem posing is one of the most important topics in a mathematics education. Through problem posing, students gain mathematical abilities and concepts and teachers can evaluate their students and arrange adequate learning environments. The aim of the present study is to investigate Turkish primary school teachers' opinions about problem posing…

Standard diffusive systems are well-posed linear systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Matignon, Denis; Zwart, Heiko J.

2004-01-01

The class of well-posed linear systems as introduced by Salamon has become a well-understood class of systems, see e.g. the work of Weiss and the book of Staffans. Many partial partial differential equations with boundary control and point observation can be formulated as a well-posed linear system.

Systems Challenges for Hypersonic Vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Hunt, James L.; Laruelle, Gerard; Wagner, Alain

1997-01-01

This paper examines the system challenges posed by fully reusable hypersonic cruise airplanes and access to space vehicles. Hydrocarbon and hydrogen fueled airplanes are considered with cruise speeds of Mach 5 and 10, respectively. The access to space matrix is examined. Airbreathing and rocket powered, single- and two-stage vehicles are considered. Reference vehicle architectures are presented. Major systems/subsystems challenges are described. Advanced, enhancing systems concepts as well as common system technologies are discussed.

The Politico-Economic Challenges of Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme Implementation.

Science.gov (United States)

Fusheini, Adam

2016-04-27

National/social health insurance schemes have increasingly been seen in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as a vehicle to universal health coverage (UHC) and a viable alternative funding mechanism for the health sector. Several countries, including Ghana, have thus introduced and implemented mandatory national health insurance schemes (NHIS) as part of reform efforts towards increasing access to health services. Ghana passed mandatory national health insurance (NHI) legislation (ACT 650) in 2003 and commenced nationwide implementation in 2004. Several peer review studies and other research reports have since assessed the performance of the scheme with positive rating while challenges also noted. This paper contributes to the literature on economic and political implementation challenges based on empirical evidence from the perspectives of the different category of actors and institutions involved in the process. Qualitative in-depth interviews were held with 33 different category of participants in four selected district mutual health insurance schemes in Southern (two) and Northern (two) Ghana. This was to ascertain their views regarding the main challenges in the implementation process. The participants were selected through purposeful sampling, stakeholder mapping, and snowballing. Data was analysed using thematic grouping procedure. Participants identified political issues of over politicisation and political interference as main challenges. The main economic issues participants identified included low premiums or contributions; broad exemptions, poor gatekeeper enforcement system; and culture of curative and hospital-centric care. The study establishes that political and economic factors have influenced the implementation process and the degree to which the policy has been implemented as intended. Thus, we conclude that there is a synergy between implementation and politics; and achieving UHC under the NHIS requires political stewardship. Political

Bringing Wellness to Schools: Opportunities for and Challenges to Mental Health Integration in School-Based Health Centers.

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Karen; Guo, Sisi; Ijadi-Maghsoodi, Roya; Puffer, Maryjane; Kataoka, Sheryl H

2016-12-01

School-based health centers (SBHCs) reduce access barriers to mental health care and improve educational outcomes for youths. This qualitative study evaluated the innovations and challenges of a unique network of SBHCs in a large, urban school district as the centers attempted to integrate health, mental health, and educational services. The 43 participants sampled included mental health providers, primary care providers, and care coordinators at 14 SBHCs. Semistructured interviews with each participant were audio recorded and transcribed. Themes were identified and coded by using Atlas.ti 5.1 and collapsed into three domains: operations, partnership, and engagement. Interviews revealed provider models ranging from single agencies offering both primary care and mental health services to colocated services. Sites where the health agency provided at least some mental health services reported more mental health screenings. Many sites used SBHC wellness coordinators and coordination team meetings to facilitate relationships between schools and health agency and community mental health clinic providers. Partnership challenges included confidentiality policies and staff turnover. Participants also highlighted student and parent engagement through culturally sensitive services, peer health advocates, and "drop-in" lunches. Staffing and operational models are critical in the success of integrating primary care, mental health care, and education. Among the provider models observed, the combined primary care and mental health provider model offered the most integrated services. Despite barriers, providers and schools have begun to implement novel solutions to operational problems and family engagement in mental health services.

SU-G-JeP3-03: Effect of Robot Pose On Beam Blocking for Ultrasound Guided SBRT of the Prostate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gerlach, S; Schlaefer, A [Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg (Germany); Kuhlemann, I; Ernst, F [Universitaet zu Luebeck, Luebeck (Germany); Fuerweger, C [European Cyberknife Center Munich, Munich (Germany)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Ultrasound presents a fast, volumetric image modality for real-time tracking of abdominal organ motion. How-ever, ultrasound transducer placement during radiation therapy is challenging. Recently, approaches using robotic arms for intra-treatment ultrasound imaging have been proposed. Good and reliable imaging requires placing the transducer close to the PTV. We studied the effect of a seven degrees of freedom robot on the fea-sible beam directions. Methods: For five CyberKnife prostate treatment plans we established viewports for the transducer, i.e., points on the patient surface with a soft tissue view towards the PTV. Choosing a feasible transducer pose and using the kinematic redundancy of the KUKA LBR iiwa robot, we considered three robot poses. Poses 1 to 3 had the elbow point anterior, superior, and inferior, respectively. For each pose and each beam starting point, the pro-jections of robot and PTV were computed. We added a 20 mm margin accounting for organ / beam motion. The number of nodes for which the PTV was partially of fully blocked were established. Moreover, the cumula-tive overlap for each of the poses and the minimum overlap over all poses were computed. Results: The fully and partially blocked nodes ranged from 12% to 20% and 13% to 27%, respectively. Typically, pose 3 caused the fewest blocked nodes. The cumulative overlap ranged from 19% to 29%. Taking the minimum overlap, i.e., considering moving the robot’s elbow while maintaining the transducer pose, the cumulative over-lap was reduced to 16% to 18% and was 3% to 6% lower than for the best individual pose. Conclusion: Our results indicate that it is possible to identify feasible ultrasound transducer poses and to use the kinematic redundancy of a 7 DOF robot to minimize the impact of the imaging subsystem on the feasible beam directions for ultrasound guided and motion compensated SBRT. Research partially funded by DFG grants ER 817/1-1 and SCHL 1844/3-1.

SU-G-JeP3-03: Effect of Robot Pose On Beam Blocking for Ultrasound Guided SBRT of the Prostate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerlach, S; Schlaefer, A; Kuhlemann, I; Ernst, F; Fuerweger, C

2016-01-01

Purpose: Ultrasound presents a fast, volumetric image modality for real-time tracking of abdominal organ motion. How-ever, ultrasound transducer placement during radiation therapy is challenging. Recently, approaches using robotic arms for intra-treatment ultrasound imaging have been proposed. Good and reliable imaging requires placing the transducer close to the PTV. We studied the effect of a seven degrees of freedom robot on the fea-sible beam directions. Methods: For five CyberKnife prostate treatment plans we established viewports for the transducer, i.e., points on the patient surface with a soft tissue view towards the PTV. Choosing a feasible transducer pose and using the kinematic redundancy of the KUKA LBR iiwa robot, we considered three robot poses. Poses 1 to 3 had the elbow point anterior, superior, and inferior, respectively. For each pose and each beam starting point, the pro-jections of robot and PTV were computed. We added a 20 mm margin accounting for organ / beam motion. The number of nodes for which the PTV was partially of fully blocked were established. Moreover, the cumula-tive overlap for each of the poses and the minimum overlap over all poses were computed. Results: The fully and partially blocked nodes ranged from 12% to 20% and 13% to 27%, respectively. Typically, pose 3 caused the fewest blocked nodes. The cumulative overlap ranged from 19% to 29%. Taking the minimum overlap, i.e., considering moving the robot’s elbow while maintaining the transducer pose, the cumulative over-lap was reduced to 16% to 18% and was 3% to 6% lower than for the best individual pose. Conclusion: Our results indicate that it is possible to identify feasible ultrasound transducer poses and to use the kinematic redundancy of a 7 DOF robot to minimize the impact of the imaging subsystem on the feasible beam directions for ultrasound guided and motion compensated SBRT. Research partially funded by DFG grants ER 817/1-1 and SCHL 1844/3-1.

Challenges to collaboration in school mental health and strategies for overcoming them.

Science.gov (United States)

Weist, Mark D; Mellin, Elizabeth A; Chambers, Kerri L; Lever, Nancy A; Haber, Deborah; Blaber, Christine

2012-02-01

This article reviews challenges to collaboration in school mental health (SMH) and presents practical strategies for overcoming them. The importance of collaboration to the success of SMH programs is reviewed, with a particular focus on collaboration between school- and community-employed professionals. Challenges to effective collaboration between school- and community-employed professionals in SMH are considered. Strategies for overcoming challenges to effective collaboration are presented. Marginalization of the SMH agenda, limited interdisciplinary teamwork, restricted coordination mechanisms, confidentiality concerns, and resource and funding issues are key challenges to collaboration. Strategies targeted toward each of these challenges may help improve the effectiveness of SMH programs and ultimately student outcomes. Collaboration between school- and community-employed professionals is critical to the success of SMH programs. Despite its promise, the success of SMH programs can be jeopardized by ineffective collaboration between school- and community-employed professionals. Strategies to overcome marginalization, promote authentic interdisciplinary teamwork, build effective coordination mechanisms, protect student and family confidentiality, and promote policy change and resource enhancements should be addressed in SMH improvement planning. © 2012, American School Health Association.

Geophysical Tools, Challenges and Perspectives Related to Natural Hazards, Climate Change and Food Security

Science.gov (United States)

Fucugauchi, J. U.

2013-05-01

In the coming decades a changing climate and natural hazards will likely increase the vulnerability of agricultural and other food production infrastructures, posing increasing treats to industrialized and developing economies. While food security concerns affect us globally, the huge differences among countries in stocks, population size, poverty levels, economy, technologic development, transportation, health care systems and basic infrastructure will pose a much larger burden on populations in the developing and less developed world. In these economies, increase in the magnitude, duration and frequency of droughts, floods, hurricanes, rising sea levels, heat waves, thunderstorms, freezing events and other phenomena will pose severe costs on the population. For this presentation, we concentrate on a geophysical perspective of the problems, tools available, challenges and short and long-term perspectives. In many instances, a range of natural hazards are considered as unforeseen catastrophes, which suddenly affect without warning, resulting in major losses. Although the forecasting capacity in the different situations arising from climate change and natural hazards is still limited, there are a range of tools available to assess scenarios and forecast models for developing and implementing better mitigation strategies and prevention programs. Earth observation systems, geophysical instrumental networks, satellite observatories, improved understanding of phenomena, expanded global and regional databases, geographic information systems, higher capacity for computer modeling, numerical simulations, etc provide a scientific-technical framework for developing strategies. Hazard prevention and mitigation programs will result in high costs globally, however major costs and challenges concentrate on the less developed economies already affected by poverty, famines, health problems, social inequalities, poor infrastructure, low life expectancy, high population growth

Pose estimation for augmented reality applications using genetic algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Ying Kin; Wong, Kin Hong; Chang, Michael Ming Yuen

2005-12-01

This paper describes a genetic algorithm that tackles the pose-estimation problem in computer vision. Our genetic algorithm can find the rotation and translation of an object accurately when the three-dimensional structure of the object is given. In our implementation, each chromosome encodes both the pose and the indexes to the selected point features of the object. Instead of only searching for the pose as in the existing work, our algorithm, at the same time, searches for a set containing the most reliable feature points in the process. This mismatch filtering strategy successfully makes the algorithm more robust under the presence of point mismatches and outliers in the images. Our algorithm has been tested with both synthetic and real data with good results. The accuracy of the recovered pose is compared to the existing algorithms. Our approach outperformed the Lowe's method and the other two genetic algorithms under the presence of point mismatches and outliers. In addition, it has been used to estimate the pose of a real object. It is shown that the proposed method is applicable to augmented reality applications.

Policy challenges for the pediatric rheumatology workforce: Part II. Health care system delivery and workforce supply

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Henrickson Michael

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract The United States pediatric population with chronic health conditions is expanding. Currently, this demographic comprises 12-18% of the American child and youth population. Affected children often receive fragmented, uncoordinated care. Overall, the American health care delivery system produces modest outcomes for this population. Poor, uninsured and minority children may be at increased risk for inferior coordination of services. Further, the United States health care delivery system is primarily organized for the diagnosis and treatment of acute conditions. For pediatric patients with chronic health conditions, the typical acute problem-oriented visit actually serves as a barrier to care. The biomedical model of patient education prevails, characterized by unilateral transfer of medical information. However, the evidence basis for improvement in disease outcomes supports the use of the chronic care model, initially proposed by Dr. Edward Wagner. Six inter-related elements distinguish the success of the chronic care model, which include self-management support and care coordination by a prepared, proactive team. United States health care lacks a coherent policy direction for the management of high cost chronic conditions, including rheumatic diseases. A fundamental restructure of United States health care delivery must urgently occur which places the patient at the center of care. For the pediatric rheumatology workforce, reimbursement policies and the actions of health plans and insurers are consistent barriers to chronic disease improvement. United States reimbursement policy and overall fragmentation of health care services pose specific challenges for widespread implementation of the chronic care model. Team-based multidisciplinary care, care coordination and self-management are integral to improve outcomes. Pediatric rheumatology demand in the United States far exceeds available workforce supply. This article reviews the career

Policy challenges for the pediatric rheumatology workforce: Part II. Health care system delivery and workforce supply.

Science.gov (United States)

Henrickson, Michael

2011-01-01

The United States pediatric population with chronic health conditions is expanding. Currently, this demographic comprises 12-18% of the American child and youth population. Affected children often receive fragmented, uncoordinated care. Overall, the American health care delivery system produces modest outcomes for this population. Poor, uninsured and minority children may be at increased risk for inferior coordination of services. Further, the United States health care delivery system is primarily organized for the diagnosis and treatment of acute conditions. For pediatric patients with chronic health conditions, the typical acute problem-oriented visit actually serves as a barrier to care. The biomedical model of patient education prevails, characterized by unilateral transfer of medical information. However, the evidence basis for improvement in disease outcomes supports the use of the chronic care model, initially proposed by Dr. Edward Wagner. Six inter-related elements distinguish the success of the chronic care model, which include self-management support and care coordination by a prepared, proactive team. United States health care lacks a coherent policy direction for the management of high cost chronic conditions, including rheumatic diseases. A fundamental restructure of United States health care delivery must urgently occur which places the patient at the center of care. For the pediatric rheumatology workforce, reimbursement policies and the actions of health plans and insurers are consistent barriers to chronic disease improvement. United States reimbursement policy and overall fragmentation of health care services pose specific challenges for widespread implementation of the chronic care model. Team-based multidisciplinary care, care coordination and self-management are integral to improve outcomes. Pediatric rheumatology demand in the United States far exceeds available workforce supply. This article reviews the career choice decision-making process

Posing Problems to Understand Children's Learning of Fractions

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Lu Pien

2013-01-01

In this study, ways in which problem posing activities aid our understanding of children's learning of addition of unlike fractions and product of proper fractions was examined. In particular, how a simple problem posing activity helps teachers take a second, deeper look at children's understanding of fraction concepts will be discussed. The…

Environmental and human health challenges of industrial livestock and poultry farming in China and their mitigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Yuanan; Cheng, Hefa; Tao, Shu

2017-10-01

Driven by the growing demand for food products of animal origin, industrial livestock and poultry production has become increasingly popular and is on the track of becoming an important source of environmental pollution in China. Although concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have higher production efficiency and profitability with less resource consumption compared to the traditional family-based and "free range" farming, they bring significant environmental pollution concerns and pose public health risks. Gaseous pollutants and bioaerosols are emitted directly from CAFOs, which have health implications on animal producers and neighboring communities. A range of pollutants are excreted with the animal waste, including nutrients, pathogens, natural and synthetic hormones, veterinary antimicrobials, and heavy metals, which can enter local farmland soils, surface water, and groundwater, during the storage and disposal of animal waste, and pose direct and indirect human health risks. The extensive use of antimicrobials in CAFOs also contributes to the global public health concern of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Efforts on treating the large volumes of manure generated in CAFOs should be enhanced (e.g., by biogas digesters and integrated farm systems) to minimize their impacts on the environment and human health. Furthermore, the use of veterinary drugs and feed additives in industrial livestock and poultry farming should be controlled, which will not only make the animal food products much safer to the consumers, but also render the manure more benign for treatment and disposal on farmlands. While improving the sustainability of animal farming, China also needs to promote healthy food consumption, which not only improves public health from avoiding high-meat diets, but also slows down the expansion of industrial animal farming, and thus reduces the associated environmental and public health risks. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Distributed Prognostic Health Management with Gaussian Process Regression

Science.gov (United States)

Saha, Sankalita; Saha, Bhaskar; Saxena, Abhinav; Goebel, Kai Frank

2010-01-01

Distributed prognostics architecture design is an enabling step for efficient implementation of health management systems. A major challenge encountered in such design is formulation of optimal distributed prognostics algorithms. In this paper. we present a distributed GPR based prognostics algorithm whose target platform is a wireless sensor network. In addition to challenges encountered in a distributed implementation, a wireless network poses constraints on communication patterns, thereby making the problem more challenging. The prognostics application that was used to demonstrate our new algorithms is battery prognostics. In order to present trade-offs within different prognostic approaches, we present comparison with the distributed implementation of a particle filter based prognostics for the same battery data.

Bangladesh Midlife Women's Health Study (BMWHS): methods, challenges and experiences.

Science.gov (United States)

Islam, Rakibul M; Bell, Robin J; Hossain, Mohammad B; Davis, Susan R

2015-01-01

To understand the challenges and experiences encountered during data collection for Bangladesh Midlife Women's Health Study (BMWHS) that investigated the low uptake of cervical cancer (CCa) screening barriers, understanding of breast cancer (BCa) knowledge and practices, the prevalence of urinary and fecal incontinence and menopausal symptoms. A multistage cluster sampling technique was used to recruit women from the 32 districts of Bangladesh that had offered CCa screening. Female interviewers were trained to undertake structured face-to-face interviews that incorporated both non-validated and several validated questionnaires, such as Question for Urinary Incontinence Diagnosis, Pelvic Organ Prolapse Distress Inventory, Colorectal-Anal Distress Inventory and Menopause-Specific Quality of Life. We completed surveys of 1590 women, estimated age 30-59 years, between September 2013 and March 2014. We implemented several strategies to deal with low literacy and used the temporal relationship between marriage and childbirth, and the average age of onset of menarche, to estimate age. Cultural and religious sensitivities and personal security were managed by engaging community leaders, limiting activities to daylight hours, adopting local codes of dress, such as the wearing of head scarves. Our major challenges and experiences included difficulties in age determination, selection of and access to households, interview privacy, lack of basic and health literacy, transportation, political unrest and security of the interviewers. By anticipating challenges, we have been able to comprehensively survey a representative sample of Bangladeshi women. Disseminating information about the field challenges and experiences from the BMWHS should assist other researchers planning to conduct surveys about women's health issues in similar context. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Endocrine Disruptors and Health Effects in Africa: A Call for Action.

Science.gov (United States)

Bornman, Maria S; Aneck-Hahn, Natalie H; de Jager, Christiaan; Wagenaar, Gesina M; Bouwman, Hindrik; Barnhoorn, Irene E J; Patrick, Sean M; Vandenberg, Laura N; Kortenkamp, Andreas; Blumberg, Bruce; Kimmins, Sarah; Jegou, Bernard; Auger, Jacques; DiGangi, Joseph; Heindel, Jerrold J

2017-08-22

Africa faces a number of unique environmental challenges. Unfortunately, it lacks the infrastructure needed to support the comprehensive environmental studies that could provide the scientific basis to inform environmental policies. There are a number of known sources of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and other hazardous chemicals in Africa. However, a coordinated approach to identify and monitor these contaminants and to develop strategies for public health interventions has not yet been made. This commentary summarizes the scientific evidence presented by experts at the First African Endocrine Disruptors meeting. We describe a "call to action" to utilize the available scientific knowledge to address the impact of EDCs on human and wildlife health in Africa. We identify existing knowledge gaps about exposures to EDCs in Africa and describe how well-designed research strategies are needed to address these gaps. A lack of resources for research and a lag in policy implementation slows down intervention strategies and poses a challenge to advancing future health in Africa. To address the many challenges posed by EDCs, we argue that Africans should take the lead in prioritization and evaluation of environmental hazards, including EDCs. We recommend the institution of education and training programs for chemical users, adoption of the precautionary principle, establishment of biomonitoring programs, and funding of community-based epidemiology and wildlife research programs led and funded by African institutes and private companies. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1774.

Legal Considerations for Health Care Practitioners After Superstorm Sandy.

Science.gov (United States)

Hershey, Tina Batra; Van Nostrand, Elizabeth; Sood, Rishi K; Potter, Margaret

2016-06-01

During disaster response and recovery, legal issues often arise related to the provision of health care services to affected residents. Superstorm Sandy led to the evacuation of many hospitals and other health care facilities and compromised the ability of health care practitioners to provide necessary primary care. This article highlights the challenges and legal concerns faced by health care practitioners in the aftermath of Sandy, which included limitations in scope of practice, difficulties with credentialing, lack of portability of practitioner licenses, and concerns regarding volunteer immunity and liability. Governmental and nongovernmental entities employed various strategies to address these concerns; however, legal barriers remained that posed challenges throughout the Superstorm Sandy response and recovery period. We suggest future approaches to address these legal considerations, including policies and legislation, additional waivers of law, and planning and coordination among multiple levels of governmental and nongovernmental organizations. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:518-524).

mHealth Clinic Appointment PC Tablet: Implementation, Challenges and Solutions

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Carol E.; Spaulding, Ryan; Piamjariyakul, Ubolrat; Werkowitch, Marilyn; Yadrich, Donna Macan; Hooper, Dedrick; Moore, Tyson; Gilroy, Richard

2015-01-01

Background Patients requiring daily intravenous (IV) home parenteral nutrition (HPN) would benefit from in-home professional observation to improve self-care, to assess, detect and prevent serious complications. Aims The study aims are to assess the viability and utility of conducting mobile healthcare (mHealth) videoconference assessments with patients managing lifelong daily 12-hour IV nutrition infusions in their homes. The challenges and solutions to implementing mobile personal computer (PC) tablet based clinic appointments are described. Methods A wireless Apple iPad Mini™ mobile touch-screen tablet computer with 5 mega-pixel camera was loaned to patients. Each tablet had Polycom RealPresence software and a fourth generation (4G) mobile telecommunications data plan. These supported audio-visual mobile videoconferencing encrypted connections between health professionals in their offices and HPN patients and their family members in their homes. Patients’ and professionals’ evaluations of their mHealth clinic experiences are collected. Results Patients (mean age = 41.9, SD = 2.8 years) had been prescribed 12-hour home parenteral nutrition (HPN) infusions daily due short bowel disorders. Patients had been on HPN from 1 to 10 years (M=4, SD=3.6). Evaluation of clinic appointments revealed that 100% of the patients (n=45) and the professionals (n=6) indicated that they can clearly hear and easily see one another. The mHealth audio-visual interactions were highly rated by patients and family members. Professionals highly rated their ability to obtain a medical history and visual inspection of patients. Several challenges were identified and recommendations for resolutions are described. Discussion All patients and professionals highly rated the iPad mHealth clinic appointments for convenience and ease of communicating between homes and offices. An important challenge for all mHealth visits is the clinical professional’s ability to make clinically accurate

Self-Organizing Neural Integration of Pose-Motion Features for Human Action Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

German Ignacio Parisi

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The visual recognition of complex, articulated human movements is fundamental for a wide range of artificial systems oriented towards human-robot communication, action classification, and action-driven perception. These challenging tasks may generally involve the processing of a huge amount of visual information and learning-based mechanisms for generalizing a set of training actions and classifying new samples. To operate in natural environments, a crucial property is the efficient and robust recognition of actions, also under noisy conditions caused by, for instance, systematic sensor errors and temporarily occluded persons. Studies of the mammalian visual system and its outperforming ability to process biological motion information suggest separate neural pathways for the distinct processing of pose and motion features at multiple levels and the subsequent integration of these visual cues for action perception. We present a neurobiologically-motivated approach to achieve noise-tolerant action recognition in real time. Our model consists of self-organizing Growing When Required (GWR networks that obtain progressively generalized representations of sensory inputs and learn inherent spatiotemporal dependencies. During the training, the GWR networks dynamically change their topological structure to better match the input space. We first extract pose and motion features from video sequences and then cluster actions in terms of prototypical pose-motion trajectories. Multi-cue trajectories from matching action frames are subsequently combined to provide action dynamics in the joint feature space. Reported experiments show that our approach outperforms previous results on a dataset of full-body actions captured with a depth sensor, and ranks among the best 21 results for a public benchmark of domestic daily actions.

Qualitative analysis of national documents on health care services and pharmaceuticals` purchasing challenges: evidence from Iran.

Science.gov (United States)

Bastani, Peivand; Samadbeik, Mahnaz; Dinarvand, Rassoul; Kashefian-Naeeini, Sara; Vatankhah, Soudabeh

2018-06-05

Iranian health sector encountered many challenges in resource allocation and health service purchasing during the past decades, the aim of this study was to determine the main challenges of the present process of health service purchasing for national policymakers and other developing countries with the same setting. It was a qualitative study carried out via the complete content analysis of all relevant national documents from 2007 to 2014. In order to retrieve the related documents, we searched the official websites related to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, four main Iranian insurance organizations, the Health Committee of the Parliament Profile, strategic vice president's site and Supreme Insurance Council. After recognition of documents, their credibility and authenticity were evaluated in terms of their publication or adjustment. For the analysis of documents, the four step-Scott method was used applying MAXQDA version 10. Findings illustrated that health service purchase challenges in the country can be classified in 6 main themes of policy-making, executive, intersectional, natural, legal and informational challenges with 26 subthemes. Furthermore, 5 themes of Basic Benefit Package, Reimbursement,Decision making, Technology and Contract are considered as the main Challenges in pharmaceutical purchasing area containing 13 relevant subthemes. It seems that according to documents, Iran has faced many structural and procedural problems with the purchase of the best health interventions. So it is highly recommended to consider consequences derived from the present challenges and try to use these evidences in their policy making process to decrease the existed problems and move to better procurement of health interventions.

Development and challenges of using web-based GIS for health applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gao, Sheng; Mioc, Darka; Boley, Harold

2011-01-01

Web-based GIS is increasingly used in health applications. It has the potential to provide critical information in a timely manner, support health care policy development, and educate decision makers and the general public. This paper describes the trends and recent development of health...... applications using a Web-based GIS. Recent progress on the database storage and geospatial Web Services has advanced the use of Web-based GIS for health applications, with various proprietary software, open source software, and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) available. Current challenges in applying...... care planning, and public health participation....

Wildlife health investigations: needs, challenges and recommendations

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

In a fast changing world with growing concerns about biodiversity loss and an increasing number of animal and human diseases emerging from wildlife, the need for effective wildlife health investigations including both surveillance and research is now widely recognized. However, procedures applicable to and knowledge acquired from studies related to domestic animal and human health can be on partly extrapolated to wildlife. This article identifies requirements and challenges inherent in wildlife health investigations, reviews important definitions and novel health investigation methods, and proposes tools and strategies for effective wildlife health surveillance programs. Impediments to wildlife health investigations are largely related to zoological, behavioral and ecological characteristics of wildlife populations and to limited access to investigation materials. These concerns should not be viewed as insurmountable but it is imperative that they are considered in study design, data analysis and result interpretation. It is particularly crucial to remember that health surveillance does not begin in the laboratory but in the fields. In this context, participatory approaches and mutual respect are essential. Furthermore, interdisciplinarity and open minds are necessary because a wide range of tools and knowledge from different fields need to be integrated in wildlife health surveillance and research. The identification of factors contributing to disease emergence requires the comparison of health and ecological data over time and among geographical regions. Finally, there is a need for the development and validation of diagnostic tests for wildlife species and for data on free-ranging population densities. Training of health professionals in wildlife diseases should also be improved. Overall, the article particularly emphasizes five needs of wildlife health investigations: communication and collaboration; use of synergies and triangulation approaches; investments

A Record Linkage Protocol for a Diabetes Registry at Ethnically Diverse Community Health Centers

OpenAIRE

Maizlish, Neil A.; Herrera, Linda

2005-01-01

Community health centers serve ethnically diverse populations that may pose challenges for record linkage based on name and date of birth. The objective was to identify an optimal deterministic algorithm to link patient encounters and laboratory results for hemoglobin A1c testing and examine its variability by health center site, patient ethnicity, and other variables. Based on data elements of last name, first name, date of birth, gender, and health center site, matches with ≥50% to < 100% o...

Challenges in developing health promoting schools' project: application of global traits in local realm.

Science.gov (United States)

Fathi, Behrouz; Allahverdipour, Hamid; Shaghaghi, Abdolreza; Kousha, Ahmad; Jannati, Ali

2014-01-01

Despite the importance of student health and school hygiene as an aspect of the infrastructure of community health, few feasibility studies have been conducted on school health programs in developing countries. This study examined possible barriers to and challenges of such programs from the executive perspective in East Azerbaijan Province in Iran. This qualitative study used the content analysis approach to recognize barriers to and challenges of health promoting school program from the executive perspective. Fourteen experts were selected in the areas of children and adolescents and school health, physical education and school headmasters. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the content analysis method. Five themes were extracted as major barriers and challenges: 1. Intraand inter-sectorial collaboration; 2. Policy and rule formulation; 3. Infrastructure and capacity; 4. Human resources; 5. Community involvement. The localized version of the current health promoting school program had major faults. If this program is considered to be a healthcare system priority, it should be revised to set effective policies for implementation and to sustain school health programs based on the capacities and objectives of each country.

Challenges in Developing Health Promoting Schools’ Project: Application of Global Traits in Local Realm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Behrouz Fathi

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Background: Despite the importance of student health and school hygiene as an aspect of the infrastructure of community health, few feasibility studies have been conducted on school health programs in developing countries. This study examined possible barriers to and challenges of such programs from the executive perspective in East Azerbaijan Province in Iran. Methods: This qualitative study used the content analysis approach to recognize barriers to and challenges of health promoting school program from the executive perspective. Fourteen experts were selected in the areas of children and adolescents and school health, physical education and school headmasters. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the content analysis method. Results: Five themes were extracted as major barriers and challenges: 1. Intraand inter-sectorial collaboration; 2. Policy and rule formulation; 3. Infrastructure and capacity; 4. Human resources; 5. Community involvement. Conclusion: The localized version of the current health promoting school program had major faults. If this program is considered to be a healthcare system priority, it should be revised to set effective policies for implementation and to sustain school health programs based on the capacities and objectives of each country.

Baseline Face Detection, Head Pose Estimation, and Coarse Direction Detection for Facial Data in the SHRP2 Naturalistic Driving Study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paone, Jeffrey R [ORNL; Bolme, David S [ORNL; Ferrell, Regina Kay [ORNL; Aykac, Deniz [ORNL; Karnowski, Thomas Paul [ORNL

2015-01-01

Keeping a driver focused on the road is one of the most critical steps in insuring the safe operation of a vehicle. The Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2) has over 3,100 recorded videos of volunteer drivers during a period of 2 years. This extensive naturalistic driving study (NDS) contains over one million hours of video and associated data that could aid safety researchers in understanding where the driver s attention is focused. Manual analysis of this data is infeasible, therefore efforts are underway to develop automated feature extraction algorithms to process and characterize the data. The real-world nature, volume, and acquisition conditions are unmatched in the transportation community, but there are also challenges because the data has relatively low resolution, high compression rates, and differing illumination conditions. A smaller dataset, the head pose validation study, is available which used the same recording equipment as SHRP2 but is more easily accessible with less privacy constraints. In this work we report initial head pose accuracy using commercial and open source face pose estimation algorithms on the head pose validation data set.

Presidents and health reform: from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama.

Science.gov (United States)

Morone, James A

2010-06-01

The health care reforms that President Barack Obama signed into law in March 2010 were seventy-five years in the making. Since Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. presidents have struggled to enact national health care reform; most failed. This article explores the highly charged political landscape in which Obama maneuvered and the skills he brought to bear. It contrasts his accomplishments with the experiences of his Oval Office predecessors. Going forward, implementation poses formidable challenges for Democrats, Republicans, and the political process itself.

Challenges, health implications, and advocacy opportunities for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender global health providers.

Science.gov (United States)

Nagata, Jason M

2017-01-01

In this commentary, I reflect on challenges with conducting global health research internationally as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) person, grapple with decisions related to coming out in regions with anti-LGBT laws, and outline the risks and benefits of different advocacy options related to the promotion of LGBT health globally. Despite significant advances in LGBT rights in many countries, homosexuality remains illegal in many others. Using a critical medical anthropology framework, I argue that anti-LGBT laws constitute structural violence and have many detrimental consequences including discrimination and violence; poorer mental and physical health outcomes; and risky sexual behaviors. As a global health provider, there are many options for the promotion of LGBT health worldwide.

Emerging and Neglected Infectious Diseases: Insights, Advances, and Challenges.

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Nii-Trebi, Nicholas Israel

2017-01-01

Infectious diseases are a significant burden on public health and economic stability of societies all over the world. They have for centuries been among the leading causes of death and disability and presented growing challenges to health security and human progress. The threat posed by infectious diseases is further deepened by the continued emergence of new, unrecognized, and old infectious disease epidemics of global impact. Over the past three and half decades at least 30 new infectious agents affecting humans have emerged, most of which are zoonotic and their origins have been shown to correlate significantly with socioeconomic, environmental, and ecological factors. As these factors continue to increase, putting people in increased contact with the disease causing pathogens, there is concern that infectious diseases may continue to present a formidable challenge. Constant awareness and pursuance of effective strategies for controlling infectious diseases and disease emergence thus remain crucial. This review presents current updates on emerging and neglected infectious diseases and highlights the scope, dynamics, and advances in infectious disease management with particular focus on WHO top priority emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) and neglected tropical infectious diseases.

Challenges faced by public health nursing leaders in hyperturbulent times.

Science.gov (United States)

Reyes, David J; Bekemeier, Betty; Issel, L Michele

2014-01-01

This study discusses the challenges and characteristics of effective public health nursing leaders in local health departments and barriers to effective leadership during the hyperturbulent conditions of 2008-2010. Participants were drawn from a purposive sample of seven directors of nursing (DON) in six county LHDs in two states for this qualitative study using inductive methods. Semistructured telephone interviews were conducted, using open-ended questions. Data analysis consisted of coding, pattern identification, and theme development, assisted by the use of ATLAS.ti™. Credibility was achieved through intercoder agreement and resonance of the findings with participants. Two underlying challenges emerged: leadership dissonance and leading through ambiguity. Three key effective leadership attributes identified were as follows: collaborative change management, life-long learning, and being visionary. DONs identified extrinsic and intrinsic barriers to leadership effectiveness and leading change in public health systems and PHN practice. Results suggest ways to support PHN leaders in order to overcome barriers to effective leadership such as defined leadership competencies, continuing education, and mentorship opportunities. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Recommendations on Arresting Global Health Challenges Facing Adolescents and Young Adults.

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Lassi, Zohra S; Salam, Rehana A; Bhutta, Zulfiqar A

The health challenges faced by young people are more complex than adults and can compromise their full growth and development. Attention must be paid to the health of this age group, yet adolescents and youth remain largely invisible and often disappear from the major global datasets. The aim of this paper is to discuss the global health challenges faced by adolescents and youth, global legislations and guidelines pertaining to this particular age group, recommendations to arrest these challenges, and research priorities. Major direct and indirect global health risks faced by adolescents include early pregnancy and childbirth, femicide, honor killing, female genital mutilation, nutritional habits and choices, social media, and peer pressure. There are no standard legal age cut-offs for adulthood; rather, the age varies for different activities, such as age of consent or the minimum age that young people can legally work, leave school, drive, buy alcohol, marry, be held accountable for criminal action, and make medical decisions. This reflects the fact that the existing systems and structures are focused on either children or adults, with very few investments and interventions directed specifically to young people. Existing legislation and guidelines need transformation to bring about a specific focus on adolescents in the domains of substance use and sexual behaviors, and the capacity for adolescent learning should be exploited through graduated legal and policy frameworks. Sustainable development goals provide an opportunity to target this neglected and vulnerable age group. A multisectoral approach is needed to bring about healthy change and address the challenges faced by adolescents and youth, from modifications at a broader legislative and policy level to ground-level (community-level) implementations. Copyright © 2017 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

High-precision pose measurement method in wind tunnels based on laser-aided vision technology

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Liu Wei

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The measurement of position and attitude parameters for the isolated target from a high-speed aircraft is a great challenge in the field of wind tunnel simulation technology. In this paper, firstly, an image acquisition method for small high-speed targets with multi-dimensional movement in wind tunnel environment is proposed based on laser-aided vision technology. Combining with the trajectory simulation of the isolated model, the reasonably distributed laser stripes and self-luminous markers are utilized to capture clear images of the object. Then, after image processing, feature extraction, stereo correspondence and reconstruction, three-dimensional information of laser stripes and self-luminous markers are calculated. Besides, a pose solution method based on projected laser stripes and self-luminous markers is proposed. Finally, simulation experiments on measuring the position and attitude of high-speed rolling targets are conducted, as well as accuracy verification experiments. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method is feasible and efficient for measuring the pose parameters of rolling targets in wind tunnels.

The Challenges of Career and Technical Education Concurrent Enrollment: An Administrative Perspective

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Haag, Patricia W.

2015-01-01

Career and technical education concurrent enrollment may pose unique challenges in programming and enrollment for program administrators, and this chapter describes the experiences and challenges of a CTE concurrent enrollment administrator.

Sustained employability of workers in a production environment: design of a stepped wedge trial to evaluate effectiveness and cost-benefit of the POSE program.

Science.gov (United States)

van Holland, Berry J; de Boer, Michiel R; Brouwer, Sandra; Soer, Remko; Reneman, Michiel F

2012-11-20

Sustained employability and health are generating awareness of employers in an aging and more complex work force. To meet these needs, employers may offer their employees health surveillance programs, to increase opportunities to work on health and sustained employability. However, evidence for these health surveillance programs is lacking. The FLESH study (Functional Labour Evaluation for Sustained Health and employment) was developed to evaluate a comprehensive workers' health promotion program on its effectiveness, cost-benefit, and process of the intervention. The study is designed as a cluster randomised stepped wedge trial with randomisation at company plant level and is carried out in a large meat processing company. Every contracted employee is offered the opportunity to participate in the POSE program (Promotion Of Sustained Employability). The main goals of the POSE program are 1) providing employee's insight into their current employability and health status, 2) offering opportunities to improve employability and decrease health risks and 3) improving employability and health sustainably in order to keep them healthy at work. The program consists of a broad assessment followed by a counselling session and, if needed, a tailored intervention. Measurements will be performed at baseline and will be followed up at 20, 40, 60, 80, 106 and 132 weeks. The primary outcome measures are work ability, productivity and absenteeism. Secondary outcomes include health status, vitality, and psychosocial workload. A cost-benefit study will be conducted from the employers' perspective. A process evaluation will be conducted and the satisfaction of employer and employees with the program will be assessed. This study provides information on the effectiveness of the POSE program on sustained employment. When the program proves to be effective, employees benefit by improved work ability, and health. Employers benefit from healthier employees, reduced sick leave (costs) and

"Do your homework…and then hope for the best": the challenges that medical tourism poses to Canadian family physicians' support of patients' informed decision-making.

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

2013-09-22

Medical tourism-the practice where patients travel internationally to privately access medical care-may limit patients' regular physicians' abilities to contribute to the informed decision-making process. We address this issue by examining ways in which Canadian family doctors' typical involvement in patients' informed decision-making is challenged when their patients engage in medical tourism. Focus groups were held with family physicians practicing in British Columbia, Canada. After receiving ethics approval, letters of invitation were faxed to family physicians in six cities. 22 physicians agreed to participate and focus groups ranged from two to six participants. Questions explored participants' perceptions of and experiences with medical tourism. A coding scheme was created using inductive and deductive codes that captured issues central to analytic themes identified by the investigators. Extracts of the coded data that dealt with informed decision-making were shared among the investigators in order to identify themes. Four themes were identified, all of which dealt with the challenges that medical tourism poses to family physicians' abilities to support medical tourists' informed decision-making. Findings relevant to each theme were contrasted against the existing medical tourism literature so as to assist in understanding their significance. Four key challenges were identified: 1) confusion and tensions related to the regular domestic physician's role in decision-making; 2) tendency to shift responsibility related to healthcare outcomes onto the patient because of the regular domestic physician's reduced role in shared decision-making; 3) strains on the patient-physician relationship and corresponding concern around the responsibility of the foreign physician; and 4) regular domestic physicians' concerns that treatments sought abroad may not be based on the best available medical evidence on treatment efficacy. Medical tourism is creating new challenges for

Food, Populations and Health — global Patterns and Challenges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2016-01-01

The present volume is based on presentations at a symposium at the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in September 2014 with the title Food, Population and Health – global Patterns and Challenges. Food has played a fundamental role in the history of all societies over the World. Availab...

Public health education in Saudi Arabia: Needs and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Mahmoud, Mahmoud Abdulrahman; Al-Zalabani, Abdulmohsen H; Bin Abdulrahman, Khalid A

2016-01-01

In the last decade, public health (PH) has come to the frontlines in Saudi Arabia. The recent outbreak of a novel corona virus (MERS-CoV) highlighted the importance of PH services and the need for a competent PH workforce. The urgency and panic induced by infectious disease outbreaks explain the heightened interest. Decision makers' interest in public health was observed through a series of decisions, including creating a position for Deputy Minister for Public Health, changing the name of "Directorate of Primary Healthcare Centers" to "Directorate of Public Health" in all health regions and initiating a special scholarship program to prepare health administration professionals in collaboration with US-based universities. A distinguished group of PH leaders in Saudi Arabia was gathered in a structured workshop that was organized by the Al Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, college of medicine to discuss the current status and future needs of PH education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The workshop highlighted the need for PH education development and outlined the challenges ahead. The main challenges laid out by participants in the workshop were the development of an appropriate PH curriculum, appropriate training spots for practical placement, the development of research priorities for PH to satisfy the needs of PH programs and agencies, attracting the most qualified academic staff, the enrolment of highly motivated students and finally, the establishment of a quality assurance program to ensure the quality of PH education programs. The development of a framework for graduate competencies in PH was perceived to be a top priority. Moreover, setting a PH workforce surveillance system, building partnership between PH academic institutions and PH services providers, implementing national campaigns to explain what PH is about and illuminating the role of PH workers were also of utmost importance.

Compensating Pose Uncertainties through Appropriate Gripper Finger Cutouts

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Wolniakowski Adam

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The gripper finger design is a recurring problem in many robotic grasping platforms used in industry. The task of switching the gripper configuration to accommodate for a new batch of objects typically requires engineering expertise, and is a lengthy and costly iterative trial-and-error process. One of the open challenges is the need for the gripper to compensate for uncertainties inherent to the workcell, e.g. due to errors in calibration, inaccurate pose estimation from the vision system, or object deformation. In this paper, we present an analysis of gripper uncertainty compensating capabilities in a sample industrial object grasping scenario for a finger that was designed using an automated simulation-based geometry optimization method (Wolniakowski et al., 2013, 2015. We test the developed gripper with a set of grasps subjected to structured perturbation in a simulation environment and in the real-world setting. We provide a comparison of the data obtained by using both of these approaches. We argue that the strong correspondence observed in results validates the use of dynamic simulation for the gripper finger design and optimization.

Health in Southeast Asia 6 Health-financing reforms in southeast Asia: challenges in achieving universal coverage

OpenAIRE

Tangcharoensathien, V; Patcharanarumol, W; Ir, P; Aljunid, SM; Mukti, AG; Akkhavong, K; Banzon, E; Huong, DB; Thabrany, H; Mills, A

2011-01-01

In this sixth paper of the Series, we review health-financing reforms in seven countries in southeast Asia that have sought to reduce dependence on out-of-pocket payments, increase pooled health finance, and expand service use as steps towards universal coverage. Laos and Cambodia, both resource-poor countries, have mostly relied on donor-supported health equity funds to reach the poor, and reliable funding and appropriate identification of the eligible poor are two major challenges for natio...

Point Cloud Based Relative Pose Estimation of a Satellite in Close Range

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lujiang Liu

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Determination of the relative pose of satellites is essential in space rendezvous operations and on-orbit servicing missions. The key problems are the adoption of suitable sensor on board of a chaser and efficient techniques for pose estimation. This paper aims to estimate the pose of a target satellite in close range on the basis of its known model by using point cloud data generated by a flash LIDAR sensor. A novel model based pose estimation method is proposed; it includes a fast and reliable pose initial acquisition method based on global optimal searching by processing the dense point cloud data directly, and a pose tracking method based on Iterative Closest Point algorithm. Also, a simulation system is presented in this paper in order to evaluate the performance of the sensor and generate simulated sensor point cloud data. It also provides truth pose of the test target so that the pose estimation error can be quantified. To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and achievable pose accuracy, numerical simulation experiments are performed; results demonstrate algorithm capability of operating with point cloud directly and large pose variations. Also, a field testing experiment is conducted and results show that the proposed method is effective.

Creativity of Field-dependent and Field-independent Students in Posing Mathematical Problems

Science.gov (United States)

Azlina, N.; Amin, S. M.; Lukito, A.

2018-01-01

This study aims at describing the creativity of elementary school students with different cognitive styles in mathematical problem-posing. The posed problems were assessed based on three components of creativity, namely fluency, flexibility, and novelty. The free-type problem posing was used in this study. This study is a descriptive research with qualitative approach. Data collections were conducted through written task and task-based interviews. The subjects were two elementary students. One of them is Field Dependent (FD) and the other is Field Independent (FI) which were measured by GEFT (Group Embedded Figures Test). Further, the data were analyzed based on creativity components. The results show thatFD student’s posed problems have fulfilled the two components of creativity namely fluency, in which the subject posed at least 3 mathematical problems, and flexibility, in whichthe subject posed problems with at least 3 different categories/ideas. Meanwhile,FI student’s posed problems have fulfilled all three components of creativity, namely fluency, in which thesubject posed at least 3 mathematical problems, flexibility, in which thesubject posed problems with at least 3 different categories/ideas, and novelty, in which the subject posed problems that are purely the result of her own ideas and different from problems they have known.

eHealth in Saudi Arabia: Current Trends, Challenges and Recommendations.

Science.gov (United States)

Alsulame, Khaled; Khalifa, Mohamed; Househ, Mowafa

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to explore the current status of eHealth in Saudi Arabia from the perspective of health informatics professionals. We used a case study approach and analyzed participant data using thematic analysis. The study took place between July and August 2013. Data collection included interviews with nine senior health information professionals in Saudi Arabia. The findings describe participant views on current eHealth trends in Saudi Arabia and show differences among Saudi healthcare organizations in terms of eHealth adoption. Participants also describe the challenges relating to organizational and cultural issues, end user attitudes towards eHealth projects, and the lack of specialized human resources to implement eHealth systems. Two main recommendations made by the participants were to form a new national body for eHealth and to develop a unified plan for the implementation of Saudi eHealth initiatives.

Key challenges of human resources for health in India

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Priya Sinha

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Background and Objective Since independence the efforts have been to strengthen the health infrastructure, its accessibility and coverage. The human resources for health have been an important determinant for system but it has received significance recently. Even government expenditure on health has remained at not more than 1% of Gross Domestic Product which is very less as compared to world standard. Now the biggest challenge is the shortage of skilled human resource for health at all levels in the healthcare delivery system. The article aimed at understanding the current status of human resources for health and initiatives adopted to deal with existing shortage and to highlight factors leading to further shortage and to bring to notice the use of talent management strategy as a retention tool. Review Methodology The review used descriptive research design using secondary sources from journals-articles using key words. The study also used exclusion and inclusion criteria to select the articles. The study was done using extensive review of literature on health sector, health workforce, its availability and scarcity due to attrition/emigration in India. The critical review helped in setting objective for the study. Findings The review of articles provided insight into the current status of health workforce in India. The earlier studies emphasized that gap between demand and supply of human resource for health is mainly due to increasing population and burden of diseases. Studies have now identified other factors leading to further shortage as attrition/emigration of skilled health workforce. Most of the initiatives are mainly directed towards increasing supply of human resources for health to deal with the scarcity and less emphasis to control attrition. Few studies highlighted the use of talent management strategy to deal with the challenges of attrition and emigration that helps in retention and controlling further shortage. Recommendations

Mental health and disorders. Editorial.

Science.gov (United States)

Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich

2014-01-01

Mental health and mental disorders pose a tremendous challenge to the societal, health, and research policies in Europe, and sound advice is needed on a potential strategy for mental health research investment. Toward this goal, the ROAMER initiative ("Roadmap for Mental Health Research in Europe") was launched to map the current state of the art, to identify gaps and to delineate advances needed in various areas and domains of mental health research in Europe. To further stimulate discussions among the scientific community and stakeholders on how to improve mental health research and to promote an improved research agenda for the next decade, this IJMPR topic issue presents the overall ROAMER methodology as well as a series of selected papers highlighting critical issues of psychological approaches and interventions as outcomes of the ROAMER work package 5 "Psychological research and treatments". Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Is supergravity well-posed?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Isenberg, J.; Bao, D.; Yasskin, P.B.

1983-01-01

One rather fundamental question concerning supergravity remains unresolved: Is supergravity a well-posed field theory? That is, does a set of certain (Cauchy) data specified on some initial spacelike surface determine a unique, causally propagating spacetime solution of the supergravity field equations (at least in some finite neighborhood of the initial surface)? In this paper, the authors give a very brief report on work directed towards answering this question. (Auth.)

Spontaneous and posed facial expression in Parkinson's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, M C; Smith, M K; Ellgring, H

1996-09-01

Spontaneous and posed emotional facial expressions in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD, n = 12) were compared with those of healthy age-matched controls (n = 12). The intensity and amount of facial expression in PD patients were expected to be reduced for spontaneous but not posed expressions. Emotional stimuli were video clips selected from films, 2-5 min in duration, designed to elicit feelings of happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, or anger. Facial movements were coded using Ekman and Friesen's (1978) Facial Action Coding System (FACS). In addition, participants rated their emotional experience on 9-point Likert scales. The PD group showed significantly less overall facial reactivity than did controls when viewing the films. The predicted Group X Condition (spontaneous vs. posed) interaction effect on smile intensity was found when PD participants with more severe disease were compared with those with milder disease and with controls. In contrast, ratings of emotional experience were similar for both groups. Depression was positively associated with emotion rating but not with measures of facial activity. Spontaneous facial expression appears to be selectively affected in PD, whereas posed expression and emotional experience remain relatively intact.

Multisectoral Actions for Health: Challenges and Opportunities in Complex Policy Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Viroj Tangcharoensathien

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Multisectoral actions for health, defined as actions undertaken by non-health sectors to protect the health of the population, are essential in the context of inter-linkages between three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental. These multisectoral actions can address the social and economic factors that influence the health of a population at the local, national, and global levels. This editorial identifies the challenges, opportunities and capacity development for effective multisectoral actions for health in a complex policy environment. The root causes of the challenges lie in poor governance such as entrenched political and administrative corruption, widespread clientelism, lack of citizen voice, weak social capital, lack of trust and lack of respect for human rights. This is further complicated by the lack of government effectiveness caused by poor capacity for strong public financial management and low levels of transparency and accountability which leads to corruption. The absence of or rapid changes in government policies, and low salary in relation to living standards result in migration out of qualified staff. Tobacco, alcohol and sugary drink industries are major risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs and had interfered with health policy through regulatory capture and potential law suits against the government. Opportunities still exist. Some World Health Assembly (WHA and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA resolutions are both considered as external driving forces for intersectoral actions for health. In addition, Thailand National Health Assembly under the National Health Act is another tool providing opportunity to form trust among stakeholders from different sectors.

Employee health services integration: meeting the challenge. Successful program.

Science.gov (United States)

Lang, Y C

1998-02-01

1. The first step of a successful Employee Health Service integration is to have a plan supported by management. The plan must be presented to the employees prior to implementation in a "user friendly" manner. 2. Prior to computerization of employee health records, a record order system must be developed to prevent duplication and to enhance organization. 3. Consistency of services offered must be maintained. Each employee must have the opportunity to receive the same service. Complexity of services will determine the site of delivery. 4. Integration is a new and challenging development for the health care field. Flexibility and brainstorming are necessary in an attempt to meet both employee and employer needs.

Mobile Network Data for Public-Health: Opportunities and Challenges

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Nuria eOliver

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The ubiquity of mobile phones worldwide is generating an unprecedented amount of human behavioral data both at an individual and aggregated levels. The study of this data as a rich source of information about human behavior emerged almost a decade ago. Since then it has grown into a fertile area of research named computational social sciences with a wide variety of applications in different fields such as social networks, urban and transport planning, economic development, emergency relief and, recently, public health. In this paper we briefly describe the state of the art on using mobile phone data for public health, and present the opportunities and challenges that this kind of data presents for public health.

Mobile Network Data for Public Health: Opportunities and Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Oliver, Nuria; Matic, Aleksandar; Frias-Martinez, Enrique

2015-01-01

The ubiquity of mobile phones worldwide is generating an unprecedented amount of human behavioral data both at an individual and aggregated levels. The study of this data as a rich source of information about human behavior emerged almost a decade ago. Since then, it has grown into a fertile area of research named computational social sciences with a wide variety of applications in different fields such as social networks, urban and transport planning, economic development, emergency relief, and, recently, public health. In this paper, we briefly describe the state of the art on using mobile phone data for public health, and present the opportunities and challenges that this kind of data presents for public health. PMID:26301211

Challenges and priorities for modelling livestock health and pathogens in the context of climate change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Özkan, Şeyda [Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Biosciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Post Box 5003, Ås 1430 (Norway); Vitali, Andrea; Lacetera, Nicola [University of Tuscia, Department of Agriculture and Forestry Science (DAFNE), Via San Camillo De Lellis, snc, Viterbo 01100 (Italy); Amon, Barbara [Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim (ATB), Max-Eyth-Allee 100, Potsdam 14469 (Germany); Bannink, André [Wageningen UR Livestock Research, P.O. Box 338, Wageningen 6700 AH (Netherlands); Bartley, Dave J. [Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik EH26 0PZ (United Kingdom); Blanco-Penedo, Isabel [Animal Welfare Subprogram, IRTA, Veinat de Sies s/n, Monells, Girona 17121 (Spain); Haas, Yvette de [Wageningen UR Livestock Research, P.O. Box 338, Wageningen 6700 AH (Netherlands); Dufrasne, Isabelle [Nutrition Unit, Animal Production Department, Veterinary Faculty, University of Liège, Boulevard de Colonster 20, Bât. B43, Liège 4000 (Belgium); Elliott, John [ADAS UK Ltd, 4205 Park Approach, Thorpe Park, Leeds LS15 8GB (United Kingdom); Eory, Vera [Scotland' s Rural College (SRUC), Peter Wilson Building, Kings Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG (United Kingdom); Fox, Naomi J. [Scotland' s Rural College (SRUC), Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Roslin Institute Building, Easter Bush, Midlothian EH25 9RG (United Kingdom); Garnsworthy, Phil C. [University of Nottingham, School of Biosciences, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough LE12 5RD (United Kingdom); and others

2016-11-15

Climate change has the potential to impair livestock health, with consequences for animal welfare, productivity, greenhouse gas emissions, and human livelihoods and health. Modelling has an important role in assessing the impacts of climate change on livestock systems and the efficacy of potential adaptation strategies, to support decision making for more efficient, resilient and sustainable production. However, a coherent set of challenges and research priorities for modelling livestock health and pathogens under climate change has not previously been available. To identify such challenges and priorities, researchers from across Europe were engaged in a horizon-scanning study, involving workshop and questionnaire based exercises and focussed literature reviews. Eighteen key challenges were identified and grouped into six categories based on subject-specific and capacity building requirements. Across a number of challenges, the need for inventories relating model types to different applications (e.g. the pathogen species, region, scale of focus and purpose to which they can be applied) was identified, in order to identify gaps in capability in relation to the impacts of climate change on animal health. The need for collaboration and learning across disciplines was highlighted in several challenges, e.g. to better understand and model complex ecological interactions between pathogens, vectors, wildlife hosts and livestock in the context of climate change. Collaboration between socio-economic and biophysical disciplines was seen as important for better engagement with stakeholders and for improved modelling of the costs and benefits of poor livestock health. The need for more comprehensive validation of empirical relationships, for harmonising terminology and measurements, and for building capacity for under-researched nations, systems and health problems indicated the importance of joined up approaches across nations. The challenges and priorities identified can

Challenges and priorities for modelling livestock health and pathogens in the context of climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Özkan, Şeyda; Vitali, Andrea; Lacetera, Nicola; Amon, Barbara; Bannink, André; Bartley, Dave J.; Blanco-Penedo, Isabel; Haas, Yvette de; Dufrasne, Isabelle; Elliott, John; Eory, Vera; Fox, Naomi J.; Garnsworthy, Phil C.

2016-01-01

Climate change has the potential to impair livestock health, with consequences for animal welfare, productivity, greenhouse gas emissions, and human livelihoods and health. Modelling has an important role in assessing the impacts of climate change on livestock systems and the efficacy of potential adaptation strategies, to support decision making for more efficient, resilient and sustainable production. However, a coherent set of challenges and research priorities for modelling livestock health and pathogens under climate change has not previously been available. To identify such challenges and priorities, researchers from across Europe were engaged in a horizon-scanning study, involving workshop and questionnaire based exercises and focussed literature reviews. Eighteen key challenges were identified and grouped into six categories based on subject-specific and capacity building requirements. Across a number of challenges, the need for inventories relating model types to different applications (e.g. the pathogen species, region, scale of focus and purpose to which they can be applied) was identified, in order to identify gaps in capability in relation to the impacts of climate change on animal health. The need for collaboration and learning across disciplines was highlighted in several challenges, e.g. to better understand and model complex ecological interactions between pathogens, vectors, wildlife hosts and livestock in the context of climate change. Collaboration between socio-economic and biophysical disciplines was seen as important for better engagement with stakeholders and for improved modelling of the costs and benefits of poor livestock health. The need for more comprehensive validation of empirical relationships, for harmonising terminology and measurements, and for building capacity for under-researched nations, systems and health problems indicated the importance of joined up approaches across nations. The challenges and priorities identified can

Analysis of the mass media coverage of the Gates Foundation grand challenges in global health initiative.

Science.gov (United States)

Verma, G

2009-03-01

The Grand Challenges were launched in 2003 by the Gates Foundation and other collaborators to address the health needs of developing countries. This paper outlines the current problem with health research and development in the context of inequality as conveyed by the 90/10 divide. The paper then looks at the focus and nature of press reporting of global health issues by analysing how press articles have portrayed the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. Analysis of the mass media illustrates that the focus of reporting on the Grand Challenges tends to be on utilitarian themes, leaving issues related to justice and equity comparatively under-reported.

76 FR 66306 - Announcement of Requirements and Registration for Leading Health Indicators App Challenge

Science.gov (United States)

2011-10-26

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Announcement of Requirements and Registration for Leading... People 2020 leading health indicators (LHIs). The LHIs were developed to communicate high-priority health... , 240-453-6113. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Subject of Challenge Competition: Leading Health Indicators...

Lessons learned in induced fit docking and metadynamics in the Drug Design Data Resource Grand Challenge 2

Science.gov (United States)

Baumgartner, Matthew P.; Evans, David A.

2018-01-01

Two of the major ongoing challenges in computational drug discovery are predicting the binding pose and affinity of a compound to a protein. The Drug Design Data Resource Grand Challenge 2 was developed to address these problems and to drive development of new methods. The challenge provided the 2D structures of compounds for which the organizers help blinded data in the form of 35 X-ray crystal structures and 102 binding affinity measurements and challenged participants to predict the binding pose and affinity of the compounds. We tested a number of pose prediction methods as part of the challenge; we found that docking methods that incorporate protein flexibility (Induced Fit Docking) outperformed methods that treated the protein as rigid. We also found that using binding pose metadynamics, a molecular dynamics based method, to score docked poses provided the best predictions of our methods with an average RMSD of 2.01 Å. We tested both structure-based (e.g. docking) and ligand-based methods (e.g. QSAR) in the affinity prediction portion of the competition. We found that our structure-based methods based on docking with Smina (Spearman ρ = 0.614), performed slightly better than our ligand-based methods (ρ = 0.543), and had equivalent performance with the other top methods in the competition. Despite the overall good performance of our methods in comparison to other participants in the challenge, there exists significant room for improvement especially in cases such as these where protein flexibility plays such a large role.

Enhancing the Career Planning Self-Determination of Young Adults with Mental Health Challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Sowers, Jo-Ann; Swank, Paul

2017-01-01

The impact of an intervention on the self-determination and career planning engagement of young adults with mental health challenges was studied. Sixty-seven young adults, 20 to 30 years of age, with mental health diagnoses (e.g., depression, bipolar disorder) were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Statistically significant greater increases were made by the intervention group versus the control group for self-determination and career planning engagement, and self-determination at least partially mediated increases in career planning engagement. With career planning self-determination interventions, young adults with mental health challenges might be able to achieve better career and life outcomes than is typical for this population.

Public health engineering education in India: current scenario, opportunities and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Hussain, Mohammad Akhtar; Sharma, Kavya; Zodpey, Sanjay

2011-01-01

Public health engineering can play an important and significant role in solving environmental health issues. In order to confront public health challenges emerging out of environmental problems we need adequately trained public health engineers / environmental engineers. Considering the current burden of disease attributable to environmental factors and expansion in scope of applications of public health / environmental engineering science, it is essential to understand the present scenario of teaching, training and capacity building programs in these areas. Against this background the present research was carried out to know the current teaching and training programs in public health engineering and related disciplines in India and to understand the potential opportunities and challenges available. A systematic, predefined approach was used to collect and assemble the data related to various teaching and training programs in public health engineering / environmental engineering in India. Public health engineering / environmental engineering education and training in the country is mainly offered through engineering institutions, as pre-service and in-service training. Pre-service programs include diploma, degree (graduate) and post-graduate courses affiliated to various state technical boards, institutes and universities, whereas in-service training is mainly provided by Government of India recognized engineering and public health training institutes. Though trainees of these programs acquire skills related to engineering sciences, they significantly lack in public health skills. The teaching and training of public health engineering / environmental engineering is limited as a part of public health programs (MD Community Medicine, MPH, DPH) in India. There is need for developing teaching and training of public health engineering or environmental engineering as an interdisciplinary subject. Public health institutes can play an important and significant role in this

mHealth For Aging China: Opportunities and Challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Jing; Guo, Yutao; Wang, Xiaoning; Zeng, Qiang

2016-01-01

The aging population with chronic and age-related diseases has become a global issue and exerted heavy burdens on the healthcare system and society. Neurological diseases are the leading chronic diseases in the geriatric population, and stroke is the leading cause of death in China. However, the uneven distribution of caregivers and critical healthcare workforce shortages are major obstacles to improving disease outcome. With the advancement of wearable health devices, cloud computing, mobile technologies and Internet of Things, mobile health (mHealth) is rapidly developing and shows a promising future in the management of chronic diseases. Its advantages include its ability to improve the quality of care, reduce the costs of care, and improve treatment outcomes by transferring in-hospital treatment to patient-centered medical treatment at home. mHealth could also enhance the international cooperation of medical providers in different time zones and the sharing of high-quality medical service resources between developed and developing countries. In this review, we focus on trends in mHealth and its clinical applications for the prevention and treatment of diseases, especially aging-related neurological diseases, and on the opportunities and challenges of mHealth in China. Operating models of mHealth in disease management are proposed; these models may benefit those who work within the mHealth system in developing countries and developed countries.

Emerging arboviruses and public health challenges in Brazil

OpenAIRE

Lima-Camara,Tamara Nunes

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT Environmental modification by anthropogenic actions, disordered urban growth, globalization of international exchange and climate change are some factors that help the emergence and dissemination of human infectious diseases transmitted by vectors. This review discusses the recent entry of three arboviruses in Brazil: Chikungunya, West Nile, and Zika virus, focusing on the challenges for the Country’s public health. The Brazilian population is exposed to infections caused by th...

Managing the pursuit of health and wealth: the key challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Fidler, David P; Drager, Nick; Lee, Kelley

2009-01-24

This article forms part of a six-part Series on trade and health, and sets the stage for this Series by analysing key aspects of the relationship between trade and health. The Series takes stock of this relation and provides timely analysis of the key challenges facing efforts to achieve an appropriate balance between trade and health across a diverse range of issues. This introductory article reviews how trade and health have risen and expanded on global policy agendas in the past decade in unprecedented ways, describes how trade and health issues are respectively governed in international relations, examines the ongoing search for policy coherence between the two policy spheres, and highlights the topics of the remaining articles in the Series.

Challenges to studying the health effects of early life environmental chemical exposures on children's health.

Science.gov (United States)

Braun, Joseph M; Gray, Kimberly

2017-12-01

Epidemiological studies play an important role in quantifying how early life environmental chemical exposures influence the risk of childhood diseases. These studies face at least four major challenges that can produce noise when trying to identify signals of associations between chemical exposure and childhood health. Challenges include accurately estimating chemical exposure, confounding from causes of both exposure and disease, identifying periods of heightened vulnerability to chemical exposures, and determining the effects of chemical mixtures. We provide recommendations that will aid in identifying these signals with more precision.

A proof challenge: multiple alignment and information compression

OpenAIRE

Wolff, J Gerard

2014-01-01

These notes pose a "proof challenge": a proof, or disproof, of the proposition that "For any given body of information, I, expressed as a one-dimensional sequence of atomic symbols, a multiple alignment concept, described in the document, provides a means of encoding all the redundancy that may exist in I. Aspects of the challenge are described.

[Sustainability and excellence of the Catalan health system. New paradigms, challenges and responses].

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández i Alegre, Roser; Argenter i Giralt, Miquel; Rodríguez i Guasch, Xavier

2015-11-01

The aim of a health system and the priority of any government is to anticipate problems before they appear, provide an innovative response to these new needs and healthcare models, improve access of the general public and patients to health care, especially care for the most vulnerable groups, improve healthcare results and implement the structural reforms necessary to maintain a viable and sustainable quality public healthcare system for everyone. In the current environment, health systems are facing new economic, demographic, care, social, technological and political paradigms to which health policy must respond. Faced with these challenges, health systems, especially in the case of Catalonia, are challenged to take decisions on how best to approach the implementation of structural reform designed to facilitate the necessary economic and fiscal sustainability in the service of fresh and innovative health policies and patient-centred care within a system marked by excellence and equity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Challenges in oral drug delivery in patients with esophageal dysphagia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kappelle, W.F.; Siersema, P.D.; Bogte, A.; Vleggaar, F.P.

2016-01-01

INTRODUCTION: Esophageal dysphagia is a commonly reported symptom with various benign and malignant causes. Esophageal dysphagia can impede intake of oral medication, which often poses a major challenge for both patients and physicians. The best way to address this challenge depends of the cause of

Cellular phones were found to pose no health risks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Puranen, L.

1997-01-01

A cellular phone emits radiation very close to a person's head. Any harmful effects that might arise from the use of cellular phones are being studied carefully, but so far no health risks have been determined. However, the phones may interfere with the operation of electrical devices located close-by, such as a cardiac pacemaker. The biological effects of the microwaves emitted by cellular phones might be based on the resultant higher temperatures in the tissues of the head. Since, even in the worst cases, a cellular phone cannot raise the temperature of tissues by more than some tenths of a degree, no health risks based on thermal effects can be attributed to the use of a cellular phone. No reliable theory has been presented for the non-thermal effects of microwaves. Such effects may exist, however. The studies conducted so far have been unable to show that these effects might be harmful to human health. (orig.)

A Perspective on Smart Process Manufacturing Research Challenges for Process Systems Engineers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ian David Lockhart Bogle

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The challenges posed by smart manufacturing for the process industries and for process systems engineering (PSE researchers are discussed in this article. Much progress has been made in achieving plant- and site-wide optimization, but benchmarking would give greater confidence. Technical challenges confronting process systems engineers in developing enabling tools and techniques are discussed regarding flexibility and uncertainty, responsiveness and agility, robustness and security, the prediction of mixture properties and function, and new modeling and mathematics paradigms. Exploiting intelligence from big data to drive agility will require tackling new challenges, such as how to ensure the consistency and confidentiality of data through long and complex supply chains. Modeling challenges also exist, and involve ensuring that all key aspects are properly modeled, particularly where health, safety, and environmental concerns require accurate predictions of small but critical amounts at specific locations. Environmental concerns will require us to keep a closer track on all molecular species so that they are optimally used to create sustainable solutions. Disruptive business models may result, particularly from new personalized products, but that is difficult to predict.

special article child health: past, present and future challenges

African Journals Online (AJOL)

among other things at ... in the planning of the new extensions to Korle Bu ... one ward (ward M) housed all the paediatric pa- ... Health Care Delivery to children by the Women Medi- .... Street, London to try to learn some paediatrics. ... career. Times indeed have changed, but there will al- ways be personal challenges for ...

Oral Health Challenges for Sub-Saharan Africa | Danfillo | Nigerian ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Oral Health Challenges for Sub-Saharan Africa. IS Danfillo. Abstract. No Abstract. Full Text: EMAIL FULL TEXT EMAIL FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT · AJOL African Journals Online. HOW TO USE AJOL... for Researchers · for Librarians · for Authors · FAQ's · More about AJOL · AJOL's ...

Women in the Teaching Profession: Impacts and Challenges

OpenAIRE

A. M. Sultana; Norhirdawati. M. Zahir; Norzalan. H. Yaacob

2014-01-01

Recently in Malaysia, women's participation in teaching profession has increased. The increasing trend of women’s participation in the teaching profession poses challenges in families, especially in the developing countries like Malaysia. One of these challenges, concerns in balancing their role between family and job responsibility that faced by many women teachers. The purpose of this study is to discover how women teachers' impact on family happiness and the challenges faced by them in bal...

Multi-Task Convolutional Neural Network for Pose-Invariant Face Recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Xi; Liu, Xiaoming

2018-02-01

This paper explores multi-task learning (MTL) for face recognition. We answer the questions of how and why MTL can improve the face recognition performance. First, we propose a multi-task Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for face recognition where identity classification is the main task and pose, illumination, and expression estimations are the side tasks. Second, we develop a dynamic-weighting scheme to automatically assign the loss weight to each side task, which is a crucial problem in MTL. Third, we propose a pose-directed multi-task CNN by grouping different poses to learn pose-specific identity features, simultaneously across all poses. Last but not least, we propose an energy-based weight analysis method to explore how CNN-based MTL works. We observe that the side tasks serve as regularizations to disentangle the variations from the learnt identity features. Extensive experiments on the entire Multi-PIE dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work using all data in Multi-PIE for face recognition. Our approach is also applicable to in-the-wild datasets for pose-invariant face recognition and achieves comparable or better performance than state of the art on LFW, CFP, and IJB-A datasets.

Mental health system governance in Nigeria: challenges, opportunities and strategies for improvement.