69 research outputs found
Parasitic copepods from Egyptian Red Sea fishes: Bomolochidae Claus, 1875
No full text© The Author(s) 2015
Open Access - This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The attached file is the published version of the article.NHM Repositor
Development of the Zimbabwe family planning program
No full textFamily planning was introduced in Zimbabwe as a voluntary movement in the 1950s. Volunteers formed a Family Planning Association in the mid-1960s. The government became interested in family planning in the late 1960s after analysis of the 1961 population census. It gave the Family Planning Association an annual grant, allowed contraceptives to be available through Ministry of Health facilities, and allowed nonmedical personnel to initiate and resupply family planning clients with condoms and pills. But before Zimbabwe achieved independence in 1980, family planning was viewed with great suspicion by the black majority, so the program's effectiveness was limited to the urban few. A new era began after independence. The new government took over theFamily Planning Association and changed its outlook completely. Through government and international donor support, the family planning program was restructured and expanded. The number of family planning personnel more than doubled in some units. More service delivery points were set up - particularly in rural areas. And the information, education, and communication and evaluation and research units were established. Through a World Bank-assisted project (with grant funding from Norway and Denmark), the Ministry of Health began strengthening its family planning capabilities. These efforts helped increase the contraceptive prevalence rate from about 14 percent in 1982 to 43 percent in 1988. But the program's growth is beginning to stall. More effort and resources are needed if the program is to grow or even maintain its present status. Particularly important are the following: designing innovative strategies to reach hard-to-reach populations; giving more emphasis to information, education, and communication, especially for men and youths, using multimedia; involving other sectors in the delivery of family planning services; broadening the mix of contraceptive methods (especially promoting long-term and permanent methods); making use of alternative family planning delivery systems, such as the use of depot holders, volunteers, and government extension workers; establishing a national population policy; and considering cost recovery and other measures for self-sustainment and program growth.Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,ICT Policy and Strategies,Gender and Health,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Adolescent Health
Pollution control in a decentralized economy : which level of government should subsidize what in Brazil
No full textSubsidies in Brazil essentially serve three purposes: (i) if assigned to the right level of government, they could reinforce the effectiveness of pollution taxes in reducing pollution; (ii) they offer an opportunity foradditional combinations of instruments and hence more flexibility in dealing with specific institutional characteristics of every state; and (iii) they can serve a purely"public relations"affect by showing that the federal government does not always rely on"sticks"but can also provide"carrots."The authors have four main messages of relevance to the Brazilian economy. First, carrots will not work without a stick. Subsidies of any type will not work without a coexisting pollution tax. Second, some carrots are better than others at achieving the government's objectives. In general, a state abatement subsidy is the more effective instrument to combine with a pollution tax. But when federal or state inspection capabilities are limited, monitoring subsidies may be an effective substitute. Third, increasing abatement subsidy rates can be counterproductive - tending to increase firm investment more than necessary and hence reduce the pollution tax base, while increasing subsidy costs. This can worsen the monitoring and inspection efforts and fiscal revenue. Finally, it is more effective to keep subsidy rates low if they are to be effective and sustainable and at the same time get the endorsement needed from state and federal fiscal administrations.Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Pollution Management&Control,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Taxation&Subsidies
Higher education in Egypt
No full textEgypt's policy on higher education, the author argues, must take account of the realities of declining government budgets and employment and increasing reliance on the private sector, which must become more competitive internationally. Education in Egypt must increase Egyptians'ability to cope with economic disequilibria: to respond quickly and effectively to changing technological and market opportunities. The Government of Egypt's strategy for achieving this goal is to stabilize the number of university students and raise the quality of instruction. This fundamentally sound strategy, pursued since the mid-1980s, has required considerable courage of policymakers, who are struggling to correct a longtime, inequitable misallocation of educational resources. The Nasser regime greatly expanded higher education and guaranteed jobs to university graduates. As a result of rapidly growing enrollment in the 1970s and 1980s, the quality of education seriously deteriorated. Classes are too big and resources too scarce for anything but professorial salaries, so learning amounts to little more than memorization and repetition. The system does not foster the development of synthesizing, problem-solving, or creative thinking abilities. And with tertiary institutions over-enrolled, academic success requires the use of tutors, whose fees are beyond the reach of students of modest means.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Teaching and Learning,Gender and Education,Tertiary Education
Why is there proportionately more enrollment in private schools in some countries?
No full textThe proportion of students enrolled in private rather than public schools varies greatly among countries. The author tries to explain (1) the systematically higher proportion of enrollment in private schools in developing countries than in developed countries, at the secondary level, and (2) the seemingly random variation across countries within a given level of education and stage of development. The author argues that differentiated demand and nonprofit supply - both of which stem from cultural heterogeneity, especially religious heterogeneity - are the major explanations for variations in the proportion of private education within a given stage of development and educational level. By contrast, the author hypothesizes that the proportionately heavy enrollment in private secondary schools in developing countries stems from limited public spending, which creates an excess demand from people who would prefer to use the public schools but are involuntarily excluded and pushed into the private sector. Limited public spending on secondary education, in turn, is modeled as a collective decision which is strongly influenced by the numerous families that opt for many children, and that consequently can only afford to invest small amounts in each child, in developing countries. The results of regressions that determine private-sector size recursively and simultaneously with public educational spending are consistent with these hypotheses.Economic Theory&Research,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Gender and Education,Inequality,Environmental Economics&Policies
Exploring Workflow Mechanisms and Task Allocation Strategies in Agile Software Teams
No full text© The Author(s) 2017. Task allocation is considered an important activity in software project management. However, the process of allocating tasks in agile software development teams has not received much attention in empirical research. Through a pilot study involving mixed open-ended and closed-ended interviews questions with 11 agile software practitioners working within a software development organization in India, we explain the process of task allocation as including three different mechanisms of workflow across teams: team-independent, team-dependent, and hybrid workflow; and five types of task allocation strategies: manager-driven, team-driven, individual-driven, manager-assisted and team-assisted. Knowing these workflow mechanisms and task allocation strategies will help software teams and project managers make more effective decisions around workflow and task allocation.https://www.agilealliance.org/xp2017VoR - Version of Recor
Promoting earthquake disaster mitigation in Lebanon through civic engagement
No full textPurpose: Civil society organizations (CSOs) in Lebanon are among the most active groups supporting community welfare and advocating for human rights and policy reform. However, these organizations still lack the basic awareness and commitment needed to expand their role in earthquake disaster risk reduction. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the exposure of Lebanon to destructive earthquakes and to address the urgent need for CSOs to expand its contribution in earthquake disaster risk reduction supporting public awareness programs and strategic mitigation plans. Design-methodology-approach: The paper sets out to alert CSOs about the seismic hazards of Lebanon and offers a discussion for an active engagement role of Lebanese CSOs in future earthquake disaster risk reduction. The focus is to outline a strategy that may facilitate the engagement of CSOs in building the resilience of Lebanese community against destructive earthquakes. Findings: The proposed strategic plan suggests a leading role of Lebanese universities that call for the establishment of a disaster mitigation coalition leading to CSOs active involvement and effective contribution in collaborating with government and private sector to enhance the resilience capacity of the Lebanese community against future earthquake events. Originality-value: The implication of the paper is beneficial to community leaders of Lebanon because it highlights the importance of direct engagement of CSOs in earthquake disaster risk reduction which has never been previously emphasized, evaluated or even discussed in the Lebanese studies. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.Aldrich D. P., 2008, JAPAN AKTUELL, V3, P81; Aldrich Daniel P., 2010, J HOMEL SECUR EMERG, V6, P1; Bennett J., 1995, M NEEDS NGO COORD PR, P118; d'Aspremont G., 2011, DEV CIVIL SOC LEBANO; De Silva DAM, 2007, DISASTERS, V31, P386, DOI 10.1111-j.0361-3666.2007.01015.x; Elias A, 2007, GEOLOGY, V35, P755, DOI 10.1130-G23631A.1; Escaleras M, 2007, PUBLIC CHOICE, V132, P209, DOI 10.1007-s11127-007-9148-y; Galey P., 2010, DAILY STAR, P2; Ghaus-Pasha A., 2005, 6 GLOB FOR REINV GOV, P24; Harajli M, 2002, J SEISMOL, V6, P257, DOI 10.1023-A:1015687602473; Kage Rieko, 2011, CIVIC ENGAGEMENT POS; Karam K., 2006, MOUVEMENT CIVIL AU L; Minamoto Y, 2010, DISASTER PREV MANAG, V19, P548, DOI 10.1108-09653561011091887; Nakagawa Y., 2004, INT J MASS EMERGENCI, V22, P5; OECD, 2008, COSTS IN KEY ENV CHA; Quarantelli EL, 1993, NAT HAZARDS, V8, P19, DOI 10.1007-BF00596233; Raphael Beverly, 1986, DISASTER STRIKES HDB; Sanderson D, 2008, ENVIRON URBAN, V20, P177, DOI 10.1177-0956247808089155; Schilderman T., 1993, J INT DEV, V5, P415, DOI 10.1002-jid.3380050407; Shaw R, 2004, DISASTERS, V28, P16, DOI 10.1111-j.0361-3666.2004.00241.x; Shaw R., 2006, DISASTER PREVENTION, V15, P5, DOI 10.1108-09653560610654202; Spence R, 2007, B EARTHQ ENG, V5, P139, DOI 10.1007-s10518-006-9028-8; Taylor A., 2012, DAILY STAR, P4; Teets JC, 2009, CHINA QUART, P330, DOI 10.1017-S0305741009000332; World Bank, 2000, WORLD DEV REP 2000 2; Zhao Y., 2009, CISE 2009 INT C, P1, DOI 10.1109-CLEOE-EQEC.2009.519167121
Metallothioneins and copper metabolism are candidate therapeutic targets in Huntington’s disease
No full textHD (Huntington's disease) is caused by a polyQ (polyglutamine) expansion in the huntingtin protein, which leads to protein misfolding and aggregation of this protein. Abnormal copper accumulation in the HD brain was first reported more than 15 years ago. Recent findings show that copper-regulatory genes are induced during HD and copper binds to an N-terminal fragment of huntingtin, supporting the involvement of abnormal copper metabolism in HD. We have demonstrated that in vitro copper accelerates the fibrillization of an N-terminal fragment of huntingtin with an expanded polyQ stretch (httExon1). As we found that copper also increases polyQ aggregation and toxicity in mammalian cells expressing httExon1, we investigated further whether overexpression of genes involved in copper metabolism, notably MTs (metallothioneins) known to bind copper, protect against httExon1 toxicity. Using a yeast model of HD, we have shown that overexpression of several genes involved in copper metabolism reduces polyQ-mediated toxicity. Overexpression of MT-3 in mammalian cells significantly reduced polyQ aggregation and toxicity. We propose that copper-binding and/or -chaperoning proteins, especially MTs, are potential therapeutic targets for HD
Sulforaphane protects against sodium valproate–induced acute liver injury
No full textDrug-induced hepatotoxicity is one of the most commonly encountered obstacles in the field of medical practice. Sodium valproate (VPA) is amongst many drugs with reported hepatotoxic effects. Sulforaphane (SFN) is a thiol compound of wide abundance in cruciferous plants and numerous reported therapeutic efficacies. The current investigation sheds light on the potential hepatoprotective effect of SFN against VPA-induced liver injury in rats. Twice daily I.P. VPA (700 mg/kg) for 7 days induced significant biochemical alterations and hepatic histopathological damage. SFN (0.5 mg/kg, orally) for 7 days significantly boosted liver functions biomarkers; it reduced serum ALT, AST and ALP and restored serum albumin concentration in a significant manner. Meanwhile, SFN significantly mitigated VPA-induced histopathological alterations. To highlight the mechanisms implicated in the observed hepatoprotective action, hepatic MDA and TNFÎą contents significantly declined with concomitant increase in hepatic haemoxygenase-1(HO-1) content and GSH concentration with SFN treatment. In conclusion; SFN can significantly ameliorate VPA-induced hepatotoxicity and liver injury mainly by direct association between antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the pdf file of the accepted manuscript may differ slightly from what is displayed on the item page. The information in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript reflects the original submission by the author
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