International Cooperation Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Recognizing the imperiled status of biodiversity and its benefit to human well-being, the world's governments committed in 2010 to take effective and urgent action to halt biodiversity loss through the Convention on Biological Diversity's "Aichi Targets". These targets, and many conservation programs, require monitoring to assess progress toward specific goals. However, comprehensive and easily understood information on biodiversity trends at appropriate spatial scales is often not available to the policy makers, managers, and scientists who require it. We surveyed conservation stakeholders in three geographically diverse regions of critical biodiversity concern (the Tropical Andes, the African Great Lakes, and the Greater Mekong) and found high demand for biodiversity indicator information but uneven availability. To begin to address this need, we present a biodiversity "dashboard"--a visualization of biodiversity indicators designed to enable tracking o...

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- Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Biology

The use of sonar by military vessels during military exercises may produce acoustic pollution of the marine environment. States have an obligation under international law to reduce and control this form of pollution. Regulation of the use of sonar is rendered more complex by the specific regime applicable to warships, i.e. sovereign immunity. Immunity however does not prevent in all cases action by States other than the flag State, notwithstanding the limitations imposed by Art. 236 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. More importantly, immunity does not prevent the flag State from taking measures to reduce pollution caused by its own warships. Under some environmental treaties, flag States not only may, but have the obligation to adopt measures.

- by Irini Papanicolopulu
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- Acoustics, Environmental policy, United Nations, International Cooperation

In the past 8 years, both the International Working Group (IWG) and the US National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association have contributed criteria for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) that better define clinical phenotypes and integrate biomarkers into the diagnostic process, covering the full staging of the disease. This Position Paper considers the strengths and limitations of the IWG research diagnostic criteria and proposes advances to improve the diagnostic framework. On the basis of these refinements, the diagnosis of AD can be simplified, requiring the presence of an appropriate clinical AD phenotype (typical or atypical) and a pathophysiological biomarker consistent with the presence of Alzheimer's pathology. We propose that downstream topographical biomarkers of the disease, such as volumetric MRI and fluorodeoxyglucose PET, might better serve in the measurement and monitoring of the course of disease. This paper also elaborates on the specific di...

- by Marie Sarazin and +2
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- International Cooperation, Humans, Phenotype, Clinical Sciences

The application of chemical-specific toxicokinetic or toxicodynamic data to address interspecies differences and human variability in the quantification of hazard has potential to reduce uncertainty and better characterize variability compared with the use of traditional default or categorically-based uncertainty factors. The present review summarizes the state-of-the-science since the introduction of the World Health Organization/International Programme on Chemical Safety (WHO/IPCS) guidance on chemical-specific adjustment factors (CSAF) in 2005 and the availability of recent applicable guidance including the WHO/IPCS guidance on physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling in 2010 as well as the U.S. EPA guidance on data-derived extrapolation factors in 2014. A summary of lessons learned from an analysis of more than 100 case studies from global regulators or published literature illustrates the utility and evolution of CSAF in regulatory decisions. Challenges in CSAF dev...

- by Alan Boobis
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- International Cooperation, Risk assessment, Research, Uncertainty
- by Patrick Ruch and +1
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- Microbiology, Health Care, International Cooperation, Public Health
- by Pinazo-hernandis Sacramento
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- Psychology, Nursing, Geriatrics, Social Work
- by Emanuele Perrotta
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- Criminal Law, Criminal Justice, Islamic Law, Comparative Law

Per gli estremi di pubblicazione si rinvia al CV

- by M. Mountjoy
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- Engineering, Sports Medicine, Education, Health Promotion
- by Joaquin Vasallo
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- Nursing, Educational Measurement, European Union, International Cooperation
- by Joshua Michaud
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- Epidemiology, Poverty, Global Health, Politics
- by Italo Masiello
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- Communication, Workflow, International Cooperation, Research

The ongoing outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa is the largest on record; it has undermined already fragile healthcare systems and presented new challenges to contain the spread of the disease. Based on our observations in the field and insights from referenced sources, we aimed to identify key experiences of community engagement and social mobilization efforts in the current Ebola response. We concluded that there is no excuse not to actively involve local people and that the United Nations (UN) agencies and other partners did learn from their earlier mistakes to make a genuine attempt to better engage with communities. However, bottom-up approaches have not been widely implemented during the response and the reasons for not doing so must be further assessed. Health promotion can make an important contribution, because it shows how to enable people to take more control over their lives and health. This commentary can provide a guide to agencies to understand an appropriate w...

- by E. Manoncourt
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- Health Promotion, United Nations, International Cooperation, Public Health
- by Elena Kasamatsu
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- International Cooperation, Adolescent, Linear models, HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS

Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) remain major causes of heart failure, stroke and death among African women and children, despite being preventable and imminently treatable. From 21 to 22 February 2015, the Social Cluster of the Africa Union Commission (AUC) hosted a consultation with RHD experts convened by the Pan-African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to develop a 'roadmap' of key actions that need to be taken by governments to eliminate ARF and eradicate RHD in Africa. Seven priority areas for action were adopted: (1) create prospective disease registers at sentinel sites in affected countries to measure disease burden and track progress towards the reduction of mortality by 25% by the year 2025, (2) ensure an adequate supply of high-quality benzathine penicillin for the primary and secondary prevention of ARF/RHD, (3) improve access to reproductive health services for women with RHD and other non-communicable diseas...

- by Sulafa Ali
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- Political Science, Africa, International Cooperation, Medicine

It is common for international organizations to provide surgical corrective care to vulnerable populations in developing countries. However, a current worsening of the overall surgical burden of disease in developing countries reflects an increasing lack of sufficient numbers of trained healthcare personnel, and renders outside volunteer assistance more desirable and crucial than ever. Unfortunately, program evaluation and monitoring, including outcome indices and measures of effectiveness, is not measured commonly. In 2005, Operation Smile International implemented an electronic medical record system that helps monitor a number of critical indices during surgical missions that are essential for quality assurance reviews. This record system also provided an opportunity to retrospectively evaluate cases from previous missions. Review of data sets from >8,000 cases in 2005 and 2006 has provided crucial information regarding the priority of surgery, perioperative and operative compl...

- by Kelly McQueen
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- Plastic Surgery, International Cooperation, Altruism, Adolescent

However, such differences between countries may be due more to differences in the medical systems rather than differences in the quality of patient care. The United States has a very different medical environment, partly because of the highly litigious nature of US culture. 2 The fear of being sued may reduce the incidence of hindsight bias3 in US studies, since physicians may order more tests than are strictly necessary, which makes it more difficult for researchers such as Baker and associates to second-guess their decisions.

- by Richard Slavik
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- International Cooperation, Risk Management, Medical errors, Canada
- by Davina Porock
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- Turkey, International Cooperation, Language, Patient education

There is an urgent need for consensus on what defines a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) self-management intervention. We aimed to obtain consensus regarding the conceptual definition of a COPD self-management intervention by engaging an international panel of COPD self-management experts using Delphi technique features and an additional group meeting.In each consensus round the experts were asked to provide feedback on the proposed definition and to score their level of agreement (1=totally disagree; 5=totally agree). The information provided was used to modify the definition for the next consensus round. Thematic analysis was used for free text responses and descriptive statistics were used for agreement scores.In total, 28 experts participated. The consensus round response rate varied randomly over the five rounds (ranging from 48% (n=13) to 85% (n=23)), and mean definition agreement scores increased from 3.8 (round 1) to 4.8 (round 5) with an increasing percentage of...

- by Irem S Patel
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- International Cooperation, Self Management, Humans, Consensus

The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) provides an ideal framework to establish multi-disciplinary research networks. COST Action BM1203 (EU-ROS) represents a consortium of researchers from different disciplines who are dedicated to providing new insights and tools for better understanding redox biology and medicine and, in the long run, to finding new therapeutic strategies to target dysregulated redox processes in various diseases. This report highlights the major achievements of EU-ROS as well as research updates and new perspectives arising from its members. The EU-ROS consortium comprised more than 140 active members who worked together for four years on the topics briefly described below. The formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) is an established hallmark of our aerobic environment and metabolism but RONS also act as messengers via redox regulation of essential cellular processes. The fact that many diseases have been found to be associat...

- by Paul G Winyard
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- Molecular Biology, Biomarkers, Biology, European Union
- by warwick anderson
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- Genetics, Intellectual Property, Medical Genetics, Genomics
- by fausto mazzi
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- Demography, International Cooperation, Adolescent, Anxiety

Significant recent attention has been given to quantifying the environmental impacts of international trade. However, the United States, despite being the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases and having large recent growth in international trade, has seen little analysis. This work uses a multi-country input-output model of the US and its seven largest trading partners (Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, Germany, the UK, and Korea) to analyze the environmental effects of changes to US trade structure and volume from 1997 to 2004. ...

- by Roland Littlewood
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- Eating Disorders, Culture, International Cooperation, Body Image
- by Tanveer Siddiqui
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- Engineering, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Nursing

Family, twin, and adoption studies have indicated that human intelligence quotient (IQ) has significant genetic components. We performed a low-density genome-wide association analysis with a family-based association test to identify genetic variants influencing IQ, as measured by Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale full-score IQ (FSIQ). We examined 11,120 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the Affymetrix GeneChips 10K mapping array genotyped in 292 nuclear families from Genetic Analysis Workshop 14, a subset from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA). A replication analysis was performed using part of International Multi-Center ADHD Genetics Project (IMAGE) dataset. Twenty-two SNPs were identified as having suggestive associations with IQ (p<10(-3)) in the COGA sample and eleven of the SNPs were located within known genes. In particular, NTM at 11q25 (rs411280, p = 0.000764) and NR3C2 at 4q31.1 (rs3846329, p = 0.000675) were two novel genes which hav...

- by Yue Pan
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- Genetics, Intelligence, Polymorphism, International Cooperation

A recent survey has shown that data management in clinical trials performed by academic trial units still faces many difficulties (e.g. heterogeneity of software products, deficits in quality management, limited human and financial resources and the complexity of running a local computer centre). Unfortunately, no specific, practical and open standard for both GCP-compliant data management and the underlying IT-infrastructure is available to improve the situation. For that reason the "Working Group on Data Centres" of the European Clinical Research Infrastructures Network (ECRIN) has developed a standard specifying the requirements for high quality GCP-compliant data management in multinational clinical trials.

- by Jens Lauritsen and +1
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- Quality Management, Information Management, Research Design, Clinical Trial
- by Nathan Felix
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- Engineering, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Earth Sciences

As the science demonstrating strong evidence for voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for HIV prevention has evolved, the... more

As the science demonstrating strong evidence for voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for HIV prevention has evolved, the President&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has collaborated with international agencies, donors, and partner country governments supporting VMMC programming. Mathematical models forecast that quickly reaching a large number of uncircumcised men with VMMC in strategically chosen populations may dramatically reduce community-level HIV incidence and save billions of dollars in HIV care and treatment costs. Because VMMC is a 1-time procedure that confers life-long partial protection against HIV, programs for adult men are vital short-term investments with long-term benefits. VMMC also provides a unique opportunity to reach boys and men with HIV testing and counseling services and referrals for other HIV services, including treatment. After formal recommendations by WHO in 2007, priority countries have pursued expansion of VMMC. More than 1 million males have received VMMC thus far, with the most notable successes coming from Kenya&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s Nyanza Province. However, a myriad of necessary cultural, political, and ethical considerations have moderated the pace of overall success. Because many millions more uncircumcised men would benefit from VMMC services now, US President Barack Obama committed PEPFAR to provide 4.7 million males with VMMC by 2014. Innovative circumcision methods-such as medical devices that remove the foreskin without injected anesthesia and/or sutures-are being rigorously evaluated. Incorporation of safe innovations into surgical VMMC programs may provide the opportunity to reach more men more quickly with services and dramatically reduce HIV incidence for all.

- by Emmanuel Njeuhmeli and +1
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- Global Health, Male Circumcision, International Cooperation, Humans
- by Silvia Casati
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- European Union, International Cooperation, Humans, Animals

The Indonesian Government's decision to remove Fly Ash and Bottom Ash (FABA) coal waste from the hazardous and toxic materials (B3) list has generated pros and cons in various circles. The waste that comes from burning coal is known to have harmful side effects for health and damage to the environment and the living biota in it. However, according to the test results of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment, FABA waste does not meet the characteristics of B3, and it has high economic benefits in several countries that have succeeded in managing this type of waste, such as China, Japan, the United States and others. If the Government can create good regulations, this waste will be a vast potential, both environmentally and economically. Learning from European countries that have succeeded in managing this waste by forming a particular association that deals with coal waste, Indonesia needs to apply international standards so that this potential does not impact environmental health through related international cooperation. Using the literature study method, this research will be qualitative, and environmental theory and international cooperation will describe and analyze Indonesia's opportunities in accelerating the use of FABA-type coal waste through international cooperation. The target achievement of this research is a policy recommendation for the Government on issues related to the handling of coal waste types of FABA.

- by MELINDA PUTRI ARYANTI
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- International Relations, International Cooperation, Fly Ash, SWOT analysis

In 2003, an international working group last reported on recommendations for diagnosis, response assessment, and treatment outcomes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Since that time, considerable progress has been made in elucidating the molecular pathogenesis of the disease that has resulted in the identification of new diagnostic and prognostic markers. Furthermore, therapies are now being developed that target disease-associated molecular defects. Recent developments prompted an international expert panel to provide updated evidence- and expert opinion–based recommendations for the diagnosis and management of AML, that contain both minimal requirements for general practice as well as standards for clinical trials. A new standardized reporting system for correlation of cytogenetic and molecular genetic data with clinical data is proposed.

- by Donna Johnston
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- Hematology, General Practice, Clinical Trial, Cancer

Global health systems are shifting toward value-based care in an effort to drive better outcomes in the setting of rising health care costs. This shift requires a common definition of value, starting with the outcomes that matter most to patients. The International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM), a nonprofit initiative, was formed to define standard sets of outcomes by medical condition. In this article, we report the efforts of ICHOM's working group in colorectal cancer. The working group was composed of multidisciplinary oncology specialists in medicine, surgery, radiation therapy, palliative care, nursing, and pathology, along with patient representatives. Through a modified Delphi process during 8 months (July 8, 2015 to February 29, 2016), ICHOM led the working group to a consensus on a final recommended standard set. The process was supported by a systematic PubMed literature review (1042 randomized clinical trials and guidelines from June 3, 2005, to J...

- by Kim Ryan
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- Focus Groups, Quality of life, International Cooperation, Medicine

The focus of the GeoCapacity project is GIS mapping of CO 2 point sources, infrastructure and geological storage in Europe. The main objective is to assess the European capacity for geological storage of CO 2 in deep saline aquifers, oil... more

- by Niels Poulsen and +1
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- Environmental Science, Carbon Dioxide, International Cooperation, Oil and gas
- by Jerome Bickenbach
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- International Cooperation, Spinal Cord Injury, Humans, Spinal Cord
- by Mary Coffey
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- Radiation Oncology, Patient Safety, Risk, Brachytherapy

Presentamos un análisis comparativo del desarrollo económico en China e India, teniendo en cuenta los principales factores que han propiciado el crecimiento del PIB real por habitante de ambos países en el período 1991-2005, con especial referencia al análisis de los efectos del capital humano, la industria y el comercio exterior, a través de la estimación de un modelo econométrico.

- by Maria-Carmen Guisan
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- International Cooperation, Human Capital, Comparative Analysis, Foreign Trade

The continued professionalization of the humanitarian workforce requires sound underpinning by appropriate educational programs. The international disaster medicine and emergency health community requested the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM) develop international standards and guidelines for the education and training for disaster medicine. The Working Group of the WADEM Education Committee prepared and circulated an Issues Paper to structure input on this significant international task. Subsequently, the Working Group facilitated an Open International Meeting convened in Brussels, Belgium, 2004. The "Issues Paper" also was used as a framework to structure this International Meeting, which utilized case studies selected to represent the scope of disaster medicine, and prepared a meeting consensus on a framework for disaster health and for related educational programs. The two-day Brussels meeting attracted 51 participants from 19 countries, re...

- by Geert Seynaeve
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- International Cooperation, Teaching, Belgium, Emergency Medical Services
- by Tobias K Karakach and +1
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- Principal Component Analysis, Metabolomics, International Cooperation, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
- by Marion Koopmans
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- International Cooperation, Western blotting, HIV, Clinical Microbiology
- by Louise M Howard
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- Psychology, Economics, Climate Change, Mental Health
- by husne altiok and +1
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- Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Oceanography, Water quality
- by Sigmund Silber
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- Cardiology, International Cooperation, Electrocardiography, Humans

The European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) was established to harmonise clinical antimicrobial breakpoints and to define breakpoints for new agents in Europe. Data from the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net) external quality assessment (EQA) exercises from 2009 to 2012, from the United Kingdom External Quality Assessment Scheme (UK NEQAS) from November 2009 to March 2013 and data collected by EUCAST through a questionnaire in the first quarter of 2013 were analysed to investigate implementation of EUCAST guidelines in Europe. A rapid change to use of EUCAST breakpoints was observed over time. Figures for implementation of EUCAST breakpoints at the end of the studied period were 61.2% from EARSNet data and 73.2% from UK NEQAS data. Responses to the EUCAST questionnaire indicated that EUCAST breakpoints were used by over 50% of laboratories in 18 countries, by 10 to 50% of laboratories in eight countries and by less than 10% ...

- by L. Dubreuil
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- International Cooperation, Humans, Europe, Bacteria