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Pick-Me-Up Newsletter - Issue 1, Volume 2, Nova Southeastern University

Pick Me Up Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Pick-Me-Up Newsletter - Issue 4 , Volume 1, Nova Southeastern University

Pick Me Up Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Genetic Epidemiology Of Cleft Lip And Palate, Bonnie Pedersen

International Journal of Global Health

Clefts of the lip and palate are birth defects with multifactorial etiology, involving important surgical, speech, social, behavioral, and developmental implications. Approximately 70% of clefts are nonsyndromic - they do not involve other types of abnormalities such as shorter limbs, shorter digits (toes or fingers), wider set eyes, and many other symptoms. A number of environmental factors also play a role in craniofacial deformities. These factors include nutritional deficiencies such as insufficient folic acid consumption or absorption, smoking, and alcohol consumption, factors relevant to socioeconomic status. The purpose of this review is to present information concerning cleft lip and palate …

Pick-Me-Up Newsletter - Issue 5 , Volume 1, Nova Southeastern University

Pick Me Up Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Ic107: Program: 8th Biennial Symposium On Minorities, The Medically Underserved & Cancer. Awareness Is Not Enough, Intercultural Cancer Council

Informational and Promotional Materials

Program details the events, speakers, attendees, and discussions during the 8th Biennial Symposium on Minorities, the Medically Underserved & Cancer presented by Intercultural Cancer Council and jointly sponsored by Baylor College of Medicine. The symposium took place February 6-10 at the OMNI Shoreham in Washington, DC. See more at Intercultural Cancer Council Records.

Inhibition Of Hepatic Stellate Cell Collagen Synthesis By N-(Methy1amino)Isobutyric Acid, Thomas L. Freeman, Kusum K. Kharbanda, Dean Tuma, Mark Milliard

United States Public Health Resources

The increased deposition of extracellular matrix by hepatic stellate cells following liver injury, in a process known as activation, is considered a key mechanism for increased collagen content of liver during the development of liver fibrosis. We report that N- (methylamino)isobutyric acid (MeAIB), a specific inhibitor of System A-mediated amino acid uptake, reduces the accumulation of collagen in CFSC-2G hepatic stellate cell cultures and in a rat model of liver injury and fibrosis. Rat CFSC-2G cells were cultured in 0-5 mM MeAIB, and the accumulation and synthesis of collagen were measured by binding to Sirius red F3B and pulse-labeling with …

Ata2-Mediated Amino Acid Uptake Following Partial Hepatectomy Is Regulated By Redistribution To The Plasma Membrane, Thomas L. Freeman, Geoffrey M. Thiele, Dean J. Tuma, Tina K. Machu, Mark E. Mailliard

United States Public Health Resources

System A, the Na⁺-dependent amino acid transport activity, is encoded by the ATA2 gene and up-regulated following partial hepatectomy (PH), and its competitive inhibition interferes with liver regeneration. Rabbit polyclonal antibody was raised against a portion of the ATA2 gene product followed by immunodetection of ATA2 in isolated liver plasma membrane and lysate. The level of ATA2 increased in the plasma membrane following PH, while the relatively high quantity of ATA2 found in liver lysate remained constant. We also have shown that Northern analysis of steady-state ATA2 mRNA revealed no significant change following PH. These data show that …

Hiv/Aids Prevention Guidance For Reproductive Health Professionals In Developing-Country Settings, Helen Epstein, Daniel Whelan, Janneke Van De Wijgert, Purnima Mane, Suman Mehta

HIV and AIDS

While the integration of information, technologies, and services to respond to HIV/AIDS may seem closely related, there are a variety of issues that continue to create obstacles to integration. Among these are the stigmatizing nature of HIV infection and AIDS and discrimination faced by those who are infected or perceived to be infected; sexual practices and identities that remain socially unacceptable; gender roles and relations that make it difficult for women and men to access information, services, and technologies on HIV prevention; reluctance to recognize the special needs of young people; and barriers to service delivery created by broader economic, …

Microfinance And Households Coping With Hiv/Aids In Zimbabwe: An Exploratory Study, Horizons Program

HIV and AIDS

The widespread prevalence of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa adversely affects millions of households. In recent years, microfinance has been proposed as a strategy to help the households of microentrepreneurs respond to the negative economic impacts of HIV/AIDS. This attention to the potential role of microfinance builds upon earlier research that shows that microfinance institutions (MFIs) that charge commercial rates of interest and use sound business practices can become operationally self-sustainable and help improve the lives of the poor and vulnerable nonpoor. This type of MFI generally offers small loans, often combined with savings services. An MFI may also offer business …

Designing Hiv/Aids Intervention Studies: An Operations Research Handbook, Andrew A. Fisher, James R. Foreit, John E. Laing, John E. Stoeckel, John Townsend

HIV and AIDS

This handbook has several objectives and uses. First, it is designed to help HIV/AIDS researchers develop and write a detailed operations research proposal. An appropriate use of the handbook is as a resource in workshops or courses on research design and proposal development. Thus, the organization of the handbook follows that of a research proposal, starting with identifying, defining, and justifying a research problem, and ending with how to prepare a budget. Although the handbook is not an academic textbook on research methods, it does provide a review of many key concepts and important methods essential for conducting HIV/AIDS field …

Access To Treatment For Hiv/Aids: Report Of A Meeting Of International Experts, Johannes Van Dam, Sherry Hutchinson

HIV and AIDS

As of December 2001, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS is estimated at 40 million, and most live in the developing world. Advances in the development and availability of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs have led to a paradigm shift in most of the industrialized world, where highly active ARV therapy has resulted in a significant reduction in the prevalence of AIDS-related morbidity and mortality. In most of the developing world, however, the focus of national programs and international support continues to be on prevention and care in the absence of ARV treatment. While the moral imperative to provide the best …

Ndola Demonstration Project: A Midterm Analysis Of Lessons Learned, Horizons Program

HIV and AIDS

This report summarizes baseline and midterm findings of an intervention pilot study conducted by Horizons, LINKAGES, National Food and Nutrition Commission, District Health Management Team, Hope Humana, and the Zambia Integrated Health Program in Ndola District, Zambia. The aim of the research is to investigate how integrating services for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMCT) of HIV into low-resource maternal and child health (MCH) and antenatal care (ANC) settings influences women’s ability to make and implement informed decisions about HIV. The intervention strengthened routine services and introduced HIV voluntary counseling and testing and PMCT counseling and services into the MCH/ANC …

The Elderly And Aids: Coping Strategies And Health Consequences In Rural Tanzania, Julia Dayton, Martha Ainsworth

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The elderly are often especially likely to be adversely affected by the death from AIDS of prime-aged adults. The authors use a longitudinal survey of households from northwestern Tanzania in 1991-94 to compare the activities and wellbeing of the elderly in households before and after the death of a prime-aged adult with those of the elderly in households that did not experience the death of an adult. A significant proportion of adults suffering from AIDS return to their parents’ home shortly before death. Time spent by the elderly performing household chores rises following an adult’s death, and their participation in …

Universal Sexuality Education In Mongolia: Educating Today To Protect Tomorrow, Delia Barcelona, Laura Laski, Caitlin Gerdts

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of Quality/Calidad/Qualité demonstrates how Mongolia developed a national plan to a provide a comprehensive sexual and reproductive health curriculum and media for adolescents. Among the lessons learned from the Mongolian experience were the following: 1) questions about unwanted sexual relations and sexual roles were the most pressing among adolescents, especially girls; 2) printed media are efficient and inexpensive; and 3) parental opposition was almost nonexistent in certain settings—often they expressed gratitude for this education.

Are We Not Peasants Too? Land Rights And Women's Claims In India, Bina Agarwal

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This edition of SEEDS explores the critical elements in securing effective and independent land rights for women in South Asia. The author presents a range of cooperative strategies for enabling women to retain and cultivate the land and shows how micro-credit and other programs can be redirected to increase the amount and productivity of land women control. Recognizing that new policies and political will are required to foster and sustain such experiments, the author ends with a summary of how women are organizing to place women’s access to land at the center of national and global agendas.

Midline Survey Results: Integrating Adolescent Livelihood Activities Within A Reproductive Health Program For Urban Slum Dwellers In India, Mary Philip Sebastian, Dale Huntington, Barbara Mensch, Wesley H. Clark, Shahina Begum, Bela Patel Uttekar, Sohini Roychowdhury

Reproductive Health

The Population Council in collaboration with CARE India has been conducting an operations research (OR) study to investigate the impact of adding a livelihoods component to the Action for Slum Dwellers' Reproductive Health, Allahabad (ASRHA) Project in Uttar Pradesh run by CARE India. The ASRHA Project selected peer educators from the slums and trained them in providing reproductive health (RH) information, communication skills, and group formation techniques. After the peer educators completed training, they conducted group sessions about livelihoods and savings. RH sessions were held alongside vocational counseling sessions. Population Council staff provided vocational training courses, both in the slums …

Childcare, Mothers' Work, And Earnings: Findings From The Urban Slums Of Guatemala City, Kelly Hallman, Agnes R. Quisumbing, Marie T. Ruel, Benedicte De La Briere

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This study investigates the effects of childcare on work and earnings of mothers in the slums of Guatemala City. Recognizing that mother’s work behavior may depend on the availability of childcare, the modeling approach allows participation in the labor force and use of formal daycare to be jointly determined. We also investigate whether a mother’s “status” within her household (as measured by the value of the assets she brought to her marriage) influences her entry into the labor force. Finally, we explore the impact of childcare prices on a mother’s earnings, conditional on her decision to work. The study uses …

Childcare, Mothers' Work, And Earnings: Findings From The Urban Slums Of Guatemala City [Arabic], Kelly Hallman, Agnes R. Quisumbing, Marie T. Ruel, Benedicte De La Briere

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This study investigates the effects of childcare on work and earnings of mothers in the slums of Guatemala City. Recognizing that mother’s work behavior may depend on the availability of childcare, the modeling approach allows participation in the labor force and use of formal daycare to be jointly determined. We also investigate whether a mother’s “status” within her household (as measured by the value of the assets she brought to her marriage) influences her entry into the labor force. Finally, we explore the impact of childcare prices on a mother’s earnings, conditional on her decision to work. The study uses …

Strategic Assessment Of Reproductive Health In The Dominican Republic, Suellen Miller, Argelia Tejada, Patricio Murgueytio

Reproductive Health

This report documents the findings of a strategic assessment of reproductive health in the Dominican Republic (DR), carried out by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (SESPAS) and the Dominican Social Security Institute with support from the Population Council’s Expanding Contraceptive Choice (ECC) program and its Latin American and Caribbean regional offices, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The USAID/DR has been working closely with SESPAS to understand the major reproductive health problems in the DR. To better assist SESPAS and to plan the country’s Reproductive Health Strategy for 2002–2007, USAID asked the Population Council’s ECC …

Best Practices In Cbd Programs In Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons Learned From Research And Evaluation, Frontiers In Reproductive Health, Family Health International, Advance Africa

Reproductive Health

Community-based distribution (CBD) is the use of nonprofessional local distributors or agents to provide family planning (FP) methods—typically condoms, pills, and spermicides—and referral for other services. FP programs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have implemented CBD programs for the past 30 years. There is a large body of evidence on the effectiveness, cost, and sustainability of CBD models. Most evidence supports using CBD where appropriate conditions exist. However, major changes have taken place in the context in which programs operate, including the onset of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, enhanced access to FP services, and increased demand for related reproductive health …

Men In Maternity Study: A Summary Of The Findings From Pre-Intervention Interviews With Women And Their Husbands Attending Antenatal Clinics At Esic Facilities In Delhi, Anurag Mishra, Leila Caleb-Varkey, Anjana Das, Emma Ottolenghi, Dale Huntington, Susan E. Adamchak, Shahina Begum

Reproductive Health

The Frontiers in Reproductive Health program, a USAID-funded project of the Population Council is conducting an operations research (OR) study that investigates the effects of male participation in a new model of maternity care that is gender sensitive and provided at the primary-care level. The immediate objectives are to increase the use of family planning methods in the postpartum period and to promote STI primary preventive practices in men and women. The three-year study called Men in Maternity (MiM) is being conducted in South Africa and India. In India, the project is collaborating with the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). …

Using Men As Community-Based Distributors Of Condoms, Cynthia P. Green, Stephanie Joyce, James R. Foreit

Reproductive Health

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has led program managers to seek approaches to family planning (FP) that will also help combat HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). These approaches include use of simplified STI diagnosis and treatment protocols and promotion of male and female condoms. One aspect of condom promotion that is receiving increased attention is the idea of adding men to community-based distribution (CBD) programs. The male latex condom is the only contraceptive method that, when used correctly and consistently, provides protection against STIs, including HIV/AIDS. Currently, an estimated 6 to 9 billion male condoms are used worldwide annually. However, …

Reproductive Health Care In The Postnatal Period In Guatemala, Erika Jacobs, Carlos Brambila, Ricardo Vernon

Reproductive Health

This operations research study aimed to develop and test a job aid to provide comprehensive care to mothers and children during the first year postpartum; to train physicians, nurses, auxiliary nurses, and social workers in its use; and to develop and test strategies and materials for training community health agents to promote services for new mothers during the first year postpartum. It also collected data to establish if these strategies were effective in improving the quality and comprehensiveness of the care received by mothers and children less than one year of age. Drawing from exit interviews, the intervention appeared to …

Institutional Support For A Program Of Activities Within The Pilot Health Project In The West Bank And Gaza, Health, Development, Information And Policy Institute

Reproductive Health

This document contains reports on three activities undertaken by the Pilot Health Project (PHP) in order to upgrade antenatal and postpartum services for Palestinian women. Specifically, it includes results of a survey and a comprehensive assessment of the antenatal and postpartum care services, including family planning, that are currently provided at the project clinics. The findings show that the shortage of care provided to women during the perinatal period could be partially overcome by conducting home visits to provide information on many reproductive health issues, to help women and their families make decisions regarding their future fertility, and to provide …

Upgrading The Capacity And Skills Of Service Providers Of The West Bank/Gaza Pilot Health Project, Nancy Ali, Laila Nawar, Dale Huntington, Tawhida Khalil

Reproductive Health

The Center for Development in Primary Health Care (CDPHC), in collaboration with the Population Council’s FRONTIERS program, developed a 19-month training program to strengthen and improve existing maternal and children’s health and family planning services and to promote the establishment of the standardized basic package of services at Pilot Health Project (PHP) clinic sites in the West Bank and Gaza. There were four key start-up activities, including: 1) an assessment of standards of care provided at PHP clinics; 2) a review of formative research; 3) the development of clinical training manuals and curricula; and 4) the development of behavior change …

Peer Nutrition Education: A Model For Nutrition Education Among Spanish-Language Participants Of The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program For Women, Infants And Children (Wic), Maximino Alfredo Mejía

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Despite the steady improvement in the health status of Americans, Hispanics are a minority in the United States with greater prevalence of several infectious and chronic diseases and less health knowledge than the average citizen. Nearly half of the Hispanics living in this country die of preventable nutrition-related conditions, with heart disease and cancer being the leading causes. Since this minority has limited access to health care and preventive services, there is a need for an inexpensive, viable model of health education for this underserved segment of the population in order to lower the excess of preventable diseases. We trained …

Biomarkers Of Bone Turnover In Vegetarians And Omnivores, Susan Kim Louie Lue

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

A cross-sectional study on fasting serum and 24-hour urine samples were used to determine whether biochemical markers of bone turnover, resorption and formation, differed in a group of 50 healthy premenopausal Caucasian women eating vegan, lactoovovegetarian(LOV) and omnivorous diets.

The women, ages 20-42, had participated in a study of bone mineral density(BMD). The three groups were comparable in mean age, BMI, calorie intake, calories spent in exercise, kcal/kg body weight, protein/day, protein/kg body weight and urinary creatinine.

Biomarkers included those of bone resorption—pyridinoline, deoxypyridinoline, and N-telopeptides, and of bone turnover—serum and urinary osteocalcin(OC), skeletal alkaline phosphatase, and propeptide-type-I-carboxyterminal-procollagen(PICP). In all …

The Role Of Diet And Physical Activity For Ovarian Cancer Results From The Adventist Health Study, Fatemeh Kiani

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

A few aspects of the epidemiology of ovarian cancer are well understood, such as the inverse relationship with parity and oral contraceptive (OC) use. The role of other factors such as the potential influence of diet or physical activity is far from being established. A few studies, however, have been able to identify dietary risk factors for ovarian cancer. In this dissertation, I have conducted two studies that investigate the relationship between dietary factors and physical activity and the three endpoints: 1) nonfatal ovarian cancer (1976-1982; time to diagnosis), 2) fatal ovarian cancer (1976-1988; time to death), and 3) total …

Distributive Justice And Health Care, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

The challenge of contemporary health care distribution is to structure a framework for normative decision making whereby the goal of distributive justice is achieved equitably for as many citizens as possible. Establishing fair procedures for the distribution of health care resources is a crucial goal for contemporary society to set and, hopefully, to achieve. It is only by and through deliberate debate within a democracy that assumptions, for example, about aging, the value of life for the aged and intergenerational responsibilities of assisting them in their care can be set, tested or - as the case may be - rejected. …

Examination Of The Transtheoretical Model Of Behaviour Change To Increase Physical Activity Within An Organisational Setting, Justine L. Goldspink

Theses : Honours

This study explored the application of Prochaska and DiClemente's (1982) transtheoretical model of behaviour change (TIM) to the area of physical activity adoption and maintenance within an organisational setting. One hundred and nine employees of the Bunbury Centrelink Call Centre participated in a six-week physical activity intervention modelled on the Take Charge Challenge (TCC) (Leonard, 2000). Based on the TIM, this program attempts to increase individual physical activity through organisational change in order to counterbalance the sedentary nature of roles undertaken by staff and to maximise physical and psychological health benefits for employees. Time (in minutes/ week) engaging in physical …