Quality of forage seeds sold in the state of Mato Grosso

The acquisition of high-quality seeds is essential to successfully implant areas with forage. However, to be commercialized, they must meet the minimum quality standards established by law. Inspections are necessary to guarantee the quality and identity of the commercialized seed. Thus, the objective was to evaluate the quality of tropical forage seed species collected in 2018, in the state of Mato Grosso. The survey was based on data from officers’ samples, in commercial establishments and fine consumers, collected during inspections conducted by the Agricultural Defense Institute of the State of Mato Grosso - INDEA-MT and subsequently analyzed by the Guilherme de Abreu Lima Seed Analysis Laboratory (LASGAL). Purity analysis, determination of other seeds by number (DOSN), germination test and tetrazolium test were carried out. The study showed that 75% of the analyzed samples reached the minimum requirements for commercialization in terms of physical purity; 95% of the samples were within the standard for physiological quality determined by law; and 91.9% did not exceed the maximum limits regarding the number of undesirable seeds present in a sample. In general, 36.1% of the total samples analyzed did not conform in some way to quality standards, therefore were not appropriate for commercialization.

Regulation of non-conventional therapies in Portugal: lessons learnt for strengthening human resources in health

Background The integration of non-conventional therapies (NCT) into health policies and health services delivery is a worldwide trend and might have a role in achieving Universal Health Coverage. WHO has encouraged countries to integrate NCT into health service delivery and to increase the interest and utilization by consumers. Following two resolutions by the European Parliament and by the Council of Europe, in the late 1990s, recommending the recognition of NCT and calling for EU legislation on non-conventional forms of medicine, Portugal initiated, in 2003, its path towards regulation of NCT. We analyze this process and discuss its implications and impacts in terms of health policies, health services delivery and overall health workforce. Case presentation The need to regulate NCT in Portugal stemmed from a growing demand for NCT (and acceptability) among lay citizens and a positive attitude among conventional health professionals which also advocated for a regulatory framework. Political efforts undertaken since 2003 allowed for important advances in the regulation of NCT, beneficiating safe professional practices, and ensuring future academic training at the highest standards, with the defining moment of the social and legal model transition occurring in 2013, when acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy, osteopathy, phytotherapy and traditional Chinese Medicine were recognized and regulated. Nevertheless, and because the process knew important time gaps, significant deficiencies arose, mainly between regulation of the training and of the professional activities and the capacity to ensure the continuous production of NCT professionals at an acceptable rate and with minimum quality standards guaranteed. Conclusions The regulation of NCT in Portugal was lengthy but steady and was able to bring consumers a safer practice environment and NCT professionals a legal and deontological umbrella for their training, practice, and professional development. Nevertheless, and despite the growing acceptability and normative quality assurance of NCT and its workforce, the regulation process has highlighted some fragilities in terms of accessibility and availability that need attention and urgent action to achieve universal coverage.

Research & Development Practices Across Pakistan: An Evaluation Study on Affiliated Institutions

Higher education plays a vital role in developing the knowledge economy and producing skilled workers to empower human resources for the country. Like many other developing countries, Pakistan is struggling hard to improve the quality of higher education for sustainable development and participation in global progress. Since the last decade, Higher Education Commission Pakistan is committed to upgrading the quality of education, and for this purpose, HEC has designed Minimum Quality Standards (MQS) to assure quality for affiliated institutions. The main objective of the study was to evaluate R&D practices in affiliated institutions of Pakistan. The study was descriptive in nature, and a questionnaire based on Minimum Quality Standards was used to collect data from faculty members (n-168) of 28 affiliated institutions by using multistage sampling. The results indicated that affiliated colleges of two provinces, Punjab and Khyber Pohutukawa, were better in research and development practices than the institutions of Sindh and Baluchistan.

Community Engagement to Tackle Infectious Threats in Bangladesh, Uganda and Ukraine - A Research in Progress on a Social Science Mapping Process

Background: Successful epidemic preparedness and response require an understanding of social behaviour: social values, priorities and practices fundamentally shape human engagements with measures to prepare for and to prevent epidemics and antimicrobial resistance. Because of its capacity to document and evaluate health-seeking behaviors, local understandings of disease and explanations of transmission, and local reactions to public health interventions, social science, in particular anthropological research is well positioned to facilitate insight into these priorities and practices.Method: The SoNAR-Global project (A Social Science Network for Infectious Threats and Antimicrobial Resistance) undertook a mapping and assessment of existing Community Engagement (CE) models that target infectious threats and/or antimicrobial resistance (AMR) Bangladesh, Uganda and Ukraine, which are integrated in the project through partner universities. We compared our findings with the UNICEF Communication for Development (C4D) Minimum Quality Standards for Community Engagement. Conclusions: On these grounds, we emphasize six critical elements for Community Engagement before and during epidemics. We argue that CE efforts must cooperate and dialogue with people in need and negotiate integrated, localized public health models that improve their lives before and during an epidemic.Results: We identified and recommend currently available social science tools for Community Engagement, which correspond to the six critical elements and can contribute to enhance preparedness and response activities to infectious threats.

Towards Routine Implementation of Liquid Biopsies in Cancer Management: It Is Always Too Early, until Suddenly It Is Too Late

Blood-based liquid biopsies are considered a new and promising diagnostic and monitoring tool for cancer. As liquid biopsies only require a blood draw, they are non-invasive, potentially more rapid and assumed to be a less costly alternative to genomic analysis of tissue biopsies. A multi-disciplinary workshop (n = 98 registrations) was organized to discuss routine implementation of liquid biopsies in cancer management. Real-time polls were used to engage with experts’ about the current evidence of clinical utility and the barriers to implementation of liquid biopsies. Clinical, laboratory and health economics presentations were given to illustrate the opportunities and current levels of evidence, followed by three moderated break-out sessions to discuss applications. The workshop concluded that tumor-informed assays using next-generation sequencing (NGS) or PCR-based genotyping assays will most likely provide better clinical utility than tumor-agnostic assays, yet at a higher cost. For routine application, it will be essential to determine clinical utility, to define the minimum quality standards and performance of testing platforms and to ensure their use is integrated into current clinical workflows including how they complement tissue biopsies and imaging. Early health economic models may help identifying the most viable application of liquid biopsies. Alternative funding models for the translation of complex molecular diagnostics, such as liquid biopsies, may also be explored if clinical utility has been demonstrated and when their use is recommended in multi-disciplinary consensus guidelines.

A Pharmacognostical and Phytochemical study of Kanchanara Gutika

Kanchanara gutika is one of the preparations of the Ayurveda, which is used for the treatment of the Thyroid disorders. It is in use since many years with good clinical outcome. But the pharmacognostic and phytochemical studies of the drug has not been carried out yet. Hence to study them this study is planned. Aim: Authentication of the raw drugs of Kanchanara gutika and phytochemical evaluation of the finished product. Materials and methods: The present study deals with the Pharmacognostical identification of the ingredients of Kanchanara Gutika and its physicochemical analysis. Thin Layer chromatography study (TLC) was also developed.Results: Pharmacognostical results showed Pippali catkin with fruit, Maricha with the epicarp and the oil globules, Sunti with oleoresins and vascular bundles, Haritaki with fibres, Amlaki with epicarp and mesocarp, Vibhithaki with stone cells and Kanchanara with xylem and phloem vessels. Qualitative studies shows that Loss of drying 33%, PH 4.72%, Water soluble matter 12%, Alcohol soluble matter 19%, Total ash 3%, Acid insoluble ash 2.5%, Dissolution time 4%, Moisture content 8%. The TLC chromatograph showed five bands at Rf 0.21(Yellow), 0.28 (Grey), 0.47 (Brown), 0.56 (Violet), 0.93 (Orange).Conclusion: Pharmacognostical study revealed genuinity of raw drugs. Physicochemical and TLC studies inferred that the formulation meets the minimum quality standards. The inference from this study may be used as reference standard in the further quality control researches.

Analysis of clinical knowledge, absenteeism and availability of resources for maternal and child health: a cross-sectional quality of care study in 10 African countries

ObjectiveAssess the quality of healthcare across African countries based on health providers’ clinical knowledge, their clinic attendance and drug availability, with a focus on seven conditions accounting for a large share of child and maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhoea, pneumonia, diabetes, neonatal asphyxia and postpartum haemorrhage.MethodsWith nationally representative, cross-sectional data from ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa, collected using clinical vignettes (to assess provider knowledge), unannounced visits (to assess provider absenteeism) and visual inspections of facilities (to assess availability of drugs and equipment), we assess whether health providers are available and have sufficient knowledge and means to diagnose and treat patients suffering from common conditions amenable to primary healthcare. We draw on data from 8061 primary and secondary care facilities in Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda, and 22 746 health workers including doctors, clinical officers, nurses and community health workers. Facilities were selected using a multistage cluster-sampling design to ensure data were representative of rural and urban areas, private and public facilities, and of different facility types. These data were gathered under the Service Delivery Indicators programme.ResultsAcross all conditions and countries, healthcare providers were able to correctly diagnose 64% (95% CI 62% to 65%) of the clinical vignette cases, and in 45% (95% CI 43% to 46%) of the cases, the treatment plan was aligned with the correct diagnosis. For diarrhoea and pneumonia, two common causes of under-5 deaths, 27% (95% CI 25% to 29%) of the providers correctly diagnosed and prescribed the appropriate treatment for both conditions. On average, 70% of health workers were present in the facilities to provide care during facility hours when those workers are scheduled to be on duty. Taken together, we estimate that the likelihood that a facility has at least one staff present with competency and key inputs required to provide child, neonatal and maternity care that meets minimum quality standards is 14%. On average, poor clinical knowledge is a greater constraint in care readiness than drug availability or health workers’ absenteeism in the 10 countries. However, we document substantial heterogeneity across countries in the extent to which drug availability and absenteeism matter quantitatively.ConclusionOur findings highlight the need to boost the knowledge of healthcare workers to achieve greater care readiness. Training programmes have shown mixed results, so systems may need to adopt a combination of competency-based preservice and in-service training for healthcare providers (with evaluation to ensure the effectiveness of the training), and hiring practices that ensure the most prepared workers enter the systems. We conclude that in settings where clinical knowledge is poor, improving drug availability or reducing health workers’ absenteeism would only modestly increase the average care readiness that meets minimum quality standards.

Housing Affordability: Factors Influencing Housing in the Tamale Metropolis of Ghana

Housing is considered a basic human need. Yet deficit housing supply plagues Ghana. Studies on housing concentrate mainly on offering accommodation that neglects the problem of its affordability. As a result, this study examines factors influencing housing affordability using the Tamale Metropolis as a case study. Using stratified random sampling methodology, 271 renters and homeowners was chosen. Data analysis utilized descriptive statistics. The study showed inflation, rapid urbanization, and building material costs were the dominant factors that influence housing affordability. Rent was also found to be relatively affordable for all categories of housing units. Furthermore, it emerged that the efforts of homeowners, the private sector developers, and the state in the provision of housing were insufficient in providing affordable housing. Consequently, tenants are forced to invest over longer years for constructing or buying a home. The private sector should use less-cost building materials in its projects to provide housing for rent and/or sale, and still present minimum quality standards. It will mean that construction costs will not be too high to justify a high rent once the building is completed. Rent will be on the low side when this happens so tenants can afford to. Equally, it is precarious that the government joins forces with the private estate developers to put up flats at reasonable prices using cheap local building materials.

Complementarity in public and private intellectual property enforcement; implications for international standards

I examine the relationship between public enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights and firm strategies to influence entry of non-deceptive counterfeit products: illegal copies of authentic goods purchased consciously by consumers. I assume that private enforcement investment determines the probability that a counterfeit entrant will be detected, while public investment determines the efficacy of the legal institutions responsible for enforcing IP law. Private and public enforcement serve distinct complementary roles, which combine to determine total IP protection in the economy. I show that differences in the investment incentives of the two entities that control enforcement lead to inefficiently low public investment in equilibrium. In this context, international efforts to impose stricter legal penalties against counterfeiters can be counterproductive: further reducing public enforcement and increasing counterfeit prevalence. In contrast, minimum quality standards can be implemented to better align incentives, encourage higher public enforcement, and reduce inefficiency.