If they are to have any force, the MDGs must surely represent some sort of international consensus on the goals of the development process. They fare best when viewed as a minimal set of objectives to which all or most in the international community would subscribe. Reducing Income poverty and hunger (MDG1) surely commands widespread assent as a goal of development, as do universal primary educ...

Chromatin insulators block the action of transcriptional enhancers when interposed between an enhancer and a promoter. In this study, we examined the role of chromatin loops formed by two unrelated insulators, gypsy and Fab-7, in their enhancer-blocking activity. To test for this activity, we selected the white reporter gene that is activated by the eye-specific enhancer. The results showed tha...

The Farafenni Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Farafenni HDSS) is located 170 km from the coast in a rural area of The Gambia, north of the River Gambia. It was set up in 1981 by the UK Medical Research Council Laboratories to generate demographic and health information required for the evaluation of a village-based, primary health care programme in 40 villages. Regular updates of de...

BACKGROUND Beginning in the late 1960's, and accelerating after 1985, a system known as "Cash and Carry" required the people of Ghana to pay for health services out-of-pocket before receiving them. In 2003, Ghana enacted a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) (fully implemented by 2005) that allowed pregnant women to access antenatal care and hospital delivery services for low annual premium...

BACKGROUND Diarrhea remains a leading cause of mortality among young children in low- and middle-income countries. Although the evidence for individual diarrhea prevention and treatment interventions is solid, the effect a comprehensive scale-up effort would have on diarrhea mortality has not been estimated. METHODS AND FINDINGS We use the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) to estimate the potential liv...

The Drosophila Su(Hw) protein is a multi-zinc finger DNA binding factor required for the gypsy insulator function. At the gypsy element, Su(Hw) recruits partners Centrosomal Protein of 190 kD (CP190) and Modifier of mdg4 67.2 kD isoform (Mod67.2), which are required for the enhancer blocking and barrier functions of the insulator. Our genome-wide studies have identified thousands of endogenous ...

Introduction: Pneumonia causes about two million under five deaths each year, accounting for nearly one in five child deaths globally. Identifying its prevalence in under-five children and the associated factors is crucial to achieve MDG4 in developing countries. Objective: The main objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and factors associated with pneumonia among under-five child...