The seventh WHO Informal Consultation on Standards for Cytokines, Growth Factors and Endocrinological Substances was held at The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) on 20-21 October 2003. Several issues relating to biological standardization and the establishment of new reference materials were discussed. In particular, recent regulatory requirements within the Europ...

AIM To examine relationships among physical growth indicators and ages of achievement of six gross motor milestones in the WHO Child Growth Standards population. METHODS Gross motor development assessments were performed longitudinally on the 816 children included in the WHO Child Growth Standards. Six milestones (sitting without support, hands-and-knees crawling, standing with assistance, wa...

OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study were to estimate the accuracy of using mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) measurements to diagnose severe wasting by comparing the new standards from the World Health Organization (WHO) with those from the US National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and to analyze the age independence of the MUAC cutoff values for both curves. METHODS We used cross-...

OBJECTIVES To assess the proportion of children being stunted and underweight-for-age at 3, 9 and 15 months in Lambaréné, Gabon, using the WHO child growth standards released in 2006 as compared with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2000 and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) 1978 child growth charts/references. DESIGN AND SETTING Prospective birth cohort in ...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES This study attempts to compare the pattern of growth of Indian children as assessed by weight for age, height for age and BMI for age with the WHO standards for growth (2006) and to explore the implications of differences in undernutrition rates in the 0-59 months of age group as assessed by these three indices. METHODS From the National Family Health Survey-3 database...

The rati ̄cation of ILO Labor Standards Conventions is a key explanatory variable in the empirical literature linking labor standards to economic performance. The assumption is that rati ̄cation gives information on labor standards implemented in a country. This paper tests this assumption, and in doing so it investigates the determinants of rati ̄cation directly and, indirectly, the determinants ...

Despite the success of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as a tumor marker for the early detection and monitoring of disease in prostate cancer, both clinical and analytical limitations of PSA remain (1 ). Since the introduction of assays for total PSA in the mid-1980s, assay results have been found to differ among manufacturers (2, 3). Much has been learned in the last two decades about the biol...

IN RECENT YEARS, a disturbing trend has emerged in which scientific journals are accepting manuscripts in exercise biochemistry/physiology that have employed inappropriate methodologies to study exercise or exercise training (for example, Refs. 2, 10, 14, 17, 18, 27, 28). A lack of basic knowledge in exercise biochemistry is often evident and usually coupled with a failure to cite classic liter...

OBJECTIVE To assess the field-test version of the new WHO Japanese encephalitis (JE) surveillance standards. METHODS We applied the clinical case definition of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), laboratory diagnostic criteria and case classifications to patients with suspected central nervous system (CNS) infections in southern Viet Nam. FINDINGS Of the 380 patients (149 children) recruited...

I would prefer to draw out the implications of that for our work, but we have been asked to respond to a set of questions. The questions to which we were asked to respond, like these meetings themselves, rest upon certain assumptions that I want to note and comment upon before I make any response to the particulars. The chief difficulties I had with the background paper had to do with the under...