BACKGROUND Afar pastoralists live in the northeast of Ethiopia, confined to the most arid part of the country, where there is least access to educational, health and other social services. Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major public health problems in Afar region. Lack of knowledge about TB could affect the health-seeking behaviour of patients and sustain the transmission of the disease within...

This letter is in response to the discussion of our recent paper entitled " The effect of parameter uncertainty on achieved safety integrity of safety system " [1]. We are grateful to the discussants for their constructive comments and suggestions, and in particular their insight into our proposed methods to measure safety-related (SR) uncertainty. The detailed response is given below. We agree...

Discussants play an important role in conferences, yet little practical advice exists to help them make best use of their time beyond informal guidelines. Two new approaches to the intellectual discussion of conference papers are introduced: Group Support Systems and Conversational Learning. The discussant’s role is illustrated with reference to each of these approaches. Recommendations for dis...

UNLABELLED Every discussant at the Novartis symposium was invited to submit a 250-word abstract, giving their views upon the question: 'Is MDMA a human neurotoxin?'. These abstracts are presented here. They illustrate a wide range of viewpoints and opinions, as might be expected from experts in such diverse fields: animal neuroscience, human cognitive testing, police pathology laboratory, psych...

This study explored legume production by female and men smallholder farmers in Chipata, a changing climate context. The objectives were to (i) find out how women Chipata understand variability, (ii) investigate variability affects (iii) identify the different challenges faced womenfemale Chipata. Interviews conducted with 86 male selected using stratified random sampling. Purposive sampling was...

PURPOSE To investigate whether support for vaccines among one's health discussants is associated with beliefs in vaccine safety and intention to vaccinate among college students. METHODS Ordered logistic regression analysis was conducted of data collected from 1,019 undergraduates at a large public university in 2009 and 2010. RESULTS Having health discussion networks that support vaccinati...

Introduction During the Workshop "Pharmacokinetics: Defining the Dose for Risk Assessment," two panel discussions were held. The first was "Design of Studies to Obtain Pharmacokinetic Data for Risk Assessment." Emil Pfitzer of HoffmannLa Roche, Inc.; James Stevens of Ciba-Geigy Corporation;Penelope FennerCrisp of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Pesticides Program; and Daniel Menzel of ...

OBJECTIVE We performed a qualitative study among women within 5 years of Gestational Diabetes (GDM) diagnosis. Our aim was to identify the key elements that would enhance participation in a type 2 diabetes (DM2) prevention program. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Potential participants received up to three invitation letters from their GDM physician. Four focus groups were held. Discussants were ...