Implementation, effectiveness and political context of comprehensive primary health care: preliminary findings of a global literature review

Primary health care (PHC) is again high on the international agenda. It was the theme of The World Health Report in 2008, thirty years after the Alma-Ata Declaration, and has been the topic of a series of significant conferences around the world throughout 2008. What have we learnt about its impact in improving population health and health equity? What more do we still need to know? These two questions framed a four-year international research/capacity-building project, “Revitalizing Health for All” (RHFA), funded by the Canadian Global Health Research Initiative, which began in 2007. The findings of a global literature review conducted by this Initiative, and focusing on comprehensive primary health care - and how it has been implemented since Alma Ata are presented. The way in which the political context has affected the comprehensiveness of PHC is considered - along with a series of proposed future PHC research areas.Web of Scienc

Enhanced thylakoid photoprotection can increase yield and canopy radiation use efficiency in rice

High sunlight can raise plant growth rates but can potentially cause cellular damage. The likelihood of deleterious effects is lowered by a sophisticated set of photoprotective mechanisms, one of the most important being the controlled dissipation of energy from chlorophyll within photosystem II (PSII) measured as non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). Although ubiquitous, the role of NPQ in plant productivity remains uncertain because it momentarily reduces the quantum efficiency of photosynthesis. Here we used plants overexpressing the gene encoding a central regulator of NPQ, the protein PsbS, within a major crop species (rice) to assess the effect of photoprotection at the whole canopy scale. We accounted for canopy light interception, to our knowledge for the first time in this context. We show that in comparison to wild-type plants, psbS overexpressors increased canopy radiation use efficiency and grain yield in fluctuating light, demonstrating that photoprotective mechanisms should be altered to improve rice crop productivity

Cardiac necrobiotic (Rheumatoid?) granulomas without arthritis. report of two cases

Cardiac necrobiotic lesions resembling rheumatoid granulomas were discovered in 2 patients without evidence of arthritis. Evidence from the literature indicates that pulmonary and subcutaneous nodules may occur before arthritis or before the appearance of the rheumatoid factor, and that cardiac lesions may occur early in the course of rheumatoid disease. Even in the absence of obvious arthritis and the rheumatoid factor, rheumatoid disease should be considered part of the differential diagnosis of acquired valvular heart lesions.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/37713/1/1780130208_ftp.pd

Development of a photosynthesis model with an emphasis on ecological applications

A physiologically based steady-state model of whole leaf photosynthesis (WHOLEPHOT) is used to describe net photosynthesis daily time courses in Prunus armeniaca . Net photosynthesis rates are calculated in response to incident light intensity, leaf temperature, air carbon dioxide concentration, and leaf diffusion resistance measured at five minute intervals. The steady-state calculations closely approximate the observed net photosynthesis rates for a broad range of weather conditions and leaf stomatal behavior.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47730/1/442_2004_Article_BF00346453.pd

"Indigenous research in social work: The challenge of operationalizing worldview"

This paper arises out of a research project that was designed to gather information about how Indigenous researchers incorporate their worldview beliefs, practices, and protocols with western research methodologies and methods. The focus of this paper is to describe the challenges I experienced as I embarked upon a 'western' research project while trying to incorporate my nascent understanding of Indigenous worldview. The research project was designed to identify the specific descriptions and explications of how indigenous scholars have reconciled worldview issues and integrated these unique ways of perceiving the world within their research methodologies. As a Ph.D. student cognizant of the western standards required in dissertation research, I wanted to find a way to honour my Indigenous roots, and my "Indigenist" ideological stance. An Indigenist stance, according to Churchill (1996), means that one actively strives to hold the rights of Indigenous people as his or her primary political goal, while incorporating his or her traditions in their work. Hence, the need to incorporate Indigenous practices and protocols into a western qualitative research paradigm was the premise upon which the project was designed. The challenges were evident in considering the design of the research, in attempts to weave ceremony and protocol into the various phases of the project, and in considering how to record these elements into the final report. The preliminary findings verified the challenges I faced

A New Beginning

N/