PLoS One
http://www.plosone.org/
[Accessed 2 April 2016]

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Research Article
Knowledge and Perceptions about Clinical Trials and the Use of Biomedical Samples: Findings from a Qualitative Study in Rural Northern Ghana
Samuel Chatio, Frank Baiden, Fabian Sebastian Achana, Abraham Oduro, James Akazili
Research Article | published 01 Apr 2016 | PLOS ONE
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152854
Abstract
Introduction
Clinical trials conducted in sub-Saharan Africa have helped to address the prevalent health challenges. The knowledge about how communities perceive clinical trials is however only now evolving. This study was conducted among parents whose children participated in past clinical trials in northern Ghana to assess their knowledge and perceptions of clinical trials and the use of biomedical samples.
Method
This was a qualitative study based on eighty in-depth interviews with parents. The participants were randomly selected from among parents whose children were enrolled in a clinical trial conducted in the Kassena-Nankana districts between 2000 and 2003. The interviews were transcribed and coded into emergent themes using Nvivo 9 software. The thematic analysis framework was used to analyze the data.
Results
Study participants reported that clinical trials were carried out to determine the efficacy of drugs and to make sure that these drugs were suitable for human beings to use. The conduct of clinical trials was perceived to have helped to reduce the occurrence of diseases such as malaria, cerebrospinal meningitis and diarrhea. Quality of care was reported to be better in clinical trials than in the routine care. Parents indicated that participation in clinical trials positively influenced their health-seeking behavior. Apprehensions about blood draw and the use to which samples were put were expressed, with suspicion by a few participants that researchers sold blood samples. The issue of blood draw was most contentious.
Conclusion
Parents perception about the conduct of clinical trials in the study districts is generally positive. However, misconceptions made about the use of blood samples in this study must be taken seriously and strategies found to improve transparency and greater community acceptability.

PNAS – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/
(Accessed 2 April 2016)

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Biological Sciences – Sustainability Science – Social Sciences – Environmental Sciences:
Global fishery prospects under contrasting management regimes
Christopher Costello, Daniel Ovando, Tyler Clavelle, C. Kent Strauss, Ray Hilborn, Michael C. Melnychuk, Trevor A. Branch, Steven D. Gaines, Cody S. Szuwalski, Reniel B. Cabral, Douglas N. Rader, and Amanda Leland
PNAS 2016 ; published ahead of print March 28, 2016, doi:10.1073/pnas.15204201
Significance
What would extensive fishery reform look like? In addition, what would be the benefits and trade-offs of implementing alternative approaches to fisheries management on a worldwide scale? To find out, we assembled the largest-of-its-kind database and coupled it to state-of-the-art bioeconomic models for more than 4,500 fisheries around the world. We find that, in nearly every country of the world, fishery recovery would simultaneously drive increases in food provision, fishery profits, and fish biomass in the sea. Our results suggest that a suite of approaches providing individual or communal access rights to fishery resources can align incentives across profit, food, and conservation so that few trade-offs will have to be made across these objectives in selecting effective policy interventions.
Abstract
Data from 4,713 fisheries worldwide, representing 78% of global reported fish catch, are analyzed to estimate the status, trends, and benefits of alternative approaches to recovering depleted fisheries. For each fishery, we estimate current biological status and forecast the impacts of contrasting management regimes on catch, profit, and biomass of fish in the sea. We estimate unique recovery targets and trajectories for each fishery, calculate the year-by-year effects of alternative recovery approaches, and model how alternative institutional reforms affect recovery outcomes. Current status is highly heterogeneous—the median fishery is in poor health (overfished, with further overfishing occurring), although 32% of fisheries are in good biological, although not necessarily economic, condition. Our business-as-usual scenario projects further divergence and continued collapse for many of the world’s fisheries. Applying sound management reforms to global fisheries in our dataset could generate annual increases exceeding 16 million metric tons (MMT) in catch, $53 billion in profit, and 619 MMT in biomass relative to business as usual. We also find that, with appropriate reforms, recovery can happen quickly, with the median fishery taking under 10 y to reach recovery targets. Our results show that commonsense reforms to fishery management would dramatically improve overall fish abundance while increasing food security and profits.

Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública/Pan American Journal of Public Health (RPSP/PAJPH)
February 2016 Vol. 39, No. 2
http://www.paho.org/journal/

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ARTÍCULOS DE INVESTIGACIÓN ORIGINAL/ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLES
Establishing national noncommunicable disease surveillance in a developing country: a model for small island nations[Introducción de la vigilancia nacional de las enfermedades no transmisibles en un país en desarrollo: un modelo para las pequeñas naciones insulares]
Angela M. Rose, Ian R. Hambleton, Selvi M. Jeyaseelan, Christina Howitt, Rhea Harewood, Jacqueline Campbell, Tanya N. Martelly, Tracy Blackman, Kenneth S. George, Trevor A. Hassell, David O. Corbin, Rudolph Delice, Patsy Prussia, Branka Legetic, and Anselm J. Hennis

Traslación a la práctica de estrategias de empoderamiento en la prevención del dengue: facilitadores y barreras [Translation into practice of empowerment strategies for dengue prevention: facilitators and barriers]
Dennis Pérez, Marta Castro, Ángel Manuel Álvarez, Lizet Sánchez, María Eugenia Toledo, Damayanti Matos, Patrick Van der Stuyft y Pierre Lefèvre

Determinants of tuberculosis in countries of Latin America and the Caribbean [Determinantes de la tuberculosis en los países de América Latina y el Caribe]
Gustavo Bergonzoli, Luis G. Castellanos, Rodolfo Rodríguez, and Lina María Garcia

Diagnóstico de salud y percepción de riesgos, elementos clave para una propuesta de intervención en comunidades indígenas en México [Health diagnosis and risk perception: key elements of a proposed intervention for indigenous communities in Mexico]
Mónica Terán-Hernández, Fernando Díaz-Barriga y Ana Cristina Cubillas-Tejeda

Analysis of registered cancer clinical trials in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2007–2013 [Análisis de los ensayos clínicos sobre el cáncer registrados en América Latina y el Caribe del 2007 al 2013]
Bridget Lee, Luis G. Cuervo, Pablo Rodríguez-Feria, and Silvana Luciani

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OPINIÓN Y ANÁLSIS/OPINION AND ANALYSIS
Salud global: una visión latinoamericana [Global health: a Latin American vision]
Álvaro Franco-Giraldo

Science
01 April 2016 Vol 352, Issue 6281
http://www.sciencemag.org/current.dtl

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Policy Forum
Engage key social concepts for sustainability
By Christina C. Hicks, Arielle Levine, Arun Agrawal, Xavier Basurto, Sara J. Breslow, Courtney Carothers, Susan Charnley, Sarah Coulthard, Nives Dolsak, Jamie Donatuto, Carlos Garcia-Quijano, Michael B. Mascia, Karma Norman, Melissa R. Poe, Terre Satterfield, Kevin St. Martin, Phillip S. Levin
Science01 Apr 2016 : 38-40
Summary
With humans altering climate processes, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem functions (1), governments and societies confront the challenge of shaping a sustainable future for people and nature. Policies and practices to address these challenges must draw on social sciences, along with natural sciences and engineering (2). Although various social science approaches can enable and assess progress toward sustainability, debate about such concrete engagement is outpacing actual use. To catalyze uptake, we identify seven key social concepts that are largely absent from many efforts to pursue sustainability goals. We present existing and emerging well-tested indicators and propose priority areas for conceptual and methodological development.

Social Science & Medicine
Volume 153, Pages 1-266 (March 2016)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02779536/153

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Review Article
Polio vaccine hesitancy in the networks and neighborhoods of Malegaon, India
Original Research Article
Pages 99-106
Jukka-Pekka Onnela, Bruce E. Landon, Anna-Lea Kahn, Danish Ahmed, Harish Verma, A. James O’Malley, Sunil Bahl, Roland W. Sutter, Nicholas A. Christakis
Abstract
Objectives
Eradication and control of childhood diseases through immunization can only work if parents allow their children to be vaccinated. To learn about social network factors associated with polio vaccine hesitancy, we investigated social and spatial clustering of households by their vaccine acceptance status in Malegaon, India, an area known for vaccine refusal and repeated detection of polio cases.
Methods
We interviewed family heads from 2462 households in 25 neighborhoods in July 2012 and constructed social networks based on advice seeking from other households. We restricted our main analyses to surveyed households for which we also had data on whether they accepted the polio vaccine for their eligible children or not.
Results
Data from 2452 households was retained and these households made 2012 nominations to 830 households. Vaccine-refusing households had fewer outgoing ties than vaccine-accepting households. After excluding 24 isolated households, vaccine-refusing households had 189% more nominations to other vaccine-refusing households (93% more in the largest component of the network) compared to vaccine-accepting households, revealing that vaccine-refusing households cluster in the social network. Since roughly half of all ties connect households within neighborhoods, vaccine-refusing clusters lie in spatially localized “pockets”.
Conclusions
The social (and spatial) clustering of vaccine-refusing households could be leveraged to tailor communication strategies to improve vaccine acceptance and community perceptions of immunization programs for polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

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Does parental migration really benefit left-behind children? Comparative evidence from Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam
Original Research Article
Pages 230-239
Cuong Viet Nguyen
Abstract
Millions of children are left behind when their parents migrate from home to another place. This study examines whether parental migration can affect health and cognitive ability of left-behind children aged at 5–8 years old in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam. It uses data on 7725 children in the four countries collected from Young Lives surveys in 2007 and 2009. It finds that although parental migration helps families increase per capita consumption, it does not improve health and cognitive ability of children. The effect of parental migration varies across different countries and different types of migration. In Ethiopia, parental migration does not have a significant effect on children. However, parental migration reduces health outcomes of children in other three countries and decreases cognitive ability test scores in India and Vietnam. The negative effect on children tends to be higher for long-term parental migration than short-term parental migration.
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Stability: International Journal of Security & Development
http://www.stabilityjournal.org/articles
[accessed 2 April 2016]

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Research Article
Citizenship or Repression? Coca, Eradication and Development in the Andes
Thomas Grisaffi, Kathryn Ledebur
Abstract
For over two decades the US has funded repressive forced coca eradication in Peru, Colombia and Bolivia to reduce the illegal cocaine trade. These policies have never met their stated goals and have generated violence and poverty. In 2006 Bolivia definitively broke with the US anti-narcotics model, replacing the militarized eradication of coca crops with a community-based coca control strategy. The program substantially reduced the coca crop while simultaneously respecting human rights and allowing farmers to diversify their livelihoods. This article outlines the elements of the Bolivian initiative that ensure its continued successful functioning. It explores to what extent this model can be translated to other Andean contexts.