Regional strategy to improve access to medicines and vaccines in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2020‒2030), including lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic
Presentation by the Director-elect, Dr Andrea Ammon, for her hearing at the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee of the European Parliament
Sustainability Science in a Global LandscapeElsevier
Science, technology and innovation have long been recognized as the basis for socioeconomic development. They are also core contributors to sustainable development and to meeting the SDGs. The UN has called for a “seat for science” on the High-Level Political Forum that deals with the UN’s sustainable development agenda, to ensure that “science is not just an observer but an advisor to policymakers.” This report is part of a broader, on-going effort to provide more evidence and analysis on the role of science, technology and innovation in the global agenda of sustainable development.
Read more about it on Elsevier Connect: http://www.elsevier.com/connect/sustainability-science-takes-the-stage-before-un-globalgoals-summit
Regional strategy to improve access to medicines and vaccines in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2020‒2030), including lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic
Presentation by the Director-elect, Dr Andrea Ammon, for her hearing at the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee of the European Parliament
Sustainability Science in a Global LandscapeElsevier
Science, technology and innovation have long been recognized as the basis for socioeconomic development. They are also core contributors to sustainable development and to meeting the SDGs. The UN has called for a “seat for science” on the High-Level Political Forum that deals with the UN’s sustainable development agenda, to ensure that “science is not just an observer but an advisor to policymakers.” This report is part of a broader, on-going effort to provide more evidence and analysis on the role of science, technology and innovation in the global agenda of sustainable development.
Read more about it on Elsevier Connect: http://www.elsevier.com/connect/sustainability-science-takes-the-stage-before-un-globalgoals-summit
Food System Transformative Integrated Policy (FS-TIP), UNFSS Pre-Summit Affi...AKADEMIYA2063
The FS-TIP innovative approach to food systems diagnostics and policy development and implementation in Africa has been presented by Ms. Jolien Paalman, Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), during the United Nations Food Systems Pre-Summit.
UNECE Working Group on Ageing: LTC+ - Acting on Pandemic Learning TogetherJennifer Zelmer
Overview of LTC+: Acting on Pandemic Learning Together, a program bringing together and supporting long-term care and retirement homes to improve pandemic preparedness and response
Food Security: an information provider’s viewElsevier
Dr. Michiel Kolman, SVP of Global Academic Relations at Elsevier, gave this presentation as part of a panel at the 26 General Meeting of TWAS, the World Academy of Sciences, hosted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Read more on Elsevier Connect: http://elsevier.com/connect
Research and training partnership to assist food safety in Vietnam and CambodiaILRI
Presentation by Hung Nguyen-Viet, Tuyet-Hanh Tran Thi, Phuc Pham Duc, Dang Xuan Sinh, Fred Unger, Sothyra Tum, Chhay Ty, Teng Srey and Delia Grace at the 15th International Symposium of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 13 November 2018.
Population Health - Data & Visualizations for Decision MakingPeter Speyer
Measurement is key for population health management. Global Burden of Disease provides data on burden by disease, injury and risk factor in countries around the world.
October 7, 2019
On October 7, 2019, the Harvard Global Health Institute will host a one-day symposium to explore what enabled this visionary program, and to showcase how it has transformed not just the worldwide HIV/AIDS response but global health delivery more broadly.
There are many lessons learned in PEPFAR’s story - from what it took to build a supply chain where there was none, to establishing the use of generic antiretroviral therapies (ARTs) and leveraging human capacity. This event convened the early architects of PEPFAR as well as experts and implementers currently leading the charge. We took a historically informed look at what it will take to stop global transmission, and shared tools useful for others hoping to move the needle on vexing problems in global health.
For more information, visit our website at https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/15-years-of-pepfar
The Role of Virtual Healthcare During COVID-19John Poster
Telehealth technology has been growing in recent years and the coronavirus pandemic has forced healthcare providers to catch up. Learn more about the benefits and limitations of telemedicine.
Virginia Murray - Evidence informed policy making - 26 June 2017OECD Governance
Presentation by Virginia Murray, Consultant in Global Disaster Risk Reduction, Public Health England, at the event on Governing better through evidence-informed policy making, 26-27 June 2017. The event was organised by the OECD Directorate for Public Governance in cooperation with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), the Campbell Collaboration and the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA). For further information please see http://www.oecd.org/gov/evidence-informed-policy-making.htm
Update on local and national survivorship initiativesUCLPartners
Presentation by Gill Levitt of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust at the London Cancer Children, Teenager and Young Adults Study Day, held on 25 July 2013.
Food System Transformative Integrated Policy (FS-TIP), UNFSS Pre-Summit Affi...AKADEMIYA2063
The FS-TIP innovative approach to food systems diagnostics and policy development and implementation in Africa has been presented by Ms. Jolien Paalman, Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), during the United Nations Food Systems Pre-Summit.
UNECE Working Group on Ageing: LTC+ - Acting on Pandemic Learning TogetherJennifer Zelmer
Overview of LTC+: Acting on Pandemic Learning Together, a program bringing together and supporting long-term care and retirement homes to improve pandemic preparedness and response
Food Security: an information provider’s viewElsevier
Dr. Michiel Kolman, SVP of Global Academic Relations at Elsevier, gave this presentation as part of a panel at the 26 General Meeting of TWAS, the World Academy of Sciences, hosted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Read more on Elsevier Connect: http://elsevier.com/connect
Research and training partnership to assist food safety in Vietnam and CambodiaILRI
Presentation by Hung Nguyen-Viet, Tuyet-Hanh Tran Thi, Phuc Pham Duc, Dang Xuan Sinh, Fred Unger, Sothyra Tum, Chhay Ty, Teng Srey and Delia Grace at the 15th International Symposium of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 13 November 2018.
Population Health - Data & Visualizations for Decision MakingPeter Speyer
Measurement is key for population health management. Global Burden of Disease provides data on burden by disease, injury and risk factor in countries around the world.
October 7, 2019
On October 7, 2019, the Harvard Global Health Institute will host a one-day symposium to explore what enabled this visionary program, and to showcase how it has transformed not just the worldwide HIV/AIDS response but global health delivery more broadly.
There are many lessons learned in PEPFAR’s story - from what it took to build a supply chain where there was none, to establishing the use of generic antiretroviral therapies (ARTs) and leveraging human capacity. This event convened the early architects of PEPFAR as well as experts and implementers currently leading the charge. We took a historically informed look at what it will take to stop global transmission, and shared tools useful for others hoping to move the needle on vexing problems in global health.
For more information, visit our website at https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/15-years-of-pepfar
The Role of Virtual Healthcare During COVID-19John Poster
Telehealth technology has been growing in recent years and the coronavirus pandemic has forced healthcare providers to catch up. Learn more about the benefits and limitations of telemedicine.
Virginia Murray - Evidence informed policy making - 26 June 2017OECD Governance
Presentation by Virginia Murray, Consultant in Global Disaster Risk Reduction, Public Health England, at the event on Governing better through evidence-informed policy making, 26-27 June 2017. The event was organised by the OECD Directorate for Public Governance in cooperation with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), the Campbell Collaboration and the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA). For further information please see http://www.oecd.org/gov/evidence-informed-policy-making.htm
Update on local and national survivorship initiativesUCLPartners
Presentation by Gill Levitt of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust at the London Cancer Children, Teenager and Young Adults Study Day, held on 25 July 2013.
The InSiGHT-Human Variome Project Collaboration - Finlay MacraeHuman Variome Project
The International Society for Gastrointestinal Hereditary Tumours and the Human Variome Project have had a long and fruitful collaboration. Finlay Macrae, InSiGHT's Secretary spoke at the 4th Biennial Meeting of the Human Variome Project Consortium to update delegates on the progress of the collaboration and to share some of the methods that InSiGHT has used to build their organisation and their database.
The Human Variome Database in Australia in 2014 - Graham TaylorHuman Variome Project
There are a number of genetics and genomics initiatives underway in Australia, including the Australian node of the Human Variome Project (HVPA), as well as many active research collaborations including familial cancer, endocrine disease, and developmental delay. Most of these projects work with disease-specific databases on a research basis, with the risk that such archives may be ephemeral. HVPA is the only database that is directly integrated with accredited clinical reporting of variants. As such it is designed to capture variants that have passed scrutiny as diagnostically robust, and have therefore already been curated by qualified staff. Registered users access the HVPA database via a secure Internet portal.
I will describe three recent developments of the HVPA database and portal: the upgraded search interface, linkage to other datasets via BioGrid using hash-based de-identified case matching, and the introduction of a genome wide database using LOVD3. Finally I will discuss the future direction of the HVPA and the questions of utility, quality control and sustainability of genetic variation databases.
Search interface
The search interface has to provide useful tools for clinicians and lab scientists so that the HPVA project offers them direct benefits and incentivises them to participate. Following a request for feedback from users, a series of improvements were implemented, initially on a demonstration server and then on the live server following review by the Steering Committee. The highest priorities were for more information about numbers of times particular variants were
recorded, the ability to search by range and to filter by pathogenicity. There was also interest in enabling direct uploading of VCF files and the automated calculation of pathogenicity scores. Many of these features are now implemented and examples will be presented.
Linkage to other datasets
We have implemented the hash key algorithm and work is in progress with BioGrid to link variation data to clinical data sets.
Genome wide database
We have established an HVPA LOVD3 database and are working with the Human Genetics Society of Australasia on a pilot study to sequence the exomes of two trios and review the data using this database.
This panel concludes an entire day of sessions at the 4th Biennial Meeting of the Human Variome Project Consortium discussing HVP Country Nodes and attempting to better define what they are and what they do in the light of Project Roadmap 2012-2016. It looked specifically at the idea of providing accreditation for HVP Country Nodes and discuss how such an accreditation process would work.
Presentation by Jens Lundgren, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen - European AIDS Clinical Society, Denmark, at AIDS 2018 conference during the joint ECDC and EACS satellite "Getting to 90: Addressing inequalities in the HIV continuum of care in Europe and Central Asia"
COUNTDOWN on WHO 2020 Targets: Strengthening Health Systems Interventions for...COUNTDOWN on NTDs
This presentation was given by Professor Russell Stothard on 27th June 2019 during Nigeria's 1st International Scientific Conference on NTDs Control and Elimination in Nigeria
As donor funding for HIV in Vietnam declines, the Social Health Insurance scheme is the likely solution to ensure the sustainability of an adequate response.
COUNTDOWN on WHO 2020 Targets: A Focus on helminthiasisCOUNTDOWN on NTDs
Professor Russell Stothard, COUNTDOWN's programme Director attended the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute's Winter symposium titled 'Helminth Infection - from Transmission to Control'
Extent and nature of integration of the HIV response in MalawiThyra de Jongh
Case study presented during the Pre-Conference meeting "Bridging the Divide: Inter-Disciplinary Partnerships for HIV and Health Systems", 16-17 July 2010, Vienna.
Resolutions and decisions of regional interest adopted by the Seventy-second World Health Assembly and the Executive Board at its 144th and 145th sessions
Presentation – The Issue-based Coalition on Health and Well-being
12 May 2017, Geneva, Switzerland
By Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe
Africa CDC, FIND partner to build capacity for COVID-19 rapid diagnostic test...SABC News
The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) have announced a new partnership to build capacity in readiness for the introduction of new, high-quality antigen rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for COVID-19 that are anticipated to become available soon
Sustainability and transition - Maris Jesse, EstoniaOECD Governance
This presentation was made by Maris Jesse, Estonia, at the 2nd Health Systems Joint Network Meeting for Central, Eastern and Southeastern European Countries held in Tallinn, Estonia, on 1-2 December 2016
WHO Guidelines for Policymakers - World Hepatitis Day 2019Khubaib Samdani
WHO released guidelines for policymaker on World Hepatitis Day 2019. I am discussing two (1st and 10th) of those guidelines briefly in this presentation.
I presented this on webinar titled 'Session on Policy Reform' organized by Volunteer Force Against Hepatitis Transmission (VFAHT) on 22nd July, 2020.
You can watch the presentation here: https://www.facebook.com/vfaht.org/videos/889905641498191/
Top 10 messages for policymakers:
https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-hepatitis-day/2019/10-messages-for-policymakers
ClinVar: Aggregating Data to Improve Variant Interpretation - Melissa LandrumHuman Variome Project
The rate of variant discovery continues to surpass the rate of clinicalgrade interpretation. This is a challenge for precision medicine, because fast, reliable access to variant interpretations is necessary to provide well-informed and timely interpretations of test results to patients. ClinVar is a public repository for interpretations of clinical significance and functional effects of variants in any gene and for any disease. Interpretations are submitted by many sources, including clinical testing laboratories, research laboratories, locus-specific databases, expert panels, practice guidelines, as well as OMIM® and GeneReviews™. Collecting variant interpretations in ClinVar depends on integrating data from these different sources, which has several benefits. First, data integration requires standardizing the data from each source. This improves the quality of the data in ClinVar as well as in each of the individual datasets. ClinVar staff validate HGVS expressions as a routine part of ClinVar submission processing. Submitters are encouraged to use standard terms in MedGen for diseases and phenotypes. Standard terms for clinical significance are used in ClinVar when available; for example, ClinVar uses the terms recommended by ACMG to classify variants for Mendelian diseases. Secondly, ClinVar aggregates all data for a variant defined by its genomic location. Therefore, HGVS descriptions on different transcripts or on different genomic sequences can be recognized as the same variant. Thirdly, integrating data from multiple submitters allows the evidence from all sources to be pooled together. This larger collection of evidence aids the re-evaluation of variant classifications, and is especially valuable for rare variants and novel gene-disease relationships. Fourthly, data integration means that variant interpretations from different sources can be viewed together and compared. Thus a ClinVar user has access to interpretations outside any internal system and knows when there is consensus in the interpretation or not. Submitting laboratories use reports of conflicting interpretations in ClinVar to prioritize variants that they should re-evaluate. ClinVar receives data from many data providers, and therefore provides clear attribution to each contributing group, including links to records in LSDBs. Each source may update their submission to ClinVar at any time. For example, a record may be updated when a variant is re-classified or when additional evidence is available to support the interpretation. Submitters may consider providing regular updates to ClinVar to prevent their interpretations from becoming out of date. Submissions to ClinVar describe variants that range in complexity from simple alleles with explicit sequence locations through copy number changes and cytogenetic rearrangements with fuzzy boundaries.
Establishing validity, reproducibility, and utility of highly scalable geneti...Human Variome Project
Background: New technologies and increased competition have, and will continue to improve the cost-effectiveness of genetic testing, making genetic analysis more accessible to medical practices worldwide. However, challenges remain to establishing the validity of such tests. Moreover many patients harbor rare or novel variants and classification is likely to remain a bottleneck in broader deployment of genetic medicine.
The PhenX Toolkit: Standard Measures for Collaborative Research - Wayne HugginsHuman Variome Project
Introduction and Background: The Web-based PhenX Toolkit (consensus measures for Phenotypes and eXposures, https://www. phenxtoolkit.org/) is a catalog of standard measures designed to facilitate collaborative biomedical research. PhenX measures help ensure that phenotypes from different studies are collected and represented in a consistent format. This consistency can enable data comparability across sites in large cohorts (e.g., Precision Medicine Initiative) and facilitates combining data to validate clinically actionable variants, increase statistical power (e.g., studies of rare genetic conditions or gene-enviroment interactions), or compare treatments and outcomes between patients.
Legal and regulatory challenges to data sharing for clinical genetics and ge...Human Variome Project
There are many factors that impede genomic variant sharing in the UK, despite it becoming a necessary part of clinical care. These include the lack of a designated infrastructure or mechanism aggravated by the complexity of laws that apply, and fragmented and variable advice from local ‘Caldicott guardians’ who guide NHS trusts on their responsibilities concerning data protection and confidentiality. Since the legitimacy of data sharing in the UK is framed in terms of ‘personal data’ being shared for ‘direct care’ (subject to legal exceptions), the blurred boundaries between clinical care and research, and the spectrum of identifiability of data also lead to differing interpretations resulting in inconsistent practices.
In a multidisciplinary collaboration, the PHG Foundation and the UK’s Association for Clinical Genetic Science co-hosted a workshop to examine the clinical necessity for sharing variant data and associated phenotypic information, the technical feasibility and the legal and regulatory impediments to such sharing. Delegates included clinicians, laboratory scientists, and key policy makers, including the National Data Guardian for Health and Care and representatives from the 100,000 Genomes Project, a pioneering research project which promises to build a legacy for future genomics services in the UK. The key finding from our work was that current arrangements for sharing genomic variants within the NHS are unsatisfactory and inconsistent practices are compromising safety and quality. Our workshop report [1] highlights the urgent need for (i) national agreement to optimise sharing within the NHS and develop consensus on the legitimacy of data sharing, (ii) standardised operational processes, including a designated sustainable database or mechanism for sharing, and (iii) strong leadership by the multiple relevant health organisations to demonstrate the benefits and risks associated with sharing and not sharing data.
Since publication of the workshop report, the NHS Consortium (operating within the DECIPHER database) has reported a 120% increase in the number of cases shared, the 100,000 Genomes Project and associated data embassy have got underway and the EU Data Protection Regulation has been finalised. However research highlights continuing public reservations about some aspects of data sharing including commercial access and misgivings around secondary uses of data. Publication of the National Data Guardian’s long-awaited review of consent and security provisions to provide guidance on a new consent and opt-out model for sharing patient information in the NHS, has been delayed pending the results of the EU referendum being known. Against this backdrop, the imperative to develop robust, proportionate policies for genomic data sharing becomes increasingly acute.
Funding from the PHG Foundation and the Association for Clinical Genetic Science.
Human variome project quality assessment criteria for variation databases - M...Human Variome Project
Numerous databases containing information about DNA, RNA and protein variations are available. Gene-specific variant databases (locus specific variation databases, LSDBs) are typically curated and maintained for single genes or groups of genes for a certain disease(s). These databases are widely considered as the most reliable information source for a particular gene/protein/disease, but it should also be made clear they may have widely varying contents, infrastructure, and quality. Quality is very important to evaluate because these databases may affect health decision-making, research and clinical practice. The Human Variome Project (HVP) established a Working Group for Variant Database Quality Assessment. The basic principle was to develop a simple system that nevertheless provides a good overview of the quality of a database [1]. The HVP quality evaluation criteria that resulted are divided into four main components: data quality, technical quality, accessibility, and timeliness. Instructions are available for the developed quality criteria and how implementation of the quality scheme can be achieved ([1], http://www.humanvariomeproject.org/finish/19/255.html). Examples are provided for the current status of the quality items in two different databases, BTKbase, an LSDB, and ClinVar, a central archive of submissions about variants and their clinical significance.
Reference: [1] Vihinen, M., Hancock, J. M., Maglott, D. R., Landrum, M. J., Schaafsma, C. P., Taschner, P. Human Variome Project quality assessment scheme for variation databases. Hum. Mutat. (in press).
Mitochondrial diseases are characterized by a high clinical and genetic heterogeneity and a growing number of genes of mitochondrial disease has been identified. Mitochondrial diseases follow any mode of inheritance, due to the twofold genetic origin of RC components (nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA). 1 000 to 1 500 nuclear genes encode mitochondrial proteins. Approximately 250 of these genes have been reported as disease causing. These genes not only encode the various subunits of each respiratory chain complex, but also the ancillary proteins involved in the different stages of holoenzyme biogenesis, transcription, translation, chaperoning, addition of prosthetic groups and assembly of proteins, as well as the various enzymes involved in mtDNA maintenance. Some of these genes are associated with well defined syndromes but more and more are specific to one patient or family only, hampering to establish genotype-phenotype correlations. The clinical heterogeneity of these disorders makes the diagnosis difficult especially in the first years of the clinical course and other genetic diseases can present an overlapping phenotype. Therefore only the identification of the disease causing mutation allows to certainly establish the diagnosis of mitochondrial disease.
Dr. Rötig (PhD) is the head of the group working on mitochondrial diseases in Necker Hospital (Paris). This group has initially settled and integrated platform of clinic, biochemistry and molecular analysis to investigate patients with OXPHOS disease. The scientific field of this group is the identification of genes involved in mitochondrial disorders and the investigation of their pathophysiology. They have described the first non-neuromuscular presentation of mitochondrial diseases and characterized the very first mutations in nuclear genes resulting in defects of Krebs’s cycle or the respiratory chain.
Use of open, curated variant databases: ethics? Liability? - Bartha KnoppersHuman Variome Project
Translation of genomics into medicine and drug development requires comprehensive, high-quality, genomic variant databases. To support translation, there is a movement towards sharing clinical annotations of variants (e.g., benign, unknown, pathogenic) internationally via open access. Despite the growing popularity of variant databases, ethical issues and liability risks have received scant attention. Ethical priorities for variant databases include 1) competence – ensuring that data is responsibly managed, curated, and used; 2) confidentiality – ensuring appropriate safeguards for patient data; 3) communication – clearly describing the purpose, quality standards, and data handling practices to contributing patients and potential users; and 4) continuous oversight to adapt database governance in a rapidly evolving environment. How can database managers fulfill these obligations when these responsibilities are increasingly distributed along the clinical pipeline? Legal issues include medical liability based on potential harm to patients; liability based on third-party intellectual property or privacy rights in the data; and regulatory risks as variant data is integrated into genetic tests or devices. Can these risks can be managed through appropriate governance structures – including adequate consents, access processes, contributor agreements, and disclaimers – while still facilitating sharing and clinical use?
Checking the experts: compliance with author instructions regarding HGVS nome...Human Variome Project
We have investigated compliance with guidelines regarding HGVS nomenclature and/or submission of variants to public databases in the author instructions of several genetics and genomics journals. For this, we used a list of genetics and genomics journals created by the Human Variome Project (HVP) office (See http://www.humanvariomeproject.org/resources/genetics-and-genomics-journals.html). The HVP aims to work towards open and free sharing of high quality information on genetic variation and its effect on human health. The HVP Gene and Disease-specific Database Council has created example instructions for authors for genetics and genomic journals containing guidelines regarding HGVS nomenclature and submission of variants to public databases. The HVP office has sent this document to journal editors asking them to include similar requirements in their instructions for authors. The rationale is that better instructions will help improving the quality of variant descriptions in manuscripts and access to variant information in databases.
We have used this list to select journals including both requirements. We have investigated the January 2016 issue of several of them. A group of students has checked the publications first for the basic requirements: mentions of the reference sequence used to describe variants and the presence of the variants in public databases. The next step was to check variant and phenotype descriptions with specific attention for predicted protein effects. Our preliminary results suggest that predicted protein effects in publications cannot be verified in case of altered splice sites without supporting RNA-level evidence or in case of insertions of unspecified nucleotides. Although the underlying variants are likely to have disease-causing effects, lack of supporting evidence disqualifies this information for diagnostic use. In several cases, the RNA-level information was specified in the gene variant database submission, indicating that submission of variants to databases prior to manuscript acceptance might improve the quality of publications. We have observed that authors include statements suggesting variants have been submitted to databases, but the variants were not found. Reviewers and journal editors could help improving manuscript quality by insisting on compliance and enforcing the existing guidelines.
Inactivating mutations in TSC1 and TSC2 cause tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). This disease is variable in severity and classically causes seizures, intellectual disability, behavioural difficulties, brain tumours, heart tumours, renal tumours and a facial rash. It occurs worldwide and is found in approximately one in 10,000 live births. It can be inherited as an autosomal dominant disorder, but about 70% of cases are new in the family and there is a significant risk of recurrence in a second child because of gonadal mosaicism in one of the parents. In some cases, mildly affected individuals are not recognised till the birth of a severely affected child. Genetic testing is needed both for diagnosis and for reproductive decisions, but in at least 10% of tests the causative change is not found. There are also many TSC variants of uncertain significance which are often unique.
The TSC1 and TSC2 databases (www.lovd.nl/TSC1 and www.lovd.nl/TSC2) attempt to record all TSC variants which have been reported, both in the contest of genetic testing for TSC and in other clinical conditions. Classification of the pathogenicity of these TSC variants in the TSC1 and TSC2 databases refers to their ability to cause TSC. Data from August 2015 show 889 different small variants for TSC1 of which 66% were pathological and 9% were not. For TSC2, there were 2522 different small variants of which 50% were pathological and 9% were not. All others were to some extent uncertain.
Recent advances in the quantity and quality in NGS, and the access to enormous amounts of population data have produced many challenging opportunities to improve variant classification. We have now formalised our decision-making on the pathogenicity of variants and this uses type and position, likely effect of variant, confidence in diagnosis, frequency of variant in different patients, family details including de novo reports, co-occurrence with known harmful variant, and where appropriate, an in vitro function assay. We now also screen our database automatically for duplicates in very large cohort datasets, most of which do not have extensive phenotype data. We will present our current practice for interpretation and would welcome comments.
The TSC variation databases are funded by the TSA and the TS Alliance.
Deep Behavioral Phenotyping in Systems Neuroscience for Functional Atlasing a...Ana Luísa Pinho
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) provides means to characterize brain activations in response to behavior. However, cognitive neuroscience has been limited to group-level effects referring to the performance of specific tasks. To obtain the functional profile of elementary cognitive mechanisms, the combination of brain responses to many tasks is required. Yet, to date, both structural atlases and parcellation-based activations do not fully account for cognitive function and still present several limitations. Further, they do not adapt overall to individual characteristics. In this talk, I will give an account of deep-behavioral phenotyping strategies, namely data-driven methods in large task-fMRI datasets, to optimize functional brain-data collection and improve inference of effects-of-interest related to mental processes. Key to this approach is the employment of fast multi-functional paradigms rich on features that can be well parametrized and, consequently, facilitate the creation of psycho-physiological constructs to be modelled with imaging data. Particular emphasis will be given to music stimuli when studying high-order cognitive mechanisms, due to their ecological nature and quality to enable complex behavior compounded by discrete entities. I will also discuss how deep-behavioral phenotyping and individualized models applied to neuroimaging data can better account for the subject-specific organization of domain-general cognitive systems in the human brain. Finally, the accumulation of functional brain signatures brings the possibility to clarify relationships among tasks and create a univocal link between brain systems and mental functions through: (1) the development of ontologies proposing an organization of cognitive processes; and (2) brain-network taxonomies describing functional specialization. To this end, tools to improve commensurability in cognitive science are necessary, such as public repositories, ontology-based platforms and automated meta-analysis tools. I will thus discuss some brain-atlasing resources currently under development, and their applicability in cognitive as well as clinical neuroscience.
Nutraceutical market, scope and growth: Herbal drug technologyLokesh Patil
As consumer awareness of health and wellness rises, the nutraceutical market—which includes goods like functional meals, drinks, and dietary supplements that provide health advantages beyond basic nutrition—is growing significantly. As healthcare expenses rise, the population ages, and people want natural and preventative health solutions more and more, this industry is increasing quickly. Further driving market expansion are product formulation innovations and the use of cutting-edge technology for customized nutrition. With its worldwide reach, the nutraceutical industry is expected to keep growing and provide significant chances for research and investment in a number of categories, including vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and herbal supplements.
Remote Sensing and Computational, Evolutionary, Supercomputing, and Intellige...University of Maribor
Slides from talk:
Aleš Zamuda: Remote Sensing and Computational, Evolutionary, Supercomputing, and Intelligent Systems.
11th International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering (IcETRAN), Niš, 3-6 June 2024
Inter-Society Networking Panel GRSS/MTT-S/CIS Panel Session: Promoting Connection and Cooperation
https://www.etran.rs/2024/en/home-english/
The use of Nauplii and metanauplii artemia in aquaculture (brine shrimp).pptxMAGOTI ERNEST
Although Artemia has been known to man for centuries, its use as a food for the culture of larval organisms apparently began only in the 1930s, when several investigators found that it made an excellent food for newly hatched fish larvae (Litvinenko et al., 2023). As aquaculture developed in the 1960s and ‘70s, the use of Artemia also became more widespread, due both to its convenience and to its nutritional value for larval organisms (Arenas-Pardo et al., 2024). The fact that Artemia dormant cysts can be stored for long periods in cans, and then used as an off-the-shelf food requiring only 24 h of incubation makes them the most convenient, least labor-intensive, live food available for aquaculture (Sorgeloos & Roubach, 2021). The nutritional value of Artemia, especially for marine organisms, is not constant, but varies both geographically and temporally. During the last decade, however, both the causes of Artemia nutritional variability and methods to improve poorquality Artemia have been identified (Loufi et al., 2024).
Brine shrimp (Artemia spp.) are used in marine aquaculture worldwide. Annually, more than 2,000 metric tons of dry cysts are used for cultivation of fish, crustacean, and shellfish larva. Brine shrimp are important to aquaculture because newly hatched brine shrimp nauplii (larvae) provide a food source for many fish fry (Mozanzadeh et al., 2021). Culture and harvesting of brine shrimp eggs represents another aspect of the aquaculture industry. Nauplii and metanauplii of Artemia, commonly known as brine shrimp, play a crucial role in aquaculture due to their nutritional value and suitability as live feed for many aquatic species, particularly in larval stages (Sorgeloos & Roubach, 2021).
ANAMOLOUS SECONDARY GROWTH IN DICOT ROOTS.pptxRASHMI M G
Abnormal or anomalous secondary growth in plants. It defines secondary growth as an increase in plant girth due to vascular cambium or cork cambium. Anomalous secondary growth does not follow the normal pattern of a single vascular cambium producing xylem internally and phloem externally.
DERIVATION OF MODIFIED BERNOULLI EQUATION WITH VISCOUS EFFECTS AND TERMINAL V...Wasswaderrick3
In this book, we use conservation of energy techniques on a fluid element to derive the Modified Bernoulli equation of flow with viscous or friction effects. We derive the general equation of flow/ velocity and then from this we derive the Pouiselle flow equation, the transition flow equation and the turbulent flow equation. In the situations where there are no viscous effects , the equation reduces to the Bernoulli equation. From experimental results, we are able to include other terms in the Bernoulli equation. We also look at cases where pressure gradients exist. We use the Modified Bernoulli equation to derive equations of flow rate for pipes of different cross sectional areas connected together. We also extend our techniques of energy conservation to a sphere falling in a viscous medium under the effect of gravity. We demonstrate Stokes equation of terminal velocity and turbulent flow equation. We look at a way of calculating the time taken for a body to fall in a viscous medium. We also look at the general equation of terminal velocity.
ESR spectroscopy in liquid food and beverages.pptxPRIYANKA PATEL
With increasing population, people need to rely on packaged food stuffs. Packaging of food materials requires the preservation of food. There are various methods for the treatment of food to preserve them and irradiation treatment of food is one of them. It is the most common and the most harmless method for the food preservation as it does not alter the necessary micronutrients of food materials. Although irradiated food doesn’t cause any harm to the human health but still the quality assessment of food is required to provide consumers with necessary information about the food. ESR spectroscopy is the most sophisticated way to investigate the quality of the food and the free radicals induced during the processing of the food. ESR spin trapping technique is useful for the detection of highly unstable radicals in the food. The antioxidant capability of liquid food and beverages in mainly performed by spin trapping technique.
Phenomics assisted breeding in crop improvementIshaGoswami9
As the population is increasing and will reach about 9 billion upto 2050. Also due to climate change, it is difficult to meet the food requirement of such a large population. Facing the challenges presented by resource shortages, climate
change, and increasing global population, crop yield and quality need to be improved in a sustainable way over the coming decades. Genetic improvement by breeding is the best way to increase crop productivity. With the rapid progression of functional
genomics, an increasing number of crop genomes have been sequenced and dozens of genes influencing key agronomic traits have been identified. However, current genome sequence information has not been adequately exploited for understanding
the complex characteristics of multiple gene, owing to a lack of crop phenotypic data. Efficient, automatic, and accurate technologies and platforms that can capture phenotypic data that can
be linked to genomics information for crop improvement at all growth stages have become as important as genotyping. Thus,
high-throughput phenotyping has become the major bottleneck restricting crop breeding. Plant phenomics has been defined as the high-throughput, accurate acquisition and analysis of multi-dimensional phenotypes
during crop growing stages at the organism level, including the cell, tissue, organ, individual plant, plot, and field levels. With the rapid development of novel sensors, imaging technology,
and analysis methods, numerous infrastructure platforms have been developed for phenotyping.
Salas, V. (2024) "John of St. Thomas (Poinsot) on the Science of Sacred Theol...Studia Poinsotiana
I Introduction
II Subalternation and Theology
III Theology and Dogmatic Declarations
IV The Mixed Principles of Theology
V Virtual Revelation: The Unity of Theology
VI Theology as a Natural Science
VII Theology’s Certitude
VIII Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
All the contents are fully attributable to the author, Doctor Victor Salas. Should you wish to get this text republished, get in touch with the author or the editorial committee of the Studia Poinsotiana. Insofar as possible, we will be happy to broker your contact.
Earliest Galaxies in the JADES Origins Field: Luminosity Function and Cosmic ...Sérgio Sacani
We characterize the earliest galaxy population in the JADES Origins Field (JOF), the deepest
imaging field observed with JWST. We make use of the ancillary Hubble optical images (5 filters
spanning 0.4−0.9µm) and novel JWST images with 14 filters spanning 0.8−5µm, including 7 mediumband filters, and reaching total exposure times of up to 46 hours per filter. We combine all our data
at > 2.3µm to construct an ultradeep image, reaching as deep as ≈ 31.4 AB mag in the stack and
30.3-31.0 AB mag (5σ, r = 0.1” circular aperture) in individual filters. We measure photometric
redshifts and use robust selection criteria to identify a sample of eight galaxy candidates at redshifts
z = 11.5 − 15. These objects show compact half-light radii of R1/2 ∼ 50 − 200pc, stellar masses of
M⋆ ∼ 107−108M⊙, and star-formation rates of SFR ∼ 0.1−1 M⊙ yr−1
. Our search finds no candidates
at 15 < z < 20, placing upper limits at these redshifts. We develop a forward modeling approach to
infer the properties of the evolving luminosity function without binning in redshift or luminosity that
marginalizes over the photometric redshift uncertainty of our candidate galaxies and incorporates the
impact of non-detections. We find a z = 12 luminosity function in good agreement with prior results,
and that the luminosity function normalization and UV luminosity density decline by a factor of ∼ 2.5
from z = 12 to z = 14. We discuss the possible implications of our results in the context of theoretical
models for evolution of the dark matter halo mass function.
Toxic effects of heavy metals : Lead and Arsenicsanjana502982
Heavy metals are naturally occuring metallic chemical elements that have relatively high density, and are toxic at even low concentrations. All toxic metals are termed as heavy metals irrespective of their atomic mass and density, eg. arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, thallium, chromium, etc.
hematic appreciation test is a psychological assessment tool used to measure an individual's appreciation and understanding of specific themes or topics. This test helps to evaluate an individual's ability to connect different ideas and concepts within a given theme, as well as their overall comprehension and interpretation skills. The results of the test can provide valuable insights into an individual's cognitive abilities, creativity, and critical thinking skills
TIF Collaborations: Common goals between the Thalassaemina International Federation and GG2020 - Carsten W. Lederer
1. TIF Collaborations
Common Goals between the Thalassaemia
International Federation and GG2020
Carsten W. Lederer
The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics
The Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine
Lederer@cing.ac.cy
On behalf of the
Thalassaemia International Federation
www.thalassaemia.org.cy
The Cyprus
Institute of
Neurology
and Genetics
UNESCO Headquarters
Paris, France
30 – 31st May 2016
Human Variome Project
Consortium
6th Biennial Meeting
GG2020 Fringe Meeting
2. Global Reach
Full membership
117 voting and general national thalassaemia associations
56 countries
Including associate membership
187 members
61 countries
2
3. Aims
Implementation of national disease-specific programmes for thalassaemia
in every country
Disease prevention
Disease management
Establishment of quality care for thalassaemia
Patient-centred & for all thalassaemia patients
Equal access worldwide
Inclusion of sickle-cell disease and other related health-care issues
3
4. Five Pillars of Work
1 2
1. Communications
TIF Magazine
E-Newsletter
Social Media and website
Board Member’s Update
2. Education
TIF events from local to international level
TIF publications
Development of MSc programmes in haemoglobin disorders
Development of “expert patients’/parents’” programmes
4
5. Five Pillars of Work
3. E-Education
Empowerment through access to education
Digital Library app
Other tools and platforms planned
4. Networking
Lobbying at all levels
Geographically
In the hierarchy of stakeholders
Publication of position papers on critical issues
5. Projects
Participation in collaborative projects
towards the improvement of care
1 52 43
Patient’s Voice
5
6. Lobbying for Change
Official Relations with WHO
Ambassadors for thalassaemia patients at all levels of stakeholders
Health authorities, clinicians, patient-support associations, other NGOs
Targeting patient experts and making patients experts
Sustainability: maintain the momentum through clinicians & patients
Current focus
Convincing health authorities that HPGs deserve equal focus to other
problems
In absolute terms, hunger, thirst and infectious diseases rate more highly
All three hit the chronically ill hardest
In relative terms, HPG prevention is of greater or equal benefit
(cost/benefit analysis)
Synergy with GG2020
Perfect overlap of TIF and GG2020 key messages
TIF to lobby for (inexpensive) resolution of bureaucratic hurdles to data
collection?
6
7. Advocacy for Care
Recent target countries
China
Turkey
Pakistan
India
Message
Investment in
Provision of health care
Building-up of infrastructure
Care requirements should guide research
Currently research interests guide clinical service provision
Synergy with GG2020
Repositioning of HVP towards clinical application of knowledge
Beyond BRCA Challenge: focus on establishment of care infrastructures
7
Research
Care
Care
Research
8. Advocacy for Equality
Homogeneous healthcare provision
Equality of care in developed and developing countries
Nationwide equality of care in for each country
Current status quo in most LMCs
High-level service provision in local centres
Societal and geographic gaps nationally
Access to sophisticated facilities and services at a premium
Survival of the richest
Synergy with GG2020
Focus on LMCs
Nationwide mapping of variants means nationwide coverage
Establishment of reference centres for nationwide emulation (and referral)
GG2020 tripartite focus on thalassaemia, SCD and G6PDD
8
9. Involvement in EuroBloodNet
ERN Establishment
9
Harmonising prevention and treatment in Europe
Apply EU criteria to tackle rare diseases requiring specialised care
Serve as research and knowledge centres treating patients from other EU countries
Ensure the availability of treatment facilities where necessary
Synergy with GG2020
ERN centres are potent European partners
ERN criteria as models as targets for GG2020 partners
http://ec.europa.eu/health/rare_diseases/european_reference_networks/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/health/rare_diseases/european_reference_networks/erf/index_en.htm
http://www.thalassaemia.org.cy/newsletters/website/2016/04-April.html
Regional Office for Africa (AFRO)
Derege Kebede Regional Adviser African Health Observatory WHO Regional Office for Africa P.O. Box 06, Brazzaville Congo kebeded@afro.who.int
Regional Office for the Americas (AMRO)
Patricia L. Ruiz Luna Acting Senior Advisor Acting Unit Chief Health Information and Analysis Pan American Health Organization525 23rd Street Washington, DC 20037 Tel: +1 202 974 3855 Ruizpatr@paho.org
Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO)
Mohamed M. Ali Regional Adviser Evidence-Based Health Situation & Trends Assessment Division of Health Systems & Services Development Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, World Health Organization Abdul Razzak Al Sanhouri Street P. O. Box 7608, Nasr City 11371 Cairo, EGYPT Tel + (202) 2276 5363 alim@emro.who.int
Regional Office for Europe (EURO)
Enrique Loyola Regional Adviser Health information, Evidence and Research Policy WHO Regional Office for Europe Kobenhavn, Denmarkenl@euro.who.int
Regional Office for South East Asia (SEARO)
Jyotsna Chikersal Regional Adviser Evidence-Based Health Situation & Trends Assessment Regional Office for the South Eastern Region, World Health OrganizationNew Dehli, India chikersalj@searo.who.int
Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO)
Jun Gao Regional Adviser Health information, Evidence and Research Policy WHO Regional Office for Western Pacific Manila, The Philipinesgaoj@wpro.who.int