Search results for "Western world"

The global cardiovascular risk transition: associations of four metabolic risk factors with national income, urbanization, and Western diet in 1980 a…

2013

Background— It is commonly assumed that cardiovascular disease risk factors are associated with affluence and Westernization. We investigated the associations of body mass index (BMI), fasting plasma glucose, systolic blood pressure, and serum total cholesterol with national income, Western diet, and, for BMI, urbanization in 1980 and 2008. Methods and Results— Country-level risk factor estimates for 199 countries between 1980 and 2008 were from a previous systematic analysis of population-based data. We analyzed the associations between risk factors and per capita national income, a measure of Western diet, and, for BMI, the percentage of the population living in urban areas. In 1980, the…

The history of human-induced soil erosion: Geomorphic legacies, early descriptions and research, and the development of soil conservation—A global sy…

2013

Abstract This paper presents a global synopsis about the geomorphic evidence of soil erosion in humid and semihumid areas since the beginning of agriculture. Historical documents, starting from ancient records to data from the mid-twentieth century and numerous literature reviews form an extensive assortment of examples that show how soil erosion has been perceived previously by scholars, land surveyors, farmers, land owners, researchers, and policy makers. Examples have been selected from ancient Greek and Roman Times and from central Europe, southern Africa, North America, the Chinese Loess Plateau, Australia, New Zealand, and Easter Island. Furthermore, a comprehensive collection on the …

Analysing the presence of school-shooting related communities at social media sites

2010

Surprisingly cruel mass murders and attacks have been witnessed in the educational institutions of the Western world since the 1970s. These are often referred to as 'school shootings'. There have been over 300 known incidents around the world and the number is growing. Social network sites (SNSs) have enabled the perpetrators to express their views and intentions. Our result is that since about 2005, all major school shooters have had a presence in SNS and some have left traces that would have made possible to evaluate their intentions to carry out a rampage. A further hypothesis is that future school shooters will behave in a similar manner and would thus be traceable in the digital sphere…

Regulatory evaluation of Glybera in Europe — two committees, one mission

2013

Representing the first gene therapy to be approved in the Western world, alipogene tiparvovec (Glybera; Uniqure) has recently been said to have had a “substantial impact from a regulatory perspective” (Nature Rev. Drug Discov. 11, 664; 2012) 1 . The therapy was granted marketing authorization in the European Union for the treatment of lipoprotein lipase deficiency, which results in a clinically heterogeneous condition with a risk of potentially life-threatening pancreatitis 2 , at the end of 2012. The decision followed a positive opinion by the European Medicines Agency (EMA)’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) 3

Reflections on community action and planning

2014

Why Study the Spread of Culture-led Development Strategies?

2012

Culture, entertainment and amenities as urban and regional development policies have received much attention over the last decade. In the wake of recent work on the creative class, culture-led development policies have been applied in cities and regions across the Western world. This article uses quantitative data to examine whether these policies have gained the support of Scandinavian local and regional politicians and, if so, why and how. Drawing on policy diffusion and policy transfer theory, the article examines from where politicians are influenced. Can the sources of influence be characterized as (1) horizontal, (2) top-down or (3) bottom-up? The main finding is that the top-down per…

Treating cancer in older and oldest old patients.

2015

The so-called “silver tsunami” is a metaphor that the individuals 65 and older represent the most rapidly growing segment of the Western world population. Aging is an ongoing process that leads to the loss of functional reserve of multiple organ systems, increased susceptibility to stress, it is associated with increased prevalence of chronic disease, and functional dependence. Determined by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, this process is highly individualized and poorly reflected in chronologic age. The heterogeneity and the complexity of the older old population represent the main challenge to the treatment of cancer in those patients. We should discern "fit" elderly i…

India Re-loaded: Vikas Swarup’s Slumdog Millionaire as a Postcolonial Novel

2012

Once “the jewel in the crown” of the British Empire, India for some time ceased to be the focus of interest for the British writers. Largely due to the success of its film version, Vikas Swarup’s Slumdog Millionaire (Black Swan, London, 2005, originally called Q and A) again drew the attention of the Western world to the problems postcolonial India has to face: poverty, crime, sex abuse, exploitation of children, police brutality and many more. In this paper, however, we are not going to compare the two versions of the story, i.e. the novel and the film, but primarily concentrate on the textual commentaries in the context of postcolonial theory and literature. Of particular interest for us …

Pharmacogenomics: questions and concerns

2005

The progressively aging population in the western world, rising socioeconomic expenditure and increasing costs for the treatment of adverse drug reactions, lead to increasing pressure on public spending. The public acceptance of pharmacogenomics is high, therefore, because it promises individualized safe and effective treatment at lower cost. Pharmacogenomics studies the genetic polymorphisms that underlie the variability in drug response between individuals. Despite the great benefits being awaited from this new field, a number of ethical, social and legal concerns arise, which demand rapid strict international regulations in order to prevent discrimination or harm of any kind from society…

From traditional Chinese medicine to rational cancer therapy

2007

Many natural products and derivatives thereof belong to the standard repertoire of cancer chemotherapy. Examples are Vinca alkaloids, taxanes and camptothecins. In recent years, the potential of natural products from plants, notably from medicinal plants used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been recognized by the scientific community in the Western world. To provide an example of the most recent developments in this field, we have selected several compounds, namely artesunate, homoharringtonine, arsenic trioxide and cantharidin, that are found in natural TCM products and that have the potential for use in cancer therapy. Controlled clinical studies have shown that homoharringtoni…