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A Richter magnitude 6.4 earthquake occurred near the Nevado del Huila volcano in southwestern Colombia on June 6, 1994, affecting an area both deforested and coincidentally saturated by heavy rains over preceding weeks. The earthquake and resultant landslides and mud flows killed an estimated 656 people and left thousands homeless, most of them non-Spanish speaking Paez and Guambiano. Context is all important, and the disaster response and especially reconstruction planning became rapidly political because the event affected primarily indigenous populations and occurred in a heroin poppy growing area long contested between Colombian national security forces and several guerrilla organizations.

This article provides a brief summary of the most recent changes in public pension policies in the countries of the European Union and describes how they affect pension benefits for future pensioners. The pension systems in Europe have been changing fast. The common trends are that the generosity of public pension benefits is on the decline, the changes are likely to shift more risks towards individuals and there are fewer possibilities of redistribution. Our analyses point towards the importance of a more comprehensive assessment of these reforms so as to reduce the risk of pensioner poverty in the future.

In the street life of the Mission District in San Francisco, two opposite ways of understanding the female ownership of the body circulate among women who are drug-using sex workers: sexual slavery and women's liberation. This article analyzes how both models obfuscate the manner in which lack and scarcity govern the economy of needs and desires when drug abuse intersects with sex work. Lack and scarcity are shown to pervade not only economic resources but also drug-related gratification, bodily well-being, sexual desire and body commitment during sexual practices. Even though both women and men are involved in this economy, there is an `artificial scarcity' of drug-related gratification for women. Controlling women's ability to close this circuit, men reinstate and reproduce the gender stereotypes that dominate in the street culture.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for overseeing direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs, which includes a range of media, such as television, magazines, and the Internet. If FDA identifies a violation of laws or regulations in a DTC advertising material, the agency may issue a regulatory letter asking the drug company to take specific actions. In 2002, GAO reported on delays in FDA's issuance of regulatory letters. GAO was asked to discuss trends in FDA's oversight of DTC advertising and the actions FDA has taken when it identifies violations. This statement is based on GAO's 2006 report, Prescription Drugs: Improvements Needed in FDA's Oversight of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising, GAO-07-54 (November 16, 2006). In this statement, GAO discusses the (1) DTC advertising materials FDA reviews, (2) FDA's process for issuing regulatory letters citing DTC advertising materials and the number of letters issued, and (3) the effectiveness of FDA's regulatory letters at limiting the dissemination of false or misleading DTC advertising. For its 2006 report, GAO examined FDA data on the advertising materials the agency received and reviewed the regulatory letters it issued citing prescription drug promotion from 1997 through 2005. For this statement, GAO also reviewed data from FDA to update selected information from the 2006 report."

Synthetic cannabinoids are functionally similar to delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive principle of cannabis, and bind to the same cannabinoid receptors in the brain and peripheral organs. From 2008, synthetic cannabinoids were detected in herbal smoking mixtures sold on websites and in "head shops" under the brand name of Spice Gold, Yucatan Fire, Aroma, and others. Although these products (also known as "Spice drugs" or "legal highs") do not contain tobacco or cannabis, when smoked they produce effects similar to THC. Intoxication, withdrawal, psychosis, and death have been recently reported after consumption, posing difficult social, political, and health challenges. More than 140 different Spice products have been identified to date. The ability to induce strong cannabis-like psychoactive effects, along with the fact that they are readily available on the Internet, still legal in many countries, marketed as natural safe substances, and undetectable by conventional drug screening tests, has rendered these drugs very popular and particularly appealing to young and drug-naïve individuals seeking new experiences. An escalating number of compounds with cannabinoid receptor activity are currently being found as ingredients of Spice, of which almost nothing is known in terms of pharmacology, toxicology, and safety. Since legislation started to control the synthetic cannabinoids identified in these herbal mixtures, many new analogs have appeared on the market. New cannabimimetic compounds are likely to be synthesized in the near future to replace banned synthetic cannabinoids, leading to a "dog chasing its tail" situation. Spice smokers are exposed to drugs that are extremely variable in composition and potency, and are at risk of serious, if not lethal, outcomes. Social and health professionals should maintain a high degree of alertness for Spice use and its possible psychiatric effects in vulnerable people.

This article zooms in on the role of policy learning in nonincremental policy change. Can policy learning contribute to 'policy punctuations' or 'paradigmatic change'? This question is addressed from a constructivist angle. Within the constructivist approach debate rages on whether, and if so under what conditions, there could be a relationship between policy learning and policy change. The discourse coalition framework renounces the cognitivist concept of policy learning, whereas the critical frame analysis framework claims that critical reflection at the level of policy frames can lead to fundamental 'frame shifts'. This article reviews these two constructivist frameworks for policy analysis in terms of how they conceptualize and theorize the relation between policy learning and policy change. Besides offering a discussion of the theoretical assumptions of the two constructivist approaches that have been selected, this article offers an empirical congruence analysis of learning and change. This congruence analysis will be applied to one specific case: migrant integration policy-making in the Netherlands (2000–2015). This involves a clear case study where various non-incremental policy changes have taken place, from an integrationist to an assimilationist approach, which makes it a revelatory case for an in-depth study of pol

This study examines two challenges related to the integration of environmental concerns into public policymaking: how to shape institutions that facilitate policy learning in national policymaking processes, & how to create effective supporting assessment processes. A simple construct of policy learning is applied empirically; distinguishing what is learned in terms of conceptual & technical learning, & unpacking the process of learning into three elements: knowledge acquisition, interpretation, & institutionalization. Two empirical policy cases, climate & nuclear policy formation in Sweden, are analyzed over two decades, detecting patterns of learning & investigating what institutions have facilitated or obstructed them. The analysis is based on a study of actual policy outputs, an examination of reasoning & argumentation in policy documents, & evidence from testimonial interviews. Results indicate that climate policy has undergone fundamental learning processes whereas nuclear policy has been more intractable. Most learning has occurred in some agency & committee processes, while ministries & political levels have suffered from weak capacities & incentives to learn. Key drivers of learning included trust building among key agents coupled to international driving forces. Ultimately, institutional rules, capacities, & incentives are more important factors for enhancing learning than what types of assessments feed in. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

The drivers of precision medicine are clear: for patients (and physicians) - more options, durable clinical benefit, reduced exposure to non-effective drugs and potential to leverage current scientific and technological advances; for the pharmaceutical industry - the potential to tackle core challenges in discovering and developing better and more efficacious medicines, to reduce rates of attrition in drug development and to reduce development costs; for healthcare systems and payers - improved efficiency through the provision of effective care and avoiding ineffective treatments. Oncology has been at the vanguard, the improvements gained in patient survival notable. However, the increasing number of molecular subgroups requires an equally increasing number (and new generation) of highly selective agents targeting inevitably lower incidence molecular segments. Innovative trial designs (umbrella/basket studies) are emerging as a patient-centric approach to drug development, and the rise in public-private partnerships, cross-industry, government and non-profit sector collaborations is enabling implementation of complex clinical trial designs. This poses significant challenges for healthcare systems and regulatory approval. Further substantial evolution of policy and processes, particularly regulatory requirements for approval for new therapeutics, are required.

This paper will address the impact of the European Union (EU) on cultural policy development in Malta. The attention paid by the EU to globalising matters through culture, particularly i) citizenship participation in relation to social integration, ii) economic revival through urban regeneration, and iii) cultural diplomacy with regard to internationalisation efforts, is acknowledged and assessed through a focus on recent Maltese cultural practice. Impact will be assessed in relation to a) policy as well as legislation, b) funding structures and incentives, and c) implementation measures through initiatives taken by Maltese public cultural institutions. Convergences and divergences in comparison with key EU strategic actions will be discussed, with reference made to major legislative documents, funding programmes, and cultural projects undertaken by Maltese authorities and other cultural stakeholders in response or in relation to European developments.

This study developed a measurement tool to assess stringency and 'on-the-ground' impact of four key alcohol policy domains to create an alcohol policy index suitable for benchmarking alcohol policy and assessing change over time in middle- and high-income countries. It involved a collaboration between researchers in 12 diverse countries: New Zealand; Australia; England; Scotland; Netherlands; Vietnam; Thailand; South Africa; Turkey; Chile; Saint Kitts and Nevis and Mongolia. Data on the four most effective alcohol policy domains (availability, pricing policy, alcohol marketing, drink driving) were used to create an alcohol policy index based on their association with alcohol per capita consumption (APC) of commercial (recorded) alcohol. An innovation was the inclusion of measures of impact along with the stringency of the legislation or regulation. The resulting International Alcohol Control (IAC) Policy Index showed a very high negative correlation (-0.91) with recorded APC. Greater affordability of alcohol, an impact measure taking into account prices paid and countries' Gross Domestic Product, was predictive of higher APC (-0.80). Countries in which more modes of alcohol marketing are legally allowed and used had higher APC. Legislation on outlet density and drink driving predicted APC whereas trading hours did not. While stringency and impact measures varied between domains in terms of relationship with APC, overall, there was a strong correlation between impact and stringency (0.77). The IAC Policy Index, which includes measures of policy stringency and 'on-the-ground' impacts in relation to four key policy areas, was found to be strongly associated with commercial alcohol consumed in a number of diverse country settings. It showed a larger relationship than previous indices that include more policy dimensions. The index provides a relatively simple tool for benchmarking and communication with policy makers to encourage a strong focus on uptake of these four most effective alcohol policies.

Bingbing Jiang1, Bingyun Li1,2,31Biomaterials, Bioengineering and Nanotechnology Laboratory, Department of Orthopaedics, School of Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA; 2WVNano Initiative, WV, USA; 3Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA Abstract: Polypeptide multilayer nanofilms were prepared using electrostatic layer-by-layer self-assembly nanotechnology. Small charged drug molecules (eg, cefazolin, gentamicin, and methylene blue) were loaded in polypeptide multilayer nanofilms. Their loading and release were found to be pH-dependent and could also be controlled by changing the number of film layers and drug incubation time, and applying heat-treatment after film formation. Antibiotic-loaded polypeptide multilayer nanofilms showed controllable antibacterial properties against Staphylococcus aureus. The developed biodegradable polypeptide multilayer nanofilms are capable of loading both positively- and negatively-charged drug molecules and promise to serve as drug delivery systems on biomedical devices for preventing biomedical device-associated infection, which is a significant clinical complication for both civilian and military patients.Keywords: polypeptide, self-assembly, polyelectrolyte multilayer, nanofilm, charged molecule, tunable release