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BACKGROUND: Perinatal mortality and morbidity continue to be major global health challenges strongly associated with prematurity and reduced fetal growth, an issue of further interest given the mounting evidence that fetal growth in general is linked to degrees of risk of common noncommunicable diseases in adulthood. Against this background, WHO made it a high priority to provide the present fetal growth charts for estimated fetal weight (EFW) and common ultrasound biometric measurements intended for worldwide use. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a multinational prospective observational longitudinal study of fetal growth in low-risk singleton pregnancies of women of high or middle socioeconomic status and without known environmental constraints on fetal growth. Centers in ten countries (Argentina, Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Norway, and Thailand) recruited participants who had reliable information on last menstrual period and gestational age confirmed by crown-rump length measured at 8-13 wk of gestation. Participants had anthropometric and nutritional assessments and seven scheduled ultrasound examinations during pregnancy. Fifty-two participants withdrew consent, and 1,387 participated in the study. At study entry, median maternal age was 28 y (interquartile range [IQR] 25-31), median height was 162 cm (IQR 157-168), median weight was 61 kg (IQR 55-68), 58% of the women were nulliparous, and median daily caloric intake was 1,840 cal (IQR 1,487-2,222). The median pregnancy duration was 39 wk (IQR 38-40) although there were significant differences between countries, the largest difference being 12 d (95% CI 8-16). The median birthweight was 3,300 g (IQR 2,980-3,615). There were differences in birthweight between countries, e.g., India had significantly smaller neonates than the other countries, even after adjusting for gestational age. Thirty-one women had a miscarriage, and three fetuses had intrauterine death. The 8,203 sets of ultrasound measurements ...

The relationship between poverty and mental health is indisputable. However, to have an influence on the next set of sustainable global development goals, we need to understand the causal relationships between social determinants such as poverty, inequality, lack of education and unemployment; thereby clarifying which aspects of poverty are the key drivers of mental illness. Some of the major challenges identified by Lund (2014) in understanding the poverty–mental health relationship are discussed including: the need for appropriate poverty indicators; extending this research agenda to a broader range of mental health outcomes; the need to engage with theoretical concepts such as Amartya Sen's capability framework; and the need to integrate the concept of income/economic inequality into studies of poverty and mental health. Although income inequality is a powerful driver of poor physical and mental health outcomes, it features rarely in research and discourse on social determinants of mental health. This paper interrogates in detail the relationships between poverty, income inequality and mental health, specifically: the role of income inequality as a mediator of the poverty–mental health relationship; the relative utility of commonly used income inequality metrics; and the likely mechanisms underlying the impact of inequality on mental health, including direct stress due to the setting up of social comparisons as well as the erosion of social capital leading to social fragmentation. Finally, we need to interrogate the upstream political, social and economic causes of inequality itself, since these should also become potential targets in efforts to promote sustainable development goals and improve population (mental) health. In particular, neoliberal (market-oriented) political doctrines lead to both increased income inequality and reduced social cohesion. In conclusion, understanding the relationships between politics, poverty, inequality and mental health outcomes requires us to develop a robust, ...

With rising population numbers, anthropogenic changes to our environment and unprecedented global connectivity, the World Economic Forum ranks the spread of infectious diseases second only to water crises in terms of potential global impact. Addressing the diverse challenges to human health and well-being in the 21st century requires an overarching focus on 'Planetary Health', with input from all sectors of government, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and industry. To clarify and advance the Planetary Health agenda within Australia, specifically in relation to emerging infectious diseases (EID) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), national experts and key stakeholders were invited to a facilitated workshop. EID themes identified included animal reservoirs, targeted surveillance, mechanisms of emergence and the role of unrecognised human vectors (the 'invisible man') in the spread of infection. Themes related to AMR included antimicrobial use in production and companion animals, antimicrobial stewardship, novel treatment approaches and education of professionals, politicians and the general public. Effective infection control strategies are important in both EID and AMR. We provide an overview of key discussion points, as well as important barriers identified and solutions proposed.

Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) are at the forefront of efforts to protect privacy and enable responsible data use. But what are they and how are they used? Dan Cassara, Project Manager for the Digital Credit Observatory (DCO), provides a brief overview of common privacy preserving approaches and the first case study in our new series on 'How PETs Make Data Work for All.'Photo by regularguy.eth on UnsplashIntroduction to PETsData dominates today's world. Information about our location, internet searches, purchasing patterns, and social networks is collected and harvested for insights by large technology companies and data brokers, reshaping society. Conversely, open data sets possess enormous opportunities to catalyze positive change. Because data is a unique asset that can be reused, the more open data is, the more valuable it can become.But risks exist. Data collection can be exploitative, and sensitive data can be stolen, shared dangerously, or misused. No single tool protects against all of these risks but, collectively, a suite of tools called Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) may be able to help.A recent Future of Financial Intelligence Sharing (FFIS) report provides a helpful analogy to understand PETs: imagine data as a physical asset stored in a safe. It's valuable when shared or analyzed, but removing the data from the safe exposes it, compromising its safety. PETs enable researchers to analyze sensitive data without accessing the data itself; namely, while the data remains "in the safe." PETs can even enable collective analysis on information from multiple "safes" without sharing the underlying data.To understand how PETs can enable cooperation and information sharing while preserving data privacy, we've developed a new series, How PETs Make Data Work for All, that will cover how PETs work in practice, their respective strengths, and how they can be combined given different objectives and contexts. To start, we'll define a few prominent PETs. We also share our first case study in the series, highlighting the potential for PETs to contribute to global development and digital financial services.Defining Common Privacy Enhancing TechnologiesDifferential privacy: Strategically adds random noise to statistics so underlying data can't be reproduced. For a more detailed explanation, check out this blog or video.Federated analysis: Runs machine learning algorithms on many local datasets, rather than a centralized dataset of many users' data, so data never has to leave a device. For a more detailed explanation, check out this blog or video.Homomorphic encryption: Methods that enable data to be analyzed while it is still encrypted (e.g. "in the safe"). For a more detailed explanation, check out this blog or video.Secure Multiparty Computation: Allows multiple parties to jointly analyze data without any of the underlying data being revealed. For a more detailed explanation, check out this blog or video.Zero-knowledge Proofs: Verifies a user knows a piece of information (e.g. a password) without revealing the information itself. For a more detailed explanation, check out this blog or video.A Case Study in Private Set Interaction for Multi-Party ReportingWhen you'd like to share the results of an analysis or data query, but not the data itself, Secure Multiparty Computation (MPC) can be a useful tool. MPC allows multiple parties to jointly analyze data without any of the underlying data being revealed. Its first large-scale application came in 2008, when it was used to determine the price for sugar beets in Denmark. Since then, use cases have multiplied.Instead of sugar beet prices, suppose a central bank is interested in estimating the number of mobile money accounts and the volume of mobile money transactions in its country. Most governments receive estimates from financial service providers as a part of standard compliance reporting, but simply aggregating these supply side estimates is typically inaccurate because of the many open but inactive accounts, as well as the common practice of maintaining accounts across multiple providers. Better estimates of the number of accounts can paint a detailed picture to help regulators both understand consumer behavior such as repayment trends or overall debt levels, and combat illicit activities like fraud or money laundering. This data is the bedrock of many good regulatory policies that enable a cheaper, safer financial system for consumers.Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations typically require banks to collect an individual's national ID during the account opening process. This ID is linked to the account, but each bank maintains a separate database of accounts and account holders. Governments could better estimate national account openings, usage, and volumes with access to each bank's data, but this is currently infeasible because it would create privacy and competitive risks for the banks.MPC could mediate this challenge by enabling banks to share relevant information with the government while safeguarding their list of customers and preserving customer privacy. In particular, a type of Multiparty Computation called Private Set Interaction (PSI) can facilitate this improved regulatory infrastructure. PSI enables users to identify overlapping information from multiple datasets without revealing any other data. For example, governments could learn how many individuals hold accounts with multiple financial institutions without having access to any other information.How it WorksLet's assume the only two financial providers are National Bank and State Bank, with N and S customers, respectively. Each customer's unique ID is a string of numbers, like a passport number. To securely identify the overlapping elements of N and S, PSI facilitates the following:National Bank and State Bank randomly select secret numbers, i and j, respectively.National Bank takes their list of N unique IDs and raises each to the i power, while State Bank raises each of their S unique IDs to the j power.For example, unique ID 10321 raised to the secret number 3 would produce the new number 103213 =1099424306161. It's a big number, but thankfully, computers do all the work.The banks swap lists and repeat this exercise. For example, National Bank now has a list of S unique IDs which have each been raised to the j power; it raises each element in this list to the i power. State Bank follows the analogous steps.National Bank, State Bank, and the regulator can now compare the two lists for any common elements. If the parties find C common elements, then (N + S — C) is the number of unique account holders between the two banks.Using MPC, we've now accounted for individuals with multiple accounts without having to share any sensitive data. This highlights the power of PETs to create public goods: with this data, regulators can provide better oversight and more effectively monitor for fraud or money laundering, without compromising security or privacy.There are many similar examples of how PETs can unlock data sharing to reduce costs or enable innovation. Our next case study in the How PETs Make Data Work for All series will cover how differential privacy can enhance public health monitoring.Exploring PETs: What Does the Price of Sugar Beets Have to Do With Preventing Fraud? was originally published in CEGA on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Abstract
French whistleblower legislation establishes a unified legal regime for the treatment of reports and for the protection of whistleblowers. Drawing on French whistleblower law, recently amended by the transposition of Directive 2019/1937 of 23 October 2019, this article examines whether the specific features of whistleblowing in relation to public health and environmental risks are adequately addressed by this unified regime. The article identifies four key factors for the effective handling of whistleblowing relating to public health and the environment: (1) the possibility of protecting whistleblowers who report facts gathered outside the workplace; (2) the possibility of protecting legal persons as whistleblowers; (3) the possibility of carrying out in-depth investigations to characterise the reality of the risks reported; and (4) the possibility of archiving whistleblowing in order to detect weak signals of risks over the long term. In these four areas, the article provides a nuanced diagnosis of the situation in French law and offers suggestions for improvement.

There is limited research on occupational stress and its relation to health from developing countries such as India. This study was done to evaluate work conditions of professionals in two highly productive sectors: the information technology (IT) sector, also known as software development, and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES), also known as call centers. The study employed thirty-two in-depth interviews. The results indicate the presence of nine stress domains: job control, autonomy, time pressure, length of experience in industry, night shifts, income, appreciation of work, physical environment, work-environment and affective or emotional factors. Global drivers of demand, and local supply of a skilled workforce and the work force regulatory environment in India determine the work culture in Indian IT companies. Apart from affecting health of the professionals, these determinants influence workforce policies, priorities, goals and management practices.

Police Scotland's contact with people with vulnerability and health problems has been increasing year-on-year, with significant costs and unknown outcomes associated. This is unsustainable, and pathways involving increased partnership between the police and other partners is now essential. Finding ways of delivering more efficient, evidence-based partnership working is a key national priority. To that end, a one day event, hosted on January 15th 2018, brought together an Expert Advisory Group (EAG) of 26 members across law enforcement, public health, and academia to inform and support the development of a co-constructed programme of research crossing the intersect of Law Enforcement and Public Health (LEPH). The event benefitted from an international perspective, delivered via keynote address by Professor Nick Crofts, President of the Global Law Enforcement & Public Health Association. The event, hosted by the Scottish Government, was part of a larger project funded by a SIPR Police Community Relations Collaborative Project Grant.

Jeff Gailus effectively and passionately dissects the war on truth that has come to define the global battle for oil. It is a battle fought not with bullets and bombs but with a dark and deceitful web of little black lies that poses a threat not only to environmental and human health, but to our moral and social well-being.

Norms in development are typically established at the global level to solve complex development challenges on the ground. These norms are standards of expected behavior about how things ought to be conducted and are deemed crucial for societies to flourish. Global norms, however, often fail to successfully diffuse to local contexts. The author intend to argue in this report that many initiatives are effective in putting norms on the global agenda, but few of these norms lead to transformational change on the ground because of cultural and political economy challenges that were not considered in the norm formation or in the advocacy campaign process. Nonetheless, there are lessons to consider that could lead to more successful outcomes. This report explores the journey of norms in development, from emergence to implementation. Specifically, it seeks to identify effective strategies for norms to take root and make part of the global and domestic agendas and limits. It also identifies challenges to the implementation of norms and some possible strategies and tools to overcome these challenges. The report draws from various global policy advocacy campaigns with a particular focus on governance; it also includes notable historic campaigns, such as Britain's antislavery campaign.

Intro -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Part of a Palgrave Book Series -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- List of Figures -- List of Multimedias -- Introduction -- The Development and Practice of the OPOS Project -- My Professional Practice: Overview -- Contentious and Dangerous: The Difficulty of Talking Openly About Sexual Health -- The Moral Pitfalls of Effectiveness: The Impact Question -- Disrupting Notions of Value: A Responsive, Conscious Research Approach -- How to Read the Book: A Subtle Something in Practice -- References -- Part I: Context -- Chapter 1: HIV/AIDS and the Challenge for Socially Engaged Theatre-Making -- Sexual Health -- The Global HIV Context with a Specific Focus on the South African Situation -- Past Interventions -- The Potential of Social Communication Around HIV -- Applied Theatre: Theatre and the Social -- More Than Transformation: Identifying the Something -- Justification Anxiety -- Reclaiming and Naming Our Own Values: Apertures of Possibility -- References -- Chapter 2: The Context for Our Place, Our Stage -- A Lack of Governance: Challenges Facing South Africa Today -- Impact on Health and Poverty -- Crime and Security -- South African Theatre -- Nyanga -- Welcome to Nyanga -- Nyanga: A 'Model' Township? -- Etafeni -- Entering Etafeni -- Etafeni: 'At the Open Space' -- Our Place, Our Stage (OPOS) -- 'I was so scared when he told me I had a cold vagina': The Impact of the Omnipresent Fear of Crime and Experiences of Crime -- References -- Part II: Practice -- Chapter 3: Applied Theatre: A Space 'Safe Enough' to Take Risks? -- Sex Is Always About Space: The Challenge of Making the Idea of Safe Sex Tangible -- Place: Not Necessarily a 'Safe Space' -- Home Is Not a 'Safe Space' -- Moving from Places of Safety to Spaces of Resistance -- Disharmony: The Outside Space.

The coronavirus pandemic has upended local, national, and global food systems, and put the Sustainable Development Goals further out of reach. But lessons from the world's response to the pandemic can help address future shocks and contribute to food system change. In the 2021 Global Food Policy Report, IFPRI researchers and other food policy experts explore the impacts of the pandemic and government policy responses, particularly for the poor and disadvantaged, and consider what this means for transforming our food systems to be healthy, resilient, efficient, sustainable, and inclusive. Chapters in the report look at balancing health and economic policies, promoting healthy diets and nutrition, strengthening social protection policies and inclusion, integrating natural resource protection into food sector policies, and enhancing the contribution of the private sector. Regional sections look at the diverse experiences around the world, and a special section on finance looks at innovative ways of funding food system transformation. Critical questions addressed include: - Who felt the greatest impact from falling incomes and food system disruptions caused by the pandemic? - How can countries find an effective balance among health, economic, and social policies in the face of crisis? - How did lockdowns affect diet quality and quantity in rural and urban areas? - Do national social protection systems such as cash transfers have the capacity to protect poor and vulnerable groups in a global crisis? - Can better integration of agricultural and ecosystem polices help prevent the next pandemic? - How did companies accelerate ongoing trends in digitalization and integration to keep food supply chains moving? - What different challenges did the pandemic spark in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and how did these regions respond? ; PR ; IFPRI1; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance ; DGO

Global Kidney Exchange (GKE) is a program aimed at facilitating trans-national kidney donation. Although its proponents aim at reducing the unmet demand of kidneys in the United States through the trans-nationalization of kidney exchange programs, the World Health Organization (WHO) and The Transplantation Society (TTS) have expressed concerns about its potential effect on black markets of organs and transnational organ trafficking, as well as on low- or middle-income countries health systems. For GKE to be implemented, it would need to be permitted to operate in at least some low- or middle-income countries. Should a low- or middle-income country allow GKE's implementation? With the aim of answering this question, the eighteen University of Denver students in the Medical Anthropology course I [Alejandro Cerón] taught in autumn 2017, identified and researched the different aspects that would affect this issue, and delved in a holistic analysis we present in this report. Based on our analysis, health authorities in low- or middle-income countries faced with decisions about GKE need to consider the following aspects: the country's current and projected needs related to kidney transplant, as well as the capacity for addressing those needs; the country's current situation related to organ trafficking, transplant tourism and black markets of organs; the current and projected legislation related to both organ donation and human trafficking; the prevailing ethical considerations that inform the practice of all professionals related to organ transplant in the country; analyze end-stage renal failure as a preventable disease needing public health measures; and the sociocultural aspects that surround organ donation in the country. We consider that the concrete configuration of these aspects would influence the effects of implementing GKE. Additionally, we identified some issues of concern that are beyond the level of influence of local authorities: the unmet demand of kidneys in high-income countries is a reality that incentivizes organ trade and transplant tourism, and this is a problem in need of solutions; transnational organ trafficking as well as human trafficking with the purpose of organ donation are problems that need more visibility; for a global exchange of organs to be implemented, it would need to rely on supranational or transnational regulation and oversight; and the global epidemic of chronic kidney disease needs to be addressed through a public health perspective that emphasizes prevention.

<b><i>Background:</i></b> The global genetic direct-to-consumer (DTC) market will reach a volume of USD 230 billion in 2018. The expenditures for this genetic analysis are borne by the customer, whereas consequential costs may arise for a solidarily financed system. In a first step, it is essential to gain an overview of the currently available offer in the German setting. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> In April 2016, we conducted a systematic internet search in the Google search engine. In November 2016, we updated the information of the webpages in terms of country, language, types of health-related tests, additional offer of non-health-related DTC test, information about sensitivity and specificity, certification and accreditation, costs as well as reference to German Act on Genetic Testing. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Thirty-five webpages were included in the final overview. A plurality of different predictive analysis options was identified. Price information was not available for all offered genetic analyses. Costs for predictive analysis in one disease vary between EUR 90 and 990, for predictive package analysis between EUR 232.18 and 375, and for genetic lifestyle analysis between EUR 84.55 and 570.20. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Genetic results may lead to uncertainty and anxiety; therefore, subsequent costs for a solidarily financed system may arise. Genetic DTC tests may have an influence on different players on the micro-, meso- and macro-levels, which may have a cost-cutting or cost-increasing effect on health-care expenditures. The increased interest in genetic analysis as well as the possibility of worldwide internet-based access to genetic tests requires population-wide education.