Reluctant donors? The Europeanization of international development policies in the New Member States

The European Union (EU) played an instrumental role in re-starting the international development policies in central and eastern European Member States, but questions remain about how far this policy area has been Europeanized since accession. Focusing on the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, this article investigates why the new donors have been reluctant to adopt the EU's development acquis more fully. The article traces the socialization processes offered by the EU's development policy rule-making and subsequent national rule implementation. The conclusions reveal three reasons why socialization has been weak: perceptions among the new Member States on the procedural legitimacy of the development acquis; low domestic resonance with the development acquis; and inconsistencies in the activities of norm entrepreneurs. The article contributes to our understanding of development policy in the EU – particularly how decision-making takes place within the Council and its working groups post-enlargement.

The East-Central European new donors:mapping capacity building and remaining challenges

In the past decade, the East-Central European countries were provided significant external capacity building assistance to help their emergence as donors of foreign aid. This paper aims to map these capacity development programmes and identify where they have helped and what challenges remain for the new donors. The main conclusion is that although capacity building has been instrumental in building organisational structures, working procedures and training staff, deeper underlying problems such as low levels of financing, lacking political will, the need for visibility and low staff numbers continue to hinder the new international development policies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Aid allocation of the emerging Central and Eastern European donors

This paper examines the main characteristics of the (re-)emerging foreign aid policies of the Visegrád countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), concentrating on the allocation of their aid resources. I adopt an econometric approach, similar to the ones used in the literature, for analysing the aid allocation of the OECD DAC donors. Using this approach, I examine the various factors that influence aid allocation of the Visegrád countries, using data for the years between 2001 and 2008. The most important conclusion is that the amount of aid a partner country gets from the four emerging donors is not influenced by the level of poverty or the previous performance of the recipients (measured by the level of economic growth or the quality of institutions). The main determining factor seems to be geographic proximity, as countries in the Western Balkans and the Post-Soviet region receive much more aid from the Visegrád countries than other recipients. Historical ties (pre-1989 development relations) and international obligations in the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq are also found to be significant explanatory factors. This allocation is in line with the foreign political and economic interests of these new donors. Although there are clear similarities between the four donors, this paper also identifies some individual country characteristics.

Characterization of human mesenchymal stem cells from multiple donors and the implications for large scale bioprocess development

Cell-based therapies have the potential to contribute to global healthcare, whereby the use of living cells and tissues can be used as medicinal therapies. Despite this potential, many challenges remain before the full value of this emerging field can be realized. The characterization of input material for cell-based therapy bioprocesses from multiple donors is necessary to identify and understand the potential implications of input variation on process development. In this work, we have characterized bone marrow derived human mesenchymal stem cells (BM-hMSCs) from multiple donors and discussed the implications of the measurable input variation on the development of autologous and allogeneic cell-based therapy manufacturing processes. The range of cumulative population doublings across the five BM-hMSC lines over 30 days of culture was 5.93, with an 18.2% range in colony forming efficiency at the end of the culture process and a 55.1% difference in the production of interleukin-6 between these cell lines. It has been demonstrated that this variation results in a range in the process time between these donor hMSC lines for a hypothetical product of over 13 days, creating potential batch timing issues when manufacturing products from multiple patients. All BM-hMSC donor lines demonstrated conformity to the ISCT criteria but showed a difference in cell morphology. Metabolite analysis showed that hMSCs from the different donors have a range in glucose consumption of 26.98 pmol cell−1 day−1, Lactate production of 29.45 pmol cell−1 day−1 and ammonium production of 1.35 pmol cell−1 day−1, demonstrating the extent of donor variability throughout the expansion process. Measuring informative product attributes during process development will facilitate progress towards consistent manufacturing processes, a critical step in the translation cell-based therapies.

Aid Allocation of the Emerging Central and Eastern European Donors

The paper examines the main characteristics of the (re)emerging foreign aid policies of the Visegrád countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), concentrating on the allocation of their aid resources. We adopt an econometric approach, similar to the ones used in the literature for analyzing the aid allocation of the OECD DAC donors. Using this approach, we examine the various factors that influence aid allocation of the Visegrád countries, using data for the years between 2001 and 2008. Our most important conclusion is that the amount of aid a partner county gets from the four emerging donors is not influenced by the level of poverty or the previous performance (measured by the level of economic growth or the quality of institutions) of the recipients. The main determining factor seems to be geographic proximity, as countries in the Western-Balkans and the Post-Soviet region receive much more aid from the Visegrád countries than other recipients. Historical ties (pre-1989 development relations) and international obligations in the case of Afghanistan and Iraq are also found to be significant explanatory factors. This allocation is in line with the foreign political and economic interests of these new donors. While there are clear similarities between the four donors, the paper also identifies some individual country characteristics.

Aid Allocation of the Emerging Central and Eastern European Donors

The paper examines the main characteristics of the (re)emerging foreign aid policies of the Visegrád countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), concentrating on the allocation of their aid resources. We adopt an econometric approach, similar to the ones used in the literature for analyzing the aid allocation of the OECD DAC donors. Using this approach, we examine the various factors that influence aid allocation of the Visegrád countries, using data for the years between 2001 and 2008. Our most important conclusion is that the amount of aid a partner county gets from the four emerging donors is not influenced by the level of poverty or the previous performance (measured by the level of economic growth or the quality of institutions) of the recipients. The main determining factor seems to be geographic proximity, as countries in the Western-Balkans and the Post-Soviet region receive much more aid from the Visegrád countries than other recipients. Historical ties (pre-1989 development relations) and international obligations in the case of Afghanistan and Iraq are also found to be significant explanatory factors. This allocation is in line with the foreign political and economic interests of these new donors. While there are clear similarities between the four donors, the paper also identifies some individual country characteristics.

The East-Central European new donors: mapping capacity building and remaining challenges

In the past decade, the East-Central European countries were provided significant external capacity building assistance in order to help their emergence as donors of foreign aid. This paper aims to map these capacity development programs and identify where they have helped and what challenges remain for the new donors. The main conclusion is that while capacity building has been instrumental in building organizational structures, working procedures and training staff, deeper underlying problems such as low levels of financing, lacking political will, the need for visibility and low staff numbers continue to hinder the new international development policies.

Reluctant Donors? The Europeanization of International Development Policies in the New Members

The EU played an instrumental role re-starting the international development policies in Central and Eastern European member states, but questions remain about how far this policy area has been Europeanized since accession. Focusing on the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, the paper investigates why the new donors have been reluctant to adopt the EU’s development acquis more fully. The paper traces the process of the EU’s development policy rulemaking and subsequent national rule implementation to understand the socialization opportunities these processes offer. The conclusions reveal thrre reasons why socialization has been weak: (1) perceptions among the new member states on the development acquis’ procedural legitimacy; (2) low domestic resonance with the development acquis; and (3) inconsistencies in the activities of norm entrepreneurs. The paper contributes to our understanding of development policy in the EU, in particular how decision making takes place within the Council and its Working Groups post enlargement.

Two parallel, pragmatic, UK multicentre, randomised controlled trials comparing surgical options for upper compartment (vault or uterine) pelvic organ prolapse (the VUE Study) : study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

The VUE study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme (project number 11/129/183).

Remarks on the state of the art of organ-building, past and present

Translated from the German by David Hamilton.

Evaluation of the Does Reduction Potential Using a Breast Positioning Technique for Organ-based Tube Current Modulated CT Examinations

Purpose: The purpose of this work was to investigate the breast dose saving potential of a breast positioning technique (BP) for thoracic CT examinations with organ-based tube current modulation (OTCM).

Methods: The study included 13 female patient models (XCAT, age range: 27-65 y.o., weight range: 52 to 105.8 kg). Each model was modified to simulate three breast sizes in standard supine geometry. The modeled breasts were further deformed, emulating a BP that would constrain the breasts within 120° anterior tube current (mA) reduction zone. The tube current value of the CT examination was modeled using an attenuation-based program, which reduces the radiation dose to 20% in the anterior region with a corresponding increase to the posterior region. A validated Monte Carlo program was used to estimate organ doses with a typical clinical system (SOMATOM Definition Flash, Siemens Healthcare). The simulated organ doses and organ doses normalized by CTDIvol were compared between attenuation-based tube current modulation (ATCM), OTCM, and OTCM with BP (OTCMBP).

Results: On average, compared to ATCM, OTCM reduced the breast dose by 19.3±4.5%, whereas OTCMBP reduced breast dose by 36.6±6.9% (an additional 21.3±7.3%). The dose saving of OTCMBP was more significant for larger breasts (on average 32, 38, and 44% reduction for 0.5, 1.5, and 2.5 kg breasts, respectively). Compared to ATCM, OTCMBP also reduced thymus and heart dose by 12.1 ± 6.3% and 13.1 ± 5.4%, respectively.

Conclusions: In thoracic CT examinations, OTCM with a breast positioning technique can markedly reduce unnecessary exposure to the radiosensitive organs in the anterior chest wall, specifically breast tissue. The breast dose reduction is more notable for women with larger breasts.

Prospective Estimation of Organ Dose Prior to Examination: Matching Patient to Digital Phantoms

Prospective estimation of patient CT organ dose prior to examination can help technologist adjust CT scan settings to reduce radiation dose to patient while maintaining certain image quality. One possible way to achieve this is matching patient to digital models precisely. In previous work, patient matching was performed manually by matching the trunk height which was defined as the distance from top of clavicle to bottom of pelvis. However, this matching method is time consuming and impractical in scout images where entire trunk is not included. Purpose of this work was to develop an automatic patient matching strategy and verify its accuracy.

An Economic Analysis of Global Policy Proposals to Prohibit Compensation of Blood Plasma Donors

© 2016 International Journal of the Economics of Business.Human blood plasma and its derivative therapies have been used therapeutically for more than 50 years, after first being widely used to treat injuries during World War II. In certain countries, manufacturers of these therapies – known as plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMPs) – compensate plasma donors, raising healthcare and ethical concerns among some parties. In particular, the World Health Organization has taken a strong advocacy position that compensation for blood donations should be eliminated worldwide. This review evaluates the key economic factors underlying the supply and demand for PDMPs and the evidence pointing to the policy options that are most likely to maintain a reliable supply of life-sustaining therapies. It concludes that compensated plasma donation is important for maintaining adequate and consistent supplies of plasma and limits the risk of under-treatment for the foreseeable future.

Role of patient factors, preferences, and distrust in health care and access to liver transplantation and organ donation.

Despite major improvements in access to liver transplantation (LT), disparities remain. Little is known about how distrust in medical care, patient preferences, and the origins shaping those preferences contribute to differences surrounding access. We performed a single-center, cross-sectional survey of adults with end-stage liver disease and compared responses between LT listed and nonlisted patients as well as by race. Questionnaires were administered to 109 patients (72 nonlisted; 37 listed) to assess demographics, health care system distrust (HCSD), religiosity, and factors influencing LT and organ donation (OD). We found that neither HCSD nor religiosity explained differences in access to LT in our population. Listed patients attained higher education levels and were more likely to be insured privately. This was also the case for white versus black patients. All patients reported wanting LT if recommended. However, nonlisted patients were significantly less likely to have discussed LT with their physician or to be referred to a transplant center. They were also much less likely to understand the process of LT. Fewer blacks were referred (44.4% versus 69.7%; P = 0.03) or went to the transplant center if referred (44.4% versus 71.1%; P = 0.02). Fewer black patients felt that minorities had as equal access to LT as whites (29.6% versus 57.3%; P < 0.001). For OD, there were more significant differences in preferences by race than listing status. More whites indicated OD status on their driver's license, and more blacks were likely to become an organ donor if approached by someone of the same cultural or ethnic background (P < 0.01). In conclusion, our analysis demonstrates persistent barriers to LT and OD. With improved patient and provider education and communication, many of these disparities could be successfully overcome. Liver Transplantation 22 895-905 2016 AASLD.

Aneuploidy Tolerance in a Polyploid Organ

Endopolyploid cells (hereafter - polyploid cells), which contain whole genome duplications in an otherwise diploid organism, play vital roles in development and physiology of diverse organs such as our heart and liver. Polyploidy is also observed with high frequency in many tumors, and division of such cells frequently creates aneuploidy (chromosomal imbalances), a hallmark of cancer. Despite its frequent occurrence and association with aneuploidy, little is known about the specific role that polyploidy plays in diverse contexts. Using a new model tissue, the Drosophila rectal papilla, we sought to uncover connections between polyploidy and aneuploidy during organ development. Our lab previously discovered that the papillar cells of the Drosophila hindgut undergo developmentally programmed polyploid cell divisions, and that these polyploid cell divisions are highly error-prone. Time-lapse studies of polyploid mitosis revealed that the papillar cells undergo a high percentage of tripolar anaphase, which causes extreme aneuploidy. Despite this massive chromosome imbalance, we found the tripolar daughter cells are viable and support normal organ development and function, suggesting acquiring extra genome sets enables a cell to tolerate the genomic alterations incurred by aneuploidy. We further extended these findings by seeking mechanisms by which the papillar cells tolerated this resultant aneuploidy.