The Saratov Tuberculosis Institute as a local orthopaedic research cluster in the first half of the 20th century

In the conditions of deep social transformations in the Ukrainian village, monographic researches at local level (streets, villages, cities, districts) are gaining popularity. The Ukrainian village of the beginning of the XXI century was going through a period of changes, its social and household features and its economic specifics had not been formed yet. Therefore, local research at this stage is relevant and effective. It is emphasized that during the 1920s and 1930s, various local monographic studies were conducted independently in different countries (the United States, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Romania). Ukrainian ethnologists were faced with the acute problem of studying and understanding the cultural and everyday features of different local groups and identifying the complex links between them at the regional and national levels. The author focuses on the activities of the ethnographic centers of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. It was its members who substantiated and used the method of stationary research of local areas in their research work. The stationary method of field ethnography, is analyzed as the main one in the collection and systematization of factual material for monographic research. The further development of this technique in the 1940s–1950s is presented.

BackgroundOwing to different governance structures and procedures outside NHS organisations, independent hospices often face challenges to conduct research (Perkins et al., 2014). Yet, The Commission into the Future of Hospice...

Improving access and quality for ethnic minority women— panel discussion

The Boston University Clinical & Translational Science Institute (BU CTSI) identified a local need to increase the capacity of members of a diverse inner-city community with no prior knowledge of research to partner with researchers along the research continuum. To design, implement, and evaluate an introductory- level capacity-building training using community pedagogy and providing information about current research and opportunities to partner with local researchers. Guided by two advisory boards of community-engaged professionals and patients, the community engagement team of the BU CTSI designed, implemented, and evaluated the Connecting Community to Research (CCR) training program. We targeted existing community groups in Boston interested in partnering with an academic institution to advance the health of their community. Interactive trainings focused on principles of community-engaged research (CEnR), and how individual experiences might influence research. Each session offered real-time opportunities for participants to engage with local researchers on existing research such as joining a local research advisory group or institutional review board. Self-administered surveys captured participant experiences. Over 1 year, we trained 100 community members and almost all participants felt that the objectives of the training program were met and the information was relevant. More than 50% of the participants took advantage of partnership opportunities with local researchers. A toolkit was designed and disseminated to support others to replicate the program. We demonstrated that an interactive training curriculum designed with a community-engaged pedagogy and supported by opportunities for engagement has the ability to successfully partner community members with academic researchers.

The Local Group provides an interesting and representative sample of galaxies in the rest of the Universe. The high accuracy with which many problems can be addressed in Local Group galaxies is of paramount importance for understanding galaxy formation and evolution. This contribution presents a short review of overall Local Group properties followed by short discussions of five topics in which the study of Local Group members provides particularly significant information. These topics are only examples of the usefulness and potential of Local Group research. The five selected topics are the formation of the Milky Way, galaxy destruction and tidal streams, detailed galactic chemical evolution, star formation history determination, and low surface brightness extended structures.

Venezuela has lost through migration 16% of its research workforce, mostly in the last few years. This paper utilizes BIBLIOS- a database of Venezuelan publications- a survey, and open-ended interviews, to provide evidence on the relationship between migrated researchers and researchers in Venezuela. Several indicators of researchers productivity were used, together with their attitudes towards professional and social ties. Preliminarily, the survey shows that researchers initial decision to migrate is motivated by basic family needs and better opportunities. Meanwhile, the extended interviews show evidence of the interest of recent emigrants to maintain connections in Venezuela. Even among researchers not planning to return to Venezuela, there was evidence of their desire to collaborate with local partners in academic, professional, or business organizations and to engage in community work. Further, researchers migrate with an initial destination country in mind that changes over time (mostly to Latin America, North America, and Europe). With the increasing trend on researchers emigration, their desire to maintain connections with the country, and their changes in migration destination patterns, it is important to evaluate the impact of these factors on the local research productivity of knowledge. Analysis of the BIBLIOS database reveals that research productivity tends to decrease initially when there is a recent migration while quality research productivity increases. In the long run, migration negatively relates to local research productivity, especially among local research groups where no researcher has ever migrated. Our research sheds light on the relevance of data-driven policies that incentivize professional connections between migrated and local researchers.

BackgroundThe Investment Framework for a more effective HIV response has become integral to discussions on how best to respond to the HIV epidemic. The Framework calls for greater synergy and attention to factors that serve as ‘critical enablers’ and optimise HIV programmes. In this paper we argue for recognition of informal and indigenous community groups as ‘critical enablers’ of the HIV response.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted in Matobo district of the Matabeleland South province in Zimbabwe. It draws on 19 individual in-depth interviews and 9 focus group discussions conducted by local researchers in September and October 2011. Data was thematically analysed.ResultsFour core themes highlight the possibilities and limitations of community groups in the HIV response: (i) Membership of indigenous community groups and group-based dialogue were found to encourage group members to engage with HIV prevention, mitigation and care efforts; (ii) local networks and partnerships between groups and NGOs were said to play an important role in accessing much needed resources to aid indigenous coping with AIDS; (iii) community strengths and resources were recognised and drawn upon in the community group response; (iv) frequent droughts, poverty and stigma served as obstacles to an effective HIV response.ConclusionsIn this context, social groups, although to varying degrees and in direct or indirect ways, play a key role in the HIV response. This suggest that community groups and networks can indeed act as ‘critical enablers’ to the HIV response, and that efforts need to be made to facilitate the contributions of already existing indigenous responses. Local community groups are developing local and collective solutions to structural problems, often independently of external NGO or health service efforts, and begging for synergy and collaboration between local community groups and networks, the health services and other external HIV service delivery sectors.

Abstract. Critical infrastructure has a paramount role in socio-economic development, and its disruption can have dramatic consequences for human communities, including cascading impacts. Assessing critical-infrastructure exposure to multiple hazard is therefore of utmost importance for disaster risk reduction purposes. However, past efforts in exposure assessment have predominantly concentrated on residential buildings, often overlooking the unique characteristics of critical infrastructure. Knowing the location, type and characteristics of critical infrastructure is particularly challenging due to the overall scarcity of data and difficulty of interacting with local stakeholders. We propose a method to assess exposure of selected critical infrastructure and demonstrate it for Central Asia, a region prone to multiple hazards (e.g., floods, earthquakes, landslides). We develop the first regionally consistent exposure database for selected critical infrastructure and asset types (namely, non-residential buildings, transportation and croplands), assembling the available global and regional datasets together with country-based information provided by local authorities and research groups, including reconstruction costs. The method addresses the main known challenges related to exposure assessment of critical infrastructure (i.e., data scarcity, difficulties in interacting with local stakeholders) by collecting national-scale data with the help of local research groups. The analysis also includes country-based reconstruction costs, supporting regional-scale disaster risk reduction strategies that include the financial aspect.

One of the most fascinating unresolved problems of modern astrophysics is how the galaxies we observe today were formed. The Lambda-Cold Dark Matter paradigm predicts that large spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way formed through accretion and tidal disruption of satellite galaxies. The galaxies of the Local Group provide the best laboratory in which to investigate these galaxy formation processes because they can be studied with sufficiently high resolution to exhume fossils of galactic evolution embedded in the spatial distribution, kinematics, and chemical abundances of their oldest stars. Based on the twentieth Winter School of the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics, this volume provides a firm grounding for graduate students and early career researchers working on Local Group cosmology. It presents modules from eight eminent and experienced scientists at the forefront of Local Group research, and includes overviews of observational techniques, diagnostic tools, and various theoretical models.

The dynamics of 19 local red deer (Сervus elaphus maral Ogilbi 1840) groupings in the Caucasian State Nature Biosphere Reserve in the period of 1996‒2015 has been researched; the groupings were divided into three groups by their size: large, average, and small ones. It was found that the population decline at the end of 20th century has resulted in levelling of local deer groupings: all of them became small but none disappeared completely. Further population growth has resulted in the formation of large and average local groupings in central parts of the nature reserve; a gradual restoration of optimal ratios between those can be observed. In some peripheral areas of the biosphere reserve, the red deer population is not recovering, while the average size of the small groupings is decreasing. At least four local deer groupings have lost their independent status in the metapopulation structure of the species due to anthropogenic factors and continue their existence owing to neighboring local groupings on the basis of the “source‒sink” system operation principle.

The mountainous area to the west of Thanh Hoa province is a land with many advantages in terms of rich and diverse natural resources, including forest resources, mountains, lakes, waterfalls, caves and many landscapes and landmarks. To conserve tourism resources at tourist destinations, for sustainable development, and at the same time to encourage and create opportunities for local people to participate, over the years, eco-cultural tourism and ethnic groups in many localities throughout the country: Lac Village – Mai Chau (Hoa Binh province), Ba Be National Park (Bac Kan province), Sin Chai – Sa Pa (Lao Cai province), Buon Don (Dak Lak province)… With the content of this article, the author will focus on giving lessons learned based on actual research in localities to apply to Thanh Hoa province of Vietnam.

Medical research and development (R&D) is an undoubtedly relevant activity to drive innovation, improve healthcare policies and bring patients treatment opportunities for common and rare diseases. Equity and inclusion are matters of concern in research. High-income countries' research teams are more likely to have more impactful publications, grant funding, and clinical trials than middle or low-income countries. Low budget allocations to R&D and existing gaps in regulatory frameworks are some obstacles to growth. This unvirtuous cycle results in scarce advances in common endemic diseases and the underrepresentation of specific populations in innovative therapeutics research. We conducted a policy review and qualitative research to determine the principal characteristics of basic and clinical medical research in Paraguay, as well as barriers and facilitators to improve innovative R&D strategies in this country. To this aim, we examined published articles from 2005 to 2020, the organizational structure of national research agencies, the current regulation framework, and the composition and experience of local research groups and ethical review boards (ERBs). In addition, we performed semi-structured interviews to evaluate perceptions and expectations from different stakeholders, including investigators, ERBs members, sponsor associates, and Regulatory Agency executive staff. In 2018, Paraguay ranked 10th out of 12 South American countries in total number of publications and cumulative h-index score. Total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocation for R&D was 0.15%, ranking eighth out of 12 in the region. In 2021, the number of trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov was 52, with only 16 ongoing recruiting studies at that time.Some of the main barriers identified included low incentives for academic careers and lack of experience in pharmaceutical research. An emergent necessity to develop a straight- forward normative framework was detected. Main facilitators included the development of two research initiative programs (PRONII and PROCIENCIA) from CONACYT (National Council of Science and Technology) which were associated with higher budget allocation and total number of publications in the 2011 to 2017 period. A total of six stakeholders participated in the semi-structured surveys. Interviewees highlighted the necessity of a centralized policy to promote R&D, which incorporates investigators and ERBs training, the development of standardized procedures, and the dissemination of research activities. Sponsor associates underlined that real-world evidence may represent a distinctive opportunity to enhance local research. Coordinated efforts are needed to break the unvirtuous cycle. There is an increasing interest in enhancing health research in Paraguay, materialized in the creation of specific programs that encourage the collaborative work of healthcare providers, basic scientists, and private investors. Nonetheless, a comprehensive approach is needed also to strengthen regulatory agencies and attract external sponsorship. While modern and currently popular topics, including artificial intelligence, real-world data, and translational research may represent key opportunities to seek investment, special policies should be adopted to prioritize research on the determinants of health in the Paraguayan population.

We are leveraging Web‐based technology to create an online community for Life Science research. Our prototype community for cardiovascular research with live bats, called eBat, consists of local researchers as well as remote collaborators. The eBat project offers scientists and students a remote‐controlled microscope for conducting experiments, a message board and a chat system for scheduled as well as spontaneous communication, and an online peer‐reviewed manuscript repository. In this paper, we report our observations of the use of the eBat infrastructure by local researchers over a period of six months. Resident researchers quickly adopted the eBat infrastructure. eBat technology has now become an indispensable part of the local research group and is used extensively for co‐ordination, communication, and awareness. eBat complements face‐to‐face interactions well and has resulted in improved communication amongst lab members. We are currently exploring the extension of eBat technology to include distant researchers in live cardiovascular research experiments. We discuss our initial experiences with adapting the eBat infrastructure for research‐at‐a‐distance and the lessons learned from these initial interactions.

Background:The INSPIRE—Integrating and Scaling Up PMTCT through Implementation REsearch—initiative was established as a model partnership of national prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) implementation research in 3 high HIV burden countries—Malawi, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. INSPIRE aimed to link local research groups with Ministries of Health (MOH), build local research capacity, and demonstrate that implementation research may contribute to improving health care delivery and respond to program challenges.Methodology:We used a mixed methods approach to review capacity building activities, as experienced by health care workers, researchers, and trainers conducted in the 6 INSPIRE projects before and during study implementation.Results:Between 2011 and 2016, over 3400 health care workers, research team members, and community members participated in INSPIRE activities. This included research prioritization exercises, proposal development, good clinical practice and research ethics training, data management and analysis workshops, and manuscript development. Health care workers in clinics and district health offices acknowledged the value of hosting implementation research projects and how the quality of services improved. Research teams acknowledged the opportunities that projects provided for personal development and the value of participating in a multicountry research network.Discussion:INSPIRE provided an opportunity for African-led research in which researchers worked closely with national MOH to identify priority research questions and implement studies. Close partnerships between research teams and local implementers facilitated project responsiveness to local program issues. Consequently, processes and training needed for study implementation also improved local program management and service delivery. Additional benefits included improved data management, publications, and career development.

SummaryOver the last few years there has been rapid and radical change in the way clinical research in the UK is funded and supported within the NHS. This has resulted from restructuring and major new investment in research infrastructure, co‐ordinated through Clinical Local Research Networks (CLRNs) and equivalent organisations in the devolved nations. CLRNs have resources to support local researchers undertake studies that have been adopted on to the national research portfolio. For example, CLRNs can help with gaining local approvals or provide research nurses to recruit patients, undertake study procedures and perform data entry. CLRNs can establish Local Speciality Groups in a number of areas of medicine, including non‐malignant haematology. These new networks offer non‐malignant haematology access to significant new resources and a major opportunity to support clinical research for the benefit of our patients.