Resource-poor Conditions Research Articles

Survey on Monitoring and Quality Controlling of the Mobile Biosignal Delivery.

A Mobile Patient Monitoring System (MPMS) acquires patient's biosignals and transmits them using wireless network connection to the decision-making module or healthcare professional for the assessment of patient's condition. A variety of wireless network technologies such as wireless personal area networks (e.g., Bluetooth), mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET), and infrastructure-based networks (e.g., WLAN and cellular networks) are in practice for biosignals delivery. The wireless network quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of biosignals delivery are mainly specified in terms of required bandwidth, acceptable delay, and tolerable error rate. An important research challenge in the MPMS is how to satisfy QoS requirements of biosignals delivery in the environment characterized by patient mobility, deployment of multiple wireless network technologies, and variable QoS characteristics of the wireless networks. QoS requirements are mainly application specific, while available QoS is largely dependent on QoS provided by wireless network in use. QoS provisioning refers to providing support for improving QoS experience of networked applications. In resource poor conditions, application adaptation may also be required to make maximum use of available wireless network QoS. This survey paper presents a survey of recent developments in the area of QoS provisioning for MPMS. In particular, our contributions are as follows: (1) overview of wireless networks and network QoS requirements of biosignals delivery; (2) survey of wireless networks' QoS performance evaluation for the transmission of biosignals; and (3) survey of QoS provisioning mechanisms for biosignals delivery in MPMS. We also propose integrating end-to-end QoS monitoring and QoS provisioning strategies in a mobile patient monitoring system infrastructure to support optimal delivery of biosignals to the healthcare professionals.

Learning from the margins: Enabling effective occupational therapy

IntroductionThis study investigated the practice of occupational therapy in marginal settings to see if it could offer anything to take forward the development of occupational therapy theory and practice.MethodThe study began with the assumption that occupational therapy consists of an idea and a practice, both embedded in particular times, places and contexts. An interpretive methodology was selected to explore how the idea and practice develop as practitioners try to make sense of their practice. A multiple case study design was employed, using qualitative interview methods to explore the perceptions of practitioners working in marginal settings. The research design was not fully specified from the beginning, but emerged during the course of the study.FindingsThe practice of occupational therapists working on the margins differed from that in the mainstream in several features, but the differences tended to be of degree. Practitioners shared five characteristics which enabled them to practise effectively in resource-poor conditions: agency; openness; commitment; responsiveness; and resourcefulness.ConclusionDeveloping these enabling characteristics in occupational therapy students and practitioners has the potential to make them better able to make an effective contribution to meeting complex health and social care needs in developed and developing countries.

ACTIVITIES OF THE BIYSK CITY DUMA IN JUNE 1918 – DECEMBER 1919

The article features the Activities of the Biysk City Duma during the Civil War. The paper is based on archival materials and published documents of the period in question. It describes the actions taken by the City Council in different spheres of life: politics, security, education, medicine. The Council members initiated vigilante groups to patrol urban areas; they reorganized educational institutions and took measures to improve the epidemiologic situation. The actions taken by the City Duma characterize the proactive stance of its members in relation to the state of affairs in the region. In resource-poor conditions of the civil war those people tried to establish a peaceful life in the city, from security measures to improving the quality of pharmaceuticals. The council members were dominant figures, who knew their job. Their experience during the economic crisis is enormous and, in our opinion, extremely valuable in today's Russian reality.

Brown world forests: increased ungulate browsing keeps temperate trees in recruitment bottlenecks in resource hotspots.

Plant biomass consumers (mammalian herbivory and fire) are increasingly seen as major drivers of ecosystem structure and function but the prevailing paradigm in temperate forest ecology is still that their dynamics are mainly bottom-up resource-controlled. Using conceptual advances from savanna ecology, particularly the demographic bottleneck model, we present a novel view on temperate forest dynamics that integrates consumer and resource control. We used a fully factorial experiment, with varying levels of ungulate herbivory and resource (light) availability, to investigate how these factors shape recruitment of five temperate tree species. We ran simulations to project how inter- and intraspecific differences in height increment under the different experimental scenarios influence long-term recruitment of tree species. Strong herbivore-driven demographic bottlenecks occurred in our temperate forest system, and bottlenecks were as strong under resource-rich as under resource-poor conditions. Increased browsing by herbivores in resource-rich patches strongly counteracted the increased escape strength of saplings in these patches. This finding is a crucial extension of the demographic bottleneck model which assumes that increased resource availability allows plants to more easily escape consumer-driven bottlenecks. Our study demonstrates that a more dynamic understanding of consumer-resource interactions is necessary, where consumers and plants both respond to resource availability.

Belowground fungal associations and water interact to influence the compensatory response of Ipomopsis aggregata.

Although the concept that some plants benefit from being eaten is counterintuitive, there is now considerable evidence demonstrating enhanced fitness following herbivory. It has been assumed that plants growing in high resource conditions are the ones best able to compensate for herbivory. However, just the opposite has been found for dicotyledonous plants exhibiting patterns of overcompensation, with most occurring in resource-poor conditions. Long-term studies of the monocarpic biennial, scarlet gilia, Ipomopsis aggregata growing in resource-poor conditions have shown that ungulate herbivory by mule deer and elk can result in a threefold increase in plant fitness over uneaten controls. These observations led us to hypothesize that fungal associations would facilitate the compensatory response most commonly observed in this Arizona population of scarlet gilia; perhaps mutualistic associations with fungi, such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, would explain the phenomenon of overcompensation altogether. Fungal removal experiments, using Captan®, a commercially available fungicide, showed that a reduction in fungal abundance altered the compensatory response following ungulate herbivory, particularly in years in which water was limited, increasing fitness compensation from equal compensation to overcompensation. A multifactorial experiment revealed that the interactive effects of water and fungicide maximized fruit production following herbivory. Our results are counter to the “modification of tolerance hypothesis” in which plants associating with mycorrhizal fungi will have higher tolerance to herbivory. It is likely that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and dark septate endophytes compete with plants for photosynthates following herbivory, thereby limiting the magnitude of compensation. Thus, fungi appear to be parasitic on scarlet gilia following ungulate herbivory.

The response of simulated grassland communities to the cessation of grazing

Changes in land-use are supposed to be among the severest prospective threats to plant diversity world-wide. In semi-natural temperate grasslands, the cessation of traditional land use like livestock grazing is considered to be one of the most important drivers of the diversity loss witnessed within the last decades. Despite of the enormous number of studies on successional pathways following grazing abandonment there is no general pattern of how grassland communities are affected in terms of diversity, trait composition and pace of succession. To gain a comprehensive picture is difficult given the heterogeneity of environments and the time and effort needed for long-term investigations. We here use a proven individual- and trait-based grassland community model to analyze short- and long-term consequences of grazing abandonment under different assumptions of resource availability, pre-abandonment grazing intensity and regional isolation of communities.Grazing abandonment led to a decrease of plant functional type (PFT) diversity in all but two scenarios in the long-term. In short-term we also found an increase or no change in Shannon diversity for several scenarios. With grazing abandonment we overall found an increase in maximum plant mass, clonal integration and longer lateral spread, a decrease in rosette plant types and in stress tolerant plants, as well as an increase in grazing tolerant and a decrease in grazing avoiding plant types. Observed changes were highly dependent on the regional configuration of communities, prevalent resource conditions and land use intensity before abandonment. While long-term changes took around 10–20 years in resource rich conditions, new equilibria established in resource poor conditions only after 30–40 years.Our results confirm the potential threats caused by recent land-use changes and the assumption that oligotrophic communities are more resistant than mesotrophic communities also for long-term abandonment. Moreover, results revealed that species-rich systems are not per se more resistant than species-poor grasslands.

Pharmacogenetic landscape of clopidogrel in north Indians suggest distinct interpopulation differences in allele frequencies.

Clopidogrel, a widely used antiplatelet drug, exhibits high interindividual variability; more than 80% of which could be explained by genetic polymorphisms. We built an allele frequency map of variants affecting clopidogrel response in north Indians. We mined a cross-sectional population-scale genome-wide dataset of 2128 Indo-Europeans residing in north India for presence of variants associated with pharmacogenetics of clopidogrel. Our analysis reveals significant differences in population-scale allele frequencies between Indians and the global population. Indians had a higher allele frequency for variants in the CYP2C9*2, CYP2C9*3 and P2RY1 genes whereas lower frequency for the ABCB1, CYP1A2, CYP2C19*2C, CYP3A5 and PON1 genes compared with the global population. Furthermore, from our study we proposed a model to explain the higher prevalence of clopidogrel metabolizers in north Indians. This is the largest population-scale genetic epidemiology study that provides a high-resolution map of variants associated with clopidogrel response that could be potentially valuable to clinicians to rationally plan appropriate dosage for therapy in resource poor conditions based on population level allele frequencies.

Health impact of intestinal helminthinfections among podoconiosis patients

Intestinal helminth infections are most common diseases of the poor and a potential cause ofanemia in developing countries. Podoconiosis is non-filarial “elephantiasis” of the lower legs in farmers that work on loamy clay soil and is a chronic complication that does not have effective treatment. Soil contact being the mode of transmission of geo-helminths and the cause of podoconiosis, the aim of this paper is to investigate the health impact of helminth infections of podoconiosis patients. On the other hand, the overall prevalence of intestinal geo-helminth infection decreased with increasing clinical stages of podoconiosis, implying that with severe and complicated podoconiosis, the individual would be seriously incapacitated to work on the farm and hence will have a limited contact with soil to be exposed to helminth infections. The study has provided good evidence to justify selective initiation of deworming and iron rich nutrient supplementation to improve the well being of podoconiosis patients under resource poor conditions.

Treatment of hydrocele by a general surgeon practicing in a rural resource-poor setting in Africa

Hydrocele in adults is a collection of peritesticular fluid between the parietal and visceral layers of the tunica vaginalis testis. An endemic disease in Africa, its cause is either idiopathic or a reaction to filariasis. In the absence of treatment, its volume increases spontaneously. The onset of symptoms justifies treatment. In tropical zones, surgery is the most effective treatment. The technique must be simple to perform, require few resources, and limit the risks of complication. Three surgical techniques should be used. In resource-poor practice conditions, fenestration and, to a lesser extent, plication are the techniques most appropriate when the tunica vaginalis is essentially healthy. Only resection is possible when it is damaged.

Oosorption and migratory strategy of the milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus

Migration evolves as a response to seasonally unfavourable environments but plasticity in reproductive physiology is another avenue by which insects can respond to resource-poor conditions. We investigated the relationship between individual variation in migratory propensity and the level of response to poor conditions modulated by the female reproductive physiology. We tested the hypothesis that, compared to migrants, residential behaviour is associated with a higher degree of phenotypic plasticity in oosorption, an adaptive physiological mechanism that allows females to recoup resources from undeveloped oocytes. Reallocation from reproduction to survival would allow females to skip migration and to cope with unfavourable environments. If this plasticity is evolved, we further predicted it would vary between as well as within populations. We examined variation associated with migratory behaviour in females from four populations of the milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus, using a behavioural assay to categorize females as either migrant or resident and observing the differences in oosorption between these groups. As expected, food availability, source population and wing length influenced the propensity for migratory flight, and food availability influenced levels of oosorption. We also found support for our key prediction that resident females are characterized by higher levels of ovarian oosorption than migrant females. Our study provides support for a physiological difference between migrant and resident females and suggests the presence of both physiological and behavioural tactics that interact with the potential for migration to provide adaptation to seasonally challenging environments.

PRODUCTIVITY AND PROFITABILITY OF THE TRANSGENIC COTTON–WHEAT PRODUCTION SYSTEM THROUGH PEANUT INTERCROPPING AND FYM ADDITION

SUMMARYThe cotton–wheat production system (CWPS) occupies an important place in the agricultural economy of several South Asian countries. The instability of the CWPS has increased particularly during the post-transgenic hybrids phase mainly because of these hybrids calling for intensive crop management being cultivated under all situations, especially in resource-poor conditions leading to violent fluctuations during adverse years and thereby affecting the socio-economic status of these developing countries. A study was conducted to evaluate and quantify the effect of the two-tier intercropping of cotton and peanut with the substitution of a 25–50% recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN) of cotton by farmyard manure (FYM) on productivity, profitability and nitrogen economy in the CWPS at New Delhi during 2006–08. To quantify the residual effects of previous crops and their fertility levels, a succeeding crop of wheat was grown with varying rates of nitrogen, viz. 0, 50, 100 and 150 kg ha−1. Wheat equivalent productivity was significantly more with the inclusion of peanut in the CWPS (21–26%) with a high net return (US$288) than a pure stand of cotton in the CWPS. The substitution of 25% RDN of cotton by FYM being on par with no substitution recorded a higher wheat equivalent yield, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium uptake, net return and nitrogen use efficiencies. Nitrogen economy in wheat was 22 kg ha−1 due to inclusion of peanut in the CWPS and 13 kg ha−1 due to substitution of the 25% RDN of cotton by FYM. The study suggested that for the success of the CWPS in South Asian countries, escalating prices of N fertilizers with environmental issues and the instability of transgenic hybrids can be overcome by using wider rows of cotton by peanut intercrop with the integrated use of both organic and inorganic sources of nitrogen.

Assessment of spatial variability of selected soil chemical properties in a communal irrigation scheme under resource-poor farming conditions in Vhembe District of Limpopo Province, South Africa

An understanding of spatial variability of chemical soil properties is necessary for proper nutrient management. Therefore spatial variabilities of soil pH, P, K, Ca and Mg in communal irrigation scheme under resource-poor farming conditions were determined. A total of 230 soil samples were collected from two soil depths (0 to 30 and 30 to 60 cm) at 100 m grid intervals. Basic statistics and geostatistical analyses of the data were performed using SAS 9.0 and GS+ 9, respectively. Soils showed high variabilities for all variables that were analyzed. Soil pH exhibited the lowest CV (6.0%) for both layers whereas all other measured variables displayed high CV for both soil layers. Most properties were analyzed by exponential model except for Ca and Mg that were fitted into spherical and Gaussian models respectively. All variables that were fitted into exponential model had strong spatial structure and those fitted into spherical model had a moderate spatial structure. Kriged contour maps displayed positional relationship between the topsoil and subsoil layers. Areas with low K and P can be delineated into separate management zones based on their requirements for these elements. The study showed that geostatistics is a useful tool to map spatial variabilities of soil chemical properties even under resource-poor farming conditions. These maps can be used to encourage/implement variable-rate of input application and inform resource-poor farmers of the benefits of this strategy, thereby reducing variation in soil fertility status caused by application of indiscriminate types and rates of manure and fertilizers. Key words: Site-specific soil management, soil layers, Kriged contour maps, geostatistics, exponential model, South Africa.

Postnatal thermal adaptation and the effects of seasonal variations on temperature trends leading to cold stress in newborn infants in rural India

Background: Transitional adaptation of newborns delivered in controlled environments of developed countries has been studied extensively but there is a gap in knowledge regarding the thermal adaptation of the newborn immediately after birth delivered in resource poor conditions prevailing in developing countries. Objective: To observe the thermal adaptation of newborn infants by studying the temperature changes in central - abdominal skin temperature (Ta) and peripheral - sole of the foot temperature (Tf) in healthy term newborns in the delivery room and postnatal ward for the first 12 hours of life. Study Design: The study was conducted in KLE University Hospital, Belgaum, India, during the seasons (rainy and spring) that cause hypothermia due to the ambient conditions in these regions. The data was collected from two groups of infants - Group A (Rainy season) and Group B (Spring season) consisting of 20 and 31 infants respectively. The body temperature data was collected to observe variations at different locations of neonatal care in the hospital during the study period. Additionally the ambient temperature and humidity were also monitored to understand the prevailing conditions that the infants encounter. Result: Mean Ta was 35.9 ◦ C and 35.8 ◦ C in the delivery room in infants from Groups A and B, respectively. The major variations were observed around six hours of life. The mean Ta and Tf were 35.63 ◦ C and 30.38 ◦ C in Group A and 35.95 ◦ C and 32.51 ◦ C in Group B during this period. Conclusion: Healthy term infants are subjected to severe thermal stress during the first 12 hours of life in developing countries with no control over the environmental temperature in delivery room and postnatal ward that is also influenced by seasonal variation. These findings underscore the need to control the environmental temperature, ensure proper clothing and use of Kangaroo care to prevent hypothermia in healthy term infants.

P24 Antigen Rapid Test for Diagnosis of Acute Pediatric HIV Infection

Currently, the majority of HIV-infected infants are found within limited-resource settings, where inadequate screening for HIV due to the lack of access to simple and affordable point-of-care tests impedes implementation of antiretroviral therapy. Here we report development of a low-cost dipstick p24 antigen assay using a visual readout format that can facilitate the diagnosis of HIV for infants in resource-poor conditions. A heat shock methodology was developed to optimize disruption of immune complexes present in the plasma of infected infants. The analytical sensitivity of the assay using recombinant p24 antigen is 50 pg/mL (2 pM) with whole virus detection as low as 42.5k RNA copies per milliliter plasma. In a blinded study comprising 51 archived infant samples from the Women and Infants Transmission Study, our assay demonstrated an overall sensitivity and specificity of 90% and 100%, respectively. In field evaluations of 389 fresh samples from South African infants, a sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 99% was achieved. The assay is simple to perform, requires minimal plasma volume (25 μL), and yields a result in less than 40 minutes making it ideal for implementation in resource-limited settings.

Into the cauldron: An interplay of indigenous and globalised knowledge with strong and weak notions of literacy and language education in Ethiopia and South Africa

This article draws attention to a long, pre-colonial as well as contemporary history of successes in mother-tongue literacy and bi/multilingual educational provision in Africa. Two case studies of literacy and language education in Ethiopia and South Africa are presented in order to demonstrate, even under resource-poor conditions, that it is possible to provide bilingual and multilingual education in Africa. System-wide studies in Ethiopia show that such opportunities, developed as a response to the domestic needs of an African country, deliver more successful learning outcomes than do second-language, monolingually driven systems. The South African example shows that although there is a multilingual education policy intent, its application is impelled towards expensive monolingual imperatives which draw on contemporary, external-to-Africa debates on education. Such imperatives have not brought the anticipated educational rewards – rather, the reverse. The data from the case-studies are sufficiently compelling to show that neo- and post-colonial obfuscation in education is outdated.

Tolerance of a perennial herb, Pimpinella saxifraga, to simulated flower herbivory and grazing: immediate repair of injury or postponed reproduction?

Perennial, polycarpic herbs can respond to herbivory either by (1) regrowth in the same season in order to compensate for lost reproductive structures or by (2) postponing reproduction until the following growing season. We tested these response patterns with the perennial umbellifer Pimpinella saxifraga by simulating flower herbivory and shoot grazing both in the field and in a common garden experiment. In the field, both simulated flower herbivory and grazing effectively suppressed current reproduction, whereas no statistically significant effects of previous-year treatments on growth or reproduction were found in the following year. In the common garden, in the first year the species fully compensated for simulated flower herbivory in vegetative parameters but seed set was reduced by 26%. After 2 years of flower removal, the plants overcompensated in shoot and root biomass by 47 and 46%, respectively, and compensated fully in reproductive performance. Simulated grazing resulted in 21% lower shoot biomass in the first season, but the root biomass was not affected. In the second season the root biomass increased by 43% as compared to the control plants. However, regrowth following simulated grazing resulted in a significant delay in flowering with the consequence that the seed yield of fertile plants was reduced by 55% as compared to the control plants. These results suggest that in resource-rich garden conditions P. saxifraga may immediately repair injuries caused by flower herbivory, but repairs more extensive shoot injury less successfully. Delayed phenology decreases the benefits of immediate repair. In resource-poor conditions, the benefits of regrowth can be negligible. Accordingly, in our field population, the plants postponed their reproduction until the following year in response to simulated grazing and frequently in response to flower removal. When the plants gain very little from regrowth, the costs of reproduction would select for postponed reproduction in response to injury.

PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY OF HERMAPHRODITE SEX ALLOCATION PROMOTES THE EVOLUTION OF SEPARATE SEXES: AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST OF THE SEX-DIFFERENTIAL PLASTICITY HYPOTHESIS USINGSAGITTARIA LATIFOLIA(ALISMATACEAE)

Separate sexes can evolve under nuclear inheritance when unisexuals have more than twice the reproductive fitness of hermaphrodites through one sex function (e.g., when females have more than twice the seed fertility of hermaphrodites). Because separate sexes are thought to evolve most commonly via a gynodioecious intermediate (i.e., populations in which females and hermaphrodites cooccur), the conditions under which females can become established in populations of hermaphrodites are of considerable interest. It has been proposed that resource-poor conditions could promote the establishment of females if hermaphrodites are plastic in their sex allocation and allocate fewer resources to seed production under these conditions. If this occurs, the seed fertility of females could exceed the doubling required for the evolution of unisexuality under low-, but not high-resource conditions (the sex-differential plasticity hypothesis). We tested this hypothesis using replicate experimental arrays of the aquatic herb Sagittaria latifolia grown under two fertilizer treatments. The results supported the sex-differential plasticity hypothesis, with females having more than twice the seed fertility of hermaphrodites under low-, but not high-fertilizer conditions. Our findings are consistent with the idea that separate sexes are more likely to evolve under unfavorable conditions.

Changes in the community structure and diversity of soil invertebrates across the Franz Josef Glacier chronosequence

Following the creation of new land surfaces, there is an initial build-up phase of ecosystem development, but after a prolonged absence of major disturbance a retrogressive (decline) phase often follows due to reduced nutrient availability over time. Although many studies have considered how the soil community changes during the build-up phase, the response of this community to the retrogressive phase is poorly known. We measured litter and soil communities of microfauna and macrofauna along the Franz Josef Glacier chronosequence in New Zealand that spans ca. 120,000 years, and includes well-established build-up and retrogressive stages. We aimed to assess whether the abundances, community structure and diversity of these groups show the same pattern across the sequence as that for vegetation. With regard to microfaunal abundances, litter-dwelling microbe-feeding nematodes were most abundant in the first stage of the chronosequence, but several other groups of microfauna in both the soil and litter increased sharply during the first few stages and declined sharply during the last (retrogressive) stages. The ratios of bacterial- to fungal-feeding nematodes in both soil and litter were lowest for the final stages of the chronosequence, and (in the case of soil) for some of the early stages, pointing to domination by the fungal-based energy channel at those stages for which soil organic matter content or quality were lowest. This is consistent with the fungal-based energy channel being better adapted than the bacterial-based channel for resource-poor conditions. The main groups of macroinvertebrates typically had their lowest abundances at the very early and late stages of the chronosequence, although the relative abundances of different taxa differed during the intermediate stages. Taxonomic diversity of nematodes and macroinvertebrates in both litter and soil varied strongly with chronosequence stage but differed among taxa; diversity of only one group (macroinvertebrates in litter) declined significantly during retrogression. Diversity of nematodes and macroinvertebrates along the sequence did not closely match tree diversity or soil chemical properties, but community composition of these groups was often related to tree community composition and ratios of soil C to N, C to P and N to P. Different groups of soil invertebrates show contrasting responses to chronosequence stage, probably because they differ in their relative response to bottom-up and top-down controls. However, the abundance of most groups increased during the build-up phase and declined during retrogression. As such, the build-up and decline phases observed for plant communities and ecosystem processes across long-term chronosequences also apply to soil communities, pointing to the importance of resource availability as a major driver of soil biota during long-term ecosystem change.

Bt Cotton Performance and Constraints in Central India

Field data collected in central India over a two-year period showed that Bt cotton hybrids reduced plant protection costs by Rs1,268/ha (Rs41 = US$1), raised the crop yield by 2.01 q/ha, worth Rs6,394/ha, and reduced the time spent by the crop in the field by 15–20 days. Cultivation of Bt cotton involved an additional cost of Rs3,720/ha, but increased the net returns by Rs2,674/ha over conventional hybrids. The higher price of seed, high risks, poor refuge management, incidence of wilt, high rates of discontinuance and poor monitoring were the major constraints reported by growers. The impact would be greater if the technology were embodied in the commonly grown hybrids. Development of transgenic varieties is one of the prime ways of reducing crop costs for the resource-poor conditions of rainfed central India.

Neglected tests for neglected patients

Alternative ways to develop diagnostic tools for use in resource-poor settings can, and do, exist, argue Martine Usdin, Martine Guillerm and Pierre Chirac of Doctors without Borders. When Medecins Sans Frontieres workers recognized the need for a diagnostic test for malaria suitable for use in the resource-poor conditions of the developing world, they acted on what they saw. With help from scientists in the field and from several manufacturers, an alternative test was conceived, designed and developed in just two years, and at relatively low cost. In this issue Medecins Sans Frontieres scientists describe how under-used resources in universities and industrial labs across the world could be utilized in similar projects to provide diagnostics for other ‘forgotten’ diseases.