\n\nConclusion:

DVH parameter addition provides a good estimate for D-2cm3, whereas D-0.1cm3 is less robust to this approximation. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Background: The contribution of community medicine distributors (CMD) to prompt health service delivery in areas described as “hard-to-reach” is important but the value of their work time remains unknown and thus makes it difficult to design appropriate regular financial incentives to motivate them. This makes CMDs feel their efforts are not recognized. An attempt to estimate the value of 54 CMDs’ work time involved in community case management of malaria (CCMm) in a rural district in Ghana is presented.\n\nMethods: Time spent by CMDs on CCMm activities were recorded for a period of 12 months to determine the work-time value. Cost analysis was GW4869 supplier performed in Microsoft Excel with data from CMD records and at 2007 market price in Ghana.\n\nResults: A CMD spent 4.8 hours, [95% CI: 3.9; 5.3] on all CCMm-related activities per day. The time value of CMD work ranged from GHc 2.04 (US$ 2.24) to GHc 4.1 [US$ 4.6] per week and GHc 19.2-86.4 (US$ LDK378 chemical structure 21.10-94.95) per month. The gross wage outside CCMm as reported by CMD was GHc 58.4 [US$ 64.69] and value of foregone income of GHc 86.40

(US$ 94.95) per month, about 14-times higher than the monthly incentives of GHc 6.0 given by the CCMm programme.\n\nConclusion: The value of work time and the foregone income of CMDs in CCMm are high and yet there are no regular and sustainable incentives provided for them. The results are significant to policy in designing incentives to motivate CMDs in large-scale implementation of CCMm.”
“Background: Pregnant women exposed to traffic pollution have an increased risk of negative birth outcomes. We aimed to investigate the size of this risk using a prospective cohort of 970

mothers and newborns in Logan, Queensland.\n\nMethods: We examined two measures of traffic: distance to nearest road and number of roads around the home. To examine the effect of distance we used the number of roads around the home Selleckchem CH5183284 in radii from 50 to 500 metres. We examined three road types: freeways, highways and main roads.\n\nResults: There were no associations with distance to road. A greater number of freeways and main roads around the home were associated with a shorter gestation time. There were no negative impacts on birth weight, birth length or head circumference after adjusting for gestation. The negative effects on gestation were largely due to main roads within 400 metres of the home. For every 10 extra main roads within 400 metres of the home, gestation time was reduced by 1.1% (95% CI: -1.7, -0.5; p-value = 0.001).\n\nConclusions: Our results add weight to the association between exposure to traffic and reduced gestation time.