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CONTEXT: India has rudimentary and fragmented primary health care (PHC) and family medicine systems, yet it also has the policy expectation that PHC should meet the needs of extremely large populations with slums and difficult to reach groups, rapid social and epidemiological transition from developing to developed nation profiles. Historically, the system has lacked impetus to achieve PHC. OBJECTIVE: To provide an overview of PHC approaches and the current state of PHC and family medicine in India in order to assess the opportunities for their revitalization. METHODS: A narrative review of the published and grey literature on PHC, family medicine, Web2.0 and health informatics key papers and policy documents, pertinent to India. OUTCOMES: A conceptual framework and recommendations for policy makers and practitioner audiences. FINDINGS: PHC is constructed through systems of local providers who address individual, family and local community basic health needs with strong community participation. Successful PHC is a pre-eminent strategy for India to address the determinants of health and the almost chaotic of massive social transition in its institutions and health care sector. There is a lack of an articulated comprehensive framework for the publicly stated goals of improving health and implementing PHC. Also, there exists a very limited education and organization of a medical and PHC workforce who are trained and resourced to address individual, family and local community health and who have become increasingly specialized. However, emerging technology, Health2.0 and user generated health care informatics, which are largely conducted through mobile phones, are co-evolving patient-driven health systems, and potentially enhance PHC and family medicine workforce development. CONCLUSIONS: In order to improve health outcomes in an equitable manner in India, there is a pressing need for a framework for implementing PHC. The co-emergence of information technologies accessible to the mass population and user-driven health care provide a potential catalyst or innovation for this transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis in the conceptual model was that a user-driven innovation in presently available information and communication technology infrastructure would be able to meet patient and health professional users information needs and help them attain better health outcomes. An operational model was created to plan a trial on a sample diabetic population utilizing a randomized control trial design, assigning one randomly selected group of diabetics to receive electronic information intervention and analyse if it would improve their health outcomes in comparison with a matched diabetic population who would only receive regular medical intervention. Diabetes was chosen for this particular trial, as it is a major chronic illness in Malaysia as elsewhere in the world.It is in essence a position paper for how the study concept should be organized to stimulate wider discussion prior to beginning the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence based on average patient data, which occupies most of our present day information databases, does not fulfil the needs of individual patient-centred health care. In spite of the unprecedented expansion in medical information we still do not have the types ofinformation required to allow us to tailor optimal care for a given individual patient. As our current information is chiefly provided in disconnected silos, we need an information system that can seamlessly integrate different types of information to meet diverse usergroup needs. Groups of certain individual medical learners namely patients, medical students and health professionals share the patient's need to increasingly interact with and seek knowledge and solutions offered by others (individual medical learners) who have the lived experiences that they would benefit to access and learn from. A web-based user-drivenlearning solution may be a stepping-stone to address the present problem of information oversupply in medicine that mostly remains underutilized, as it doesn't meet the needs of the individual patient and health professional user. The key to its success would be to relax central control and make local trust and strategic health workers feel more engaged in the project such that it is truly user-driven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing interest in capital and technology issues, certain issues still remain to be explored regarding the determinants of foreign direct investment by a multinational corporation and the corporation’s consequent choice of investment location. This paper addresses some of these concerns by analyzing the determinants of foreign direct investment by a multinational corporation, both theoretically and empirically. For this purpose, the paper integrates a number of traditional and nontraditional variables into the standard theory of investment based on the maximization of the expected value of the firm. The theoretical model implies that both traditional as well as nontraditional factors matter in determining the flows of foreign direct investment in a country. The generalized investment theory on US foreign direct investment then is tested empirically utilizing panel data for 44 countries from 1983 to 1990. The estimation results provide considerable support for the importance of both traditional and nontraditional factors in determining flows of foreign direct investment in a country. Furthermore, the country-specific dummies show high level of significance, reflecting the importance of the country-specific characteristics in explaining flows of foreign direct investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi–criteria decision–making is an increasingly accepted tool for decision–making in management. In this work, we highlight the application of a novel multi–objective evolutionary algorithm, NSGA–II, to the risk–return trade–off for a bank–loan portfolio manager. The manager of a bank operating in a competitive environment faces the standard goal of maximizing shareholder wealth. Specifically, this attempts to maximize the net worth of the bank, which in turn involves maximizing the net interest margin of the bank (among other factors, such as non–interest income). At the same time, there are significant regulatory constraints placed on the bank, such as the maintenance of adequate capital, interest–rate risk exposure, etc. The genetic algorithm–based technique used here obtains an approximation to the set of Pareto–optimal solutions which increases the decision flexibility available to the bank manager, and provides a visualization tool for one of the trade–offs involved. The algorithm is also computationally efficient and is contrasted with a traditional multi–objective function — the epsilon–constraint method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We theoretically investigate waveguide bends in three-dimensional dielectric photonic bandgap (PBG) materials. The PBG materials used in this study consist of layers of alumina rods. An L-shaped waveguide is created by removing part of the rod in one layer and part of the rod in the next layer. The removed rods are perpendicular to each other. Using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, we found that 100% transmission efficiency can be achieved through the 90° bend. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 23: 56–59, 1999. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The radiation patterns of dipole antennas on three-dimensional photonic crystal substrates have been measured and calculated with the finite-difference-time-domain method. The photonic band-gap crystal behaves as a perfectly reflecting substrate, and all the dipole power is radiated into the air side when driven at frequencies in the stop band. The radiation pattern is found for dfferent positions and orientations of the dipole antenna. Antenna configurations with desirable patterns are identified. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 15: 153–158, 1997. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the reflection and transmission properties of two-dimensional (2D) photonic band-gap (PBG) materials with the use of the transfer matrix method. Then, by combining this method with the reciprocity theorem, we calculate the radiation pasterns of antennas placed on top of 2D PBG materials. The results are in good agreement with recent theoretical and experimental results in similar systems. We also compare the present method of calculating the radiation patterns with a recently proposed method where the PBG crystal is replaced with an equivalent reflection plane. We show that the present method has several advantages: for example, it can be used even for cases where the driven frequency of the antenna is not inside the PBG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the first report of a fungal pathogenic Alternaria alternata affecting tea in India. Severe foliar infection was noticed on nursery-grown team plants, Camellia sinensis, between July and September 2003 in five tea estates in the region of Dooars, North Bengal, India. Symptoms first appeared as grayish brown patches around tips and margins of young leaves. A fungus, identified as Alternaria alternata, was isolated from the margins of these patches. Pathogenicity tests were done on 23 tea varieties using detached leaves, cut shoots and whole plants inoculated and tested in the laboratory.

Background: In order to evaluate whether the expected increase in yield of detecting HBV infectious donations by pooled-sample HBV NAT is valid, we designed a study to estimate the increase in the number of HBV infectious units detected by newer HBsAg tests, pooled NAT, and single-sample NAT, compared to licensed HBsAg tests. Methods: Ten samples from each of 10 HBV seroconversion (SC) panels were selected from "pre-ramp-up" (early infection, low viral load) and "ramp-up" (viral load increase) phases. These were coded along with 28 analytical controls (FDA's HBsAg lot-release panel and WHO's HBV NAT standard). All 128 samples were tested in 7 HBsAg tests and in 4 HBV NAT assays, both undiluted and after dilution 1:16, 1:24, 1:512 and 1:1200 to resemble pooled NAT for Whole Blood (WB) and Source Plasma (SP). Results: Based on data from controls, the estimated concentration at cutoff (CO) for new HBsAg tests ranged from 0.09 to 0.18 ng HBsAg/mL, compared with 0.15 to 0.63 ng HBsAg/mL in licensed tests. Viral load at CO varied from 88 to 359 IU/mL for new HBsAg tests, and from 350 to 1114 IU/ mL in licensed tests. Of 10 pre-ramp-up samples in the SC panels, one new HBsAg assay detected 10%, pooled NAT detected 0 to 30%, and single-unit NAT detected 30 to 80%. Of 90 ramp-up samples HBsAg tests detected 31 to 61%, while pooled NAT detected 56 to 71% and single-sample NAT, 82 to 99%. WB format pooled NAT (pools of 16 or 24 samples) was not more sensitive than the SP format (pools of 512 or 1200 samples). Compared with currently approved HBsAg assays, pooled NAT would reduce the window period (wp) by 9 to 11 days; newer HBsAg assays, 11 to 15 days; and single-sample NAT, 25 to 36 days. Conclusions: There are significant differences in sensitivity between licensed and newer HBsAg assays, shown by estimated viral burden and HBsAg concentration at cutoff, and by wp closure estimates. Thus, newer HBsAg tests would be expected to detect ∼18 additional units/ 107 donations compared to licensed tests. Sensitivity, wp closure and incremental yield projections for newer HBsAg assays are comparable to those for pooled NAT. Single-sample NAT would increase yield by ∼25 units/ 107 donations over pooled NAT and newer HBsAg assays, and by ∼42 units/ 107 donations over current HBsAg assays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]