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The article focuses on developments related to anti-corruption company prosecutions and settlements in the U.S. It mentions that NATCO Group Inc. has settled the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) charges and agreed to pay a 65,000 dollars civil penalty. It informs that BAE Systems PLC and Daimler AG have reached settlement agreement with Great Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and FCPA charges.

The article reviews the developments of international anti-corruption enforcement in the U.S. in 2009. It notes that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) among U.S. agencies have used specialized investigation and prosecution units. However, other countries like Great Britain has seriously fought corruption with three FCPA trials that ended in convictions.

Malaria, dengue fever, chikungunya virus, leishmaniasis, and a myriad of other vector-borne diseases pose significant threats to the warfighter and to the overall combat effectiveness of units. Military preventive medicine (PM) assets must accurately evaluate the vector-borne disease threat and then implement and/or advise the commander on countermeasures to reduce a particular threat. The success of these measures is contingent upon the biology of the disease vector and on the tools or methods used to conduct vector/pathogen surveillance and vector control. There is a significant gap between the tools available and those required for operational PM assets to provide real-time, effective surveillance and control. A network of US Army and US Navy overseas laboratories is focused on closing the current capabilities gap. Their mission is to develop and field test tools and methods to enhance the combatant commander's ability to identify and mitigate the threat posed by these vector-borne diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs related to anti-corruption cases and laws. In 2007, Lucent Technologies Inc. settled a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) case worth $10 million with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for trips made by Chinese government officials. In 2008, Willbros Group Inc. agreed to pay $32.3 million in fines and penalties to the DOJ and SEC. In 2008, Siemens AG plead guilty to FCPA false books and records charges.

Background Failure to recruit a sufficient number of eligible subjects in a timely manner represents a major impediment to the success of clinical trials. Physician participation is vital to trial recruitment but is often limited. Methods After 12 months of traditional recruitment to a clinical trial, we activated our electronic health record (EHR)–based clinical trial alert (CTA) system in selected outpatient clinics of a large, US academic health care system. When a patient’s EHR data met selected trial criteria during the subsequent 4-month intervention period, the CTA prompted physician consideration of the patient’s eligibility and facilitated secure messaging to the trial’s coordinator. Subjects were the 114 physicians practicing at selected EHR-equipped clinics throughout our study. We compared differences in the number of physicians participating in recruitment and their recruitment rates before and after CTA activation. Results The CTA intervention was associated with significant increases in the number of physicians generating referrals (5 before and 42 after; P < .001) and enrollments (5 before and 11 after; P = .03), a 10-fold increase in those physicians’ referral rate (5.7/mo before and 59.5/mo after; rate ratio, 10.44; 95% confidence interval, 7.98-13.68; P<.001), and a doubling of their enrollment rate (2.9/mo before and 6.0/mo after; rate ratio, 2.06; 95% confidence interval, 1.22-3.46; P = .007). Conclusions Use of an EHR-based CTA led to significant increases in physicians’ participation in and recruitment rates to an ongoing clinical trial. Given the trend toward the EHR implementation in health care centers engaged in clinical research, this approach may represent a much-needed solution to the common problem of inadequate trial recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The total US school enrollment of 52.7 million students in 1998 excluded an estimated 1.2 million students educated in their homes. In 1989, some 1,148 home school families enrolled with the Indiana Department of Education. Just over a decade later, some 18,260 home school families had registered, and this number continues to increase. Despite knowledge about the growing numbers of families choosing to home school, limited empirical data exists of how health education is presented in home schools or the needs of home school educators who teach health education. This preliminary study examined health education content areas taught by home school educators in Indiana. An instrument was developed, piloted, and administered to a random sample of 600 home school educators. Results indicated most home school educators taught a variety of health education topics. Three topics -first aid, physical activity and fitness, and nutrition and diet - were taught most frequently in the health curriculum of home schools. Violence prevention, suicide prevention, and consumer health were covered less frequently in the health curriculum. Health was typically taught in a nonstructured, teachable moment format. Implications for coordinated school health programs and suggestions for further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the gap between school health research and school health programs in the U.S. It has been noted that there have been limited opportunities that provide assistance to the membership of the American Health Association regarding the art and practice of school health research. Despite the gap between researchers and school health practitioners, research and evaluation have become vital part of providing effective school health education. The major gaps between practice and research which have been identified are communication gap, accessibility gap, credibility gap and expectation gap.

Background: Whereas many education programs expect students to use national standards in various content areas, few studies have been conducted that examine pre-service teachers' confidence in demonstrating their use of the professional teacher standards., Purpose: The purpose of this project was 2-fold: (1) To develop the Pre-service Health Education National Standards Self-efficacy (PHENSS) Scale; and (2) To establish the instrument's ability to draw inferences from PHENSS Scale scores., Methods: The final instrument consisted of 29 items and 4 demographic items. Validation was established using qualitative and quantitative procedures. After the instrument had been validated, pre-service elementary education and pre-service secondary health education teachers were recruited to complete the instrument at 2 different times., Results: Items were grouped to form 7 subscales (a subscale for each standard) and were analyzed to determine test-retest reliability and internal consistency. All scales were found to be statistically significant (p ≤ .05). Cronbach's alpha for the 7 subscales ranged from .73 to .96, and α = .94 for the entire instrument., Conclusion: The instrument, which assessed self-efficacy toward implementing Professional Teacher Standards in Health Education, was found to be both valid and reliable., (© 2013, American School Health Association.)

Background: Few drugs are available for soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH); the benzimidazoles albendazole and mebendazole are the only drugs being used for preventive chemotherapy as they can be given in one single dose with no weight adjustment. While generally safe and effective in reducing intensity of infection, they are contra-indicated in first-trimester pregnancy and have suboptimal efficacy against Trichuris trichiura. In addition, drug resistance is a threat. It is therefore important to find alternatives., Methodology: We searched the literature and the animal health marketed products and pipeline for potential drug development candidates. Recently registered veterinary products offer advantages in that they have undergone extensive and rigorous animal testing, thus reducing the risk, cost and time to approval for human trials. For selected compounds, we retrieved and summarised publicly available information (through US Freedom of Information (FoI) statements, European Public Assessment Reports (EPAR) and published literature). Concomitantly, we developed a target product profile (TPP) against which the products were compared., Principal Findings: The paper summarizes the general findings including various classes of compounds, and more specific information on two veterinary anthelmintics (monepantel, emodepside) and nitazoxanide, an antiprotozoal drug, compiled from the EMA EPAR and FDA registration files., Conclusions/significance: Few of the compounds already approved for use in human or animal medicine qualify for development track decision. Fast-tracking to approval for human studies may be possible for veterinary compounds like emodepside and monepantel, but additional information remains to be acquired before an informed decision can be made.

The success of molecularly targeted agents (MTA) in the treatment of cancer has led to the investigation of their use in combination with other MTAs and with conventional chemotherapies. An overview of the MTAs that have emerged as Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs is presented, along with a framework for the consideration of how MTAs can best be combined to maximize therapeutic effect.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of death in men and fifth in women in the United States. The median survival is 8 to 12 months for patients with locally advanced and unresectable disease and only 3 to 6 months for those with metastatic disease at presentation. Surgical resection offers the only potentially curative treatment. However, only 15% to 20% of patients present with tumors amenable to resection at initial diagnosis. Even for those who undergo resection, the prognosis remains poor. The 5-year survival following pancreaticoduodenectomy is only about 25% to 30% for node-negative tumors and 10% for node-positive tumors. Because of the dismal outcome for patients with resectable pancreatic cancer, adjuvant therapy has been administered in an attempt to improve the local control and overall survival. This review highlights historic and current perspectives of adjuvant therapy in resected pancreatic cancer.

Planning health care for unknown situations is inevitably difficult. This case demonstrates how the US Navy used the WBB to provide blood replacement in a hemorrhaging patient when no other source of blood was available. Although transfusion at sea is a rare event, the availability of a well-planned blood transfusion program prevented a fatality and ultimately returned a sailor to his ship. It was an excellent test of materials, process, and personnel.