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In the setting of an acute hospital, the management of medical staff's annual leave generally rests somewhat uneasily upon tradition, or goes by default until a problem arises. In an acute directorate within a small district general hospital, service pressures have led to an attempt to manage medical leave actively, and it was our experience that this quickly highlighted the central problem of a conflict between service efficiency and individuals' expectations of autonomy in planning their leave. This communication attempts to examine the basic arithmetic of annual leave as applied to a small directorate and to draw conclusions about how this conflict may be resolved equitably and transparently both within a directorate and also across speciality boundaries throughout the organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has brought to center stage the most important health issue of our era, largely ignored by policymakers and the public to date: non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the cause of 71% of deaths per year worldwide. People living with NCDs, and particularly those living with cardiovascular disease (CVD), are at higher risk of severe symptoms and death from COVID-19. As a result, the urgent need for policy measures to protect cardiovascular health is more apparent than ever. One example of "low-hanging fruit" in the prevention of CVD is the elimination of industrially-produced trans fatty acids (iTFA). Their removal from the global food supply could prevent up to 17 million deaths by 2040 and would be the first time an NCD risk factor has been eliminated., Competing Interests: SB consults for both the NCD Alliance and Resolve to Save Lives. NR and LW are employees of NCD Alliance. IP led and participated in various research projects in the area of nutrition, public health, and food technology, including a project “Trans fats in foods,” funded by the Slovenian Research Agency, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia, and food businesses., (Copyright © 2021 Bösch, Westerman, Renshaw and Pravst.)

Over the years, the main European institutions active in health [European Union, and the Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization (WHO)] have played active roles in policy for public health in Europe. Yet, more recent developments have called into question the place of public health on the European political agenda. In this article, we reflect on how European health policy is set and what the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) can or should be, by showcasing two European associations as examples of how to influence European health policy development and implementation., (© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.)

The simultaneous isoelectric focusing (IEF) in polyacrylamide gels (PAG) of erythrocyte acid phosphatase (EAP) and esterase D (EsD) allows the poor discriminating power (DP) of EsD to be usefully combined with a highly discriminating system EAP, such that a joint DP of 0.766 was achieved compared with PGM IEF DP 0.756. Focusing was carried out in a centrally flattened gradient containing ampholines (pH 4-6 and 6-8) and the chemical spacer 3-(N-morpholino) propanesulphinic acid (MOPS). It enabled the identification of six EsD phenotypes including the recently discovered EsD5 isozymes. The application of this method to casework bloodstains is discussed.