Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B (2010) 365, 2959–2971; doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0143.
Agricultural ecosystems provide humans with food, forage, bioenergy and pharmaceuticals and are essential to human wellbe
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                                        ing. These systems rely on ecosystem services provided by natural ecosystems, including pollination, biological pest control, maintenance of soil structure and fertility, nutrient cycling and hydrological services. Preliminary assessments indicate that the value of these ecosystem services to agriculture is enormous and often underappreciated. Agroecosystems also produce a variety of ecosystem services, such as regulation of soil and water quality, carbon sequestration, support for biodiversity and cultural services. Depending on management practices, agriculture can also be the source of numerous disservices, including loss of wildlife habitat, nutrient runoff, sedimentation of waterways, greenhouse gas emissions, and pesticide poisoning of humans and non-target species. The tradeoffs that may occur between provisioning services and other ecosystem services and disservices should be evaluated in terms of spatial scale, temporal scale and reversibility. As more effective methods for valuing ecosystem services become available, the potential for ‘win–win’ scenarios increases. Under all scenarios, appropriate agricultural management practices are critical to realizing the benefits of ecosystem services and reducing disservices from agricultural activities.
                                    
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                                Supportive supervision is considered critical to community health worker programme performance, but there is relatively little understanding of how it can be sustainably done at scale. Supportive supervision is a holistic concept that encompasses th
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                                        ree key functions: management (ensuring performance), education (promoting development) and support (responding to needs and problems). Drawing on the experiences of the ward-based outreach team (WBOT) strategy, South Africa’s national community health worker (CHW) programme, this paper explores and describes approaches to supportive supervision in policy and programme guidelines and how these are implemented in supervision practices in the North West Province, an early adopter of the WBOT strategy. Outreach teams typically consist of six CHWs plus a nurse outreach team leader (OTL).
                                    
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                                Myanmar is prone to various natural hazards that include earthquakes, floods, cyclones, droughts, fires, tsunamis, some of whichhave the potential 
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                                        to impact large numbers of people. In the event that large numbers of people are affected (such as was the case in 2008 following cyclone Nargis), the government may decide to request international assistance to respond to the disaster. 
The overall goal of the ERPP is to mitigate the impact of disasters and save as many lives as possible from preventable causes. It aims to ensure that effective and timely assistance is provided to people in need through effective coordination and communication on emergency preparedness and humanitarian response between members of the HCTin Myanmar. The approach has been developed in collaboration with the Government, to facilitate a coordinated and effective support to people affected by humanitarian crises. 
                                    
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                                As the Convention of the Rights of Children recognizes, children are human beings with a distinc
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                                        t set of rights, and not the passive objects of care and charity. They deserve to be full participants in society, and to live lives free of poverty. But for children, living in poverty is particularly impactful. The foundations for life are built in childhood. In the early part of our lives, our bodies and brains develop their capacities to function and interact with the world. We learn the social skills we need to fit into society, and acquire the human capital necessary to earn a living, support a family, and to fully take part in the life of our community Poverty can stunt this development. So can the onset of a disability. As the World Report on Disability (WHO/World Bank 2011) points out, people with disabilities are all too often excluded from the economic and social lives of their community. And the interaction between disability and poverty has the potential to develop a vicious circle that can greatly limit life opportunities.
Working Paper Series: No. 25
                                    
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                                We are IntechOpen, the world’s leading publisher of Open Access books Built by scientists, for scientists
Selection of our books indexed in 
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                                        the Book Citation Index in Web of ScienceTM Core Collection (BKCI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.68759
                                    
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                                The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, known more commonly as ICF, provides a standard language 
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                                        and framework for the description of health and health-related states. Like the first version published by the World Health Organization for trial purposes in 1980, ICF is a multipurpose classification intended for a wide range of uses in different sectors. It is a classification of health and health-related domains -- domains that help us to describe changes in body function and structure, what a person with a health condition can do in a standard environment (their level of capacity), as well as what they actually do in their usual environment (their level of performance).
These domains are classified from body, individual and societal perspectives by means of two lists: a list of body functions and structure, and a list of domains of activity and participation. In ICF, the term functioning refers to all body functions, activities and participation, while disability is similarly an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. ICF also lists environmental factors that interact with all these components.
                                    
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                                Community health workers (CHWs) play a significant role in Primary health Care due to their proximity to households, communities and the health care system. Many studies focus on CHWs 
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                                        and the work they do. However, few have examined their experiences and identity and how that might influence how they view and perform their roles. The objectives of the study were to: Describe the role of CHWs in community-based health care in Northern Cape, Identify the perceived barriers and enablers to CHWs role performance, Explore CHWs views regarding the support from the communities and the formal healthcare system in Northern Cape. An exploratory qualitative design using focus groups was adopted. Forty-six (46) CHWs were purposively selected using the critical case sampling approach. Data were collected through three focus group interviews in three regions. Analysis followed the Graneheim & Lundman thematic analysis. Three themes emerged from data: perceived contribution to Primary Health Care, recognition of CHWs role, measures to improve working conditions. Findings showed that CHWs were engaged in various health and social care roles, they believed that they made a significant contribution to PHC, and that the health system persistently relied on their services. The enabler for finding meaning in their work was the positive community response and the good relations they had with the team leaders. The major barrier was the structure of the CHWs programme and the perceived lack of support by the government. The complex issues CHWs address in the community call for a review of their roles and workload as well as the support they receive from the formal healthcare system.
                                    
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                                Climate change, increasing population densities, and intensified globalisation in trade, travel and migration are among the most important factors 
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                                        shaping the 21st century. Each impacts upon population health and the risk of infectious disease, particularly those originating at the human-animal-environmental interface. The recognition that many risk drivers of infectious disease fall outside of the typical domain of the health sector creates the challenge of identifying and pursuing priorities for cross-sectoral action aimed at strengthening global health security. In response, the One Health concept has emerged, as have related initiatives addressing Planetary Health and Biodiversity and Human Health. From a public health perspective and operationally speaking, the One Health approach offers great potential, emphasising as it does cooperation and coordination between multiple sectors. Yet despite having been a focal point for discussion for over a decade, numerous challenges facing the implementation of One Health preparedness strategies remain. While some are technical, related to the requirement for innovative early warning systems or new vaccines, for example, others are institutional and cultural in nature, given the transdisciplinary nature of the topic. There have thus been calls to address One Health from multiple perspectives, from ecology to the social sciences. In order to further explore this issue and to identify priority areas for action for strengthening One Health preparedness in Europe, ECDC convened an expert consultation on 11–12 December 2017.
                                    
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                                In: Beyond construction : use by all : a collection of case studies from sanitation and hygiene promotion practitioners in South Asia. Chapter 2
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                
                                The world agreed to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Nine planetary boundaries set an upper limit to Earth system impacts of human
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                                         activity in the long run. Conventional efforts to achieve the 14 socio-economic goals will raise pressure on planetary boundaries, moving the world away from the three environmental SDGs. We have created a simple model, Earth3, to measure how much environmental damage follows from achievement of the 14 socio-economic goals, and we propose an index to track effects on people’s wellbeing. Extraordinary efforts will be needed to achieve all SDGs within planetary boundaries.
                                    
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                                We will soon be piloting a project titled “Integrating Spirituality into Patient Care” that will form “spiritual care teams” to assess and address patients’ spiritual needs in physician  outpatient  practices  within  Adventist  Health  Sy
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                                        stem,  the  largest  Protestant healthcare  system  in  the  United  States.This  paper  describes  the  goals,  the  rationale,  and the  structure  of  the  spiritual  care  teams  that  will  soon  be  implemented,  and  discusses  the barriers  to  providing  spiritual  care  that  health  professionals  are  likely  to  encounter.Spiritual care teams may operate in an outpatient or an inpatient setting, and their purpose is  to  provide  health  professionals  with  resources  necessary  to  practice  whole  person healthcare that includes spiritual care.We believe that this project will serve as a model forfaith-based  health  systems  seeking  to  visibly  demonstrate  their  mission  in  a  way  that makes them unique and expresses their values.Not only does this model have the potential to  be  cost-effective,  but  also  the  capacity  to  increase  the  quality  of  patient  care  and  the satisfaction that  health  professionals  derive  from  providing  care.If  successful,  this  model could  spread  beyond  faith-based  systems  to  secular  systems  as  well  both  in the  U.S. and worldwide.
                                    
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                                Oral health is defined as the absence of disease and a status that ensures optimal functioning of
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                                         the mouth and its tissues in a manner preserving the highest level of function and self-esteem. Oral health enables an individual to eat, speak and socialise having no active disease, discomfort or discouragement thus contributing to the general well-being. Good oral health is an essential component of general health and a right of every person1. Poor oral health has a negative impact on general health, work productivity, educational performance and adversely affects growth and development.
                                    
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                                What can you expect?
As a future facilitator your role will be to learn about the structure of mhGAP-IG, how to teach 
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                                        the materials and utilize opportunities to prastice facilitation and supervision skills.
As a supervisor your role will be to serve as a point of reference for non-specialized health-care providers, supporting them in providing service for individuals with MNS disorders in non-specialized health settings.
                                    
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                                Extreme heat events (EHEs) are a leading cause of weather-related injury and death in the United States, 
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                                        and under a changing climate, these meteorological episodes are predicted to increase in both frequency and intensity. Prolonged heat exposure from EHEs places an increased strain on the heart and may lead to heat-related illness if the cardiovascular system fails to properly thermoregulate internal body temperature. Every individual is susceptible to heat-related illness, however, those with reduced cardiovascular function and pre-existing cardiovascular diseases are at a greater risk for morbidity and mortality during EHEs. This document gives an overview of our current understanding of heat exposure and its impact on cardiovascular health outcomes, an overview of the medications that may exacerbate heat-related cardiovascular illness, and asummary of the interaction between extreme heat and air pollutants, and their collective impact on cardiovascular health. Additionally, this document summarizes epidemiologic evidence and identifies gaps in the extant peer-reviewed literature on the effectiveness of strategies and interventions to protect against heat-related cardiovascular disease and death. This information is intended to aid health departments and other health professionals in understanding and responding to the impacts of heat exposure on cardiovascular health.
                                    
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                                Arsenical monotherapies were previously very successful for treating human African trypanosomiasis (HAT).
Melarsoprol resistance emerged as early as the 1970s 
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                                        and was widespread by the late 1990s.
Melarsoprol resistance represents the only example of widespread drug resistance in HAT patients where the genetic mechanism has been established.
The current goal of elimination of HAT as a public health problem by 2020 may be undermined by the emergence and spread of resistance to current or new drugs.
Insights into potential resistance mechanisms for current and new drugs will facilitate predictions of the likelihood of resistance and will also facilitate rational approaches to minimizing, monitoring, and tackling the future emergence of resistance.
                                    
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                                The disaster and Red Cross Red Crescent response to date
9 March 2019: Tropical Cyclone Idai forms over Northern Mozambique Channel. CVM preparedness a
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                                        nd early warning actions underway
13 March 2019: IFRC Surge Capacity is deployed to Maputo
14 March 2019: 342,562 Swiss francs allocated from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to meet the immediate shelter, WASH and health needs of 1,500 households
15 March 2019: Tropical Cyclone Idai makes landfall in Beira,
Mozambique.
17 March 2019: IFRC Surge Capacity arrival in Beira with CVM to conduct preliminary assessments.
19 March 2019: IFRC issues an Emergency Appeal for 10 million Swiss francs for 75,000 people for 12 months.
                                    
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                                 South Eastern European Journal of Public Health, EEJPH 2016, posted: 11 January 2016. DOI 10.4119/UNIBI/SEEJPH-2016-85
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                
                                The Demographic Dividend study on Rwanda assessed the socio economic and human development potential of
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                                         our country in the short, medium and long-term period using a comprehensive approach. It generated relevant policy and programme information to guide a well informed polciy required to propel Rwanda towards achieving its aspirations of being high middle income country by 2035 and high income country by 2050.
The primary objectives of this study were to assess Rwanda’s prospects for harnessing the demographic dividend and demonstrate priority policy and programme options that the country should adopt in order to optimise its chances of earning a maximum demographic dividend in the context of its youthful population and medium, long-term socio economic development aspirations.
                                    
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                                Water is the lifeblood of planetary health and human civilisation. As a critical source of fresh
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                                         water, rivers underpin civilisations, past and present. However, rivers constantly change in response to environmental and human pressures. Protecting global river systems from climate change and other anthropogenic activities (e.g., mining, pollution, dam construction), and understanding the interactions with human health (e.g., through the spread of water-borne and infectious diseases) has become a critical concern.
                                    
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                                The WHO Training Resource on Primary Ear and Hearing Care is a new set of four training manuals 
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                                        aimed at equipping primary health care workers in
developing countries with simple and effective methods to reduce the burden of ear and hearing disorders.
                                    
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