ACT Foundation

The World Health Organisation’s Global Action Plan (GAP) on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) emphasises the need for awareness, education, and training of health workers. Globally, there are major gaps in AMR awareness and knowledge among pre-service healthcare professionals. This study evaluated the inclusion of AMR content in pre-service pharmacy curricula across five sub-Saharan African universities. This study was part of the award winning One Health Pan-African Internship Program 2020–2021, hosted by the Ducit Blue Foundation in collaboration with the African Regional Office of the International Pharmaceutical Students Federation (IPSF AfRO). Five universities were included based on their students’ participation in the internship programme. The pre-service pharmacy curricula of the universities were evaluated against the WHO AMR training competency framework, followed by inductive thematic analysis, using Microsoft Excel. Results showed limited progress in the inclusion of AMR content in the pre-service curricula. Though some AMR-related topics were present, they were obscured within other subjects. Those topics included were not well aligned with antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) objectives of the AMR Global Action Plan. There are still major gaps in AMR inclusion in pre-service curricula, which may contribute to the poor AMR outcomes seen in sub-Saharan Africa. Feasibility studies are recommended to assess the costs of designing, upgrading, and implementing new curricula. Training and capacity building for pharmacy lecturers and educators are also needed to update their knowledge on current advances in AMR research. Finally, the integration strategy for implementing the curriculum should include both short-term and long-term plans, with regular monitoring and evaluation to ensure that key AMS goals are embedded at the pre-service level.

As communities increasingly aim to understand and demonstrate how their data repositories support the FAIR Principles, decision-makers need tools that provide a clear, actionable snapshot. This paper introduces FIP Check, a rubric-based tool for assessing FAIR Implementation Profiles (FIPs) through a structured assessment of FAIR Enabling Resources (FERs). Built on the FIP ontology, the FIP Check brings three key innovations to FAIR assessment. First, it enables granular and practical evaluation by using a FAIR Principle-aligned rubric to assess individual FERs. Second, it measures partial FAIRness through a progressive scoring scale that captures varying levels of FAIR alignment, offering constructive, context-aware feedback rather than purely binary results. Additionally, this tool complements existing FAIR assessment tools by focusing on FERs as the units of assessment rather than on entire repositories or datasets. Third, it ensures transparent and inspectable balance by embedding expert-informed assessments within a standardized rubric and making all scoring decisions directly visible. FIP Check was piloted across seven biomedical data repositories, testing its utility in identifying strengths and actionable gaps, and supporting more informed FAIR improvement efforts. It enables communities to assess their current practices and plan targeted enhancements. By providing detailed insights into how individual FERs contribute to FIP’s FAIR alignment, the FIP Check transforms the FAIR Principles from abstract ideals into practical guidance that support strategic alignment, foster shared understanding, and encourage repository owners to see their resources not only as providers of data, but as infrastructure components.

Despite increasing recognition of their impact, mental health issues such as anxiety and depression remain overlooked in public health, particularly in low-resource settings. These conditions carry significant risks if left unaddressed. A cross-sectional study was conducted to examine factors associated with anxiety and depression among 405 adults in Jigawa State, Nigeria. Data were collected using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) instruments. A multi-stage sampling method was employed, and statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS version 22.0, with significance determined at a p value ≤0.05. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 82 years, with a mean age of 39.2 ± 14.9 years. Approximately 24.7% had chronic medical conditions and were under regular medical follow-up, while 26.7% reported experiencing a past traumatic or adverse event. Over half (52.1%) said they knew someone with a mental health condition. Among those with chronic illnesses, hypertension was the most frequently reported condition (11.6%), and flooding emerged as the most common adverse event (12.3%). The prevalence rates of generalized anxiety disorder and depression were 29.1% and 5.7%, respectively. Anxiety was significantly more common among those with chronic health conditions requiring regular medical visits (47.0%, p < 0.001), cigarette smokers (68.2%, p < 0.001), and individuals using substances other than alcohol or tobacco (69.2%, p < 0.001). Participants without a family history of mental illness were 30% less likely to develop anxiety compared to those with such a history (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.3, 95% CI = 0.2–0.4). Similarly, depression was significantly more prevalent among those with chronic conditions under medical follow-up (10.0%, p < 0.04). Individuals not undergoing regular follow-up were 20% less likely to be depressed compared to those who were (aOR = 0.2, 95% CI = 0.1–0.8). Anxiety and depression in this population were linked to substance use, chronic illnesses, adverse life events—some related to climate change—and a family history of mental illness. Mental health services remain largely inaccessible. Therefore, government and relevant stakeholders should prioritize expanding mental health care, increasing awareness, addressing known risk factors, and ensuring timely diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions.

Motherhood reduces lifetime earnings—but does Social Security help close the gap in old age?

Abstract In modern times, various American-style liberal arts universities have been established in conflict-affected states, including Iraqi Kurdistan. In the aftermath of the United States-led invasion of 2003, the majority of Iraq’s universities were destroyed, which later provided further opportunities for the establishment of new higher education institutions, including those with an American-style university model. Taking the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS) as a case study, this chapter explores the social impact of universities in post-conflict settings, including the impact of the cultural, communal, and research centres affiliated with the university. Using Onyx’s (2014) conceptual framework of impact as an interpretive lens, interviews were conducted with nine professionals working at AUIS, five affiliated centres, and at an academic preparatory programme (APP). The findings demonstrate that participants perceive their initiatives and programmes to have a generally positive social impact such as by promoting policy dialogue, instigating social change, promoting community services, preserving cultural traditions, and building capacity. Nonetheless, some issues limit the social impact of the initiatives undertaken, including communication challenges, limited funding, an unclear institutional vision, individualised efforts for community improvement, and the Kurdish community’s hesitancy to accept AUIS’ values and more liberal endeavours. Accordingly, we argue that the lack of clarity pertaining to AUIS’ institutional identity and limited collaboration or communication between the university and its organisational affiliates, among other challenges, have limited the social impact of the university and its outreach within the Kurdish community in Iraq.

Meeting the urgent need to protect and restore ecosystems requires effective decision-making through wisely considering a range of evidence. However, weighing and assessing evidence to make complex decisions is challenging, particularly when evidence is of diverse types, subjects, and sources, and varies greatly in its quality and relevance. To tackle these challenges, we present the Balance Evidence Assessment Method (BEAM), an intuitive way to weigh and assess the evidence relating to the core assumptions underpinning the planning and implementation of conservation projects, strategies, and actions. Our method directly tackles the question of how to bring together diverse evidence whilst assessing its relevance, reliability, and strength of support for a given assumption, which can be mapped, for example to a Theory of Change. We consider how simple principles and safeguards in applying this method could help to respectfully, and equitably, include more local forms of knowledge when assessing assumptions, such as by ensuring diverse groups of individuals contribute and assess evidence. The method can be flexibly applied within existing decision-making tools and frameworks whenever assumptions (or reframed claims and hypotheses) are made, which could greatly facilitate and improve the weighing of diverse evidence to make decisions in a range of situations.

Pituitary patients often experience psychosocial symptoms associated with their condition. To explore the condition management experiences of pituitary patients and their psychosocial symptoms and to explore the impact of these on quality of life. A sample of 748 individuals aged 18 to more than 65 years) completed a questionnaire relating to quality of life and the psychosocial impact of pituitary conditions. Analysis of the qualitative sections using content analysis identified four themes: social isolation, emotional and behavioural issues, appearance distress and physical and cognitive effects including fatigue and pain. An overarching theme of hidden disability emerged. The study identified multiple biopsychosocial factors that impact quality of life, with symptoms not visible to others most likely to impact negatively. Nurses are well placed to provide support and information to patients about the possible psychosocial impact of pituitary conditions to enable positive adjustment.

This study focuses on the use of pressure measurements to monitor the effectiveness of foam as a CO2 mobility control agent in oil-producing reservoirs. When it is applied optimally, foam has excellent potential to improve reservoir sweep efficiency, as well as CO2 utilization and storage, during CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes. In this study, we present part of an integrated and novel workflow involving laboratory measurements, reservoir modeling and monitoring. Using the recorded bottom-hole pressure data from a CO2 foam pilot study, we demonstrate how transient pressures could be used to monitor CO2 foam development inside the reservoir. Results from a recent CO2 foam pilot study in a heterogeneous carbonate field in Permian Basin, USA, are presented. The injection pressure was used to evaluate the development of foam during various foam injection cycles. A high-resolution radial simulator was utilized to study the effect of foam on well injectivity, as well as on CO2 mobility in the reservoir during the surfactant-alternating gas (SAG) process. Transient analysis indicated constant temperature behavior during all SAG cycles. On the other hand, differential pressures consistently increased during the surfactant injection and decreased during the subsequent CO2 injection periods. Pressure buildup during the periods of surfactant injection indicated the development of a reduced mobility zone in the reservoir. The radial model proved to be useful to assess the reservoir foam strength during this pilot study. Transient analysis revealed that the differential pressures during the SAG cycles were higher than the pressures observed during the water-alternating gas (WAG) cycle which, in turn, showed foam generation and reduced CO2 mobility in the reservoir. Although pressure data are a powerful indicator of foam strength, additional measurements may be required to describe the complex physics of in situ foam generation. In this pilot study, it appeared that the reservoir foam strength was weaker than that expected in the laboratory.

Immune-related nephrotoxicity (ir-N) is a rare adverse event of immune-checkpoint(s) inhibitors (ICI) therapy and its clinical management is still debated. Among 501 consecutive ICI-treated patients at our Institution, 6 who developed an ir-N with clinical signs suggestive for an acute kidney injury underwent kidney biopsy. Histology showed an acute tubule-interstitial nephritis, simulating the scenario of acute T-cell-mediated kidney transplant rejection. Thus, the management of allograft kidney rejection routinely utilized at our clinic was implemented, leading to rapid renal function improvement. Histologic features supporting the definition of an immune-mediated acute kidney injury in ICI-treated patients may help optimizing the clinical management of ir-N.