American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

Early social and economic deprivation, associated with poor nutrition and physical inactivity, may lead to adverse health trajectories. A cluster-randomized controlled-trial examining the effect of a school-based comprehensive intervention on nutrition knowledge, eating habits, and behaviors among low socioeconomic status (LSES) school-aged children was performed. LSES school-aged children (4–7 years) and their mothers were recruited from 11 schools, located in one town. The intervention was implemented on three levels: children, mothers, and teachers. The intervention (IArm) included nutrition classes for children, mothers, and teachers and physical activity (PA) classes for children; the control (CArm) received PA only. Interventions were conducted by professional personnel, who were trained during in a two-day session to deliver the specific program in schools. Family data were obtained by parental interviews. Food knowledge observations, packed lunch records, and anthropometric measurements were obtained in school at baseline, six months, and at the end of the school year. Of 258 children enrolled, 220 (87.6%) completed the six-month program. Only children in the IArm improved their nutrition knowledge and eating-habits and increased food variety and fruit and vegetable consumption, quality score of packed lunches (p < 0.001 for all), habitual water drinking increased (p = 0.02), and decreased sweet-drink consumption (p = 0.05). A school-based comprehensive nutrition intervention targeting LSES population improved eating habits, nutritional knowledge, and healthier packed lunches.

This article deals with the final chapter in the history of the Agro‐Joint, an organisation created by the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and operating in the USSR between 1924 and 1938. Among a large number of “counter‐revolutionaries” – a term used in the USSR during the time of the Great Purge of 1937–8 – one of the lesser‐known repressed groups consisted of the workers of the Agro‐Joint. With the opening of ex‐KGB archives in the former Soviet Union additional aspects of the Agro‐Joint venture have emerged in chilling detail. By virtue of their organisational status and their association with foreigners, many Agro‐Joint workers became direct subjects of the “operational orders” of the NKVD and were persecuted in three areas; Moscow, Ukraine and Crimea. There was an extraordinary brutality to the sentences; around 30 Agro‐Joint employees (from directors to members of collective farms) were arrested and a majority of them were sentenced to death. Employees of the three Agro‐Joint offices, refugee doctors whom Agro‐Joint brought into the USSR from Germany, Jewish religious activists and the staff of the Soviet organizations KOMZET and OZET were all caught in the same web, and accused of “collaboration with a counterrevolutionary organization, founded by the director of Agro‐Joint Dr. Rosen.” Accompanied by two sample documents from interrogation files as well as a list of Agro‐Joint workers who fell in the line of duty, the article presents a new outlook on this important era in the history of the JDC and Soviet Jewry.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) has been involved in developing Israel's health services since 1914. The types of involvement and major accomplishments in service development are summarized in Apprendix 1. Over the years, as needs changed and as the service environment expanded, JDC adapted its activities in order to remain a leading force in developing new and innovative services for Israel's most vulnerable populations.

Between October 1994 and January 1995 a field hospital saw nine cases of falciparum malaria associated with meningococcal meningitis among Rwandan patients residing in Kibumba refugee camp in Goma, Zaire. All except one presented with signs and symptoms suggestive of meningeal irritation; all but one responded to intravenous quinine and chloramphenicol or ampicillin. Two had recrudescence of malaria and responded to treatment with pyrimethamine-sulphadoxine (Fansidar). There were no sequelae seen. Meningococcal meningitis is uncommon but frequently fatal if it occurs in patients with falciparum malaria. Early diagnosis and treatment are urgent to decrease morbidity and mortality.

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not.The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers.L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.Lettuce maturity detection in the visible (380-720 nm) far red (680-750 nm) and near infrared (800-1 850 nm) wavelength band

focusing prenatal care pro- grams and services to areas of greatest need.