Background Although proven feasible, rapid response services (RRSs) to support urgent decision and policymaking are still a fairly new and innovative strategy in several health systems, more especially in low-income countries. There are several information gaps about these RRSs that exist including the factors that make them work in different contexts and in addition what affects their uptake b...

This article explores the recent development of new spheres of public engagement within UK higher education through an analysis of the foundation degree qualification. These, according to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), were designed to equip students with the combination of technical skills, academic knowledge, and transferable skills increasingly being demanded by em...

This article explores the recent development of new spheres of public engagement within UK higher education through an analysis of the foundation degree qualification. These, according to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), were designed to equip students with the combination of technical skills, academic knowledge, and transferable skills increasingly being demanded by em...

THE DRASTICALLY DECREASED SUPPLY OF INACTIVATED influenza vaccine for the 2004-2005 US influenza season presents a unique challenge for health care institutions. At the core of this challenge is the dual responsibility that health care institutions have to protect patients as well as the health professionals who are integral to the functioning of the institution. Many major hospitals and long-t...

Change has always been an issue for studies in politics and economics. However, there are few systematic treatments of institutions. This paper exemplifies how institutions (i.e., rules, norms and conventions) relate to the time-geography concepts of constraints, which affect different agents, policy-making, as well as economic performance. This paper seeks to advance the current discussion and...

Large cities and metropolitan areas in developing countries are growing rapidly. These areas grew by attracting all facilities, services and capital of the country. Tehran has been the major city and center for decision and policy making in various administrative, political, economic and socialaspects. This political focus has brought economic, social, educational focus that attracted a vast ma...

Conflicts of interest arise when corporations marketing harmful products establish financial relationships with research institutions, researchers, or public health organizations. As obesity becomes a worldwide epidemic, such relationships threaten to jeopardize the integrity of scientific research. Latin America, a region undergoing rapid development, is particularly vulnerable to such conflic...

Participatory governance entails converting citizens from passive users of administrative decisions into active participants of political procedures. Public institutions and organizations can benefit from methods and tools able to aggregate and interpret information dispersed among citizens. In this paper we explore the use of Information Aggregation Markets (IAMs) for citizen engagement. We id...