Bioengineering & Translational Medicine, I must express my deep gratitude to the members of our Editorial Advisory Board. Their expertise and experience provide a strong foundation supporting the broad range of bioengineering topics that will be covered in the journal. To highlight this strength, we plan to feature one of our distinguished Editorial Advisory Board members in each issue. In this inaugural issue, we are proud to feature Prof Nicholas A Peppas.On the launch of this inaugural issue of AIChE's and SBE's Nicholas Peppas holds a Cockrell Family Regents Chaired Professorship in Engineering, Medicine and Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin, with appointments in the departments of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, in Surgery in the Dell Medical School, and in the College of Pharmacy. He received his Diploma in Engineering from the National Technical University in Athens and an Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Chemical Engineering. He has also received numerous honorary doctorates, including those from the University of Ghent (Belgium), the University of Parma , the University of Ljublijana (Slovenia), the University of Athens (Greece), the University of Patras (Greece), and an honorary professorship from the Sichuan University (China).Professor Peppas' research has made a transformative impact on drug delivery, which has leaped to the forefront of science and technology. In particular, Prof Peppas' research on mathematical models and novel biomaterials has yielded not only new insights into drug release mechanisms and new technologies to control them, but has also provided a new paradigm for research conducted at the interface of medicine and engineering. His early studies on drug diffusion in polymeric systems provided the much needed quantitative tools to describe drug release,Journal of Controlled Release on mathematical models of solute diffusion.Journal of Controlled Release in its 30‐plus year history.In 1987, Prof Peppas published two seminal papers in the Responsive hydrogels represent another area where Dr Peppas' work has made a pioneering and transformative impact, especially for applications in diabetes treatment.Encapsulation of glucose oxidase in hydrogel adds another layer of “smartness” to gel‐based systems.Professor Peppas has been recognized with numerous awards, including elections to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), National Academy of Medicine (NAM), National Academy of Inventors (NAI), National Academy of France, Royal Academy of Spain and the Academy of Athens. He is also an elected fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), American Association of Advancement of Science (AAAS), Society for Biomaterials (SFB), among others. Professor Peppas has been recognized by the NAE Founders Award, the Giulio Natta Medal, the Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal, AIMBE's Pierre Galletti Award, and the Maurice Marie Janot Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences, among others. His teaching accomplishments have been recognized through the Benjamin Garver Lamme Excellence in Engineering Education Award from the American Society for Engineering Education. In 2016, Prof Peppas was included in the 100 Power List by the medicinemaker, comprising the most influential individuals making medicines.AIChE and SBE have been particularly proud to recognize Prof Peppas with several of their distinguished awards, including Materials Engineering and Sciences Award (1984); Food, Pharmaceuticals, and Bioengineering Award (1992); Nanoscale Science and Engineering Award (2014), Founders Award for Outstanding Contributions to Chemical Engineering (2008); William H. Walker Award (2006); Jay Bailey Award (2006); and Institute Lecturer (2007). In 2008, Prof Peppas was listed among the “One Hundred Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era by AIChE” on the occasion of the Institute's centennial.As towering as these accomplishments and recognitions are, if we ask Prof Peppas, he would say that his proudest professional achievements are his students. To date, he has supervised more than 875 researchers, including 105 PhDs, over half of whom are now professors at various Universities. His students are advancing various frontiers of bioengineering and biotechnology in their own ways in academia as well as industry.AIChE Journal (2009–2012). Professor Peppas' pioneering research, along with his active and inspiring leadership in various professional organizations, has advanced the visibility of drug delivery in the scientific landscape, and has inspired young professionals to follow the suit.Over the years, Prof Peppas has played a central role in advancing the cause of bioengineering in various organizations, especially in AIChE. He was director of AIChE (1999–2002); chair of the AIChE's Materials Engineering and Sciences Division (1988–1990); director of AIChE's Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Division (1994–1997); and founder of AIChE's Bionanotechnology programming area. Even outside AIChE, Prof Peppas has been extremely active in various professional organizations. He was director of the BMES (2008–2011), Chair of the College of Fellows of AIMBE (2006–2007), President of the SFB (2003–2004), president of the Controlled Release Society (1987–1988), and chair of the Engineering section of AAAS (2014–2015). He is presently the President of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Sciences and Engineering (2008–2016). Among many of his editorial responsibilities, he was Associate Editor of the Bioengineering & Translational Medicine and look forward to his continued support.On behalf of AIChE and SBE, I thank Prof Peppas for his strong support in the launch of Dept. of Chemical Engineering Center for Bioengineering University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Email:samir@engr.ucsb.eduSamir Mitragotri Editor‐in‐Chief


CDC joins the American Public Health Association (APHA) in celebration of National Public Health Week, April 3–9, 2017. Since 1995, APHA has led the observance of National Public Health Week during the first full week of April. The week recognizes the impact of public health on the health of the nation. The 2017 observance focuses on making the United States the Healthiest Nation in One Generation by 2030 by spotlighting the importance of prevention, employing successful strategies for collaboration, and promoting the critical role of a strong public health system. http://www.nphw.org/.In conjunction with this year’s observance, CDC is partnering to promote APHA’s National Public Health Week themes, events, tools, and resources. Additional information is available at


There is information missing from the Funding section. The correct funding information is as follows: This research was supported by JSPS Research Fellowships for Young Scientists (23–2815) and special funding for the promotion of internationalization of research activities by the Japanese Group Dynamics Association to RA. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


The grant in the Funding Section is incorrect. The correct funding information is as follows: The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by The College of Engineering Research Center at King Saud University, for providing funds through the research grant, grant no 438/12, for the current research.


There is an error in the Funding section. The correct funding information is as follows: This work was partially supported by JST CREST, Grant Number JPMJCR14D2, Japan and the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology and the Center of Innovation Program, the Japan Science and Technology Agency. This work was also partially supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency KAKENHI Grant Number 15H05707. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The publisher apologizes for the error.


The TNM classification for retinoblastoma, which is developed by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC), has recently been updated from TNM7 to TNM8. The newest dataset for retinoblastoma from the UK's Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath), released in early 2018, reflects the changes in the TNM classification.


It is with great sadness that we share that Jean St. Germain, our colleague, friend, and integral member of the Medical Physics Department at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) for over 50 yr, passed away on December 7, 2017. She died peacefully and was with her brother, Amos, at the time.Jean St. Germain 1945–2017Following completion of graduate study at Rutgers University and a fellowship at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Jean was appointed, in November 1967, as a Fellow in the Department of Medical Physics at Memorial Sloan Kettering under John Laughlin and Garrett Holt. At the end of her fellowship, she was appointed to the faculty and rose to the rank of Associate Attending Physicist, and subsequently, to Attending Physicist. She served as the Corporate Radiation Safety Officer, guiding and presiding over the incredible growth of the institution. She served as an interim chair of the Department of Medical Physics from 2007 to 2010 and subsequently as a Vice‐Chair for Clinical and Educational Affairs and Clinical Member. Jean was a licensed medical physicist in New York State and was certified in Comprehensive Health Physics in 1974 by the ABHP and in 1991 in Medical Health Physics by the ABMP. Jean was also appointed a Lecturer, Instructor, and ultimately Assistant Professor of Physics in Clinical Radiology, Weill College of Medicine, Cornell University and served as the Radiation Safety Officer at the NY Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center for more than 35 yr.Jean's contributions to the field of medical physics and health physics were vast and significant. She has served several professional societies in key leadership roles. She served AAPM as National Secretary, Chair of the Rules Committee, Parliamentarian, founding Chair of the Development Committee, Member of the Governing Board of the AIP, Treasurer of the American Academy of Health Physics, Chair of the Examining Panel in Medical Health Physics and Vice‐Chair of the American Board of Medical Physics. She has served four terms on the AAPM Board of Directors. In the Greater New York area, she served as the President of the Radiological and Medical Physics Society  and served three terms as the President of the Greater NY Chapter of the HPS.Jean was a member of the Scientific Committee (SC) for the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) that produced NCRP Report No. 105 on radiation protection of medical and allied health personnel. Jean later served as the Chairman of the SC that produced NCRP Report No. 155 on the management of radionuclide therapy patients. In addition, Jean served as a member of several New York State advisory committees on medical and radiological health. She also served as a special examiner for the New York State Civil Service Commission.Jean received many honors and awards during her career. She was a Fellow of the Health Physics Society and of AAPM. She was presented the Failla Award by the Greater NY Chapter HPS and RAMPS. She received the AAPM Distinguished Service Award in 2001 as well as the Varian Award for best professional paper in the Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics in 2004. And in 2015, Jean was presented with the Marvin M. D. Williams Professional Achievement Award by the AAPM. The award recognizes AAPM members for an eminent career in medical physics with an emphasis on clinical medical physics.Jean was an excellent lecturer and teacher. She taught Health Physics and Radiation Safety to generations of medical physicists, radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, radiotherapists, radiologic technologists, lab scientists, and others at MSKCC, Weill Cornell Medical Center and throughout the medical physics and radiological community.Beyond physics, Jean's great passion was music. She took vocal lessons at Julliard and was an operatic soprano soloist who gave many recitals and concerts throughout her life. She was also a regular attendee of performances at the Metropolitan Opera. Her commitment to service extended to her church, St. Joseph's in Yorkville, where she was a Trustee. She was also an active member of the National Society of Arts and Letters, serving on the Winston Scholarship Committee, and the Shirley Rabb Winston Scholarships in Voice.Jean considered Marie Curie a heroine as she was the first woman to win a Nobel prize and then became the first person to attain a second Nobel prize. Jean had the pleasure of spending time with Marie Curie's daughter, Eve Curie Labouisse, who had written an extensive biography of her mother.She is survived by her brother, Amos St. Germain, his wife, Susan, and their three children. Jean was particularly delighted with her two grand‐nieces, Natalie and Maren, and shared photos of them with her colleagues at every opportunity.www.mskcc.org, click on the ‘Giving’ tab. For additional information, please contact Wei Lui, MSKCC, Department of Medical Physics, 1275 York Ave., New York, NY 10065 (lui1@mskcc.org).In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center – John Laughlin Research & Education Fund, in memory of Jean St. Germain. The website is Jean was an accomplished person of wide‐ranging interests and service, with a distinct sense of professionalism and honor, who was engaged with the world and loved by friends and family members. She will be greatly missed.


The following information is missing from the Funding section: The Atlanta BEST Program is supported, in part, by the Laney Graduate School at Emory University.


Scientific Reports7: Article number: 41149; 10.1038/srep41149 published online: 01272017; updated: 07172017.The Acknowledgements section in this Article is incomplete.“This article is submitted as an observational study in the category of original articles. A small sub-set of information from this article has been presented at the annual congress of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons”.should read:“This article is submitted as an observational study in the category of original articles. A small sub-set of information from this article has been presented at the annual congress of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons. Marian Knight is funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Professorship. Benjamin Allin is funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Doctoral Research Fellowship. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. The NIHR had no role in design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication”.


The following information is missing from the Competing Interests section: The tools and methods described in this manuscript are included in a PCT patent application PCT/PT2009000046, which is owned by University of Algarve and the Center of Marine Sciences (CCMAR). Dina C. Simes and Carla S.B. Viegas are cofounders of GenoGla Diagnostics; Cees Vermeer is founder of VitaK. This does not affect our adherence to PLOS's policies on sharing data and materials.


There are errors in the Funding section. The correct funding information is as follows: This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, University and Research (FIRB CAROMICS RBAP11B2SX_008) and by the Interuniversity Consortium of Chemistry Research in Metals in Biological Systems (CIRCMSB), Bari, Italy.


The following information is missing from the Funding section: Genotyping of the GS:SFHS samples was carried out by the Genetics Core Laboratory at the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility, Edinburgh, Scotland and was funded by the Medical Research Council UK and the Wellcome Trust  Reference 104036/Z/14/Z).These additional funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


The following information is missing from the Funding section: This study was supported by the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna  to PM and KS, and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF P29397) to PM and SW.In the Author Contributions section, all four authors should be listed as contributing to the methodology (CM SW KS PM).The publisher apologizes for these errors.


The health, economic and social impacts of disease outbreaks are persistent and manifold. Lessons learnt from the 2013–2016 Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa demonstrate how far-reaching the cost of pandemics can be. Beyond the devastating death toll of 11 310,Various studies have assessed the systemic failures in the Ebola response, revealing that only about one third of countries in the world can prevent, detect and respond to public health emergencies. These studies have also shown, among other issues: (i) inadequate financing for pandemic preparedness; (ii) rigid instruments for emergency response; and (iii) slow and costly delivery of aid.To support countries to better understand their capacity gaps in pandemic preparedness and response, in 2016 the World Health Organization (WHO) established the joint external evaluation, a voluntary and collaborative process to assess a country’s capacity under the International Health Regulations (2005) to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health threats.Even though the World Bank mobilized US$ 1.62 billion to support the countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak, these efforts were constrained by the lack of flexible instruments for channelling emergency resources in a timely fashion.The World Bank is supporting countries through corporate-level prioritization of pandemic preparedness and response. The International Development Association of the World Bank Group provides loans on soft terms and grants to the 77 poorest countries in the world. The association is replenished every three years.The World Bank is also engaging in strategic partnerships, for instance through its partnership with the governments of Australia and Japan, to support 13 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Caribbean to develop preparedness plans and coordination mechanisms.The World Bank has also set up a Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility. In June 2017, the World Bank launched this facility to offer surge funding in the form of grants and insurance pay-outs, allowing funds to reach countries and international responders more quickly and effectively, and in so doing, prevent outbreaks from becoming pandemics.The World Bank is also using high-level advocacy to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response. Since 2016, the World Bank – in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – has informed decision-makers at the national, regional and global levels about the importance and urgency of investing in pandemic preparedness. Two simulation exercises (October 2016 and January 2017) have informed pandemic preparedness discussions during the Annual Meeting of Ministers of Finance at the World Bank and chief executive officers in the private sector during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. The World Bank is also leveraging its convening role to mobilize resources for regional projects and initiatives, such as the Regional Disease Surveillance and Enhancement Project for West Africa and the World Bank’s collaboration with the Australian government to implement a regional technical assistance programme to ensure sustainability of health security in east Asia. In addition, the World Bank’s International Working Group on Financing Preparedness proposes ways in which national governments and development partners can collaborate to finance investments that will strengthen country preparedness and response capacities for health emergencies.In February 2018, the World Bank in partnership with WHO, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will host a regional event to define the core elements of a multisectoral pandemic preparedness plan, including planning and coordination mechanisms. In addition, during the Prince Mahidol Award ConferenceTo ensure the success of pandemic financing preparedness, countries should engage in dialogue on the importance of investing in such preparedness. The World Bank’s early successes need to continue through partnerships to renew and sustain national, regional and global commitment and investments for pandemic preparedness and response.


Professor Matthew Tirrell is the founding Pritzker Director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. He received a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, and he received a PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts.Prof. Tirrell began his academic career at the University of Minnesota in Chemical Engineering where he earned the Shell Distinguished Chair in Chemical Engineering and established himself as a leader in the study of the polymer interfaces, adhesion, and self‐assembly. In the early 1990s, he was named the Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Minnesota and later held the Earl E. Bakken Chair of Biomedical Engineering while also serving as the Director of the Biomedical Engineering Institute. In 1998, he moved to the University of California—Santa Barbara to become the Richard A. Auhll Professor and Dean of the College of Engineering. After a few years as the Arnold and Barbara Silverman Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California—Berkeley, Prof. Tirrell moved to the University of Chicago to build the completely new Institute for Molecular Engineering. The Institute currently comprises sixteen faculty, with diverse research interests focused on innovative technologies in nanoscale manipulation and design at a molecular scale, with potential for societal impact in such areas as energy, health care, and the environment. Among his many talents, he has a knack for defining important scientific problems and assembling powerful, interdisciplinary groups to go about solving them.AIChE, including the Allan P. Colburn Award, the Professional Progress Award, the Charles M.A. Stine Award, an Institute Lecturer Award, and the William H. Walker Award. He has co‐authored over 300 papers and one book, and has supervised over 80 PhD students and 40 post‐docs.Prof. Tirrell has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering and has been named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and received both the John H. Dillon Medal and the Polymer Physics Prize from its Division of Polymer Physics. He has received several awards from AIChE Journal from 1991 to 2000. His ability to work at the interface of the scientific, engineering, and medical communities both as a researcher and as an administrator has resulted in an atypical breadth of publications and awards. He is world‐renowned in two distinct areas of research: polymers at interfaces and peptide amphiphile self‐assembly. These two areas are tied together by his ability to quantitatively manipulate, measure, and thoughtfully understand the fundamental structural and biological properties of macromolecules.Prof. Tirrell served as the fifth Editor of the Chronologically, his contributions in the area of polymer physics preceded his work with peptide‐amphiphiles. As an assistant professor at Minnesota, he began his career working on polymeric surface phenomena, making key contributions in the area of self‐healing polymeric interfaces,Prof. Tirrell made a significant departure from his earlier work in polymer physics when he began exploring the area of bioengineering and translational medicine in the 1990s. Together with Prof. Gregg Fields, he worked on the synthesis of a class of self‐assembling peptide‐based molecule called peptide‐amphiphiles.Recent examples include the use of peptide‐amphiphile hydrogels for peripheral nerve regeneration, where the Tirrell group synthesized peptide amphiphiles capable of co‐assembly with Type I collagen, forming mechanically stable hydrogels and quantifying the enhanced activity of Schwann cells.As students in Prof. Tirrell's lab, we had the unique perspective of learning about the culture of research in an evolving interdisciplinary environment, where Prof. Tirrell encouraged curiosity and collaboration, creating a deep community of engaged scientists and engineers. In the Tirrell research group, Matt was always faithful to his values as an educator, passing on his sense of respect for science and all the people around him. His adventurous nature and willingness to enter new research areas has inspired dozens of his former students to pursue careers in industrial and academic research.Raymond Tu1, James W. Schneider21Dept. of Chemical Engineering, The City College of New York ‐ CUNY, New York, NY 100312Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213Matt pictured with selected PhD students and post‐docs from the 1980s. From his 60th birthday celebration at the AIChE Annual Meeting in Minneapolis


The above mentioned funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.There are errors in the Funding section. The correct funding information is as follows: This research is part of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry and the Global Comparative Study on REDD+, with funding support from the USAID (grant number MTO069018,


There are errors in the Funding section. The correct funding information is as follows: This work was supported by the State of Sao Paulo Research Foudation , by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development , and by the Rio Preto Research Foundation , Brazil. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


The following information is missing from the Funding section: This work was supported by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the MEXT  (15K21554 to KY), a Wellcome Trust Career Development fellowship and funding under the MRC-CLIMB initiative (to SKS and DF), and a United States National Institutes of Health Research grant R21CA182822 (to IK). DJL is funded by Wellcome Trust and Royal Society grant WT104125AIA. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


This data article provides spatiotemporal patterns of the foundation of Japanese companies in China. The data for companies in the food manufacturing, wholesaling, and service industries were collected from published lists of Chinese companies founded through the investment of Japanese companies. The data are provided in a matrix heatmap format, a two-dimensional visualization of data using color to represent the magnitude of two variables: year of foundation and area in China where the company is located. Specifications TableValue of the data•The data in a heatmap format concomitantly visualize two company variables (year of foundation and area in China where the company is located), allowing researchers to capture an overview of the trends in each industry, and to compare the trends specific to each industry.•The data can be used by researchers to examine the effects of historical events, geographical features, and Chinese policies on industrial exchanges between countries for Japan and other countries.•The data can aid discussion on the business partnership between China and Japan.1To date, there have been four booms in Japanese companies’ investments in China: in 1985–1990, 1991–1999, and 2000–2007, and after 2008 22.1According to a previous report, the food industry was included in all booms of Japanese companies’ investments in China 2.2The number of Chinese companies founded through investment of Japanese companies was collected from references of the 21st Century China Research Institute 2.3The number of such companies was obtained from the list in the source, and filled into a Microsoft Excel for Mac worksheet  as shown in


There is an error in the Funding statement. The correct number for the National Natural Science Foundation of China is 31660282.In the published article, the following affiliation should be added for Xiaoxi Wang: “College of Preschool Education and Special Education, Kunming University, Kunming, China.”Also, the correct affiliation for Yan Liu should be: “Faculty of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China.”The original article has been updated.The authors apologize for these errors and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


The following information is missing from the Funding section: This work has also received funding from the Medical Research Council (MR/M02010X/1) to MJB. The funders had no role in the in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


There is an error in the Funding section. The correct funding information is as follows: This research was funded by Columbia University through a donation from the Lavine Family. The funder (Lavine Family) had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The publisher apologizes for the error.


In the Funding section, the grant number from the funder National Natural Science Foundation of China, China is listed incorrectly. The correct grant number is: 81200716. The publisher apologizes for the error.


There is information missing from the Funding section. The correct funding information is as follows: This work was funded by Canada Research Chair funds to LS and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada Grant (#317359) to LS, the Orsino Chair in Leukemia Research, Marvin and Linda Barnett leukemia Research Fund, Brian Steck Leukemia Research Fund to MDM and an Innovation Grant of the Canadian Cancer Society, and Brain Canada with the financial support of Health Canada (# 705166) to JR. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.The publisher apologizes for the error.


The funding statement for this article should read as follows:“Work was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research , the German Research Foundation , the Max Planck Society and the caesar foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.”


The following information is missing from the Funding section: This research has been supported by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.The following information is missing from the Competing Interests section: This research was presented in part at the 20th International AIDS Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 20–25 July, 2014. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This does not alter our adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.


Daniel Shek was born in Hong Kong. He has one elder sister and four younger sisters. His father died when he was in Grade 8. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 1979 at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). He then worked as a full-time demonstrator and pursued his full-time PhD study at HKU for four years.After he obtained his PhD degree, he taught at City Polytechnic of Hong Kong from 1984 to 1987. He then moved to The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) teaching social work for 22 years. In response to the severe lack of studies on quality of life of Chinese people, he has gradually developed his research programs on the well-being of Chinese adolescents and families since 1980s.Daniel Shek is currently Associate Vice President (Undergraduate Programme) and Chair Professor of Applied Social Sciences at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He is also Advisory Professor of East China Normal University, Honorary Professor of Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau, and Adjunct Professor of University of Kentucky College of Medicine. To promote holistic development of Chinese university students, he has helped to develop the leadership and service learning components of the new 4-year undergraduate curriculum at PolyU.Professor Shek is a psychologist with research interests in positive youth development, family process, scale development, quality of life, program evaluation, addiction, spirituality, leadership and university social responsibility. He has conducted extensive research on the well-being of Chinese adolescents and Chinese families. In the past decade, he has been leading a research project entitled “P.A.T.H.S. to Adulthood: A Jockey Club Youth Enhancement Scheme” (Project P.A.T.H.S.) which is financially supported by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. In this project, he worked together with his colleagues to develop a positive youth development program for junior secondary school students in Hong Kong, trained potential program implementers, provided support in program implementation and conducted comprehensive evaluation of the program. Because of the overwhelming success of the project, the program has been transplanted to mainland China with the financial support of Tin Ka Ping Foundation.Journal of Youth Studies and Applied Research in Quality of Life, Associate Editor of Frontiers in Child Health and Human Development and past Consulting Editor of Journal of Clinical Psychology. He is an Editorial Board member of Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research published by Springer, Series Editor of The Quality of Life in Asia published by Springer and an Associate Editor of The Encyclopedia of Family Studies published by Wiley-Blackwell. He is an Editorial Advisor of The British Journal of Social Work and Editorial Board member of several international journals, including Social Indicators Research, Journal of Adolescent Health, International Journal of Behavioral Development, and Journal of Child and Family Studies.Daniel Shek is Chief Editor of Professor Shek has to date published more than 600 articles in international refereed journals. His research project on the adjustment of Chinese midlife people has been rated “excellent” by the Research Grants Council, Hong Kong. He was awarded the CUHK Research Excellence Award 2007 by The Chinese University of Hong Kong. In addition to his research interests, Professor Shek is passionate about teaching. He was awarded two teaching awards during his stay at CUHK. In 2016, he was awarded the Bronze Award in the category of “Ethical Leadership” and the Bronze Award in the category of “Social Enterprise” at the QS Reimagine Education Awards. In 2017, he was further awarded the Silver Award under the category of “Ethical Leadership” and the Silver Award under the category of “Sustainability” in the QS Reimagine Education Awards.Professor Shek has served on many high-level governmental advisory committees in the Hong Kong Government, including the Action Committee Against Narcotics, Commission on Youth, Women’s Commission, Fight Crime Committee, Beat Drugs Fund Association, Independent Commission Against Corruption, Mental Health Review Tribunal, and Committee on Child Fatality. Professor Shek served as the past Chairman of the Action Committee Against Narcotics (2009–2014) and is currently Chairman of the Family Council, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. He has also been Chairman of Heep Hong Society and Society of Boys’ Centres. He was awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star and Silver Bauhinia Star by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2000 and 2013, respectively. He is also a Non-official Justice of the Peace in Hong Kong.Daniel Shek lives in Hong Kong with his wife, Jennifer Lee, and their two children, Moses and Esther.


The following information is missing from the Funding section: This article was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China . The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


The Funding statement is incorrect. The publisher apologizes for this error. The correct statement is: This work was supported by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases . The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


Phoca vitulina stejnegeri) and phylogenetic relationship between the seals in Japan and other countries. Our results suggested that Japanese harbour seals possibly consisted of more than two lineages and secondary contact of populations after a long isolation. Furthermore, one of the lineage was made only by Japanese harbour seals (Group P1). The proportion of Group P1 was the highest at the South West and gradually decreased towards the North East of Hokkaido, Japan. On the other hand, the haplotypes do not belonged to Group P1 showed close relationship to the seals in the North Pacific. Based on the fossil record of harbour seal in Japan and the range of sea ice during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Group P1 might have entered Japan before the LGM and became isolated due to the geographical boundary, and gradually extended its range from the South West towards the North East of Hokkaido after the disappearance of the sea ice, while the seals which are not in Group P1 immigrated into Japan from the North Pacific.In this study, we used relatively large number of samples (n = 178) and control region of mtDNA (454bp) to clearify the divergence history of Japanese harbour seals ( Phoca vitulina) is an amphibious mammal that distributes across more than 16,000 km of the northern hemisphere (Phoca vitulina richardsi), the southernmost limit in eastern Pacific .,32.31,32These factors suggest the history of Japanese harbour seals: the haplogroup made up only by Japanese harbour seals (Group P1) might have entered Japan before the LGM and became isolated due to the geographical boundary-sea ice, and gradually extended its range from the South West towards the North East of Hokkaido after the disappearance of the sea ice, while the seals which are not in Group P1 immigrated into Japan from the North Pacific, which are the descendent of the seals in refugia in North Pacific.S1 Table(PPTX)Click here for additional data file.S1 FigFinal 369bp of 255 haplotypes were used after alignment. Colouration for the haplotypes of our data and Stanley et al(1996) are same as (PDF)Click here for additional data file.S2 FigFinal sequences of 356bp 381haplotypes were used after alignment ,33,34. C(PDF)Click here for additional data file.


Information was omitted from the Funding statement. The correct version of the Funding statement is available below."This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China  and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.2013121026<tel:2013121026> and No.2011121052) and Xiamen University 985 Project. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript."


E/V Nautilus, I would like to further thank the Galapagos National Park Directorate for providing joint collection permit PC-45-15 in collaboration with the Charles Darwin Foundation, and thank the government of Ecuador, the Ecuadorian Navy, and its Oceanographic Institute (INOCAR) for their support and permission to operate in their territorial waters. This publication is contribution number 2189 of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands.Regarding the specimens collected by the


The full name of the funder is missing from the Funding section. The correct funding information is as follows: This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [grant number EP/H024891/1]. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


Correction to:Cell Discovery (2015) 1, 15040; doi:10.1038/celldisc.2015.40; published online 8 December 2015In the initial published version of this article, there was an inadvertent omission from the Acknowledgements that the contribution of John P Cooke to this work was funded in part by a Core Facility Support Award from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (RP150611). This omission does not affect the description of the results or the conclusions of this paper.


There are errors in the funding section. The correct funding information is as follows: Support was provided by National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary No. K116506 to I.L., the National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary No. K109109 to R.M. and the New National Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities to Á.L. The publisher apologizes for the errors.


On behalf of everyone at PR&P, I convey the passing of our Editor‐in‐Chief, Dr Darrell Abernethy. Darrell has been part of PR&P since its inception, initially as Deputy EiC and since 2016 as EiC. He was a stalwart of the journal and assisted in the recruitment of a strong editorial board and the communication with editors of its supporter journals. From a professional perspective, Darrell had a distinguished career as a clinical pharmacologist and geriatrician. Darrell completed MD / PhD degrees at the University of Kansas, followed by training in Internal Medicine at the University of Miami (Florida) and in Clinical Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School / Massachusetts General Hospital. He had a number of academic positions and also directed an NIH program regarding the effects of drugs in the elderly. His last appointment was with the FDA where he investigated ways to predict adverse effects of therapeutic drugs. Darrell's excellence was recognized by his peers with numerous awards, including the Nathaniel T. Kwit Memorial Distinguished Service Award from the American College of Clinical Pharmacology and the William B. Abrams Award in Geriatric Clinical Pharmacology and the Rawls‐Palmer Progress in Medicine Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.Darrell contributed back to the discipline at a high level. He was EiC of Pharmacological Reviews and Associate Editor of the Journal of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics as well as Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. This experience was brought to bear during his tenure with PR&P. In addition to his editorial responsibilities and leadership, Darrell was also a leader within the broader pharmacology community being a key contributor to the Clinical Division of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR).Darrell's major pastimes included sailing and music. He was an affable person and a great encourager of his juniors. He will be sorely missed.Professor Andrew J Lawrence BSc(Hons), PhD, FBPhSCurrent EiC of PR&P


In the original article, we neglected to include relevant animal protocols belonging to Hamamatsu University School of Medicine (H28-068 and H29-083). A correction has been made to Materials and Methods, Animals, the second paragraph. All care of experimental animals was in accordance with the institutional guidelines of University of Washington and Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, and experiments were performed as approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees at the University of Washington (protocol #4359-03) and Hamamatsu University School of Medicine (protocols H28-068 and H29-083). The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way.The original article has been updated.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


Acta Horticulturae Sinica. This retraction was approved by the Field Chief Editor and the Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Plant Science. The authors concur with the retraction and sincerely regret any inconvenience this may have caused to the reviewers, editors, and readers of Frontiers in Plant Science.The journal retracts the 23 February 2016 article cited above. Following concerns regarding the originality of the article, Frontiers conducted an investigation. The investigation determined an unacceptably high level of similarity with an article published by Diao et al.  in Acta


The authors of the original article  would liThe updated text should read as follows:We are particularly grateful to Prof. Francis  for his valuable feedback on our submission for human samples to the Brain Bank for Dementia, UK. We would like to gratefully acknowledge all donors and their families for the tissue provided for this study. Human tissue samples were supplied by the Brains for Dementia Research programme, jointly funded by Alzheimer’s Research UK, the Alzheimer’s Society and the Medical Research Council, and sourced from the Oxford Brain Bank. The Oxford Brain Bank is also supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Units.We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.


BioMed Research International has retracted the article titled “Analysis of the Influence of Complexity and Entropy of Odorant on Fractal Dynamics and Entropy of EEG Signal”  due to cThe authors say the research was approved and conducted at Dr. Ahmadian Clinic, 3/22 St., Third Niroo Havaie Ave., Piroozi Ave., Tehran, in September 2015. This was not stated in the article and we cannot find further details of this clinic or Dr. Ahmadian. An ethical approval document for the project “Analysis of the Influence of Complexity and Entropy of Odorant on Fractal Dynamics and Entropy of EEG Signal” was provided by the first author, dated July 2, 2015, with the approval number D/A/36990 and signed by Dr. Shahaab Ahmadian. The authors also provided blank consent forms in English and Farsi. The institution asked for the article to be retracted and this is supported by the editorial board. The authors do not agree with retraction.


Dear Sir:The article published by Quispe and others2Malaria has devastating effects on the health and way of life of the people all over the world; however, it can be prevented and treated. In America, cases of malaria have been reduced by 58%, and malaria deaths have decreased by 70% since 2000.To analyze the current situation in Peru compared with the rest of South America, we created a chart using World Health Organization data on cases of malaria and the total population, analyzing the incidences by year (Multidisciplinary strategies


To the Editor: We thank Dr Sasse for his interest in the conclusions of our rapid communication, in which we used the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) HIV Modelling tool to estimate for the number and proportion of persons living with HIV who remain undiagnosed in the European Union/European Economic Area [mic Area . In respmic Area . We agre


The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The publisher apologizes for the errors.There are errors in the Funding section. The correct funding information is as follows: This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 41501219;


Over the last two decades, the concept of self-regulated learning (SRL) has guided scientific approaches to understand successful learning in different fields. Self-regulatory processes were shown to explain achievement differences in students, and SRL may effectively improve achievement in students of different proficiency levels  at the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber, Dresden, Germany, and is a full professor paid by the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber. He has received funding from the Dystonia Coalition . He has received speaker honoraria from the Berlin University of the Arts, Germany , from the Hof Symphony Orchestra and the Association of Musicians High Franconia, Germany (2015), from the International Summer Academy Lüneburger Heide, Germany (2015), from the Saxony State Music Council, Germany (2015), from the Klinik Bosse Wittenberg Alexianergemeinschaft GmbH (2015), and from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (2015). The IMM has received free pharmaceutical samples from IPSEN PHARMA GmbH. The IMM has received funding from a private donor without ties to the psychological field.The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


The following information is missing from the Funding section: This work was supported by the Postgraduate Pro-rectory of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Postgraduate Program in Nutrition of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (PPGNUT), and Improvement Coordination of Higher Level Personnel . The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.The publisher apologizes for the error.


The author noted that major part of Acknowledgements section was inadvertently missing in the original article . The new“I am grateful to Morimasa Takayama M.D., the President of Tokyo CCU Network, the Vice-director of Sakakibara Heart Institute, for his expert insight and advice in the ischemia-associated mechanisms of ventricular arrhythmias in acute myocardial infarction, and to Ken Nagao M.D., the Chairman of the scientific committee, Tokyo CCU Network, Division of Cardiology, Nihon University Hospital, for his great suggestions in the scientific interpretation of the large data from Tokyo CCU Network. I also express a special gratitude to all the member hospitals of Tokyo CCU Network for their great contributions to the registry study of acute myocardial infarction in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Finally, I thank Mr. John Martin for his linguistic assistance”.


Reason for erratum:y-axis of Figure Due to a typesetting error, some information went missing on the The publisher apologizes for this error, and the correct version of Figure The original article has been updated.


The authors of this article would like to request the following replacement to the section ACKNOWLEGEMENTS:We are grateful to Mrs. Jin Xu for her assistance in flow cytometry. This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31270032), the National Basic Research Program (973 Program) (No. 2013CB945604), and SJTU Interdisciplinary Research Grant (YG2012ZD05).


The following information is missing from the funding statement: This work was partially supported by the UIC Research Open Access Article Publishing (ROAAP) Fund. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, and preparation of the manuscript.


There was an error in the funding statement. The correct funding statement is: This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China  and Tianjin applied-basic & cutting-edge research program (09JCZDJC17700). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


An account is provided of a UK national seminar series on Arts, Health and Wellbeing funded by the Economic and Social Research Council during 2012–13. Four seminars were organised addressing current issues and challenges facing the field. Details of the programme and its outputs are available online. A central concern of the seminar programme was to provide a foundation for creating a UK national network for researchers in the field to help promote evidence-based policy and practice. With funding from Lankelly Chase Foundation, and the support of the Royal Society for Public Health, a Special interest Group for Arts, Health and Wellbeing was launched in 2015. Arts & Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and PracticeThe Journal of Applied Arts and Health. A further marker of the maturing of this field is the publication of the Oxford Textbook for Creative Arts, Health and Wellbeing  encouraged the development of this field. The Department of Health (DH) broadly supported this work and in 2007 various policy documents were published to support it  has played a substantial role in promoting the value of the arts for health, through its journals, organising and supporting conferences and the annual Arts and Health Awards inaugurated in 2008. In advance of the First International Conference for Culture, Health and Wellbeing in Bristol, 2013(1) To review the field of arts, health and wellbeing research and debate aims, methods and achievements.(2) To advance and deepen theoretical, conceptual and methodological developments in researching the role of the arts in health and wellbeing.(3) to develop strategies for advocacy and knowledge exchange with policy-makers, funders, arts agencies and practitioners.(4) to establish the foundations for a national network for arts, health and wellbeing research and evidence-based practice.Research on arts, health and wellbeing is found across many academic disciplines and creative agencies, but remains fragmented, and stands in a developing relationship with the creative arts therapies Hogan,  and the The first task of the seminar series was to reflect on the range of academic engagement within the field of arts, health and wellbeing. This was addressed throughout the seminar series, with attention to the range of methodologies applied in research .The final aim, to establish a UK network for arts and health research was fully met as during the programme, funding was acquired from Lankelly Chase Foundation to establish such a network. On an interim basis the steering group for the seminar series acted as a steering group to support the establishment of a new network.Funding from Lankelly Chase Foundation has been of considerable value in helping to maintain the momentum of the ESRC-funded seminar series and build a UK network of researchers working in the field of arts, health and wellbeing.An innovative feature of the work of the RSPH SIG for arts, health and wellbeing is the organisation of webinars on arts and health topics. The first of these in November 2015 focused on two UK arts on prescription initiatives run by Arts and Minds in Cambridge and Pathways2Wellbeing a spin-out initiative from the University of Hertfordshire.In terms of political engagement, the Special Interest Group is acting as the research partner for the UK All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) inquiry on Arts, Health and Wellbeing which will run over two years 2016–17. The secretariat for the APPG is provided by the National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing, supported by the London Arts and Health Alliance. Management of the APPG secretariat is provided by Alex Coulter, Director of Arts and Health South West. A webpage for the APPG is maintained on the National Alliance website and details of their activities can be found there.The RSPH SIG for Arts, Health and Wellbeing has made an auspicious start and it represents a very welcome initiative in helping to further establish the place of the creative arts in health care and the promotion of health and wellbeing in the wider context of public health. Membership of the SIG is open to anyone with an active interest in arts and health research and the development of evidence-based practice in this field. Further details of membership can be obtained from RSPH (see endnote 8 below).The Seminar Series was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant reference: ES/J022527/1]. Funding from Lankelly Chase Foundation [grant reference: 10290/13564] has supported the development of a UK national network for arts, health and wellbeing.


On Friday 16 June 2017, Dr Andrea Ammon took up office as the third Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) following her election by the Centre’s management board earlier the same year. The appointment follows a two-year tenure as acting director during which Dr Ammon steered the ECDC steadily and calmly through a challenging period when besides the Centre’s day-to-day work, expertise and resources were requested for the European preparedness and response to global threats such as the Ebola and Zika virus disease outbreaks in Africa and the Americas [Dr Ammon joined the newly established ECDC already in May 2005, as one of its first employees and Head of the Surveillance Unit . While sFrom April 2011 to April 2015, Andrea Ammon was Deputy to the Director and ECDC’s Head of Unit for Resource Management and Coordination. She was a member of the scientific committee for the European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology (ESCAIDE) and in 2014 and 2015, she headed the committee.A medical doctor by training, Dr Ammon discovered her passion for public health early in her career and she has extensive experience in working in public health authorities at differing levels. Starting at the local and then regional level in the German federal state of Bavaria, she moved to the national public health institute, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in 1996, where she was among the first national Field Epidemiology Programme trainees and simultaneously a member of the first cohort of the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET). At RKI, she became the Head of Department for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and State Epidemiologist for Germany from late 2002 to 2005. Besides coordinating the national outbreak response team for current and emerging infections, she directed the national field epidemiology training programme and coordinated emergency planning for influenza and epidemiological research programmes in infectious diseases. Furthermore, she provided scientific advice for government ministries, Members of Parliament and the public. In 2003, she coordinated the German response to Europe’s first imported case of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). During her time at RKI, Dr Ammon also became a nationally and internationally respected expert in the field of food- and waterborne diseases. Her PhD was on the synergy between epidemiology and microbiology in the prevention and control of food-borne diseases.Dr Ammon’s professional and leadership skills are complemented by other strong characteristics such as a mind open to suggestions, a capacity for motivating staff and an acute sense of fairness.Eurosurveillance journal and its editors benefited from Dr Ammon’s strategic vision and sense for quality between 2007 and 2015, when she was an associate editor and a strong supporter of the journal. She resigned from this position when taking up her post as ECDC Director to mark the editorial independence of the journal from its publisher and its Director.The


In the Funding section, one of the grant numbers from the funder National Science Foundation is not listed. The correct funding information is as follows: This research is based upon work supported by National Science Foundation Grants DBI-1046052 and DEB-1554181. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


The complete Acknowledgements are as follows: The authors are grateful to the National Statistics Office of Mongolia, the Statistics Department of Ulaanbaatar, and the Health Development Center of the Ministry of Health and Sports which provided access to various demographics and health databases. We are grateful to Social Impact and the Millennium Challenge Corporation for their open access databases of household measurements conducted as part of the impact evaluation of the Energy and Environment Projects. We thank Maria Hernandez, Ajay Pillarisetti, Paul Chung, and Alan Hubbard of the University of California, Berkeley and Nick Lam of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  for their advice and generous assistance during the project. We acknowledge Boldkhuu Nanzad of the Ministry of Energy of Mongolia for advocating for our research, and appreciate Berkeley Air Monitoring Group for facilitating financial arrangements. We also acknowledge that the final analysis benefits from comments made by many participants at a workshop presenting preliminary results conducted as part of the impact evaluation of the Energy and Environment Projects. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship under Grant No. DGE-1144885. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. LDH was supported by this NSF traineeship during part of the write up and analysis phases of this project. This NSF traineeship support was generously provided through the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry. During the peer-review process, a modified version of this paper was included as a chapter in a doctoral dissertation at the University of California, Berkeley. The full dissertation, which includes five total chapters and is titled “A breath of fresher air: improving methods for PMThere is an error in the Methods section in the subsection called Estimating health effects. The correct term for “chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder” is “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.”There is an error in the third sentence of the Abstract. The word “assesses” should read “assess.”


After publication of this work , we noteAcknowledgementsThe authors are very grateful to all members of the 1000 Bull Genomes Consortium for provision of data. This paper is part of the collection ‘ISAFG2015’ . The publication of the papers in this collection was partly sponsored by OECD Co-operative Research Programme: Biological Resource Management for Sustainable Agricultural Systems (CRP). Ben J Hayes’s participation in ISAFG2015 was financed by the OECD Co-operative Research Programme. The opinions expressed and arguments employed in this paper are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries.


The following information is missing from the Funding section: This study was supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER award (grant 1453549) to JC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


A funding organization and grant given to the first author were incorrectly omitted from the Funding Statement. The first sentence of the Funding statement should be: "Work on this research by CES was supported, in part, by Award Number T32HD007109 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development."


The Funding section contains incomplete information. The complete funding information is as follows: This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China , Anhui Provincial Science and Technology Major Project (6030701073 to HZ) and Anhui Provincial Education Department (KJ2015ZD12 to YY). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Anhui Siping Food Development Co. Ltd. provided support in the form of salaries for authors YHL and HPL, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the 'author contributions' section.


There are two errors in this article.The affiliation for the 32nd author is incorrect. Mary A. Marovich, is not affiliated with #13 but with #1 U.S. Military HIV Research Program, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, United States of America.The following information is missing from the Disclaimer in the Acknowledgements section: This research was accomplished by Mary Marovich while employed at USMHRP. Dr. Marovich is currently with Division of AIDS, NIAID. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government.


There is an error in the Funding section. The correct funding information is as follows: This work was supported by the Guangxi Key Technologies Research and Development Program (0992033–5), Guangxi Government Senior Scientist Foundation (2011B020), and Guangxi Natural Science Foundation (2016GXNSFCA380003). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


Missing FundingIn the original article, we neglected to include the funder Medical Research Council, Grant No. G1002277, ID98489 for this study. We neglected to include the Medical Research Council in our list of funders in the Acknowledgements section. The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way.Text CorrectionIn the original article, there was an error. We neglected to include the Medical Research Council in our list of funders in the Acknowledgements section.A correction has been made to the Acknowledgements, page 17:via an award to the Cambridge NIHR/Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility. MM is funded by the Medical Research Council. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.The authors thank T. V. Veenith, P. J. Coles, and D. K. Menon for providing images for Figure 2. The authors also thank D. K. Menon for helpful comments. Our cerebral metabolism studies were funded by the Medical Research Council . The following funding sources should also be acknowledged: PH is supported by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Professorship, Academy of Medical Sciences/Health Foundation Senior Surgical Scientist Fellowship and the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre, Cambridge. PH and KC are supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Cambridge. MS is supported by PH’s NIHR Research Professorship. AS is funded by the NIHR The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


The Community Preventive Services Task Force recently posted new information on its website: “Diabetes Management: Team-Based Care for Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.” The information is available at Established in 1996 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the task force is an independent, nonfederal panel of public health and prevention experts who are appointed by the director of CDC. The task force provides information for a wide range of persons who make decisions about programs, services, and other interventions to improve population health. Although CDC provides administrative, scientific, and technical support for the task force, the recommendations developed are those of the task force and do not undergo review or approval by CDC.


Due to a typesetting error, a funding statement which does not apply to the article was added. The following text has, therefore, been removed from the article:This work was supported by Natural science outstanding youth fund of Shandong Province (JQ201607), Taishan Young Scholar Program of Shandong Province, AoShan Talents Program supported by Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (No.2015ASTP), “100-Talent Project” of Chinese Academy of Sciences for CS.This error does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The publisher apologizes for the mistake.The original article has been updated.


Information was missing from the Funding section. The correct funding information is as follows: This project was supported by grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (RO1A1073745 and RO1AI080799). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


Over the past two decades, genomics has evolved as a scientific research discipline. Genomics research was fueled initially by government and nonprofit funding sources, later augmented by private research and development (R&D) funding. Citizens and taxpayers of many countries have funded much of the research, and have expectations about access to the resulting information and knowledge. While access to knowledge gained from all publicly funded research is desired, access is especially important for fields that have broad social impact and stimulate public dialogue. Genomics is one such field, where public concerns are raised for reasons such as health care and insurance implications, as well as personal and ancestral identification. Thus, genomics has grown rapidly as a field, and attracts considerable interest.One way to study the growth of a field of research is to examine its funding. This study focuses on public funding of genomics research, identifying and collecting data from major government and nonprofit organizations around the world, and updating previous estimates of world genomics research funding, including information about geographical origins. We initially identified 89 publicly funded organizations; we requested information about each organization's funding of genomics research. Of these organizations, 48 responded and 34 reported genomics research expenditures . The figures reported here include all the largest funders and we estimate that we have accounted for most of the genomics research funding from government and nonprofit sources.Aggregate spending on genomics research from 34 funding sources averaged around $2.9 billion in 2003 – 2006. The United States spent more than any other country on genomics research, corresponding to 35% of the overall worldwide public funding . When adjusted to genomics funding intensity, however, the United States dropped below Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Canada, as measured both by genomics research expenditure per capita and per Gross Domestic Product. Genomics research, as a field of study, is largely a creature of the past two decades and is generally defined as the study of whole genomes. The term genomics came into common use in 1987 to distinguish "high throughput" data- and technology-intensive approaches to studying DNA structure and function from the more established approach of studying DNA structure and function of individual genes. The history of genomics research is embedded in the Human Genome Project and its parallel private sector components. In 2003, with the completion of a high-quality sequence of the human genome, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that "the genomic era is now a reality" , Human Genome, and Functional Genomics/Health Effects -36. The Genomics funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) increased from US$3.85 million (2003) to US$6.95 million (2006) ,38; partThe US Department of Defense supports research and development through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which pursues research and technology where risk and payoff are both very high , and thrTo estimate the completeness of the United States spending on genomics research reported here, we determined the percentage of federal and nonprofit funding on R&D that is covered by the entities in this survey. Of the US$1,023 – 1,064 million per year in federally funded research and development in all disciplines (2003 – 2006), six of the entities included in this survey  accounted for 84 – 86% . AlthougThe European Commission funds genomics research in the European Union, plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Israel, and Turkey. In the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission, covering 2002 – 2006, the major funding areas that included genomics research were Advanced Genomics and its Applications for Health, and Combating Major Diseases . EuropeIn an effort to include the European countries funded through the European Commission but not otherwise covered in this world survey, we contacted organizations from Austria (Fonds zur Forderung der Wisenschaftlichen Forschung), Denmark , Estonia (Estonian Genome Foundation), Finland (Academy of Finland), France , Hungary , Iceland (Rannis), Italy , Poland (Ministry of Scientific Research and Information Technology), and Sweden , but we received no response from any of these except for the Academy of Finland and Centre National de la Recherche Scientique  of Canada, the National Research Council (NRC) and the Canadian Biotechnology Strategy (CBS). The CBS includes six departments and agencies that are building capacity for new research  ), althouJapan's spending on genomics research steadily increased between 2003 and 2006, when it reached 5% of worldwide public funding Table . AlthougThe values reported in this world survey for Japan are likely a near-complete representation of the government's investment in genomics, since the four Japanese ministries reported in this survey  are the main government funders of life science and genomics research -60. One Our source for China indicated that the central government funded about US$40 million per year of genomics research through the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and two programs at the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST): the National High-tech Development R&D Program (863 Program) and the National Key Basic Research Program (973 Program). The source also indicated that an equal amount of funding was provided by local governments , yielding a total of US$80 million per year – or about 3% of worldwide public genomics research funding Figure . Since oIn Germany, the Federal Ministry for Education and Research  coordinates the R&D initiative for the federal government . AnalysiThe primary funder of genomics research in the Netherlands is the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI), which was established by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research  and five government ministries in 2001. The NGI was created to combine existing strengths into one initiative composed of core activities  and research programs . NetherlIn South Korea, which accounted for 2% of total genomics research funding in 2006 Figure , the MinAccording to the Office of Science and Technology of the Ireland Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment, three government agencies are responsible for most of the genomics funding in Ireland . These three agencies – the Higher Education Authority, the Science Foundation, and the Health Research Board – are included in this survey. The Irish government has recently increased its investment in R&D with the goal of meeting or exceeding the average R&D investment of European Union countries . Indeed,Genoma España is the Foundation for the Development of Genomic and Proteomic Research, and is backed by the Spanish State through the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo), and the Ministry of Education and Science (Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia) . Genoma In Australia, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is the "peak body" for supporting health and medical research  and provThe government agency responsible for supporting basic and applied research in South Africa is the National Research Foundation , while mThe three main funders of genomics research in New Zealand are the Foundation for Research in Science and Technology (FRST), the Royal Society, and the Health Research Council . Only FRST, which represents half of the New Zealand government-funded R&D , respondAs described by the World Health Organization, genomics research is beginning to occur in developing countries and regions such as Brazil, China, India, and the Asia-Pacific Region . We contThis study represents only government and non-profit "public" funders of genomics research. The previous survey in 2000 included private companies, and showed a roughly 2:1 ratio of private genomics R&D to public funding . In 20There are two major caveats to consider when interpreting the figures reported in this world survey. First, many organizations and countries are not included in this study, either because we did not know to contact them or because they did not respond. Thus, the full amount of genomics research funded by public sources is certainly higher than the estimates reported in this study.genomics, "the study of genes and their function" " including "interactions of those genes with each other and the person's environment" ,79). Intunction" , that ishe NHGRI ,27 and rAlthough this survey is an estimate of funding for genomics research, and necessarily fuzzy and approximate, it represents the only attempt to perform such a survey to our knowledge, and therefore provides patterns and trends as a rough indicator for planning among researchers, science administrators, policymakers, and the general public.This world survey would not have been possible had we tried to gather funding information for genomics research according to a strict and consistent definition. If governments and private funders believe that genomics as a funding category is permanent and worth retaining as a separate category for analysis, it will need a more uniform definition. This is particularly relevant for the NIH, the world's largest biomedical research funder, which, except for two constituent institutes, (the NHGRI and the NCI) does not track funding of genomics research. And these two Institutes report widely different figures for genomics as a fraction of genetics research, reflecting some real differences but probably also reflecting different definitions of genomics research. Furthermore, the closest research category that the NIH does track, genetics, is not defined centrally.The NIH is in the process of developing a "portfolio analysis" web-accessible tool that will allow the public to access information about NIH projects by research area, the definitions of which will be "laboriously crafted with input from hundreds of scientists" . The effThe NCI, a component of the NIH, provided a definition of genomics: "the identification, characterization and quantification of all genes involved in a particular pathway, organelle, cell, tissue, organ or organism that can be studied in concert to provide accurate and comprehensive data about that system" . This is a detailed definition that encompasses and expands upon the definition of genomics already in use by the NHGRI and the CDC (see above). If the NIH includes genomics as a research area in its new portfolio analysis tool, the NCI definition could serve as a starting point for the development of a trans-NIH definition of genomics research.Genomics research has become incorporated into scientific and medical research, and is beginning to be applied in medicine and commerce. Genomics captures the attention of the general public because of its technological power to study the structure and function of DNA, with the consequent potential to reveal intimate details about individuals, populations, and associations between genotype and phenotype.The amount of funding provided for genomics research is of interest to both scientific and lay communities worldwide. This world survey indicates that overall public funding for genomics research, as a minimum estimate, averaged around US$2.9 billion annually (2003 – 2006). Government and nonprofit funding of genomics research is likely to comprise between one-third and one-half of the total funding (where the remainder is for-profit private funding), based on the worldwide distribution of funding for health research , with the understanding that estimates were acceptable. In some cases, initial contact was by phone. Follow-up email correspondence often occurred, with the most effort being expended on procuring figures from the largest public funders. In a few cases, such as China, we were able to obtain funding information only from intermediaries familiar with science budgets because of their role in national planning and as performers of genomics research.Data were requested by fiscal year and are reported in the tables for the calendar year that encompassed most of that fiscal year. Specifically, the calendar year at the beginning of the fiscal year was used when the fiscal year began on April 1, while the calendar year at the end of the fiscal year was used when the fiscal year began on October 1. When funding amounts were supplied in a currency other than US$, they were converted to US$, using the purchasing power parity (PPP) indices provided by the OECD , except To determine per capita genomics funding, the amount of funding per country (in US$) was divided by the estimated population in the middle of the year, as provided by OECD for 2003–2005 . The popRankings listed in the tables were determined by ordering 2006 values, except in the two instances where the 2006 data were not reported. In those cases, an average of the three previous years determined the ranking order for 2006.AAAS: American Association for the Advancement of Science; ATIP: Asian Technology Information Program; BBSRC: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (United Kingdom); BMBF: Budesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung (Germany); CAS: Chinese Academy of Sciences; CBS: Canadian Biotechnology Strategy; CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (United States); CDMRP: Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (United States); DARPA: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (United States); DFG: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany); DHHS: Department of Health & Human Services (United States); DHS: Department of Homeland Security (United States); DNA: Deoxyribonucleic Acid; DOD: Department of Defense (United States); DOE: Department of Energy (United States); FAPESP: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Brazil); FRST: Foundation for Research in Science and Technology ; FY: Fiscal Year; GDP: Gross Domestic Product; HHMI: Howard Hughes Medical Institute (United States); IMF: International Monetary Fund; MAFF: Ministry of Agriculture: Forestry and Fisheries (Japan); METI: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Japan); MEXT: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan); MHLW: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan); MOST: Ministry of Science and Technology (Japan); NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (United States); NCI: National Cancer Institute (United States); NGFN: National Genome Research Network (Germany); NGI: Netherlands Genomics Initiative; NHGRI: National Human Genome Research Institute (United States); NHMRC: National Health and Medical Research Council ; NIH: National Institutes of Health (United States); NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology (United States); NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (United States); NRC: National Research Council (Canada); NSERC: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada); NSF: National Science Foundation (United States); NSFC: National Natural Science Foundation of China; NOW: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands); OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; PPP: Purchasing Power Parities; R&D: Research & Development; TIGR: The Institute for Genome Research (United States); UK: United Kingdom; US: United States; USDA: United States Department of Agriculture.JRP generated the research question, contacted the organizations listed in this survey, generated and analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript. RMCD participated in study design and coordination, contributed the initial contact list from the 2000 World Survey, and helped to draft the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.Identified organisationsClick here for file


Public Health in Rajasthan, published in 2007 has 227 pages, divided into 25 chapters and 5 Appendices. Book has attractive title page and is printed on good quality paper with a comfortable font size. Chapters cover wide range of subjects related to National Rural Health Mission, Reproductive and Child Health, Integrated Child Development Services, National programs on Tuberculosis, Leprosy, HIV/AIDS, Blindness, National Vector Borne Disease Control Program, Integrated Disease Surveillance Project, Computerization and Management Information System, Medicolegal aspects, Consumer Protection Act, and Behavior Change Communication for Health, etc. There are two chapters devoted to role of The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) in Rajasthan. Brief description of the projects undertaken through these agencies is useful. Galaxy of 21 prominent experts have contributed in this book. Each chapter provides a brief description of the state-specific program and has been written to act like an operational guide for the implementation of the program. Authors have nicely and succinctly compiled the information available at various places, and have also given resource references for further reading at the end of each chapter. Editor has very rightly claimed that the book can be labeled as a rapid reader for the doctors working at peripheral facility. This can also be good resource for public health students undertaking Masters of public health (MPH) or Doctorate in Medicine (MD) in the specialty. This would also be a good resource for all States to enable them to draft their own State-specific resource books and to have a ready reference for the programs that are operational in Rajasthan.The book shiv_mathur@hotmail.com.Prof. Shiv Chander Mathur, The Editor of the book is a prominent public health expert with national and international teaching training and research experience. He has published more than 50 papers and two monographs on public health. He has also received Government of India merit award for his writings on primary health care. For any further queries readers may contact the editor. E-mail:


The funding information for this paper was omitted. The complete funding information should say: This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Tinnitus Research Initiative (TRI). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


Journal of Experimental and Clinical Cancer Research, the corresponding author has informed the journal that this article had been accepted and previously published by Acupuncture and Electro-therapies Research [Journal of Experimental and Clinical Cancer Research. The authors apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused to the editorial staff and readers.Following the publication of this article  in JournResearch . Since i


There was an error in the fifth author's name and affiliation. The fifth author's name should be Ruben C. Gur and he is additionally affiliated with Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.


County Health Rankings and deputy director of its parent project, Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH), funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She also directs the Making Wisconsin the Healthiest State project, a research and translation effort funded by the Wisconsin Partnership Program, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. In this interview, Dr. Booske gives an overview of the MATCH articles in the September 2010 issue of Preventing Chronic Disease and talks briefly about the role of incentives in public health.Bridget Booske is the project director of  podcast - "Can Incentives Improve Population Health?"


To the Editor: Chikungunya is a disease caused by an arboviral alphavirus transmitted to humans by Aedes mosquitoes . Symptoms include fever, myalgia, rash, and joint pain  , Europe, and the Middle East   reported around the world. A literature review was undertaken on Medline by Pubmed and websites provided by the World Health Organization, Eurosurveillance, European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Health Protection Agency (United Kingdom), Institut de Veille Sanitaire (France), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (United States) were searched for information on imported chikungunya cases. Data were then mapped and compared with the known and theoretical geographic distributions of he world  (4–8). TThese facts underscore the need for clinicians to consider the possibility of chikungunya disease in patients who experience acute unexplained fever with joint pain and live in regions where mosquito vectors are established. The presence of imported cases and well-established vectors also confirms the need for an active surveillance system; early detection of unexpected new diseases by physicians will enable the timely implementation of suitable control measures that can interrupt the transmission chain.Aedes albopictus and Ae. aegypti mosquitoes. World repartition of Ae. albopictus mosquitoes (tan areas) and theoretical dispersion of Ae. aegypti in 2008  according to the World Health Organization. Areas where imported cases of chikungunya have been reported during 2005–2008 are marked with a purple circle  or a purple triangle when the number of imported cases was unknown. Data sources: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, and literature review on Medline by Pubmed (www.esri.com/software/arcgis).Imported cases of chikungunya virus infection and known and theoretical geographic distributions of


Preventing Chronic Disease, CDC's online journal on public health policy, practice, and research (http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/). The Matthews discussion focuses on the importance and challenges of connecting with private-sector stakeholders and the strategies necessary to develop private networks to assist public health in the 21st century.Gene Matthews, former chief counsel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a senior fellow with the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, was interviewed by Elizabeth Majestic with CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion for The interview summarizes the successes of early private-sector partnerships with the public health community. During the past 50 years, however, public health has become more internally focused and less engaged with both the business community and the political process. Matthews suggests that in an atmosphere of doing more with less, public health has to face the rigors of accountability and to think in different ways about strategic partners and how to match purposes ethically.The interview was filmed in November 2008.Public health has a long history of working successfully with the business sector. Initial efforts focused on providing basic health services through a partnership with the Rotary Club and expanded to fighting infectious diseases with a variety of private-sector partners. In the last 50 years, however, as public health has become increasingly isolated from the private sector, achieving public health objectives has been more difficult. Two examples of a new type of business relationship are highlighted from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health: 1) the tripartite agreements that called for the unions, company leaders, and CDC staff to work together to improve worker safety and 2) the National Occupational Research Agenda.Urgent threats such as those caused by terrorists tend to unite the public health community with all sectors, including the business sector. When these threats arise, the public and private sectors provide an initial influx of resources. These resources tend to be cyclical, but they can be sustained by forming relationships that address not only the urgent health threats such as bioterrorism, but also chronic diseases.Public health needs to develop new partnership models that take into account modern health problems. By building credibility with business and community leaders on issues such as preparedness, public health can gain support for its chronic disease efforts. Initiatives that are considered desirable by communities, such as those to build recreational facilities, can help limit obesity. Public health leaders need to find this common ground.Underlying the discussion of partnerships and the debates over definitions, motives, and processes are basic questions of ethics. Which partnerships should be considered? How can their accountability be assured? To help public health professionals develop productive and ethical public-private partnerships, Matthews highlights 3 strategies that should serve as the cornerstone for partnership development.The economic downturn will increase the demands on public health. The public health community needs to prepare for the likely budget cuts, report the impact of these cuts on the public's health, and expand the range of stakeholders that influence the body politic. The Department of Agriculture is highlighted as an agency that has met these challenges by creating relationships with the private sector.Gene W. Matthews is a senior fellow at the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, the outreach and service unit of the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. He also holds faculty appointments at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health and the Georgia State University College of Law. Since 1999, Mr Matthews has provided leadership in the development of CDC’s internal Public Health Law Program, an effort to reach out to the legal community and to public health practitioners. In June 2004, Mr Matthews received the Distinguished Career Award of the Public Health Law Association “… in recognition of a career devoted to using law to improve the public’s health.” Mr Matthews is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law and is a member of the North Carolina Bar.


To the Editor: In a recent letter  and ELISA for immunoglobulin G, as were the current Brazilian HPS cases (Rattus rattus and R. norvegicus ) are the only Old World rodents ubiquitous in the New World and thus a potential source of SEOV infection in the Americas (Wild rats (The clinical syndromes of HFRS and HPS can appear identical, with pulmonary edema, shock, and renal insufficiency with marked proteinuria and thrombocytopenia (


Dr. Pritam Singhth October 2009. Apart from being the President of the ISA in 1970 and the Editor of IJA from 1964 to 1970, he held various prestigious posts like visiting Professor of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Ohio, USA; Professor and HOD of Anaesthesiology at CMC, Ludhiana; Principal of Govt. Medical College, Amritsar and Director of Research and Medical Education of Punjab. He had served the Indian Army Medical Corps from 1942 - 1946 and rose to the rank of CaptainDr. Pritam Singh, ex-president and editor ISA breathed his last at Cincinnati USA on 16Dr. G Subramanianth November 2009 at the age of 70 years. An ISA life member, Dr G. Subramanian was the founder President of Dindigul ISA, TN state. He is survived by his wife and a son.With profound grief, Dindigul City Branch of the TN Chapter ISA reports the sad demise of Dr. G Subramanian on 29


The World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Canadian Public Health Association developed the Global Tobacco Surveillance System (GTSS) to assist WHO member states in establishing continuous tobacco control surveillance and monitoring. The GTSS provides a flexible system that includes common data items but allows countries to include important unique information at their discretion. It also uses a common survey methodology, similar field procedures for data collection, and similar data management and processing techniques. The GTSS includes collection of data through three surveys: the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) for youth, and the Global School Personnel Survey and the Global Health Professional Student Survey for adults.Countries can use data from the GYTS to monitor and evaluate National Tobacco Control Action Plans and articles from the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). The WHO FCTC was adopted by the 56th World Health Assembly in May 2003 and became international law on February 27, 2005. It is the world's first public health treaty on tobacco control and encourages countries that ratify to develop and implement tobacco control policies, such as bans on direct and indirect tobacco advertising, tobacco tax and price increases, promoting of smoke-free public places and workplaces, and placement of health messages on tobacco packaging.The WHO FCTC, National Tobacco Control Action Plans, and the GYTS share the same goal: the development, implementation, and evaluation of effective tobacco control programs in all WHO member states. What the WHO FCTC and National Tobacco Control Action Plans ask countries to monitor, the GYTS can help to measure. The GYTS provides indicators for measuring achievement of several WHO FCTC articles .The synergy between the WHO FCTC, National Tobacco Control Action Plans, and GYTS offers countries a unique opportunity to develop, implement, and evaluate their comprehensive tobacco control programs. The reports included in this publication from Peru, Thailand, and Turkey are presented as examples of 'linking' GYTS data to the national tobacco control program efforts in each country.FCTC: Framework Convention on Tobacco Control; GTSS: Global Tobacco Surveillance System; GYTS: Global Youth Tobacco Survey; WHO: World Health Organization.The author declares that they have no competing interests.