SEARCH · Search bioRxiv

Results for “Scientific Communication and Education”

Search indexed bioRxiv preprints in genomics, neuroscience, cell biology and bioinformatics. Read source abstracts and check manuscript versions; preprints are not peer reviewed.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 685 records · Page 38Linked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

Association between toothbrushing and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is considered the hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome. Periodontitis, as chronic inflammatory destructive disease, is associated metabolic syndomes bidirectionally. Toothbrushing is an essential and important way to manage periodontitis through mechanical removal of biofilm at periodontal tissue. We aimed to assess the association between toothbrushing frequency and the prevalent NAFLD in nationally representative Korean adults. Among adults aged 19 years and older who participated in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2010, a total of 6,352 subjects were analyzed. NAFLD was defined as fatty liver index [≥]60. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to estimate multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). An inverse association between toothbrushing frequency and NAFLD was found. The adjusted ORs (95% CIs) of NALFD was 0.56 (0.35 - 0.90) in the group who performed toothbrushing [≥] 3 per day compared to the group that performed toothbrushing [≤] 1 per day. For those with toothbrushing frequency [≤]1 per day, the adjusted OR (95% CIs) of NAFLD was 2.27 (1.22-4.23) in smokers and 4.55 (1.98 - 10.44) in subjects with diabetes mellitus (DM), compared to those without the disease and with toothbrushing frequency [≥]2 per day, respectively. Our results indicate that higher frequency of toothbrushing is inversely associated with NAFLD. As a modifiable oral habit, regular toothbrushing may be recommended to lower risk of NAFLD, especially in high risk groups such as smokers and diabetic patients.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Lots of movement, little progress: A review of reptile home range literature

Reptiles are the most species-rich vertebrate group with a broad diversity of life history traits. Biotelemetry is an essential methodology for reptiles as it compensates for several limitations when studying their natural history. We evaluated trends in reptile spatial ecology studies focusing upon quantifying home ranges for the past twenty years. We assessed 290 English-language reptile home range studies published from 2000-2019 via a structured literature review investigating publications study location, taxonomic group, methodology, reporting, and analytical techniques. Substantial biases remain in both location and taxonomic groups in the literature, with nearly half of all studies (45%) originating from the USA. Snakes were most often studied, and crocodiles were least often studied, while testudines tended to have the greatest within study sample sizes. More than half of all studies lacked critical methodological details, limiting the number of studies for inclusion in future meta-analyses (55% of studies lacked information on individual tracking durations, and 51% lacked sufficient information on the number of times researchers recorded positions). Studies continue to rely on outdated methods to quantify space-use (including Minimum Convex Polygons and Kernel Density Estimators), often failing to report subtleties on decisions that have substantial impact on home range area estimates. Moving forward researchers can select a suite of appropriate analytical techniques tailored to their research question (dynamic Brownian Bridge Movement Models for within sample interpolation, and autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimators for beyond sample extrapolation). Only 1.4% of all evaluated studies linked to available and usable telemetry data, further hindering scientific consensus. We ultimately implore herpetologists to adopt transparent reporting practices and make liberal use of open data platforms to maximize progress in the field of reptile spatial ecology.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

EFFECT OF LAND TENURE ON ADOPTION OF CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION. EVIDENCE FROM MALAWI

The definitive aim of this study was to bring to fore the evidence of the importance of tenure considerations in the designing, development, and implementation of climate change programs. This was done by analyzing how land tenure affects the use of adaptation strategies in Malawi. Using secondary data from the Integrated Household Survey (IHS4), a multinomial logit model was fitted to analyze determinants of adoption of climate change adaptation strategies. Land tenure has shown to significantly affect the adoption of the technologies in question. Insecure arrangements such as borrowing and renting land tend to discourage adoption. The proliferation of borrowed or rented in Malawis agricultural sector necessitates intervention to encourage adaptation on those farms to avoid land degradation.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Scientific publications and COVID-19 "research pivots" during the pandemic: An initial bibliometric analysis

An examination is presented of scientific research publication trends during the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020. After reviewing the timing of the emergence of the pandemic in 2020 and the growth of governmental responses, available secondary sources are used to highlight impacts of COVID-19 on scientific research. A bibliometric analysis is then undertaken to analyze developments in COVID-19 related scientific publications through to October of 2020 by broad trends, fields, countries, and organizations. Two publication data sources are used: PubMed and the Web of Science. While there has been a massive absolute increase in PubMed and Web of Science papers directly focused on COVID-19 topics, especially in medical, biological science, and public health fields, this is still a relatively small proportion of publication outputs across all fields of science. Using Web of Science publication data, the paper examines the extent to which researchers across all fields of science have pivoted their research outputs to focus on topics related to COVID-19. A COVID-19 research pivot is defined as the extent to which the proportion of output in a particular research field has shifted to a focus on COVID-19 topics in 2020 (to date) compared with 2019. Significant variations are found by specific fields (identified by Web of Science Subject Categories). In a top quintile of fields, not only in medical specialties, biomedical sciences, and public health but also in subjects in social sciences and arts and humanities, there are relatively high to medium research pivots. In lower quintiles, including other subjects in science, social science, and arts and humanities, low to zero COVID-19 research pivoting is identified. In a new Appendix to the paper, an updated analysis is provided through to mid-April 2022. CitationShapira, P. "Scientific publications and COVID-19 "research pivots" during the pandemic: An initial bibliometric analysis," bioRxiv 2020.12.06.413682; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.06.413682 Version NotesVersion 1: Original paper, completed on December 6, 2020; posted at bioRxiv on December 7, 2020. Version 2: Minor grammar items corrected. Version 3: Updated bibliometric analysis through to mid-April 2022 added on April 29, 2022, as new Appendix 2.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Communicating Regulatory High Throughput Sequencing Data Using BioCompute Objects

For regulatory submissions of next generation sequencing (NGS) data it is vital for the analysis workflow to be robust, reproducible, and understandable. This project demonstrates that the use of the IEEE 2791-2020 Standard, (BioCompute objects [BCO]) enables complete and concise communication of NGS data analysis results. One arm of a clinical trial was replicated using synthetically generated data made to resemble real biological data. Two separate, independent analyses were then carried out using BCOs as the tool for communication of analysis: one to simulate a pharmaceutical regulatory submission to the FDA, and another to simulate the FDA review. The two results were compared and tabulated for concordance analysis: of the 118 simulated patient samples generated, the final results of 117 (99.15%) were in agreement. This high concordance rate demonstrates the ability of a BCO, when a verification kit is included, to effectively capture and clearly communicate NGS analyses within regulatory submissions. BCO promotes transparency and induces reproducibility, thereby reinforcing trust in the regulatory submission process.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Disentangling the shark and ray trade in Indonesia to reconcile conservation with food security

Indonesian marine resources are among the richest on the planet, sustaining highly diverse fisheries and includes the largest elasmobranch landings in the world, making Indonesia one of the worlds largest exporters of shark and ray products. Socio-economic and food security considerations pertaining to Indonesian communities add further layers of complexity to the management and conservation of these vulnerable species. This study investigates how shark and ray trade flows in and out of Indonesia and attempts to examine patterns and drivers of the current scenario. We identify substantial discrepancies between reported landings and declared exports, and between Indonesian exports in shark fin and meat products and the corresponding figures reported by importing countries. These mismatches are estimated to amount to over $43.6M and $20.9M for fins and meat, respectively, for the period between 2012 and 2018. Although the declared exports are likely to be an underestimation because of significant unreported or illegal trading activities, we find that domestic consumption of shark and ray products plays a significant role in explaining these discrepancies due to the increasing local demand for meat. The study also unearths a general scenario of unsystematic data collection and lack of granularity of product terminology, which is inadequate to meet the challenges of over-exploitation, illegal trade and food security in Indonesia. We discuss how to improve data transparency to support trade regulations and governance actions, by improving inspection measures, and conserving elasmobranch populations without neglecting the socio-economic dimension of this complex system.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Evolving Structure and Diversity of Human Narratives in the Journal of Stories in Science

Fundamentally, science is about people. The stories of the people behind the science are just as important as the results themselves, even though the results are often what get more attention. Despite the growth of databases storing such stories across diverse mediums, a detailed assessment of those databases is missing. To continue innovating science storytelling, we provide the first assessment of the structure and diversity of the narratives published in the Journal of Stories in Science. In this assessment, a total of 170 published stories authored by 158 authors between 2016 and 2020 are analyzed. Majority (67%) of the authors are women from North America and in the life sciences. The narratives most commonly feature authors from academia (e.g., 23% graduate students, 13% post-doctoral fellows and 21% professors). However, there is also a growing number of authors with PhDs that are working outside of academia (15%). Nearly a quarter (23%) of the database authors come from racial groups (African American, Latino, and Hispanic) that have been shown to be underrepresented in health-related sciences in the United States. Using the industry standard Flesch Reading Ease Score, we found that 74% of the stories included in the analysis fall in the target range of 50-70, which represents readability by students in grades 8-12. The analysis here provides the first deep look into one of the databases publishing diverse stories in science using a wide range of mediums. In summary, there is a need for more emphasis on both expanding and studying such databases given the continuous demand for these stories and their inclusion into K-12 curriculums.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

How accurate are citations of frequently cited papers in biomedical literature?

Citations are an important, but often overlooked, part of every scientific paper. They allow the reader to trace the flow of evidence, serving as a gateway to relevant literature. Most scientists are aware of citations errors, but few appreciate the prevalence or consequences of these problems. The purpose of this study was to examine how often frequently cited papers in biomedical scientific literature are cited inaccurately. The study included an active participation of first authors of frequently cited papers; to first-hand verify the citations accuracy. The approach was to determine most cited original articles and their parent authors, that could be able to access, and identify, collect and review all citations of their original work. Findings from feasibility study, where we collected and reviewed 1,540 articles containing 2,526 citations of 14 most cited articles in which the 1st authors were affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine University of Belgrade, were further evaluated for external confirmation in an independent verification set of articles. Verification set included 4,912 citations identified in 2,995 articles that cited 13 most cited articles published by authors affiliated with the Mayo Clinic Division of Nephrology and Hypertension (Rochester, Minnesota, USA), whose research focus is hypertension and peripheral vascular disease. Most cited articles and their citations were determined according to SCOPUS database search. A citation was defined as being accurate if the cited article supported or was in accordance with the statement by citing authors. A multilevel regression model for binary data was used to determine predictors of inaccurate citations. At least one inaccurate citation was found in 11% and 15% of articles in the feasibility study and verification set, respectively, suggesting that inaccurate citations are common in biomedical literature. The main findings were similar in both sets. The most common problem was the citation of nonexistent findings (38.4%), followed by an incorrect interpretation of findings (15.4%). One fifth of inaccurate citations were due to "chains of inaccurate citations," in which inaccurate citations appeared to have been copied from previous papers. Reviews, longer time elapsed from publication to citation, and multiple citations were associated with higher chance of citation being inaccurate. Based on these findings, several actions that authors, mentors and journals can take to reduce citation inaccuracies and maintain the integrity of the scientific literature have been proposed.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Pre-departure psychological distress and associated factors among migrant workers of Nepal

IntroductionForeign employment is the most significant motivation for international migration in Nepal. However, migrant workers are vulnerable to many exploitations that lead to psychological distress during the pre-departure phase and at the destination. The study aimed to identify the prevalence and associated factors for psychological distress among migrant workers during the pre-departure phase. MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study based on the representative sample of 445 migrant workers. A 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) and Pre-Departure Risk Factors Perception Scale (PD-RFPS) at the workplace were self-administered to migrant workers selected randomly attending the pre-departure orientation program. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify the associated factors. ResultsPrevalence of psychological distress (Depression, Anxiety and Stress) was identified as 20.9% and female (AOR=2.02, p-value=0.041) and perception of bad working conditions (AOR=2.44, p-value=0.046) were found significantly associated with pre-departure psychological distress. ConclusionData suggests the presence of symptoms of psychological distress among migrant workers during the pre-departure phase and perception of risk factors at the workplace were found significantly associated with pre-departure psychological distress. Concern bodies should provide in-depth orientation on possible risk factors at the destination and coping skills for psychological distress during the pre-departure orientation program.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Corporal Punishment in Schools in the Jaffna District of Sri Lanka - A students view

PurposeCorporal-punishment has been prevailing in Sri- Lanka despite the strict law against it. Objectives of this study was to find the prevalence of corporal punishment in schools and the knowledge, perceptions and actions in the children. MethodsA community based cross sectional descriptive study done among school students from Jaffna district using a pretested questionnaire containing 40 questions. Multistage stratified proportionate cluster sampling was used to recruit the students. Scoring systems were used to determine the knowledge and perception of Corporal-punishment. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. ResultsA total of 1130 students were recruited with mean age of 17.58{+/-}0.5y. A total of 687(60.7%) said they received some form of corporal punishment at least once during the school term. Physical punishment (64.5%) was common followed by psychological (27.1%). Teachers (54.8%) were the main group involved in corporal-punishment. Mean score for the knowledge was 11.11 and a good knowledge score was seen in 37.3% of the students. Participants with good knowledge favored law against it (p value<0.05), take legal action (P value<0.05) and supported complete prohibition of it (P value<0.05). Nearly 2% (n=22) had good perception and 40.8% (n=461) had a more positive perception. Majority (86.3%) preferred an alternative way of discipline and felt it was detrimental to the future (89.5%). ConclusionCorporal-punishment was experienced by majority of the students in school and the students were aware that it was illegal and those with good knowledge were willing to take legal action.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

The rapid, massive infection of the scientific literature and authors by COVID-19

We examined the extent to which the scientific workforce in different fields was engaged in publishing COVID-19-related papers. According to Scopus (data cut, August 1, 2021), 210,183 COVID-19-related publications included 720,801 unique authors, of which 360,005 authors had published at least 5 full papers in their career and 23,520 authors were at the top 2% of their scientific subfield based on a career-long composite citation indicator. The growth of COVID-19 authors was far more rapid and massive compared with cohorts of authors historically publishing on H1N1, Zika, Ebola, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. All 174 scientific subfields had some specialists who had published on COVID-19. In 109 of the 174 subfields of science, at least one in ten active, influential (top-2% composite citation indicator) authors in the subfield had authored something on COVID-19. 52 hyper-prolific authors had already at least 60 (and up to 227) COVID-19 publications each. Among the 300 authors with the highest composite citation indicator for their COVID-19 publications, most common countries were USA (n=67), China (n=52), UK (n=32), and Italy (n=18). The rapid and massive involvement of the scientific workforce in COVID-19-related work is unprecedented and creates opportunities and challenges. There is evidence for hyper-prolific productivity.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

League of Brazilian Bioinformatics: a competition framework to promote scientific training

Backgroundthe scientific training to become a bioinformatician includes multidisciplinary abilities, which increase the challenges to professional development. Competition frameworkin order to improve and promote the ongoing training of the Brazilian bioinformatics community, we organize a national competition, with the main goal to develop human resources and abilities in Computational Biology at the national level. The competition framework was designed in three phases: 1) a one-day challenge composed of 60 multiple-choice questions covering Biology, Computer Science, and Bioinformatics knowledge; 2) five Computational Biology challenges to be solved in three days; and 3) development of an original project evaluated during the 15th X-meeting. Resultsthe first edition of the League of Brazilian Bioinformatics (LBB) counted 168 competitors and 59 groups, distributed into undergraduate students (14.4%), graduate students (12.6% master and 16.8%, Ph.D.), and other professional fields. The first phase selected 46 teams to proceed in the competition, while the second phase selected the three top-performing teams. Conclusionduring the competition, we were able to stimulate teamwork in the main areas of Bioinformatics, with the engagement of all research-level competitors. Furthermore, we identified opportunities to deliver and offer better training to the community and we intend to apply the acquired experience in the second edition of the LBB, which will occur in 2021. Supplementary informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Predicting COVID-19 cases with unknown homogeneous or heterogeneous resistance to infectivity

This article constructs a restricted infection rate inverse binomial-based approach to predict COVID-19 cases after a family gathering. The traditional inverse binomial (IB) model is unqualified to match the reality of COVID-19, because the data contradicts the models requirement that variance should be greater than expected value. A refined version of the IB model is a necessity to predict COVID-19 cases after family gatherings. Our refined version of an IB model is more appropriate and versatile, as it accommodates all potential data scenarios: equal, lesser, or greater variance than expected value. Application of the approach is based on a restricted infectivity rate and methodology on Fan et al.s COVID-19 data, which exhibits two clusters of infectivity. Cluster 1 has a smaller number of primary cases and exhibits larger variance than the expected cases with a negative correlation of 28%, implying that the number of secondary cases is lesser when the number of primary cases increases and vice versa. The traditional inverse binomial (IB) model is appropriate for Cluster 1. The probability of contracting COVID-19 is estimated to be 0.13 among the primary, but is 0.75 among the secondary in Cluster 1, with a wider gap. Conversely, Cluster 2, exhibits smaller variance than the expected cases with a correlation of 79%, implying the number of primary and secondary cases increase or decrease together. Cluster 2 disqualifies the traditional IB model and demands its refined version. Probability of contracting COVID-19 is estimated to be 0.74 among the primary, but is 0.72 among the secondary in Cluster 2, with a narrower gap. The models ability to estimate the communitys health system memory for future policies to be developed is an asset of this approach. The current hazard level to be infected with COVID-19 among the primary and secondary groups are estimable and interpretable. Author SummaryCurrent statistical models are not able to accurately predict disease infection spread in the COVID-19 pandemic. We have applied a widely-used inverse binomial method to predict rates of infection after small gatherings, going from primary (original) cases to secondary (later) cases after family gatherings or social events, using the data from the Wuhan and Gansu provinces in China, where the virus first spread. The advantages of the proposed approach include that the models ability to estimate the communitys health system memory for future policies to be developed, as such policies might reduce COVIDs spread if not its control. In our approach, as demonstrated, the current hazard level of becoming infected with COVID-19 and the odds of contracting COVID-19 among the primary in comparison to the secondary groups are estimable and interpretable. We hope the proposed approach will be used in future epidemics.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Calibration of models to data: a comparison of methods

Complex models are often fitted to data using simulation-based calibration, a computationally challenging process. Several calibration methods to improve computational efficiency have been developed with no consensus on which methods perform best. We did a simulation study comparing the performance of 5 methods that differed in their Goodness-of-Fit (GOF) metrics and parameter search strategies. Posterior densities for two parameters of a simple Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered epidemic model were obtained for each calibration method under two scenarios. Scenario 1 (S1) allowed 60K model runs and provided two target statistics, whereas scenario 2 (S2) allowed 75K model runs and provided three target statistics. For both scenarios, we obtained reference posteriors against which we compare all other methods by running Rejection ABC for 5M parameter combinations, retaining the 0.1% best. We assessed performance by applying a 2D-grid to all posterior densities and quantifying the percentage overlap with the reference posterior. We considered basic and adaptive sampling calibration methods. Of the basic calibration methods, Bayesian calibration (Bc) Sampling Importance Resampling (S1: 34.8%, S2: 39.8%) outperformed Rejection Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) (S1: 2.3%, S2: 1.8%). Among the adaptive sampling methods, Bc Incremental Mixture Importance Sampling (S1: 72.7%, S2: 85.5%) outperformed sequential Monte Carlo ABC (AbcSmc) (S1: 53.9%, S2: 72.9%) and Sequential ABC (S1: 21.6%, S2: 62.7%). Basic methods led to sub-optimal calibration results. Methods using the surrogate Likelihood as a GOF outperformed methods using a distance measure. Adaptive sampling methods were more efficient compared to their basic counterparts and resulted in accurate posterior distributions. BcIMIS was the best performing method. When three rather than two target statistics were available, the difference in performance between the adaptive sampling methods was less pronounced. Although BcIMIS outperforms the other methods, limitations related to the target statistics and available computing infrastructure may warrant the choice of an alternative method. Author summaryAs mathematical models become more realistic, they tend to become more complex. Calibration, the process of tuning a model to better reproduce empirical data, can become dramatically more computationally intensive as model complexity increases. Researchers have responded by developing a range of more efficient, adaptive sampling calibration methods. However, the relative performance of these calibration methods remains unclear. To this end, we quantified the performance of five commonly used calibration methods. We found that adaptive sampling methods were more efficient compared to their basic counterparts and resulted in more accurate posterior distributions. We identified the best performing method, but caution that limitations related to the target statistics and available computing infrastructure may warrant the choice of one of the alternatives. Finally, we provide the code used to apply the calibration methods in our study as a primer to facilitate their application.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

The 100,000 most influential scientists rank: the underrepresentation of Brazilian women in academia.

Despite the progress observed in recent years, women are still underrepresented in science worldwide, especially at top positions. Many factors contribute to women progressively leaving academia at different stages of their career, including motherhood, harassment and conscious and unconscious discrimination. Implicit bias plays a major negative role in recognition, promotions and career advancement of female scientists. Recently, a rank on the most influential scientists in the world was created based on several metrics, including the number of published papers and citations. Here, we analyzed the representation of Brazilian scientists in this rank, focusing on gender. Female Brazilian scientists are greatly underrepresented in the rank (11% in the Top 100,000; 18% in the Top 2%). Male scientists have more self-citation than female scientists and positions in the rank varied when self-citations were included, suggesting that self-citation by male scientists increases their visibility. Moreover, male scientists had more papers never cited than female scientists. Possible reasons for this observed scenario are related to the metrics used to rank scientists, since these metrics reproduce and amplify the well-known implicit bias in peer-review and citations. Discussions on the repercussions of such ranks are pivotal to avoid deepening the gender gap in science.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

National Institutes of Health Institute and Center Award Rates and Funding Disparities

A previous report found an association of topic choice with race-based funding disparities among R01 applications submitted to the National Institutes of Health ("NIH") between 2011-2015. Applications submitted by African American or Black ("AAB") Principal Investigators ("PIs") skewed toward a small number of topics that were less likely to be funded (or "awarded"). It was suggested that lower award rates may be related to biases of peer reviewers. However, the report did not account for differential funding ecologies among NIH Institutes and Centers ("ICs"). In a re-analysis, we find that 10% of 148 topics account for 50% of applications submitted by AAB PIs. These applications on "AAB Preferred" topics were funded at lower rates, but peer review outcomes were similar. The lower rate of funding was primarily due to their assignment to ICs with lower award rates. After accounting for IC-specific award rates, topic choice was not associated with funding.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2021

Affordable C. elegans tracking system for classroom use

For decades the nematode C. elegans has served as an outstanding research organism owing to its unsurpassed experimental amenability. This advantage has also made this tiny worm an attractive vehicle for science instruction across higher learning institutions. However, the prohibitive cost associated with the automated behavioral assessment of these animals remains an obstacle preventing their full adoption in undergraduate and high school settings. To improve this situation, we developed an inexpensive worm tracking system for use by high school interns and undergraduate students. Over the past two years this tracker has been successfully used by undergraduate students in our introductory Cell and Molecular lab (BSC220) at Illinois State University. Here we describe and demonstrate the use of our inexpensive worm tracking system.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

IHR-PVS National Bridging Workshops, a tool to operationalize the collaboration between human and animal health while advancing sector-specific goals in countries

Collaborative, One Health approaches support governments to effectively prevent, detect and respond to emerging health challenges, such as zoonotic diseases, that arise at the human-animal-environmental interfaces. To overcome these challenges, operational and outcome-oriented tools that enable animal health and human health services to work specifically on their collaboration are required. While international capacity and assessment frameworks such as the IHR-MEF (International Health Regulations - Monitoring and Evaluation Framework) and the OIE PVS (Performance of Veterinary Services) Pathway exist, a tool and process that could assess and strengthen the interactions between human and animal health sectors was needed. Through a series of six phased pilots, the IHR-PVS National Bridging Workshop (NBW) method was developed and refined. The NBW process gathers human and animal health stakeholders and follows seven sessions, scheduled across three days. The outputs from each session build towards the next one, following a structured process that goes from gap identification to joint planning of corrective measures. The NBW process allows human and animal health sector representatives to jointly identify actions that support collaboration while advancing evaluation goals identified through the IHR-MEF and the OIE PVS Pathway. By integrating sector-specific and collaborative goals, the NBWs help countries in creating a realistic, concrete and practical joint road map for enhanced compliance to international standards as well as strengthened preparedness and response for health security at the human-animal interface.

scientific communication and education↗