Author: Karim Moutchou Institution: Medical Student, Fez Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yasuhiro Kotera Geographically, Morocco is the closest African country to Europe. In fact, two Spanish cities—Ceuta and Melilla—are in Africa, in the northern region of Morocco, yet they are a part of European Union territory. Heavily guarded walls separate the 2 cities from Morocco. Additionally, the distance between the mainland and the far south of Spain is only 14 km through the Mediterranean Sea. This proximity has made Spain one of the largest receivers of refugees from African countries or Arab regions suffering from humanitarian crises, like Syria and Yemen. It is ha

Authors: Jennifer Lawlor, Kathryn McAlindon, Kristen Mills, Jennifer Neal and Zachary Neal This post was originally published by the Evidence & Policy blog on 19 August 2020. We have re-issued the article that has already been published by the Evidence & Policy blog. We would like to express gratitude to the kind offer of the editorial board of the Evidence & Policy blog. Policy makers are working hard to promote the use of research in education. But, does ‘research’ mean the same thing to policy makers and educators? While this question might seem basic, it’s important to know if policy makers and educators are speaking the same language. Jennifer Lawlor, Kathryn McAlindon, Kristen Mills, J

Author: Nobuo Handa Affiliation: Handa Clinic Editors: Tetsuya Tanimoto MD., Akihiko Ozaki MD., PhD., Yuki Senoo Introduction: My name is Nobuo Handa, MD. I have 40 years of experience in clinical practice, operating my clinic in Japan for over twenty years in a front-line setting for infectious diseases such as the recent swine flu pandemic. I would like to offer my observations and opinion on Japanese policy regarding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Japanese Strategy Against COVID-19 Today: Based on careful observation of the situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in both China and Japan, it appears to be challenging to contain COVID-19. Two factors contribute to this difficu

Authors: Ruth E. Levine This post was originally published by the Evidence & Policy blog on 5 August 2020. We have re-issued the article that has already been published by the Evidence & Policy blog. We would like to express gratitude to the kind offer of the editorial board of the Evidence & Policy blog. ‘Wouldn’t it be great if the evidence-to-policy work we’re seeing on the rise in Africa could be visible to a wider audience?’ That was the question my colleagues at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and I had on our minds in 2017, seeing the creativity and resourcefulness of a host of organisations and champions from the region as they advanced a complex agenda. Now, just a few year

Author: Masaharu Tsubokura PhD. Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D.,PhD., Yuki Senoo 221. Radiation exposure in preceding generations has not caused any harms to their descendants. There have been persistent public concerns that additional radiation exposure caused by the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident will inflict adverse health effects on our future generations. However, considering the current circumstances, radiation exposure caused by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is unlikely to cause any genetic health effects among the next generations. Some people might say that radiation damage on germ cells, such as sperm cells and oocytes, may cause adverse genetic effects in children of

Authors: Allison Metz, Director, National Implementation Research Network This post was originally published by the Evidence & Policy blog on 6 July 2020. We have re-issued the article that has already been published by the Evidence & Policy blog. We would like to express gratitude to the kind offer of the editorial board of the Evidence & Policy blog. Are there lessons we can learn from the current response of service systems which have galvanized into action to meet the needs of children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic? How does the response of service systems affect our hypotheses about how change happens at scale? In my professional role providing implementation support to pub

Author:Dr Sarah Carr, Senior Fellow in Mental Health Policy, University of Birmingham, UK. This post was originally published by the Evidence & Policy blog on 15 June 2020. We have re-issued the article that has already been published by the Evidence & Policy blog. We would like to express gratitude to the kind offer of the editorial board of the Evidence & Policy blog. This blog post is the forth in a series of posts linked to the Evidence & Policy special issue (Volume 16, Issue 2) on Opening up evidence-based policy: exploring citizen and service user expertise. Guest Edited by Ellen Stewart, Jennifer Smith-Merry, and Marc Geddes. Sarah Carr Seventeen years ago, Diana Rose wrote that in m