Demographic dividend-favorable policy environment in two pre-dividend African nations: review of national policies and prospects for policy amendments in Nigeria and Tanzania.

Background: In collaboration with local partners, we reviewed 18 national policy documents across two sub-Saharan African countries identified as pre-dividend nations by the World Bank in 2017: Nigeria and Tanzania. Our aim was to assess national policies in pre-dividend countries and to determine whether national strategies were primed to capitalize on changing demographic structures, maximally attain the demographic dividend, and augment socio-economic growth.

Methods: We conducted policy reviews by focusing on five key sectors of the Gates Institute Demographic Dividend Framework: Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health, Education, Women's Empowerment, and Labor Market.

Is Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Required for Elderly Hemodialysis Patients during the Interdialytic Period? - Experience of a Tertiary Care Center in South India.

Introduction: Hypertension (HT) is a common and challenging problem in patients on dialysis. Routine peri-dialytic blood pressure (BP) recordings are unable to diagnose HT accurately and stratify cardiovascular risk. We report here an analysis of 2 years, single-center experience on 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) in elderly hemodialysis patients in the interdialytic period.

Determinants of community health fund membership in Tanzania: a mixed methods analysis.

Background: In many developing countries, initiatives are underway to strengthen voluntary community based health insurance as a means of expanding access to affordable care among the informal sector. However, increasing coverage with voluntary health insurance in low income settings can prove challenging. There are limited studies on determinants of enrolling in these schemes using mixed methods.

Promoting universal financial protection: a case study of new management of community health insurance in Tanzania.

Background: The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), a compulsory formal sector scheme took over the management of the Community Health Fund (CHF), a voluntary informal sector scheme, in 2009. This study assesses the origins of the reform, its effect on management and reporting structures, financial flow adequacy, reform communication and acceptability to key stakeholders, and initial progress towards universal coverage.

Methods: The study relied on national data sources and an in-depth collective case study of a rural and an urban district to assess awareness and acceptability of the reform, and fund availability and use relative to need in a sample of facilities.

Efficient high-throughput sequencing of a laser microdissected chromosome arm.

Background: Genomic sequence assemblies are key tools for a broad range of gene function and evolutionary studies. The diploid amphibian Xenopus tropicalis plays a pivotal role in these fields due to its combination of experimental flexibility, diploid genome, and early-branching tetrapod taxonomic position, having diverged from the amniote lineage ~360 million years ago. A genome assembly and a genetic linkage map have recently been made available.