The International Council of Museums (ICOM) is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to museums, maintaining formal relations with UNESCO and having a consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Founded in 1946, ICOM also partners with entities such as the World Intellectual Property Organization, Interpol, and the World Customs Organization in order to carry out its international public service missions, which include fighting illicit traffic in cultural goods and promoting risk management and emergency preparedness to protect world cultural heritage in the event of natural or man-made disasters. Members of the ICOM get the ICOM membership card, which provides free entry, or entry at a reduced rate, to many museums all over the world.
Background Ocular conditions are often managed with eye drops but conventional dispensers may be difficult to use for some. Objectives A novel device has been designed to overcome limitations of traditional eye drop dispensers, and its ability to deliver artificial tears was tested. Design A single centre, prospective study of 24 patients with Dry Eye Disease (DED). Methods Regular users of artificial tears tested the novel dispenser over 4 weeks, evaluating: DED symptoms with the Dry Eye Questionnaire 5; ocular parameters including the non-invasive tear breakup time (NI-TBUT), the Schirmer I test and surface staining; and tear meniscus parameters (height, depth and area measured by AS-OCT before and after application). The patients used questionnaires to evaluate the usability and their satisfaction with the dispenser, and report any adverse reactions. Results Tear stability improved after 4 weeks using the dispenser, with a significantly higher NI-TBUT-first (6.48 ±3.65 s) and NI-TBUT-average (7.45 ±3.59 s) relative to baseline (4.52 ±3.18 and 5.95 ±3.39, respectively: p=0.001), coupled to milder ocular surface staining (0.54 ±0.65) relative to baseline (1.08 ±0.77: p=0.042). Artificial tear instillation using the dispenser significantly improved tear meniscus parameters, which persisted for ≥5 min, and the lower mean DEQ-5 score after 4 weeks (9.79 ±3.23) relative to baseline (11.20 ±3.37: p=0.006) indicated DED symptoms also improved. The patients rated the new dispenser as very easy (58%) or easy (33.3%) to use, and many felt very comfortable using it. Patients were satisfied (54.2%) or very satisfied (16.7%) with the new dispenser, 87.5% preferring it over conventional systems (p<0.001) and with a desire to continue using it. No adverse reactions were reported. Conclusion The Beat the Blink™ dispenser was feasible, easy to use, well tolerated, and highly accepted over 4 weeks. Clinical signs and patient-reported symptoms improved during use with preservative-free artificial tears.
Turkmenistan presents a distinctive challenge for sustainable energy policy. The country combines abundant natural gas resources, extremely low domestic energy prices, a highly state-centered electricity sector and only nascent renewable energy deployment, yet it has also adopted framework legislation on renewable energy and on energy saving and energy efficiency. The central question is therefore no longer whether green transition has entered the formal policy agenda, but which analytically constrained reform sequence can build implementation readiness by moving from legal recognition to operational implementation under current Turkmen conditions. This article uses a qualitative single case policy analysis based on triangulation across legal and policy documents, international energy and subsidy datasets, comparative evidence from neighboring Caspian countries, especially Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and recent literature on fossil fuel subsidy reform, electricity market design, renewable energy auctions and implementation capacity. The article argues that Turkmenistan's primary constraint is not resource potential but the absence of an implementation sequence linking secondary legislation, institutional capability, controlled investment channels and pricing reform. It further argues that this sequence matters for sustainable development because it affects fiscal space, public sector efficiency, technology learning and the ability to redirect public resources from recurrent fossil fuel support toward productive low-carbon investment, better public services and targeted social protection. The paper contributes to the literature on transition governance in hydrocarbon-dependent economies by identifying implementation priorities and reform dependencies in a late-transition setting rather than by estimating optimal system outcomes. It treats implementation readiness as the guiding objective of sequencing and evaluates reform order through criteria of legal operability, administrative deliverability, investment credibility, fiscal-political manageability and learning value.
