Reintegration of child soldiers in Burundi: A tracer study

Background Substantial attention and resources are aimed at the reintegration of child soldiers, yet rigorous evaluations are rare. Methods This tracer study was conducted among former child soldiers (N=452) and never-recruited peers (N=191) who participated in an economic support program in Burundi. Socio-economic outcome indicators were measured retrospectively for the period before receiving support (T1; 2005–06); immediately afterwards (T2; 2006–07); and at present (T3; 2010). Participants also rated present functional impairment and mental health indicators. Results Participants reported improvement on all indicators, especially economic opportunity and social integration. At present no difference existed between both groups on any of the outcome indicators. Socio-economic functioning was negatively related with depression- and, health complaints and positively with intervention satisfaction. Conclusion The present study demonstrates promising reintegration trajectories of former child soldiers after participating in a support program

Funding Covid-19 research: insights from an open data infrastructure

Merit, Expertise and Measuremen

From study to work: methodological challenges of a graduate destination survey in the Western Cape, South Africa

Current literature proposes several strategies for improving response rates to student evaluation surveys. Graduate destination surveys pose the difficulty of tracing graduates years later when their contact details may have changed. This article discusses the methodology of one such a survey to maximise response rates. Compiling a sample frame with reliable contact details was foremost important, but may require using additional sources of information other than university records. In hindsight, graduates should have been contacted prior to introduce the survey and mention its importance, while email and postal reminders appeared to have a limited effect on non-respondents. Due to varying response rates between participating universities, online responses were augmented with a call centre administering the survey telephonically to nonrespondents. Although overall differences between online and telephonic responses appeared to be small, certain question items may need to be treated with caution when conducting telephonic surveys. The article concludes by highlighting some of the benefits of the Western Cape graduate destination survey.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/caeh20hb201

'Omics data sharing

Development of high-throughput genomic and postgenomic technologies has caused a change in approaches to data handling and processing (1). One biological sample might be used to generate many kinds of “big” data in parallel, such as genome sequence (genomics), patterns of gene and protein expression (transcriptomics and proteomics), and metabolite concentrations and fluxes (metabolomics). Extensive computer manipulations are required for even basic analyses of such data; the challenges mount further when two or more studies' outputs must be compared or integrated