Explaining the Allocation of Bilateral and Multilateral Environmental Aid to Developing Countries

In this paper we examine how international development assistance for environmental purposes is allocated to developing countries. In particular, we investigate whether there are patterned differences between environmental aid for international public goods projects versus environmental projects having more localized impacts. We empirically investigate these questions using project project level development assistance data.International Development,

A potential library for primary MFL pedagogy: the case of Young Pathfinders

As readers of this journal will know very well, 2010 will see all KS2 (ages 7-11) pupils in England entitled to learn a modern foreign language in normal curriculum time. This development of the commitment to primary language learning should provide an excellent opportunity and experience for pupils, whilst at the same time requiring some radical changes for many teachers, schools and much of the wider language learning community. Recent research has indicated general trends suggesting an increase in primary languages already, in anticipation of this development and even beforehand. One of the most recent studies indicates that 43% of primary children currently learn a foreign language at KS2, either in class or as an extra-curricular activity, although the extent of this learning varies considerably (Driscoll, Jones and Macrory, 2004). It has also been suggested (Muijs et al, 2005) that there are certain aspects of the process that will be particularly demanding if the challenge of providing this entitlement are to be met

Time-Resolved X-Ray Diffraction Investigation of Superheating-Melting of Crystals under Ultrafast Heating

The maximum superheating of a solid prior to melting depends on the effective dimensionless nucleation energy barrier, heterogeneities such as free surfaces and defects, and heating rates. Superheating is rarely achieved with conventional slow heating due to the dominant effect of heterogeneous nucleation. In present work, we investigate the superheating-melting behavior of crystals utilizing ultrafast heating techniques such as exploding wire and laser irradiation, and diagnostics such as time-resolved X-ray diffraction combined with simultaneous measurements on voltage and current (for exploding wire) and particle velocity (for laser irradiation). Experimental designs and preliminary results are presented

Structure and Metal Binding Properties of ZnuA, a Periplasmic Zinc Transporter from \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e

ZnuA is the periplasmic Zn2+-binding protein associated with the high-affinity ATP-binding cassette ZnuABC transporter from Escherichia coli. Although several structures of ZnuA and its homologs have been determined, details regarding metal ion stoichiometry, affinity, and specificity as well as the mechanism of metal uptake and transfer remain unclear. The crystal structures of E. coli ZnuA (Eco-ZnuA) in the apo, Zn2+-bound, and Co2+-bound forms have been determined. ZnZnuA binds at least two metal ions. The first, observed previously in other structures, is coordinated tetrahedrally by Glu59, His60, His143, and His207. Replacement of Zn2+ with Co2+ results in almost identical coordination geometry at this site. The second metal binding site involves His224 and several yet to be identified residues from the His-rich loop that is unique to Zn2+ periplasmic metal binding receptors. Electron paramagnetic resonance and X-ray absorption spectroscopic data on CoZnuA provide additional insight into possible residues involved in this second site. The second site is also detected by metal analysis and circular dichroism (CD) titrations. Eco-ZnuA binds Zn2+ (estimated K d \u3c 20 nM), Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, Cu+, and Cd2+, but not Mn2+. Finally, conformational changes upon metal binding observed in the crystal structures together with fluorescence and CD data indicate that only Zn2+ substantially stabilizes ZnuA and might facilitate recognition of ZnuB and subsequent metal transfer

Environmental and climate finance in a new world: How past environmental aid allocation impacts future climate aid

In this paper we update previous work that categorizes foreign aid projects in terms of their likely impact on the natural environment. We then document trends in the global distribution of environmental aid over time and show that environmental aid has increasingly focussed on global environmental issues (especially climate change), rather than local issues in recipient countries. Somewhat surprisingly, we also find that environmental aid is increasingly allocated through bilateral aid agencies rather than through the increasing number of multilateral channels created for this purpose. After providing these descriptive statistics and demonstrating trends, we offer a tentative explanation for this puzzling pattern. We argue that each individual aid project represents a negotiation between donor and recipient. This additional level of bargaining significantly conditions the costs and benefits of multilateralism for donors, especially as recipients have multiple outside options for obtaining development finance. Reflecting the growing political salience of global environmental threats, donors are providing increasing levels of environmental aid, and especially climate finance. However, at the same time, donors are increasingly failing to co-ordinate their allocation of climate finance (and other environmental aid) within multilateral institutions. At a practical level, this raises the question whether the effect of increasing levels of funding will be undercut by decreasing co-ordination and efficiency

Probabilistic classification of acute myocardial infarction from multiple cardiac markers

Logistic regression and Gaussian mixture model (GMM) classifiers have been trained to estimate the probability of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in patients based upon the concentrations of a panel of cardiac markers. The panel consists of two new markers, fatty acid binding protein (FABP) and glycogen phosphorylase BB (GPBB), in addition to the traditional cardiac troponin I (cTnI), creatine kinase MB (CKMB) and myoglobin. The effect of using principal component analysis (PCA) and Fisher discriminant analysis (FDA) to preprocess the marker concentrations was also investigated. The need for classifiers to give an accurate estimate of the probability of AMI is argued and three categories of performance measure are described, namely discriminatory ability, sharpness, and reliability. Numerical performance measures for each category are given and applied. The optimum classifier, based solely upon the samples take on admission, was the logistic regression classifier using FDA preprocessing. This gave an accuracy of 0.85 (95% confidence interval: 0.78–0.91) and a normalised Brier score of 0.89. When samples at both admission and a further time, 1–6 h later, were included, the performance increased significantly, showing that logistic regression classifiers can indeed use the information from the five cardiac markers to accurately and reliably estimate the probability AMI

Meta-analytical methods to identify who benefits most from treatments: daft, deluded, or deft approach?

Identifying which individuals beneft most from particular treatments or other interventions underpins so-called personalised or stratifed medicine. However, single trials are typically underpowered for exploring whether participant characteristics, such as age or disease severity, determine an individual's response to treatment. A meta-analysis of multiple trials, particularly one where individual participant data (IPD) are available, provides greater power to investigate interactions between participant characteristics (covariates) and treatment e?ects. We use a published IPD meta-analysis to illustrate three broad approaches used for testing such interactions. Based on another systematic review of recently published IPD meta-analyses, we also show that all three approaches can be applied to aggregate data as well as IPD. We also summarise which methods of analysing and presenting interactions are in current use, and describe their advantages and disadvantages. We recommend that testing for interactions using within-trials information alone (the def approach) becomes standard practice, alongside graphical presentation that directly visualises this

A Needs Assessment to Build International Research Ethics Capacity at Moi University

International Research Ethics Partnership. This online version is the post-print version (final, peer-reviewed and accepted for publication version) of the published article. For the published version, refer to the article citation within the item record.International collaborators in biomedical sciences face ethical challenges in the design,review, and conduct of research. Challenges include differences in research ethics capacity, cultural differences in interpretation and application of ethical principles, and cooperation between ethics review boards at collaborating institutions. Indiana University School of Medicine (Indianapolis, USA) and Moi University Faculty of Health Sciences (Eldoret, Kenya)developed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish greater cooperation between their ethics review boards, followed by a joint needs assessment to assess barriers to implementing the MOU. Focus groups and interviews at each institution revealed that while each side verbalized understanding and respect for the other's culture, there were misunderstandings deeply rooted in each culture that could potentially derail the collaboration. Although the participants at each university agreed on the major principles and issues in research ethics and on the importance attributed to them, a more in-depth evaluation of the responses revealed important differences. Methods to address these misunderstandings are outlined in the recommended Best Practices.Fogarty International Center at the NIH, Indiana University Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indiana University International Development Fund, Indiana Genomics Initiative, Lilly Endowment, Inc

Selection of tuning parameters in bridge regression models via Bayesian information criterion

We consider the bridge linear regression modeling, which can produce a sparse or non-sparse model. A crucial point in the model building process is the selection of adjusted parameters including a regularization parameter and a tuning parameter in bridge regression models. The choice of the adjusted parameters can be viewed as a model selection and evaluation problem. We propose a model selection criterion for evaluating bridge regression models in terms of Bayesian approach. This selection criterion enables us to select the adjusted parameters objectively. We investigate the effectiveness of our proposed modeling strategy through some numerical examples.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure