The Geography of the 1992 U.S. Presidential Debates

Due to the United States\u27 reliance upon the electoral college, its presidential elections are intrinsically geographic events. In their campaigns successful candidates must address issues of varying pertinence in different places and at different geographic scales. The three 1992 presidential debates provide an opportunity to consider the relative geographic emphases of the three presidential candidates based on their references to geographic places. This paper uses the verbatim dialogue of the 1992 presidential debates to extract place name references by each of the three candidates. Chi-square tests are applied to the relative use of foreign and domestic place names by the three candidates to determine if the differences in their geographic emphases are statistically significant. Cognitive maps of their domestic and foreign place references are also produced. The results reveal that while all three candidates stressed domestic places over foreign places, Bill Clinton\u27s emphasis on domestic locations was greatest

What are the barriers to attendance to the MNCHW and how can these be reduced?

Maternal Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) was launched in Nigeria in 2009 as a bi-annual campaign-style programme designed to deliver key child and maternal health interventions and to revitalise health care systems. Support to strengthen this programme, in the five northern Nigerian States of Katsina, Jigawa, Kebbi, Zamfara and Yobe, is being provided by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through its 6-year programme - Working for Improving Nutrition in Northern Nigeria (WINNN). This programme is being implemented by Save the Children International (SCI) and Action Against Hunger (Action Contre la Faim, ACF) in partnership with the five state governments. WINNN focuses on strengthening three key interventions within MNCHW, which are supplementation of Vitamin A and deworming (Albendazole), for children 6-59 months of ages, and supplementation of iron-folate for pregnant women. However, a key challenge, identified by WINNN for MNCHW programme success, has been low rates of MNCHW attendance. This document reports on the operations research undertaken to understand the barriers to MNCHW attendance and how to strengthen social mobilisation to improve it.UKAi

Entrepreneurs’ network bricolage: Reconfiguring social ties for resource creation

The entrepreneurship literature demonstrates the positive impact of network bricolage on resource-seeking. We extend this work by examining why and how entrepreneurs reconfigure ties within the social architecture of their networks. Building on the network bricolage literature and an in-depth analysis of 55 dyadic relationships embedded in four networks, we provide evidence of network bricolage behavior indicating that entrepreneur bricoleurs are, in fact, resource-creators as well as resource-seekers. Our data cover a series of preliminary and in-depth interviews, member checks, site visits, direct observations, and archival sources. We find support for our theoretical arguments that more resources and re-deployment opportunities for developing new products, new markets, and operation efficiencies emerge during bricolage processes when bricoleurs use their networks in ways that differ from their originally intended utility. While the strength of network ties is important in its own right, our findings further suggest that heterogeneity of relationship type is a key factor in pursuing network bricolage. A mix of relationship roles provides opportunities to repurpose network resources to achieve new valued outcomes

cGAL, a temperature-robust GAL4–UAS system for Caenorhabditis elegans

The GAL4–UAS system is a powerful tool for manipulating gene expression, but its application in Caenorhabditis elegans has not been described. Here we systematically optimize the system's three main components to develop a temperature-optimized GAL4–UAS system (cGAL) that robustly controls gene expression in C. elegans from 15 to 25 °C. We demonstrate this system's utility in transcriptional reporter analysis, site-of-action experiments and exogenous transgene expression; and we provide a basic driver and effector toolkit

Single-Nucleus RNA-Seq Characterizes the Cell Types Along the Neuronal Lineage in the Adult Human Subependymal Zone and Reveals Reduced Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Abundance with Age

The subependymal zone (SEZ), also known as the subventricular zone (SVZ), constitutes a neurogenic niche that persists during postnatal life. In humans, the neurogenic potential of the SEZ declines after the first year of life. However, studies discovering markers of stem and progenitor cells highlight the neurogenic capacity of progenitors in the adult human SEZ, with increased neurogenic activity occurring under pathological conditions. In the present study, the complete cellular niche of the adult human SEZ was characterized by single-nucleus RNA sequencing, and compared between four youth (age 16–22) and four middle-aged adults (age 44–53). We identified 11 cellular clusters including clusters expressing marker genes for neural stem cells (NSCs), neuroblasts, immature neurons, and oligodendrocyte progenitor cells. The relative abundance of NSC and neuroblast clusters did not differ between the two age groups, indicating that the pool of SEZ NSCs does not decline in this age range. The relative abundance of oligodendrocyte progenitors and microglia decreased in middle-age, indicating that the cellular composition of human SEZ is remodeled between youth and adulthood. The expression of genes related to nervous system development was higher across different cell types, including NSCs, in youth as compared with middle-age. These transcriptional changes suggest ongoing central nervous system plasticity in the SEZ in youth, which declined in middle-age.</p

How to Strengthen the CMAM programme in Northern Nigeria and reduce rates of programme defaulting

This report presents findings from the operations research (OR) study which was conducted to identify barriers to attendance of the Maternal Neonatal and Child Health Weeks programme (MNCHW), in two states of northern Nigeria – Jigawa and Zamfara States. The work was a collaborative project between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Food Basket Foundation International and Oxford Policy Management. The treatment and prevention of severe acute malnutrition via the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition programme (CMAM) is one of four outputs of the DFID-funded development project “Working to Improve Nutrition in Northern Nigeria” (WINNN). This output aims to deliver, in the five WINNN supported northern states, effective treatment for severe acute malnutrition through local health systems. WINNN is implemented by UNICEF, Action Against Hunger (ACF) and Save the Children International (SCI), in partnership with the five state governments. SCI is responsible for its implementation in Zamfara, Kebbi and Katsina states, and ACF is responsible for its implementation in Jigawa and Yobe states. The CMAM services include: (1) Community outreach, for the early identification and referral of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and later follow-up; (2) Outpatient care for children with SAM without medical complications at health facilities and at home (Outpatient Therapeutic Programme, OTP); (3) Inpatient care for children with SAM, and medical complications or no appetite (Inpatient Therapeutic Programme, ITP)

How to strengthen the Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) programme in Northern Nigeria

This report presents findings from the operations research (OR) study which was conducted to strengthen the Infant and Young Child Feeding (ITCF) programme, in northern Nigeria .The work was a collaborative project between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Food Basket Foundation International and Oxford Policy Management. The prevention of under-nutrition via the IYCF programme is one of four outputs of the DFID-funded programme “Working to Improve Nutrition in Northern Nigeria” (WINNN). This output aims to prevent under-nutrition by promoting evidence-based IYCF feeding recommendations, including exclusive breastfeeding until an infant is 6 months of age, feeding a diverse diet of nutritious foods and breastmilk from 6-23 months of age, feeding a sick child and good hand-washing practices. WINNN is implemented by UNICEF, Action Against Hunger (ACF) and Save the Children International (SCI), in partnership with five state governments. SCI is responsible for its implementation in Zamfara, Kebbi and Katsina states, and ACF is responsible for its implementation in Jigawa and Yobe states. Each of the five WINNN states implements the IYCF programme in three Local Government Areas (LGAs). The IYCF programme includes: (1) Facility-based IYCF counselling for pregnant women and mothers with an infant less than 2 years of age, facilitated by health workers (HWs); (2) Community-based IYCF counselling for pregnant women and mothers with an infant less than 2 years of age, facilitated by community volunteers (CVs); (3) Community-based meetings with fathers of infants less than 2 years of age and grandmothers, facilitated by CVs

How to strengthen an Infant and Young Child Feeding programme in Northern Nigeria

This four-page research summary brief highlights findings and recommendations from operations research into how to strengthen the implementation of an Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) programme and to motivate behaviour change to improve IYCF practices in northern Nigeria. The research found that the IYCF programme was viewed positively by a range of beneficiaries and stakeholders, including family members, traditional birth attendants, IYCF programme community volunteers, health workers and state government officials, because of the perceived visibility of the health benefits, including less episodes of diarrhoea, and consequent savings on health care. Recommendations for the IYCF programme include review strategies for CV training and strengthen supportive supervision, especially in relation to counselling techniques and facilitation of support groups; reinforce and strengthen the use of examples of real healthy children who have been exclusively breastfed to enhance the acceptability of the messages and adoption of the behaviour change; and adopt multiple behaviour change techniques, including food demonstrations and professionally developed mass media

How to strengthen a Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition programme in northern Nigeria

This summary highlights findings and recommendations from operation research on a Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programme in northern Nigeria. The study analysed the perceived benefits of CMAM; reasons for beneficiaries not defaulting from the programme; challenges of accessing CMAM services; the workloads and motivation of health workers and community volunteers; and what is required to integrate CMAM into the primary health system.UK Ai

Welcome to the big leaves: Best practices for improving genome annotation in non-model plant genomes.

PREMISE: Robust standards to evaluate quality and completeness are lacking in eukaryotic structural genome annotation, as genome annotation software is developed using model organisms and typically lacks benchmarking to comprehensively evaluate the quality and accuracy of the final predictions. The annotation of plant genomes is particularly challenging due to their large sizes, abundant transposable elements, and variable ploidies. This study investigates the impact of genome quality, complexity, sequence read input, and method on protein-coding gene predictions. METHODS: The impact of repeat masking, long-read and short-read inputs, and de novo and genome-guided protein evidence was examined in the context of the popular BRAKER and MAKER workflows for five plant genomes. The annotations were benchmarked for structural traits and sequence similarity. RESULTS: Benchmarks that reflect gene structures, reciprocal similarity search alignments, and mono-exonic/multi-exonic gene counts provide a more complete view of annotation accuracy. Transcripts derived from RNA-read alignments alone are not sufficient for genome annotation. Gene prediction workflows that combine evidence-based and ab initio approaches are recommended, and a combination of short and long reads can improve genome annotation. Adding protein evidence from de novo assemblies, genome-guided transcriptome assemblies, or full-length proteins from OrthoDB generates more putative false positives as implemented in the current workflows. Post-processing with functional and structural filters is highly recommended. DISCUSSION: While the annotation of non-model plant genomes remains complex, this study provides recommendations for inputs and methodological approaches. We discuss a set of best practices to generate an optimal plant genome annotation and present a more robust set of metrics to evaluate the resulting predictions