The Status of and Trends in Private Philanthropy in the Southern Hemisphere

This is a discussion Paper for the Executive Session on the Future of Philanthropy Of the International Network on Strategic Philanthropy, October 200

Planning for Institutional Development and Developing Budgets and Financial Management Systems

This section lays out issues related to strategic planning by the Foundation for Community Development (FDC) and illustrates the development of budgets and financial management systems by the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP). Also explored here is the financial reporting system set up by the Esquel Ecuador Foundation (FEE) for their grantees

Clinically Significant Anxiety in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Varied Intellectual Functioning.

Objective: To evaluate how distinct presentations of anxiety symptoms and intellectual impairment influence the measurement and estimated rate of clinically significant anxiety in autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Method: The sample included 75 children (ages 9-13 years) with ASD and varied IQ and 52 typically developing (TD) controls and parents. Parents completed anxiety symptom scales and a diagnostic interview, designed to (1) differentiate anxiety and ASD and (2) examine DSM-specified and unspecified ("distinct") anxiety presentations in each child, including fears of change, special interests, idiosyncratic stimuli and social confusion rather than evaluation. Children completed standard intellectual and ASD diagnostic assessments.Results: 69% of those with ASD had clinically-significant anxiety, including 21% DSM-specified anxiety disorders, 17% distinct anxiety, and 31% both. Only 8% of TD children had clinically-significant anxiety, all DSM-specified. DSM-specified anxiety disorders in children with ASD and intellectual impairment (IQ<70) were predominantly specific phobias. DSM-specified anxiety other than specific phobia was significantly less common in children with, versus without, intellectual impairment; this was not the case for distinct anxiety. The sensitivities of anxiety scales were moderate to poor, particularly in cases with intellectual impairment.Conclusions: ASD is associated with more frequent and varied presentations of clinical anxiety, which may align with and differ from the specified anxiety disorders of the DSM. Standard parent report anxiety scales have reduced sensitivity to detect clinical anxiety in ASD, particularly in children with intellectual impairment

HPV infection, anal intra-epithelial neoplasia (AIN) and anal cancer: current issues.

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is well known as the major etiological agent for ano-genital cancer. In contrast to cervical cancer, anal cancer is uncommon, but is increasing steadily in the community over the last few decades. However, it has undergone an exponential rise in the men who have sex with men (MSM) and HIV + groups. HIV + MSM in particular, have anal cancer incidences about three times that of the highest worldwide reported cervical cancer incidences. DISCUSSION: There has therefore traditionally been a lack of data from studies focused on heterosexual men and non-HIV + women. There is also less evidence reporting on the putative precursor lesion to anal cancer (AIN - anal intraepithelial neoplasia), when compared to cervical cancer and CIN (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia). This review summarises the available biological and epidemiological evidence for HPV in the anal site and the pathogenesis of AIN and anal cancer amongst traditionally non-high risk groups. SUMMARY: There is strong evidence to conclude that high-grade AIN is a precursor to anal cancer, and some data on the progression of AIN to invasive cancer.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Discontinuity Analysis Reveals Alternative Community Regimes During Phytoplankton Succession

It is well-recognized in plankton ecology that phytoplankton development can lead to distinct peaks (i.e., blooms) during spring and summer. We used a 5-year (2007–2011) phytoplankton data set and utilized discontinuity analysis to assess resilience attributes of spring and summer blooms based on the cross-scale resilience model. Using the size structure (i.e., cross-scale structure as an indicator of resilience) in the sampled plankton data, we assessed whether spring and summer blooms differ substantially between but not within blooms; that is, whether they comprise alternative community regimes. Our exploratory study supported this expectation and more broadly resilience theory, which posits that ecological systems can manifest in and change between alternative regimes. The dynamics of regimes receives increased attention because rapid environmental change potentially irreversibly alters ecosystems. Model organisms are needed that allow revealing patterns and processes of various aspects of regime dynamics at tractable time scales. Our preliminary findings suggest that phytoplankton can be suitable models for assessing the intricacies of regimes and regime changes

Invited review: Completeness of reporting of experiments: REFLECTing on a year of animal trials in the Journal of Dairy Science

Reproducibility is an essential element of the scientific process, and it requires clear and complete reporting of study design, conduct, and analysis. In the human and animal health literature, incomplete reporting is associated with biased effect estimates. Moreover, incomplete reporting precludes knowledge synthesis and undervalues the resources allocated to the primary research. The Reporting Guidelines for Randomized Controlled Trials for Livestock and Food Safety (REFLECT) statement, published in 2010, is a checklist developed by expert consensus to provide guidance on what study elements should be reported in any intervention trial (designed experiment) involving livestock. The Journal of Dairy Science (JDS) has recently endorsed the use of reporting guidelines. To assess the status of reporting of controlled experiments in JDS and to provide a baseline for future comparison, we evaluated the reporting of 18 items from the REFLECT statement checklist in a sample of 137 controlled trials published in JDS in 2017. Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts for relevance and then evaluated a sample of 120 papers reporting controlled trials (experimental studies involving at least one intervention and one comparison or control group), using yes or no questions. Although some items, such as treatment details and statistical analysis, were well reported, other areas, including sample size justification, allocation concealment, blinding, study flow, baseline data, and ancillary analyses, were often not reported or were incompletely described. This work highlights the need for authors and reviewers to take advantage of guidelines and checklists for reporting. Adherence to reporting guidelines can help improve the completeness of reporting of research, expedite and better inform the peer-review process, increase clarity for the reader, and allow for knowledge synthesis, such as meta-analysis, all of which serve to increase the value of the work conducted

Historic Kent: The Value of the County's Heritage Sector

The report builds on the data brought together in the RSA Heritage Index (2020). It identifies four key heritage themes in Kent: coastal heritage; Christian heritage; historic houses; and natural heritage and historic landscapes. These themes embrace elements such as the Roman forts of the Saxon Shore; Dover Castle; the artillery forts of Henry VIII; coastal resorts; the UNESCO World Heritage site of Canterbury; the cathedral city of Rochester; historic houses including Knole and Chartwell; and the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Three case studies relating to local authorities are presented: Canterbury, Dover, and Folkestone and Hythe. These show how each of the areas has been able to use its heritage assets to develop its tourism economy, and to attract significant funding from the NLHF. A summary of the key themes of heritage strategies from local authorities across Kent is provided to indicate how local heritage assets are perceived as part of their local communities. A consideration of the social benefits of heritage includes a reflection on the UK Government’s Levelling-Up agenda and its interaction with the heritage sector. The economic benefits of heritage are underlined by the scale of NLHF awards made to projects in Kent, as well as the value of tourism, in part driven by heritage attractions and assets. Heritage projects in Kent were awarded over £79 million in grants from NLHF from 2013 to 2020. The largest amounts were for £13.7 million for the Canterbury Journey awarded to Canterbury Cathedral, £4.8 million for Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, £4.6 million for the Maison Dieu in Dover, £4.6 million for the Sheerness Dockyard Church project, and £3.4 million for Chartwell. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major fall in income from tourism for the county from £4.1 billion in 2019 to £1.6 billion in 2020. This included a fall of 61 per cent on day trips, and 60 per cent on overnight trips. This had an impact on employment in the tourism sector accounting for a drop of 39 per cent to 50,026 individuals. The fall in income due to the pandemic is particularly noticeable for Canterbury with a loss of over £300 million, while Medway and Thanet both saw losses over around £200 million. The report reflects on the challenges facing heritage in Kent. In particular, it considers the way that the public have been engaging with built heritage, museums, and archives. Solutions include integrating the historic built environment with related objects and documents that can be found in museums and archives within the county

The efficacy of teat sealants in dairy cows at dry-off to prevent new intra-mammary infections during the dry-period or clinical mastitis during early lactation: A protocol for a systematic review

Rationale: The majority of antibiotic use in the dairy industry is for intramammary infections (IMI), with a large portion of this aimed at treating and preventing IMI during the dry period (Lam et al., 2102). During dry off, formation of the teat-canal keratin plug plays an important role in susceptibility to IMI (Huxley et al., 2002), but there is wide variation between cows on time to complete closure of the teat-canal, or indeed if closure occurs at all (Dingwell et al., 2003). In heifers, pre-partum IMI is an important risk factor for the development of clinical mastitis in early lactation, and the impact of this disease on future udder health and productivity is far greater than in multiparous animals (Piepers et al., 2009). Moreover, the incidence of clinical mastitis at freshening in heifers is roughly double that of multiparous cows (Ali Naqvi et al., 2018). Teat sealants provide a non-antibiotic strategy to prevent IMI in the pre-calving period, which is of increasing importance due to concern for antimicrobial use and its relationship with the development of antimicrobial resistance (WHO, 2015). Understanding the efficacy of these products is essential to optimizing their use in order to decrease reliance on antibiotics for both treatment and prevention. Systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials in these areas will yield the highest level of evidence for efficacy of treatment under field conditions (Sargeant and O’Connor, 2014). Establishing the efficacy of teat sealants at dry-off, and pre-partum in heifers, to reduce the incidence of both clinical mastitis and/or IMI, will serve to improve decision makers’ ability to engage in effective stewardship of antibiotics thorough the strategic use of non-antibiotic alternatives

The efficacy of antibiotic treatments in dairy cows at dry-off to prevent new intramammary infections during the dry-period or clinical mastitis during early lactation: A protocol for a systematic review

Rationale: The majority of antibiotic use in the dairy industry is for the treatment and prevention of intramammary infections (IMI); in the Netherlands, approximately 60 % of all antimicrobial use in dairy is for this purpose, with two-thirds being dry cow therapy (Lam et al., 2012). In the United States, over 90 % of dairy cows receive dry cow therapy after every lactation (USDA-APHIS, 2016), with the goal of treating or preventing IMI during the dry period. These infections are strongly associated with risk of development of clinical mastitis in the first two weeks post-calving, which represents the highest risk period for this disease (Green et al., 2002). To combat this, blanket dry cow therapy (intramammary antimicrobial treatment of all quarters of all cows after the last milking of the lactation) was recommended for decades as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce IMI in the dry period (Neave et al., 1969), and has been widely adopted in North America and the United Kingdom (Ruegg, 2017). Although cow2 level selective dry cow therapy has been in use in some regions for several decades (Schultze, 1983), interest has more recently increased worldwide, in part driven by concern for antimicrobial use and its relationship with the development of antimicrobial resistance between species (WHO, 2015), including nation-specific regulations (Santman-Berends et al., 2016). Selective dry cow therapy has been employed because it is a means to rapidly reduce the amount of antimicrobials used in dairy cattle (Vanhoudt et al., 2018), rather than because it is known to contribute importantly to antimicrobial resistance (Oliver et al., 2011). With a greater concern for prudent antibiotic use in the dairy industry, it is important that decision making with regards to dry cow therapy at both the cow and herd levels be evidencebased. Choosing ineffective antibiotics, or using antibiotic when not warranted, unnecessarily contributes to use while having little impact on controlling disease, which has substantial bearing to both profitability and animal welfare (Leslie & Petersson-Wolfe, 2012). Systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials yield the highest level of evidence for efficacy of treatment under field conditions (Sargeant and O’Connor, 2014), and comparative efficacy can be examined using network meta-analysis for multiple comparisons. Establishing the efficacy of both cow-level antibiotic therapy and herd-level dry cow antibiotic protocols for the prevention of IMI will serve to improve decision makers’ ability to engage in effective stewardship of antibiotics