Introduction – Rethinking Impact Evaluation for Development

This IDS Bulletin is the first of two special issues presenting contributions from the event ‘Impact Innovation and Learning: Towards a Research and Practice Agenda for the Future’, organised by IDS in March 2013. The initiative, as well as these two issues, represent a ‘rallying cry’ for impact evaluation to rise to the challenges of a post?MDG/post?2015 development agenda. This introduction articulates first what these challenges are, and then goes on to summarise how the contributors propose to meet these challenges in terms of methodological and institutional innovation. Increasingly ambitious development goals, multiple layers of governance and lines of accountability require adequate causal inference frameworks and less ambitious expectations on the span of direct influence single interventions can achieve, as well as awareness of multiple bias types. Institutions need to be researched and become more impact?oriented and learning?oriented

Linear cooling of a levitated micromagnetic cylinder by vibration

We report feedback cooling of translational and librational degrees of freedom of a levitated micromagnet cylinder, utilizing a piezoelectric actuator to apply linear feedback to high-Q mechanical modes. The normal modes are measured with a superconducting pick-up coil coupled to a DC SQUID, and phase information is fed back to the piezoelectric actuator to feedback cool a center-of-mass mode to $1.8 \pm 1$~K, and a librational mode to $830 \pm 200$~mK. Q-factors of $1.0 \times 10^7$ are evaluated for the center-of-mass mode. We find that ground state cooling of the center-of-mass mode is plausible by introducing vibration isolation and optimizing the geometry of the pick-up coil to focus on the specific mode of interest.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

An Application of a Model of Online Travel Community Behavior: Beliefs, Attitudes and Behaviors in C-Trip, a Chinese Online Travel Community

Online communities have become a popular and influential venue for tourism information sharing, yet little is known about membership behavior. The purpose of this study is to test a new model of online travel community beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. The model integrates measures proven in traditional consumer behavior theory such as satisfaction, trust and brand attitude, with behavioral measures unique to the online domain, such as stickiness. The results of an online survey of 145 members of C-Trip, a Chinese online community, indicate that the quality of the community significantly influences member satisfaction and trust. However, trust does not influence site stickiness or intention to transact. It is member satisfaction that significantly influences site stickiness, and in turn stickiness influences intention to transact. The relationship from online community quality, to member satisfaction, to stickiness, to transaction suggests a service blueprint for site operators to follow

Does strengths of a positive direct antiglobulin test predicts the need for phototherapy and duration of phototherapy? – a single center, retrospective study

BackgroundUse of Direct Antiglobulin test (DAT) in management of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is conflicting.Objectivewhether strength of positive DAT predicts the need for phototherapy, duration of phototherapy and need for major interventions.MethodsWe retrospectively collected data on all DAT positive neonates with birth gestational age ≥32 weeks over six years (2014–2019). Data regarding blood group, DAT and clinical details were obtained from a hospital database. We also collected data on serial hemoglobin and other relevant laboratory parameters. We also collected data on infants receiving major interventions such as exchange transfusion, in-utero transfusion, immunoglobulins, and postnatal transfusion for the duration of the study period. All of these infants were electronically followed up for a period of 6 weeks. This study was approved by institutional audit authority. All the statistics were performed using SPSS software.ResultsOut of 1285 DAT tests performed, only 91 infants were positive (7%), and 78 DAT positive infants were available for analysis. There were 54 infants with DAT (1+), 15 infants with DAT (2+), 7 infants with DAT (3+) and 2 infants with DAT (4+). There was no significant statistical difference in terms of need for phototherapy, duration of phototherapy, need for major interventions and hemoglobin levels at different time points between the groups (DAT 1+ Vs DAT ≥2+; DAT ≤2+ Vs DAT >2). A Total of 10 infants received major intervention, with one infant receiving all three interventions (DAT 3+ with significant maternal antibodies), 2 additional infants (both DAT1+) received exchange transfusion, 6 additional infants received immunoglobulin (2 infants: DAT 2+; 4 infants: DAT 1+) and one additional infant (DAT 1+) with significant maternal antibodies received a postnatal transfusion.ConclusionStrength of a DAT did not predict the need for phototherapy, duration of phototherapy, and the need for major hemolysis related intervention in the first 6 weeks of life

Potential for seawater district heating and cooling in the UK

The main source of the energy used for space heating in the UK built environment is gas. However, more sustainable and efficient sources could be employed that would not only contribute towards achieving the UK’s carbon dioxide targets but would also benefit the nation’s energy security. One alternative way of generating energy more efficiently is by the use of heat pumps, of which there are various types depending on the source of the heat and the sink utilised for the heat. One such source is seawater, and examples of seawater heating and cooling systems have been successfully implemented in several parts of the world. Presented here is a comparison of a seawater heating system in The Hague, the Netherlands, and another in Portsmouth continental ferry port, UK. Based on these comparative cases, together with discussions with district heating specialists, this paper briefly debates the current drivers and barriers for the future of seawater heating systems in the UK. It emphasises that as well as the financial and technical obstacles, governance barriers have also to be overcome