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

Acute otitis media in children presenting to the emergency department: Is it diagnosed and managed appropriately?

Aim: To describe the diagnostic and management practice in children with acute otitis media (AOM) presenting to the emergency department (ED) and compare diagnosis and management against existing guidelines. Methods: We performed a retrospective descriptive cohort study of patients ≤15 years of age who presented to two EDs in Southeast Queensland between January 2016 and June 2017 with an ED diagnosis of AOM. Likelihood of diagnosis was based on medical records and classified as likely, possible or unlikely using paediatric practice guidelines. Appropriateness of antibiotics prescription was classified using the National Antibiotic Prescribing Survey, which takes into account adherence to the Australian Therapeutic Guidelines. Each medical record was extracted by two blinded reviewers, and discrepancies were resolved by consensus or arbitration. Results: Of the 305 patients included for analysis, 87% had a likely or possible diagnosis of AOM. Otalgia was the presenting complaint in 75%. Standard otoscopy was the routine method for tympanic membrane visualisation, and 70% had abnormal tympanic membrane findings. Almost two-thirds (62%) of all children were prescribed antibiotics. Antibiotic appropriateness could be ascertained for 286 patients (94%). A total of 39% received inappropriate antibiotic management for AOM. The majority of patients received analgesia in the form of paracetamol and/or ibuprofen. Conclusions: ED clinicians make the diagnosis of AOM fairly accurately, although better assessment of the tympanic membrane by tympanometry and/or pneumatic otoscopy may improve accuracy. More than one-third of patients are prescribed antibiotics inappropriately. Our data can inform knowledge translation and education strategies to ensure the correct evidence-based management of this condition.No Full Tex