Global prospects to deliver safe drinking water services for 100 million rural people by 2030

The climate crisis and global pandemic have accelerated the urgency of providing safe drinking water services around the world. Global progress to safe drinking water is off-track with uncertain and limited data on the extent and performance of rural water service providers to inform policy and investment decisions. This report documents a global diagnostic survey to evaluate the status and prospects of rural water service providers from 68 countries. The service providers describe providing drinking water services to a population of around 15 million people through over 3 million waterpoints

Results-based funding for safe drinking water services

Rural infrastructure investments have accelerated the installation of decentralised water supply without corresponding investment in the management and oversight of drinking water quality. The assumption that certain types of infrastructure provide safe drinking water has been widely disproven, with faecal and chemical contamination common in piped systems and boreholes. Managing drinking water safety in rural areas is difficult due to the distances involved and the cost implications, with ongoing responsibilities primarily borne by users. As a result, drinking water safety remains unmanaged for much of the global rural population, which coincides with the majority of people living in extreme poverty. Uptime and partners have demonstrated the ability of professional models to improve reliability of water services in rural environments, with results-based funding supporting sustainability and expansion of the services. Recognising that water safety management activities are critical, this working paper presents an approach that advances contracts for results-based funding to incentivise delivery of safe drinking water services. Standardised metrics for water quality, volume, and revenue are proposed within a framework for protected and reliable drinking water services

Cognitive Behavioral Group Treatment for Social Phobia: Comparison with a Credible Placebo Control

Forty-nine patients participated in a study comparing cognitive-behavioral group treatment (CBGT) for social phobia with a credible placebo control. CBGT consisted of exposure to simulated phobic events, cognitive restructuring of maladaptive thoughts, and homework for self-directed exposure and cognitive restructuring between sessions. Control patients received a treatment package consisting of lecture-discussion and group support that was comparable to CBGT on measures of treatment credibility and outcome expectations. At pretest, posttest, and 3- and 6-month follow-ups, patients completed assessments that included clinician ratings, self-report measures, and behavioral physiological and cognitive-subjective measures derived from a behavioral simulation of a personally relevant phobic event. Both groups improved on most measures, but, at both posttest and follow-up, CBGT patients were rated as more improved than controls and reported less anxiety before and during the behavioral test. At follow-up, CBGT patients also reported significantly fewer negative and more positive self-statements than controls on a thought-listing task following the behavioral test. Regardless of treatment condition, follow-up changes in clinician-rated phobic severity were significantly related to changes on the thought-listing measure

[Review] Cian Duffy (2014) My purpose was humbler, but also higher: Thomas De Quincey’s 'System of the heavens’, popular science and the sublime

Review of article: Duffy Cian, Romanticism, Volume 20 Issue 1, Page 1-14, ISSN 1354-991x Available Online Mar 201

Policy reform for safe drinking water service delivery in rural Bangladesh

The Government of Bangladesh has provided global leadership in progress to improved drinking water access, with an estimated coverage of 98.5% of its 160 million citizens in 2019. However, the coverage decreases to 42.5% when service delivery accounts for indicators of water quality, proximity and sufficiency (UNICEF/MICS, 2019). This report seeks to support the Government of Bangladesh in its review and reform of the 1998 National Policy for Safe Water Supply and Sanitation, and to introduce the ‘SafePani’ model as one responseto achieving SDG 6.1 in rural areas. The design of the SafePani model is informed by collaborative work of the REACH programme with national and local partners in the coastal zone (Khulna) and central plains (Chandpur). Interdisciplinary research reveals intersecting challenges – hydroclimatic and water quality risks, public finance and private enterprise, and social and spatial inequalities – and highlights opportunities for reforms in policy and practice

Mainstreaming domestic and gender-based violence into sociology and the criminology of violence

Sociological and criminological views of domestic and gender-based violencegenerally either dismiss it as not worthy of consideration, or focus on specificgroups of offenders and victims (male youth gangs, partner violence victims). Inthis paper, we take a holistic approach to violence, extending the definition fromthat commonly in use to encompass domestic violence and sexual violence. Weoperationalize that definition by using data from the latest sweep of the CrimeSurvey for England and Wales. By so doing, we identify that violence is currentlyunder-measured and ubiquitous; that it is gendered, and that other forms of violence (family violence, acquaintance violence against women) are equally ofconcern. We argue that violence studies are an important form of activity forsociologists

Dose-Dependent Effects of Closed-Loop tACS Delivered During Slow-Wave Oscillations on Memory Consolidation

Sleep is critically important to consolidate information learned throughout the day. Slow-wave sleep (SWS) serves to consolidate declarative memories, a process previously modulated with open-loop non-invasive electrical stimulation, though not always effectively. These failures to replicate could be explained by the fact that stimulation has only been performed in open-loop, as opposed to closed-loop where phase and frequency of the endogenous slow-wave oscillations (SWOs) are matched for optimal timing. The current study investigated the effects of closed-loop transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS) targeting SWOs during sleep on memory consolidation. 21 participants took part in a three-night, counterbalanced, randomized, single-blind, within-subjects study, investigating performance changes (correct rate and F1 score) on images in a target detection task over 24 h. During sleep, 1.5 mA closed-loop tACS was delivered in phase over electrodes at F3 and F4 and 180° out of phase over electrodes at bilateral mastoids at the frequency (range 0.5–1.2 Hz) and phase of ongoing SWOs for a duration of 5 cycles in each discrete event throughout the night. Data were analyzed in a repeated measures ANOVA framework, and results show that verum stimulation improved post-sleep performance specifically on generalized versions of images used in training at both morning and afternoon tests compared to sham, suggesting the facilitation of schematization of information, but not of rote, veridical recall. We also found a surprising inverted U-shaped dose effect of sleep tACS, which is interpreted in terms of tACS-induced faciliatory and subsequent refractory dynamics of SWO power in scalp EEG. This is the first study showing a selective modulation of long-term memory generalization using a novel closed-loop tACS approach, which holds great potential for both healthy and neuropsychiatric populations

In search of the authentic nation: landscape and national identity in Canada and Switzerland

While the study of nationalism and national identity has flourished in the last decade, little attention has been devoted to the conditions under which natural environments acquire significance in definitions of nationhood. This article examines the identity-forming role of landscape depictions in two polyethnic nation-states: Canada and Switzerland. Two types of geographical national identity are identified. The first – what we call the ‘nationalisation of nature’– portrays zarticular landscapes as expressions of national authenticity. The second pattern – what we refer to as the ‘naturalisation of the nation’– rests upon a notion of geographical determinism that depicts specific landscapes as forces capable of determining national identity. The authors offer two reasons why the second pattern came to prevail in the cases under consideration: (1) the affinity between wild landscape and the Romantic ideal of pure, rugged nature, and (2) a divergence between the nationalist ideal of ethnic homogeneity and the polyethnic composition of the two societies under consideration

Efficacy of APX2039 in a Rabbit Model of Cryptococcal Meningitis

Cryptococcal Meningitis (CM) is uniformly fatal if not treated, and treatment options are limited. We previously reported on the activity of APX2096, the prodrug of the novel Gwt1 inhibitor APX2039, in a mouse model of CM. Here, we investigated the efficacy of APX2039 in mouse and rabbit models of CM. In the mouse model, the controls had a mean lung fungal burden of 5.95 log10 CFU/g, whereas those in the fluconazole-, amphotericin B-, and APX2039-treated mice were 3.56, 4.59, and 1.50 log10 CFU/g, respectively. In the brain, the control mean fungal burden was 7.97 log10 CFU/g, while the burdens were 4.64, 7.16, and 1.44 log10 CFU/g for treatment with fluconazole, amphotericin B, and APX2039, respectively. In the rabbit model of CM, the oral administration of APX2039 at 50 mg/kg of body weight twice a day (BID) resulted in a rapid decrease in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) fungal burden, and the burden was below the limit of detection by day 10 postinfection. The effective fungicidal activity (EFA) was -0.66 log10 CFU/mL/day, decreasing from an average of 4.75 log10 CFU/mL to 0 CFU/mL, over 8 days of therapy, comparing favorably with good clinical outcomes in humans associated with reductions of the CSF fungal burden of -0.4 log10 CFU/mL/day, and, remarkably, 2-fold the EFA of amphotericin B deoxycholate in this model (-0.33 log10 CFU/mL/day). A total drug exposure of the area under the concentration-time curve from 0 to 24 h (AUC0-24) of 25 to 50 mg · h/L of APX2039 resulted in near-maximal antifungal activity. These data support the further preclinical and clinical evaluation of APX2039 as a new oral fungicidal monotherapy for the treatment of CM. IMPORTANCE Cryptococcal meningitis (CM) is a fungal disease with significant global morbidity and mortality. The gepix Gwt1 inhibitors are a new class of antifungal drugs. Here, we demonstrated the efficacy of APX2039, the second member of the gepix class, in rabbit and mouse models of cryptococcal meningitis. We also analyzed the drug levels in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid in the highly predictive rabbit model and built a mathematical model to describe the behavior of the drug with respect to the elimination of the fungal pathogen. We demonstrated that the oral administration of APX2039 resulted in a rapid decrease in the CSF fungal burden, with an effective fungicidal activity of -0.66 log10 CFU/mL/day, comparing favorably with good clinical outcomes in humans associated with reductions of -0.4 log10 CFU/mL/day. The drug APX2039 had good penetration of the central nervous system and is an excellent candidate for future clinical testing in humans for the treatment of CM

In Support of a Patient-Driven Initiative and Petition to Lower the High Price of Cancer Drugs

Comment in Lowering the High Cost of Cancer Drugs--III. [Mayo Clin Proc. 2016] Lowering the High Cost of Cancer Drugs--I. [Mayo Clin Proc. 2016] Lowering the High Cost of Cancer Drugs--IV. [Mayo Clin Proc. 2016] In Reply--Lowering the High Cost of Cancer Drugs. [Mayo Clin Proc. 2016] US oncologists call for government regulation to curb drug price rises. [BMJ. 2015