Knowledge and perceptions of national and provincial tuberculosis control programme managers in Pakistan about the WHO Stop TB strategy.

Objective To understand how national and provincial tuberculosis programme managers in Pakistan perceive and engage with the Stop TB strategy, its strengths, weaknesses and their experience in its implementation. National and provincial tuberculosis programme managers play an important role in effective implementation of the Stop TB strategy. Design A qualitative interview study was conducted with 10 national and provincial tuberculosis programme managers to understand how they perceive and engage with the Stop TB strategy, its strengths, weaknesses and their experience in its implementation. Managers were selected purposively; 10 managers were interviewed (six national staff and four from provincial level). Participants National and provincial tuberculosis programme managers in Pakistan. Managers were selected purposively; 10 managers were interviewed (six national staff and four from provincial level). Setting National and provincial tuberculosis programmes in Pakistan Main outcome measures 1. Knowledge and perceptions of national and provincial tuberculosis programme managers about the Stop TB strategy 2. Progress in implementing the strategy in Pakistan 3. Significant success factors 4. Significant implementation challenges 5. Lessons learnt to scale up successful implementation. Results The managers reported that most progress had been made in extending DOTS, health systems strengthening, public -private mixed interventions, MDR-TB care and TB/HIV care. The four factors that contributed significantly to progress were the availability of DOTS services, the public-private partnership approach, comprehensive guidance for TB control and government and donor commitment to TB control. Conclusion This study identified three main challenges as perceived by national and provincial tuberculosis programme managers in terms of implementing the Stop TB strategy: 1. Inadequate political commitment, 2. Issue pertaining to prioritisation of certain components in the TB strategy over others due to external influences and 3. Limitations in the overall health system. To improve the tuberculosis control programme in the country political commitment needs to be enhanced and public -private partnerships increased. This can be done through government prioritisation of TB control at both national and provincial levels; donor-funded components should not receive undue attention; and partnerships with the private health sector, health institutions not yet covered by DOTS services, non-governmental organisations and patient coalitions should be increased

Brane Realizations of Quantum Hall Solitons and Kac-Moody Lie Algebras

Using quiver gauge theories in (1+2)-dimensions, we give brane realizations of a class of Quantum Hall Solitons (QHS) embedded in Type IIA superstring on the ALE spaces with exotic singularities. These systems are obtained by considering two sets of wrapped D4-branes on 2-spheres. The space-time on which the QHS live is identified with the world-volume of D4-branes wrapped on a collection of intersecting 2-spheres arranged as extended Dynkin diagrams of Kac-Moody Lie algebras. The magnetic source is given by an extra orthogonal D4-brane wrapping a generic 2-cycle in the ALE spaces. It is shown as well that data on the representations of Kac-Moody Lie algebras fix the filling factor of the QHS. In case of finite Dynkin diagrams, we recover results on QHS with integer and fractional filling factors known in the literature. In case of hyperbolic bilayer models, we obtain amongst others filling factors describing holes in the graphene.Comment: Lqtex; 15 page

Experimental verification of an Oseen flow slender body theory

Consider uniform flow past four slender bodies with elliptical cross-section of constant ellipticity along the length of 0, 0.125, 0.25 and 0.375, respectively, for each body. Here, ellipticity is defined as the ratio of the semiminor axis of the ellipse to the semimajor axis. The bodies have a pointed nose which gradually increases in cross-section with a radius of curvature 419mm to a mid-section which then remains constant up to a blunt end section with semimajor axis diameter 160 mm, the total length of all bodies being 800 mm. The bodies are side-mounted within a low-speed wind tunnel with an operational wind speed of the order 30ms−1. The side force (or lift) is measured within an angle of attack range of −3◦ to 3◦ such that the body is rotated about the major axis of the ellipse cross-section. The lift slope is determined for each body, and how it varies with ellipticity. It is found that this variance follows a straight line which steadily increases with increasing ellipticity. It is shown that this result is predicted by a recently developed Oseen flow slender body theory, and cannot be predicted by either inviscid flow slender body theory or viscous crossflow theories based upon the Allen and Perkins method