A Strategic Approach to Social Accountability in Pakistan

This paper explores the progress of the Empowerment, Voice and Accountability for Better Health and Nutrition (EVA) project implemented by Palladium in partnership with the Centre for Communications Programmes Pakistan. EVA aims to empower, organise and facilitate Pakistan’s citizens to hold the provincial governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to account for the delivery of quality reproductive, maternal, new-born, child health and nutrition services (RMNCH-N). The paper situates the project within contemporary understandings of social accountability programming, and examines its approach to operationalising an adaptive, politically savvy and locally led way of working in a challenging context. It also comments upon the foundations of EVA’s early successes and its potential future directions as a way of offering guidance for similar projects. EVA is a five-year project (2014–19) funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in Pakistan. The project is a component of DFID Pakistan’s flagship maternal and child health project ‘The Provincial Health & Nutrition Programme’

Covid-19 in Africa: looking beyond the role of national governments

To understand the response to COVID-19 in Africa we must look beyond the actions taken by national governments, say Duncan Green and Tom Kirk (LSE). The roles played by various public authorities operating below the national level are crucial

Manual-assisted cognitive therapy for self-harm in personality disorder and substance misuse: a feasibility trial

<b>Aims and method</b> To assess the feasibility of conducting a larger, definitive randomised controlled trial of manual-assisted cognitive therapy (MACT), a brief focused therapy to address self-harm and promote engagement in services. We established recruitment, randomisation and assessment of outcome within a sample of these complex patients admitted to a general hospital following self-harm. We assessed symptoms of depressed mood, anxiety and suicidality at baseline and at 3 months’ follow-up.<p></p> <b>Results</b> Twenty patients were randomised to the trial following an index episode of self-harm, and those allocated to MACT demonstrated improvement in anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation.<p></p> <b>Clinical implications</b> It is feasible to recruit a sample of these complex patients to a randomised controlled trial of MACT following an index episode of self-harm. There is preliminary support that MACT could be an acceptable and effective intervention in patients with personality disorder and substance misuse

A precise optical transmission spectrum of the inflated exoplanet WASP-52b

We have measured a precise optical transmission spectrum for WASP-52b, a highly inflated hot Jupiter with an equilibrium temperature of 1300 K. Two transits of the planet were observed spectroscopically at low resolution with the auxiliary-port camera (ACAM) on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT), covering a wide range of 4000-8750 \AA. We use a Gaussian process approach to model the correlated noise in the multi-wavelength light curves, resulting in a high precision relative transmission spectrum with errors on the order of a pressure scale height. We attempted to fit a variety of different representative model atmospheres to the transmission spectrum, but did not find a satisfactory match to the entire spectral range. For the majority of the covered wavelength range (4000-7750 \AA) the spectrum is flat, and can be explained by an optically thick and grey cloud layer at 0.1 mbar, but this is inconsistent with a slightly deeper transit at wavelengths $> 7750$ \AA. We were not able to find an obvious systematic source for this feature, so this opacity may be the result of an additional unknown absorber.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS 17 Jan 2017, revised version after comments from reviewer, 12 pages, 10 figure

A vision screening of a homeless/low income population: Baloney Joe\u27s, Portland, Oregon

Two consecutive Saturdays in October of 1986 were utilized to conduct a vision screening on a homeless/low income population at Baloney Joe\u27s, a homeless relief center located in Portland, Oregon. A higher than expected rate of visual failures and pathological incidence was found when compared to other screening norms. The results suggest that adequate optometric care is deficient in this population, indicating a need for this service

Derivative processes for modelling metabolic fluxes

Motivation: One of the challenging questions in modelling biological systems is to characterize the functional forms of the processes that control and orchestrate molecular and cellular phenotypes. Recently proposed methods for the analysis of metabolic pathways, for example, dynamic flux estimation, can only provide estimates of the underlying fluxes at discrete time points but fail to capture the complete temporal behaviour. To describe the dynamic variation of the fluxes, we additionally require the assumption of specific functional forms that can capture the temporal behaviour. However, it also remains unclear how to address the noise which might be present in experimentally measured metabolite concentrations. Results: Here we propose a novel approach to modelling metabolic fluxes: derivative processes that are based on multiple-output Gaussian processes (MGPs), which are a flexible non-parametric Bayesian modelling technique. The main advantages that follow from MGPs approach include the natural non-parametric representation of the fluxes and ability to impute the missing data in between the measurements. Our derivative process approach allows us to model changes in metabolite derivative concentrations and to characterize the temporal behaviour of metabolic fluxes from time course data. Because the derivative of a Gaussian process is itself a Gaussian process, we can readily link metabolite concentrations to metabolic fluxes and vice versa. Here we discuss how this can be implemented in an MGP framework and illustrate its application to simple models, including nitrogen metabolism in Escherichia coli

Nature and Empire Interview with Jay Kirk, the author of Kingdom Under Glass

Interview with Kirk on his work on Akeley

Computational tools for the study of the genomes of filamentous fungi

During the past year, we have developed and deployed several new computational tools to provide new means of access to information used for research in the biology of filamentous fungi. These new tools complement and extend other resources available for access to both molecular and biological data

Gene-edited meat: Disentangling consumers’ attitudes and potential purchase behaviour

Novel gene-editing (GE) technologies provide promising opportunities to increase livestock productivity and to tackle several global livestock production sustainability and food security challenges. However, these technologies, as with previous genetic modification technologies in food production, are very likely to generate social controversy and opposition toward their use in the meat industry. Here, we explored public attitudes and consumption predisposition toward gene-edited meat products and their potential added benefits to livestock farming. Our results show that societal perception currently comes as a package, where the use of gene-editing technology acts as an extrinsic cue of meat products quality, and is used to make a range of inferences about all quality facets at once. Although consumers with anti-GE attitudinal positions generally were not sensitive to price discounts or added benefits, added benefits increased the consumption predisposition of most moderate and pro-GE consumers, where benefits related to animal welfare had larger effects than those relating to the environment or human health issues.Publishe