The private sector and family planning in developing countries

While a private sector exists in every society, the nature of its involvement in family planning service delivery varies widely across countries. This paper reviews the role of the private sector in family planning and discusses how much more of the demand for contraception can be met through the private sector, thereby reducing government's subsidies for contraception. Following the introduction, section 2 discusses the characteristics of private sector supply, with a strong emphasis on for-profit producers and distributors of contraceptives. Section 3 describes the distribution of users across sources and addresses the issue of pricing at public, for-profit and NGO sources of family planning services. In section 4 the experience to date with private sector approaches is outlined to provide a sense of what has been and is currently going on in public and and donor efforts to harness and collaborate with the private sector. Section 5 presents alternative means for government and donors to promote private sector activity in family planning, and suggests some of the costs of a greater private sector role. The final section summarizes and concludes the paper.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Adolescent Health,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Health Economics&Finance,ICT Policy and Strategies

Shock Losses in Transonic Compressor Blade Rows

The rather extensive study of the shock losses in transonic compressors can he summarized by the following remarks: 1. A simple flow model can be used to estimate shock losses at the design point for transonic compressor blade rows and results iii reasonable correlation of loss data. It is indicated that shock losses can constitute a sizable portion of the total losses in it transonic compressor rotor. This includes all blade elements at which sonic or higher relative velocities are obtained. 2. Shock losses can he shown to exist across the blade passage (free-stream loss) and by the method of superposition with the blade profile losses result in an estimated design total loss coefficient. 3. The shock configuration was experimentally determined by the rapid pressure rise between the blades as measured by the use of barium titanate crystals. At the minimum loss operating conditions the shock is very similar to that assumed in the simple How model. 4. Shock losses obtained from a more detailed flow model were compared with the losses obtained by the simple flow model. Measured loss distribution from blade to blade closely approaches the analytical shock loss distribution. The measured distribution shows the effect of a shock boundary layer interaction. 5. The analytical method (from the detailed flow model) of determining the shock location ahead of the blade seems to apply reasonably well over a range of incidence angles. The analytical shock losses do not vary a great deal with blade element incidence angles

Climate and transportation policy sequencing in California and Quebec

We compare flexible low-carbon regulations in the transportation sector and their interaction and sequencing with greenhouse gas emissions trading systems in California and Quebec. As momentum builds for greater climate action, it is necessary to better understand how carbon markets and other low-carbon transportation policies influence one another. First, we demonstrate that emissions trading between California and Quebec has been asymmetric, with linking having little influence on carbon prices from California\u27s perspective but leading to a considerable cost reduction from the point of view of Quebec. Second, we present evidence that Quebec has replicated many of California\u27s low-carbon transportation policies that promote increased electric vehicle use, where Quebec has an advantage, while deferring to the Canadian federal government with regard to policies that incentivize the production of other low-carbon transportation fuels. Third, we demonstrate that while the stringency of the policy mix of carbon pricing and flexible transportation regulations has increased over time in both jurisdictions, the stringency of flexible regulations has been more aggressively ratcheted up and is expected to continue to dominate. Overall, our findings suggest that the policy sequence observed in California and Quebec can be attributed to the political economy benefits that the selected instruments confer to governments seeking to move from the middle towards the bottom of the clean technology experience curve. We discuss a number of important research questions and associated hypotheses emanating from our findings, which provide the basis for more in-depth studies involving a larger universe of cases and economic sectors

Negative emotions in informal feedback: The benefits of disappointment and drawbacks of anger

Using the emotions as social information (EASI) model, this study investigated the emotional, attitudinal and behavioral reactions to failure feedback by manipulating negative emotional displays (angry, disappointed or none) and the position level and relational distance of the feedback source. Undergraduate students (N = 260) responded to an organizational failure feedback vignette and completed a subsequent performance task. Results demonstrated that guilt was the complementary emotional experience following displays of disappointment, while reciprocal anger followed displays of anger. These emotional reactions served as important mediators between the emotional displays paired with the feedback message and participant responses of social behaviors, creative task performance and perceptions of the feedback source. In addition, our findings indicated that negative emotions can have positive organizational and interpersonal outcomes. Guilt in response to disappointed displays resulted in beneficial behaviors and attitudes, while anger in response to angry displays was socially detrimental. The emotion displayed during feedback provision also served as a consistent contextual factor that did not interact with the position level or relational distance of the feedback source to impact behavioral and attitudinal reactions. Overall, this study indicates that discrete negative emotions have unique social-functional properties that require further investigation.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Cyber Teaming and Role Specialization in a Cyber Security Defense Competition

A critical requirement for developing a cyber capable workforce is to understand how to challenge, assess, and rapidly develop human cyber skill-sets in realistic cyber operational environments. Fortunately, cyber team competitions make use of simulated operational environments with scoring criteria of task performance that objectively define overall team effectiveness, thus providing the means and context for observation and analysis of cyber teaming. Such competitions allow researchers to address the key determinants that make a cyber defense team more or less effective in responding to and mitigating cyber attacks. For this purpose, we analyzed data collected at the 12th annual Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (MACCDC, http://www.maccdc.org), where eight teams were evaluated along four independent scoring dimensions: maintaining services, incident response, scenario injects, and thwarting adversarial activities. Data collected from the 13-point OAT (Observational Assessment of Teamwork) instrument by embedded observers and a cyber teamwork survey completed by all participants were used to assess teamwork and leadership behaviors and team composition and work processes, respectively. The scores from the competition were used as an outcome measure in our analysis to extract key features of team process, structure, leadership, and skill-sets in relation to effective cyber defense. We used Bayesian regression to relate scored performance during the competition to team skill composition, team experience level, and an observational construct of team collaboration. Our results indicate that effective collaboration, experience, and functional role-specialization within the teams are important factors that determine the success of these teams in the competition and are important observational predictors of the timely detection and effective mitigation of ongoing cyber attacks. These results support theories of team maturation and the development of functional team cognition applied to mastering cybersecurity

The Lack of Natural IgM Increases Susceptibility and Impairs Anti-Vi Polysaccharide IgG Responses in a Mouse Model of Typhoid

Circulating IgM present in the body prior to any apparent Ag exposure is referred to as natural IgM. Natural IgM provides protective immunity against a variety of pathogens. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) is the causative agent of typhoid fever in humans. Because mice are not permissive to S. Typhi infection, we employed a murine model of typhoid using S. enterica serovar Typhimurium expressing the Vi polysaccharide (ViPS) of S. Typhi (S. Typhimurium strain RC60) to evaluate the role of natural IgM in pathogenesis. We found that natural mouse IgM binds to S. Typhi and S. Typhimurium. The severity of S. Typhimurium infection in mice is dependent on presence of the natural resistance-associated macrophage protein 1 (Nramp1) allele; therefore, we infected mice deficient in secreted form of IgM (sIgM) on either a Nramp1-resistant (129S) or -susceptible (C57BL/6J) background. We found that the lack of natural IgM results in a significantly increased susceptibility and an exaggerated liver pathology regardless of the route of infection or the Nramp1 allele. Reconstitution of sIgM-/- mice with normal mouse serum or purified polyclonal IgM restored the resistance to that of sIgM+/+ mice. Furthermore, immunization of sIgM-/- mice with heat-killed S. Typhi induced a significantly reduced anti-ViPS IgG and complement-dependent bactericidal activity against S. Typhi in vitro, compared with that of sIgM+/+ mice. These findings indicate that natural IgM is an important factor in reducing the typhoid severity and inducing an optimal anti-ViPS IgG response to vaccination

Joint associations of poor diet quality and prolonged television viewing time with abnormal glucose metabolism in Australian men and women

Objective. To examine the independent and joint associations of diet quality and television viewing time with abnormal glucose metabolism (AGM) in men and women

Novel diagnostic DNA methylation episignatures expand and refine the epigenetic landscapes of Mendelian disorders

Overlapping clinical phenotypes and an expanding breadth and complexity of genomic associations are a growing challenge in the diagnosis and clinical management of Mendelian disorders. The functional consequences and clinical impacts of genomic variation may involve unique, disorder-specific, genomic DNA methylation episignatures. In this study, we describe 19 novel episignature disorders and compare the findings alongside 38 previously established episignatures for a total of 57 episignatures associated with 65 genetic syndromes. We demonstrate increasing resolution and specificity ranging from protein complex, gene, sub-gene, protein domain, and even single nucleotide-level Mendelian episignatures. We show the power of multiclass modeling to develop highly accurate and disease-specific diagnostic classifiers. This study significantly expands the number and spectrum of disorders with detectable DNA methylation episignatures, improves the clinical diagnostic capabilities through the resolution of unsolved cases and the reclassification of variants of unknown clinical significance, and provides further insight into the molecular etiology of Mendelian conditions

Undervaccination and severe COVID-19 outcomes : meta-analysis of national cohort studies in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales

Background: Undervaccination (receiving fewer than the recommended number of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses) could be associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes—ie, COVID-19 hospitalisation or death—compared with full vaccination (receiving the recommended number of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses). We sought to determine the factors associated with undervaccination, and to investigate the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes in people who were undervaccinated in each UK nation and across the UK. Methods: We used anonymised, harmonised electronic health record data with whole population coverage to carry out cohort studies in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Participants were required to be at least 5 years of age to be included in the cohorts. We estimated adjusted odds ratios for undervaccination as of June 1, 2022. We also estimated adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for severe COVID-19 outcomes during the period June 1 to Sept 30, 2022, with undervaccination as a time-dependent exposure. We combined results from nation-specific analyses in a UK-wide fixed-effect meta-analysis. We estimated the reduction in severe COVID-19 outcomes associated with a counterfactual scenario in which everyone in the UK was fully vaccinated on June 1, 2022. Findings: The numbers of people undervaccinated on June 1, 2022 were 26 985 570 (45·8%) of 58 967 360 in England, 938 420 (49·8%) of 1 885 670 in Northern Ireland, 1 709 786 (34·2%) of 4 992 498 in Scotland, and 773 850 (32·8%) of 2 358 740 in Wales. People who were younger, from more deprived backgrounds, of non-White ethnicity, or had a lower number of comorbidities were less likely to be fully vaccinated. There was a total of 40 393 severe COVID-19 outcomes in the cohorts, with 14 156 of these in undervaccinated participants. We estimated the reduction in severe COVID-19 outcomes in the UK over 4 months of follow-up associated with a counterfactual scenario in which everyone was fully vaccinated on June 1, 2022 as 210 (95% CI 94–326) in the 5–15 years age group, 1544 (1399–1689) in those aged 16–74 years, and 5426 (5340–5512) in those aged 75 years or older. aHRs for severe COVID-19 outcomes in the meta-analysis for the age group of 75 years or older were 2·70 (2·61–2·78) for one dose fewer than recommended, 3·13 (2·93–3·34) for two fewer, 3·61 (3·13–4·17) for three fewer, and 3·08 (2·89–3·29) for four fewer. Interpretation: Rates of undervaccination against COVID-19 ranged from 32·8% to 49·8% across the four UK nations in summer, 2022. Undervaccination was associated with an elevated risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. Funding: UK Research and Innovation National Core Studies: Data and Connectivity