Impact evaluation of different cash-based intervention modalities on child and maternal nutritional status in Sindh Province, Pakistan, at 6 mo and at 1 y: A cluster randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Cash-based interventions (CBIs), offer an interesting opportunity to prevent increases in wasting in humanitarian aid settings. However, questions remain as to the impact of CBIs on nutritional status and, therefore, how to incorporate them into emergency programmes to maximise their success in terms of improved nutritional outcomes. This study evaluated the effects of three different CBI modalities on nutritional outcomes in children under 5 y of age at 6 mo and at 1 y. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a four-arm parallel longitudinal cluster randomised controlled trial in 114 villages in Dadu District, Pakistan. The study included poor and very poor households (n = 2,496) with one or more children aged 6–48 mo (n = 3,584) at baseline. All four arms had equal access to an Action Against Hunger–supported programme. The three intervention arms were as follows: standard cash (SC), a cash transfer of 1,500 Pakistani rupees (PKR) (approximately US$14; 1 PKR = US$0.009543); double cash (DC), a cash transfer of 3,000 PKR; or a fresh food voucher (FFV) of 1,500 PKR; the cash or voucher amount was given every month over six consecutive months. The control group (CG) received no specific cash-related interventions. The median total household income for the study sample was 8,075 PKR (approximately US$77) at baseline. We hypothesized that, compared to the CG in each case, FFVs would be more effective than SC, and that DC would be more effective than SC—both at 6 mo and at 1 y—for reducing the risk of child wasting. Primary outcomes of interest were prevalence of being wasted (weight-for-height z-score [WHZ] < −2) and mean WHZ at 6 mo and at 1 y. The odds of a child being wasted were significantly lower in the DC arm after 6 mo (odds ratio [OR] = 0.52; 95% CI 0.29, 0.92; p = 0.02) compared to the CG. Mean WHZ significantly improved in both the FFV and DC arms at 6 mo (FFV: z-score = 0.16; 95% CI 0.05, 0.26; p = 0.004; DC: z-score = 0.11; 95% CI 0.00, 0.21; p = 0.05) compared to the CG. Significant differences on the primary outcome were seen only at 6 mo. All three intervention groups showed similar significantly lower odds of being stunted (height-for-age z-score [HAZ] < −2) at 6 mo (DC: OR = 0.39; 95% CI 0.24, 0.64; p < 0.001; FFV: OR = 0.41; 95% CI 0.25, 0.67; p < 0.001; SC: OR = 0.36; 95% CI 0.22, 0.59; p < 0.001) and at 1 y (DC: OR = 0.53; 95% CI 0.35, 0.82; p = 0.004; FFV: OR = 0.48; 95% CI 0.31, 0.73; p = 0.001; SC: OR = 0.54; 95% CI 0.36, 0.81; p = 0.003) compared to the CG. Significant improvements in height-for-age outcomes were also seen for severe stunting (HAZ < −3) and mean HAZ. An unintended outcome was observed in the FFV arm: a negative intervention effect on mean haemoglobin (Hb) status (−2.6 g/l; 95% CI −4.5, −0.8; p = 0.005). Limitations of this study included the inability to mask participants or data collectors to the different interventions, the potentially restrictive nature of the FFVs, not being able to measure a threshold effect for the two different cash amounts or compare the different quantities of food consumed, and data collection challenges given the difficult environment in which this study was set. CONCLUSIONS: In this setting, the amount of cash given was important. The larger cash transfer had the greatest effect on wasting, but only at 6 mo. Impacts at both 6 mo and at 1 y were seen for height-based growth variables regardless of the intervention modality, indicating a trend toward nutrition resilience. Purchasing restrictions applied to food-based voucher transfers could have unintended effects, and their use needs to be carefully planned to avoid this

Structures of technetium and rhenium complexes

Investigations in the 99mTc chemistry are stimulated by the search for new radiopharmaceuticals for nuclear medical applications. To understand the coordination mode of Tc with various complexing agents, macroscopic studies of technetium coordination chemistry are often performed using the low energy ß-emitting radionuclide 99Tc, which has a much longer half life (t1/2 = 2.12 x 105 years) than 99mTc, in the mg level. Investigations of Re coordination chemistry are done in conjunction with Tc studies because Re possesses chemical properties similar to those of Tc. For some chemical tasks, Re provides a non-radioactive alternative to work with Tc radioisotopes. In addition, 186Re and 188Re are of great interest to nuclear medicine as they possess nuclear properties favorable for use in therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals. Our investigations of Tc and Re coordination chemistry are toward this goal. A large series of technetium and rhenium complexes resulted from this studies have been characterized by X-ray crystal structure determinations. This survey covers the structural investigations performed by P.Leibnitz and G.Reck (BAM) from 1992 till now. It summarizes results obtained in the Rossendorf technetium group and is not intended to compete with the well-written reviews published so far

Efficient Bayesian-based Multi-View Deconvolution

Light sheet fluorescence microscopy is able to image large specimen with high resolution by imaging the sam- ples from multiple angles. Multi-view deconvolution can significantly improve the resolution and contrast of the images, but its application has been limited due to the large size of the datasets. Here we present a Bayesian- based derivation of multi-view deconvolution that drastically improves the convergence time and provide a fast implementation utilizing graphics hardware.Comment: 48 pages, 20 figures, 1 table, under review at Nature Method

Critical Susceptibility Exponent Measured from Fe/W(110) Bilayers

The critical phase transition in ferromagnetic ultrathin Fe/W(110) films has been studied using the magnetic ac susceptibility. A statistically objective, unconstrained fitting of the susceptibility is used to extract values for the critical exponent (gamma), the critical temperature Tc, the critical amplitude (chi_o) and the range of temperature that exhibits power-law behaviour. A fitting algorithm was used to simultaneously minimize the statistical variance of a power law fit to individual experimental measurements of chi(T). This avoids systematic errors and generates objective fitting results. An ensemble of 25 measurements on many different films are analyzed. Those which permit an extended fitting range in reduced temperature lower than approximately .00475 give an average value gamma=1.76+-0.01. Bilayer films give a weighted average value of gamma = 1.75+-0.02. These results are in agreement with the -dimensional Ising exponent gamma= 7/4. Measurements that do not exhibit power-law scaling as close to Tc (especially films of thickness 1.75ML) show a value of gamma higher than the Ising value. Several possibilities are considered to account for this behaviour.Comment: -Submitted to Phys. Rev. B -Revtex4 Format -6 postscript figure

Inhomogeneous charge transfer within monolayer zinc phthalocyanine absorbed on TiO2(110)

The d-orbital contribution from the transition metal centers of phthalocyanine brings difficulties to understand the role of the organic ligands and their molecular frontier orbitals when it adsorbs on oxide surfaces. Here we use zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc)TiO (110) as a model system where the zinc d-orbitals are located deep below the organic orbitals leaving room for a detailed study of the interaction between the organic ligand and the substrate. A charge depletion from the highest occupied molecular orbital is observed, and a consequent shift of N1s and C1s to higher binding energy in photoelectron spectroscopy (PES). A detailed comparison of peak shifts in PES and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy illustrates a slightly uneven charge distribution within the molecular plane and an inhomogeneous charge transfer screening between the center and periphery of the organic ligand: faster in the periphery and slower at the center, which is different from other metal phthalocyanine, e.g., FePcTiO . Our results indicate that the metal center can substantially influence the electronic properties of the organic ligand at the interface by introducing an additional charge transfer channel to the inner molecular part

Comparative study of an Eden model for the irreversible growth of spins and the equilibrium Ising model

The Magnetic Eden Model (MEM) with ferromagnetic interactions between nearest-neighbor spins is studied in $(d+1)-$dimensional rectangular geometries for $d = 1,2$. In the MEM, magnetic clusters are grown by adding spins at the boundaries of the clusters. The orientation of the added spins depends on both the energetic interaction with already deposited spins and the temperature, through a Boltzmann factor. A numerical Monte Carlo investigation of the MEM has been performed and the results of the simulations have been analyzed using finite-size scaling arguments. As in the case of the Ising model, the MEM in $d = 1$ is non-critical (only exhibits an ordered phase at $T= 0$). In $d = 2$ the MEM exhibits an order-disorder transition of second-order at a finite temperature. Such transition has been characterized in detail and the relevant critical exponents have been determined. These exponents are in agreement (within error bars) with those of the Ising model in 2 dimensions. Further similarities between both models have been found by evaluating the probability distribution of the order parameter, the magnetization and the susceptibility. Results obtained by means of extensive computer simulations allow us to put forward a conjecture which establishes a nontrivial correspondence between the MEM for the irreversible growth of spins and the equilibrium Ising model. This conjecture is certainly a theoretical challenge and its confirmation will contribute to the development of a framework for the study of irreversible growth processes.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figure

A mouse model for HIV-1 entry

Passive transfer of neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 can prevent infection in macaques and seems to delay HIV-1 rebound in humans. Anti-HIV antibodies are therefore of great interest for vaccine design. However, the basis for their in vivo activity has been difficult to evaluate systematically because of a paucity of small animal models for HIV infection. Here we report a genetically humanized mouse model that incorporates a luciferase reporter for rapid quantitation of HIV entry. An antibody’s ability to block viral entry in this in vivo model is a function of its bioavailability, direct neutralizing activity, and effector functions

Non-adiabatic and time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy for molecular systems

We quantify the non-adiabatic contributions to the vibronic sidebands of equilibrium and explicitly time-resolved non-equilibrium photoelectron spectra for a vibronic model system of Trans-Polyacetylene. Using exact diagonalization, we directly evaluate the sum-over-states expressions for the linear-response photocurrent. We show that spurious peaks appear in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation for the vibronic spectral function, which are not present in the exact spectral function of the system. The effect can be traced back to the factorized nature of the Born-Oppenheimer initial and final photoemission states and also persists when either only initial, or final states are replaced by correlated vibronic states. Only when correlated initial and final vibronic states are taken into account, the spurious spectral weights of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation are suppressed. In the non-equilibrium case, we illustrate for an initial Franck-Condon excitation and an explicit pump-pulse excitation how the vibronic wavepacket motion of the system can be traced in the time-resolved photoelectron spectra as function of the pump-probe delay