Provider experiences and opinions on counseling adolescents undergoing voluntary medical male circumcision in western Kenya

Objectives: Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) remains an important component of comprehensive HIV prevention package. Kenya and other key countries are focusing increased attention on achieving large proportions of adolescent circumcisions. Because little is known about the impact of adolescent VMMC counseling, we sought to capture the experiences and opinions of VMMC providers regarding effective adolescent VMMC counseling.Design and Setting: We purposively selected six VMMC sites: three each in Siaya and Kisumu Counties. From each site, we administered key informant interviews to two VMMC providers at a place of their choice for privacy and confidentiality. Outcomes of the study were participant responses to questions regarding their adolescent counseling practices, prior training, and opinions for improvement of counseling practices.Results: Three providers (25%) reported having been trained on adolescent-specific VMMC counseling. Compared to adults, adolescents receive less information during VMMC counseling. There was lack of consistency in counseling procedures, with counselors making subjective judgments as to what content to include, depending on their perception of the sexual experience of the client. Providers recommended greater engagement of parents in the VMMC process, limiting numbers of clients per day to ensure quality of counseling, and allocation of space to facilitate confidentiality.Conclusions: All providers counseling adolescent VMMC clients should receive adolescent-specific counseling training, and adhere to national VMMC guidelines. Measures to assure confidentiality should be taken, and numbers of clients per day limited to ensure quality of counseling services

Estimate of confidence in paleomagnetic directions derived from mixed remagnetization circle and direct observational data

A method is presented for obtaining the direction and confidence oval for a paleomagnetic component at a site given a number of independently oriented samples, some of which give an estimate of the remanence direction, while others yield only remagnetization circles. Such mixed remagnetization circle-remanence direction data frequently characterise paleomagnetic sites carrying two remanence components where the component of interest is small and less dispersed compared to a more easily removed one. The method described maximises the amount of usable data per site and thus leads to an improved site direction estimate.           ARK: https://n2t.net/ark:/88439/y000446 Permalink: https://geophysicsjournal.com/article/149 &nbsp

Some results on the Krein parameters of an association scheme

We consider association schemes with d classes and the underlying Bose- Mesner algebra, A. Then, by taking into account the relationship between the Hadamard and the Kronecker products of matrices and making use of some matrix techniques over the idempotents of the unique basis of minimal orthogonal idempotents of A , we prove some results over the Krein parameters of an association scheme

Application of Bounded Linear Stability Analysis Method for Metrics-Driven Adaptive Control

This paper presents the application of Bounded Linear Stability Analysis (BLSA) method for metrics-driven adaptive control. The bounded linear stability analysis method is used for analyzing stability of adaptive control models, without linearizing the adaptive laws. Metrics-driven adaptive control introduces a notion that adaptation should be driven by some stability metrics to achieve robustness. By the application of bounded linear stability analysis method the adaptive gain is adjusted during the adaptation in order to meet certain phase margin requirements. Analysis of metrics-driven adaptive control is evaluated for a second order system that represents a pitch attitude control of a generic transport aircraft. The analysis shows that the system with the metrics-conforming variable adaptive gain becomes more robust to unmodeled dynamics or time delay. The effect of analysis time-window for BLSA is also evaluated in order to meet the stability margin criteria

Monkey-based Research on Human Disease: The Implications of Genetic Differences

Assertions that the use of monkeys to investigate human diseases is valid scientifically are frequently based on a reported 90–93% genetic similarity between the species. Critical analyses of the relevance of monkey studies to human biology, however, indicate that this genetic similarity does not result in sufficient physiological similarity for monkeys to constitute good models for research, and that monkey data do not translate well to progress in clinical practice for humans. Salient examples include the failure of new drugs in clinical trials, the highly different infectivity and pathology of SIV/HIV, and poor extrapolation of research on Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and stroke. The major molecular differences underlying these inter-species phenotypic disparities have been revealed by comparative genomics and molecular biology — there are key differences in all aspects of gene expression and protein function, from chromosome and chromatin structure to post-translational modification. The collective effects of these differences are striking, extensive and widespread, and they show that the superficial similarity between human and monkey genetic sequences is of little benefit for biomedical research. The extrapolation of biomedical data from monkeys to humans is therefore highly unreliable, and the use of monkeys must be considered of questionable value, particularly given the breadth and potential of alternative methods of enquiry that are currently available to scientists

New developments in CLAMP: Calibration using global gridded meteorological data

Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP) is a versatile technique for obtaining quantitative estimates for multiple terrestrial palaeoclimate variables from woody dicot leaf assemblages. To date it has been most widely applied to the Late Cretaceous and Tertiary of the mid- to high latitudes because of concerns over the relative dearth of calibration sites in modern low-latitude warm climates, and the loss of information associated with the lack of marginal teeth on leaves in paratropical to tropical vegetation. This limits CLAMP's ability to quantify reliably climates at low latitudes in greenhouse worlds of the past. One of the reasons for the lack of CLAMP calibration samples from warm environments is the paucity of climate stations close to potential calibration vegetation sites at low latitudes. Agriculture and urban development have destroyed most lowland sites and natural vegetation is now largely confined to mountainous areas where climate stations are few and climatic spatial variation is high due to topographic complexity. To attempt to overcome this we have utilised a 0.5° × 0.5° grid of global interpolated climate data based on the data set of New et al. (1999) supplemented by the ERA40 re-analysis data for atmospheric temperature at upper levels. For each location, the 3-D climatology of temperature from the ECMWF re-analysis project was used to calculate the mean lower tropospheric lapse rate for each month of the year. The gridded data were then corrected to the altitude of the plant site using the monthly lapse rates. Corrections for humidity were also made. From this the commonly returned CLAMP climate variables were calculated. A bi-linear interpolation scheme was then used to calculate the climate parameters at the exact lat/long of the site. When CLAMP analyses using the PHYSG3BR physiognomic data calibrated with the climate station based MET3BR were compared to analyses using the gridded data at the same locations (GRIDMET3BR), the results were indistinguishable in that they fell within the range of statistical uncertainty determined for each analysis. This opens the way to including natural vegetation anywhere in the world irrespective of the proximity of a meteorological station

Who shouts the loudest? A qualitative study exploring barriers and enablers to implementing a low emission zone in a Northern UK city

Pollution is a major cause of ill health globally. Low emission zones (LEZ) have been identified as effective in reducing pollution and are increasing in popularity but remain divisive. Understanding what factors help or hinder implementation is important. In the UK, Clean Air Zones (CAZ, a type of LEZ) are being implemented in several cities. We aimed to identify key barriers and enablers to the implementation of a CAZ in real time, as policy was being developed and implemented in a large Northern city in England, UK. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted with city stakeholders and implementors approximately 6 months before a CAZ charging non-compliant taxis, buses, heavy goods vehicles and vans was launched. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. Implementers were required to operate within a tight policy framework. Key enablers included: freedom to adapt the framework to local context, financial support, and cross-sector working. A focus on health was felt to be useful in justifying the policy to the public. Key barriers included conflict and opposition from local industry, politicians, and communities. Implementation of air quality policy which involves traffic restrictions remains controversial. The voices which ‘shout the loudest’ are often those with negative views, and these can create divisive discourse which shape public opinion and damage confidence of implementers. A systems perspective is needed to understand socio-political contexts which can influence implementation success. We provide recommendations to other areas considering implementing a LEZ

On the accretion disc properties in eclipsing dwarf nova EM Cyg

In this paper we analyzed the behavior of the unusual dwarf nova EM Cyg using the data obtained in April-October, 2007 in Vyhorlat observatory (Slovak Republic) and in September, 2006 in Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (Ukraine). During our observations EM Cyg has shown outbursts in every 15-40 days. Because on the light curves of EM Cyg the partial eclipse of an accretion disc is observed we applied the eclipse mapping technique to reconstruct the temperature distribution in eclipsed parts of the disc. Calculations of the accretion rate in the system were made for the quiescent and the outburst states of activity for different distances.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

International Trade and Investment Sanctions

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the theory of international economic sanctions and to provide estimates of the short-run economic impact on South Africa of externally imposed reductions of the imports and capital flows into that country. A macroeconomic picture of South Africa's "dependence" is drawn, and the economy's vulnerability in the short run is seen to be in its capacity to import, not in exports or capital flows. Trade and capital sanctions most clearly damage South Afnca's growth potential; the short-run impact is harder to quantify. A static linear programming model of the South African economy is constructed in an attempt at this quantification. This model estimates that small sanctions would have small impact—i.e., if imports were reduced by less than one-fourth, GDP would be cut by only about one half as large a percentage as imports. Larger import reductions cause greater damage. If imports were to be cut in half, not only would GDP be seriously reduced but massive unemployment and relocation of white labor would occur.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68182/2/10.1177_002200277902300401.pd

The Supernovae Integral Field Spectrograph: keys to high-precision spectro-photometry

The Supernovae Integral Field Spectrograph: keys to a better spectro-photometry The Nearby Supernova Factory aims at discovering and observing a sample of type Ia supernovae through the dedicated Supernovae Integral Field Spectrograph, currently in operation since 2004 on Mauna-Kea UH telescope. To reach the targeted spectro-photometric accuracy, attention has been focused on various aspects of the calibration procedure, including: estimate of the night photometricity, derivation of the mean atmospheric extinction over the extended optical domain (320-1000 nm), its modeling in terms of physical components (Rayleigh and aerosol scatterings, ozone absorption and telluric lines) and its variability within a given night. Point-source extraction from the IFS datacube also requires a detailed knowledge of the atmospheric-induced point spread function (PSF). The overall accuracy of the calibration chain is estimated on reference flux standard stars