Firewall? or Wall on Fire? A Unified Framework of Conflict Contagion and the Role of Ethnic Exclusion

While some borders are real firewalls against conflicts, others appear like tinder just waiting for the smallest spark. Only recently has research focused on the transnational perspective of conflict and current research has focused mostly on isolated aspects of this phenomenon. In this article, we provide a unified framework for conflict contagion that takes into account receiver, sender, dyad, and network effects. This is a novel perspective on conflict contagion, and our empirical results suggest that distinguishing between sender and receiver effects allows for a better understanding of spillover effects. We provide insights that especially excluded ethnic groups impact the risk of countries sending and receiving conflicts from its neighbors

Splitting It Up: The spduration Split-Population Duration Regression Package for Time-Varying Covariates

We present an implementation of split-population duration regression in the spduration (Beger et al., 2017) package for R that allows for time-varying covariates. The statistical model accounts for units that are immune to a certain outcome and are not part of the duration process the researcher is primarily interested in. We provide insights for when immune units exist, that can significantly increase the predictive performance compared to standard duration models. The package includes estimation and several post-estimation methods for split-populationWeibull and log-logistic models. We provide an empirical application to data on military coups

Scrub Typhus Presenting as Acute Mastoiditis.

Scrub typhus, a zoonosis, is known to present with varied clinical presentation. We present a case of acute mastoiditis who did not respond to conventional antibiotic therapy. The detailed repeat clinical examination revealed lymphadenopathy with eschar and IgM antibodies for scrub typhus by ELISA were positive. Patient had dramatic response to doxycycline therapy

Case Study: The Surgical Management of Angiokeratoma Resulting from Radiotherapy for Penile Cancer

Angiokeratoma is a rare, benign skin lesion and a recognised complication of radiation therapy. Here we describe a case of extensive angiokeratoma of the groin and external genitalia resulting from external beam radiation to that area in a patient with penile carcinoma. Furthermore, we outline the management of this problem by surgical reconstruction

NanoStreams: A Microserver Architecture for Real-time Analytics on Fast Data Streams

Ever increasing power consumption has created great interest in energy-efficient microserver architectures but they lack the computational, networking and storage power necessary to cope with real-time data analytics. We propose NanoStreams, an integrated architecture comprising an ARM-based microserver, coupled via a novel, low latency network interface, Nanowire, to a Analytics-on-Chip architecture implemented on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology; the architecture comprises ARM cores for performing low latency transactional processing, integrated with programmable, energy efficient Nanocore processors for high-throughput streaming analytics. The paper outlines the complete system architecture, hardware level detail, compiler, network protocol, and programming environment. We present experiments withan industrial workload from the financial services sector, comparing a state-of-the-art server based on Intel Sandy Bridge processors, an ARM based Calxeda ECS-1000 microserver and ODROID XU3 node, with the NanoStreams microserver architecture. For end-to-end workload, the NanoStreams microserver achieves energy savings up to 10.7x, 5.87x and 5x compared to the Intel server, Calxeda microserver and ODROID node respectively

An investigation into the potential for blended learning approaches in enhancing students’ assessment experience on an Introduction to Economics and Statistics Module

Use of audioslides and videoconferencing was trialled on a cohort of undergraduate Level 4 Introductions to Economics and Statistics students during 2010/11 with the aim of evaluating impact in support students' assessment. Audioslides were produced to provide enriched assessment guidance. A private space in a VLE-linked videoconferencing system was offered to students to support group essay writing at a distance. Students' engagement and views were evaluated. Cohort assessment performance was compared with the previous year. Students feel supported by audioslides. Some are interested in using videoconferencing set up and training was too complicated and there was no actual use. They may be interested in using external, non-VLE linked and more familiar tools such as Skype. Neither blended learning approach had a demonstrable impact on assessment performance which was poorer then the pervious 2009/10 year's

Paraganglioma of the Spermatic Cord: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Paragangliomas rarely involve the genitourinary tract. We present a case of a paraganglioma arising from the spermatic cord and review the literature on the topic

WHO Parents Skills Training (PST) programme for children with developmental disorders and delays delivered by Family Volunteers in rural Pakistan: study protocol for effectiveness implementation hybrid cluster randomized controlled trial

Development disorders and delays are recognised as a public health priority and included in the WHO mental health gap action programme (mhGAP). Parents Skills Training (PST) is recommended as a key intervention for such conditions under the WHO mhGAP intervention guide. However, sustainable and scalable delivery of such evidence based interventions remains a challenge. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and scaled-up implementation of locally adapted WHO PST programme delivered by family volunteers in rural Pakistan. The study is a two arm single-blind effectiveness implementation-hybrid cluster randomised controlled trial. WHO PST programme will be delivered by 'family volunteers' to the caregivers of children with developmental disorders and delays in community-based settings. The intervention consists of the WHO PST along with the WHO mhGAP intervention for developmental disorders adapted for delivery using the android application on a tablet device. A total of 540 parent-child dyads will be recruited from 30 clusters. The primary outcome is child's functioning, measured by WHO Disability Assessment Schedule - child version (WHODAS-Child) at 6 months post intervention. Secondary outcomes include children's social communication and joint engagement with their caregiver, social emotional well-being, parental health related quality of life, family empowerment and stigmatizing experiences. Mixed method will be used to collect data on implementation outcomes. Trial has been retrospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02792894). This study addresses implementation challenges in the real world by incorporating evidence-based intervention strategies with social, technological and business innovations. If proven effective, the study will contribute to scaled-up implementation of evidence-based packages for public mental health in low resource settings. Registered with ClinicalTrials.gov as Family Networks (FaNs) for Children with Developmental Disorders and Delays. Identifier: NCT02792894 Registered on 6 July 2016

Histone deacetylase 3 associates with MeCP2 to regulate FOXO and social behavior

Mutations in MECP2 cause the neurodevelopmental disorder Rett syndrome (RTT). The RTT missense MECP2 R306C mutation prevents MeCP2 from interacting with the NCoR/histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) complex; however, the neuronal function of HDAC3 is incompletely understood. We found that neuronal deletion of Hdac3 in mice elicited abnormal locomotor coordination, sociability and cognition. Transcriptional and chromatin profiling revealed that HDAC3 positively regulated a subset of genes and was recruited to active gene promoters via MeCP2. HDAC3-associated promoters were enriched for the FOXO transcription factors, and FOXO acetylation was elevated in Hdac3 knockout (KO) and Mecp2 KO neurons. Human RTT-patient-derived MECP2 R306C neural progenitor cells had deficits in HDAC3 and FOXO recruitment and gene expression. Gene editing of MECP2 R306C cells to generate isogenic controls rescued HDAC3-FOXO-mediated impairments in gene expression. Our data suggest that HDAC3 interaction with MeCP2 positively regulates a subset of neuronal genes through FOXO deacetylation, and disruption of HDAC3 contributes to cognitive and social impairment.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant NS78839