Building leadership capacity and future leaders in operational research in low-income countries: why and how?

Very limited operational research (OR) emerges from programme settings in low-income countries where the greatest burden of disease lies. The price paid for this void includes a lack of understanding of how health systems are actually functioning, not knowing what works and what does not, and an inability to propose adapted and innovative solutions to programme problems. We use the National Tuberculosis Control Programme as an example to advocate for strong programme-level leadership to steer OR and build viable relationships between programme managers, researchers and policy makers. We highlight the need to create a stimulating environment for conducting OR and identify some of the main practical challenges and enabling factors at programme level. We focus on the important role of an OR focal point within programmes and practical approaches to training that can deliver timely and quantifiable outputs. Finally, we emphasise the need to measure successful OR leadership development at programme level and we propose parameters by which this can be assessed. This paper 1) provides reasons why programmes should take the lead in coordinating and directing OR, 2) identifies the practical challenges and enabling factors for implementing, managing and sustaining OR and 3) proposes parameters for measuring successful leadership capacity development in OR

Synthesis, Spectral Characterization and Antibacterial Investigation of Ni(II) Coordination Complexes of Macrocyclic Schiff base ligands Derived from 4-Aminoantipyrine

A series of Ni(II) complexes (NiL1-NiL5) have been synthesized from macrocyclic Schiff base ligands (L1-L5) were obtained from condensation of  4-aminoantipyrine derivative (L) with different diamines and hydrazides. All these compounds were well characterized by elemental, spectral analysis(mass, IR, 1H-NMR, electronic), magnetic suseceptibility, molar conductance and thermal studies. Macrocyclic Schiff bases are tetradentate with N4 donor system around the metal ion.Octahedral geometry have been assigned for all complexes. All ligands and complexes were examined for antibacterial activity and found that complexes were more potent when compared to ligands. &nbsp

Awareness campaign for Fisherwomen

Women in fishing communities have decisioh-making role in community management. With the increasing commercialisation of fishing industry I women's access to post-harvest operations in fisheries has been declining: It is- estimated that only about 20 percent of women from traditional fishing households get opportunities for income generation from fishery related activities which are seasonal

Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Elbow: A Structured Approach

Context: The elbow is a complex joint and commonly injured in athletes. Evaluation of the elbow by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important adjunct to the physical examination. To facilitate accurate diagnosis, a concise structured approach to evaluation of the elbow by MRI is presented. Evidence Acquisition: A PubMed search was performed using the terms elbow and MR imaging. No limits were set on the range of years searched. Articles were reviewed for relevance with an emphasis of the MRI appearance of normal anatomy and common pathology of the elbow. Results: The spectrum of common elbow disorders varies from obvious acute fractures to chronic overuse injuries whose imaging manifestations can be subtle. MRI evaluation should include bones; lateral, medial, anterior, and posterior muscle groups; the ulnar and radial collateral ligaments; as well as nerves, synovium, and bursae. Special attention should be paid to the valgus extension overload syndrome and the MRI appearance of associated injuries when evaluating throwing athletes. Conclusion: MRI evaluation of the elbow should follow a structured approach to facilitate thoroughness, accuracy, and speed. Such an approach should cover bone, cartilage, muscle, tendons, ligaments, synovium, bursae, and nerves

Exchange Bias Effect in Au-Fe3O4 Nanocomposites

We report exchange bias (EB) effect in the Au-Fe3O4 composite nanoparticle system, where one or more Fe3O4 nanoparticles are attached to an Au seed particle forming dimer and cluster morphologies, with the clusters showing much stronger EB in comparison with the dimers. The EB effect develops due to the presence of stress in the Au-Fe3O4 interface which leads to the generation of highly disordered, anisotropic surface spins in the Fe3O4 particle. The EB effect is lost with the removal of the interfacial stress. Our atomistic Monte-Carlo studies are in excellent agreement with the experimental results. These results show a new path towards tuning EB in nanostructures, namely controllably creating interfacial stress, and open up the possibility of tuning the anisotropic properties of biocompatible nanoparticles via a controllable exchange coupling mechanism.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Nanotechnolog

PyExaFMM: An Exercise in Designing High-Performance Software With Python and Numba

Numba is a game-changing compiler for high-performance computing with Python. It produces machine code that runs outside of the single-threaded Python interpreter, and that fully utilizes the resources of modern CPUs. This means support for parallel multithreading and auto-vectorization if available, as with compiled languages such as C++ or Fortran. In this article, we document our experience developing PyExaFMM, a multithreaded Numba implementation of the fast multipole method, an algorithm with a nonlinear data structure and a large amount of data organization. We find that designing performant Numba code for complex algorithms can be as challenging as writing in a compiled language

Total Synthesis and Structure–Activity Relationship Studies of the Cytotoxic Anhydrophytosphingosine Jaspine B (Pachastrissamine)

By utilizing an l-serine-derived bicyclic lactone as an advanced chiral building block, a short synthetic route to the cytotoxic marine natural product jaspine B has been developed. Targeting structure–activity relationship investigations, the synthetic route has also been utilized for the synthesis and cytotoxicity evaluation of strategically modified jaspine B analogues. In addition, a previously reported synthesis of the title natural product from our research has been reinvestigated to clarify the sterochemical assignment