Strategic evaluation study on child-centred community development - Synthesis report

This strategic formative evaluation was carried out by Wageningen International Capacity Development & Institutional Change (CD&IC) programme from May to September 2009. The evaluation aims to obtain insight into the understanding of CCCD within Plan, and to learn more about the factors that favour or obstruct the implementation of Child Centred Community Development (CCCD) in practice. Suggestions on improving CCCD as an approach to development are provided, as well as an analysis of capacity development needs for CCCD implementation. This evaluation report is a product of Phase I of the complete anticipated evaluation trajectory. Phase II will most likely include an international workshop around the findings of Phase I. The findings of Phase I will contribute to the track record for the MFS II application to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs which Plan Netherlands is currently preparing. The study comprised a desk research stage, which reviewed relevant Plan documentation as well as consultations with key stakeholders within Plan worldwide. During this stage face to face interviews were conducted in Plan IH office in Woking, and at NLNO in Amsterdam. Other interviews with stakeholders in ROs and NOs were done using Skype. Furthermore two field studies were conducted in Kenya and Bangladesh. Given the fact that the topic of the study is broad, it is limited to analysis of the wider issues pertaining to CCCD rather than in-depth detailed analysis of these issues

Holography, Fractionalization and Magnetic Fields

Four dimensional gravity with a U(1) gauge field, coupled to various fields in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetime, provides a rich arena for the holographic study of the strongly coupled (2+1)-dimensional dynamics of finite density matter charged under a global U(1). As a first step in furthering the study of the properties of fractionalized and partially fractionalized degrees of freedom in the strongly coupled theory, we construct electron star solutions at zero temperature in the presence of a background magnetic field. We work in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory. In all cases we construct, the magnetic source is cloaked by an event horizon. A key ingredient of our solutions is our observation that starting with the standard Landau level structure for the density of states, the electron star limits reduce the charge density and energy density to that of the free fermion result. Using this result we construct three types of solution: One has a star in the infra-red with an electrically neutral horizon, another has a star that begins at an electrically charged event horizon, and another has the star begin a finite distance from an electrically charged horizon.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to Springer Lecture Notes: Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields. v2: Updated references and adjusted some phrasing in the introductio

Selection by AZT and Rapid Replacement in the Absence of Drugs of HIV Type 1 Resistant to Multiple Nucleoside Analogs

We studied the intrahost evolution and dynamics of a multidrug-resistant HIV-1, which contains an insertion of two amino acids (aa) and several aa changes within the reverse transcriptase (RT) gene. From an individual receiving intermittent therapy, sequences of 231 full-length molecular clones of HIV-1 RT were obtained from serum-derived viruses at 12 consecutive time points over a period of 6 years, 17 to 20 clones per time point. In the 3.5-year period prior to the first course of therapy, only wild-type (wt) viruses were found. As soon as 6 months after the start of zidovudine (AZT) monotherapy, all viruses contained an insertion of two aa between positions 68 and 69 of the RT and aa changes at positions 67 and 215, a combination conferring resistance to multiple nucleoside analogs. After termination of therapy, the insertion mutants were rapidly and completely replaced by the wt viruses. In turn, the insertion mutants replaced the wt viruses after initiation of therapy with 3TC, d4T, and saquinavir. After termination of triple therapy, the wt viruses completely replaced the mutants within 1 month, which is markedly faster than has been observed earlier for the replacement of AZT-resistant viruses. Fast replacements of the mutant virus populations after termination of therapy indicate gross competitive disadvantage of the insertion mutant in the absence of therapy, which we estimated by using several models. The insertion mutants attained high virus loads, demonstrating that virus load cannot be used as a direct measure of virus fitness

Universal Features of Holographic Anomalies

We study the mechanism by which gravitational actions reproduce the trace anomalies of the holographically related conformal field theories. Two universal features emerge: a) the ratios of type B trace anomalies in any even dimension are independent of the gravitational action, being uniquely determined by the underlying algebraic structure b) the normalization of the type A and the overall normalization of the type B anomalies are given by action dependent expressions with the dimension dependence completely fixed.Comment: 17 pages, harvma

A zebrafish high throughput screening system used for Staphylococcus epidermidis infection marker discovery.

Animal science

The Dominant Source of CD4+ and CD8+ T-Cell Activation in HIV Infection Is Antigenic Stimulation

To distinguish between antigenic stimulation and CD4+ T-cell homeostasis as the cause of T-cell hyperactivation in HIV infection, we studied T-cell activation in 47 patients before and during highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). We show that expression of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR, CD38, and Ki67 on T cells decreased during HAART but remained elevated over normal values until week 48 of therapy. We confirm previous reports that T-cell activation correlates positively with plasma HIV RNA levels (suggesting antigenic stimulation), and negatively with CD4 count (suggesting CD4+ T-cell homeostasis). However, these correlations may be spurious, because misleading, due to the well-established negative correlation between CD4 count and plasma HIV RNA levels. To resolve this conflict, we computed partial correlation coefficients. Correcting for CD4 counts, we show that plasma HIV RNA levels contributed to T-cell hyperactivation. Correcting for plasma HIV RNA levels, we show that CD4+ T-cell depletion contributed to T-cell activation. Correcting for both, activation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells remained positively correlated. Because this suggests that CD4^+ and CD8^+ T-cell activation is caused by a common additional factor, we conclude that antigenic stimulation by HIV or other (opportunistic) infections is the most parsimonious explanation for T-cell activation in HIV infection. Persistence of HIV antigens may explain why T-cell activation fails to revert to levels found in healthy individuals after 48 weeks of therapy

Outcome of debridement, antibiotics, and implant retention for staphylococcal hip and knee prosthetic joint infections, focused on rifampicin use: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The treatment of staphylococcal prosthetic joint infection (PJI) with debridement, antibiotics, and retention of the implant (DAIR) often results in failure. An important evidence gap concerns the treatment with rifampicin for PJI. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to assess the outcome of staphylococcal hip and/or knee PJI after DAIR, focused on the role of rifampicin. Studies published until September 2, 2020 were included. Success rates were stratified for type of joint and type of micro-organism. Sixty-four studies were included. The pooled risk ratio for rifampicin effectiveness was 1.10 (95% confidence interval, 1.00-1.22). The pooled success rate was 69% for Staphylococcus aureus hip PJI, 54% for S aureus knee PJI, 83% for coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) hip PJI, and 73% for CNS knee PJI. Success rates for MRSA PJI (58%) were similar to MSSA PJI (60%). The metaanalysis indicates that rifampicin may only prevent a small fraction of all treatment failures.Orthopaedics, Trauma Surgery and Rehabilitatio

Self-Organized Branching Processes: A Mean-Field Theory for Avalanches

We discuss mean-field theories for self-organized criticality and the connection with the general theory of branching processes. We point out that the nature of the self-organization is not addressed properly by the previously proposed mean-field theories. We introduce a new mean-field model that explicitly takes the boundary conditions into account; in this way, the local dynamical rules are coupled to a global equation that drives the control parameter to its critical value. We study the model numerically, and analytically we compute the avalanche distributions.Comment: 4 pages + 4 ps figure

Quantum Criticality via Magnetic Branes

Holographic methods are used to investigate the low temperature limit, including quantum critical behavior, of strongly coupled 4-dimensional gauge theories in the presence of an external magnetic field, and finite charge density. In addition to the metric, the dual gravity theory contains a Maxwell field with Chern-Simons coupling. In the absence of charge, the magnetic field induces an RG flow to an infrared AdS$_3 \times {\bf R}^2$ geometry, which is dual to a 2-dimensional CFT representing strongly interacting fermions in the lowest Landau level. Two asymptotic Virasoro algebras and one chiral Kac-Moody algebra arise as {\sl emergent symmetries} in the IR. Including a nonzero charge density reveals a quantum critical point when the magnetic field reaches a critical value whose scale is set by the charge density. The critical theory is probed by the study of long-distance correlation functions of the boundary stress tensor and current. All quantities of major physical interest in this system, such as critical exponents and scaling functions, can be computed analytically. We also study an asymptotically AdS$_6$ system whose magnetic field induced quantum critical point is governed by a IR Lifshitz geometry, holographically dual to a D=2+1 field theory. The behavior of these holographic theories shares important similarities with that of real world quantum critical systems obtained by tuning a magnetic field, and may be relevant to materials such as Strontium Ruthenates.Comment: To appear in Lect. Notes Phys. "Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields" (Springer), edited by D. Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A. Schmitt, H.-U. Ye

Temperature dependence of optical spectral weights in quarter-filled ladder systems

The temperature dependence of the integrated optical conductivity I(T) reflects the changes of the kinetic energy as spin and charge correlations develop. It provides a unique way to explore experimentally the kinetic properties of strongly correlated systems. We calculated I(T) in the frame of a t-J-V model at quarter-filling for ladder systems, like NaV_2O_5, and show that the measured strong T dependence of I(T) for NaV_2O_5 can be explained by the destruction of short range antiferromagnetic correlations. Thus I(T) provides detailed information about super-exchange and magnetic energy scales.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure