Mapping of southern security and justice civil society organisations and networks

The purpose of this mapping study is to provide the UK Department for International Development (DFID) with a quantitative and qualitative snapshot of security and justice civil society organisations (CSOs) and networks working in and across the countries investigated. CSO engagement on issues of security and justice is inherently difficult in many countries due to the nature of their governing regimes (such as where the state has authoritarian tendencies or where military regimes preside). In some cases the political space for CSOs to engage in issues of security and justice is being increasingly suppressed. Consequently, the success of donor support for security and justice CSOs often depends to a great extent on the political will of respective governments to enable CSOs to work freely. Furthermore, donors who wish to support security and justice CSOs need to take account of the extent to which donor interactions with government security and justice structures may influence the extent and quality of donor interaction with CSOs. In many countries, an understanding of security and justice as conceptualised and defined by donors is lacking amongst civil society – and an understanding of these issues as conceptualised by civil society is often lacking among donors and governments. This scenario even holds true in those countries where civil society as a whole is otherwise vibrant. Consequently, there is a need to increase the basic level of understanding on security and justice matters (both within CSOs and governments), to broaden the strategic community (those working in think tanks or engaged in policy analysis), and to support the development of research capacity and expertise in security and justice areas. Joined up approaches to security and justice work are rare in almost all contexts and common/collaborative/networking fora do not exist. Recommendations were made in almost all sub-regions stating that donor approaches should encourage collaboration at the outset between security and justice CSOs and devise schemes that reward or encourage joined up working

Acute kidney disease and renal recovery : consensus report of the Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI) 16 Workgroup

Consensus definitions have been reached for both acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) and these definitions are now routinely used in research and clinical practice. The KDIGO guideline defines AKI as an abrupt decrease in kidney function occurring over 7 days or less, whereas CKD is defined by the persistence of kidney disease for a period of > 90 days. AKI and CKD are increasingly recognized as related entities and in some instances probably represent a continuum of the disease process. For patients in whom pathophysiologic processes are ongoing, the term acute kidney disease (AKD) has been proposed to define the course of disease after AKI; however, definitions of AKD and strategies for the management of patients with AKD are not currently available. In this consensus statement, the Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI) proposes definitions, staging criteria for AKD, and strategies for the management of affected patients. We also make recommendations for areas of future research, which aim to improve understanding of the underlying processes and improve outcomes for patients with AKD

First steps into the cloud: Using Amazon data storage and computing with Python notebooks.

With the oncoming age of big data, biologists are encountering more use cases for cloud-based computing to streamline data processing and storage. Unfortunately, cloud platforms are difficult to learn, and there are few resources for biologists to demystify them. We have developed a guide for experimental biologists to set up cloud processing on Amazon Web Services to cheaply outsource data processing and storage. Here we provide a guide for setting up a computing environment in the cloud and showcase examples of using Python and Julia programming languages. We present example calcium imaging data in the zebrafish brain and corresponding analysis using suite2p software. Tools for budget and user management are further discussed in the attached protocol. Using this guide, researchers with limited coding experience can get started with cloud-based computing or move existing coding infrastructure into the cloud environment

Syntheses, Characterization and Antimicrobial Evaluation of Some 1, 3, 5-Trisubustituted Pyrazole Derivatives

A series of 1, 3, 5-trisubustituted pyrazole derivatives were synthesized and screened for antimicrobial activity. The compounds (2j-o) were evaluated against two gram-positive and two gram-negative bacteria and one fungus, at concentrations of 10 µg/mL and 50 µg/mL. The compounds were founds to be inactive against P. aeruginosa and A. niger but exhibited moderate activity against B. subtilis, E. coli and S. aureus. It can be concluded that the newly synthesized compounds possess promising antimicrobial activity