1,518 research outputs found
Can Action Research Strengthen District Health Management and Improve Health Workforce Performance? A Research Protocol.
The single biggest barrier for countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to scale up the necessary health services for addressing the three health-related Millennium Development Goals and achieving Universal Health Coverage is the lack of an adequate and well-performing health workforce. This deficit needs to be addressed both by training more new health personnel and by improving the performance of the existing and future health workforce. However, efforts have mostly been focused on training new staff and less on improving the performance of the existing health workforce. The purpose of this paper is to disseminate the protocol for the PERFORM project and reflect on the key challenges encountered during the development of this methodology and how they are being overcome. The overall aim of the PERFORM project is to identify ways of strengthening district management in order to address health workforce inadequacies by improving health workforce performance in SSA. The study will take place in three districts each in Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda using an action research approach. With the support of the country research teams, the district health management teams (DHMTs) will lead on planning, implementation, observation, reflection and redefinition of the activities in the study. Taking into account the national and local human resource (HR) and health systems (HS) policies and practices already in place, 'bundles' of HR/HS strategies that are feasible within the context and affordable within the districts' budget will be developed by the DHMTs to strengthen priority areas of health workforce performance. A comparative analysis of the findings from the three districts in each country will add new knowledge on the effects of these HR/HS bundles on DHMT management and workforce performance and the impact of an action research approach on improving the effectiveness of the DHMTs in implementing these interventions. Different challenges were faced during the development of the methodology. These include the changing context in the study districts, competing with other projects and duties for the time of district managers, complexity of the study design, maintaining the anonymity and confidentiality of study participants as well as how to record the processes during the study. We also discuss how these challenges are being addressed. The dissemination of this research protocol is intended to generate interest in the PERFORM project and also stimulate discussion on the use of action research in complex studies such as this on strengthening district health management to improve health workforce performance
First experimental demonstration of temporal hypertelescope operation with a laboratory prototype
In this paper, we report the first experimental demonstration of a Temporal
HyperTelescope (THT). Our breadboard including 8 telescopes is firstly tested
in a manual cophasing configuration on a 1D object. The Point Spread Function
(PSF) is measured and exhibits a dynamics in the range of 300. A quantitative
analysis of the potential biases demonstrates that this limitation is related
to the residual phase fluctuation on each interferometric arm. Secondly, an
unbalanced binary star is imaged demonstrating the imaging capability of THT.
In addition, 2D PSF is recorded even if the telescope array is not optimized
for this purpose.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 11 pages, 25 figure
Signatures of currency vertices
Many real-world networks have broad degree distributions. For some systems,
this means that the functional significance of the vertices is also broadly
distributed, in other cases the vertices are equally significant, but in
different ways. One example of the latter case is metabolic networks, where the
high-degree vertices -- the currency metabolites -- supply the molecular groups
to the low-degree metabolites, and the latter are responsible for the
higher-order biological function, of vital importance to the organism. In this
paper, we propose a generalization of currency metabolites to currency
vertices. We investigate the network structural characteristics of such
systems, both in model networks and in some empirical systems. In addition to
metabolic networks, we find that a network of music collaborations and a
network of e-mail exchange could be described by a division of the vertices
into currency vertices and others.Comment: to appear in Journal of the Physical Society of Japa
Top-quark mass effects in H+jet and H+2 jets production
We present calculations of Higgs boson production via gluon-gluon fusion in association with one or two additional jets at next-to-leading order in QCD. The calculation of H+jet is exact in the treatment of the top-quark mass, whereas for the H+2 jets calculation the two-loop virtual amplitudes are approximated via a reweighting with leading-order mass effects, while keeping all top-quark mass effects in the real radiation contributions. For H+jet production, this study extends a previous calculation, revealing an error in the previous results. For total and differential cross sections, we present new results and compare the QCD corrections with the infinite top-mass limit, for which we find a strikingly good agreement if all amplitudes are rescaled by the leading-order mass dependence
Top-quark mass effects in H+jet and H+2 jets production
We present calculations of Higgs boson production via gluon-gluon fusion in association with one or two additional jets at next-to-leading order in QCD. The calculation of H+jet is exact in the treatment of the top-quark mass, whereas for the H+2 jets calculation the two-loop virtual amplitudes are approximated via a reweighting with leading-order mass effects, while keeping all top-quark mass effects in the real radiation contributions. For H+jet production, this study extends a previous calculation, revealing an error in the previous results. For total and differential cross sections, we present new results and compare the QCD corrections with the infinite top-mass limit, for which we find a strikingly good agreement if all amplitudes are rescaled by the leading-order mass dependence
Modeling axial spinal segments of the salamander central pattern generator for locomotion
Poster presentationInternational audiencen.
High precision fundamental constants at the TeV scale
This report summarizes the proceedings of the 2014 Mainz Institute for
Theoretical Physics (MITP) scientific program on "High precision fundamental
constants at the TeV scale". The two outstanding parameters in the Standard
Model dealt with during the MITP scientific program are the strong coupling
constant and the top-quark mass . Lacking knowledge on the
value of those fundamental constants is often the limiting factor in the
accuracy of theoretical predictions. The current status on and
has been reviewed and directions for future research have been identified.Comment: 57 pages, 24 figures, pdflate
XTE J1739-302 as a Supergiant Fast X-ray Transient
XTE J1739-302 is a transient X-ray source with unusually short outbursts,
lasting on the order of hours. Here we give a summary of X-ray observations we
have made of this object in outburst with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer
(RXTE) and at a low level of activity with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, as
well as observations made by other groups. Visible and infrared spectroscopy of
the mass donor of XTE J1739-302 are presented in a companion paper. The X-ray
spectrum is hard both at low levels and in outburst, but somewhat variable, and
there is strong variability in the absorption column from one outburst to
another. Although no pulsation has been observed, the outburst data from
multiple observatories show a characteristic timescale for variability on the
order of 1500-2000 s. The Chandra localization (right ascension 17h 39m 11.58s,
declination -30o 20' 37.6'', J2000) shows that despite being located less than
2 degrees from the Galactic Center and highly absorbed, XTE J1739-302 is
actually a foreground object with a bright optical counterpart. The combination
of a very short outburst timescale and a supergiant companion is shared with
several other recently-discovered systems, forming a class we designate as
Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients (SFXTs). Three persistently bright X-ray
binaries with similar supergiant companions have also produced extremely short,
bright outbursts: Cyg X-1, Vela X-1, and 1E 1145.1-6141.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, in press in The Astrophysical Journal;
see also the companion paper by Negueruela et a
Aluminum-, Calcium- And Titanium-Rich Oxide Stardust In Ordinary Chondrite Meteorites
We report isotopic data for a total of 96 presolar oxide grains found in
residues of several unequilibrated ordinary chondrite meteorites. Identified
grain types include Al2O3, MgAl2O4, hibonite (CaAl12O19) and Ti oxide. This
work greatly increases the presolar hibonite database, and is the first report
of presolar Ti oxide. O-isotopic compositions of the grains span previously
observed ranges and indicate an origin in red giant and asymptotic giant branch
(AGB) stars of low mass (<2.5 MSun) for most grains. Cool bottom processing in
the parent AGB stars is required to explain isotopic compositions of many
grains. Potassium-41 enrichments in hibonite grains are attributable to in situ
decay of now-extinct 41Ca. Inferred initial 41Ca/40Ca ratios are in good
agreement with model predictions for low-mass AGB star envelopes, provided that
ionization suppresses 41Ca decay. Stable Mg and Ca isotopic ratios of most of
the hibonite grains reflect primarily the initial compositions of the parent
stars and are generally consistent with expectations for Galactic chemical
evolution, but require some local interstellar chemical inhomogeneity. Very
high 17O/16O or 25Mg/24Mg ratios suggest an origin for some grains in binary
star systems where mass transfer from an evolved companion has altered the
parent star compositions. A supernova origin for the hitherto enigmatic
18O-rich Group 4 grains is strongly supported by multi-element isotopic data
for two grains. The Group 4 data are consistent with an origin in a single
supernova in which variable amounts of material from the deep 16O-rich interior
mixed with a unique end-member mixture of the outer layers. The Ti oxide grains
primarily formed in low-mass AGB stars. They are smaller and rarer than
presolar Al2O3, reflecting the lower abundance of Ti than Al in AGB envelopes.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 47 pages, 13 figure
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