The Lottery of Birth: Giving all Children an Equal Chance to Survive

Based on inaugural analysis of disaggregated data from 87 low and middle income countries around the world, this report reveals that in more than three quarters of these countries, inequalities in child survival rates are actually worsening, resulting in some groups of children making far slower progress than their better-off peers. In 78 percent of the countries covered in the report, at least one social or economic group has fallen behind and is therefore making slower progress in reducing child mortality, and in 16 percent of these countries, inequalities in child survival rates have increased across all social and economic groups. Save the Children's analysis suggests that, without a true step change in action, the lottery of birth will continue into the future, slowing progress towards the ultimate goal of ending preventable child deaths for generations to come. However, tackling this inequality is possible. Almost a fifth of the countries in the report, including Rwanda, Malawi, Mexico, and Bangladesh, have successfully combined rapid and inclusive reductions in child mortality, achieving faster progress than most countries, while at the same time ensuring that no groups of children are left behind.The agency calls for the international community to commit to ending preventable child deaths by 2030.The new development framework, which will replace the MDGs, will be agreed upon at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. This framework must set out ambitious child and maternal survival targets and commit to working towards universal health coverage

Chiral Perturbation Theory for B→D∗B \rightarrow D^* and B→DB \rightarrow D Semileptonic Transition Matrix Elements at Zero Recoil

Heavy quark symmetry predicts the value of $B \rightarrow D$ and $B \rightarrow D^*$ transition matrix elements of the current $\bar c \gamma_\mu (1 - \gamma_5)b$, at zero recoil (where in the rest frame of the $B$ the $D$ or $D^*$ is also at rest). We use chiral perturbation theory to compute the leading corrections to these predictions which are generated at low momentum, below the chiral symmetry breaking scale.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure (not included), CALT-68-1844, MIT-CTP-217

Heavy Meson Hyperfine Splittings: A Puzzle for Heavy Quark Chiral Perturbation Theory

We show that there is a large discrepancy between the expected light flavor dependence of the heavy pseudoscalar--vector mass splittings and the measured values. We demonstrate that the one--loop calculation is unreliable. Moreover, agreement with experiment requires the leading dependence on SU(3) symmetry breaking to be nearly cancelled, so that the heavy quark mass dependence is unknown and the expected dependence on the light quark mass is not realized.Comment: 11 pages (LaTeX, 2 PS figures available upon request), MIT-CTP#216

Eureka, CA Fishing Community Sustainability Plan

The Eureka Fishing Community Sustainability Plan (FCSP) is the product of years of planning, hard work, and collaboration among a wide range of interests, led by local commercial and charter fishermen, processors, representatives from the mariculture industry, fishing-related businesses, fishing families, civic leaders, elected officials, City of Eureka staff, academia, business owners and operators, and funding from the federal government. An FCSP is a document outlined in the federal Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) to address “the social development needs of coastal communities.” The word “Fishing” has been added at the community’s discretion to better represent the focus of this strategic planning effort. CSP and FCSP are used interchangeably throughout the document and represent the same outcome. More specifically, CSPs are indicated in MSA for communities that wish to remain eligible to participate in the Federal Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) Groundfish Trawl fishery, an important component of the commercial fishing communities on California’s North Coast. However, in the case of this project, as in recent CSP efforts in California, the fishing communities and civic leaders view the CSP as an opportunity to develop a strategic planning document for the entire fishing industry that ensures its place within the greater economic, social, and environmental fabric of the community as well as to better secure access to the groundfish fishery

Shelter Cove, CA Fishing Community Sustainability Plan

The Shelter Cove Fishing Community Sustainability Plan (FCSP) is the product of a strong collaborative partnership among the fishing community, Humboldt State University, civic leaders, elected officials, and local business owners and operators. The project was funded by a generous grant from Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program, awarded in September of 2016. The FCSP is a powerful example of the Shelter Cove fishing community’s capacity to establish key partnerships, identify opportunities and constraints, procure funding and engage in strategic planning. The FCSP culminates with a list of Recommendations which reflect the highest priorities needs aimed at the success and resilience of the fishing industry. The project takes much of its strength from including the perspective of the commercial, recreational and commercial passenger industries as well as broad cross section of the community. The project kick-off took place in December 2016 and was characterized by an extensive community engagement process which included the formation of an Advisory Committee and meetings in May 2017 and September 2018, a Public Workshop in June of 2017 and site visits and personal interviews throughout June, July and August of 2017. The final report will be presented to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, Humboldt Bay Harbor Conservation and Recreation District and the Resort Improvement District. The Shelter Cove FCSP will ultimately be presented to the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC), the regional governing body for federal fisheries. FCSPs are identified in the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries and Conservation Act (MSA), primary federal fisheries policy, as a requirement for communities that wish to remain eligible for Limited Access Privilege Protocol Programs. The Shelter Cove fishing community saw this as an opportunity to fulfill the tenets of MSA and develop a FCSP that characterizes Shelter Cove by addressing the needs and unique synergy among commercial fishing, recreational fishing and the Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel (CPFV) industry. At the community’s discretion, the report is referred to as a Fishing Community Sustainability Plan or FCSP and identified as such throughout the report

Moving beyond traditional measures – lessons from evaluating collaborative initiatives at Lund University

Over the last decade, universities and other institutions of higher education (HEIs) worldwide have witnessed an evolution to their role relative to society – with increasing attention to external engagement and expectations on societal impact. This has fostered an upswing in activity as research and innovation funding bodies and universities alike explore new approaches to working with external engagement, and led to questions regarding how to evaluate the societal impact of these efforts. Although there are examples of national frameworks to evaluate research impact, the large majority of countries and HEIs around theworld are still experimenting with approaches to evidence and assess their pathway to societal impact. This paper aims to contribute to evolving practice in this field by presenting lessons from the evaluation of a new strategic instrument (thematic collaboration initiatives) at Lund University (LU), Sweden.The evaluation of the strategic instrument “thematic collaboration initiatives” encompassed both initiative/operational and LU leadership/strategic levels. The approach to the evaluation combined traditional measures and processes, together with new indicators and evaluation approaches. The evaluation hasresulted in a better understanding of the range of activities and outputs that one can expect from such collaborative initiatives – informing the selection of measures to include in evaluation efforts. The evaluation also provided new insights on how universities can work with and use evaluation to guide thefurther development of the university’s approach to fostering external engagement. Participatory processes and facilitated reflection were very beneficial to draw out multiple perspectives and possible implicationsfor future development of the instrument

Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of an Elder Financial Abuse Program

Financial exploitation of elders is the fastest growing crime in America, with telemarketing schemes being the prime methods used. The authors developed the Striking Back program, which includes a Leader\u27s Guide, videotape, practice scenarios, and handouts, to make elders aware of the problem and provide strategies for dealing with solicitors. Pre/post knowledge tests were used to determine if learning occurred as a result of the educational program, and a 6-week follow-up evaluation was conducted to determine whether elders had adopted key practices that deter telemarketers. This article presents the program design and implementation strategies as well as evaluation results

Individual score validity and student effort in higher education assessment

This study explored the use of the five invalidity flags plus a new sixth flag based on self-reported effort. Participants were 155 entering first-year university students who were measured during an orientation week and again 18 months later. The instruments were a faculty-developed test of oral communications skills with 40 four-option multiple-choice items and a self-reported measure of test-taking motivation (Student Opinion Survey; Sundre, 1999 adapted from Wolf and Smith, 1995). Results indicated that the Flags explored in this study generalized well to university students. There was a moderate correlation between Response Time Effort and Effort as measured by the Student Opinion Scale, suggesting there was a relationship not captured by the dichotomized flags