Data Resource Profile: Countdown to 2015: Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival

The Countdown to 2015 country profiles present, in one place, comprehensive evidence to enable an assessment of a country's progress in improving reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Profiles are available for each of the 75 countries that together account for more than 95% of all maternal and child deaths. The two-page profiles are updated approximately every 2 years with new data and analyses. Profile data include demographics, mortality, nutritional status, coverage of evidence-based interventions, within-countries inequalities in coverage, measures of health system functionality, supportive policies and financing indicators. The main sources of data for the coverage, nutritional status and equity indicators are the US Agency for Internal Development (USAID)-supported demographic and health surveys and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)-supported multiple indicator cluster surveys. Data on coverage are first summarized and checked for quality by UNICEF, and data on equity in intervention coverage are summarized and checked by the Federal University of Pelotas. The mortality estimates are developed by the Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation and the Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group. The financing data are abstracted from datasets maintained by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Assistance Committee, and the policies and health systems data are derived from a special compilation prepared by the World Health Organization. Associated country profiles include equity-specific profiles and one-page profiles prepared annually that report on the 11 indicators selected by the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Healt

H2 production in Palladium-based Membrane Reactor

One possible use for hydrogen, without direct greenhouse gas emissions, is as feed for a fuel cell (FC), with the most readily available technology being a proton exchange membrane FC (PEMFC). In order to avoid the poison of PEMFC’s Pt-based catalyst due to the presence of ppm levels of CO, the hydrogen feed needs to be ultra-pure. The industrial process for hydrogen production, which is a multi-step energy intensive process followed by further separation/purification, can be a potential source [1]. However, as an alternative method a Pd-based membrane reactor (MR) can be used owing to its ability to provide the pure hydrogen without any further purification. Moreover, the MR works at milder operating conditions compared to the traditional system. In the last years, Pd-based composite membranes, i.e. thin metallic layer supported on such porous materials as ceramics or stainless steel, have been considered owing to their lower cost (thin Pd layer) and higher mechanical resistant (porous support) than dense Pd-based ones [2]. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the potentialities of a Pd membrane supported on porous stainless steel (PSS) with the intent to produce pure hydrogen from methane steam reforming. The initial characterization of the membrane by way of ideal selectivity took place at 400°C with H2, He and N2 and P in the range of 1.5 - 3.0 bar. After ideal selectivity characterization of the Pd/PSS membrane, methane steam reforming reaction is carried out in MR by varying reaction pressure and sweep gas flow rate. The best performance of the Pd-based MR is obtained at 400 °C, 3.0 bar and 100 mL/min of sweep-gas, yielding a methane conversion of 84%, hydrogen recovery of 82%, and obtaining a pure hydrogen stream at the permeate side. REFERENCES [1] Rostrup-Nielsen, J.R., Catalytic steam reforming. 1984: Springer. [2] Liguori, S., et al., Performance of a Pd/PSS membrane reactor to produce high purity hydrogen via WGS reaction. Catalysis Today, 2012. 193(1): p. 87-94

Australian Young People, their families and postschool plans : a research review

This literature review is part of a project commissioned by The Smith Family that is investigating the effects and influences of family expectations on the cost benefit analyses undertaken by students when they are considering their post-school plans. The 2006 report for The Smith Family, On track? Students choosing a career, pointed to the possibility of a strong effect of family expectations on young people’s post-school plans (Beavis, 2006). Post-school plans often include decisions about further education, so a family’s influence or involvement in assessing the costs and benefits associated with this decision is not surprising (Usher, 2005). On track? identified uncertainties about how and to what extent family expectations shape young people’s educational plans. It concluded that the extent to which this influence is shaped by the gender, interests and ability of the young people remains unknown The present project is intended to help better understand the inter-relationships between family expectations and young people’s plans. It comprises this literature review which informs the development and analysis of some intensive case studies of a small number of young people and their families. The report includes a consideration of the key issues resulting from the research as well as suggestions for policy and further practice

Evaluation of school-based arts education programs in Australian schools

This evaluation of four Australian school-based arts programs found that, although there was no evidence of improvement in academic progress, involvement in arts programs has a positive impact on students\u27 engagement with learning and often leads to improved attendance at school.Participation in school-based arts education programs can have a positive impact on students\u27 engagement with learning, according to recent ACER research. However, there was little statistical evidence of improvement in academic progress as a result of participation in arts education. Jennifer Bryce reports on the study. Anecdotal evidence from Australian arts programs and overseas studies suggest that exposure to the arts provides positive general learning outcomes, particularly for young people who are Indigenous, in remote or regional communities or from disadvantaged backgrounds. Four Australian school-based arts programs were evaluated, with a focus on the following questions: * What is the impact of each arts program on participating students\u27 academic progress, engagement with learning and attendance at school? * Are empirical or anecdotal examples of improved learning outcomes substantiated? * What are the attributes of arts programs that are of particular benefit to students? Four schools were selected for the study because they were seen as examples of good practice that might substantiate claims that exposure to the arts provides positive general learning outcomes. There was a range of ages and a diverse range of backgrounds among the participating students. Data were taken from a range of sources, including administrative records, interviews, observations, questionnaires and tests and other assessments administered as part of the study

Evaluation of school-based arts education programmes in Australian schools

This report presents evaluations of four Australian school-based arts programmes: Arts@Direk (SA), Boys’ Business (NT), Indigenous Music Education Programme (NT), and SCRAYP – Youth Arts with an Edge (Vic). Arts@Direk and SCRAYP provided a focus on drama, while Boys’ Business and Indigenous Music Education Programme (IMEP) concentrated on music. There was a range of ages from Year 4 to Year 10 and a diverse range of backgrounds amongst the participating students. The study investigated the impact of each arts programme on students’ academic progress, engagement with learning and school attendance. It also considered which attributes of arts programmes were of particular benefit to the students

Standards for CHERG reviews of intervention effects on child survival

Background The Lives Saved Tool (LiST) uses estimates of the effects of interventions on cause-specific child mortality as a basis for generating projections of child lives that could be saved by increasing coverage of effective interventions. Estimates of intervention effects are an essential element of LiST, and need to reflect the best available scientific evidence. This article describes the guidelines developed by the Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group (CHERG) that are applied by scientists conducting reviews of intervention effects for use in LiST. Methods The guidelines build on and extend those developed by the Cochrane Collaboration and the Working Group for Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). They reflect the experience gained by the CHERG intervention review groups in conducting the reviews published in this volume, and will continue to be refined through future reviews. Presentation of the guidelines Expected products and guidelines are described for six steps in the CHERG intervention review process: (i) defining the scope of the review; (ii) conducting the literature search; (iii) extracting information from individual studies; (iv) assessing and summarizing the evidence; (v) translating the evidence into estimates of intervention effects and (vi) presenting the results. Conclusions The CHERG intervention reviews represent an ambitious effort to summarize existing evidence and use it as the basis for supporting sound public health decision making through LiST. These efforts will continue, and a similar process is now under way to assess intervention effects for reducing maternal mortalit

Investigating the effectiveness of education in relation to alcohol: A systematic investigation of critical elements for optimum effectiveness of promising approaches and delivery methods in school and family linked alcohol education

Background: This review examined evidence for school and family linked alcohol education programmes to reduce or prevent the misuse of alcohol by young people. The review aimed to identify critical programme or contextual elements positively associated with evidence of effectiveness. The review paid particular attention to, but was not confined to programmes that included social norms education and/or life skills training and/or the Good Behaviour Game and/or peer-to-peer delivery components. The review was conducted by the Institute for Social Marketing, a joint initiative of the University of Stirling and the Open University. It was commissioned by the Alcohol Education and Research Council (AERC) on behalf of the Drinkaware Trust (DAT) who provided the funding. The original stated purpose of the study was 'to collate evidence that would help to inform how best DAT could approach and be involved in school-based alcohol education across the UK'. Methods: Systematic literature search methods were used, along with a combined quality appraisal and evidence weighting assessment to identify 'promising' interventions. Promising interventions were defined as any intervention where study design was assessed as sound. Weight of evidence for aggregated evaluation results for each intervention was classified as equivocal or convincing. Any intervention reporting adverse effects on substance misuse was excluded. After all relevance and quality screening was completed, the review identified 39 studies collectively reporting on 25 interventions. The results were analysed thematically and with reference to pre-specified research questions. Findings: - The most effective social norms interventions targeted peer alcohol use. Social norm change objectives in both school-based and family components were common and associated with effectiveness. Most of the evidence of effectiveness was derived from mass marketed (not personalised) social norms and did not appear to be informed by dedicated formative research. - Life Skills Training (LST) was also a popular approach, often combined with approaches intended to strengthen protective family factors. Most of the evidence derived from the USA, so cultural transferability remains unclear and requires further piloting. - There was evidence that peer-to-peer delivery is more effective when combined with peer driven planning and other techniques aimed at deeper engagement with target audiences and genuine participatory change. - Reducing environmental availability of alcohol to young people as well as community tolerance of young people's consumption of alcohol appears to enhance the effectiveness of school and family linked alcohol education programmes. - The evidence indicates that a range of education approaches and delivery methods can make a small positive contribution to harm reduction, but there are many examples of interventions which are ineffective or harmful. - Neither knowledge and attitude change, nor acceptability of an intervention is predictive of positive behaviour change. - Involving external specialists can enhance acceptability and effectiveness, but is not critical to effectiveness. - Interventions perceived by target audiences as personally relevant achieve higher retention rates and are more effective than interventions that do not resonate with day to day concerns and circumstances of target audiences. - There is evidence that programme effects, can be sustained up to six years after intervention completion. However, for most interventions positive effects decline fairly rapidly over time and therefore some type(s) of reinforcement intervention are required to maintain positive effects. - Short duration, low-involvement interventions can achieve similar short-term effects to more intensive and longer term interventions. - Most combined family and school‐based interventions appear to lack a holistic perspective or any explanation for how the two components integrated and/or complemented one another within the overall programme design and its aims. Strategic Implications and Recommendations: Combined school and family based alcohol education interventions will be most effective when integrated with broader based environmental interventions. Integration with community interventions can also help to build community ownership and improve intervention acceptability. Explicit linkage of educational interventions with environmental intervention is therefore recommended. Clear conceptual rationale for both the individual content and the integration of school and family components may strengthen efficacy and cost effectiveness. Research in the future on which elements are best delivered via school and which via family programme components would be helpful to future programme design and planning. An overarching strategy grounded in a theoretical model with clear goals and rationale will help guide consistency of messages, priorities and credibility of intervention agents and harm reduction/prevention objectives. This may be especially critical if multiple programmes and target audiences are supported by an intervention organisation. Bottom up/participatory planning and delivery of current practice could be strengthened significantly and the use of specialists in participatory research, development and evaluation are recommended. Consistent, systematic and pre-planned evaluation of future interventions would make a valuable contribution to the scientific evidence base and development of better practice and is therefore recommended. Restricting funding of all future intervention proposals to those which provide a detailed (including dedicated budget) evaluation plan would help to generate reliable and credible practice based evidence. Research into the cost-effectiveness and efficacy of a planned series of short duration, age appropriate interventions would be a useful contribution to the evidence base and development of better practice. Behaviour change must be the definitive measure of effectiveness. It is recommended that scaling up investment should be restricted to approaches and methods that have previously demonstrated measurable (albeit probably small) reductions in alcohol use/misuse, and report comprehensive implementation details

The Star Formation Across Cosmic Time (SFACT) Survey. III. Spectroscopy of the Initial Catalog of Emission-Line Objects

The Star Formation Across Cosmic Time (SFACT) survey is a new narrowband survey designed to detect emission-line galaxies (ELGs) and quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) over a wide range of redshifts in discrete redshift windows. The survey utilizes the WIYN 3.5m telescope and the Hydra multifiber positioner to perform efficient follow-up spectroscopy on galaxies identified in the imaging part of the survey. Since the objects in the SFACT survey are selected by their strong emission lines, it is possible to obtain useful spectra for even the faintest of our sources (r ~ 25). Here we present the 453 objects that have spectroscopic data from the three SFACT pilot-study fields, 415 of which are confirmed ELGs. The methodology for processing and measuring these data is outlined in this paper and example spectra are displayed for each of the three primary emission lines used to detect objects in the survey (H-alpha, [O III]5007, and [O II]3727). Spectra of additional QSOs and non-primary emission-line detections are also shown as examples. The redshift distribution of the pilot-study sample is examined and the ELGs are placed in different emission-line diagnostic diagrams in order to distinguish the star-forming galaxies from the active galactic nuclei.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Improved measurement for mothers, newborns and children in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals.

BACKGROUND: An urgent priority in maternal, newborn and child health is to accelerate the scale-up of cost-effective essential interventions, especially during labor, the immediate postnatal period and for the treatment of serious infectious diseases and acute malnutrition.  Tracking intervention coverage is a key activity to support scale-up and in this paper we examine priorities in coverage measurement, distinguishing between essential interventions that can be measured now and those that require methodological development. METHODS: We conceptualized a typology of indicators related to intervention coverage that distinguishes access to care from receipt of an intervention by the population in need.  We then built on documented evidence on coverage measurement to determine the status of indicators for essential interventions and to identify areas for development. RESULTS: Contact indicators from pregnancy to childhood were identified as current indicators for immediate use, but indicators reflecting the quality of care provided during these contacts need development. At each contact point, some essential interventions can be measured now, but the need for development of indicators predominates around interventions at the time of birth and interventions to treat infections. Addressing this need requires improvements in routine facility based data capture, methods for linking provider and community-based data, and improved guidance for effective coverage measurement that reflects the provision of high-quality care. CONCLUSION: Coverage indicators for some essential interventions can be measured accurately through household surveys and be used to track progress in maternal, newborn and child health.  Other essential interventions currently rely on contact indicators as proxies for coverage but urgent attention is needed to identify new measurement approaches that directly and reliably measure their effective coverage