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

Combatting Substandard and Falsified Medicines: A View from Rwanda

Agnes Binagwaho and colleagues describe Rwanda's experience of pharmacovigilance for malaria and tuberculosis, and call for a global treaty and leadership by the World Health Organization to address the global manufacture and trade in substandard and falsified medicines. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summar

Effect of foliar spraying mixed with Fish Amino Acids (FAA) and Oriental Herbal Nutrient (OHN) extract on growth, yield and quality of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)

Foliar spraying with mixed Fish Amino Acids (FAA) and Oriental Herbal Nutrients (OHN) extract are essential elements for watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) growth and development, production and significantly increase lycopene and total soluble solids content without degrading the natural resources. The mixture of F3O3 (3ml.l-1 of FAA + 3ml.l-1 of OHN) shows the highest vine length, internode length and number of leaves with 601.6 cm; 27.4 cm and 129.3 at 60 DAT respectively,while the control (F0O0) was 402.8 cm; 23.4 cm and 97.2 respectively. Highest yield (ton.ha-1) and fruit length (cm) were recorded under F3O3 with 82.0 ton.ha-1 and 42.1 cm respectively, where the control (F0O0)was 53.3 ton.ha-1 and 33.6 cm respectively. The high concentration of FAA in a mixture had negative effect on total soluble solids content but their effects were positive in lycopene content while the high concentration of OHN had a positive effect on the total soluble solids content in brix percentage and less effect on Lycopene content. The highest brix content were 14.2 in F1O3 followed by 14.1 in F1O2, the least found in F3O1 with 12.6. The lycopene content were high in F3O3 (105.91μg.g-1) followed by F3O2 (105.04μg.g-1) where the least were (38.26μg.g-1) F3O3 fresh weight. Keywords: Watermelon; Fish Amino Acids; Oriental Herbal Nutrients and Bio stimulan

Enhanced adhesion of polypyrrole/PW12O40 3- hybrid coatings on polyester fabrics

Polyester fabrics have been treated with plasma to increase polypyrrole/PW12O40 3- (hybrid material) adhesion to its surface. With the plasma treatment, the roughness of the fibers increases as it has been observed by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM). Polar functional groups are also created on the surface of polyester fabrics as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements have shown. These polar groups contribute to the adhesion of polypyrrole to the fibers. Coatings obtained on plasma treated fabrics were more resistant to washing and rubbing fastness tests. The use of an inorganic counter ion (PW12O 403-) that contains an element with a high atomic number (W) helps to locate zones where the coating is missed; this is achieved by means of micrographs obtained by backscattered electrons (BSE). The electrical resistance of the fabrics was also measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), obtaining also better results with the plasma treated fabrics. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Authors thank to the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (contracts CTM2010-18842-C02-02 and CTM2011-23583) and Universitat Politècnica de València (Primeros Proyectos de Investigación (PAID-06-10)) for the financial support. J. Molina is grateful to the Conselleria d'Educació (Generalitat Valenciana) for the FPI fellowship

Exploring the Determinants of joining Dairy Farmers Cooperatives in Rwanda: A Perspective of Matimba and Isangano Cooperatives

This study investigates why some dairy farmers join cooperatives while others are reluctant to join or drop out, in spite of the perception that cooperatives help in eradicating poverty. Also, the study investigated the benefits and chal-lenges of being in the cooperatives. According to United Nations (2009) coop-eratives ―play a meaningful role in uplifting the socio-economic conditions of their members and local communities‖. Despite the much touted benefits as-sociated with the cooperatives some dairy farmers are still reluctant to join. This raises a lot of questions, for example (i) why do some farmers join?, (ii) why do other farmers refuse to join ? and (iii) are cooperatives really useful to their members?. Thus this study helps to reveal some of the reasons for and against joining the cooperatives and presents the benefits and the challenges of participating in the cooperatives. The study used the survey methods to extract primary data from the re-spondents who included dairy farmers both within and outside the coopera-tives and key government agents. It also reviewed literature about cooperatives from journals and articles from major organisations. Matimba and Isangano dairy cooperatives were used as case studies. According to the findings, farmers join cooperatives because of various reasons. Among the prominent reasons are; the need to access markets and agro-vet services and access training opportunities and the need to work with others. The study established that some farmers have not yet joined because; they could not afford membership fees and because of the poor performance of the cooperatives and lack of awareness out the cooperatives. Other key findings present benefits of the dairy cooperatives and the chal-lenges they face. For example members are able to access markets and agro- vet services and they access training opportunities. Major challenges include; irregular market, low milk prices and severe weather conditions, and lack of water shortage and lack of access to feeds, and low participation of members in some cooperative activities

An Edgeworth-type expansion for the distribution of a likelihood-based discriminant function

The exact distribution of a classification function is often complicated to allow for easy numerical calculations of misclassification errors. The use of expansions is one way of dealing with this difficulty. In this paper, approximate probabilities of misclassification of the maximum likelihood-based discriminant function are established via an Edgeworth-type expansion based on the standard normal distribution for discriminating between two multivariate normal populations

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the long-term effects of physical activity interventions on objectively measured outcomes

Abstract Background Although physical activity interventions are frequently reported to be effective, long-term changes are needed to generate meaningful health benefits. There are criticisms that evaluations of physical activity interventions mostly report short-term outcomes and that these are often self-reported rather than measured objectively. This study therefore aimed to assess the long-term (at least 24 month) effectiveness of behavioural interventions on objectively measured physical activity. Methods We conducted a systematic review with a meta-analysis of effects on objectively measured physical activity. We searched: Cochrane CENTRAL, EMBASE, PsychInfo, CINAHL and Pubmed up to 10th January 2022. Studies were included if they were in English and included a physical intervention that assessed physical activity in the long-term (defined as at least 24 months). Results Eight studies with 8480 participants were identified with data suitable for meta-analysis. There was a significant effect of interventions on daily steps 24 months post baseline (four studies, SMD: 0.15, 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.28) with similar results at 36 to 48 months of follow up (four studies, SMD: 0.17, 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.27). There was a significant effect of interventions on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity 24 months post baseline (four studies, SMD: 0.18 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.29) and at 36 to 48 months (three studies, SMD: 0.16 95% CI: 0.09 to 0.23). The mean effect size was small. However, the changes in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and steps per day were clinically meaningful in the best-performing studies. Conclusion This review suggests that behavioural interventions can be effective in promoting small, but clinically meaningful increases in objectively measured physical activity for up to 48 months. There is therefore a need to develop interventions that can achieve greater increases in long-term physical activity with greater efficiency

Performance of LED fluorescence microscopy for the detection of tuberculosis in Rwanda using Zeiss Primo Star

Introduction: Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) bright-field microscopy is time-consuming, with poor sensitivity, even under optimal conditions. Introduction of Primo Star iLED fluorescent microscopy (FM) may improve TB case finding at referral hospitals in Rwanda. The study aimed to determine the acceptability and effectiveness of iLED in a low resource setting. Methods: Between June 2009 and May 2010, the Rwandan TB Program and National Reference Laboratory carried out demonstration studies with iLED at a referral hospital in the capital, Kigali, and a rural district hospital in Nyamata, taking conventional FM as Gold Standard. Results: Agreement between the iLED and rechecking at the Reference Laboratory were deemed “almost perfect” (kappa = 0.81-1.00) across three of four site-phase combinations. The exception was Nyamata District Hospital during the validation phase, which was deemed “substantial” agreement (kappa = 0.61-0.80). However, the 100% concordance at both demonstration sites during the continuation phase shows technicians' rapid command of the new iLED microscope in a relatively short time. The lower overall positivity rate obtained in the rural clinic is not related to the performance of the microscope (or technicians), but is attributable to a significant increase in total number of patients and samples screened through active case finding. Conclusion: Laboratory technicians demonstrated high acceptance of iLED. Additionally, fluorescent microscopy reduces the time necessary for examination by more than half. The high level of agreement between iLED and FM during implementation in both sites provides initial evidence for iLED to replace current methods