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Additional file 1. Supplementary Figures and Tables.

The objective of this systematic review (SR) is to identify, assess and synthesize evidence on the effectiveness of feedback, reminders, salience (communication), salience (experience design), and goal-setting interventions conducted in developing countries on environmental/climate and development outcomes. We conducted 12 meta-analyses. The most effective intervention type is feedback, particularly in relation to electricity and water consumption. We identified an overall pooled effect estimate of 0.26 (CI: 0.13 to 0.39). A similar pattern emerges for reminders, specifically on acquisition of knowledge, where we identify an overall pooled effect estimate of 0.87 (CI: 0.34 to 1.41). We find no significant effects on goal-setting interventions based on a limited number of meta-analyses. For salience (experience design) and salience (communication) interventions identified in this SR, the heterogeneity in interventions and outcomes does not allow for a meta-analysis and rigorous synthesis of effects. The SR aims to facilitate the use of evidence in informing policy and practice decisions within the environmental/climate and development fields, particularly in the GCF and IFAD

This systematic review evaluates the effectiveness of life skills training intervention programmes in empowering women in developing countries. Life skills training has emerged as a popular approach to empowerment, often as a part of a multicomponent intervention. Overall, the systematic review finds that life skills positively affect a range of self, social and economic empowerment outcomes. Small but significant positive changes were detected for a range of outcome areas including leadership, attitudes to gender issues, sexual and reproductive health and rights, employment and life skills themselves. There is some indication that multi-component approaches may be more effective. Life skills training can be called a promising approach with potential for supporting women's empowerment in climate and agricultural projects. Including life skills interventions within components of Green Climate Fund and International Fund for Agricultural Development project interventions can contribute to transforming women’s lives, livelihoods and societal roles.

This evidence gap map (EGM) presents a landscape of studies on the effectiveness of behavioural science interventions in non-Annex I settings, a group of mainly developing countries within the context of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The EGM summarizes causal evidence from development and environmental interventions. Understanding what is effective in changing behaviour in these countries is important for both adaptation and mitigation purposes. Although the evidence base is thin, the EGM reveals that the most commonly evaluated interventions are reminders, feedback, micro-incentives, salience of communication, commitment devices, salience of experience design (how individuals interact with their physical or digital environment), goal setting, rules of thumb, social norms and social benchmarking. The impact evaluations are relatively skewed towards sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia and the Pacific. A limited number of impact evaluations have been conducted in Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. A majority of the studies included in the EGM emanate from the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, the financial sector, the energy and extractives sector and the agricultural sector

This evidence gap map (EGM) plots studies on the effectiveness of interventions for women’s empowerment in developing countries (defined here as the list of countries defined by the Kyoto Protocol as non-Annex I countries). The EGM contains 423 studies, of which 288 are impact evaluations, 105 are process evaluations and 38 are systematic reviews. Most evidence is from studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. There is a relatively large amount of evidence on economic interventions and capacity-building interventions, and both these categories in the map have a high number of impact evaluations and systematic reviews. There is a dearth of evidence on policy and institutional interventions. In terms of outcomes, political empowerment outcome categories are far less populated than other outcome categories. Women’s representation in political bodies, digital access and access to justice shows very little evidence.

We analyze theoretical properties of the hybrid test for superior predictability. We demonstrate with a simple example that the test may not be pointwise asymptotically of level $\alpha$ at commonly used significance levels and may lead to rejection rates over $11\%$ when the significance level $\alpha$ is $5\%$. Generalizing this observation, we provide a formal result that pointwise asymptotic invalidity of the hybrid test persists in a setting under reasonable conditions. As an easy alternative, we propose a modified hybrid test based on the generalized moment selection method and show that the modified test enjoys pointwise asymptotic validity. Monte Carlo simulations support the theoretical findings., Comment: 40 pages

When contractors provide timely and reliable information on the status of a contract, both contractors and government program offices can provide an accurate estimate of a contract’s completion costs. This research shows that the cumulative cost performance indices provided by contractors and program offices are high and less accurate than those of previous years and/or that a significant amount of ACWP is being documented in the final portion of a contract. The high performance indices resulted in EACs that were low-balled during the majority of a contract’s life which shows a need to improve the use of EVM metrics for effective project and program management. This research replicates Christensen’s findings in 1996 which proved that using the SCI was a more accurate indicator of EAC vice the CPI. Consistent with Christensen’s research, SCI is still a more accurate indicator of CAC according to this study but not by a significant amount. When SCI is used to predict the final cost on contracts from the 21st century, a 5% deviation from the final cost starts at the 70% complete point when using both CPI and SCI as the performance indicator.

Background Rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) have high rates of antibiotic resistance and require prolonged therapy with considerable toxicity. Less toxic and more effective therapies are needed. One promising agent is clofazimine (CFZ), an antibiotic with favorable in vitro data but limited clinical data in RGM. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort study to assess outcomes of adult patients treated with CFZ for RGM infection. Primary outcome was cure, defined as no evidence of clinical, radiographic, or microbiologic recurrence within 1 year of follow-up after stopping treatment. If a patient was retreated for infection, only the index treatment was included in the analysis. Results We treated 55 adults for RGM infection with CFZ in combination with a median of 5 other antibiotic classes over the entire course of treatment. Of these patients, 58% had pulmonary infection (81% nodular-bronchiectatic and 19% cavitary); 100% of pulmonary infections were M. abscessus. Non-pulmonary disease sites included skin (65%), bone (13%), intra-abdominal (9%), and other (13%); 48% were M. abscessus, 39% were M. chelonae, and 13% were M. fortuitum. Patients with pulmonary infection were treated for a median duration of 11.9 months and non-pulmonary for a median of 7.9 months. CFZ was well tolerated. There were 2 (4%) cases of hepatitis and 3 (5%) cases of QT prolongation. For patients who completed treatment for pulmonary infections (n = 27), 67% achieved symptomatic improvement, 65% achieved radiographic improvement, and 71% achieved negative cultures. For patients who completed treatment for non-pulmonary infection (n = 22), 100% achieved clinical improvement. For patients who had at least 1 year of follow up after stopping antibiotics (pulmonary n = 21, non-pulmonary n = 14), 43% of patients with pulmonary infections achieved clinical cure and 79% of patients with non-pulmonary infections achieved clinical cure. Within 1 year of follow-up 19% of pulmonary infection patients and none of the non-pulmonary patients had died. Conclusion As a part of multidrug therapy, CFZ is useful in the in the treatment of drug-resistant RGM infections, particularly skin infections, and offers a better tolerated option compared with other available antibiotics. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

Deborah R Kim,1 Jessica L Snell,1 Grace C Ewing,1 John O’Reardon2 1Department of Psychiatry, Penn Center for Women’s Behavioral Health, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 2Department of Psychiatry, Rowan University, Rowan School of Medicine, Cherry Hill, NJ,USA Background: Depression during pregnancy affects 5%–8% of women. While the percentage of women in the US taking serotonin reuptake inhibitors during pregnancy has risen over the last decade, pregnant women continue to report that they prefer non-pharmacologic interventions. Objective: We review the literature regarding neuromodulation techniques for major depressive disorder during pregnancy. The rationale for their use in this population, new developments, and future directions are discussed. Methods: A literature search was conducted in PubMed Plus, Ovid Medline, and Embase to collect all articles on neuromodulation for the treatment of depression during pregnancy. Key search words included electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, deep brain stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation, neuromodulation, depression, and pregnancy. Given the sparse literature, all articles from 1960 to 2014 that addressed the use of neuromodulation in pregnancy were included. Conclusion: The data support the use of electroconvulsive therapy in all trimesters of pregnancy for major depressive disorder. New data are emerging for the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation in pregnancy, which is likely safe, but more data are needed before it can be recommended as a primary treatment modality during pregnancy. Other neuromodulation techniques have not been well studied in this population. Keywords: electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, pregnancy, depression, antenatal depression, perinatal

This case concerns a small business at a tipping point in the owner's life cycle immediately before the global financial crisis hit. Students should be able to identify a number of areas where the company can improve its strategy in a highly competitive industry. The case is geared towards college juniors or seniors and can be taught in a one to two hour class. Although the case takes place in the U.S., the basic concepts and problems presented in the case are applicable to many areas of business and many countries.