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Over the last decade, the number of randomized trials of programs to reduce intimate partner violence (IPV) has grown precipitously. However, most trials continue to measure and code violence using standards originally designed for global prevalence surveys. This choice may have consequences in terms of bias, power, and efficiency of trial estimates and may limit what we can learn about how programs are working. In this paper, we return to first principles to develop a generative model for violence reduction. We then use this model to better understand trade-offs in outcome coding choices via simulation. We re-analyze results from seven recent trials in Southern and Eastern Africa to highlight some of our findings. We conclude with a discussion of key take-aways for trialists.

This document deals with efforts aimed at reforesting large areas of degraded lands. It includes sections on: (1) tree cover trends; (2) fuelwood challenges of the future; (3) the need to supply industrial wood; (4) stabilizing soil and water resources; (5) forests and climate change; and (6) mobilization for reforestation. (TW)

To help elementary school teachers decide whether writing is beneficial to their students' comprehension, and if it is, which activities are the most effective, a study examined research which dealt with whether the writing performed by elementary school students helps them to comprehend better their own and others' written works. Included are 33 annotations in three areas: (1) studies showing the correlations between students' abilities to write and to comprehend; (2) studies on how writing exercises undertaken before or after reading another author's text affects children's comprehension; and (3) studies about the effects that written works created by the students themselves have on their comprehension. Findings conclude that examination of these studies proves that elementary school students' writing abilities and the amount of writing they performed were highly correlated with their reading comprehension performances; studies on mapping showed it to be significantly more beneficial to comprehension than other study skills or lessons from basal readers; research conducted on the sentence-combining method demonstrated that this technique was superior in the improvement of the comprehension of elementary school students over other methods of instruction; both summarizing and outlining proved to be beneficial to elementary school students' comprehension; and students improved their comprehension when they wrote their own stories. (A glossary is included, and 41 references are attached.) (MS)