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Abstract Young people’s sexual and reproductive health (SRH) continues to be a major challenge in low and middle-income countries, with implications for public health now and in the future. Fortunately there is a growing array of evidence-based interventions, and commitments from governments, development partners and donors, to support programmes that aim to improve young people’s SRH. However, in some situations, the technical assistance that governments feel that they need to strengthen and implement national policies and strategies, to move from words to action, is not available. The WHO Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (AYSRHR) Technical Assistance (TA) Coordination Mechanism was initiated to help fill this technical assistance gap; to respond to TA requests from ministries of health in ways that are timely, efficient, effective and contribute to strengthening capacity. This paper describes the process of developing the Technical Assistance Coordination Mechanism (TA Mechanism) and the outcomes, experiences and lessons learned after three years of working. It triangulates the findings from a preliminary review of the literature and discussions with selected key informants; the outcomes from a series of structured review meetings; and the documented processes and results of the technical assistance provided to countries. The lessons learned focus on three aspects of the TA Mechanism. How it was conceptualized and designed: through listening to people who provide and receive AYSRHR TA and by reviewing and synthesizing past experiences of TA provision. What the TA Mechanism has achieved: a standardized process for TA provision, at different stages for a range of AYSRHR issues in ten countries in three geographic regions. And what worked well and what did not: which common challenges was the TA Mechanism able to address and which ones persisted despite efforts to avoid or resolve them. The paper ends with the implications of the lessons learned for future action.

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of month of the year on postsurgical outcomes after primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and to specifically analyze for a December effect. Material and methods: The National Inpatient Sample was used to identify all patients older than 40 years undergoing primary TKA and THA between 2006 and 2015. Patients were stratified based on the month of the year of surgery. In-hospital complication, disposition, and economic outcomes were comparatively analyzed. Results: There were statistically significant differences in outcomes based on month of the year. When comparing December to the other months, both TKA and THA patients had significantly lower rates of any complication, postoperative anemia, and genitourinary complications, while there were significantly higher rates of home than rehab discharge and shorter average length of stay in December. THA patients additionally had significantly lower rates of cardiac and respiratory complications during December. Conclusion: Postoperative outcomes are significantly associated with the month in which arthroplasty is performed. This study provides evidence of a positive “December effect” of improved in-hospital complications and economic outcomes for surgeries performed in December. Future research should direct attention to the impact that social factors may have on outcomes after elective surgical procedures and how these factors may be translated to other months.

We report threshold collision induced dissociation experiments on protonated water clusters thermalized at low temperature for sizes n = 19–23. Fragmentation cross sections are recorded as a function of the collision energy and analyzed with a statistical model. This model allows us to account for dissociation cascades and provides values for the dissociation energies of each cluster. These values, averaging around 0.47 eV, are in good agreement with theoretical predictions at various levels of theory. Furthermore, the dissociation energies show a trend for the n = 21 magic and n = 22 anti-magic numbers relative to their neighbours, which is also in agreement with theory. These results provide further evidence to resolve the disagreement between previously published experimental values. A careful quantitative treatment of cascade dissociation in this model introduces interdependence between the dissociation energies of neighboring sizes, which reduces the number of free fitting parameters and improves both reliability and uncertainties on absolute dissociation energies deduced from experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Transplantation is a field with unique medical and administrative challenges that involve an equally diverse array of stakeholders. Expectantly, the litigation stemming from this field should be similarly nuanced. There is a paucity of comprehensive reviews characterizing this medicolegal landscape. Design: The Caselaw Access Project Database was used to collect official court briefs of 2053 lawsuits related to kidney, liver, heart, lung, and pancreas transplantation. A thematic analysis was undertaken to characterize grounds for litigation, defendant type, and outcomes. Cases were grouped into policy, discrimination, poor or unsuccessful outcome, or other categories. Results: One hundred sixty-four court cases were included for analysis. Cases involving disputes over policy coverage were the most common across all organ types (N = 55, 33.5%). This was followed by poor outcomes (N = 51, 31.1%), allegations of discrimination against prison systems and employers (N = 37, 22.6%) and other (N = 21, 12.8%). Defendants involved in discrimination trials won with the greatest frequency (N = 29, 90.62%). Defendants implicated in policy suits won 65.3% (N = 32), poor outcomes 62.2% (N = 28), and other 70% (N = 14). Of the 51 cases involving poor outcomes, plaintiffs indicated lack of informed consent in 23 (45.1%). Conclusion: Reconsidering the informed consent process may be a viable means of mitigating future legal action. Most discrimination suits favoring defendants suggested previous concerns of structural injustices in transplantation may not be founded. The prevalence of policy-related cases could be an indication of financial burden on patients. Future work and advocacy will need to substantiate these concerns and address change where legal recourse falls short. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the purpose of achieving the desired goal of the educational learning process, it was necessary to devote attention to educational means and employ them in this field because of their great role in overcoming the difficulties facing the learning process and providing an educational environment that keeps abreast of the scientific developments. This is the goal of the research in which the researchers wanted to know the effect of the educational techniques in the development of apprentice students' skills in teaching. The research consisted of the problem of the research which is: what is the impact of educational techniques on developing the apprentice students' teaching skills in the Faculty of Fine Arts? In addition to its importance, objectives and hypotheses, and the definition of the terms in the title. The theoretical framework dealt with the educational techniques, their importance and their effective role in the educational process. The procedures used by the researchers included the methodology and the random sample which consisted of (40) students who were distributed equally into two controlling and experimental groups. The two researchers, after conducting the analysis, reached a set of results, the most important of which are the results that confirm the clear effect of the educational techniques on the students, and the researchers reached at the following conclusions: There are no differences in the assessment of teaching skills between the form approved by the college and the form used by the researchers. The educational techniques used by the researchers had the same effect in developing the teaching skills of the experimental group.