Is Maternal and Child Health Service use a Causal Gateway to Subsequent Contraceptive use?: A Multi-Country Study

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between MCH service utilization and contraceptive use in five countries: Bolivia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Morocco, and Tanzania. The analysis is carried out at the level of the individual woman, with contraceptive-use status modeled as a function of: (1) the availability, quality, and packaging of MCH and family planning services; (2) community- and individual-level determinants of health service and contraceptive use; and (3) intensity of prior MCH service use. Data for the analysis comes from DHS data on women of reproductive age linked with data from service-availability surveys. We use full-information, maximum-likelihood regression techniques to control for the effects of unobserved heterogeneity that might otherwise bias our estimates. In three of the five countries (Morocco, Guatemala, and Indonesia) the results of the analysis suggest that the intensity of MCH service use is positively associated with subsequent contraceptive use among women, even after controlling for observed and unobserved individual- and community-level factors. This result lends support to the proposition that, at least in the context of these three countries, the intensity of MCH service per se use does have a “causal” impact on subsequent contraceptive use, even after controlling for factors that “predispose” sample women to use health care services.     

Two Population-Environment Regimes in the Great Plains of the United States, 1930–1990

This paper analyzes factors that affect net migration rates in counties in the U.S. Great Plains between 1930 and 1990, emphasizing the roles of weather (especially drought), environmental amenities, employment, and population, making use of a rich county-level data set. Using a pooled time series model the paper shows that environment is important in population processes, with weather and agricultural change more important in the 1930s and 1940s, and environmental amenities more important in later time periods. The paper provides important insights into how environmental impacts on migration might change over time, and how those changes might be measured.     

SIRALINA: efficient two-steps heuristic for storage optimisation in single period task scheduling

In this paper, we study the general problem of one-dimensional periodic task scheduling under storage requirement, irrespective of machine constraints. We have already presented in (Touati and Eisenbeis, Parallel Process. Lett. 14(2):287–313, 2004) a theoretical framework that allows an optimal optimisation of periodic storage requirement in a cyclic schedule. Since our optimisation problem is NP-hard (Touati, PhD thesis, 2002), solving an exact integer linear programming formulation is too expensive in practice. In this article, we propose an efficient two-steps heuristic using model’s properties that allows fast computation times while providing highly satisfactory results. This method includes the solution of an integer linear program with a totally unimodular constraints matrix in first step, then the solution of a linear assignment problem. Our heuristic is implemented for an industrial compiler for embedded VLIW processors.     

Recent Life Expectancy Divergence in Baltic Countries

Until the end of the 1990s, mortality patterns and trends in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were remarkably similar. However, from the year 2000 onwards, life expectancy trends in the three countries started to diverge. In particular, sustainable progress in Estonia over the period 2000–2007 contrasts with stagnation in Latvia, and even worsening trends in Lithuania. These contradictory changes seem to be mainly explained by contrasting dynamics in mortality from cardiovascular diseases, external causes of death and digestive system diseases. Whereas cardiovascular and external-cause mortality declined in Estonia and Latvia, worsening or stagnation of mortality from these causes of death was observed in Lithuania. The negative mortality changes in Lithuania were also reinforced by a striking increase in mortality from alcohol-related digestive system diseases. The findings suggest that the divergence in health trends between the three countries may be attributable to their varying degrees of success in implementing structural health care reforms and specific health policy measures. By contrast, the very recent improvement (since 2008) is parallel in the three countries and is largely because of the introduction of rather similar anti-alcohol measures.     

Strategic versus non-strategic voting power in the EU Council of Ministers: the consultation procedure

This article evaluates the distribution of power within the Council of the European Union from the a priori perspective of constitutional design using two distinct approaches: (1) applying traditional voting power indices; (2) carrying out strategic equilibrium analysis of the EU’s consultation procedure. It clarifies why both approaches lead to different power indications, and investigates the determinants of the differences’ magnitudes. Depending on one’s assumptions about behavior of the consultation procedure’s agenda setter, the European Commission, traditional indices turn out to deliver a good approximation also of relative strategic power in the Council.     

Procedures for preventing juvenile violence in Switzerland: the Zurich model

The Swiss legal system places strong emphasis on risk assessment and treatment of potentially violent offenders. Especially after the 2001 Zug massacre, there is close cooperation between the judicial and mental health systems to prevent violence through early detection and intervention. A case study of a risk management program for a dangerous seventeen-year-old delinquent youth illustrates this approach.     

"I was a dark horse in the eyes of her family": the relationship of cohabiting female couples and their families in Hungary

This article focuses on the relationship of female couples with their parents, siblings, and other relatives by exploring various patterns of coming out and family attitudes. After reviewing existing literature in this field, the article explores the extent to which my interviewees are out to their family, the reasons for and the possible complications about staying in the closet. Next the parents' reactions are discussed, which range from complete rejection through not admitting the truth to themselves to acceptance. Parents find it difficult to come out about their daughter to their immediate environment, as they fear prejudice and being blamed for her sexual orientation. This can also lead to conflict and alienation between parents and daughter. Accepting a person's sexual orientation and relationship, however, is only the first step toward her full integration into the family. Full inclusion in the family is only present when the person's same-sex partner is treated as kin to the same extent as an opposite-sex partner would be. This is demonstrated in a variety of ways, such as the names used (especially by the couple's children) and the system of obligations and favors constituting a formative element of kinship. There might be conflicts, however, when the two partners have different backgrounds and thus different expectations of family relations.     

Social Economy and Home Care Services in Quebec: Co-Production or Co-Construction?

Third sector organizations have always played a significant role in the supply of home support services in Quebec, but this supply of services attained a crucial development phase in 1996, with the creation of 100 or so domestic help social economy enterprises (DHSEEs). These DHSEEs complemented the supply of public services delivered by the Quebec state, thus de facto taking part in the dynamics of co-production of services in the context of a mixed economy including the third sector. However, beyond that co-production, these enterprises also have to position themselves in a process of co-construction with the state, that is, in the joint, partnership-oriented construction of public policy, which provides the framework for their participation in services of public interest. Analysis of this public policy thus shows that the situation of DHSEEs in Quebec has swung, depending on the period, between co-production and various types of co-construction. A number of restrictive budget policies and subcontracting practices adopted by the Quebec state, along with tensions among DHSEE groups, curtailed the development of a genuine co-construction process during the 2000s.