Four criteria to evaluate providers' service-delivery response to new contraceptive introduction

This article presents an evaluation framework developed to assess the first-level effects of introducing the Standard Days Method (SDM) in Peru Ministry of Health clinics. Four questions are asked: 1) To what extent do providers routinely achieve SDM service delivery standards? 2) Is the time invested in SDM delivery consistent with program norms? 3) How does SDM delivery compare with delivery of established methods? and 4) How does SDM introduction affect delivery of established methods? A study at 62 clinics demonstrated the framework's usefulness. The Standard Days Method introduction had positive overall effects on the quality of care but provider training needed adjustments.     

Understanding changes in Māori incomes and income inequality 1997–2003

This paper examines recent changes in weekly income levels and dispersion for Māori, New Zealand’s indigenous ethnic group. Changes in the Māori income distribution between 1997 and 2003 reflect rapid increases in economic growth and employment rate. A reduced proportion of people had zero or benefit-level incomes and a higher proportion had high incomes. Income inequality declined for working-aged Māori and was stable for employed Māori. The average income gap between Māori and Europeans declined. The increased Māori employment rate during this period was the single most important driver of changes in the Māori income distribution.

On the minimum expected quantity for the validity of the chi-squared test in 2 2 2 tables

A 2 2 2 contingency table can often be analysed in an exact fashion by using Fisher's exact test and in an approximate fashion by using the chi-squared test with Yates' continuity correction, and it is traditionally held that the approximation is valid when the minimum expected quantity E is E S 5. Unfortunately, little research has been carried out into this belief, other than that it is necessary to establish a bound E>E*, that the condition E S 5 may not be the most appropriate (Martín Andrés et al., 1992) and that E* is not a constant, but usually increasing with the growth of the sample size (Martín Andrés & Herranz Tejedor, 1997). In this paper, the authors conduct a theoretical experimental study from which they ascertain that E* value (which is very variable and frequently quite a lot greater than 5) is strongly related to the magnitude of the skewness of the underlying hypergeometric distribution, and that bounding the skewness is equivalent to bounding E (which is the best control procedure). The study enables estimating the expression for the above-mentioned E* (which in turn depends on the number of tails in the test, the alpha error used, the total sample size, and the minimum marginal imbalance) to be estimated. Also the authors show that E* increases generally with the sample size and with the marginal imbalance, although it does reach a maximum. Some general and very conservative validity conditions are E S 35.53 (one-tailed test) and E S 7.45 (two-tailed test) for alpha nominal errors in 1% h f h 10%. The traditional condition E S 5 is only valid when the samples are small and one of the marginals is very balanced; alternatively, the condition E S 5.5 is valid for small samples or a very balanced marginal. Finally, it is proved that the chi-squared test is always valid in tables where both marginals are balanced, and that the maximum skewness permitted is related to the maximum value of the bound E*, to its value for tables with at least one balanced marginal and to the minimum value that those marginals must have (in non-balanced tables) for the chi-squared test to be valid.     

On predictive distributions and Bayesian networks

In this paper we are interested in discrete prediction problems for a decision-theoretic setting, where the task is to compute the predictive distribution for a finite set of possible alternatives. This question is first addressed in a general Bayesian framework, where we consider a set of probability distributions defined by some parametric model class. Given a prior distribution on the model parameters and a set of sample data, one possible approach for determining a predictive distribution is to fix the parameters to the instantiation with the maximum a posteriori probability. A more accurate predictive distribution can be obtained by computing the evidence (marginal likelihood), i.e., the integral over all the individual parameter instantiations. As an alternative to these two approaches, we demonstrate how to use Rissanen's new definition of stochastic complexity for determining predictive distributions, and show how the evidence predictive distribution with Jeffrey's prior approaches the new stochastic complexity predictive distribution in the limit with increasing amount of sample data. To compare the alternative approaches in practice, each of the predictive distributions discussed is instantiated in the Bayesian network model family case. In particular, to determine Jeffrey's prior for this model family, we show how to compute the (expected) Fisher information matrix for a fixed but arbitrary Bayesian network structure. In the empirical part of the paper the predictive distributions are compared by using the simple tree-structured Naive Bayes model, which is used in the experiments for computational reasons. The experimentation with several public domain classification datasets suggest that the evidence approach produces the most accurate predictions in the log-score sense. The evidence-based methods are also quite robust in the sense that they predict surprisingly well even when only a small fraction of the full training set is used.     

Developing critical and empathic capabilities in intercultural education through the VaKE approach

One of the core goals of intercultural education is to develop critical and empathic reflection on social justice, particularly as related to humanistic choices and how individuals can counteract exclusion. The present article analyses the Values and Knowledge Education (VaKE) approach, which is aimed at raising awareness about implicit value-oriented priorities in decision-making. Through the Human Development and Capability Approach, the applicability of VaKE’s didactic principles is analysed in relation to young people’s perspectives on resettlement in Europe. The VaKE method was used at a 2013 summer camp in Austria with a culturally diverse group of young Europeans who were presented with a dilemma story that highlighted the complex issue of providing assistance to asylum seekers. The participants engaged in various knowledge and moral viability checks that enabled them to engage with opposing arguments. The participants evidenced critical reflection and self-scrutiny, as well as affiliation and empathic imagination, regarding problems that are encountered by asylum seekers.     

Intergenerational cooperation within the household: a Public Good game with three generations

We analyze cooperation of individuals in a family context, using a Public Good game. In a lab experiment, 165 individuals from 55 three-generation families (youth, parent, and grandparent) play a repeated Public Good game in three different treatments: one in which three members of the same family play each other (family), a second with the youth and two non-family members, while preserving the previous generational structure (inter-generational), and a third in which three randomly-selected players play each other (random). We find that all the age groups cooperate more when playing with relatives, indicating that family ties may have a positive relationship to contributions to the Public Good. We also find that this trend is more evident for the youths and the parents than for the grandparents. Furthermore, young individuals tend to cooperate less than older generations, especially in non-family treatments. Our results serve as evidence of the relationship between family ties and inter-generational cooperative behaviors.

     

Design of ISD-1: an instrument for social diagnosis in care homes for older persons*

This article describes the design process and main features of an instrument developed for use in the specialist area of intervention in care homes for older persons. The essential aim of ISD-1 (instrument for social diagnosis) is to permit the correct formulation of social diagnoses and to standardise and define the professional language used by social workers. Its content has been organised into 4 dimensions of social diagnosis, divided into 15 sub-dimensions containing 83 diagnostic categories. This work was performed in Spain, in the 24 care homes of the Madrid Social Care Agency of the Community of Madrid, involving the participation of the 40 social workers practising in these centres. ISD-1 is an easily understood and used tool, of potential use for social workers practising in care homes for older persons and capable of being adapted for use in other institutional environments, as well as being capable of adaptation and translation for its application in other countries.     

Sexual Practices Among a Sample of Young Lesbian and Bisexual Women from Mexico: An Exploratory Study

Objective: To describe sexual practices in Mexican lesbian and bisexual women. Materials and method: An online survey was conducted with a nonprobabilistic sample of self-identified lesbian (n?=?768) and bisexual (n?=?371) women from the 32 states of Mexico. Results: Lesbians less frequently reported having had sex with a man than bisexual women. Preferred sexual practices with other women were external genital stimulation with fingers, internal genital stimulation with fingers, and oral genital stimulation. Most (～80%) participants did not use protection to prevent sexually transmitted infections. Conclusions: Our results can inform the design of promotion and prevention programs in sexual health aimed at sexual minority women.     

Smoothed bootstrap bandwidth selection for nonparametric hazard rate estimation

A smoothed bootstrap method is presented for the purpose of bandwidth selection in nonparametric hazard rate estimation for iid data. In this context, two new bootstrap bandwidth selectors are established based on the exact expression of the bootstrap version of the mean integrated squared error of some approximations of the kernel hazard rate estimator. This is very useful since Monte Carlo approximation is no longer needed for the implementation of the two bootstrap selectors. A simulation study is carried out in order to show the empirical performance of the new bootstrap bandwidths and to compare them with other existing selectors. The methods are illustrated by applying them to a diabetes data set.