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.     

The sacred and the profane in life science work: The case of assisted reproduction laboratories

Reproductive medicine and assisted reproduction therapies have been developed over the last decades resulting in over five million babies. The handling of human reproductive materials and patients is based on the ability to combine health care work and techno-scientific expertise in both the clinic and the laboratory setting. This study of Swedish assisted reproductive technology clinics demonstrates that the active day-to-day manipulation of human reproductive materials enact both the ‘profane’, through treating the embryos as raw materials in standardized procedures enabling economies of scale, and the ‘sacred’ through enacting a separation, the potential to human life, the patients ordeals, and seriousness. The enactment of the profane and the sacred is mostly balanced but at certain points in the work procedures, their intersecting becomes particularly salient. Such points provide opportunities for the study of the sense making of professionals in organizational grey zones, during techno-scientific activities.     

The maximum cardinality cut problem in co-bipartite chain graphs

A co-bipartite chain graph is a co-bipartite graph in which the neighborhoods of the vertices in each clique can be linearly ordered with respect to inclusion. It is known that the maximum cardinality cut problem (\({\textsc {MaxCut}}\)) is \({\textsc {NP}}{\text {-hard}}\) in co-bipartite graphs (Bodlaender and Jansen, Nordic J Comput 7(2000):14–31, 2000). We consider \({\textsc {MaxCut}}\) in co-bipartite chain graphs. We first consider the twin-free case and present an explicit solution. We then show that \({\textsc {MaxCut}}\) is polynomial time solvable in this graph class.     

PRSP Participatory Process in Armenian: Lessoned Learned

Once the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) was adopted by the Armenian Government, preconditions for institutionalization of the participatory process in Armenia were initiated. The clear mechanism of participatory process was created. Reluctance of the Government towards participatory mechanisms and insufficient public participation put in doubt effectiveness and transparency of public participation process in PRSP implementation. This article discusses the Armenian experience of the institutionalization of participatory process within PRSP framework presenting achievements, failures and obstacles of this process as well as attempts towards creating PRSP new Social Partnership Institute as an advanced step of institutionalization of the participatory process.

Livability of Urban Public Spaces in Northern Swedish Cities: The Case of Umeå

This study explores how winter conditions are taken into accountin urban planning in the city of Umeå in northern Sweden. Snowand harsh winter conditions are to some extent considered in urban planning in most northern towns in Sweden. Besides that, snow and ice could also be elements in the city attracting people and contribute to the design of public spaces. Current plans and interviews with planners were complemented with participatory observations. The results show that public spaces designed for both winter and summer seasons are preferred.     

Assessment of long-term work attendance within human service organisations

Terms and theories of work attendance vary according to their use and focus. This paper analyzes long-term work attendance in relation to social, psychosocial, and health-related factors. Register-based and questionnaire-based data covering 3,804 human service organisation workers over a three-year period were analyzed at individual and work-unit level. The results showed positive relationships between work attendance and male gender, high income, work commitment, job satisfaction, and having positive feelings towards work. High work attendance combined with work commitment, stress, or pain did not show any negative long-term effects upon short-term or long-term sick leave. Instead, work attendance seemed to be more associated with stable patterns of behaviour. Register-based measures of work attendance (at most 4-7 days of sick leave per worker per year) may be a useful tool in managing psychosocial work environment and related behaviour, but their inability to encompass information regarding individual health and disease must be borne in mind.     

The power to transform? Mexico’s ‘Fourth Transformation’ under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador

ABSTRACT

We engage in a conjunctural analysis of political change (Gramsci; Hall), power (Lukes) and transformation (Polanyi) to inquire into López Obrador’s political project; ‘The Fourth Transformation’ from July 2018 until December 2019. We analyse characteristics and consequences of the use of power by López Obrador as concerns the ‘power to do what?’ in the name of the 4T, shadowed by structural constraints. Additionally, inquiring the paradox of neoliberal ideas underlying changes in the Federal Public Administration in the name of austerity and the fight against corruption. We conclude that López Obrador is not exploiting this historical conjuncture to bring about ‘the primacy of politics over economics,’ and that signs have yet to emerge of a comprehensive transformation of the neoliberal economic foundations, from a structural analysis perspective. The paradox of neoliberal ideas underlying the 4T is coupled with a peculiar, backward-looking vision for national transformation; a ‘retro-formation’ in the making.     

The role of need for contraception in the evaluation of interventions to improve access to family-planning methods

A nonrandomized experiment carried out in Jharkhand, India, shows how the effects of interventions designed to improve access to family-planning methods can be erroneously regarded as trivial when contraceptive use is utilized as dependent variable, ignoring women's need for contraception. Significant effects of the intervention were observed on met need (i.e., contraceptive use by women who need contraception) but not on contraceptive use (i.e., contraceptive use by women who may or may not need contraception). Met need captures the woman's success in overcoming barriers to access to family planning, whereas contraceptive use confounds this construct with risk of pregnancy and fertility desires. Exceptions to this rule are identified.     

‘I know,I can,I will try’: youths and adults with intellectual disabilities in Sweden using information and communication technology in their everyday life

This study introduces how technology and humans are part of relationships that influence agency among people with disabilities. It aims to focus attention on the use of, and access to, information and communication technology (ICT), and agency among youths and adults with intellectual disabilities. The study draws on empirical research conducted with youths and adults with intellectual disabilities, as well as staff at a day centre. It shows that by drawing upon interests, previous experiences, and cooperating in ICT activities the participants’ agency changed. Also, it shows how disability is relational and how it can be influenced by ICT. An interdisciplinary approach is adopted to interpret the findings and to explore: How do people of different ages with intellectual disabilities experience the use of ICT in their everyday lives? Are people with intellectual disabilities able to influence their level of activity by using ICT? And if so, in what ways?