6,697 research outputs found
A Multi-level Analysis on Implementation of Low-Cost IVF in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study of Uganda.
Introduction: Globally, infertility is a major reproductive disease that affects an estimated 186 million people worldwide. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the burden of infertility is considerably high, affecting one in every four couples of reproductive age. Furthermore, infertility in this context has severe psychosocial, emotional, economic and health consequences. Absence of affordable fertility services in Sub-Saharan Africa has been justified by overpopulation and limited resources, resulting in inequitable access to infertility treatment compared to developed countries. Therefore, low-cost IVF (LCIVF) initiatives have been developed to simplify IVF-related treatment, reduce costs, and improve access to treatment for individuals in low-resource contexts. However, there is a gap between the development of LCIVF initiatives and their implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Uganda is the first country in East and Central Africa to undergo implementation of LCIVF initiatives within its public health system at Mulago Women’s Hospital.
Methods: This was an exploratory, qualitative, single, case study conducted at Mulago Women’s Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. The objective of this study was to explore how LCIVF initiatives have been implemented within the public health system of Uganda at the macro-, meso- and micro-level. Primary qualitative data was collected using semi-structured interviews, hospital observations informal conversations, and document review. Using purposive and snowball sampling, a total of twenty-three key informants were interviewed including government officials, clinicians (doctors, nurses, technicians), hospital management, implementers, patient advocacy representatives, private sector practitioners, international organizational representatives, educational institution, and professional medical associations. Sources of secondary data included government and non-government reports, hospital records, organizational briefs, and press outputs. Using a multi-level data analysis approach, this study undertook a hybrid inductive/deductive thematic analysis, with the deductive analysis guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).
Findings: Factors facilitating implementation included international recognition of infertility as a reproductive disease, strong political advocacy and oversight, patient needs & advocacy, government funding, inter-organizational collaboration, tension to change, competition in the private sector, intervention adaptability & trialability, relative priority, motivation &advocacy of fertility providers and specialist training. While barriers included scarcity of embryologists, intervention complexity, insufficient knowledge, evidence strength & quality of intervention, inadequate leadership engagement & hospital autonomy, poor public knowledge, limited engagement with traditional, cultural, and religious leaders, lack of salary incentives and concerns of revenue loss associated with low-cost options.
Research contributions: This study contributes to knowledge of factors salient to implementation of LCIVF initiatives in a Sub-Saharan context. Effective implementation of these initiatives requires (1) sustained political support and favourable policy & legislation, (2) public sensitization and engagement of traditional, cultural, and religious leaders (3) strengthening local innovation and capacity building of fertility health workers, in particular embryologists (4) sustained implementor leadership engagement and inter-organizational collaboration and (5) proven clinical evidence and utilization of LCIVF initiatives in innovator countries. It also adds to the literature on the applicability of the CFIR framework in explaining factors that influence successful implementation in developing countries and offer opportunities for comparisons across studies
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF STUDIES ON WRITING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
This paper presents a systematic literature review of studies about writing in elementary schools. A systematic search of databases was conducted to select studies. The aim was to identify and categorize difficulties and suggestions. A total of 52 articles published in peer-reviewed journals over the past 21 years were reviewed and analyzed using a well-established systematic literature review methodology, in academic-based research databases, after carefully reviewing the available literature and utilizing relevant sources. This review revealed that the studies mainly emphasize the relation between reading and writing, using technology in teaching writing, acquisition of writing and a method/approach or strategy suggestion, and structure/grammar in writing. Additionally, feedback, affective domain, and teaching writing at an early age are the focus points of other studies. The findings of this literature review allow teachers, administrators, and policy makers to employ and explore efficient writing activities to improve student engagement, motivation, and performance
Towards a more just refuge regime: quotas, markets and a fair share
The international refugee regime is beset by two problems: Responsibility for refuge falls
disproportionately on a few states and many owed refuge do not get it. In this work, I explore
remedies to these problems. One is a quota distribution wherein states are distributed
responsibilities via allotment. Another is a marketized quota system wherein states are free to buy
and sell their allotments with others. I explore these in three parts. In Part 1, I develop the prime
principles upon which a just regime is built and with which alternatives can be adjudicated. The
first and most important principle – ‘Justice for Refugees’ – stipulates that a just regime provides
refuge for all who have a basic interest in it. The second principle – ‘Justice for States’ – stipulates
that a just distribution of refuge responsibilities among states is one that is capacity considerate. In
Part 2, I take up several vexing questions regarding the distribution of refuge responsibilities
among states in a collective effort. First, what is a state’s ‘fair share’? The answer requires the
determination of some logic – some metric – with which a distribution is determined. I argue that
one popular method in the political theory literature – a GDP-based distribution – is normatively
unsatisfactory. In its place, I posit several alternative metrics that are more attuned with the
principles of justice but absent in the political theory literature: GDP adjusted for Purchasing
Power Parity and the Human Development Index. I offer an exploration of both these. Second,
are states required to ‘take up the slack’ left by defaulting peers? Here, I argue that duties of help
remain intact in cases of partial compliance among states in the refuge regime, but that political
concerns may require that such duties be applied with caution. I submit that a market instrument
offers one practical solution to this problem, as well as other advantages. In Part 3, I take aim at
marketization and grapple with its many pitfalls: That marketization is commodifying, that it is
corrupting, and that it offers little advantage in providing quality protection for refugees. In
addition to these, I apply a framework of moral markets developed by Debra Satz. I argue that a
refuge market may satisfy Justice Among States, but that it is violative of the refugees’ welfare
interest in remaining free of degrading and discriminatory treatment
'This day the organs did begin to play at White-hall before the King': The work and influence of Christopher Gibbons (1615-76)
Too little is known of Christopher Gibbons’ life and work: the vicissitudes of record keeping have been particularly cruel to this quiet servant, a major figure in the Tallis-Byrd-Tomkins lineage, whose eminence, pioneering and industry were much celebrated in his day. Key data are missing from the stories of other great artists from early modern British history—none more so than Henry Purcell. Yet, whilst the near-hagiographical status enjoyed by Britain’s Orpheus has had admirers joining biographical dots in romantic flights of fancy, in the case of Gibbons, too much has been pieced together using a starting point that the man was a drunk. (We have one particular biographer’s notes to thank for this.) A new investigation of the structure of teaching practices at court now brings welcome clarity to the biographies of bothmen. Purcell, through his formative years, knew and admired Gibbons. For him and the other Children of the Chapel—John Blow and Pelham Humfrey—their earliest memories would have included Gibbons’ dazzling, virtuosic improvisations, the élan of which accompanied an air of confidence at Whitehall, as the organ, long outlawed, became, literally overnight, the clamorous object of political defiance. These vignettes of theatrical brilliance were captured by their inquisitive quills, and thus the flowering of a peculiarly English stylus phantasticus cameto be preserved. This study examines performance aspects surrounding the three extant double-organ voluntaries that were intended for a new type of instrument Gibbons had commissioned at phenomenal expense from the greatest of craftsmen. Through these and other pieces, Gibbons’ influence on his successors, particularly Blow and Purcell, is assessed to be significantly greater than previously estimated. Further, the present study finds his distinctive compositional style deeply rooted in three well-loved Restoration anthems long-attributed to Purcell. It is the aim of this thesis that Gibbons’ reputation as a Father of Modern English Church Music be earnestly and urgently reappraised
La estrategia empresarial para la gestión de emisiones de gases efecto invernadero
Esta tesis doctoral plantea en primer lugar analizar la calidad y nivel de divulgación de información sobre la acción climática en las empresas colombianas mediante una análisis regional y sectorial. Para desarrollar este propósito este trabajo se centra en el Objetivo de Desarrollo Sostenible 13 (ODS 13) el cual llama a tomar medidas urgentes para luchar contra el cambio climático y sus impactos. Este estudio se enfoca principalmente en la meta 13.2 la cual establece la incorporación de medidas relacionadas con políticas, estrategias y planes de cambio climático. Este objetivo incluye información relacionada con las estrategias de adaptación al cambio climático (información cualitativa), y las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y sus alcances (Scope 1, 2 y 3 - información cuantitativa).
En segundo lugar, en esta tesis doctoral realizamos un análisis para determinar si la presión ejercida por el contexto empresarial (el gobierno colombiano con la implementación del impuesto al carbono y el gobierno local con acciones específicas de cambio climático) y las características inherentes de la empresa (empresas más grandes y empresas pertenecientes a industrias sensibles) mejoran la calidad de la divulgación de una estrategia de gestión de carbono en las empresas colombianas. Asimismo, diseñamos un índice de divulgación de la estrategia de gestión de carbono (Carbon Management Strategy) utilizando un marco teórico y análisis de contenido de los informes de sostenibilidad de las empresas. Lo anterior, permite analizar este comportamiento en una economía emergente no regulada en emisiones de GHG y en informes de sostenibilidad. En tercer lugar, buscamos establecer una relación entre la adopción de una estrategia de gestión de carbono y la divulgación de emisiones; así como la eficiencia de emisiones directas, indirectas y otro tipo de emisiones cuando se establece una Carbon Management Strategy.
De acuerdo con lo expuesto anteriormente, esta tesis doctoral tiene como objetivo general analizar el nivel y calidad de divulgación del ODS 13 así como la divulgación y eficiencia de emisiones de GEI a través de una Carbon Management Strategy, incorporando características contextuales e inherentes a las empresas colombianas.
Para el desarrollo de este objetivo se desarrollan los siguientes objetivos específicos.
i. El primer objetivo específico se centra en determinar el nivel y calidad de divulgación del ODS 13 en los informes de sostenibilidad en el periodo 2019, mediante un análisis del sector empresarial a nivel regional e industrial.
Este objetivo se lleva a cabo mediante la incorporación de dos índices de calidad de divulgación para el ODS 13. El primero, corresponde al índice ODS 13 – Cualitativo; el cual incorpora acciones de mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático, metas de reducción de emisiones, mecanismos de gobernanza y gestión del riesgo y mecanismos de compensación de emisiones. El segundo, corresponde al índice ODS 13 cuantitativo; el cual integra datos para la medición y seguimiento de la huella de carbono (emisiones de gases efecto invernadero, alcances 1, 2 y 3 y datos de compensación de emisiones) Lo anterior, mediante un análisis de contenido de los informes de sostenibilidad de las empresas cotizadas en Colombia. Para el desarrollo de este objetivo incorporamos características de contexto que integran un análisis regional y sectorial. Este objetivo se enmarca en la teoría de la legitimidad y los conceptos de greenwashing y SDG-Washing.
ii. El segundo objetivo específico se centra en analizar el impacto de las características de contexto e inherentes a las compañías en la adopción y divulgación de una Estrategia de Gestión de Carbono (Carbon Management Strategy - CMS).
El desarrollo de este objetivo permite comprender si las acciones tomadas por el gobierno, la presión regulatoria ejercida sobre las industrias clasificadas como sensibles al cambio climático y los factores internos de las empresas impactan en las divulgaciones que las empresas hacen sobre la gestión de emisiones de carbono. De acuerdo con lo anterior, diseñamos un índice de divulgación denominado “CMS-Index” utilizando un marco conceptual y teórico para clarificar el significado y aplicación de una Carbon Management Strategy – CMS. Utilizamos análisis de contenido y un modelo de regresión MCO robusto basado en datos de panel balanceado de 60 empresas colombianas que cotizan en bolsa para el período 2016-2018.
iii. El tercer objetivo específico permite identificar la relación entre la divulgación de una CMS y la eficiencia de emisiones directas, indirectas y otras emisiones en las empresas colombianas en el periodo 2016-2019.
Este objetivo incluye variables en relación con el contexto de las empresas (estrategia fiscal a través de impuestos al carbono y ubicación geográfica) y características propias de la empresa (tamaño y sector industrial sensible). A partir del índice de divulgación desarrollado en el objetivo (ii) de esta tesis “CMS-Index”, este objetivo específico se centra en la relación que existe en la adopción y divulgación de una CMS y la divulgación de emisiones para los alcances 1, 2 y 3. Incorpora el análisis de las industrias sensibles y el nivel de divulgación en las tres categorías de emisiones. También analiza la eficiencia de emisiones incluyendo aspectos financieros de las empresas colombianas y su efecto en la gestión de las emisiones de CO2. Usamos análisis de contenido y una regresión MCO para el modelo de divulgación de emisiones y un MCO robusto en el modelo de eficiencia de emisiones con base en un panel de datos balanceado de empresas cotizadas colombianas para el período 2016-2019. Tomamos submuestras para analizar el alcance 1, alcance 2 y alcance 3.
El sustento conceptual en el que se desarrolla la tesis involucra el concepto estratégico de gestión de carbono o denominado “Carbon Management Strategy – CMS”. La estrategia de gestión de carbono o CMS es un constructo teórico y conceptual que permite identificar si las empresas contribuyen con las metas establecidas en el ODS 13- Acción por el clima, mediante acciones de mitigación, control y reducción de emisiones de carbono (Yunus, Elijido-Ten, & Abhayawansa, 2019). El concepto de una CMS se aborda de forma transversal en el desarrollo de los objetivos de esta tesis y en consecuencia en los estudios empíricos. Este concepto, permite establecer una conexión con la estrategia ambiental de una organización y los efectos de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa RSC desde una perspectiva que involucra el cambio climático. También, incorporamos la teoría de la legitimidad, la teoría de los stakeholders, la teoría de la señalización y los conceptos de greenwashing y SDG-washing. En los capítulos de esta tesis doctoral hemos desarrollado un análisis cualitativo descriptivo y un enfoque empírico explicativo para cumplir con los objetivos propuestos.
El sustento conceptual en el que se desarrolla la tesis involucra el concepto estratégico de gestión de carbono o denominado “Carbon Management Strategy – CMS”. Este concepto se aborda de forma transversal en el desarrollo de los objetivos de esta tesis y en consecuencia en los estudios empíricos. Este concepto, permite establecer una conexión con la estrategia ambiental de una organización y los efectos de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa RSC desde una perspectiva que involucra el cambio climático. También, incorporamos la teoría de la legitimidad, la teoría de los stakeholders, la teoría de la señalización y los conceptos de greenwashing y SDG-washing. En los capítulos de esta tesis doctoral hemos desarrollado un análisis cualitativo descriptivo y un enfoque empírico explicativo para cumplir con los objetivos propuestos
Recommended from our members
Mixture Models in Machine Learning
Modeling with mixtures is a powerful method in the statistical toolkit that can be used for representing the presence of sub-populations within an overall population. In many applications ranging from financial models to genetics, a mixture model is used to fit the data. The primary difficulty in learning mixture models is that the observed data set does not identify the sub-population to which an individual observation belongs. Despite being studied for more than a century, the theoretical guarantees of mixture models remain unknown for several important settings.
In this thesis, we look at three groups of problems. The first part is aimed at estimating the parameters of a mixture of simple distributions. We ask the following question: How many samples are necessary and sufficient to learn the latent parameters? We propose several approaches for this problem that include complex analytic tools to connect statistical distances between pairs of mixtures with the characteristic function. We show sufficient sample complexity guarantees for mixtures of popular distributions (including Gaussian, Poisson and Geometric). For many distributions, our results provide the first sample complexity guarantees for parameter estimation in the corresponding mixture. Using these techniques, we also provide improved lower bounds on the Total Variation distance between Gaussian mixtures with two components and demonstrate new results in some sequence reconstruction problems.
In the second part, we study Mixtures of Sparse Linear Regressions where the goal is to learn the best set of linear relationships between the scalar responses (i.e., labels) and the explanatory variables (i.e., features). We focus on a scenario where a learner is able to choose the features to get the labels. To tackle the high dimensionality of data, we further assume that the linear maps are also sparse , i.e., have only few prominent features among many. For this setting, we devise algorithms with sub-linear (as a function of the dimension) sample complexity guarantees that are also robust to noise.
In the final part, we study Mixtures of Sparse Linear Classifiers in the same setting as above. Given a set of features and the binary labels, the objective of this task is to find a set of hyperplanes in the space of features such that for any (feature, label) pair, there exists a hyperplane in the set that justifies the mapping. We devise efficient algorithms with sub-linear sample complexity guarantees for learning the unknown hyperplanes under similar sparsity assumptions as above. To that end, we propose several novel techniques that include tensor decomposition methods and combinatorial designs
AIUCD 2022 - Proceedings
L’undicesima edizione del Convegno Nazionale dell’AIUCD-Associazione di Informatica Umanistica ha per titolo Culture digitali. Intersezioni: filosofia, arti, media. Nel titolo è presente, in maniera esplicita, la richiesta di una riflessione, metodologica e teorica, sull’interrelazione tra tecnologie digitali, scienze dell’informazione, discipline filosofiche, mondo delle arti e cultural studies
Investigative Methods: An NCRM Innovation Collection
This Innovation Collection on investigative methods brings together investigators working in different domains, sectors, and on different topics of interest to help capture the breadth, scope and relevance of investigative practices over 10 substantive chapters. Each of the papers presents a different investigative method or set of methods and, through case studies, attempts to demonstrate their value. All the contributions, in different ways and for different purposes, seek to reconstruct acts, events, practices, biographies and/or milieux, to which the researchers in question lack direct access, but which they want to reconstruct via the traces those phenomena leave behind, traces themselves often produced as part of the phenomena under investigation. These include reports of methods used in investigations on: - The use of force by state actors, including into police violence, military decisions to attack civilians, the provenance of munitions used to attack civilians, and the use and abuse of tear gas; - Networks of far-right discourse, and its links to criminal attacks and state-leveraged misinformation campaigns; - Archives to establish the penal biographies of convicts and the historical practices of democratic petitioning; - Corporate structures and processes that enable tax avoidance and an avoidance of legal responsibilities to workers and the environment. A working principle of the collection is that investigative methods may be considered, alongside creative, qualitative, quantitative, digital, participatory and mixed methods, a distinct yet complementary style of research
- …