Techniques for improving client relations in family planning programs

Demand for children and demand for contraceptives are not independent of the system of supply. And client transactions are the major means for lowering costs. Family planning workers, providers of services and mass media campaigns, are the harbingers of new ideas and new delivery systems that could modify the demand for fertility regulation and patterns of contraceptive use. The authors describe four broad techniques for improving client relations, emphasizing their potential as entry points into program development (systematic change). These techniques are presented as a sampling of experience that can be brought to bear on dysfunctional client relations. Among examples described: Patient flow analysis (PFA). A self-administered time-and-motion diagnosis that allows computerized documentation of patient flow and personnel use in health service clinics. Using relatively unobtrusive data collection, PFA seeks to get a representative snapshot of a program and its dysfunctions, replicating a typical clinic session. Data are later diagnosed and remedies proposed for bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Training and visit (T&V). A managerial approach for dealing with geographically scattered outreach programs. The four main principles of T&V: focus on a few key tasks, frequent in-service training and supervision, regularity and predictability, and face-to-face communication. The T&V model focuses on what workers should be doing with their time in the field to meet client needs. A goal of T&V: to enable all clients to name their worker and the day of the week s/he visits, and identify a few themes from their most recent encounter. Activity planning. The antithesis of T&V, activity planning calls for abandoning rigid time-place-movement schedules and specific messages and replacing them with a fluid work schedule adapted to local conditions. Workers must be well-trained in collecting data, listening and building rapport, and communicating with conviction. The quality of the worker-client relationship is all-important. A weakness is that if the workers have no objective they lose control of the exchange with clients. Training and worker empowerment. Training by itself is not enough for systematic change - training for what? But training can serve as an entry point into organizational development when it is rooted in methodologies that help to develop the participant's technical and interpersonal skills and ability to innovate. But training must be accompanied by changes in the system of supply that supports and facilitates innovation and quality of care. Techniques to improve client relations can address either the client-provider interface directly or the system of underlying determinants. It is important to ask basic questions: Is the idea to fix a single worker-client dysfunction or is it to provide a continuous program for modification and growth? Who will be affected by the change? Whoor what will be responsible for initiating and overseeing the course of action? What are the short- and long-run goals of intervention?Health Monitoring&Evaluation,ICT Policy and Strategies,Adolescent Health,Poverty Monitoring&Analysis,Geographical Information Systems

Supersymmetric sources, integrability and generalized-structure compactifications

In the context of supersymmetric compactifications of type II supergravity to four dimensions, we show that orientifold sources can be compatible with a generalized SU(3) x SU(3)-structure that is neither strictly SU(3) nor static SU(2). We illustrate this with explicit examples, obtained by suitably T-dualizing known solutions on the six-torus. In addition we prove the following integrability statements, valid under certain mild assumptions: (a) for general type II supergravity backgrounds with orientifold and/or D-brane generalized-calibrated sources, the source-corrected Einstein and dilaton equations of motion follow automatically from the supersymmetry equations once the likewise source-corrected form equations of motion and Bianchi identities are imposed; (b) in the special case of supersymmetric compactifications to four-dimensional Minkowski space, the equations of motion of all fields, including the NSNS three-form, follow automatically once the supersymmetry and the Bianchi identities of the forms are imposed. Both (a) and (b) are equally valid whether the sources are smeared or localized. As a byproduct we obtain the calibration form for a space-filling NS5-brane.Comment: 32 pages, 1 table, v2: added references, v3: corrected mistake in (4.1) leading to factor 2 mistake in (B.6), corrected (B.5), smaller typo

Reformulating Supersymmetry with a Generalized Dolbeault Operator

The conditions for N=1 supersymmetry in type II supergravity have been previously reformulated in terms of generalized complex geometry. We improve that reformulation so as to completely eliminate the remaining explicit dependence on the metric. Doing so involves a natural generalization of the Dolbeault operator. As an application, we present some general arguments about supersymmetric moduli. In particular, a subset of them are then classified by a certain cohomology. We also argue that the Dolbeault reformulation should make it easier to find existence theorems for the N=1 equations.Comment: 30 pages, no figures. v2: minor correction

Universal de Sitter solutions at tree-level

Type IIA string theory compactified on SU(3)-structure manifolds with orientifolds allows for classical de Sitter solutions in four dimensions. In this paper we investigate these solutions from a ten-dimensional point of view. In particular, we demonstrate that there exists an attractive class of de Sitter solutions, whose geometry, fluxes and source terms can be entirely written in terms of the universal forms that are defined on all SU(3)-structure manifolds. These are the forms J and Omega, defining the SU(3)-structure itself, and the torsion classes. The existence of such universal de Sitter solutions is governed by easy-to-verify conditions on the SU(3)-structure, rendering the problem of finding dS solutions purely geometrical. We point out that the known (unstable) solution coming from the compactification on SU(2)x SU(2) is of this kind.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, v2: added reference

D-branes on AdS flux compactifications

We study D-branes in N=1 flux compactifications to AdS_4. We derive their supersymmetry conditions and express them in terms of background generalized calibrations. Basically because AdS has a boundary, the analysis of stability is more subtle and qualitatively different from the usual case of Minkowski compactifications. For instance, stable D-branes filling AdS_4 may wrap trivial internal cycles. Our analysis gives a geometric realization of the four-dimensional field theory approach of Freedman and collaborators. Furthermore, the one-to-one correspondence between the supersymmetry conditions of the background and the existence of generalized calibrations for D-branes is clarified and extended to any supersymmetric flux background that admits a time-like Killing vector and for which all fields are time-independent with respect to the associated time. As explicit examples, we discuss supersymmetric D-branes on IIA nearly Kaehler AdS_4 flux compactifications.Comment: 43 pages, 2 pictures, 1 table; v2: added references, color to figure and corrected typo in (6.21b

On moduli and effective theory of N=1 warped flux compactifications

The moduli space of N=1 type II warped compactions to flat space with generic internal fluxes is studied. Using the underlying integrable generalized complex structure that characterizes these vacua, the different deformations are classified by H-twisted generalized cohomologies and identified with chiral and linear multiplets of the effective four-dimensional theory. The Kaehler potential for chiral fields corresponding to classically flat moduli is discussed. As an application of the general results, type IIB warped Calabi-Yau compactifications and other SU(3)-structure subcases are considered in more detail.Comment: 54 pages; v3: comments and references added, version published in JHE

The problematic backreaction of SUSY-breaking branes

In this paper we investigate the localisation of SUSY-breaking branes which, in the smeared approximation, support specific non-BPS vacua. We show, for a wide class of boundary conditions, that there is no flux vacuum when the branes are described by a genuine delta-function. Even more, we find that the smeared solution is the unique solution with a regular brane profile. Our setup consists of a non-BPS AdS_7 solution in massive IIA supergravity with smeared anti-D6-branes and fluxes T-dual to ISD fluxes in IIB supergravity.Comment: 27 pages, Latex2e, 5 figure

AdS Vacua, Attractor Mechanism and Generalized Geometries

We consider flux vacua attractor equations in type IIA string theory compactified on generalized geometries with orientifold projections. The four-dimensional N=1 superpotential in this compactification can be written as the sum of the Ramond-Ramond superpotential and a term described by (non)geometric flux charges. We exhibit a simple model in which supersymmetric AdS and Minkowski solutions are classified by means of discriminants of the two superpotentials. We further study various configurations without Ramond-Ramond flux charges. In this case we find supersymmetric AdS vacua both in the case of compactifications on generalized geometries with SU(3) x SU(3) structures and on manifolds with an SU(3)-structure without nongeometric flux charges. In the latter case, we have to introduce correction terms into the prepotential in order to realize consistent vacua.Comment: 35 pages, accepted version in JHE

Canonical differential geometry of string backgrounds

String backgrounds and D-branes do not possess the structure of Lorentzian manifolds, but that of manifolds with area metric. Area metric geometry is a true generalization of metric geometry, which in particular may accommodate a B-field. While an area metric does not determine a connection, we identify the appropriate differential geometric structure which is of relevance for the minimal surface equation in such a generalized geometry. In particular the notion of a derivative action of areas on areas emerges naturally. Area metric geometry provides new tools in differential geometry, which promise to play a role in the description of gravitational dynamics on D-branes.Comment: 20 pages, no figures, improved journal versio

Timing of Case‐Based Discussions and Educational Outcomes for Dental Students

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153714/1/jddjde018056.pd