Policy learning over a decade or more and the role of interests therein

When individual actors are involved in a policy process, do they assess and revise their policy preferences according to their interests or are they open to other forms of arguments over time? This study examines the effect of policy actors’ interests on policy learning. It is based on a survey conducted in 2012 among 376 Belgian actors (from 38 organizations) involved in the European liberalization policy process of two network industries: the rail and electricity sectors. Borrowing from organizational research and behavioral economics, several hypotheses are drawn from a model of the individual shared by various policy approaches, such as the advocacy coalition framework. A ‘‘simple gain scores’’ approach to the measurement of policy learning is introduced. Regression analyses show that policy actors align their policy preferences with the impacts of policies on their own material well-being (personal interests) and the material prosperity of their organization (organizational interests). This tendency is independent of the importance that policy actors give to their interests in their everyday lives. This suggests that policy actors experience a sort of ‘‘interest shift’’ when they assess their policy preferences over time. This shift, however, exerts a limited influence on policy learning. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Learning in a Belgian Hospital: Conditions of biomedical innovation in the Sector of Health Sciences at the Université catholique de Louvain.

__INTRODUCTION __ This report is part of “Medlearn”. Medlearn is a research project coordinated by Prof. E. MONTPETIT (Université de Montréal, Canada), in collaboration with Prof. D. AUBIN (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium) and Prof. M. ATKINSON (University of Saskatchewan, Canada). Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) are often at the center of biomedical innovation. The objective of this research project is to better understand the conditions of biomedical innovation within AMCs, that is the capacity of diversified actors to work together behind biomedical research. An AMC is composed of a hospital and a faculty of medicine, both depending of an university. For this reason, an AMC has three missions: It provides not only health care services, but also education and research in the field of biomedicine. To meet its objective, Medlearn is composed of two steps. The first step is devoted to qualitative case studies of three AMCs, respectively located in North-America, Europe, and Asia. They aim at familiarising the researchers with the nature of biomedical innovation and with the actor networks who support it in such organizations. The second step of Medlearn consists in a quantitative study of a more extended number of AMCs on the same three continents. It aims at testing the competing hypotheses retrieved from theories and on the basis of the case studies

Higher education experiences of students with autism spectrum disorder: challenges, benefits and support needs

The transition into higher education constitutes a precarious life stage for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Research on how students with ASD navigate college life is needed for the development of adequate support. This study investigated the challenges and support needs of 23 students with ASD in higher education through semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed following the principles of Grounded Theory. Students faced difficulties with new situations and unexpected changes, social relationships, problems with information processing and time management and had doubts about disclosure. Facing these challenges simultaneously in the domains of education, student life and daily (independent) living, had a major impact on students' well being. Besides these challenges, students also reported benefits that contributed to success in the three domains. They pointed out to a set of recommendations for support. These findings are linked with previous research and implications for higher education institutions are extrapolated on the basis of these findings

Policy learning and policy change: Theorizing their relations from different perspectives

All politics and policy issues involve the accumulation of data about problems and solutions in context of social interactions

Fluxes of dissolved organic carbon in stand throughfall and percolation water in 12 boreal coniferous stands on mineral soils in Finland

Predictors for glucose intolerance postpartum were evaluated in women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) based on the 2013 World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. 1841 women were tested for GDM in a prospective cohort study. A postpartum 75g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed in women with GDM at 14 ± 4.1 weeks. Of all 231 mothers with GDM, 83.1% (192) had a postpartum OGTT of which 18.2% (35) had glucose intolerance. Women with glucose intolerance were more often of Asian origin [15.1% vs. 3.7%, OR 4.64 (1.26–17.12)], had more often a recurrent history of GDM [41.7% vs. 26.7%, OR 3.68 (1.37–9.87)], higher fasting glycaemia (FPG) [5.1 (4.5–5.3) vs. 4.6 (4.3–5.1) mmol/L, OR 1.05 (1.01–1.09)], higher HbA1c [33 (31–36) vs. 32 (30–33) mmol/mol, OR 4.89 (1.61–14.82)], and higher triglycerides [2.2 (1.9–2.8) vs. 2.0 (1.6–2.5) mmol/L, OR 1.00 (1.00–1.01)]. Sensitivity of glucose challenge test (GCT) ≥7.2 mmol/l for glucose intolerance postpartum was 80% (63.1%–91.6%). The area under the curve to predict glucose intolerance was 0.76 (0.65–0.87) for FPG, 0.54 (0.43–0.65) for HbA1c and 0.75 (0.64–0.86) for both combined. In conclusion, nearly one-fifth of women with GDM have glucose intolerance postpartum. A GCT ≥7.2 mmol/L identifies a high risk population for glucose intolerance postpartum