Strategic management of family planning programs

Program management has received insufficient attention among family planning leaders, possibly because of medical or demographic background of many leaders, a focus on other program priorities (such as sheer survival), the pressure to expand programs rapidly, and limited donor interest in the subject. As programs grow in complexity, the problems resulting from weak management systems become more obvious, and organizations are compelled to introduce rational systems. The more successful family planning programs have paid close attention to key aspects of management and have striven to continually improve their systems. According to the principles of strategic management, there is no single"best"solution to the various problems organizations face. Each organization must work out a response appropriate to a given situation. But managers should know more about possible options and their effectiveness in other settings. In family planning, a dearth of research on options - compounded by the fact that many programs do not collect basic information about program inputs and outputs - makes it difficult to analyze which programs work and why. Logistics management is the Achilles heel of family planning programs. Many programs experience depleted supplies of contraceptives in demand and oversupplies of others. Lack of contraceptives not only leads to pregnancies but erodes client trust in the service provider and undermines staff morale. Measures to improve logistics management are readily accessible. What is lacking is a commitment from high-level managers to introduce the needed changes. Staff development also merits more attention from managers, as high-caliber staff can make a big difference in program performance. Managers do not always have flexibility about staff recruitment, promotion, and retention, but they should strive for as much leverage as possible. Little research has been done on the impact of training, so managers should assess the relative effectiveness and costs of different approaches. The key factor seems to the relevance to the training content to the individual's job responsibilities.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,ICT Policyand Strategies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Enterprise Development&Reform,Community Development and Empowerment

The Design and Development of a Multi-Disciplinary Project in Embedded Systems Design

As has been noted over the past ten years, “The wall between computer science and electrical engineering has kept the potential of embedded systems at bay. It is time to build a new scientific foundation with embedded systems design as the cornerstone, which will ensure a systematic and even-handed integration of the two fields.”[1] In Baylor University’s School of Engineering & Computer Science, the Embedded Systems course in the Department of Computer Science, and the Embedded Systems Design course in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have been offered independent of each other in the recent past. In the past year, however, this is beginning to change, with plans developing to combine the project portion of the two courses into one multi-disciplinary group project. This paper will document the two courses – scope and sequence, as well as emphasis, equipment used, and delivery style – highlighting the need for a new and innovative approach at the systematic integration of software and hardware in the design and development of a mutli-disciplinary group project. The beta test of this group project is occurring in the fall 2017 semester, with full first-time full-scale deployment during the spring 2018 semester. The results of this beta test will be discussed, and the lessons learned and planned modifications to the course will be considered.Cockrell School of Engineerin

Deformations and D-branes

I discuss the relation of Hochschild cohomology to the physical states in the closed topological string. This allows a notion of deformation intrinsic to the derived category. I use this to identify deformations of a quiver gauge theory associated to a D-branes at a singularity with generalized deformations of the geometry of the resolution of the singularity. An explicit map is given from noncommutative deformations (ie, B-fields) to terms in the superpotential.Comment: 33 pages, uses utarticle.cls, dcpic.sty; v2: minor corrections and refs adde

Impact of ICRISAT Research on Australian Agriculture

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

M-Theory Through the Looking Glass: Tachyon Condensation in the E_8 Heterotic String

We study the spacetime decay to nothing in string theory and M-theory. First we recall a nonsupersymmetric version of heterotic M-theory, in which bubbles of nothing -- connecting the two E_8 boundaries by a throat -- are expected to be nucleated. We argue that the fate of this system should be addressed at weak string coupling, where the nonperturbative instanton instability is expected to turn into a perturbative tachyonic one. We identify the unique string theory that could describe this process: The heterotic model with one E_8 gauge group and a singlet tachyon. We then use worldsheet methods to study the tachyon condensation in the NSR formulation of this model, and show that it induces a worldsheet super-Higgs effect. The main theme of our analysis is the possibility of making meaningful alternative gauge choices for worldsheet supersymmetry, in place of the conventional superconformal gauge. We show in a version of unitary gauge how the worldsheet gravitino assimilates the goldstino and becomes dynamical. This picture clarifies recent results of Hellerman and Swanson. We also present analogs of R_\xi gauges, and note the importance of logarithmic CFT in the context of tachyon condensation.Comment: 36 pages, 1 figur

China in Latin America: lessons for South-South cooperation and sustainable development

This repository item contains a report from the Boston University Global Economic Governance Initiative. The Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) is a research program of the Center for Finance, Law & Policy, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, and the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. It was founded in 2008 to advance policy-relevant knowledge about governance for financial stability, human development, and the environment

Urban Fathers Asset Building – Final Report

The Urban Fathers Asset Building (UFAB) project demonstrated the potential benefits, as well as limitations, of an innovative nexus between the child support system, fatherhood programs, and the Assets for Independence (AFI) grant-funded services. UFAB was a collaborative initiative of the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG), Baylor College of Medicine’s Teen Health Clinic, Covenant Community Capital Corporation (the local AFI grantee), and RAISE Texas, the statewide association of AFI grantees. This Final Report summarizes UFAB’s operational features and outcomes; depicts the demonstration’s challenges and innovative responses; reviews the accomplishments of the ancillary projects supported by BAFF funds; and assesses the prospects for sustaining demonstration practices in the Houston area, as well as extending promising practices to other areas of the state.Texas Office of the Attorney GeneralRay Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resource

Interview with Cynthia Plair Roddey

In her four interviews with Cynthia Wilson on January 22, 1979, James D. Mackey on April 29, 1981, Paul Finkelstein on September 4, 1994, and Robert Ryals on September 12, 2012, Cynthia Roddey shares her experiences at Winthrop from 1964-1967. Roddey details the process of applying to Winthrop, the reaction she received from the Winthrop and Rock Hill community, and her participation in student life. Roddey includes her insight on race relations today and her hopes for the future. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections Oral History Program.https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/oralhistoryprogram/1167/thumbnail.jp

Effects of Different Types of Noise on Foreign Accent Adaptation

Understanding foreign-accented speech can be difficult. Comprehension can be further compromised by environmental noise. Previous research has shown that listeners are able to adapt rapidly to a foreign accent. The present study examines how foreign accent (FA) adaptation is affected by two kinds of noise: speech-shaped white noise and competing speech. Native English listeners heard blocks of sentences produced by native-accented or foreign-accented talkers (Korean, Spanish) mixed with either type of noise, and indicated if the word written on the screen and the last word they heard were the same by pressing a button. Results show that listener responses were more accurate (though slower) when sentences were mixed with competing speech than with speech-shaped white noise. These findings suggest that while competing speech made word recognition more effortful, ultimately it was less disruptive than white noise for FA adaptation.Linguistic