The Impact of the P.I.C.K. a Partner Relationship Educational Program on Single Army Soldiers

Educating singles on how to develop healthy, romantic relationships can be beneficial to their subsequent dating and marital satisfaction, and for Army soldiers, their satisfaction with military life. A new relationship program, the P.I.C.K. program, was delivered to single Army soldiers, and at the conclusion of the program participants demonstrated an increase in their understanding of the crucial areas to explore and discuss in a premarital relationship, gained a better understanding of how to pace their relationship, and exhibited more realistic attitudes and beliefs about marriage and mate selection

Monitoring and Evaluating Social Learning: A Framework for Cross-Initiative Application

The Climate Change and Social Learning Initiative is a cross-organisation group working to build a body of evidence on how social learning methodologies and approaches contribute towards development targets. Together with a select number of participating initiatives from a variety of organisations, we are working towards establishing a common monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework for new projects and programmes using a social learning-oriented approach. The aim is to more systematically collect evidence, analyse results and share learning on when and how research initiatives and beneficiaries may benefit from a social learning-oriented approach in the context of climate change adaptation and food security. This working paper presents an M&E framework consisting of a theory of change and 30 primary indicators across four key areas: iterative learning, capacity development, engagement, and challenging institutions. This framework will be accompanied by a forthcoming implementation guide for participating initiatives, as well as a strategy for peer assist, data collection and analysis by the CCSL Initiative

Solving ‘wicked’ problems: can social learning catalyse adaptive responses to climate change?

Social learning approaches can catalyse knowledge co-creation and action, so have the potential to help solve complex ‘wicked’ problems such as climate change and food insecurity. This working paper synthesises evidence from five diverse initiatives employing social learning approaches in response to such problems using the Climate Change and Social Learning initiative’s monitoring and evaluation framework. It finds initial evidence that key factors in social learning approaches can lead to clear learning outcomes with resulting positive changes in values and practice. Links to longer-term development outcomes are also evident in several completed initiatives

Dirac versus Reduced Quantization of the Poincar\'{e} Symmetry in Scalar Electrodynamics

The generators of the Poincar\'{e} symmetry of scalar electrodynamics are quantized in the functional Schr\"{o}dinger representation. We show that the factor ordering which corresponds to (minimal) Dirac quantization preserves the Poincar\'{e} algebra, but (minimal) reduced quantization does not. In the latter, there is a van Hove anomaly in the boost-boost commutator, which we evaluate explicitly to lowest order in a heat kernel expansion using zeta function regularization. We illuminate the crucial role played by the gauge orbit volume element in the analysis. Our results demonstrate that preservation of extra symmetries at the quantum level is sometimes a useful criterion to select between inequivalent, but nevertheless self-consistent, quantization schemes.Comment: 24 page

The usability of climate information in sub-national planning in India, Kenya and Uganda: the role of social learning and intermediary organisations

Research on using climate information has often focused on the interaction between users and producers and the technical fit of information for real decision-making. However, due to resource and capacity constraints within both user and producer communities, this approach will not always be feasible or indeed necessary depending on the decisions at hand. These contexts have been relatively under-explored by scholars, and this paper provides an original empirical contribution using three case studies of sub-national governments in India, Kenya and Uganda. In the paper, we analyse how social learning supports changing the usability of climate information and the role of intermediary organisations in these processes. Firstly, the paper shows that intermediaries often choose to build the commitment to project aims rather than using climate information as an entry point to working on climate change, and this allows them to instigate challenging learning processes. Secondly, there are barriers to iterative processes and critical reflection with government stakeholders but these processes can gain traction when built into institutional practices such as formal M&E processes. Lastly, social learning can broaden the framing of climate change from a single sector issue to a multi-sectoral one. We conclude by arguing that bringing together scholarship on social learning with that on the usability of climate information can deepen understanding of the dynamic context in which the information becomes usable. The evidence from the case studies shows that learning processes can alter this context across scales

CARIAA RiU learning guide

Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) defines “Research-into-Use” (RiU) as the uptake of research which contributes to a change in policy or practice. Cyclical refection and action are crucial to ensuring that CARIAA research is relevant and used. This pocket guide includes “cue cards” intended to guide four kinds of reflection moments that should feed into each other: event, quarterly, six-monthly, and annual. RiU learning offers an evidence-base from which emerging stories of change can be sourced, as participants and researchers are prompted to reflect upon the successes or challenges of their engagements

CCAFS Web and Statistics Report for 2017

This document reports on the statistics related to the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) website and data platforms from January to December 2017. The report includes statistics on the main CCAFS website –including publication downloads –and on data and tools platforms managed by CCAFS. Generally the statistics show that traffic and use of the CCAFS website and material was positive (both in terms of the number of hits and the proportion of those that were from “new visitors”) and that social media plays a role in referring users to the CCAFS site and materials. Most hits originated from a handful of the same countries. The US, Colombia, India, Kenya, and the UK appeared frequently on the top 5 country list.If you have any comments or questions or would like to request other statistics to be featured in future reports, please contact David Abreu ([email protected])

Model Calculations for the Two-Fragment Electro-Disintegration of 4^4He

Differential cross sections for the electro-disintegration process $e + {^4He} \longrightarrow {^3H}+ p + e'$ are calculated, using a model in which the final state interaction is included by means of a nucleon-nucleus (3+1) potential constructed via Marchenko inversion. The required bound-state wave functions are calculated within the integrodifferential equation approach (IDEA). In our model the important condition that the initial bound state and the final scattering state are orthogonal is fulfilled. The sensitivity of the cross section to the input $p{^3H}$ interaction in certain kinematical regions is investigated. The approach adopted could be useful in reactions involving few cluster systems where effective interactions are not well known and exact methods are presently unavailable. Although, our Plane-Wave Impulse Approximation results exhibit, similarly to other calculations, a dip in the five-fold differential cross-section around a missing momentum of $\sim 450 MeV/c$, it is argued that this is an artifact of the omission of re-scattering four-nucleon processes.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication by Phys.Rev.