Process Evaluation of the Realising Ambition Programme

Launched in May 2012 by the Big Lottery Fund (hereafter 'the Fund'), the Realising Ambition programme aims to help more young people aged 8-14 fulfil their potential and avoid pathways into offending. It does this by supporting 25 organisations to replicate proven youth interventions at new sites across the UK. The Realising Ambition process evaluation covered the first three, of five, years of the programme (2012-2015). The process evaluation had two key objectives:* To gain an understanding of the practical issues associated with replication, including issues emerging for organisations involved in replication themselves.* To explore what does and doesn't work when supporting organisations to replicate proven models, and the resources required to support different approaches to replication

CECAN Evaluation and Policy Practice Note (EPPN) for policy analysts and evaluators - Using complexity and theory of change to transform regulation: a complex theory of change for the Food Standards Agency’s ‘Regulating Our Future’ programme

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is a non-ministerial UK Government department whose main objective is to protect public health and consumer interests in relation to food in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It works with food producers, suppliers and local authorities to ensure that food is safe and what it says it is. This case study focuses on the FSA’s new programme ‘Regulating Our Future’ (ROF), through which the FSA is changing how it regulates the food sector

Alcance do cambio organizativo no sector público europeo

O presente artigo comeza a desentrañar as características dos organismos públicos e do seu contorno (é dicir, aqueles factores que motivan e influencian os procesos de cambio neste sector), á vez que trata de dilucidar algunhas das implicacións que entrañan as aproximacións ao cambio organizativoEl presente artículo comienza a desentrañar las características de los organismos públicos y de su entorno (es decir, aquellos factores que motivan e influencian los procesos de cambio en este sector), a la vez que trata de dilucidar algunas de las implicaciones que entrañan las aproximaciones al cambio organizativo

Planned Place of Birth—Impact of Psychopathological Risk Factors on the Choice of Birthplace and Its Postpartum Effect on Psychological Adaption: An Exploratory Study

The choice of birthplace may have an important impact on a woman’s health. In this longitudinal study, we investigated the psychopathological risk factors that drive women’s choice of birthplace, since their influence is currently not well understood. The research was conducted in 2011/12 and we analyzed data of 177 women (obstetric unit, n = 121; free standing midwifery unit, n = 42; homebirth, n = 14). We focused antepartally (M  = 34.3 ± 3.3) on sociodemographic and risk factors of psychopathology, such as prenatal distress (Prenatal Distress Questionnaire), depressiveness (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale), birth anxiety (Birth Anxiety Scale), childhood trauma (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire), and postpartally (M = 6.65 ± 2.6) on birth experience (Salmon’s Item List), as well as psychological adaption, such as postpartum depressive symptoms (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) and birth anxiety felt during birth (modified Birth Anxiety Scale). Women with fear of childbirth and the beginning of birth were likely to plan a hospital birth. In contrast, women with fear of touching and palpation by doctors and midwives, as well as women with childhood trauma, were more likely to plan an out-of-hospital birth. Furthermore, women with planned out-of-hospital births experienced a greater relief of their birth anxiety during the birth process than women with planned hospital birth. Our results especially show that women with previous mental illnesses, as well as traumatic experiences, seem to have special needs during childbirth, such as a safe environment and supportive care

D2.6 – Analysis of different approaches to resilience also outside EU

The report gives an overview of approaches to resilience based on experiences from outside of Europe. Many inspiring local and regional projects have been launched (with support of UNDRR and other platforms). Projects focused on resilience of communities, cities and critical infrastructures are contacted and analysed in order to enrich the RESILOC project base of information. The report is based on publicly available information, review of literature, reports, interviews with stakeholders in resilience in a selected group of cities all over the world and interviews with relevant players in the working field, like UNDRR, the Rockefeller Foundation and other (inter)national organization in resilience and disaster risk reduction. The collected data is analysed and studied along the same lines of the European data, so that it will be possible to abstract approaches, study results and identify replicable lessons learned

“This is what I have learned in practice!”. Experiencing competencies relevant to general medicine in medical studies at the Saarland University

Hintergrund: Die geplante Reform des Medizinstudiums in Deutschland hat das Potenzial, die akademische Rolle der Allgemeinmedizin stark zu verändern. Der neue Nationale Kompetenzbasierte Lernzielkatalog für das Medizinstudium (NKLM 2.0) stellt die inhaltliche Grundlage des Reformvorschlags dar und richtet die Ausbildung an deutschen medizinischen Fakultäten auf kompetenzbasiertes Lernen aus. Welche allgemeinmedizinisch relevanten Kompetenzen Studierende aktuell während des Studiums konkret erleben und wann das passiert, ist jedoch weitgehend unbekannt. Zielsetzung: Ziel dieser Studie ist es, das Kompetenzerleben in allgemeinmedizinisch relevanten Kompetenzen sowie die Wunschausprägung nach kompetenzfördernden Lernangeboten zu verschiedenen Zeitpunkten des Medizinstudiums an der Universität des Saarlandes (UdS) zu beschreiben. Material und Methoden: Bei der Studie handelt es sich um eine gleichzeitige explorative Mixed-Methods-Studie. 129 Medizinstudierende des 1. bis 10. Semesters der Universität des Saarlandes wurden anonym zu 29 allgemeinmedizinischen Lernzielen aus dem NKLM 2.0 mittels Fragebogen befragt. Anschließend wurden mit 9 Studierenden halbstrukturierte Interviews geführt. Diese wurden mittels qualitativer Inhaltsanalyse ausgewertet. Ergebnisse und Diskussion: Das Kompetenzerleben in den allgemeinmedizinisch relevanten Kompetenzen veränderte sich zu unterschiedlichen Studienzeitpunkten nicht signifikant. Bei vielen der Lernziele fühlten sich die Studierenden zu jedem Zeitpunkt des Studiums inkompetent. Die Wunschausprägung nach Lernangeboten bleibt während des Medizinstudiums konstant. Die Studierenden sahen ihren Lernzuwachs am stärksten während der Praktika und in den Wahlfächern. Die allgemeinmedizinischen Lehrangebote der UdS wurden von den Teilnehmenden als hilfreich beim Kompetenzerwerb empfunden. Die Ergebnisse unterstreichen die Bedeutung von allgemeinmedizinischen Praktika für den Erwerb praktischer Fähigkeiten und sind ein Plädoyer für mehr kompetenzfördernde Lernangebote in allgemeinmedizinischen Curricula.Background: The forthcoming reform of medical education in Germany is poised to instigate significant transformations in the academic domain of general practice. Central to this reform is the adoption of the National Competence-Based Learning Objectives Catalogue for Medical Studies (NKLM 2.0), which serves as the foundational framework aligning medical training across German faculties with competence-based learning principles. Despite its promising potential, the extent to which current medical students encounter and develop competencies pertinent to family medicine (FM) remains largely unexplored. Objectives: The aim of this study is to describe the experience of competence in competences relevant to FM as well as the desire for competency-promoting learning opportunities at different points in time during medical undergraduate medical education at Saarland University (UdS). Materials and methods: The study is a simultaneous explorative mixed-methods study. 129 medical students from year one to five enrolled at UdS were anonymously surveyed on 29 FM sub-cometencies from the NKLM 2.0. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine students. These were evaluated using qualitative content analysis. Results and discussion: The students experience of competence in FM relevant skills did not change significantly at different stages of their medical studies. For many of the learning objectives, the students felt incompetent at every stage of their studies. The desire for learning opportunities remained constant throughout their studies. The students perceived their learning progress most significantly during internships and elective courses. The FM learning activities at UdS were perceived as helpful for competence acquisition by the participants. The findings underline the importance of FM internships for acquiring practical skills and advocate for more competencepromoting learning opportunities in FM curricula

Textile Strain Sensor Enhancement by Coating Metal Yarns with Carbon-Filled Silicone

Flexible and stretchable strain sensors are an important development for measuring various movements and forces and are increasingly used in a wide range of smart textiles. For example, strain sensors can be used to measure the movements of arms, legs or individual joints. Thereby, most strain sensors are capable of detecting large movements with a high sensitivity. Very few are able to measure small movements, i.e., strains of less than 5%, with a high sensitivity, which is necessary to carry out important health measurements, such as breathing, bending, heartbeat, and vibrations. This research deals with the development of strain sensors capable of detecting strain of 1% with a high sensitivity. For this purpose, a total of six commercially available metallic yarns were coated with a carbon-containing silicone coating. The process is based on a vertical dip-coating technology with a self-printed 3D coating bath. Afterwards, the finished yarns were interlooped and stretched by 1% while electrical resistance measurements were carried out. It was shown that, although the coating reduced the overall conductivity of the yarns, it also improved their sensitivity to stress. Conclusively, highly sensitive strain sensors, designed specially for small loads, were produced by a simple coating set-up and interlooping structure of the sensory yarns, which could easily be embedded in greater textile structures for wearable electronics