Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Local Settings (local + setting)
Selected AbstractsDEALING WITH THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS IN LOCAL SETTINGS: NONINTENSIVE AGRICULTURE IN LESOTHO, SOUTHERN AFRICAANNALS OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRACTICE, Issue 1 2009Nancy Romero-Daza This article seeks to contribute to efforts toward the identification and critical analysis of sustainable community-based initiatives that could help to ameliorate the impact of the global food crisis in developing countries. To do so, we present a discussion of a sustainable agriculture program in Lesotho, in sub-Saharan Africa. We contextualize the discussion in the framework of both the food crisis and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, both of which are taking a major toll in Lesotho. We then present a brief discussion of some of our anthropological contributions to the work of an NGO that is implementing sustainable agriculture initiatives in periurban areas of Lesotho where households are at high risk for food insecurity. [source] Eclecticism in health services for developmental disordersJOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH, Issue 3 2000M McDowell Abstract: The term ,eclectic', as applied to health care for children with developmental disorders, portrays an individualized, adaptive service response to local constraints and pressures. While this may appear appropriate for the local setting, the end result is a broad diversity of health care approaches. This paper discusses three separate processes that interact at a local level, increasing the likelihood of an eclectic local model of health care for this population of children. The first process draws from the direct clinical work. Variable training, knowledge and skills among health care providers, in combination with differing beliefs around the nature of the problems and their management leads to health care which directly reflects the attributes of the local clinicians. A separate, second process fuelling variability is the differing models of departmental responsibility across Australia , which Government departments fund which aspect of care for children with disabilities. The final process relates to funding streams for health care. State public health, federal Medicare and private insurance all support health services for children with disabilities, with the financial incentives (budgets compared to fee-for-service) driving a divergence of practice. This paper concludes that the external political, administrative and financial frameworks within which health care is constructed will continue to promote clinical eclecticism to a degree that would probably be considered unacceptable in other areas of child health care. The solution can only arise from within the clinical work itself, with greater clarity of understanding around the nature of the disorders, the outcomes for which health care takes responsibility, and an increasing focus on an evidence based set of approaches towards achieving these. [source] The Balanced Scorecard and its Possibilities: The Initial Experiences of a Singaporean FirmAUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 1 2008Rina Sandhu This paper examines the multiple possibilities that arise from the translation of actors' hopes and aspirations when implementing a balanced scorecard. The issue is studied in the context of a Singaporean security company in the initial stages of implementing a BSC. We find that the BSC is a ,messy' object, being different things to different people. This messy object is a result of the many possibilities that the BSC might become which ultimately require translating into the local setting. As such, this view challenges Kaplan and Norton's idea of the BSC as a generic and unitary object of performance measurement that is readily applicable to a variety of situations. [source] Developing and implementing a comprehensive approach to serving women with co-occurring disorders and histories of traumaJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2005Nicholas Huntington The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funded the Women, Co-Occurring Disorders and Violence Study to generate empirical knowledge on how to improve services for women who are trauma survivors and have co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. We first review the literature on the pervasiveness of trauma among women and the ways in which current service systems fail to address their needs. We then describe the four core principles of the model grantees developed to test in the project. Working through a project Steering Committee, grantees mandated that services be (a) integrated, (b) trauma-informed, (c) consumer-involved, and (d) comprehensive. For each of these principles, we describe the specifications adopted by the committee, the strategies the study sites used to implement the principle in their local settings, and the concrete lessons sites learned concerning how to implement the principle. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 33: 395,410, 2005. [source] A primer on classical test theory and item response theory for assessments in medical educationMEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 1 2010André F De Champlain Context, A test score is a number which purportedly reflects a candidate's proficiency in some clearly defined knowledge or skill domain. A test theory model is necessary to help us better understand the relationship that exists between the observed (or actual) score on an examination and the underlying proficiency in the domain, which is generally unobserved. Common test theory models include classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT). The widespread use of IRT models over the past several decades attests to their importance in the development and analysis of assessments in medical education. Item response theory models are used for a host of purposes, including item analysis, test form assembly and equating. Although helpful in many circumstances, IRT models make fairly strong assumptions and are mathematically much more complex than CTT models. Consequently, there are instances in which it might be more appropriate to use CTT, especially when common assumptions of IRT cannot be readily met, or in more local settings, such as those that may characterise many medical school examinations. Objectives, The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of both CTT and IRT to the practitioner involved in the development and scoring of medical education assessments. Methods, The tenets of CCT and IRT are initially described. Then, main uses of both models in test development and psychometric activities are illustrated via several practical examples. Finally, general recommendations pertaining to the use of each model in practice are outlined. Discussion, Classical test theory and IRT are widely used to address measurement-related issues that arise from commonly used assessments in medical education, including multiple-choice examinations, objective structured clinical examinations, ward ratings and workplace evaluations. The present paper provides an introduction to these models and how they can be applied to answer common assessment questions. Medical Education 2010: 44: 109,117 [source] A conceptual framework for developing teaching cases: a review and synthesis of the literature across disciplinesMEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 9 2006Sara Kim Context, Case-based teaching is regarded as a superior instructional method compared with lectures in promoting a learner's critical thinking skills. While much is known about the role a discussion facilitator plays in case-based teaching, the debate on the influence of the format and structure of cases on learning is controversial. Objectives, We sought to identify strategies for constructing cases based on studies from multiple disciplines, which report the development and use of cases in teaching and learning. The purpose was to offer the medical and other educational communities a conceptual framework that can be examined in future research. Results, Based on a review of 100 studies, we synthesised 17 strategies around 5 core attributes of cases: relevant (level of learner, goals and objectives, setting of case narrative); realistic (authenticity, distractors, gradual disclosure of content); engaging (rich content, multiple perspectives, branching of content); challenging (difficulty, unusual cases, case structure, multiple cases), and instructional (build upon prior knowledge, assessment, feedback, and teaching aids). Discussion, Despite the wide use of cases in disparate disciplines, there has been no overarching study that synthesises strategies of case development or tests these strategies in research settings. The framework we developed can serve as a menu of case development options that educators and researchers can pilot and evaluate in their local settings. [source] Local and Translocal in the Study of Theravada Buddhism and ModernityRELIGION COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2009Erik Braun This essay traces the development of scholarly thinking about the relationship between local and translocal forms of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, particularly in regard to modernity. The first part of the article shows that scholars have moved well away from a view of the canonical Buddhist texts as the original and most authentic core of Theravada, emphasizing instead local settings as the sites for the production of Buddhist values, practices, and texts. The article then considers how this turn to the local is affecting understandings of Buddhist modernity in Southeast Asia. It suggests that recent work on modern Theravada Buddhism at the local level is pushing scholars toward a more atomized view of Buddhist modernities. In this view, local Buddhisms play a part at least as important as that of the global forces of modernization (usually seen as originating in the West). [source] Bhutani-based nomograms for the prediction of significant hyperbilirubinaemia using transcutaneous measurements of bilirubinACTA PAEDIATRICA, Issue 12 2009YA Bental Abstract Aim:, Prospectively establish the relationship between transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) and total serum bilirubin (TSB), and develop nomograms similar to Bhutani's nomograms, based on our TcB data. Methods:, Our study sample was from a total population of 1069 infants, near term and term healthy newborns, admitted during 2.5 month period of the study. TSB was performed on all infants who were felt to be clinically jaundiced. Before obtaining the TSB, a TcB was performed (Jaundice Meter Minolta/Draeger JM-103). Measurements were performed on two sites: forehead and mid-sternum, and the mean of both measurements was calculated. Results:, A total of 1091 paired measurements were obtained from 628 infants. Linear regression showed a significant relation between TSB and TcB (R2 of 0.846). In multiple regression analysis, all independent variables studied, i.e. gestational age (or birthweight), age at sampling and ethnicity had a negligible influence on the relationship. We subsequently developed our local-nomograms of hour-specific mean TcB with 40, 75 and 95 percentile lines. Conclusions:, In our local settings and population, we found a reliable correlation between laboratory measurements of TSB and TcB. We were able to develop our local-Bhutani-based TcB nomograms for screening babies during hospital stay and pre-discharge for assessing the risk of hyperbilirubinaemia. [source] | |||||||||||||