Antipoverty programs in developing countries are often difficult to implement; in particular, many governments lack the capacity to deliver payments securely to targeted beneficiaries. We evaluate ...the impact of biometrically authenticated payments infrastructure ("Smartcards") on beneficiaries of employment (NREGS) and pension (SSP) programs in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, using a large-scale experiment that randomized the rollout of Smartcards over 157 subdistricts and 19 million people. We find that, while incompletely implemented, the new system delivered a faster, more predictable, and less corrupt NREGS payments process without adversely affecting program access. For each of these outcomes, treatment group distributions first-order stochastically dominated those of the control group. The investment was cost-effective, as time savings to NREGS beneficiaries alone were equal to the cost of the intervention, and there was also a significant reduction in the "leakage "of funds between the government and beneficiaries in both NREGS and SSP programs. Beneficiaries overwhelmingly preferred the new system for both programs. Overall, our results suggest that investing in secure payments infrastructure can significantly enhance "state capacity" to implement welfare programs in developing countries.
In 2010, the Institute of Education Sciences commissioned a much-needed national evaluation of response to intervention (RTI). The evaluators defined their task very narrowly, asking “Does the use of ...universal screening, including a cut-point for designating students for more intensive Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions, increase children’s performance on a comprehensive reading measure?” Their regression-discontinuity analysis showed that first-grade children designated for (but not necessarily receiving) more intensive intervention in the 146 study schools performed significantly worse than children not designated for it. There were no reliable differences between designated and nondesignated students in Grades 2 or 3. The provocativeness of these findings notwithstanding, the evaluation’s focus and design weakens its importance. RTI implementation data were also collected in the 146 study schools. These data suggest many of them were not conducting RTI in a manner supported by research and policy. Such findings and others’ evaluations of RTI advance the idea that simpler frameworks may encourage more educators to implement RTI’s most important components with fidelity.
Program management has taken its position in project management research and in public and private organizations as a successful method for managing complex, uncertain, and large-scale changes. ...During the past 25years, research has evolved from programs as the conceptual extension of projects to a rich field of empirical studies reflecting the special natures and contexts of change programs and their management, with unique theoretical foundations. To take stock of this recent history, in this article we analyze the patterns of previous empirical studies on change program management and their theoretical foundations. The goal is to identify and summarize proposals to guide forthcoming program management research. The results reveal three main themes of ongoing research: managing over the change program lifecycle, managing programs in their context, and program managers' capabilities. The roots of change program management in organization theories are apparent; structural contingency theory and information processing theories have dominated in previous empirical research, but are clearly being extended to agency, stakeholder, and actor-network theories. New research ideas are proposed for the use of programs in various types of changes, value creation and delivery through change programs, the profiles and capabilities of different actors in program management, the coexistence and interplay of multiple programs, and the complex stakeholder networks involved with change programs. When change becomes more prevalent in the organizations' dynamic contexts, there is an increasing need to develop program management toward an organizational capability for managing value-oriented, integrated, and multi-project change in complex stakeholder contexts.
•Change programs are benefit and value-oriented strategic transformation initiatives.•Program initiation and evolution are central in the lifecycles of change programs.•Context-dependence of change programs requires integration and different practices.•Complex programs set specific requirements to program management capabilities.•Also inter-organizational aspects of change programs need to be studied.
In Canada, childhood obesity is increasing while 16% of children are food insecure. Schools provide an opportunity to promote healthy eating, yet, there is no national school food program. The ...purpose of this scoping review is to determine promising practices for Canadian school food programs. Using peer reviewed and gray literature in English and French published after 1970, we examined 35 publications for evidence of nutritional intake, nutrition education, improved educational attainment, promotion of health equity, and cultural awareness. Interest in school food programs is growing. Programs should address social determinants of health, food systems, and environmental and economic sustainability.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND
Childhood malnutrition is commonplace among poor rural communities in China. In 2012, China launched its first nationwide school‐feeding program (SFP) to address this problem. ...This study examines the prevalence of malnutrition before and after the SFP and identifies possible reasons for the trends observed.
METHODS
Ordinary least squares regression and propensity score matching were used to analyze data from 2 cross‐sectional surveys of 100 rural primary schools in northwestern China. Participants were fourth‐and fifth‐grade students. Outcome measures include anemia rates, hemoglobin levels, body mass index, and height for age Z scores.
RESULTS
Three years after implementation of the SFP, malnutrition rates among sample students had not fallen. The SFP had no statistically significant effect on either anemia rates or BMI, but was linked to an increase in the proportion of students with below normal height for age Z scores. Meals provided to students fell far short of national recommendations that the SPF should provide 40% of the recommended daily allowance of micronutrients.
CONCLUSIONS
Despite significant budgetary outlays between 2012 and 2015, China's SFP has not reduced the prevalence of malnutrition among sample students. To make the SFP more effective, funding and human resources both need to be increased.
Summary
Declarative static program analysis has become one of the widely‐used program analysis techniques. Declarative static analyzers perform three steps: creating databases of facts from program ...source code, evaluating rules to generate new facts, and running queries over facts to extract all information related to specific properties via query systems. Declarative static analyzers can easily target diverse programming languages by modifying only databases and rules for new languages. Because query systems are independent of programming languages, they are reusable for new languages. However, even when declarative analyzers support multiple programming languages they do not currently support the analysis of multilingual programs written in two or more programming languages. We propose a systematic methodology that extends a declarative static analyzer supporting multiple languages to support multilingual programs as well. The main idea is to reuse existing components of the analyzer. Our approach first generates a merged database of facts, consisting of multiple logical language spaces. It allows existing language‐specific rules to derive new facts for the corresponding language from the facts in the corresponding language space. Then, it defines language‐interoperation rules that handle the language interoperation semantics. Finally, it uses the same query system to get analysis results leveraging the language interoperation semantics. We develop a proof‐of‐concept declarative static analyzer for multilingual programs by extending CodeQL, which can track dataflows across language boundaries. Our evaluation shows that the analyzer successfully tracks dataflows across Java‐C and Python‐C language boundaries and detects genuine interoperation bugs in real‐world multilingual
programs.
ABSTRACT
Background
School breakfast programs (SBP) play an important role in reducing food insecurity and helping provide children with adequate nutrition. Using alternative service methods such as ...breakfast in the classroom, grab and go, and second chance breakfast may increase student participation.
Methods
We compared the SBP participation of students in 194 Pennsylvania schools that received a mini‐grant to support the implementation of an alternative service method to participation in the academic year prior to implementation. In addition, we examined SBP participation in 90 schools that did not receive such a mini‐grant to determine the change in participation in these schools over the 2‐year period and compared this to the change in participation in schools that did receive a mini‐grant.
Results
Overall, SBP participation in schools that received the mini‐grant increased over the 2‐year study period, a change that was not seen in schools that did not receive the mini‐grant. The largest increases were seen in schools that implemented the breakfast in the classroom model.
Conclusions
Alternative service methods, particularly breakfast in the classroom, are associated with increased participation in the SBP and therefore increase access to adequate nutrition and food security for school children.
Delirium, defined as an acute disorder of attention and cognition with high morbidity and mortality, can be prevented by multicomponent nonpharmacological interventions. The Hospital Elder Life ...Program (HELP) is the original evidence-based approach targeted to delirium risk factors, which has been widely disseminated.
To summarize the current state of the evidence regarding HELP and to highlight its effectiveness and cost savings.
Systematic review of Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from 1999 to 2017, using a combination of controlled vocabulary and keyword terms.
Of the 44 final articles included, 14 were included in the meta-analysis for effectiveness and 30 were included for examining cost savings, adherence and adaptations, role of volunteers, successes and barriers, and issues in sustainability. The results for delirium incidence, falls, length of stay, and institutionalization were pooled for meta-analyses. Overall, 14 studies demonstrated significant reductions in delirium incidence (odds ratio OR 0.47, 95% confidence interval CI 0.37-0.59). The rate of falls was reduced by 42% among intervention patients in three comparative studies (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.35-0.95). In nine studies on cost savings, the program saved $1600-$3800 (2018 U.S. dollars) per patient in hospital costs and over $16,000 (2018 U.S. dollars) per person-year in long-term care costs in the year following delirium. The systematic review revealed that programs were generally successful in adhering to or appropriately adapting HELP (n = 13 studies) and in finding the volunteer role to be valuable (n = 6 studies). Successes and barriers to implementation were examined in 6 studies, including ensuring effective clinician leadership, finding senior administrative champions, and shifting organizational culture. Sustainability factors were examined in 10 studies, including adapting to local circumstances, documenting positive impact and outcomes, and securing long-term funding.
The Hospital Elder Life Program is effective in reducing incidence of delirium and rate of falls, with a trend toward decreasing length of stay and preventing institutionalization. With ongoing efforts in continuous program improvement, implementation, adaptations, and sustainability, HELP has emerged as a reference standard model for improving the quality and effectiveness of hospital care for older persons worldwide.
Objective: The object of this exploratory evaluation was to evaluate the "Bringing in the Bystander" sexual and intimate partner violence prevention program with a new sample of intercollegiate ...athletes. Participants and Methods: Fifty-three male and female athletes participated in the program (experimental group), and 86 were in the control group. All completed pretest, posttest, and 2-month follow-up surveys, including assessment of rape myth acceptance, intent to engage in bystander behaviors, bystander confidence, and bystander behaviors. Results: The program worked overall and for both women and men, improved bystander confidence and intent to engage in bystander behaviors, and did not create significant backlash effects (ie, worsening of attitudes as a result of program). Conclusions: The program fits with the intent of the National Collegiate Athletic Association CHAMPS/Life Skills program regarding its focus on the overall development of student-athletes and demonstrates the promising bystander approach compatible with the 2007 American College Health Association toolkit, Shifting the Paradigm: Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence.
This book, a Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, has been curated by three leading international experts on the topic. Following their editorial, ...there are 14 contributions on the topic of interventions against bullying, including cyberbullying, and similar abusive behaviors such as dating violence. Some contributions also assess positive or protective factors such as well-being, self-efficacy, and school climate. Eight of the contributions directly assess the effects of an intervention, with pre/post test designs and experimental and control groups. The other contributions examine a range of relevant topics, such as teacher attitudes and pupils’ confidence in intervening rather than being passive bystanders. Ten countries are represented among the authors. Most of the articles are about secondary schools (pupils, or teachers), but there are also contributions on early childhood, primary school, and university. This book will be of interest and relevance not only to researchers but also to teachers and educational practitioners concerned with pupil safety and well-being in school, and provides practical ways to reduce bullying and its harmful effects.
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