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Background: This paper explores the multilevel factors associated with maternal health utilization in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. 3 key utilization practices: registration of pregnancy, receipt of antenatal care, and delivery at home are examined for district and individual level predictors. The data is based on 5666 household surveys conducted as part of a baseline evaluation of the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UPTSU.) program. Objectives: This intervention aims to assist the Government of Uttar Pradesh in increasing the efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of service delivery across a continuum of reproductive, maternal, new-born, child, and adolescent health (RMNCH+A) outcomes. Methods: The paper employs multilevel models that control for individuals being nested within districts in order to understand the predictors of maternal health care utilization. Results: The study identifies several individual-level predictors of health care utilization, including: literacy of the woman, the husband’s schooling, age at marriage, and socio-economic factors. Key predictors of pregnancy registration include husband’s schooling (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.26–1.76), having a bank account (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.11–1.68), and owning a house (OR 2.28, 95% CI 1.85–2.80). Factors affecting antenatal care include the woman’s literacy (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.28–1.73), the respondent having had a job in the last year (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.10–1.77), and owning a house (OR 2.83, 95% CI 2.27–3.53). Home delivery tends to be associated with woman’s literacy (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.54–0.72) and marriage age of 15 and younger (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.26–1.73). Conclusions: Interventions having equity considerations need to disrupt existing patterns of the health gradient. Successful implementation of such interventions, necessitate understanding the mechanisms that can disrupt the unequal utilization patterns and target domains of disadvantage. Knowledge of key predictors of utilization can aid in the implementation of such complex interventions.

Background: This paper reports findings from a one-year UK\ud knowledge exchange (KE) project completed in 2015. Stakeholders’\ud experiences of evaluation were explored in order to develop online\ud resources to strengthen knowledge and capacity within the arts and\ud health sector (www.creativeandcredible.co.uk).\ud Methods: The project used mixed methods, including a survey,\ud interviews and focus groups, guided by a Stakeholder Reference\ud Group comprised of 26 leading UK evaluators, researchers, artists,\ud health professionals, commissioners and funders.\ud Results: The project identified opportunities for arts arising from\ud current health and social care policy agendas. It also identified\ud challenges including the lack of agreed evaluation frameworks and\ud difficulties in evaluation practice.\ud Conclusions: Co-production between stakeholders is needed to\ud strengthen evaluation practice and support the development of the\ud arts and health sector. Effective co-production can be undermined\ud by structural and cultural barriers as well as unequal stakeholder\ud relationships. The paper discusses recent initiatives designed to\ud support best practice.

Evaluating the success of projects should be a key process in project management. However, there are only a few studies that address the evaluation process in practice. In order to help fill this gap, this paper presents the results of an exploratory survey with experienced information systems project managers. Results show that opportunities for lessons learned and project management improvement are being missed due to the lack of formal evaluation of success., This work has been supported by FCT -Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020.

The paper presents a scoping review of existing economic evaluations of assistive technology (AT). The study methodology utilized a PRISMA flow approach with final included studies that met an adapted PICOS framework. Types of economic evaluations employed, study type and rigor and domains of AT impact were considered and analyzed. The economic evaluations in this study included 13 CBA, 9 CMA, 18 CEAs and 10 CUA. The majority of studies (32 studies in total) mentioned or recorded that AT investment, access and/or usage had impacts on the domain of both informal and formal health care. Specifically, care costs, time, and resources were affected. Our study has found that current AT economic evaluations are limited. This study advocates for a wider use of robust alternative evaluation and appraisal methodologies that can highlight AT value and which would subsequently provide further evidence that may make governments more willing to invest in and shape AT markets.

EIA is increasingly being questioned as a decision-making instrument of choice for decision makers. In addressing these concerns, the paper aims to re-think the fundamentals of EIA through the identification of key assumptions underlying EIA evaluation. This aim was achieved through the application of the theory of change (ToC) method to the South African EIA system, which resulted in the identification of 19 key underlying assumptions. Going forward we recommend the testing of these assumptions towards a better understanding of the fundamental nature and purpose of EIA as a policy implementation instrument

Shore protection facilities have a long lifetime and must be expected to meet demands for providing people living coastlines with safety and security. The principal demands for those facilities seem to be simple but have not been practically so easy to be kept over the requirements. The reasons for those are that facilities are rather big and are exposed to severe environments for materials. Those facts may cause difficulties in even visual inspection. In addition, as it would be very important, rise of the seawater level, etc. due to global warming may affect the function and performance, which has to be taken into account rehabilitation planning. To overcome such difficulties, it is important to pursue coordination between design and maintenance based on the procedure of the life-cycle management through which sustainability indicators would be maximum/minimum. This paper presents the concept and the framework of the life-cycle management system for those facilities and introduces methodologies of the management system particularly feasible to practical maintenance.

University policies are increasingly developed with reference to students’ learning experiences, with a focus on the concept of the ‘student voice’. Yet the ‘student voice’ is difficult to define and emphasis is often placed on numerical performance indicators. A diverse student population has wide-ranging educational experiences, which may not be easily captured within the broad categories provided by traditional survey tools, which can drown out the rich, varied and gradual processes of individual development. There is no single tool that can be used to measure students’ experiences. This paper draws on findings from four narrative inquiry studies, carried out in the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, to illustrate how a narrative approach could be used to complement performance indicators. This provides a richer context for educators’ understanding of students’ experiences and for supporting and setting institutional agendas.

Rare diseases are a global public health priority; they can cause significant morbidity and mortality, can gravely affect quality of life, and can confer a social and economic burden on families and communities. These conditions are, by their nature, encountered very infrequently by clinicians. Thus, clinical practice guidelines are potentially very helpful in supporting clinical decisions, health policy and resource allocation. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system is a structured and transparent approach to developing and presenting summaries of evidence, grading its quality, and then transparently interpreting the available evidence to make recommendations in health care. GRADE has been adopted widely. However, its use in creating guidelines for rare diseases - which are often plagued by a paucity of high quality evidence - has not yet been explored. RARE- Bestpractices is a project to create and populate a platform for sharing best practices for management of rare diseases. A major aim of this project is to ensure that European Union countries have the capacity to produce high quality clinical practice guidelines for rare diseases. On February 12, 2013 at the Istituto Superiore di Sanita, in Rome, Italy, the RARE-Bestpractices group held the first of a series of 2 workshops to discuss methodology for creating clinical practice guidelines, and explore issues specific to rare diseases. This paper summarizes key results of the first workshop, and explores how the current GRADE approach might (or might not) work for rare diseases. Avenues for future research are also identified.