Design, adaptation, and diffusion of an innovative tool to promote shared contraceptive decision-making: Balanced Counseling Strategy Plus

Contraceptive decision-making is highly complex, and family planning (FP) clients choose methods according to a host of personal, interpersonal, and context-specific considerations. These include concerns about side effects, confidence in their ability to adhere to daily or monthly use, efficacy of methods, partner support, and HIV vulnerability. FP decision support tools can support FP clients and providers to engage in a joint decision-making process to ensure clients make informed choices about contraception. For more than two decades, the Balanced Counseling Strategy (BCS) and Balanced Counseling Strategy Plus (BCS+) decision support tools have been used in lower- and middle-income countries, informed by implementation science research and iterative updates and refinements to reflect new developments in contraceptive technology and HIV prevention strategies. To inform the development and scale-up of future FP decision support tools, as well as share lessons from translating implementation science results to practice, this article describes the development, evaluation, and proliferation of BCS and BCS+.

A study on the Delta-Bullington irregular terrain radiofrequency propagation model : assessing model suitability for use in decision support tools

Modeling the propagation of radiofrequency signals over irregular terrain is both challenging and critically important in numerous Army applications. One application of particular importance is the performance and radio connectivity of sensors deployed in scenarios where the terrain and the environment significantly impact signal propagation. This report investigates both the performance of and the algorithms and assumptions underlying the Delta-Bullington irregular terrain radiofrequency propagation model discussed in International Telecommunications Union Recommendation P.526-15. The aim is to determine its suitability for use within sensor-planning decision support tools. After reviewing free-space, spherical earth diffraction, and terrain obstacle diffraction losses, the report dis-cusses several important tests of the model, including reciprocity and geographic continuity of propagation loss over large areas of rugged terrain. Overall, the Delta-Bullington model performed well, providing reasonably rapid and geographically continuous propagation loss estimates with computational demands appropriate for operational use.

Vineyard-specific climate projections help growers manage risk and plan adaptation in the Paso Robles AVA

California's wine grape growers will face increasing challenges under a changing climate as most production occurs near the boundaries of current varieties' climatic thresholds. As part of this study, we developed a method for transforming downscaled climate information from the publicly available Cal-Adapt database into useful and useable climate projections for vineyard managers and advisors in the Paso Robles American Viticultural Area. We shared vineyard-specific projections during interviews of 20 managers and advisors. Overall, interviewees expressed trust in the projections and found them helpful in reducing their psychological distance from climate change. The projections prompted consideration of strategies for managing future climate risk and planning adaptation, with the majority of adaptations associated with long-term decisions such as row orientation, variety selection, dry farming, crop diversification and relocation. Agri-climatic decision support tools such as the one prototyped here may prove especially helpful for incorporating climate adaptation into the long-term business planning and vineyard redevelopment decisions facing managers and advisors in the near future. This approach could be extended to other California wine grape regions or to other perennial crops with expected vulnerabilities to climate change.

The role of data in sustainability assessment of urban mobility policies

Data have played a role in urban mobility policy planning for decades, especially in forecasting demand, but much less in policy evaluations and assessments. The surge in availability and openness of (big) data in the last decade seems to provide new opportunities to meet demand for evidence-based policymaking. This paper reviews how different types of data are employed in assessments published in academic journals by analyzing 74 cases. Our review finds that (a) academic literature has currently provided limited insight in new data developments in policy practice; (b) research shows that the new types of big data provide new opportunities for evidence-based policy-making; however, (c) they cannot replace traditional data usage (surveys and statistics). Instead, combining big data with survey and Geographic Information System data in ex-ante assessments, as well as in developing decision support tools, is found to be the most effective. This could help policymakers not only to get much more insight from policy assessments, but also to help avoid the limitations of one certain type of data. Finally, current research projects are rather data supply-driven. Future research should engage with policy practitioners to reveal best practices, constraints, and potential of more demand-driven data use in mobility policy assessments in practice.

Analysis of the Differences in OCOP Products between Thanh Hoa Province and Nghe an Province

This research analyzes the differences in OCOP products between Thanh Hoa province and Nghe An province, Vietnam. OCOP products are analyzed based on three aspects: Product mean score (Product level), Structure of product type, and Structure of product region. The analysis sample includes 115 OCOP products from 3 to 5 stars in each province (230 products in total). Research results are confirmed that there are some differences in OCOP Products between Thanh Hoa province and Nghe An Province. Whereby, there is the difference in the mean score, the difference in the structure of product type, and the difference in the structure of product region. These results help the authorities in both provinces to have appropriate policies and support tools to develop local OCOP products by the goals and orientations of each locality to commercialize strongly rural products that have their comparative advantage.

Lean Manufacturing: Efficiency improvement application in multi-product area of the Aerospace Industry

This research addresses the problem of leveling workloads in a multi-product final assembly area. In which it was found that 27.4% of the time is used for set up and the current distribution presents areas of opportunity. The target was to implement improvement actions to make use of resources more efficient in the production process in the aforementioned area through Lean Manufacturing tools. The results obtained consist of eight products generated with the support of lean manufacturing support tools such as SMED, Workload Balancing and MUDA waste identification, achieving important results among which productivity in the area stands out from 109% to 125%, as well as a reduction in set-up time from 17 min to 4.4 min.

Implementation of temporary bike lanes as support tools for mobility in Bogotá, Colombia, during the COVID-19 emergency

The COVID-19 pandemic presents itself as the greatest health challenge of the 21st century. Among the key measures to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 is social isolation, which has affected the processes related to urban mobility. With the need to reduce passengers on public transport and to curb an increase in car trips, several cities have sought to encourage the use of bicycles. This study analyzes the implementation of temporary bike lanes in Bogotá, Colombia, as a measure to confront the COVID-19 pandemic, the changes derived from this measure, and carries out a perception survey on the implementation of this infrastructure. The results show the implementation of 74 kilometers of temporary bike lanes, of which some of them have already been transformed into permanent; the survey shows an increase in the modal participation of the bicycle and that there is an acceptance of the transformation of the infrastructure from temporary to permanent character. However, participants evaluated safety and infrastructure quality criteria negatively. The city’s solutions, although capable of improvement, contribute to other cities implementing cycling infrastructure in the pandemic scenario and work to ensure a modal transition in the post-pandemic period.