Evaluation purposes,processes, products,and probity: Some lessons from experience

This paper shares some of the author’s conclusions following more than three decades of experience with evaluation in a range of areas, including agricultural research, health and social development projects, and programs managed by both national and international agencies. It expounds on the purposes, processes and products of evaluation as well as the probity of the evaluators. Evaluations are often expected to achieve multiple objectives in a short time period and with limited resources. The conclusions and recommendations of evaluations often influence a program’s future course, as well as the reputation of program managers and staff. When there is no effective monitoring or internal evaluation system in place, an external evaluation team must rely heavily on the probity and creativity of its members, particularly, the team leader. This paper offers tips on practical aspects of monitoring and evaluation, and provides insights into research and development processes in developing countries. She has served on the boards, review teams, and advisory committees of several centers affiliated with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. She has done research and has written extensively on social issues involving small-farmer development. She is a senior program adviser for the UPWARD network (User’s Perspective with Agricultural Research and Development).     

Processing of threat-related information outside the focus of visual attention

This study investigates whether threat-related words are especially likely to be perceived in unattended locations of the visual field. Threat-related, positive, and neutral words were presented at fixation as probes in a lexical decision task. The probe word was preceded by 2 simultaneous prime words (1 foveal, i.e., at fixation; 1 parafoveal, i.e., 2.2 deg. of visual angle from fixation), which were presented for 150 ms, one of which was either identical or unrelated to the probe. Results showed significant facilitation in lexical response times only for the probe threat words when primed parafoveally by an identical word presented in the right visual field. We conclude that threat-related words have privileged access to processing outside the focus of attention. This reveals a cognitive bias in the preferential, parallel processing of information that is important for adaptation.     

Foveal vs. parafoveal attention-grabbing power of threat-related information

We investigated whether threat words presented in attended (foveal) and in unattended (parafoveal) locations of the visual field are attention grabbing. Neutral (nonemotional) words were presented at fixation as probes in a lexical decision task. Each probe word was preceded by 2 simultaneous prime words (1 foveal, 1 parafoveal), either threatening or neutral, for 150 ms. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the primes and the probe was either 300 or 1,000 ms. Results revealed slowed lexical decision times on the probe when primed by an unrelated foveal threat word at the short (300-ms) delay. In contrast, parafoveal threat words did not affect processing of the neutral probe at either delay. Nevertheless, both neutral and threat parafoveal words facilitated lexical decisions for identical probe words at 300-ms SOA. This suggests that threat words appearing outside the focus of attention do not draw or engage cognitive resources to such an extent as to produce interference in the processing of concurrent or subsequent neutral stimuli. An explanation of the lack of parafoveal interference is that semantic content is not extracted in the parafovea.     

AIDS and condom-related knowledge,beliefs, and behaviors in Mexican migrant laborers

A survey of 87 Mexican migrants (55 males and 32 females) who have lived and worked in the US since 1982 assessed AIDS and condom-related knowledge, beliefs, and sexual practices. Although respondents were highly knowledgeable about major modes of HIV transmission, one-third to one-half believed that HIV could be contracted from mosquito bites, public bathrooms, kissing, and the HIV test. Only 15% knew someone with AIDS. Ever-use of condoms was reported by 70.9% of men and 41.9% of women. Of the 68 subjects who had been sexually active in the year preceding the survey, 20 reported two or more partners. Among sexually active respondents, 16.2% always used condoms with their primary partner, while 43.0% used condoms consistently with occasional partners. 48.9% of men and 57.1% of women never used condoms with their primary partner; with casual partners, these rates were 30.8% and 44.4%, respectively. Worry about contracting AIDS, self-rated on a scale from 1 (very often) to 4 (never), averaged 2.84, with higher worry scores among those 18-31 years of age and with multiple partners. Respondents did not anticipate negative consequences of condom use (e.g., reduced sexual pleasure), but females expressed concern that carrying condoms would cause them to be viewed as promiscuous.     

‘We Are All the Same,We All Are Mestizos’: Imagined Populations and Nations in Genetics Research in Colombia

In Colombia, as in other Latin American countries, current population genetics research is based on the understanding that Colombians constitute a mestizo nation, given the admixture process that took place between Africans, Amerindians, and Europeans during colonial times. The mestizo is a pervasive category used by geneticists to conduct, organise, and publish research studies that deal with the continent's peopling process and the genetic makeup of its contemporary population(s). It is also the dominant imaginary for the Colombian population and a key nation-building ideology. By tracing how this category moves and is used across four Colombian genetics laboratories, it is possible to discern that despite its apparently clear-cut boundaries, the mestizo is contingent, contested, and flexible, allowing for multiple understandings and usages. This flexibility and multiplicity are visible in the quantification of genetic ancestry, the divisions of geographical location, and the understanding of gender. Such understandings allow one to think about a homogeneous nation (inclusive) that is simultaneously heterogeneous (exclusive); they provide multiple but not necessarily contradictory possibilities of being mestizo, allowing the coexistence of images of the nation that could otherwise seem contradictory; and they permit navigation around contested terms such as race, while simultaneously thinking of mixed races or racialised individuals. Finally, these flexible and multiple constructions of the mestizo (re)produce various subjects as ‘other’, whether they are women, the Indigenous, the black/dark, or the poor.     

Clinical Practice With Cases of Extreme Traumatization 40 Years After the Military Coup in Chile (1973–1990): The Impact on the Therapists

This paper presents our clinical experience with patients who were severely traumatized by the systematic violation of human rights during the military dictatorship in Chile (1973–1990). The lack of recognition of trauma of sociopolitical origin encapsulates the traumatic experience and forces it to remain as part of the present. Clinical vignettes of two therapeutic processes—mother and son—are presented: The mother was detained; sexually tortured; and, as a result of this, gave birth to the torturer’s son. Her therapeutic process is an account of her ambivalence towards her son, of how his origins were kept a family secret, and of how this secret was unconsciously transmitted. The young man’s therapeutic process centers on the transgenerational transmission of trauma and how the torturer–tortured dynamic seeps into the relationship with the analyst. The impact on the analysts’ subjectivity in working with extreme trauma is described.     

The European and Member States’ Approaches to Regulating Nanomaterials: Two Levels of Governance

The nanotechnologies and nanomaterials sector is a huge and growing industry. The amount of legislation already in place and still to be produced in order to regulate it will be very substantial. What process is used to produce such regulation? The answer is that very diverse regulatory approaches are and will be used. The approach taken by the European Commission diverges from the one taken by the European Parliament. Moreover, at national level, Member States add their own contribution to the process. This article attempts to describe the landscape and various regulatory actions that have been undertaken by all these actors in the European Union. It first describes the role played by the European Commission and Parliament. It then looks at specific regulatory initiatives from a more sectoral perspective: Cosmetics, Food information, Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Biocides. The third part of the paper describes some major national initiatives, in particular those concerning the establishment of reporting systems for nanomaterials, mixtures, articles and consumer products containing them, as an example of how to improve the current governance in the EU and to prevent the risks to human health and the environment. The fourth part gives the perspective of the European Trade Union Confederation. Finally it presents some conclusions and policy recommendations, taking into consideration the diversity of regulatory approaches.     

The comprehension of action-related sentences may cause interference rather than facilitation on matching actions

This study used a dual-task paradigm to analyze the time course of motor resonance during the comprehension of action language. In the study, participants read sentences describing a transfer either away from (“I threw the tennis ball to my rival”) or toward themselves (“My rival threw me the tennis ball”). When the transfer verb appeared on the screen, and after a variable stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), a visual motion cue (Experiment 1) or a static cue (Experiment 2) prompted participants to move their hand either away from or toward themselves to press a button. The results showed meaning–action interference at short SOAs and facilitation at the longest SOA for the matching conditions. These results support the hypothesis that motor processes associated with the comprehension of action-related language interfere with an overlapping motor task, whereas they facilitate a delayed motor task. These effects are discussed in terms of resonance processes in the motor cortex.