Evaluating research institutions: Lessons from the CGIAR

Investing in research is a long-term, risky proposition. In agriculture, it could take fifteen years or more for a research finding to show an improvement in a farmer’s field. Yet, research institutions, like other organizations it needs to be evaluated. For more than twenty years, independent panels of outside experts have evaluated each of the international research centers that the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) supports. This paper examines the evolution of this review system, outlines the key methodological challenges faced, and draws lessons for others engaged in evaluating research institutions. It notes that the scope of the CGIAR reviews have been broadened over time in response to users’ concerns. Reviews now cover four dimensions of performance: research results, quality and relevance of research, vision and strategic directions, and management efficiency. The methodological challenges faced in measurement, valuation, and attribution are reviewed, along with practices found to be helpful in addressing these concerns. The paper concludes that the panel approach to institutional evaluation has served CGIAR’s needs well, and recommends it as an evaluation technique for integrating quantitative and qualitative dimensions of institutional performance. His recent work has concentrated on the governance and management of the CGIAR and the individual research centers it supports, including questions of evaluating management effectiveness. Prior to joining the World Bank in 1979, he was Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bogazici University (Istanbul) and Senior Research Director of Systems Research Incorporated (Lansing, Michigan).     

The Romanian Pentecostal Agency for Foreign Mission (APME): A Case Study in Cross‐Cultural Mission Originating from Eastern Europe

This paper offers a short analysis of the ecclesiological and missiological context that led to the establishment of the Romanian Pentecostal Agency for Foreign Mission (APME). It states the main steps in the process of the development of the organization in its first decade of existence (2006–2016), during which it became one of the youngest and most dynamic missionary structures in Europe. It describes the process of the birth of APME and the important role the founding team played in the existence of the agency and in articulating the mission, vision, values, and work philosophy. The main section will present the components of APME's work strategy which led to implementing the vision and reaching the objectives: mobilizing the churches, recruiting, training, sending, supporting missionaries, and promoting the ministry. A short section will show the crucial importance of internal and foreign partnerships in the activity of APME. In the final part we will list the main lessons learned in the ten years of APME's existence that can be shared with other mission organizations, as well as the challenges that the organization faces over the next few years.     

Piaget and Vygotsky: Many resemblances,and a crucial difference

Piaget and Vygotsky are two influential developmental psychologists. One can even say that their contributions to developmental psychology, albeit different, are similarly remarkable and unique. This article is in four parts. In the first part, I refer briefly to a commonly noticed difference between Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s theories. In the second part, I show that there are many resemblances between Vygotsky and Piaget. In the third part, I argue that in spite of such resemblances, there exists a crucial, and generally unnoticed, difference between Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories, and that this difference underlies the way each author addresses the following issues: 1) the origins of development and the motor of development; 2) the relationships among equal peers vs. those based on authorities, as they are sources of development and learning; 3) the more appropriate methods for studying developmental changes; 4) the importance of the distinction between true vs. necessary knowledge; and 5) the role of transformation and personal reconstruction vs. that of transmission and social influence in the phenomena of development and learning. Finally, I summarize the main ideas and arguments which I elaborate throughout this article, and mention what can be gained when the generally ignored aforementioned difference is noticed.     

Counseling and Mental Health Care in Palestine

The authors provide a brief overview of counseling and mental health care in Palestine, including their history and a summary of their current status. Finally, a discussion is presented of future trends in the development of the profession with regard to recent changes in the region.     

The synergy of working memory and inhibitory control: behavioral, pharmacological and neural functional evidences

Concomitant deficits in working memory and behavioral inhibition in several psychiatric disorders like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, addiction or mania, suggest that common brain mechanisms may underlie their etiologies. Based on the theoretical assumption that a continuum exists between health and mental disorders, we explored the relationship between working memory and inhibition in healthy individuals, through spontaneous inter individual differences in behavior, and tested the hypothesis of a functional link through the fronto-striatal dopaminergic system. Rats were classified into three groups, showing good, intermediate and poor working memory and were compared for their inhibitory abilities. These two functions were simultaneously modulated by a dose-effect of d-amphetamine and in situ hybridization was used to quantify dopaminergic receptor (RD1) mRNAs in prefrontal cortex and striatal areas. A functional relationship between working memory and inhibition abilities was revealed. Both functions were similarly modulated by d-amphetamine according to an inverted-U shaped relationship and depending on initial individual performances. D-amphetamine selectively improved working memory and inhibition of poor and intermediate performers at low doses whereas it impaired both processes in good performers at a higher dose. D1 receptors were less expressed in prelimbic, infralimbic and anterior cingulate cortices of good compared to intermediate and poor performers, whereas no difference was observed between groups in striatal areas. The synergy of working memory and inhibitory abilities, observed in both healthy and psychiatric populations, may originate from endogenous variability in dopaminergic prefrontal cortex activity. Such findings confirm the validity of a dimensional approach, based on the concept of continuity between health and mental disorders for identifying endophenotypes of mental disorders.     

Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identity Scale (LGBIS): construct validation, sensitivity analyses and other psychometric properties

According to Mohr and Fassinger (2006), identity is seen as both self-identification and collective identification with values, beliefs, traits or behaviours and attachments. Their Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) multidimensional identity model accounts for important variables regarding the constitution of identities. This model not only accesses numerous dimensions of the lives of LGB individuals, but is also based on a body of research that recognizes how LGB difficulties are caused by societal intolerance and marginalization (Mohr & Fassinger, 2000). The Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identity Scale (LGBIS; Kendra & Mohr, 2008) constitutes an operationalization of this multidimensional model, and the aim of this article is to present its construct validity by analysing its factor structure using a sample of Portuguese lesbian, gay and bisexual participants. Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, as well as from factor invariance analysis across sub-samples are presented. In a general way, the factor structure obtained in this study follows the original proposal of Kendra and Mohr's (2008) LGBIS. Moreover, scale sensitivity analyses are presented in order to check for eventual differences in the factor structure and/or factor intercorrelations regarding participant gender and sexual orientation. These results are then discussed in the light of LGB identity models.     

Psychological morbidity, illness representations, and quality of life in female and male patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a sleep-related breathing disorder that affects both women and men. The aim of this study was to characterize and investigate the differences in terms of anxiety, depression, illness perception, and quality of life between female and male OSAS patients from a total of 111 patients (33 women and 78 men) who were recently diagnosed with OSAS in an outpatient clinic of a University Hospital in Portugal. They underwent a standardized protocol that included evaluation to assess of psychological morbidity (anxiety and depression - Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), illness representations (Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire), and quality of life (Sleep Apnea Quality of Life Index). The most significant differences between female and male OSAS patients result of apnea/hypopnea index (AHI), after controlling for body mass index (p?相似文献   

Elaboration et validation de tests de jugement situationnel comme outil de sélection professionnelle : guide méthodologique

Current views in personnel selection recognize the necessity for situational judgements tests (SJT) which are closed to the real work context of companies. The SJTs have also become a popular selection tool across Europe. SJTs are attractive because they show good validity, positive applicants reactions and can be cost effective to test large group of applicants at once. The aim of this paper is to describe a structured methodology for the elaboration of such test. Each stage is illustrated by examples and psychometrics validation issues are discussed.     

The role and importance of interpretation in the talking cure

Starting with an exploration of how the concept of interpretation in analytical treatment has evolved, the author goes on to discuss the role and importance of interpretation in the changes that psychoanalysis brings about. Although interpretation is looked upon as the key element in psychoanalytic activity, the fact that it is subsumed within the transference raises questions as to its influence in the analytical domain. After discussing the foundations of interpretation with respect to the theory of psychoanalytic treatment and examining Strachey’s views on this, the author defines the conditions and constraints surrounding interpretation and preparatory interventions in order to outline the essential nature of the interpretative process as seen against the wider background of the analyst’s activity as manifested through speech. This leads to a discussion of the relative influence of insight and suggestion in bringing about therapeutic change. The author draws the conclusion that interpretation works as a metaphor in lifting repression.