Problematisations of Complexity: On the Notion and Production of Diverse Complexities in Healthcare Interventions and Evaluations

Within the literature on the evaluation of health (policy) interventions, complexity is a much-debated issue. In particular, many claim that so-called ‘complex interventions’ pose different challenges to evaluation studies than apparently ‘simple interventions’ do. Distinct ways of doing evaluation entail particular ontologies and epistemologies of complexity. They differ in terms of whether they define complexity as a quantitative trait of interventions, whether they see evaluation as part of or outside the intervention, and whether complexity can be regarded as an emergent property of the intervention and its evaluation. In practice, evaluators and commissioners of large health care improvement programmes rely on different, sometimes contradictory, repertoires about what it means to conduct a ‘good’ evaluation. This is an ongoing matter negotiated between and among commissioners, researchers, and—sometimes—programme managers. In particular, notions of evaluability, usefulness and distance/independence are problematised in different ways and with diverse consequences, which, in turn, produce other notions and layers of complexity such as temporal, institutional and affective complexities. When (social science) researchers claim that one method or another is better able to grasp complexity, they elide the issue that any methodological choice emphasises some complexities and lets others fade into the background. Analysing the practicalities and emotions involved in evaluation studies opens up the notion of complexity to analytical scrutiny, and suggests a basis for co-theorising between biomedical, public health and social scientists (including Science and Technology Studies scholars).     

Accelerated lamellar disintegration in eutectoid steel

The fastest kinetics of lamellar disintegration (predicted duration of 44 min) in AISI 1080 steel is obtained with a novel approach of incomplete austenitisation-based cyclic heat treatment involving forced air cooling with an air flow rate of 8.7 m³ h^?1. A physical model for process kinetics is proposed that involves lamellar fragmentation, lamellar thickening, divorced eutectoid growth and generation of new lamellar faults in remaining cementite lamellae in each cycle. Lamellar fragmentation is accentuated with faster rate of cooling through generation of more intense lamellar faults; but divorced eutectoid growth is ceased. Accordingly, as compared to still air cooling, much faster kinetics of lamellar disintegration is obtained by forced air cooling together with the generation of much smaller submicroscopic cementite particles (containing more proportion of plate-shaped non-spheroids) in divorced eutectoid region.     

The Effects of Repeated Exposure to the ARRAY Program With Offenders With Mental Illness

In an A‐B‐A‐B‐A single‐case research study of 3 incarcerated offenders with mental illness, repeated exposure to the pilot Adult Recidivism Reduction Alternatives (ARRAY) group counseling intervention was an effective or very effective treatment for anxiety, depression, and associated somatic symptoms.     

Design and analysis of semi-controlled studies

Semi-controlled studies provide a hybrid approach in between controlled experiments and naturalistic driving studies. As in controlled experiments, the researcher can assign participants to groups, select the route and define the tasks, but the participants are given more freedom when it comes to if, when, where and how to perform the tasks. Increased flexibility makes it possible to investigate how drivers use tactical behaviour to accommodate task execution. The disadvantage is decreased control and more complicated analyses. The main objective of this paper is to discuss how to analyse data obtained in semi-controlled studies.The analysis of data from a semi-controlled study include three types of variables: (i) variables that describe the experimental design, (ii) variables that describe the tactical choices of the participants and (iii), operational variables such as speed, lateral position or glance behaviour. To analyse the three types of variables a two-step procedure is suggested. First, the tactical indicators are analysed with regard to the experimental design. Second, the operational indicators are analysed and the tactical indicators are used to divide participants into sub-populations. The semi-controlled design does not need any new statistical procedures to be developed. It is more important that the analysis conditions on the initial properties and not on structures that happen to occur during the experiment, like where the participant chose to do a certain task.We recommend to use the semi-controlled study method when investigating questions involving adaptive and compensatory behaviour on the tactical level. It is especially useful if causal relationships are of interest, if the data collection should be accelerated in comparison to naturalistic studies, and if certain geographical locations definitely should be included.     

Maternal Childhood Sexual Trauma and Early Parenting: Prenatal and Postnatal Associations

Existing research suggests that approximately 19% of females experience childhood sexual trauma (CST). Little is known, however, about the parenting behaviour of mothers who have experienced CST. Using propensity‐matched controls, the present study examines prenatal psychosocial distress, postnatal depressive symptomatology, and caregiving behaviours of women reporting CST at or before the age of 14. Data for these analyses were obtained from mother reports and from observational protocols from a longitudinal study of low‐income, rural families. Propensity score methodology was used to create a contrast group matched on family of origin variables in an effort to isolate and examine the long‐term associations of CST beyond the effects of other childhood adversities such as poverty. Study findings provide evidence that women with CST histories report greater prenatal psychosocial distress compared to women without trauma histories. Findings further provide evidence for a spillover process from prenatal distress to the broader caregiving system including less sensitive parenting through postnatal depressive symptoms for women with CST histories. These results highlight the importance of screening for CST and psychosocial distress and depression prenatally. Interventions for women with CST histories and directions for future study are proposed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

计算机适应性测验条件下认知设计项目预测参数的影响

自动化项目生成(Automatic Item Generation)中的项目参数是基于认知项目设计的刺激特征集预测的, 在不确定性来源上较之用经验数据标定的参数更为复杂。文章通过实证研究分析了在计算机适应性测验条件下基于认知设计系统法生成的抽象推理测验(ART)项目预测参数对能力参数估计的精确性。研究表明, 项目预测参数比相应标定参数分布更为趋中。这种回归效应既影响到能力参数估计误差大小, 也导致适应性测验过程中项目选择的差异。在控制了项目选择差异之后, 能力参数估计误差较之基于项目标定参数的能力估计误差大, 但差别并不明显。两者相应的能力估计值相关很高, 对应能力值之间的差异很小, 且几乎贯彻整个能力分布区间。     

Relational Services

Recent research projects have looked for social innovations, i.e., people creating solutions outside the mainstream patterns of production and consumption. An analysis of these innovations indicates the emergence of a particular kind of service configuration—defined here as relational services—which requires intensive interpersonal relations to operate. Based on a comparative analysis between standard and relational services, we propose to the Service Design discipline an interpretative framework able to reinforce its ability to deal with the interpersonal relational qualities in services, indicating how these qualities can be understood and favored by design activities, as well as the limits of this design intervention. Martin Buber’s conceptual framework is presented as the main interpretative basis. Buber describes two ways of interacting (“I-Thou” and “I-It”). Relational services are those most favoring “I-Thou” interpersonal encounters.

itsme: Interaction Design Innovating Workstations

Background  In the last 30 years, there has been little innovation in workstations. The desktop metaphor has become the standard user interface, with its pros (e.g., ease of learning) and cons (e.g., interaction constraints for skilled users, lack of context awareness). Objectives  In this paper, we present itsme, an Italian initiative to design the next-generation workstation. Interaction design is the basis of the project, as well as the involvement of a wide community of contributing users. Results  The early design phases of the project led to the definition of a new metaphor for personal computing, based on stories and venues. The metaphor is being adopted for the development of a novel front-end for the Linux operating system, aimed at fulfilling the needs and desires of knowledge workers.

DISCREPANCY IN FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS RESULTS ACROSS TWO SETTINGS: IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERVENTION DESIGN

Functional analyses that were conducted in two settings (playground and classroom) indicated that problem behavior was sensitive to adult attention on the playground and tangible items in the classroom. Attention‐ and tangible‐based interventions were designed based on the results from each of the assessment environments and were compared. The attention‐based intervention was more effective on the playground, and the tangible‐based intervention was more effective in the classroom. Findings are discussed in regards to the generality of functional analysis results across environments.     

Are facilitated mentoring programs beneficial? A randomized experimental field study

Results from a pretest–posttest randomized field experiment study with a control group comparing the impact of high- and low-level-facilitated mentoring programs on new employees’ performance and perceptions about their jobs and organization were reported in this paper. Results indicated increases in job satisfaction, organizational commitment, person-organization fit and performance by participants in both mentoring programs with larger gains made by the high-level-facilitated group. These results suggest that a formal mentoring program can have positive effects on employee’s work-related attitudes, cognition and behavior with significantly greater gains made by formal mentoring programs with higher levels of facilitation.