Association between HIV status and HIV knowledge in the population attending Non-Governmental Organizations to perform the rapid HIV test in Catalonia

Human Immunodeficiency Virus continues to be a pandemic. Spain is one of the European countries with the highest incidence of HIV. Within Catalonia, Spain many projects have been implemented with the intention of improving HIV knowledge and lowering the incidence. HIV knowledge is also known to have a positive effect on lowering stigma and discrimination of the people living with HIV. However, few studies study the distribution of HIV knowledge and its association to HIV status, age, sex, geographical zone of origin and level of education within the same study. Objectives: To identify if HIV knowledge is associated with HIV status, age, sex, geographical zone of origin and level of education. Method: Quantitative, cross-sectional, centre-based study comprising of people receiving an HIV test in Catalonia, Spain. Data will be collected from the 11 HIV Non-Governmental Organisations in Catalonia, Spain. The Brief HIV Knowledge Scale will be used to assess HIV knowledge; information from the HIV test session will be used to assess HIV status, age, sex, geographic zone of origin and level of education. The association between HIV knowledge and the afore mentioned variables will then be calculated.

Do Fiscal and Political Decentralization Raise Students’ Performance? A Cross-Country Analysis

The low quality of education is a persistent problem in many developed countries. Parallel to in the last decades exists a tendency towards decentralization in many developed and developing countries. Using micro data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) referred to 22 countries, we test whether there exists an impact of fiscal and political decentralization on student performance in the areas of mathematics, reading skills and science. We observe that fiscal decentralization exerts an unequivocal positive effect on students’ outcomes in all areas, while the effect of political decentralization is more ambiguous. On the one hand, the capacity of the subnational governments to rule on its region has a positive effect on students’ performance in mathematics. On the other hand, the capacity to influence the country as a whole has a negative impact on mathematics achievement. As a general result, we observe that students’ performance in Mathematics is more sensible to these exogenous variations than in Sciences and reading skills. Keywords: School outcomes, PISA, fiscal decentralization, political decentralization JEL codes: H11, H77, I21

Engaging students in an e-learning experience : how to manage information resources through wikis and web blogs

The purpose of this paper is to describe the collaboration between librarians and scholars, from a virtual university, in order to facilitate collaborative learning on how to manage information resources. The personal information behaviour of e-learning students when managing information resources for academic, professional and daily life purposes was studied from 24 semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The results of the content analysis of the interview' transcriptions, highlighted that in the workplace and daily life contexts, competent information behaviour is always linked to a proactive attitude, that is to say, that participants seek for information without some extrinsic reward or avoiding punishment. In the academic context, it was observed a low level of information literacy and it seems to be related with a prevalent uninvolved attitude.

Networks of PhD Students and Academic Performance: A Comparison across Countries

In this article we compare regression models obtained to predict PhD students’ academic performance in the universities of Girona (Spain) and Slovenia. Explanatory variables are characteristics of PhD student’s research group understood as an egocentered social network, background and attitudinal characteristics of the PhD students and some characteristics of the supervisors. Academic performance was measured by the weighted number of publications. Two web questionnaires were designed, one for PhD students and one for their supervisors and other research group members. Most of the variables were easily comparable across universities due to the careful translation procedure and pre-tests. When direct comparison was notpossible we created comparable indicators. We used a regression model in which the country was introduced as a dummy coded variable including all possible interaction effects. The optimal transformations of the main and interaction variables are discussed. Some differences between Slovenian and Girona universities emerge. Some variables like supervisor’s performance and motivation for autonomy prior to starting the PhD have the same positive effect on the PhD student’s performance in both countries. On the other hand, variables like too close supervision by the supervisor and having children have a negative influence in both countries. However, we find differences between countries when we observe the motivation for research prior to starting the PhD which increases performance in Slovenia but not in Girona. As regards network variables, frequency of supervisor advice increases performance in Slovenia and decreases it in Girona. The negative effect in Girona could be explained by the fact that additional contacts of the PhD student with his/her supervisor might indicate a higher workload in addition to or instead of a better advice about the dissertation. The number of external student’s advice relationships and social support mean contact intensity are not significant in Girona, but they have a negative effect in Slovenia. We might explain the negative effect of external advice relationships in Slovenia by saying that a lot of external advice may actually result from a lack of the more relevant internal advice

La implicació de les famílies immigrades en els processos educatius dels seus fills/es: estratègies davant l'èxit i el fracàs escolar

En el present projecte hem analitzat els determinants de les trajectòries educatives dels i les adolescents d'origen immigrant, centrant I'atenció en el paper de les seves famílies davant de I ‘èxit o fracàs escolar del seu fillla. Amb aquest objectiu, I'estudi combina tècniques quantitatives i qualitatives. Per una banda hem analitzat les dades longitudinals del Panel de Famílies i lnfancia, que ens permeten fer un seguiment de les trajectòries educatives i personals de 248 alumnes d'origen immigrant que al 2006 estudiaven I'ESO al llarg de la seva adolescència, i identificar els factors socials responsables de la seva diversificació. Els resultats indiquen que malgrat presentar actituds bastant favorables als estudis i I'assoliment educatiu, concentren diverses situacions de vulnerabilitat a la llar (dificultats socioeconòmiques, estructures familiars atípiques, i erosió de capital social), que incideixen negativament sobre els seus rendiments acadèmics. Per altra, hem realitzat 59 entrevistes semi-estructurades per a complementar i facilitar la interpretació dels resultats obtinguts a la recerca quantitativa i copsar les narratives dels propis protagonistes. Aquestes entrevistes s'han realitzat a: una submostra de les famílies d'aquests alumnes, seleccionades en funció de perfils d’èxit o fracàs educatiu de la trajectòria del menor (46), una submostra d'estudiants resilients (a), i una sèrie d'agents educatius i socials, que inclou membres d'equips directius de centres escolars, AMPA i entitats dedicades a I'atenció a la infància i les famílies (5). El projecte que presentem té una clara vocació de servei públic. L'objectiu és incrementar el coneixement de factors "extraescolars" que poden condicionar I ‘èxit escolar dels estudiants d'origen immigrant. Aquest coneixement constitueix la base per al disseny i orientació de programes d'acompanyament a les famílies dels infants en situació de risc. La nostra voluntat (que reflecteix el principal objectiu de I'lnstitut d’infància i Món Urbà, instituci6 que impulsa el projecte) és contribuir a la transferència de coneixement que pugui ser d'utilitat pels agents que treballen directament sobre les qüestions que estudiem.

Improved earthquake response via simulation and integrated space- and ground-based technologies: the TREMOR proposal

Earthquakes occurring around the world each year cause thousands ofdeaths, millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure, and incalculablehuman suffering. In recent years, satellite technology has been asignificant boon to response efforts following an earthquake and itsafter-effects by providing mobile communications between response teamsand remote sensing of damaged areas to disaster management organizations.In 2007, an international team of students and professionals assembledduring theInternational Space University’s Summer Session Program in Beijing, Chinato examine how satellite and ground-based technology could be betterintegrated to provide an optimised response in the event of an earthquake.The resulting Technology Resources for Earthquake MOnitoring and Response(TREMOR) proposal describes an integrative prototype response system thatwill implement mobile satellite communication hubs providing telephone anddata links between response teams, onsite telemedicine consultation foremergency first-responders, and satellite navigation systems that willlocate and track emergency vehicles and guide search-and-rescue crews. Aprototype earthquake simulation system is also proposed, integratinghistorical data, earthquake precursor data, and local geomatics andinfrastructure information to predict the damage that could occur in theevent of an earthquake. The backbone of these proposals is a comprehensiveeducation and training program to help individuals, communities andgovernments prepare in advance. The TREMOR team recommends thecoordination of these efforts through a centralised, non-governmentalorganization.

Guiding students through competence-based educational material

Student guidance is an always desired characteristic in any educational system, butit represents special difficulty if it has to be deployed in an automated way to fulfilsuch needs in a computer supported educational tool. In this paper we explorepossible avenues relying on machine learning techniques, to be included in a nearfuture -in the form of a tutoring navigational tool- in a teleeducation platform -InterMediActor- currently under development. Since no data from that platform isavailable yet, the preliminary experiments presented in this paper are builtinterpreting every subject in the Telecommunications Degree at Universidad CarlosIII de Madrid as an aggregated macro-competence (following the methodologicalconsiderations in InterMediActor), such that marks achieved by students can beused as data for the models, to be replaced in a near future by real data directlymeasured inside InterMediActor. We evaluate the predictability of students qualifications, and we deploy a preventive early detection system -failure alert-, toidentify those students more prone to fail a certain subject such that correctivemeans can be deployed with sufficient anticipation.

PhD Students’ Research Group Social Capital in Two Countries: A Clustering Approach with Duocentred Network Measures

The article examines the structure of the collaboration networks of research groups where Slovenian and Spanish PhD students are pursuing their doctorate. The units of analysis are student-supervisor dyads. We use duocentred networks, a novel network structure appropriate for networks which are centred around a dyad. A cluster analysis reveals three typical clusters of research groups. Those which are large and belong to several institutions are labelled under a bridging social capital label. Those which are small, centred in a single institution but have high cohesion are labelled as bonding social capital. Those which are small and with low cohesion are called weak social capital groups. Academic performance of both PhD students and supervisors are highest in bridging groups and lowest in weak groups. Other variables are also found to differ according to the type of research group. At the end, some recommendations regarding academic and research policy are drawn

The importance of relative performance feedback information: Evidence from a natural experiment using high school students

We study the effect of providing relative performance feedback information onperformance, when individuals are rewarded according to their absolute performance. Anatural experiment that took place in a high school offers an unusual opportunity to testthis effect in a real-effort setting. For one year only, students received information thatallowed them to know whether they were performing above (below) the class average aswell as the distance from this average. We exploit a rich panel data set and find that theprovision of this information led to an increase of 5% in students grades. Moreover, theeffect was significant for the whole distribution. However, once the information wasremoved, the effect disappeared. To rule out the concern that the effect may beartificially driven by teachers within the school, we verify our results using nationallevel exams (externally graded) for the same students, and the effect remains.

Institutional constraints on organizations: The case of Spanish car dealerships

We study the effect of organizational choice and institutions on the performance ofSpanish car dealerships. Using outlet-level data from 1994, we find that verticallyintegrateddealerships showed substantially lower labor productivity, higher labor costs andlower profitability than franchised ones. Despite these gaps in performance, no verticallyintegratedoutlet was separated until 1994, yet the few outlets that were eventuallyseparated systematically improved their performance. We argue that the conversion ofintegrated outlets into franchised ones involved significant transaction costs, due to aninstitutional environment favoring permanent, highly-unionized employment relations. Inline with this argument, we find that the observed separations occurred in distributionnetworks that underwent marked reductions in worker unionization rates, following thelegalization of temporary labor contracts.

The benefits of limited feedback in organizations

In most firms, managers periodically assess workers' performance. Evidence suggeststhat managers withhold information during these reviews, and some observersargue that this necessarily reduces surplus. This paper assesses the validity of thisargument when workers have career concerns. Disclosure has two effects: it exposesthe worker to uncertainty about future effort levels, but allows him to use current effortto influence his employer's beliefs about future effort. The surplus-maximizingdisclosure policy reveals output realizations in the center of the distribution, butnot in the tails. Thus, it is efficient for firms to reveal some but not all performanceinformation.

Optimal information transmission in organizations: Search and congestion

We propose a stylized model of a problem-solving organization whoseinternal communication structure is given by a fixed network. Problemsarrive randomly anywhere in this network and must find their way to theirrespective specialized solvers by relying on local information alone.The organization handles multiple problems simultaneously. For this reason,the process may be subject to congestion. We provide a characterization ofthe threshold of collapse of the network and of the stock of foatingproblems (or average delay) that prevails below that threshold. We buildupon this characterization to address a design problem: the determinationof what kind of network architecture optimizes performance for any givenproblem arrival rate. We conclude that, for low arrival rates, the optimalnetwork is very polarized (i.e. star-like or centralized ), whereas it islargely homogenous (or decentralized ) for high arrival rates. We also showthat, if an auxiliary assumption holds, the transition between these twoopposite structures is sharp and they are the only ones to ever qualify asoptimal.

Management control in non-profit organizations: The case of the Associations of Economists in Spain

The number of non-profit organizations has grown considerably over thelast decades, however management control techniques are not being introducedwith the same frequency as in lucrative organizations. The increasedcompetition in this sector has created a growing interest in managementcontrol techniques but with little empirical research in the area. Withthe aim to throw some light over the uses of management control inprofessional associations we have focused in the associations foreconomists in Spain as a particular case of a non-lucrative body.Specifically, the paper comprises three surveys addressed to the followingsectors:1) To the 30 Spanish associations of economists.2) To associations related to the business and/or economics area operatingin the United Kingdom.3) To members of the association of economists in Catalonia (Col.legid'Economistes de Catalunya).Results indicate that management accounting tools are used exceptionally,many times only the minimum legal requirements. The critical situation ofthe associations of economists in Spain requires the implementation ofinformation systems, specially taking into account the differentspecialities of economists and offering to its members, services and productsthat are not available through profit organizations.

Improving college access and success for low-income students: Evidence from a large need-based grant program

Using comprehensive administrative data on France's single largest financialaid program, this paper provides new evidence on the impact of large-scaleneed-based grant programs on the college enrollment decisions, persistenceand graduation rates of low-income students. We exploit sharp discontinuitiesin the grant eligibility formula to identify the impact of aid on student outcomesat different levels of study. We find that eligibility for an annual cashallowance of 1,500 euros increases college enrollment rates by up to 5 percentagepoints. Moreover, we show that need-based grants have positive effectson student persistence and degree completion.

Efectos de la presencia social de las lenguas escolares en el desarrollo lingüístico del alumnado extranjero. Un estudio empírico en Cataluña = The Social Presence of School Languages and Their Effects on the Development of Immigrant Students’ Linguistic Proficiency. An Empirical Study in Catalonia

El estudio de las variables relacionadas con la adquisición de las lenguas escolares en contextos bilingües y multilingües ha resurgido a raíz de la incorporación de alumnado extranjero al sistema educativo español. En este sentido, y gracias a su peculiar situación sociolingüística, Cataluña se ha convertido en un observatorio perfecto para estudiar el proceso de adquisición de lenguas del alumnado extranjero. En este artículo presentamos una parte de los datos obtenidos en la evaluación del conocimiento de catalán y del castellano de 668 alumnos extranjeros de sexto de Primaria escolarizados en 57 centros de Cataluña. Con ello pretendemos estudiar los efectos de la presencia y del uso social de las lenguas escolares en el conocimiento lingüístico de este alumnado. La hipótesis principal es que el desarrollo de buenos niveles de conocimiento escrito de las lenguas escolares por parte de los alumnos extranjeros depende, en buena medida, de las oportunidades que haya en el entorno social para que ellos puedan utilizar estas lenguas en los intercambios comunicativos informales con sus compañeros o con otros adultos. Las conclusiones del trabajo señalan las relaciones existentes entre el desarrollo de habilidades lingüísticas conversacionales y el de habilidades lingüísticas cognitivo-académicas (Cummins, 1979b), en el sentido de que tanto el conocimiento escrito de catalán como el de castellano que tiene el alumnado extranjero están condicionados por el nivel de desarrollo conversacional previo en ambas lenguas. Además, apuntan a que la transferencia de habilidades lingüísticas cognitivo-académicas no se produce directamente entre el catalán y el castellano, sino que depende fundamentalmente de la presencia social que tengan estas lenguas y de sus usos informales. Así, en la medida en que un buen número de estudiantes extranjeros no desarrolla suficiente competencia lingüística conversacional ni en catalán ni en castellano, el proceso de adquisición de las lenguas escolares se alarga más allá de los seis años