Participatory development projects in the Andes - looking for empowerment with Q-Methodology

This is about the first steps in a study on poverty alleviation and the question whether participatory interventions make a significant contribution to the empowerment of poor Andean farmers. Participatory methods of intervention have been applied now for many years in many development projects, based on the philosophy that development will not be sustainable if the “end-users” of so called “beneficiaries” are not appropriately involved and participating in the projects. The process of active participation is supposed to empower the people involved and improve their personal development which at the same time is often considered to be as important for poverty alleviation as a good economic return of a development project. Q-Methodology is used in order to achieve better insight into the subjective nature of this famous factor “empowerment”, which is considered important even by the World Bank now. (Narayan D., 2002) The subjective reality of a person is a functional reality, it is often much more functional than the external “objective” reality, because it is what people perceive and what makes up their life. With Q-Methodology people can be grouped into “factors” (groups of people) with different functional realities, with different perceptions of “reality”, with different reactions within certain situations. The thesis is that if people get “empowered” by an intervention of a project, at least their inner, subjective reality is supposed to change, even if their external reality might not change substantially yet. Therefore people in several different places in the Peruvian Andes are assessed with Q-Methodology before and after intervention of two different types of projects and changes shall be tracked. At this stage there only exist the data “before-intervention”, the interviews “after-intervention” will take place next. The projects mentioned are FAO Farmer Field Schools near Huancayo, central part of Peru and the Rural Sanitation Program SANBASUR near Cusco, more in the South of Peru. In Huancayo the study includes 88 persons, 51 project participants and 37 test persons (non participants); in Cusco the study is including 77 project participants and 77 nonparticipants. First analyses of the baseline data are on the way

REVIEW: Downhome: Dispatches from Dixie

Review of the non-fiction book Downhome: Dispatches from Dixie, by Bob Dart

Topics in Quantum Computers

I provide an introduction to quantum computers, describing how they might be realized using language accessible to a solid state physicist. A listing of the minimal requirements for creating a quantum computer is given. I also discuss several recent developments in the area of quantum error correction, a subject of importance not only to quantum computation, but also to some aspects of the foundations of quantum theory.Comment: 22 pages, Latex, 1 eps figure, Paper to be published in "Mesoscopic Electron Transport", edited by L. Kowenhoven, G. Schoen and L. Sohn, NATO ASI Series E, Kluwer Ac. Publ., Dordrecht. v2: typos in refrences fixe

Test Tubes in Teapots: Modern Medical Diagnostics Enter the Home

Home diagnostic testing is a new phenomenon with old roots. This thesis traces the paths of three important diagnostic tests of the last century as they moved from the hospital and clinic into the home. In the early 20th century, home urine glucose testing became the mainstay of successful diabetes management and remained so for decades, forcing doctors and their patients into an uneasy new partnership of not-quite equals. In the 1970s, home pregnancy testing became a symbol of privacy, autonomy and the liberation of the healthy female body from the medicalized sphere of illness, promising somewhat more on all these fronts than it actually delivered. In the 1980s, home HIV testing became the focus of a tangled decades-long regulatory struggle, generating passionate debate about the proper handling of fraught medical information during a time of crisis. All these tests aimed to ease the experience of diagnosis and to expedite high-quality care. All of them also raised expectations that their use would improve not only the individual's but also the community's health. Not one of them proved to be a clearly effective public health tool. Their histories hold useful lessons for a future in which home diagnostic testing plays an increasingly prominent role

Test Tubes in Teapots: Modern Medical Diagnostics Enter the Home

Home diagnostic testing is a new phenomenon with old roots. This thesis traces the paths of three important diagnostic tests of the last century as they moved from the hospital and clinic into the home. In the early 20th century, home urine glucose testing became the mainstay of successful diabetes management and remained so for decades, forcing doctors and their patients into an uneasy new partnership of not-quite equals. In the 1970s, home pregnancy testing became a symbol of privacy, autonomy and the liberation of the healthy female body from the medicalized sphere of illness, promising somewhat more on all these fronts than it actually delivered. In the 1980s, home HIV testing became the focus of a tangled decades-long regulatory struggle, generating passionate debate about the proper handling of fraught medical information during a time of crisis. All these tests aimed to ease the experience of diagnosis and to expedite high-quality care. All of them also raised expectations that their use would improve not only the individual's but also the community's health. Not one of them proved to be a clearly effective public health tool. Their histories hold useful lessons for a future in which home diagnostic testing plays an increasingly prominent role