Group-based lending programs for the poor have drawn much attention recently. As many of these programs target women, an important research question is whether program participation significantly changes reproductive behavior and whether the gender of the participant matters. Using survey data from 87 Bangladeshi villages, we estimate the impact of female and male participation in group-based c...

Title of Dissertation: IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP ON CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN ONLINE GROUPS Steven Lawrence Johnson, Doctor of Philosophy in Information System Directed by: Associate Professor Samer Faraj, McGill University; Professor Hank Lucas, Department of Decision, Operations & Information Technologies Online groups formed by volunteer members are increasingly recognized as sources of innovati...

Stroke patients live with balance and walking dysfunction. Walking is the most important factor for independent community activities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a community walking training program (CWTP) within the real environment on walking function and social participation in chronic stroke patients. Twenty-two stroke patients (13 male, 50.45 years old, post ...

BACKGROUND Self-management is considered important in chronic illness, and contemporary health policy recommends participation in support groups for individuals with chronic conditions. Although withdrawal from or non-participation in support groups is an important problem, there is limited knowledge about individuals' own motivation for participation in or withdrawal from self-management suppo...

This study examined the experiences and perceived benefits of support group participation among HIV-infected women in South Africa. From a qualitative analysis of responses, key psychological processes through which support groups are potentially beneficial were identified. These processes included: identification; modeling; acceptance; and empowerment. The participants' consequent life changes...

This paper presents the 2006 participation of the PUCRS-PLN Group in CLEF Monolingual Ad Hoc Task for Portuguese. We participated with the TR+ Model based on nominalization, binary lexical relations (BLR), Boolean queries, and the evidence concept. Our alternative strategy for lexical normalization, the nominalization, is the transformation of a word (adjective, verb, or adverb) into a semantic...

Improving the prevention efficacy of health screening campaigns by increasing their attendance rate represents a challenge that calls for new strategies. This paper analyzes the response to a Pap test screening campaign of 155,000 women over the last decade. Using a mathematical model of statistical physics origins we derive a quantitative estimate of the mutual influence between participating ...

Over the last two decades, the academia has engaged in intense research in trying to understand the mechanics of group processes and how computer supported collaborative work could be used to enhance knowledge acquisition, assimilation and sharing for increased and better quality of work group outputs in group settings. In recent years, wikis have become quite popular in collaboration activitie...