Autosomal microsatellite data from Northwestern Colombia

Allele frequencies and some forensic parameters for 12 autosomal microsatellites (CSF1PO, TPOX, THO1, VWA, D16S539, D7S820, D13S317, D5S818, F13A1, FESFPS, F13B, LPL) were estimated from three departments from Northwestern Colombia. The total number of samples analysed was 1045 individuals. Comparative analysis among the three studied departments and with other published Colombian populations were also performed and discussed.     

Empowerment at village level through a workshop method

This article describes the activities and lessons learned of a 2-day workshop held in Sheikhupura District in Punjab, Pakistan. The project aim was to strengthen primary health care and to include the community in health development. The pilot program established Village Health Committees (VHCs) to promote local participation. Villagers decided that VHCs should be representative of the community. The community elected traditional birth attendants, teachers, holy men, and village activists. Workshops were held with VHCs in order to provide basic concepts of community awareness, organization, and development. Each workshop included 3-4 VHCs. Groups were comprised of up to 6 people. Workshops were held near villages and had access to lavatories. The workshop aims were identified throughout individual sessions and linked with each other. Facilitators kept discussions relevant, objective, and interesting. Participants introduced each other, which provided an opportunity to establish comfort and trust. Initial discussions centered on health issues that were introduced as interrelated. The health system issues was related to the village situation. Participants were asked to develop a health system model. The aim of the sessions was to reinforce the importance of the role of community. An exercise was conducted to illustrate the importance of dialogue and collective work. Participants discussed the nature of community organization and means of development, threats to the village, and empowerment. The workshops created awareness of the process of community involvement in development and were ongoing.     

Autosomal microsatellite data from Northwestern Colombia

Allele frequencies and some forensic parameters for 12 autosomal microsatellites (CSF1PO, TPOX, THO1, VWA, D16S539, D7S820, D13S317, D5S818, F13A1, FESFPS, F13B, LPL) were estimated from three departments from Northwestern Colombia. The total number of samples analysed was 1045 individuals.Comparative analysis among the three studied departments and with other published Colombian populations were also performed and discussed.     

Book reviews

This essay challenges the conventional wisdom that political pacts intended to consolidate the transition to democracy have the paradoxical consequence of compromising or freezing democracy. It suggests, instead, that political pacts have a neutral impact and that whether they are good or bad for democracy depends upon the inclusiveness and political diversity of the bargaining cartel and its ties to societal organisations. These arguments are derived from an analysis of the case of Spain, where political pacts led to a widely praised process of democratisation, with contrasting perspectives from Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil, cases that loom large over the debate about how pacts freeze democracy.     

Social Media Use in Local Government: An Australian Perspective

Social media offers governments extensive opportunities to engage with citizens, particularly at the local level. This study investigates the issues that local governments face in implementing social media initiatives. It builds on existing literature by using an interpretive approach to examine the perceptions of public employees and elected officials of local councils in an Australian context. The article reports on the issues that inhibit a move to a more interactive use of social media and examines how these may be addressed. Implications for research and practice are given.     

Knowledge Utilization in Canadian Health Service Organizations: A Path Analysis

The aim of this article is to study direct and causality effects of variables involved in knowledge utilization (KU) explanations. Based on a survey of 928 managers and professionals in Canadian health service organizations (HSOs) (ministries, regional health authorities, and hospitals), the results of the path analysis indicate that the extent to which research results are used in policy and practice is influenced by the format of research results, by organizational and contextual variables (e.g., research culture and absorptive capacity), by the formal partnership activities initiated between the producers of research and users (formal linkage mechanisms), and by the user’s relational capital (informal linkage mechanisms), among other variables. Formal and informal linkage mechanisms have a positive and significant impact on KU in different causal explanations. The article shows that utilization processes are interdependent in their causes and effects, and thus complicated to study.     

Spreading manufacturing growth gains through local jobs: lessons from the Guatemalan highlands

The author describes the evolution of the garment‐manufacturing sector in the district of Totonicapán in the Guatemalan highlands, an area long associated with weaving and related skills. Producers have been shrewd in finding ways to take advantage of changes in the global economy, for instance by importing cheaper fabrics from Asia to reduce the cost of the final products. Producers have thus been able to exploit the domestic and regional market niche for lower‐cost garments than are available in the department stores, adapting their output to respond to fashions and trends. This adaptability has in turn generated more local employment and wealth among home‐based workers and village workers, as well as among townspeople and traders, and a high level of self‐employment. Paradoxically, a factor that has contributed to this situation—as opposed to becoming involved in maquila production—is that the failure of unions to organise the workers in the 1960s eventually brought about more equitable relations between the traditional elite and their former employees and a higher level of mutual dependence than exists in the maquila.