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Summary.Access to and quality of services have increasingly been the focus of family planning programme managers, implementers and researchers in the developing world. In Vietnam, a country characterized by recent significant achievements in family planning, not much is known about the linkages between service accessibility and quality and contraceptive behaviour. Data for this study come from the Vietnam 1997 Demographic and Health Survey, with individual contraceptive use information recorded in the calendar section. Measures of access to and quality of services come from the Community/Health Facility Questionnaire, with key informant interviews and facility visits. The study focuses on the effects of the outreach programme and commune health centres on contraceptive method discontinuation for three modern, temporary methods: the IUD, oral pills and condoms. Longer travel time to commune health centres is found to be associated with significantly increased risks of first- and all-method discontinuation for any reason, while residence in communities with higher quality health centres is associated with significantly lower risks of method discontinuation. Access to and quality of the outreach programme are, in contrast, not significant determinants of method discontinuation for any reason. Similar results are found for first- and all-method discontinuation for service-related reasons. The effects of programmatic factors are more pronounced among older women and during the first three months of method use. This study provides evidence for the importance of family planning services for contraceptive method continuation in Vietnam. The results also highlight the need for a thorough evaluation of the family planning outreach programme in terms of its facilitation of women's continued use of contraception.

This report presents the results of the DMPA Monitoring Study undertaken by Population Council, Manila, as a technical assistance project for the DMPA Reintroduction Program of the Department of Health. The primary objective of the study is to provide data on DMPA (injectable contraceptive) utilization and continuation rates that may be used to project the logistical needs of the program for the next four years (1995–1998). Availability of DMPA supplies, and information, education, and communication (IEC) materials on DMPA in the facilities were also monitored to provide some measure of the effectiveness of the distribution system. The study covers a 15-month observation period from April 1994 to June 1995 and concentrates on 1,379 DMPA-dispensing health facilities in the ten local government units (LGUs) covered by Phase I of the DMPA Reintroduction Program. Data presented herein are based upon reports received as of August 9, 1995, from at least 80 percent of the total DMPA-dispensing facilities in these pilot LGUs.

A VGT or Variable-Geometry Truss can be thought of as a statically determinate truss that has been modified to contain some number of variable length members. These extensible members allow the truss to vary its configuration in a controlled manner. VGTs are often symmetric. constructed of repeating cells, and have exceptional stiffness to weight ratios. VGTs have been widely recognized as adaptive or collapsing structures for space and military applications. Some of the typical applications envisioned for VGTs are as booms to position equipment in space. as supports for space antennae. and as berthing devices. Lately, they have also been proposed as parallel-actuated. long chain. high dexterity manipulators. This work describes basic VGT theory. and presents criteria to use in the determination of valid VGT unit cells. Four of the VGT unit cells - the tetrahedron. the octahedron, the decahedron. and the dodecahedron are discussed in detail. The typical modeling and formulation procedure for developing the kinematic equations associated with the forward kinematic problem of each of the above is described. Another intent of this work is to present a new and efficient technique for solving the forward kinematics problem of VGTs. All VGT problems lead to systems of equations. Commonly, such systems are solved by an iterative numerical method, usually a Newton method or a variant. For such methods to yield a solution, a starting point sufficiently close to the actual solution must be supplied. For systems of the size of those encountered in VGT problems, this is a formidable task. On the other hand, recently developed methods in homotopy continuation for polynomials are not only global, but also exhaustive; i.e., they do not require good initial guesses and they also guarantee convergence to all solutions. Homotopies are a traditional part of topology and have only recently begun to be used for practical numerical computation. Polynomial continuation is used to track the solutions of the systems of equations describing the kinematics of VGTs. This method has proven to be robust and reliable. It may also prove to be a valuable tool in the analysis of other kinematic devices with a high multiplicity of solutions. ; Ph. D.

SummaryThe study compares the 3 years of birth control practice of 1172 women who underwent early menstrual regulation (MR) and 499 others who accepted contraceptives only (nonMR) from an urban clinic in Bangladesh. About 60% of the women in the sample were followed-up, and their all-method continuation rate was analysed by life table technique. The 3-year overall continuation rate in the MR group (64%) did not differ from that of the nonMR group (62%). In the age groups 25 and over, the continuation rate was higher in the MR group. Among the women who did not desire any more children, the continuation rate in the MR group was significantly higher than that of the nonMR group (80% versus 68%,P< 0·05). Of women with parity greater than two, the MR group had significantly higher continuation rates than the nonMR group. The MR group had higher extended use-effectiveness for IUDs, conventional contraceptives (condom and foam), injectables, and oral contraceptives than the nonMR group. These findings indicated effective contraceptive practice following MR for this urban population. Easy availability of a multimethod service after MR seemed to be important in promoting effective contraception.

This article continues the dispute about the application of quantitative methods in regard to international relations. In 2019, two groups of scholars published their critical reviews of my article "Statistic Against History": 1) «Towards "Second Great Debate" in Russian IR» (by Denis Degterev); 2) «International Relations, Science without Method?" (by Igor Istomin, Andrey Baykov, Konstantin Khudoley). This paper consistently analyses the opponents's views and puts forward some counterarguments. The author emphasizes that natural sciences deal with long-term, relatively steady phenomena and processes, which are objective and mainly of repetitive character. This enables us to identify regular patterns in their structure, behaviour, development and changes. By contrast, in the sphere of arts it is extremely important to achieve agreement on basic concepts and ideas or, in other words, scientific convention. It is impossible to use here mathematical symbols or figures to describe the concepts in the sphere which is closely connected with historical context and systems of values, which changes with the time and depends on different variables. The objects of humanities are completely determined by such factors as society, historical context as well as the stance of the author on the issue. Any attempt to change even one of these may well lead to distortion of the meaning of a concept and thus will ruin the mathematical equation underlying it. These factors do not exist regardless of humans, so it is impossible to dismiss Aristotle's logic. Hence, any attempts of such an approach (through using quantitative methods) lead to methodological problems and even often to methodological nonsense.

SummaryContraceptive prevalence rates and estimates of continuation rates are derived from unique longitudinal data on post-partum behaviour collected in the Cebu region of the Philippines. Continuation rates vary by base-line and time-varying socioeconomic characteristics for certain contraceptive methods and for using no contraception. Calendar rhythm users have a much lower relative continuation rate than has been found in cross-sectional samples. For women who use a contraceptive method, breast-feeding does not appear to influence contraceptive continuation, but for those who use no methods, breast-feeding appears to substitute for other forms of contraception. Profiles by socioeconomic characteristics of those who continue to use each type of contraceptive method and who use no method could be used to direct family planning programmes towards population sub-groups. The results suggest that for women wishing to postpone a pregnancy, a family planning programme aimed at the young and less educated could effectively increase contraceptive use and continuation.

SummaryA contraceptive study of rural Bangladeshi women indicated that the previous death of children, number of living children, desire for additional children and son preference were important determinants of contraceptive continuation. The importance of these factors varies to some extent with use of different contraceptive methods.

Background: Bangladesh has experienced a sevenfold increase in its contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) in less than forty years from 8% in 1975 to 62% in 2014. However, despite this progress, almost one-third of pregnancies are still unintended which may be attributed to unmet need for family planning and discontinuation and switching of methods after initiation of their use. Methods: We conducted an extensive literature review on contraceptive use among married women of reproductive age (MWRA) in Bangladesh. A total of 263 articles were identified through database search and after final screening ten articles were included in this synthesis. Results: Findings showed that method discontinuation and switching, method failure, and method mix may offset achievements in the CPR. Most of the women know of at least one contraceptive method. Oral pill is the most widely used (27%) method, followed by injectables (12.4%), condoms (6.4%), female sterilization (4.6%), male sterilization (1.2%), implants (1.7%), and IUDs (0.6%). There has been a decline in the use of long acting and permanent methods over the last two decades. Within 12 months of initiation, the rate of method discontinuation particularly the short-acting methods remain high at 36%. It is important to recognize the trends as married Bangladeshi women, on average, wanted 1.6 children, but the rate of actual children was 2.3. Conclusions: A renewed commitment from government bodies and independent organizations is needed to implement and monitor family planning strategies in order to ensure the adherence to and provision of the most appropriate contraceptive method for couples.

AbstractThe Zika Contraception Access Network (Z‐CAN) provided access to high‐quality client‐centered contraceptive services across Puerto Rico during the 2016–2017 Zika virus outbreak. We sent online surveys during May 2017–August 2020 to a subset of Z‐CAN patients at 6, 24, and 36 months after program enrollment (response rates: 55–60 percent). We described contraceptive method continuation, method satisfaction, and method switching, and we identified characteristics associated with discontinuation using multivariable logistic regression. Across all contraceptive methods, continuation was 82.5 percent, 64.2 percent, and 49.9 percent at 6, 24, and 36 months, respectively. Among continuing users, method satisfaction was approximately ≥90 percent. Characteristics associated with decreased likelihood of discontinuation included: using an intrauterine device or implant compared with a nonlong‐acting reversible contraceptive method (shot, pills, ring, patch, or condoms alone); wanting to prevent pregnancy at follow‐up; and receiving as their baseline method the same method primarily used before Z‐CAN. Other associated characteristics included: receiving the method they were most interested in postcounseling (6 and 24 months) and being very satisfied with Z‐CAN services at the initial visit (6 months). Among those wanting to prevent pregnancy at follow‐up, about half reported switching to another method. Ongoing access to contraceptive services is essential for promoting reproductive autonomy, including supporting patients with continued use, method switching, or discontinuation.

An iterative method for continuation of solutions with respect to a parameter is proposed. The nonlocal case is studied when the parameter belongs to the segment of the real axis. An iterative scheme for continuing the solution is constructed for a linear equation in Banach spaces with a linear operator continuously depending on the parameter, satisfying the Lipschitz condition with respect to the parameter. The generalization of this result on a nonlinear equation in Banach spaces is proposed. The iterative scheme of the method of continuation of the solution by parameter using the Newton-Kantorovich method is constructed. An priori estimates of solutions enable solution construction for arbitrary parameters.

AbstractMost vaginally inserted methods have limited availability and use despite offering characteristics that align with many women's stated preferences (e.g., nonhormonal and/or on demand). The objective of this review was to identify enablers and barriers to women's adoption and continuation of vaginally inserted contraceptive methods in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). We searched three databases (PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science) and 18 websites using keywords related to five vaginally inserted contraceptive methods (diaphragm, vaginal ring, female condom, copper intrauterine device [IUD], hormonal IUD) and terms associated with their adoption and continuation. Searches were limited to resources published between January 2010 and September 2020. Studies eligible for inclusion in our review presented results on women's use and perspectives on the enablers and barriers to adoption and continuation of the vaginally inserted contraceptive methods of interest in LMICs. Relevant studies among women's partners were also included, but not those of providers or other stakeholders. Data were coded, analyzed, and disaggregated according to a framework grounded in family planning (FP) literature and behavioral theories common to FP research and program implementation. Our initial search yielded 13,848 results, with 182 studies ultimately included in the analysis. Across methods, we found common enablers for method adoption, including quality contraceptive counseling as well as alignment between a woman's preferences and a method's duration of use and side effect profile. Common barriers included a lack of familiarity with the methods and product cost. Notably, vaginal insertion was not a major barrier to adoption in the literature reviewed. Vaginally inserted methods of contraception have the potential to fill a gap in method offerings and expand choice. Programmatic actions should address key barriers and enable voluntary use.