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BACKGROUND: Many health and demographic surveys routinely collect information on women's exposure to family planning (FP) messages, counseling on contraceptive side effects, discussions about FP with providers, contraceptive decision-making autonomy, and the desire for additional children. Several studies have shown significant associations with current contraceptive use status from these cross-sectional data. However, the predictive utility of these indicators on contraceptive use and its dynamics over time is not wellknown, primarily due to the lack of longitudinal data. OBJECTIVE: To empirically assess the predictive utility of key family planning indicators on contraceptive use outcomes using longitudinal data from women participating in national annual surveys in four sub-Saharan African countries. METHODS: This study utilizes nationally representative longitudinal Performance and Monitoring for Action data collected in Kenya, Burkina Faso, Uganda, and Côte d'Ivoire from reproductive-age women to model the predictive influence of indicators measured at baseline on their subsequent contraceptive use (including intentions to use and method type) and contraceptive dynamics (including adoption, discontinuation, and switching) over an approximately three-year period. RESULTS: Some indicators measured at baseline (e.g., FP media exposure and fertility preferences) consistently influenced women's contraceptive adoption and intentions over two to three years of observation, but the predictive utility of most indictors was largely weak for dynamic outcomes such as switching and discontinuation. CONTRIBUTION: Our study highlights a programmatic need to reconsider long-standing FP indicators given the mixed evidence of their influence on contraceptive behavior over time. We recommend the identification of key measures that can predict dynamic contraceptive behaviors established through longitudinal data to inform actionable interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores teachers' identity formation through a narrative inquiry of the professional identity of an EFL teacher, Minfang, in the People's Republic of China. Drawing on Wenger's (1998) social theory of identity formation as a dual process of identification and negotiation of meanings, it examines the lived experience of Minfang as an EFL learner and EFL teacher throughout his 6 years of teaching, the processes that were involved as he struggled with multiple identities, the interplay between reification and negotiation of meanings, and the institutional construction and his personal reconstruction of identities. The stories of Minfang highlighted the complex relationships between membership, competence, and legitimacy of access to practice; between the appropriation and ownership of meanings, the centrality of participation, and the mediating role of power relationships in the processes of identity formation. (Contains 7 footnotes.)

Foaming studies on poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) were performed to evaluate the potential impact of nitrogen gas solubility on foam microstructure and properties. It was found that there was a step change from low to high cell density below and above a specific pressure threshold. This pressure threshold, which is associated with nitrogen gas solubility in PHBV, was calculated in order to inform processing requirements for extrusion foaming of PHBV. In the process, the PVT properties of PHBV were also calculated to account for polymer swelling at high temperature and pressure. To validate the predictive method applied in this work, gas solubility of nitrogen was also determined for polypropylene (PP) and poly(lactic acid) (PLA), which have similar thermal and rheological properties to PHBV. Predicted PVT properties for PP were found to be similar to experimental values in the literature, with the predicted solubility having a 10-14% error for PP and 20-24% error for PLA. Application of the same error range to the solubility predicted for PHBV aligned well with experimental observations., INTRODUCTION Biodegradable polymers have become increasingly interesting alternatives to conventional plastics derived from nonrenewable fossil fuels. The most common are polyflactic acid) (PLA), a synthetic compostable polymer, and the family [...]