Age pyramid of Tibet''''s population, 1990

ＰｏｐｕｌａｔｉｏｎｂｙｎａｔｉｏｎａｌｉｔｙｉｎＴｉｂｅｔ，１９８５１９９５（ｐｅｒｓｏｎ）Ｎａｔｉｏｎａｌｉｔｙ１９８５１９９０１９９３１９９５Ｔｏｔａｌｐｏｐ．１，９９４，８０８２，１８０，５２０２，２８８，７６８２，３５５，５４０Ｔｉｂｅｔ...     

What are the facilitators,inhibitors, and implications of birth positioning? A review of the literature

BackgroundFrom the historical literature it is apparent that birthing in an upright position was once common practice while today it appears that the majority of women within Western cultures give birth in a semi-recumbent position.AimTo undertake a review of the literature reporting the impact of birth positions on maternal and perinatal wellbeing, and the factors that facilitate or inhibit women adopting various birth positions throughout the first and second stages of labour.MethodsA search strategy was designed to identify the relevant literature, and the following databases were searched: CINAHL, CIAP, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Medline, Biomed Central, OVID and Google Scholar. The search was limited to the last 15 years as current literature was sought. Over 40 papers were identified as relevant and included in this literature review.ResultsThe literature reports both the physical and psychological benefits for women when they are able to adopt physiological positions in labour, and birth in an upright position of their choice. Women who utilise upright positions during labour, have a shorter duration of the first and second stage of labour, experience less intervention, and report less severe pain and increased satisfaction with their childbirth experience than women in a semi recumbent or supine/lithotomy position. Increased blood loss during third stage is the only disadvantage identified but this may be due to increased perineal oedema associated with upright positions. There is a lack of research into factors and/or practices within the current health system that facilitate or inhibit women to adopt various positions during labour and birth. Upright birth positioning appears to occur more often within certain models of care, and birth settings, compared to others. The preferences for positions, and the philosophies of health professionals, are also reported to impact upon the position that women adopt during birth.ConclusionUnderstanding the facilitators and inhibitors of physiological birth positioning, the impact of birth settings and how midwives and women perceive physiological birth positions, and how beliefs are translated into practice needs to be researched.     

Homosexuality,Religion, and the Family: The Effects of Religion on Americans’ Appraisals of the Parenting Abilities of Same-Sex Couples

Although a growing body of research focuses on Americans’ attitudes toward same-sex couples as parents, very few include measures of religion, and those that do fail to capture its multidimensional nature. Furthermore, many past studies relied on convenience samples of college students, or samples gathered outside the United States. Multivariate analyses of the 2012 General Social Survey—a nationally representative sample of adults in the United States—reveal that a slim majority of Americans still do not believe same-sex couples can parent as well as male-female couples, and the religious beliefs, behaviors, and affiliations of Americans are significantly and at times differentially associated with appraisals of same-sex couples’ parenting abilities. It appears that although religion is generally associated with more negative appraisals of the parenting abilities of same-sex couples, it is not uniformly so. Americans’ immediate religious and cultural context can shape their appraisals of homosexuality in diverse ways.     

Population,Environment Dynamics,Poverty and Quality of Life in China

Ｐｏｐｕｌａｔｉｏｎ，ＥｎｖｉｒｏｎｍｅｎｔＤｙｎａｍｉｃｓ，ＰｏｖｅｒｔｙａｎｄＱｕａｌｉｔｙｏｆＬｉｆｅｉｎＣｈｉｎａ￥／／ＢａｏｃｈａｎｇＧｕ；Ｐｈ．Ｄ．ＤｅｍｏｇｒａｐｈｉｃＤｉｌｅｍｍａｉｎＣｈｉｎａＴｈｅｐｏｐｕｌａｔｉｏｎｓｉｚｅｏｆＣ...     

Reemployment of Women Workers──A survey of reemployment of laid-off women workers in Nanjing,Jiangsu

In early 1999, the School of International Businessof Nanjing University conducted a questionnairesurvey among laid-off women workers in Nanjing,Jiangsu. A total of 775 valid responses were received.Following is a summary of that survey.Desire for reemploymentThe survey indicated that 53 .54% (415) of therespondents were seeking a job, 29.41 % (228) werewaiting, 8.67% (67) did not care and 8.38% (65) hadno intention of getting a new job.Reasons for seeking a jobSupporting family remains th…     

Saving,Sharing, or Spending? The Wealth Consequences of Raising Children

This study uses 1986–2012 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort data to investigate the relationship between raising children and net worth among younger Baby Boomer parents. I combine fixed-effects and unconditional quantile regression models to estimate changes in net worth associated with having children in different age groups across the wealth distribution. This allows me to test whether standard economic models for savings and consumption over the life course hold for families at different wealth levels. My findings show that the wealth effects of children vary throughout the distribution. Among families at or below the median, children of all ages were associated with wealth declines, likely due to the costs of child-rearing. However, at the 75th percentile and above, wealth increased with the presence of younger children but decreased after those children reached age 18. My results, therefore, provide evidence for a saving and investment model of child-rearing among wealthier families but not among families at or below median wealth levels. For these families, the costs of raising children largely outweighed motivations for saving.     

Patterns of Human Development Indicators Across Constitutional Analysis of Children’s Rights to Protection, Provision, and Participation

This study examines children’s images in constitutions and/or amendments as articulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child while they intersect with the three dimensions of the Human Development Index (HDI) of 2008: life expectancy, educational index, and GDP. The connection between the images of the child and the fulfillment of the dimensions within countries represents the current childhood conditions and determines their future wellbeing. It is the interdependency of the elements of HDI and the premises of the CRC that potentially impact nation-state’s developmental outcome with the process of rights. This study highlights the strength of the connection among the dimensions, and emphasizes the importance of considering children as vital to dialogue around human rights and a human development agenda.     

Division of the Eastern,Central and Western China

During the Seventh Five-Year Plan period (1986-1990), the Chinese government divided its 30provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) onthe mainland into three parts according to theirgeographical location and level of economicdevelopment. This is shown as follows:Eastern: Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong,Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong,Guangxi, Hainan.Central: Jilin, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi,Henan, Anhui,Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan.Western: S…     

Multi-Dimensional Analysis of International Social Indicators – Education,Economy, Media and Demography

Using multi-dimensional analysis methods, it ispossible to uncover a structure representing therelationship between multiple internationaleducational, social and economic indicators. In thisstudy, we applied Smallest Space Analysis to datacollected by international agencies for 138 countriesand 20 indicators. A preliminary structure was foundand replicated for different data sets. Thisstructural interrelationship shows that these variousindicators are part of a larger field called welfare.This structure can be further expanded and refined tobe used as a tool for indicator selection.     

Coming Out à l'oriental: Maghrebi-French performances of gender, sexuality, and religion

In this article, I examine issues of gender, sexuality, and religion for North African (Maghrebi)-French men in contemporary France. I introduce performance artist-photographer "2Fik," one of the Maghrebi-French research subjects from my 2010 fieldwork, and examine excerpts of his particular coming out story to his parents and situate it in relation to recent work on homosexuality in the housing projects of France's banlieues [suburban neighborhoods] (Chaumont, 2009; Na?t-Balk, 2009). The interviewee's narrative interweaves a variety of discourses and imagery that help distinguish his experience from those found in those publications as well as in recent scholarship on sexuality, citizenship, and transnationalism (Cruz-Malavé & Manalansan, 2000; Hayes, 2000; Leap & Boellstorff, 2004; Patton & Sánchez-Eppler, 2000; Provencher, 2007a). I argue that 2Fik's story and photography provide him a unique voice that draws on feminist and queer perspectives--informed by both reformed Islam and contemporary Western values--to "decline" (Rosello, 1998) and rewrite longstanding stereotypes of Islam in France. In fact, by acting as a "citizen-photographer" (M?ller, 2010), 2Fik successfully declines stereotypes including the absent Muslim father, the veiled woman, and the symbolic violence associated with heteronormativity and traditional masculinity in Maghrebi-French families.     

Immigrants’ Sense of Belonging to the Host Country: The Role of Life Satisfaction,Language Proficiency,and Religious Motives

This paper focuses on a significant concept in migration studies: immigrants’ sense of belonging to the host society. Drawing upon the literature of immigration and subjective well-being, we proposed a model in which life satisfaction is a major predictor of immigrants’ sense of belonging, and is explained by background variables including religious affiliation, religious motivation, native language proficiency and ethnic segregation. The study was based on a survey of two groups of highly skilled migrants in Israel; immigrants from France and the Former Soviet Union who moved to Israel in the last two decades. The findings suggest that, as expected, life satisfaction had a significant influence on immigrants’ sense of belonging and served as a mediator variable in the model. Whereas ethnic segregation was not found to be a significant parameter in the model, religious motivation and Hebrew language proficiency were found to be prominent. In light of the literature, we also discuss the importance of religious motivations to immigrants’ subjective well-being, identity, and sense of belonging.

     

Survey of midwives’ perinatal mental health knowledge,confidence, attitudes and learning needs

Background

Midwives have a primary role in facilitating the first stage of perinatal mental health risk reduction through inquiring about perinatal mental health, identifying risk factors and current perinatal mental health problems, providing support or crisis intervention, referring for treatment and decreasing stigmatisation.

Cape queer? A case study of Provincetown, Massachusetts

Cape Queer is a case study that details how sexuality intersects with race, gender, and class in the development of the gay and lesbian resort community, Provincetown, Massachusetts. It asks scholars to pay closer attention to the ways in which methodologies and practices utilizing LGBT studies and queer theory can combine rather than separate to interrogate LGBT and queer histories, politics and communities. In the process, it assesses how the global mechanics of capitalism led to the local queering and eventually un-queering of a gentrified, white, gay and lesbian enclave.     

The Impact of Sense of Community in the School,Social Skills,and Exposure to Aggression and Victimization on Students’ Well-Being

Research suggests that sense of community in the school is a promising construct in terms of its ability to promote students’ well-being. However, mechanisms behind and the potential benefits of school sense of community have not been studied in detail. This cross-sectional study tested a model which examined the role of sense of community in the school, social skills, exposure to aggression, and victimization in shaping students’ well-being. The sample consisted of 1076 students from 22 public middle schools and 724 students from 22 public high schools located in the Italian Region of Liguria. Using a Bayesian estimation for a structural equation model, results showed that sense of community in the school directly predicted students’ social skills, exposure to aggression, and well-being and, indirectly (through social skills and exposure to aggression), victimization. In addition, we found that social skills were related to victimization. Finally, results showed that victimization was predicted by exposure to aggression and predicted well-being. The current study suggests that sense of community in the school and social skills are key variables for interventions that aim to prevent aggressive behaviors at school and to increase students’ well-being.     

The longevity of Jews in Canada, 1940–1942

A life table for the Jewish population of Canada, based upon their mortality experience during 1940–2, yielded an average length of life (expectation of life at birth) of 67–53 years for males and 69·89 years for females. These figures are greater than those for the general population of Canada by 4·58 years for males and 3·60 years for females. These margins decrease with advance in age; the expectations of life for Jews and for the total Canadian population are equal at age 25 in the case of females, and at age 35 in the case of males.

Jewish infants in Canada start life with a mortality rate, in the first year, only two-fifths of that for the general population. This advantage for Jews is observed through childhood, adolescence, and early maturity. However, the margin between the Jewish and total populations decreased with advance in age until, shortly after age 50, the Jews begin to show the higher mortality rates.

The Jewish populations of the United States and of Canada have great similarities in their social and economic structures. They also share, very largely, in their European origins, and they have come to North America during the same period. It is, therefore, a fair assumption that the longevity and mortality characteristics of the relatively small Jewish population of Canada may be indicative of what might be found for the millions of Jews in the United States, for whom such information is not available.     

A Matter of Utility? Rationalising Cycling,Cycling Rationalities

Abstract

This paper discusses how dominant policy paradigms promote a ‘utility’ model of transport, prioritising the destruction of distance and the minimisation of time spent travelling. It suggests that within low-cycling countries, this framing has reinforced the policy marginalisation of cycling, which is cast as having problematic associations with leisure and pleasure. Hence, while the multiple benefits of cycling might seem to mandate policy support, these benefits (including health and equity impacts) seem tainted by association with cycling’s non-transport connotations. The paper analyses interview data from the ESRC Cycling Cultures project to explore how cyclists and cycling stakeholders negotiate the landscape of ‘utility cycling’. It examines how people appeal to a ‘utility narrative’, while often simultaneously appealing to considerations that apparently contradict it. Conclusions for cycling and broader transport policy are drawn.