Comparison of breastfeeding in rural areas of Sweden and Australia – a cohort study

BackgroundBreastfeeding rates in Sweden and Australia appears to be decreasing in both countries. National statistics shows that 87% of infants in Sweden and 73% in Australia receive any breastfeeding two months of age.AimTo compare women's experiences of breastfeeding in Sweden and Australia and to identify factors associated with breastfeeding two months after birth.MethodsA cohort study in two rural hospitals in mid Sweden (n = 300) and north-eastern Victoria in Australia (n = 91) during 2007–2009. Participants responded to questionnaires in mid pregnancy and two months after birth. Crude and adjusted odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval were used to detect differences between women in both cohorts.FindingsWomen in Sweden (88.3%) were more likely to report any breastfeeding of the baby two months after birth (OR 2.41; 95% CI: 1.33–4.38) compared to women in Australia (75.8%) but were less satisfied with breastfeeding support and information. The most important factor associated with breastfeeding at two months postpartum for the Swedish women was to have received sufficient information about breastfeeding on the postnatal ward (OR 2.3; 95% CI 1.41–4.76) while for the Australian women receiving the best possible help when breastfeeding for the first time was most important (OR 4.3; 95% CI 1.50–12.46).ConclusionThe results indicate that Swedish women were more likely than their Australian counterparts to breastfeed the baby two months after birth. The findings demonstrated the importance of sufficient information and help when breastfeeding is initiated.     

A gender story of institutional disengagement of young adults in Latin America

Latin America is home to many young adults who are neither engaged in formal education nor work, controversially dubbed as “nini” (“ni” trabajan “ni” estudian, denoting neither working nor studying). At the same time, early union formation and parenthood are pervasive in the region. Theories pertaining to the linkage between parenthood and female labor force participation are heavily based on evidence found in the Global North, with limited research on the topic in settings with less stable family structures, such as Latin American countries. This study tests the role household structure and family formation play on institutional disengagement of young adults in 12 Latin American countries. We explore the gender dynamic of human capital stagnation by focusing on early parenthood and conjugal partnership for women and men aged 20–25. We use censuses from the Integrated Public-Use Microdata Series and country-specific linear regression models. Our results reveal that the intersection of class and gender is a major determinant of institutional disengagement in the region. Women from lower social origins who leave parental home to enter conjugal union and parenthood at younger ages are particularly at risk. This study highlights the urgency of contextualizing the interplay between work and family within the framework of regional family norms, prompting further dialogues concerning the social implications of perceived inactivity.     

Mediatization: Conceptual developments and research domains

Mediatization is nowadays considered an influential theory explaining societal, political, and cultural alterations driven by media technologies. Mediatization research, initiated almost 20 years ago (with its precursory ideas placed in the first half of the 20th century), witnesses at present dynamic theoretical, methodological, and empirical developments, obtaining a status as one of the most essential and ambitious research fields within the social sciences. Mediatization theory deals with (meta)process in which media communication is becoming increasingly complex, takes place more often, covers a growing number of topics, and lasts longer. The goal of this study is to contribute to our understanding of mediatization as well as to make the theory more familiar to non‐media scholars by presenting the state of the art and the most promising research lines of scientific inquiry. Starting from conceptualization and operationalization, we also aim to sketch the dimensions, fields, and forms of mediatization as well as to present examples of different domains where mediatization is most advanced, that is, mediatization of culture, society, and politics, or most promising, that is, mediatization of journalism.     

Flattening topologically spherical surface

The problem of optimal surface flattening in 3-D finds many applications in engineering and manufacturing. However, previous algorithms for this problem are all heuristics without any quality guarantee and the computational complexity of the problem was not well understood. In this paper, we prove that the optimal surface flattening problem is NP-hard. Further, we show that the problem of flattening a topologically spherical surface admits a PTAS and can be solved by a (1+ε)-approximation algorithm in O(nlog n) time for any constant ε>0, where n is the input size of the problem.     

RESEARCH ON IMMIGRATION/ETHNICITY IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES: A Comparison

The article compares the main research agendas and methodological and theoretical approaches informing current studies of immigration and ethnicity in the United States and Europe (represented by six countries: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden). The European part of the report focuses on the common features of immigration and ethnic research in the countries selected for examination as compared with the American studies. In accounting for the reported similarities and differences between the two continents, I identify the contributing circumstances in the examined societies at large as well as in the characteristics of the scholarly environment in which the research in question is conducted.     

War-related Deaths in the 1992–1995 Armed Conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Critique of Previous Estimates and Recent Results

In this article, we provide a critique of previous estimates of war-related deaths from Bosnia and Herzegovina and propose an analytical framework and a new estimate of such deaths. Our assessment is concentrated on civilian victims, whose death (or disappearance) can in a straightforward manner be linked with war operation. The estimate is based on carefully selected sources analysed jointly at the level of individual records, allowing for identity verification of victims, elimination of duplicates within the sources and exclusion of records overlapping between the sources. Although we can argue that our estimate is much better founded than any other estimate ever obtained, it is still incomplete and should be seen as work in progress.     

Demography of Conflict and Violence: An Emerging Field

This introductory article focuses on a new field in demography, the Demography of Conflict and Violence. A research programme on this field is proposed as a result of activities of the IUSSP Working Group on Demography of Conflict and Violence, in particular the Group’s seminar in Norway in November 2003. The articles in this special issue of EJP are a selection of papers presented at the seminar. The first article presents new estimates of combat deaths in the world since 1946, whereas the second article looks at the role of demographic estimates in war crime proceedings at international criminal courts. The rest of the articles are concerned with the mortality consequences of political conflict in various settings. Another set of articles from the seminar is published in a special issue of the Journal of Peace Research. The articles are summarised and reviewed using the broader framework of issues inherent in the Demography of Conflict and Violence.     

历史学的未来:后人文主义的挑战

在过去10年里,由于与自然科学,尤其是生物学联系加深,人文科学和社会科学发生了巨大的变化。这些变化包括:解释范式或建构主义范式的象征化;在新唯物主义和新经验主义方面,出现了不同的甚至互相矛盾的趋势,它们主张"脱离文本"和"返归质料"。与这些变化相伴随的是,对人文主义和人类中心论的批评(后人文科学)。     

Developing a framework for identifying individual and organizational risk factors for the prevention of violence in the health-care sector

The problem of violence at work has received considerable attention in recent years. According to Swedish statistics, personnel in the health-care sector are the most affected. The purpose of this paper is to present a framework or model for studies of workplace violence, and to demonstrate its application to the analysis of violence in health-care settings. The model treats violence as a process comprising of several stages/sub-events, and shows how this process is influenced by underlying structural (rather permanent) and situational (generally temporary) risk factors. Understanding the diversity in the process provides a basis for analysis of connections between interacting factors at different stages. Risk management (hazard identification, risk analysis, and preventive counter-measures) should be integrated into the work situation and operations of an organization.