Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

This installment of "Serials Spoken Here" covers events that transpired between late September and late October 2008. Reported herein are two Webinars, one on ONIX for Serials, the other on SUSHI, and two conferences: the eighty-fourth annual Meeting of the Potomac Technical Processing Librarians and the New England Library Association's Annual Conference.     

Promoting the Visibility of Educational Research through an Institutional Repository

Established in 1994 through the amalgamation of several teacher training colleges, The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) is the major multidisciplinary teacher education provider in the Hong Kong SAR. Despite this, the Institute does not have a particularly high research profile when compared with its peer institutions in Hong Kong and around the world. Its research publishing achieves modest exposure and impact in international educational research literature. The Institute has a goal to attain the title of a “university of education” and has identified an improvement in its research output and profile as critical to achieving this. In this context the HKIEd Library embarked on the redevelopment of its institutional repository, changing its direction from being an archive of institutional publications to one which brought together and offered access to the sum total of published output of the Institute since its foundation, in a deliberate effort to promote Institute research. This paper explores the particular approach taken by the Library to the development of the institutional repository, how the repository contributes directly to and aligns with the research strategies of the Institute, and the impact the Repository has had so far on improving the profile of research at HKIEd.     

Perceived social standing among Asian immigrants in the US: Do reasons for immigration matter?

We investigate the association between a subjective measure of social status and the reasons for immigration among Asian immigrants in the US. We use data from the National Latino and Asian American Study to test several hypotheses about this association. Our analyses show the positive effect on perceived social standing of migrating for better education, the negative effect of migrating to seek employment, and the negative impact of refugee status. Migrating for family reunification can be associated with various circumstances, which lead to differing outcomes. The results suggest that the notion that immigrants arrive in the US with limited resources and few skills and move slowly up the socioeconomic ladder must be reassessed in light of the complex social context and factors such as ethnicity, gender, divergent immigration paths, and a range of associated circumstances.     

Revisiting das gupta: Refinement and extension of standardization and decomposition

Standardization and decomposition are established and widely used demographic techniques for comparing rates and means between groups with differences in composition. The difference in rates and means has heretofore been resolved in terms of the contribution of variables to compositional effects for each variable and an overall rate effect. This study demonstrates that the resolution of differences is attainable at the categorical level for both compositional effects and rate effects. Refinements to Das Gupta’s equations yield a complete decomposition because of the additivity of categorical compositional and rate effects. Other refinements allow the decomposition of polytomous variables. Extensions to the method provide for the decomposition of the standard deviation and the multivariate index of dissimilarity.     

Maternal mortality: What can we learn from stories of postpartum haemorrhage?

Death from pregnancy is rare in developed countries such as Australia but is still common in third world and developing countries. The investigation of each maternal death yields valuable information and lessons that all health care providers involved with the care of women can learn from. The aim of these investigations is to prevent future maternal morbidity and mortality.Obstetric haemorrhage remains a leading cause of maternal death internationally. It is the most common cause of death in developing countries. In Australia and the United Kingdom, obstetric haemorrhage is ranked as the 4th and 3rd most common cause of direct maternal death respectively. In a number of cases there are readily identifiable factors associated with the care that the women received that may have contributed to their death. It is from these identifiable factors that both midwives and doctors can learn to help prevent similar episodes from occurring.This article will identify some of the lessons that can be learnt from the recent Australian and UK maternal death reports. This paper presents an overview of the process and systems for the reporting of maternal death in Australia. It will then specifically focus on obstetric haemorrhage, with a focus on postpartum haemorrhage, for the 12-year period, 1994–2005. Vignettes from the maternal mortality reports in Australia and the United Kingdom are used to highlight the important lessons for providers of maternity care.     

Grandparents' Education and Infant Health: Pathways Across Generations

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing survey linked to respondents' medical records (N = 2,870), this study examines the association between grandparents' education and birth outcomes and explores potential pathways underlying this relationship. Results show that having a grandfather with less than a high school education was associated with a 93 gram reduction in birth weight, a 59% increase in the odds of low birth weight, and a 136% increase in the odds of a neonatal health condition when compared with having a grandfather with a high school education or more. These associations were partially accounted for by mother's educational attainment and marital status as well as by prenatal history of depression, hypertension, and prenatal health behaviors, depending on the specific outcome. The findings from this study call for heightened attention to the multigenerational influences of educational attainment for infant health.     

Sexually Experienced Adolescents’ Thoughts About Sexual Pleasure

Little research on adolescents has examined developmentally normative facets of sexuality that are not obviously linked to physical health. The purpose of this secondary data analysis was to qualitatively analyze adolescents’ thoughts about and experiences with sexual pleasure. The study sample consisted of 56 sexually experienced, ethnically diverse, predominantly female adolescents who were participating in a Web-based intervention to promote healthy sexual decision making. Comments on one message board, “Sexual Pleasure: Does It Matter to You?,” provided an opportunity to examine adolescents’ thoughts about and experiences with sexual pleasure, as well as their communication with partners about that topic. Adolescents’ comments demonstrated that they experience difficulties with pleasure in their sexual relationships. Adolescents generally believed that men are more likely than women to feel pleasure due to differences that include biology, understanding of one’s body, and control over partnered sexual behavior. Adolescents defined inequality of received pleasure differently and discussed contexts in which inequality may be acceptable. Adolescents expressed motivation to communicate with partners about sexual pleasure. However, their statements suggested they often lack the skills to do so. Future prevention and intervention programs should equip adolescents with skills to communicate with partners about sexual pleasure.