Oxytocin discontinuation after the active phase of induced labor: A systematic review

Background

Oxytocin is the most widely used drug in the induction of labor, but it could have potential adverse effects that derive from uterine hyperstimulation.

Dual life of seafarers’ families: descriptive study of perspectives of seafarers’ partners

ABSTRACT

Although the dual life of a seafarer’s family is recognized as a unique life, a systematic approach to the perspectives of seafarers’ partners is lacking, especially in the case of long-term separation. Therefore, we have adopted a qualitative approach to gain systematic and deeper insight into the features of the seafarers’ occupation which are reflected positively or negatively in their partners’ lives. By means of an online survey, we collected data from 647 partners of Croatian seafarers. The data obtained, relating to open-ended questions, were analysed by thematic analysis. Negative effects of separation emerged as the most strongly-represented theme, wherein a range of different aspects relating to separation is identified (loneliness, overload with domestic duties and care for children, etc.). Other negative aspects relate to fear caused by risks and stressors in seafaring, subordination of one’s own job/career, and lack of understanding and support from family and friends. Still, participants reported a range of positive aspects of the dual life, such as financial security, growth of the loving relationship, full commitment from their partner during days off, the benefits of the seafarer's job satisfaction for the relationship, and having time for one’s own growth during the partner’s absence.     

Collaboration and conflict between agencies and clients

Public relations agencies are an important part of the public relations industry, but their relations with client organizations are rarely studied. There is more literature and studies in agency-client relations in advertising than in public relations. This paper reviews literature and reports results of an empirical study into perceptions of public relations agencies and their clients on the reasons for their cooperation and sources of conflict between them. Results show that agencies misperceive reasons for which they are hired and the sources of conflict in the relationship. The paper offers several suggestions about how to tackle the problem: notwithstanding rebranding into consultancies and firms, public relations agencies-client relations should be studied as a particular example of a broader family of agency-client relations. Also agencies should study and strategically manage relations with their clients, while being realistic about client organization’s needs – sometimes they just need additional arms and legs.     

The “Places and Non-places” Held by Women in Social Economy Organizations

Scientific literature and facts have highlighted the perpetuation of gender inequality in the labour market in spite of the ongoing endeavours of political bodies and legal norms to eliminate the vertical and horizontal segregation of women. Portuguese Social Economy Act stresses “the respect for the values […] of equality and non-discrimination […], justice and equity […]”. In this paper, we offer a reflection on indicators that uncover vertical and horizontal segregation in the labour market. Based on a mixed methodological approach, we found very high rates of employment feminization in social economy organizations. Women are mainly allocated to technical and operational activities, being ultimately underrepresented in statutory boards and as such excluded from deliberation and strategic decision. The sector is moving away from the ideals of justice and social equity and may preserve women’s “non-place” in the definition of the public and strategic direction and in the most invisible/private organizational “places”.     

TEENAGE RISKY BEHAVIOR AND PARENTAL SUPERVISION: THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF MULTIPLE SHIFTS SCHOOL SYSTEMS

We study the relationship between attending high school at night and the probability of engaging in risky behavior, such as having unsafe sex or consuming substances. To address potential endogeneity concerns we take advantage of a random assignment of high school students to daytime and night shifts in the city of Buenos Aires. Using an original survey on students attending their last year of high school, we find that girls attending high school in the evening start having sex at an earlier age and present a higher probability of getting an abortion. We find no significant differences for substance use. Our experimental approach suggests that the link between high school shift and risky behavior is causal. Results hold when we use an alternative sample of alumni. Finally, we report evidence that the lack of parental supervision is the mechanism underlying our results. (JEL I12, I25, J13)     

Metacognition in Pathological Gambling and Its Relationship with Anxious and Depressive Symptomatology

Gambling disorder is associated with elevated comorbidity with depressive and anxious disorders, and one variable that might help in the understanding of this association is metacognition. In the present study, the relationship between gambling and metacognition and the mediating role of metacognition in the relationship between gambling and depressive and anxious symptomatology were assessed. The sample comprised 124 pathological gamblers from centers that assist pathological gamblers and 204 participants from the general population. The results showed that pathological gamblers had higher levels of depressive and anxious symptomatology. Additionally, pathological gamblers had higher scores for positive beliefs about worry, negative beliefs of uncontrollability and danger, and beliefs about the need to control thoughts; these factors were also positively correlated with depressive and anxious symptomatology. Metacognition also fully mediated the association between gambling and depressive and anxious symptomatology. These results suggest that metacognition could contribute to explaining gambling disorder and the symptomatology associated with it.     

A new semiparametric Weibull cure rate model: fitting different behaviors within GAMLSS

ABSTRACT

We propose a new semiparametric Weibull cure rate model for fitting nonlinear effects of explanatory variables on the mean, scale and cure rate parameters. The regression model is based on the generalized additive models for location, scale and shape, for which any or all distribution parameters can be modeled as parametric linear and/or nonparametric smooth functions of explanatory variables. We present methods to select additive terms, model estimation and validation, where all computational codes are presented in a simple way such that any R user can fit the new model. Biases of the parameter estimates caused by models specified erroneously are investigated through Monte Carlo simulations. We illustrate the usefulness of the new model by means of two applications to real data. We provide computational codes to fit the new regression model in the R software.     

Effective social education of exclusion: contributions from social pedagogy

The objective of this research was to identify effective strategies for socio-educational intervention with adolescents aged 12–16 years in a situation of social risk and provide some proposals from the field of social pedagogy. The research was conducted in three autonomous regions of Spain—Madrid, Galicia and Catalonia—between 2011 and 2013 and used the grounded theory approach. Thirty one practitioners and 19 adolescents participated in the focus groups and interviews. The main results suggest central strategies related to the empowerment and participation of adolescents, resilience and the flexible planning of interventions, with relevant implications for practice and policies.     

Raising a true socialist individual: Yugoslav psychoanalysis and the creation of democratic Marxist citizens

This article explores the surprisingly successful development of psychoanalysis in socialist Yugoslavia, and the discipline’s relationship with both Western paradigms and Yugoslavia’s own theory of workers’ self-management. It focuses primarily on child psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, and their attempts at reforming traditional Balkan ‘authoritarian’ families and helping raise democratic Marxist citizens. It argues that Yugoslav psychiatrists and psychoanalysts developed their own version of revolutionary and activist psychoanalysis, which was meant to contribute to a broad political and cultural discussion in Yugoslavia about constructing a society based on genuine Marxist collective and individual emancipation, an alternative to both Stalinist state socialism and Western capitalism/liberal democracy. Many ‘psy’ professionals used overtly political language to frame their aims and experiences, and turned their consulting rooms into revolutionary sites. West European practices and theories of child psychoanalysis figured prominently in Yugoslav clinical discussions and practice, but they were regularly linked to the broader goals of Marxist revolutionary politics, workers’ self-management or socialist struggle against patriarchy or ‘bureaucratized’ political relations. Therefore, the Yugoslav experiment, in which a new activist psychoanalysis became mainstream and state-funded psychotherapy, remains central to understanding psychoanalysis as a tool for socio-political critique and activism in the second half of the twentieth century.