A historical account of the governance of midwifery education in Australia and the evolution of the Continuity of Care Experience

Background

Midwifery programs leading to registration as a midwife in Australia have undergone significant change over the last 20 years. During this time accreditation and governance around midwifery education has been reviewed and refined, moving from state to national jurisdiction. A major change has been the mandated inclusion of Continuity of Care Experiences as a clinical practice-based learning component.

Making sense of the self: an integrative framework for moral agency

The self is conceptualized in a multitude of ways in different scholarly fields; at the same time moral agency appears to presuppose a unitary conception of the self. This paper explores this tension by introducing ‘moral senses’ which inform the normative evaluations of a person. The moral senses are featured as innate dispositions, but they inevitably recruit discursive categorizations in order to function. These senses forward both an ‘individual self’, by experiencing a unitary body, mind and character, and a ‘social self’, that is similarly experienced as a body, a mind, and a character. This social self is enabled by the capacity to internalize other people's feelings and intentions and the need to have otherworldly explanations for observable reality. This integrative framework of moral senses provides an understanding that helps to address the challenge of moral heterogeneity and plurality.     

On the relationship between the Hicksian measures of change in welfare and the Pareto principle

The change of welfare for one individual can be measured by the compensating variation (CV) or equivalent variation; the change for a whole society can be evaluated by summing up the individual gains and losses (e.g. CV). Generally there is no equivalence between the positive sign of this sum and a potential improvement for all individuals by redistribution of incomes. In this paper the CV-measure is corrected in a manner such that the new measure is equivalent to the Pareto principle. This correction is defined in a general equilibrium framework and takes into account the attainability of allocations. Finally characterizations of compensation tests are derived.The author thanks D. Elixmann and U. Schweizer for helpful comments. The suggestions of an editor of this journal and of two anonymous references are gratefully acknowledged     

Stochastic approximation results for variational inequality problem using random-type iterative schemes

Real world problems are embedded with uncertainties. Therefore, to tackle these problems, one must consider probabilistic nature of the problems both in modeling and solution. In this work, concepts of convergence of the solution of variational inequality in classical functional analysis are extended to a stochastic domain for a random Mann-type iterative and Ishikawa-type iterative schemes in a Banach space. A mean square convergence result is proved for this extension.     

A Fig Leaf for The Naked Corporation

The implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the United States and the German Law of transparency and disclosure (TransPuG) lead to a claim for more disclosure of information with the goal of a “naked corporation” such that all information is available to the (potential) investors. In this article we pick up this debate and present arguments that the “naked corporation” does not offer an efficient degree of disclosure, as we have to distinguish between more and better information. Concerning the latter the new regulations are critical. Cognitive limitations and bounded rationality highlight the risk of information overload. Asymmetric information illustrates that self induced disclosure can do better than a mandatory one. Therefore the legislator should not be asked for specific informational contents but for regulations on the way of information provision.JEL Codes: K22, G34, D82     

Linking early social risks to impaired physical health during the transition to adulthood

The present longitudinal study of 485 youth used structural equation models to investigate the ways in which a combination of social disadvantage in the family of origin and adolescent maladjustment increases risk for physical health difficulties during adulthood. The study examined a theoretical model that proposes that disruptions in the transition to adulthood mediate the effect of earlier social disadvantage and adolescent maladjustment on young adult physical health status. Results show that early risk factors initiate a sequence of negative influences on young adult physical health through early entry into family responsibility, truncated educational attainment, and poor occupational and economic status. These associations prevailed even after controlling for physical health status during adolescence.     

Random Convex Combinations of m-Generalized Order Statistics

The situation of identical distributions of a single m-generalized order statistic and a random convex combination of two neighboring m-generalized order statistics with beta-distributed weights is studied, and related characterizations of generalized Pareto distributions are shown.